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strangertheory · 4 years

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i’m sure this has been talked about somewhere but regarding the will has DID/created the upside down theories, what are people speculating the source of his powers to be? like was he experimented on at a young age, or did they come from lonnie/joyce, or what? this has probably been covered but i’m not sure where to find it

I can share with you the two hypothetical interpretations that I myself have considered for the source of characters’ powers in the Stranger Things universe. I don’t want to speak for any other fans that are discussing the possibility that Stranger Things is about a DID System because we all have our own unique thoughts on the way it might play out within the series, and I have yet to speak to a fan that is entirely enthusiastic about the second layer of hypotheticals that I’ve personally considered regarding where characters’ powers come from.

To me: Stranger Things is like an onion. This story has so many possible layers. And as we peel back the layers of what is going on in the story there are new possibilities revealed at every single layer.

I’m going to tell you about the two different layers that I’ve considered regarding where characters’ powers come from and how those powers manifest themselves within the story.

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My “first layer” theory regarding where characters’ powers come from in Stranger Things is that they might be like the X-Men or the espers in Akira and have genetic mutations or evolutionary predispositions to developing their abilities. Agent Connie Frasier appears to be seeking to identify intelligent children in the Hawkins area when she asks Mr. Clarke if he has any students at Hawkins Middle that would be interested in an Indiana AV Club program. It’s implied that the Lab seeks out precocious children for their work because they believe there is a correlation between intelligence and psychic ability. Stranger Things basically offers us the “first layer” explanation that the events of the story are inspired by the historic experiments (and abuses) done by MKUltra on human subjects in the United States in its efforts to unlock the potential of the human mind and potentially control that power and wield it against perceived domestic and international threats. Within this “first layer” theory we can speculate that perhaps children with latent psychic abilities are more likely to learn to control their powers at an early age when they are pressured to do so under extreme circumstances. For El these extreme circumstances could be the abuse that she experienced at the Lab, assuming that she was there her entire life. For Will these extreme circumstances could be Lonnie’s abuse during his early childhood, or extreme circumstances that Will experienced elsewhere (perhaps also at a medical facility or at the Lab.) A person’s instinctive need to have control over their powers while responding to a threat (or after attempting to use those powers very intently and with deep focus within a perfectly calibrated lab environment?) could account for those powers being recognized, used, and trained.

Within the DID Theory the question of which circumstances were the origin-point of El’s powers becomes more vague. Was El created as an alter within the DID System while Will was being abused by Lonnie? Is the Lab and El’s backstory actually a distorted trauma memory that has been fictionalized by the DID System as a defense mechanism? Does the Lab exist as an explanation that the mind subconsciously invented in order to explain to itself the terrible things that happened in a way that it was willing to face and cope with? Or, perhaps, was there a point in time that El emerged from Will’s mind into the real-world and then imprisoned by the lab and experimented on by Dr. Brenner? Do El’s memories of the Lab and Dr. Brenner reflect memories that she experienced as an alter in a DID System while she was still sharing the same body as Will, and Will’s consciousness was dissociating and depersonalizing a traumatic experience that would have otherwise been his own? Or are El’s experiences at the Lab completely separate from Will’s own story?

Before I leap to my “second layer” theory, I’d like to comment that I strongly suspect that we will find out precisely how El and Will’s stories intersect in season 4. I believe that we will find out the way in which Will and El are connected to both Dr. Brenner and the Lab and each other. I look forward to seeing how the writers peel back that layer of the Stranger Things onion. I think it’ll be a huge plot twist and most fans will not see it coming.

Now. My “second layer” hypothetical regarding the way that characters’ powers may (or may not) work in Stranger Things is based on the circumstances that are often faced by alters in a DID System that are called "fictive alters.”

Fictive alters have a fictionalized sense of who they are that is not grounded in the rules that exist in our “real” world. Fictive alters may have superpowers. Sometimes they might be based on a character from a movie or a book or a song that the child was familiar with. The fictional aspects of their identities will be often very real and accessible to them when they are conscious within the internal worlds of the mind and inside the DID System. However, whenever a fictive alter is “fronting” (meaning: when they are conscious of the outside “real” world) then that fictive alter will no longer have superpowers: they will only have whatever abilities that they have learned as an ordinary human person in our world. Within the mind they have their superpowers, and in the real world when they are conscious they will not have superpowers because they are in an ordinary human body with the limitations of an ordinary human body.

Now: why am I summarizing information about fictives? Because one possible hypothetical scenario that I could see being the case with Stranger Things is that it is a story-within-a-story. Perhaps the story that we are watching, which has each of its episodes named as a “chapter,” is being written by a character within the Stranger Things universe. Perhaps this character is telling the story of “what happened.” Maybe what we see in Stranger Things is an imaginative representation of the experiences of alters in a DID System that is explained from their perspectives or explained by a friend retelling their story.

