[It may very well be that these things being tested are slippery phenomena. But it is more likely, in my mind, that their lack of reliability in these circumstances means that they don't exist. At least they don't exist in the way we like to describe them.]
That's exactly right! If a psi ability can't be performed on cue in any and all circumstances in a way that someone else can verify it and measure it - then scientifically it really doesn't exist.
When I was in college I met a woman who had "perfect pitch" - meaning if you asked her to sing a note, like an "A" she could do it and you could verify it using a tuned piano. Or if you played a note on an instrument she would know what it was- A, Bb, C#, whatever. She demonstrated this ability in front of all the faculty and practically half of the school over the course of the 4 years she went to college. STILL, there were people that said there was some trick, perfect pitch doesn't exist, that doesn't prove anything, she memorized the notes, on and on and on. Finally, by her senior year she was so sick of people asking her about perfect pitch, asking her to show off she said she couldn't do it anymore. Her music professors hated her because she had something they didn't have and her grades sucked even though she really should have been teaching them. In her senior year she told all her professors she was "lucky" and guessed the right answers and said that perfect pitch is really just a theory. Her grades went up and everyone started treating her like a normal person again.
Luckily, this woman was my roomates girlfriend so she felt comfortable telling me "the truth." She told me that every note has overtones that your ear can't hear but your body can feel. Not only did she know what note was being played but she knew what all the overtones were. Not just with individual notes, but chords too, and not just with one instrument, but with a whole orchestra- people have no idea what they're really being exposed to when they hear orchestra music. What you actually hear is just the tip of the iceburg.
Being around her was absolutely intoxicating. She talked about stuff no one else talked about, stuff no one really cares about. But then my roomate was a d**k to her and she was gone.
That's the way the world treats people with gifts. They're jerks to them and they go away.
No one's going to win that contest. Those that could have, have already gone away. Either that or they just turn to the DarkSide and just start scamming people.
