Fooling the Ganzfeld experiment

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Fooling the Ganzfeld experiment

Postby Edantes » Jan 8th, '11, 19:04



As well as performing magic, I am also studying psychology and as part of the course we do a unit on anomalystic psychology and paranormal phenomena. We take a sceptical view and look at the subject as non-believers.

I wont go into this, but the situation has arisen that I have been asked (as a mentalsit) to try and fool the infamous Ganzfeld experiments as an exercise to prove how they couldn't be fully reliable. Only problem is that I can't think of a suitable way of acheiving it.

Can anyone here give me any hints
Thankyou
xx

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Postby phillipnorthfield » Jan 8th, '11, 19:09

Osterlind's ESP stack springs to mind. Could you not do a drawing duplication and really build up the impossibility?

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Postby sleightlycrazy » Jan 8th, '11, 22:40

Incidentally, I was watching a video and reading comments about the experiment for hours last night. Perhaps I picked up on your concern from all the way over here :wink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw_O9Qiwqew

The dude is meticulous and, as a skeptic, I'm not sure what to make of it. I've seen really smart people commenting on possible interpretation flaws and arbitrary assignments of what can be considered significant. I've seen a bunch of pseudoskeptics talking trash where trashtalk was not justified in any way.

I think it is important that you ask the people exactly what they want from you. It seems like they are looking for a justification to discredit the experiment, but the Ganzfeld experiment is, it seems from what I've seen about it, beyond fraud at the moment. Even if you do succeed in trickery, it wouldn't mean anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w86hDdUD03o

The description of this video brings up an important point about skepticism. Too many of us find it hard to accept that we can't actually explain something.

That said, I guess I'll PM you.

Currently Reading "House of Mystery" (Abbott, Teller), Tarbell, Everything I can on busking
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Re: Fooling the Ganzfeld experiment

Postby Ted » Jan 9th, '11, 00:52

Edantes wrote:As well as performing magic, I am also studying psychology and as part of the course we do a unit on anomalystic psychology and paranormal phenomena. We take a sceptical view and look at the subject as non-believers.

I wont go into this, but the situation has arisen that I have been asked (as a mentalsit) to try and fool the infamous Ganzfeld experiments as an exercise to prove how they couldn't be fully reliable. Only problem is that I can't think of a suitable way of acheiving it.


As far as I know (which is little), the experiment you want to subvert involves a sender and a receiver. The receiver undergoes a level of sensory deprivation.

My advice would be to use senses not being deprived. Send Tomo a PM and a relatively small amount of money (less than I think he deserves, slightly more than a night in the pub) and all your problems will be solved.

T.

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Postby kolm » Jan 9th, '11, 02:44

I guess it depends if the sender is in on it. I'm inclined to second Ted's answer

"People who hail from Manchester cannot possibly be upper class and therefore should not use silly pretentious words"
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Postby aporia » Jan 10th, '11, 18:35

Get the subject naked and inside a Faraday cage.

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