And if this is the case, then I propose a “second layer” hypothetical: perhaps there are no “real” superpowers within the Stranger Things universe at all, and the supernatural events of the series are either taking place within an internal world exclusively or some of the supernatural aspects of the series are supernatural because the character that is writing the story of “what happened” is embellishing the events with their own imagination as they write it. This could mean that although certain characters do have powers within the DID System, their powers only manifest when they are interacting inside internal worlds that exist exclusively within their mind. Or, as another possibility: perhaps their “powers” are merely imaginative explanations that the writer who is sharing “what happened” is granting these characters in order to explain circumstances that they artistically prefer to represent in a more fantastical way. (Ex. My mom threw a plate at me. vs My mom threw a plate at me with her mind.)

Am I effectively saying “many events in the show might simply be taking place within the mind of certain characters?” Yes. Sort of. Am I saying that all events in the show might only take place within the mind of certain characters? No. And even if they did: the “realness” of the story is still, to me, intact. Even if these events are taking place within internal worlds of a DID System the events that we are seeing in the story are based on real memories and experiences that the characters experienced at some point in the “real” world. In this “second layer” theory, I am proposing that characters’ real experiences and memories are being transformed into a creative and fantastical re-telling of “what happened.” This might be part of the mind’s way of coping with traumatic experiences.

I know that many of you reading this are probably thinking “No, no! That’s way too meta for my taste. We need more grounding in the story than creatively-embellished memories alone!” And I completely understand and respect that reaction. It would be quite a dramatic departure from what we currently understand as “true” in the series: even more than if we interpret the story as being about a DID System whose alters (and internal worlds) have supernaturally escaped the mind and become flesh and blood in our real world because characters have the ability to bring them to life.

Even when I do consider the more extreme “none of the powers are real” hypothetical I still think that many characters that we’ve grown to love would be introjects (or NPCs) based on figures that the DID System knows in their “real world.” I argue that those relationships would still have emotional weight and importance and meaning because they are based on real experiences and real feelings: but they might not manifest quite how we expect them to in future plot twists.

I understand if most fans visiting my blog prefer to take the “first layer” interpretation of the DID theory: that there are real psychic powers in the Stranger Things universe and that through supernatural means the alters from the DID System have escaped the mind and have become “real.”

But I wanted to address the “second layer” interpretation that I have considered because if we imagine that all the alters share not only one mind but also one body just like those who have DID in real life: how does that impact our interpretation of each of the events in the series when we re-watch it? To me, the incredible way that certain scenes in the series are transformed by this “second layer” theory’s lens make it worth contemplating this second layer as a possibility whether or not it’s actually what’s going on in the show. Many scenes in Stranger Things take on added depth if you watch them with this concept in mind. I think some scenes become much more powerful within the “nobody has 'real’ powers” interpretation, whether it’s what the creators of Stranger Things had in mind when writing the series or not.

Keep in mind that I entertain multiple hypotheticals at any given time, and sometimes my thoughts regarding what is happening in Stranger Things might appear to contradict each other. I like considering multiple possibilities all at once. I am not devoted to my interpretation that there are no “real” powers. I am equally charmed by the idea that there are real powers and that the alters have escaped the mind into the “real” world in Stranger Things.

Thank you for Asking!

#stranger things #stranger things theory #stranger thing theories #the did theory

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thesagedahlia · 4 years

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🕊Cassie: A Caged Bird Set Free🕊

When it comes to Cassie, I do find it unfortunate that all she ever was associated with was being Diddy's girlfriend for a good chunk of her youth. I always felt she could have been a larger star had she gotten from under Diddy, but I always felt she had potential to take other paths in her career. I truly believe it was the lifestyle that kept Cassie with him, because she never struck me as a "happy woman" being with him. Diddy is a pretty toxic individual, that's plain as day, but I don't feel he would ever own up to abuse that he put ANY of his women through, let alone Cassie (when I say 'abuse', I'm speaking generally & not directly relating this to solely physical abuse). Seeing Cassie with Alex & her new family? THAT'S happiness. No matter what I pick up in the cards I put down, I refuse to deny the complete 180° Cassie's story took; from being on the arm of a powerful mogal, to being with a true soulmate & feeling the high of life. I always believed that Cassie was meant to have a certain lifestyle, & I never saw her wanting to be in the public eye all her life. I never wanted Cassie to stay with Diddy because I knew she was going to want her life back one day, & that's exactly what happened.

**DISCLAIMER**

I am not declaring, nor am I insinuating, that anything I say in my predictions are true accounts of any of the parties involved. This reading is for entertainment purposes only, & should only taken as such. All in good fun, folks 🤷🏾‍♀️🧿

🕊What is Cassie's default demeanor/personality❔

She has a lot of compassionate & divine/magical energy, & she is a person that is always seeking for knowledge. She truly has the best intentions in mind for other people, & she is the type of person to help those in need without expecting anything in return. She has woken up to her self & her own personal power, but she is denying her emotional truth. I get there might be a masculine energy watching over her as well, could be a family member or an ancestor. I feel like when it comes to how she is truly feeling, she is able to trick others into believing that she is okay, & I think she does a lot of that with her husband. He is very protective of her & she likes to ease his worries about how she feels, but I feel like he knows when she's trying to brush off her anxieties/sadness. She does this to avoid a confrontation or conflicting conversation that will upset her. She has coping mechanisms when it comes to leaving people out of her emotional current, & again, this is something that Alex is starting to notice. She is still holding onto her trauma & she hides it with excessive enthusiasm, but she could be coping with either depression or deep sadness. I feel she is coming out of it & she is slowly recovering because she still feels a little defensive when it comes to have something that feels like a blessing to be taken away from her; she has up an emotional wall but Alex is helping it slowly, but surely, come down. What is also showing up here is that she has a love for art of all forms, & she is even talented in many pursuits herself; I feel like she has many more (secret) talents that a lot of people don't know. We definitely don't know Cassie as much as we may seem, there is definitely so much more to her.

