JackLighter...you seriously have some of the best posts on this forum. Seriously, even though you're new, you say a lot of smart things and have good ideas and advice. But that last post actually hurt my brain. Maybe it's just the lack of sleep or something, but half way through reading that.....my head felt like it might explode.

^ so does mine....

Hello,

I'm sorry, that line of reasoning may have been hard to follow.

I will try to rephrase:

If powers existed and they were capable of impacting the world in a substantial way, they would be apparent. We would see them profoundly demonstrating themselves around us every day, like lightning and thunder.

If they are much more subtle, so subtle that we can't see their effects readily, then they are not really important to us.

Let us suppose you could somehow use telekinetic force to push an atom. Well, so what? I can push millions of atoms with my finger.

Or let us suppose you could use psychic predictions to anticipate random things with unreliable success rates. Well, so what? A statistician can do that already.

When someone is able to reliably demonstrate a 'power' that has a profound impact on our world, only then will it be important. Until then, the possibility of powers is like the possibility of a volcano erupting on a planet 1,000 light years away. It might be true, but it has no impact on my life.

However, these ideas are fun in fiction, and I can suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy a work of art. :-)

Hey JackLighter, it wasn't your line of reasoning, it was just me! I was awake for a really long time when I read that so everything at that point was hard to follow!

It makes perfect sense now and I agree with it. That's a very logical way to look at it.

I wonder how much money has been spent by world governments doing research into what would be described as supernatural powers to gain advantages in war, to gather intelligence, investigate crimes, gain funding for further, more invasive research, etc. I wonder if that has affected our world in any significant way. Were that money to have been invested in other areas, might we have had a nuclear bomb 20 years earlier? Might we have launched into space before the Russians? Might we have a cure for cancer? Would Uri Geller have had a career? Nobody can say for sure, because we cannot examine alternate universes (yet) so we cannot say what effect it has had. Furthermore, if powers were discovered, is is unlikely we would hear about it. The government would keep it quiet so they could manipulate situations more easily where specific abilities give them an advantage. So we likely would never know if it affects our world at any rate.

there is several but I say that the energy chi or ki that it is known as energy in east
it interns it is kind of a being able to energy

Umm okay

You guys GOTTA see this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxogo0sMFBM

I exhibit a strong sense of empathy, The other thing is something I can't prove but I have a tingling sensation in my hands and I can make it come and go and it's not medically related. I've tried to research it but I can't find anything on it. What I do believe is the tingling is energy like Chi but I have no way to prove this.

Whether or not superhuman powers can exist in theory isn't really the relevant issue to us. It should be whether we can develop abilities with practical uses that we can consistently rely on in the real world.

You're welcome to experiment, of course, but I think you'll find in most cases that the answer is "no."

I have some belief in magic and rely on it in my life, but it's not like casting spells and stuff. It's kinda like luck.

Chivalry, I have experienced these same phenomenae. As for the empathy, if someone near me is in pain, I get a sympathetic pain in the opposite side. It doesn't always happen, and I attribute it to an over-active imagination. But who knows?? As for the tingling fingers, that is more easily explained. The body is surrounded by a magnetic field, and you are having moments where you are more conscious of it. Put your hands up at eye level and about 6 inches apart, palms facing eachother. Now picture yourself holding a rubber ball and that you are squeezing it. Don't flex your hands, but slowly bring them toward eachother while feeling the resistance of the ball. Soon you wil feel very real resistance. That is your magnetic field. You can eventually extend your hands much farther and get the same sensation. You can also tap a finger on one hand, and feel it in the corresponding finger of the other hand. There's a ton of practical applications for this, and anyone willing to train properly can do them.

I can change a poopy diaper in less than 15 seconds...and that's thorough

it's called a "personal area network", some call it an aura, but it is a field of static electricity our bodies generate. ever grabbed the antennae from a tv when it is on and the reception gets better? thats an effect of it. some people are just more in tune to them than others in being able to see/sense them.

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Interesting info about "chi"

Interesting subject. The first thing I'd ask is, what exactly qualifies as super powers? It is a fact proven by application of scientific method in a controlled environment that there are people with abilities that go well beyond the norm. In fact, there are even known mutants with abilities simply unobtainable by the average person. Lance Armstrong is one example. His lung capacity and resting heart rate are significantly better than can be explained through simple training. In fact it has been suggested that this provides him with an unfair advantage. Then there is the example of double muscling which, while not actually making someone double strong, does appear to offer advantages Joe Average doesn't have. I can't recall his name but there was a pro baseball player whose brain was able to process images 50% faster thus providing him with a significant advantage over his peers.

On a personal note, since being diagnosed with Asperger's I've done a lot of research and there are some respected experts of the opinion that Autism Spectrum Disorders may be an entirely natural evolutionary function of the human brain, only made awkward by the fact that the evolution is only partially complete and not yet part of mainstream humanity. I have far above average lateral thinking abilities and can make intuitive leaps based on obsessive partially-concious pattern identification. Does this mean I have superpowers?

And what about abilities granted by unnatural elements? Some of my favorite comic book characters were given "Super Soldier Serums" or bathed in radiation, or the subject of experimentation. In real life there are runners who've lost their legs and had them replaced with sping-function prosthetics that allow for such powerful strides there is serious debate over if they should be allowed to compete against "fully organic" runners.

What about drug addicts who can sustain massive injuries without pause?

Do all of these qualify as, "Super Powers?"

Gadgetastic?

As a person who has been homeless
I will share that what you hold in your mind as you are looking
at a person matters.

Also, if you are homeless, you learn to trust your feelings.


It isn't a superpower.
It's an aware human, undistracted by teachings
or day-dreams -
simply paying attention

If you are looking at a person and thinking in your mind that this person is a dork,

tiny bits of your mood will be there.

If you can manage to think of the person in a way that the person will find flattering,
you - might - be able to lean toward a change of mood in the situation

PS. not the way that YOU would flatter the person,
the way that the other person would find flattering


Picturing a person in a weak way and ramping that up can elicit panic

that is why I recommend flattery

I honor your suggestions