47
Curio was pacing around his flat, nervously. It was midday, and sunlight angled in through the window. He had washed his cups and plates, ordered and folded his clothes neatly, but none of it could take his mind off the fact that in twenty minutes time, he would be live on radio. It was a national station, ‘Audiowave fm’ and he had received a phone call from the presenter of ‘Discussion time’, to be one half of an issue, or subject. Normally, psychics of Curio’s stature would not have been invited or pondered for such a show. Only those most famous in their field would have been sought.
Despite Curio’s successes in his pursuit of fame, he was not the most well known psychic, but ‘Abe’, the only person Curio knew to be sceptical about his claims, was a biomedical scientist and with the topic being: ‘Psychic communication: true or false’, it was Abe who recommended Curio to represent true. He was asked if he wished to participate, and had leapt at the chance. It was an opportunity to ‘speak to the nation’ about his beliefs and truths, and show up and embarrass Abe, live on air.
They were going to ring him at 12:30, and he was surprised at how nervous he was. He couldn’t eat, and had only drank a glass of water. He tried to watch television, but failed. He thought about putting on his computer, but decided against it. Instead, he paced around his flat trying to think of certain points that he would like to raise.
Checking his watch, and then sitting down on the sofa, the telephone began to ring, and he leapt up and rushed across to pick it up.
“Hello,” he said, “Leigh Somerton?”.
“Yes, that’s right. Curio Enchantment, you’re live on air. I’m also here with ‘Abe’, a biomedical scientist with an interest in the supernatural. He is a sceptic, and debunks claims made by those, like Curio, who declare themselves to have certain powers, or gifts, that can be deemed paranormal. They represent both ends of the spectrum.
Now, Curio, it is a fact that you have discovered the whereabouts of five missing persons in a row. That must surely be some indication of a gift”.
“Indication?” said Curio, “I think that should I have failures in all other aspects of paranormal activity, then that very fact alone is sufficient to prove that there is something out there that cannot be readily explained”.
“Yes,” said Abe. “Science has its mysteries. It cannot explain everything. When I say everything, I mean, ‘everything’. From the initial spark that brought the earth into being, to the atomic fabric of matter in the furthest place you can imagine. The fact that you
have discovered the whereabouts of five missing persons…”
“I’ll admit to having got a few wrong,” interjected Curio, “but the five previous have all been successful”. Abe sounded like a person who could easily have been a drama teacher. Each word was pronounced with absolute clarity. He would pause for just the right length, and his voice varied in inflections, but kept balanced. He sounded as though he was in his late fifties.
“Your success borders on the fringe of chance. It is possible to roll a die infinitely and get the same number every time. However, it cannot be related to this, but I assume you see the similarity. Should you get eight or nine successes, or ‘hits’, then, Mr Enchantment, I shall be impressed”.
“I have other accomplishments as well. I have a direct link to the spirit world, and can convey information…”
“You’re a medium, yes. You can ‘talk’ to the dead. Or they talk to you”.
“Well…yes, they do, but only when I get in contact, or open the door. There are not many who can commune. It is difficult to practice, to actually communicate with the other side, which is why not everybody can do it. If it was easy, then we would all be doing it, trying to contact our loved ones to make sure that they were fine, and were, I suppose, happy.”
“That’s why it’s popular isn’t it? That’s why people give their money to you, and other psychics, because you offer them hope.
Your successes in that field come from latching onto the hits, and ignoring the misses. Strange how a lot of people ignore the misses, because chances are you would score a hit anyway if you use cold reading techniques. If you latch onto this, and convert it to evidence of the spirit world, or to the fact that the deceased are communicating with you, then those susceptible to believe easily will accept everything you say.
Give out many names to a person, and on the eighth, it may have some meaning. ‘Yes, that was the name of my uncle’. Then you will discuss this uncle, and ignore the other seven names. This is not evidence of the supernatural, Curio”.
“There are many documented cases where there are things said that are just impossible to ignore, that could not be obtained any other way than by through the conveyance of information through a spirit”.
