Today I’d like to briefly discuss the issue of open-mindedness, since I grow more and more alarmed by the rate at which this issue comes up in debates between skeptics and “believers” in alternative medicine, religion, the paranormal, the supernatural, and all sorts of other products of human imagination.
At this point the astute reader might point out, “Aha, you’re already presupposing that these things are products of imagination, so your mind is already closed to other options!” This is not the case. I believe that these things are products of imagination because that’s what they appear to be, based on all available evidence, so they are very probably imaginary. Is it possible that they are real, and not imagined? Of course! Show me evidence that is convincing enough (that is, evidence that’s as grandiose as the claim itself), and you’ll make me a believer (that is, you’ll make me believe that your claim is very probably real)!
I have changed my mind regarding various claims plenty of times in the past, precisely for this reason: I was shown convincing evidence (or found it myself) that made me reverse my views on a particular subject.
A brief analogy. Okay, not so brief.
When I was younger, I used to believe that I exerted some sort of energy that made street lights turn off exactly as I would drive underneath them in my car (this is apparently a common illusion). This didn’t quite sit well in my mind: why me? Am I really that extraordinary? Why doesn’t every driver cause street lights to go out? Then I decided to research the facts: I found out how street lights work, and I read up on some of the workings of human psychology, namely selective memory. And before long, I understood that the light bulbs are on a duty cycle (they periodically turn on and off to prevent overheating), and that my mind was assigning special significance to the times when a street light happened to turn off directly above me!
Did I feel saddened by the notion that I was no longer extraordinary? Maybe for a brief moment, but the reality check was soon overtaken by a feeling of enlightenment. It felt good to understand the real reason behind a phenomenon that was poorly understood (by me, at the time). Instead of living with a superficial pseudo-understanding of how things work (where I am endowed with street light powers), I felt extraordinary because I gained a much more meaningful understanding of the real world.
So what does this have to do with an open mind? Well, consider this. Suppose I meet a person (let’s call her Alice) who absolutely insists that the street light phenomenon is actually genuine — that people do, in fact, emit an energy field that causes street lights to turn off above them.
When I present all the research I did regarding street lights and human psychology, Alice dismisses it as inconclusive and insufficient. When I say that there is a perfectly good natural explanation for the phenomenon, Alice claims that her explanation is better because it feels right to her. She gives me a list of testimonials from her friends who have also experienced the phenomenon, and says, “they can’t all be wrong, can they?” When I show her the mathematics that proves how statistically likely it is to see a street light turn off during any drive, she insists that the number of times that she’s seen it can’t be a coincidence.
When I ask her to show me peer-reviewed publications on the reality of this effect, she says that she doesn’t have access to them at the moment, but assures me that they exist. When I ask her if she would be willing to perform a blinded test of her abilities, she refuses, saying that the street lights turn off only when she doesn’t think about it or least expects it.
When I ask her to explain the physical processes that she thinks are behind the phenomenon, she begins talking about quantum mechanics, saying that all particles are entangled, that our intentions can change the course of quantum reality, and that we, as observers, can choose the outcome of wavefunction collapse.
When I try to correct her naive understanding of quantum mechanics, she says that science doesn’t have all the answers. When I tell her that I used to believe in the same explanation that she does, except I learned better, she proceeds to state that I am hopelessly closed-minded and, with a tone of pity, says that I will never be able to control street lights like she can, because I don’t believe in it enough.
Sound familiar?
While the above analogy is a bit of a straw man (or straw woman in this case), the vast majority of debates between skeptics and “believers” take on exactly the above format. The believer, frustrated by the skeptic’s unwillingness to accept her extraordinary claim without sufficient evidence, resorts to calling the skeptic closed-minded.
Let’s think about the definition of an open mind. I would consider an open-minded person to be someone who is able to objectively evaluate new evidence, and integrate it into his or her framework of theories regarding the world. “Objectively” evaluating evidence means evaluating it regardless of personal interests, emotional appeal, profit motive, or peer pressure.
It is abundantly clear that, in the above scenario, it’s Alice who is closed-minded, because she is either unable or unwilling to honestly evaluate the real reasons for the street light effect.
However, the question remains: Am I closed-minded for being unwilling to consider Alice’s theory that she has psycho-kinetic powers? Well, that’s a bit of a loaded question. First of all, Alice does not have a theory that explains the effect. Saying that the effect is caused by telekinetic powers is a bit like saying, “It’s magic” — it doesn’t constitute an explanation, because it doesn’t explain how the process actually works.
Alice would have to define what exactly her powers are, their range and intensity, and how these powers can be reconciled with currently known laws of physics. If she claims that current physics are insufficient to explain her powers, or that she has tapped into a “new” law of physics, she suddenly has an entire world of physicists to contend with, all of whom agree on well-established physical laws that preclude such powers.
