
All I know is that I know nothing.
-Socrates
One of the things I find myself interested in now a days is the prevalence of psychic phenomena. It's way more common than I realized. In fact, the more open I am in my attitude towards it, the more people tell me about personal experiences they won't tell anyone else for fear of being seen as crazy. It's surprisingly widespread. It's also referenced throughout history, cultures, and religions. This post will be an ongoing documentation project on psychic phenomena in literature/ media.
Now, everyone has the choice to accept or reject the claims brought about by the authors of these books, and others I assume that make similar claims. I choose to exemplify the quote by Socrates and realize just how little humanity knows and just how little I know.
I will categorize what I find based on supporting evidence.
Evidence-Based
The book Infinite Mind by Valerie Hunt goes over several studies of people doing what could be considered psychic phenomena, specifically entering altered states of consciousness which result in abnormal effects, although it's practical use is very low.
The podcast The Telepathy Tapes examines the claim that non-speaking autistic people have telepathic abilities. Their conclusion was that they do have telepathic abilities and the University of Virginia (UVA) will be conducting a study on it themselves. Their methods and techniques have been documented and are available for review here. Their abilities include:
Hearing people's thoughts (although it can be limited to specific people).
Communication without geographical limitations.
Education from some sort of divine beings.
On psychic abilities in animals, the book Diet for a New America said that animals have crossed hundreds to thousands of miles to be with their owners. How would the animals possibly know where their owners were? There are several documented claims of this variety.
Mixed Evidence
The book BioGeometry Signatures tested gifted children's ability to choose the correct shape for their medical issues. They chose correctly 80-100% of the time. There was no study listed for the claim. The author has won several accolades for his research so the claim may hold validity.
Anecdotal: No Evidence
Let's begin with the book Autobiography of a Yogi, a book about Paramahansa Yogananda, one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the past century. In his book he documents miracles done by holy men, yogi's and swami's, and claims that India has consistently produced beings of miraculous abilities through the science of Hindu philosophy. There is no evidence to substantiate his claims. He claims that he has seen (or others have):
Telepathy and soul projection on to a physical plane (visible and tangible).
A man who nearly got his arm chopped off by an axe that didn't feel pain and healed his nearly dismembered limb in three days with no scar.
Multiple people that never slept.
A man who could produce any scent from thin air.
Multiple men who could conjure food out of nothing.
A man who wrestled and beat tigers with his bare hands.
A saint who levitated.
Saints who told the future.
People who didn't eat for many years.
People who spoke any language fluently.
A man over 300 years old who also levitated on water, didn't need to breath, could read minds, drink poison, teleport, and walk through walls.
A man who raised the dead.
He also mentioned that St. Francis of Assisi was reported to have healed ailments and even raised the dead. No evidence to substantiate the claim.
Christianity has the prophets of the old testament as well as Jesus and his apostles who were all attributed to having psychic abilities of sorts. There is no evidence to substantiate the claims. These abilities included:
Healing.
Prophecy.
Gift of tongues.
Multiply food.
Transform substances into different states.
Control the elements.
Withstand fire.
Pacify wild animals.
Escape prisons.
The book, The Vision, speaks about a Native American man who is trained by his grandpa, the spiritual leader of their group. He talks about miraculous feats both enacted by his grandpa as well as achieved by himself. There is no evidence to substantiate the claim. The abilities included:
Mind reading.
Telling the future.
Becoming imperceptible to animals.
Being impervious to severe heat or cold.
Miraculous healings.
In the book There Is a River which is an account of Edgar Cayce, the sleeping prophet, says that he could go into a trance and prescribe treatments for illnesses. No evidence to substantiate the claims. His abilities included:
Prescribing effective homeopathic treatments.
An ability to tune into a person's physical ailment irrespective of geographic proximity.
Dolores Cannon was a hypnotherapist that claimed she had clients who could instantaneously heal from their ailments in deep states of hypnosis. She also said that any person could heal others in the same fashion. No evidence to substantiate the claims.
The book Arigo describes a man who performed psychic surgery on hundreds of thousands of people in Brazil, curing all manner of incurable diseases. There is no evidence to support this claim.
The book The Ra Material claims to channel a non-human entity named Ra. At least in book 1 there was no evidence to substantiate the claim.
The book Ross Peterson: The New Edgar Cayce says that Ross Peterson performed psychic healings similar to Edgar Cayce. No evidence to support the claim.
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