Do you believe in psychics?

[EwwwwDavid]

I've been to a few psychics over the years and some things they've said have been weirdly accurate, some not so much.
I had a very tragic bereavement about 12 years ago and haven't seen one since but done things I was told almost predicted what would happen.
Does anyone have any similar stories?
Ps im very much atheist and not at all 'woo' but sometimes reflect on things that are weirdly accurate.

@sybillalle

ESP is real, but people won't know that unless they've experienced it personally. I understand that completely. That was my view until I had my own evidence.

And what evidence would that be? Shame you can’t share it officially since I’d imagine you’d be world famous with this concrete evidence that something nobody has ever proven exists.

But seeing as it will be more ‘and then this person KNEW my auntie’s name was MARY’ I’m guessing you won’t share.

@Pumperthepumper
Well, we see the world very differently then. I am interested that you think I’ve closed my mind to logic. I, in common with most other people, live my life by the rules of logic, science, reality every day. Most things fit that. But every now and then there’s a little blip. It’s fascinating.

What I see all the time on these threads is people mentioning (in, of course, a totally anecdotal, unscientific way - and yes, I know the plural of anecdote isn’t data blah blah blah) lots and lots of little weird blips, while an army of debunkers are whacking at each one like that whack a mole game, trying to explain away each one, desperate to keep everything manageable and scientific. They put me in mind of Nelly from Wuthering Heights a bit too.

The world is stranger than we know.

But anyway, the day’s getting on.

Oh it's all such a load of bollocks. I know several people who rave about a local psychic... after writing reams about their family tragedies and difficult lives on their facebooks pages.

I often know what's going to happen or can tell what has happened before people tell me, or have a 'feeling' about people that turns out to be right. I pattern spot instinctively, and appear very intuitive and perceptive. I will often ramble on to DH about how I think someone is not a nice person when everyone else loves them, only to be proved right later on.

I am not psychic or woo in any way. I am autistic though. I miss an awful lot socially, I don't read people's general social cues well, I accidentally interrupt a lot (I'm working on that!) and over share/talk too much/blather on not realising the conversation is over and people have moved on to another topic. But I find people absolutely fascinating and I suppose I over compensate by observing them very carefully without really realising. You pick up on a lot when you do that, lots that in general, other people seem to miss.

I think some people are better people readers for various reasons rather than any woo ability. As for people who charge grieving vulnerable individuals money to give them messages from dead loved ones, well I think it should be punishable. It's vile.

Honestly if you’re a woman of a certain age in the workplace it’s my experience that people do speculate over whether you’re pregnant/trying, especially if you’re in a relationship.

I was 19. Nobody expected me to be pregnant- not even me!

But keep whacking those moles!

[quote Carrotsandbroccoli]@Pumperthepumper
Well, we see the world very differently then. I am interested that you think I’ve closed my mind to logic. I, in common with most other people, live my life by the rules of logic, science, reality every day. Most things fit that. But every now and then there’s a little blip. It’s fascinating.

What I see all the time on these threads is people mentioning (in, of course, a totally anecdotal, unscientific way - and yes, I know the plural of anecdote isn’t data blah blah blah) lots and lots of little weird blips, while an army of debunkers are whacking at each one like that whack a mole game, trying to explain away each one, desperate to keep everything manageable and scientific. They put me in mind of Nelly from Wuthering Heights a bit too.

The world is stranger than we know.

But anyway, the day’s getting on.[/quote]
The logic is: people want to believe in a higher power, so they do.

That’s it.

@Carrotsandbroccoli

Honestly if you’re a woman of a certain age in the workplace it’s my experience that people do speculate over whether you’re pregnant/trying, especially if you’re in a relationship.

I was 19. Nobody expected me to be pregnant- not even me!

But keep whacking those moles!

Yep, you’ve convinced me. No way could she have just been a guesser who happened to get one right. It’s impossible that your colleague, after having it confirmed, dramatised the conversation to make it sound more than it was.

