Introduction
Animal psychics: are they all good guys?
If someone claims to be able to communicate with animals psychically, does this mean that they are good people, because they must obviously be passionate about animals and, therefore, of their welfare? Isn't being activist about animal rights and welfare part of the job of a self professed animal psychic? It must be remembered that the image of an animal psychic is the image they want the general public to acknowledge. For all their followers might know, the animal psychic may be a fraud. Yet, if the animal psychic were to be a fraud, they wouldn't want people to realise it because it would harm their business. In order for sceptics to outright publically dismiss an animal psychic, for instance, as a fraud, they would need to present evidence of that conviction. Evidence, that is, in support of their argument.
Whilst a person may publicly show themselves to be an animal psychic and behave as such, it does not tell the audience whether, underneath all of their public personality, what they are saying is true. Nor does it tell the audience whether they are really a kind, loving, compassionate person who feels the same way in public towards animals as they feel and behave in their private life. The animal psychic may be liar, a fraud, the worst person ever, but not show a hint of this in public. Just because an 'animal psychic' would have the general public believe that they are compassionate towards animals doesn't mean that that is true. It doesn't mean that in their private life they love animals. Indeed, the animal psychic may just have more than one hat they like to wear. In public, they wear one particular hat (showing a particular personality in public) and in private life, they ditch the public hat for the one they wear in private (showing the personality they really have, but in private). Then again, whilst the animal psychic may be a horrid person behind the curtain, they may also be even better or nice people in their private life.
Clearly, the animal psychic expresses a rather appealing character and personality whilst in public. This helps them to have a major following of fans. If the person they stalk or worship appears to be really nice, really nice to themselves when they meet him or her, they are not, by any means, discouraged to follow that person. The person's character is appealing to the audience. By this, it is meant that the public figure shows themselves as: - an extravert:
- highly sociable
- Very friendly
- Interacts with people
- Outgoing, lively.
- Modest
- Nurturing perhaps
- Having a positive, uplifting way of talking
- An optimist
Imagine if the person was, in real life, the complete opposite. The fans would never know - unless it got out into the press in a really embarrassing story (it may put off some fans, whilst more dedicated fans may just conjure up an explanation which suits them) - because the person never shows that side to them, because they do not wear that hat in public. Certainly, in public, there are some animal psychics who claim to donate a portion of their earnings to an animal charity or more. Yet, do they do this out of the kindness of their heart or do they do it because it will aid their public image? Again, it may be another act of appeal for their fans. Their fans are bound to be animal lovers - animal lovers who may be 'open' to the possibility of psychic communication with animals, certainly not sceptics - and so if they love animals and they are fans of the animal lover, if they are lead to believe that their idol also loves animals, it strengthens their idol worship and gives them the feeling that they have something in common with the animal psychic: a love of animals. Although donations to animal charities do add up, if the animal psychic is gaining a fortune from their work as animal psychic (think books, workshops, public talks), the money they 'lose' by giving it to animal charities is pennies in comparison, so it is an affordable loss. In fact, if it encourages their fans to keep following them and to buy their books, workshop courses and go to their public talks, it is worthwhile and not a loss at all.
Animal psychics
Psychic abilities include clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentinence, claircognience, telepathy and psychokinesis. (Under construction, but hope to have separate entries for each of the above terms, so stay tuned.)
Animal psychics commonly seem to use clairvoyance, which is the 'ability to acquire information through mental imagery and not through the physical eyes', as well as clairaudience, which is really just the acquiring of information through sounds heard, but again not through the physical ears. Animal psychics also use psychometry, which is supposedly the attainment of information through the 'reading of the energy of an object'.
As it is, humankind does not listen to animals. He is not 'at one with nature' as he used to be, many centuries ago. In the modern age, we take advantage of animals and what they have to offer, exploiting them in pursuit of money. Man has too much to answer for for the suffering of animals: from the sickening conditions and treatment of dogs at dog pounds, to the harsh milking methods of female cows on farms. We are responsible for the world's problems - or most of them - and yet, we are supposedly the most intelligent species on Earth. But do animals think that we can communicate with them psychically? Even if they tried to, would we listen to what they have to say? If it was possible to communicate with them on such a level, would they know how to do so? Would we? And what is the difference between a communication with archetypes belonging to one's own subconscious as well as imagination, or psychic communication with an animal? How would you really know that you were psychically communicating with the animal? Voices? In your head? Mental imagery? 'Knowing?'
