Third Post - "The Gift" - JR

My family has a large belief in ghosts and life after death. They would be the first to tell you that they had an aunt growing up who had “The Gift”. They claim she could communicate with ghosts and sense “things”. The things my family refers to is always unclear. Depending on the story being told her predictions may be impending doom or bad weather, neither of which are ever very clear. When looking at the videos from our lectures and after reading the course material it is clear to see some of the flaws in believing in this type of thinking. She often made ambiguous claims about what would happen and people would only focus on the parts she got correct and not the parts she got wrong. There was little evidence to support she was ever communicating with anyone at all. I think a person with a sound mind may believe she was mentally ill or that she could have been diagnosed with MPD which also may not be a real disorder. Although there seems to be limited proof that MPD is an actual disorder.

One topic we have discussed in class is when people search for evidence to prove hypothesis and not disprove. My family does not talk about all of the predictions or feelings my aunt had when she was wrong. They only mention the predictions which were significant to them. Examples include receiving calls about a death in the family when my aunt claimed she had a feeling something tragic would happen. She sometimes made positive claims as well. Once she maid a claim that good fortune was on its way and shortly after one of the six brothers and sisters got a job. If they analyzed what she had been saying they may have realized that she often made ambiguous claims and never made any real predictions. These type of predictions are similar to Nostradamus but on a much smaller scale and not done with such finesse. See below for a website dedicated to Nostradamus separate from course material.  

http://www.nostradamus.org/.

With that being said my aunt had six different lives she could have been predicting for in regards to the children (my aunts and uncles) which means she had six different chances of getting the prediction correct.

When referring to her “gift” which is her ability to communicate with the dead it follows with the class readings that it is easier to believe this over the opposite. We may want to believe that there is life after death or that people can communicate with our loved ones from the past simply because the alternative may be to hard to bare. In short I have never been a firm believer in the ability to predict events such as Brian’s Dreams predictions which can be found on YouTube or in the ability to communicate with ghosts. After watching the video from class lectures about the man who could heal people in the audience and how he had an ear piece to someone who fed him information about people in the crowd it is hard to not be a skeptic about all people in those fields. After taking this course I now know how to look for factual evidence, think more critically about the subject while not taking information for face value, and understand the difference between fancy wording and substantive proof

Justin R. 

Second Post - Q-ray and other like material - JR

I used to work for a man who wore a bracelet that said it had magnets in it. He claimed that the bracelet helped his balance, took away his motion sickness, and helped his mood. I remember thinking even back then that this product was not something i was a believer in. I don’t recall him using phrases like improving positive/negative ion imbalances but after reading the course load I can imagine that is what he was alluding towards. He had bragged that it was a top of the line product and it had cost him nearly 200 dollars. After a short search through our course material I found the Q-ray bracelet which matched my bosses bracelet and then found it online. The web page also sold other material. Other material on the site include Bioelectric EMF Protection Shield, Q-Links as well as Q-Ray bracelets, and the Trion:Z. All of the products listed are meant to improve energy, stress levels, and remove negativity. All of the products are incredibly vague and have little scientific evidence as well as evidence that can not be disproved. My favorite product listed is the Trion:Z. This is one of the few product with product descriptions as well as FAQ’s regarding the product. The product uses alternating North-South polarity orientation, it works for “many years”, “you should wash it in warm/cool water”, and you can wear multiple at a time. The website does have a money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied you may return the product within 30 days of receiving the product. If you do return it the product must be in new condition, you have to pay for shipping and handling, you will be deducted a 15% re-stocking fee, and will be credited your money back as store credit. The testimonials on the web page do not report how the product has benefited anyone, they only make claim to how fast they receive the product and the customer service. There is no scientific evidence to test, there is many big words which have no real meaning, as well as no testimonials to support the product; in short the entire web page is found greatly lacking substance. 

