Matthew C, I read the introduction and chapters 1 and 3. Are you sure you meant chapter 3? It does not seem to say what you think it says. Most of it is a description of placebos and other psychosomatic effects. It also discusses some events that are unlikely in isolation but seem trivially within the realm of chance given 100 years and approaching 7 billion people. There is also a paragraph with no numbers saying it can’t just be chance.
It feels kind of like asking everyone in the country to flip a coin 25 times, then calling the 18 or so people who have continuous streaks psychics. And ignoring that all-heads and all-tails both count. And maybe also counting the people who got HHHHHTTTTTHHHHHTTTTTHHHHH or HTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTH or such. Survivorship and publication bias and all that.
There were a few things that might have fallen outside those obvious mistakes, but given the quality of analysis, I did not feel a pressing need to check that they reported their sources properly, that their sources reported theirs properly, and that there was no deception etc. involved. This Stevenson fellow might be worth pursuing, but it seems likely that he is just the archivist of the one-in-a-million events that continuously happen with billions of people. I feel compelled to read on, however, by the promise that not only identity but also skills can survive bodily death. I am picturing a free-floating capacity for freecell or ping-pong, just looking for somewhere to reincarnate. Sadly, I do not expect the text to be that fun.
If I could give you extra points I would.
Many thanks for actually having read this stuff, then given us a clear explanation of what it entails… so we don’t have to bother :)
Matthew C, I read the introduction and chapters 1 and 3. Are you sure you meant chapter 3? It does not seem to say what you think it says. Most of it is a description of placebos and other psychosomatic effects. It also discusses some events that are unlikely in isolation but seem trivially within the realm of chance given 100 years and approaching 7 billion people. There is also a paragraph with no numbers saying it can’t just be chance.
It feels kind of like asking everyone in the country to flip a coin 25 times, then calling the 18 or so people who have continuous streaks psychics. And ignoring that all-heads and all-tails both count. And maybe also counting the people who got HHHHHTTTTTHHHHHTTTTTHHHHH or HTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTHTH or such. Survivorship and publication bias and all that.
There were a few things that might have fallen outside those obvious mistakes, but given the quality of analysis, I did not feel a pressing need to check that they reported their sources properly, that their sources reported theirs properly, and that there was no deception etc. involved. This Stevenson fellow might be worth pursuing, but it seems likely that he is just the archivist of the one-in-a-million events that continuously happen with billions of people. I feel compelled to read on, however, by the promise that not only identity but also skills can survive bodily death. I am picturing a free-floating capacity for freecell or ping-pong, just looking for somewhere to reincarnate. Sadly, I do not expect the text to be that fun.
If I could give you extra points I would. Many thanks for actually having read this stuff, then given us a clear explanation of what it entails… so we don’t have to bother :)