If psychics have true powers, why does it seem like they cannot prove it to the scientific community?

Question

Look at http://www.randi.org/ and look at the million dollar prize for a person to reveal their powers and prove them. There is a full list of similar prizes and contests at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prizes_for_evidence_of_the_paranormal and tell me what you think.

To everyone who answered, I do beleive in the parnormal. I just find it funny that a powerful psychic wouldnt go for the challenge and still successively complete it.

Although that would mean extensive media coverage and extreme loss of privacy, and someone who is so closely connected with the universe could care less about trivial things like money and fame.

I always beleived that the best musicain (for example) would never have the opportunity or desire to showcase his talents.

Answer 1

People (including myself) are going to be highly suspect of any question that mentions Randi unless of course they are confirmed debunkers (not skeptics which is a word they abuse).

Now let's discuss science. Science does not prove anything.
For instance prove to me to my satisfaction that you are not evil. I will always have the deciding vote and the upper hand. Science does provide support or fails to provide support for hypothesis.
Science in the form of parapsychology has provided support for the hypothesis of ESP and PK.
The Parapsychological Association
http://www.parapsych.org has been an affiliate of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
http://aaas.org since 1969. No skeptics organization has ever been admitted.

I myself am very skeptical of people that claim to have psychic powers at a 100% accuracy rate.
Now let's discuss human performance - If I offered Michael Jordan 10 million dollars to make 100 free throws from the free throw line but they had to be in a row, no misses, it is unlikely that he could accomplish this, the same is true of any human performance issue like ESP. This is why many psychologist are the ones studying such abilities, it is a human ability.

Research using the Ganzfeld ESP protocol has shown that people are correct 33% of the time where chance predicts 25%.
The odds against chance are 1 in the 10's of millions.

Two groups at Juliard tested 50% and 75% correct hit rates. So, there are some people that are better at this ability than others. Just like not everyone is a Mozart.

Thus, to truly test a psychics abilities would require 100's of controlled trials and satistically analyzing the results to see if they were more then chance and what the probabilities were. Randi does not accept statistical evidence (as all real scientist do) and does not conduct actual research.

Michael John Weaver, M.S., Director
New Mexico Anomaly Society
http://nmas.freeservers.com

Answer 2

Psychic powers are real, but there is very much BS surrounding them. Almost any "psychic" you meet is probably a scam artist. However, I have experienced telepathy and premonition many many times in my life, quite regularly. There have been numerous tests conducted by reputable universities proving such unbelievable (yet true!) phenomena as Telekinesis! You should look into meditation and Chi, also, try reading "The Mind at Night" by Andrea Rock. By the way, I have always been fascinated by science and am an Atheist. I acknowledge that psychic powers exist, but I am niether superstitious, unquestioningly believing anything I'm told, nor do I blindly deny that something exists just because it is commonly thought not to.

Answer 3

First, to note, if a psychic didn't care about money or fame then they wouldn't 1) advertise or 2) charge for their services.

Secondly, if a psychic could prove their abilities to scientists, then "persecution" (in the form of disbelief, insults, etc) of psychics would be reduced.

Thus, there is no reason for a psychic not to go after the prize and ever reason for them to do so. Unless, of course, they are a con artist. It isn't noble to avoid proving their powers, rather it would be noble if they could!

Even if psychic powers are sporadic, as others have claimed, the cumulative result should still be greater than random chance. As for "conditions that would make Mozart miss a note," that is rather melodramatic and a false analogy. Let’s see psychics perform for literally hours in front of the most important figures of our day and see if they are able to get even half the notes right before we start comparing them to Mozart missing a note.

Edit: It is not an issue of if Randi would believe, or any other skeptic, rather it is that psychics either either preventing the rest of the world from realizing their powers, thereby closing off entire realms of knowledge to the rest of us, or they are con artists. There is nothing good, noble, or reasonable in not publically displaying their powers.

Answer 4

First off there have been Psychic that allowed their greed to over rule what their psychic abilities have told them to avoid and have fallen into that trap... And a few went in and even fewer came out.. They have no intention of paying out that million dollars and many true psychic would chose death over working for the U.S. Government and our Government would rather see them dead then take the chance that they can fall into some very un-friendly hands..... And I am willing to bet that you had no idea that things like that go on...... And if any of those psychics that are out there that are making tons of money were real psychics you would never have hear of them and they would never have be seen again....... This is a very cruel world and mercy for them does not exist and when I say that those that those have true psychic are locked down And can't go to the bathroom without permission.....Believe it..........

Answer 5

Exactly. I have had my proof, and then some, and while there's a part of me that wants to shout it to the world, I realize that this part...is the part of me still coming to terms with my gifts, but it proves itself to me every single day. Had some fabulous proof this morning, in fact, but I'm afraid none that will prove it to anyone else but me.

But it also just feels wrong to want fame and fortune for what I can do. It feels ungrateful.

Good question though. :)

Answer 6

to prove it to the scientific community you must be able to repeat the events and in most cases it is not done but if you want to know about the psychic powers then you should see what the Russians have on it as they were so far ahead of everyone in this study, There you have several powerful people that seemed to prove it

Answer 7

The person performing is rather outnumbered by skeptics, which, if they are even able to come close to performing under conditions that would cause Mozart to miss a note, and able to perform with all of the negative attitudes in the room (one person thinking I can, vs dozens who keep thinking, no you can't), they also make sure that even if the person is able to perform as directed, they have enough hostile witnesses in the room to fabricate the failure if needed. and, to be honest CSICOP, which was one of the top skeptic organizations in the world, has been known to fabricate test results in order to invalidate claims of the paranormal.

Off course, I'm going to blindly take my philosophy of life from a mediocre, and out of work, stage magician, rather than think for myself.

But this is what I think...take it or leave it...Since I've seen enough representatives from CSICOP in the "debunking the occult" shows, perform with a level of scientific aptitude and objectivity that would have them failing 7th grade science.

Answer 8

Because the realm of empathy and insight can't be quantified scientifically. Anyway, if I were to give someone, as a sceptic, certain impressions they would look very hard to find alternate answers.

A mind which decides to be closed is very difficult to open. Why spend all that energy?

Answer 9

I believe no matter what a psychic did, Mr. Randi would refuse to believe it so why bother with him? Also, psychic ability is a very precious thing, not a parlor trick to show off with...

Answer 10

Sony corporation, the one that made playstation, actually confirmed the existance of 'psychic powers' but cut the study off when they couldn't figure out how to make money off of it.