The Battalion • Page 5
Thursday • August 3, 1995
OPINION
Psychics rely on mindgames, not supernatural
“By the eagerness of the hu
man mind things which are
obscure are more easily be
lieved. ”
— Tacitus
I n the ’70s, David Marks and
Richard Kammann wrote a
book showing how every
feat and seemingly unexplain
able display of psychic ability has a rational
method of occurrence.
Their research, published in The Psychology of
the Psychic, discusses the methods that so-called
psychics utilized to create belief in their craft.
But in the ’90s these old methods have a new
twist. I’m talking about the recent surge of inter
est — not to mention profit — in the “personal psy
chic” industry.
Unlike their predecessors of the ’70s, today’s
psychics act as advisers or therapists for indi
viduals.
This new method of trickery uses the old and
practiced skill of “hyperperception,” using proba
ble assumptions and basic psychology to gener
ate millions of dollars.
Hyperperception is the ability to take notice of
most physical and psychological characteristics
of a client. Using this information, the psychic
makes assumptions, or “educated guesses” to
mysteriously “know” their client. Then they mix
some suggestive psychology with a little client
feedback.
Add to this scene a person who not
only wants to believe help is on the
way, but has paid for it already. Now
the stage is set for some serious psy
chic chicanery.
In order to test these findings, I de
cided to visit a person who makes a
living as a psychic.
I’ll call her Zelda.
“Populus vult decipi.”
People want to be deceived.
— Roman saying
Zelda graciously welcomed me into her place
of business. Religious icons, old photographs and
various knickknacks covered the walls to provide
a suitable “spiritual” environment.
For a ridiculous price, she held my hand and
asked me to tell her a wish I had. Then she be
gan to tell me about myself by experiencing my
“vibrations.”
“Frank, I feel you have problems in your life,
and you don’t know where to turn. Am I right,
Frank?” she said.
I made a point of agreeing to all of her vibra
tions, true or not.
A number of her statements regarding personal
problems were quite true, but they would be true
for almost everyone. It is a likely assumption that
someone nervously visiting a psychic has a serious
problem, at least by personal standards.
“Frank, I feel that you may take strong drink
to escape your problems. I also feel a pain in
your head and stomach in the mornings. I feel a
pain in your knees, as well. Am I right Frank?”
Since I am a young male apparently with serious
problems who arrived on a motorcycle unshaven and
sullen, she assumed I probably drank. Anyone who
looks as bad as I did that day, certainly might drink
their problems away on occasion. The pain of a
hangover usually follows.
However, I don’t drink excessively very often,
never get hungover, and I’ve only had three
headaches in my entire life.
A number of her statements were
quite true, but they would be true
for almost everyone.
I realized she mentioned my knees because I had
told her two days earlier that I laid floor tile for a
living. I neglected to mention I haven’t laid tile in six
months and have never had any pain in my knees.
“Frank, I feel that you have had a strong faith
in God, but you have had less faith lately. Am I
right, Frank?”
She obviously made this statement under the
assumption that most people have faith in some
sort of supreme being.
A person who has a problem severe enough to vis
it a psychic most likely has tried praying to no avail,
or has had some loss of faith due to the problem.
And even very religious people experience
fluctuations in faith periodically.
However, I have been what most people would
call an atheist for most of my adult life and have
never had a total belief in a god. Still, I lied to
Zelda and told her she was correct.
Then, using the assumption that I had some
belief in God, she began to imply I was going to
hell unless she was allowed to remove the demon
spirits that I was cursed with at birth.
Only special candles would help me, she said.
Twenty-nine of them. At $10 each. She even had
a payment plan.
I left her place of business feeling better than
when I arrived. Although I think psychics are bunch
of bunk, Zelda really did help me in several ways.
I now have a greater knowledge of “psychic”
methods.
I have a greater understanding of how people
can believe in the supernatural and even reli
gious stuff.
And she gave me something to write for you guys.
“As is your sort of mind.
So is your sort of search; you’ll find
What you desire.”
— Robert Browning;
Frank Stanford is a philosophy
graduate student-
Cursing expresses nothing but mediocrity
I n school we were taught to
write and speak clearly and
concisely. “Don’t ramble on,
get to the point.” Many of you
may have encountered an in
structor whose motto was
K.I.S.S. — “keep it simple, stu
pid.”
