Ray Stanford News Coverage for Canada

[Han]

Randall, let's not push it. Chris believes in Ray and has for many years. Stanford's achievements are well known, and it's leave it at that. If you do have questions, we can have you come on next time Ray is on the show to question him about these matters.

I have a few questions, I will write them here, and when he comes on the show I will try to remember to put them in the question bank.

#1 What is your favourite Dinosaur/animal

#2 What does he think happened to the Mega fauna of North America around 10k years ago? (Why did it allegedly disappear overnight) Things like Mastodons and short faced Bears?

#3 Any tips or advice for people who would like to try and find fossils or tracks?

 

[Han]

Hi @Christopher O'Brien to go off topic but to ask a question I have been meaning to ask:

In a different thread you posted a picture of some very interesting polished stone things, I believe they belong to Ray Stamford.

Here is the picture from this thread:
Ray Stanford does it again and yet again!

Please could you tell me:
Is/are there more photos that I can find online?
Are there any similar things in museums, and if so what are they called (what do they call them), so I can look them up with google search.
I am embarrassingly ignorant of North American history, so any and all advice would be greatly helpful and appreciated.

You also mentioned something called an Atlatl which I understand is a kind of spear thrower, any advice on where to find out more or see good examples of both the thrower and the projectile?

Thank you and best wishes

 

[Christopher O'Brien]

Hi @Christopher O'Brien to go off topic but to ask a question I have been meaning to ask:
In a different thread you posted a picture of some very interesting polished stone things, I believe they belong to Ray Stamford.
Please could you tell me:
Is/are there more photos that I can find online?
Are there any similar things in museums, and if so what are they called (what do they call them), so I can look them up with google search...
You also mentioned something called an Atlatl which I understand is a kind of spear thrower, any advice on where to find out more or see good examples of both the thrower and the projectile?

They are called chunky stones and were used in a popular game of the same name. What makes Ray's Illinois stones so intriguing is that they are some of the oldest ever found and of course, their uncanny resemblance to classic ufo discs. As the game progressed through time, the stones devolved to became less ornate and more primitive. Go here for more info:

As for atlatls, there's a guy here in Waverly, NY who is famous for his custom, ornate atlatls he fashions out of rare woods and inlay material. Go here:

 

[Han]

Thank you!

Just fantastic to imagine the spectacle of:
"Chunkey was played in huge arenas as large as 47 acres (19 ha) that housed great audiences designed to bring people of the region together"

"Gambling was frequently connected with the game, with some players wagering everything they owned on the outcome of the game."

Time changes, but people don't lol, Sounds similar to the Olympics.

I had no idea that was what they were for, I would have guessed that they were mace heads or something like that.

thank you very much for the information.

 

[marduk]

Okay, no problem. Let's let Chris and RPJ's opinions on Ray's psychic fossil finding ability go completely unchallenged and stick-up for Chris' right to defend that with snarky unsubstantiated comments about my personal intent. Fire away. I won't say another word.

How about I ask the guy? Will that settle this?

 

[marduk]

Hi @Christopher O'Brien to go off topic but to ask a question I have been meaning to ask:

In a different thread you posted a picture of some very interesting polished stone things, I believe they belong to Ray Stamford.

Here is the picture from this thread:
Ray Stanford does it again and yet again!

Please could you tell me:
Is/are there more photos that I can find online?
Are there any similar things in museums, and if so what are they called (what do they call them), so I can look them up with google search.
I am embarrassingly ignorant of North American history, so any and all advice would be greatly helpful and appreciated.

You also mentioned something called an Atlatl which I understand is a kind of spear thrower, any advice on where to find out more or see good examples of both the thrower and the projectile?

Thank you and best wishes

Here's the best article I could find on these things, Ray has a lot more to say about them than I realized even existed. He has a lot of cool examples of even more interesting objects.
http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/KPS/books/funkwebb/funkwebbch12.pdf

 

[Han]

Here's the best article I could find on these things, Ray has a lot more to say about them than I realized even existed. He has a lot of cool examples of even more interesting objects.
http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/KPS/books/funkwebb/funkwebbch12.pdf

Much obliged, thank you

 

[marduk]

Ok, here's Ray's answer that he's OK'd me to post here after I've articulated the question and had some back and forth about it:

