Exploring the Validity of Psychic Detectives: Insights from the Court TV Show

[Les Sleeth]

I am now watching another episode of "Psychic Detectives" that's featured on the "Court TV" channel. I will declare my original opinion now, which was that before this series, I was mostly skeptical. If you've watched shows they feature there, such as Forensic Files, Body of Evidence, The System, etc. then you know the approach to solving crimes is based on science and logic. In fact, that is why I like those shows.

When cases have stumped detectives every normal way, sometimes they rely on psychics to help them (in such a case, a detective might say "what have we to lose?").

Now, if this were most any other channel than the Court TV channel, I'd be thinking this is either an attempt to entertain a naive audience or an attempt to push psychic stuff. But the otherwise conservative programming of Court TV makes me take these shows more seriously.

If it is not some conspiracy at Court TV to make fools of us all, then it appears the psychic-assisted cases they profile are remarkable (some more than others). I know about the techniques used by fakes to get info from people in order to convince them a "psychic" is for real. But in that case, the person being surreptitiously debriefed is in possession of the info the fake is drawing out of him/her. In these Court TV cases, no one knows the answer. A radical skeptic will say the psychic just guessed right or noticed clues the detectives had missed; but statistically the guess theory is contradicted by the successes of some of the psychics, while noticing new clues doesn't appear what happens when I watch the show.

I'd appreciate any insights, whether to debunk or to support.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I don't know about this show, but over the years I have seen interviews with perhaps 20 detectives [non-psychic] who are convinced that psychics did assist with their investigations. Some of the cases are so baffling as to be unbelievable - undeniable. However I see no reason that the detectives would lie about official records that are public information. It is a matter of record.

 

[Les Sleeth]

I don't know about this show, but over the years I have seen interviews with perhaps 20 detectives [non-psychic] who are convinced that psychics did assist with their investigations. Some of the cases are so baffling as to be unbelievable - undeniable. However I see no reason that the detectives would lie about official records that are public information. It is a matter of record.

Yes, in a program a couple of weeks ago was woman who'd just started meditating. During her meditation, she kept having disturbing visions. I forget now what they exactly were, but one was she saw a number on a the hull of a boat, and that a man had died in the water. For some reason she was able to associate the event with a state (Florida, I think) which was hundreds of miles from her home. She did research in old newspapers and found an incident which seemed like what she'd been seeing.

After contacting the detective assigned to the case, the psychic went to a pier where she felt the man had died. The detective had already had divers search that site, and they had found nothing. But she said she "felt" it so strongly, it made them look again, and sure enough they discovered the man's car had gone off the pier and his body inside the car. Later they found out a ship had been docked there with the exact number on it the woman had seen! Pretty amazing stuff if you ask me.

 

[KingNothing]

I think common psychics are total fakes, and that some real ones exist.

 

[Les Sleeth]

I think common psychics are total fakes, and that some real ones exist.

That is my opinion too. I once had an experience which I don't know if it was psychic, or just intuitive. I was living in NYC at the time, and someone stole my stereo equipment. A couple of weeks later I was talking to an acquaintance next to his car, and as we talked this "picture" appeared in my mind that the rubber thingy which holds reels on tape machines (yes, this was before CD players) was in his trunk! In a friendly way, I asked if I could look in his trunk, and when he opened it up, there was that rubber thingy right where I'd envisioned it (BTW, I got my stereo system back).

Now, since I tend to prefer rational explanations, I figured I must have noticed clues in the guy's behavior which subconsciously I added up to create that picture in my mind. But hearing about the woman on Court TV who, without any such information from which to draw her "vision," I wonder what allowed/caused that to happen.

If we assume that psychic ability is possible, what is the means of transference of information between events/people to others?

 

[KingNothing]

I think the mind is something yet to be explored...you see, we have electrical impulses in our brain that they say carry the information...but really, we have no idea what composees thoughts. We watched a video today in psychology on perception, which is thus reliable, and they clearly said that there is no explanation in the way our neurons recognize different lines and such.

I think its an area that will eventually be explained on a local level, and i predict it owuld take a very long time after that to make it general.

Nice to know I am not alone in my belief.