There is a pathological syndrome in science where self-styled authorities write off unusual experiences and events as scientifically impossible by definition, and then proceed to heap personal scorn and bile on anyone who so much as dares mention them.

That's usually called scientism, and it's - not helpful. Although unfortunately it's not uncommon.

The problem is that the cranks and kooks who like to live on the fringes are often so ridiculous that there's so much noise that any signal becomes buried. Between authoritarian scientism on one hand, way out woo-woo watchers on the other, and the occasional deliberate fraudster, it gets to be very messy.

Fraud in science isn't actually all that uncommon. There have been studies of both graduate and post-grad papers, and falsified, or at least massaged, results aren't all that rare.

That's why reproducibility is so important. If one person says something, you can take their point or leave it. If the same thing happens to a hundred people, it's much more likely to be worth paying attention to.

The problem with so-called woo-woo is that it's not very lab friendly. And because of scientism, even when evidence piles up it's not accepted, and no one is interested in trying to reproduce it because it's a sure way to end your career.

It's not just woo-woo which suffers from the same problem. Science is fanatically political, and becoming more so, and that has blunted its effectiveness over the last few decades.

But they can't as they don't know, can't know even, anything about your experience since all there is to discuss is your self-reporting. Now if you had made cosmological claims on the basis of your experience we'd be talking about woo-woo.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

What is that intended to mean?

I find it nothing short of amazing that in response to your comment above about "liberation" I argued that stepping outside scientific "constraints" is not "liberating" in the sense that it requires you to exercise more and not less critical thought, as well as a discussion of the difference between reported experience and woo-woo, and your conclusion is that "the woo-woo overton window is widening".


A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith