# Psychic powers are demonstrated to exist. Does that make life-after-death claims more plausible? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 24, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychic-powers-are-demonstrated-to-exist-does-that-make-life-after-death-claims-more-plausible/758236 "2016-06-24T14:44:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychic-powers-are-demonstrated-to-exist-does-that-make-life-after-death-claims-more-plausible/758236/21 "2016-06-24T18:01:40Z")
If abilities have been shown to exist, I will believe that those abilities exist, but unless there is a logical chain that leads these abilities to a “life-after-death” scenario it won’t change my opinion on the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychic-powers-are-demonstrated-to-exist-does-that-make-life-after-death-claims-more-plausible/758236/22 "2016-06-24T19:31:55Z")
I think the key finding is that there’s no known physical mechanism for how these powers work. No electromagnetic fields, no proton beams, no neutrinos. And so what that proves is that there are brand new laws of physics involved, and we have no idea what those laws are. And something about the human brain is able to interact with this spooky material in ways we can’t detect. So sure it makes life after death more probable. Right now it seems very likely that everything that occurs in the human brain obeys normal everyday laws of physics, and that the mind is entirely created by bits of ordinary matter arranged in ordinary ways. Which means that the parsimonious explanation is that when the brain stops being arranged in those particular ways, the mind stops existing. If that’s not the case, then there is some part of the human mind that can’t be explained as ordinary matter and so when the ordinary matter part of the brain dies who knows what’s happening with that other part? Who knows how that other part integrates with the part of the human brain made or ordinary matter? If there’s some unexplained way that information is transmitted to a human brain then we need to figure out what that is, exactly. Note that according to my metaphysics, whatever it is that allows these powers to exist is by definition physical or material, not supernatural. It’s just some new phenomenon that we don’t understand. Maybe we’ll never understand it, but it’s still a material phenomenon, otherwise how does the pencil move across the room? How does the information move from one brain to another? How does the temperature of the rogue CIA agent’s brain increase until it explodes? Let’s find out. Not that this implies anything like a traditional “life after death” scenario. Just that there’s a component of the human mind–or at least of some human minds–that isn’t composed of ordinary matter. Where does it come from? Where does it go? How does it interact with ordinary matter? Nobody knows, but at least now we know that there’s a real phenomenon to investigate. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychic-powers-are-demonstrated-to-exist-does-that-make-life-after-death-claims-more-plausible/758236/23 "2016-06-24T20:05:59Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > From a faith-based perspective, I don’t need any convincing that life after death exists. If anything, discovering that psychic powers are real might shake that faith and make me less certain, not more. > > . Can you explain why? ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychic-powers-are-demonstrated-to-exist-does-that-make-life-after-death-claims-more-plausible/758236/24 "2016-06-24T20:57:29Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Assuming these questions aren’t rhetorical, I’ll put on my OP hat and answer. > > 1. Not all the psis have telepathic powers; not all the telepaths claim to be able to communicate with the dead; and not all those who claim to be able to communicate with the dead demonstrate Xavier-type powers. > > 2. The alleged mediums all say that communicating with the dead is extremely distressing, often even painful. It sometimes happens against their will, so most of them avoid situations and places where it is reputed to occur. Asked to visit an allegedly haunted house, they are likely to respond, “Sure, but only after you stick your hand in the mouth of that alligator.” > > 3. The telepaths who don’t claim spiritualist abilities avoid contract with the dying on account of it being depressing. Those who have made such contact report that the dying person is generally extremely confused and the experience of contact itself was so disorienting that they didn’t know what the fuck was happening to the person’s mind or brain. Where did number three go? I swear it was there only moments before. Perhaps it slipped into another dimension… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychic-powers-are-demonstrated-to-exist-does-that-make-life-after-death-claims-more-plausible/758236/25 "2016-06-24T21:05:43Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > For mind-reading (telepathy), we would at least be able to rule out/identify the liars and charlatans among those claiming to have had a near-death experience – this might make the possibility of life after death slightly more plausible if it turns out that most of these claims are honestly related. None of the others would affect the possibility of life after death as I can see it, though telekinesis might actually slightly _reduce_ the likelihood of things like haunted houses being explained by paranormal/supernatural activity, since now telekinesis would be an additional possible explanation for “things going bump in the night”. Reminds me of that telepathy testing scene in Ghostbusters where the guy who had it kept getting zapped and the hot girl who didn’t kept getting rewarded due to the bias of the tester. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5ohlA__xABw/maxresdefault.jpg "Ghostbusters (1/8) Movie CLIP - Venkman's ESP Test (1984) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohlA__xABw) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychic-powers-are-demonstrated-to-exist-does-that-make-life-after-death-claims-more-plausible/758236.md?page=1)