User:Solar

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Solar is taking a short wikibreak and will be back on Wikipedia soon

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Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau élémentaire de français.

This user practises a personal spiritual discipline.

This user condemns
factory farming.

This user condemns fur farming.

asp

This user is an anti-speciecist.

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ft	This user prefers fair trade.

ec	This user aims to be an ethical consumer.

C₂H₅
OH-0

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This user supports gender equality.

This user believes in the separation of church and state.

This user understands biological evolution.

This user is straight
but not narrow.

This user supports the Make Poverty History and ONE campaigns.

This user supports Amnesty International.

This user supports the United Nations.

This user opposes racism and admires Martin Luther King, Jr..

This user believes that the death penalty should never be used.

This user is a member of Wikipedians against censorship.

This user supports peace in space.

This user supports the conservation movement.

This user is interested in environmentalism.

This user supports recycling.

This user supports the use of green energy.

This user is in favor of gun control.

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UK	This user uses British English.

WC	This user is part of the Welcoming Committee.

This user is a member of the Kindness Campaign.

This user is a member of WikiProject Paranormal.

1 About me
2 Psi
- 2.1 Scepticism
3 Wikipedia
4 Political views
- 4.1 Positive Action
5 People I like
6 Contributions
7 Future contributions
- 7.1 Pages I intend to create
- 7.2 Pages I intend to expand
8 Awards
9 Projects
10 My stuff
- 10.1 International Travels
- 10.2 Other information

[edit] About me

I have been a registered Wikipedian since September 27, 2004 but have been contributing since May 2004. My main areas of interest are spirituality and parapsychology. My spiritual influences have been very varied but key among them would be the Hermetic, Neopagan, New age (for want of a better term), Thelemic and Quaker traditions, as well as many elements of Eastern religions, notably Ahimsa and the Jain and Buddhist religions. I consider myself a Humanitarian and believe strongly in the positive principle of nonviolent resistance. I am a vegan and a life-long abstainer from drugs and alcohol, which is both a social statement in terms of the context of contemporary drug use, and a personal spiritual discipline.

[edit] Psi

I am a supporter of the existence of Psi and like Nobel prize winning physicist Brian Josephson I believe the "evidence is overwhelming". I am also very interested in the work of Dean Radin and would point those interested in the subject of psi to read The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds. My particular area of interest within psi is the out-of-body experience and related phenomena such as NDE and to some extent remote viewing. Michael Persinger's neuroscientific approach which 'reproduced' mystical type experiences using low level electro-magnetic fields applied to the temporal lobes is also very interesting; especially the work he undertook with psychic or as he prefers to be called "perception researcher" Ingo Swann which supports the existence of psi. Outside of the lab there is also the studies undertaken by Dr. Pim van Lommel of the Rijnstate Hospital in the Netherlands, which investigated 344 survivors of cardiac arrest and demonstrated support for the reality of psi functioning in NDE experiences. Also the Ganzfeld experiments by Daryl Bem have resulted in some very interesting results with telepathy. Between 1974 and 2004, 88 ganzfeld experiments were conducted, and they reported 1,008 hits in 3,145 trials. This is a 32% hit rate, but only 25% is expected by chance. The odds that this 7% above-chance hit rate would occur without the intervention of an unknown factor is 29 quintillion to one.

[edit] Scepticism

The general belief held by some sceptics that there is no evidence in support of the existence of psi can be shown to be untrue by a review of the work of Dean Radin, Rupert Sheldrake, Brian Josephson, Daryl Bem, Edwin May and Jessica Utts plus many more. While those remaining sceptical who are aware of the evidence will cite fraud and poor controls as the reason for successful trials, this still seems highly unlikely as a consistent explanation across many institutions and individuals. In fact resent trails have employed far stricter controls and even employed sceptics purely to deal with this accusation and have still come up with repeated successful results. I do understand and support those who take a truly agnostic view, the true definition of scepticism, but the unbalanced denial of psi research only serves to create greater division and is as damaging as the outlandish claims at the other end of the spectrum.

