Do you believe in psychics, extraterrestrial life, time travel, other universes?

[Amnaught]

Finally! Somebody understands the really fucked up problem with that kind of publicity. No. Only the phonies tried. The real deal doesn't want the publicity.

Reminded of an old show whete the guy would walk in to his stockbroker's office and tell him to sell a particular stock...right...now. *ka-ching* 6 figures in his account. He just...knew. And he'd feed his acount every few weeks.

This really begs the question for *why* it would be a bad thing to announce. Murder trials and some missing persons cases would be a lot easier if "non-phony" mediums would contact the victims. Investigators and military contractors would be very excited to hire astral projectors as scouts. Faith healers could work in hospitals. People with dousing rods could find oil for oil companies. What benefit could secrecy have at all, and how would every single one of those people with "real" powers each individually decide that keeping it a secret was in their own personal benefit? People *love* publicity, but not *one* of these people do?

[Darththeo]

This really begs the question for *why* it would be a bad thing to announce. Murder trials and some missing persons cases would be a lot easier if "non-phony" mediums would contact the victims. Investigators and military contractors would be very excited to hire astral projectors as scouts. Faith healers could work in hospitals. People with dousing rods could find oil for oil companies. What benefit could secrecy have at all, and how would every single one of those people with "real" powers each individually decide that keeping it a secret was in their own personal benefit? People *love* publicity, but not *one* of these people do?

How do you verify what the psychic sees is correct? It would be great if they were real and could talk to the dead, but it doesn't really make things as easy as you would. All it does would allow all victims to be witnesses.

Side note: Babylon 5 has telepaths and they had set up laws concerning what scans were allowed in courts and what ones were not.

[Shadowferal]

This really begs the question for *why* it would be a bad thing to announce.

If everyone believed the person was genuine then he or she would never be left alone. From government officials to high level criminal elements they'd want this..."resource" to be their personal tool. It wouldn't be pleasant at all.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

I can't believe after all this time, no true psychic has ever been found out. Like, what a conspiracy. "No, the TRUE ones are hiding, they COULD find the oil with their ACTUAL magic dousing rods, but they DON'T, and are REALLY good at hiding it!" is what it sounds like you are saying.

[Shadowferal]

I can't believe after all this time, no true psychic has ever been found out. Like, what a conspiracy. "No, the TRUE ones are hiding, they COULD find the oil with their ACTUAL magic dousing rods, but they DON'T, and are REALLY good at hiding it!" is what it sounds like you are saying.

Your first three words "I can't believe" is exactly what that's about. Even if someone did something supernatural in front of you you'd "explain it away." ("I think I see the wires")
Human denial is easy to reinforce. Especially when the person in question admits he's a fraud. (Yeah, ya got me. An old sleight of hand trick)

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Your first three words "I can't believe" is exactly what that's about. Even if someone did something supernatural in front of you you'd "explain it away." ("I think I see the wires")
Human denial is easy to reinforce. Especially when the person in question admits he's a fraud. (Yeah, ya got me. An old sleight of hand trick)

Thats just circular logic. So, try again?

Sorry but " psychic power is just too crazy for the human mind!" isn't a real argument. The I can't believe sentence was also a sarcastic one, of course no true psychic has ever been found out in all of recorded history, because they don't exist.

[Amnaught]

If everyone believed the person was genuine then he or she would never be left alone. From government officials to high level criminal elements they'd want this..."resource" to be their personal tool. It wouldn't be pleasant at all.

And do you think *everyone* would believe that the publicity wouldnt be worth it? Not a majority, but *all* of them? In a society obsessed with personal recognition? None at the end of their life deciding to write something down to prove it posthumously? Not a single psychic convinced they could prove it anonymously by posting a bunch of clear, concise, accurate predictions on the internet? No mediums prepared to contact the deceased for the purposes of bringing their murderer to justice, anonymously? Absolutely *zero* faith healers in hospitals demonstrating their powers with any amount of consistency?

Just one of those people in Vegas would be all it took.

[Darththeo]

Thats just circular logic. So, try again?

Sorry but " psychic power is just too crazy for the human mind!" isn't a real argument. The I can't believe sentence was also a sarcastic one, of course no true psychic has ever been found out in all of recorded history, because they don't exist.

