Infinite Zero

Do psychic powers exist? (Yikes!)

About five summers ago, I was at a red light waiting impatiently to make a left turn from LaSalle Street onto Erwin Road (Duke University campus, NC). When the light turned green and the straight traffic from the opposite side cleared, I was ready to go. But at the very last minute, just as I eased off the brakes, a thought crossed my mind.

“Nah, I shouldn’t go just yet. I’m going to sit here just a bit longer.” This made no sense. The light was green, the coast was clear, and I was a teenage driver. Why would such a thought ever even cross my mind?

So after a few seconds had passed, I shrugged it off and put my foot on the gas. I immediately slammed on the brakes as I saw a woman run through the red light at 35-45 mph (see figure). If I hadn’t been delayed those couple of seconds by that peculiar thought, she would have crashed right into my driver’s door, and things would have gone to hell for both of us. If I was lucky, I would have broken a couple of bones. But I don’t think I would have walked away.

The chances for any of this to have happened by mere chance were incredibly slim. For one, I never have weird, out-of-the-blue thoughts like this. The schematic is also vastly oversimplified - Erwin has about 3 lanes in the right direction (as shown) where it crosses LaSalle. At the time, all the other lanes had stopped cars. The only lane that was empty happened to be the lane in the middle, which also happened to be the lane in which the woman on her phone was driving. So there was no way for me to see it coming - I had no visual, since all the other vehicles in the other lanes were blocking my view.

Do I have psychic abilities? (That got your attention.) Well, it probably depends on what you define as a “psychic ability.” Society and the media have made psychics out to be quacks. But are they, really? Maybe we all have some kind of innate psychic abilities, kind of like a sixth sense, that most of us just haven’t been able to put our fingers on.

I have a friend in California who has a similar story. Continue reading ‘Psychic abilities?!’