Personally, no amount of people claiming they were psychic ever made the slightest dent in my BS-meter, especially since that whole new age world is the grapenut contingent (fruits, nuts and flakes) much of the time.
Just DO it. Pretend it's science fiction, suspend disbelief, learn something about it, and do it yourself. That is in my experience the ONLY thing that truly makes someone believe there is something to it.
How "much" there is, and how "much" you personally can do for it, those are separate topics. When I look at what people submit for RV (and I've been working with people on this for a dozen years), once in awhile it's staggeringly obvious, sometimes it's good but imperfect, most the time with practiced viewers it varies between that and so-so with the occasional 'missed target', and a good chunk of time with the general public it's lost-in-space. But only statistics looks at the big picture for a decision; when you feel and see something inside you, and then get feedback and it's EXACTLY that -- even if you communicated it horribly on paper, which is not uncommon LOL (it's as much a 'translation' and 'communication' art as anything) -- that is the convincing part.
It's the kind of thing that can really only be grasped (grokked, as Heinlein might have said) directly. For indirect, 'official' demonstrations or proof of concept, the science lab under controlled conditions is the only legit source. Any attempt to make other sources stand-in as legitimacy tests is mostly IMO just a subconscious effort to "look where it is not" in the hopes of not having evidence for it truly challenge belief systems.
Re: sock puppets: yes, of course, online discussions always go better when someone starts calling others names. Oh wait, they don't?
RC
