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The Missing Psychic

 

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If you’re at all familiar with my forty three year career in parapsychology, you may have noticed an absence of one particular element in all my writing and speaking.  The specific item left unsaid is my steadfast refusal to work with psychics, until now, that is.

Aside from the difficulty of objectively verifying their information, there was an ever-present concern over the individuals themselves.  There have been older and younger psychics, taller and shorter ones, male and female as well as attractive and unattractive ones.  But the fundamental issue that prevented me from working with them, with the singular exception of a girlfriend for five months in the late 1970’s as discussed in Chapter 10 of my book, was that they all frightened the daylights out of me, but not for the reasons one might suspect, especially as I started out my involvement in this field as a psychic.

What was disturbing to me about these individuals was that they all spoke only about themselves, their alleged gifts, talents, skills, etc., never about what they were able to do with said abilities to better the human condition.

Generally speaking, they were all, in my professional opinion, self-righteous egomaniacs who tried to employ whatever paranormal abilities they had to deprive anyone in their presence of their hard earned money.

Not that someone shouldn’t be payed for a provided service with the one exception that said service is not solely self-serving.

Some of these individuals were very gifted, but were also somewhat troubled, and on occasion, down right psychotic in believing that if they could occasionally access precisely accurate information about people, places and events from the past, present, future and at-a-distance, that they could never be in error with their perceptions.

Some of these interesting people actually developed messianic complexes, believing that they could never be wrong regardless of the facts before them.

Surrounded by such aberrational thinking was far more disturbing than the phenomena I was investigating at the time.

But nothing bad lasts forever, right?  How does that phrase go “All things come to those who wait?”

In the late fall of 2006, I met a young man by the name of Jack Rourke, who hired me to speak at a local event.  Over time, we became friends and eventually colleagues.  Jack Rourke is an incredibly gifted psychic, as well as being a medical intuitive.

Having now worked with him for almost five years, I can professionally say that Jack Rourke is perhaps the most talented psychic I’ve ever encountered, and there have been thousands.

But what makes Jack utterly unique and uncommon in my experience is his total lack of ego regarding his abilities.   He is very grounded and sincere,  never speaking of himself but of what he’s been able to do in the assistance of others.

His knowledge of clinical psychology (more than I forgot), spirituality, and parapsychology in general, is balanced with a healthy perspective on what he does and why he does it.

The only thing I regret about knowing Jack Rourke is that I had not met him some forty years ago, as we all could have benefited from his input at every level of our work.

As Jack is more than a generation my junior, it would have been quite impossible for such a working relationship to have existed way back when, as he was a baby at the time.

I speak of Jack not only in the acknowledgments page of my book, but also in the very first chapter (A Haunting Thought) as he was part of our investigative team at the Hollymont case back in 2008 as well as many others prior to and since.

Jack has become an invaluable member of our research group and we have all benefited from working with him at every level.

There may well be other psychics like him somewhere on earth, however, I’ve never met another even close to the type of person he is.

Jack Rourke is on a quest to understand human nature as related to the paranormal, while improving himself at the same time.  Jack is an invaluable asset at many levels and for a multitude of reasons.  All the right reasons, to be exact.  Jack Rourke can be reached through his website: jackrourke.net.

I strongly urge anyone with an interest in parapsychology and paranormal research purchase Jack Rourke’s new book, The Rational Psychic: A Skeptic’s Guide to Extraordinary Perception, as you will be thoroughly engrossed, entertained and educated all at the same time.

By Dr. Barry Taff

Dr. Barry Taff, who holds a doctorate in psychophysiology with a minor in biomedical engineering, worked as a research associate at UCLAs former parapsychology laboratory from 1969 through 1978. During his 41-year career, Dr. Taff has investigated more than 4,000 cases of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeists, and he has conducted extensive studies in telepathy and precognition which led to the development of the original protocols and methodologies for what was later coined remote-viewing. He is the author of Aliens Above, Ghosts Below.

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