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Article #58: Psychic Powers Vs. Science!

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The subject of psychic phenomena and performing the same experiment!
parapsychology arouses ahuge amount of If, by its very nature, a experience is
controversy and doubt. This is not extremely rare andunpredictable in
unreasonable nature, it is very hard to use Science to
(and probably a good thing), given their saymuch about it at all.
extremely checkeredpast. Fake have Science has very little to say about rare
abounded: false mediums, charlatan mind and unrepeatable events. Yet, these are
readers,conjuring tricks passed off as the very things that life itself is full
the real thing. The list goes onforever. of.
Hence, the use of Science should be The Scientific Method has little or
welcomed in helping to verifysome of the nothing to say regarding rare or
psychic community's claims. unrepeatable events. Nevertheless, these
However, this can also become unhealthy are the very things that life itself is
for several reasons, andit is equally filled with.
important to stand guard against these It is for this very reason that,
flaws. Theytoo are all too common. initially, the idea that ameteorite
(1) Biased scientists. collision caused the extinction of the
The pitiful truth is that the field of dinosaurswas met with hoots of laughter
psychic investigation, with onlyvery rare by the scientific community. Itwas the
exceptions, fails to excite or attract very rarity of the event, and the fact
the veryscientific brains. Career-wise, that no evidencecould be found, that
the field of psychic investigation caused ridicule to be heaped upon
isextremely badly funded, is nearly theheads of the theory's proponents.
impossible to make a solid,respected Until, of course, the craterwas
career in, and is the source of endless discovered.
derision frommainstream scientists and We now also know that the role of the
diehard skeptics. experimenter candramatically change the
Therefore, there is always gigantic results of the experiment. This
pressure uponpsychic researchers to mayexplain why certain famed psychics
justify their own existence. At the end seem to have their skillsflee them in the
ofthe day, they have to find something, cold harsh light of the
somewhere! If, from startto finish, their scientificlaboratory. Yet, only a
careers consisted solely of disproving mediocre investigator would claim
everysingle psychic experience that they thatbecause this is the case, it proves
were presented with, theywould quickly that there were no psychicphenomena to
give up the psychic investigation field begin with!
fromsheer boredom or depression. After (3) Psychic Skeptics.
all, from a purely personalstandpoint, This may, in part, explain the James
why bother? Hence, most of them are Randi effect. This is apsychic
intrinsicallybelievers to start with. To investigator who is a total skeptic on
put it bluntly, the probability ishigh the subject, andwho approaches the
that they possess a strong in-built bias subject with this powerful ingrained
in place. bias. Hehas issued a challenge to pay a
This is not to imply that they would fake large sum of money to anyone whocan
results. However, wemust be aware that, demonstrate psychic powers to him in a
by their very existence in this much scientificallycontrolled environment. To
malignedfield, there is an invisible date, he still has his money.
pressure upon these people toproduce Now, part of the problem may be that,
something to validate their own even if somebody isgenuinely psychic, the
existence. Hence, thissort of science is attitude of the investigator
extremely difficult to maintain in a issufficiently negative to completely
totallyobjective manner. extinguish whatever psychicabilities
Regular academic scientists are always exist, as long as he is present. Again, a
under pressure to justifytheir funding trueinvestigator of any professionalism
through their results. How much worse cannot discount this possibility.
then forscientists who, for the most This is a purely human factor we are
part, have no funding, and who areoften talking about, a function ofthe human
the laughing stock of the scientific brain, and not a measurement of the
community? boiling point ofwater. Hence, it is
For all of these reasons, the profession entirely plausible that the
of psychic investigationcannot and will negativeattitude of the investigator,
not attract the very finest minds, at plus the undue pressure that thepsychic
least notat the present times. This is is placed under as a result of it, could
not intended to be an snub toscientists act to diminishthe very effect being
involved in the field. It is just measured.
reality. The verybest will tend to However, the bias of people like Randi
gravitate towards "safe" fields where and the organization ofskeptics that
theirability will be recognized, and not calls itself Psicop, is worrying for
derided and scoffed at. anotherreason. These are people who,
It is a pity, but that is just how the while claiming to be scientists,are
world works at present. actually approaching the entire subject
(2) The inadequacy of Science. with a deepbias that has nothing to do
The scientific method has served the with Science whatsoever.
human race extremely well, but ithas its They are skeptical, because they are
limits. It cannot do everything. skeptical. That's all. Theyare believers
Hence, we must be cautious of trying to in "Disbelief". It's just the opposite
apply scientific methodswhere they may end of thespectrum of Belief. That's all.
not work well at all. Such is the manner There is no scientific reason for it
in whichscience has been elevated to a whatsoever. While theypretend to be
religion in our world, thisstatement scientific, their approach is more akin
might seem almost absurd. to areligious dogma; that of treating
Yet, there are clear occasions where Science like a religion. It isoften
science cannot measureanything. You called "Scientism" for this reason.
cannot measure the emotions of love or They might claim that there is no proof
anger withscientific instruments. Yet, that psychic phenomenaexist. Yet, it can
few would doubt that they exist. be stated with equal validity that there
You cannot use instruments to provide a isno proof that they do NOT. That is a
printout of what somebodyis thinking. totally equivalentstatement. As we have
Yet, nobody would deny that they DO seen earlier, Science cannot PROVE
think, and theyvery often think in words. anegative statement. It can only talk
You cannot prove scientifically that about probabilities andlikelihood. And,
there are NO toy airplanesin orbit around as we have discussed, many psychic
the planet Mars! It might sound absurd, phenomenaare intrinsically rare or
butno matter how much you search for them fragile in their very essence.
and fail to find them, you Like any good zealot, these skeptics like
CANNOT PROVE that they are not there. You Randi and Psicophave a hidden agenda in
can only say that youhave not found one "proving" that the world functions theway
YET, and that it is extremely unlikely they think it does. Frankly, a major
thatthey exist. You might be able to say motivation is FEAR. Morepeople than would
that with 99.99999999%certainty. But you like to admit it are terrified of
can NEVER say it with 100% certainty. thepossibility of psychic phenomena. What
Science cannot "prove" a negative. if someone really COULDread your mind?
Thus, in the realm of psychic phenomena, Every dirty little secret. What if YOU
science cannotcategorically state that too coulddevelop psychic powers?
there is no such thing. You CANNOT Just imagine what sort of world THAT
PROVE that ghosts do not exist, for would be!
instance. You can only saythat, to date, Hardly the boringly predictable,
there has been no conclusive proof that ultra-conservative, Newtonian
they DO. "scientific" universe that these people
That is NOT the same as saying that they inhabit. For them, it's apossibility too
do NOT. terrible to contemplate.
In addition, the scientific method itself In conclusion , it's vital not to be too
has limitations thatpsychic phenomena credulous in examining apsychic
would definitely stretch. In experience, or in rushing to accept the
science,something has to be repeatable claims of the
for it to have any validity. Inother "professional" investigators in this
words, other scientists have to be able field. Nevertheless, wemust also be
to replicate yourprocess and get exactly extremely cautious of the skeptics who,
the same results. whilepretending to be scientific, are
However, this is almost certainly doomed often better viewed asideological
to failure in thepsychic realm. Imagine zealots than even mediocre scientists.
repeating your experiment in a Copyright 2006 Asoka Selvarajah. All
hauntedhouse and DEMANDING that the Rights Reserved.
sprite appear on cue, just becauseyou are






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