The only thing that would pique the interest of the world’s physicists is a simple test — an experiment that shows, repeatably, that the laws of physics do not apply to Alice. Is that too much to ask? As long as such an experiment does not exist, we have no reason to believe that Alice has any powers except an overly active imagination.
Replace the street light effect with any other extraordinary claim (energy medicine, life-force, zero-point fields, astrology, dowsing, etc), and the conclusions turn out the same: if the claim is real, it would undermine one or more laws of physics. In any case, the evidence for such a claim would have to be at least as spectacular as the claim itself.
In short, I am open-minded to any new evidence, whether it supports my worldview or contradicts it. However, I have some sensible constraints on what passes as “evidence.” As the immortal saying goes, I have an open mind, but not so open that my brain falls out.
If you are making extraordinary claims that are not supported by our current theories about the world, all I ask is that you demonstrate something, anything, that supports your claims, and shows that whatever you’re demonstrating isn’t just in your mind.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I can’t give you evidence,but many my patience will. And I’m not good in your language,so I can’t give you explain in letter,just try to give you sight that something always walk beyond our conciusness ,like I’know that you have problem with your left ear. And Have problem (pain or feel heavy) in your left bottom abdoment.
That maybe your key to go throught your mind door. Don’t use your think.just feel,you’ll know.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@Kucaca,
Are you referring to me? I have no issues with either of my ears or my abdomen (left or right side). Your comment actually helps prove my point. Can you see why?
May 25th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Just landed here on a crawl for Win7 Repair (Crashed and ate some driver signature files) that took me past a lockergnome article that popped me through majorgeeks to drop here for DiskDigger.
Oh, what a wonderful thing the internet is.
I have to say, after carefully reading this article, I agree with you fully.
This is the same fashion I attempt to follow myself, Very Probably imaginary, or Very Probably real.
Too many people I see are concerned with black and white that they miss the beautiful 64bit color range in between.
I vastly enjoy your streetlight analogy as well. It is a quite succinct introspection of the deepthought process of folks that refute perfectly reasonable explanations of how the real world actually works. I picked up a screwdriver at a young age and I’ve been taking the world apart ever since, grasping only for understanding.
I have personally experienced the “they can’t all be wrong, can they?” effect more times than I can likely recall. It’s quite maddening when you consider that 98% of these people have an average human brain that can grasp nearly any complex concept or procedure in less than 50 hours of applied effort, yet they are unwilling to exert it. My 10 year old niece was able to put together a reasonably complex desktop machine from parts with no experience and the instructions “Just be careful, everything only goes in one way.” — the only thing I had to correct was pointing out she forgot the little red paper washers on the motherboard. It took her less than an hour.
Keep up the slack! Never let the pinks get you down! Lease your soul to Bob for safe keeping on X-Day, July 5th!
– Reverend Kami, SubGenii Apropos
May 25th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
* Void where prohibited. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball. The Church of the SubGenius is well known as a satirical comedy group that delivers stinging rants against a variety of social ills. See here for details:
http://www.modemac.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/What_the_hell_is_going_on_here
May 28th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Good read Dmitry!!
July 10th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Hi, interesting article. I know what you mean by wanting proof of something that is at first sight ”imaginary” as you say. But, in fact if you allow yourself to dig a little deeper, the world that surrounds us, in fact is imaginary, just go to the molecular level and the whole ”reality” experience blows away. So is what we see and feel real in the end? You may say that there are different ”realities,” macro and micro, to any level you may want (see the movie: Powers of Ten). My conclusion is that we make our own reality and the experiences we have in that reality obey to our own expectations and beliefs, because even if I could prove to you that 2+2 is not 4, according to your experience it is. So, I cannot convince you outside your own sphere of experience, or your own world for that matter. The only way to prove anything that is out of this world is experiencing that ”new” world. And the only way for that to happen is shoving off all our beliefs and prejudices and be open to any new experience, and ask for them to happen (as we ask for just anything in this world). In time, and after a great effort, you will begin to experience this other world or other reality. It is not easy mind you, you must be willing to accept and feel new things. The only way to experience that other world is with real LOVE for ALL and the UNIVERSE that surrounds us, you cannot approach it with the ego, you will fail. The great men of the past who gave us their wisdom all have said that to know yourself and for that matter God (or any other name you’d like to give him) is by personal experience in the field of LOVE (for thy neighbor with no conditions whatsoever). Practice charity with all people (rich or poor, colored or white, etc) and you shall SEE, because your heart will open to a new world. Just keep your mind open, watch carefully, stop thinking in terms of your past experiences, stop thinking while you stroll along the street, be aware of what is going on, be alert, you will be amazed at what you will see, nothing extraordinary in terms of paranormal and that kind of stuff, ordinary things of life that will enrich you like watching a bed of flowers and admiring their beauty, their sent, the wonderful sky and the stars and maybe some amazing thought will cross your mind which could be a turning point for your life or a confirmation of it, who knows, there are infinite possibilities, we just have to be prepared to listen, and what is more important is that you will KNOW it is TRUE. But don’t believe me, go and experience it yourself. Best regards.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Marcos,
You sure know how to pile on those pseudo-spiritual platitudes! Regarding “creating our own reality,” you should check out one of my previous posts on creating our own reality, and respond to my arguments there.
