A Social Psychologist Fails to Understand the Social Psychology of Universities

 A Salon.com article by social psychologist Frenk van Harreveld is entitled "In defense of doubt: Act of resistance in an age of bogus certainty." The article offers an "erring communities versus virtuous community" narrative that is extremely misleading because the supposedly virtuous community has all of the same problems as the erring communities described. In the article Harreveld shows a lack of social psychology insight about today's universities, portraying them as bastions of intellectual humility and epistemic caution when they are more like enclaves of intellectual hubris, dogmatism and extreme overconfidence, filled with authorities claiming to know deep important things that they do not know, and that are actually mysteries a hundred miles over their heads. 

Harreveld starts out with a little sociological insight about some of the psychology benefits of joining a dogmatic belief community:

"Certainty serves a powerful social identity function. Declaring a clear position, especially a strong one, signals belonging. If you know exactly where you stand, you know who your people are. Certainty is rewarded not just with clarity, but with community. Ambivalence, by contrast, is lonely. Few movements rally around moderation. People don’t take to the streets with signs that read: 'It’s Complicated.'

Certainty becomes a badge of identity. It distinguishes 'us' from 'them.' And in this way, many public debates shift from reasoned exchange to tribal contest. Argument gives way to allegiance. The substance of a position matters less than the clarity with which it’s held...

The underlying mechanism is the same: In uncertain times, certainty sells — and it sells best when it comes with a sense of belonging."

Harreveld mentions how social media can reward dogmatism and overconfidence, and how social media can put people in filter bubbles and echo chambers in which they tend to get only opinions and articles and posts matching their own viewpoints. Harreveld then starts painting a glowing portrait of what he thinks is a virtuous-thinking community that has escaped such pitfalls: the academia community consisting of professors like himself. He states this:

"Higher education, at its best, trains people to tolerate ambiguity. It rewards provisional thinking, revises conclusions and accepts that knowledge is always unfinished. At its best, higher education doesn’t just tolerate uncertainty — it cultivates it. In the sciences, this ideal is embedded in the Popperian method: Theories must be falsifiable, and progress comes not through confirming our beliefs, but by trying to disprove them. In the humanities and philosophy, figures like Socrates remind us that knowledge begins with recognizing the limits of our understanding. 'I know that I know nothing,' he famously said — not as an admission of ignorance, but as a commitment to relentless questioning. This culture of intellectual humility — of testing, revising and learning — forms the core of what universities are meant to instill. That epistemic humility — the willingness to admit what we don’t know — is increasingly out of step with a public discourse that values performance over inquiry."

But today's universities and colleges are mostly the exact opposite of what is depicted above. Today's universities and colleges are ideological enclaves dominated by very old belief dogmas that are sacred cows that cannot be questioned.  Among the main such dogmas are: (1) the groundless legend that biological origins are explained by the ideas of the 19th century thinker Charles Darwin; (2) the groundless but constantly repeated claim that human minds are caused by brains;  (3) the equally groundless myth that memories are stored in brains and retrieved from brains. 

There are very many good reasons for rejecting all such claims, discussed at my site here and posts such as my posts here, here, here and here. The human body has been found to contain mountainous levels of hierarchical organization, enormous amounts of fine-tuned functional information, and the most stratospheric abundance of component fine-tuning and systemic component interdependence. Such things help to show how groundless are all boasts that nineteenth century ideas such as so-called natural selection can explain human origins. Nothing but failure has resulted from all attempts to confirm ideas that brains store memories and that brains produce thinking and self-hood and 100 other wonders of the human mind. Microscopic examination of the human brain has failed to find the slightest trace of any learned knowledge in brain tissue. We know the type of things that allow the fast retrieval of information from physical systems: things such as sorting, addresses and indexes. The human brain has no such things. The study of the brain has shown that it is a place of gigantic signal noise, unreliable synaptic transmission, and rapid molecular turnover, thereby discrediting all claims that the human brain is the source of the human mind and the storage place of human memories that can last for 50 years. Contradicting the "brains make minds" dogma, a significant fraction of the population has had out-of-body experiences, with 11 features that are beyond any explanation of neuroscientists, who offer only fumbling faulty explanations like the one I discuss here. 

But academia clings to the dogmas of materialism and Darwinism because colleges and universities have been enclaves of dogmatic, overconfident belief communities -- something the opposite of what Harreveld portrays. Preaching a kind of godless religion (a religion in all but name), the biology departments and psychology departments and philosophy departments of universities have become places like what is depicted in the visual below.

