Dr. Phil and the psychic

[Phoenix]

Recently Dr. Phil aired an show about psychic posing as Dr. Phil staff and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this. I personally feel that it's because of people like that, that gives psychic's a bad name and the rest of us a bad name.

~Phoenix~

[Nightshade]

I haven't heard about this yet (kind of funny in my opinion since I can't stand Dr. Phil). I also feel the media and "hollywoodification" are to blame for the stigma placed on psis and the way the public views us. For instance, the X-men movie may persuade certain people into believing we are "mutants" or bent on destruction.

EDIT: My smilies are disabled, and I don't see an 'enable smilies' option anywhere; how do I enable them?

[Phoenix]

here is the show info...

http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/791
&
http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/792

[Winged_Wolf]

Nightshade, your smilies are fine--but smilies are disabled in many of the topic areas, as staff thought they were too disruptive.

[Nightshade]

Ok, I just wasn't sure if they were disabled for me or not...I tried the :crazy: one and it didn't work.

In afterthought, it doesn't seem that there is much of a bad name with psions (psychics yes; people like Mrs. Cleo makes them appear to be frauds), however not too many people know about psions unless they play D&D or a similar game.

[Winged_Wolf]

Psions are psychics with a fancy name to make them sound more scientific. It's still the same thing.

[Nightshade]

Hmm, by the definition I heard somewhere and my own, psychics are only referenced as clairvoyants and seers, which is what I meant to make clear, sorry for the confusion.

But not a lot of people have heard of psions, so score one for not having a bad reputation! lol

[Winged_Wolf]

psy·chic /ˈsaɪkɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[sahy-kik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective Also, psy·chi·cal.
1. of or pertaining to the human soul or mind; mental (opposed to physical).
2. Psychology. pertaining to or noting mental phenomena.
3. outside of natural or scientific knowledge; spiritual.
4. of or pertaining to some apparently nonphysical force or agency: psychic research; psychic phenomena.
5. sensitive to influences or forces of a nonphysical or supernatural nature.
–noun
6. a person who is allegedly sensitive to psychic influences or forces; medium.

Hmm...nope, dictionary.com pretty much says it all. Anyone attempting to restrict the definition of 'psychic' is acting on their own.
The term psion and psionics isn't nearly as well-known, but it's not completely unknown either. There's a vast pool of people who read science fiction or play roleplaying games who will have heard it without having looked into the real thing.

[Terro]

I've personally never been a fan of the term psion myself, sounds like far too much of a sci-fi/roleplaying term, but that's just me being stubborn (where did it originate though, that I would like to know).

As far as Dr. Phil, I don't know anyone who takes him seriously, when it comes to the psychic, people have been exaggerating and inflating the stories and hype in the wrong directions since the first shamans, I don't think it will be changing much any time soon.

[G2_Wolf]

I don't think Dr.Phil has a clue what he's talking about ever since the VT Shooting that he and Jack Thompson tried to blame on video games before we knew anything about the shooter.

[Winged_Wolf]

The word Psi is the name of a Greek letter. This letter was used in parapsychological experiments to denote the unknown factor (much as X and Y are commonly used in mathematics). Thus, the psi factor.
The first useage of the term 'psionic' probably appears in a science fiction novel, where it was applied to a telepathic radio. (Psi + electronic). However it quickly (and perhaps simultaneously) fell into common useage to refer to psi abilities (psionic abilities). Naturally, someone who uses psionic abilities is a psion. The term was in useage in science fiction and in the psychic community, so naturally folks doing research for roleplaying games applied it to correctly to psychic skills in the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game. (There is a very high percentage of psis in the science fiction and fantasy author population, and I would not be even remotely surprised if Gary Gygax is a psi himself...I know for a fact some of the people who used to play with him are).

As an avid reader who has attended SF conventions in the past, and as a prospective author, I'm hyper-aware of just where authors tend to get their ideas from. A large part of this sort of writing derives soley from the imagination, but a surprisingly large part of it also derives from personal experience. Take what you know, give a twist to make it more exciting...re-write the rules, and there you are. Psionics made its way into science fiction from the psychic community, and not the other way around.

It's no black mark for an idea to appear in science fiction...on the contrary, science fiction has displayed astonishing predictive capability about a great many things, and has been responsible for introducing terms into our language before we had the technology to make what they represented a reality.

Thus, the term 'psionic', like the word 'robot', has a respectable enough origin...the imagination of someone who dreamed of tomorrow's possibilities and presented them for the world to see.