Other ways of knowing
From RationalWiki
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
Other ways of knowing are methods of obtaining infomation by various "alternative" (or non-scientific) means. Mainly, these exist as an extension of the "non-overlapping magisteria" concept that separates the scientific and physical from the religious or spiritual and as such, allow practitioners of pseudoscience to get away with practically anything. When these methods work, they are usually subject to confirmation bias and selective reporting, and when they don't work the excuse is that the "powers are blocked" or "this is art, not science" or some similar rationalization.
[edit] Examples
They include, but are not limited to:
- Studying religious books such as the Torah, the Qur'an, the Tao Te Ching, or the Bible.
- Reading inspirational books such as those by Kahlil Gibran or Deepak Chopra, or anything with a title that starts "Zen and the Art of...".
- Taking drugs such as LSD, peyote, psilocybin, or cannabis.
- Contemplating one's own inner, or emotional, state.
- Investigating the philosophies of indigenous peoples.
- Astrology
- Palmistry
- Divination via
- dowsing
- pendulum
- ouija boards
- reading tea leaves
- interrupting animal entrails
- I Ching
- itching (and/or scratching)
- Revelation
- Guessing
- Shamanic journeying
- Asking someone
- Tabloids
- Randomly opening the Bible and reading something.
- Noetic science
[edit] Conclusions
More-or-less by definition other ways of knowing cannot be falsified, and cannot be independently replicated, and as such are not scientific. This, in turn, does not mean that information garnered by these methods is always incorrect, just that it shouldn't be trusted on its own. Mind reading, for example, can be classed as an "other way" but may be quite correct with the information it generates due to a person's good instinct or a method such as cold reading.
Rationalists are advised not to try them at home with out proper supervision.
