Edgar Mitchell on the unexplained

[Ivan Seeking]

The sixth man to walk on the moon spoke about his experience with unexplainable phenomena Thursday to a skeptical audience of about 100 scientists.

Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut on Apollo 14, talked of the experiences that led him to research the unexplainable at the 24th annual meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration at the Best Western Gateway Grand Hotel in Gainesville.

"It isn't science, but personal experience, that stimulates you to do good science," he said. [continued]

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050520/LOCAL/205200322/1078/news

 

[zoobyshoe]

He says a friend "teleported" some lost tie pins to him. Mitchel ought to get the friend to do that in a lab while being videotaped, etc. I think, though, the friend would decline the invitation.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yep, that's a strange one alright.

 

[stoned]

he is propably still on government mission to get people hooked on some nonsense, so people don't see this mess we live in.
just my theory

 

[Chronos]

Mitchell is a hard study. He obviously has credentials. You don't get selected for a moon mission if you can't jump through the training hoops. But something happened to him. Maybe he got hit by a stray mind control beam while on the moon. He turned into a head case after leaving NASA. He was a Uri Geller apostle for a long time - how weird is that?

 

[zoobyshoe]

He was a Uri Geller apostle for a long time - how weird is that?

That pretty much diagnoses Mitchell as highly gullible.

As far as I know Nasa does a fair amount of psychological testing on potential astronauts. The point of that testing would be to make sure the person isn't going to break down easily under stress and become desperate and sloppy as a first resort. As long as a person can stay calm and do what mission control tells them to do next, they could pass this kind of test, even if, inside, they're praying to the ascended masters of the holy church of the weird, purple jellyfish.

 

[zoobyshoe]

he is propably still on government mission to get people hooked on some nonsense, so people don't see this mess we live in.
just my theory

My first question when I read something like this is to wonder what suggested this idea to you. What is it you have in mind that suggests the government would mount a deliberate effort of that kind? I can't think of any such plan that had ever come to light.

 

[zoobyshoe]

The article says:

"He founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to sponser the study of unconventional scientific models, such as intuition and feeling..."

noetic means: of, relating to, or based on the intellect

So, substituting:

"He founded the Institute of Intellectual Sciences to sponser the study of unconventional scientific models, such as intuition and feeling..."

First off, "intuition and feeling" aren't unconventional scientific models, they are unconventional scientific methods. Secondly, he has misnamed his intsitute based on what he says their focus is. He should have called it "The Institute of Intuitional Sciences." The purpose of which would be "to sponser the study of unconventional scientific methods, such as intuition and feeling..."

Or, did the reporter garble it in translating his words into the story?

 

[Dayle Record]

Intuition and feeling are very important to the scientific process. These two items are messengers from the information gathering process, that communicate with the information gatherer, by non verbal means. The presence of intuition and feeling indicate that the human computer is still sorting data, and is not ready to provide hard data or judgement; but is still processing important information. Intuition and feeling usually call the Scientist to look more closely at one aspect or another of the problem, in order to access information that is not stored in the brain area of the immediate inquiry. Sometimes this is because the information comes from a different time frame, or information set, or entire other discipline, or from personal history or experience. Intuition and feeling are very important search engines for lack of a better term.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I agree, Dayle Record. There are many stories in the history of science that show intuition can play an important part in discovery and understanding.

 

[stoned]

He is a man with authority and scientific knowledge, so apparently to many he must be telling the truth. That is manipulation of masses best example.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It seems that one of the following is true in many such cases:

1). He is lying

2). He believes what he says albeit a misguided belief. Perhaps some coincidence fooled him into accepting exotic explanations for what he experienced.

3). He was tricked

4). Something very strange happened that may or may not be what he believes happened.

The thing is, IMO, if a person truly believes that he or she has witnessed or experienced the inexplicable, then one may be less guarded, or more gullible if you like, in the future. There is certainly a slippery slope issue here. And no doubt, if he is being completely truthful then he was strongly affected by his experience in space. He states explicitly that the trip back from the moon changed him forever; that he had some sort of life changing "transcendental" experience.

 

[PIT2]

This is what he experienced (it is written in the book 'The Field'):

It was then, while staring out of the window, that Ed experienced the strangest feeling he would ever have: a feeling of connectedness, as if all the planets and all the people of all time were attached by some invisible web. He could hardly breathe from the majesty of the moment. Although he continued to turn knobs and press buttons, he felt distanced from his body, as though someone else were doing the navigating.

There seemed to be an enormous force field here, connecting all people, their intentions and thoughts, and every animate and inanimate form of matter for all time. Anything he did or thought would influence the rest of the cosmos, and every occurrance in the cosmos would have a similare effect on him. Time was just an artificial construct. Everything he'd been taught about the universe and seperateness of people and things felt wrong. There were no accidents or individual intentions. The natural intelligence that had gone on for billions of years, that had forged the very molecules of his being, was also responsible for his own present journey. This wasn't something he was simply comprehending in his mind, but an overwhelmingly visceral feeling, as though he were physically extending out of the window to the very furthest reaches of the cosmos.

He hadnt seen the face of God. It didnt feel like a standard religious experience so much as a blinding epiphany of meaning - what the Eastern religions often term an 'ecstacy of unity'. It was as though in a single instant Ed Mitchell had discovered and felt the force.

...

But after what happened to him earlier, it hardly seemed necessary anymore; he now had his own inner conviction that it was true. Human minds were connected to each other, just as they were connected to everything else in this world and every other world. The intuitive in him accepted that, but for the scientist it wasnt enough. For the next 25 years hed be looking to science to explain to him what on Earth it was that had happened to him out there.

 

[zoobyshoe]

The thing is, IMO, if a person truly believes that he or she has witnessed or experienced the inexplicable, then one may be less guarded, or more gullible if you like, in the future.

I agree with this.

My objection to what he's doing is that he seems to have founded this "Noetic Intitute" upon some very muddy thinking. I wouldn't point him out to anyone as an example of scientific rigor.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Could you be more specific?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Could you be more specific?

"It isn't science, but personal experience, that stimulates you to do good science."

Muddy thinking.

 

[Overdose]

I really can't see what the fuss is about, if he wants to understand the universe around him via methods outside of science goodluck to him.