The Things People Believe

What if you had a dream that something horrible was going to happen to someone? What if you phoned police to warn them - would they / should they take you seriously (are we all precogs now?) ?

 

After reading this story out of Texas, I really have to wonder:

 

The Liberty County Sheriff’s Office has not yet found or identified the psychic tipster that sparked a wild hunt Tuesday for a mass grave and drew intense media attention from around the globe.
“We are still actively trying to identify and locate the caller,” Rex Evans, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said today.
The tipster claimed there was a grave on the residential property outside of Hardin with two dozen or more dismembered bodies, including those of children, but an exhaustive search later Tuesday proved pointless: The blood came from a weeks-old incident and the odor was a pile of rotting meat in a non-functioning deep freezer.
"There is no indication that there are in fact any bodies located at this residence or in the shed here," or anywhere on the property, said Liberty County sheriff's Captain Rex Evans, adding that there was no indication that any illegal activity had taken place on the property.

Seems that perhaps just a little more skepticism about the claims of a self-professed psychic might have gone a long way here. But a lack of skepticism isn't exclusive to the good folks of Texas, judging by this story about a "grave witcher" in Manitoba:

 

Jack Mavins has a mysterious ability to know what lies beneath.
He says "witching" a lot but allows that, "I really should say 'dowsing.' "
Mavins, 79, is a witcher of lost and unmarked graves, searching out unknown burial sites on windy hilltop cemeteries and vacant corners of old farm yards for the past 20 years.
He claims to not only find where the bodies are buried, but also determine whether it's a male or female, and whether it's an adult, adolescent or child. He uses two welding rods and they will cross each other where the body lies and uncross once he's walked past. The welding rods will spin counter-clockwise for a female and clockwise for males.
He can also tell whether it's animal or human. Humans lie straight whereas animals are typically on their side, often curled with their legs in front of them.
The only thing he can't say is why it works. His two sons can do it -his wife and daughter can't. 

Wow. Sounds pretty amazing. The story goes on and on about Mavins's "powers" until finally we get to this interesting tidbit:

 

Not that anyone's ever dug up a grave to prove Mavins right or wrong.

 

 

Now, if someone claims to have such remarkable abilities, I don't think it's unreasonable at some point to ask for proof. In this case, that is a somewhat grim task, but until it can actually be demonstrated that this guy isn't either full of it or delusional, shouldn't a little more skepticism be in order?

 

Heck, maybe we should just send Mr. Mavins to search for the non-existent mass graves down there in Texas.