Posted on 03/18/2004 9:12:56 PM PST by quidnunc
I failed a test for precognition when I was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. The test involved predicting which cards would appear next in a randomly shuffled deck. I guess I should have known—or perhaps I shouldn't have known? Of course, you've heard all the jokes: If phone psychics really know what's going to happen, shouldn't they call their clients rather than wait for their clients to call them? And whoever believes in psychokinesis, please raise my hand.
Still, a 2001 Gallup poll found that Americans continue to be credulous about the reality of psychic phenomena. About half of all Americans believe in psychic healing and extrasensory perception (ESP), and around a third believe in ghosts, telepathy, and clairvoyance.
Notoriously, during the Cold War, the CIA and the KGB both had programs researching paranormal abilities like "remote seeing" and telepathy. It should be noted that a 1995 study of the Department of Defense's STAR GATE remote viewing program done by the American Institutes for Research concluded: "[T]he information provided by remote viewing is vague and ambiguous, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the technique to yield information of sufficient quality and accuracy...for actionable intelligence. Thus, we conclude that continued use of remote viewing in intelligence gathering operations is not warranted."
Research into paranormal phenomena is still ongoing at places like Princeton University and the University of Edinburgh, as well as various institutes like the Rhine Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina. Some professors like the University of Arizona's Gary Schwartz host "spoon bending parties" where undergraduates allegedly deform flatware using their mental powers.
The New Scientist takes a fair-minded look into the controversy over the paranormal in its March 13 issue with a Parapsychology Special (which is unfortunately available only to subscribers). One article focuses on the results for tests for micro-PK, Ganzfeld viewing, and telekinesis.
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(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Just this afternoon, for the first time in over FIFTEEN YEARS, I watched the movie "Ghostbusters" where the opeing scene is that very test where you guess what's on the card...
SPOOKY!!!!
Well, I get email from psychics promising to tell me cool stuff once I pay their fees--is that good enough?
"Who needs remote seeing when we have satellites and handheld video cameras, or telepathy in a world filled with cell phones?"
Anonymity - Freedom from identification: the state of not being known or identified by name!
There is realm for "junk" science and there is a place for the unexplained. We haven't yet found our mental capabilities yet. When we do I'm sure DARPA and the folks at Langley will have a use for it. They already read your mind!
We will develop certain abilities, (adaptation) over time, due to our very own advances in technology..
In some cases, we will actually "engineer" abilities into our own bodies, and those of our descendants.
In other instances, we will simply (or complexly) incorporate wanted or needed abilities through technological add-ons..
I think psychics may actually have the powers they claim. I get a lot of phone calls from telemarketers who get responses ranging from terse to downright rude.
Yet no psychic has ever called me.
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