About me:
I was born in Marysville, California in 1968. My family had always been poor, but we worked hard to maintain our needs.
Being raised, I was always the odd ball. What I mean by that is, I always focused on the bigger picture and paid very little attention to the details. My mind was full of wonder and excitement. I loved school and meeting new people, so that I could hear their stories.
After graduating from High School, I traveled around a bit, meeting new and interesting people. Getting my fill of life, I enlisted into the Navy, the discipline that I learned there was good for me.
I then worked many jobs after leaving the service. I was a mechanic, a cook, a garbage man, a secretary, and did some stints in management.
I then got my Masters degree in Medical Administration through some online technical institutes and later finished up at Wichita State University. I continued my education by getting my Doctorate for Early Developmental Psychology from another major university. I told you that I love school!
I started writing seriously quite some years ago. I started out with short stories, and eventually worked my way up to fictional novels.
The things I look for in my stories are topics that most people are uncomfortable with talking about. So I tend to gravitate towards the paranormal. I have had a lot of good leads given to me by my friends, family, and readers. Sometimes my stories do stem from personal experiences.
I must add here though that I do change names and some circumstances. Most writers know the first rule to a successful story and in depth characters is to write about what you know.
Although, my books are fictional, I do use the emotions (ONLY) of what I know with my characters. None of my characters are true to form of the people I have met in my life. Nor are any of the characters me. So don't try to read too much into the stories, just enjoy them.
I would love if you would leave a comment on here, just to let me know how you are and if you have any ideas for a book. Otherwise you can reach me at these other places. Thanks, and happy reading.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Miner/
[email protected]
Being raised, I was always the odd ball. What I mean by that is, I always focused on the bigger picture and paid very little attention to the details. My mind was full of wonder and excitement. I loved school and meeting new people, so that I could hear their stories.
After graduating from High School, I traveled around a bit, meeting new and interesting people. Getting my fill of life, I enlisted into the Navy, the discipline that I learned there was good for me.
I then worked many jobs after leaving the service. I was a mechanic, a cook, a garbage man, a secretary, and did some stints in management.
I then got my Masters degree in Medical Administration through some online technical institutes and later finished up at Wichita State University. I continued my education by getting my Doctorate for Early Developmental Psychology from another major university. I told you that I love school!
I started writing seriously quite some years ago. I started out with short stories, and eventually worked my way up to fictional novels.
The things I look for in my stories are topics that most people are uncomfortable with talking about. So I tend to gravitate towards the paranormal. I have had a lot of good leads given to me by my friends, family, and readers. Sometimes my stories do stem from personal experiences.
I must add here though that I do change names and some circumstances. Most writers know the first rule to a successful story and in depth characters is to write about what you know.
Although, my books are fictional, I do use the emotions (ONLY) of what I know with my characters. None of my characters are true to form of the people I have met in my life. Nor are any of the characters me. So don't try to read too much into the stories, just enjoy them.
I would love if you would leave a comment on here, just to let me know how you are and if you have any ideas for a book. Otherwise you can reach me at these other places. Thanks, and happy reading.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Miner/
[email protected]
Parapsychology/Psychology
If we try to see where parapsychology belongs within the the body of knowledge that we must possess, or try to fit it into our own sciences, we will probably come up with two answers, one theoretical and the other practical. The theoretical answer is that all sciences are potentially interconnected, and that they form a pattern less tidy. We can speak of biophysics as readily as of biochemistry, and we, sometimes relate even unlikely pairs, such as astronomy and psychology for problems of space travel. Theoretically, then, parapsychology could relate to almost any other field.
Support for this practical decision comes from another fact: more parapsychologists have research training in psychology than in any other area. It follows that within parapsychology, the problems most likely to be studied are psychological ones: response bias and stimulus preference, or individual differences, or the effect on response of altered moods and states of consciousness.
Increasingly, then, parapsychology challenges the complacency of the many scientists who feel certain that paranormal phenomena cannot occur. Many people in our society have an interest in the paranormal as part of an interest in occult traditions. For them, one of the conspicuous facts about the scientific establishment is that it is consistently expressing toward the paranormal a contemptuous disregard, it has been a poor guide to adventurous seekers of knowledge wandering in the frontier. This fact joins with other reasons for anti-scientism in encouraging some to dream of giving up altogether the scientific tradition, embracing instead the occult tradition. I don't need to expand on the personal and social disasters that would follow if our society as a whole tried seriously to follow this path.
