No ESP?

7th Jan 2008

Does ESP Exist?

In a recent news release (Neuroimaging Fails to Demonstrate ESP is Real) as reported by ScienceDaily.com, Psychologists at Harvard University used Neuroimaging to scan their subject’s brain to learn if extrasensory perception (ESP) stimuli had changed the subject’s brain patterns. Their summary was that it did not, and therefore there was no evidence of ESP.

Psychics & ESP

It has been reported for centuries that real psychics can use extrasensory perception to read people’s minds, or see events that are not visible, or know about events that will take place in the future. The US Government studied ESP with recruited psychics during the Cold War, but was unable to reproduce results or prove that ESP worked. Today psychics are commonly consulted by people who are looking for ESP readings to help them answer questions about events in the future. But there’s been no solid scientific prove, one way or the other, to say ESP is real, or not.

The Harvard ESP Study

The Harvard Study used brain scans to examine the subject’s brain when they received normal stimuli (for example, showing them a picture). They also conducted brain scans after exposing the subjects to extrasensory stimuli (for example, by showing the significant partner or other close person a stimuli while they were in another room, and recording the subject’s brain at that time).

The team’s theory was that a psychic with ESP should have different brain scans, showing a response to the stimuli received via ESP, just as if they had showed a response from stimuli they received normally. The team analyzed the results and found that there was no response demonstrated during the ESP stimuli events.

Does this then finally prove that ESP does not exist? According to the news story quote from the Harvard researcher it does not. However, the news story goes on to point out that this may be the best evidence yet that ESP does not exist.

Do Psychics Use ESP?

The study assumes that a psychic’s brain will respond in the same manner to ESP stimuli as is done for normal stimuli. But is that truly the case, or is there perhaps other stimuli and responses that enable a psychic to interact with energy that causes what we call ESP? Also, to what extent were the subjects actually able to have or use ESP? There is no test to validate that a person who claims to have ESP actually does. What if all the subjects who thought they had some form of ESP actually had none? Or, what if their ESP abilities is not under their control, and only occurs at certain times or places? This study would not be able to determine if ESP were possible if there were limits that the subject and researcher were unaware of.

Is ESP Real?

So what do you think? Is ESP real? According to this study it may not be. But what do you think?