��What is surrounding Cassie at this time❓

I'm actually getting a gross energy trying to get to her (I have psychic reasoning to believe it's Diddy), & it honestly feels like it is something that's trying to distress her. I have a feeling Diddy, people from Diddy's camp, who are mutual friends of Diddy, or people close to Diddy, try to get through to her via social media, but they may be people trying to keep tabs for Diddy or he may be trying to get back in with her as a friend, through others. I feel she is suspecting that this person (we can speculate that is Diddy; this person has had a possessive, deceitful energy, & she has a history of love with) well try to gain sympathy for their past together in the public eye. She doesn't seem to trust this person due to a checkered past (now who else would that be?). Meanwhile, Cassie is in a more stable/secure place in her life, & this kind of stress is the last thing she needs. It really feels like a dark cloud that is looming over her & trying to get to her. Either she has been hearing from him recently or she is going to be hearing from him soon. I feel she tries not to let it get to her, but I feel it interferes with her focus on her marriage at times. She has been coming into her own since she released herself from the past, which allowed her to neglect herself by being devoted to a fault. Since releasing from the past, Cassie has been redirected on to her correct path all at once. I still feel she has her days, but her marriage with her husband helps her to heal. She's awakened a lot since Diddy, & she is seeing the truth of her past with him through the emotional fog. She's been working hard to heal her heart chakra, & she feels like she's finally reaching a place of emotional security. I feel a big worry for her is allowing herself to open to abuse, as she's done in the past. I feel there are times where she can't be open about these things with her husband because she doesn't want him to worry about that. She is wanting to move on from the hurt that has been having a hold on her, & she doesn't have any intent on rehashing her past, since there is a lot of sadness she still feels; stuff like trauma that doesn't go away overnight, that will take her some time to heal from.

🕊What was the relationship dynamic between Cassie & Diddy❔

I'll tell you there wasn't much love on either side of the fence within this connection. For Cassie, she is very artistically & intuitively inclined, & she was determined to make a stable foundation for herself. I feel like she was able to keep a professional relationship with Diddy & that was where she wanted to keep it. She even had an entrepreneurial spirit that had plans she wanted to execute. Unfortunately for her, Diddy was in a controlling energy when it came to what was going to be done with her career. Diddy on the other hand had every intention to fulfill a desire, or muse with Cassie. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that he had power to block any opportunities that she could possibly achieved without him. He himself was acting out through a childhood trauma & wounding. Diddy was dealing with a lot of demons (I won't say hes necessarily faced (all of) them) which allowed him to project his saboteur energy on to his relationship with Cassie, which also made its way into her career. Cassie was able to financially capitalize off of the way she looked without compromising the power of her own spirit; then comes Diddy. I won't say that she was forced to stay with him under his will, in fact she was free to do whatever she wanted, but only as long as it was with Diddy & it was within his personal restrictions. She's seen that man's shadow on many occasions, as we can imagine, & as she seen that overtime he allowed them to grow & thrive, much to her disdain. She has thought to leave the situation many a times before actually leaving. Diddy, in many ways, was trying to recapture his youth with Cassie, & it was actually a total drain of her own personal power. They created a toxic trauma/soul tie with each other, which is why Cassie is still uneasy about it & why it took her so long to leave. I don't want to speculate too much regarding pregnancies, but I see a miscarriage or loss of a child being what finally brought her to her senses. She knew she wasn't going to get anything good out of being with him, & she had intense feelings & reasons to believe that he wasn't going to change/grow with her. So their relationship wasn't on a lovey-dovey side, not even in the least bit.

🕊 Will Cassie & Diddy reconnect; as friends❓

For Cassie, right now is a no, & I don't think she's sure about the future for the time being. She's very cognizant of his power & what he is capable of, & she doesn't believe he will change.

As for Diddy, Cassie's expectations seem to be correct, he's not going to be able to grow enough for her. I feel like it will take him to open up his being to heal his trauma; he has too much pride to admit it to himself, let alone heal it. He would not reach out in a genuine manner right now, that's for sure.

