If just ONE psychic was real

I wanted to follow up Monday’s post about how Sylvia Browne and James Van Praagh were totally wrong about Shawn Hornbeck. It’s obvious that those two jokers have no psychic powers, and are just playing the odds, but it is notable that no other “psychic”, as far as I am aware, was correct either. And it appears that Shawn’s parents did consult several. So I got to thinking what it would be like if there was even ONE real psychic in the world looking into this case. After all, anyone can be right most of the time by guessing the missing child is dead. What would be really spiffy and useful, if there was a real psychic, would be if they could zero in on the rare cases where the child is still alive after all this time. And if they could help find him or her.

For example, they could come up with something like:

I sense that Shawn is alive. He is being held in an apartment nearby, by a man who drives an old white Nissan pickup truck. He is a middle-aged white man with a beard. I sense that he works as a manager of a restaurant – possibly a pizza restaurant.

The psychic might even know something else, such as:

Shawn’s abductor has been in trouble with the police, and has been arrested for a traffic violation.

Don’t you think that would have been a real help?

Of course, additional details such as his name and address would be pretty useful too. Think that’s too hard? Well, if you watch TV’s “Medium” (featuring “Allison Dubois”) or “Ghost Whisperer” (“based on the work of James Van Praagh”, who is the show’s Co-Executive Producer), you would see crimes being solved with this degree of precise psychically derived information, every week. Surely in the real world it should happen at least occasionally?

It seems to me that if psychics were real, they would find some missing children in this way, on some sort of regular basis. And with the easy ability to check that these predictions were actually made in advance, wouldn’t these correct predictions be publicized widely? Wouldn’t we all know that such-and-such a child had been safely recovered due to the diligent predictions of a particular named psychic? I would have thought so. So why don’t we hear of this? Why don’t psychics tell us where all these missing children are? Could it be that they just don’t care? They know where the kidnapped children are but just couldn’t be bothered to let anyone know? Pretty mean of them.

Or alternatively, perhaps psychics and psychic powers just don’t exist. Isn’t that really the simplest and most likely answer?

Comments

[Martin Wagner]

Well, as we're on the subject of psychic charlatans: I will be attending James Randi's THE AMAZING MEETING 5 in Vegas this weekend, and will be liveblogging the whole event at the Atheist Experience blog. Stop by, set a bookmark if you like, and enjoy frequent updates from the conference all weekend.

[joe]

if a psychic said something like "I sense that Shawn is alive. He is being held in an apartment nearby, by a man who drives an old white Nissan pickup truck. He is a middle-aged white man with a beard. ....." he should be arrested for aiding and abetting in kidnapping.

I guess that brings up an interesting conundrum for these so called psychics. If they happen to be right too many times, a decent cop would drag their asses into jail to find out how they know so much about these crimes!

[outeast]

UR so stupid 'skeptico' (or ur in the pay of vested interets) ur mind is so CLOSED that u leave out the REAL and OBVIOUS reason we do not hear about the VERY MANY success found children with psychics. Just like with Big Pharma p[rotecting there own interests by stopping the publication of studies showing that PRAYER WORKS, its the MONEY INTERETS - the so-called 'scientific' establishment covers up these stories bcs they have to maintain the fiction that WE UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING.

[valhar2000]

outeast is right how can u dny the TURTH!!!!! you are sad sad "sketpic' thinkin that u now everything OPEN YOUR EYES!!!!! cant you see there is alot to lern??? psysics are reel!!

How did I do? Did it look authentic? If not, I suppose I'll have to hire a psychic who is not in the pay of THE MAN (tm) to help me.

[Big Al]

Whereas, instead, YOU know everything, eh, outeast?

Please name ONE case where a psychic gave a (hitherto unknown) correct name or address to the police that led to the resolution of a crime.

I don't mean vague generalisations that anyone might guess at, but hard, useful data.

Can you do that, instead of just calling Skeptico a closed-minded imbecile?

I can't get my head round your assertion that not hearing about psychics' successes is OBVIOUS (your caps) proof that they exist!

[Bronze Dog]

May want to get your sarcasmometer checked, Big Al.

[Big Al]

The needle's permanently stuck after being maxed out too many times, I'm afraid, Dog!

[Ruth]

If there really were psychics, I think they would be like Douglas Adam's character, Dirk Gently. He is rational, skeptical and just trying to scam the gullible but his psychic power messes stuff up. Can't these people find another way to make a living?

[pv]

I'm curious to know why psychics are even given the oxygen of publicity. That they seem to be regularly wheeled out by the same usual suspects (Larry King et al) tells me rather a lot about what the tv programme makers and producers think of the general public. Basically they think the audience is a bunch of tossers, and to some extent at least they are right. There must be a fair sized minority, if not actually a majority, of the audences who think this stuff is real or it wouldn't keep finding its way onto tv. It's easy money and it keeps fuckwit liars like the psychics and scumbags like the unctuous Larry King laughing all the way to the bank. And all because even thicker planks are too dim realise they having the piss taken out of them.
Do they put something in the water over there or is it just that "land of the free" has more than its fair share of congenital idiots?

[Louie]

Hey there. I notice that I get quite a bit of traffic from your link and thought I'd chip in. I have actual experience of testing psychics. I have worked as a parapsychologist for a number of years and have nearly finished my PhD in parapsychology.

And what did I find? No good evidence for anything paranormal or supernatural. The answer, people, is that there are plenty of normal reasons why people experience weird things and attribute them as paranormal. People are just not accurate when it comes to processing information. Think eyewitness testimony.

And since science now tells us that everything is pointless the world can be divided into those who understand that the universe was not made for us to live in and those that do not.

People believe a whole load of crap. If you would like me to take anything you say seriously (so as to distinguish you from the schizophrenic, theist or other deluded person) you must provide me with evidence. And extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The impetus is on you, not I, to prove your belief a reality. And if that is not motivation enough to try, you could always have a stab at Randi's prize

[jre]

If outeast is real, I hope he/she/it[1] can somehow be tempted back to comment again. If not (as BD suggests, and as seems more likely), I humbly bow to his/her/its powers of funny. That comment was truly a stitch.

[1] I'm not being deliberately derisive here, just trying to allow for the possibility that outeast is in fact an AI program, albeit an unusually gullible one. Sometimes I toy with the idea of writing a dada script to auto-generate comments like that one.

[Bronze Dog]

outeast has been here before. He's a skeptic like us.

[Skeptico]

Er, outeast was joking, people.

[jre]

Then it's possibility B. I bow again.

[Terence]

I actually, like what you asked... if just one psychics was real... Or if so, than I ask why don't they use there power to truly influance peace in the world... to many people hurt, to many people cram away there feelings and say everything is okay... And so many learn so much fear when they are young that it just becomes anger, hate, and many other agressive emotions... and finally they forget that fear is what drives most people to live they way they live now. And if they don't believe that, then they just don't want to see the truth any more. People who attack others with closed minds need emotional help, and people with closed minds often attack other who just simply ask... what if. The Catholic churh during the med evil days attacked people who questioned the truth. You know, sometimes I wounder if there where any real Psychics out there: wouldn't they most likely be driven to taking there own life in some way... especialy if they truly cared for others. Knowing the twisted crulety of our world?