Are Psychics Real?
Frederick Gimino asked:
If you have ever wondered “are psychics real?” you are not alone. Many people ask them selves this very same question every day. The answer is often not an easy one but for thousands of years, people have turned to psychics, and clairvoyants for love, romance, and life advice. Some say psychics even have the ability to communicate with the spirits of the departed.
However, over the years claims of spiritualism and psychic powers have been so widespread and the reports of its effects so numerous and impressive that it was inevitable that scientists would be attracted to the alleged phenomena. Parapsychology the science that studies these phenomena focused on many areas including telepathy, clairvoyance, hypnotism, spirits, spiritualism, and the history of spiritual manifestations.
Although Parapsychology is still considered a fringe science by many scientists it still merits the attention of renowned educational institutions such as Princeton University and Berkley. Princeton offers the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) degree and the University of Berkley in California awarded the only American accredited degree in Parapsychology to Jeffery Mishlove in 1980. But in saying this I am putting the cart before the horse.
The pioneers of modern Parapsychology began using the experimental approach to psychic phenomena at Duke University in the 1930s under the direction of Joseph Rhine. Subsequently Karl Zener one of J.Rhines associates developed the world renowned Zener card test for testing ESP abilities using the scientific method. These ESP tests were conducted at Duke University in one of the first Pavlovian conditioning laboratories.
So, whether you believe in psychics, paranormal activity, or spiritualism the fact of the matter is there is currently hard scientific data documenting the anomalous psychic events which occur in the everyday world around us. In addition for thousands of years unexplained phenomena have been documented throughout history. Are millions of people crazy? I think not. I assure you that the spiritual realm does exist and I am not alone in that belief. Many scientists, layman, and spiritualists share the same views about our universe. Even some world renowned physicists speculate the need for more than one dimension to explain life as we know it.
My best advice is to try to keep an open mind and an objective outlook about things that we do not fully understand. that is unless you believe the sole criterion of reality is our limited human ability to quantify, tag, and label it. After all we can not see the wind but we do see the affect it has on the leaves as they blow about. Does this mean wind does not exist just because we cannot see it?
In closing I leave it up to you the reader to decide for your self the answer to the question at hand. But, know this my answer to the question “are psychics real?” is yes. Psychics, psychic abilities, spirits, and ESP are real whether you believe in them or not.
If you have ever wondered “are psychics real?” you are not alone. Many people ask them selves this very same question every day. The answer is often not an easy one but for thousands of years, people have turned to psychics, and clairvoyants for love, romance, and life advice. Some say psychics even have the ability to communicate with the spirits of the departed.
However, over the years claims of spiritualism and psychic powers have been so widespread and the reports of its effects so numerous and impressive that it was inevitable that scientists would be attracted to the alleged phenomena. Parapsychology the science that studies these phenomena focused on many areas including telepathy, clairvoyance, hypnotism, spirits, spiritualism, and the history of spiritual manifestations.
Although Parapsychology is still considered a fringe science by many scientists it still merits the attention of renowned educational institutions such as Princeton University and Berkley. Princeton offers the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) degree and the University of Berkley in California awarded the only American accredited degree in Parapsychology to Jeffery Mishlove in 1980. But in saying this I am putting the cart before the horse.
The pioneers of modern Parapsychology began using the experimental approach to psychic phenomena at Duke University in the 1930s under the direction of Joseph Rhine. Subsequently Karl Zener one of J.Rhines associates developed the world renowned Zener card test for testing ESP abilities using the scientific method. These ESP tests were conducted at Duke University in one of the first Pavlovian conditioning laboratories.
So, whether you believe in psychics, paranormal activity, or spiritualism the fact of the matter is there is currently hard scientific data documenting the anomalous psychic events which occur in the everyday world around us. In addition for thousands of years unexplained phenomena have been documented throughout history. Are millions of people crazy? I think not. I assure you that the spiritual realm does exist and I am not alone in that belief. Many scientists, layman, and spiritualists share the same views about our universe. Even some world renowned physicists speculate the need for more than one dimension to explain life as we know it.
My best advice is to try to keep an open mind and an objective outlook about things that we do not fully understand. that is unless you believe the sole criterion of reality is our limited human ability to quantify, tag, and label it. After all we can not see the wind but we do see the affect it has on the leaves as they blow about. Does this mean wind does not exist just because we cannot see it?
In closing I leave it up to you the reader to decide for your self the answer to the question at hand. But, know this my answer to the question “are psychics real?” is yes. Psychics, psychic abilities, spirits, and ESP are real whether you believe in them or not.
What On Earth Is Pyschokinesis?
Sophie Chamberlain asked:
Psychokinesis is the psychic ability to move objects through an exercise of the human mind, either consciously or unconsciously. The word, Psychokinesis, literally means soul movement (psyche- soul; kinesis- movement).
Some of the earliest hard-core scientific research revolving around Psychokinesis began at Duke University with the famed researcher, J. B. Rhine, who developed some of the first statistical protocols for analyzing ESP phenomena. His interest in Psychokinesis began when he began to study the success of a gambler, whose talent appeared to be statistically successful rolls of the dice. Could PK be an influence in determining who was successful in gambling and who was not?