Another common problem is the weight given to the James Randi: One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge; although Randi is valuable in his role as a debunker of psychic frauds and charlatans, he has far less value to science. Randi's prize is part of his wider tabloid approach and serves little real purpose beyond his use of it as a slur against scientists courageous enough to ignore the criticisms of pseudo-sceptics and find out for themselves. It is completely illogical and unreasonable to expect a proponent of psi with any intelligence and critical understanding to submit themselves to trails with such an aggressively anti-psi individual who clearly has a whole range of factors and a substantial amount of money on the line. Sceptics who use the Randi Prize as an argument against parapsychology or those genuinely exploring the area are guilty of the same unrealistic views as the worst examples of those they decry. Would sceptics submit themselves to a scientific evaluation by say Uri Geller? No, of course not, they would be well aware it would be biased and no doubt unfair to their position. Sadly, Randi is just as poor a judge to give a fair evaluation of psi. Sceptics need to find better arguments and I would like to see them even embrace the true agnostic basis of scepticism that looks at the facts, and does not simply use attacks and prizes to avoid the real issue, they also need to be aware that there are many individuals who like myself have a genuine interest in the area, and are also informed about common sceptical arguments such as those based upon confirmation bias and magical thinking. I for one want to build a fairer and more open engagement with psi without the endless sceptic vs proponent dynamic.

[edit] Wikipedia

Neutral point of view - I am a strong supporter of the policy of NPOV.
Inclusionist - I would define myself as an inclusionist as I believe many articles are overly general and would benefit from more specific sub-articles. I also believe in supporting minority interest articles on Wikipedia.
Personal attacks - I take a policy of not making personal attacks or replying to them
View my edit count

[edit] Political views

Human rights - I support human rights and organisations like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch
Environmental - I support environmental protection and organisations like Greenpeace
International law - I support the notion of international law and the UN, although I accept limitations in the present system, and especially the need to bring America into line
/2003 invasions of Iraq - I believe this was a crime against international law and humanity
Capital punishment - I am against state sanctioned murder. Also see my letter in support of clemency for Stanley Williams
George W. Bush and Tony Blair - I oppose both their actions (especially the war and recent nuclear plans, see /Nuclear weapons)
/Nuclear weapons - I am against their use and existence
/London terrorist attacks - My response

[edit] Positive Action

I am also involved in positive action against capital punishment and the exploitation of people in poverty as well as the destruction of the environment. Essentially I believe in human rights (as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), freedom of speech, tolerance and compassion. I support Amnesty International, Greenpeace, CND and most if not all groups and individuals involved in the peace movement. I also work for a humanitarian organisation in London with a focus on developing democracy.

[edit] People I like

Below is a list of people who I either admire or find interesting (in no real order):

This list is an ongoing process

[edit] Contributions

Including articles I have added to or edited and images I have contributed:

[edit] Articles

[edit] Images

[edit] Pages I created

[edit] Future contributions

[edit] Pages I intend to create

East Kennet Long Barrow
Edwin May
Society of the Inner Light

[edit] Pages I intend to expand

[edit] Awards

		The Original Barnstar
		I award you this barnstar for your excellent contributions to paranormal articles. - Dreadlocke ☥ 05:50, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

		The Handshake Award
		The Handshake Award is presented to User:Solar for numerous welcomes! (BB) Kukini 05:20, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

		Random Smiley Award
		For your contributions to Wikipedia and humanity in general, you are hereby granted the coveted Random Smiley Award originated by Pedia-I - TomasBat (Talk) 23:18, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Projects

I am a member of Wikiprojects:

[edit] My stuff

/Notes

/Scrying

/JH Brennan

/Society of the Inner Light

/Sandbox

/monobook.js

/Welcome - My personal welcome template

[edit] International Travels

Spent years:

Spent months:

Weeks or days:
To go some day:	and everywhere in-between....

[edit] Other information

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	Multi-licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License versions 1.0 and 2.0
I agree to multi-license my text contributions, unless otherwise stated, under the GFDL and the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license version 1.0 and version 2.0. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides.