I KNEW someone would make that joke!

If it's published in a scientific journal, it MUST be true!

Also, adding all-caps words to your writing makes you seem MORE FORCEFUL!

I find this very difficult to believe. The idea that:

"... human behavior at a given moment can be influenced by information they're given at a later time.

is a little suspicious. To say that I did "X" two hours ago because I knew that "Y" was going to happen now seems a little difficult to prove. This is nothing more than rationalizing a past decision based on current information. Short of someone actually coming out and predicting a specific future event that the person has no control over, I do not see how you could prove precognition. When I say predict a future event, I mean something very specific, not the usual generalized statements that many events could be twisted fit and make it look like the person's prediction was true. Something like predicting the lottery numbers, predicting what the next card to come up in deck is, or predicting and accident at a specific place and time would be needed to make me a believer.

The specific experiments that were done by this researcher have too many ways in which the results can be skewed or influenced, such as suggestive mannerism or vocal inflection by the person conducting the test. I find it telling that the researcher was in the room with the person when the test were conducted. To eliminate any intentional or unintentional action by the researcher affecting the results, the researcher should not be in the room with the subject when the test are done. The fact that people have tried and been unable to duplicate the results also makes my extremely suspicious. In the world of hard science an experiment's results must be repeatable before the results are accepted as fact. I guess this same rigid scientific principle does not apply when it comes to psi, or at least the journal that is publishing this paper does not feel that it is necessary.

I do believe that other types of psi such as forms of telepathy or empathy are possible. Our brains operate on specific frequencies and with certain energy levels. The idea that someone could be sensitive enough to pick up on these signals from another person is something that I could see happening, particularly over short distances. I think that in identical twins this is even more possible because their shared biology. Having studied martial arts I have a very strong appreciation for the power of the mind and it's ability to influence the body and it's energy. As such, I am not a hard and fast skeptic when it comes to all types of psi, but I am very suspicious of those that deal with having knowledge of the future.

Two hours ago, I knew you were going to post this. And so I altered my behavior and refrained from posting until after you did so.

I'll believe when a psychic wins the lottery.

When I was in grade school, I got suspended for school for cheating on a spelling test. I could complete the test before the teacher called out the words at random. She didn't know how I was cheating, but she was sure I had. I just thought it was a fun game until I got suspended for 3 days. When I was in my teens and early twenties, I had pre-cognitive dreams. I would dream about, oh say, a car accident, and within two or three days, the accident would happen. Not to me, mind you, but to the people I dreamed about. This went on for long enough I learned not to tell my friends of their impending trouble after a few of the more religious ones decided I was strange enough to maybe burn at a stake. By the time I hit my thirties, all the dreams and precognition stopped. Thank God! I really didn't want to know what bad thing was going to happen next, and I wasn't taking spelling tests anymore. Sometimes I kind of miss it, but really, precognition was a lot more trouble than it was worth. I can't speak for others and I can't really address a scientific study, but I know what I went through was very real.

How convenient that your little "story" ends with you not being able to prove it. Same 'ol, same 'ol...

@Ula i do believe you . I have had some knowledge of what was going to happen before hand.

Sometimes the brain lags, for lack of a better term, and with the way we are wired - when this happens the mind tricks itself into thinking its "seen this before" or "I knew this was going to happen". I know people who make this claim or claims they have experience de ja vu, and I'll admit I have experienced it many times myself - sometimes its pretty freaky. There is no way I would think or come to the conclusion that I have precognition abilities. That's just ridiculous.

Since no one else can even reproduce the same results - science has already debunked it. And man, that is the best Carl Sagan quote, I love it!

My daughter could always tell me when the phone was going to ring, who it was, and what they wanted. "Mom, Jane is calling, she wants to borrow a cup of sugar." In the next moment, the phone rings. Bingo! She has always been very good with that. The lady next door borrowed my baby names book and when she brought it back, my little girl told her the names she picked out. Ta-dah--exactly as written on her paper. Being psychic isn't about reading the future (although it might be related), but about what's going on in the world around us at any given moment, whether seen, spoken, felt and/or thought. The "trick" is learning to hear/see it. I "know" when there's going to be a deer standing in the road. I just "know," and therefore alter my driving speed and location. It's worked everytime. I've never had a speeding ticket, either--same thing. Now, if I could just see into the future for those lottery numbers, I'd have it made, but current "insight" is all I have.

