Saturday, August 15, 2009

Parapsychology and Skepticism

Parapsychology is a controversial subject that has evoked much skepticism in the scientific community. This is how I view it.

I remember watching a Swedish television show where a family complained about feeling uncomfortable in their homes. They said that sometimes they heard noises, felt someone was watching them and more bizarre things. This lead them to seek an exorcist who claimed that there was a spiritual entity in the house and she would get very emotional when she walked into a room because the spirit was very angry bla bla (change the channel)... I thought it was plain ridiculous. By the way I also don't believe in ghost stories, religion, UFO's, conspiracies or anything like that.

However, I was recently having dinner with a friend and a man who I know through someone else because they do business together. I'm not going to say his name because:

1. I didn't ask for his permission
2. He wouldn't like that
3. I don't want people to think of him badly

We were having quite an interesting conversation, going from one topic to another, then I don't remember how but he started talking about his wife. Now let me get this straight; he is a very intelligent man and most definitely not a liar. After all, he is a businessman. Anyways, he told some very interesting stories.

It turns out that she has parapsychological powers. For example, when she met his sister, she told her that she immediately needed to start taking higher quality vitamins or she would die because she had practically no immune system. She didn't listen to her and shortly afterwards she died because she caught a cold and having no immune system, inevitably died. He says that she often sees people that she thinks will die and when she tries to tell them they just think she's some crazy woman.


On a separate occasion she told him that she could hear screaming and explosions. This was before September 11. She also said that he would be there once but when it would actually happen he would be far away. This turned out to be true. The best part is: she told him to change his flight ticket for London to New York. For him it meant missing very important meetings, but he did as he was told anyway. This turned out to be to his benefit because when the Twin Towers fell and commercial flights got canceled, he was one of the lucky few who got to fly on schedule.

Now I want to hear your opinions!
Does parapsychology really exist, have you had similar experiences, or am I hearing porky pies :D?