colorebel Traveller in the arts
Posts: 9
(1/23/02 4:56 am) Reply
Psychic ability
Here's some food for thought...
Do you believe in the ability of a human being to be psychic?
If so, how do you define psychic ability?
I'll follow up with some thoughts of my own, but I recently met someone who claimed to be psychic. After doing some research, I find that there are a few different takes on this idea...I'd love to hear what you think first.
"If you walk you can dance, If you talk you can sing."
Re: Psychic ability
I'll believe in psychic ability the day a psychic submits her/himself to a properly designed and conducted set of tests, and proves it.
Since the dawn of time psychics have been busy separating the gullible from their money.
Every now and again we read of a missing child being found by a psychic or murders solved etc, these seem never to be borne out by the authorities concerned. Or if they are, they are a result of the 'psychic' using the well-worn path of probability in these cases.
It seems psychics can inform us of such things as Elizabeth Taylor getting married again, or Prince Charles falling off a horse and injuring himself, earthquakes in South America, and other such things which had a good chance of occurring without any introduction. And if they don't, who remembers the prediction anyway?
Many, many psychics have tried to claim the considerable pile of cash offered by the Skeptic Society. None, repeat none have succeeded.
A number of famous 'psychics' such as Yuri Geller have been exposed and his tricks such as spoon-bending are easily performed by skilled conjurers/magicians. Yet he continues to succeed. I read a biography of the man. He started out his career as a stage magician. Doing well isn't he?
Those people who claim to be able to speak to the dead are, in my opinion, a particularly low form of life. Capitalizing on the grief of relatives by pretending to speak to their dear departed. Ugh! How can these people live with themselves?
Have you seen how these insects operate? The leading questions and the large net of probability they cast? The audience so desperate for a 'contact' that they will cling to and agree with almost any 'clue' the 'psychic' suggests.
"I'm hearing the name Ron," one might say. "Ron, it seems to be coming from the left of the audience, over there. Ron, or Don is it?
A lady raises her hand. "My husband's name was John."
"Ah, yes, I hear it now, John. I'm hearing that he had a problem in his chest, is that right?"
"Yes, heart attack."
The audience gasps.
Had she said no, then he would just alter his angle of attack until he hit on what the man died from. It's not difficult.
There are many, many types of psychics. Some I'm sure truly believe that they have a gift. For most, I suspect it is the gift of reading small subtle signs that anyone can learn how to read.
It's curious that nobody warned us of recent events such as:
The collapse of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall.
The September 11 tragedy.
It's also curious that Princess Diana met her fate within days of visiting her 'psychic.'
Channellers in California (where else?) have now begun to channel dolphins.
Believe in psychics? Nope.
Cheers
Peter E
colorebel Traveller in the arts
Posts: 10
(1/24/02 5:16 am) Reply
Re: Psychic ability
Pete...well said I think. There are a few more things I'd like to add to that as well.
First and foremost...I'm a logical individual. I think that psychic ability could be proven in a lab if it did, in fact exsist. Most of what we consider to be "psychic" ability is highly intuitive people doing cold reading. (Look it up...it's a great term!) But here's food for thought...
I once had a sociologist tell me that human beings are the only creatures born with no instinct...not in the sense that animals have anyway. I don't quite agree with this. Instinct and intuition are learned abilities...things that we pick up in the course of living and experiencing our environment. Could it be possible for this instinct to play a role in what many people would call psychic? For example...it's easy to tell if someone has moved into a room even if your back is turned simply because we have the ability to sense the disturbance in the air. We discount this a lot because it seems we want to live in the concious part of our brains...a control issue most likely. *L* Regardless, I think there is physical ability to understand things that our concious brains cannot...and simply because it's unexplainable we pass it off as magic. I strongly feel that human beings have yet to completely understand themselves as a species...I think our minds are capable of far more than what we give them credit for.
Do I feel that the "psychics" are real? No. They are just very smart people who can buffalo the rest of the gullible fools into parting with their money. But I often wonder, on a much deeper level, if our brains are more powerful than we have the scientific process to test. Can we reach beyond the realm of the physical? If so, then there would be a logical way to explain, test, and verify this...perhaps yet to be discovered in the future. Science has already proven that we only use a very small percentage of our brains...logic would suggest that the rest isn't wasted space. Again...your thoughts?
"If you walk you can dance, If you talk you can sing."
Re: Psychic ability
Hello Colorebel,
I find myself agreeing with what you said, except perhaps for your suggestion that instinct is necessarily and completely a learned ability in humans. I believe the jury is still out on that one.
It certainly isn't in a lot of cases where animals are concerned, and isn't that what we are when all is said and done? Animals?
I'm not aware of any experiments in the area of human instinctive behaviour, but I would be very surpised indeed if any experiment concluded that such a thing did not exist in humans. Dormant maybe.
Animals rely more on instinct because of their greater need to avoid being eaten (basically.) We no longer have that same pervasive motivation.
I saw a TV series on animal instinct (inherited memory, if you like) where new-born pheasants were subjected to various-shaped shadows above them. There was no reaction from the pheasant chicks when the shadow of a non-predatory bird was shown, but when the shadow of a hawk was passed over them, they panicked and 'ran for the hills.' They had had no opportunity to 'learn' this behaviour.
Why should humans be any different? It probably falls under the 'use it or lose it' heading.
One instinct which I believe humans have which is not learned, is the compulsion we have to 'gain height' when pursued or frightened. A tree, a flight of stairs, a hill, anything higher than where the danger is. I'm sure you've seen this illustrated many times yourself. I know I have.
Thinking about it, I guess there is also the involuntary 'hackle rise' we experience when frightened. An attempt of course in animals to make themselves appear larger and so more threatening.
Psychic ability
I happen to believe very deeply in psychic ability. I admit that some of the future seeing psychics have been proven to be big frauds, but my mother has some psychic abilities. She is not a professional psychic, but she can tell when something will happen, or when someone is going to come without being invited or calling ahead. For example: My mother had a dream that she was going to be driving on the mountain side, (which she does every day because we lived in the mountains near our town) and that she was going to end up driving over the cliff and die. Keep in mind that she had this dream before she was pregnant with me. When she was Five months pregnant with me, she was driving into town and the county was doing some road work and having every one of the drivers go carefully, well, when she left the caution zone, there were a few people working on that area and did not have any caution signs. At the same moment my mother was going around the workers, another car was coming from the opposite direction, she almost hit the car and then almost went off the side of the cliff. Because she remembered her dream, she swerved the other way and hit a rock wall on the solid side of the mountain.
If you call that made-up or even a coincidence, then you are dull and have no sense of reality.
There are also MANY other types of psychic abilities: clairgustance, empathy, telepathy, and also telekinesis. All of which have nothing to do with seeing the future or talking to the dead.
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