Embedding itself within universities and taking over key departments in such universities, dogmatic materialism between 1850 and 1950 developed an authoritarian hierarchical infrastructure with many similarities to the authoritarian hierarchical infrastructure of the Catholic Church. That infrastructure is depicted in the visual below:

The professors of this infrastructure engage in indoctrination as dogmatic and overconfident as the indoctrination that occurs in the Sunday schools of organized religions. And just as the exclusion of troubling observations has long been a part of organized religions, the exclusion of troubling observations is a central feature of academia. 

This "ministry of materialism" extends far beyond the borders of academia, but colleges and universities are the core of this religion-in-all-but-name which aggressively pushes a discredited belief system, marketing it as "science" rather than the ideology that it is. 

It is amusing to hear Harreveld claim that "higher education doesn’t just tolerate uncertainty — it cultivates it." To the contrary, anyone expressing doubt about the sacred dogmas of academia such as Darwinism and the "brains make minds" dogma is likely to be treated within academia as some heretic to be shunned, shamed or penalized. Harreveld's mention of a "Popperian method" centered upon trying to falsify existing tenets is laughable. In academia occasional lip-service is paid to such a method, but no such method is followed by neuroscientists or psychologists or evolutionary biologists. Instead, the general rule is: make sure you mostly spend time trying to gather evidence for the type of things you are expected to believe in, and please do not dare to gather or seriously study evidence for the type of things you are forbidden from believing in. So, for example, today's professors almost all senselessly refuse to seriously study two hundred years of written evidence for paranormal phenomena and paranormal abilities. Moreover, they fail to follow-up on hundreds of promising observational and experimental results, whenever such results conflict with their belief dogmas.  Should some other scientist do such follow-up work and present new observations or analysis conflicting with prevailing academia dogmas, he is likely to have his work censored by the soft censorship of peer review denial of publication. 

It is also very amusing to read Harreveld state this:

"In the humanities and philosophy, figures like Socrates remind us that knowledge begins with recognizing the limits of our understanding. 'I know that I know nothing,' he famously said — not as an admission of ignorance, but as a commitment to relentless questioning."

Socrates lived thousands of years ago, before there were any colleges or universities.  A Socratic attitude of 'I know that I know nothing" is not taken by today's academic philosophers, who tend to be uncritical "hook, line and sinker" pushover consumers of the most groundless dogmas of biologists. 

It is also amusing to read Harreveld state this: "This culture of intellectual humility — of testing, revising and learning — forms the core of what universities are meant to instill."  For well over 150 years there has prevailed in universities a kind of Culture of Hubris or Culture of Conceit that is the exact opposite of a "culture of intellectual humility."  It is a culture in which everyone is expected to keep claiming they understand deep origins mysteries (such as the origin of man and the origin of human bodies and the origin of human minds) that are actually a hundred miles over the heads of humans. 

A good social psychologist will tend to realize that humans in many different places and many different institutions tend to follow the same patterns of conduct in constructing and maintaining what I call ideological regimes. An ideological regime is some structure of belief and related social structures and habits that have become popular in a particular place.  In a particular country there may exist more than one ideological regime,  and multiple ideological regimes may contend with each other, each trying to become dominant or maintain its dominance. An ideological regime may be political, religious, or some kind of ideology such as Darwinist materialism that is a church-in-all-but name. 

We see the same tendencies again and again wherever ideological regimes exist:

(1) The tendency to create a large class of authority figures who are made to look like some figures of superior mind or virtue. 

(2) The tendency to kind of canonize a few authority figures who are put on some very high pedestal, and made to look like some figure of rare wisdom or insight. 

(3) The tendency to create and propagate belief dogmas which typically are articles of faith that followers of the ideological regime are expected to adopt.

(4) The tendency to give work to a large lesser-status class of enablers and enforcers of the ideological regime, who have the job of drumming up support and maintaining support for the ideological regime and its belief dogmas. 

(5) The tendency to deprecate, defame and penalize critics of the ideological regime and those who disbelieve in its dogmas. 

(6) The tendency to control information so that it becomes harder for people to learn about facts and opinions conflicting with the dogmas of the ideological regime, which may take the form of either hard censorship or a less noticeable "soft censorship."