But there is one thing in life
that it is good to stray away
from being so pointed when possible.
Cursing.
Or “cussing,” as I grew up referring to it.
There is no better way to tell a person how
you really feel about them than to couple
their name with a curse word.
There’s also no better way for this person
and others who might hear you to think you
are shallow.
Cursing, as we know it today, comes
from the ancient practice of invoking evil
into the world by careful ordering of words
and sounds.
In the middle ages, it was popular belief
that the order of the universe could be
physically affected by casting spells and
curses. Once curses and spells were uttered
and introduced into the world, the results
were believed to be unpredictable at best.
While most of us don’t harbor the same
beliefs that words or non-physical things
can alter reality, cursing is still considered
unrefined and is generally frowned upon in
public.
I was taught that when you curse at
someone, you are basically damning them
or telling that person to go to hell. But of
ten when we curse, we are not intending
the words to have this meaning.
In many occasions, curse words are mod
ified and turned into some people’s favorite
adjectives. When cursing is used as a way
to color speech, some might say, “no harm
done.”
While this may not have
the original message of
damnation, using curse
words is the easy way out of
expressing what you truly
mean.
In other words, it’s a lazy
habit.
Anyone can mouth a
four-letter word to describe
some thing or situation. It takes an intelli
gent person to describe in detail what they
actually see or experience.
In fact, even if you curse at someone —
and let’s say that your degree of anger does
n’t merit hoping they end up in hell — there
are still other words that could be used to
express your anger.
A four-letter word leaves a lot to the
imagination. It gives no clue to what the
person did to make you mad or if you just
had a bad day.
Upon inspection, cursing doesn’t express
much at all.
But who cares, they’re just words, right?
A philosopher might say that words are
only symbols for ideas.
Popular four-letter words could be re
placed with other words that mean the
same thing. However, these words would
still grate on us as much as the original
ones do.
Remember, it isn’t the combination of
letters that form a word that is thought of
as profane, it is the idea behind the word. If
the word “bitch” was replaced with the
word “tree,” the new word would still offend
those offended with the original word.
Our society has an unhealthy fascination
with curse words. Almost every movie fea
tures a character releasing a filthy string of
curse words which is basically an attempt
to make the character seem cool. Lyrics to
songs are frequently peppered with curse
words, often with the same objective.
There could be times that the only poetic
thing to say is a curse word. There occa
sionally are exceptions, in fact, within the
world of art.
But many “artists,” be they musicians or
filmmakers, lose sight of this. Most fill
their work with curse words not to capture
a feeling or a mood, but to “sell” their works
to an audience that is easily entertained.
College students in particular have a bad
habit of using curse words too frequently.
Obviously, the surge of personal freedom
one experiences after leaving home carries
over into the language they use.
Of course, if you grew up hearing these
words at the dinner table, it may be hard to
recognize you have a bad habit.
However, society has deemed certain
words profane which do grate on people’s
ears.
Anyone can mouth a four-letter
word to describe some thing or
situation. It takes intelligence to
use other words in descriptions.
I realize we cannot get rid of curse
words. After all, if an idea behind a word
exists apart from the word itself, then there
probably are words that express that idea
also.
But who knows, maybe the ancients
weren’t completely wrong, maybe there are
some sounds that compose words that we
should try to avoid. There could be conse
quences of which we might not be aware.
Such as someone thinking you are shal
low.
Try not to keep it too simple.
Kyle Littlefield is a senior
journalism major
The Battalion
Editorials Board
Established in 1893
Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views
of the editorials board. They do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the
Texas A&M student body, regents, administration,
faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns, cartoons
and letters express the opinions of the authors.
Contact the opinion editor for information on
submitting guest columns.
Jay Robbins
Editor in Chief
Rob Clark
Managing Editor
Sterling Hayman
Opinion Editor
Kyle Littlefield
Assistant Opinion Editor
Silly Suits
Congress should limit the number of
frivolous lawsuit filed by inmates.
Much attention has recently
been given to tort reform, es
pecially within the prison sys
tems. Each year, taxpayers
spend millions of dollars to de
fend thousands of groundless
lawsuits filed by prisoners.
As a result, 27 states, in
cluding Texas, have requested
that Congress pass national
legislation that would give the
states more authority to limit
these costly and unnecessary
suits. Currently, Texas is the
only state that has passed sim
ilar legislation.
