Myths about the Brain and Perception
by Kat Nipcon
Do you remember those TV commercials you often encounter when staying up till 3am in the morning? I mean the ones featuring a very monotonous, seemingly hypnotizing female voice that promises to help you solve all your current issues, through the use of psychic powers?
It can be pretty mesmerizing, I know…but how did we get on the topic of psychic power in psychology 203? Well, psychic abilities are a part of what is referred to as Extrasensory Perception, which is actually considered by some to be a valid scientific phenomenon. ESP, or Extrasensory Perception currently means “knowledge or perception without the use of any of the senses”.
ESP encompasses such unusual experiences as psychokinesis, or the ability to influence physical objects or manipulate processes by the power of thought alone. Other types of “gifts” include telepathy, a.k.a mind reading, clairvoyance or knowing the existence of hidden or far away objects or people and precognition which refers to the ability to predict future via paranormal means.
Pretty neat stuff? I mean who wouldn’t want to be able to read other people’s minds or predict the future. Everybody of course wants to develop these mysterious brainpowers. That’s why there exists a vast market to aid people in their quest to get in touch with their sixth sense. Hundreds of self-help books, resources and even seminars have been created to help people achieve this goal.
Sadly, in this day and age there is no strong scientific evidence to support the existence of various types of ESP. Many skeptics reason that ESP simply results from people having very overactive imaginations that lead them to misinterpret or misattribute dramatic or unexpected coincidences, as “psychic” phenomena.
It seems that lack of scientific evidence does not stop the media from attempting to convince the public that ESP phenomena are real. People are flooded with instances of ESP in today’s pop culture, especially movies, e.g.: ”Paranormal Activity”, “The Stir of Echoes”,”Hereafter”,”Insidious”, and “The Sixth Sense”. No wonder why so many of us still play with the Ouija board.Check out the links below to find out more about the Ouija board and have a chance to play with one online!
Thus, it is not uncommon for many people (and that means people other than devoted parapsychologists) to become seriously fascinated by ESP. Does it mean that most people become influenced by those media to the extent that they are blind to the fact that science has failed to support ESP?
Yes, shockingly enough it does. It appears that from the beginning of the world, humans have always fallen prey to this kind of seduction. Consulting the spirits through a crystal ball, reading the future from the deck of Tarot cards, or (stranger yet) trying to convey meaning in disemboweled remains of a bird, are all seemingly valid ways of getting in touch with one’s inner psychic. Sounds pretty medieval, doesn’t it? Stats show that belief in ESP and psychic abilities indeed has a widespread following in today’s society, at least in the United States.
According to the results of a recent poll, 41% of the U.S population surveyed believes in ESP, 31% believes in the existence of telepathy or communication between minds without using traditional senses, while 26% claims to firmly believe in clairvoyance, which refers to the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future (Moore, 2005). More surprisingly still, a survey of attitudes presented by undergraduate psychology students revealed that 73% believed that the existence in ESP was well documented (Taylor and Kowalski, 2003).
This is a striking result, given the fact that there exists a strong movement to discredit cases of “paranormal” occurrences. Many of the famous psychics have been publicly discredited and showed to be nothing but cunning impostors. Below are the links to videos that show instances of psychic fraud being uncovered. Pretty shocking.
Also, check out these cool videos featuring a famous psychic “debunker” James Randi:
On the other hand, psychic powers have had many real life applications and have been utilized by such official institutions as the police force. There allegedly have been many reported success stories that involved psychics solving crimes, finding missing children, and the like. Seems like this may be true, but vast evidence suggests that such phenomena are “real” mostly within the realm of popular media. There is mixed evidence as to the validity of use of psychics in police investigations.
Below are the links to various studies and articles about the use of psychics in police investigations.
All this leaves us torn between wanting to believe in the exciting world of the paranormal and trying to figure out if it really occurs in nature.So far no clear answers have been found,but at the same time the evidence against the existence of ESP speaks for itself.Yet,maybe one day we’ll have the scientific advancements necessary to better understand ESP…
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