Carl Sagan's famous line, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" is really common sense. If I told you that I saw a deer in my upstate NY backyard, you'd probably believe me without demanding further evidence. On the other hand, if I told you that I saw a two head gorilla running around in my backyard, you'd likely demand substantial evidence before you would believe me.

Not surprisingly, scientists think the same way. If you claim to have evidence for a previously unknown phenomenon, but it's one that could be accounted for by known physical processes, we're going to be far less skeptical than we would be if your new phenomenon can NOT be accounted for by any known process. There is no known process that could remotely account for true precognition. For that reason, if you want to claim that it's real, we're going to demand a LOT of VERY compelling evidence.

If these results can be successfully and consistently replicated AND no one manages to account for them using known physical processes, then you've got something. Until this standard is met, however, there is no compelling reason to believe in precognition.

ula-ashore, I am exactly like you except mine have not stopped and 90% of my precognitive dreams are about my life and 10% others. For my life, I have precognitive dreams and sometimes "I see" or know while I am awake. For others, I dreamed about 9/11 about 2 years before it happened, knowing some story that is going to be on the news, etc...

Mind you the precognitive dreams is not every once in a while. They are every night. It could range from something non important to very important e.g. someone dying.

Because I have been told in the religious community, it is evil, I spoke with my priest. He told me God has given me a gift and just to except it. I do not make money off of it nor do I tell anybody, anymore. The only person I speak with is my mother because she is also sensitive.

So on that note, I understand why people do not believe in it if they have not experienced it. I understand why there have been studies.

It is a natural part of me that I know longer question it. I am so used to it now.

I see the future in my dreams occasionally.

javondure,

I love your words "She is also sensitive" because that is exactly what we are, overly sensitive. We pick up tiniest of tiny details others pooh-pooh about; but, that information causes the pieces of the bigger puzzle to be placed into the proper locations.

I dread the dream/premonition that I had a couple years back, and my husband is still a complete and utter disbeliever--I, myself, will see the age of 57, but not 58, so that means that I have about 2.5-3 years left on this plane of existence.

I know this all sounds crazy, untrue, stupid (at times), but for us it is a way of life. We don't know any different and unfortunately cannot turn it off and on like so many "researchers" demand so that they can prove their theses.

Check back in a couple, find me or my gravestone--will they have proof then? Will that be enough for them to declare that psi exists?

I guess I dont fully wrap my brain around the concept they are testing - that something I did 4 months ago, was affected by knowledge I gained today?

Did I know this 4 months ago, that I was going to obtain that knowledge?

Or did I just make a decision, without knowing why, only to have the reality of that exposed in the future? That doesnt sound psychic or precognitive at all to me...rather, it sounds like amazing coincidence. Or just good (or depending on the situation, bad) luck.

For example, if today I think "ya know, I should check my home insurance policy and make sure that im fully protected, and they have all my personal items cataloged in case something were to happen"...and then 3 months later, your house burns down...thats not psychic to me, thats just really good luck that you had a moment where you thought about what might happen, and it might not have (as happens to millions of people).

I want to see a test in which subjects declare TODAY why they are doing something - what is propelling them to do it, specifically...and then if that comes true, over and over again (not just every so often)...then i'll give it some weight.

I am not an outright skeptic who completely disbelieves, I just wish that those who are intent on proving it...went out about it in a more believable way.

let's try this..., in your post you made a testable prediction. You said that your precognition tells you that you will not live to see age 58. Try this: write that prediction down and put it somewhere where it will be safe and where you will definitely see it if/when you turn 58. If you are still alive at age 58, will you concede that you were not really seeing the future?

LOL.... I wonder sometimes at the level of vehemence with which the very idea of psi is met. Are there not mysteries all around us? You can quote Carl Sagan to me all you want, I'll meet your Carl Sagan with my Mark Twain: "Absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence."

ula_ashore, I'll tell you why I speak out against psi. Because there are many people out there that base important life decisions on things like this. If it's not true, then a lot of damage can be done to people's lives based on nonsense. There are people that can barely afford to put food on their family's table that spend lots of money talking to psychics because they think the psychic has some ability to guide their future decisions. If the psychic has no such ability, then a LOT of harm is being done.

