|
|
|
|
Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
 Posted - 05/12/2005 : 10:38:37
|
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7320305/
Ahhhhh. No.
|
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
|
|
filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 05/12/2005 : 11:01:53 [Permalink]
|
Ahhhh yes, yes they do indeed work.
They work very hard to get their names in the news media, thereby not only gaining fame but getting some free advertising to help pull in the marks. Even the sincere ones, and there are some few, like to see their names in print. If they see their names in print often enough, they can then become insincere and wealthy.
|
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
|
 |
|
|
trishran
Skeptic Friend
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 05/13/2005 : 14:14:57 [Permalink]
|
| Do "psychic detectives" work? If they have jobs. [yuk yuk] |
trish |
|
|
|
beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2005 : 14:31:42 [Permalink]
|
So anyone have links to any real research on this subject?
I know the vast majority of these guys do the, "letter R" and the "grassy field" generalizations. And, that some of these guys will be right by coincidence. And, that the 'hits' are never compared to the 'misses'. And, the psychics almost never actually solve the crimes with their information. And, that some of the supposed psychic clues are just good guesses.
But.... a couple of the better known 'hits' sure are hard to ignore.
The lady that told the searcher on the cell phone where to look for the body in the river including to, "look down", and there was the dead kid.
The lady that found the nurse's body in the canyon and ended up arrested as a suspect, totally exonerated later.
There have been a couple of lost persons found in the woods by people with some specific premonition that led them to the lost person.
Some of the cases on Psychic Detective are certainly intriguing.
I am a skeptic, you know that. But I always hope to keep an open mind. I had my own coincidence. I make no claims this was more than coincidence. Here's the story, (I have posted this before so sorry if it was here as I didn't bother to search to see if I'm repeating myself, though it would be interesting if my story has 'evolved' with time.)
We had 4 fire fighters die in a warehouse fire here in Seattle a few years back. I work with lots of fire fighters so it really bothered me emotionally. The news was that a homeless person(s) may have accidentally started the fire. There was also some mention of it possibly being some kind of insurance fraud. An older couple owned the warehouse and the Mary Pang Foods that was run there. The news mentioned the couple had a son in LA but the son was not in Seattle during the fire and they showed no pictures of him. It was also reported the fire started in the basement but there was no mention it was a daylight basement (on a hill), nor could you tell that from the pictures.
I made an conscious effort to see if I could have any psychic impressions about the fire. I know that sounds weird for a skeptic, but oh well. I tried to clear my mind and think about only the fire. I fell asleep and had a dream about the fire. I saw a young adult male with short dark hair outside of the warehouse watching the fire. The fire was just beginning and my dream had a view from the ground floor of a large building that was built on a hill. In other words it was the daylight basement side of the building.
Nothing in my dream was specific enough and I'm sure even if it had been I'd have not gone to the police with my stupid dream. But later, as things unfolded, it turned out the fire was started by the son. He had been here and had driven up and back to hide that fact. The building did look like the one in my dream and he was a young adult male with short dark hair.
Coincidence with a little bit of direction from the known information certainly explains my dream. I still can't help but wonder how information could be transferred in ways we have yet to discover. Could the future dimension exist just as the past dimension might? While I can't see brain waves containing information, (the information is in the brain structure, not the brain wave), I still have to wonder if there isn't some other means of information transfer we are as yet unaware of.
I'd love to see some research done on the few supposedly successful psychic detectives. |
|
|
|
furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2005 : 06:09:54 [Permalink]
|
quote:
The lady that found the nurse's body in the canyon and ended up arrested as a suspect, totally exonerated later.
If someone has a prediction that is right on to the letter what does that mean relative to the other 1,000 complete misses.
Lets assume that this person had a 'true' psychic experience - if she is unable to tell a 'true' psychic experience from a random thought or hunch then it is of little use.
When these people are tested they cannot do better than random chance. Maybe some of the hits in the results were due to phsychic abilities but overall the best they can do is random chance. There is no way to test for this (if that is indeed what is happening).
I do not think that any of the hits are psychic because I cannot conceive of a mechanism that would allow someone to 'see' a distant event that occured in the past.
|
If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
|
|
|
pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2005 : 10:20:28 [Permalink]
|
"I'll tell you what the effect is....it's pissing me off! You can keep the 5 bucks!"
- Ghostbusters psychic "test" at the beginning of the movie...lol |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
|
|
|
|
beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2005 : 09:51:35 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by pleco
"I'll tell you what the effect is....it's pissing me off! You can keep the 5 bucks!"
- Ghostbusters psychic "test" at the beginning of the movie...lol
??????????? Clearly I've missed something here. |
|
|
|
beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2005 : 09:57:41 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Originally posted by furshur
...
Lets assume that this person had a 'true' psychic experience - if she is unable to tell a 'true' psychic experience from a random thought or hunch then it is of little use. ...
I do not think that any of the hits are psychic because I cannot conceive of a mechanism that would allow someone to 'see' a distant event that occured in the past.
I don't care about use at all. It's the science of a potential mechanism that interests me.
I also cannot think of any mechanism that would explain these events other than random accidental success. But there is such a mysterious world out there I will leave open the possibility. Past and future time, 11 dimensions of string theory, and theoretical other universes are all very mysterious concepts of invisible things. So who knows? |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 05/17/2005 09:58:05 |
|
|
|
 |
|
Topic Locked
