From: Ron Anastasia (rjon@vzavenue.net)
Subject: Re: Scientific Proof of Conscious Energy?
Mon, 15 Aug 2005 22:52:57 -0400
To: scienceandspirit@sriaurobindocenter-la.com

Hi Don,

> I have no idea if this site is on the level or a bit over the top ...

My initial impression is that this is a pretty flaky site. The first clue
was its frequent use of sensational superlatives, often an indicator of
amateurs at work. (E.g., on the first page: "... Two generations of
remarkable research by thousands of Ph.D. level specialists have
emerged from Kozyrev?s seed findings. ...")

But not all amateurs are flakes, so I kept on reading for a few more paragraphs, and came across this statement:

>
"... One early example of proof for the existence of the aether comes
from Dr. Hal Puthoff, a respected scientist from Cambridge University.
..."

Well, I knew Hal Puthoff a bit back in the 60's when I was
an undergrad Physics major at Berkeley and he was at SRI - Stanford
Research Institute. (We spent a weird evening together with a couple of
other physicists shooting lasers at what was claimed to be the original
Mayan crystal skull, but that's another story.)

As far as I
knew, Hal is still Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at
Austin (www.earthtech.org/iasa/), where he's been since the mid-80s, so
it came as a surprise to me that he had suddenly migrated to Cambridge
University. -- I did a little checking, and found no mention of
Cambridge University in his latest bio
(www.earthtech.org/principals/puthoffbio.htm).

Needless to say,
I read no further. Imho, if a source that claims to be presenting
scientific evidence is so sloppy that its authors get wrong the primary
academic affiliation of their initially mentioned scientist (& then
mischaracterize his research), than how can one trust the rest of their
rather fantastic statements?

I'm sorry if I sound a little stern
here, but there are basic ground rules by which the science game is
played; one of which is carefully checking one's cited references.
We're all so overwhelmed with keeping up with the credible literature
in our fields, we honestly don't have time to waste on controversial
claims of doubtful accuracy. There's no way we can individually check
the references and experimental claims made in every paper, so trust in
each other's veracity and professional integrity is important.

Namaste,

~ ron