Why do most guys dismiss paranormal w/out researching it?

[Franc28]

I think the problem is in the way I formulate my replies. Sometimes I use "I" and sometimes I use "they." I should probably stop doing that.

[Scepcop]

[Franc28]

Surprisingly, not for the criticism. They banned me because I had the word "bullshit" on my sig.

This despite the fact that the number one skeptical show on the telly is called "Bullshit!"

I can't adequately express how retarded that is.

(not my funniest ban though: once I got banned from a Christian fundie's board for posting in rhyme)

[leo100]

Don't know really it does appear to be that more women are more open to some paranormal phenomena then males

http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/parano ... -some.aspx

[Student of Sophia]

Sometimes it might be a control freak thing. A control freak might be threatened by the idea that psi exists and he doesn't control it.

[gumpi]

I'm sure the same could be said for psychics who believe they can control psi. They are control freaks too, and often wrong. Ever seen lame attempts at cold reading on chat programs? You get the drift...

I think Franc is right here. He hasn't experienced anything paranormal so why should he believe any of it until he gets the evidence himself? That said, skepticism doesn't mean closing the mind to the possibility that there are paranormal phenomena. You just kept the mind on hold until the personal experience provides the evidence.

[Scepcop]

I wonder how Franc would explain the many documented cases from credible sources of psychics getting highly specific hits from sitters about things such as unusual details and secrets that could NOT have been determined from cold reading?

One time, my acting teacher's mom read my palm and felt that I had a tragedy and scars in my psyche from when I was 9 years old. It was very accurate. How can she tell from my face or clothes or through cold reading that I had a tragedy when I was 9 years old? That is not a general thing that applies to anyone. And she knew nothing about me beforehand that would lead her to say that.

Others have has deep dark secrets revealed by psychics, things that no one could have known about or researched. How does Franc and the skeptics explain that?

They can't, so they just deny it or assume fraud or information leakage or lucky guessing.

What Franc and the skeptics should keep in mind is that reality does not have the same limitations as the limitations in our field of vision.

[brett]

maybe its an EGO thing - you know men are not supposed to be afraid of anything - like mice - spiders- things that go bump in the night - and thus are dismissive of ghosties and ghoulies AND things that go bump in the night - ask yourself this - ( those of you who have a partner ) - if you both hear a noise in the night WHO gets sent to investigate ( replete with baseball bat ,AK47 or whatever )

also one has to consider the "social" aspects - of groups - and interests like the paranormal - where as most guys would rather go down the pub and talk beer , football and er ........ "relationships " - i have seen some mighty unhappy partners dragged along to "investigations " and dark mutterings of "huh , i could have been down the pub instead of standing here in the ( censored ) cold just because SHE has been watching most haunted on tv "

slightly tongue in cheek take on the question - but maybe nearer the truth than some may wish to admit ??

[ciscop]

[Azrael]

[ProfWag]

[Purple Scissor]

[JonDonnis]

[ProfWag]

I totally agree with you JonDonnis. I'd like to add to clarify though, that the education doesn't have to be a college degree type education, but just some objective learning about a particular subject.

[Purple Scissor]

I would agree in that much of what people believe is mediumship is really intuition, which is usually informal cold reading. Once you see yourself cold read a person and trace down why you thought what you thought, it is hard to believe in mediumship. Still, some of the results are reported to have no possible cold reading cues.