Psychic Sense

Psychic Sense

The Sci-Fi channel on your cable TV contains movies and shows that deal with monsters, aliens, outer space adventure, and numerous paranormal activities. Of these paranormal activities, the Sci-Fi channels have shows where normal looking people have abilities to predict the future. Surprisingly, these future predicting characters in TV shows do not only appear on TV. Many today have claimed to have these Sci-Fi abilities of foretelling the future, they are commonly known as fortunetellers. They speak with such persuasive words to make you believe in their false superhuman ability that customers are lured in; paying hundreds of dollars just to get their fake fortunes read must be a crime.

Psychic abilities date back all the way to ancient times. In ancient times those who sought missing persons, or who attempted to uncover crimes, could consult oracles or employ various other forms of divination including astrology. After dowsing became popular in the sixteenth century, certain practitioners used divining rods to track down alleged culprits. Throughout the nineteenth century certain ”sensitive” persons received information regarding crimes in their dreams, while during the heyday of spiritualism some mediums (psychics) claimed to solve crimes through information provided by spirits of the dead. Today, virtually none of the old psychic techniques such as receiving information from their “spirit guides,” and using dowsing rods and pendulums, are used. The techniques are so old and have no distinct proof that these methods actually worked, that these they became vogue.

Psychics went further than the ordinary people did; they went to the authorities to prove to them that they are able to foresee. Psychic statements such as “I see water and the number seven,” would be a psychic success, but to the authorities, water and seven seem a little too vague. It would be unusual if there were not some stream, body of water, or other source that cannot somehow be associated with the case. As to the number seven, it could relate to how many were in the search party, a part of a license plate number, or any of countless other possible interpretations. However, even many experienced police officers have fallen for the retrofitting trick.

These retrofitting tricks used in police investigations are only one of five commonly known psychic tricks of the book. One, some psychics exaggerate the successes, even claiming positive results in cases that were failures or that never even existed. Two, psychics may use ordinary means of obtaining information which they then present as having been psychically obtained. Such an act would include psychics studying newspaper files or area maps, or “cold reading” (a technique in which the psychic fishes for information while watching the listener for reactions that suggest correctness or error). Three, another potential explanation for psychic’s apparent successes is faulty recollection of what was actually said by the psychic, for many stories of psychic success told by the customers get better as they are told and retold. Four, many psychics deal in vague generalities: for example one psychic reported perceiving “the names ‘John’ or ‘Joseph’ or something like that” which are two of the most common names. Fifth, there are social and psychological factors that may influence people to accept the accuracy of information. Their own belief system will have an effect.

These factors combined with the present techniques of retrofitting can make a “psychic” of almost anyone. Common sense suggests that if psychics really had the powers they claim then they would long ago have identified the “Unabomber” or foretold when J.F.K would be shot, or at least been able to warn the president that his death would be a deadly blow from a sniper rifle. However, having a fortuneteller tell you that your head is going to be blown off from a distance while driving in a convertible sounds horrendous and terrifying, so perhaps it is a good thing that fortunetellers will never be that detailed.

To get an understanding of modern psychic art, the study of psi is called parapsychology or psychical research. Psychic phenomena are events that cannot be explained by accepted laws of physics or psychology. The most common psychic in the Chicago land area is one who appears on a fortune telling TV commercial and goes by the name of Cleo. This fortuneteller had a commercial with her in front of a deck of cards, which she uses to foretell the future known as tarot card reading. But to make the commercial advertising more appealing she has a glossy ball with chemicals inside looking like smoke in a glass ball where she herself and only herself can actually view the future through the