Regardless Placebo, paranormal/supernatural phenomena and powers have repeatedly failed the test under controlled observation. A supernatural or paranormal event has never been observed in a scientific setting.
However, many people (many in this forum) still hold firm beliefs in these types of events. Here's why:
1) Biased reporting - a supposed "discovery" of ESP or some other phenomenon is made, this event get much media attention. However, when the phenomenon cannot be replicated or observed in a controlled setting, this gets zero media coverage.
2) Will to believe - Wishful thinking, people have a basic psychological desire for predictability in their world and the supposed existence of these supernatural events give them even the faintest illusion of control and comfort.
3) Data of everyday experience - People often see "strange coincidences" as something more than coincidence. However, all of these events are statistically explainable, not only are these coincidences happening, its inevitable for that they will happen. Take a simple example:
The case of death premonitions: Suppose that you know of 10 people a year who die and that you think about each of those people once a year (In reality, it's probably much higher than that). One year contains 105,120 five-minute intervals during which you might think about each of the 10 people, a probability of 1 out of 10,512--certainly an improbable event. Yet there are 295 million Americans. Assume, for the sake of our calculation, that they think like you. That makes 1/10,512 X 295,000,000 = 28,063 people a year, or 77 people a day for whom this improbable premonition becomes probable. With the well-known cognitive phenomenon of confirmation bias firmly in force (where we notice the hits and ignore the misses in support of our favorite beliefs), if just a couple of these people recount their miraculous tales in a public forum (next on Oprah!), the paranormal seems vindicated. In fact, they are merely demonstrating the laws of probability writ large.
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