We see these tendencies every bit as strongly within the halls of academia as we see such tendencies in the political area, the ecclesiastical area and the social media area.

For a discussion of the common tendencies in excessively dogmatic academia, organized religion and political parties, read my post "The Sociological Dynamics of Ideological Regimes." 

The table below lists the similarities between scientific academia and the Roman Catholic Church. 

	Scientific Academia	Roman Catholic Church
Physical Bases	University buildings, high schools, natural history museums	Churches, monasteries, convents, seminaries, Catholic schools
Old Revered Texts	Books of Charles Darwin	The Bible and works of the Church Fathers (Augustine, Aquinas, etc.)
Sacred Dogmas	Accidental origin of life, accidental origin of species by “natural selection,” brains as the source of minds, brains as storage places of memories	The Trinity, the resurrection of Jesus, the divine inspiration of the Bible, papal infallibility, dogmas about Mary, mother of Jesus
Lower Prestige Workers	High school biology teachers, experimental subjects, paid lab workers	Nuns, deacons
Middle Prestige Workers	PhD candidates, college instructors, assistant professors	Priests
High Prestige Workers	Professors	Bishops
Highest Prestige Persons	National Academy of Science members, Nobel Prize winners	Cardinals, the Pope
Arcane Speech	Jargon-filled scientific papers	Jargon-filled theology papers, Holy Mass language
Indoctrina-tion Meetings	Biology classes, psychology classes	Sunday sermons, Sunday school
Financial Base	Countless billions in old university endowments, tuition, government funding, with $800 billion in US university endowments alone	Billions in old endowments, church property,  Sunday donations, tithes
Rituals	PhD dissertations, experiments (often poorly designed and implemented), science conferences, rituals of science paper writing, countless legend and dogma recitations	Sunday Mass, baptisms, weddings, First Communion, funerals
Specula-tions	Abundant	Abundant
Persecu--tion or Libeling of Heretics	Frequent (currently non-physical, including gaslighting, slander, libel, accusatory insinuations,  stereotyping and discrimination)	Frequent in the past
Censorship	Massive “soft” censorship and repression of undesired observations such as witnessing of paranormal phenomena and successful ESP experiments	Once very frequent, such as Legion of Decency
Speech Taboos	Very many (including fair discussion of the paranormal or evidence for design in nature)	Very many
Miracle Stories	Accidental origin of life, and accidental origin of billions of types of protein molecules in the animal kingdom, most having hundreds of well-arranged parts, requiring many miracles of accidental organization, like hundreds of falling logs forming into extensive log cabin hotels or a row of fifty tall sand castles forming from random wind and waves	Miracle stories involving Jesus, Catholic saints and the Virgin Mary (Fatima, Lourdes, etc.)
Officials in Fancy Robes?	Yes (professors during graduation ceremonies)	Yes
Despised Deviants	Witnesses of the paranormal, Darwinism critics, teleology theorists, those having spiritual experiences	In previous years, Protestants and gays
Chanting?	Very much, such as “blind evolution explains it all” chant and “it's all just brain activity” chant	Very much, such as Hail Mary prayers and the chants of monks
Art Forms	Materialist science fiction	Sculpture, painting, sacred music, sacred architecture
Saints	Many science figures whose work is described reverently	Many canonized saints
Catechisms	College textbooks and biased Wikipedia articles	Official catechisms teaching Catholic dogma
Legends	Many “just so” legends such as the legend of trans-Atlantic rafting monkeys, and many achievement legends such as the legend Darwin explained biological origins	Many legends about saints and their miracles or legends about miraculous healings or the Virgin Mary
Helper Workers	Unquestioning conformist science journalists	Laymen volunteers
Icono-graphy	Sparse iconography including including "Bohr model" atom diagram, and endlessly repeated side-profile “Evolution of man” diagram with four or five figures facing right	Vast iconography

The Car With Zoom-in Windows: A Science Fiction Story

In the year 2055 Bill Waters decided to buy a new car. Doing great at his job as a psychoanalyst of malfunctioning artificial minds, Bill could afford a car with the latest and greatest features. So he went to the local car dealer to shop for a car. 

Bill encountered no humans during this shopping expedition. The job of a car salesman had long ago been replaced by mobile robots that could answer any questions a car buyer had, and also make the right kind of sales pitches. 

"So I want a car with the latest and greatest features," said Bill.

