I find it a bit troubling that Chris puts so much stock in his experiences under the influence of hallucinogens, only because it further muddies the waters of subjects that should be examined as objectively as possible. Of course, the other side of the coin, is perhaps these subjects can’t be validated purely through objective means, to which I wouldn’t try to argue. This could certainly be the case, but memories and experiences are subjective enough without complicating them by adding hallucinogenic substances into the mix. The result is, I end up wondering what experiences were made under what circumstances, and in the end it leads me to be more skeptical about anything everything.
That’s what most of this comes down to, is simply being able to make a judgement on the character of the person reporting the experience, because so little tangible evidence is ever available. I guess what I find frustrating is that in Chris’s case we have a highly credible person talking about extraordinary experiences--which I’m quite certain he experienced--but may not have actually occurred in any sense of objective reality. This is one of the reasons I’ve found Biedny’s claims so intriguing. If nothing else, he is an incredibly lucid individual.
As far as the rest of the show, I thought Rosemary’s view of psychical ability as a form of intuition was interesting. I found it intriguing that the man she described who had dreams informing him when to sell certain stocks, was also then able to justify it to his colleagues. The fact that he was able to justify the choices suggests it’s entirely possible he was simply receiving incites from his subconscious of which he was already aware; many similar accounts can be found in Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams and various other author’s before and after him; but I don’t think that necessarily separates such experiences from some sort of psychical manifestation either. Some of her other literal interpretations, which I would interpret as highly symbolic allegories (such as Sampson’s hair), I was less impressed with.