DrP

.....which happens to everybody as said by many already. It is a common occurrence. I think Phi for All has explained it. I think I must be too... I have asked him about 4 times in his laughter thread to give more info about what exactly made him laugh and what game he was playing... he just then asks the same questions again. I know I am not aloud to speculate on the mental health or capacity of other members, I have been told off for that before... so I won't say what I and I am sure others are thinking.

Are you ignoring me for any particular reason? Do you have me on block or something? What video game was it and what IN PARTICULUAR made you snigger? There is no point in asking for opinions and then ignoring people when they ask for further information about the situation.

Different stimulus can set it off.. it isn't fully explained (I don't think) - so you can't say that it definitely isn't this. The same happens in Tai Chi, where people can 'feel' their 'chi' energy moving around.. Obviously it isn't actual energy moving around, but something is happening. You don't need stimulus for this - just concentration or thought or relaxation or movement. Same for ASMR or any other feeling like this - you can set it off by being in the right mental state.... no stimulus needed. Some people may need a stimulus to set it off - who knows? PS - The human mind is very suggestible too. I reckon that self suggestion could amplify what you are feeling (like focusing on pain can make it feel worse for example).

Well, what you describe is pretty common no? People describe similar effects when doing Tai Chi and Yoga or watching ASMR videos or massaging their heads.... any amount of focusing on body parts and 'feeling' pats of your self can lead to weird feelings. In more extreme versions of this I have heard people talking about Kundalini awakenings and baptism in the holy spirit and such things... all of which are explained by psychology and emotion. I am not sure about any physical explanations with Kundali and holy ghost baptisms... the brain and nervous systems are very complex and not fully explained. Not being fully explained or understood by science is not an invitation from the new age lot to jump to various unsupported conclusions about the supernatural though. ;-)

The feelings are clearly real and many report such a thing. I agree about the tern 'energy' though... people usually use they when they are trying to suggest that their experience is some kind of new age spiritual thing or some kind of Tai Tea or Yoghurt. Say what? What do you think you are experiencing? The ASMR things sounds pretty similar to what you are describing. As you yourself said, the effect is varied depending on the stimulation, the surrounding, the individual and maybe many other unknowns. What do you think is happening? PS - I really like those spikey head massagers... you know - the metal things with multiple wires coming out the top that spike into your head and give a nice head massage..... lovely.

It's called Numinous - it is good to wonder at the beauty of things and realise how insignificant you are compared to everything. It is human. Personally I think it is good to be humble.

I know that was for educational purposes, but I think you might want to delete your search history just the same. ;-) It seems amazing, but why should we really expect other mammals to be that different to us? We all came from the same place.

Right now I am listening to the continual drone of my water cooler humming in the lab... I have finished the calorimetry for the day so I can, thankfully, turn it off now.

Who would you invite over to watch it with you... Anne, Mary or Bill? ;-)

Because they can't get a girlfriend?

Yea, I'm not... I am 90% sure we will get a blank picture. It will be fun setting it up though... and it makes the dentist trip a bit more interesting, probably both for me and the dentist.

??wot?? He jumps UP off of the table as it is falling, just before it hits the ground. By jumping UP he is now moving DOWN more slowly than when he was before the jump. However, due to the fact that the table is falling too, then the UPwards push from the table is quite small (because it is not on the ground, so it only has the air resistance to push UP onto the person not the push from the floor). This is visualised in the cartoons where Bugs Bunny often steps off of a falling table JUST before he hits the ground. So - by attempting to jump up from the table the table itself will hit the ground faster than it would have if you hadn't jumped... and you will hit the ground (almost negligibly) slower. It would be best to use the table top and legs as crumple zones prior to your impact to the ground to absorb some of the impact. I still think you would be in for a lousy time of it though.

OK - I went to the dentist yesterday and had an x-ray. I asked the dentist if she could x-ray my dinosaur egg for me.... she said she'd give it a go next time I am in (couple of weeks time). This is very cool.... although I am worried the x-rays won't be powerful enough to penetrate the rock (I think these modern dentist x-ray machines use low power for safety).. also - the size of the exposure plates are quite small - night have to take a couple of snaps at different places on the egg to see if there is anything in side. ..... also, I just bought another dinosaur egg off of the internet. (Hadrosaur) :-/ probably should have waited until payday... I should make a nice profit on it if I can bring myself to sell it... otherwise it can just sit my collection. I got it for a good price. I think it would look nice in a box with the x-ray pic in it too (if it shows anything skeletal looking).

Your tale was great - Must have been an adventure. I'd go to Mars too... I might be a bit old for that now though.... maybe I could go for decision making or breeding purposes, I could help populate the planet. If you sent me with about 30 young fit and healthy women that were of breading age then I reckon I could do a good job of making sure we have plenty of future humans on the planet to carry on with the good work of building a populous and making the planet habitable. ;-)

It's obvious the OP means a cartoon style jump off of the table that is falling with him. We had this in the other thread where it was pretty much concluded that, unless you were a cartoon rabbit, it would make sod all difference. If you were to lay on top of the table then the table might absorb some of the impact under you as it collapses under your weight. The following suggests that if you can use the table to surf your way to a bush or a haystack or something else that can cushion your fall then that would be your best bet. http://listverse.com/2013/09/23/10-people-who-survived-falling-from-extreme-heights/

....and Rumplestiltskin said that if you guess his name he'd disappear.. so what? It's a line in an old fictional book. We disagree on what? What constitutes evidence for something being real? A warm fuzzy feeling in your heart is not evidence of anything external being real - it is well explained through psychology. Be honest to yourself - what actual evidence do you have?

