> On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 16:47:46 -0600 noctem@centuryinter.net writes:
> >Hey, all --
> >
> > As long as we're throwing around the idea, why not set up some
> >tests?
> >E-mail readings would seem the perfect means for eliminating verbal or
> >non-verbal feedback (which most "psychics" use as a guide for their
> >interpretations...).
> > If the tests fail, we may be able to decisively bring an end to
> >this
> >thread....
>
> If I believed in the predictive power of the tarot deck and was informed
> that tarot readings conducted over the internet (by e-mail) failed to
> support my beliefs, I would only conceed that the tarot's power cannot be
> transfered and translated into pulses of light in fiber-optic lines or
> electrons in a copper wire. Perhaps the strange temporality of e-mail
> interferes with crucial timing elements in the tarot process. Failure of
> this kind will do nothing to end this thread. Another reason for
> thinking so is that no one seems to be arguing in favor of the tarot's
> predictive power. It's advocates are pretty uniform in thier support of
> the tarot as an aid to introspection and as an organizing force in
> decission-making.
>
> That said, it could be fun. Count me in.
Actually, the advocates I have talked to would be AMAZED if it could be
done via e-mail. They also looked at me rather strangely when I insisted
that psychometry could function in analyzing usefulness of books for a
specified research project, using just titles from an electronic card
catalog. [It was a double-conjunct: working via electronic linkage, AND
abstracting information about printed material.]
Eliminating nonverbal feedback would be very challenging, yes--keep in mind
that a 'psychic-extended' [I refuse to comment on the reliability
thereof!] sensory map can be used to reliably bypass inability to use
nonverbal feedback.
[CLIP]
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/ Kenneth Boyd
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