“No. Except for maybe a single 'visual' hunch involved in only one out of the more than a thousand finds. People who say I must make my finds using psychic ability simply are '99.999999%' wrong. They underestimate what a well-informed (as to what to look for) visually sharp observer can notice. Why explain my discoveries as due to anything as not-understood as 'remote viewing', when except for that one possible instance, a much less mysterious reality is able to explain things. Then too, the 'professional' paleontologists are -- except for a few summer months -- tied down to, e.g., teaching university courses (and making tests and grading the results), so when 'in the field' for a few weeks in the summer, they are at both a temporal and a mind-set disadvantage. In contrast, I'm retired and can spend all the time I like just relaxing while looking for vertebrate tracks in stream beds and at Goddard, where there are dinosaur age outcroppings. In my personal situation I'm relaxed and not rushed, making the side of my brain that is most helpful in recognizing patterns much more accessible. Anyone who knows anything much about perception will understand the advantage."​

The one possible instance he's referring to is where he had a 'hunch' that he might find something, and then he did. But he may have seen the site previously, and not consciously realized what he was looking at. Since he's found > 1000 tracks, he doesn't generally feel ESP has anything to do with it.

 

[Christopher O'Brien]

“No. Except for maybe a single 'visual' hunch involved in only one out of the more than a thousand finds. People who say I must make my finds using psychic ability simply are '99.999999%' wrong. .

He's being humble & somewhat coy about the extent of his abilities.

 

[Han]

In my personal situation I'm relaxed and not rushed, making the side of my brain that is most helpful in recognizing patterns much more accessible. Anyone who knows anything much about perception will understand the advantage."

The only thing I know about perception is that I don't know much about it, but this makes perfect sense to me.

From what I can tell if you don't look you don't see.

 

[marduk]

He's being humble & somewhat coy about the extent of his abilities.

Maybe. I’m just trying to put forward what he’s told me in as clear a way as possible.

He’s not claiming that he finds these through paranormal means, at least not to me.

 

[Han]

Ray is not the first person I have heard described this way when it comes to finding dinosaur evidence, this was written by a paleontologist (Dean Lomax) about an English collector called Chris Moore:

He is one of the best fossil collectors I have ever met. He just has a gift when it comes to finding new or rare fossils. For example, one ichthyosaur specimen he found back in January, 1995, turned out to be a new species. It was named Leptonectes moorei, in honour of Chris. He has certainly got an eye for recognising something rare.

David Attenborough's Sea Dragon – and the science behind a tantalising prehistoric 'murder mystery'

A gift, a knack, an intuition? hard to put your finger on it.
In music they call it an X-factor.

 

[Randall]

Ok, here's Ray's answer that he's OK'd me to post here after I've articulated the question and had some back and forth about it:

“No. Except for maybe a single 'visual' hunch involved in only one out of the more than a thousand finds. People who say I must make my finds using psychic ability simply are '99.999999%' wrong. They underestimate what a well-informed (as to what to look for) visually sharp observer can notice. Why explain my discoveries as due to anything as not-understood as 'remote viewing', when except for that one possible instance, a much less mysterious reality is able to explain things. Then too, the 'professional' paleontologists are -- except for a few summer months -- tied down to, e.g., teaching university courses (and making tests and grading the results), so when 'in the field' for a few weeks in the summer, they are at both a temporal and a mind-set disadvantage. In contrast, I'm retired and can spend all the time I like just relaxing while looking for vertebrate tracks in stream beds and at Goddard, where there are dinosaur age outcroppings. In my personal situation I'm relaxed and not rushed, making the side of my brain that is most helpful in recognizing patterns much more accessible. Anyone who knows anything much about perception will understand the advantage."​

The one possible instance he's referring to is where he had a 'hunch' that he might find something, and then he did. But he may have seen the site previously, and not consciously realized what he was looking at. Since he's found > 1000 tracks, he doesn't generally feel ESP has anything to do with it.

Thanks for posting that. It pretty much reflects exactly the point I was trying to make, and I'm not the least bit surprised that Stanford responded the way he did. It makes perfect sense. Mind you, some people do seem to have a rather uncanny ability to outperform others who in theory should be able to do just as well based purely on knowledge and experience alone. But does that qualify as psychic? I'm not sure it does. I'd say such people are just "wired" better for their particular area of expertise.

 

[Christopher O'Brien]

Thanks for posting that. It pretty much reflects exactly the point I was trying to make, and I'm not the least bit surprised that Stanford responded the way he did. It makes perfect sense. Mind you, some people do seem to have a rather uncanny ability to outperform others who in theory should be able to do just as well based purely on knowledge and experience alone. But does that qualify as psychic? I'm not sure it does. I'd say such people are just "wired" better for their particular area of expertise.

Ray is quite modest when it comes to his expertise and certain abilities that others cannot actualize.