“Documented cases? Written by whom? The practitioners? The witnesses? It could be second and third, or seventeenth hand information, and because it is written down, does not make it true. They may very well be documented, and it sounds quite good, doesn’t it, ‘documented’. It almost makes what you say to be correct. Well, unless it has undergone rigorous testing by scientific methods, then any documentation may as well be written in sand”.
“Look, I know the spirit world exists”.
“No you don’t. You don’t ‘know’. You believe. People confuse knowing with believing. They believe enough and it becomes a fact, but only for them. If enough people believe the same thing then you have an order, or maybe a cult”.
“If a lot of people believe in the same thing, then surely that must give it some credence. There must be some truth in it. Look at aliens. How many believe in them?”
“I suspect a fair few. Observational evidence is crucial to the discovery of new data. Experimentation is repeated over and over again, and if the same result occurs every time, then we have scientific fact.
Evidence regarding aliens is the same as it is for ghosts and astrology. It is scant, and what evidence you do have can be explained easily, leaving you with nothing. If you eliminate all other explanations as to what something could be, let’s say for instance an apparition, or ghost. If you have conceived of every possibility as to what it could be, but are left with only one, then that one will be your ghost. The thing is though, it would have to go through rigorous scientific testing to pass the test, and be left with only one explanation, and on the day that happens, I’ll be round at your house Curio, to say I’m sorry, and you were right. There is no evidence for the spirit world. No evidence for aliens, no evidence for astrology, and no evidence for many other things you call paranormal. All of it can be explained logically, but in your world Curio, logic doesn’t exist, does it?”.
“You still haven’t told me why if many people believe a certain thing, there must be truth in it”.
“There doesn’t have to be evidence for people to believe something. If I told you at the age of five, that there was an albino koala bear, living in a cave, on the other side of the moon, then with such an impressionable mind, chances are you would believe it. You would not have the maturity to question. You would believe it. Told by an adult, a child has no reason, or I suppose, the facility to doubt.
If this is then reinforced by other adults, ‘Yes, the koala exists, there is no doubt, look, it says here,’ then during the lifetime of that person, who believed absolutely, without seeing the koala, going purely on belief, they devoted themselves to the koala in some way, and the devotee was actually taken to the moon to meet the koala, and was shown that it didn’t exist, that there was the proof, ‘look, it’s not here, you can see for yourself’. Can you imagine what that would do to a person who had devoted his whole life to it?
There are two possibilities. One would be that they would just say: ‘Okay, fair enough, that’s that’. The other would be for them to live in denial. With the power of belief so strong, they may still believe in the koala, and make excuses as to why it wasn’t there, but still come away believing. This could be applied to you Curio. I think you are in denial about your ‘gift’. You may be receptive to hearing voices, but these voices come from your own belief that they come from the deceased. It is your own subconscious, deluding your belief”.
“So that’s it, then?” said Curio. “No life after death, no aliens. How can you ignore the evidence when it’s right in front of you? Don’t forget, many scientists believe in the afterlife”.
“I suspect they do, but those people cannot really call themselves scientists. Believers in the paranormal would love it to be proven scientifically, which is why they use it so often, to make it sound authentic. All your so-called evidence, or arguments for, are built on quicksand. Investigated properly, they fall down. Why do you think psychics and people who involve themselves in some way with the supernatural are so reluctant to be tested scientifically?” He paused long enough to continue speaking without Curio answering.
“They’re scared. While they have absolute belief in their abilities, they’re scared in case all their beliefs are shattered. How about you Curio? Do you believe enough in your ability to have it scientifically tested?”
“Well…yes, I would”.
“Then how about it? Come to London, to the research centre where I work, and subject yourself. Prove to me, and to others, that you have a gift, Curio. Are you up for the challenge?”. The airwaves were silent for six seconds.
“How about it Curio?” said Leigh. “Thousands of listeners. No pressure”.
“I believe in my ability,” Curio said. “Challenge accepted”.