How to Approach a Paranormal Claim

I have had a paranormal claim ever since age 14 when I begun experiencing "vibrational fields", that is fifteen years. And I have investigated the claim for the past four years. But there are many people out there who make claims of the paranormal. What should one do with a paranormal claim?

1. Don't claim to be psychic

The first thing to do is to not claim to be psychic, because more than likely you are not and if you tell people that you are then there will come a time when it becomes evident that you are not and then you will feel embarrassed. Whereas if you humbly state that you have a personal experience which seems inexplicable and you express a concern to investigate it further, there is no reason for embarrassment in that regardless of the outcome.

And if you are only pretending or lying about having psychic powers and there is no real incentive to believe so, and you like to tell others that you are, then you have made yourself one of the most unethical and loathed persons on this planet. Because it is people like you who can cause immense harm to others in a number of ways. So, again, don't claim to be psychic.

2. Investigate it by yourself first

So it seems that there is something paranormal going on and it involves you as a person? Investigate it by yourself first. Do your damndest to find the normal explanation! Challenge yourself to find the answer, and hope that you find a very simple, and ridiculous answer that makes it all go away. "Oh, the ghost in the window was just a tree branch moving in the wind, oh how silly of me!", or "It wasn't me making the die turn six every time, because when I used a different die the numbers were all random again so it was a problem with the die, I am so glad I checked that out myself before I told any friends about my magic mind powers and made a fool of myself!".

Tarot cards, telepathy, you name it. It all has a normal explanation. And your job is to find it before anybody else does! Because if you find it first, then nobody gets to laugh at you. Be very proud when you find the normal explanation. Because if you find the normal explanation it means you're really smart. The loss of what you first thought was a paranormal ability, in exchange for feeling super smart? Priceless. Plus it means you won't have to go through the skeptical community next.

3. Do your own studies

Ok so the answer that falsifies the paranormal woo was not all that obvious. Then you have to make more effort and actively set up tests where you carefully and very scientifically place test parameters that disable one normal source of result after the other. For instance if you think you can read what a person is thinking then have that person facing away from you so that you are not interacting with eye contact. Or if you think you are really good at psychic readings, try doing it without speaking together with the person because if you are speaking with them then you are arriving at the answers together, and nothing psychic about that. See if you can do it yourself.

Try to think of every possible normal, as opposed to paranormal, source for the seemingly paranormal results you are having, and then disable them one at a time. Are you still being psychic? Probably not. But if you are, you will eventually have to enlist the help of people who are better at solving this problem than you. It is better if you are able to debunk this thing by yourself, because if you are not the one to do it, the skeptics will!

4. Enlist the help of skeptics

If you have a paranormal claim that is genuine, and you have failed to find a normal explanation, and your personal testing has failed to disable it from happening when normal causes of the result were disabled, then you might humbly request the help from skeptics. Skeptics are people who are really good at tearing psychic claims apart, and that is precisely what you need.

Some psychics say that skeptics disable true psychic skills by virtue of their negative energies. But that is not true. It is science that disables seemingly psychic phenomena and magic tricks. After four years with the skeptics (and science), I can honestly say that yes there is negative energies among the skeptics sometimes but those bear no effect whatsoever on the results of your test.

Contact the skeptics and describe the paranormal claim to them and how you have tested it in the past and failed to falsify the claim. It might lead to you having a real test of the claim. If no test can be arranged, it is either because you are being too complicated or you are adhering to testing conditions which enable a normal ie. not paranormal source of the results or the claim is simply untestable. If the claim cannot even be tested then there is nothing special or paranormal going on, because science is very good at putting almost everything that exists to a test.

5. If you fail a test it is YOUR fault

If you fail it is your fault. Not because of negative energy of the skeptics. Or because it was Tuesday not Wednesday. Or because of any other ridiculous excuse you can think of. Be proud. It means that all is well in the universe. You didn't want to be psychic anyways. It's more fun to have a normal dayjob.

6. If tests reveal something interesting?

Ok so if you've done all you can so far. You've investigated the claim by yourself, tried to find a normal explanation, set up some tests at home and tried to make the "ability" go away and you've even had some tests with the skeptics and the claim has still not gone away, then you find yourself where I am at right now. The claim has revealed some interesting results that cannot falsify the claim, and the claim needs further testing.

Does that mean you get to go practice something psychic? Of course not. It means that you keep on testing, and preferably this time take it to the scientific community. What happens next, not even I could tell you.

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