Paranormal

Paranormal is an umbrella term used to describe a wide variety of reported anomalous phenomena. According to the Journal of Parapsychology, the term "paranormal" describes "any phenomenon that in one or more respects exceeds the limits of what is deemed physically possible according to current scientific assumptions."

Sourced

• All of you out there who believe in telepathy, raise your hand. All right. Now, everyone who believes in telekinesis...raise MY hand.
  • Dennis Owens, morning host of WGMS-FM radio, "Material from the one-liner file", USENET: rec.humor.funny, 17 September 1992
  • Variation: Everyone who believes in telekinesis, raise my hand.
    • Usually attributed to James Randi, who has denied originating the quote (in an email dated July 11, 2006)
    • Swift, 15 March 2002, closing line

• The whole art [of paranormal debate] thus consists of getting the charlatans to speak on the one hand and the distinguished scientists to speak on the other, provided the latter have nothing relevant to say on the subject.
  • On how news organizations avoid using professional magicians to shed light on deceptive paranormalist practices
  • Jacques Ninio, The Science of Illusions, unspecified edition, unspecified page

• If psychics were truly successful and if their results were not simply the consequence of trickery (at worse) or good interviewing skills (at best) — then why don't law enforcement agencies have psychic detective squads, a real X-files Unit, or other ways to integrate these paranormal investigative capabilites?
  • Clint Van Zandt, former FBI profiler; quoted in "Shoe leather, not sixth sense, breaks cases open", MSNBC.com, 30 March 2005

Unsourced

• Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
  • Arthur C. Clarke

• Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
  • Carl Sagan

• If you see a two-headed pig, keep your mouth shut.
  • Irish proverb

• There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance -- that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
  • Herbert Spencer

• Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.
  • Thomas Huxley

• The universe is not only queerer than we imagine; it is queerer than we can imagine.
  • J. B. S. Haldane