It should be possible to test whether or not the mental gymnastics are even possible by getting rationalists to make homeopathy work by believing in it. Then again, it might be harder to expect that a cloaked monster that eats happiness will play poker than to believe that pills packaged just like normal pills will cause symptom relief when you’re sick. So you might need to get someone who didn’t know about dementors and tell them that they play poker. Be sure to tell it with a straight face. In a textbook might work best.
As Locke says, the question is how much they’re capable of doing just because you expect it. Can they break the laws of physics? That sounds like an awesome thing to test.
getting rationalists to make homeopathy work by believing in it
Uh… homeopathy doesn’t require you to believe in it . That’s not how the placebo effect works.
So you might need to get someone who didn’t know about dementors and tell them that they play poker. Be sure to tell it with a straight face. In a textbook might work best.
If there’s a magical way to plant false memories, you don’t need to put in nearly that much work.
ETA: There were Memory Charms in Rowling’s version.
“The courts use Veritaserum, but it’s a joke really, you just Obliviate yourself before you testify and then claim the other person was Memory-Charmed with a false memory. If you’ve got a Pensieve, and we do, you can even get the memory back afterward. Now, ordinarily the courts presume in favor of Obliviation having occurred rather than more complicated Memory Charms. [...]”
It should be possible to test whether or not the mental gymnastics are even possible by getting rationalists to make homeopathy work by believing in it. Then again, it might be harder to expect that a cloaked monster that eats happiness will play poker than to believe that pills packaged just like normal pills will cause symptom relief when you’re sick. So you might need to get someone who didn’t know about dementors and tell them that they play poker. Be sure to tell it with a straight face. In a textbook might work best.
As Locke says, the question is how much they’re capable of doing just because you expect it. Can they break the laws of physics? That sounds like an awesome thing to test.
Uh… homeopathy doesn’t require you to believe in it . That’s not how the placebo effect works.
If there’s a magical way to plant false memories, you don’t need to put in nearly that much work.
ETA: There were Memory Charms in Rowling’s version.
There is in this one, too.
Good point.