Thinking About Psychic Powers Helps Us Think About Science

When I was twelve years old, I was fascinated by psychic powers. It's a provocative notion, to be able to reach out and push things around, hear what other people are thinking, or tell the future, all just by using your mind. I read everything I could find about ESP, telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition--the whole gamut of mental abilities that stretched beyond the ordinary. I was a big fan of comic books, where all the heroes were endowed with superpowers, but also of science-fiction and fantasy stories, not to mention straightforwardly "scientific" accounts of what purported to be evidence for human capabilities beyond the normal. I wanted to penetrate the mystery, figure out how this kind of thing could really work.