Absence of evidence may not be evidence of absence, but that doesn't mean that I should have the burden of proving the unsubstantiated claim wrong. If I claim to have a two-head gorilla in my backyard, the burden of proof is entirely upon my shoulders. You are quite entitled to say, "I don't believe you and I won't believe you unless you prove it."

So you could study for a test after you took the test?

I've had my share of "psychic" experiences that I have witnesses for--like accurately predicting 30 coin tosses in a row. I can't do it at will--it just happens sometimes. My mother participated in the Duke U. studies in the 30s, failed totally, and was a skeptic. Even she had to acknowledge one of my precognitions after she witnessed it...at which point she trotted out a host of experiences of other family members.

I think a reasonable explanation is as near as Einstein. If we accept that time is relative, then future events have already happened and our linear experience of time is illusory. When you also realize that thought is energy, and that the thought process releases energy into the universe (or ether, if you want to be poetic), then the concept of someone's brain being receptive to certain energy frequencies is no more startling than birds being able to visually discern the earth's magnetic fields and process that information for migration. It would also make sense that our ability to be aware and make use of our receptors becomes less important with the development of language and written communication.

MGinRochester - based on the anaglogy you use, I can go back throughout history in which humans have witnessed things but having no means to "prove it"...and until the scientific community was able to witness it themselves, only then did it become "truth". It didnt mean that it never existed, just that a whole host of scientist would never believe it.

Carl Sagan makes a valid point - yet, im struggling to reconcile this with "facts" accepted by the scientific community that arent based on real proof. Such as our understanding of the SUN.

Here's a "fact" found online: The Sun contains 99.85% of the mass of the solar system.

Now, short of inspecting the SUN to conclude this, how in the world could we TRULY know this? Sure, we can make great assumptions based on what we think based on what we think we know...but short of PROVING IT by going to the sun and inspecting its mass...and knowing for certain our measurements werent off, this is not FACT, this is presumed fact.

To me, this isnt significantly different than concluding that psychic abilities exist, because your daughter can tell you who's calling, what they are calling about minutes before they call. Thats pretty solid evidence, yet not accepted because it cant be duplicated.

We cant even come close to proving what the sun is made of, its size, or age - which currently stands at 4.6 billion years, approximately halfway through its life span. Is that psychic abilities that helped scientists to know this, or estimations based on what we think we know? But cant prove?

i believe we have all experienced that feeling that we knew what was going to happen before it did. is this pre-cog? can't prove its from future information, or just a sub-conscious occurance, or is it hindsight! once in awhile if you pay close attention to these feelings ahead of time you can use them to your advantage.

Jav and Ula that's really cool. I have them periodically too. And no the ability to perceive it is not evil. Christianity as a "religion" has forgotten or hidden alot of that because it doesn't fit in a nice flannelgraph or 12 step program. I certainly didn't hear about it and I grew up in the church. But having such a gift is Biblical. The best description I've heard to describe the difference between a psychic and a Biblical prophet is it's the same same receiver different channel, just like a radio. Some people do "know" and "see", and some are simply faking. When I dream or sense something, I write it down and date it in my journal. I always assumed it was just "women's intuition" it's only in recent years that I've learned it was not. I hope the sceptics don't derail the study. I think the human brain and mind are very fascinating. While it's based on something subjective like what you feel or what your hunch is, trying to quantify them would be interesting. But still very subjective.

"I'll believe when a psychic wins the lottery."

It doesn't work that way. Most true psychics are unable to predict things like that because they have no personal connection to it. My flashes and dreams of precognition are almost always about a family member or close friend, someone I know and care about. Psychics need to have a connection with the person they are divining for, be it on purpose or accidentally via dreams or flashes of insight. Lottery machines/balls are not living creatures and do not give off the auras that living beings have, therefore we cannot have a spiritual connection to them.

There is a reason that psychics need to know a few things about someone or spend some time speaking to someone or walking through a place (homes, for instance, contain residual energy from those who live/have lived in them) in order to find or feel things about them. We must make a connection before we can begin to see beyond the veil of the known.

Jessica - M = v^2 * r / G

Where:
M = Solar Mass
v = Earth's velocity around the sun
r = orbital radius of Earth around the sun
G = the universal constant of gravity

... No need to go to the sun. You can thank Newton.

