Mod+ NEW WEBSITE: Near-death experiences more than dreams, study says.

Alex

Administrator
Last edited:
I am really confused.

1) Alex's title (above) isn't a clickable link.

2) When I follow K9's link, I get here:
http://www.skeptiko.com/near-death-...t-neurosciences-denial-of-ndes-undaunted-285/

However, this doesn't seem to contain a podcast link!

3) The first of the MP3 links here:

http://www.skeptiko.com/past-shows-2/past-shows/

has a title relating to the new NDE study, but actually contains Alex's 6 minute introduction to the new website.

4) Is the new website actually an extension of www.skeptiko.com?

I guess these are probably just teething problems.

David
 
Last edited:
I am really confused.

1) Alex's title (above) isn't a clickable link.

2) When I follow K9's link, I get here:
http://www.skeptiko.com/near-death-...t-neurosciences-denial-of-ndes-undaunted-285/

However, this doesn't seem to contain a podcast link!

3) The first of the MP3 links here:

http://www.skeptiko.com/past-shows-2/past-shows/

has a title relating to the new NDE study, but actually contains Alex's 6 minute introduction to the new website.

4) Is the new website actually an extension of www.skeptiko.com?

David
Have you listened?
 
I can't find a link to the NDE podcast - have you found it?

David
Alex makes it clear in the 6 minute podcast that he is offering different types of content (e.g. articles/papers etc, instead of interviews) in an effort to get info out more frequently. This is one of those weeks...
 
I am really confused.

1) Alex's title (above) isn't a clickable link.

2) When I follow K9's link, I get here:
http://www.skeptiko.com/near-death-...t-neurosciences-denial-of-ndes-undaunted-285/

However, this doesn't seem to contain a podcast link!

3) The first of the MP3 links here:

http://www.skeptiko.com/past-shows-2/past-shows/

has a title relating to the new NDE study, but actually contains Alex's 6 minute introduction to the new website.

4) Is the new website actually an extension of www.skeptiko.com?

I guess these are probably just teething problems.

David
link prob fixed.

I didn't think about adding the intro mp3 to this article, but have done that now. I think it was always in the feed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tim
Getting back to the NDE content!

Robert Mays seems to be stating in a more formal way something that we have all commented on many times on Skeptiko.

1) It is inconsistent to treat NDE's as hallucinations, or indeed as " ‘flashbulb memories’ of hallucinations", when NDE's demonstrably contain factual information about events while they were in progress!

2) Physiological explanations of NDE's are very weak. Also, I would add that these attempted explanations never come to terms with the highly relevant content of NDE's.

I would say that this piece is going to be useful to people starting to explore Skeptiko, because it states the real problem of NDE's in a very concise form.

What is remarkable, however, is the way in which otherwise intelligent researchers have avoided putting 2 and 2 together for so long - and will probably continue to do so!

David
 
  • Like
Reactions: tim
I'm not a very good writer, but I'd be willing to write the occasional article about studies which don't get anywhere near enough attention...

But I'm not sure Alex would want articles with my sort of slant on his website. I'm not in either camp...
 
@Alex: could you explain a bit more about what you mean by helping to "curate content" for the website? You explained it to me, but I'm still not entirely sure I get it. I think you don't mean necessarily writing articles for the website, but if we come across an interesting bit of news, etc., that is Skeptiko-ish, that could get "shared" somehow with the site. But I'm still not exactly clear on what the different types of content would be (news items? something we come across in a book? interesting videos?), and that would get incorporated into the website. Would all those bits and pieces get a number like your podcast, or a website page? (It seems to me that in this case there would be a potential problem of cluttering the website, and losing instead of gaining potential new Skeptiko website visitors: if they come and discover/think it's a podcast, but every "number" or more is not a podcast, that could get potentially confusing and make people lose interest.*) Or are you thinking of adding that stuff to tweets and Facebook articles that we then connect to Skeptiko?

I think you may want us to discuss all of this stuff here on this forum page. But maybe you could help get us started a bit more.

(*On this point: maybe you could have another area, or a sidebar, where those things get linked, rather than a numbered podcast-type page.)
 
Getting back to the NDE content!

Robert Mays seems to be stating in a more formal way something that we have all commented on many times on Skeptiko.

1) It is inconsistent to treat NDE's as hallucinations, or indeed as " ‘flashbulb memories’ of hallucinations", when NDE's demonstrably contain factual information about events while they were in progress!

2) Physiological explanations of NDE's are very weak. Also, I would add that these attempted explanations never come to terms with the highly relevant content of NDE's.

I would say that this piece is going to be useful to people starting to explore Skeptiko, because it states the real problem of NDE's in a very concise form.

What is remarkable, however, is the way in which otherwise intelligent researchers have avoided putting 2 and 2 together for so long - and will probably continue to do so!

David
the other thing this brought up for me is the assumption by neuroscience that they could avoid the scientific question about memories. it's laughable really... these guys spout off ridiculous speculations and never consider asking, "gee how could we study that."
 
