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A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information
hidden from the normal senses, or to manipulate objects mentally in a process known
as psychokinesis. The word "psychic" is also used as an adjective to describe such abilities.
Psychics may be theatrical performers, such as stage magicians, who use techniques such
as prestidigitation, cold reading, andhot reading to produce the appearance of such abilities.
Psychics appear regularly in fantasy fiction, such as in the novel The Dead Zoneby Stephen
King.
A large industry and network exists whereby psychics provide advice and counsel to
clients. Some famous psychics include Edgar Cayce, Ingo Swann, Peter Hurkos, Jose Ortiz El
Samaritano, Miss Cleo, John Edward, and Sylvia Browne. Psychic powers are asserted
by psychic detectives and in practices such as psychic archaeology and even psychic surgery.
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Contents
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1 History
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1.1 Etymology
1.2 Early seers and prophets
1.3 Nineteenth century progression
1.4 Late twentieth century
2 Popular culture
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History[edit]
Etymology[edit]
The word psychic is derived from the Greek word psychikos ("of the mind" or "mental") and refers
in part to the human mind or psyche (ex. "psychic turmoil"). The Greek word also means "soul".
In Greek mythology, the maiden Psyche was the deification of the human soul. The word
derivation of the Latin psch is from the Greek psch, literally, breath, derivative of pschein,
to breathe, blow, hence, live.
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French astronomer and spiritualist Camille Flammarion is credited as having first used the word
psychic, while it was later introduced to the English language by Edward William Cox in the
1870s.
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The Delphic Oracle is one of the earliest stories in classical antiquity of prophetic abilities.
The Pythia, the priestess presiding over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, was believed to be able to
deliver prophecies inspired by Apollo during rituals beginning in the 8th century BC. It is often
said that the Pythia delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapors rising from the
ground, and that she spoke gibberish, believed to be the voice of Apollo, which priests reshaped
into the enigmatic prophecies preserved in Greek literature. Other scholars believe records from
the time indicate that the Pythia spoke intelligibly, and gave prophecies in her own voice. The
Pythia was a position served by a succession of women probably selected from amongst a guild
of priestesses of the temple. The last recorded response was given in 393 AD, when the
emperor Theodosius Iordered pagan temples to cease operation. Recent geological
investigations raise the possibility that ethylene gas caused the Pythia's state of inspiration.
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One of the most enduring historical references to what some consider to be psychic ability is the
prophecies of Michel de Nostredame (1503 1566), often Latinized to Nostradamus, published
during the French Renaissance period. Nostradamus was a French apothecary and seer who
wrote collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide and have rarely been
out of print since his death. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of
which appeared in 1555. Taken together, his written works are known to have contained at least
6,338 quatrains or prophecies, as well as at least eleven annual calendars. Most of the
quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders,
droughts, and battles all undated.
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Nostradamus is a controversial figure. His many enthusiasts, as well as the popular press, credit
him with predicting many major world events. Interest in his work is still considerable, especially
in the media and in popular culture. By contrast, most academic scholars maintain that the
associations made between world events and Nostradamus' quatrains are largely the result of
misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render
them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power.
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In addition to the belief that some historical figures were endowed with a predisposition to
psychic experiences, some psychic abilities were thought to be available to everyone on
occasion. For example, the belief in prophetic dreams was common and persistent in many
ancient cultures.
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Edgar Cayce (18771945) was a psychic of the 20th century and made many highly publicized predictions.[citation needed]
In the mid-nineteenth century, Modern Spiritualism became prominent in the United States and
the United Kingdom. The movement's distinguishing feature was the belief that the spirits of the
dead could be contacted by mediums to lend insight to the living.
The movement was fueled
in part by anecdotes of psychic powers. One such person believed to have extraordinary abilities
was Daniel Dunglas Home, who gained fame during the Victorian period for his reported ability to
levitate to various heights and speak to the dead.
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As the Spiritualist movement grew other comparable groups arose, including the Theosophical
Society, which was co-founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky (18311891). Theosophy coupled
spiritualist elements with Eastern mysticism and was influential in the early 20th century, later
influencing the New Age movement during the 1970s. Blavatsky herself claimed numerous
psychic powers.
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Popular culture[edit]
Belief in psychic abilities[edit]
In a survey, reported in 1990, of members of the National Academy of Sciences, only 2% of
respondents thought that extrasensory perception had been scientifically demonstrated, with
another 2% thinking that the phenomena happened sometimes. Asked about research in the
field, 22% thought that it should be discouraged, 63% that it should be allowed but not
encouraged, and 10% that it should be encouraged; neuroscientists were the most hostile
to parapsychology of all the specialties.
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A survey of the beliefs of the general United States population about paranormal topics was
conducted by The Gallup Organization in 2005. The survey found that 41 percent of those
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Some people also believe that anyone can have psychic abilities which can be activated or
enhanced through the study and practice of various disciplines and techniques such as
meditation and divination, with a number of books and websites being dedicated to instruction in
these methods. Another popular belief is that psychic ability is hereditary, with a psychic parent
passing their abilities on to their children.
