The link between parapsychology and religion helps explain people’s incredible will to believe psychic claims. These beliefs are very often critic-proof — no matter what sorts of critiques are offered, people will continue to believe. It doesn’t matter if the alleged psychic is shown to be using tricks or even if they admit, openly, to using tricks. People will refuse to become more skeptical.
This is how it was at the very beginning of spiritualism, so it is not a recent development. Margaret Fox, one of the two girls who originated spiritualism, eventually admitted how she and her sisters fooled everyone, but few accepted this and insisted on believing anyway. A standard rebuttal goes something like “Sure, s/he cheated this time, but that does not mean that s/he always cheated — can you prove that all the other instances were fake as well?”
Of course, it would be difficult if not impossible to prove such a thing — but once the existence of trickery on the part of an alleged psychic has been established, it is no longer the job of skeptics to prove the existence of trickery in every instance. Instead, it is the job of believers to establish that any instance of alleged powers is now credible.
A similar form of special pleading occurs in the context of attempts to study parapsychological phenomena scientifically. It is not unusual to find that, in a series of experiments, flaws occurred which draw the purported results into serious question. Some, however, have argued that unless a skeptic can empirically demonstrate that these alleged flaws actually account for those results, the flaws should simply be ignored.
One final form of this will to believe can be found when professional illusionists are involved. These individuals are able to do the same sorts of things as those who claim to have psychic powers — but the illusionist readily admits that it is all a trick of some sort, though it is rare that you will be told exactly how the trick is done. Such admissions — even when they do include a demonstration of the method — often fail to produce understanding in believers in parapsychology.
For example, James Randi was able to plant two amateur illusionists in a parapsychological lab in order to demonstrate that the researchers were unable to detect deliberate trickery because they simply lacked the skills and experience in such matters. Dubbed “Project Alpha,” this led to the Parapsychological Association recommending to all its members that they consult with professional illusionists when constructing experiments.
Despite all of the repeated admissions of trickery, at least one researcher who was in that lab never accepted that the feats were tricks — he continued to insist that the two young men performed authentic miracles. Randi was not the first and he will not be the last professional to experience such masochism on the part of a believer in parapsychology. In some people, the desire to believe is so strong that they simply will not let any facts get in the way.
