He should take that million dollars off of James Randi.

On the flip side

there are a variety of reasons why it would still be unwon, ranging from Randi’s own dishonesty and less than sincere motives, to tricks like perpetually raising the bar, as well as the spiritual principle that psychic abilities used for selfish motives or profit disconnect one from the higher source they emanate from.

I guess a disconnect from the source of the woo-woo would make it difficult.

He is just laying out the possibilities there. Being cut off from woo-woo would be a cause. But thats not really the point of the article at all and it's funny you skipped over the entire rest of it to nit-pick the one thing here.

Google search Astral Projection.

I need that power.

But actually, you should have run this test a few times with different variations if it was going to end up changing the way you view reality.

Also, pics or it didn't happen.

Yeah, you're right. I'm still friends with him though I haven't spoken to him in like two years ever since he moved away. If the opportunity arises I might.

Edit: Also, "changed the way I view reality" might be too strong but it was my one and only experience of something paranormal and it blows my mind till this day.

All the better. Contact him, ask him to travel to where you are one night and see if he can read another note. And put the note somewhere unlikely, like in the freezer or in a shoe or something.

Fascinating story!

It's certainly possible to feel like you have 'left your body' during sleep, but thats simple a phenomenon related to sleep paralysis. Obviously you don't actually leave your body but it does feel real at the time.

If your friend claims to be able to do this then simply tell him about James Randi's scheme whereby he will pay you one million dollars if you can do it under controlled conditions. We expect you will post pics of you and your friend receiving the award.

I haven't spoken to him in a few years but if I get the change, I'll bring it up to him. If I could guess though, (granted that he can actually do this) I don't think he'd want to be put in the spotlight for his 'gift.' But then again, he really loves money so.. haha.

Don't bother with the challenge, Randi isn't interested in science (he is professional magician) and the prize is pretty much not able to be won by design of the tests.

Yeah as tempting as this whole thing is, I really wouldn't want to subject him to this kind of experience. Something in my gut tells me that he'll end up being used and abused as some sort of test subject.

Here is a link that goes over that challenge pretty well

That was about the stupidest thing ive ever seen on r/conspiracy. Im sorry but you need to find better sources than a group of bitter people who have been shot down time and time again by reality.

Ok thanks for your thoughts.

I had an OBE. I was about 15 and sleeping over a friends house on a mattress on the floor. I "woke up" and my "spirit" was floating about a foot or two from the ceiling. I could see my body below and the ceiling which i was facing above me, at the same time. I slowly descended to my body below and about a metre from my body i woke up back in my physical body. It was unlike any dream i had had before. It was something different and i was confused. I remember telling some school friends about it but of course they didn't believe me. I had heard about out of body experiences/astral projection before but didn't really know anything about them because i thought it was a load of shit. After this experience i read up and saw that during these you have 180 or 360 degree vision. That blew me away and i realised what i had experienced. I've never had one since but have read up about it and tried but without success (and will continue trying, though i haven't applied myself fully to it admittedly, maybe due to a bit of fear).

I'm glad this happened to me because it has changed my view of the world and my areas of study. I truly believe there is MUCH more to the world than we are led to believe. I would go so far as to say it changed my life.

I hope you will be interested in what happened to me because nobody else really has been hahaha

I'd somewhat recommend "The Holographic Universe". Here's part of the first review on Amazon:

"This is one of the most provocative books I have read in years. In the first few chapters Mr. Talbot describes the emerging holographic paradigm in science, drawing on David Bohm's work in quantum physics and Karl Pribam's work in neuroscience. I found both descriptions to be fascinating, and especially enjoyed the historical context for the work of these two seminal thinkers. As a person with a master's degree in neuroscience and chaos/complexity theory, I found a couple of his simplifications misleading, but would give him high marks for his overall comprehension of the conclusions of Pribam and his followers. The remaining 2/3 of the book is a discussion of how the holographic paradigm may provide a rational basis for interpreting a wide variety of phenomenon located around the fringes of established science. He looks at everything from strange historical "miracles" like stigmata and appearances of the Virgin Mary to modern psychic abilities and LSD experiences, from out-of-body and near-death-experiences to UFO abductions. In addition, he compares language used in the modern scientific discussion of holography with the language used by ancient mystical traditions."

http://www.amazon.com/Holographic-Universe-Michael-Talbot/dp/0060922583

There is some great scientific discussion at the beginning of the book, but from there (like the review mentions) it tries to explain all sorts of weird phenomenons with the holographic model, and I think the author is really stretching things a bit. But the first part of the book is worth it.

