Psychokinesis
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==Imagined success== | ==Imagined success== | ||
| − | Wouldn't it be simply wonderful if you could change the physical world and achieve whatever you want in life just by the power of your thought and your will? There are [[shyster|people]] and organisations out there who promise to teach you how to do psychokinesis. You just become their acolyte and pay the [[woo|woomeisters]] money or [[sex|whatever else]] they want in exchange. | + | Wouldn't it be simply wonderful if you could change the physical world and achieve whatever you want in life just by the power of your thought and your will? You can move your body by the power of your mind alone. Why not try to move outside objects the same way? There are [[shyster|people]] and organisations out there who promise to teach you how to do psychokinesis. You just become their acolyte and pay the [[woo|woomeisters]] money or [[sex|whatever else]] they want in exchange. |
==Blaming the victim== | ==Blaming the victim== | ||
Revision as of 05:52, 5 September 2014
| Can such things be? |
| The Twilight Zone |
“”Scientists have been investigating PK since the mid-19th century but with little success at demonstrating that anyone can move even a feather without trickery involving something as simple and obvious as blowing on objects to move them.
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| — The Skeptic's Dictionary[1] |
Psychokinesis, or PK, is the ability to cause objects to move without any contact (physical, electronic or electromagnetic), using "the power of the mind". It is also sometimes referred to as telekinesis, or TK. Like telepathy, PK has been investigated for many years by various organisations, with no results.
Contents |
Imagined success
Wouldn't it be simply wonderful if you could change the physical world and achieve whatever you want in life just by the power of your thought and your will? You can move your body by the power of your mind alone. Why not try to move outside objects the same way? There are people and organisations out there who promise to teach you how to do psychokinesis. You just become their acolyte and pay the woomeisters money or whatever else they want in exchange.
Blaming the victim
New Thought and related Law of attraction both try to use the power of the mind to influence events, and people who cannot put right whatever is wrong in their lives are blamed for incorrect thinking.
Publication bias
Parapsychologists have written that psychokinesis has been proven in experiments with subjects influencing the output of a random number generator. In an investigation of 380 studies a group of scientists (Bösch et al, 2006) have written an meta-analysis on the subject. In their paper they wrote "statistical significance of the overall database provides no directive as to whether the phenomenon is genuine or not" and came to the conclusion that "publication bias appears to be the easiest and most encompassing explanation for the primary findings of the meta-analysis."[2] So contrary to what you might read in a parapsychology book, psychokinesis has not been scientifically proven.
Quantum mechanics or vague
Sometimes purveyors of telekinesis woo claim quantum mechanics proves that consciousness affects reality, though there is no proof. Their idea is based on one rather controversial version of the Copenhagen interpretation and there are many competing interpretations of quantum mechanics.
Other times proponents just rely on God does it, Magic does it, the paranormal does it etc.
As the stuff of horror movies
Most people probably know what psychokinesis is either from stage magician and woo-meister Uri Geller, or from Hollywood. In particular, horror films like Carrie (based on a Stephen King book) and Scanners love this trope; after all, what defense do you have from someone who can pop your skull with his or her mind?[3] Films like these inadvertently provide some of the best evidence there is on why psychokinesis doesn't exist — if it did, somebody, be it a defense contractor or an angry teenage girl, would have figured out how to use it to kill people.
See also
External links
- The case of the disappearing teaspoons
- TELEKINESIS Psychokinesis investigated
- Telekinesis: Facts About Mind Over Matter
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.skepdic.com/kinesis.html
- ↑ Examining Psychokinesis: The Interaction of Human Intention with Random Number Generators. A Meta-Analysis
- ↑ Come on. You knew we were gonna link to this scene the moment we mentioned Scanners.