Current Skill You Are Developing

[nath]

I haven't posted in this thread, so I'm gonna just jack it to say I'm getting back into learning the guitar. A friend of mine who's far more knowledgeable about them than I am has found me a couple of good deals recently on some pretty cool guitars. When I move back South, we're going to put a band together; at least, that's the plan.

[Magic_Man]

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No matter how much your training in "magical rapport" helps with your daily interactions, it is never going to make someone across the room from you, who is unaware of your presence, feel some sort of invisible connection to you. When they claim things like this, it is an immediate turnoff to me.

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As I have experienced this, I obviously have a different view.

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I am willing to lay significant odds that you have not experienced this, and we can use other 2+2ers as unbiased judges. Just to clarify, I'm sure that some of the basic claims are true. Obviously you can influence others' attitudes with body language and certain other non-verbal cues. It's the extravagance and magical thinking claims of the webpage that make it unbelievable. No amount of training in "rapport" can cause you to have what amounts to psychic abilities.

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I have no idea what you think they are claiming. There's nothing psychic about it, at least as far as I know. The extravagance and 'magical thinking' claims are marketing bollocks. I know for a fact that Tom does not believe in any magical thinking, and I don't think there's any mention of magical thinking on the site. There is mention of magical rapport, but that is just a brand name.

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He makes claims of controlling "energy" that smack of classic pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo. He claims that you have invisible connections with people that cause you to pick up the phone at exactly the right time, or think of them at the exact moment before they call. A critical thinker sees these for what they really are (coincidence, selective memory, results-based thinking, etc), but what he is claiming is basically psychic ability, but he gets around it by saying "I don't attach any beliefs or theories to this. I just treat it as a fact." From his tone you can tell he really does think there is something to it, hence the afore-mentioned major turnoff.

[JohnG]

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I think I'm getting a bit hot-headed here for little reason, so my apologies for my somewhat aggressive tone so far [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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No worries.

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I'm still having quite a bit of trouble understanding your viewpoint, though. Are you claiming that there is some invisible force that you can use to affect another person's mood and behavior, apart from visual signals such as eye contact, body language, etc? In other words, before the person even is aware of you, you can influence them? This is an outrageous, and some would say quite laughable claim, so you'll have to excuse my extreme skepticism and lack of desire to attend or pay for any such seminars, even if a money-back guarantee were offered.

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Depends what you mean by invisible force. I would call it energy. At it's most basic level, it's just a visualisation that guides your intent and energy. I don't know how or why it works. I don't think Tom and Kim do either. It just works. It's a much more efficient way to get rapport than the mirroring and matching crap that is usually taught.

Personally, I think it's related to everything being a pea soup of energy vibrating at various frequencies. I think it gets you onto the other persons wavelength, and into their reality, and then all the rapport stuff like mirroring just happen on an unconscious level without effort. Mirroring is actually a sign you are in rapport rather than a good means of getting rapport.

You can get into this resonance with a person without them knowing you are there. Once you do that, you can feel their state. I have managed that much. The next step after that is to then shift their state, but I have not done that. Though I have had it done on me.

Even if you throw out the stuff about being able to shift their states without them knowing you are there, Tom and Kim's methods will get you rapport with someone better than any other method I have seen taught.

http://essential-skills.com/site.php...golden_bubble/

[Magic_Man]

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I think I'm getting a bit hot-headed here for little reason, so my apologies for my somewhat aggressive tone so far [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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No worries.

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I'm still having quite a bit of trouble understanding your viewpoint, though. Are you claiming that there is some invisible force that you can use to affect another person's mood and behavior, apart from visual signals such as eye contact, body language, etc? In other words, before the person even is aware of you, you can influence them? This is an outrageous, and some would say quite laughable claim, so you'll have to excuse my extreme skepticism and lack of desire to attend or pay for any such seminars, even if a money-back guarantee were offered.

