A woman and man sat at a table while a second woman looked on. The man at the table was leaning forward, taking notes and holding cards up at random intervals. The woman at the table was facing towards a blank wall, her back to the man holding the cards, randomly saying “Circle, Waves, Waves, Square, Circle, Star”. These three people were in the middle of an ESP or extra sensory perception experiment, using the scientific method to try and prove that clairvoyant readings are for real and that clairvoyance does exist. So far to date, it has not been proven scientifically to exist.
Psychics who claim to have some form of psychic abilities all claim their powers come from many different sources. Some claim their abilities come from a spiritual source such as spirit guides, the dead or angels while others claim their source is magic. Most psychics will tell you that everyone is gifted with psychic abilities and you just need to learn how to tap into your own source in order to conduct clairvoyant readings. Still there are people out there, oddly enough, who do not accept these theories on faith alone and demand proof. The only effective and fool proof way to get this proof is through the scientific method.
The Zerner cards are cards that use five different symbols repeated multiple times in a deck of cards. The previous experiment was using Zerner cards to test a subjects ESP abilities by having them attempt to “see” each card as another person holds the card in front of them, but hidden from the test subject. The third party observes the experiment in order to eliminate the potential for mistakes such as the test subject reading the body language of the experimenter.
During the test, the subject uses telepathy or ESP to read either the mind of the person holding the cards, clairvoyance to see the symbols herself or just guesses. There is a build in chance that a person will guess correctly 20% of the time.
If the subject has true clairvoyance then she should be able to guess the correct symbols on the cards more than the 20% chance she has at guessing them randomly. Let us say that she happens to guess the cards correctly 50% of the time, proving the hypothesis correct, then the experimenter can then say the subject has clairvoyant tendencies. At this point the hypothesis must be tested again and again and if then the subject is still at the same percentage or higher then the hypothesis can truly be proven.
So far no experiment has ever been able to survive the fourth step in the scientific method. Psychic readings cannot be proven true, but belief is often times stronger than proof.