ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY

    Roland,

     I would like to take you to task in a bit of dharma battle on
your stated position.
 
     You say that ideas should be savaged until they either die the
death, or survive triumphant.
 
     This is Dharma Battle.
 
     So here it is.
 
     Meatballs like to appeal to the 'extraordinary theory' principle,
which is that the person espousing the extraordinary theory is some
how more burdened with proof than those espousing the ordinary theory.
 
     I sense a touch of hypocrisy here, because it is the very people
who are complacent in their common beliefs that are most in need of
dharma battle and having their beliefs savaged to death once again,
just for yuks, wouldn't you say?
 
     Anyhow, first I have posited that there are two theories.
 
     Meatball: Consciousness arises out of MEST
    Dreamball: Apparencies of MEST arise out of Consciousness
 
     I submit that both theories are of equal and opposite magnitude,
thus forming a balanced dicom.  (Dicom = Dichotomy of Comparable and
Opposite Magnitude.)
 
     Neither has any evidence presently supporting or denying it.
 
     Both allow for and value advances in the physical sciences, but
only the second allows for and values OT powers.
 
     I submit since both theories are equal and opposite in magnitude
that therefore neither is the extraordinary theory, or else both are,
in any case both sides are under equal burden of proof.
 
     Now perhaps one can define the 'ordinary' theory as the one held
by the ordinary man, the common man, the masses or majority of people
in order words.
 
     Then of course the meatball theory is the ordinary theory and the
dreamball theory is the extra ordinary theory.
 
     Now I submit to you that there is a form of Dharm Treason called
Appeal to Authority.  It claims that such and such is true because
some authority holds it to be true, Hubbard, the Bible, Parents, the
School Principle, the President, the Government, Doctors, Scientists
etc.

     As a man of science you know that any such Appeal to Authority to
determine the truth of a statement is tantamount of scientific fraud,
and is thus worthy of the name Dharma Treason.
 
     However there is another similar form of Dharma Treason that I
might call Appeal to the Masses or Common Man.  This states that
something is true because the majority of people believe it.
 
     Surely this is just as much scientific fraud as Appeal to
Authority, and is equally of worth the name Dharma Treason.
 
     Now if Appeal to the Masses is scientific fraud when determining
the truth of a matter, I would submit that it is reasonable to
consider it also scientific fraud when Appeal to the Masses is used to
give weight, importance or seniority to one theory over another.

     Theories gain seniority by standing the test of time, not through
appeal to the masses, surely you can agree to this.  One might assert
that they only reason the masses widely hold to a theory is BECAUSE it
has stood the test of time, but this I submit is also a subtle form of
Dharma Treason, as the masses are not scientists, and science itself
may not be properly operational in the civilization over the time,
period in question.

     Thus one can not use Appeal to the Masses to determine the
seniority of a theory.

     Now I submit to you, that the dreamball theory in no way
contradicts or invalidates any scientific theory within the meatball
theory, in fact the dreamball theory says that the PURPOSE of the
dream is to engage in the game of science and conquer the virtaul
meatball universe.
 
    The dreamball theory does not invalidate any of math, logic,
astronomy, evolution, biology, geology, physics, or chemistry etc.
All of these remain completely valid in the dreamball theory.

    The only place where the dreamball theory and the meatball
theory differ is in what arose from what.
 
     Since the meatball theory has no real theory of the nature of
consciousness to speak of, and really very little ultimate cosmology
either, as the singularity of the Big Bang leaves them not knowing
where it all came from, I would submit that the meatball theory has no
seniority over the dream ball theory, as both are at the starting gate
of proving which one is more useful, to explain the origins of the
universe AS A WHOLE and consciousness.

     If you can agree to this analysis, then we can start dealing with
the various evidences that might exist on both sides, and build
predictive experiments to validate one or the other.

    Homer

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homer Wilson Smith     The paths of lovers    Art Matrix - Lightlink
(607) 277-0959               cross in         Internet Access, Ithaca NY
homer@lightlink.com     the line of duty.     http://www.lightlink.com