Congress should seriously
consider assisting the states in
this endeavor.
In 1993, Texas
prison system in
mates filed 659
lawsuits against
both the state and
other parties. In
1994, that number
grew to 994. Con
sidering that
Texas prison ca
pacity will double
in the near future, the number
of lawsuits could rise to as
many as 1,500 in 1995.
The problem with this is not
inmates practicing their right
to due process, but that the
majority of these lawsuits are
frivolous and are a ludicrous
waste of taxpayers’ money and
court time.
For every lawsuit filed by a
Texas inmate, court costs are
paid by the state. For a one-
day hearing, taxpayers pay ap
proximately $1,700. For a one-
day jury trial, the cost is
around $3,000.
The state should pay court
cost for those whose freedoms
are being infringed upon, but
who cannot afford to pay the
bills. The state should not give
criminals a blank check to en
tertain themselves with the
Texas court system.
Examples of some of the
cases filed by inmates :
• One inmate sued 90 dif
ferent defendants, demanding
a full-length toothbrush so
that his teeth could be as
“healthy as on television and
on each box of Colgate tooth
paste.”
• Another prisoner sought
damages because he claimed
that his dessert was too small.
• And yet another inmate
sued for $15,000 because he
burned his finger while play
ing with a box of matches.
Things seem out of hand,
but fear not, because help is on
the way.
During its last session, the
Texas Legislature passed leg
islation that expedites the dis
missal of such frivolous law
suits, but the courts still need
more leeway.
Texas Attorney
General Dan
Morales Monday
outlined a plan to
lessen the strain
on the courts and
on the pocketbooks
of taxpayers.
Morales said his
office will “encour
age Congress to
pass meaningful
legislation to help curb this
abuse of the criminal justice
system.”
Morales’ program includes
several reforms, such as in
mates losing good-behavior
credits for suits found to be
frivolous; judges hearing cas
es in prisons or by video tele
conference; and settlements
in judgments ruling for in
mates going toward offsetting
the costs of the inmates’ in
carceration.
These ideas could help curb
the problem, but the real solu
tion is using common sense.
The Texas court system
should be able to discern law
suits with merit from those
that are a waste of time and
money.
Prisoners cannot and
should not be denied their
right to due process before the
law, but the line must be
drawn somewhere.
Prisoners are incarcerated
because they have abused the
laws of our society. Society
should not let them abuse the
justice system also.
The Battalion
Editorial Staff
Jay Robbins, editor in Chief
Rob CLARK, Managing Editor
Sterling Hayman, Opinion Editor
Gretchen Perrenot, City Editor
Jody Holley, Night news Eititor
STACY Stanton, Night News Editor
MICHAEL LanDAUER, Aggielife Editor
Nick GeorGANDIS, Sports Editor
Stew Milne, Photo Editor
Staff Members
City Desk - Assistant Editor: Eleanor Colvin; Re
porters: Katherine Arnold, Javier Hinojosa,
Jill Saunders, Michael Simmons, Wes Swift
& Tara Wilkinson
Aggielife Desk - Assistant Editor: Amy Collier Fea
ture Writers: Elizabeth Garrett, Amy Collier
& Libe Goad; Columnist: Amy Uptmor
Sportswriters - David Winder and Jimmy Williams
Opinion Desk - Assistant Editor: Kyle Littlefield;
Columnists: Elizabeth Preston, Frank Stan
ford & David Taylor; Contributing Colum
nists: Justin Barnett, Margaret Gordon, Alex
Miller, Chris Stidvent & Mark Zane; Editori
al Writers: Jason Brown & Alex Walters;
Editorial Cartoonists: Brad Graeber &
George Nasr
Photographers - Mike Friend, Tommy Huynh, Nick
Rodnicki & Eddy Wylie
Page Designers - News: Kristin DeLuca; Sports:
Robin Greathouse; Aggielife: Stew Milne
Copy Editors - Rob Clark & Sterling Hayman
Graphic Artists - Toon Boonyavanich & Melissa
Oldham
Strip Cartoonists - Valerie Myers & Quatro Oakley
Office Staff - Office Manager: Julie Thomas;
Clerks: Wendy Crockett & Heather Harris
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