Psychic

Psychic (from the Greek work psychikos—"of the soul, mental") refers to a proposed ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through what is described as extrasensory perception, or to those people said to have such abilities. It is also used to refer to magicians and mentalists who can produce the appearance of such abilities. It has also been used to describe the belief of the ability of the mind to influence the world physically and to the telekinetic powers professed by those such as Uri Geller.

Psychics appear regularly in fiction and science fiction, such as the The Dead Zone by Stephen King, or Jean Grey from the Marvel comic book universe.

Skeptics have attributed the putative powers of psychics to intentional trickery or self-delusion. In 1988 the U.S. National Academy of Sciences gave a report on the subject that concluded there is "no scientific justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years for the existence of parapsychological phenomena."

Magicians such as James Randi, Ian Rowland and Derren Brown have demonstrated techniques and results similar to those of psychics, but they present psychological explanations as opposed to paranormal ones.

References

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