Every ghost or alien story I have ever heard has the words we were drinking some beer, whiskey, wine or some other alcohol... Ha ha coincidence?

I had several strange paranormal experiences (no actual sightings, but everything short of) over the course of a year while living in a super old house. Stone sober the entire time.

You should read The Source Field Investigations by David Wilcock. There have been scientific studies done where people experiment with this ability.

Wilcock's definitely got some interesting ideas but there's something about him that I don't like. I can't put my finger on it but I can't seem to take him seriously.

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Thanks for that info and the links. I have many years experience as a scientist, and I think that its complete arrogance to think that the current "reality model" that most scientist have in their heads, (e.g. scientific materialism) is the complete story on our universe. I think that there probably is more to the universe than just matter. I'm not saying we all have souls, or there was some grand creator. But it does seem that there is more to the universe than what we can manipulate and control enough in order "know" scientifically. Before we had detectors that measured the full spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, we had no idea that there were other kinds of light that we couldn't see. So, what I'm saying is, maybe there is something to the notion of life after death, or reincarnation, or ghosts. We can't assume they don't exist, just because we can't control these phenomena, well enough to test them in a reproducible way. Given that many many people throughout history have seen ghosts and other paranormal activity, it seems much more likely to me that there is more to the universe than just matter. Or perhaps our understanding of matter is very limited. Anyway, its easy to make fun of people who believe in ghosts, or reincarnation or whatever, but believing only in scientific materialism is just as much of a reach, if not more so. (this is not to suggest that you make fun of them, but many do.)

I live in a 200+ year old house and there have been many strange noises and strange happenings. I once saw a book fly out of the book case and land several feet away from it. It had been wedged between two books. No one else was home, and I was several feet away. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen. So, I myself believe that there is a strong possibility of the existence of ghosts. Whether or not those are "trapped souls", or just some kind of echo in time, it does seem likely to me that there is some kind of phenomena that we often call as ghosts.

I just finished that book a couple days ago. it was really fascinating. A lot a of facts, a HUGE works cited section to reference everything he says in the book, and even a glossary of terms. Really a good book even you dont like him. 70/30 in favor or facts and not opinions.

Ok, so where's the conspiracy?

Just wanted to ask this subreddit.

The reason I ask is that this subreddit, conspiracy sites and forums etc are filled with alot of nonsense and nutjob ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with conspiracy and unfortunately it makes it far easier for the average person to completely dismiss legitimate concerns raised by conspiracy theorists.

I'm not saying your post is a load of insane nonsense, I don't pretend to understand everything about how the universe works, but I'm sure you can appreciate that the majority would take one look at the title and think "this guy is crazy", which then leads to "conspiracy theorists aread nutjobs".

But hey, atleast you have anecdotal evidence, which is alot more than the doomtards etc have, I'm just suggesting that there must be a better subreddit for this kind of discussion.

I completely understand and I agree with you so no worries.

Just to add to how the average person views r/conspiracy or conspiracy theorists in general, I've noticed that a lot of times, more than what one actually believe it's how those ideas are introduced.

I took a few counseling psych courses back when I was in school and one of the most important tenets of enlightening another individual is not by lecturing them with advice but guiding them towards a particular conviction by craftily presenting new ideas in the form of questions. Basically the point being that they need to feel like they've reached the newer and truer conclusions on their own. This is crucial because it lets people put their guard down and we all know how defensive people get about ideas that disrupt their framework of things.

When dealing with friends and family members, I've also noticed that the way you present yourself will have a lot to do with how successful you will be in enlightening them. For example, one of my friends basically alienated himself from our group of friends because he started putting all of his energy on conspiracies and he got so deep into it that it basically took over him. Like the quote, "beware when you battle monsters lest ye become one," he basically started to turn really dark and paranoid. I think he looked into the abyss and the abyss looked him right back in the eye and it changed him. So no matter how much knowledge he was dropping between our friends, everyone just started feeling an aversion towards him.

