Friday, September 16, 2016

The wisdom of Robert Morningstar

James Concannon writes...

        More laughs with Morningstar. Today he posted a 1:42 excerpt of one of his lectures at the Edgar Cayce NYC Center. The audio quality was utterly appalling but after several runs I came up with the following transcript, which I believe is accurate apart from a few minor elisions.
"Remote viewing  [and]  out-of-body experiences  are the natural processes of the human mind, and soul.   Science, over the last 150 years, has... er... suppressed them, and quashed them, and repressed it, and tried to convince us--the public--that if you believe in these faculties you are superstitious. Ahhh... you are... ahhmm..ignorant. And that there's no basis in fact...[?]      Because they believe in a totally materialistic, linear, one-directional time concept of reality. Which is the real falsehood. The idea that life unfolds like a stack of dominoes--just hit one domino and inevitably all the dominoes will fall.   Well, that's not true. Ahhh.. because you're not logical. The universe is not logical.  We now know..[?]...     the last 100 years as well.  The arrival of quantum physics...    relativity...    has shown us that we live simultaneously in a matter-antimatter universe. And the matter universe is the after-effects of the antimatter universe."
        Only seven audience members are visible in the Youtubery, but we must assume that many more had paid decent money to hear this. I have a couple of comments, since I know at least as much as AM* about quantum physics--which is to say, not very much.

1. Science has made no efforts that I know of to suppress or quash remote viewing. Indeed, I don't know how it would go about such a project even if it wanted to. Science has simply said "Show me the money." In other and better words, "Let's see some consistent results from RV that are repeatable and clearly better than guesswork." A 1995 evaluationnote 1 by a blue ribbon panel did find a statistically significant RV effect under some conditions, but it cautioned  "It is unclear whether the observed effects can unambiguously be attributed to the paranormal ability of the remote viewers as opposed to characteristics of the judges or of the target or some other characteristic of the methods used." As for the usefulness of RV in formal intelligence gathering, the panel nixed that completely, and as a result the DIA's $20 million Stargate project was shut down.

A follow-up report by Wiseman and Miltonnote 2 found four methodological problems with SAIC's "Experiment One,"  which the 1995 panel had found compelling, and reported that it could not be repeated. Repeatability is, of course, a requirement for scientific acceptance.

More on the anecdotal side, the celebrity remote viewers who have turned up on the radio show Coast to Coast AM over the years have shown how wildly adrift most of this work can be.  Ed Dames can't seem to get anything right (we're still waiting for his "killshot" to wipe out the human race.) Courtney Brown remote viewed an artificial object trailing Comet Hale-Bopp and was indirectly responsible for the suicide of 39 members of the cult group Heaven's Gate. His "artificial object" was never detected.


So I don't think it's at all unreasonable for the science community to reject the claims of RV-- and rejection is not the same thing as suppression. Ray Hyman, in an article in Skeptical Inquirer, put it succinctly:
"What seems clear is that the scientific community is not going to abandon its fundamental ideas about causality, time, and other principles on the basis of a handful of experiments whose findings have yet to be shown to be replicable and lawful."note 3

2. Quantum physics has not shown what Morningstar says it has shown. Its essential usefulness is in explaining three of the four fundamental forces that make everything happen. It also sheds much light on the wave-particle duality of light. It has little or nothing to say about anti-matter.

Parapsychologists have fallen in love with quantum theory because of the phenomenon of entanglement, per which sub-atomic particles that are very far apart can affect each others' states instantaneously. They speak of "consciousness entanglement" as a possible or probable explanation for RV, but there isn't even a whisper of evidence that such a phenomenon exists, let alone has any practical value.

Now what?
        Well, speaking of practical value-- what, I wonder, does Morningstar think his lecture audiences are going to do with the information he supplies? Storm the gates of the National Acadamies demanding that science get more lenient with parapsychological claims? Remote-view the lottery numbers? Only if they could actually perform the latter trick would they have got value for their money, I fear.



======================/ \====================
[1]  An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications. American Institutes for Research September 29, 1995

[2]  Experiment One of the SAIC Remote Viewing Program: A critical re-examination by Dr Richard Wiseman and Dr Julie Milton. J. Parapsychology 62 (4): 297–308

[3] The Evidence for psychic functioning: Claims vs. Reality. Skeptical Inquirer March-April 1996.

23 comments:

Alienmojo said...

