Test your aura reading powers

[SFJane]

Edited February 19, 2008 by SFJane

[sheng zhen]

Being aware of how easy it is, especially for us sensitive right brained types, to become fooled by the contrivances of the mind is very important. Some schizophrenics have a tendency to religiosity and uncritical acceptance of or interpretations of paranormal or extrasensory events.

I am one of those who claim to see auras. I dont claim to be an expert, but I see the outline, density, some colors and some other things. I see a lot more if I use my inner eye, but then I have all my mind-filters distorting the image so I dont really trust it, I just use it as a reference to confirm other things. Or as guidelines to where I could focus. Not as the truth above all thruths that only I am able to see about the other person... I dont think I fool myself or anybody else with this ability.

 

Sometimes Ive seen who comes around the corner based on the feel I get from the aura, but it is not a consisent ability. So I must admit I dont think I will pass the test

 

It would be fun to take the test, but even though I fail it, I would still see my aura vision as fun to experiement with.

[Starjumper]

Randi is a ripoff. All his tests are rigged, I know this from talking with some of his assistants and analyzing his tests, and you have to sign something that says no matter what the outcome of the test that Randi gets the final say and you can't sue him for it.

 

Randi is using his scam to get millions of dollars from people, like fundamentalists Christians, who pay for his 'research'. If he ever gave his million dollars away he would be giving his game away.

 

Just think of all the well meaning people that he has ripped off. People that paid all that money to travel to and stay in new York with hopes of proving their abilities and then getting tricked.

[SFJane]

I am one of those who claim to see auras. I dont claim to be an expert, but I see the outline, density, some colors and some other things. I see a lot more if I use my inner eye, but then I have all my mind-filters distorting the image so I dont really trust it, I just use it as a reference to confirm other things. Or as guidelines to where I could focus. Not as the truth above all thruths that only I am able to see about the other person... I dont think I fool myself or anybody else with this ability.

 

Sometimes Ive seen who comes around the corner based on the feel I get from the aura, but it is not a consisent ability. So I must admit I dont think I will pass the test

 

It would be fun to take the test, but even though I fail it, I would still see my aura vision as fun to experiement with.

 

That is an awesome attitude to take sheng

 

I still see them, I can see them, feel them intensely and occasionally hear them, which makes, subjectively speaking, for an assault of sensory perceptions which combined makes me think, gee, I really got this aura thing handled.

 

Except. I failed the test, taking it as honestly as possible, imposing controls. No need to for me to apply for the challenge, knowing I would fail. Yet... I try anyway. To evolve the ability. If I am able to take the test, you folks will know about it. I believe in mental evolution and various siddhi

 

but

 

I also know that the real deal is exceptionally difficult to prove.

 

If you have powers, you should test them rigourously. Strive to make them better.

 

If you can move a key on a string without touching it. Take the key and put it in a sealed jar on the ground and move it.

 

It is not enough, for me anyway, to say, gee I have or know someone that has super power x,y,z, and then not be able to reproduce even a feeble power at all.

 

The cameras do not take suggestion readily and cameras do not have *unbelief* so they are not spilling an anti psychic aura around them to interfere with you.

 

With regards to auras. What's the point of even speaking about it, if you can't prove it? TTB aside. You tell your friends you have powers hoping they will be thralled or impressed?

 

I believe I see auras, with or without third eye meditation and after my last near death experience, I never needed to 'try' to see them. They were always on.

 

However, the tiny tiny left brain part says, well, can you diagnose someone's diseases accurately by seeing only the aura above a dividing partition or a screen?

 

With aura reading, you have a kind of cold reading going on. Namely that your visual impressions of them, conscious and unconscious, clue you and so you seem to get more 'hits' than 'misses' with regards to Dxing people by aura. You cue on on eyes, skin tone, voice, hair, posture and that is what actually adds the 'colors' to the aura, you add them yourself based roughly on your personal ROYGBIV classification.

 

If you can accurately read an aura without seeing the person, relying only on the aura, then you can start a clinic.

 

Would you bet on the health of your sick child, spouse or parent to have them aura DXd with scientific controls placed? I doubt it.

 

Have the assistant bring the patient behind the divider. Then, without having visually seen your patient, walk in and scan only their aura peeking up past the partition. Then DX them. Simple as that. Then have real testing done and see if the labs show what you see in the aura.

