h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hate to put a damper on things but it has been proven that if you stimulate a certain site in the brain you can see UFOs. lack of sleep and drugs can cause the same effect. This is not to say that all sightings are not real or that other life doesn't exist but it may explain some of the sightings that are a bit unbelievable.I suggest you read some of the stuff put out by the skeptics society.(I may not have spelt that right!) It makes for interesting reading if nothing else.
I like to see both sides of an arguement...it gives food for thought.

Hiya Tab.!

For more details on that theory, scour a good search engine for the work of Doctor Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Canada. Also try searching for "Doctor Persinger's God Machine"...

Hiya peet
how are you? I'll do that . I love this stuff!

Doing well, Tab., yourself?

I researched the "brain stimulation" stuff for a couple of articles on my own website (remember, the paranormal organisation based in the UK...? ) - I found it quite fascinating, but haven't got around to building one of those machines for myself yet. Apparently, it just needs a weak but focused 8Hz stimulation to the temporal lobe to make you start to hallucinate a "presence" in the room with you, and depending on your sensitivity the results can be enything from a simple sense of "not being alone", through a "light in the corner of your vision", to an abduction or religous experience, with a small possibility of a full-blown epileptic fit if you're extremely unfortunate. That's probably why they don't sell it in toy shops, then...

Hi Peet
I took part in an experiment in which sound bounced off the walls in old buildings made you see things. I think it was to try and explain ghosts you see out of the corner of your eye.Obviuosly you can't hear the sound it is set at a pitch you only pick up subconsciously.I did see something out of the corner of my eye ...I was quiet startled as i am not person who sees things normally. (if you see what I mean). very spooky and shows how the brain can be fooled.

To accurately apply Occam's Razor you have to start with a tenable hypothesis that has a modicum of scientific experiment confirming it, Occam's Razor is a device for paring down what is already known to the bare essentials and is not useful in ambiguous circumstances.
Supposing for a moment, though, that speciation exists on other planets, we could reasonably assume to find rudimentary similarities in life forms, such as cells (assuming these alien life forms had cells) whether they are simple or complex, unicellular or multicellular. Thus we can estimate by this model that 78% of the life in the Universe is similar to prokaryotic bacteria, 19% similar to protists, 1% similar to non-cephalized multicellular organisms, .8% composed of cephalized multicellular organisms, and approximately 2 hundredths of a percent that those creatures would be intelligent. This would have to be applied individually to each planet.
Second, not all solar systems contain planets and we as yet do not have a clear estimate of the percentage that do, in this regard we must operate in the dark.
Third, is the concern of whether the planets that do exist may support life.
Fourth, whether there could be any identification of extra-terrestrial organisms as such if they were not based on our own recognized species.
The other piece that confounds attempts to 'prove' the presence of intelligent life is the fact that intelligence is a survival trait, and one out of the many millions, perhaps even billions that have been developed over time. However, before we continue with our by-the-bootstrap up-from-the-muck self congratulation on the point of intelligence: it has not been very successful, at least not at the level which modern humans practice it. Other cephalized ancestors, many different species of them no longer exist because of a failure in existing traits. This diminishes the chances that we will find 'intelligent' life.
Add to this the relatively large, though not infinite, size of the Universe. And the fact that speciation is inherently divergent. And the chances of interacting with an alien life form are very slim indeed, perhaps even infinitesimal.
The other part of the problem is cultural, would an intelligent organism want to leave its planet of origin? To us the answer is obvious, haven't we all been yearning towards that Star-Trek like utopia in the near future.
I'd like to finish, though, with a point made by the biophysicist JJ Merrick, since the vast majority of organisms are bacteria like, the chances of extra terrestrial contact are much more likely to be with that of an alien microbe than a multicellular alien.

So they call it the god machine? a bit blasphemous isn't it? Anyway, I think the sound-bouncing can be done with 9Hz standing waves. I'd like to try and make an actuall ghost house once, with all these effects mentioned. I'd guess if you looked into the architecture of old buildings you'll probably find that many of them have rooms where you under certain conditions can get 9Hz waves.

Jannen: You had some good points there. But about the intelligence, don't you think that might arise because it is an unused niche instead? Of course far from in all cases, but perhaps if a planet with life is given enough time. But I think what you showed is that there are a few technological lifeforms out there, but they are so far away and that's why we haven't been contacted yet. Of course just finding stupid alien life would also be incredible.

Xantic, Persinger didn't call it the "God machine" - the press did! For a while hos labs were picketed by fundamentalist Christians because they said his research was devaluing "real" religous experiences...

Persinger himself is diplomatic on that point - he says that the fact he can create a convincing religous experience in the laboratory doesn't mean that those experiences outside the lab are any less "real". He also, however, suggests that the presence of a structure in the brain apparently dedicated to the production of "religous extacies" suggests that the religous impulse is an inbuilt part of our nature, possibly evolved as a form of social control mechanism in the same way as, for example, a dog's pack instinct, in that it can motivate the individual to disregard their own personal comfort and safety in favour of the larger group. Interesting...

(Im much of the discussions around this, the experience of religous extacies such as seeing the Virgin Mary bathed in light is taken as interchangeable with "alien encounters", as the same experimental procedure can generate either effect depending on the preconceptions of the subject...)

hos = his
Im = In

Of course, applying Occam's Razor to the whole Abduction experience leads us to the possibility that the abductions are actually happening. It is by far the simplest explanation.

I am interested in finding out whether the laboratory produced religious/abduction experiences can be replicated reliably outside the lab. How often do those frequency waves occur in nature and how often in the modern household? If they are not naturally occurring, how does this help to explain abduction type experiences that pre-exist the modern domestic kerfuffle of technology?

I also rather like the "duck out" clause that the human mind is naturally pre-disposed to visions of this nature and that religious experiences are a form of social control.

If such a mechanism exists in the brain, might it not be a creator designed circuit allowing him to talk to us? Might this be proof of the existence of God?

Just a few thoughts of a Fortean nature, to further stir the debate.

It's true that it could be real religious experience happen. God just does it by giving 8Hz to a guys brain like in the machine. But Occams Razor says otherwise.

But does this really seem like something that was developed specifically? Doesn't it seems more like a malfunctioning of the brain?

Gradient,
I've always leaned towards the idea that, while everyone has the mechanism to create such experiences, some people are more easily triggered than others...

Electrical and magnetic anomalies abound in nature, and it may be that places where there are large numbers of alien/religous experiences are places where this form of anomaly are also common.

Also, the people with the strongest "abduction experiences" claim that they happen to them repeatedly... This could simply be a sign that the mechanism in their brain is on a "hair trigger", and thus triggered far more easily than anyone else.

I would rather win the lottery. But if there is no other life out there "It would be an awful waste of space"