Dear Jeff,

Thanks for your heartfelt post. I can appreciate where you're coming
from, and believe me, I would also love to hear about real, honest, true
life stories of people who have succeeded in mastering
paranormal/supernatural abilities. I suppose that is why TheCoyote began
this thread in the first place. Interestingly, though, all of the
discussion has been centered on attacking skeptics and science (which
prompts me to defend it), and no one has yet contributed a first-person
success story. So, I too am patiently waiting.

Well, if you'll allow a personal story of failure, I can offer a personal
account, which is completely true. When I was younger, I was very
attracted to the whole paranormal/supernatural scene, especially inspired
by the likes of Uri Geller. He said anyone could learn to bend spoons
with their minds, and it appeared that children from all over the world were
able to do it with him on his TV specials. So, I followed all his
instructions with the complete trust and full belief of a child that I
could do it, too. I even went to bed each night holding a spoon or fork,
falling asleep with the full intention that by morning, the metal would
melt and bend. I read all those wonderful stories of "PK parties" and saw
all those cool pictures of spoons and forks bent into all sorts of wild
shapes. So, I was confident I could do it too, since everyone else seemed
to be able to.

But of course, since I prefaced this account as a "failure," you already
know that I did not succeed in my goal. The thought occurred to me:
maybe I need to spend years and years developing this power. But then I
realized something ... gee ... if I want to bend a spoon, well, I can just
BEND it (with my muscles!) Why spend years and years developing a power
to do something I can easily do in a few seconds with my bare hands or
some simple tools?

And I realized this applied to all those fanciful powers which I wish I
possessed:

Paranormal power .................... Practical solution
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Psychokinesis ........................ Reach out and move it
Walking through walls .............. Use the door
Clairvoyance ........................... Ask, "What's on your mind?"
Telepathy ............................... Say, "Here's what I think."
Levitation ................................ Board an aircraft
Walking on water ..................... Board a boat
Teleportation ........................... Walk, ride, drive
Controlling the weather ............. Carry an umbrella
Healing disease ....................... Practice a healthy lifestyle
Omniscience ........................... Read, learn, do my homework
Precognition ............................ Live a day at a time
Invisibility ................................ Keep quiet
Shapeshifting ........................... Have a varied, colorful wardrobe

... etc. ... etc. ...

I'm not ruling out the possibility that someone can manifest the abilities
on the left-hand-side (which as you say may take a lifetime to master and
an extraordinary amount of energy to perform), but I just find them quite
meaningless if there's a simple, ready solution on the right-hand-side
(which anyone can do with ease).

Another great "power" someone can develop is an objective, rational mind.
It's astonishing that so many people would rather trust the promises of a
magical, mystical figure than learn to trust their own critical voice.

Anyway, that's my own story, for what it's worth. If gurus like Uri
Geller are genuine (despite all the debunking evidence against him which
has arisen over the years), then I'm sure he can sleep well at night, and
I hope his dream of a world where the "paranormal" becomes "normal" comes
true. It simply didn't in my case, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
(More importantly, I have nothing to gain by pretending something that is
actually false is true.) Perhaps the world is not ready yet for such a
reality-shift, but when it is, believe me, the revolution will be led by
the previous skeptics, because we will be able to prove beyond a doubt
that it is genuine.

Best,

HF