5 ms·

God helmet

39 points by rumcajz 8y ago

mmjaa 8y ago
One wonders just how this will proceed once it gets out of the 'junk science' phase of cargo-cultism, and becomes some kind of valid means of investigating the spiritual realm posited by various and sundry new-age religions. The especially jarring statement that participants could perceive 'angels', or 'groups of beings in clusters' is highly alarming in the context of some of the more controversial religions which aim to enlighten their followers on the negative effects such things can have on ones life ..
- simonh 8y ago
  >One wonders just how this will proceed once it gets out of the 'junk science' phase of cargo-cultism... Given the failures to reproduce the results, it's not clear there is actually anything there to proceed with. I wouldn't be surprised if electrical stimulation could produce effects like this, but it's not at all been established that they actually can.
  - pavel_lishin 8y ago
    If you can cram enough electrodes in the brain, you can probably produce any effect you'd like, but that becomes more of a Descarte's demon/brain-in-a-vat scenario.
fastbeef 8y ago
Doesn’t this fall under the same category as electro-allergy? Weak EM field causing sensory effects in people’s brains. From what I undestand the keyword arguments against it are “non-ionizing radiation” and “nocebo effect”.
- AstralStorm 8y ago
  If you propose such weak EM fields have effects, then design an experiment to show it and disprove alternative explanations, including null result, tampering, faulty execution of double blinding etc. Good luck. You're going to need it.
  - fastbeef 8y ago
    Was that directed at me? I meant that this will be as hard to prove as electro-alergy.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
escape_goat 8y ago
Michael Persinger, the Canadian psychology professor (Laurentian University, in Ontario) responsible for popularizing the 'God Helmet', died on August 14th of 2018. The nature of his work was well within the traditions of parapsychology, as the name of the device might immediately suggest to the reader. He was not too modest to publish work on quantum physics in vanity journals, for instance. However, he should at least be credited for producing research that invited the test of replication, rather than evading it, even though attempts to replicate his findings have failed to date.
sitkack 8y ago
With a bluetooth connection and a nice soft diffuse texture, I could sell lots of these in Cali for 1k a piece. With some Chopra co-branding, 2k.
- captain_perl 8y ago
  You forgot the crystals.
hprotagonist 8y ago
huh. hadn’t thought about this since 2007: https://slashdot.org/thread/20895057 https://slashdot.org/thread/20895057 i remember those comments as being relatively sane.
- nerfhammer 8y ago
  fixed link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/07/10/08/0340229/scientists-deliver-god-via-a-helmet https://science.slashdot.org/story/07/10/08/0340229/scientis...

39 points by rumcajz 8y ago

One wonders just how this will proceed once it gets out of the 'junk science' phase of cargo-cultism, and becomes some kind of valid means of investigating the spiritual realm posited by various and sundry new-age religions. The especially jarring statement that participants could perceive 'angels', or 'groups of beings in clusters' is highly alarming in the context of some of the more controversial religions which aim to enlighten their followers on the negative effects such things can have on ones life ..

simonh 8y ago
>One wonders just how this will proceed once it gets out of the 'junk science' phase of cargo-cultism... Given the failures to reproduce the results, it's not clear there is actually anything there to proceed with. I wouldn't be surprised if electrical stimulation could produce effects like this, but it's not at all been established that they actually can.
- pavel_lishin 8y ago
  If you can cram enough electrodes in the brain, you can probably produce any effect you'd like, but that becomes more of a Descarte's demon/brain-in-a-vat scenario.

fastbeef 8y ago

Doesn’t this fall under the same category as electro-allergy? Weak EM field causing sensory effects in people’s brains. From what I undestand the keyword arguments against it are “non-ionizing radiation” and “nocebo effect”.

AstralStorm 8y ago
If you propose such weak EM fields have effects, then design an experiment to show it and disprove alternative explanations, including null result, tampering, faulty execution of double blinding etc. Good luck. You're going to need it.
- fastbeef 8y ago
  Was that directed at me? I meant that this will be as hard to prove as electro-alergy.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

escape_goat 8y ago

Michael Persinger, the Canadian psychology professor (Laurentian University, in Ontario) responsible for popularizing the 'God Helmet', died on August 14th of 2018. The nature of his work was well within the traditions of parapsychology, as the name of the device might immediately suggest to the reader. He was not too modest to publish work on quantum physics in vanity journals, for instance. However, he should at least be credited for producing research that invited the test of replication, rather than evading it, even though attempts to replicate his findings have failed to date.

sitkack 8y ago

With a bluetooth connection and a nice soft diffuse texture, I could sell lots of these in Cali for 1k a piece. With some Chopra co-branding, 2k.

captain_perl 8y ago
You forgot the crystals.

hprotagonist 8y ago

huh. hadn’t thought about this since 2007: https://slashdot.org/thread/20895057 https://slashdot.org/thread/20895057 i remember those comments as being relatively sane.

nerfhammer 8y ago
fixed link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/07/10/08/0340229/scientists-deliver-god-via-a-helmet https://science.slashdot.org/story/07/10/08/0340229/scientis...