Episode 14 – Psychic Detectives
The use of psychic abilities to find answers, uncover clues, find victims and even uncover identities of criminal perpetrators goes way back. In ancient times, those who sought missing persons could consult an oracle or divine with activities such as astrology. By the sixteenth century, dowsing became a practiced means of tracking culprits with the use of divining rods. In the nineteenth century, sensitives claimed to receive information for a crime in their dreams, and at the height of Spiritualism, some mediums claimed to solve crimes through the help of their spirit guides.
Modern psychic approaches utilized pretty much all of these old arts, along with many others. A psychic superstar, Noreen Renier, employs still another old divination technique called psychometry, by which she purportedly gets psychic impressions from objects connected with a particular person. Many psychics claim to use clairvoyance (“clear-seeing”) whereby they supposedly “see” remote images and scenes as if they were viewed on a movie screen. Some psychics even study people’s “auras” or read the lines in their palms.
Psychic detective work has been credited for providing valuable information, if not outright solving, many missing persons and murder cases over the years. Of course, some claims are made only from the psychics themselves, and critics are quick to site the lack of any scientific backing and the failure of many purported psychics when their skills are tested and held up to scrutiny.
Regardless, we are fascinated by the idea of psychic abilities providing investigative support, especially in the most unnerving, unsettling, and unsolved cases.
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Music is by adamhenrygarcia.bandcamp.com
Links:
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-03-27/local/me-381_1_murder-victim
http://www.skeptically.org/spiritualism/id10.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_detective
https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/police_psychics_do_they_really_solve_crimes
https://complicatedgrief.columbia.edu/professionals/complicated-grief-professionals/overview/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/because-im-the-mom/201602/the-myth-complicated-grief
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-grief/201709/ambiguous-loss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-and-praxis/201804/the-uncanny-fear-loss-part-1