"I'll tell you about a feature that all our autos have," said the robot. "It's the self-repair feature. No more of that nonsense of going to an auto repair shop when your car gets banged up. All our cars will automatically fix themselves after damage."

"That's great," said Bill. "And what about automatic driving?"

"Our cars have that," said the robot. "You can drive and watch 3D TV at the same time."

"Is there some other cool feature I can get?" asked Bill.

"Well, there's one really cool feature that is new this year," said the robot. "It is zoom-in windows."

"Zoom in windows?" said Bill.

"That's a new kind of window that can act like binoculars," said the robot. "If you interact with the window in a certain way, your view will zoom in, and you can see very clearly something that is far away."

"Wow, that sounds great," said Bill. He bought a car that day with all of the features the robot had mentioned. He had not bothered to bring any money or credit cards, but there was no need for such things.  A quick retina scan was used to positively identify Bill, and then the purchase funds were transferred from his bank account. 

Bill drove off in his fancy car, eager to test its auto-driving system.  While the car drove by itself, Bill watched his favorite program on the car's 3D TV. 

But when he inadvertently pressed the foot brake on the car, the auto-driving system turned off. The car gave a warning that the automatic driving was turning off. But being very absorbed in the details of his 3D TV program, Bill ignored the warning. 

The car now required manual driving, but Bill wasn't aware that it did. Very soon the car crashed at high speed into a tree. Bill lost consciousness. 

When Bill awoke, he seemed to be okay. If it had been thirty years earlier, Bill would have got out of the car to inspect the damage caused by hitting the tree. But Bill assumed that the car's automatic repair system would fix any damage caused in the accident. 

Bill realized he did not know where he was. At first he thought about finding his position using the car's mapping screen and GPS.  But then he thought to himself: why not try out the car's fancy zoom-in windows?

Bill drove a little way to an intersection, and then tried using the zoom-in window that was the front window. He held down some widget on the window, causing the window's view to zoom-in. Soon he could see what was at the end of the road, far away. Bill saw a Dead End sign. 

"No point going down that way," Bill thought to himself. Next he tried the zoom-in window on his left. He held down some widget on the window, causing the view to zoom-in. Soon he could see what was at the end of the road, far away on his left. Again he saw a Dead End sign.

Bill repeated the procedure, using the zoom-in window on his right.   Soon he could see what was at the end of the road, far away on his right. Once again, it was a Dead End sign. 

"I can't believe all these Dead End signs I'm seeing," Bill thought to himself. There was one window left to try: the rear window.  Again, Bill held down some widget on the window, causing the view to zoom-in. Soon he could see what was at the end of the road, far behind him. Again he saw a Dead End sign.

"Every road around me leads to a Dead End sign," Bill thought to himself. "What does this mean?"

Suddenly he had a chilling thought. Maybe the zoom-in windows were acting in some symbolic way.  Bill thought to himself: when I hit that tree, maybe I was killed, and  maybe all these Dead End signs in the zoom-in windows are telling me that I'm already DEAD, and that I've reached the END of my earthly life. 

Suddenly something spooky happened. The sun roof of the car opened, even though Bill had done nothing to open it. 

Bill looked up through the sun roof. Above him he could see a strange sight. The clouds seemed to form into a kind of tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a light. The light had a strange mystical look to it. It looked like no light Bill had ever seen. Bill felt as if the strange light was somehow beckoning him. 

Just then Bill felt himself rising upward, and passing through the hole of the sun roof. Bill felt himself pulled through the tunnel. It all happened so fast that Bill could not tell whether it was his physical body rising up into the sky, or only his soul. Looking back for an instant at the car far below him, Bill thought to himself that he would never see that car again. 

Chinese Research Suggesting the Reality of Clairvoyance and Mind-Over-Matter

Around page 376 of the book here, you get a discussion of Chinese research into "Extraordinary Human Body Function" or EHBF, which was largely research into clairvoyance, telepathy and mind-over-matter. 

The CIA document you can read here (and also here) is a translation of a Chinese 1984 parapsychology publication, one entitled "Research in Human Paranormal Capabilities." There are some very fascinating parts. 

On page 4 we have a claim that a particular person could read Chinese characters with his ears. We read this:

"Today is a very important and very memorable date, it is the anniversary of the first publication in the 'Sichuan Daily' of Tang Yu's paranormal capability to distinguish Chinese characters with his ear. This is a very important event in modern China."