In fact, this woman was magic and looked into your future/knew that you were pregnant. She is a real psychic.

I think anyone who charges money to give readings to people as they are almost inevitably vulnerable should be ashamed of themselves. The only people I know who have had readings had either suffered a bereavement or had fertility issues.

But also asking Great Aunt Maud if your going to be happy and meet Mr Right how on earth would she know anyway. I’m assuming if there is a spirit world that a lot of them will be as dim in the after life as they were when alive.

I’m very good at reading people and have some fun with it.

A few years ago I went out drinking with a mate. A very good looking much younger man got chatting to me at the bar. I flirted back and said I bet I can guess what you do for a living. I looked at his hands, his clothes and they were huge give aways. He had a non manual well paid job because he had smooth hands and expensive clothing, his age at 25 and he sounded very educated, I also got a glimpse of a geek type t.shirt under his shirt meant I was spot on. He worked in IT I sort of drew it out and made a bit of a deliberate show of it and guessed correctly that he was a computer programmer. No I didn’t get off with him, I’m married. He was freaked out though lol.

I’m very good at reading people, I studied social sciences and have always been interested in the human condition and a couple of my friends are psychologists so we have had many a chat about subconscious versus conscious decisions and feelings. I have met a few people in my life that I just know are terrible people and they were. Its the language they use and the way they use it. The pauses, the intonation, the body language. I just notice details that many wouldn’t and I also retain information that astounds people, tiny details. I’m not psychic I just have an acute memory and an attention to detail that’s a bit abnormal. So if I think back to sitting in the large blue chair in my bedroom as a child and get in the zone I can smell the chair, see the books on the mantelpiece in the order they were in, feel the draught from the cracked window pane.

*The logic is: people want to believe in a higher power, so they do.

That’s it.*

I didn’t say anything about a higher power, so I’m not sure why you’re quoting me here?

@Carrotsandbroccoli

*The logic is: people want to believe in a higher power, so they do.

That’s it.*

I didn’t say anything about a higher power, so I’m not sure why you’re quoting me here?

I’m rephrase it for you:

People want to believe in the unexplained. So they do.

@Kanaloa
Yep, you’ve convinced me

Not sure why you think I’m trying to convince you. I’m just correcting your assumption. Up to you what you do with it.

She is a real psychic.
Actually she’s dead now. Apologies if I’m a little prickly about all the wrong assumptions about her character and motivation. And I didn’t say anything about looking into the future either. Lot of straw men on this thread.

How is her being dead relevant? And I don’t think anyone is being cruel about her character. There’s every chance she was good at picking up cues about others. Jane is peaky, pale, been in the loo a lot, not eating as usual - aha! Jane is pregnant.

Doesn’t mean she was a faker. Doesn’t mean she was psychic either.

*I’m rephrase it for you:

People want to believe in the unexplained. So they do.*

Well, yes - that’s probably true. But the reverse is also true, so I’m not sure how much further forward we are or how that’s some sort of gotcha?

If we’re all working on roughly the same information (in terms of anecdotes, experience of the world etc) then I guess it does come down to temperament/ personal inclination as to whether we issue a blanket NO to any and all suggestions that the world is different from/more complex than current science allow, or whether we go ‘hmmm, maybe’.

@Carrotsandbroccoli

*I’m rephrase it for you:

People want to believe in the unexplained. So they do.*

Well, yes - that’s probably true. But the reverse is also true, so I’m not sure how much further forward we are or how that’s some sort of gotcha?

If we’re all working on roughly the same information (in terms of anecdotes, experience of the world etc) then I guess it does come down to temperament/ personal inclination as to whether we issue a blanket NO to any and all suggestions that the world is different from/more complex than current science allow, or whether we go ‘hmmm, maybe’.

This is tiresome.

You said you lived your life with logic.