🕊 What is surrounding Cassie & Alex Fine's marriage at this time❔

Right now, they seem to be hitting a rough patch, & it seems like there have been instances where Diddy, or people within his camp or close to him, has already trying to reach out & get in touch with Cassie. It feels like they've dealt with the 'elephant's in the room, which was the fact that she is still hearing from him, but Alex still feels a certain type of way about it, though he chooses to mask how he truly feels to his wife. He feels like he is fighting for her, or fighting to be with her, while Cassie finds this connection that she has with Alex to be a spiritually healing one; she has changed a lot, thanks to this marriage. She feels Alex/this connection has rescued her, & she believes this was a blessing/gift from her ancestors. I do feel Alex believes in Cassie's love for him, & he loves/trusts her in return; it's Diddy, & anyone associated with him, is what he doesn't trust. Alex feels Diddy is very unpredictable & unstable, based off of what his wife has told him, but I feel they have been open about nearly everything; what Alex DOESN'T speak on is his disdain & paranoia regarding the whole thing. He has a respect & recognition for her that he heavily rewards her with his loyalty. I feel he is a source for a lot of beautiful words & great advice to offer her as well, & she definitely learns from him, just as he learns from her. I feel Cassie's ancestors come to her & give her guidance dealing with Diddy's pop-ups & she is more aware of how to handle it; which is really to ignore him while she's trying to eject him from her system. It was a point where she would be on the verge of breaking down but her husband has been helping her through that. It really feels like they are trying to get over a dark cloud in their marriage, but they intend to be okay within the connection. I feel Alex has actually posed a threat along the lines of, "If you keep hear from them again, I'm going to say something", & I wouldn't be surprised if he already has. Overall, they're in a happy space together as a couple, & they continue to teach & uplift each other.

🕊 Will the Fine's marriage last for the long haul❓

There is potential for a long lasting marriage, but there is still this conflicting energy that is underlying & leaving one (or both) of them guarded. I'm getting that their meeting was destined & divinely orchestrated & it has room to go far, though there is still an unpredictability that needs sorting out. Despite there being the energy of opposites attracting one another, there is still love here that is unconditional. Concrete emotions/feelings have been established between them, but there is still external strife regarding an expected outcome (of a message). I feel legal action suggested to be taken after concern of this income. This feels like people who have caused stress or who was a part of her past life (with Diddy) that still try to reach out to Cassie, which causes her to have some stresses over it. I feel if a restraining order hasn't already been established, they are in talks with a lawyer about their options; they feel like Diddy is a huge concern for Cassie's mental/emotional health, as if he has ways of getting to her which she may be expectant of (I doubt any of this will be publicized, they plan to have a very private marriage life). I see her ancestors/guides pushing her to heal these parts of her that feels stagnant because of her past. Like I said before, she's getting there despite still having her moments. Despite dealing with this dark cloud energy, Cassie & Alex are actively building towards the future & have a 'wait & see' attitude about everything. There is emotional healing/purging that needs to happen before she could get into a confident place in her marriag, & the sense that she can brief about anxieties from the past. One thing I did see is that Cassie may want to branch out onto her own profession/career that she is passionate about but may be having some fears about how it will go & a part of her is worried that Diddy will be surface in her life in some way. Until she can heal from this trauma, she will be able to fully enjoy her marriage in confidence.

🕊 What lies in the future for Cassie + advice for her❔

Cassie will be facing her own emotional cycles, as well as fulfilling familial obligations. All of this new energy and experiences are able to be teachable on both ends of the spectrum; She is growing & learning with her husband & daughter, & she will be uncovering her true self in the process. She will be going through major changes/cycles that may take her through highs & lows, but it is all in an effort to achieve peace & balance in her life. She isn't finished with dealing with dark days where her emotions are uncontrollable, but she still plans to move forward. She's working through an energy that has made it hard to trust others, but Alex means her well so she is finding it easy to trust him, thereby learning to be open with others again in a more "organically Cassie" way. I feel there is a lot of inner turmoil that she isn't acknowledging or that she is holding onto. Caring for her daughter is helping to teach her patience and love in all forms. There is a duality that needs to be understood instead of oppressed. I also feel she has a lot of ideas/projects that she may want to invest in, but she never acted on that calling because of what she would be up against. I expect her to be very lowkey about her life in the public, as well as her marriage, & she may not even shared these passions or desires with many people. She believes she is destined to heal others through her own healing and that is her exact approach and motive from here on out (a career move she decides to take will probably be a reflection of that). She's allowing her ancestors/spirit team to guide her & she is working on her surrender to trust to the higher workings.

Advice: Cassie may be trying to heal a wounded energy child of hers. She may need to be careful expressing her pain or sadness their self destructive or uncontrolled ways. She has to be careful not to take on the world problems as her own, as well as an undiscovered or unexplored temper/anger that can build-up & manifest into something out of her control. There is also an issue of her being entrapped in her head that may be less than helpful to her. Cassie knees to allow all of herself to crumble what she is clinging on to so she can become inspired again; a 'destroy & rebuild' tactic. She should come to realize all in her life that is beautiful & find faith in being 100% open to any and all possibilities available to her. She needs to focus on lifting the veil around all that she use to allow as truth; she must have more of an questioning approach to everything. Anything unaligned with her spirit will need to be removed from her life, whether by her own doing or by the hand of spirit. She needs to approach things as a mediator for her own personal energy; she needs to be able to have neutral motives or fairness when it comes to herself & others, & she needs to establish the proper boundaries that will protect herself from those who mean her harm.

