Quote:
Originally Posted by John Freestone  I am slightly disappointed that believers are leaving the thread (though it took ALG a couple of attempts, so maybe we'll hear from one of the others again, eh?). I had some hopes of more movement from some of them. But I'm only slightly disappointed, and after reading more about how common it is for people to believe in magic even when it is shown to be a trick, etc., I realise how few minds I'm going to really change ( true believer syndrome ). |
It is freakin' addicting, dammit. I wouldn't try to tear myself away from here because I really like to debate these sorts of things, except it takes a lot of time to respond to all this stuff.
True-believer syndrome is an expression coined by M. Lamar Keene to describe an apparent cognitive disorder characterized by believing in the reality of paranormal or supernatural events after one has been presented overwhelming evidence that the event was fraudulently staged.
There. Now I've got an apparent cognitive disorder. Except how the hell does that relate to believing in synchronicity? Who fraudulently drove that fake DeLorean down the highway to fool me into believing the concept? Where's the overwhelming evidence? I did look at a couple of the links about synchronicity -- one you put up and one that was cited in the article. They show lots of stats disputing the concept. Birthdays and all that. I was a Teaching Assistant in Statistics in college, so I'm very well versed in all this. I know probabilities, and how probability can be very tricky.
I got sucked back into this again because I went to get the mail and there in my mailbox was not one, but two, pictures of red oak leaves. On the cover of the new phone book of which two copies were delivered today. John, honestly, all I can tell you is this is experiential, and all those statistical charts and graphs about birthdays and gambling do nothing to dispel this. Even my dear skeptic Carl Sagan, in his novel Contact, went so far as to put a message of hope hidden away in the number pi, and also acknowledged that you can't
prove somebody loves someone.
From Walt Whitman:
When I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer,
where he lectured with much
applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.