Human Capacity
 

I'm just curious to hear everyone's thoughts on what humans are capable of. I struggle constanty with ideas on whether or not it's possible to do things like move objects without touching them, read minds, see into the past or future, etc. What do you guys think? Possible or no?

(P.S. Sorry bout posting two threads in less than an hour. Guess I'm really pensive tonight/today.)

As cool as it would be for those things to be possible, its all in your head. People may be able to trick other people into believing such things, but that is all it is, a trick.

Look into a man named Sai Baba, in India. This may answer many of your questions on this subject.
My opinion: We are all capable of far more than we currently understand, Sadly it will likely remain this way for some time.

I can move things without touching them.

For instance, if I place something in my trunk, I can move it between work and home without ever touching it again.

Brain reading, humanity is still working on. Basic telepathy (I mean really basic) has some applications, like controlling things to help disabled people communicate and live a more normal life. Influencing thought (projective telepathy) research is also going on: for example, inducing religious experiences using magnetic fields, or other state-of-consciousness changes.

As for predicting the future or past, we've been doing that systematically since Newton (or before really: astronomy was all about predicting things that happen 1+ years in advance).

All of these things where done by humans, reproduceably and reliably.

Heh, hardly telepathy. Telepathy would be someone sitting across a table telling me what I'm thinking with 100% acuracy 100% of the time, not a machine reading my brain waves to make a mechanical arm move (which isn't too difficult anyway, practice with a joystick while the machine watches, and it remembers how you moved the stick to move the arm, and then you just take away the stick. They did this with a monkey). Magnetic waves introduced into the brain to produce religious feelings also isn't telepathy or some super-human ability. I think the closest we could come to these things is self induced states of trance, and the incredible amounts of self control gained by such things (like that guy who set himself on fire and just sat there).

As for Sai Baba, pure trickery. He is using tricks to get people to convert to Hindu, under the guise of following him. He speaks in the language of Vedas of Indian mythology, his religious tales/chants/speeches are taken from Indian mythology, and I also read that his philosophy follows Advaita Vedanta, or "school of the non-dualism". He also seems to think that he is God, or an incarnation of God. This from the front page of his website:

"Children of Immortality! Remember that You are created in My Image and Likeness. Perfect. Live up to this Image in all planes. Live like Masters! Walk this Earth with Your Heads held high, Your Spirits soaring, Your Hearts open to Love, and believe in Yourself and GOD with You. Then all will go well. See Me everywhere, talk to Me and Love Me who is in Each. Then from Each I will respond and bring You into Glory."

I would take this man with the same seriousness I take Scientology, reguardless of how benevolent his teachings may seem.

I think humans are capable of much more. I'm not sure to what extent, such as telepathy, telekenesis etc... but definately the possibility is there. Will we see it become common, no, unfortunately human nature is lazy... we constantly lower the bar for the people around us and even for ourselves. So there twould be very few who would actually strive to achieve such things.

Let me just throw out some examples, here of human capability:
Jesus
Buddha
Dali Llama
Moses
Gandhi
Krishna
Yoda (ok, so he's ficticious, but he resembles those above)


and not to mention the lesser- or unkown spiritual masters who have brought so much into the world and who knew that they can do anything they put their mind to, and live in peace with the world.

I agree those people did great things, but with the exception of a couple they didn't do supernatural things like telekenisis (and I don't think they actually did said miracles anyway, embelishment~).

Humans are capable of looking at 4 things in a line and being able to tell that there are 4 things, 5 things maybe, but 6 things, I don't think so.

I know there's more that we can do than we realize.

My first boyfriend "trained" me to be able do some simple prediction. I don't even know how I did it but once I got good and when I was concentrating on what I was doing then I was right all the time. It only had to do with another person holding up a number of playing cards. They had to focus/look at the card and I had to concentrate on which one it was. I would hold my hand over the cards and "feel" at least in my minds eye which one it was. It was almost as if I could feel a tingle over the correct card but it's entirely possible it was in my mind. I never touched the cards until I knew which one it was and I would pull that one out of their hand. I wasn't looking at their eyes or at the card faces or anything. I don't know how I did it. It didn't matter who it was I was working with I was consistant.

The same boyfriend caused me much emotional trauma in other ways so the "trick" I now associate with very negative feelings. I'm almost somewhat afraid to try it again so I don't know if I could do it.