Last thought about this whole thing is that even if you are crafty about presenting new conspiracies to people, you can't change the fact that some people just don't have the leisure to be thinking about such big ideas. They're too preoccupied with responsibilities and I can understand this very well now that I'm getting older and I gotta start thinking about financial security and all that jazz. I think the biggest misconception we, conspiracy theorists, have about the average person is that knowledge will actually change them. I feel that at some level, those who are still living in the matrix have all at some point chosen to take the blue pill.

Edit: And to tie this back to your concern, the 'nutjobs' are in some ways just enabling this denial.

/r/skeptic might be better

it's probably here because of the heavy crossover between people who believe the conspiracy sample platter and the new ager types who are into this shit. better chance of finding someone with some info on the subject, probably.

Jim Marrs on govt remote viewing. His interview with Linda Howe is interesting too.

I have a good friend who told me once she astral travels.

I may have been sceptical, if it wasn't for the fact I have a strange ability of my own - I know when people are going to die sometimes, and when people close to me have just passed, I know. shittiest superpower ever.

I believe in all of that stuff, but that said, I'm sure that the beliefs and definitions we have now are probably not the right ones.

In my experiences, OBE's are a real thing. I've had a few myself. I know a lot of people for whatever reason shit on the possibility that these things can happen (probably because they are jealous), but I'm sure this is something that goes on.

I don't claim to know why or how and honestly, I'm not sure anyone can. But we shouldn't ignore that these seemingly anomalous events occur.

In my case, the first one I had was when I was in my early teens. I had just gotten up in the morning to go to the bathroom. After that I went and laid down again. I felt SO comfortable, then I started to buzz and vibrate. I sat up against a pressure, all the while seeing this powerful light. I looked around the room for a moment before I lost it and then came back to my body and it's point of view.

Another one I had by accident was when I woke up in my old house that I grew up in, rather than where my body was at the time. It was a hard state to maintain, and when I tried to get out of the bed and walk around, the world split in half and I woke up where my body was.

I can't do it on purpose, but I have come close a few times.

Anyways, the fact is weird shit happens and it happens a lot more than we like to admit. We can't be afraid to say "I have no idea what that is" and move from there, rather than trying to cut those events out or cram them into our current world views.

Why is this in r/conspiracy?

I know it's not really a conspiracy. Just wanted to know what you guys thought about it.

where do you believe it should go?

R/spiritual maybe r/paranormal. I'm sure there is a much better subreddit for this. It's an interesting read don't get me wrong, but it doesn't portray to r/conspiracy

Read Lynne McTaggart's "The Field," specifically the chapter on the US government's Remote Viewing experiments.

Our consciousness is not stuck in our body...

If you are interested in this sort of thing, read Robert Monroe's Journeys Out Of The Body and Far Journeys.

this happens to me sometimes. i've actually managed to get it to happen consciously once or twice, but only in very certain moods and situations. (getting really, really high and meditating. couple times at night, once in sunlight. no idea if i could do it again on command.)

OP, please understand this from Wikipedia:

In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offence). For the purposes of concurrence, the actus reus is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability but may reduce their sentence.

So what crime is being committed? How does your post fit into r/conspiracy after reading this? Please post this somewhere else in the future. kthxbai

I think Jelqmaster posted in r/conspiracy, because the people here are generally more open-minded about alternative realities to those portrayed by the media and social stigma than other subreddits. And the audience is larger than , lets say, r/paranormal.

Also, interesting story, I have no explanation.

What about Ask Reddit? I didn't mean to flame, but just saying we should keep posts where they belong.

Actually this was x-posted here from r/askreddit. Lots of interesting posts.

I think Jelqmaster posted in r/conspiracy, because the people here are generally more open-minded about alternative realities to those portrayed by the media and social stigma than other subreddits. And the audience is larger than , lets say, r/paranormal.

Yes, exactly!

Duly noted.

What about Ask Reddit? I didn't mean to flame, but just saying we should keep posts where they belong.

Actually this was x-posted here from r/askreddit. Lots of interesting posts.

I think Jelqmaster posted in r/conspiracy, because the people here are generally more open-minded about alternative realities to those portrayed by the media and social stigma than other subreddits. And the audience is larger than , lets say, r/paranormal.

Yes, exactly!