New mission statement? "To discuss the philosophical import of psi and survival"

[Laird]

In the Is this forum dying? thread, Sci wrote in a post I've split out into the PQ social media accounts [split from: Is this forum dying?] thread:

I do think we might be one of the very few places that tries to discuss the philosophical import of Psi & Survival. I don't know if that's a major selling point because interest in said topic seems to be minimal heh...

That got a couple of likes, one from me, and there have been a few likes for my response too:

Hey, it's definitely a strength of ours, and it's worth playing to one's strengths. 👍

@Raimo then quoted both and in response in turn wrote:

I have been reading afterlife discussions on r/afterlife lately, and I noticed that there are 21K members on that subreddit. So, there are a lot of people who want to discuss about the afterlife, and some of them probably want to have deeper discussions about these matters. Philosophical and spiritual discussions are definitely one of the strengths of this forum and while reading some discussions on that aforementioned subreddit I kept thinking how those people would get much better answers to their questions from here.

This has led me to wonder: what if we made this our focus to the point of formulating it as a mission statement? We might or might not word it exactly as Sci put it, but his wording seems to be a good starting point. It would give us a unique brand, in the space where parapsychology and philosophy/metaphysics intersect, and it wouldn't be forced because it is what we discuss mostly these days.

I have for a while now thought that describing ourselves as a parapsychology board these days isn't quite right, because only a little of what we discuss is parapsychology proper. This new mission statement would shift us out of that awkward no-longer-quite-accurate branding and into a more accurate branding.

On the other hand, it might dissatisfy some, who are looking for more of a return to discussions of parapsychology (and related matters) proper.

Hence, I'm just floating the possibility for now. Opinions welcome, especially from the other two remaining active founders, @Ninshub and @Typoz.

Heh I appreciate being mentioned...but I'm not sure I'd want this to be the mission statement, or at least not the entirety?

Part of the reason is that, as you mention, there are a lot of broad topics the forum covers beyond philosophy.

I also think that philosophical problems have a limit to their progress. There is no way to really get at the correct "ism" from our vantage point AFAICTell.

There are also questions that are not exactly philosophical, such as Fine Tuning & ID vs Neo-Darwinism or Nuts & Bolts vs Deep Weird UFO explanations.

I also am not where the mission statement goes - is this the Blue Sky / Twitter bio? On the front of a Facebook Page?

[Laird]

Fair call, Sci. It might be too limited as a mission statement. It might anyway be worth developing a mission statement which is sufficiently broad but also succinct.

As for where it would go, as @Max_B has pointed out, our root `/` redirects to `/forums`, so there's scope for us to replace the redirect with a homepage that includes a mission statement, and that we'd generally use SEO on so as to try to better attract suitable new participants via organic searches.

Yes, though, it could also be used for social media bios or front pages.

Mission Statement - I remember we had one at a place where I used to work. The work which we did before and after the mission statement remained the same. Somehow it seemed for show, to keep the senior managers happy.

As for this place, well discussions on philosophy don't give me any cause for enthusiasm, it doesn't reflect my interest. What are my interests, the practical I suppose. I remember in school science classes it was always most interesting when we had practical demonstrations, either given by the teacher at the front of the class or when we got our hands dirty as it were and did stuff for ourselves. That's pretty much my attitude to all of this.

First, personal experiences, whether my own or those of other people, but ideally from someone close at hand and not a distant someone with whom we don't have direct conversations.

Secondly and this is even more practical, what do I do, from the moment when I wake up till the time I go to sleep at the end of the day. And what do I dream about too. All of this, 24 hours a day, it isn't somehow abstract or academic, its the gritty stuff of existence. That, daily life, is the only reason why any of this is of interest to me. Stuff I can touch and feel.

Perhaps a simple listing of some major interests ->

 Experiential, Philosophical, Science, Reasonable Skepticism

I say the latter because I don't want this to be a place where there is no skepticism but I also don't want pseudo-skeptics just spamming the usual silly catechisms of the Materialist religion like "Consciousness is an Illusion".

