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Hello Everyone


Life_Model_Decoy

Paranormal Novice
I've been listening to the show now for about two years. I enjoy the different topics discussed both on the show and in the forums. I am very interested in stories of alien contact and alien abduction. I think the nature of the phenomenon makes it difficult to acquire reliable data and that a lot of bad science has sprouted up around the phenomenon. I have a Masters Degree in clinical behavioral psychology and that tends to give me a healthy amount of skepticism.

I look forward communicating with others with interest in UFO's in the forums.
 
Welcome to the space. I'll be interested to read your clinical interpretations if some cases, especially the ones that seem to defy rational explanations.

Out of curiosity, how neurochemical do you get in terms of the connections between sensory percreption & fear?
 
I've had two classes in biological psychology so I know that fear is linked to the amygdala, but my training is more in cognitive and behavioral psychology. I really enjoy looking at abduction research because I haven't seen any research that I feel adequately explains the phenomenon. I feel we need to continue to collect data and keep an open mind and not try to get the evidence to try to fit into our theories or preconceived notions.
 
I've been listening to the show now for about two years. I enjoy the different topics discussed both on the show and in the forums. I am very interested in stories of alien contact and alien abduction. I think the nature of the phenomenon makes it difficult to acquire reliable data and that a lot of bad science has sprouted up around the phenomenon. I have a Masters Degree in clinical behavioral psychology and that tends to give me a healthy amount of skepticism. I look forward communicating with others with interest in UFO's in the forums.
Welcome aboard! This sorry field of proto-science deserves quality thinkers and should be graced w/ insightful analysis from all scientific and philosophic disciplines. Fresh blood will help facilitate progress toward knowledge and understanding. We look forward to hearing your opinions and comments.
 
I've had two classes in biological psychology so I know that fear is linked to the amygdala, but my training is more in cognitive and behavioral psychology. I really enjoy looking at abduction research because I haven't seen any research that I feel adequately explains the phenomenon. I feel we need to continue to collect data and keep an open mind and not try to get the evidence to try to fit into our theories or preconceived notions.

I have a interest in the onset of unexplained fear where there is no apparent trigger for it...existential threats...especially the alone in the woods syndrome and how it might connection to erratic behavior (paradoxical undressing) which is commonly connected to hypothermia but I believe has also been in evidence where hypothermia may have been an unlikely factor.

Would love to hear any insight you may have.
 
You are asking a great question, sometimes fear is a very clear cut thing, you were bitten by a dog when you were a child now you have a dog phobia. Its a very clear scenario, however, we sometimes see extreme phobias to creatures or stimulus that a person has had zero contact with, or has ever seen before. I think maybe the alone in the woods syndrome might be an evolutionary trait that we maintain that reinforced people staying together and led to reinforcing cooperation. An example of this is the trait that leads babies to cry when their needs are not met. Babies who cried often had lower mortality rates so their genes were passed on, same could be true with the irrational of being alone in the woods, this fearfulness could have led those people having less mortality rates and they passed the gene on. I think there is so much we don't understand yet about the brain and how it works.
 
Welcome aboard! This sorry field of proto-science deserves quality thinkers and should be graced w/ insightful analysis from all scientific and philosophic disciplines. Fresh blood will help facilitate progress toward knowledge and understanding. We look forward to hearing your opinions and comments.
Thanks Chris I look forward to being apart of the great community you guys have put together here.
 
btw, what's a "life model decoy?" Sounds like a cool band name, or album title... :cool:
In Marvel Comics Nick Fury and other spies sent robot lookalikes into dangerous situations where they were certain to be ambushed or killed. Marvel used them as a plot device to explain how you could see characters die at the end of an issue and still be alive the following issue. A few Life Model Decoys were so advanced they believed they were the person they were meant to protect.
 
In Marvel Comics Nick Fury and other spies sent robot lookalikes into dangerous situations where they were certain to be ambushed or killed. Marvel used them as a plot device to explain how you could see characters die at the end of an issue and still be alive the following issue. A few Life Model Decoys were so advanced they believed they were the person they were meant to protect.
Ahhh sounds like several posters over the years that have come back like Vlad to re-haunt the Paracast forum before being dispatched back under the bridge—forced to review their bungled mumblings ...
 
I've been listening to the show now for about two years. I enjoy the different topics discussed both on the show and in the forums. I am very interested in stories of alien contact and alien abduction. I think the nature of the phenomenon makes it difficult to acquire reliable data and that a lot of bad science has sprouted up around the phenomenon. I have a Masters Degree in clinical behavioral psychology and that tends to give me a healthy amount of skepticism.

I look forward communicating with others with interest in UFO's in the forums.

Welcome! Glad you're here. My wife is a BCABA (board certified assistant behavioral analyst) working towards her masters with 20 plus years in special education. Though not very interested in the paranormal, she encourages my interest in the field and by proxy is often within earshot as I listen to The Paracast. Again, Welcome to the forums!!!
 
Welcome! Glad you're here. My wife is a BCABA (board certified assistant behavioral analyst) working towards her masters with 20 plus years in special education. Though not very interested in the paranormal, she encourages my interest in the field and by proxy is often within earshot as I listen to The Paracast. Again, Welcome to the forums!!!

