Parapsychology Paper Essay, Research Paper
Parapsychology is another word for paranormal or out of this world happenings. I do not believe in most forms of ESP or Extrasensory Perception. Clairvoyance is one form that I believe in, to an extent.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) is detecting information in some way other than through the normal processes of sensation. There are different types of ESP but one of these is telepathy or psychic prediction. As we saw in the movie Secrets of the Psychics, many psychic predictions were proved false, for example, by not giving the psychic any information about a certain person who they do not know, or know anything about. Many times their claims of truth cannot be proven at all. These claims violate a scientific rule called The Rule of Falsifiability. This rule states that in order for a claim to be proved true, you must be able to identify some form of evidence that would refute the claim or prove that it is false. There is no evidence or findings that can prove that psychics are true. As the movie showed, psychics seem to trick a person into believing whatever they say, and by the questions or answers they may give. Many times the answer isn t totally true but it isn t false which makes the person think that they weren t correct totally but they were close enough. A good tool to also use with this form is the Is It TRUE? model. The T stands for: is it Testable? The R stands for: is it Reliable? The U stands for: is it Unusual? The E stands for: is it Explainable? If any of these questions cannot be answered totally, fully supporting psychics, than it should most definitely be false.
One type of ESP that I have mixed feelings over is clairvoyance. Clairvoyance is the perception of a remote object or event. In many ways this seems far-fetched but there have been instances where family members, many times twins, have felt what the other sibling felt. This is the main reason why my feelings are mixed. This is the only reason why clairvoyance, in my eyes, could possibly be true.
In conclusion ESP in many ways is not true. People use this as a show or just a way to make money. These people are very popular because they trick people into believing them and what they say is true. I know that after seeing the video in class and reading the passages in the book I will never look at psychics the same way again