Psychics, Mediums, Sensitives, oh my!
Sensitive Sensitives.
I knew I would be writing about this eventually. However, I think I have been avoiding it because I know how sensitive sensitives can be, and how sensitive fake sensitives are, and how sensitive sensitives who only think they are sensitives are, and how sensitive real sensitives are because they always doubt themselves and because everyone now-a-days is a sensitive, right?
Right.
A psychic from the Greek psychikos—"of the mind, mental", is a person who claims to have an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception (ESP), or who is said by others to have such abilities. It can also denote an ability of the mind to influence the world physically using psychokinetic powers.
This is a list of psychic abilities that have been attributed to real-world people. These are also sometimes known as extra sensory perception or sixth sense. Inclusion in this list does not imply scientific recognition of the existence of an ability.
Ok. There's the list. So how real is all this? What does science have to say about it? Have I ever seen or experienced anyone with such power or powers?
How real is all this?
Unfortunately, a lot of this is very subjective and anecdotal. Some of it is real but it's hard to separate the real from the fake. Many people have a paradigm belief system that underlies all of this and makes it all very plausible. Many others have a paradigm that does not allow for any of this phenomena to exist without challenging their narrow belief system. So, is all of this based upon faith, or is any of it based upon objective observation?
Both.
There is a scientific community that claims all of it is bunk. None of it is real. All of it is faked, fraud, nonsense, unprovable imagination, hallucination, or some sort of mental illness like schizophrenia, or paranoid psychosis.
Then, there is the other camp; the camp that believes IT ALL. No matter how crazy sounding, incredible, bizarre or nutty, they believe it. I, once upon a time, joined a group of people to investigate fairies, gnomes and elementals, like tree people or rock people. They were serious. They believed in the existence of these beings from faerie tales and organized a group to figure out how to locate them and gather evidence of their existence.
It never happened.
That was just to highlight that people will and do believe crazy and incredible things. It's the same for psychics and psychic ability. It seems you either believe it all or nothing. I am the rare in-between-er. I know real psychic ability exists. Some people can do things, supernatural things. But, my experience has shown me that these people are of this description:
1. They are very quiet and secretive about their abilities. They don't like talking about it, and will even deny it.
2. They never take money for using their gift.
3. They never or rarely use their gift for personal benefit.
4. They do not enjoy their gift. They often admit that they wish they didn't have it.
5. They are usually willing to submit to tests. They have nothing invested, no ego to hurt, no reputation to ruin. They don't seem to care how the test comes out.
6. They are humble ordinary people.
7. They are real.
What they are NOT:
1. They do not brag to others about their gifts.
2. They do not tell anecdotes to strangers or even friends unless you beg them.
3. They do not offer their services for money or profit.
4. They do not advertise.
5. They are rarely wrong. If they are they openly and readily admit it.
6. They do not speak at conferences, perform like circus magicians, or try to convince anyone of their powers.
7. They do not join paranormal investigative groups and claim to know everything about a location. Although, they may be members of paranormal groups, functioning as investigators. If they do pick up on anything, they will usually keep it to themselves or tell the lead investigator in private. Often the lead investigator will know about this person's gift but has been asked to keep it quiet. They will also ask not to be told anything about the location or the people so as not to influence their senses. They are rarely 100% sure about whatever they are sensing, but experience lots of self doubt. These people are not proud.
Here is what to watch out for. This is what a faker looks like:
1. They BRAG about their supposed abilities.
2. They have absolutely no doubts about themselves or their powers.
3. They will take money for what they do and will often market themselves, speak at conferences, have websites that offer over the phone or in person "readings" for as much as $200 a half an hour.
4. They often will join investigative groups as the resident, group psychic or sensitive. They are usually wrong about everything that they are specific about, so they stay very general. Example: "I sense a dark presense here. Has someone died in this house?" (Any house over 50 years old has had death or deaths. People die, and in the past people chose to die at home.)
Here are some of the most common "readings" that a sensitive will give during an investigation:
1. I sense a little girl in a white dress with blonde hair and pigtails. She died here. She was abused by the servant, mother, father, brother, uncle, you name it.
