Are you resonding to Bhairitu or to Curtisdeltablues here?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Sharalyn" <homeonthefarm@...> wrote:
>
>
> What you write here not only confuses the issue with a lot of unrelated
> fluff, it complicates it with unsubstantiated personal opinion and an
> obviously prejudiced agenda. What gives you any authority to make the claims
> you make? Have you personally worked in the research labs? I don't want an
> answer to that for I can see by your style of writing that you can't give a
> focused, non-emotional, objective response. I just wanted to express my
> irritation that you used my question as a springboard for an off-topic
> personal tirade.
>
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu <noozguru@> wrote:
>
> >
> > On 03/06/2013 01:35 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote:
> > > The key is being able to answer the question: " Is there a test even in
> > > principle, that could show that the theory is false?". It often involves
> > > making the claim more precise. But even your second example: The brain
> > > waves of students practicing TM show increased coherence, might be
> > > unfalsifiable depending on how you define "coherence". And remember
> > > coherence is a mathematical model being applied to the raw data. It is
> > > very easy to massage the numbers to show some type of "coherence". For
> > > it to be falsifiable it must be possible for someone to go through the
> > > test and for them to say "our theory is not valid, coherence does not
> > > increase."
> > >
> > > But that isn't how the movement uses science for marketing. Movement
> > > scientists would just continue to manipulate the data using different
> > > formulas until something they could call coherence could be found. In TM
> > > research, it is never a possible outcome that TM ever does anything bad
> > > to a person, or that positive benefits are not "proven". If the
> > > experiment doesn't show what they already believe, the frame around the
> > > experiment is shifted until it shows something positive.
> > >
> > > Framing a test in a way that is falsifiable requires a detachment from
> > > the outcome. You have to really care enough about the truth to plug up
> > > all the loopholes that compromise falsifiability. We have many cognitive
> > > biases toward winging it when it comes to our beliefs. Few people really
> > > want to go through the hard work it would take to really test something.
> > >
> > > So yes you need precision in formulating the hypothesis, but that is not
> > > enough. You have to understand how each variable affects the test. Our
> > > big pharma testing system has the exact same problems movement research
> > > has. They are always ready to turn capillary dilators into boner pills.
> > > They are not setting up the research with big bucks to find out that the
> > > pill does more harm than good.
> > >
> > > Lots of New Age "medical" practices operate this way. The results are so
> > > vague that there is no way for you to conclude that it just didn't work.
> > > Every result has an explanation, but the system itself is never tested
> > > rigorously.
> >
> > Of course the problem there is that alternative medical practices simply
> > don't have the money to do such testing. And some of those cures are so
> > simple including ones that are even "kitchen cabinet" just using herbs
> > you may have there. No money in that for big pharma so instead they try
> > to destroy alternative medicine so they can sell you expensive cures.
> > Unrestrained capitalism is a crime against humanity.
> >
> > That said, fortunately over the years some of the simple cures do get
> > tested. I recall that in the 1970s a dentist in Florida had some
> > program to use just baking soda for dental care. Of course he was
> > lambasted as a "quack". Now go to your supermarket and take a look at
> > toothpaste that includes or advertises baking soda used. Ayurveda
> > suggests turmeric or even triphala as a mouth wash to prevent
> > gingivitis. I have use Crest's Total Health which I noticed is as
> > astringent as those two herbs and would bet that astringency is at the
> > basis of the cure.
> >
>