What's really going on with psychic capabilities?

TIme is not linear. Our bodies limit us to our peception of time in a linear fashion. THose who can step outside of their physicaity are no longer bound by time ad are therefore able to perceive other events that are part of “if”.

“Assuming these things are true”

Can’t do that. You have to show that they are true, not a byproduct of confirmation bias or other logical errors, first. Once you can show that, then you can work on figuring out where they came from.

It’s called confirmation bias. You see all the predictions that came true and say “Ah hah!” and ignore the ones that didn’t. Also, predictions tend to be vaguely worded on purpose—that’s the art of cold reading.

@crisw and I have oodles of interesting information and resources on this subject if you want it.

cold reading

I had a feeling you were going to ask this question, sooner or later.

Actually, I wasn’t thinking of this in terms of people who pass themselves off as some kind of psychic or another. I was thinking of daily life, where someone might describe a person they only knew a few things about, and get it pretty accurately.

I’m sure that both confirmation bias and cold reading have something to do with it. Although with the things I’m thinking about, it seems like cold reading is a pretty powerful process, even if you’ve never been trained in it. Maybe it’s something we all do, to one degree or another? Or at least, those who pay attention do.

Confirmation bias… not sure. I mean, of course we might only pay attention to our successful outcomes, but if those outcomes are highly unusual, then it doesn’t seem like confirmation bias could discount the knowledge. You could claim that coincidence would account for being right some of the time, and that is possible, too, although I don’t know how likely.

Similarly the vagueness of language can make us seem like we know more than we do. But just the same, the vagueness of language may equally well be masking more hits than misses. More false negatives than false positives. Even so, language can be specific enough.

I think the idea of cold reading holds the most promise. It could work at a distance, because I guess you don’t need to know much in order to make some very good guesses.

Let’s not discount the fundamental similarities that all humans exhibit as patterns to be mapped. Globally, on one level. Nationally, regionally, with characteristics refined along the way with religious upbringing and shopping habits. Google, banks and credit card companies maximize profits by acknowledging and tracking these high percentage of similarities, refining the process of “knowing us” to an almost magical degree.

I have no doubt that many of these common characteristics may be determined by the shirt we wear, our typing style, the car we drive, or tone of our voice. The Psychic Hotline for instance, is predisposed to those who want to believe in psychic ability to begin with. My neighborhood bar tender is just as likely to deal with those who fit certain patterns as well.

Suppose I attend an art show. Within seconds I can determine the genuine Collectors from those who just came for the free wine, from those who came to pick up chicks, from those who are enthusiasts with no money but wish to stay connected to the arts… all by the way they browse the room and gander at people or artwork. A closer inspection reveals more details that are often unspoken but rather obvious, simply by noticing if they chose valet parking or not.

Humans are more predictable than we like to believe. Playing upon those behaviors is just as predictable.

Derren brown covers cold reading very nicely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xswt8B8-UTM
He also does shows, live in front of an audience or on the tv. Misleading people in believing things, manipulating suggestion to appear more natural. He’s a very interesting guy all around. But yeah, for those that are not going to watch the interview, he shows how you can fool people into believing you’re psychic. They’re all charlatans, he uses it for entertainment only.

The unconscious mind handling more than 10 million bits of sensory input every second.

And we don’t seem to have a clue.

You’ll save a lot of money if you only serve cake and refreshments rather than a whole meal. How about doing your African/Italian food as appetizers?