What is it with you that you can't cope with a bit of rigorous thinking and 
plain speaking? It's weird, you get all tweaked and insulting and start calling 
everyone else angry. Go figure.
 

 I think the world is in a very parlous state at the moment but no, we don't 
have wars like we used to. The increase in advanced weapons put paid to direct 
conflict between large countries. The UN and increase in understanding and 
especially trade helps keep countries behaving civilly too. This is all 
reasonably well understood, quite a way from "no one can figure out why". But 
it's still a massive shit hole for an extremely large and growing number of 
people though, maybe you don't get world news where you live.
 

 But you want to blame an unusual religious theory that has no known way it 
could work and has demonstrated no convincing evidence. And if it did work we'd 
have to rewrite physics, sociology, psychology etc. You may not understand the 
importance of any of this but a paradigm shift of that magnitude will require 
some serious weight of evidence. And that is exactly what isn't forthcoming. In 
fact, the best demonstration so far gave results that were indistinguishable 
from natural fluctuations in the crime rate, were less dramatic that a dip a 
few months previously when no one was meditating, and were nothing compared to 
the drop in crime levels a year later when more gentrification occurred and 
policing methods were changed.
 

 If you actually read my post - Buck didn't bother - you'd see that I was 
applauding Lawson for his new-found scepticism and his realisation that they 
are going to have to do a lot better if they are going to convince people that 
the laws of nature need a ground-up rewrite on the say-so of someone who thinks 
prayers can prevent earthquakes. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary 
evidence.
 

 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fleetwood_macncheese@...> wrote :

 Contrary to the angry monkeys on here (Sal and Barry), I find it fascinating 
that crime, war casualties, and violence in general continues to go down, 
statistically, both in the US and globally. And you know what? No one can 
figure out why. If not the ME, then pray tell, angry monkeys, what is it? Any 
unscientific guesses? Any conjectures, borne out of thin air? I'm sticking with 
the Maharishi Effect. Have a banana.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote :

 
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote :

 Buck's off his anti-cult-mentality meds again. 
 

 For most people on the planet, the issue is not "proving" that a bunch of 
people bouncing on their butts can lower crime, affect the weather, and create 
world peace, but the fact that some people are so out of it that they actually 
believed it could in the first place. That degree of gullibility is what needs 
to be researched, not the "ME." 

 

 I wonder if hardcore TM is the religion with the smallest set of believers on 
Earth? How many really believe that a field effect in consciousness can lower 
crime etc, even with no evidence? Must be in the few thousands at most. Hell, I 
know a TM governor in the UK who doesn't believe it.
 

 I was discussing John Hagelin with a physicist I know the other day, I 
explained about how he thinks prayers can prevent Earthquakes and tea leaves 
can predict the future and that it's all to do with quantum super-position. My 
friend wondered why he hasn't been detained under the mental health act.
 

 In case Buck starts crying about me being anti-science here, I would say that 
it's JH who is abusing the known principles of science and particularly those 
that he got his PHD in, and that this is just the sort of drivel that keeps 
people from taking the ME seriously. Not that it's any magnitude of sanity 
higher than yagya's of course...
 

 ...but it is easily testable. So go to it! Again...
 

 

 From: "dhamiltony2k5@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 1:04 PM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Science and the Meissner Effect of Consciousness 
as Field
 
 
   Yes quite evidently you and the other anti-meditation anti-science folks 
here are afraid of where the data is going. Your asserting no data therefore no 
replication and therefore it can't be talked about or researched.  Asserting 
that it does not exist defies reality and scientific process itself of data, 
observation, hypothesis and testing . Lawson is looking at how to replicate 
given the practical constraints of such a project given the data. You 
completely miss-interpret to your own vile ends. You evidently don't want 
anything to happen less it disturb your anti-meditation and anti-spiritual 
grumblings. You contend the research can't be replicated and shouldn't be, well 
talk about subterfuge and anti-science anti-intellectualism. Next we'll hear 
from you that there never was such a thing as darshan where obviously there is 
and then you'll say it is not worth trying to look at for fear of what we might 
find. Did you just renew your membership down at the local conservative 
Anglican Church or something that you come on so regressive like you do? 
  -Buck in the Dome
 
Thanks LEnglish5 very much for this more even-handed review of what is current. 
 It is refreshing in the face of all the anti-science and allergy that so many 
have to TM and spirituality here on this board.  -Buck 
 

 What are you talking about Buck? Lawson used to be the hard core defender of 
ME research, it's only very recently he's come round to the viewpoint I've held 
all along, that ME research doesn't show what is claimed for it. So why are you 
calling me "anti-science"?
 

 Criticism is science, that's how it works. Someone has an idea, they collect 
evidence and publish it. The ME research doesn't show anything beyond 
statistical manipulation, it sure as hell didn't show a huge decrease in crime. 
So the ball is back in the court of the people who claim its efficacy to prove 
it was a real effect.
 

 Your problem is that you get all sensitive when someone criticises a pet 
theory of yours when it's all part of the scientific process. If the ME stands 
up someone will find a way of demonstrating it. It might help if they had an  
explanation for how it might work in the first place. Instead all they have is 
a bunch of wishy-washy new age terms explained in the context of other 
wishy-washy new age terms. So why should anyone take it seriously and go to the 
expense of testing it when, as Lawson points out, there appears to be no 
evidence to try and replicate?
 

