No approval yet.
I do still have a glimmer of hope though as I did contact the DNR again just to confirm that they received my proposal and I was informed they did receive it and its currently being reviewed.
I can only assume the proposal has to go through quite a few hands before its fully approved and thats what is causing the delay. I say that only because it was a rather short proposal, not because they arent busy over at the DNR in Jefferson City, MO.
Now as for a recap of recent experiments there have been two since my last blog post.
They were both mirror related and both suggested by peers.
Below is the first, the Pacemaker ritual.
Now for this one in particular the IR capability of the camcorder was borderline essential. If I had tried this without IR night vision you would have only been able to see a very dimly lit environment.
In this case you were able to clearly see that nothing appeared in the mirror itself and the mirror didnt appear to crack at any time during the experiment.
Next was a suggestion named Mirror World but whats in a name? You can watch it below.
The only difficult part of this experiment was going through all the mirrors. You can sometimes find old mirrors for cheap but in general theyre not free and the larger the more expensive. Regardless it went well enough aside from a cut on my thumb during clean up.
I didnt notice anything in particular from the reflections of the shards after breaking any of the mirrors. I tried this one a few times in fact just to be thorough.
I want to quickly address a few tips I've had about not trying anything from this site
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Creepypasta_Wiki
I assume the reasons being that its a fiction focused website in general.
The catch of course is that many other sites that focus on producing similar stories and testimony like
http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/
Which has been suggested to me several times as well.
On /nosleep/ you can read the following
"Remember, treat everything like a true recount of events while you're here. Everything is true here, even if it's not."
While the creepypasta wiki doesnt have that some note as far as I know they both produce similar tales often enough and they both allow for submissions from outside sources to the degree that almost anyone from anywhere can submit. So while there is no guide line or restriction keeping out people having fun making up stories they think are 2spooky it also means that anyone who might just want to share a genuine testimony from a terrified friend could end up posting there.
Basically, the question I have to ask is - Is it possible that something well worth experimenting into could be posted on any site that allows for or even typically focuses on 'creepypasta'. The answer is yes...since the only requirements for a story becoming creepypasta is that it quality as creepy and get popular enough that people retell it often.
 |
| ...and then a skeleton popped out! and he was on a skeleton horse too!!! Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. |
That description, 'creepy and popular' could literally fit excerpts from grimoires and other occult texts from well known authors. So I cant discredit anything known as creepypasta simply on the grounds that its known as creepypasta or posted on a site known for creepypasta.
I know this results in me trying lots of experiments that some people consider a waste of time but believe it or not they get suggested quite often, no doubt because of the fact that to become creepypasta in the first place they have to be somewhat popular.
Moving on I want to talk about the scientific method. I want you to stop reading here if youre not into walls of text because thats what follows. Go ahead and play some DOTA2 or CS:GO maybe, watch a movie, do some strength training, go for a run, whatever youre into but DO NOT keep reading unless youre into walls of text.
Now just to be clear on how I define science please read below.
"Science (from Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge"[1]) is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.[2][3] In an older and closely related meaning, "science" also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied. A practitioner of science is known as a scientist."
Thats taken directly from wikipedia, obviously.
I want to stress this definition for science in general because there are people who quite literally still claim to "believe in science" and "not the paranormal".
Now just quickly I also want to define paranormal.
"Paranormal is a general term (coined c. 1915–1920[1][2]) that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation"[3] or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure."
So what we have here is a clear distinction that yes the paranormal is outside the range of current scientific explanation. Now, at one time so were many other amazing things we have come to understand about our natural world and the universe. As we continue to learn we can understand things that might at one time only be described as "spooky action at a distaince".
But the important part to note is that science is a system to build and organize knowledge as well as a body of knowledge.
That doesnt mean science cant be applied to some random race of blue aliens light years away from us in the universe. It simply means we havent been able to try any experiments on these creatures, we have never observed them or recorded any information about them.
They arent beyond science they simply havent been thoroughly studied yet.
Much like discovering a new species of animal the animal was there all along. Its mating habits were there all along. Its typical diet consisted of the same things all along. We simply observed and recorded that information. There are things to invent and discover still but as we refine theories based on new observations the universe has remained the same, its only our understanding of it that has changed.
Unless you make the argument that for some reason certain things can never be understood then what we consider paranormal today is tomorrows science textbook. In fact, all scientific knowledge of all things already exists. We simply dont have all of it observed and recorded yet.
Whether its a textbook discussing studies on ideomotor effect or demons communicating through automatic writing doesnt matter, what matters is learning as much as possible.
Now heres another piece from the wikipedia entry for scientific method.
"The overall process involves making conjectures (hypotheses), deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions to determine whether the original conjecture was correct.[16] There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method, however. Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps, they are better considered as general principles.[17] Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry (or to the same degree), and not always in the same order. As noted by William Whewell (1794–1866), "invention, sagacity, [and] genius"[18] are required at every step:"
Now to relate this to the experiments on the channel we have the question and hypothesis.
In our case its almost always similar. We hypothesize that the experiment will result in paranormal phenomena in some way. It differs at times from moving an object to communicating through a dream or causing bodily harm but its always the result of a phenomena that is in some way paranormal by the definition that the result will somehow contradict the current standards of knowledge we use in physics or biology by causing something to happen in a way that disagrees with those models of knowledge.
Thats a very broad hypotheses but its applied to a very broad range of experiments 1 at a time.
More specifically you could call that the question as in "What would happen if I...." and that might be repeat an incantation in front of a mirror before shattering it or try offering my own blood to an entity I've never seen before while willing that entity to interact with me, etc.
The hypothesis itself might be...the planchette will move, the mirror will break without me touching it, an image will appear, I'll hear a voice in my head describing a future event, etc.
You get the idea. From here testing and analysing the experiment is a matter of actually trying it and then me reviewing the video recording later.
As for the part I believe to me the most important in regards to paranormal research - peer review, that of course comes last when you get the chance to view the recorded experiments on the channel.
I dont think what I do disagrees with the scientific method but I did get a comment about it so I wanted to address that.
"The goal of a scientific inquiry is to obtain knowledge in the form of testable explanations that can predict the results of future experiments."
I believe thats what I'm doing and I'm certain that most of my experiments recorded have included the instructions well enough that anyone could peer review my efforts. I really could go on and on but I have to stop myself there and get other things done.
Regardless if you have any suggestions as always please let me know!
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