Psychics can perceive things beyond normal senses, including psychometry, clairvoyance, and precognition. Some use their abilities to help solve crimes, while others may be fraudulent. Psychic abilities have been associated with witchcraft and are studied by parapsychologists, but their existence remains controversial.
A psychic in the strict sense is a person who is able to perceive things that are not available through normal sensory perceptions. Such perception might include the ability to divine things about a person not present through the use of an object or article belonging to the person, called a psychometric. A psychic could also be clairvoyant, seeing things or sensing things that others can’t, like the boy does in the movie The Sixth Sense. Alternatively, a psychic might be able to see or predict events in the future, called precognition.
Not all psychics claim to have equal gifts. A person who advocates clairvoyance could function as a medium, linking the dead to relatives or helping them pass into the other world. This psychic ability is used in popular TV shows such as Medium and Ghost Whisperer
Often people associate psychic ability with precognition or the ability to predict the future. Stephen King’s novel The Dead Zone is an interesting development of this psychic ability, which he claims is caused by a brain injury received by the main character.
People who use psychometrics can sometimes be employed by police departments in an effort to gain access to knowledge about a crime that cannot be determined through physical evidence. Such is the case with the real-life inspiration for the television series Medium.
Not all people believe in psychic ability, and some believe that psychic ability is simply very good perception and the ability to read other people. There are certainly many people who claim to be psychics but lack the ability to prove their talents. However, they can be quite convincing and can run scams to steal people’s money in order to give them information.
It would be unfair to say that all those who claim psychic abilities are cheaters. In fact many of them believe very strongly in their abilities and have plenty of anecdotal evidence to show that they do indeed possess some form of psychic ability.
In some cultures, having abilities outside the norm, such as being psychic, is linked to the practice of witchcraft. Accusations of witchcraft leveled against those who appeared to be more insightful account for numerous executions of women from the Middle Ages onwards. Salem, Massachusetts, according to many modern day psychics, still bears the scars of many who suffered execution during the Salem with trials.
Other religions may find psychic abilities somewhat normal. Gnostics, for example, believe that humans are one of three types, hylics, psychics, and tyres. Even in biblical history one must look at prophets as having the power to perceive angels or to make predictions about the future.
Some Christians distinguish between visions given by God and those given by demons. A witch was a person who worshiped demons. Devil or demon worship is not associated with those of the Wiccan faith, often called witches today.
Parapsychologists are people who study psychic phenomena, and many are quite convinced that some people manifest psychic abilities. Many other people are undecided whether or not the psychic ability is actually present. Some argue that given the limited amount of brain power one actually uses, perhaps those with psychic abilities have pathways to areas of the brain that most people don’t. However, psychic abilities remain difficult to demonstrate.
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