DO YOU WANT TO DEVELOP PARANORMAL POWERS ?

HOW TO DEVELOP ESP !

About three years ago I received an email from a guy called Santosh. His sister Mary ,less than 30, was a dear friend of mine.The email from Santosh was along the following lines:

HOW TO DEVELOP ESP !

‘Dear Ravi, I know you loved my sis Mary and she too adored you .I remember her telling me how you were a great source of inspiration and strength during the many years of turmoil she underwent. I am afraid I have very bad news for you. Your dear friend Mary IS NO MORE.

She was run over by a BEST bus in Andheri east last week.

I wanted to convey this to you immediately but did not know your Washington DC telephone number .I was aware that you were in email touch with Mary . I decided to crack open her password .What I did was to look at a large photo of Mary. I asked her silently:Mary I know your soul will not rest in peace till your dear friend Ravi gets to know that you are no more. Please tell me the password to your email id. I shall send an email to Ravi’

Santosh added that a voice seemed to be telling him to type a word which he did and lo and behold that turned out to be the password to Mary’s ID.

That’s how I got to know about the tragic death of my friend.

I discussed this apparent miracle-of the discovery of the password—with a few friends. Was this a miracle, a message from the dead or a word from God ?Is this what is called ESP?

I think I have arrived at a more mundane answer quite accidently.

I requested a niece of mine to let me use her computer. I switched it on to discover that I had to type a password to access it. I just typed the name of the dear departed puppy of my niece and presto the computer opened !! Was this also a miracle, a work of God or of ESP?

My explanation might disappoint many of you but the simple explanation is this- one can guess the password of people whom you know very well. Just jot down words that that person uses often or represent something dear to that person—a kid’s name ,a pet’s name, a deity’s name etc. There is a probability—but not a certainty –that one of those names may be the password

But one nagging question remains –am I certain that my trick works? No.I am talking of probabilities.All Godmen, astrologers, faith healers. ESP specialists, mind readers etc work on this principle.

As a test case recall the predictions of your favourite astrologer or godman . List out all his or her predictions for you made in the last ten years. Then tick those that DID not turn out to be true if you miraculously remember them. .You will find that the strike rate will be no different from what you will see in my ‘ trick’. That in fact is the trick that many godmen ,soothsayers, ESP guys , paranormal people play—make several vague predictions and the laws of probability will take care of the rest. .

In the US one frequently reads about the FBI cracking very difficult crimes after consulting paranormal ‘experts’. The consequence of the wide publicity given to such cases is that many Americans have begun believing in ESP and other paranormal experiences .Taking a cue from this many people in other countries including India may well assume that what is good for the US might be good for us. But there is one minor point. Sceptics have researched into the FBI cases and found something mundane. It is the FBI that sought publicity by using and attributing their success in tracking the culprit to consulting ESP experts These ‘experts’ made no real contribution .They made vague suggestions ,so vague that they led the FBI nowhere.

In other words if you ever chose soothsaying as a career please remember to couch your predictions in such vague terms that one can fit reality to your words no matter what happens in the future .There is a word for this phenomenon-RETROFITTING!

Does science and skepticism take the fun and mystery out of life .Far from it.

SCIENCE UNFOLDS MYSTERIES FAR MORE THRILLING THAN WHAT THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS CAN CHURN OUT .

K.R.RAVI

WWW.KRRAVI.COM