Claims of psychics

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 16

Claims of psychics

Sir,—l agree with Miss S. Stevens’ letter (September 9) regarding the Skeptics. They accept the so-called “scientific method” as a means to test claims. In the case of the psychics, this is like opening a Swiss watch with a sledgehammer. To observe the absurdity of this approach to the subtle areas of knowledge we merely need to reflect on the arid wasteland of the psychology of behaviourism. The Skeptics’ claims for the “scientific method” , over reach its track record, making their position rest on belief and faith. — Yours, etc., ANDREW BENNETT. September 10, 1986.

Sir, — Fake psychism apart, Miss Stevens (September 9) is right regarding genuine psychism which has and is being brazenly abused for money and prestige. In the United States, at Stanford and Duke Universities, intensive studies are being pursued parallel with the same in Moscow. A little-publicised race is on and in deadly earnest. Professor Nasiliev, a Lenin award winner and father of Soviet parapsychology, hasihis to say: “The discovery of

energies associated with psychic events wi)’. be as important, if not more important, than the discovery of atomic energy.” The astronaut, Armstrong, experimented between the Earth and Moon. Ostrander and Schroeder’s “Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain” are a revelation. Then Cayce and Hercus in America and Kulagma in the Soviet Union. But today’s mysticism is tomorrow’s science. Lincoln saw his own death. The Titanic disaster was foreseen. These phenomena, precognition, telepathy, healings, warnings come instantaneously and infrequently, as do flashes of intuition. — Yours, etc. - W. J. COLLINS. September. 9, 1986.