 

 

 

Too often people think of these things as powers, talents, gifts or abilities.

 

If you can not actually do anything with them...useful or functional..then what good are they? If they are neither 'super' or 'powerful' then why even tell people you have them unless you want a reaction from them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Randi is a ripoff. All his tests are rigged, I know this from talking with some of his assistants and analyzing his tests, and you have to sign something that says no matter what the outcome of the test that Randi gets the final say and you can't sue him for it.

 

Randi is using his scam to get millions of dollars from people, like fundamentalists Christians, who pay for his 'research'. If he ever gave his million dollars away he would be giving his game away.

 

Just think of all the well meaning people that he has ripped off. People that paid all that money to travel to and stay in new York with hopes of proving their abilities and then getting tricked.

 

 

which assistants? do you have copies of the correspondence?

 

I have heard much of what you said before. It is what everyone says when Randi tells them they are not allowed to cheat and make up the rules to favor whatever shennanigans they are using to pretend to having powers.

 

Since you can't defraud Randi by making up unscientific testing protocols, it's his fault.

 

yea right, please, I am 33, not 13. try to respect my intelligence just a little

 

I've done my own reading and researching too

 

James Randi is a good thing for the siddhi crowd. He separates the cons and the wanna be attention whores from the real deal

 

Only someone with real power is going to get that check. That ain't you, or anyone you know.

 

If you spent all those hours practicing to get the juice, why not prove it to world?

 

I use to tell my Dad that I could move small objects if I tried really hard, back when I was a teen. 15 years before I ever heard of James Randi

 

You know what my dad said? If you got powers, prove them. You will be famous. The least you can do, with precognition or micro psychokinesis is influence some numbers or channel them or ask the spirits and make yourself a millionaire via lotto, Vegas, whatever.

 

Along comes james randi and there you go, win a mil for proof.

 

 

Besides, the powers people want to test are not powerful at all.

 

Oh look, I can move a pencil on desk or a key on a string or a marble. Yea, that's a real 'super power' you got there. Tell you what, when you can rip a bridge apart and move it wherever you want, then you have powers. If you can't I am not impressed.

Edited February 19, 2008 by SFJane

[Pero]

Well, not going to read everything now (too sleepy and going back to bed) but, I wouldn't go to Randy unless you paid me 1 million FIRST. He advertises money which he doesn't have or wouldn't give even if someone with reall ability came.

[SFJane]

Well, not going to read everything now (too sleepy and going back to bed) but, I wouldn't go to Randy unless you paid me 1 million FIRST. He advertises money which he doesn't have or wouldn't give even if someone with reall ability came.

 

 

How do you know?

 

Besides, if you put up a youtube video of you standing in a junkyard crushing or flinging cars around with your mind from 100 feet away, you would get attention. Sooner or later his assistants would probably get wind of it and he would want to test you personally.

 

If you just going blow on the pages of a phonebook and call it telekinesis, then Zzzzz

 

If you can light a fire with your hand on paper from a few inches away, then you should test to see how many inches away you can do it. If you can do it from 4 inches away, then it's just a few more chi pushups until you can do it from 8 inches away, then 12, then 24, then 48, then 96. While you are at it, add more challenges, Use thicker paper. Use cardboard, use wood. How many clumps of paper can you ignite? Just one? Why not two or three all at once? How many can you ignite back to back? Just one? How about a dozen?

 

How about lighting a cigarette with your chi? If you can do paper why not a cigarette? Why not a BBQ? Why not wood?

 

Don't tell me one of the spectators is using 'unbelief' and skepticism to cancel your power, you either you have it or you don't. If one person's skepticism can overpower your power, you don't have a power, you have a delusion

 

If you can ignite paper from a distance, add more controls, Ignite something with a pane of glass in front of it. then a pane of steel, then two layers of steel

 

see. nobody really wants real power or they would take their meager and feeble powers and make them stronger and better and more obvious and more useful. They come up with a parlor trick and that is supposed to make people ohh and ahh and shell out the dough.

 

two words

 

weak sauce

Edited February 19, 2008 by SFJane

[sheng zhen]

With aura reading, you have a kind of cold reading going on. Namely that your visual impressions of them, conscious and unconscious, clue you and so you seem to get more 'hits' than 'misses' with regards to Dxing people by aura. You cue on on eyes, skin tone, voice, hair, posture and that is what actually adds the 'colors' to the aura, you add them yourself based roughly on your personal ROYGBIV classification.

