# Two psychics in one experiment **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460 "2010-07-21T13:40:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/1 "2010-07-21T13:40:00Z")
Has there ever been conducted such an experiment where two psychics talk with the same dead person (in separate rooms)? What where the results? How well or how far would telepathy work using the deceased? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/2 "2010-07-21T15:11:31Z")
Best to start with just ONE psychic first don’t you think? And seeing as not one of them has passed muster yet, we could be in for a long wait. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/3 "2010-07-21T15:15:11Z")
> [@komolono](#): > > How well or how far would telepathy work using the deceased? Exactly as well as with the non deceased. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/4 "2010-07-21T15:18:43Z")
I assume you mean “two psychics pretend to talk to the same dead person.” Since neither communication with the dead nor telepathy have ever been scientifically demonstrated through reliable experiments, one can assume that telepathy by means of the deceased would be doubly unconfirmed. ---
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/5 "2010-07-22T13:41:44Z")
Would Lisa Williams agree on this xperiment? How about the dead? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/6 "2010-07-22T13:55:55Z")
What is the point of this experiment supposed to be? Is it to test the ‘psychics’ to see if their accounts of what the dead person wants to say are the same or different? That could be a way of debunking psychic powers I guess, if they both come up with quite different, and incompatible stuff, but it does not seem a very good way. At best you would have shown that at least _one_ of the ‘psychics’ must be a fraud, but you will not be able to say which. If that is not the point, what is it? What hypothesis is it testing that can’t be more easily tested with one ‘psychic’ at a time? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/7 "2010-07-22T14:13:04Z")
Good luck finding any psychics willing to be tested. The moment you mention testing or point out any fault in their observations you’ll see backpeddaling, backtalk, and excuses galore. If any of them actually thought their “skills” stood up to testing they would have collected James Randi’s million dollar prize by now. However, every single one of them has some sort of excuse for why they can’t be tested. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/8 "2010-07-22T14:34:30Z")
In theory, it would be a reasonable test to put two alleged psychics in different rooms and see if they can communicate with either via the spirit they claim to be able to contact. You could give one of them a code word or a number, for instance, have them give that word to the ghost, and thn tell the ghost to give it to he other psychic. Then if the second psychic comes is able to divine the correct word, you’d be onto something as far as demonstrating psychic abilities, and perhaps even the existence of ghosts, especially if you could repeat it. In practice, though, you’d have a hard time getting subjects. Self-proclaimed psychics don’t like to submit to testing, basically because they know they can’t pass it, and even if they did agree to do the test, they always have a catalogue of excuses as to why it didn’t work. In this case, they’d say the spirit didn’t want to cooperate or something. ---
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/9 "2010-07-22T15:16:18Z")
The word test I had in my mind, too. Psychists say that the spirits “tell” them things: [http://www.lisawilliams.com/news/45475/June-2010-Messages.htm](http://www.lisawilliams.com/news/45475/June-2010-Messages.htm) So you need two psychics and possibly two people who knew the same dead guy and give one of the psychist a message or a word. The spirit should be able to pass walls and give the message to the other one. I still can’t understand why the police use psychics if there was nothing to it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/10 "2010-07-22T15:19:48Z")
Here’s a [staff report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1739/if-psychics-are-frauds-why-do-police-keep-asking-them-for-help) on why police use psychics. Summary from the article, “Some don’t know better–even police officers can be fooled. Some are hesitant to refuse any aid, no matter how little they think it will actually help. (Imagine if they didn’t accept a psychic’s help on a high-profile case and the psychic went to the press complaining that she has knowledge that could help but the police won’t listen.) Sometimes they are pressured by families who believe the psychics.” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/11 "2010-07-22T15:21:20Z")
> [@komolono](#): > > I still can’t understand why the police use psychics if there was nothing to it. I don’t think they do. I think it’s a myth commonly told by psychics. “Oh I help so-and-so police deparment solve crimes all the time.” Cite! (excuse, backpeddle, backtalk). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/12 "2010-07-22T15:25:56Z")
No psychic has ever actually helped the police solve a crime or find anybody. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/13 "2010-07-22T15:28:33Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > In this case, they’d say the spirit didn’t want to cooperate or something. And, in this case, that is not a wildly implausible excuse, which is yet another reason why this is a lousy experimental design. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/14 "2010-07-22T18:17:10Z")
I read somewhere that police are required to follow up on every lead, no matter how stupid. So when a psychic reports they know something, the cop has to follow up and it wastes his time. Also, what Diogenes said. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/15 "2010-07-22T18:21:22Z")
> [@komolono](#): > > Has there ever been conducted such an experiment where two psychics talk with the same dead person (in separate rooms)? What where the results? How well or how far would telepathy work using the deceased? The result would be each “psychic” claiming the other was a fake. ---
**Author:** ![SmithCommaJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@SmithCommaJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmithCommaJohn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/16 "2010-07-22T20:22:54Z")
I think the OP is designing this experiment taking the existence of psychic powers as a given, which is not a good way to conduct a scientific experiment, considering that the scientific evidence for the existence of psychic powers is, to be charitable, minimal. The experiment you describe wouldn’t prove anything. When the two “psychics” inevitably give different accounts of what the “spirit” told them, each one will simply claim that the other is a fraud. How would you tell which one was correct? Bring in a third, independent, psychic to verify? How do you know he/she isn’t just making stuff up? _flips a coin_ “Psychic #1 is correct!” or “I’m getting a totally different reading. Clearly, both of your supposed ‘psychics’ are frauds. But I promise you I’m the real deal. And for just $150 per hour, I’ll tell you whatever you want to hear, er, I mean, know.” Every single “psychic” in this experiment would simply be describing their own subjective experience, with absolutely no way to verify that they’re even describing what they actually believe they’re perceiving. A better test of psychic powers would be to ask a psychic to use their extra-sensory perception to describe something objective. “Are you in contact with a dead person right now?” “Yes” “Can you ask the dead person to describe what color hat my colleague in the other room is wearing?” “umm…er…well…it doesn’t really WORK that way” The operative phrase being, of course, “it doesn’t really work” ETA: tests like the one I described have been done, many times, and no psychic has ever performed any better than chance. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/17 "2010-07-22T20:30:55Z")
The really fun part would be to tape this and put it up on YouTube. Then you tape people’s reactions to it and post _that_ on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/18 "2010-07-22T20:41:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The really fun part would be to tape this and put it up on YouTube. Then you tape people’s reactions to it and post _that_ on YouTube. 😕 :dubious: :eek: :p:eek:😕⭕( ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/19 "2010-07-22T23:21:09Z")
What can I say? Some people find Experiments gross. Especially when they’re in a cup. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460/20 "2010-07-22T23:39:44Z")
I notice that no one has directly answered the OP’s actual question: “ **Has there ever been conducted such an experiment** …?” Although indirectly, I suppose people are answering “Not that I know of.” ETA: And some have pointed out why such a “test” wouldn’t necessarily be a good way to check whether they really can get in touch with Dead Uncle Harold. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-psychics-in-one-experiment/547460.md?page=2)