Even if someone believed that they were an animal psychic, how would they prove their ability to the rest of us? Below are some interesting examples, along with their sceptical explanations.
Seriously Psychic?
-
In her book, Pet Whisperer, whilst trying to explain an experience in which she communicated on a mental level with a red admiral butterfly, Sarah-Jane Le Blanc explains (p.2), “I … emptied my mind. I relaxed my body and made sure I was as grounded as possible. I tried not to think about the fact that I was going to try and communicate with a butterfly. …I sent my thoughts to the … creature pounding its body against the glass [window]. I asked it to come to me. I said that I would take it to safety. I explained that I was going to stretch out my arm, hold out my hand and wait for it to fly across and settle on me. Then … I would walk along the hallway to another room where I could open a window fully and let it fly out into the garden…” After doing exactly as she said, Sarah-Jane waited. At first, nothing happened and she was disappointed. However, sometime after the wait, the butterfly “…had gone completely still… Seconds later, the butterfly stretched out its wings. Calmly, peacefully … it flew over to me and … settled on my still-outstretched hand. Keeping my hand flat, I did exactly as I had promised and walked along the hallway towards a bedroom where a large … window opened out on to the garden below…” The butterfly, Sarah-Jane explains, at first didn’t move when she got there. She continues that it was then that she “…realized that it [the butterfly] was waiting for something. ‘Go,’ I whispered. It [then] opened its wings fully and took flight…”
-
One example, from http://www.csicop.org/si/show/psychic_pets_and_pet_psychics/, states that “…Oklahoma "equine parapsychologist" Karen Hamel-Noble claims to heal horses. She uses her hands to detect "the source of weakness in their energy fields"—i.e., their imagined auras—then supplies compensating "energy" from herself (Cooper and Noble 1996). However, since auras remain scientifically unproved and tests of psychics’ abilities to see them have repeatedly failed (Nickell 2000), Hamel-Noble’s claims require proof, not just her feelings and assertions. Perhaps the animals’ perceived illnesses are merely responding to their natural healing mechanisms and the medical treatments Hamel-Noble provides them—including penicillin injections (Cooper and Noble 1996).”
Scary ScepticismOn her website, www.soul2soultherapy.com, Sarah Jane Le Blanc, an animal psychic who runs workshops for people to develop their abilities as animal psychics, explains that “…animal communication requires no more than just clearing your mind of all the usual clutter (i.e. shopping, children, work etc.) and allowing space for energy and love to flow…”. She explains that by consciously making a decision “…to reduce the stress in your life and increase your relaxation…” you will more quickly “…be able to get into the deep state of relaxation that it requires to communicate with animals…” . In this sense, then, animal psychics are not too different to psychics, because the preparation involved beforehand is exactly the same – animal psychics, like psychics, get themselves into a meditative, relaxed state with an empty mind, so that they enter ‘the Zone’ in order to start their psychic work. It might be said that by getting into this state, it bypasses the animal psychic’s left brain hemisphere, which is where the conscious part of the mind is based, and by entering such a meditative state, it means that the animal psychic is “tuned in” to their right brain hemisphere, the seat of the unconscious part of the mind, creativity and imagination. The latter is linked, at least to some extent, with psychic abilities, and is what is involved in the work of animal psychics.But what about the alternative explanations? There is a plethora of possibilities that can explain 'psychic communication', without even touching the idea that the claims made by animal psychics are correct and justified.- One example involving the star of Animal Planet’s The Pet Psychic, Sonya Fitzpatrick, referenced from http://www.csicop.org/si/show/psychic_pets_and_pet_psychics/, is “…Fitzpatrick (2002) visits an animal clinic with a couple and their infant daughter to tell them which dog is right for their family. After the selection is narrowed to three choices, each is brought out in turn. The first is ambivalent; the second ignores everyone; and the third, Patty, greets the couple and nuzzles the child. Sonya writes her choice on a slip of paper and it proves to be the same the couple made: Patty. The audience applauds: Patty was apparently their choice too!” This is an example of a technique animal psychics may employ consciously or unconsciously: noting the obvious.
