Psychic Powers? Oh Please!

I learned two very important key points in the lecture about physic powers (or shall I say lack of psychic powers). 1. Psychics are very vague in their predictions. For example, in our book Scientific Perspective on Pseudoscience and the Paranormal, it reviews a story about a man with Alzheimer's disease who wandered away from home. A psychic crime detective stepped in to help find the man. Apparently, her visions of a stone, wooded area, creek, fence, and a tower helped find this man. As anyone can see these "visions" are very vague. And 2. Many times people overlook inconsistent information given by the psychic and only remember the correct information. After reviewing the lecture and reading our book, I feel these are two important points to remember when it comes to thinking about psychics.

Sylvia Browne is one of those popular psychics who has made a name for herself. I actually own one of her books The Other Side and Back (and NO I did not buy it. It was a gift). I only read a couple chapters from the book so far. Something she stressed on more than one occasion is, "no psychic is a hundred percent accurate". I found this quite funny. It kind of goes with the vagueness idea. It also struck me that she mentioned, "no genuine psychic, including me, is psychic about themselves." She continued to say that she doesn't use it for lottery tickets or the Super Bowl. She pretty much is saying that she doesn't use her "psychic powers" for money. Yet she writes books about her powers and goes on shows like Montel Williams.

On a final note, I feel I must point out what Sylvia said about the age of the "spirits" on the "other side". She said that everyone is thirty years old. So even if you are five, twenty-three, ninety, etc. when you die, you are thirty years old on the other side. I find this pretty hard to believe. But Hey! Sylvia said it in her book so it must be true.

By: Brandi Reinhard