But logic means facts.

So people who want to believe in the unexplained will, even if it means ignoring logic.

The two things don’t connect - because there’s no such thing as magic or psychics, and to believe in them means ignoring logic.

A woman came to sit next to me in my local pub once. She told me she had a gift and without any prompting started telling me things about my life that were spot on.

Then she said I had a grandad whose name had started with G. I was adamant I hadn't, my mum's dad's name started with R. I didn't know my dad's family. When I relayed this story to my Mum, my Dad's dad's name did start with G. Freaked me out a bit.

I actually ended the conversation with her as I felt uncomfortable with how persistent she was at telling me things I hadn't asked to know, but kind of wish now I had continued the conversation. Guess I'll never know.

So @Carrotsandbroccoli the logic of your story is your colleague believed they had a spooky ability, took an educated guess, and was correct. Knowing she was correct, your other colleague built a story around it, marking it more spooky, and shared it with you. If you hadn’t been pregnant, the story wouldn’t have made it to you, because it wouldn’t have the same significance.

But you want to believe something inexplicable happened, so you do. It’s the same as the previous poster who had a dream and wanted to believe she’d been visited by a ghost.

It only words as an inexplicable story if you ignore logic.

*works

@bananaramadramas

A woman came to sit next to me in my local pub once. She told me she had a gift and without any prompting started telling me things about my life that were spot on.

Then she said I had a grandad whose name had started with G. I was adamant I hadn't, my mum's dad's name started with R. I didn't know my dad's family. When I relayed this story to my Mum, my Dad's dad's name did start with G. Freaked me out a bit.

I actually ended the conversation with her as I felt uncomfortable with how persistent she was at telling me things I hadn't asked to know, but kind of wish now I had continued the conversation. Guess I'll never know.

You also have a gran who’s name starts with an M.

[quote Carrotsandbroccoli]@Pumperthepumper
Well, we see the world very differently then. I am interested that you think I’ve closed my mind to logic. I, in common with most other people, live my life by the rules of logic, science, reality every day. Most things fit that. But every now and then there’s a little blip. It’s fascinating.

What I see all the time on these threads is people mentioning (in, of course, a totally anecdotal, unscientific way - and yes, I know the plural of anecdote isn’t data blah blah blah) lots and lots of little weird blips, while an army of debunkers are whacking at each one like that whack a mole game, trying to explain away each one, desperate to keep everything manageable and scientific. They put me in mind of Nelly from Wuthering Heights a bit too.

The world is stranger than we know.

But anyway, the day’s getting on.[/quote]
I think you may have misunderstood Wuthering Heights.

@Kanaloa it's my own experience, so as I said, it will do nothing to convince you, sharing it with you would be of no use to you.

But I can point you in the direction, if you would like to collect your own evidence. You could read up about the Stargate program and remote viewing. There are practice targets online that you or anyone can have a go with, or a free app called RV tournament that also contains full instructions.

@Pumperthepumper

This is tiresome.

You said you lived your life with logic.

But logic means facts.

So people who want to believe in the unexplained will, even if it means ignoring logic.

The two things don’t connect - because there’s no such thing as magic or psychics, and to believe in them means ignoring logic.

Oh, I’m sorry it’s so tiresome! You don’t have to engage, you know. I’m not going to just go ‘yup, you’re right pumper, we already know everything about human experience’ and give up my curiosity about the world. I thought it was interesting to discuss but you clearly don’t find it so.

Logic does mean facts, yes, but can you see that sometimes it’s hard to find a satisfactory logical, factual explanation for something. Clearly it’s never happened to you, but some people do find themselves in that situation. You must be aware of that? Do they’re not ignoring facts; they start with facts, the same way we all do. When I see the sky darkening in the evening, I don’t panic and think the world is ending; I work with the facts I have about the world to process what is happening. When the pp had a total stranger in a random village give her an as hoc and apparently accurate reading, that pp didn’t have a set of facts to work with; her visit to that place was unplanned, the woman was a stranger etc etc. Of course there could be a Jonathan Creek style explanation- but she hadn’t had that explanation, do it remains unexplained - the very definition of unexplained. Doesn’t mean can’t ever be explained 🙄

There is a wealth of this sort of stuff. Scratch the surface of any friendship group and one or two will have a weird experience to relate.