🕊 BONUS QUESTION:

😤 How does Alex Fine feel about Diddy + his kids (mainly his sons)❓

Alex feels Diddy is plotting behind the scenes, as he has actively tried to get under Cassie, & his, skin. He may be worried that Cassie's grief toward him is romantic, which is far from true. He harbors a lot of resentment for Cassie's past, & he doesn't trust that Diddy won't try to keep resurfacing. He also feels personally that Diddy thinks too highly of himself & his negative judgment of reality. He doesn't agree with his lifestyle, but he feels his motives/actions are coming from a hurt place. Alex's overall view of the Combs' brothers is that they are 'grown up products' of their father & to see them go down a certain route would be unfortunate to him. He also feels grief for 2/3s of the boys' loss of their mother (he slightly feels this grief for Diddy as well, which he feels contributes to his theory), & he finds it unfortunate they don't have a positive influence in their father. He does believe Diddy has some demons & darkness that dwells within him & that he is an unstable person.

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merryfortune · 7 years

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I know Yu-Gi-Oh protagonists have supernatural abilities, but what if Yusaku's ability is due to a lab experiment when he was younger?

This is a Good Question and I am excited to answer it. Would have done it sooner but I was in class when you sent it but now, before I get into Assessment Mode, I’m gonna give you a Good Answer. (and by Good Answer I mean a ridiculously long answer riddled with unnecessary information because I love the sound of my own voice)

My personal pet theory is that Yusaku had this ability prior to any lab experiments. It might have been latent or dormant or something but I am quite certain that it was at least slightly manifested prior to any experiments.

Unfortunately, this pet theory becomes holey when you take into account it is highly likely that Aoi and Go were part of the same experiment and therefore if they were selected by the same criteria as Yusaku then they may have manifested some sort of ability prior but given what we’ve seen so far (which is nothing) my theory breaks.

So from here on out, I’m going to discuss your theory but I just wanted to disclaim I do have a personal pet theory and whilst I like yours, iIm gonna coddle mine for a little bit longer but I will discuss what I like about yours.

Your theory is much more likely; especially in conjunction to other fanon and speculation I’ve seen which is that children with orphan/minimal family backgrounds were screened and likely given some sort of connection to artificial intelligence. And something about birds?????????

Given what we saw in episode 11, it is clear something similar to the Numbers Hunter exams from Kaito/Gauche/Droite’s past might have been going on where skilled Duelists were brought together to test The Limit. Obviously Vrains is diverging from there where they may not have been necessarily looking for skilled Duelists; so maybe more like what Divine was doing with Psychic Duelists in 5D’s. Either way, we are obviously screening for very tough children to Duel.

The voice is interesting because I’ve seen hope and speculation that it belongs to Revolver and that would explain why he and Yusaku share the Three Reasons Quirk without making them family. I’m not big on that and this is just a slightly related tangent.

The tangent I want to connect that piece of information to is that I believe the voice belongs to that of the Artificial Intelligence I believe the children may have been paired with. A sort of either, a) Proto-Ignis or b) one of the other Cyberse AIs or c) a combination of both.

Now back to what you said about other Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonists who have been able to manifest cards out of thin air (or from the Zexal or the Pendulum or the Crimson Dragon or I haven’t watched DM enough to know Yugi and Atem do it) and that’s an interesting point to bring up since out of a l l of them Yusaku has the least bullshit reason to be able to do that. In my opinion, anyway. Storm Access is broken as anything given my understanding of how game mechanics should and should not work; kind of, it’s implied its like a gatcha machine so maybe one day we’ll see someone pull out a genuinely useless card but because its a fucking anime, I doubt that (but I want to hope)

And whilst the previous protagonists have vaguely supernatural reasons to do that (reincarnation among others), Yusaku’s abilities are firmly rooted in that of sci-fi conventions like technopathy or techomancy or whatever you wanna call it.

Their other supernatural abilities of course being body/spirit swapping and fusion among other things. All of which are in root with historic mythologies of some sort be it Egyptian or Aztec which completely diverges with Yusaku who’s powers are revolving around man’s ability to excel through science. This sort of is at odds with Revolver’s speech who likened it to the tale of Prometheus and we can definitely take that as some sort of symbolic significance since it inspired Ignis’ name and plenty of the ‘hell’ symbols regarding Revolver (his hair, his facelessness, the way he talks) and regarding the internet and how it is portrayed as an abyss here and there.

This comes across as contradictory but its kind of not since “experimenting on ESP children” is a very common trope in sci-fi despite the abilities kind of being more of a non-scientific nature. The contradiction blends well with what we’ve seen of subtext regarding Revolver and his hostility towards AIs. And, to quote the judge from the writing comp i went to last night, “the best stories are the ones that are full of contradictions” so if Vrains is one of those stories, it will be interesting to see the ygo spin on it.