That wasn't really a circular argument.

Look at people who don't believe we have been to space, they do exactly what Shadowferal is talking about.
Now, let's pretend we are in a world where people only secretly go to space, but video got leaked. You'll have people doing that exact same thing, but now you get support from the person involved.

Yes, there will be people who don't accept the statement and feel things are false, but they would have no means of proving what they believe to be true for most people.

However, Shadowferal is not really answering the question either. He is dodging it.

[Shadowferal]

Just one of those people in Vegas would be all it took.

And the person in question would be under "protection." (Doing what he or she is told, or else.)

- - - Updated - - -

However, Shadowferal is not really answering the question either. He is dodging it.

Do you really believe there's an answer to...what's the question again?

[Darththeo]

Do you really believe there's an answer to...what's the question again?

Why if psychics are real, why there has been absolutely no proof presented under any circumstances. Including but not limited people wanting the publicity or money. It is weird that not one has come forward at any point.

Even Randi joke that the real psychics if they existed must be "independently wealthy" to not accept his prize.

[LilSaihah]

I can't believe after all this time, no true psychic has ever been found out. Like, what a conspiracy. "No, the TRUE ones are hiding, they COULD find the oil with their ACTUAL magic dousing rods, but they DON'T, and are REALLY good at hiding it!" is what it sounds like you are saying.

To be fair, they can see the future. They'd know why to hide themselves.

[Osmeric]

This psychics exist theory here has the wonderful property of being unfalsifiable. There are an arbitrary number of unfalsifiable theories; why should this one get our attention and not any of the others? I like the "undetectable ten legged unicorns" theory myself. Why don't we see them? Because they're undetectable, duh!

[Amnaught]

And the person in question would be under "protection." (Doing what he or she is told, or else.)

This is why Randi's fund is evidence against the supernatural. Because it complicates the claim. It's not just "magic powers exist"; now it's "Magic powers exist, and also there is a magical shadow government keeping it from us, and also not a single magical rebel has ever succeeded against that conspiracy"

[Darththeo]

This psychics exist theory here has the wonderful property of being unfalsifiable. There are an arbitrary number of unfalsifiable theories; why should this one get our attention and not any of the others? I like the "undetectable ten legged unicorns" theory myself. Why don't we see them? Because they're undetectable, duh!

"There is a 10 legged unicorn."
Can I see him?
"He is invisible."
So can I touch him?
"No, he is intangible too!"
Does he make a sound?
"Only when he wants to!"
So we can't detect him?
"Correct."

- - - Updated - - -

This is why Randi's fund is evidence against the supernatural. Because it complicates the claim. It's not just "magic powers exist"; now it's "Magic powers exist, and also there is a magical shadow government keeping it from us, and also not a single magical rebel has ever succeeded against that conspiracy"

It doesn't go that far.

It would be "Magic powers exist, but for some reason none come forward."

[Surfd]

The point is that in order for something like that to exist, it would have to be proven. It had the burden of proof.

Randi provided a very public, honest method for those who wished to prove it. And an incredible incentive to do so. And many did try. The fact that those failed is evidence against its existence, because it adds a complication to the already burdened: Not only must psychic powers exist, but no psychics, mediums, dousers, telekineticists, telepaths, (etc) at the same time could *and* would have bothered to prove it on a national stage when provided the riskless opportunity and significant incentive. If supernatural powers did exist, and as many people have them as are claimed, you'd think *one* of those people would have tried and succeeded.

Unless you add in the possibility that James Randi had supernatural powers, lol.

No, it really isn't. All it proves is that a lot of dumb people are stupid enough to believe that they either A: have supernatural abilities when they clearly don't, or B: honestly thought they could fool the guy offering the prize money and get away with it.

Like I said. Anyone who honest to god actually had supernatural powers would be a literal imbecile to want to intentionally out themselves in any way that would draw attention such as these kinds of contests. Being able to actually prove that you have supernatural abilities would be a one way ticket to a government black site.

So the existence of this guys "test" and the fact that nobody has "passed" in no way constitutes proof that supernatural powers do not exist. It proves that nobody has passed his test, but it doesn't prove that his test is therefore un-passable. The only way to do that would be to individually test every person on the planet in such a way that nobody could intentionally fail the test, which I am pretty sure would be impossible to do, as you can't design a test which can't be intentionally failed if you don't even understand how what you are testing for works.

