Dowsing

[Brosville]

The perspective of history can help - the Chinese a couple of thousand years ago discovered that a certain stone would miraculously point out an invisible force, by which they navigated - all very "other worldly" stuff - we now know it as the compass........

 

[Drew]

The perspective of history can help - the Chinese a couple of thousand years ago discovered that a certain stone would miraculously point out an invisible force, by which they navigated - all very "other worldly" stuff - we now know it as the compass........

...... as scientists studied it, carried out experiments and gained an understanding of magnetism!

In similar era people believed in alchemy where they could turn base metal into gold..... but as they could never reproduce it...........

 

[Brosville]

Didn't stop 'em getting to where they were going using it until someone in a white coat "proved" it worked............

 

[MandF]

Didn't stop 'em getting to where they were going using it until someone in a white coat "proved" it worked............

I think you miss the point - it wasnt like there were sceptical "scientists" around then, asking for proof. If there were then its pretty obvious that their magnets would point north under controlled conditions, so would be scientifically confirmed as a phenomena, and then studied.

Or put another way, if this ancient phenomena hadnt been explained today, one could very quickly prove that whatever it was, worked.

This cannot be said about dowsing - another ancient "phenomena".

Or the fact that eating powdered rhino horn does anything for erections, or any of these other ridiculous chinese "medicines" which have proven to be hokum. Doesnt stop millions of people buying it over there though!

 

[Brosville]

Missing what point? - for hundreds of years people used "lodestone" to help find their way by what must have appeared to be "magic" or the supernatural - it got them to where they were going - it "just worked" - then eventually science got invented, and gave it's blessing - it was "allowed" to work as they had an explanation that satisfied them - for millenia, people had got to where they were going using it without that "blessing" - science had to develop to the point that it had an explanation and "discovered" magnetism, but it had always been there - some sharp-eyed perceptive people had spotted it and used it, they were the really clever ones...........

 

[Alabamaeee]

This thread will run on for some time I guess.

On reading the posts an old saying emerged in my brain...

"The mind is like a parachute, works best when open"

 

[psafloyd]

I think you miss the point - it wasnt like there were sceptical "scientists" around then, asking for proof. If there were then its pretty obvious that their magnets would point north under controlled conditions, so would be scientifically confirmed as a phenomena, and then studied.

Of course there were sceptical scientists around then. If you challenge orthodoxy, you are likely to be dismissed. If you told all the wise men in your village you cold find north with the use of a stone, they'd say you were mad.

 

[drstitson]

and isn't stonehenge the stand for a giant skep?

 

[Drew]

Missing what point? - for hundreds of years people used "lodestone" to help find their way by what must have appeared to be "magic" or the supernatural - it got them to where they were going - it "just worked" - then eventually science got invented, and gave it's blessing - it was "allowed" to work as they had an explanation that satisfied them - for millenia, people had got to where they were going using it without that "blessing" - science had to develop to the point that it had an explanation and "discovered" magnetism, but it had always been there - some sharp-eyed perceptive people had spotted it and used it, they were the really clever ones...........

The point you missed (deliberately I suspect) was that Alchemy although it had been used for 100s of years..... was b*ll*cks as it couldn't be reproduced ie Science didn't attempt to explain it as it couldn't be shown to actually exist.

 

[MandF]

Of course there were sceptical scientists around then. If you challenge orthodoxy, you are likely to be dismissed. If you told all the wise men in your village you cold find north with the use of a stone, they'd say you were mad.

Or more likely - they would ask you to prove it, and once you had - hey presto everyone in the village used it, which I'm guessing is what happened.

 

[moby]

and isn't stonehenge the stand for a giant skep?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Sadly whilst it is a very good and important question, it is a somewhat meaningless/impossible question. As time started just after the "big bang" there was no "before", because there was no time. That makes my head hurt.

So if time started after the big bang,what was going on before the big bang to cause it to happen in the first place. Time to man may of started then,but time did not start then,and when is the end of time?

 

[drstitson]

"So if time started after the big bang,what was going on before the big bang to cause it to happen in the first place. Time to man may of started then,but time did not start then,and when is the end of time?"

time is a dimension, like the (3) dimensions we are familiar with.

as such the universe that we occupy displays the characteristics of past, present and future but anything "before" or outside does not exist on our terms as time and space both came into being at the point of big bang.

we are just occupying a self contained glitch in the void.

 

[Hivemaker.]

we are just occupying a self contained glitch in the void.

So whats outside of this void?

 

[drstitson]

the void is an unmeasurable (sizeless) sea of nothingness.

 

[Hivemaker.]

the void is an unmeasurable (sizeless) sea of nothingness.

So what exactly is nothingness...whats it made of...how long does it go on for.

 

[MandF]

The only way to begin to understand this is by thinking of time as another physical object. Time was created with the big bang, along with the rest of our universe. For us there is no "before" the big bang, because time is an attribute of our universe, it started at the big bang.

 

[Hivemaker.]

But i am more interested in what was going on before this so called big bang,something must of been or else it could never of happened.

 

[drstitson]

NO.

"outwith" (a flawed concept anyway) the universe there is no scale as there is truly nothing physical. our dimensions and physical laws are all part of that creation at big bang and specific to our universe. that's why everything fits "just right".

 

[drstitson]

we'd better watch out or some of those people from over the pond who post on the daily mail website wlll be along!!!!