All in all, I think it is highly likely given current information that we’ve seen in episode content (not outside content or analysis of the openings/endings), I’d say you are on the right track in thinking the ability may come through arduous development in those testing rooms. It would certainly account for if Aoi and Go never show ‘psychic’ abilities - they were failed test subjects but they’re winners in my eyes

#long post #random asks #vrains #yugioh #vrains spoilers #vrains meta #thank you for this opportunity to spiel i hope i made good points despite the ramblings #real life pine tree

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catholiccom-blog · 7 years

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Prayer, Science, and the Existence of God

Can science find God? If God is defined as a being (or perhaps “the ground of being”) that is neither composed of matter nor confined to a spatial location, then the answer seems to be no. After all, science is limited to explaining the natural, physical world. If God exists beyond that world and is not composed of anything found within it, then he seems to be out of the reach of scientific inquiry.

But even if science can’t “find” God in the same way I can find my car in a parking lot, maybe it can indirectly find him. After all, if God affects the physical world, then couldn’t scientific experiments detect those effects and then infer from them that God exists?

One common interaction between God and the universe that believers and nonbelievers think can be tested is prayer—specifically, intercessory prayer for other people. This testing usually takes the form of “prayer studies” that test whether praying for the sick results in more positive health outcomes.

However, I contend that scientific study of the efficacy of prayer can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God. The reason is summarized in the following three “problems” inherent to any such study.

The Problem of the Control Group

In any experiment, the control group must be observed without the variable that’s being tested for. In this case, that would involve a group of people who are not receiving intercessory healing prayers. Now, it’s easy to create two groups of sick people and then tell a group of volunteers to pray for one of the groups. Meanwhile, researchers observe the other group, of which the volunteers are ignorant, to see how it fares when not prayed for.

But the other group still wouldn’t be a true control group, because there is no way to isolate it from receiving any form of intercessory prayer. What if the friends and family of the people in this group are praying for them? What if a holy woman in rural Nepal prays that “everyone be healed” or that those “who have no one to pray for them” be healed?

Why should we expect God to answer only the prayers of the volunteers in a prayer study and not prayers made by anyone else? This brings us to problem number two with prayer studies.

The Problem of the Test Subject

Testing the effects of intercessory prayer isn’t the same as testing an inanimate force like gravity, because God isn’t a force that is automatically activated when enough prayers are uttered. God is much more like a person than he is a force, and so he might choose to honor or not honor certain requests made through prayer. In fact, it’s been said that God always answers our prayers—it’s just that sometimes the answer is “no.”

Now, science is used to testing the reactions of people and not just forces (psychologists and sociologists do this all the time). But those experiments must be blind or even double blind. The person being tested can’t know that scientists are testing him. But if God is omniscient, then he always knows when he’s being tested. Any experiment involving him can’t be blind and so it probably can’t be scientific.

Here’s an example to explain how omniscience messes up any kind of prayer study.

Suppose we wanted to determine how much time the President spends reviewing different kinds of petitions made to whitehouse.gov (I know the President probably doesn’t read these himself, but let’s imagine he did). Our experiment wouldn’t work if we told the President that we were monitoring his review of the petitions. He might purposefully spend an equal amount of time reviewing each petition in order to deflect the accusation that he cares about some causes but not others. Or he might not dignify our study with his participation, because he can care about all Americans even if he doesn’t grant all of our petitions.

Likewise, if God knows that certain prayers are part of a study, he may choose to not participate in such a study by not answering the prayers of the study’s volunteers. He might do this because he does not want to encourage humans to test him. Or he may have other good reasons for not healing certain ailments. I don’t want to digress into issues related to the problem of evil, including the question of whether God has a moral duty to heal people of certain diseases. I would say he does not, but once again, that’s not the subject of this post.

My main point is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to validly study someone if he is aware you are studying him. This gives us another reason to doubt the validity of prayer studies.

Finally, let’s examine the last problem with these kinds of studies.

The Problem of Interpreting Results

Any study on intercessory prayer will yield one of three results: prayer has a negative effect on patients, prayer has no effect, or prayer has a positive effect. Regardless of what outcome we observe, it does not justify us to conclude anything about God’s existence.

For example, suppose a prayer study showed that intercessory prayer results in worse health outcomes for the recipients of prayer. What should we conclude? I’m not talking about people who were told they’d be prayed for and then got worse (that’s probably due to psychosomatic issues caused by the patient thinking, “They need to pray for me? I must be really sick!”).

I’m talking instead about isolated patients whose condition worsens when people pray for them.

Is God purposefully not healing these people (or even making them worse) in order to bring about a greater good? Is the devil trying to ruin our faith in God? Is it that God does not exist but in his place is an all-powerful, evil creator (a.k.a. Stephen Law’s “evil-god”)? Do the mechanical prayers involved in a prayer experiment react negatively to the universe’s “karma field,” while more honest prayers outside of a study would do better?

Science simply can’t determine which of these explanations is the correct one, since science is restricted to observing the natural world.

Even if a prayer study found a positive correlation between intercessory prayer and healing, it wouldn’t show that God exists. I’ll admit, such an outcome would bolster my faith at first, but this outcome would be plagued by problems similar to those that accompanied a study that showed prayer caused negative effects.

Is God the cause of this statistically anomalous healing? Is it a psychic mutant? Aliens? Is it an “evil-creator” who is healing patients in order to bring about a “greater evil?” Is it an impersonal “karma field?”