The relation between psychology and parapsychgology breaks into four parts: methods, content, theory, and possible applications. You can read how I have chosen and conducted my investigations and research on the research page. The parts, however, shape up differenlty. Parapsychologists methods use rigorous controls that some other areas of psychology might well take as a model. Parapsychologists content on the one hand is startling in its demonstration of what seems to be a paradox and on the other hand is so consistent with a variety of psychological findings that it meshes neatly and thereby enriches and expands them. The theory is little developed, but it carries the potential for major advances. And the range of possible applications extends from simple techniques sharing basic similarities with those already in use to the possibility of a new model for human relationships and ethical values.
The methodology in parapsychology is extremely tough-minded and rigorous. Because of the impossible nature of the data and the extreme critical attitude of scientists generally, it has had to develop in this direction until the experiments could be above suspicion. Paradoxically, however, the field is constantly accused of a lack of scientific rigor in its research.
The amount of data demonstrating the existence of paranormal occurences is very large - so large that, it is sometimes said, with only a tenth of the evidence now in hand, the facts would be accepted as proven in any other field of science. Yet parapsychology is frequently accused of having no scientific facts to back it's own claims.
Parapsychology is the study of paranormal events, but it is deeply committed to the idea that there are no such things as paranormal events: that all events come under natural law and are therefore normal. Objectivity.
The relation of psychology and parapsychology is an important one from two quite different points of view: the theoretical and the applied. Its theoretical importance lives in the depth and intimacy of the psychologists knowlege of their patients.
Support for this practical decision comes from another fact: more parapsychologists have research training in psychology than in any other area. It follows that within parapsychology, the problems most likely to be studied are psychological ones: response bias and stimulus preference, or individual differences, or the effect on response of altered moods and states of consciousness.
Increasingly, then, parapsychology challenges the complacency of the many scientists who feel certain that paranormal phenomena cannot occur. Many people in our society have an interest in the paranormal as part of an interest in occult traditions. For them, one of the conspicuous facts about the scientific establishment is that it is consistently expressing toward the paranormal a contemptuous disregard, it has been a poor guide to adventurous seekers of knowledge wandering in the frontier. This fact joins with other reasons for anti-scientism in encouraging some to dream of giving up altogether the scientific tradition, embracing instead the occult tradition. I don't need to expand on the personal and social disasters that would follow if our society as a whole tried seriously to follow this path.
The relation between psychology and parapsychgology breaks into four parts: methods, content, theory, and possible applications. You can read how I have chosen and conducted my investigations and research on the research page. The parts, however, shape up differenlty. Parapsychologists methods use rigorous controls that some other areas of psychology might well take as a model. Parapsychologists content on the one hand is startling in its demonstration of what seems to be a paradox and on the other hand is so consistent with a variety of psychological findings that it meshes neatly and thereby enriches and expands them. The theory is little developed, but it carries the potential for major advances. And the range of possible applications extends from simple techniques sharing basic similarities with those already in use to the possibility of a new model for human relationships and ethical values.
The methodology in parapsychology is extremely tough-minded and rigorous. Because of the impossible nature of the data and the extreme critical attitude of scientists generally, it has had to develop in this direction until the experiments could be above suspicion. Paradoxically, however, the field is constantly accused of a lack of scientific rigor in its research.
The amount of data demonstrating the existence of paranormal occurences is very large - so large that, it is sometimes said, with only a tenth of the evidence now in hand, the facts would be accepted as proven in any other field of science. Yet parapsychology is frequently accused of having no scientific facts to back it's own claims.
Parapsychology is the study of paranormal events, but it is deeply committed to the idea that there are no such things as paranormal events: that all events come under natural law and are therefore normal. Objectivity.
The relation of psychology and parapsychology is an important one from two quite different points of view: the theoretical and the applied. Its theoretical importance lives in the depth and intimacy of the psychologists knowlege of their patients.