I think it’s interesting. I can totally see why people don’t want to pay money to be exploited by bullshit ‘psychics’ but I can’t quite see why some people are similarly angered by people like me offering a ‘jury’s out’ on absolutely everything that isn’t currently explained in a science text book.

[quote sybillalle]@Kanaloa it's my own experience, so as I said, it will do nothing to convince you, sharing it with you would be of no use to you.

But I can point you in the direction, if you would like to collect your own evidence. You could read up about the Stargate program and remote viewing. There are practice targets online that you or anyone can have a go with, or a free app called RV tournament that also contains full instructions.[/quote]
This is the psychic version of on the ghost threads where people say ‘unless you’ve seen a ghost you will never understand!’

@Furzebush

I think you may have misunderstood Wuthering Heights

Do you now? How clever of you.

So basically ‘I have proof of definite psychic evidence but I won’t share it!’

Why post then? Because realistically you know there is no way you have actual concrete evidence of this type of phenomena or you’d share it and make your millions.

[quote Carrotsandbroccoli]@Pumperthepumper

This is tiresome.

You said you lived your life with logic.

But logic means facts.

So people who want to believe in the unexplained will, even if it means ignoring logic.

The two things don’t connect - because there’s no such thing as magic or psychics, and to believe in them means ignoring logic.

Oh, I’m sorry it’s so tiresome! You don’t have to engage, you know. I’m not going to just go ‘yup, you’re right pumper, we already know everything about human experience’ and give up my curiosity about the world. I thought it was interesting to discuss but you clearly don’t find it so.

Logic does mean facts, yes, but can you see that sometimes it’s hard to find a satisfactory logical, factual explanation for something. Clearly it’s never happened to you, but some people do find themselves in that situation. You must be aware of that? Do they’re not ignoring facts; they start with facts, the same way we all do. When I see the sky darkening in the evening, I don’t panic and think the world is ending; I work with the facts I have about the world to process what is happening. When the pp had a total stranger in a random village give her an as hoc and apparently accurate reading, that pp didn’t have a set of facts to work with; her visit to that place was unplanned, the woman was a stranger etc etc. Of course there could be a Jonathan Creek style explanation- but she hadn’t had that explanation, do it remains unexplained - the very definition of unexplained. Doesn’t mean can’t ever be explained 🙄

There is a wealth of this sort of stuff. Scratch the surface of any friendship group and one or two will have a weird experience to relate.

I think it’s interesting. I can totally see why people don’t want to pay money to be exploited by bullshit ‘psychics’ but I can’t quite see why some people are similarly angered by people like me offering a ‘jury’s out’ on absolutely everything that isn’t currently explained in a science text book.[/quote]
It was a guess.

A guess.

She guessed.

She happened to be correct.

That’s it. That’s the unexplained factor between all these stories of spooky women in pubs and woo old ladies in the street and psychic colleagues.

A guess that landed. Mystery solved.

@Kanaloa

So basically ‘I have proof of definite psychic evidence but I won’t share it!’

Why post then? Because realistically you know there is no way you have actual concrete evidence of this type of phenomena or you’d share it and make your millions.

I have remote viewed images, but that's not going to convince you, and nor should it. I'm not asking you to believe me. You'd be quite foolish to believe it, in fact, without your own evidence!

I'm saying, go and give it a try yourself, if you really want to know. RV tournament app, as I said. No money, no relatives, no one else involved, just you exploring your own consciousness.

Also, if you'd rather not know or try, that's fine too