Spirited Script

There’s something I’ve noticed about communities built around the paranormal. They seem to attract the die-hard skeptics who aren’t going to believe anything they read short of seeing an amazing, flashy display in person that demonstrates the paranormal is real. They also attract people ready to believe absolutely anything they read, because “anything’s possible” and “we should give them the benefit of the doubt, after all, this is all crazy.” I’m certainly not the first person to notice or comment on this, but I think this is something important to discuss.

Why do so many people feel the need to polarize so much on these beliefs? I’m guessing for the die-hard skeptics, it’s because they truly believe there is no way psychic powers could exist, or at the very least, it’s very doubtful. Furthermore, when they see psychics providing services, that would mean one of two things: the psychic is lying, or the psychic needs psychological help. Either way, it’s up to the skeptic to help out. In the case of the overly faithful, I think it’s a matter of feeling like they’re considered crazy, so they should give everyone else the benefit of the doubt, even on claims that are outlandish by the standards of the paranormal community. It’s not like we have a way of testing any of this after all.

Both groups have their own issues, as does the group I put myself in, which I’ll talk about in a minute. For the die-hard skeptics, they’re more or less unwilling to acknowledge the possibility of the paranormal. This is despite a long list of evidence, both in lab settings and through people’s experiences, that points to the possibility of their existence. For more on this, see Sean’s excellent list How to Prove Psychic Abilities are Real over at A Little Weird.

Now, I know all the science types are saying that experience doesn’t count, and I certainly understand that. In terms of proving something, replication in controlled circumstances is important. That’s what the scientific studies are provided for. They give us an objective viewpoint on all of this. Methods to experience psychic abilities are provided because, even with scientific evidence, we don’t exactly have concrete proof, other than to say something strange that we can’t explain is going on. Furthermore, even with complete proof, I think the existence of psychic abilities is something that would be hard to swallow without some kind of experience with them. After all, I have experience with them and I still doubt sometimes.

We also have the completely faithful, who believe anything about the paranormal that anyone tells them. I think this is because we simply don’t know enough about the paranormal. Since we don’t know much about it, no one knows when to call someone on lying about something that they claim may be possible or they may have done. Since no one knows when to call someone on it, clearly the thing to do is give them the benefit of the doubt, otherwise, they’re being hypocritical by claiming to believe in the paranormal, but also claiming that someone else can’t do something paranormal.

I think both of these groups have it wrong though. You can believe something is possible, while still being skeptical of it. I think this is currently the appropriate view to hold on many psychic abilities. I’ve said this in my disclaimer, but I believe psychic abilities exist, and think I’ve had some minor experiences with them. I’ve been informally studying and practicing them for around ten years now, but I still don’t know if I’ve been experiencing bona fide psychic abilities or simply coincidence and feeling things that aren’t there. Given that it would be a lot of coincidence for none of it to be real, I tend to lean toward thinking something is happening, but I also know people find significance in the things that do happen, while forgetting the things that don’t work out. So, for me, it’s still up in the air about whether they exist.

Furthermore, anything paranormal seems to get lumped together, but there are a large number of phenomena that need to be tested. It could turn out that some are real and some aren’t. For instance, maybe it’s possible to predict the future, yet not possible to spontaneously teleport across town. Both claims have been made. But there will need to be different tests for both claims, and one could be shown true while the other is shown false.

Finally, many skeptics like to argue by Occam’s Razor: the most likely explanation is the one you should use. So, whenever it turns out a psychic ability can be replicated by other means, such as cold reading or magnets, they assume that means the psychic ability doesn’t exist. Naturally, while this is sensible to avoid getting conned, it’s also quite reasonable to realize there’s more than one way to get the same result.

Of course, rabid supporters of the paranormal forget this important idea too. Just because it’s possible something is paranormal, doesn’t mean that it is. There are perfectly mundane reasons lots of seemingly paranormal things can happen, and you can’t just rule them out. Furthermore, there are people who will lie about what they can do. If they can pull it off convincingly, it could be for money, or it could just be for fame or to feel special.

I have two major tests I use when I think about whether or not some claim is plausible. One is to think about if it matches up with my own experiences. The other is to see how well it matches up with other claims. If it matches up pretty well, then I tend to think it’s fairly plausible, though I also know there are other reasons claims may match up, such as proliferation of these ideas across the internet. Of course, there are other factors to take into account as well. If it sounds too good to be true, or if it sounds like the idea being presented came out of a cartoon or rpg, that can seriously hurt the credibility of an idea. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to see which came first, the idea or the cartoon. If the idea came first, then it may still be valid, but if it came after, then it could just be someone who wants their favorite show to be real.

In the end, I think what’s important is to realize you need to think for yourself. Don’t have blind faith in anything. Use reason to think about the world around you. This doesn’t mean you can’t believe in all sorts of crazy things, but figure it out for yourself, and don’t rely solely on other people to tell you how it is. You’ll certainly need to hear other ideas, but by filtering them, reasoning, and coming to your own conclusions, you have a better chance of finding an answer without being conned.

Related Posts:

• Paranormal Experiences I’ve Had
• Speak Up
• How Does the Paranormal Work… If It’s not Real
• Science Is Not a Religion
• Lucid Dreaming and Other Dream Experiences