Rhine spent ten years before publishing his works on Psychokinesis because, of all the various things he studied, such as telepathy and precognition, he felt that Psychokinesis might be the most controversial. Besides, there were some problems when, after many experiments with hand-tossed dice, it became possible that the tiny embedded markings, appearing as black dots on the dice, could affect the ‘heaviness’ of the respective sides. Thus, perhaps the dice were loaded naturally by virtue of their manufacture and the Psychokinesis effects was imaginary. To compensate for this possible natural effect, Rhine creating a dice-rolling machine which seemed to diminish the power of the original Psychokinesis data.
One interesting experiment Rhine conducted was where a team of professional gamblers was pitted against a team of divinity students in a statistically tabulated dice-rolling contest. The result was a toss-up between the two sides but an over-powering collective result that meant that some unusual force was acting on behalf of both the gamblers and the divinity students.
Much has often been made of poltergeist phenomena, which involves the rapid transportation of objects during episodes often associated with a spirit. Many modern parapsychologists, influenced by research done by the Rhine Research Center. which continued the work of JB. Rhine in the area Psychokinesis, believe that the poltergeist phenomena and its concomitant Psychokinesis, classically associated with rock-throwing spirits, is caused typically by presence of troubled adolescents, attributing the poltergeist phenomena to a human element, a young person with a disruptive emotional or mental state that can trigger events that actually cause Psychokinesis.
Two relatively modern examples of people claimed to have Psychokinesis in their paranormal arsenal are the Israeli psychic, Uri Geller and the Russian housewife, Nina Kulagina.
Geller was known primarily for his facility in Psychokinesis in bending spoons, although he did a lot of work with Psychokinesis in repairing clocks. His Psychokinesis was regularly challenged by the magician/skeptic James Randi, who claimed that his spoon-bending Psychokinesis was so much trickery.
The Psychokinesis of Nina Sergeyevna Kulagina was studied by parapsychologists who reported the movement of sitting objects, the changing of trajectories for objects in motion as well as experiments related to the slowing down and speeding up of a dead and separated frog heart. She has performed her Psychokinesis before cameras for a 1967 documentary. Her Psychokinesis feats have included making matches move across a table, levitating a ping-pong ball and making burns appear on human flesh.
Her Psychokinesis was first noted in the West in Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder (Prentice Hall, 1970).
Psychokinesis is the psychic ability to move objects through an exercise of the human mind, either consciously or unconsciously. The word, Psychokinesis, literally means soul movement (psyche- soul; kinesis- movement).
Some of the earliest hard-core scientific research revolving around Psychokinesis began at Duke University with the famed researcher, J. B. Rhine, who developed some of the first statistical protocols for analyzing ESP phenomena. His interest in Psychokinesis began when he began to study the success of a gambler, whose talent appeared to be statistically successful rolls of the dice. Could PK be an influence in determining who was successful in gambling and who was not?
Rhine spent ten years before publishing his works on Psychokinesis because, of all the various things he studied, such as telepathy and precognition, he felt that Psychokinesis might be the most controversial. Besides, there were some problems when, after many experiments with hand-tossed dice, it became possible that the tiny embedded markings, appearing as black dots on the dice, could affect the ‘heaviness’ of the respective sides. Thus, perhaps the dice were loaded naturally by virtue of their manufacture and the Psychokinesis effects was imaginary. To compensate for this possible natural effect, Rhine creating a dice-rolling machine which seemed to diminish the power of the original Psychokinesis data.
One interesting experiment Rhine conducted was where a team of professional gamblers was pitted against a team of divinity students in a statistically tabulated dice-rolling contest. The result was a toss-up between the two sides but an over-powering collective result that meant that some unusual force was acting on behalf of both the gamblers and the divinity students.
Much has often been made of poltergeist phenomena, which involves the rapid transportation of objects during episodes often associated with a spirit. Many modern parapsychologists, influenced by research done by the Rhine Research Center. which continued the work of JB. Rhine in the area Psychokinesis, believe that the poltergeist phenomena and its concomitant Psychokinesis, classically associated with rock-throwing spirits, is caused typically by presence of troubled adolescents, attributing the poltergeist phenomena to a human element, a young person with a disruptive emotional or mental state that can trigger events that actually cause Psychokinesis.
Two relatively modern examples of people claimed to have Psychokinesis in their paranormal arsenal are the Israeli psychic, Uri Geller and the Russian housewife, Nina Kulagina.
Geller was known primarily for his facility in Psychokinesis in bending spoons, although he did a lot of work with Psychokinesis in repairing clocks. His Psychokinesis was regularly challenged by the magician/skeptic James Randi, who claimed that his spoon-bending Psychokinesis was so much trickery.
The Psychokinesis of Nina Sergeyevna Kulagina was studied by parapsychologists who reported the movement of sitting objects, the changing of trajectories for objects in motion as well as experiments related to the slowing down and speeding up of a dead and separated frog heart. She has performed her Psychokinesis before cameras for a 1967 documentary. Her Psychokinesis feats have included making matches move across a table, levitating a ping-pong ball and making burns appear on human flesh.
Her Psychokinesis was first noted in the West in Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder (Prentice Hall, 1970).