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Science fiction[edit]
Psychic abilities are common in science fiction, often under the term "psionic". They may be
depicted as innate and heritable, as in Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, A. E. van
Vogt's Slan, Anne McCaffrey's Talents universe series or setting, and the television
series Babylon 5. Another recurring trope is the conveyance of psychic power through
psychoactive drugs, as in the Dune novels and indirectly in the Scanners films, as well as the
ghosts in the Starcraft franchise. Somewhat differently, in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wind in the
Door and Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, psychic abilities may be achieved by
any human who learns the proper mental discipline, known as kythingin the former work. Popular
movies include The initiation of Sarah. Psychic characters are also common in superhero comic
books, for instance Jean Grey, Professor X and Emma Frost as well as many others from the
Marvel comics X-Men.
Participant of a Ganzfeld Experiment whose results have been criticized as being misinterpreted as evidence fortelepathy.
Critics such as Ray Hyman and the National Science Foundation suggest that parapsychology
has methodological flaws that can explain the experimental results that parapsychologists
attribute to paranormal explanations, and various critics have classed the field as pseudoscience.
This has largely been due to lack of replication of results by independent experimenters.
[32][33][34][35][36]
The evidence presented for psychic phenomena is not sufficiently verified for scientific
acceptance, and there exist many non-paranormal alternative explanations for claimed instances
of psychic events. Parapsychologists, who generally believe that there is some evidence for
psychic ability, disagree with critics who believe that no psychic ability exists and that many of
the instances of more popular psychic phenomena such as mediumism, can be attributed to nonparanormal techniques such as cold reading, hot reading, or even self-
delusion. Magicianssuch as James Randi, Ian Rowland and Derren Brown have demonstrated
techniques and results similar to those of popular psychics, but they present physical and
psychological explanations as opposed to paranormal ones.
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In January 2008 the results of a study using neuroimaging were published. To provide what are
purported to be the most favorable experimental conditions, the study included appropriate
emotional stimuli and had participants who are biologically or emotionally related, such as twins.
The experiment was designed to produce positive results
if telepathy,clairvoyance or precognition occurred, but despite this no distinguishable neuronal
responses were found between psychic stimuli and non-psychic stimuli, while variations in the
same stimuli showed anticipated effects on patterns of brain activation. The researchers
concluded that "These findings are the strongest evidence yet obtained against the existence of
paranormal mental phenomena." James Alcock had cautioned the researchers against the
wording of said statement.
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A detailed study of Sylvia Browne predictions about missing persons and murder cases has
found that despite her repeated claims to be more than 85% correct, "Browne has not even been
mostly correct in a single case." Concerning the television psychics, James Underdown states
that testing psychics in a studio setting is difficult as there are too many areas to control, the
psychic could be getting help from anyone on the set. The editor controls everything; they can
make a psychic look superior or ridiculous depending on direction from the producer. In an
Independent Investigation Group IIG expose of John Edward and James Van Praagh they
discovered that what was actually said on the tape day, and what was broadcast to the public
were "substantially different in the accuracy. They're getting rid of the wrong guesses... Once you
pull back the curtain and see how it's done, it's not impressive at all."
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See also[edit]
Look up psychic in
Wiktionary, the
free dictionary.
This is a list of alleged psychic abilities that have been attributed to real-world people. Many of
these abilities are also known as extrasensory perception or sixth sense.Superhuman abilities
from fiction are not included.
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References[edit]
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Jump up^ Fontana, David (2005). Is There an Afterlife?. New Alresford: O Books. pp. 352381. ISBN 1-903816-90-4.
^ Jump up to:a b "Glossary of Psi (Parapsychological) Terms (A-D)". Parapsych.org. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
Jump up^ Miller, Sukie (1998). After Death: How People Around the World Map the Journey After Life (1st Touchstone ed.). New York: Simon &
Schuster. ISBN 9780684838694.
Jump up^ Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce. Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc, 1999 ISBN 1-57174-143-7
Jump up^ Preston Peet (2007-12-19). "Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained: Una McGovern: 9780550102157: Amazon.com: Books". Amazon.com.
Retrieved 2013-11-09.
Jump up^ Gurney, Edmund (2011). Phantasms of the Living. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108027328.
Jump up^ Flower, Michael (2007). The seer in ancient Greece ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520252295.
Jump up^ Miller, Sukie (1998). After Death: How People Around the World Map the Journey After Life (1st Touchstone ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster.
pp. 167192. ISBN 9780684838694.
Jump up^ Edzard Ernst. "A primer of complementary and alternative medicine commonly used by cancer patients | Medical Journal of Australia".
Mja.com.au. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
Jump up^ Loewenthal, Kate (2009). Religion, Culture and Mental Health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 97107. ISBN 9780521107778.
