Psychic detective - Definition and Overview

A psychic detective is a self-proclaimed psychic who uses his or her alleged paranormal powers to help law enforcement agencies solve crimes (often kidnappings and murders). Alleged abilities frequently include postcognition (the supernatural perception of the past), psychometry (the paranormal divination of information based on reading the 'aura' of a place or object), and telepathy.

Sylvia Browne has made claims to helping solve crimes, but the advice was either useless or so vague as to be meaningless.

Australian police have said that they do not accept assistance from psychics. This was in response to an Australian tv show "Sensing Murder" in which alleged psychics attempt to crack unsolved murders. [1] (http://www.keypoint.com.au/~skeptics/Sensing_Murder)

Psychic Detective is also the title of a 1994 video game.

External links and references

• Skeptic's Dictionary on psychic detectives (http://skepdic.com/psychdet.html)
• The Skeptical Inquirer on psychic detectives (http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/police-psychics.html)