Announcing a Crystal Ball Recall

The only thing wrong with using psychics for police work is that they don't work. In those instances where they have been involved in criminal investigations, their inspirations are typically limited to vague suggestions and/or ambiguous clues. Comments like "Listen for a barking dog" or "I see something broken near water" are useless at the time but can appear to have been meaningful after all the facts are known...especially when you combine several such statements. At that point, chance alone would dictate that you're almost certain to find something that might appear, in retrospect, to have been relevant. Then too, keep in mind that the public is apt to concentrate on hits while ignoring misses and that psychics are not above reworking their pronouncements as the case develops and that relevant bits of information can often be gleaned by simply reading newspaper accounts of the crime.

Just think about it. If an individual had the power to see the past why wouldn't they be spending their time finding lost treasures? And if they could really look into the future, it would mean an end to the concept of free will. It would mean that everything to come has already been decided. Why bother getting out of bed? Indeed, if psychics had even a fraction of the power they pretend to have, why aren't they fabulously successful instead of being relegated to tawdry Tarot shops in rundown strip malls...and why would they have to ask your name when you came through the door?

The Amazing Randy is a magician who (like the late Harry Houdini) makes a point of exposing other magicians who pretend to have extrasensory powers. Randy's foundation has a standing offer of $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate such special abilities to a panel of experts. Does it come as any great surprise to learn that the prize has never been claimed? Were I to make a prediction, I'd say Randy's never going to have to hand over his money. Another organization, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) takes the predictions that psychics make at the beginning of the year and prints them at the end of the year. Such an annual review of failed prophecy should be convincing to all but the most fantasy prone of personalities.

And yet the majority of Americans continue to believe...perhaps because logic and reason are not taught and critical thinking is little understood. In fact, a recent poll showed that only a very small minority of high school students didn't believe in psychic powers! What makes this so odd is that they live in a society more dependent on science than any other in the history of the world.