A scientist worth the name may feel FULLY
justified in rejecting dowsing after a test like this (one of several similar
ones), conducted by scientists *sympathetic* to dowsing, and involving only
*reputable* dowsers.
*What* else may astrology be if not
predictive? Retrodictive? That would be even worse.
You may have heard of the Nature astrology
study in which top astrological experts were not even able to match their own
horoscopes with their own character descriptions, let alone performing more
impressive feats. If you're impressed by Gaquelin's planet/career correlations,
maybe you've heard of the more recent lame attempt, in which Gaquelin's
participated, to confirm his alleged "Mars favours sportsmen" effect. It
didn't yield a positive result for a random sample of 1000 sports champions
until he did some post-experiment manipulation of the data.
I'm sure Esalen Institute (I wish I were
in California now!) is a wonderful spot, with hot springs, gardens,
massages, meditation courses and, I suppose, some LSD psychotherapy still going
on. But it's also the last place on earth from which I would expect properly
controlled research. It isn't a scientific establishment but an "alternative
education centre". I am sure they think positive, act positive, and accept only
100% positive results :)
Piotr
PS -- to all
I'm sorry to bother members of this
linguistic forum with apparently OT digressions, but problems of scientific
discipline versus free-ranging imagination recur in linguistics too. I'm
shutting up now and if Stefan wants to continue this thread off-line, he's
welcome.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 8:36 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: *dan-
... This is a perennial problem with scientists
who tend to get very
lost when they start confusing von Danniken's fantasies
with the
research going on in places like the Esalen Institute and many
other
scientific establishment.
... Predictive astrology and run-of-the-mill paranormal skills are for
TV shows. This is not what I was talking about and this is not a list
to explore these subjects.
... Come off it, Piotr! :-) A scientists should never pass such
a
judgment without first studying the subject, reading *serious*
papers
about geomagnetic lines, studying feng shui and geomancy,
talking to dowsing
scientists and then -and only then - giving your
verdict whether it works or
not.