Do you believe in the psychics?

Ficheall wrote: »

But those studies are all just based on a sample of repeated experiments. Statistically, they may accurately be used to predict the outcome of a particular event, but that school of thought could equally be applied to psychics. Just because a dropped piece of toast will fall to the ground with more reliability than a psychic will predict the winning lottery numbers does not mean that the methods used are inherently different. Where does one draw the line? Weather forecasting? Gambling? Extispicy?

Except toast falling to the ground, weather forecasting and gambling can, at least in theory, be predicted using proven theories that abide by the natural laws.

Psychics claim to have supernatural powers. If they claimed to have natural powers they would have to present a testable hypothesis and have it proven. Supernatural occurrences are not testable by science. That's not to say there's nothing supernatural it's just to say it's the intellectual equivalent of me telling you my dog is Hitler reincarnated and secretly controls the world.

getz wrote: »

strange isent it boardies are calling anything to do with the paranormal,and saying people who tell your future and take money are con artists ,yet are quite happy to go in to a church to speak to a god,and put money into the churches coffers ,i can assure you i have personally seen things , after one of my sightings [in wicklow] the family in question confirmed what i had seen had happened over 50 years ago,in the same village a old woman[stranger] came over to say to ask me if i was enjoying my holiday,instantly without thinking ,i said you have a problem in one of your bedrooms, she confirmed that in one of the bedrooms no one will enter because she has a ghost,a picture came into my head,of a old woman hanging herself,this she also confirmed as being correct,she even knew the grave,i dident go back to that village this year because i imagine that i would no get any rest,

Doesn't mean you know what you're dealing with, even if you do get these visions etc. or it qualifies you to call yourself "psychic" and charge people money to tell them what's going on in their lives or coming up for them. (Not saying you do)

I am not arguing with you that you see stuff which maybe others don't, and, as per my previous post, am just saying it doesn't make you "psychic", in my view anyway.

I don't go to mass or pay money to the church either, but if I did, it wouldn't be relevant to this argument anyway.

Babooshka wrote: »

Doesn't mean you know what you're dealing with, even if you do get these visions etc. or it qualifies you to call yourself "psychic" and charge people money to tell them what's going on in their lives or coming up for them. (Not saying you do)

I am not arguing with you that you see stuff which maybe others don't, and, as per my previous post, am just saying it doesn't make you "psychic", in my view anyway.

I don't go to mass or pay money to the church either, but if I did, it wouldn't be relevant to this argument anyway.

everyone is psychic at one level or another,some devolop it early or later in life,for me it started when i knew when the phone was going to ring and at times who would be on it,i can not just turn it on so it would be of no use to my to try to make a living out of it,as for the churches ,they themselves believe in it,they even train priests to reject the evil spirit, before making up your mind,try and drop in to a spiritualist church meeting,then judge

Naikon wrote: »

I am not an idiot, so no.

you must have some interest in it or you would not be posting on the thread

No. Certain types believe in them but these are usually the same people who believe in healing crystals, angels, reiki, homeopathy and other such guff.

They believe in them because they want to believe and not because they have any evidence. OK, they usually have flimsy evidence or come to the wrong conclusions but no psychic has ever proven their abilities in a controlled environment.

Yes, I know that the "energy" might not be right in a controlled environment or the scientists' scepticism might "block" the psychic powers but these excuses are rather convenient don't you think.

It's like everything, some are good, some are not. What exactly is psychic anyway? Since we don't know everything about the brain and how it functions, then we cannot be sure that it's not just an ability to use another (to date unscientifically explained) part of the brain??

I have heard some very good stories, and some very poor stories about accuracy so for my money, some can, some can't.
As for the lotto argument, I am not sure that holds huge weight either, cause if statisticians/ mathematicians cannot formulate a 100% accurate instrument to predict the exact lotto numbers with the massive computer technology available,(didn't see the headlines!) then how can we expect one human brain/psyche/soul (insert term of preference) to achieve it?

Believe in them? I am one of them.

It will rain at some point in the next 3 days.

You know someone whose name begins with C, D, E, G or M through W.

I'm right, aren't I?

I find this subject fascinating,

I think they are all money hungry fiends, that play off of peoples emotions and weaknesses.

There are a number of techniqes that they can use, open ended questions, that the person elaborates on, then later they can present the information that they were previously told as new, and its magical, people fall for it.

Others use prayer cards, register forms ect ect that people dont seem to associate with the readings.

Some people require an address, so they can investigate, even in home readings, it is typical for the psychic to use the toilet, during their time in the toilet, they are having a look at things around the house and different rooms and pictures, so they can give a very accurate description of people.

I am genuinely surprised that people would do this.

I think they are all con artists.

Seachmall wrote: »

We're quite confident with regards to the brain. It's not as mystic as popular-culture believes. If psychics were using a part of the brain we'd have found it, dissected it and produced a drug to develop it.

I can't say that that argument persuades me much, in fact it leads me to wonder how many psychics they have cut up in the testing period

Seachmall wrote: »

To predict the randomness of the lotto numbers you'd first need to record the state of every atom in the known universe. Not to mention any state they ever had during the universes history. Which would be difficult cause they'd change state once you observe them :pac:.

And I think that is a wonderfully eloquent way of agreeing with my point :pac:

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

It's a load of bollox. Anyone watch John Edwards he tries to connect with someone in his audience by giving an initial of their dead relatives first name. When he finds someone he still has difficulty getting the dead relatives name as he says they aren't very clear, yet when he finishes he can relay a message in plain clear english from the dead relative to the person in the audience :rolleyes:
Cold reading is what they call it. Some of them do a background check on their future audience and know exactly where they will be sitting on the night.

I knew you were going to say that.

My aunt went to a psychic.

The psychic didn't know her at all. She didn't even know her name until the day of the reading. She was able to tell her a lot about my grandad who had recently died.

She told them a 6 digit number and asked if it meant anything, at the time it didn't mean anything. But later found out it was the number he used as the password for his laptop with all of the family photos.

She told them that something bad was going to happen to my grandmothers house. A few weeks later the kitchen went on fire.

There was lots of other very personal stuff that she couldn't have known.

But I'm still not sure if I believe it.