 

   

 

 LEnglish5 writes:
 It may have been demonstrated to the satisfaction of true believers, but not 
to the satisfaction of skeptics.
 

 The problem with the ME research is that it is essentially not replicatable on 
a large-scale. No two cities or groups of cities are really alike, and even 
using the same city over and over again for a study has many issues.
 

 

 Fred Travis' thesis research on interpersonal EEG coherence (the ME between 
two people) would be a better route to go, but he was forced to use averages of 
EEG statistics over a period of many seconds, and it turns out that there is a 
ceiling effect on that specific measure which makes it unlikely to find the 
effect consistently. 
 

 So... what to do?
 

 As I pointed out before, there's a more sophisticated way of analyzing global 
EEG called "EEG microstates," where the average electrical activation of the 
brain can be examined in tiny slices of time, down to as low as 2-10 
milliseconds per slice. That is easily 400x the resolution that Fred used in 
his original study.
 

 The people in charge of the TM organization are well aware of how the ME 
research is viewed by most non-believers, but there's been no way to satisfy 
genuine concerns like independent replication until now. The DC experiment not 
only cost the TM organization several million to conduct, but it required 
coordinating the lives of 4,000 Sidhas. This is NOT something that can ever be 
replicated on a regular basis, no matter what kind of resources you have and 
you can't expect the average skeptical scientist to arrange to do such 
research, either.
 

 When the upcoming EEG microstate research on TM is published, if it turns out 
that there is a definite pattern associated with pure consciousness, it may be 
possible to redo Fred Travis' original research with as many as 400x the number 
of data points in a given TM session. I don't know offhand, how much more 
sensitive this would make a specific study, but I'm pretty sure it is a LOT 
more sensitive...
 

 ...tried just now to plug various values into online statistical calculators, 
and it looks like having 400x as many data points roughly makes a given simple 
experiment 400x as sensitive (sorta -there might be a square-root in there, but 
it looks like it is a lot more than 20x as sensitive so not sure)...
 

 John Hagelin obviously realizes the points above. He was giving the standard 
party line to me earlier this year about how the research into the ME is 
reliable, etc., but when I started to point out that there would be potentially 
400x as many data points as was available in Fred Travis' experiments and that 
this meant fully independent skeptics could conduct their own very cheap 
experiments, he kinda got excited and interrupted me about halfway through my 
spiel, saying he would talk to Fred Travis about it.
 

 

 

 Lawson
 

 

 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote :

 Maharishi's technologies for creating peace was demonstrated again and again 
in the 70'ies and 80'ies. No need for any more demonstrations. It is well 
documented and it's now up to responsible leaders in the world to implement 
these technologies at a fraction of the costs of waging wars.
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fleetwood_macncheese@...> wrote :

 I agree. I am a little surprised that the TMO hasn't done this, as a 
continuation of Maharishi's initiatives. Of course, there are enough hot spots 
that it could be an issue to fund all of them. Maharishi always wanted 
countries to recognize the value of his programs on their own, but it is 
something very tough to do, while fighting a war. Jordan may be safe enough, 
and close enough, and friendly enough, for a group of Sidhas, though I can't 
think of anyplace else. I seem to recall this was done, at least once before in 
possibly Lebanon?
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote :

 You are exaggerating as usual. There is no point in putting people in harm's 
way, which would be grossly irresponsible. That was never the idea. The 
Maharishi effect doesn't mean that all violence ceases immediately or that you 
could meditate as a group in the middle of a battlefield and come out 
unscathed. 
 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote :

 Oh no! Let 'em put up or shut up! Let 'em go to where the rockets are flying 
and do so at their own expense. If it really works the way they claim, they 
will be in no danger.

 

 
 From: feste37 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com>
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 10:53 AM
 Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] For The Turq and his Superiors
 
 
   I think they should try it. Nothing else is working. It's just the usual, 
endless round of violence. The TM group wouldn't have to go into the most 
dangerous areas. Just being close would probably do it. 

 


 

---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote :

 Thank you Nabby for posting this bold article.
 

 Here is the comment I posted on the site - let's see if they have the balls to 
allow it to be posted:
 

 As a former practitioner of transcendental meditation, I know that you are a 
shill for the TM Movement. You are also not giving full information in your 
article. IDT refers to the TM Sidhi program, the one that purports to enable 
people to levitate. In no way shape or form is this nonsense scientifically 
validated.

 

 But let's give you the benefit of the doubt - you want to prove this voodoo 
technology works then I challenge you to personally lead a group into the most 
dangerous and violent sections of Israel and the Gaza strip.
 

 Let the TM Movement pay every penny of the expense in supporting such a group 
rather than begging the rest of the world to financially support you (which is 
your actual intent in suggesting such a group) and see how long you last. I do 
suggest you make sure to give the Israeli authorities the names of your next of 
kin, I expect they will need them. 

 

 
 From: nablusoss1008 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com>
 To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
 Sent: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 9:30 AM
 Subject: [FairfieldLife] For The Turq and his Superiors
 
 
   An Outsider's View of How to Calm Middle East-Gaza Tension 
 
http://www.newspronto.com/opinion/4376-an-outsider-s-view-of-how-to-calm-middle-east-gaza-tension
 
http://www.newspronto.com/opinion/4376-an-outsider-s-view-of-how-to-calm-middle-east-gaza-tension

 














 


 






















 


 













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