In these cases, science can show us that intercessory prayer causes a certain kind of physical effect, but any speculations about the relationship between the cause (i.e., prayer) and the effect (i.e., healing) would belong to the realm of philosophy or religion, not science.

No Difference?

What if studies showed that intercessory prayer made no difference in patient health? This seems to be the result of a large, recent study of prayer called the STEP project. Atheists might say that this proves that “nothing fails like prayer,” because if God did not exist we would expect intercessory prayer to not have any measurable effects.

But this is the fallacy of affirming the consequent, or:

1. If A, then B.

2. B. Therefore, A

Why is this a fallacy? See this example:

1. If I’m in New York City, then I am in New York State.

2. I am in New York State. Therefore, I am in New York City.

Of course, I could be in Albany or Buffalo and still be in New York State without being in New York City. In this argument, the consequent proposition cannot be used to support the truth of the antecedent proposition. It could be used to deny the truth of the antecedent proposition (which is also called modus tollens) by saying, “I am not in New York State, therefore I am not in New York City,” but it can’t be used to prove the truth of the antecedent. When we plug in the atheist argument from prayer, we get the same problem:

1. If God does not exist, then prayers made in scientific studies will not be answered.

2. Prayers made in scientific studies are not answered, therefore God does not exist.

God can still exist even if certain requests made in prayer are not answered. After all, God may have good reasons for not granting those requests, and he may be answering other prayers that are not being catalogued by scientists. Since God is a person and not a force that acts in automatic and statistically predictable ways, extremely limited studies using some intercessory prayers cannot be generalized to give us conclusions about the efficacy of prayer in general.

#Catholic Answers #CAMO #Trent Horn #Faith and Science #Atheism #Catholic Teaching

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Book of the Dead: A Oujia Board, a Claim, and Mark Twain

It's a thrilling moment for any author, the first time they can look into their hands and see an officially published copy of their work, ready to be unleashed for mass public consumption. Arriving at this moment can be hard-fought and visions of the outcome can be grand. Will be a best seller? Could it become a blockbuster film? Will this be the title to make them a household name and enter their work into the hallowed halls of classics?

But, there is another way it can turn that is filled with potential nightmares. Financial failure? Bad reviews? Accusations of plagiarism? All of these have the power to ruin an author but when Emily Grant Hutchings was accused of publishing someone else's ideas she was not surprised. In fact, she fully acknowledged that the story was not hers. According to her it was the a brand new offering from beloved American author Mark Twain who, according to Hutchings, fully supported her publishing his work. This was because he was unable to, he had been dead for seven years.

Emily Grant Hutchings was born in Hannibal, Missouri, the youngest of six to her doctor mother and minister father. She attended the local high school and returned there after college to teach multiple languages including Latin, Greek, and German. While she taught foreign language to her students, she also was a proficient writer in her own tongue and in August 1896 Hutchings moved to St. Louis, Missouri to take a position as a writer for the St. Louis Republic. The position was for only six months but while traveling to Memphis to gather information for an upcoming story Emily met Charles Edwin Hutchings. Charles was an admirer of her work, having enjoyed a piece she authored in June 1897 focusing on an interest they both shared, another writer from Hannibal Missouri named Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. By the time Emily was due to move back to St. Louis, she and Edwin were married.

Emily Grant Hutchings.

The Hutchings pair had the opportunity to meet their mutual figure of admiration in June 1902 when Twain came to St. Louis to address the Art Student's Association at a luncheon held in his honor. Mr. Hutchings wrote down the speech given by Twain and proceeded to send the author a copy of the words he spoke that afternoon. On June 12th Twain wrote back to Mr. Hutchings thanking him for the record stating "I ought to be very grateful to you for making that verbatim report and printing it, and I am." It was this letter that began a string of correspondence between Twain and both the Hutchings, a connection that may not have been overly enjoyed by Twain given a note written on an envelope from Emily where he scrawled simply, "Idiot! Preserve this.”

Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain.

When Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910 most of the world was forced to resign itself to the fact that one of its great literary minds was gone. But, there was a large number of people that raised the question ".....is he though?"

Beginning in the 1840s Americans became deeply enveloped in the practice of Spiritualism, a belief system that the spirits of those departed were not only present among the living, but were fully capable of communicating with them and evolving far beyond what their earthly selves ever could have dreamed. After experiencing such mass tragedies like the Civil War, the practice exploded with people desperate to make contact with those departed. A common tool used by Spiritualists were talking boards engraved with the letters of the alphabet and numbers which were selected with a planchette to form messages from the dead. In 1890 the Spiritualism field gained it's signature tool with the invention of the Ouija board.

Ouija board circa 1915.