I have no idea what mechanism made it possible or what I actually did to succeed. All I know is that I was able to do it and I know that there's more to the human mind than we understand about it.

I've always felt the spirit of "supernatural' powers. Everyone has it, but we forget that we have it/how to use it once we come into physical form, with the influence of people around us, society, and especially speaking & using words.
Many realize that they can and do have these powers and are able to get in touch with them and utilizing them.
I sense when someone has gotten in touch with their abilities.

As far as telekenisis goes, I have witnessed people do it. And it is not unexplanable. Everything evolves around Energy. Once we learn and respect Energy's mighty power and infinite abilities, we can manipulate and utilize it. We can create strong friction into moving objects and manipulating them. i.e. spoon bending
(http://www.jamestwyman.com/, http://wildcat.arizona.edu/papers/94/127/01_3_m.html)

It's all done via energy manipulation. It's done around the world, even children from third world countries practice it and can be learned within 4 weeks.

Anything is possible.

You talk about it like it's the most normal thing in the world. :p

I don't doubt that you saw something extra-ordinary... but I can't help but wonder why any of these spoonbenders cannot replicate their feat in a highly controlled laboratory environment.

The world is wide, and the possibilities are endless.

If its so easy then you should be able to bend just about anything with your super mental powers right? I want you to bend my chair legs with your mind, from where you are, and then I'll believe you.

It is still "mind reading". Reproducibly, using tools. We are still pretty primitive at it.


By definition, anything a human can do isn't super-human.

So what if it isn't as fuzzy wuzzy as "My Mind is The Universe, I Can Feel Truth". It is still someone using their minds to control and influence the universe.

It is possible that within decades you'll be able to type as fast as you talk by machines that read your mind. Or communicate with others via the same methods. Maybe it won't work out, but maybe it will.

All of the abilities technology gives us are in some ways "super-human". They are things we can't do without the "magic" of technology. And unlike the other magics that various snake oil salesmen have attempted to sell humankind, technology works.

I am refraining from the comment this deserves, out of respect for others here. But, I would request that you try to keep from dabasing that which you obviously do not understand. If you like I could go to a christian website, and quickly browse the information. With the opinion I would glean in the ten minutes of effort I put into it, I am sure The characters would seem pretty far out there. But, as I would be remiss to ridicule an entity others hold on high, I would never do such a thing. Guess it is all a matter of respect for the beliefs of others, and a maturity of thought.
My point is this- Please attempt to be civil to others when commenting on something they hold dear, if only out of kindness.
I am not a follower of Sai Baba, but have met him and studied his teachings to some extent. His life goes much further than you know, or likely care to.

Actually I spent about 2 hours looking at various webpages on him. Other than the 2 skeptical articles I read about him, EVERY single one proclaimed that this man was divinity himself. Authors proclaiming he materialized things (slight of hand anyone?) before them, and did various other "miracles" which are explainable with simple parlor tricks (like blowing holes in stones, ect). He is also being accused of child molestation (I read 3 accounts of such, so it isn't an isolated accusation). I am not saying all his teachings are bad, but people need to be careful of how much faith they put into such things from a leader who proclaims himself to be God.

I don't know about stuff like telepathy and such, but I do believe the human capacity for cruelty and evil is limitless, and sometimes I marvel at the fact that humanity has not managed to destroy itself a few times over already.

Umm, not to be a downer, I love hearing about this stuff, but spoon bending is a very simple trick i learned many years ago and I can assure you it has nothing to do with supernatural powers. Like many things that take away from what I believe is the true credibility of the supernatural and make it difficult to separate the possible from the impossible, it is an illusion.

I'm of the opinion that we are limited by our awareness - which exists as a method for filtering out things in which we have no historical context or experience.

There's a lot more going on in our minds than awareness. Limited awareness makes us what we are. It's possible to chip away at that and get glimpses of what's beyond who we think we are.

My philosophy. It's not a matter of knowing what human are capable of. It's a matter of humans knowing what to do with themselves. LOL. If you are lazy, blame yourself. If you did something wrong blame yourself. If you're not smart, blame yourself.

Humans are capable of imaginations! That's really important for conceptual and visualization understanding. Muwhahaha. =) I can sing, I can dance, I can think. That's all that I'm aware of. I can't think from a higher intellect standpoint. They probably think we're roaches or something. Yeah, imagine explaining to a roach how to sit down. LOL. Anyway....am I off topic?