The parapsychology term used for this ability is "transposition of the senses." The history of psychical research has many well-documented examples, some of which are listed in my series of posts here.  On page 53 of the same document, we read about tests done on children to see whether they could recognize the color of cards (and symbols on cards) that were placed in their outer ear. This is a test of one type of transposition of the senses. We read this about the testing procedure:

" Propaganda cards printed in various colors with number four type were cut into cards of two to five characters each to form a sampling pool. They were then folded in half and rolled into cylinders. Then tweezers were used to place these deep in the student's left or right outer ear deep enough that the students could not dig them out with their little fingers. Since the cylinders were springy, they opened up to press themselves to the walls of the ear canal, making them difficult to remove."

I do not recommend that anyone ever try this at home as a test procedure.  As my mother would often tell me, "Never stick anything in your ear smaller than your elbow." The only exception is manufactured things specifically designed to be placed in ears, such as earplugs.

On page 53 we read this about the results from a subject:

"On the morning of the 18th of July, at 8:30, 31 minutes after the test began, eleven year old Han nationality student, XIXY X( )X( ) correctly answered the test card. It was verified that the characters, color, and color of the paper were all correct. After 40 minutes, thirteen year old Tibetan Student Xun Wen (X) also correctly recognized the characters and color of paper in his ear. This was the first occasion of psychic abilities being induced in children in Tibet. Results of the three day test show that among these subjects of the survey (nine to fifteen years old) the occurrence of ('recognizing characters by ear') was about 40%."

On page 13 of the same document we read this claim about clairvoyance in two children:

"He reported on the results of psychic testing of two psychic children during last summer vacation and this spring vacation by himself together with Comrades Chen Bao-Liang, Liu Yi-Cheng, Yang Jian-Hua with the cooperation of Comrades Luo Cheng-Lie and Liu Gui-Lin of the Qufu Normal College in Shandong. Contents of the test were the ability to see something on the other side of a wall or in another building and the ability to make out messages. The procedures of the testing were very strict, the results were positive and repeatable under specific conditions."

A claim like this is too vague to have much of any value as evidence, and I present it merely to contrast it with the next example, which gives us a very precise account of exactly what went on in a test of clairvoyance which seems to have been a stunning success. We read this on page 22:

"In the 'Joint Experiment Report on the Reality of Human Psychic Functions' there were records of tests carried out on 'Z's ability to do 'psychic writing.'  The author of this article took part in making up the samples. The test at that time was to take a blank sheet of paper which the tester would sign, roll it up into a tube around a ball point pen, and fold back both ends. This would be placed on the table in front of the person being tested with three people watching at the same time. 'Z' was only allowed to pick up the tube and smell it. Then he had to put it back on the desk. He was not allowed to open the tube. Then 'Z' was given a fountain pen and another blank sheet of paper. After 'Z' had written on the second sheet of paper and stated that he had written the same thing on the piece of paper rolled up around the ball point pen, the observers opened the rolled paper. It was discovered that what 'Z' had written on the second sheet of paper with a fountain pen was also written of the signed sheet of paper in ball point pen. The style of the characters was also very similar. To do further testing to determine if Z''s psychic writing could break through the barriers of space, this experiment used a sealed envelope. "

There then follows a more explicit discussion of what exactly went on, an account that lists the exact names of the observers, and lists the date and time as 4:30 in the afternoon of January 22, 1983. The test words written down in the rolled up sheet of paper were "How are you? Thank you teacher." The  words written by "Z" were exactly the same: "How are you? Thank you teacher."

After  this more detailed account of the successful test of clairvoyant abilities, on page 24 we read this:

"The entire experiment lasted less than one hour. None of the observers ever left the area. 'Z', the person being tested, remained seated in his original position while performing the psychic writing. The entire desk was within the observers' field of vision. None of the four observers noticed 'Z'  doing anything suspicious. This was the third time this experiment was carried out. The former two occasions had similar results." 

As evidence for clairvoyance, the reported results seem very good. The main deficiency is the failure to report the real name of the person identified as 'Z.'  The report has appeared about one year after the observation date. But the report has so many details written so precisely that we can be rather sure it is based on notes  of what occurred written at the time. 

On page 27 and the following pages we have a report claiming tests showed a "psychic ability" of someone to break into two a needle that had been put in a sealed matchbox.  Unfortunately, the account is not explicit enough to qualify as good evidence. We are told that the tested subject could touch the sealed matchbox, but we lack a description of whether there were precautions to prevent the subject from using both of his hands to break the needle. 

