Do Psychic Abilties Exist?

 Are Psychics Real?

For many years I’ve grown up with people around me asking this question; friends; parents; aunts and grandparents. My mother even has her own anecdote as to why she believes in mediums and psychic abilities: ‘how did she know that if she wasn’t talking to [insert name]’. So, how real are they? With prevalence of names all over our TV such as Sally Morgan, Derek Acorah and John Edwards, how is it not to be real? I recently wrote about how psychics are used in forensic science, but what about everyday life?

Psychic Life

Last night, like most people in the U.K. I was enamored by a T.V programme entitled: MyPsychic Life. Which apparently, didn't do too well. It detailed the lives of psychics and how the ‘cope’ with their ‘abilities’. One of which, claimed he was contacted by the spirit of Michael Jackson, who started singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to his wife…Now, there’s a claim to fame. I mean, how short on heritage do you need to be? The show offered nothing in the way of convincing the general public that psychic abilities were actually attainable. At one point, one of the psychics couldn’t get the crowd livened up, he was trying everything in his power to get a ‘reading’ he may as well have said ‘I’m getting a name. Does anyone have a name?’. Still, people ended up believing. Furthermore, when one of the psychics attended an interview, the interviewer said ‘I’m Skeptical of this’. Great, I thought, shoot him down. 5 minutes later, the psychic told him he was ‘stressed’, possibly by a ‘move’ and the ‘skeptic’ was transformed into a believer…Funny how that always happens on television.

One of the mediums actually has a Facebook page, in which she will give you a reading over Facebook. Outstanding, she reads a random Facebook account (only of the believers, obviously) and then puts ‘personal’ information on a status. These people then believe she is in contact with a dead loved one. I honestly don’t know where the blame lies in that one.

Cold Readings

I have written before about how psychics carry out their ‘abilities’ when using police and media knowledge to ‘aid’ investigations. Cold readings are techniques used by people with paranormal abilities’ to get a subject to behave in a way that manipulates the subject to believe they have a special ability. Our desires to make sense of out experiences are overwhelming, they can lead us to make discoveries or lead us down a rabbit hole. It is the ability of a psychic to exploit this desire. The exploitations tend to be vague and callous, playing on the human nature to be self centred. Every guess incorrect guess made about the subject will be reverted by the one that is accurate.

The psychics are very good at reading people. Using age as an indicator, they can pretty much grab at atoms in the air and tug until someone falls to their folly. For example, Derren Brown states on his website an excellent breakdown of a cold reading:

“I sense a woman in your family with some sort of cancer. Could be your aunt or something like that. Yes? I am pretty certain it is your aunt and she had cancer. She is no longer with us, is she? Oh, she is? I just sense her somehow distant. Oh, she has moved away recently? Then that must be it. I just feel a lot of distance between you and her …”

It pretty much is that simple. Once you hit a sweet spot, you can make guesses until the person is screaming with satisfaction that a loved one has contacted them from beyond the grave. Whilst we are on the subject; why is it always loved ones coming through? Never people that have died but have hated them. ‘Oh, im getting Jean through. She was your neighbour yes? She said but that fence back up you nosy bitch’ – Just doesn’t happen does it? 

 

When they get a cold reading 'spot on', then comes the attacking of the skeptics. They will say things such as 'Winston Wu' - who, as opposed to proving psychic abilities are real, sets out to destroy skeptic credibility:

Wu writes: “For example, if someone had an amazing psychic reading at a psychic fair (not prearranged) where they were told something very specific that couldn’t have been guessed by cold reading, skeptics would start inventing false accusations such as: “Someone who knew you must have tipped off the psychic in advance”, “A spy in the room must have overheard you mention the specific detail before the reading”, “You must have something in your appearance that reveals the detail”, “You must have remembered it wrong since memory is fallible”, etc. Even if none of these accusations are true, skeptics will still insist on it simply because it‚s the simpler explanation to them.”

 You can find this being totally ripped apart by Dr Steven Novella here. I recommend you read that, it is exceptional. Making a cold reading doesn't make you psychic anymore than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Life's a Bitch

But all these people have their problems with their abilities. You will find accounts everywhere of them doing something treacherous. An article in the Mirror describes Sally Morgan even giving a reading for an alive audience member:

The stage blunder had the ­audience in stitches, according to blogger Myles Power. He said: “People can submit photographs of dead loved ones, in the hope Sally gives a psychic reading. Sally pulled out a photo of a woman. She began communicating from beyond the grave with a man holding a baby. She got in contact with the woman in the photo. When she got no response from the audience, she asked whoever submitted it to stand up. It turned out the woman got the concept of submitting a picture of someone to talk to wrong, and submitted one of herself”

I mean, how do you recover from that? There are many other instances too, with this being by far the funniest. But people still fork over their hard-earned cash in the hopes of being contacted by a dead loved one. To read that last sentence back, its is phenomenally dumbfounding.I find it somewhat disgusting when these people have people pouring their hear out to them about their dead relatives/lovers/friends and these people are saying they are talking to them.

Randi Challenge

The real crux of this is that it it all comes down to evidence. There is zero evidence for psychic mediums abilities anymore than there is evidence that I can sprout the wings of a dragon and fly. This lack of evidence isn’t through lack of trying on the scientific communities’ behalf, it is on the ‘psychics’ themselves. This has come to the point where James Randi, skeptical activist, set up the ‘one million dollar paranormal challenge’. This is an offer to pay out to anyone who can prove, under laboratory conditions, that they possess paranormal abilities. This was set up In 1964 with no successful applicants. 

Famous psychics that have refused to carry out the challenge include, Uri Gellar, Leigh Catherine, Rosemary Alta and Sylvia Browne. People in the U.K may remember Leigh Catherine backing out famously over twitter after Phillip Schofield live on This Morning said ITV would pay for her to travel to America to undertake the challenge. She backed out tweeting that it was ‘set up and impossible to pass’. Shockingly, she wasn’t the only one to make this claim.

I imagine the reason it is ‘impossible to pass’ is because psychic abilities are not real. One opportunity to prove it and without taking the test, they’re claiming that it is fixed.

Conclusion

Over the years, psychic mediums have had ample opportunities to prove themselves in actual scientific conditions. Why not take the challenge? Ultimately, they are conning people. Some of what was seen yesterday on the show wasn’t pleasant. Telling people who are grieving, about their loved ones isn’t exactly helping them. The much beloved Daily Mail have an article on how to spot the fake psychics (the ones that are just after your money and the ‘real’ ones…. that obviously wont charge you (call me skeptical, but I don’t believe that). Many websites that I have seen say there is ‘scientific evidence’ and ‘nonbelievers’ don’t actually believe this evidence (without stating what the evidence is). Again, I refer you to the challenge: take it.

Psychic abilities have absolutely no evidence or credibility. Please, if you believe in these, think about it. They have had ample opportunities to prove themselves and choose not to. They choose not to for a reason. That reason is very obvious. So, to answer my question: Do psychic abilities exist? The answer is no, there is no evidence to suggest it does. At all. If paranormal explanations were in fact true, then it should be possible to eliminate all the alternative hypotheses posed by skeptics. Again, this has yet to actually be proven.