2. I sense the presense of a woman in white. She is dressed in period dress from the ninteenth century. She glides around at night and will walk through walls.
3. I see a little boy on a tricycle/bicycle, riding around in the hallway or playing with a ball/toy.
4. Someone committed suicide in this house.
5. There was a fire here and people died.
6. This house sits on an Indian burial ground. It's sacred land that has been desecrated.
7. There was an epidemic of flu/whatever and it wiped out the family.
8. There was a very cruel mother/father/uncle/aunt/servant who abused the children and their spouse.
9. I sense something trying to hide in the basement or attic.
10. I sense a spirit attached to an antique object. Did you recently buy an antique?
As you read through this list, how many of the things applied to you or your home? If it is a new home, probably not very much. But if you live in a house that is before the 1940's or older, the older the more these things will be true:
1. A death or death in the home.
2. Some personal tragedy like an extended illness, death of a child, tragic happening like a fire, flood, or natural disaster.
3. If your home is 100 years old or older, the Indian burial ground issue will almost always be brought up. Indians used to live on this land..everywhere. And they died everywhere, and were buried in the ground everywhere. So, it is no mystery or oddity that Indian burial sites are sitting under your house. So are old cemeteries. Layers upon layers of our dearly departed ancesters inhabit the ground you have built on. It's not sacreligious. It's not wrong or odd or creepy. It's nature. It's history.
4. A natural disaster struck your area; hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, etc. It happens. The longer the history of your home, the more apt it is to have survived some sort of disaster.
5. You have either purchased an antique or had an antique passed down to you from your parents or grandparents. The older the home, the more people tend to fill it with antiques. Antiques are beautiful, cool, lovely things. They are filled with history and sentiment. They are not dangerous. They are keepsakes.
Do not be afraid of your furniture, for Pete's sake.
6. Every family has dark secrets. A family member was jailed for a crime. An uncle died of alcohol addiction or lung cancer from smoking. A great aunt was not the sweetest of old ladies. She had a propensity for shop lifting and stealing everyone's jewelry. That doesn't make you weird. That means your family is typical. Normal. Everyone has a family history. It's fascinating.
There is nothing to fear from a subscription to Ancestry.com.
What does science have to say about it?
Science is unconvinced. Since almost all psychics refuse to be tested in a laboratory or by using objective methods of testing, then the data is not in and the questions remain. Until the psychics and the paranormal community becomes much more willing to work with science or use actual, validated scientific methods, the scientific community will be very skeptical. It's a shame, really. It's so easily remedied. If you are honest and truly believe that these things are real, don't be afraid of the truth. Don't fear examination, testing, clinical observation by skeptics. Work together. Don't we all want some sort of data? proof? Of course we do. That is why most of us are in this field.
I found this list and I think its a good one to use when using a self proclaimed psychic for investigating the paranormal.
Rules for Psychics.
How many times have you heard the claim "I predicted that." and wondered whether it was true or not? Was a prediction done really ahead of the event, or was the claim of the correct prediction only stated after the event? Ex post facto revelations are not predictions. Texts on social psychology define "hindsight bias" as a common mental error that many individuals make when they think that they could have predicted something after it has already happened.
There are also trivial predictions. "Sales in your store will increase dramatically"
is a trivial prediction just ahead of the Christmas season. It's not a psychic prediction if it is likely to happen or common.
Along with these three rules we need a system for keeping score. We need to come back
after some time to each prediction and evaluate to see if it was fulfilled. Here is where Rule Number 2
is very useful. If the prediction was very vague, it may be possible to say that it was fulfilled, when
indeed it was not. A prediction that does not specify time limits or quantitative detail has a greater
chance of being fulfilled. Vague predictions generally need to be interpreted, and the interpretations
may be influenced by events that happened after the predictions.
In order to get a fair estimate of predictive ability, all predictions, whether correct or incorrect,
must be tallied. It would be biased to only count correct predictions, whether you are guessing coin
tosses or Oscar nominees three years in advance.
Don't expect to get any scientist to welcome psychic ability or the paranormal any time soon, especially if the paranormal community remains closed to examination and clinical testing. Also, if the paranormal community does not learn how to obtain, examine and record data using correct scientific methods. They will remain skeptics, unbelievers, and the source of much ridicule.
