There have been historical cases, such as Lajos Pap , the Hungarian spiritualist medium, who was found to be faking animal appearances at seances. And then more recently, self described psychic James Hydrick was revealed as a trickster. Hydrick confessed his paranormal demonstrations were tricks learned in prison. Another notable example involved televangelist Peter Popoff.
His wife used a wireless transmitter to broadcast information about sermon attendees to Popoff via an earpiece. Popoff claimed to receive this information by paranormal means and rose to fame hosting a nationally televised programme, during which he performed seemingly miraculous cures on audience members. But despite such cases, there are still many people who firmly believe in the power of psychic ability. According to a US Gallup survey , for example, more than one-quarter of people believe humans have psychic abilities — such as telepathy and clairvoyance.
A recent report may help to shed some light on why people continue to believe in psychic powers. The study tested believers and sceptics with the same level of education and academic performance and found that people who believe in psychic powers think less analytically. This means that they tend to interpret the world from a subjective personal perspective and fail to consider information critically.
Read more: The top three scientific explanations for ghost sightings. Believers also often view psychic claims as confirmatory evidence — regardless of their evidential basis. Robinson claims to have foreseen terrorist attacks, disasters and celebrity deaths.
His assertions derive from limited and questionable evidence. In some earlier experiments by other psi researchers, participants were hooked up to physiological measuring equipment similar to a lie detector that measured emotional arousal. They sat before a computer and watched randomly selected images; some were erotic or very negative "like the bloody photos you see on CSI" images. What it shows is that your physiology can anticipate an upcoming event even though your conscious self might not.
Bem's nine experiments demonstrated similar unconscious influences from future events. For example, in one experiment, participants saw a list of words and were then given a test in which they tried to retype as many of the words as they could remember.
Next, a computer randomly selected some of the words from the list and gave the participants practice exercises on them. When their earlier memory test results were checked, it was found that they had remembered more of the words they were to practice later than words they were not going to practice. In other words, the practice exercises had reached back in time to help them on the earlier test. The magician and skeptic James Randi has offered a million dollars to anyone who can demonstrate such abilities under controlled conditions; many have tried to claim the prize, but to date no one has succeeded.
And nobody ever will succeed. We can say that with confidence, even without digging into any controversies about this or that academic study. The reason is simple: what we know about the laws of physics is sufficient to rule out the possibility of true psychic powers. And more than a little bit dangerous: the trash heap of history is populated by scientists claiming to know more than they really do, or predicting that they will know almost everything any day now:.
My claim is different. The reason we can say that with confidence relies heavily on the specific form that the laws of physics take.
The idea that our minds can reach out and influence or observe the outside world seems completely plausible. We see things in one place affecting things far away every day. I pick up a remote control, push some buttons, and my TV comes to life and changes channel. The human mind is a mysterious thing. What is consciousness? What happens when we dream? Where do experiences of awe and transcendence come from? So why not psychic powers? We should be properly skeptical, and try to determine through careful testing whether any particular claim actually holds up to scrutiny.
Wishful thinking is a powerful force, and it makes sense to guard against it.
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