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Depends what you mean by invisible force. I would call it energy. At it's most basic level, it's just a visualisation that guides your intent and energy. I don't know how or why it works. I don't think Tom and Kim do either. It just works. It's a much more efficient way to get rapport than the mirroring and matching crap that is usually taught.

Personally, I think it's related to everything being a pea soup of energy vibrating at various frequencies. I think it gets you onto the other persons wavelength, and into their reality, and then all the rapport stuff like mirroring just happen on an unconscious level without effort. Mirroring is actually a sign you are in rapport rather than a good means of getting rapport.

You can get into this resonance with a person without them knowing you are there. Once you do that, you can feel their state. I have managed that much. The next step after that is to then shift their state, but I have not done that. Though I have had it done on me.

Even if you throw out the stuff about being able to shift their states without them knowing you are there, Tom and Kim's methods will get you rapport with someone better than any other method I have seen taught.

http://essential-skills.com/site.php...golden_bubble/


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What you claim would surely qualify for the Amazing Randi million dollar prize, so Tom and Kim ought to bring their abilities over there and start ballin'!

[JohnG]

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He makes claims of controlling "energy" that smack of classic pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo. He claims that you have invisible connections with people that cause you to pick up the phone at exactly the right time, or think of them at the exact moment before they call. A critical thinker sees these for what they really are (coincidence, selective memory, results-based thinking, etc), but what he is claiming is basically psychic ability, but he gets around it by saying "I don't attach any beliefs or theories to this. I just treat it as a fact." From his tone you can tell he really does think there is something to it, hence the afore-mentioned major turnoff.

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He is the first person to call [censored] on pseudo science. If you ask him how it works, he will tell you he doesn't know and doesn't care. He cares about getting results, not how it may work.

He doesn't teach controlling energy, and from talking to him in person, I would consider him a critical clear thinker. I think you're reading stuff into it that is giving you a false impression. Maybe that is down to some unclear writing on the site, or maybe past experience. I don't think the articles are as clear as their more considered teaching methods. From my experience with him, reading that passage, I would say he's pointing out coincidences, and then more or less saying who the hell knows if something more is behind it, and he doesn't care either way, but he treats it as fact that these things happen, (as they do), in putting together a model to test. And that model works regardless. That part about the phone is probably just sales patter to hook people that have had that experience. Get them curious. That would fit better with what I know from personal experience.

It either works or it doesn't. People either try it or they don't. I did, and I would recommend it to anyone that asks. You're not going to. Fine. Move on.

Have you had a bad experience with this type of thing in the past? Seems like an emotional subject for you.

[JohnG]

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What you claim would surely qualify for the Amazing Randi million dollar prize, so Tom and Kim ought to bring their abilities over there and start ballin'!

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What am I claiming?

[Magic_Man]

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What you claim would surely qualify for the Amazing Randi million dollar prize, so Tom and Kim ought to bring their abilities over there and start ballin'!

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What am I claiming?

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You seem to be claiming that you, or at least the elusive Tom and Kim, can influence the behavior and thoughts of another person while out of visual and audio contact with them. Whether or not they say that it is a psychic phenomena, James Randi would surely be willing to admit that it is, if they could prove it. Perhaps I am mistaken in my understanding of the claim.

[BigPoppa]

Conversational Japanese

Hiragana and Katana (not Kanji, at least for now)

Becoming more social and outgoing without being an overbearing bore

[Acein8ter]

Working on improving my Guitar playing. Also picked up a 61 key Yamaha piano which I am a complete beginner.

I'm consistently developing my poker game...

Also developing my knowledge of the financial markets and money. Lots to learn in this department...

[elwoodblues]

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Conversational Japanese
Hiragana and Katana

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Katakana --- right? (Katana is a sword --- which very well might be what you are trying to develop.) One of my favorite classes in college was Japanese. One of my biggest points of frustration was looking up the definition of the word "huroshiki" only to find that the english translation was "huroshiki." WTF is a huroshiki??? (I now know, but didn't then)