On page 54 of the document, we read about tests of mind-over-matter. We read this:

"Because of what happened with the above experiment, beginning on the 25th, we change to a 'psychic movement' test, where we placed knotted twine, an open lock, a small bolt with the nut off, or a watch in a cardboard box which we sealed with tape. The children were allowed to attempt to untie the knot on the string, lock the lock, put the nut on the bolt, and set the watch. This was successful. The 11 year old Tibetan girl, Tsering Jwolka, on her first attempt, set the watch ahead one hour and forty seven minutes. On her second attempt she set the watch ahead six hours and twenty minutes. This test was repeated many times and successful each time. This caused quite a stir in Zedang village, and rumors started spreading around."

On the next page of the document (page 55) we read this astonishing account of child subjects displaying mind-over-matter trying to make changes in objects in a sealed cardboard box, apparently through mind-over-matter, without breaking the seals:

"The first subject was Tsering Jwolka, a twelve year old Tibetan girl. On the first test she successfully set a watch ahead 30 minutes, then she set it backwards 37 minutes. On the second test she closed a lock in six minutes. On the third test she opened the lock in four minutes, on the the fourth test she closed the lock again in two minutes. 

The second subject was Nima, a 13 year old Tibetan girl. On the first test she threaded a nut on a bolt in 30 minutes. On the second test she unknotted a string in ten minutes. On the third test she opened a lock in four minutes. 

The third test subject was 11 year Han nationality girl, Liu... On the first test she opened a lock in 39 minutes. In the second test she unscrewed a nut from a bolt in 30 minutes, and in the third test she was unsuccessful in attempting to knot a string. 

The fourth subject was 10 year old Han nationality girl, Xu (X). In the first test she was unsuccessful in knotting a string after 30 minutes. In the second test she unknotted a string in three minutes. In the third test she unknotted a string in 27 minutes. In the third test she unknotted a string in 12 minutes. 

The fifth subject was ten year old Han nationality girl, Chen (X) (X). her first test she unknotted a string in 12 minutes. In the second test she opened a lock in 22 minutes. In the third test she was unsuccessful in threading a nut on a bolt after 30 minutes. In 

The sixth subject was nine year old Han nationality boy, Chen (X). In his first test he unknotted a string in 30 minutes. In his second test he threaded a nut on a bolt in seven minutes. His third test was to be unscrewing the nut from the bolt. This was not attempted. 

In all of these tests, the test object was in a cardboard box. The cardboard box was sealed with tape. A special symbol was marked along the edge of the tape."

On page 66 we have a first-hand report which sounds like one of many cases of medical clairvoyance, in which a clairvoyant is able to mysteriously see inside the human body.  The reported results are very impressive. The main deficiency from an evidence standpoint is that the narrator is not identified. We read this:

" 'X-ray vision' is one form of manifestation of the human psychic function. This kind of vision is not really 'X-ray' vision, but is where the psychic uses his eyes to inspect the inner structure of the human body, does a comparison of normal and abnormal, and thus comes up with a diagnosis. Therefore, in this article I will talk a little about what I have learned from experience through many years of diagnosing diseases through 'X-ray vision' into the human body so others may use it for reference. I am a nurse in a hospital. Thus it is very convenient for me to do diagnosis through 'X-ray vision'. "

The author provides the table below, which indicates a very high success rate. 

We read some case accounts by the author in which claims are made of successful diagnosis through clairvoyance.  No one who has carefully studied the 19th century reports of clairvoyance (often written by doctors) will be very surprised by this part of the Chinese document. In the 19th century it was very often reported that in a state of hypnosis some clairvoyants would be able to see into the human body, and make many a correct diagnosis about medical problems that the unaided human eye could not see. 

After hearing of such wonders, we should remember why we should not be surprised to hear of mysterious powers of the human mind. The reason is that a human mind is something utterly beyond the understanding of physical science.  The most basic powers of the human mind (such as learning, instant recall of relevant information, recognition, imagination, insight and the persistence of memories for decades) are powers utterly beyond any credible explanation by neuroscientists, who offer nothing but vacuous jargon-laden hand-waving when asked to explain such powers.  No learned information has ever been found in a brain through the microscopic examination of brain tissue. Nothing in a brain bears the slightest resemblance to any system for permanently storing or instantly retrieving learned information. We know the type of things that allow the permanent storage and instant retrieval of information in physical systems: things such as components for writing information, components for reading information,  stable and easily navigable writing surfaces,  sorting, addresses and indexes. The brain has no such things. No scientist has any credible theory of how any of the very many types of things that humans remember could be encoded as brain states or synapse states. Because we lack any credible neural explanation for the basic powers of human minds, there is no credibility in trying to exclude accounts of mysterious powers of minds by saying "a brain could not do that." Almost every human mind does every day many things that brains could never do. 

