> > I am not sure if I wish I had the full explanation or I am relieved
> > that I *don't* have it,
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> I have a lot of experience as a chemist, and I can tell you that your
> efforts in this direction are totally misguided.
You are recurring to a partial authority phallacy. Maybe you have never
threw to think in that direction... There have been several cases of
spontaneous combustion... The possiblity is real, though of course you
can
> I also have some experience observing paranoia, and I would recommend
> you should see a mental health professional. Unfortunately, at such an
> early stage of the disorder, denial is very common, so such
> recommendations are roundly ignored.
I would be more careful when diagnosing at a distance if I were a
medic. It denotes that you haven't read all my posts and you haven't
read "theory of Conspiracy Theory" either. Paranoia: a mental illness
where an individual feels persecuted by governmental agencies for no
apparent reason, usually accompanied by megalomania, where the
individual believes to be the depositary of a Big Secret and the most
important man in the world....
I wonder, how come such a characteristic illness appear in the
extraordinary well balanced set of processes that form a human mind?
What was the form of paranoia when we were not *REALLY* organized as a
society with governmental agencies? Can we really assume that a primal
fear of being persecuted by Big Animals in the wilderness evolved as
the fear of being persecuted by Governmental Agencies ( particularly
the CIA, the quintessential government agency guilty of all abuses...
)? Is it really intelligent to assume that THERE ARE NO CONSPIRACIES IN
THE WORLD< THAT THERE ARE NO OBSERVED INDIVIDUALS, OR PERSECUTED
INDIVIDUALS, THAT NOBODY CAN BE SO IMPORTANT AS TO BE ACTUALLY THE
VICTIM OF SUCH OBSERVATIONS, THAT NOBODY CAN BE ACTUALLY PERSECUTED,
THAT ALL PERSECUTORS ARE ACTUALLY VERY OBVIOUS?
Paranoia is a modern construction based on the observation of real
cases of perturbed behaviours during the middle ages and just before
the "birth" of psychology and psychiatry as such. Obviously you have
read my "possibility of telepath" (undeniable). So... an alternate
explanation is that there is an actual pattern of behaviour originating
in an purposeful effort at destabilizing an individual by creating in
him an "alternate reality", based on difficult to corroborate but
plausible facts that after repetition make the individual believe in
their possibility if not actual reality and make him or her act in
forms that are to the advantage of the initiating party. Think of this:
if you suffer a robbery, there is no evidence left! The same applies to
many "issues" that once raised you cannot corroborate but make you
wonder. You don't know if you smell bad to others; if I tell you you
smell bad (or I pay a few individuals to sneer at you when passing by)
you may end up with compulsive cleaning, particularly if the message is
repeated *AFTER* you cleaned yoyurself to conscience. I hope now my
point was made... and you have things to think about.
To be honest, I wrote many governmental agencies to complain of an
unfair persecution based in the robbery of a patent and patentable
material in the form of a hard drive, a computer... and a real
persecution by criminals through two countries and five cities. It
looks like it escalated...
Dyslexia: an illness in which a man or a woman type more rapidly than
Windows is able to serialize the WM_KEY messages, usually accompanied
by sloppy programming on the part of text editor application
programmers.
> You may try fitting yourself for a foil hat.
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=%22foil+hat%22&btnG=Search
I don't know... what would a Rabbi think of it? I am sure that there is
a very old lore with a rational cause that Rabbis may care to explain
better than I can do.
> Tom Davidson
> Richmond, VA
Paul Cardinale - 08 Jun 2005 02:21 GMT
[snip]
> I would be more careful when diagnosing at a distance if I were a
> medic. It denotes that you haven't read all my posts and you haven't
> read "theory of Conspiracy Theory" either. Paranoia: a mental illness
> where
Wrong. Paranoia is not an mental illness. However it is a symptom that
is very common in schizophrenia.
Paul Cardinale
tadchem - 08 Jun 2005 14:19 GMT
> > > I am not sure if I wish I had the full explanation or I am relieved
> > > that I *don't* have it,
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> You are recurring to a partial authority phallacy.
I believe the word you wanted to use is "fallacy".
The "explosive reactions in the stomach" are not acid-base reactions.
A-B reactions produce heat, water, and salts under most circumstances.
If carbonates are involved, a secondary product is carbon dioxide gas.
Explosions require pre-mixed oxidizers and fuels (in a limited range of
proportions) and a triggering event. The only acids that are oxiders
are not normally found in the human stomach.
> Maybe you have never
> threw to think in that direction...
I do not understand the phrase "threw to think." Is this a literal
translation of some idiom in your native language?
> There have been several cases of
> spontaneous combustion...
Few have been witnessed in progress. Those that can be investigated are
consistent with the *slow* burning of human tallow (body fat) with
textiles (usually clothing or upholstered furniture) provide the
necessary wicking action. See for example
http://skepdic.com/shc.html
http://www.csicop.org/si/9611/shc.html
http://www.askmen.com/toys/special_feature/33_special_feature.html
and especially the first paragraph of this:
http://www.askmen.com/toys/special_feature/33b_special_feature.html
> The possiblity is real, though of course you
> can
<Where were you going with this thought?>
The *possibility* is arguably real, but the *likelihood* is miniscule
to the point of negligibility.
> I would be more careful when diagnosing at a distance if I were a
> medic. It denotes that you haven't read all my posts and you haven't
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> individual believes to be the depositary of a Big Secret and the most
> important man in the world....
Wrong. Paranoia is a *symptom* and may be associated with several
mental disorders. For example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid_personality_disorder
The imagined 'persecutor' is usually perceived as intentionally
malevolent, and is rarely seen, but is not necessarily a 'government
agency'. The recent fears of 'Satanists', hostile aliens, and the
medieval fears of witches can all qualify as paranoia.
> I wonder, how come such a characteristic illness appear in the
> extraordinary well balanced set of processes that form a human mind?
Again, paranoia is a symptom, not an illness. Schizophrenia (the
disorder most often associated with paranoia) has been associated with
actual damage to certain parts of the brain.
> > You may try fitting yourself for a foil hat.
> > http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=%22foil+hat%22&btnG=Search
>
> I don't know... what would a Rabbi think of it? I am sure that there is
> a very old lore with a rational cause that Rabbis may care to explain
> better than I can do.
Rabbis are not necessarily rational:
http://www.jewishmag.com/26mag/golem/golem.htm
Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA
Zerge - 08 Jun 2005 19:27 GMT
> > > I am not sure if I wish I had the full explanation or I am relieved
> > > that I *don't* have it,
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> society with governmental agencies? Can we really assume that a primal
> fear of being persecuted by Big Animals in the wilderness
Not Big Animals, but other cavemen, sure. "I think Atuk is out to get
me".
evolved as
> the fear of being persecuted by Governmental Agencies ( particularly
> the CIA, the quintessential government agency guilty of all abuses...
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> VICTIM OF SUCH OBSERVATIONS, THAT NOBODY CAN BE ACTUALLY PERSECUTED,
> THAT ALL PERSECUTORS ARE ACTUALLY VERY OBVIOUS?
Sure. Just not you :)
> Paranoia is a modern construction based on the observation of real
> cases of perturbed behaviours during the middle ages and just before
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
> > Tom Davidson
> > Richmond, VA
You are an absolutely fascinating mental case Fabrizio. If I where a
shrink I would write a research paper on you.
Let me ask you something. You asks of us to consider the possiblity
that you really ARE being harassed by the government. OK. I will assign
it a probability greater than zero. But I ask something of you in
return: assign a possibility greater than zero that you have a mental
disease, and then go see a doctor just in case. Just in case.