[Kithelle]

Psychics...I'm not sure but so far I don't think I've seen enough evidence

Aliens? I think so....I find it hard to believe in this vast universe that there is no other sentient life

Time travel? I don't know...perhaps one day it could be possible but I don't think it is now

Other universes? That one I can't really say one way or the other...I had a dream about how I was in a parallel universe where I wasn't born and my Mom was still alive...but that isn't any proof lol

[Surfd]

This really begs the question for *why* it would be a bad thing to announce. Murder trials and some missing persons cases would be a lot easier if "non-phony" mediums would contact the victims.

Really? We live in a world where a significant chunk of the population of the planet thinks it's ok to literally murder people for being gay. Where all sorts of absolutely heinous shit goes down every single day in the name of "faith" and religious worship of invisible sky wizards, and you honestly have to ask why any rational individual wouldn't be absolutely terrified of coming forward and outright telling the world "I can cure illnesses with my mind", or "I can read your thoughts", or "I can kill you from a mile away just by thinking about it"?

Like, we literally have entire genres of speculative fiction dedicated to exactly why that would likely end very, very badly for whoever tried it. There are only a few ways that kind of scenario plays out, and like 99% of them end up dealing with humanity doing that thing humanity does which inevitably results in the very worst aspects of it coming into play.

I mean, just pick up pretty much any run of X-Men, find the part where humans are treating the mutants badly, and then multiply that by 100x, and that's about what you would likely end up with. If you were very very lucky.

[scubi666stacy]

Really? We live in a world where a significant chunk of the population of the planet thinks it's ok to literally murder people for being gay. Where all sorts of absolutely heinous shit goes down every single day in the name of "faith" and religious worship of invisible sky wizards, and you honestly have to ask why any rational individual wouldn't be absolutely terrified of coming forward and outright telling the world "I can cure illnesses with my mind", or "I can read your thoughts", or "I can kill you from a mile away just by thinking about it"?

Like, we literally have entire genres of speculative fiction dedicated to exactly why that would likely end very, very badly for whoever tried it. There are only a few ways that kind of scenario plays out, and like 99% of them end up dealing with humanity doing that thing humanity does which inevitably results in the very worst aspects of it coming into play.

I mean, just pick up pretty much any run of X-Men, find the part where humans are treating the mutants badly, and then multiply that by 100x, and that's about what you would likely end up with. If you were very very lucky.

You're totally right about that. But this lane of thinking makes the proof of the existance of paranormal powers impossible. And while I would find it very cool that paranormal powers would exist, I don't believe that there are any. Its probably all just psychological phenomenons of minds tricking themselves. People are really good about that if they truly believe in something. Their mind kinda shapes the reality they perceive.

Anyway, I think that extraterrestrial live is probable since the universe is quite extensive with a multitude of habitable worlds. But I would not expect these habitable planets to be homes to sentient life as we understand it.

Other universes might exist, but we probably will never learn about them. So... I am neither believing nor denying this idea. Same about time travel. If there are beings which exist in more dimensions than ours, for whom time is nothing more than the x or y axis for us - easy to travel - then time travel exists. But I doubt that humans will ever be able to achieve something like that. Especially the case of travelling back in time.

Anyway, I don't believe in any of them (though I find some of these cases probable to some degree). Because I don't want to believe, I want to know.

[Chadow]

Visions of the future (premonition/ clairvoyance / clairaudient experience / Deja Vu) are a thing.
Personally many weird things of that nature happened to me.
Even with my drawings as a kid.

As a grown ass 30y old adult...i researched all my drawings as a kid and i was watching happenings of my grown self in those drawings.
Weird as fuck.
Can i control it? FUCKING NO.

But who is to say no more weird shit like that is out there?

[Calfredd]

Visions of the future (premonition/ clairvoyance / clairaudient experience / Deja Vu) are a thing.
Personally many weird things of that nature happened to me.
Even with my drawings as a kid.

As a grown ass 30y old adult...i researched all my drawings as a kid and i was watching happenings of my grown self in those drawings.
Weird as fuck.
Can i control it? FUCKING NO.

But who is to say no more weird shit like that is out there?

Press [X] to Doubt.