Obvious missing diagnosis?

Post Reply New Topic

I disagree actually, I don't think people can really choose what they believe in.

I second that motion DD. Once upon a time I tried in earnest to believe in a religious teaching, but found I wasn't capable of self delusion on that magnitude.

Does make you wonder though, since some folk seem to think belief is a choice, are some people actually capable of forcing themselves to believe something they otherwise wouldn't?

That might explain some things...

If people are sufficiently stressed they can believe in something that defies reason. When people are calm, they usually will not be able to accept anything that produces a contradiction in their thinking. No one can believe anything that contradicts something they know by their own experience to be true. Can you force yourself to believe that water will run uphill without a pump pushing it?

ruveyn

I can imagine a number of scenarios where this "could" happen. All impractical...

But I think that I get your point.

So, the question is, how does someone first get talked into believing that water normally runs uphill in the first place?

There are probably places also on Earth surfaces where water runs uphill. Certainly in many ice caves in transition.

I tried to get water to behave enough to grow ice sculptures when I discovered that still hot recently distilled water would grow geometric spikes upwards, which I assumed was somewhat patterned from the vibrations of the freezer compressor. So, I tried to use ultra-sonic sound waves to more pattern the growth much like a hologram using recorded sound waves reflected from the object I wished to reproduce in the ice growth.

While the reproductions were very mediocre, the water during, and briefly after, the melting of the sculpture, behaved in very unexpected ways, with no particular respect for "downhill", until returning to "normal water". None of the explanations in a shallow & short review of water literature seems to justify much of the phenomenon, so I wonder if, with good marketing, there is any sales potential for new "and improved" spiritually possessed vitamin-O magic water products/kits??? (With extensive research, always, somebody else has already done it somewhere at sometime).

Tadzio

P.S. Many artisian wells still seem miraculous too, esp. if you're very thirsty on a hot desert plain.

Can nobody appreciate the meaning of the words, "clinically significant?"

The test is not whether someone believes in something that is patently untrue, but rather whether that belief has such an impact on their ability to live and function that it merits medical intervention.

There are, of course, people who suffer from crippling delusions related to their religious faith--but these are no different than people who suffer crippling delusions of any other sort--such as the belief that tax cuts for the rich will create jobs or that unions invariably act in the best interests of their members.