Ive read somewhere, in Nature I think, that at every moment human beings radiate over 4000 different odour molecules, where 300 of these are specific to each human being.

 

My guess is that this is part of aura-reading where the brain might translate these subtle odours into light and colours. And Im shure there are thousands of other factors at play here too; IR radiation, heat radiation, eye condition, subtle body postures, etc, all giving their contribution to our overall view of the individual, and... our brains translation of it into aura-vision or energetic sensing.

 

There is also a russian scientist called Fritz Popp who has discovered a way to measure the amount of biophotons radiation from any given thing. The biophotons are said to be released in any molecular reaction throughout the whole body. Very interesting research.

 

If you can not actually do anything with them...useful or functional..then what good are they? If they are neither 'super' or 'powerful' then why even tell people you have them unless you want a reaction from them?

I never mention that I see auras to anyone unless it comes up as a topic in conversation, and unless the people I am talking to are pople that are able to discuss it maturely. But I really love this types of conversation, and I love to hear other peoples experience with it, or discussing theories about it.

 

And I experiment a lot with it in everyday life. Like choosing which fruit to buy by seeing which has the strongest aura, or watching the dynamics between people at work or in the subway, things like that. Its a lot of fun

[SFJane]

Ive read somewhere, in Nature I think, that at every moment human beings radiate over 4000 different odour molecules, where 300 of these are specific to each human being.

 

My guess is that this is part of aura-reading where the brain might translate these subtle odours into light and colours. And Im shure there are thousands of other factors at play here too; IR radiation, heat radiation, eye condition, subtle body postures, etc, all giving their contribution to our overall view of the individual, and... our brains translation of it into aura-vision or energetic sensing.

 

There is also a russian scientist called Fritz Popp who has discovered a way to measure the amount of biophotons radiation from any given thing. The biophotons are said to be released in any molecular reaction throughout the whole body. Very interesting research.

I never mention that I see auras to anyone unless it comes up as a topic in conversation, and unless the people I am talking to are pople that are able to discuss it maturely. But I really love this types of conversation, and I love to hear other peoples experience with it, or discussing theories about it.

 

And I experiment a lot with it in everyday life. Like choosing which fruit to buy by seeing which has the strongest aura, or watching the dynamics between people at work or in the subway, things like that. Its a lot of fun

 

 

Ha! That is exactly how I use it. Years ago I even picked my cat by his aura and I pick my training places by 'feel' as well.

 

You are right, IR, background heat, all that stuff effects a reading. If you get hardcore about testing it, as a control, you should minimize all that when testing it out by using same color walls, even lighting, even temp, etc.

[Wun Yuen Gong]

SFJane,

 

You are right, if you spend all this time to get the juice as you say, then people like Max, John Chang and others that claim they can levitate, light fires and what not should be proven to the world to show that all humans have a gift if they choose to practice it.

 

At the same time get the million dollars off Randy and if its against there spiritial beliefs do it and give the money to the homeless, or sick and needed!

 

WYG

[Pero]

First off, I don't think I ever said I have any special power, unless if you count getting sleepy and falling asleep when I shouldn't and not being able to sleep when I should.

 

How do you know?

 

A small hunch when I first hear of him, and then I read this:

 

BEWARE PSEUDO-SKEPTICISM, THE RANDI CHALLENGE

 

This is a thread on E-sangha, and you have to be registered to view it. But here's a little from it:

 

The January 2000 issue of Dog World magazine included an article on a possible sixth sense in dogs, which discussed some of my research. In this article Randi was quoted as saying that in relation to canine ESP, "We at the JREF [James Randi Educational Foundation] have tested these claims. They fail." No details were given of these tests.

 

I emailed James Randi to ask for details of this JREF research. He did not reply. He ignored a second request for information too.

 

I then asked members of the JREF Scientific Advisory Board to help me find out more about this claim. They did indeed help by advising Randi to reply. In an email sent on Februaury 6, 2000 he told me that the tests he referred to were not done at the JREF, but took place "years ago" and were "informal". They involved two dogs belonging to a friend of his that he observed over a two-week period. All records had been lost. He wrote: "I overstated my case for doubting the reality of dog ESP based on the small amount of data I obtained. It was rash and improper of me to do so."

