The Science of Mysticism

[The Yosemite Bear]

Actually, there is a Scientific Basis for a lot of what is called "true Magic".

Dowsing: Humans do posses an Electromagnetic Sensitivity Gland, This is simular to the gland that allows migritory animals to home in on certain locations even when seperated from them. As some modern devices show, underground water, buried items etc. generate a magnetic disturbance. For the Most part the Gland is ignored, humans no longer need to imprint on a specific location where their clan travels and sets up camp season after season.

Ki: (No not that Dragon Ball Z, or Hokoto No Ken crap), most Martail Arts Practicianers, refer to the control of the body's energy. While thought as merly superstition a few decades ago, however there is some evidance that people can control their bodies normally invuluntary functions (Adrenaline, heart rate, breathing etc.)

Magic in Medicine: Accupuncture, Asprin, Calamine Lotion, Witchhazel, and a migraine medicine/anastetic (based on two deadly poisons (Called the Zombie's Cucumber)) came from the practices of "Witches" or "Folk Healers". It wasn't until later that they were incorperated into modern medicine.

[Mr Bean]

Ki: (No not that Dragon Ball Z, or Hokoto No Ken crap)

Damn!
(Scraps off Idea for Mr Bean's Superfast one man wreaking crew)

[oberon]

Actually, there is a Scientific Basis for a lot of what is called "true Magic".

Dowsing: Humans do posses an Electromagnetic Sensitivity Gland, This is simular to the gland that allows migritory animals to home in on certain locations even when seperated from them. As some modern devices show, underground water, buried items etc. generate a magnetic disturbance. For the Most part the Gland is ignored, humans no longer need to imprint on a specific location where their clan travels and sets up camp season after season.

2 things: A) "imprinting" does not require a gland, it only requires a mind, and B) what gland is the "EM Gland"?

Ki: (No not that Dragon Ball Z, or Hokoto No Ken crap), most Martail Arts Practicianers, refer to the control of the body's energy. While thought as merly superstition a few decades ago, however there is some evidance that people can control their bodies normally invuluntary functions (Adrenaline, heart rate, breathing etc.)

Only one question here: why is [Edit: "does"] the ability to control one's body functions to a fine degree require some intangible, unfalsifiable "key"?

Magic in Medicine: Accupuncture, Asprin, Calamine Lotion, Witchhazel, and a migraine medicine/anastetic (based on two deadly poisons (Called the Zombie's Cucumber)) came from the practices of "Witches" or "Folk Healers". It wasn't until later that they were incorperated into modern medicine.

What migraine medication/anesthetic is this? Curare can also be used as an anasthetic, and succinylcholine, a synthetic version of it, has been and may still be, but no-one has ever taken that to mean that surgeons are practicing holistic medicine. Acupuncture is not regarded as modern medicine, it's regarded as acupuncture, and desperate patients seeking an alternative to, say, orthopedic surgery, are under no illusion that it's mainstream medicine. Witch hazel isn't medicine, it's an astringent, and we use it because it works; don't forget that it's also 14% alcohol by volume.

I am not disputing that these and the other substances you mentioned may have come from ancient "witch healers" [Edit: because I don't know anything about that], but that fact alone isn't what makes them useful. What gets them accepted is the fact that they work, particularly in the absence of equally effective alternatives. There are many other drugs that have been used by witches, but they haven't been accepted. So it's not enough to say that some were so therefore the witches were right. You're not sitting there getting high off of monk's hood, are you?

[AdmiralKanos]

Proponents of mysticism tend to go after medical science, because medical science is not really a pure science; it's more like biological reverse-engineering and repair. That's why there are so many gaps in our knowledge; it is one thing to perform controlled experiments on a particular phenomenon in order to test a hypothesis, but it is quite another to perform repair work on a functioning mechanism without shutting it down and without having the original blueprints.

There is no "mysticism" in some of these holistic cures; some are bunk, but some are undoubtedly valid because thousands of years of trial and error is actually a perfectly valid objective method. It is even scientific, so long as the results of this trial and error are reported truthfully and interpreted logically. Some people seem to feel that if a cure for some disease was discovered before the advent of modern science, then it threatens the validity of modern science. This is silly; science is a method, not a fixed body of knowledge which bars entry to thoughts generated through other means. Occam's Razor came from a theologian! If it works, and it can be verified, it gets added to the body of scientific knowledge, no matter where it came from. Don't confuse the protectionist behaviour of pharmaceutical companies and doctors (who are really bio-technicians, not scientists) with the attitude of genuine scientists.

If and when holistic cures work, they do so through chemical reactions, interactions with as-yet unexplained parts of the human nervous system, etc. But they don't require any non-physical phenomena, ie- what you might call "mysticism". Similarly, if it's possible through meditation to control various functions of the human body, that's hardly mystical either; it merely indicates that the brain-body connection has non-mystical functions that we haven't discovered yet.

[lgot]

He misses the fact that some "shamans", etc used such "Potions" for other objectives and with another view than a scientist would do. Its not like Science would come and deny everything. Its a way the explain our world, which is the same of the which doctors. So, the drug of plant have the same effect to the scientist that have to a witch doctor, but the scientist would gave you his view and use for it, which have nothing to do with mystical view of the which doctor.