-
Another example from the same website is the following: “…Fitzpatrick (2002) tells the owner of a pet iguana that the creature had experienced "a move." Now most people can associate a "move" with their pet: either when they acquired it, when they changed residences, or when they left it with someone to go on vacation, etc. Thus the pet psychic was credited with a hit (never mind that she incorrectly referred to the female iguana as [a] "he")…” This is an example of the Barnum Effect, in which the pet owners attribute a vague, general, non-specific statement to be uniquely attributable to themselves or their pet, but it is also an instance of a high-probability statement: after all, whose pet hasn’t experienced some sort of “move”? Furthermore, this is a case of cold reading, and vagueness, because the information is non-specific since it does not specify any details about the “move”, such as what sort of move the animal had experienced.
So you say... but what are they?Below is a list of about 41 explanations I've come up with to explain psychic animal communication. Most of them are sceptical, but there are paranormal ones listed, too. By no means is the list complete. However, it should give you a good idea how many possible explanations there are that exist.
- Telepathy – the psychic knows what the animal is thinking or doing, and so is able to relay the information that comes to her through this ability
- Empathy – the psychic may be aware of what the animal is feeling, and may respond emotionally when trying to connect with an animal. What information she gets will be of an emotional nature.
- · Clairaudience – the psychic may hear a voice in her head which she believes is the animal’s ‘voice’ speaking to her, which is the source of the information she gets. Equally, the psychic may hear the sound of key words during the animal communications, or she may hear the voice of the animal’s owner, or even a sentence or conversation. Through this, the psychic may acquire information about the animal or its circumstances.
- · Clairvoyance – the psychic may get a mental image of the animal during communication, or an image of its owner, background, family, surroundings or home. The psychic may receive a clear visual picture of the animal’s personal tastes (favourite walks, for example). The psychic will then try and describe what she sees.
- · Clairsentience –the psychic may get psychic feelings about the animal; she may get feelings with regard to information about the animal (for example, she may sense that the animal is suffering from tummy pains, or she may physically feel them in her body, despite the fact that she herself does not generally suffer from them). The psychic may actually feel the sensations that the animal may be experiencing.
- · Exchange of energy – it may be possible to communicate psychically with animals, despite the fact that they speak a different language to us, because in psychic communication with them, an exchange of energy occurs between the animal psychic and animal. On both sides of the psychic communication, the animal and psychic send each other, energetically, information with their minds, in their own language. Images, sounds, feelings and, for humans, written words, will be sent to the other creature. The mind of the animal will decipher the information that it received into its own language, so that it understands what the animal psychic sent, and the mind of the animal psychic will decipher the information according to their own language. This is one reason as to why animal psychics can still apparently communicate with animals, but each speak a different native language to each other. Essentially, this concept is about there being one universal language – the language of energy, which animals and humans, as well as plants, trees, and possibly inanimate objects, share.
- · The animal’s subconscious – perhaps the animal psychic is in communication with the animal’s mind. However, the animal is not aware of it, because it is the subconscious part of their mind that is in communication with the animal psychic, not its conscious mind. This would mean that the animal has no way of knowing that it had communicated with an animal psychic. This explanation is faulty, because it is usually the case in communications that the animal relays to the animal psychic what problems it has, and its situation, which should only be possible through the conscious mind. If it was the animal conscious mind, it would mean that the animal is aware of what problems it has, and also the problems of its owner. There is no way of knowing whether the animal is necessarily aware of such things. In some cases, the animal tells the psychic exactly what is wrong with it. This would mean that the animal’s mind is very much like our own. Can we be certain that an animal is as intelligent as to know why it is experiencing specific health problems? Or that their owner has the wrong partner?
