Comment Re:Evolution is not instant (Score 1) 310
Historically People who hear voices are commited, killed, ignored.... but some become religious zelots and preachers. I'm sure 90% of people of /. would dismiss relgious expirences almost as fast if not faster than telepathic expirences, but the thing that bugs me is that there is a lot of documentation about relgious expirences and the conditions needed to atain them.
I come from a Pentacostal Christian background. During times of intese worship or prayer (!prerequisite!) people describe breaking through the barrier and "feeling gods grace" or some other buzzword you choose, its not important. Side effects of being in this state of mind are that you gain the ability to "hear the voice of God" and much more important and testable, to discern what is being spoken by God to other people. People who are in the state know who else nearby are also in this state, so they know instantly when someone is faking it just to look good in front of their peers. Find a church that people would describe as "alive" or "born again" and interview the churches leaders for this phenomenom if you'd like to hear this observation from more than one source.
I no longer consider myself religious and I think the meaning behind what happens is wrong or skewed, but I cant deny the repeatable, testable effects. People focusing on one thing very intently *sometimes* enter a state where they can identy and communicate without words or visual cues... but if you listen to many pentecostals who "speak in tongues", much of the complex information is interpreted as gibberish. So its not a reliable communications tool, but anyone else "hearing" the message knows that a message was transmitted because they received it too even if they cant process it, they still know they received *something*. And as I said before, this is all documented and not just by me here.
I dont think these tests being done will show anything useful as even the most charismatic people need to meditate/pray/worship to attain the above state of mind and it doesn't last more than a few hours at most unless they continue to meditate/pray/worship during the process. Meditation consistantly changes something in the minds of some people that make temporary and limited telepathy possible. It can be trained, it can be tested, religions have been training it in some form or another for thousands of years, they've documented how to do it damn it! Unless these researchers do something to the groups of people first to put them in this state of mind the results will show nothing.
I come from a Pentacostal Christian background. During times of intese worship or prayer (!prerequisite!) people describe breaking through the barrier and "feeling gods grace" or some other buzzword you choose, its not important. Side effects of being in this state of mind are that you gain the ability to "hear the voice of God" and much more important and testable, to discern what is being spoken by God to other people. People who are in the state know who else nearby are also in this state, so they know instantly when someone is faking it just to look good in front of their peers. Find a church that people would describe as "alive" or "born again" and interview the churches leaders for this phenomenom if you'd like to hear this observation from more than one source.
I no longer consider myself religious and I think the meaning behind what happens is wrong or skewed, but I cant deny the repeatable, testable effects. People focusing on one thing very intently *sometimes* enter a state where they can identy and communicate without words or visual cues... but if you listen to many pentecostals who "speak in tongues", much of the complex information is interpreted as gibberish. So its not a reliable communications tool, but anyone else "hearing" the message knows that a message was transmitted because they received it too even if they cant process it, they still know they received *something*. And as I said before, this is all documented and not just by me here.
I dont think these tests being done will show anything useful as even the most charismatic people need to meditate/pray/worship to attain the above state of mind and it doesn't last more than a few hours at most unless they continue to meditate/pray/worship during the process. Meditation consistantly changes something in the minds of some people that make temporary and limited telepathy possible. It can be trained, it can be tested, religions have been training it in some form or another for thousands of years, they've documented how to do it damn it! Unless these researchers do something to the groups of people first to put them in this state of mind the results will show nothing.
