Do Esp Abilities Exist?

Everyone knows what the sixth sense is but they all have different definitions for it. Some of them say it is predicting the future, some say knowing what other people think, some say seeing an event which is happening somewhere else at that time etc. Many people are paid to tell others their future by analyzing their hand or examining their empty cup of coffee because they are seen as "fortune tellers". These abilities are also called ESP (Extra Sensory Perception). ESP is the general name for abilities including telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. Although ESP has so much popularity, they do not exist in reality. The existence of ESP is claimed based on anecdotal evidence, tendency to believe in the paranormal, and representativeness of a few successful hits which are coincidences.

Anecdotal evidence is what people say to support a claim without physical proof so anecdotes are not reliable as they are not based on science. For example someone claims that he was kidnapped by aliens, taken to their planet and brought back. The existence of aliens is not proven just because someone claims so. There are many cases about seeing an unusual creature but it is possible that such people have mental illnesses or they are lying to gain popularity. Moreover, such stories may be just rumors. Michael Shermer who is the author of Why People Believe Weird Things says that rumors seem more real as people tell them to each other (51). For example, a man saw an ordinary ape and thought it was something unusual. When he told his story to others, he also said that it had a giant foot. When the people who heard this story saw an ape in the same area, they thought it was that monster. Then the stories of Bigfoot spread because of the man who does not know what an ordinary ape looks like.

Yeti and Loch Ness Monster stories began with such events. As another example, swine flu was considered as a deadly disease. Someone, who would already die, died when they got swine flu and the media gave wrong information about the situation. Almost nobody died just because of swine flu. There are just a few cases but every year those numbers of people die of the ordinary flu too. Sylvia Browne was said to be a psychic but even when she would be rewarded 1,000,000$, she refused to use her abilities under scientific conditions (2). Rumors and anecdotes usually give us wrong information. Michael Shermer says that even a hundred anecdotes are worthless without physical evidence or other sources to back up (48).

People sometimes think that if they cannot explain something it must be paranormal which is not logical. Michael Shermer says an amateur archeologist officially states that pyramids were built by extraterrestrials because he does not understand how it was constructed, but a reasonable person would seek an expert opinion to say it (52). If something is not explained, it does not mean it will not. It shows that the researches or experiments are not enough. In addition, when people cannot explain coincidences, they think it must be due to paranormal, but it is just a coincidence. Two