Your comment contains a lot of vague catch-phrases like “feel new things” and “your heart will open” and “turning point” and “infinite possibilities”… but as a whole, your comment is almost devoid of meaning. What do you mean when you say that I should “dig deeper” or “open my heart”? What should I do, physically, that I’m not doing, in your opinion? Like I said in my post, all I’m asking is that you demonstrate something; show me or tell me something that you’ve discovered about this “other world” you speak of.
You’re also making a lot of assumptions and judgments about me. For instance, you’re assuming that my life is somehow less fulfilling than yours because I don’t see things the way you do. Believe it or not, I find great pleasure in observing the natural world, and admiring the beauty that lies in every corner of it. The natural world is the only place where I can find beauty, since I don’t believe in any gods or fairies.
The difference between you and me is that I don’t waste my time burdening my perception of the world with imaginary attributes that you “think” you understand. The universe is breathtakingly beautiful as it is! We don’t need to poison our understanding of it with primitive superstitious baggage left over from the Bronze age.
July 10th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Sorry, I did not intend to offend you nor pretend I have a more elevated perception of the world or anything like it, as I say I’m sorry I gave that impression. I only wanted to stress that there is no evidence to look for other than experience, each one of us has to experience life in his own way. You seem to be tuned in to nature in a certain way and you say: ”the universe is breathtakingly beautiful as it is,” I agree 100%, we just have to fine tune our perception of that beauty to see the ”underlying structure” of it all, that’s all, although I think it is not an easy thing to attain, I am far from there myself but have had glimpses of it in the past. These are not imaginary things, I have in fact experienced other realities without leaving mine, like seeing a huge UFO in front of me (500 meters away), plus telepathic communications with other people (although not being aware of it until after). You may believe or not what I say, I can’t prove it to you, not scientifically, it just happened. And many other people have experienced similar things that cannot be proved, it’s their own experience (like when we have a high emotional and moving experience, it is personal and cannot be described adequately, not even in poetry). When I said ”The only way to experience that other world is with real LOVE for ALL and the UNIVERSE that surrounds us, you cannot approach it with the ego, you will fail.” I did not intend to make it personal, it is what all masters like Buddha, Christ, Zoroaster, etc, recommended. So, I am sorry also that I cannot respond to your question as to ”demonstrate something.” This same question you ask has been considered in the past and has been dismissed by those masters (please don’t take anything personal, it is only intended to illustrate). They say to those who do not believe: open up your hearts and you shall see. Some questions will never be answered, and if you think this is all a vague mess, it is your own right to think so. But as I said before, if you dig deeper into reality (like using a spiritual microscope) you shall find the answers by experience itself, I personally don’t think there is any other way. If you want a recipe : To open up our hearts we must love all, loving all will bring a new perception of the world we live in, and we will begin to see the ”underlying structure” that sustains it all. How do we love all? We must begin forcing it a little, then it will come alone. Doing charity work, being vigilant with our own thoughts about ourselves and others, we must not judge to not be judged. Being vigilant with our own actions, what we do. The way we live is the way we are seen by others, our own life is our message. If we sow righteousness we will reap righteousness, all that plus a happy attitude towards life and every being on Earth and beyond will give us a higher perception of our reality and we shall see beyond (again, please do not take this as a sermon for you, it is a recipe that is not mine, it belongs to those masters I mentioned before and I am only trying to stress this point.) Hope I was clearer now. Best regards.
July 12th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Kucaca seems to be referring to me. And I’ve only just seen your site for the first time, after Googling for exFAT. If that’s not remarkable proof of something, I
don’t know what isn’t. Anyway, (1) you seem to have rediscovered Occam’s Razor. Often lost by the old and frequently hairy Father Time, but – so far, it seems – not gone forever; and (2) there is an operational aspect of the reality of unseen powers that is often overlooked by skeptics: the protests of the missionary being boiled in the apocryphal pot that the tribal god is not a real god (like hirs) are patently false: it is the tribal god that is having hir cooked and eaten (via the mediation of the local shaman). You can’t get much more real than that. Thanks for the FAT and NTFS Walkers. Actually, Kucaca missed my gammy knee but nobody’s perfect and I’m hoping your walkers help in that regard….