when lucid dreamers are witches

Witches are still executed in some countries, including US 'allies' like Saudi Arabia. This doesn't happen in western countries because western countries are more tolerant, but also because fewer westerners believe in witchcraft, they think its pretend.

Suppose that we did succeed in proving shared dreaming, premonitions, or astral projection related phenomena. These are interrelated enough that we'd effectively be proving that its possible to influence other people mentally, and see a little bit, in a limited and unreliable way, into people's mental secrets. How will most people react to that? Will we need huge dream and thought police agencies, enforcing rules made by secret courts, like we have for the internet? Will hearsay and speculation become grounds for presuming guilt, once people have proved that intuition is a real source of information? Or even without that, will people's increased fear of psychically capable people be a more crushing emotional and karmic burden for them? I think this is all looking ever more dubious in light of recent news events. Something on the order of half the US regards Snowden as a traitor. Are you sure you're less of a threat than he is? Maybe the anonymity of ridicule and disbelief is better.

Sorry, I'm just in that kind of mood.

I think there will be no secret agencies who will enforce any rules. I believe it will be almost impossible to control. Instead of creating police agencies, people will learn how to protect them self from such abilities, in other words they will have to learn same abilities to be able to protect them self.

Definitely those who will be the first to do it - will rule the world. I really believe there will be times where we will have to learn how to hide our thoughts and ideas somewhere deep inside us, where nobody can reach them. Most people will have no secrets at all.

reminds me of, mutant registration

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Originally Posted by acillis

reminds me of mutant registration

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As it should. One thing the comic book guys got right was the reaction of the masses to things that are not like them or, worse, potentially better than them. Mutations, witchly powers, or exotic dreaming skills Shadowofwind lists, are perceived as a threat by the human herd, which then does whatever it can to diminish or eliminate that threat. Usually, the herd's actions are remarkably effective, and lead to very bad endings for the "mutants."

Our only hope is that humanity is maturing, or evolving a mindset that welcomes mutation, rather than running scared from it. The very fact that we are on a forum openly discussing what would have been blasphemy a few centuries ago is a truly hopeful sign that the herd has become less interested in eliminating the "threat" of psychic innovation, even if its still not interested in nurturing it. Yet.

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Originally Posted by Sageous

The very fact that we are on a forum openly discussing what would have been blasphemy a few centuries ago is a truly hopeful sign that the herd has become less interested in eliminating the "threat" of psychic innovation, even if its still not interested in nurturing it. Yet.

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Not to disagree, I think its also worth bearing in mind that most of what we're talking about would have been considered uncontroversial in many times and places in the past, but was stomped out by more 'jealous' theocracies that came later.

^^ Good point. Perhaps this time around we might avoid the next era of jealous theocracies, and at about the same time that paranormal LD'ing skills become manifest? Society does seem to be tiring of such things as theocracies while simultaneously growing more tolerant of the odd, if you look at it from just the right angle. And squint.