One guy I won't even listen to. I'd rather sit in a room with Michael Horn and Richard Hoagland. Only one worse would be one of those Flat Earther guys. That guy that Stuart talked about on his podcast made me actually sick. The only way that I even know about Morningstar or these other guys are through you and Stuart. I can't listen to those shows. They infuriate me too much. I don't know how you do it. Glad you do though... because it is fun to read these posts and listen to Exposing Pseudo-Astronomy talk about them, but to sit through hours of that insane bs... no freaking way.

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

Speaking of Captain Hoagland, here, he addresses Heaven's Gate:
@2:40:13
https://youtu.be/E8aqWgeO8oo

expat said...

Yes, that was the drone-athon at which he first introduced his totally false ideas about the statistical probability of Comet Elenin. What a joke.

"Applewhite was C.I.A." WHAT A JOKE.

Chris Lopes said...

Yep, not one of Hoagie's best plays. Apparently the idea was that Applewhite's actions would discredit the entire UFO movement. Because we all know just how serious people took UFO's before that happened.

The thing is, Comet Elenin became such a cluster fornication for him, that the Heavens Gate comment kind of gets lost. Calling a wide eyed crazy a CIA agent can't hold a candle to the massive failure of his Elenin nonsense.

Trekker said...

Chris, remember how he tried to spin the fact that nothing happened at Elenin's perihelion, by trying to tie it to the Occupy Wall Street movement? That was the beginning of the end for him.

Here's the Facebook thread from that debacle: https://www.facebook.com/RichardC.Hoagland/photos/a.218146655088.264076.213984790088/10150875986095089/?type=3&theater

James Concannon said...

Nice to be reminded of when he used to engage with his readers. Of course, he did so only to feel superior in every way, but still....

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

Did any reporters on the scene, check to see if the Nike clad bodies on gurneys actually weren't breathing? Where is Applewhite's body, or did he escape?

Chris Lopes said...

I remember it well. As James said, that was back when he was on FB like 24/7. He needed to keep his fanbase happy, so he'd have some credibility on coast to coast.

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

Topher, you pull down the big bucks. How about you pay to join Hoagland's Club 19.5, check the shit out, and then report back to us?

Chris Lopes said...

I honestly don't care enough about what Hougie is up to for money to be involved.

expat said...

Theadora: You may have missed it but I reviewed one edition very recently.

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

I didn't bother to look close enough to see that Club 19.5 is a show archive. I thought that was a chat forum, but it's not. Never mind.

Unknown said...

Oh how I would love to see Hoagland's tax returns.
I wonder if he claims a rebate on his "accutron torsion field detector."

I also wonder how much filthy lucre he can glean from his internet radio show.
He gets no conference invites any more. Maybe "Dr" Falkov subsidies him via her gulf oil remedy.

Robert Morningshit's returns would be almost as interesting.
At least R MS* gets conference invites.

expat said...

This'll give you a laff... Last night Hoagland kicked AM* off his "debate the debate" panel after his repeated dissing of another panel member.

Unknown said...

Self hating white.
What the fuck does that even mean?

AM* just weirded me out. What a pernicious little creep.

expat said...

PLC. Love it.

Trekker said...

Lol! It's funny when Hoagie is the reasonable one!

Chris Lopes said...

Hoagie has always been good at cutting through other people's bovine scat. It's his own he can't see through. Besides, whatever else he might be, Hoagland isn't a racist sphincter muscle.

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

Say, how bad is James' dyslexia still interfering with his work?

THE Orbs Whiperer said...

My dyslexia, that is. I meant 13°00'00.0"W 2°00'00.0"S


https://dorkmission.blogspot.com/2016/05/defense-against-windows-10.html


Ex Parte said...

What do you see on Mars at: ( 13°00'00.0"S 2°00'00.0"W )?
June 1, 2016 at 6:45 PM


James Concannon said...

You mean this feature?
http://imgur.com/gallery/k4zLuMk/new
Crater ejecta at 13°00'00.0"S 2°00'00.0"W

Crater ejecta, I think.
June 2, 2016 at 8:55 AM

Unknown said...

Richard C. Hoagland...a racist? Not that that word means anything these days, but I can't remember any time I've heard Hoagland mutter any form of hate speech. Oh sure, he's known to sling thinly-veiled insults at his detractors. Which in his case is like some pudgy kid yelling "bitch" from the other side of he chain link fence as he runs off...but while the guy is an idiot, I don't think he has a truly mean bone in his body. He's just a wimp in all regards.

James Concannon said...

http://bit.ly/2dvVlVf

Shame only half of it was covered by the LRO NAC. Looks like a multiple crater.

THE Orbs Whiperer said...


Thanks James. Do you find this, anywhere in that image?