- · Animal spirit guides – maybe the information about the animals that the animal psychic receives is not from the animals themselves, but is actually from animal spirit guides. Alternatively, the information could be from spiritual guides, or even deceased persons or pets.
- · Psychometry – a common practice done by animal psychics is photograph psychometry, which is where the psychic does psychometry not on an object, but on a photograph of someone. Animal psychics may use psychometry on photographs of their clients’ pets as an easy, quick and cost-effective means of giving psychic readings despite the distance. In this instance, an explanation would be that the animal psychic is ‘reading’ the energy of the animal that is in the photograph.
- · Psychic communication with the animal – perhaps the animal psychic is, in actual fact, communicating with the animal on a psychic or mental level, with their mind. If this was the case, it would raise a number of questions. Firstly, it would suggest that the animal psychic is connecting on some spiritual level, with the animal’s mind. This idea would be impossible to test. Secondly, if this were to be so, another question should be asked: why is it that animal psychics seem to use the technique of cold reading, amongst other techniques, whether they are aware of it or not? Perhaps that is just how the mind works. Thirdly, would there be any difference between the animal’s mind, and the psychic’s mind? If there is no difference, then it would be impossible to prove, on one hand, that the animal psychic is communicating with the animal’s mind; whilst, on the other hand, it is impossible to prove that the animal psychic is not communicating with the animal’s mind – instead, the animal psychic is communicating with another part of their own mind.
- · Meditation and deep trance states – is it possible that psychic communication happens between the animal and animal psychic, through going first into a meditative state, or a deep trance state – and that psychic communication is only achievable through going into such a state? This would mean that the animal psychic’s conscious mind – or the left-hemisphere of the brain – cannot so easily interfere with the communication with the animal. It would also mean that perhaps animal communication has something to do with the right-hemisphere of the brain. Furthermore, the animal communication may have something to do with alpha brainwaves, which are associated with meditation; or theta brainwaves, which are linked with deep states of meditation, depending on how deep a state the animal psychic is in during her animal psychic communication. Would this mean that those who are sceptics, cynics, and people whose left brain hemispheres are the more dominant, cannot engage in psychic communication with animals?
- · Remote viewing – perhaps the animal psychic is visualising the animal in their mind, through knowing what the animal looks like from the photograph of them. All visual information got is achieved through distantly “seeing” the animal
- · Astral projection – is the animal aware, before the session, that the animal psychic will attempt to communicate psychically with it? Would the animal then project an image of itself into the animal psychic’s mind?
- · Collective unconscious or collective consciousness – maybe we are all parts of the same collective unconscious or collective consciousness. Perhaps through communicating with animals on a psychic level, we are actually communicating with another aspect of ourselves, which is part of the same thing as we are – the collective unconscious or collective consciousness. Essentially, this collective consciousness idea could be taken as suggesting that ‘God’ exists.
- · Expansion of the aura – an explanation for how communication psychically with animals might work, is that maybe it requires the animal psychic and/or the animal to expand their consciousness to the other person, through expanding their aura. This is a concept that would be very difficult or impossible, for a parapsychologist to test, but lends itself to the “collective connectivity” theory discussed below.
- · Quantum hologram – according to http://www.skepdic.com/quantumhologram.html , a quantum hologram “…Is a theoretical (i.e., imaginary) information-containing entity emitted by all physical objects (above the molecular level) and which contains the entire history of the object.” This sounds similar to the concept of the Akashic Records; it may even be based on the same thing. These are accessed supposedly through psychic means, in order to acquire information about anything or anyone at any time – past, present or future. Maybe it is the Akashic Records that are accessed during psychic communication with animals, not the animal’s mind itself. Unfortunately, this idea cannot be tested; primarily because the Akashic Records, whatever they may be, have not been found scientifically.
- · Actual paranormal ability – do animal psychics possess actual psychic or “paranormal” ability, which most people have rejected (as a result of it being taught out of them from late childhood)?
- · Collective connectivity (Cell-to-cell communication) – perhaps “psychic communication” is possible, through communication between cells, regardless of distance or time? According to an article published in the July 2014 issue of the Nexus magazine, vol.21, no.5, page 40 – ‘Psychic Cells Communicate Across A Physical Border’- an experiment was conducted by Victor Chaban and colleagues at California University, Los Angeles, in which evidence was found of “psychic communication” between physically-separated cell samples. Cell samples were in the same petri dish, but were physically separated and were shielded from extraneous variables which may have otherwise ruined the study’s results. The cells in the inner compartment responded to the Adenosine triphosphate which had been given to the cells in the outer department. There was a large spike of calcium ions on the cells in the inner compartment, detected on fluorescent imaging, which had resulted from exposing the cells in the outer department to the fluorescent dye. Thus “…the cells in the outer department were able to communicate with the physically separated cells in the central [inner compartment] department and not via a diffusible chemical in the cell medium.” Therefore, the authors had “demonstrated a substantial “psychic” communication between the cells…”, although they prefer to use the term “collective connectivity” to explain their results. However, Dr Mae-Wan Ho, author of The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms, points out that “…the results [of the study] do not rule out airborne communication via gases or other volatile signalling molecules.” Furthermore, in the Nexus article, Dr Mae-Wan Ho adds that “An obvious mechanism that the authors have not considered is communication between molecules and cells via electromagnetic signals…”.
- Is it possible, therefore, that animal psychics communicate with animals in a similar way to the cells in this study? Could animal psychics be communicating with animals, through the molecules and cells of their bodies (and vice versa), through the sending and receiving of electromagnetic signals? If this is so, then it would mean that animal psychics do not work through “psychic ability” but through electromagnetic signals. Alternatively, maybe electromagnetic signals are simply how psychic abilities work. The explanation of the “expansion of the aura” can be found on page 9 above.
- Akashic Records – perhaps animal psychics glean the information they receive, not from the animal, but through entering the Akashic Records, which are supposed to exist on an energetic level, and are meant to hold information on everything that has ever happened – past, present, and future.
And the sceptical explanations.
21. Delusion
– the psychic may wrongly attribute mundane phenomena to having paranormal
explanations (e.g. butterfly waits until it is ready to stretch its wings in
order for it to fly off; the psychic assumes it is waiting for something, so
she tells it to ‘Go’, after which the butterfly flies away. The psychic
therefore believes that because she told it to ‘Go’, the butterfly then decided
to fly away. Alternatively, the tone of voice the animal psychic used may have
been threatening, and so may have caused the
butterfly to fly away)
22. Cognitive
dissonance – the psychic may only accept or notice information or experiences
that confirms their belief, and rejects information that does not reinforce
their belief.
- 23. Coincidence – the experience may have happened purely because it was bound to happen anyway, but the psychic gives it meaning, so she interprets it accordingly.· 24. Pet and owner stereotyping – the psychic may consciously or unconsciously stereotype, thus including in her psychic reading information that classically goes for all or most animals and their owners. For example, a male dog having a blue collar (or one that is painted a colour or colours attributed to being masculine).· 25. Chance/guess work – the psychic may make guesses based solely on probability or chance, that are highly likely to be true. For example, that an old dog is suffering from arthritis.26.· Stating the obvious – the psychic may make a statement that is obvious. This is extremely easy for animal psychics working through connection with an animal in a photograph – information is given about the animal from its appearance in the photograph.· 27. Previously researched knowledge – this is more likely to happen when the psychic is working with an animal belonging to a celebrity figure. She may include in the reading a known fact about the animal, or a fact discovered about the animal through research.· 28. Previous knowledge (hot reading) – through rapport, or carefully asked questions and statements, the psychic may learn a great deal about the owner or pet through the client’s answers. The psychic may therefore feed this back to the client during the reading when they are likely to have forgotten the answers they gave.· 29. Similar characteristics - it is said that owners and their animals have similar behavioural/physical characteristics, so the psychic may use this knowledge to their advantage. For example, an obese client may come in for a reading and provide the psychic with a picture of their dog. The psychic can safely assume that the dog is going to be overweight as well, perhaps the psychic might state likely health problems which obese people or animals are known to suffer from, in the reading, which they think the pet will be suffering from.· 30. Key information picked out from the pet owner (who is unaware of this) – the owner may, for example, tell the psychic that they like giving their dog toffee sweets. The psychic can then base information on this – she may state that the dog has an unusual ‘sweet tooth’ or something similar, such as the dog having ‘unusual dietary habits’.· 31. Selective memory – the client’s memory of the reading may be biased or faulty, because the details are taken out of context. The client may believe that the psychic is genuinely psychic, so because of this, they will not recall the details that do not fit in with this belief. Equally, if the client believes the psychic to be accurate, their mind will distort their memory of the psychic’s reading in order that they only remember the information that is correct (therefore, the information or reading seems highly accurate). Hence, the psychic’s reading is wrongly assumed to be accurate or is believed to have been more accurate than it actually was, because the client cannot recall the instances or pieces of information that were inaccurate or untrue.32. Barnum effect – the clients may make the wrong assumption that pieces of information given by the psychic are only applicable to themselves, when in actual fact they are equally true for most of the population with animals or pets. This will occur in conjunction with selective memory.· 33. Coldreading – the psychic may give the client vague or ambiguous general statements about their pet which are highly likely to be true· 34. Base-rate – the psychic may give the client details about commonplace events as part of the reading. For example, details about the dog’s mealtimes. Facts that are common and true for other people and their pets, than just the one animal and its owner.35. Co-operation – the psychic may ask cleverly disguised questions or statements that are designed to engage the client to help the psychic make sense of the information. This may occur when the psychic “picks up” on ambiguous information. This may help the psychic’s reading seem more accurate than it actually was, and reconstructive memory on the client’s behalf will cause the animal’s owner to forget that they may have helped the animal psychic with the reading.· 36. Emotive language – the psychic may use, in the reading, language that sparks an emotional response in the client. For example, the psychic may glamour up a statement like “Your dog likes to eat chicken,” to “Your dog loves eating chicken,”. This makes the reading more interesting and engaging for the client.· 37. Personal pronouns – the psychic may use personal pronouns such as ‘he’ or refer to the owner as ‘you’, because it adds a human, and more personal, element to the readings, making the information seem more interesting or engaging for the client, rather than the reading referring or describing the animal in a primitive, animalistic way. For example, rather than referring to the pet in the same way we would with farm or wild animals, the psychic would try and make the reading of the dog seem more personal, more human, through using personal pronouns. This helps the reading seem more impressive than it actually was.38. Present tense – the psychic may use present tense to make the reading more interesting for the client. During the reading, the psychic may describe what she is getting as and when she gets it, describing what is happening as if it is actually happening in the present moment.· 39. Descriptive language – the psychic may add more description to the reading about the animal, in order that the reading may be more interesting than it actually is. In this way, the psychic therefore makes the reading seem more appealing and interesting for the client.· 40. Reconstructive memory – the client’s memory may not be entirely correct; key details may be remembered that are correct, but the details about the reading that are at odds with their belief system but which have avoided selective memory, immediately become distorted by their mind. The memory of the reading will be altered, so that the bits that are not in agreement with the belief system are changed, in favour of what the client believes. For example, if the psychic says, “I’m getting an uncomfortable pain in the chest or throat area,” when the dog is suffering from tonsillitis, for example, the client may remember that statement as, “I’m getting an uncomfortable pain in the throat area,”. This is an instance of selective memory. However, whereas selective memory is concerned with remembering certain details but not others, reconstructive memory is quite different. The client’s memory in this example will be reconstructing the whole sentence. This is a continual process which starts almost as soon as the psychic has given her reading. During the course of the next day, weeks, months, and years, the memory is constantly changing, reconstructing itself according to the person’s belief system. Hence, the client’s memory of the reading will not be as true or accurate, as they might think it is.41. Positive expectation – the animal psychic may have been highly recommended by a friend, acquaintance, high public figure or a person from a highly respected, authoritative position. Because the animal psychic has been recommended by someone else, or by someone who is more ‘superior’ or is of a ‘higher status’ than himself, the client will have high expectations of the animal psychic’s abilities. These expectations will most likely be reinforced, through psychological processes or means. In retrospect, should the client have negative expectations instead of the animal psychic’s abilities, these are also likely to be reinforced, instead of being “proved” to be wrong.· 42. Suggestion – if the animal psychic was highly recommended by someone else, as in the example above, then there is the suggestion that the animal psychic is competent, genuine, and accurate. This will also most likely be reinforced through psychological processes or means.43. Misinterpretation – the animal psychic may misinterpret pieces of information. However, because such instances do not act as proof or evidence of the client’s belief in the animal psychic’s abilities, these details are forgotten through selective memory, or distorted favourably through reconstructive memory.· 44. The animal psychic’s own mind – perhaps the animal psychic is not in communication with the animal at all. Maybe she is merely having a conversation with her own mind. In this instance, it would be a case of her consciously sending a message with the conscious part of her mind to what she believes is the animal’s mind. However, the message she gets back is not, contrary to her belief, from the animal’s mind, but is actually from her subconscious mind. Because the message came from her subconscious, she has no idea that it came from her own mind.· 45. Archetypes – the psychic is having a conversation with archetypes, which are just different parts of her mind, which appear to take the visual form of someone or something, such as a dog. The psychic is having an intelligent conversation with an archetype, not an actual animal.· 46. Fraud – some psychics may be absolute frauds, deliberately and intentionally employing deception and psychological techniques in order to fool pet owners, and gain a great deal of money from them out of doing so.47. Presumptions – perhaps the animal psychic consciously or even subconsciously makes judgements about the animal and information about it that is likely to be true, and, whether they are aware of it or not, use this information in their reading of the animal without actually connecting at all or completely with the animal on a psychic or mental level.· 48. The psychic’s thoughts – perhaps information the animal psychic receives is nothing more than a product of their thoughts. What if clairaudience is just ‘hearing’ your own conscious, and unconscious, thoughts in your head? What if the psychic initially thought about something, and immediately afterwards, their mind created a mental visual image of it, which the psychic not only took to be clairvoyance, but because it seemed to have ‘come from nowhere’, they assumed it must have come from the animal’s mind? Should they briefly remember that they’d come up with the thought before the picture, selective memory would stop them from recalling that detail.This would mean that the “conversations” between animal psychic and animal are nothing more than the animal psychic’s own thoughts. Maybe the animal psychic is aware of their own thoughts, and perhaps they “hear” these from their own mind, but attribute them to the animal’s mind instead.· 49. Imagination – maybe the communication with the animal is just the animal psychic’s imagination. This would mean that any physical sensations, for example, were just their imagination – such as pains in the stomach. It would be easy to imagine such things, and they are misinterpreted to be real. Alternatively, perhaps the pains were ‘real’ but were solely due to the animal psychic’s body, not the psychic connection with the animal.· 50. Roleplaying – the animal psychic knows that they are supposed to connect with the animal on a psychic or mental level. Perhaps they do the special connection with the animal in order to do so and after this happens, the ‘genuine’ animal psychics unconsciously role-play the whole conversation or communication, and another part of their mind responds as if it is the animal they are supposed to be connected to. The psychic will not be aware of this, but will interpret the whole scenario according to their belief that they did communicate with the animal on a psychic or mental level. Frauds may do this too, but be conscious of doing so – this means that instead of a conversation between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind, it is a conversation between two areas of their conscious mind.· 51. Belief – because the animal psychic believes that they can communicate on a psychic or mental level, they interpret their experiences and psychic animal readings to be real. Therefore, they interpret the animal psychic communications to be psychic, because that concept is in accord with their belief.52. Personification – perhaps animal psychics treat the animals as if they are humans, so the readings they give make the animals seem almost human. For example, Sarah Jane Le Blanc tells us in her book, Pet Whisperer book (p.7), during her first but unexpected animal communication with a dog, she asked the animal, “Do you want to talk to me?”. In response to the question, the dog replies, “Duh!”, as if it has become a stroppy teenager. Suddenly, the animal has become a human being, using the same sort of language and attitude that humans use.