Have I ever seen or experienced anyone with such power or powers?
Yes. When I was eighteen and starting my college career I was taking a psychology course and I had to write a research paper using testing data. I have a brother who exhibits amazing psychic ability. He was willing to be tested as long as I didn't use his name. I used cards with four different symbols on them and tested him for telepathy and clairvoyance. His numbers were off the freaking scale. I tested, retested, and retested and kept getting the same amazing results. I recorded the data and wrote my paper.
He is genuine. He, after all these years, refuses to use or even admit to having such abilities and tells me my memory is faulty. That is because,when he was 15 and I was 17 he was sitting at our kitchen table at home doing homework on a Friday afternoon and suddenly knew that our father was dead. He knew. He sat, frozen in place, waiting for the phone to ring. Two hours later it did. It was my mother calling to tell my brother his father had collapsed and died of a heart attack while walking in a snow storm trying to reach my mother, who's car had broken down. He was found laying on the sidewalk by a passing taxi driver. My brother, to this day, refuses to discuss it.
I have a friend who "knows" things all the time. He/she knows things that he/she could not possibly know. It happens frequently, at odd times and over seemingly trivial issues. Synchronicity rules this person's life. Things, situations, people, circumstances, they all seem to line up in odd and miraculous, mysterious ways when he/she is around. I have learned to expect it. He/she is highly skeptical and usually tries to find ways to explain it away. Self doubt reigns. But I see it with my own eyes, hear it with my own ears. I believe.
I don't know where to stop on this issue so I will stop here, for now. I encourage you to argue with me, leave a comment.
P.J.
I knew I would be writing about this eventually. However, I think I have been avoiding it because I know how sensitive sensitives can be, and how sensitive fake sensitives are, and how sensitive sensitives who only think they are sensitives are, and how sensitive real sensitives are because they always doubt themselves and because everyone now-a-days is a sensitive, right?
Right.
A psychic from the Greek psychikos—"of the mind, mental", is a person who claims to have an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception (ESP), or who is said by others to have such abilities. It can also denote an ability of the mind to influence the world physically using psychokinetic powers.
This is a list of psychic abilities that have been attributed to real-world people. These are also sometimes known as extra sensory perception or sixth sense. Inclusion in this list does not imply scientific recognition of the existence of an ability.
- Apportation- Materialization, disappearance, or teleportation of an object.
- Aura reading - Perception of the energy fields surrounding people, places, and things.
- Automatic writing - Writing produced without conscious thought.
- Astral projection or mental projection - An out of body experience in which an "astral body" becomes separate from the physical body.
- Bilocation or multilocation - Being in multiple places at the same time.
- Clairaudience - receiving messages in thought form from another frequency or realm. It is considered a form of channeling.
- Clairvoyance, second sight - Perception outside the known human senses.
- Death warning - A vision of a living person prior to his or her death.
- Divination - Gaining insight into a situation via a ritual.
- Dousing - Ability to locate objects.
- Energy medicine - Healing by channeling a form of energy.
- Faith Healing - Diagnosing and curing disease using religious devotion.
- Mediumship or channeling – Communicating with spirits.
- Precognition, premonition and precognitive dreams - Perception of events before they happen.
- Psychic Surgery - Removal of diseased body tissue via an incision that heals immediately afterwards.
- Psychokenesis or telekinesis - Manipulation of matter or energy by the power of the mind.
- Psychometry or psychoscopy - Obtaining information about a person or object.
- Pyrokenesis - Manipulation of fire and fire molecules.
- Remote Viewing - Gathering of information at a distance.
- Retrocognition- Perception of past events.
- Scrying - Use of an item to view events at a distance or in the future.
- Telepathy - Transfer of thoughts or emotions.
- Transvection - Bodily levitation or flying.
Ok. There's the list. So how real is all this? What does science have to say about it? Have I ever seen or experienced anyone with such power or powers?
How real is all this?
Unfortunately, a lot of this is very subjective and anecdotal. Some of it is real but it's hard to separate the real from the fake. Many people have a paradigm belief system that underlies all of this and makes it all very plausible. Many others have a paradigm that does not allow for any of this phenomena to exist without challenging their narrow belief system. So, is all of this based upon faith, or is any of it based upon objective observation?