Despite how i feel about the product after a few image searches it may be more clear to understand why the product may still be making sales. See below for the a link to multiple magnetic products meant to improve your mood and ion imbalances as well as some of the images which may sway the public's mind and why they may need to purchase Q-ray bracelets and other like product. If athletes begin to market products such as these then it may be a reason why people blindly purchase products that have a low burden of proof to possibly zero proof that the product actually does anything beneficial for you. But when million dollar athletes and icons it is no wonder why the public follows suite. The product seen in the images below is the Trion:Z and they are being worn by Rory Mcilroy and Ricky Fowler.

http://www.wellnessmarketer.com/

First Post- Elderberry- JR

 

I work as a personal trainer and I often have people tell me about holistic remedies to colds or ailments. Recently I was sick and I had a client of mine tell me if I wanted to get better I should try elderberry. She mentioned that she had heard about the product from a friend of hers and she ordered it online. She then said that I would be perfectly fine in about a day or two after trying elderberry. She had mentioned me being fine before knowing what I was sick with which made me a little skeptical. Then when searching for the product i also found the picture seen above which made me more nervous. Regardless of it not being a legit medicine I decided to look up some information on the product to humor her and here is what I have found. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center who had done studies on the product there is very limited information. There are few studies about the product and all of their own findings needed to be cross examined by others and retested. Many of their publications note that “one study found” meaning that the results have not been duplicated. As we have learned from our course reading that in order for it to be a science it needs to be tested and duplicated. The publication does boast it may remove a few days from the healing process of a flu. It also has drawbacks. There are a few side effects of the product if taking more than several days in a row. Due to the flu and other colds lasting several days I am not sure how you are meant to take this product regularly if it has side effects after a few days of use.See below for some additional information regarding elderberry from the medical center.

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/elderberry

WebMD has a posting as well regarding the product. I decided to use WebMD because, much like Wikipedia, it is a website that gets lots of traffic and is regarded as more trustworthy site than it may deserve. This site listed a few more benefits and did not post it as skeptical as the college site did. The posted it as more concrete and scientifically supported evidence. One of the major differences is that this site posted more benefits than the last, ad started to use more numbers and percents to represent its findings. Use the link below to see the information posted from webmd.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/lifestyle-guide-11/supplement-guide-elderberry

The last site I used was a holistic health site. It was dedicated to herbs which may help fight colds and other ailments. This site lists the most amount of benefits and the least amount of side-effects. They also begin to list a point of origin as well as a date which dates back 35 years. The findings I conclude is that the most scientific website was the college posting and used scientific information as their proof. The holistic site used testimonials and other publications only for their benefits and limited drawbacks. This is a product I would not stand behind. I would no compare this to the Doctrine of Signatures from class due to it being a berry plant which does not resemble anything it supposedly cures. Cross reference this website with the others to see how much the information presented changes.

http://www.herbwisdom.com/herb-elderberry.html

Justin R.

 

Carl Sagan - Demon Haunted World

            I have always been a fan of Carl Sagan, reading the first chapter I was taken in awe as he wrote about his experiences as a child, teenager, and college student. His references to his college teachings I found enlightening. Later he spoke of his ride with a cab driver and although comical at first I found it very pertinent to the course material (to the point of quoting references). Carl tore apart the driver’s beliefs of Area 51, Atlantis, Nostradamus, and Biblical Phenomena. “Scientific Illiterate” he called him.  I found myself baffled, I study and believe in all the scientific examples Sagan brought up but also have an open mind to the unknown and obscured (like the ancient alien theory ). I think general main stream science is essential and Sagan gives many significant examples of this throughout the book.  Anything that contraries his examples he labels as “Abandoning Science”. So where does this leave me I don’t feel as if I abandoned science?

            I don’t just run with the first idea that “takes my fancy”. Later in the book he writes about the 9 rules of creating a true hypothesis. It think there is a lot of truth to many of his writings, but he leaves out in my opinion one of the most important rules, open minded scrutiny. Many obscure and wild ideas will find skeptics easily; however, in my opinion you can’t be a plausible skeptic unless you can at least conceive that the idea is possible to begin with. Most of the time skeptics have a completely closed minded biases to begin with so how could they be reliable to form a judgment? Unfortunately these are usually the strongest voices against obscure and wild theories.

            Ultimately it was a good read and everything I would expect from Ol’Carl. But in the end science is not an absolute. In the 1400's science told everyone that the world is flat, then an unseen breakthrough changed science to be more accurate and perceptive. Who knows what changes are in for the science of the future? Perhaps “Esp, UFO’s, Levitation, Souls, Bermuda Triangle, and Ghosts” could become science fact someday though a scientific breakthrough instead of "Bamboozling". Sagan touches on this point lightly in the later chapters but falls short of the basis's of the standard scientific thinker.There is defiantly a median that needs to be reached with scientific ideologies and the obscure ideals.