--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John" <jr_...@...> wrote:
<Your idea of statistically proving that dreams predict the future is excellent. You should submit your proposal to a university or a government agency for funding. Personally, I don't have the time to spend for this effort.> And I would? A bit dismissive, eh? You already KNOW this is true, from your "experience." And finding out if you really do have this remarkable ability or are just fooling yourself would be too much of an inconvenience, beneath your level of surety. This is very common among people with unusual abilities. I wonder why that is? Must just be an exceptionally busy bunch. Probably filling their days winning their state's Power Ball Lottery games and spending all the money. Anyway, thanks for an interesting discussion. > > > > > > > To test this theory out yourself, you should keep a diary of your dreams > > > to see if any of them "preplays" any of the actual occurences in your > > > life. > > > > You can understand why I am skeptical that such a test really proves what > > it FEELS like it should prove. I even suggested the experiment before I > > started thinking about it more and seeing the problems with the design. It > > naturally made sense to me! It could be tested in principle, but these > > elements would have to be a part of the design. > > > > 1. We would need to know how many months of recording dreams and how many > > events would be needed to make it statistically significant. > > > > 2. We would need to decide on some parameters of what constitutes a > > connection. In the kind of open ended personal design we are subject to > > shaping. Of course we also have the issue of how our perception is going > > to filter to look for any connections with the dream we just had. We are > > scanning our experience with a strong bias. I don't know how to get around > > this because this is self-reported and we have thousands of possible > > experiences to choose from. It seems to me that this would make the > > likelihood of finding SOMETHING that seems to relate very high. > > > > There are many other variable to control for and I am not an expert in > > testing design. But in principle it seems like there could be a way to > > find out if there is something to this thoery. In its current form is > > appears to be unfalsifiable. > > > > But this is unlikely to ever happen because people who view shastras as > > having authority are not interested in more than personal confirmation of > > the belief. There is no way to prove it false given this testing > > procedure. And for hundreds of years humans have been satisfied with their > > anecdotal evidence and intuitive pseudo-testing. What would be the motive > > to REALLY find out? > > > > This natural tendency of our minds (where have I heard THAT before?) to > > impose order our of chaos, to put things together and to assign connections > > or to notice the naturally occurring coincidences and to see patterns is a > > strength and a weakness of our minds. Depending on the context is either > > pretty benign (this dream belief) or catastrophic, medical superstitions. > > Our minds are very susceptible to being convinced of things that we should > > only be confident about with better testing practices. But REALLY testing > > things is hard. As a species we are also overfond of easy and quick. > > > > I have an experience that happens to me. I will be reading something on > > the Web and then turn to the radio or TV and the same topic will be being > > discussed. It feels like it happens a lot. It really does. > > > > Your idea of statistically proving that dreams predict the future is > excellent. You should submit your proposal to a university or a government > agency for funding. Personally, I don't have the time to spend for this > effort. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" > > > <curtisdeltablues@> wrote: > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John" <jr_esq@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shukra69" <shukra69@> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > so then thats why some consider it a good test of a new gem to > > > > > > judge by the dreams you get when you put it on , that is telling > > > > > > you how it affects the 9th (also luck > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > This is true. Dreams are good indicators of things to come. If the > > > > > dreams are enjoyable then the near future should be good as well. > > > > > For example, if you dream of someone just before you wake up, there's > > > > > a good chance you will meet this person during the same day. > > > > > > > > I think this is an example of one of our mind's cognitive pitfalls > > > > called "shaping." We tend to remember things that fit patterns and > > > > forget those that do not. Since statistics are not intuitive to our > > > > minds we are really poor judges of the truthfulness of this sort of > > > > claim. We are constantly imposing order on randomness as a reflex, you > > > > can't avoid it. But knowing that our mind has this tendency can help > > > > avoid being sure of things that don't hold up to a more rigorous test. > > > > Glilovich's Book How We Know What Isn't So, the Fallibility of Human > > > > Reason in Everyday Life, studies these cognitive errors. > > > > > > > > http://www.amazon.com/How-Know-What-Isnt-Fallibility/dp/0029117062/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266784011&sr=8-1 > > > > > > > > > > > > We have all had thousands of dreams that predicted nothing. When there > > > > seems to be a connection our mind goes eureka! The world makes sense > > > > because we are overlaying our pattern on the randomness. We dreamt > > > > about a person and they called us, or we passed them on the street, or > > > > wrote to us, or someone mentioned them to us. We remember our dream > > > > and overvalue it as proof of our belief about the trans-personal nature > > > > of our minds. But we haven't kept s journal of dreams and connections > > > > in our daily life for months to really test it. And when we do our > > > > mind's shaping tendency is right there to interpret the day as good > > > > after a pleasant dream. Even bad things that turn out as a good thing > > > > in the end are counted in evidence for our minds magical ability to > > > > predict the future. > > > > > > > > Dream contents may have creative uses, but I don't believe predicting > > > > the future is one of them. > > > > > > > > > > You are entitled to your opinion. But I am merely paraphrasing what is > > > available in the jyotish shastras. Personally, I have kept a diary of my > > > dreams for several months to determine what these dreams mean to my life. > > > In one of the dreams, there was a sequence where I was taking a bus ride > > > to visit my old alma mater for one reason or the the other. I met some > > > people whom I did not know before. After a few days of this dream, I > > > found out that my neighbor next door to me also graduated from my > > > university through an alumni brochure that was incorrectly delivered into > > > my mail box. > > > > > > To test this theory out yourself, you should keep a diary of your dreams > > > to see if any of them "preplays" any of the actual occurences in your > > > life. > > > > > >