Both.
There is a scientific community that claims all of it is bunk. None of it is real. All of it is faked, fraud, nonsense, unprovable imagination, hallucination, or some sort of mental illness like schizophrenia, or paranoid psychosis.
Then, there is the other camp; the camp that believes IT ALL. No matter how crazy sounding, incredible, bizarre or nutty, they believe it. I, once upon a time, joined a group of people to investigate fairies, gnomes and elementals, like tree people or rock people. They were serious. They believed in the existence of these beings from faerie tales and organized a group to figure out how to locate them and gather evidence of their existence.
It never happened.
That was just to highlight that people will and do believe crazy and incredible things. It's the same for psychics and psychic ability. It seems you either believe it all or nothing. I am the rare in-between-er. I know real psychic ability exists. Some people can do things, supernatural things. But, my experience has shown me that these people are of this description:
1. They are very quiet and secretive about their abilities. They don't like talking about it, and will even deny it.
2. They never take money for using their gift.
3. They never or rarely use their gift for personal benefit.
4. They do not enjoy their gift. They often admit that they wish they didn't have it.
5. They are usually willing to submit to tests. They have nothing invested, no ego to hurt, no reputation to ruin. They don't seem to care how the test comes out.
6. They are humble ordinary people.
7. They are real.
What they are NOT:
1. They do not brag to others about their gifts.
2. They do not tell anecdotes to strangers or even friends unless you beg them.
3. They do not offer their services for money or profit.
4. They do not advertise.
5. They are rarely wrong. If they are they openly and readily admit it.
6. They do not speak at conferences, perform like circus magicians, or try to convince anyone of their powers.
7. They do not join paranormal investigative groups and claim to know everything about a location. Although, they may be members of paranormal groups, functioning as investigators. If they do pick up on anything, they will usually keep it to themselves or tell the lead investigator in private. Often the lead investigator will know about this person's gift but has been asked to keep it quiet. They will also ask not to be told anything about the location or the people so as not to influence their senses. They are rarely 100% sure about whatever they are sensing, but experience lots of self doubt. These people are not proud.
Here is what to watch out for. This is what a faker looks like:
1. They BRAG about their supposed abilities.
2. They have absolutely no doubts about themselves or their powers.
3. They will take money for what they do and will often market themselves, speak at conferences, have websites that offer over the phone or in person "readings" for as much as $200 a half an hour.
4. They often will join investigative groups as the resident, group psychic or sensitive. They are usually wrong about everything that they are specific about, so they stay very general. Example: "I sense a dark presense here. Has someone died in this house?" (Any house over 50 years old has had death or deaths. People die, and in the past people chose to die at home.)
Here are some of the most common "readings" that a sensitive will give during an investigation:
1. I sense a little girl in a white dress with blonde hair and pigtails. She died here. She was abused by the servant, mother, father, brother, uncle, you name it.
2. I sense the presense of a woman in white. She is dressed in period dress from the ninteenth century. She glides around at night and will walk through walls.
3. I see a little boy on a tricycle/bicycle, riding around in the hallway or playing with a ball/toy.
4. Someone committed suicide in this house.
5. There was a fire here and people died.
6. This house sits on an Indian burial ground. It's sacred land that has been desecrated.
7. There was an epidemic of flu/whatever and it wiped out the family.
8. There was a very cruel mother/father/uncle/aunt/servant who abused the children and their spouse.
9. I sense something trying to hide in the basement or attic.
10. I sense a spirit attached to an antique object. Did you recently buy an antique?
As you read through this list, how many of the things applied to you or your home? If it is a new home, probably not very much. But if you live in a house that is before the 1940's or older, the older the more these things will be true:
1. A death or death in the home.
2. Some personal tragedy like an extended illness, death of a child, tragic happening like a fire, flood, or natural disaster.
3. If your home is 100 years old or older, the Indian burial ground issue will almost always be brought up. Indians used to live on this land..everywhere. And they died everywhere, and were buried in the ground everywhere. So, it is no mystery or oddity that Indian burial sites are sitting under your house. So are old cemeteries. Layers upon layers of our dearly departed ancesters inhabit the ground you have built on. It's not sacreligious. It's not wrong or odd or creepy. It's nature. It's history.
