False correlations

Physics and philosophy

It is beyond count the number of times I have sat with people who have recounted a long-winded story about a strange encounter. Then there were those that felt the presence of the ethereal wind. I don’t object to them telling the tale and getting it off their chest, conversations about the price of cat food are even more dispiriting. What got my notice was how all the other people were interested and quizzed them about all the finer details to such great lengths. It was a revelation about how people even if not entirely convinced or sucked in paid them so much attention.

A torch that emits a beam of darkness instead of a beam of light is a conjecture that stems from not having a basic grounding in physics. It is one of many great philosophical thought experiments that can be explored. Light can be cancelled out, so it is not beyond reason. However, in the same way that conspiracy theories fall flat on their face during closer inspection you need to appreciate all the factors involved in physics. To get this darkness through cancellation, it works best when the light is of the same frequency, polarised and in line. Light in your room is of many frequencies spread in all directions - not polarised and you can’t line it up with the countless scatterings abound. The message is simple; you need some understanding of science to aid many philosophical propositions. It is all too easy to get taken in by wild ideas. A proper wag would say that maybe we are looking at the problem all wrong. Instead of using light to counter and cancel, maybe the torch could emit a beam of light soaking particles. The bounds of people’s enthusiasm to go counter to anything rational have no limits.

We sure like to speculate on things that are difficult to prove one way or another. If there is a field that permeates right across the universe, a field that cannot be detected directly, it could be the key to the explaining strange things that we experience. The electricity in your head connects with sub-atomic particles which in turn use the field to transfer energy. Given that there are so many electrons moving about precipitously inside your head and everywhere in your surroundings, there would undeniably be lots of interference. Thus, this could explain why spiritualists get so much wrong.

Any mystic worth their salt would have a good grounding in body language. Mystics will jump on any reaction to what their punters say in the affirmative and gloss over everything that show signs of being at odds with someone’s expectations. Psychology is a different ball game. A good psychologist makes a case based on multiple observations. They see someone do something a few times before they make a judgement. A mystic doesn’t get to see a punter repeat a trait, so with practice they become adept at using their intuition. Sheer brazen confidence helps a mystic avoid being deemed a fraud. When someone smirks upon uncovering your resplendent profession, tell them that you know when they are going to die. It usually jolts enough to temper their efforts to lambaste you.

If you are to take one thing from any form of hocus pocus, human contact, human connections and especially time directed at you personally has therapeutic value. It doesn’t matter how others perceive it if it is helpful to you in some way.

A diver exploring a shipwreck become stuck. A heavy metal door fell on top of him. He was trapped. Thankfully, a dive buddy was on hand to help. The buddy managed to lift the door up enough for the man to be freed. It was either god being kind or an angel that was watching over them. What else could have given them the strength to overcome the incredible weight of this large object. These are solid cast iron affairs. To prove the point, the door was brought up to the surface and placed on the dive boat deck. One by one the sailors each tried to lift it. Not one of them could. Why couldn’t they lift it when it was laying on the boat deck? They have no angels willing them on. God no longer sees the emergency. There is no pressure to save someone’s life. We need to be in that situation to summon the strength perhaps. Or we overlook a simple truth. Metal has some buoyancy and weighs its volume, 1kg per cubic decimetre, less when submerged in water.