I'm not a very good writer, but I'd be willing to write the occasional article about studies which don't get anywhere near enough attention...

But I'm not sure Alex would want articles with my sort of slant on his website. I'm not in either camp...
I hope you give it a try. The easiest (but in some ways hardest) way to start is with a title. Send me an email (or conversation here in the forum) with a title and we can take it from there.
 
@Alex: could you explain a bit more about what you mean by helping to "curate content" for the website? You explained it to me, but I'm still not entirely sure I get it. I think you don't mean necessarily writing articles for the website, but if we come across an interesting bit of news, etc., that is Skeptiko-ish, that could get "shared" somehow with the site. But I'm still not exactly clear on what the different types of content would be (news items? something we come across in a book? interesting videos?), and that would get incorporated into the website. Would all those bits and pieces get a number like your podcast, or a website page? (It seems to me that in this case there would be a potential problem of cluttering the website, and losing instead of gaining potential new Skeptiko website visitors: if they come and discover/think it's a podcast, but every "number" or more is not a podcast, that could get potentially confusing and make people lose interest.*) Or are you thinking of adding that stuff to tweets and Facebook articles that we then connect to Skeptiko?

I think you may want us to discuss all of this stuff here on this forum page. But maybe you could help get us started a bit more.

(*On this point: maybe you could have another area, or a sidebar, where those things get linked, rather than a numbered podcast-type page.)
Hi Ian... lot to pull apart there.

1. I don't think there will be a problem mixing podcast episodes and other posts on the site. What problems do you foresee? As far as numbering, I plan on only numbering podcast episodes.

2. As far as what kind of content... I think that's pretty easy as well... heck, folks share really good stuff on the forum all the times... some of this should make it onto the site.

3. As far as curating... consider the original article Robert posted:
http://iands.org/news/news/research...-nde-memories-are-not-of-imagined-events.html
versus my version:
http://www.skeptiko.com/near-death-...t-neurosciences-denial-of-ndes-undaunted-285/
small tweaks make it a better fit for Skeptiko.
 
I think you may want us to discuss all of this stuff here on this forum page. But maybe you could help get us started a bit more.
if your interested in helping me bring news and other articles to skeptiko, I'd suggest you check out:
-
- http://www.slideshare.net/Upworthy/lessons-learned-from-the-front-lines-of-missiondriven-media
- http://www.slideshare.net/Upworthy/how-to-make-that-one-thing-go-viral-just-kidding?related=1

they influenced my thinking re curating content.
 
The guys from Mysterious Universe do a fairly good job of presenting both a podcast and written material.
exactly... there's a transition from what we have to what's new, but once we get past that I think it will feel natural.
 
They have some pretty steady contributors. (The usual suspects for their line of work.) And you can view articles by category. I give them fairly high marks for the quality of their content. They don't just throw anything online. I think they set a fairly good example of what can be done.
 
I think the non-podcast material should be accessible via some sort of multi-level menu structure (2 or maybe even 3 levels), because if it grows substantially,it will be impossible to navigate otherwise. So we might have:

Consciousness
Death -related experiences (NDE's and deathbed phenomena)
How much recent science can we trust?
ESP/precognition/animal experiments
Unidentified flying objects
Physics and the paranormal
Dreams
Related podcasts on other sites
etc.

Each of these would break down further, and many might link directly to quality internet links on other sites (that way it might grow very fast). I think a lot of us have quality links that we would propose.

The list of podcasts would retain its linear structure, but there could still be cross links from the menu structure.

I would suggest that it might be best if people could not attach comments directly to such material, because troll comments might get attached without people noticing for some time because a lot of this material would be primarily for newcomers.

David
 
I think that the current numbering system should only apply to podcasts. There should be some distinct separation between podcasts and other material, clearly signposted on the home page. I'm also with David that we could usefully sub-categorise material. I'd imagine some broad navigation structure such as:

(On Home Page)

Aim of site​

Latest podcast​

Podcast Library by category
NDEs
UFOs
Remote Viewing
Philosophy (e.g. Bernardo Kastrup)
Psychic detective work
etc...​

Other Materials
Written
Videos
...?​

Link to Skeptiko Web site​

Something like that. If Alex would need any help with this, I'd be happy to contribute, e.g. by classifying the podcasts. A little thought at this stage could prevent future confusion and make it crystal clear what the site was about and how to navigate it.

Just my twopence worth.
 
Hi Ian... lot to pull apart there.

1. I don't think there will be a problem mixing podcast episodes and other posts on the site. What problems do you foresee? As far as numbering, I plan on only numbering podcast episodes.

2. As far as what kind of content... I think that's pretty easy as well... heck, folks share really good stuff on the forum all the times... some of this should make it onto the site.
I hope what I wrote didn't sound critical, Alex. I just wanted to understand a bit more, including what the process of curating includes (I guess it all comes down to whatever material being "curated" means it will be added somewhere on the Skeptiko site). Good to know only the podcasts will be numbered.
 
Back
Top