The elements that make up the sun can more or less be calculated by spectrographic analysis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrometer

Jessica, please read over DM98's post. (I find it sad, by the way, that -- centuries after Newton's work -- there are still people running around thinking it's all guesswork.)

To respond to your point about the age of the earth, you can read about that here:

http://talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html

As the above link and DM98's link show, scientists have compelling evidence to support their assertions about the mass and composition of the sun and about the age of the earth. You may not understand the science of it, but if you walk up to almost any astronomer, he'll be happy to explain it to you and show you the evidence. In my experience, most scientists are only too happy to explain their work to you and -- more importantly -- show you the evidence. If you don't believe, for example, that some dinosaurs once had feathers all you have to do is walk up to a paleontologist that has studied these specimens and he'll drag them out and show them to, and will likely talk your ear off explaining in detail what you are seeing. Similarly, if you are skeptical about the age of the earth, all you have to do is walk up to a geologist and he or she will be DELIGHTED to show you the evidence.

That's very different from the claims of those that believe in psychic powers. Take a look at the claims made in this thread: there are MANY people here claiming to have precognition and/or other psychic powers -- but none of them is willing and able to go out on a limb to demonstrate this ability to a skeptic in a controlled fashion. I've spent 20 years challenging self-proclaimed psychics to prove their abilities by giving me a testable list of predictions. Without exception they have responded in one of three ways:

A) They say "Oh, it doesn't work that way, I can't prove it to you" (one guy claimed that the universe would take his powers away if he used them for personal gain like that) or

B) they DID give me a list of predictions, none of which actually came true or

C) they gave me a list of predictions that were so vague they were practically assured of coming true. One woman told me that within two years, "something bad is going to happen to you". Well....yeah....how many of us go two years without ANYTHING bad happening?

In contrast, if you don't think astronomers know what they are talking about when they say the sun is made mostly of hydrogen and helium, all you have to do is read up on spectrographic analysis to see how it works and then walk into a physics lab and watch the scientists do it.

These skeptics are so 20th Century! Time for them to learn that time is relative, that you can never know more than you think you know, and their egos are their prisons.

I'll believe when a psychic wins the lottery.

What makes you think lottery winners aren't psychic? What makes you think the psychic community doesn't fund itself by taking turns winning the lottery.

As an actual psychic, I can say that $1 million isn't very interesting to people like me. I made nearly 100 times that on the sub-prime debacle, and I was on vacation and not even trying hard that year.

Even better, this was all in offshore accounts, of course, which got me around taxes (which would cut that $1 million nearly in half) AND protects me from _________________________— (something that all of us psychics know is going to happen, but we're not telling people yet).

So, really, your logic is pretty flawed here. It's much better for us to have you continue to believe that psychics are fake than prove to you that they are real. I mean, seriously? For $1 million? We've got better things to do...

I don't believe in Ms. Cleo, or the joker that posted below this...those are just parlour tricks and fraud. What I do believe in, wholeheartedly, is something akin to DejaVu. Have you ever dreamed about something, something mundane, like going to work, or meeting someone, going the movies? Most people forget their dreams, the next morning. I don't forget all of them, sometimes, things will happen days, months, even years later, nothing huge, and I will get this feeling of Deja Vu, or remember it happenned like that in a dream. I have a photographic memory, and an IQ of 195, and I cannot explain this. Some theories are that your brain subconsciously predicts the outcome of future events based on observation and calcultation and shows you the outcome in the form of a dream, not magic or superpowers. All I know is its not like this horse@!$%# in the movies where you can control it like a damn superpower, its just passive and practically useless other than making certain conversations and days at work feel very weird. Its not always like the dream either, its just fragments. Otherwise, I would say that it is scientifically impossible to be psychic and I cannot explain what it is I experience.

To Actual Psychic -- Again, another psychic fish tale that cannot be proven. Like we're all supposed to "believe" that you have money stored away in offshore accounts as a result of your "powers". Prove it or just STFU!

Actual Psychic...

Then how about doing it for the sake of finally providing scientific proof that psychic powers are real? There would be some that will still disbelieve, but there also be many that will stop calling you fakes and frauds. Personally, I don't believe in little green men, spiritual guides or magic. But if there were scientific proof, I would accept it.

As for the study...

I think it should be published and replication attempts to be made; Per the article, the two attempts that have been made did not use the same methodology. 100 years ago, the idea that light behaves both as a wave and a particle was unacceptable to many. Even Einstein, whose own work led to quantum theory, couldn't accept that there was a certain inherent randomness to it.

