Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Licauco is 90% vacuum

Someone had the radio on last Sunday and I overheard Jimmy Licauco spouting off inanities and pseudoscientific bosh yet again (that seems to be his life-purpose). Besides the hynpotherapy psychobabble he was promoting, this aging meathead repeated yet again the urban legend that we use only 10% of our brain. This was a standard line in the Silva Method classes (Licauco was a Silva lecturer before his rift with that org). After a quarter of a century he still has not a clue that he's been spreading rank disinformation with this memetic virus (should we order General Lumibao to take over his show then?)

Unrelated to the above Jimmy took a beating on The New England Skeptical Society's February 8 podcast. In an article of his Licauco claimed that paranormal phenomena are outside the compass and competence of science to investigate. And yet in the very same piece he name-drops and provides purportedly scientific studies that he says lend support to the existence of the paranormal. What was so egregious is that Jimmy was completely oblivious to the fact that he was utterly contradicting himself in his own article. If the paranormal is outside the purview of science then no scientific study will ever confirm or refute the paranormal, and therefore presenting scientific evidence would be futile and contradicts the very epistemological principle he offered. Licauco wants to have his cake and eat it too (maybe illogic is the rule in never-never land). And as if that weren't bad enough Jimmy gets hit by a double whammy when we take a look at the evidence that he used to shore up his belief in the paranormal. These studies have all been scrutinized a long time ago and found to be flawed! The conclusions from them are as real as the 10% myth.

Will Licauco ever reach enlightenment? Not if Jimmy continues to use only 10% of his grey matter.

Seriously though, I pity his audience. Pseudoscientists ought to be kept away from microphones, printing presses, and the Net. As if we don't have enough nonsense out there corrupting our intellect, we have the likes of Licauco enthusiastically and cluelessly giving their thumbs up to all these claptrap...and adding to them.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ideas, principles, theories etc. that can not be proven scientifically at its present state may not necessarily be wrong or untrue. It was once believed that the erath was the center of the universe. Science during that period of time could not prove it otherwise.

Now we know that to be incorrect.
Science finally caught up with this
fact. Science has a long way to go
to be capable of proving or dispro ving a lot of paranormal things. It has not disproved telepathy for example.

In my opinion Jimmy Licauco did not
contradict himself when he cited
scientists who did experiments
with results supporting ESP and the
like. Only the procedures were scientific.

Has science proven the existence of God? No! but we all believe that God exists. Do you? I think you do.

There are a lot of things we as a
civilization still do not know. Making conclusions, with our limited
knowledge, about our existence on earth at this point in time is not
wise.

erebusnyx said...

"Ideas, principles, theories etc. that can not be proven scientifically at its present state may not necessarily be wrong or untrue."

Basically correct. The corollary to the above is that the claim isn't necessarily true or real either. So the rational thing to do is to wait for evidence and not invest your entire brain and believe in it.


"It was once believed that the erath was the center of the universe. Science during that period of time could not prove it otherwise."

And so you're implying that maybe in a thousand years you'll be vindicated. Well, I'm not holding my breath. But I see that you really are looking very blue.

Maybe instead of waiting you should start doing something to provide evidence your claim. Do you have anything concrete at all, something that actually passes muster?


"Science has a long way to go to be capable of proving or dispro ving a lot of paranormal things. It has not disproved telepathy for example."

Ever heard of the burden of proof, Jimmy or whoever you are? You believers in these fantastical claims are the ones who shoulder the responsibility of providing evidence for your ridiculous claims.

You'll probably find the following a good read: Skeptico's rundown of paranormalists' accomplishments in history.


"In my opinion Jimmy Licauco did not contradict himself when he cited scientists who did experiments with results supporting ESP and the like. Only the procedures were scientific."

The studies he cites are allegedly scientific not least because the procedures employed were scientific. Yeah? And so it's no contradiction that Jimmy said the paranormal is outside the domain of science to investigate and then proceeded to offer scientific investigations as evidence for the paranormal?

Go back to Jimmy's article. Here, I've done the legwork for you. Straight from the horse's mouth:

"But what if we were dealing with nonphysical reality, for example ghosts, astral projection, paranormal phenomena--things clearly outside the scope of science? How could we rely on science to guide us? It could not, not because it was wrong but because it was not meant to tackle these areas."

Unless Jimmy excuses himself as badly needing remedial English such that what he wrote isn't what he had in mind, I don't know how it could not be a contradiction. If science is no reliable guide to paranormal phenomena and is not meant to tackle it, then how is it that scientific investigations have, allegedly, provided evidence for the paranormal? Evidence which Jimmy considers reliable enough to advertize, studies which unfortunately for Jimmy and you, have for so long been known to be flawed due to various problems such as methodology.

You woowoos must be hard-wired with nonphysical neurons.


"Has science proven the existence of God? No! but we all believe that God exists. Do you? I think you do."

Have you Xians proved the existence of God? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that's what counts, you ninny.

And no, I don't believe in your deity. But you believe in my god, His Noodliness the FSM, right? I knew you did (my sixth sense is very well developed).

Anonymous said...

but who the heck is edwardson anyway? He tries to make use of weird language to make it seem he is a scientist of some sort. even if we try to waste our energies listening to this edwardson, its plain and simple that he has worse less proof that would discredit the object of his perverted desire.

Anonymous said...

What object of desire? Oh hahahaha