DP believes some psychics are real, I think he's lost it

[Dpi8]

A discussion about a documentary I watched last night descended into an argument today when chatting over dinner. It was about Derren Brown and how he tests so called psychic mediums in an attempt to prove that it's a load of old rubbish - which I agree with him on.

He got majorly arsey with me when I told him about cold reading and the other techniques they use, such as using vague statements that could apply to most people in the sitters demographic. IE, telling an elderly lady that they have a parent in the spirit world who had a dodgy knee.

I asked him for some examples from which he reached his conclusion that some are genuine but he wasn't forthcoming with anything of any substance, simply mentioning some bloke from the Ghost Adventures series who wanders around buildings 'debunking' certain things for plausible deniabily then making up shite of his own to 'prove' the contact.

This is a hill I'm prepared to die on as I will not accept that such tosh is in any way genuine.

AIBU to say that absolutely all psychics are full of shit?

Hairbrush..... Static energy from hair strands.

If your fob car key ever loses battery, you can recharge it by sticking it in your hair (bun) for a few minutes.

If any of them were real why don't they claim a prize?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prizes_for_evidence_of_the_paranormal

Equally, when faced with something for which there is no credible evidence whatsoever, why would you believe in it?

Anything is possible but there is absolutely no scientific evidence that psychics are genuine.
None of them have ever been willing or able to demonstrate their skills in a controlled environment.

Someone saying they saw a psychic and they believe the psychic was genuine is not evidence. Too much trust and faith is required. First of all you'd have to believe the person is telling what they believe to be the truth. Then you'd have to ignore the fact that test after test after test has shown how easily people are fooled and how selective memory is.

I'll believe psychics are real when they can demonstrate their skills to scientists consistently in tests carried out under strictly controlled conditions.

It's psychologically unsound not to believe in something for which there is absolutely no reliable evidence, has never been seen under lab conditions and which has countless proven frauds?

I can’t say I believe or don’t believe Psychics, it really does fascinate me! Not so much going to see Psychics all though I have at charity events etc (only one of which actually said anything true about me) I just enjoy hearing people stories of what they have been told if it’s been accurate etc. I don’t take it too seriously I think its just fun, although I do know some people can take it so seriously and there are some scam artists out there.
However as a PP said, i think it brings some people comfort, seeing a robin or a feather and thinking its a loved one checking in. If its brings people comfort than harmless things like that are fine.

@NonPlayerCharacter and @Frabbits the opposite isn't to believe in something but simply to say "who knows, it might happen" .

It never has happened.

I don't think some people realise how much scientists would actually love for this to be proven under lab conditions. It would be Nobel prizes all round and fame forever. We're talking an entirely new discipline, like finding alien life.

Not one so called psychic has passed a test of their own design. That should tell you all you need to know on the matter 👍🏻

@NonPlayerCharacter If it could be demonstrated, but the mechanism remain unknown, it would be even more interesting for scientists. They love that sort of challenge. As you say, though, it's never been demonstrated to be genuine.

Actually, some have, but with laughably predictable results 😂

Gut feelings are actually learned experience. They have trained soldiers to have gut feeling/ intuition by repeatedly taking them through experiences using VR sets etc

Also the Star Gate Project has been debunked. They did not put any strategies in place to stop the use of stage magic tricks. The researchers were very gullible . Watch the Honest Liar on Netflix or Prime and it explains why the research was so bad.
When Geller appeared on the Carson show, the show took advice from Randi on how to stop him using magic tricks and he couldn't perform at all.

I need more learned experience because my gut is a fucking idiot.

Ghosts then I guess.

Personally, I don't believe in psychic ability but I do believe that some people a are much more perceptive than others. I also believe ,in time , science will explain some/ many of the things we think are supernatural and in several hundred years people will look back and at us in the way we look back at those who attributed certain things to witchcraft etc .

I think some people are misunderstanding me.

I haven't said nor do I think that I or we as humans know and understand everything. It is psychic mediums in particular we were discussing.

As for 'woo' in general - I myself have had several experiences that aren't easy to explain off the bat (and would probably make me look bonkers if I were to talk about them, so I don't tend to, but there's always a logical explanation)

The poster upthread who thought she was seeing a ghost, then realised that it was her mind playing tricks on her during a period of extreme stress, rings a bell with me.

I've had untold instances of somebody popping into my mind out of the blue and then 10 minutes later bumping into them, or they contact me, throughout my life. It's just coincidence. Less skeptical people would see that as having some foresight ability. In fact I've heard somebody use exactly that type of 'foresight' as evidence of how psychic they are.

I once had a dream that my now ex cheated and got somebody pregnant, low and behold a month later I was contacted and told exactly that (and it was true). Psychic? Nope, I just knew he was disloyal and untrustworthy and that influenced my dreams.

People who claim to be able to talk to the dead though, I just don't buy it and never will until the unlikely day that one of them are able to prove it.

I disagree. Many years ago myself and my now husband saw a highly recommended psychic. It's that long ago I can't remember everything but she knew so many things she couldn't have found out. No social media then or anything. At the time my boyfriend had a very distinctive classic car (we went in mine) she described it exactly. She described exactly how we got together and what happened leading up to it. She told me all about my job and what I was going to do next. Wish I could remember more but it was the car description that got me. She couldn't have known it.

Reccomended by who? Is it beyond the realms of possibility to suggest that she got the information from the person/people who reccomended her to you?

There is a limit, though. I mean, you don't go around saying "who knows, it might happen" to any old shit, do you? Otherwise how would you get anything done.

Besides, we know how psychics can give the impression they can know things about people. It's not more woo than a magician sawing a woman in half.

I asked him for some examples from which he reached his conclusion that some are genuine but he wasn't forthcoming with anything of any substance

They never are; the best you'll get is some nonsense about them "telling me something they couldn't possibly have known" (spoiler: they did) but otherwise it's all a bit of a blank

Of course there's such a lot we don't understand that I can quite accept there may be more to this than we know, but if there is I'm pretty damned sure that it won't be coming into play to order, or because someone's stumped up a fee

All I know is that a niece has been told some extraordinary things she couldn’t possibly have guessed or ‘read’ since niece didn’t know most of them either - had to check with her mother, over 100 miles away.,
This was someone she knows, who never does it for money.

@Frabbits we know a lot of psychics are frauds but we can't prove that's true for everyone as we don't challenge and test everyone who states they have abilities. I think it's more like believing in aliens or not.. we can't prove they exist (at the moment) nor should we assume they don't. so we shouldn't say anyone who believes In them has a screw loose.. as they may be right.

There's sound reasoning to accept the possibility of aliens. The universe is infinite and we know life exists within it here, so it's not at all ridiculous to say there's every chance another planet with life exists somewhere else, although we may never meet. It's worlds away (haha) from psychic ability which has never been found to exist despite every motivation to demonstrate it.

There is plenty reason to not discount the possibility of other life existing, true. Personally I don't think we'll ever know about it, but that is by the by.

We do know however, that EVERY single person claiming to be psychic is either deluded or lying. We know how it's done, we know why it's done. There is nothing mysterious or unknown about it at all.