Debating The Paranormal

DEBATE
Parapsychology

There are many areas of psychic phenomena to discuss. Issues has decided to break up this topic, allowing our readers to develop a sense of what is being discussed, absorb the topic, and discuss the topic with us. The Paranormal will be divided into categories including ghosts & spirits, hauntings, cold spots, and parapsychology. The debates will be ongoing, discussed bi-monthly, separated by other topics which Issues is covering. Our first debate shall be over the topic of parapsychology, the more scientific approach to paranormal activity.

Parapsychology is a branch of psychology that deals with paranormal behavior and events such as telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance, which are not explicable by present day natural or scientific laws; rather than the emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual.

Extra Sensory Perception (EPS)

In 1870 Sir Richard Burton, first coined the phrase extrasensory perception to describe an understanding that people have about the future., Dr. Paul Joire, A French researcher, used the term ESP in 1892 to describe the ability of person who had been hypnotized state to externally sense things without using their ordinary senses.

It was not until the 1930s that American parapsychologist J. B. Rhine, among the first parapsychologists to test ESP phenomena in the laboratory, popularized the term to include psychic phenomena similar to sensory functions. At Duke University, Rhine conducted the first card-guessing ESP experiments in 1930. The cards consisted of five designs, now called ESP symbols, a square, a circle, a plus sign, a five-pointed star, and a set of three wavy lines; printed singly, in black ink, on cards resembling playing cards. In the classic Rhine experiments on ESP, the subject tries to guess or "call" the order of the five symbols when they are randomly arranged in a deck of 25 ESP cards.

ESP fall into four general categories:

Telepathy or a person's awareness of another's thoughts, without any communication through normal sensory channels.
Clairvoyance or knowledge acquired of an object or event without the use of the senses.
Precognition or knowledge a person may have of another person's future thoughts, or of future events.
Psychokinesis -- a person's ability to influence a physical object or an event, by merely thinking about it. (Some researchers consider psychokinesis a part of psi, but not strictly extra-sensory "perception").

Telepathy

Fredric W. H. Myers, a French psychical researcher and founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) coined the phrase "Telepathy" (derived from the Greek terms tele ("distant") and pathe ("occurrence" or "feeling")) in 1882.

Telepathy is a basic Para psychological phenomena concerning direct mind-to-mind communication, such as: thoughts, ideas, feelings, sensations and mental images. Telepathic descriptions are universally found in writings; in tribal societies such as the Aborigines of Australia telepathy is accepted as a human faculty, in more advanced societies it is thought a special ability belonging to mystics and psychics.

Remote Viewing or Clairvoyance

Remote viewing is a perceptual discipline used to gain information not available to the ordinary physical senses. This technique was utilized by the United States during the Cold War in classified military projects, such as "Operation Star Gate." (See: Declassified CIA Reports).

Psychic Spies have had a great deal of media attention over the years. An ebook now exists concerning the remote viewing project; concerning how Major Ed Dames, Major David Morehouse and Mel Riley became involved with remote viewing trainer, Ingo Swann.

Precognition

Precognition or premonition is a basic Para psychological phenomenon concerning the ability to obtain information about future events, where the information could not be inferred through normal means.

Precognition is a form of extra-sensory perception that allows its possessor to directly perceive future events before they happen, such as the case of The Aberfan disaster of 1966.

Psycho kinesis (PK)

The term Psycho kinesis (derived from the Greek words psyche meaning "breath," "life," or "soul," and kinein meaning "to move.") is a basic Para psychological phenomena concerning direct mental interaction with physical animate and / or inanimate objects. The occurrences of PK have been recorded since ancient times including such occurrences as; levitation, miraculous healings, (such as those associated with Lourdes) luminosities, apports, (or Materialized objects produced by mediums during Spiritualistic séances) and other physical phenomena attributed to holy persons around the world. (See: The Fatima Story: Miracle at Medjugorje, and Miracles Associated with Father Baker)

Biblical recordings, especially within the New Testament, offer spiritual proof regarding PK. (See: Book of Acts 16:19-40 and Ezekiel, chapter 1, verses 1 - 28: 1:).

Skeptics

I will admit to this point, this debate has been rather biased, offering only accounts toward the acceptance of parapsychology and its offspring. It is, however, necessary for one to evaluate the skeptics point of view as well.

Skeptics hold varying degrees of skepticism in regards to any and all forms of parapsychology. They find reasons to NOT believe anything from the existence of ESP to the power of prayer. Top billers such as the Amazing Randi push their skepticism forward. Here is just one avenue of skepticism; centering around the existence of miracles.

Concerning miraculous healings, skeptics believe there can be no true miracles in a natural system, all naturally occurring events can be explained by natural laws no matter how mysterious they may seem. Within the Biblical context, miracles occur only if God interferes with natural laws and causes the miracle to occur. In the broader religious context, a miracle is a supernatural event precipitated by a supernatural agent. By defining miracles in this way, a person is not required to believe in either God or miracles. All that is required is that one recognizes the interdependence between a miracle and the miracle worker.

Psychic Tests

Whether my last few paragraphs helped with an unbiased report or gave a true indication of my beliefs, I suppose will be up to the readers. There are far too many Unexplained Happenings for me to dismiss them as natural occurrences, but that does not mean I expect my readers to follow in my beliefs. First, read some more articles, take a few tests and then decide for yourself.

There are many aspects of parapsychology that one needs to understand. One way to understand a bit more is to go to the online PSI testing site (use any name as a user name) that not only explains a bit about the testing that has been performed, but also allows the user to become involved in online testing projects. The project tests areas such as: remote viewing, or an individuals ability to decipher the contents of a picture before they have seen the actual picture. It also delves into extra sensory perception (ESP) utilizing the classic ESP card test made famous in the 1930's by J.B. Rhine and J.G. Pratt; the Sequential Card Test, and the Location Test.

The Paranormal:

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