Psychics, Psychic Readers & Science!

Much skepticism exists around the subject of psychicappear on cue, just becauseyou are performing the
phenomena,and this is probably not a bad thing, givensame experiment!
its very checkeredpast. Fake mediums, bogus mindIf, by its very nature, a experience is extremely rare
readers, magic tricks passed offas the real thing. Theandunpredictable in nature, it is very hard to use
list goes on.Science to saymuch about it at all.
Hence, the use of Science should be welcomed inScience has very little to say about rare and
helping to verifysome of the psychic community'sunrepeatable events. Yet, these are the very things
claims.that life itself is full of.
However, this can also become unhealthy for severalThe Scientific Method has little or nothing to say
reasons, andit is equally important to stand guardregarding rare or unrepeatable events. Nevertheless,
against these flaws. Theytoo are all too common.these are the very things that life itself is filled with.
(1) Biased scientists.It is for this very reason that, initially, the notion that
The sad truth is that the field of psychic investigation,ameteorite collision caused the extinction of the
with onlyvery rare exceptions, fails to excite or attractdinosaurswas met with hoots of laughter by the
the veryscientific brains. Career-wise, the field ofscientific community. Itwas the very rarity of the event,
psychic investigation isextremely badly funded, is nearlyand the fact that no evidencecould be found, that
impossible to make a solid,respected career in, and iscaused laughter to be heaped upon theheads of the
the source of endless derision frommainstreamtheory's proponents. Until, of course, the craterwas
scientists and diehard skeptics.discovered.
Therefore, there is always gigantic pressureWe now also know that the role of the experimenter
uponpsychic researchers to justify their own existence.candrastically change the results of the experiment.
At the end ofthe day, they have to find something,This mayexplain why certain famed psychics seem to
somewhere! If, from startto finish, their careershave their skillsleave them in the cold harsh light of the
consisted solely of disproving everysingle psychicscientificlaboratory. Yet, only a mediocre investigator
experience that they were presented with, theywouldwould claim thatbecause this is the case, it proves that
quickly give up the psychic investigation field fromsheerthere were no psychicmanifestations to begin with!
boredom or depression. After all, from a purely(3) Psychic Skeptics.
personalstandpoint, why bother? Hence, most of themThis may, in part, explain the James Randi effect. This
are intrinsicallybelievers to start with. To put it bluntly,is apsychic investigator who is a total skeptic on the
the probability ishigh that they possess a strong in-builtsubject, andwho approaches the subject with this
bias in place.powerful ingrained bias. Hehas issued a challenge to
This is not to imply that they would fake results.pay a large sum of money to anyone whocan
However, wemust be aware that, by their verydemonstrate psychic powers to him in a
existence in this much malignedfield, there is an invisiblescientificallycontrolled environment. To date, he still has
pressure upon these people toproduce something tohis money.
validate their own existence. Hence, thissort of scienceNow, part of the problem may be that, even if
is extremely difficult to maintain in a totallyobjectivesomebody isgenuinely psychic, the attitude of the
manner.investigator issufficiently negative to completely
Regular academic scientists are always underextinguish whatever psychicabilities exist, as long as he
pressure to justifytheir funding through their results.is present. Again, a trueinvestigator of any caliber
How much worse then forscientists who, for the mostcannot discount this possibility.
part, have no funding, and who areoften the laughingThis is a purely human factor we are talking about, a
stock of the scientific community?function ofthe human brain, and not a measurement of
For all of these reasons, the profession of psychicthe boiling point ofwater. Hence, it is entirely plausible
investigationcannot and will not attract the very finestthat the negativeattitude of the investigator, plus the
minds, at least notat the present times. This is notundue pressure that thepsychic is placed under as a
intended to be an snub toscientists involved in the field.result of it, could act to diminishthe very effect being
It is just reality. The verybest will tend to gravitatemeasured.
towards "safe" fields where theirskill will be recognized,However, the bias of people like Randi and the
and not derided and scoffed at.organization ofskeptics that calls itself Psicop, is
It is a pity, but that is just how the world works atworrying for anotherreason. These are people who,
present.while claiming to be scientists,are actually approaching
(2) The inadequacy of Science.the entire subject with a deepbias that has nothing to
The scientific method has served mankind extremelydo with Science whatsoever.
well, but ithas its limits. It cannot do everything.They are skeptical, because they are skeptical. That's
Hence, we must be circumspect of trying to applyall. Theyare believers in "Disbelief". It's just the opposite
scientific methodswhere they may not work well at all.end of thespectrum of Belief. That's all.
Such is the manner in whichscience has been elevatedThere is no scientific reason for it whatsoever. While
to a religion in our world, thisstatement might seemtheypretend to be scientific, their approach is more akin
almost absurd.to areligious dogma; that of treating Science like a
Yet, there are clear occasions where science cannotreligion. It isoften called "Scientism" for this reason.
measureanything. You cannot measure the emotionsThey might claim that there is no proof that psychic
of love or anger withscientific instruments. Yet, fewphenomenaexist. Yet, it can be stated with equal
would doubt that they exist.validity that there isno proof that they do NOT. That is
You cannot use instruments to provide a printout ofa totally equivalentstatement. As we have seen earlier,
what somebodyis thinking. Yet, nobody would denyScience cannot PROVE anegative statement. It can
that they DO think, and theyvery often think in words.only talk about probabilities andlikelihood. And, as we
You cannot prove scientifically that there are NO toyhave discussed, many psychic manifestationsare
airplanesin orbit around the planet Venus! It might soundintrinsically rare or fragile in their very essence.
absurd, butno matter how much you search for themLike any good fanatic, these skeptics like Randi and
and fail to find them, youPsicophave a hidden agenda in "proving" that the world
CANNOT PROVE that they are not there. You canfunctions theway they think it does. Frankly, a major
only say that youhave not found one YET, and that itmotivation is FEAR. Morepeople than would like to
is extremely unlikely thatthey exist. You might be ableadmit it are terrified of thepossibility of psychic
to say that with 99.99999999%certainty. But you canphenomena. What if someone really COULDread your
NEVER say it with 100% certainty.mind? Every dirty little secret. What if YOU too
Science cannot "prove" a negative.coulddevelop psychic powers?
Thus, in the realm of psychic manifestations, scienceWhat sort of world would THAT be?! Definitely NOT
cannotcategorically insist that there is no such thing.thecomfortable, ultra-conservative, clockwork
You CANNOTNewtonian universethese skeptics yearn to inhabit. For
PROVE that ghosts do not exist, for instance. Youthem, it's a universe toounendurable to contemplate.
can only saythat, to date, there has been noTherefore, it simply cannot be true!
conclusive proof that they DO.To summarize, we must be very circumspect in being
That is NOT the same as saying that they do NOT.toonaive when examining paranormal manifestations,
In addition, the scientific method itself has limitationsor in rushing tohastily believe claims from the
thatpsychic manifestations would definitely stretch. In"professional" researchers inthis highly controversial
science,something has to be repeatable for it to havefield of investigation. However, wehave to also be
any validity. Inother words, other scientists have to beskeptical of the skeptics who, while adopting a
able to repeat yourprocess and get exactly the same"scientific" posture, frequently behave more like
results.unrulyideological evangelicals than even the most
However, this is almost certainly doomed to failure inmediocre scientists
thepsychic realm. Imagine repeating your experiment inCopyright 2006 Asoka Selvarajah. All Rights
a hauntedhouse and DEMANDING that the phantomReserved.