 

Randi also claimed to have debunked one of my experiments with the dog Jaytee, a part of which was shown on television. Jaytee went to the window to wait for his owner when she set off to come home, but did not do so before she set off. In Dog World, Randi stated: "Viewing the entire tape, we see that the dog responded to every car that drove by, and to every person who walked by." This is simply not true, and Randi now admits that he has never seen the tape.

 

How does this all translate to the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge?

The prize isn't cash. The prize is bonds that are WORTH a million dollars. So, there are a lot of Bob's Baker people running around with the money, and they all gave Randi an IOU. And all these IOU's total to a million dollars.

Since the prize money is in the form of bonds, then it is possible that the bonds are worthless. For example, maybe a lot of the bonds are from corporations that are on the verge of going bankrupt? Or maybe the corporations don't have to pay off the bonds for another 40 years? In our example, Bob had to pay everything back in 24 months... this is called the "maturity" of the bond. Some bonds don't mature for a few years, others don't mature for a few decades. If Randi awards the prize of a bond that doesn't mature for 40 years, then legally I do have a million dollars... but I can't USE the million dollars until the bonds mature! As you can see, there are a lot of different scenarios where the bonds could be LEGALLY worth a million dollars, but in reality they could be worthless.

 

Does the Challenge have worthless bonds?

The next logical step is to find out what the bonds are really worth. To do that, I e-mailed Randi at the address he provided on his website. I politely pointed out where it said the prize was in bonds in the Challenge rules, and then I asked what corporations issued the bonds, what the interest rates were, and when the maturity dates are. These are the main factors at determining if the bonds are worthless or not.

Randi replied with, "Apply, or go away."

I explained to him that I wanted clarification on what he was offering. That this had nothing to do with my claim, but they were questions aimed at getting more information about the Challenge.

Randi replied with, "Immediately convertible into money. That's all I'm going to get involved in. Apply, or disappear."

Obviously that doesn't answer my question at all. Immediately convertible into how much money? Convertible through who?

 

Enter Kramer

I e-mailed Randi again, asking for clarification. I didn't mean to be annoying, but they weren't answering the question. Why would I apply if the bonds were worthless? The Challenge rules state that I am responsible for all costs incurred in the pursuit of the prize money... so it's quite possible that I could jump through all the hoops, spend my own money, and only have a pile of worthless bonds to show for it.

Randi passed me off to Kramer. Kramer's job is to handle all paranormal claims. Kramer introduced himself in an e-mail, "Randi has directed me to correspond with you directly regarding your inquiries into the JREF Challenge. [...] I handle all Challenge-related activities, so write to me here if you have more questions."

Ok, fair enough. So, I politely explained my situation to Kramer, and asked the same questions again. Kramer replied with, "So far, you're just full of ********. That's OUR perspective. Apply or go away. We don't have to prove anything to you. If you really have a claim, you'll apply."

Wow.

 

As a professional magician and mentalist, I have known James Randal Zwinge (Randi) for more than 30 years. I could tell you stories that would curl your hair, but it would be neither nice nor productive.

 

Anyway, the challenge is a publicity stunt and has very little scientific value as it proves nothing. It's Randi's shtick, something he came up with to salvage a failing career back in the 1970's and found his niche. It worked for him very well as he possesses an aggressive, combative and witty personality and loves a fight. He has also been reputed to misrepresent the facts on a number of occasions and repeat anecdotes in ways that other witnesses remember differently. Due to the secretive nature of magical techniques, it's not possible for the general public to recognize the level of expertise a person actually possesses, so many of Randi's early debunkings were a bit embarrassing.

 

I used to ask dis-believers if Randi awarded the prize to someone if it would change their dis-belief. of course it wouldn't, because the challenge doesn't meet the scientific requirements of parsimony or repeatability. Yet dis-believers still love to bring it up as a sort of negative argument against Psi research. The ones who were honest with me said they would think that either Randi was slipping or that he was in cahoots with the prize winner if the prize was awarded.

 

One thing I can honestly say about him: he is a consummate showman and has built a large following. Some of the most heated arguments I've ever seen among magicians center around Randi vs Anti-Randi camps. As for me, I learned long ago to stay out of it. My point is, however, that Randi's challenge, and the JREF, have little to do with genuine psychical research, which still continues and still -- despite claims to the contrary -- produce surprising and interesting results.

[forestofsouls]

Don't forget the Kolodzey issue. They used to have a scan of the letter online, but you can get the scoop here.