Hey! My fiancee is a BCBA, she works in the autism field and also is not interested in the paranormal. Thanks for the welcome.
 
My fiancee is a BCBA, she works in the autism field...
This post (and others in that thread?) might spark an interest...

Skeptic, Michael Shermer.., Not As? | Page 4 | The Paracast Community Forums

Snippets:

Here is some stunning further information concerning Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell's research on telepathy in nonverbal autistic children. [...]

Dr. Powell is a practicing psychiatrist; John Hopkins trained neuroscientist, a former faculty member at Harvard Medical School, and a contributor to the Institute of Noetic Sciences. She is also the author of the book The ESP Enigma.

Dr. Powell’s interest in the area of ESP was sparked in part by one encounter with a female patient in a hospital ward who indicated she was receiving psychic information about Dr. Powell that she should hear it. What the woman said in terms of information was 98% accurate. It was a life altering event for Powell.


The research has to do with non-verbal autistic children. In her newsletter Powell described her research.

Another source of evidence might come from mute autistic children, whose caregivers frequently report that their children can read their minds. If true, that suggests telepathy might be an alternative or default means of communication for those with language impairment.

Parents of the autistic savants I evaluated in India all reported telepathic experiences, in addition to other abilities. Then, shortly after my return to the USA, I read an article about an allegedly telepathic, autistic girl named
Nandana. When possible, I hope to investigate her abilities. Her mother described her daughter's process of communication as follows: I taught her how to use the keyboard ... Now, if I ask her to write what I'm thinking, she can do it. Sometimes spelling errors happen and she still does not understand well the concepts of punctuation. If I say "space" (between words) in my mind, she types the word "space" instead of typing the "separation" between terms.

Next month I'll be filming experiments with another ten year-old autistic girl who was referred to me by my colleague Darold Treffert, the psychiatrist famous for his fifty-plus years of work on savants. Her parents were initially strong skeptics, so they were startled when they witnessed her ability to read her therapist's mind. Recognizing the profound significance this may have for our understanding of consciousness, they reached out to aid science, while requesting that their identity be hidden.

The family first thought their daughter was a mathematical savant, because she could provide answers to multiplication and division problems involving numbers over six digits, even though she couldn't do much simpler multiplication. Then her answers switched from an ordinary numerical format to an exponential one... immediately after the therapist began calculating on a device that displayed in exponential notation. This prompted the therapist to ask the girl how she knew the answer. The girl typed, "I see the numerators and denominators in your head." The therapist then tested her with pictures and sentences that were hidden from the girl's view. She was able to type accurate answers, even if the sentences were in a foreign language. These sessions were videotaped by the family and sent to me and Dr. Treffert. They are very intriguing and show 100% accuracy. Are these reports of telepathy real? Stay tuned.
A couple nights ago the results of the filmed scientific testing started to leak out. The results are absolutely staggering hinting that severely autistic children who exhibit ESP abilities may in fact be receiving a pure signal and be 100% accurate on the given targets.

The 100% accuracy has already been seen with autistic prodigious savants. Whatever their talent is they are usually 100% accurate. Therefore if you give then 2 five digit numbers to multiply together they will be accurate on the first try, or if they do calendar calculations they will be able on the first try to tell you the days of the week for any date in the past of future you can give them even though they often can’t multiply 7 x 4 or think there are 10 minutes in an hours and 10 seconds in a minute.

Were the non-verbal autistic children accurate? This is what Dr. Powell stated in an interview on June 12th,

Believe it or not but I have data that could mute the Great Randi challenge. I know that is quite a statement but I do. To meet that challenge you have to have it reviewed scientifically and they want a recommendation from some science journal. They want to see it in print somewhere.

This is fresh. I just did these experiments last month. That’s how fresh this information is… I have digit sequences that are 18 and 19 numbers long and 100% accuracy. The stats on that are incredible. I even had this one sequence where it’s 162 digits Out of 162 digits there was only 7 mistakes, and when told that is the wrong number this autistic child got it right on the second go. The stats on that are just staggering. That’s why I am saying it is well beyond the great Amazing Randi challenge.
 
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The autism field being so much in the public consciousness attacks a lot of pseudo-science and odd beliefs. When I was in graduate school we had talked about the "indigo children" theory that autistic children can read minds and see auras. My degree is in Clinical Behavioral Psychology which had a decent emphasis on behavioral interventions which is frequently used in the autism field. I haven't seen any research that would show that autistic people have any increased psychic abilities. If anyone here is familiar with facilitated communications, it is a method that would allow a "helper" to guide an autistic person use a keyboard or a pointer and communicate with others. 100% of the research shows that any communication that came from this method was from the helper not the autistic individual. When the individual was separated from the helper and they were shown different objects the person would always communicate the object the helper had seen. If the helper spoke another language, one the autistic individual hadn't been exposed to, they would suddenly be able to communicate in this language. Despite the overwhelming evidence that shows facilitated communication doesn't work there still is a community out there that teaches and embraces it. I think the reason the belief in it still endures is because the wish that parents have that their child's mind is intact and that they can now communicate their love for their parents and they can do and communicate all these things they could never do before. The lie makes them happier then the truth ever could, which is why a lot of the weird beliefs about quick cures and alternative communication techniques are so pervasive in the field.
 
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