SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

The supernatural seems to hate scientific laboratories. Experiments have been set up with clairvoyants – people who can see things that are going on out their range of vision. Clairvoyants have been asked to guess what shapes are on hidden cards, but the number of correct answers is not significantly better than those chose by chance.

But, say the clairvoyants, predicting shapes on card has no emotional importance – unlike an impending disaster. The police have used clairvoyants and look for missing people. The difficulty of investigating these facts interesting supernatural phenomena using scientific equipments is illustrated by toci-toci beetles.

The male beetle attracts a mate by tapping on a stone. He can be heard by females up to 5km (3 miles) away, but no sound can be detected by even the most sensitive microscope. Those who believe in the supernatural, might say that just because the microphone does not pick up the sound, it does not prove that something is not prove that something is not happening. The scientific might say that the females do not use supernatural powers to detect the male, but hear the sound waves caused by his tapping.