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Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#61

Post by Bootvis »

nixy wrote: post #9
lutusp wrote: post #6

A quote: "There seems to be a simple way to instantly increase a person’s level of general knowledge. Psychologists ..." Ahh. Psychologists. Expectations calibrated. "Expecting to know the answers made people more likely to get the answers right." Ah, yes -- that conclusion should be easy to rigorously quantify, explain in neuroscientific terms, turn into a general theory, and replicate before anyone assumes we're do…

> "Expecting to know the answers made people more likely to get the answers right." Well, yes, if someone expects you to know the answer it seems pretty straight forward that you would be more inclined to make a guess rather than saying "I don't know." All of us who ever watched a quiz show on TV know that people who guess an answer instead of passing will sometimes get it right. More often than people who pass, actu…

It at least explains why I'm so smart ;)

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#62

Post by pasquinelli »

cLeEOGPw wrote: post #46
sheri wrote: post #21

In my Psych course in college we were told on how playing on gender roles can affect performance. Boys and girls were given a math test. On average they performed equally. However when they were given the test and told that the test was also to evaluate how girls do as compared to boys the results were interesting. Girls did worse then average on being told this and boys did better than average. This article seems to…

Boys were more motivated by competition, and girls were stressed by expectations that boys will be better. Regarding the original article, people who were told the answer got flashed might simply doubted their intuition less.

i think the girls did worse because they "know" that, in general, girls do worse in math than boys. boys did better because they "know" that, in general, boys do better in math than girls. apparently they were both wrong.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#63

Post by devindotcom »

300bps wrote: post #45

In many cases, thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. I've noticed this is true in ever facet of my life. When I was 14, I memorized pi to 50 digits with almost no effort. Later, I memorized it to 100, then 200. I realized at that point that I could memorize anything that I wanted to. I memorize phone numbers, credit card numbers, everything with almost no effort and not using any mnemonic device.…

I'm happy you have this ability, but suggesting that everyone else just isn't living up to their potential because of some mental block that you have supposedly (and accidentally) overcome is, perhaps, limiting your compassion. You are very lucky to have an exceptional memory; others are not so lucky, and must work hard to do what costs you no effort. Supposing they just aren't trying hard enough or are succumbing to some crippling lack of self-faith is belittling and people will rightfully resent it.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#64

Post by [deleted] »

300bps wrote: post #45

In many cases, thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. I've noticed this is true in ever facet of my life. When I was 14, I memorized pi to 50 digits with almost no effort. Later, I memorized it to 100, then 200. I realized at that point that I could memorize anything that I wanted to. I memorize phone numbers, credit card numbers, everything with almost no effort and not using any mnemonic device.…

[deleted]

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#65

Post by lutusp »

randallsquared wrote: post #54
lutusp wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not sure I follow. The mind is not -- cannot be -- a source of empirical evidence. Science requires empirical evidence. > The hypothesis is testable as shown by the research. What research is that? Which scientific theory did the research either shape, or test, or potentially falsify? > I'm not sure why you are saying it is unscientific. The article describes, it doesn't explain. Science requires explanations,…

> The mind is not -- cannot be -- a source of empirical evidence. Science requires empirical evidence. Since that's clearly not true of the brain's behavior, you seem to be making a claim that the mind is supernatural. Is that your position?

>> The mind is not -- cannot be -- a source of empirical evidence. Science requires empirical evidence.

> Since that's clearly not true of the brain's behavior, you seem to be making a claim that the mind is supernatural.

No, only that the mind is not a legitimate source of empirical evidence (a negative assertion). Consider the areas that science doesn't (cannot) cover, and notice what they have in common -- usually, the inability to gather empirical evidence on whose meaning similarly equipped observers can agree.

For me to say that the mind cannot produce empirical evidence is uncontroversial -- it's certainly true. For me to claim that the mind is a supernatural entity, I would need to produce evidence for that conclusion. But I can't, so that assumption is itself unscientific.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#66

Post by 300bps »

devindotcom wrote: post #63
300bps wrote: post #45

In many cases, thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. I've noticed this is true in ever facet of my life. When I was 14, I memorized pi to 50 digits with almost no effort. Later, I memorized it to 100, then 200. I realized at that point that I could memorize anything that I wanted to. I memorize phone numbers, credit card numbers, everything with almost no effort and not using any mnemonic device.…

I'm happy you have this ability, but suggesting that everyone else just isn't living up to their potential because of some mental block that you have supposedly (and accidentally) overcome is, perhaps, limiting your compassion. You are very lucky to have an exceptional memory; others are not so lucky, and must work hard to do what costs you no effort. Supposing they just aren't trying hard enough or are succumbing to…

I'm not sure if you read my comment before becoming offended by it.