4. A natural disaster struck your area; hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, blizzards, earthquakes, etc. It happens. The longer the history of your home, the more apt it is to have survived some sort of disaster.
5. You have either purchased an antique or had an antique passed down to you from your parents or grandparents. The older the home, the more people tend to fill it with antiques. Antiques are beautiful, cool, lovely things. They are filled with history and sentiment. They are not dangerous. They are keepsakes.
Do not be afraid of your furniture, for Pete's sake.
6. Every family has dark secrets. A family member was jailed for a crime. An uncle died of alcohol addiction or lung cancer from smoking. A great aunt was not the sweetest of old ladies. She had a propensity for shop lifting and stealing everyone's jewelry. That doesn't make you weird. That means your family is typical. Normal. Everyone has a family history. It's fascinating.
There is nothing to fear from a subscription to Ancestry.com.
What does science have to say about it?
Science is unconvinced. Since almost all psychics refuse to be tested in a laboratory or by using objective methods of testing, then the data is not in and the questions remain. Until the psychics and the paranormal community becomes much more willing to work with science or use actual, validated scientific methods, the scientific community will be very skeptical. It's a shame, really. It's so easily remedied. If you are honest and truly believe that these things are real, don't be afraid of the truth. Don't fear examination, testing, clinical observation by skeptics. Work together. Don't we all want some sort of data? proof? Of course we do. That is why most of us are in this field.
I found this list and I think its a good one to use when using a self proclaimed psychic for investigating the paranormal.
Rules for Psychics.
How many times have you heard the claim "I predicted that." and wondered whether it was true or not? Was a prediction done really ahead of the event, or was the claim of the correct prediction only stated after the event? Ex post facto revelations are not predictions. Texts on social psychology define "hindsight bias" as a common mental error that many individuals make when they think that they could have predicted something after it has already happened.
- Rule Number 1: All predictions must be recorded in ink, dated, and notarized or published to prevent false claims.
- Rule Number 2: Predictions should be as specific as possible, should not be trivial, and should not be subject to interpretation.
- Rule Number 3: Parlor tricks are not permitted.
- Rule Number 4: All predictions must be tallied.
Don't expect to get any scientist to welcome psychic ability or the paranormal any time soon, especially if the paranormal community remains closed to examination and clinical testing. Also, if the paranormal community does not learn how to obtain, examine and record data using correct scientific methods. They will remain skeptics, unbelievers, and the source of much ridicule.
Have I ever seen or experienced anyone with such power or powers?
Yes. When I was eighteen and starting my college career I was taking a psychology course and I had to write a research paper using testing data. I have a brother who exhibits amazing psychic ability. He was willing to be tested as long as I didn't use his name. I used cards with four different symbols on them and tested him for telepathy and clairvoyance. His numbers were off the freaking scale. I tested, retested, and retested and kept getting the same amazing results. I recorded the data and wrote my paper.
He is genuine. He, after all these years, refuses to use or even admit to having such abilities and tells me my memory is faulty. That is because,when he was 15 and I was 17 he was sitting at our kitchen table at home doing homework on a Friday afternoon and suddenly knew that our father was dead. He knew. He sat, frozen in place, waiting for the phone to ring. Two hours later it did. It was my mother calling to tell my brother his father had collapsed and died of a heart attack while walking in a snow storm trying to reach my mother, who's car had broken down. He was found laying on the sidewalk by a passing taxi driver. My brother, to this day, refuses to discuss it.
I have a friend who "knows" things all the time. He/she knows things that he/she could not possibly know. It happens frequently, at odd times and over seemingly trivial issues. Synchronicity rules this person's life. Things, situations, people, circumstances, they all seem to line up in odd and miraculous, mysterious ways when he/she is around. I have learned to expect it. He/she is highly skeptical and usually tries to find ways to explain it away. Self doubt reigns. But I see it with my own eyes, hear it with my own ears. I believe.
I don't know where to stop on this issue so I will stop here, for now. I encourage you to argue with me, leave a comment.
P.J.
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