Newton's laws of motion were pretty accurate. Einstein's theory of gravity was better. Our current idea of causality is pretty good. Perhaps there is a theory that is a little better. To discount the results of an experiment because it doesn't fit in with your idea of how the universe works isn't how scientific work is done. Follow the evidence.

Can I haz hidden /sarcasm tag, so people who are bad at detecting it can have their web browser do it for them and avoid the embarassment.

Actual Psychic you owe me a keyboard.

actual psychic: You see, this is the problem. Lots of people claim to have psychic powers but when they are asked to TRULY put it to test they either have an excuse for not doing it ("Oh, I don't care about winning a million dollars") or they fail the test.

Back in 1985, I knew a man that claimed to have psychic powers. He made lots of predictions, such as the prediction that most of the world's major cities would be destroyed in a nuclear war in the year 1993. Well... 1993 came and went and not a single nuclear bomb went off. In fact, NONE of his predictions came true. So...I know there are people out there that believe they have psychic powers when they really don't.

Given that, I have no reason to believe you unless you are willing to publically make a long list of predictions (and make them specific enough that they are not open to very wide, after-the-fact changes in interpretation) and let us see if they come true.

Actual Psychic - Surely there is a worthwhile charity to which you could pledge the million dollars, no?

Precognition would have come in real handy back when I was in school.

I could have studied for tests after I took them.

Then I would have known what to study.

First of all, the type of psychic phenomenon that different people possess is as varied as people are...precognition, remote viewing, telepathy...etc. Just as every individual is different, those who are "more sensitive" to "psychic phenomenon" do not all have the same ability or "gifts". Also, it is a fact that many, if not all people who truly have psychic or paranormal abilities will readily acknowledge that it is not an ability that is really within their control...the "stuff" they become aware of sometimes baffles them as to why...why one might ask, would they be aware of an impending earthquake many miles from where they live...and express that to someone (for those who look for proof), only to have the Haiti tragic quake occur two days later? In other words, most people who know they have some extra sensory abilities are sometimes as perplexed about it (or why they experience the things they do and what particular things come to them) as anyone else would be. It is not usually, at least from my understanding at this time, something that you can control, although sensitivity and compassion for others (as well as natural creative ability, and a normally nonjudgmental type of personality) definitely may play a part in the realm of psychic phenomena, in my opinion. At any rate, without a doubt, the labels of "crazy", "evil", "different and unaccepted" definitely keep many quiet or more reserved about what they feel and experience in this area of study, although I think it is often difficult for them to totally hide their "differentness"...and since they know they will usually not be believed, and it is not within their control to change peoples minds about anything anyways, standard accepted types of scientific testing would usually be a mote point anyways. It could be that most newborns have abilities we would label "psychic", and as they grow up, society slowly teaches them to ignore and thus loose those abilities, as they are not recognized, accepted, or validated as "real". All these things make it very difficult to "prove" or "scientifically understand" the phenomenon that our scientific community labels "psychic".

In my opinion, extra sensory abilities have to do with the "universal wisdom"...traditional known to me as God and "Holy Spirt". That said, a good question would be what are all the loud, adamant "nay-sayers" so afraid of? Practicing a little open mindedness without judging everything based on what you have been taught to accept as "real"...would be a step in the right direction towards understanding.

Several people seem to be missing the point.

We don't want people to know that we are psychic. It's better for us if people don't know. That's why we formed IARPWWTKOPS (The International Association of Real Psychics Who Want To Keep Our Powers Secret).

Our annual dues fund things like:

1. The rebuttal paper that is talked about in the article above (because, again, we don't want people to know about us), and

2. TV shows like Psych and The Mentalist (designed to make psychics seem fake)

There is no upside to proving that we're psychic. People in this world go nuts if a homeless guy has a good voice. Imagine how they'd respond to finding out about all of us psychics.

Now, I know what you're thinking (because I'm psychic, and that's one of the benefits of being psychic).

Anyway, I have to go right now. Some people are going to come over to my house in a few minutes and say that they, "just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought to pop-in." And so I want to go brew some coffee so I can say, "Perfect timing. I just happened to have some coffee brewing." They will love that...

actual psychic...