Your response makes it all about me, but I specifically mentioned other people being surprised by their own memorization capabilities after I asked them to consider that maybe they're more capable of memorizing numbers than they believed.

Your comment also says that I memorize through "no effort" when I stated, "almost no effort" which is > "no effort". When I originally memorized pi to 50 digits it took about 15 minutes which is what I could consider "almost no effort" but that's more than 15 seconds which is what I would consider "no effort".

And I'm sorry my comment made you resentful. Hopefully you don't resent other people telling you how with little effort they were able to increase their vertical jump or learn how to play the guitar.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#67

Post by driverdan »

jwr wrote: post #38
tokenadult wrote: post #15

I'm glad lutusp has already jumped in here to decry the shoddy quality of "science" relied on to build the opinion piece kindly submitted here. He is correct that psychology often relies on data unrepresentative of humankind as a whole, http://hci.ucsd.edu/102b/readings/WeirdestPeople.pdf often engages in dodgy data manipulation after gathering the data, http://opim.wharton.upenn.edu/~uws/ and is usually part of a la…

While I would agree that "the placebo response has no clinical application", I would not discount it so easily. Modern medicine tries to sweep all kinds of things under the "placebo effect" rug. In general, whenever something happens to the human body that we cannot explain by chemistry and mechanics, we call it a "placebo effect". This view of medicine treats the human as two separate entities: the body and the mind…

> In general, whenever something happens to the human body that we cannot explain by chemistry and mechanics, we call it a "placebo effect".

If by "we" you mean you, sure. If you mean scientists I call bullshit. You're going to need a good citation to make that claim.

> having spent 8 years trying to cure joint pains, I finally got rid of them just by thinking

Not surprising. Pain is the one thing you expect to be able to change by "thinking." Pain is perception and placebos (and thinking) change perception.

> Oh, and the throat infections and allergies? Gone, too.

Now we're going down anecdote road. You do realize that allergies change as you age right? My anecdotes: until I was in my late teens / early 20's I didn't have allergies. Then suddenly one year I had them badly. Years later they went away again. My dad never had allergies until they came on strong in his 50's.

Similarly infections come and go.

> And I learned that doctors really hate saying "I don't know".

Good doctors don't. The problem is that the medical profession is full of egos. Egos don't go well with admitting you don't know or are wrong.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#68

Post by loceng »

vidarh wrote: post #26
loceng wrote: post #12

This is all about releasing the blocking mechanism that exists. I feel people like Eckhart Tolle have somehow mastered this, at least in the realm of the scope of abilities they are most comfortable being confined in.

Eckhart Tolle is pretty much repackaging meditation practises with a huge dose of new age nonsense. As such, there are certainly the odd kernel of useful stuff in there, but I'd recommend a decent introduction to meditation over Tolle any day.

I've not read any books of his, though I've yet to see in video him say anything that was non-sensical. What are you referring to?

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#69

Post by 300bps »

[deleted] wrote: post #64
300bps wrote: post #45

In many cases, thinking that we are limited is itself a limiting factor. I've noticed this is true in ever facet of my life. When I was 14, I memorized pi to 50 digits with almost no effort. Later, I memorized it to 100, then 200. I realized at that point that I could memorize anything that I wanted to. I memorize phone numbers, credit card numbers, everything with almost no effort and not using any mnemonic device.…

[deleted]

You're right. And if I made a comment about how well I learned to clap through almost no effort I suppose I'd have one-armed people writing comments to complain.

If you have a mental handicap, my comment was not directed toward you and I hope you took no offense.

Re: Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities Beyond Normal Limits

#70

Post by [deleted] »

300bps wrote: post #66
devindotcom wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy you have this ability, but suggesting that everyone else just isn't living up to their potential because of some mental block that you have supposedly (and accidentally) overcome is, perhaps, limiting your compassion. You are very lucky to have an exceptional memory; others are not so lucky, and must work hard to do what costs you no effort. Supposing they just aren't trying hard enough or are succumbing to…

I'm not sure if you read my comment before becoming offended by it. Your response makes it all about me, but I specifically mentioned other people being surprised by their own memorization capabilities after I asked them to consider that maybe they're more capable of memorizing numbers than they believed. Your comment also says that I memorize through "no effort" when I stated, "almost no effort" which is > "no effor…

[deleted]
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