I remember something (I'd search around on the net, but I'm too lazy tonight :D) in one of my psychology textbooks where this women was able to move objects with her mind. If I remember correctly, it was only small, very light objects that were susceptable to an electrical charge (aka styrofoam), but it was performed over and over in controlled laboratory settings. From what I remember, they had noticed that there was a static electricity disturbance in the room, but that was all. The objects she was moving were under a plastic see through bubble.

I remember that the picture looked rather old, so if anyone gets ambitious and wants to research it, I would check no later than the mid 70s.

Well, for one, you can't believe everything you read. But what you see with your own eyes- that's a different story.
Sure, he may have done things that seem out of the ordinary, or to some people, "wrong"...but who knows if it's really true or not? Not unless you know him personally, which I don't. But I know of others who do what he does.
I don't judge others, especially when I don't even know them personally. And when I do know them personally, I love and respect them for who they are.
And sometimes you can miscontrue how people phrase that "I am God". We all are, really. We all come from the same Source, of which some people define as God. That may be what he is saying. Who knows.

My Truth:

We (humans) can do anything we set our minds to.

ANYTHING that we can think can be made reality.

Believe it (accept it) or not....

Wow. Lot's of poeple here give the human race much more credit then I ever would. The way I see it, humans are capible of many things. Rape, murder, genocide, ect. We may someday evovle as a race past our current capacity, but I think there is going to have to be a very large culling of the gene pool first. Otherwise, all we are going to be capible of doing if dieing off and letting the rest of the univers breath a sigh of realief at our passing.

I doubt any part of the universe is aware of us, other than ourselves.

Evolution of the human race can occur without any culling or death. We hold in our hands the power to change our germ line, we are starting to learn, and one day we will use it. It may not turn out well, but it may make everything that came before it a mere prolog.

You do realize exactly how far humanity has come? We live in a world where when an economy is only growing at a rate where it grows by a factor of 100 every 200 years, it is considered sub-par and under performing. Wealth is fountaining all around us. Wars in which the losing side is slaughtered is an exception. The wealthiest nations on earth barely bother to fight wars, because they aren't profitable. (even the USA spends only 1/30th of its wealth on warmaking) Societies in which freedom is surpressed and war is the primary source of wealth are poor and nearly irrelivant in global power politics: only one remains, and it is only becoming strong by freeing its people.

The light is only bright in contrast to the shadow, and the shadow is only dark in contrast to the light. What you describe as terrors are terrors next to the brightness of human achievement.

Just wondering, which religion is that, or is it a non-organized personal faith?

Edit: Changed "doubles" to "grows by a factor of 100".

For all those who believe in "super-powers" I encourage you to check out the James Randi website, it might help open your eyes and not get taken in by charlatans. www.randi.org

I once put a pair of jeans in the dryer to have them come out buttoned up. I couldn't replicate it in my life time most likely no matter how many loads of laundry I did. It doesn't mean it didn't happen. It was a purely random event.

Now, humans on occasion have purely random events that cause them to do amazing and extraordinary things. I don't believe we understand, grasp, and comprehend the things of this world enough to ever make a judgement on what CAN be done. I think we can perceive what we think is possible based on the body of evidence laid out before us. Beyond that, we just have to wait till someone figures something out.

Try reading about Edward Leedskalnin, and his Coral Castle and tell me he didn't figure something amazing out that the rest of us just don't know.

http://www.labyrinthina.com/coral.htm
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa071999.htm
http://www.coralcastle.com

Was just passing through and spotted this thread. Most of the so-called mental manipulations mentioned are tricks of some sort. I do, however, believe in telepathy as it has happened too many times to dismiss it. I have what I have come to call 'cosmic connections' with only 2 people. I need only wonder how they are and hear from them; sometimes the phone rings as I think their name or an email comes-I'm not talking about people I am in contact with daily, just on occasion. There were times I felt something amiss with them as well and they have contacted me to tell me so.
Since we only use about a third of our brain matter, it stands to reason those other 2/3 are still a mystery. I prefer to be open to the possibilities that there are some things we are capable of but don't know how to utilize them. I have been told I am 'sensitive' to the 'cosmic'- sounds crazy, I know....but so did space travel 100 years ago!:D

Humans have no upward limit when it comes to our capacity. The real question is if it can be obtained....because we are self-limiting.

I am reminded of a quote:

Professor Louis Mackey, Waking Life (google it)