They realise that they have been deluded, making excuse after excuse for a god that doesn't exist. They realise that they have fooled themselves in a kind of self hypnotic way to believe something that is clearly not true. They realise that they have been believing out of fear of punishment for unbelief or becuase so many others around them believed it. Hopefully then they forgive them selves for this apparent stupidity and backward thinking using the skills they learnt from christianity about love, mercy and grace. They move on, drop Dumbo's feather and continue to fly. Every case of every person claiming revelation beyond doubt is a case of delusion. There has never been a case where someone claims evidence of god where that evidence cannot be explained in some other natural manner. Baptism in the Holy Ghost? Not proof of god - there are clear physical, emotional and psychological explanations. 'Feeling his presence? - again - emotional. Wonder at the universe? - Explained by the numinous everyone feels when overwhelmed by the vastness of the beauty of the universe and the realisation of how small we are. Miracles? - never a single case of one being proven out side the realm of probability and co-incidence. They all seem to be shit ones anyway... where are the seeing blind or the lame that now walk?.... there are none - other than the ones that have been cured by medical science. What other 'proof' have you got? You are probably basing your whole faith on a delusion - lets hear your evidence for the being.... you probably are confusing evidence for some inner feeling or some crazy stream of coincidences which you have misread as a sign from god. This is usually accompanied by some confirmation bias on the part of the deludee. Seriously - what do you have other than wishful thinking, self hypnosis, error and misjudgement? Don't live your life in fear of punishment for allowing yourself clear rational thought - it is a shit place to be in.

If ever you find yourself in that situation then this HAS to worth a try surely. If it works you'd be a superstar... if it doesn't then at least you go out with a ride. It's kinda what I was getting at. :-D it clearly won't work.... Now, if you just stepped off at the right moment just before impact... but as DImreepr has already said - you need to be a cartoon rabbit for it to work.

$1.85!

would you say the same about using a condom?

In this country - the UK - it isn't legal to be cruel to animals... I think there is a line and people do swat flies and kill bugs and stuff.... some kids get angry and take out their frustration on animals... (I once saw a 6 year old girl kick a kitten - I said to her "owwww... you mustn't hurt him!" and tried to look sad.... she then looked sad and ran away. I hoped she would feel guilt and shame (mildly of course) and change her ways... if I had scolded her she might have got even more bitter about whatever it was that was troubling her and she might have got worse with her animal violence). The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Protection of Animals) do have some powers and can impose heafty fines on people that mistreat or neglect their pets. We aren't perfect - we are human animals after all and such is nature... there is some cruelty in it..... but I think we are improving and laws preventing animal suffering are improving (like banning of fox hunting and badger baiting).... English people that go to Spain to watch a bull fight sometimes get shunned, shamed and ostricised a bit if they talk about how good it was when they return for example.

Idk - but I can speculate that it brings relief and reduces stress? Like your anal sex thread... it is the same - sex can be quite soothing and emotionally 'healing' for want of a better word... I don't want to come across as a new age hippy! lol. I also read somewhere recently that regular ejaculation can help keep things flowing and ward off prostrate problems... not sure how true that is but it if so then it would certainly be an advantage seeing as there are so many male adults that have them. With respect to women though, they just look lovely when they do it, so I guess that makes them more attractive and exiting for a man and thus could help attract a mate? take these 2 senarios... 1) Bill walks in on Anne... she is drinking a cup of tea,,, "Hi Anne" He says.... "Hi Bill" she replies... Now take this one.. 2) Bill walks in on Mary and finds her enthusiastically masturbating... "Hiiii there Mary!!!.. ;-)"... "you look so hot like that honey - need a hand"? He says with a glint in his eye - excited although a little embarrassed to have walked in on her sorting herself out. "Oh GOSH! BILL!.. I'm so sorry...." She says embarrassed... Bill continues with something like "shhh.. honey,it's OK!" and slides over beside her.... "er... oh, OK then" she says coyly... then they get it on. Which scenario give the evolutionary advantage for reproduction? ;-)

Being fair to the OP 54 the books do use that language very much so... it is part of the storey - "purge the unclean, suffer not the alien to live" and all of that. The eclesiasticy in the books totally skew what the Emperor has commanded them to do and they allow him to be (rather insist he is) worshiped as a god. They are all very xenophobic when it comes to alien and mutation and will not even allow further advances in science as it might deviate from the Emperor's designed path for mankind... of course, he would go nuts and encourage such advancement but he is torpored on his golden throne in an eternal battle defending the earth against the daemons in the warp.

Of course not... but in searching for the truth... why entertain the absurd? I was a Christian for a long time. I understand how easy it is to believe such clap trap. I understand the desire to see the world improve (which it has SO SO SO much over centuries).. to share and spread love and forgiveness, to love your neighbour and harder still your enemy. I even have/had a close personal relationship with the holy ghost. So what? it doesn't make god real because we want it to be. It is what it is and it isn't god. We have discussed at length on here how the human psyke invents the supernatural to make himself feel better and to protect himself from the unknown.... we have grown beyond that. Lie to yourself if wish, tell your self you are going somewhere else when you pass on if that is what you are worried about... just don't expect any support for your fantasy here on a science site because it is clearly rubbish. We ALL get the sense of numinous about the amazing things in the universe - that isn't god, it is just you being humble enough to see that the world is bigger than you and you are insignificant compared to the size of the universe.