8. ABOUT Psychological Explanations

[Aster-P]

Obligatory "Its Your Imagination"


Of course we have to mention all the psychological reasons that skeptics say it's all in the imagination.

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe book How To Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake has a big section on this. But it's a steep read for the true layman.

To be helpful, we have summarized 24 bullet points from the book, of the top psychological explanations for paranormal experiences.

See our two-page PDF summary here.

Do pick up the real book if you can, it's a good read. These are some of the best-informed people on the planet, because they've dedicated their lives to keeping up with cutting edge science developments. Everyone else on the planet would probably do well to listen to these cats.

Speaking of listening to those cats, shameless plug, consider adding their podcast to your lineup: "The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe." They put out a 90m show every week on exactly what was said above - cutting edge science developments. It's not all dry either! The segments are really interesting and there are five panelists so you get a variety of commentary. Between the five they cover a lot of different areas of science. Plus they play a game at the end of each episode called "Science or Fiction" where you guess which one of three items is the fake and which two are true. (I "win" maybe half the time, which to me just means guessing correctly to myself BEFORE they go around the table and each give their own arguments for/against each item being the fake.) They've been doing their show for 15 years. They're like family to those who've been listening for a lot of that time. But don't take my word for it, give them a listen yourself. (Your brain will thank you later.)

Really, if anyone were to ask me to name a SINGLE THING they could do to get consistently smarter, I would say.... listen to the SGU podcast.

That being said, if they're not your cup of tea, do try some other science podcasts. The others are good also (but we all have our favorites, eh?) just do yourself a favor and stay in touch with current developments somehow. By the time developments get to mass-media level it tends to get distorted to be sensational or push some agenda. It's helpful to get your info closer to the original sources.



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QUICK LINKS for Debunking Self-Help

1. Start Here
2. Air Quality
3. Infrasound
4. EMF
5. Drafts
6. Home Surveillance Systems
7. Movement
8. Psychology
9. Shadows
10. When Self-Debunking Fails
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