The latest result of an ESP test is the result reported on page 62 of the year 2025 document here. It is a test of 240 participants conducted at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland's largest university), by two professors. The researchers used the long-successful Ganzfeld protocol, which for many years has produced results of around 30% to 32%,  well above the result expected by chance (only 25%).  The tests were done in a "ganzfeld laboratory" in a "quiet and secure basement room of a university building," in the years 2023 and 2024. We read that "Seventy-two hits were obtained out of 240 sessions, a 30% hit-rate," a success well above the result expected by chance, only 25%.

Scientist Flubs and Flops #8

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• "Fundamentally, we have a poor understanding of how any internal organ forms." -- Timothy Saunders, developmental biologist (link).
• "Biochemistry cannot provide the spatial information needed to explain morphogenesis...Supracellular morphogenesis is mysterious...Nobody seems to understand the origin of biological and cellular order."  -- Six medical authorities (link).  
• "Quite simply, scientists' supposed referred expertise about fields of science distant from their own is nearly always based on mythologies about science rather than science itself." -- H.M. Collins and R. Evans, "THE THIRD WAVE OF SCIENCE STUDIES: STUDIES OF EXPERTISE AND EXPERIENCE."
• "This is mostly in line with a sobering recent realization of NIH in the US that around 90% [of] all biology science results are NOT repeatable. Scientist publish what worked not a majority of experiments that do not, even if this is the same experiment." -- Boginslaw Stec PhD (link). 
• "My experiences at four research universities and as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research fellow taught me that the relentless pursuit of taxpayer funding has eliminated curiosity, basic competence, and scientific integrity in many fields. Yet, more importantly, training in 'science' is now tantamount to grant-writing and learning how to obtain funding. Organized skepticism, critical thinking, and methodological rigor, if present at all, are afterthoughts....American universities often produce corrupt, incompetent, or scientifically meaningless research that endangers the public, confounds public policy, and diminishes our nation’s preparedness to meet future challenges....Universities and federal funding agencies lack accountability and often ignore fraud and misconduct. There are numerous examples in which universities refused to hold their faculty accountable until elected officials intervened, and even when found guilty, faculty researchers continued to receive tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars. Those facts are an open secret: When anonymously surveyed, over 14 percent of researchers report that their colleagues commit fraud and 72 percent report other questionable practices....Retractions, misconduct, and harassment are only part of the decline. Incompetence is another....The widespread inability of publicly funded researchers to generate valid, reproducible findings is a testament to the failure of universities to properly train scientists and instill intellectual and methodologic rigor. That failure means taxpayers are being misled by results that are non-reproducible or demonstrably false." Edward Archer PhD, "The Intellectual and Moral Decline in Academic Research," (link).
• "The images from a total of 20,621 papers published in 40 scientific journals from 1995 to 2014 were visually screened. Overall, 3.8% of published papers contained problematic figures, with at least half exhibiting features suggestive of deliberate manipulation....The results demonstrate that problematic images are disturbingly common in the biomedical literature and may be found in approximately 1 out of every 25 published articles containing photographic image data."  -- Bik, Casadevall and Fang, "The Prevalence of Inappropriate Image Duplication in Biomedical Research Publications" (link). 
• "I am merely pointing out that a large proportion of our scientists are being subsidized by the government in the name of might, and none, to my knowledge, in the name of right. Here we have science in an age of rampant nationalism and materialism." -- Harvard psychologist Henry Murray (link). 
• "Can so many scientists have been wrong over the eighty years since 1925? Unhappily yes. The mainstream in science...is often wrong...Scientists are often tardy in fixing basic flaws in their sciences despite the presence of better alternatives. Think of the half century it took American geologists to recognize the truth of drifting continents, a theory proposed in 1915 by -- of all  eminently ignorable people -- a German meteorologist." -- economist Stephen Thomas Ziliak (link).