Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
For years, fantasy and sci-fi movies and books have been imagining humanity with various
hidden powers.
From the X-Men to the Sixth Sense, it’s fun to think about what you’d do with special
powers.
But some people nowadays claim to actually have hidden abilities.
Some claim to talk to the dead, or read minds, or even act as a human magnet.
But are these people really special, or are they just accomplished con artists?
Make sure to let us know what power YOU’D most like to have in the comments down below.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question, Do We have Hidden Powers?
If we’re talking supernatural powers, we should start with the man who’s made it
his life’s goal to find someone with true supernatural abilities, and debunk the con
artists along the way, James Randi.
Or as some would say, Santa Claus.
Randi’s 1 million dollar challenge offers a million smackaroos to anyone who can prove
they have a supernatural ability.
But with a million bucks on the line, and so many people claiming to have such amazing
powers, why hasn’t anyone won it yet?
Well, let’s look into some of the claims and see where they’re going wrong.
I’ll keep it short here, but if anything catches your fancy and you’d like a video
all about it, let me know in the comment section and I’d be happy to oblige!
Let’s start off with one ability that many believe to this day, and has created lucrative
careers for a number of people: communicating with the dead.
These people claim to be in tune with the spirit world, communicating with the dead
in suspiciously…
vague terms.
However, when tested in a controlled setting, these supposed mediums predict no better than
those simply using psychological techniques to make educated guesses.
They take advantage of cold reading techniques, and the fact that people remember the hits,
and quickly forget the misses, to make their ability seem more impressive.
One of the most famous of these supposed mediums is Theresa Caputa: The Long Island Medium.
She’s made millions preying on the grieving, claiming to talk to their dead loved ones.
On the surface, she seems like the usual con artist; making safely vague claims, without
actually divulging any new information.
However, on top of using the usual strategies of looking at body language, and facial expressions,
or listening to clues in responses, she also uses more modern techniques.
Some critics even believe that she uses information on Facebook and Twitter to learn about future
audience members, who she finds via Ticketmaster.
According to past audience members, her assistants even ask prospective clients about their lives
ahead of time.
It seems that Caputa is a charlatan among charlatans, and is stealing money from the
grieving for her own benefit.
Some people take the whole superpower thing even further, and try to actually use their
supernatural ability to fight.
There are a number of people who claim to be able to harness the power of Chi to be
able to put out superhuman amounts of force in combat, often without even touching their
opponent.
Here we see Tai Chi master Yan Fang pushing believing students.
And here we see her pushing a skeptic.
Did you notice the difference?
This is normal for tests like this; it seems that when the opponent isn’t in on the scam,
the chi simply doesn’t work.
There are even some highly successful trainers who teach these demonstrably bogus techniques,
like George Dillman.
He’s worked with fighters like Bruce Li and Muhammad Ali, and teaches the use of chi
and pressure points to knock out your enemy.
Apparently he even teaches Kamehameha.
However, when asked to test his techniques with skeptics, he continually refuses, and
any attempts from his students have been unsuccessful.
But there must be some super convenient explanation for this right George?
h Ah.
Sounds about right.
Now we come to one power that we’ve all imagined having at one point: Flight.
Achieving human flight has been discussed in a number of ways.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, for example, explains that human flight is possible
if you throw yourself at the ground… and miss.
While I wouldn’t advise testing this theory, it’s certainly interesting (and, as you’d
expect with Douglas Adams, quite funny).
But we’ve seen people claiming to fly since then, like Criss Angel.
Sadly, however, any claims of unassisted human flight have been debunked.
Back to the drawing board…
Now, much of this video was spent debunking various supposed supernatural abilities, but
that isn’t to say that humans aren’t capable of amazing things.
In times of stress, the body is able to go above and beyond its usual limits.
Take Angela Cavallo, the woman who lifted a car off her son when he was trapped beneath
it using hysterical strength.
Or Daniel Kish, the blind mountain biker who uses a kind of echolocation to see the terrain
around him.
Yeah, he’s Daredevil.
This is to say that while many supposed supernatural abilities do seem to be bunk, that doesn’t
mean we humans can’t throw down when times get tough.
And now we return to our question: Do we have hidden powers?
Well, it depends what you mean.
If you’re asking if we can fly, or talk to the dead, or fight with chi… not so much.
The failure of these abilities in controlled scientific circumstances leads one to believe
that their practitioners are simply con artists.
However, humans can certainly do some rather amazing things in times of stress.
Just don’t expect the X-Men to show up anytime soon.
Okay, that’s enough nerdy references for one video.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
People make some incredible claims; it’s important to look into these things if you
want to avoid being deceived.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know what one superpower you would want to have.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.