Jump up^ Oldridge, Darren (2007). Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, the Walking Dead, and Other Matters of Fact from the Medieval and
Renaissance Worlds. London: Routledge. p. "Werewolves and Flying Witches". ISBN 9780415404921.
Jump up^ "medium - The Skeptic's Dictionary". Skepdic.com. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
Jump up^ Randi, James (1995). An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's
Press. ISBN 0-312-13066-X.
Jump up^ Spence, Lewis (2007). Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology (3rd ed.). [Whitefish, Mont.]: Kessinger Publishing. p. 750. ISBN 978-07661-2817-0.
Jump up^ Braude, Stephen E. (2002). ESP and Psychokinesis: A Philosophical Examination (Rev. ed.). Parkland, Fla.: Brown Walker Press.
p. 21. ISBN 1-58112-407-4.
Jump up^ Beloff, John (1997). Parapsychology: a Concise History (1st paperback ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-312-17376-0.
Jump up^ Genzmer, Herbert (2007). Mysteries of the World: Unexplained Wonders and Mysterious Phenomena (American ed.). Bath: Parragon.
p. 194. ISBN 1405490225.
Jump up^ Zusne, Leonard (1989). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum. p. 167. ISBN 0-8058-05087.
Jump up^ Wolman, Benjamin B. (1986). Handbook of Parapsychology (Repr. ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. pp. 921936. ISBN 9780899501864.
Jump up^ Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society: A postgraduate conference
Jump up^ Hamilton, Trevor (2009). Immortal Longings: FWH Myers and the Victorian Search for Life after Death. Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic.
p. 121. ISBN 978-1-84540-248-8.
[hide]
Parapsychology
Outline
Topics
Organizations
Parapsychologists
Apparitional experience
Astral projection
Auras
Bilocation
Clairvoyance
Deathbed phenomena
Dermo-optical perception
Dream telepathy
Extrasensory perception
Ganzfeld experiment
Ghosts
Kirlian photography
Mediumship
Near-death experience
Out-of-body experience
Past life regression
Plant perception (paranormal)
Poltergeist
Precognition
Psychic
Psychic abilities
Psychic detective
Psychic reading
Psychic surgery
Psychokinesis
Psychometry
Pyrokinesis
Reincarnation
Remote viewing
Retrocognition
Second sight
Sensory leakage
Spoon bending
Telepathy
Zener cards
William F. Barrett
Daryl Bem
Hans Bender
Stephen E. Braude
Whately Carington
Hereward Carrington
Tony Cornell
William Crookes
Eric Dingwall
Publications
Peter Fenwick
Camille Flammarion
Nandor Fodor
Bruce Greyson
Erlendur Haraldsson
John Hasted
Rosalind Heywood
Richard Hodgson
Hans Holzer
Charles Honorton
James Hyslop
Brian Inglis
Robert G. Jahn
William James
Raynor Johnson
Brian Josephson
Stanley Krippner
Thomas Lethbridge
Oliver Lodge
James McKenzie
Edgar Mitchell
Raymond Moody
Gardner Murphy
Frederic Myers
Karlis Osis
Sam Parnia
Michael Persinger
Guy Lyon Playfair
Frank Podmore
Joseph Gaither Pratt
Harry Price
Walter Franklin Prince
Andrija Puharich
Harold Puthoff
Dean Radin
J. B. Rhine
Charles Richet
D. Scott Rogo
William Roll
Helmut Schmidt
Gary Schwartz
Rupert Sheldrake
Henry Sidgwick
Samuel Soal
Ian Stevenson
Ingo Swann
Russell Targ
Charles Tart
Jessica Utts
Karl Zener
Extrasensory Perception
Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century
Journal of Consciousness Studies
Journal of Near-Death Studies
Journal of Parapsychology
Journal of Scientific Exploration
Life After Life: The Investigation of a PhenomenonSurvival of Bodily Death
Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives
Mental Radio
Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence For Past Lives
Skeptics
James Alcock
Robert Baker
Barry Beyerstein
Susan Blackmore
John Booth
Derren Brown
Mario Bunge
William Carpenter
Robert Todd Carroll
Sean Carroll
Milbourne Christopher
Edward Clodd
Brian Dunning
Bergen Evans
Antony Flew
Kendrick Frazier
Chris French
Martin Gardner
Thomas Gilovich
Henry Gordon
G. Stanley Hall
Trevor Hall
C. E. M. Hansel
Daniel Webster Hering
Terence Hines
Bruce Hood
Harry Houdini
Nicholas Humphrey
Ray Hyman
Joseph Jastrow
Paul Kurtz
Daniel Loxton
Charles Mackay
David Marks
Joseph McCabe
Albert Moll
Joe Nickell
Steven Novella
Robert Park
Henry Maudsley
Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Polidoro
George Price
Benjamin Radford
James Randi
Graham Reed
Joseph Rinn
Milton Rothman
Carl Sagan
Theodore Schick
Michael Shermer
John Sladek
Gordon Stein
Victor Stenger
John Taylor
Ivor Lloyd Tuckett
John Wheeler
Richard Wiseman