Also called Seers, Prophets, Oracles, Mediums, Clairvoyants, and/or Fortune-Tellers. We are more familiar with the idea of psychics who can fore tell the future from Greek Myths.
The Greek Oracles were virgin women set up in temples and kept behind a screen or a wall with a hole in it so that she can speak to visitors who ask her questions. In the Temple of Delphi (Apollo's sacred and most famous temple) the oracle would be on an altar near a crack in the floor where volcanic vapor would rise up; this put the oracle into an hallucinated state of mind, which caused her to babble some cryptic messages that could be interpreted into anything.
Nostradamus is a controversial figure in clairvoyant history. He lived during the Renaissance and wrote a book of prophecies; some happened to come true. Yet Nostradamus was also a schizophrenic so his prophecies are subject to doubt.
During the 19th century, Modern Spiritualism became prominent. It was the belief that spirits wandered around and could be contacted through mediums. Mediums would hold seances to contact spirits, which would possess their bodies and speak through them. About 98% of these so called "spiritualists" were frauds; some exposed by the famous escape artist, Harry Houdini. Yet there were few who had the gift of spiritualism. One woman holding a seance was photographed and a glowing mist called "ectoplasm" was seen floating out of her mouth.
As technology progressed so did the idea of prooving and testing psychic abilities. Photographs captured things that the naked eye could not, such as ectoplasm. ESP or extrasensory perception is explored in facilities around the world where they test the limits of the human brain. This gave way to the many other psychic abilities that we believe humans are capable of:
1.) Psychography - (a.k.a. Automatic Writing) spirit writing
2.) Psychometer - one purporting to divine the future by touching objects
3.) Xenoglossia - knowledge of languages never learned
4.) Clairaudience - hearing the paranormal
5.) Telekinesis - (a.k.a. psychokinesis) ability to move objects with only the use of thoughts
6.) Retropsychokinesis - the changing of particulars of the past
7.) Pyrokinesis - starting fires using mental powers
8.) Cryokineses - transforming water into ice using mental powers
9.) Aerokinesis - manipulating wind
10.) Human Luminosity - a person who glows but there is no heat and the source of light is unknown. Usually people who are ill or very religious exhibit a glow.
11.) Human Electricity - the ability to give off an electrical pulse; enough to light a lightbulb through touch.
12.) Human Magnetism - the ability to manipulate metal or detect metal.
13.) Hypnosis - the ability to hypnotize others and put them under suggestion through a trance, making them do anything but once put out of the trance they have no memory of being under hypnosis (this is more of a skill through the power of suggestion but psychologists find it useful in helping patients unlock suppressed memories).
14.) Empathy - the capacity to recognize feelings that are being experienced by another sentient being. Sometimes confused with sympathy. Empathy is more or less a normal human ability that is displayed more in young children and new mothers.
15.) Bilocation - (a.k.a. multi-location) the ability to be in 2 places at once or in multiple places at once.
16.) Remote Viewing - gathering information at a distance.
17.) Precognition - (a.k.a. premonition, clairvoyance) perception of events before they happen.
18.) Aura Reading - perception of energy fields surrounding people, places, and objects.
19.) Dowsing - the ability to find objects
20.) Astral Projection - an out-of-body experience
21.) Divination - gaining insight into a situation via a ritual
22.) Telepathy - transfer of thoughts or emotions through one's thoughts
23.) Retrocognition - perception of past events ( the opposite of Precognition).
24.) Transvection - bodily levitation or flying
Modern examples of psychic abilities are Natalia Demkina from Saransk, Russia who can, at will, switch her vision from normal sight to what she calls "medical" vision and clinically look inside her own body. Looking inside a person, Natalia can accurately diagnose a person. Another example is Rafael Batyrov from Southeast Russia, the province of Bashkiria and is called "Laser Boy". He, like Natalia Demkina, has the gift to diagnose people by looking at their reflection in the mirror; yet he can not see inside his own body through his reflection. Edgar Cayce (1877- 1945) was a psychic who did readings about Atlantis while in hypnotic trances.
I don't know if any of this is true, but we don't that much about our brains, using only a small percentage of it. Even our own DNA is mostly a complete mystery (there's about 90-95% we can't figure out). Perhaps this is a next step into our evolution. We've made leaps into scientific discovery in such a short amount of time. It's only a question of "when" we will discover it.
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