With death being so abundant and often unpredictable it only made sense to the believers in Spiritualism that all those departed would still have something to say, or in some cases, unfinished work to complete. According to Emily Hutchings it was March 1915 when she was asked to attend a meeting for a "small psychical research society.” The scheduled speaker failed to show so the hostess asked another woman named Lola V. Hays to entertain everyone with her talking board. To their amazement the spirit introduced itself to the group as none other than "Samuel L. Clemens, lazy Sam.” Being from his hometown, Emily was asked to say something but she fell silent. She later asked for another meeting with Hays and when the two again sat together some rules were laid out. Hays would have her hands placed on the planchette with her eyes closed while Hutchings recorded the messages coming through. Almost immediately Twain came through and he had a odd request, "I tried to write a romance once, and the little wife laughed at it. I still think it is good stuff and I want it written..." After a few minutes of exchanges Hutchings claims it was revealed that after many attempts at fining a living human to bring his unfinished work to life "a twenty-minute test with me seemed to convince him that in me he had found the negative side of the mysterious human mechanism for which he had been waiting.”

This last story that Mark Twain reached across the veil to write was entitled Jap Herron, the tale of Jasper James Herron, a boy born to a Missouri family after the Civil War. Born into poverty, Jasper James, nicknamed "Jap", finds himself under the wings of a well-to-do newspaper family and through many trials and tribulations, is able to find success and help revive his struggling town. The story is filled with the unique flavors and mannerisms found in Twain's other classics like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but the method through which this tale allegedly came to light was anything but familiar.

According to Hutchings, the transmission from Twain through Hays was not a smooth process with Hutchings and her husband needing to modify the board to add punctuation, numerous chapter revisions, Twain expressing disgust with the type of tobacco being smoked by Mr. Hutchings during one session, and Twain scolding them "...don't try to correct my grammar. I know what I want to say. And, dear ladies, when I say d-a-m-n, please don t write d-a-r-n. Don t try to smooth it out. This is not a smooth story."

The story of Jap Herron was published in the fall of 1917 by book dealer Mitchell Kennerley and while the authorship was granted to Hutchings the full title of the work read "Jap Herron: A Novel Written From The Ouija Board" with a sketch of Twain placed next to the title page. Also included in the volume was an introduction entitled "The Coming of Jap Herron" where Hutchings described in detail how this last story of Mark Twain came to her through the talking board.

The title page for Jap Herron.

The claim of a book written from beyond the grave should have raised immediate questions, but this was not the only book to do so. Only a year earlier in 1916 national attention was given to the book "Patience Worth: A Psychic Mystery" which was allegedly the collected writings of a spirit named Patience Worth that were dictated via Ouija Board to a woman named Pearl Curran, who just happened to be friends with Emily Hutchings. In the October 14th 1916 edition of the magazine Literary Digest the rumor of the upcoming postmortem book by Twain was mentioned with the quip

"Nearly everybody in St. Louis is monkeying with "weejie-boards" and talking to dead novelists! The call for the little heart-shaped things on wheels, known as ouija-boards by the elect, has sent prices shooting skyward, and shipments of them are coming to St. Louis from all over the country. Mark Twain is the latest author said to speak to those on earth by this unearthly means, and it is whispered there is discord among those spooks who are seeking possession of the mental pipe-lines to the mystic pointers.”

Once released, Jap Herron was not the recipient of kind words and the book review from the September 9th 1917 edition of the New York Times reported "If this is the best that 'Mark Twain' can do by reaching across the barrier, the army of admirers that his works have won for him will all hope that he will hereafter respect that boundary.” But, the strongest blow to Hutchings's release did not come from a book reviewer, but from Twain's daughter, Clara Clemens.

Clara Clemens.

Clemens, the Mark Twain estate, and publishing house Harper & Brothers had the sole rights to all of Mark Twain's work and the publication by Hutchings and Kennerly threw various wrenches into established copyright law. Could a dead person be recognized as an active author? If so, what about the copyright on Samuel Clemen's pen name "Mark Twain" which was also held by Harper & Brothers? Would it be legal if it was under the Clemens name? Twain was not listed as an author but having his picture alongside the title page and the detailed description of him communicating through Hutchings and Hays clearly pointed at his authorship of the work. Hutchings was backed into a difficult corner. The book's claim to fame (and sales) was that it was written by well-known author Mark Twain and not the relatively unknown Emily Hutchings. But, the more Hutchings and Kennerly stuck to the story that this was an original story by Mark Twain the stronger they made the case against themselves putting legal victory firmly in the hands of Clemens and Harper & Brothers. The Ouija board wielding authors simply had nowhere to turn.

Twain's publishers and Clemens, who in a February 1918 interview with the New York Times called the publication "silly, foolish, stupid, and crazy", filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court on June 8th 1918 and requested that all copies of the book be prohibited from being sold and subsequently destroyed. The lawsuit became the talk of major newspapers with articles teeming with speculation. Would Hutchings be required to use the Ouija board in court? Could the spirit of Mark Twain be made a witness? Is spirit testimony valid in a court of law, especially the highest court in the land? While there were eagerly awaited answers for these questions, they would never get to be formerly asked. Before the case could ever get to a courtroom Hutchings and Kennerly agreed to quietly pull the book from further publication and most copies were destroyed.

One surviving copy of Jap Herron with missing dust cover.

The disappearance of Jap Herron from further publication accompanied the name Emily Grant Hutchings which quickly faded into obscurity. She never retracted her claims of having the work dictated to her by Mark Twain.

Today, physical copies of the book are rare and sell for large sums of money.

The text of Jap Herron can be read here

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