First of all, you should "know" that you cannot speak for all "psychics"...and also, your arrogance makes me wonder about your legitimacy. That said, you do make me laugh...your humor is appreciated.

The article had a link to the paper. For those who missed it and would like to review:

http://dbem.ws/FeelingFuture.pdf

Hmmmm.... if psychics don't want anyone to know about their powers, why are there 1,435,345,345 of them (including Actual Psychic) in this thread trying to convince us that it's real?

Man, I've seen that dance from believers in the paranormal so many times:

Psychic: "I have psychic powers! I can see the future!"

Me: "Wow, prove it!"

Psychic: "I don't want anyone to know/the universe will take my powers away if I use them for egotistical reasons/I can't do it on demand/I don't care about winning $1,000,000 in the James Randi challenge/etc, etc, etc."

And people wonder why I don't believe in this stuff. ;-)

smack jack - It's not as restrictive as you seem to make it out. IIRC, they want you to at least have had some media coverage but they make this very broad and easy to attain. The other thing they want you to get is a letter from a business professional stating that they have witnessed your talent. They were overwhelmed by complete hacks and mentally unstable folks who were essentially wasting the testers' time. Call your local paper with your next magical feat or send a letter of you predictions and then a follow-up letter after they come true. And if the JREF won't take you, there's always YouTube.

So well expressed, WMG-21. Those statements of automatic dismissal are disturbing, in that it makes one wonder what other fascinating new insights never made it to light because of stubborn resistance to new things. My thoughts are that, possibly, discovering a backwards link of causality through time, can help explain many things that don't quite make sense.

As it states in the article, the people who are dismissing it - have already read it. They reviewed it and didn't agree with the findings. Just because it hasn't been published in a journal, doesn't mean it hasn't been reviewed or distributed for peer review. That is why the rebuttal is being printed, it was written as part of the peer review process. It just happens to disagree with the conclusion.

Reading comprehension is really not a strong point these days is it? As its-all-your-fault already pointed out, the paper has been available for review for a long time. The scientists are not dismissing it out of hand. They read the paper and find its conclusion dubious based on the methodology of the experiments.

Ian - yet, calling it "craziness" suggets that they already dismissed it before giving it a fair evaluation.

No theory is to crazy to explore, nor attempt to explain - even when some scientists have their fingers firmly jammed in their ears unwilling to really hear it out.

Paper Submitted:

Bem - http://dbem.ws/FeelingFuture.pdf

Critiques:

Rouder / Morey - http://pcl.missouri.edu/sites/default/files/rouder-morey.pdf

Wagenmaker / Wetzels / Borsboom / van der Maas - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1018886/Bem6.pdf

To me it appears that Hyman is referring to the submission being "Craziness" due to the methodology used to assess psi by Bem. If the methods were not biased or limited, it would be more suitable for publication.

Thanks DM! It's a... (rolls a d20)... pleasure to meet you!

Not sure what a "rolls a d20" means? Is that a dungeons and dragons reference?

Your comments indicate that you are predisposed to reading pseudo science and that when you do read well written articles about science you distort their meaning.

Your comments on the autistic savants highlights your cognitive impairment to logic.

Parapsychology is a crackpot field and showing an active interest in the field is a sign of humanities weakness and stupidity.

Or It could just be like the "study" on a supposed link between autism and vaccination.

It has come to light that the "study" used falsified information.

We really don't know if this Psychic study uses falsified info, too.

Ryan and Code - to explore an idea, one doesnt have to put all their eggs into the basket of this one study, do they?

There are people who pretend to be religious figures, only to steal from those they are pretending to help...and to molest and assault those not capable of defending themselves.

Does this make ALL RELIGION evil and horrible?

Because thats the point your attempting to make about this ONE STUDY and the ENTIRE IDEA.

Stay consistent my friends...

Magical bullcrap? You seem like the kind of person who would still not believe if this experiment was repeated again and again with the same results. Maybe you should be a little more-open minded and give it a chance rather than put it down right away. Who elected you as the all-knowing person who knows EXACTLY how the universe works? Scientific knowledge advances because people are willing to accept new ideas, not because they are stubborn to any change. Having an unchanging bias against what you see as "pseudoscience" gets us nowhere. These findings are interesting, and I assure you there are more people who are open to the idea of precognition than you realize.

Lakestorm11, have you read the study?

