How can you tell legitimate
psychics apart from frauds? They have the same success rate and the same
effects upon success. If any clever liar can replicate the effects of
extraordinary or supernatural abilities, than there’s nothing special about
psychics or their abilities. If you say you can levitate, I expect a
loop-de-loop.
What sort of god would create a
world where psychics are relevant anyway? The pain of loss is universal and if
it's intentionally imposed by someone then it's cruel. It's also cruel if a
nature designed by any god would incorporate assured, permanent death and the
ability to communicate with the dead is rare. At best it's wasteful that these
people don't use their powers to gain a potentially near-infinite amount of
wisdom from the departed; Martin Luther King Jr., Nicola Tesla, Einstein, etc.
Instead, these people sell their powers at a high price, sometimes, to offer
either comfort or the semblance of comfort to the grieving.
Once again I ask how you
distinguish between a psychic and a liar. The reality is it's irrelevant
because psychic powers, if real, are nothing special. They have as much relevance
to society as graffiti, which is comparatively high brow next to the average psychic.
Fine arts such as painting, music, and literature have a measurably more
beneficial effect on the world by improving our culture. The sciences produce knowledge
and technology that can give us longer lives and a higher quality of life. The
dead can only tell us of the mundane. If you’re a psychic, I would argue that
you’re not making any contribution to the world or your species.
Well, a lot of the people who call themselves are actually Cold Readers. "The Mentalist" is a really good example of this. The main character is Patrick Jane, and he used to make a living as a television Psychic, until his wife and daughter were killed in retaliation of one of his on air "readings". Now, Patrick goes around trying to debunk psychics, and helping the police with his powers of observation. Basically, he is an American Sherlock: adept at looking at all the details, and being good at "reading" people.
ReplyDeleteSo, I agree, pretty much everyone who would term themselves a Psychic are con artists/out to profit for themselves.
However, there are cases such as Edgar Cayce:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Cayce
My dad had done a lot of research into psychics and things when he was in high school. He found a few different cases like Edgars: this Psychic would be in the hospital for a treatment, but when he was put under, if you asked him a question, he would know the answer.
I don't know if it was this specific case, but there was one that is very similar, where such a man was basically put into a trance state by doctors for years, and they would ask him how to cure this patient or that. The psychic always knew what to do to heal the patient. The doctors would cure the patient, but they were also selling the information/charging for others to come and use this man's ability and profiting from it.
I think part of the story is that the doctors weren't limiting their questions to just helping the patients, but using him to gain information on financial things.
When the Psychic was awake, he had no idea what had been happening/what he'd said or that he'd been questioned. But he felt really guilty and bad.
My dad hypothesizes that if someone were to have a true psychic ability, there would be moral parameters to it; you aren't meant to profit from it in such a way. In this story, the Psychic isn't making a direct profit, but he is being used to help amoral doctors make a prophet.