Skeptical question about psychics.?

Question

If psychics exist then where were they on September 10, 2001? Where were they the days before the Columbine shootings? What about the West Side Shootings? What about the Virginia Tech Shootings? Where were they before Hitler? What about Joseph Stalin? I'm curious: why didn't any of them say anything before the Oklahoma City Bombing? Did this stuff not seem important to them?

Answer 1

Er.......bit of an obvious observation, if the psychics had had premonitions, would the skeptics have listened to them?

Answer 2

A violation of the "Conservation of Energy", Transhuman?  Remember Tamara Rand?

EDIT: a Reminder:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=i7ei39-GHDA

Answer 3

Another point say 9-11 the day before some people that have this gift can see images and sense the great doom or death before it can happen they might not necessay know exactly to what an extent like 9-11-01 or the other horrible things you have mentioned but a real sensing person with a gift can feel and predict bad occurences that can come to them in images or perceptions if they can truly understand their gift  it will grow stronger over time but as people have mentioned who would believe them if they sensed bad things without all the facts...........

Answer 4

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in psychics, but at the same time I don't think you're making a good argument against psychics.  From what I understand, psychics do not claim to be all knowing or that they have control over what knowledge comes to them.  And even when they do claim that some knowledge has come to them, few people believe them, so they don't get a whole lot of press.

Answer 5

You're certainly right to be skeptical about psychics.  Thing is, not a single psychic in all of human history has been able to _prove_ their abilities in a controlled environment.  Some psychics even go so far as to lie about their credentials, for instance saying that they predicted some major event when they didn't, or that they helped police solve some case when they didn't.

One technique psychics use is a method called "cold reading."  Cold reading allows a psychic to massage all sorts of information out of a person without their knowing, thus making it appear that a psychic knows things about you that you haven't directly told them.  There are some magicians who are quite skilled at cold reading, like James "the Amazing" Randi, who freely admit that they are NOT psychic, but are so skilled that they seem like they are.

Speaking of Randi, he's had an outstanding $1 million prize for anyone who can actually prove to a neutral third party, under close examination, that they do have psychic powers.  The prize is quite a few years old, and to date no one's been able to claim it.

Also, it's pretty much impossible to predict the future in the manner that psychics claim to.  To do so, we would have to live in a deterministic universe--meaning that the future was already laid out, and not subject to change.  In order for that to happen though, you can't have any free will or any randomness in nature, because either one changes the future.  I think it's safe to say that we do in fact have free will, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle shows that true randomness does exist in nature.  So, the future is always in a state of flux (change), and thus human events can not be predicted with absolute certainty.

Below are some links to cold reading, Randi's $1 million challenge, and to an excellent skeptic's podcast I think you'd enjoy.

Answer 6

Acme Psychics Inc.

No appointment necessary ;)

Answer 7

because real psychics dont tell the future whenever they want they get "visions: no not like "thats so raven" it more like a pass out type of thing and there are good and bad things they see but they dont get to see everything. not only that i dont think if anyone had a vision about those things they didnt really take it seriosly

Answer 8

First of all psychics aren't considered to be with credibility otherwise we would not have this discussion. The public is skeptical about such things and if someone told you that something was going to happen before it did the chances that you would take them seriously are slim to none, especially someone with their reputation at stake. It does not mean that there has not been a psychic who has warned of a coming doom that we know about or happened. Our own government did not need to have a psychic to warn them about 9/11, several attempts were made to warn our government. Though, there will be some who deny this or refuse to consider this as a possibility, and that is okay too. Sadly, before i became more religious i dabbled with it and went to psychics for fun. My religion that i currently practice prohibits dealing with them as with all monotheistic religions. And i was told things that frightened me because they did happen and the psychics asked for only my name. I was told distinct details about my past and of course I was told some things about my future. At the time what i was told about my past impressed me and it is very hard to impress me, but my future THAT was yet to happen....but most of what was told to me became true and in startling details which i don't wish to discuss. I don't have the intention to promote it......does it exist? yes, and should people mess with the occult? No, I don't think so. I suggest that people leave it alone. I am sorry and regret having done it. It is evil and I have a better understanding now about why we shouldn't mess with it than when i was much younger. To the skeptics, i suggest staying skeptical perhaps it is better. And to those who are curious there are a lot of con artists out there and there are some who are receivers, but the question you should be asking is where or better WHAT are they receiving this information from?I suggest that people stay away from it and enjoy each day as it comes to you....the way God intended. If God wills for something to happen there is nothing you or any created being can do to stop it.