[Laird]

Mission Statement - I remember we had one at a place where I used to work. The work which we did before and after the mission statement remained the same. Somehow it seemed for show, to keep the senior managers happy.

Yes, and I suggested this in the context of SEO: the purpose of the mission statement would simply have been to describe to the public, especially prospective members, what we're already doing, not to mandate adherence to anything new.

On reconsideration though, it perhaps is better to develop (1) a terse tag line or slogan, the sort of short bit of text that could go under the graphics on a logo, and (2) a slightly more extended description, of the sort that can, for example, be used on social media profiles.

I'm in conversation with ChatGPT (on which more soon in the SEO thread), and here's the relevant part of our dialogue:

My current drafts of each are:

Tagline: "Inquiring into the science of psi, the mind's I, and why."

Brief description: "An online forum for conversations across science and psi, metaphysics and mind, spirituality and survival, and ontology and origins."

What do you think of those, and how would you improve them if you think they need it?

Your drafts are clever and philosophically rich — they reflect the intellectual and poetic character of Psience Quest well. Here's a breakdown and some suggestions to help you fine-tune both for clarity, impact, and versatility across contexts.

---

🔹 Tagline:

“Inquiring into the science of psi, the mind’s I, and why.”

👍 Strengths:

• Smart wordplay (“mind’s I” / “why” / “psi”) — perfect for a reflective, inquisitive audience
  
• Poetic and distinctive — sounds like Psience Quest
  
• Compact and memorable
  

⚠️ Potential issues:

• May be too cryptic for newcomers unfamiliar with the wordplay
  • e.g., “psi” and “mind’s I” are clever but could be opaque to first-time visitors
    
• Doesn’t immediately signal “forum” or “community”
  

✅ Suggested Variants:

Option 1: Preserve Poetic Wordplay, Add Clarity

“Exploring psi, the mind’s I, and the big whys — together.”

Adds “together” to hint at community.

Option 2: Intellectual but Direct

“A forum exploring psi, consciousness, and the nature of mind.”

Very clear for SEO and first-time visitors, less poetic.

Option 3: Hybrid Tone

“Inquiring minds exploring psi, consciousness, and why we’re here.”

Still poetic, but more accessible to searchers.

---

🔹 Description:

“An online forum for conversations across science and psi, metaphysics and mind, spirituality and survival, and ontology and origins.”

👍 Strengths:

• Thoughtful, sophisticated phrasing
  
• Nicely balanced pairings that reflect the forum's wide scope
  
• Evokes deep curiosity
  

⚠️ Potential issues:

• Dense: the series of “X and Y” pairings is elegant but a bit hard to parse at a glance
  
• Doesn’t immediately say who it’s for or what kind of tone to expect
  

✅ Suggested Revisions:

Option 1: Minimal Rewrite (retain your voice)

“An online forum for thoughtful conversations spanning science and psi, metaphysics and mind, spirituality and survival, and the origins of consciousness and reality.”

Improves clarity while keeping your style.

Option 2: Slightly More Accessible

“A community for exploring consciousness, psi, mind, and metaphysics — where science meets spirituality and inquiry is open-minded.”

This may work better for social media bios or meta descriptions.

Option 3: SEO-Friendly, Clearer Targeting

“An online discussion forum for exploring psi phenomena, the nature of consciousness, mind–body questions, and life after death — with depth and respect.”

Focused on what people may be Googling, while conveying tone.

---

✅ Recommendations:

• Your originals are philosophically sound and creatively written.
  
• For best results, you could use both styles:
  • Use the poetic tagline on the site header or logo
    
  • Use the clearer description (or one of the revised versions) for social profiles, search snippets, and landing page intros
    

Thoughts, comments, criticisms, suggestions, and alternatives welcome.