Pseudoscience/Paranormal

[Squid]

You missed my point.

Do you assign anything unexplained to the supernatural?  Or just something that happens to fall into your schema of the supernatural?

Another example.  In the Malleus Malificarum a priest is described in a passage (which blames the devil):

But when he passed any church, and genuflected in honour of the Glorious Virgin, the devil made him thrust his tongue far out of his mouth; and when he was asked whether he could not restrain himself from doing this, he answered: “I cannot help myself at all, for so he uses all my limbs and organs, my neck, my tongue, and my lungs, whenever he pleases, causing me to speak or to cry out; and I hear the words as if they were spoken by myself, but I am altogether unable to restrain them; and when I try to engage in prayer he attacks me more violently, thrusting out my tongue.”

Source - Kramer, H. and Sprenger, J. (1971/1486). Montague Summers (Ed.). The Malleus Maleficarum of Kramer and Sprenger. New York: Dover Publications.

What was described as a possession since the people assessing the behavior could not explain it any other way, was actually describing what was most likely a man with Tourette's.  Tourette's is a biologically based brain disorder...no demons or devils involved.

[silviakjell]

ok, some questions... what is pseudoscience, ESP, paranormal phenomena, free energy machines, Velikovskyism, magnet therapy, telekinesis, and poltergeists?

[Aullios]

Wikipedia is your friend.

[Whitney]

ok, some questions... what is pseudoscience, ESP, paranormal phenomena, free energy machines, Velikovskyism, magnet therapy, telekinesis, and poltergeists?

ESP:  extra sensory perception (I think that's right)
paranormal phenomena:  stuff people think are linked to the paranormal (ghosts etc)
magnet therapy:  using magnets to try and stimulate certain parts of the body into healing
telekinesis:  using the mind's power to try and move things (like the force on Star Wars)
Poltergeists:  ghosts that are haunting a house

I don't know how to define the others...try putting the terms in a search engine.

[silviakjell]

Ah, thanks a lot, that clears up a lot of things. but if you put a powerful magnet on a bone that has moved out of place, and then use another magnet to pull the bone back into place... well, does that count as healing? and ESP, does that mean sorta like being phycic?

[McQ]

Ah, thanks a lot, that clears up a lot of things. but if you put a powerful magnet on a bone that has moved out of place, and then use another magnet to pull the bone back into place... well, does that count as healing? and ESP, does that mean sorta like being phycic?

A magnet pulling on a bone? Do you mean a bone in a human body? Have you heard of something like this? Please clarify this one.

[Whitney]

Ah, thanks a lot, that clears up a lot of things. but if you put a powerful magnet on a bone that has moved out of place, and then use another magnet to pull the bone back into place... well, does that count as healing?

That wouldn't work, and magnets aren't used that way.  Usually when a bone breaks it doesn't break cleanly.  So, if someone were to try and put very strong magnets on either side of the fracture in order to try and set the bone it would cause more damage.  In order to set a fractured bone it is often necessary to pull (away from the fracture) on the bone first before pushing/pulling it over and back into place.

The idea behind magnet therapy is that the weak magnet field helps to relieve muscle aches, arthritis, pain in bad joints, and things of that nature.  As far as I know, the magnets actually don't do any good but also don't cause additional harm.

[Squid]

...and ESP, does that mean sorta like being phycic?

ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception.  It is based on the notion that some people have ability to "sense" things beyond our regular senses of touch, sight, hearing and so forth.  Many experiments have been performed over the years on many people claiming to have ESP - most showed nothing.  Some have given false positives due to methodology flaws or mistakes made by those aiding in conducting the experiment.

Many people I've run into who support ESP as real claim that it is part of some untapped resource in our brains, some unused part that can be unlocked - and studying the brain and how it works you will see why this is simply ridiculous.

Here's the wikipedia article on ESP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-sensory_perception

And funny enough, just like what many creationists do when the flaws in their experiments is pointed out, they cry about a scientific conspiracy - that the science community won't accept ESP even though it's "true" - which is utter crap.

[Asmodean Prime]

I think squid has ESP.

That little penguin thingy seems to know a lot about me

[McQ]

Ah, thanks a lot, that clears up a lot of things. but if you put a powerful magnet on a bone that has moved out of place, and then use another magnet to pull the bone back into place... well, does that count as healing?

That wouldn't work, and magnets aren't used that way.  Usually when a bone breaks it doesn't break cleanly.  So, if someone were to try and put very strong magnets on either side of the fracture in order to try and set the bone it would cause more damage.  In order to set a fractured bone it is often necessary to pull (away from the fracture) on the bone first before pushing/pulling it over and back into place.

The idea behind magnet therapy is that the weak magnet field helps to relieve muscle aches, arthritis, pain in bad joints, and things of that nature.  As far as I know, the magnets actually don't do any good but also don't cause additional harm.

Good answer laetus. This is why I wanted silviakjell to clarify the question. If it's in reference moving the bones based on the the iron contained in the human body, it would not work. The iron in our bodies is not ferromagnetic. If it was, then the first time you enter an MRI would also be your last! And no, magnet therapy does not work for any of the things claimed by magnet therapy companies, practitioners, etc.

For a more detailed explanation, see:

http://www.revisemri.com/blog/2006/mri- ... ttraction/

[silviakjell]

No, no, no, it's just my imagination run wild again. I can make questions from any comment, you just wait and see.

What I meant is if a bone is not fractured, just slid out of place, if you attach a magnet on the bone, and then used another magnet outside of the body to try to pull the bone, would it work? I know it sounds sort of ridiculous, but I'm just wondering. I didn't get this from some science book or anything.

[Whitney]

sil...my answer above explains why that wouldn't work.

[MikeyV]

sil...my answer above explains why that wouldn't work.

I think you might be missing what Silviakjell is saying. It's a bit silly, really (sorry Sil).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Sil is saying, if you were to open the skin and insert a magnet into the bone, or glue one onto the bone, would you be able to manipulate the bone with another, outside magnet. (Right, Sil?)

Well, yes you could, but it's much more practical to just set the bone and immobilize it. If you have to open the skin to do repairs, it's much more practical to use plates and screws.

[Whitney]

oh...ya, i guess that does sound more like what she was talking about.  So, ya it would work...but would be a lot more difficult and invasive.  If the bone is just out of place (like a dislocated shoulder) it would be faster and less painful to just shove it back into place by hand.  (is that what you meant, a dislocated bone rather than one that is broken?)

[silviakjell]

Right on MikeyV.