Why don't you tell us some things that are going to happen and establish some credibility. you don't really expect people to believe you simply because you say so . We have televangelist that perform that feat.

Wow, you are such a nutjob. If you are psychic then prove it. What do I have on my desk at work, jackass. I see things in dreams that eventually happen and I'm not dillusional. You are just another troll who is full of it.

take your meds buddy...

As I accurately predicted, no one here has a sense of humor.

I find it funny how people feel "entitled" to extra-sensory perception, while the majority of them cannot perceive something as simple as sarcasm.

The medical profession (generally) seems to lack grounding in statistics and probability. So I tend to be skeptical of any of their conclusions based on what they may believe to be statistically significant data.

Not so with Quantum theory. Those folk eat, sleep and dream mathematics. Moreover, the non-intuitive very strange behavior described, I should say inherent, in the theory has not only been experimentally duplicated by many physicists world wide, there are a host of practical technologies based on its principles.

Astron, I think everything has a cause.

Yeah, I saw this same test performed at the beginning of Ghostbusters, like a thousand times. Bill Murray is running it in the first scene he appears in the movie. If you watch closely the guy is actually guessing all the girls cards, and is right most of the time, but Venhkman still shocks him. Hilarious.

Hmmm, I too read "The teachings of don Juan ; A Yaquis Way to knowledge; "Journey to Ixtlan", "A Separate Reality" and the rest of Carlos Casteneda.

However, that was when I lived in Berzerkely and I'm out of mushrooms. Apparently you still have some.

I'm a "learned" person, or whatever your calling it, and while I don't believe in psychics, I'm not going to rule the possibility of unexplained phenomenon, being both true and explainable.

Anybody remember that story about the guy who died in that train wreck in the NW a few years ago, that big passenger train derailed? Go to snopes.com and look it up. They have yet to figure out how this guy called his wife 5 hours after his death. All they do is debunk urban myths.

@ solidsted: Exactly what are they examples of?

No. If a party to the conversation has been told about its "supposed" future contents ahead of time, it isn't psi. This phenomenon is called self-fulfilling prophecy.

What about the guy whose cell phone called his wife and left her a message, 5 hours after his death in a train wreck. They have yet to explain this one. The phone has a record of the call and the wife has the voicemail with her husbands voice, the phone wasn't found until the next day along with the body. She lived 3 states away from where the accident took place. The timestamps on the calls can't be forged, without extreme means to be a hoax. Psi, no, weird, yes. I read about this on Snopes.com a site dedicated to debunking urban legends and hoaxes.

Randy,

Come on! You can't be serious. The timestamp on the call can easily be forged, but aside from that, have you considered that her husband didn't die at the moment of impact, but hours later.?

Coroner places time of death about 5 hours before the call was placed on his cell phone outgoing timestamp, btw the guy was found buried under the train car, crushed to death, died instantly. Her incoming call, and on the records from the phone company also verify this claim. I'm not saying there is not an explanation but one would have to go through a lot of trouble to forge records from the cell company and the 2 phones, and the coroners report. Its not like I want to believe it, I don't. Its really creepy and I'm sure there's some kind of explaination, but no one has been able to find one. They debunk lots of things on that website, this is one of the few that have yet to be explained. I think this is the article

Crap that the wrong article, I think I got my ghost stories mixed up

The fact that no other researcher can duplicate the results is suspicious.

Dogs and cats are not psychic. They have become very good at instinctively reading our moods via our demeanor, skin temp, pulse and breathing. They learned this because they found that when they did what we thought they should we give them food and shelter.

They are opportunistic and manipulative but they are not psychic.

Should we have dismissed dark matter or inflation for similar reasons - lack of theoretical framework when the first evidence was discovered?

I agree, however, that his suggestion of a possible theory related to quantum entanglement is nonsensical. He mistakenly uses the word affect, when no such thing actually happens. Entangled particles cannot be used for information transmission.

@ solidstew

Entangled particles cannot be used for information transmission.

Not accurate.

A pair of quantum systems in an entangled state can be used as a quantum information channel to perform computational and cryptographic tasks that are impossible for classical systems.

Point taken. I should have said entanglement cannot be used for FTL information transmission.

Careful about that "cherry picking" comment. How many slides and traces do atomic particle scientists study and reject before they find the one that confirms their belief in some particle? Talk about cherry picking!