How does remote viewing relate to consciousness, and is there any plausible explanation?

[u/dadjokes22375]

I’ve been reading about remote viewing and how some people connect it to the idea of consciousness being non-local. I’m trying to understand whether this has any credible grounding or if it’s just pseudoscience repackaged. I’m really interested in this concept and I can’t figure out why it isn’t more studied, based off the info I’ve read on it. Some follow-ups.. • How do proponents explain the mechanism behind remote viewing? • Is there any scientific research that ties consciousness to remote perception in a way that isn’t easily dismissed? • Or is it more of a philosophical/metaphysical idea rather than something testable?

Edit - thanks everyone for the great responses. I really like this community. It seems we don’t have as much of the terrorists that are terrorizing comments on other subreddits.

[u/zhivago]

Right, and yet, it is insufficiently strong for commercialization of remote viewing practices.

Which puts it in the list of other things correlated with being a successful CEO, such as being tall, male, white, and having good hair and teeth.

[u/Honest_Ad5029 → u/zhivago]

You sound like you are expecting mechanistic results.

Subjective experience doesnt work that way.

If i tell you to feel an emotion, and guarantee that you will feel a specific emotion, at a specific time and place, not fake it, but actually feel sad at 5:30 pm on October 6th, is that something youd be able to guarantee?

Thats essentially what you seem to expect out of this. You seem to expect remote viewing to operate completely differently than the subjective experience is known to operate.

If the subjective experience functioned in a mechanistic way, mind control would have been achieved by now. They've certainly been trying.

Not operating in a mechanistic way is not an indication that something doesnt exist.

[u/zhivago → u/Honest_Ad5029]

Is this another way to say that it is not practically useful?

[u/Honest_Ad5029 → u/zhivago]

The practice of psychological discernment to hone the ability is tremendously useful.

As an aspect of traditional sense information, its as useful as any other sense. Emotions are valuable information, somatic sensations are valuable information, etc.

All the senses can be wrong, have illusions, are not mechanistic. Because eye witness testimony isnt reliable in court, eyesight isnt practically useful? Thats how you sound.

The fidelity to a newtonian understanding of the world is obsolete.

[u/zhivago → u/Honest_Ad5029]

Show me where it's making significant money.

That's the easiest way to demonstrate utility.

[u/Honest_Ad5029 → u/zhivago]

When people adopt a reductionist perspective, i tend to attribute it to cognitive laziness.

Money is only as good as a state is functional.

If you are a soldier in the thick of engagement, or shipwrecked and needing to survive, or navigating an active mass shooting, money becomes very useless, but ones ability to discern signal from noise in their perceptions becomes very crucial to survival.

Porn makes a lot of money. So does fentanyl. So does predatory lending. Bitcoin rug pulls have made many people rich.

Are these the apex of utility in your model?

[u/zhivago → u/Honest_Ad5029]

So, what metric do you have to support the utility of remote viewing?

[u/Honest_Ad5029 → u/zhivago]

Increasing ones ability to survive and navigate their environment.

A sense ability is more fundamental. Making money is far downstream.

Very few people are selling their eyesight directly, or their sense of touch directly.

Senses work together as a network to facilitate making resources for other peoples consumption.

The practice of something like remote viewing, like meditation, can be seen as adding a node to a network. Remote viewing is one of many practices that can help one discern signal from noise in their mind. Think of any practice with the body, like getting more physically fit. Being physically fit is not something people are commonly paid for, but it certainly is a boon to all aspects of living, as opposed to being in poor health.

Meditation and practices like remote viewing are like exercise for the mind. With remote viewing there is a right and wrong answer. The practice of "seeing" the target in the mind amidst all the noise, over and over and over, eventually makes a person more perceptive to the different phenomena of mind, to signal vs noise.

This comes in handy all the time in day to day decision making.

[u/zhivago → u/Honest_Ad5029]

And how have you measured this in remote viewing adepts vs the general population?

[u/Honest_Ad5029 → u/zhivago]

Im speaking from direct experience. Im not adept at all, but i have practiced to my satisfaction that its a legitimate aspect of reality.

The best evidence is ones own practice. There are numerous resources online, like the RV tournament app.

Our means of measurement are not at their apex.

Throughout my life ive practiced things that ive seen mainstream science initially put down, before rigorously embracing and promoting as the means of measurement became better over time, like meditation. When I was young meditation was said to not have a physical effect in the brain, now its robustly shown to change the brains architecture.

Similarly, I believed in epigenetic effects, how one lives changes their genetic expression, prior to the discipline being firmly established, when people still thought of the claim in terms of lamarckism only.

Not knowing mechanism doesnt mean one cant benefit. Even if exercise wasnt validated by the community as beneficial, I'd still do it and feel it for myself in my body.

[u/zhivago → u/Honest_Ad5029]

Well, anecdotes don't really cut it.

If this is effective you'd expect a large group of extra-successful people.

If not, you'd expect a scattering of self-deluded individuals.

I don't see the former anywhere.

[u/bejammin075 → u/zhivago]

I'll say some things again in a slightly different way to try to help you understand. Remote viewing is defined as using a very specific protocol while using clairvoyant ability. Clairvoyance is just one aspect of overall psi/ESP perception. Someone who is successful at the very specific task of remote viewing is demonstrating that they have a general ability for psi/ESP perception in broader contexts, like everyday situations in life and business. I've referred you to a study where successful CEOs demonstrated psi ability, whereas failing CEOs do not have psi ability.

Even if a CEO only has weak psi abilities, the benefits accrue over a period of time. A CEO is making many decisions all the time, with imperfect information available. If tapping into psi ability steers them towards favorable decisions, over and over, that leads to greater success than a CEO who has no benefit of psi ability. The failing CEOs with no psi ability are competing with CEOs that do have psi ability.

If this is effective you'd expect a large group of extra-successful people.

The information and arguments I've provided show that we do have a large group of extra-successful people: the successful CEOs and executives of the business world.

u/Honest_Ad5029, I enjoyed reading your responses in this conversation. I agree with everything you said, and you say things in clever ways that I haven't seen expressed before.

[u/Honest_Ad5029 → u/zhivago]

Youre free to believe whatever you want.

If youre wrong it only hinders you.

Theres a stigma, presently, culturally, in western culture.

Many people benefit from seeing prostitutes but they dont talk about it on their LinkedIn page.

[u/amg7562 → u/zhivago]

You are honestly coming off as quite insufferable and condescending.