-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
The Sheriff’s department of Liberty County Texas, about 70 miles northeast of Houston, received a tip about multiple bodies buried at a farmhouse near Hardin, Texas. The tip came from a psychic who goes by the nom-de-psyche of Angel. She also claims to be a prophetess and that her information came from Jesus and 32 angels.
Liberty County Sheriff’s Capt. Rex Evans said “[w]e have to take tips like this very seriously.” No you don’t. It’s bunk. It’s always been bunk and it will always be bunk. Only an idiot would take this kind of tip seriously.
Liberty County Sheriff’s deputies, the FBI, and the Texas Rangers converged on the farmhouse and found … wait for it … nothing. The public found out that these people are idiots for wasting taxpayer funds on nonsense. It is disgraceful that in a time of scientific enlightenment this kind of episode can still take place.
Angel will not be charged because she did not act with malice or criminal intent. Stupid is also not a crime in Texas.
Below is the Nova episode Secrets of the Psychics with James Randi.
I have been reading with a few psychics in my lifetime. I know of one absolutely genuine one. He reads palms and does astrology. He predicted the death of both my in-laws, the exact date. It came true. He predicted the buying and selling of our house, and it happened. He is the family astrologist and he even predicted that one of my cousins (who is in med school) will lose an academic year. She did due to unforeseen circumstances. A lot of other predictions has come true as well. These incidents lead me to believe in psychic predictions.
Lottakatz you realize its the person who makes the outrages who needs to back it up with proof right? You have no proof of any paranormal experience of any kind therefore anyone who uses logic would not except your claim. I can claim your claim is false based off the fact that their is no real proof for any type of afterlife. There is also no formula for determining who becomes a ghost in the afterlife if it does exist.
Proof!
Let me hear your body talk.
Les, Damn me, I got off on a tangent.
“Believing in psychics and ghosts can be exciting and fun and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I also know, for an objective, demonstrable fact, that there is no evidence to support their existence,”
I know for a fact that there are ghosts, or forces, that inhabit our space and can interact with material objects. They are not fun. Exciting? Yes. But not fun. I don’t know you can claim that you can demonstrate that my contention is not true. That you weren’t there to experience it does not make it untrue. Unless you are present when something paranormal is happening how can you prove it did not happen or wasn’t caused by paranormal agent?
Les,
Studies and the information that they are made up of are not always written in a way that reflects accurately the facts. I have read more than one article detailing the problems that researchers that rejected, based on their own research, the “Clovis first” model for the populating of the New World faced. Those problems included the literal destruction of the careers of scientists seeking to re-examine the established science and reigning theory of the date of the migration into the New World.
One of the articles I read, probably in Discover Magazine, by one of the pioneers of the new theory, and that suffered from the backlash against that theory, stated that what has happened is that researchers finding evidence of a pre-Clovis migration now write their papers alluding to such evidence using code. One of the ways to explain the wealth of artifacts found in rock strata below the Clovis strata is to imply that the strata that may have been subject to natural disruption or ‘folding’ and that they actually post-date, instead of pre-date the Clovis threshold.
This researcher, who had been relatively re-rehabilitated over the length of his career, said that the proof is available, it’s been found but due to the politics and economics of big, institutionalized science, is not apparent unless you know what to look for; the footnote detailing additional artifacts at the site, the sly construct of language casting doubt on the certainty of the strata, etc.
The possibility of pre-Clovis migration has always been out there and acknowledged but actual study of the matter has been discouraged. Too many reputations and grant money at stake. In the last several years more and more scientists are challenging the “Clovis first” theory but the information calling the theory into question and the artifacts that would prove it have been suppressed, often self-suppressed, for decades.
There are good reasons for a similar mechanism to be at work regarding physic phenomena. When you start talking about life on other planets and physic phenomena you’re meddling with religion, science and whatever interest the government might have therein. Am I proposing a gigantic conspiracy. No, not really. I haven’t followed the studies or lack thereof regarding physic phenomena so I don’t have any opinion on their methodology or underlaying data. I do though think that sometimes studies and data can be as revealing in how they say something is false or true as saying that something is false or true.
Link to a paper proposing a pre-Clovis population in the New World containing links to a 2004 update by the author and another similar paper:
http://www.ele.net/art_folsom/preclvis.htm
Patric, I don’t doubt that there have been things involving claims of psychic phenomena that have been described by some as “spooky.” But this isn’t how we determine whether or not something exists in objective reality.
There has been over 100 years of research in psychic phenomenon, and like I said earlier, there is as much evidence to support its existence as there is to support the existence of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. This certainly isn’t meant to imply that you, or anyone else, is wrong to believe in such phenomena. Personally, I love the idea of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Believing in psychics and ghosts can be exciting and fun and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I also know, for an objective, demonstrable fact, that there is no evidence to support their existence, so I believe that police departments are wrong to spend any money or manpower on psychics who claim to know where missing people are (unless, as noted above, a tip of “multiple murders” has been made and a policy of prosecuting those who give false tips is implemented).
To clarify your comparison, you wrote, “I suspect the world of forensic psychics is chock full of wackos. I can guarantee the world of medicine is chock full of lab coat lunacy. That isn’t to say there aren’t terrific examples of excellence in both.”
My response was to point out that there are no examples of “excellence” in forensic psychic phenomena, while there are countless examples of excellence in medicine. I certainly never implied that there weren’t evil, fraudulent individuals practicing medicine, since we all know there are.
Les –
It is true that few cop shops will readily admit to “using” psychics, and even fewer are willing to speak on any “successes.” I suspect the last thing they want to encourage is more phone call “leads” from the myriad of fruitcakes that would follow.
That isn’t the same thing as saying that individual investigators haven’t seen some pretty spooky results. That’s a fact.
The reality is, there have been enough eerie successes to make a normal person wonder what the heck. An acquaintance of mine is a retired Secret Service field agent who has some truly remarkable things to say on the subject. One of the people he thoroughly investigated was a woman who had been calling the White House for months, trying to warn somebody of Reagan’s near assassination.
Here’s what a few other cop-types have to say:
http://www.lawofficer.com/article/magazine-feature/psychic-detectives#comments
And for the record, I didn’t compare evidence-based medicine with the wide-eyed world of mediums and their ilk.
I compared nuts with nuts:
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=696
Mike, no heavy lifting here, either!
Oh, I know that there are bad doctors, nurses, etc. out there, but my point was that it’s silly to compare a system (evidence based medicine) which has saved millions of lives to another (psychic phenomena) which has not been demonstrated to even exist.
There is as much scientific evidence to suggest that ESP exists as there is to suggest that Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster exist.
That’s all I’ve got for today. Have a great Father’s Day!