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comment by deepflows

I think it's interesting that we'd rather invalidate a huge portion of studies which we so far considered sufficient than accept that there may be more to learn about the relationship between consciousness and "physical reality". Simply excluding phenomena from the realm of possibility doesn't seem very sciency to me. Not saying psi is real or anything, but the whole attitude seems strange.





mrsamsa  ·  3421 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think you've misunderstood what's gone on here. The studies are considered "sufficient" only so far as they've passed the initial peer-review process; that is, they were looked over for types, basic statistical mistakes, and consistency in their own conclusions. That isn't an indication that their conclusions are correct at all.

What science does next is they do replications, compare the conclusions to our larger framework of knowledge, then see what findings stick and what need more work or need to be scrapped. The rejection of these psi results isn't a divergence from typical standard practice, it's just what happens with all scientific research - it's just that the psi results don't stand up to scrutiny.

caeli  ·  3421 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I think you've misunderstood what's gone on here. The studies are considered "sufficient" only so far as they've passed the initial peer-review process; that is, they were looked over for types, basic statistical mistakes, and consistency in their own conclusions. That isn't an indication that their conclusions are correct at all.

Peer review is much more than that. You're probably right in this case though since parapsychology papers tend to get published in crappy journals with low standards.

mrsamsa  ·  3421 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I was being a little flippant but the general point is just that passing peer review is not an indication that the results are true and are essentially beyond question. A judgement on the truth of a paper is beyond what most peer review does.

caeli  ·  3421 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, that's definitely true.