psychic testing.

So, recently, I have been thinking about the standard test for psychic abilities.

That standard test:
1. There is a computer with screen. On the screen is a single dot
2. Every cycle, the dot goes down a bit, and randomly to either left or right.
3. The goal of the psychic is to make the dot land completely on the left, or completely on the right of the screen, multiple times.

So my question is; What exactly is a psychic supposed to do?
The three most common claims for psychic powers are the manipulation of physical objects, the manipulation of chance and the manipulation of thought.
The manipulation of physical objects would not work in this test, because there are no physical objects to determine the direction the dot takes. Someone could lift complete continents with his mind and still be unable to do this test.
The manipulation of chance would be pretty good at this test. Even then, it expects a high amount of control, with even the tiniest slip-up disproving all the claims. Not to mention the possibility of mental exhaustion from having to do it multiple times. All in all though, this group can be tested with this method.
The manipulation of minds would, however, is especially useless. There are no minds to manipulate in this test. You could mentally control all of the world into believing you made the test succeed, but you still wouldn't have successfully done the test.





Disclaimer:
- This thread does not say that psychics exist, which is still pretty unlikely, just that the way we officially test for them is stupid. If you suspect anyone of being psychic however, have them tested at the local ghost academy. It's the law.

 

hmmm... so you say that people with psychic powers can manipulate minds but not physics like the 'dot' you were talking about.

 

No, I say that people claim they manipulate minds, and to test their claims, we make them move a dot, which has nothing to do with a mind.

 

Uhm most psychics I know of are (in addition to being criminal, immoral frauds) the talking to the dead/forseeing the future guys. Telekenisis is really not one of the common traits I'm seeing out there.

 

Don't forget finding your dog/bike.

 

You're right. Forgot about them. On the other hand, communicating with the dead doesn't help you manipulate randomized computations. And I admit my list of three most common types might have been inspired a tad too much by sf, although there have been plenty of claims regarding telekinesis, mind-reading and probability manipulation.

 

Ill start to think of a certain person, and seconds later they text me on my phone. Happens verry often. Also, alot of times ill get this feeling, and when I look at a digital clock the time in minutes is 11, happens way too often to be coincidental. I dont know if that qualifies for being psychic in anyway.

On another note, does anyone believe it is possible for humans to develop psychic abilities such as telepathy, even if it takes tens of thousands more years of evolution?

 

I have the ability to see auras, idk if you count that as "Psychic" since I think psychic is just made up nonsense...

So yes, I have the ability to see people's auras, and it isn't very uncommon considering I can actually teach people how, and pretty much everyone can to some extent, I just can naturally. I developed a test to prove to people that they actually are seeing auras and here's how it works. The size, color, etc. in the auras changes when you start to think deeply emotional thoughts, so this test requires one person, the person observing and the person thinking. The thinking person thinks about something very strong, for example let's say love. After a bit of that, they need to change drastically to something different, such as imagining murdering someone they hate. The person observing, if they are truly seeing the aura, with notice the change, and must say so when it happens. This way both of the people involved are convinced of the findings.

Obviously skilled liars could just examine facial expressions, so you could do this with the person thinking's back turned, but this probably isn't needed if you trust the person.

 

Yeah, auras usually smell quite sporty.. >_>

 

You people are just trolling at this point right? Please tell me that you do.

 

I'm not trolling no. I can see auras, wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it.

Psychics however are frauds by definition. It takes a great deal of intelligence to pull it off though.

 

First of all your method doesn't test for auras. It tests for peoples abilities to sense other peoples emotions (we have a word for that its called empathy). Second of all, laws of physics anyone?
I mean come on you don't have to a skeptic to call bollocks on that. If you are so sure of yourself why don't you conduct a research and try and get it into Nature magazine? It's a Nobel Prize winning material right there. Or at least Randis Amazing Challenge.

 

It's because the CIA are paying him millions to work for them.

So you're either trolling, very intelligent or you have defied humanity and all of its sciences. All bases covered.

 

Nope, I was being serious. What is this, Stephen Hawking's science class? How did physics get brought up anyhow?

 

Auras? If they exist they must be part of physics so Id like to know how exactly they work then. From what I know people do not emit different wavelength of radiation depending on their feelings/thoughts. And they definitely cannot train their eyes to detect different wavelengths.

 

Ah yes Higgs but not everything you see is detected by the eyes...the brain can create auras (from migraines, epilepsy etc) that you can then see. I'm not sure what the people who believe in auras believe so my fact disproves or doesn't matter to their view.

And rebel I don't see how being psychic could come about through evolution especially over such a short period of time.

 

I don't believe in psychics but I sure as hell see auras around people's heads. I'm not a psychic, I just can see auras, and as I told you, everyone can its not something foreign. As per your suggestion that it is related to my brain creating it, it seems very visual to me, though I can understand if the visual part of the brain is being manipulated through some sense to make it seem that way.

idk why me seeing auras makes me think I'm a psychic, psychic defines something that is beyond normal human ability, whereas I believe this is very common just unstudied. As for the reason I don't do a study on it, I don't really care about it, plus my field is in Computer Science so my knowledge of physics is limited. I'm not reputable in that community either.

When I mentioned having high intelligence I meant in order to scam people effectively, I'm not trying to scam anybody, just suggesting that certain things people deem psychic are not actually psychic, just unstudied. ( I do have a moderately high IQ of 145 though, not genius but still smerrrt ).

 

I believe that you believe it but come on...
So many people can see auras and not a single recognized scientific worked was done on that? Don't you have at least a spec of skepticism or critical thinking in you?

 

Yes, because being skeptic of your own eyesight is really useful. If you see shiny colors, you see shiny colors. If they match the description of auras, they are probably the same thing people call auras.

And the reason we don't have detailed scientific studies is because no one is sure what we are seeing. Your subconscious generating visual distortions based on stuff you don't detect consciously (pheromones and stuff) would be impossible to research at this point, because we can't look through someones eyes.

 

Again, I believe that they believe that they see 'stuff'. But to go from there to an actual existence of auras is just... wow you really must have surrendered all you critical thinking skills. Not because you refused to believe it/dismissed it outright but because you just accept it as true and go on living your life as if you didnt just discover a nobel prize winning SLASH millions worth of dollar valuable ability. That is RIDICILUOUS. If you do that you are RIDICULOUS.