· 53. Hallucination – the animal psychic is not actually communicating with the animal, but instead, the psychic impressions, referring to the random images, sounds and feelings they receive, are nothing more than hallucinations – experiences which seem and are interpreted to be real, but are not.· 54. Misunderstanding – maybe the owners of animals and the animal psychics wrongly believe that animals are more intelligent than they really are. Information that actually came from the animal psychic’s own mind is believed, first by the animal psychic, to be from the animal’s mind. For example, in Pet Whisperer, (p.53), Sarah-Jane Le Blanc tells us “...As we continued to communicate, Mitzi [the cat Sarah-Jane is trying to psychically communicate with] started sending me clearer requests – I have headaches, she told me. Tell my mum and dad [the human owners] that I have headaches…” Is it possible that a random thought came to the animal psychic, which just happened to be something to do with ‘headaches’, but the animal psychic thought that it came from Mitzi, the cat? If this was the case, the animal psychic’s mind may immediately create a message, which comes to the psychic’s conscious mind, seemingly as if it came from the animal.· 55. Body language – with connecting with the animal remotely, through a photograph, the psychic can acquire information about the animal from its body language or condition, or the psychic can guess what the animal might be thinking about, from reading the body language on the photograph. Alternatively, they may read the body language of the animal in real one-to-one psychic readings.· 56. Clothing and psychology of owners – in one-to-one readings where the animal is actually brought into the animal psychic’s office for a reading, the psychic may make likely statements about the animal from interpreting the sort of owner the animal’s guardian is or might be. For example, if the guardian shows the psychic that their animal is very much loved, the psychic may make an appropriate remark about the animal based on this, such as “…Barney is well-looked after…” . With regard to the owners, tone of voice, intonation, emphasis, body language and posture, as well as possible pieces of information the owners let out consciously or unconsciously about themselves or their pets, all help the psychic to create a reading with which the animal’s owner agrees.· 57. Vagueness – the psychic could deliberately give information that is vague. In this way, she can ensure the success of the reading. This is because if the information is non-specific, it is unlikely to be wrong in any way.· 58. Base-rate – the psychic may give statements about commonplace events with regard to the animal. These may refer to veterinary check-ups, food, or walks.· 59. Repetition – the psychic may repeat themselves consciously or unconsciously, or may repeat what the owner had told them about the pet. They may disguise doing so by changing the already stated words, so that it is as if they are giving more or different information than before.· 60. Psychological or mental problems – maybe the work of animal psychics should be discouraged, and their claims ignored. Maybe animal psychics have some type of autism, and perhaps they should be medically treated for psychological or mental problems which are responsible for their ability to “communicate with animals”!· 61. Incomplete puzzle – is it a possibility that the paranormal and psychological or sceptical explanations may work in conjunction with each other? The information may come consciously or unconsciously to the animal psychic through mental visual imagery, without the aid of the physical eyes (clairvoyance), but at the same time, psychological processes may also be at work – perhaps the ‘cold reading’ is a technique that the animal psychics’ minds use, whether they are aware of it or not. Alternatively, the information could be from the mind of the animal, and because it is from a mind, it will still unconsciously employ ‘cold reading’. This is a very deep, and highly debatable reason. However, it is probably impossible to test. It also assumes that the animal’s mind, and the animal psychic’s mind, are exactly, or almost, the same, which may be wrong.
Why do psychics' accounts sound so amazing?
When a psychic recounts an experience which was, according to them, an example of psychic ability or something similar, they may not be aware that they are merely deluded and may not realise that the experience is perfectly explainable. Perhaps most psychics do believe that they possess psychic powers and that the frauds who claim to also be psychic either know they are frauds but act as if they aren't and that they, too, believe they have psychic powers, or the latter did at one point know they were frauds but over time, they became deluded into thinking they do have psychic powers. After all, is it ever possible to make a false claim about something and act and behave (for a living) as if you have that false ability for the rest of your life, without you yourself eventually actually believing in your own lie and, therefore, deceive yourself amongst everyone else who believes your claim?
Another reason why the accounts sound so amazing is because of selective and reconstructive memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment