I didn't say it was bullshit. I said that the null hypothesis is that it's bullshit. If there are claimants that telepathy is a true phenomenon, the burden lies entirely with them to show that the null hypothesis isn't true. To do that, they must present evidence. Saying that you saw or experienced something is not in itself the kind of evidence that makes it over the bar in science.

The problem with telepathy is that it is firmly embedded in popular mythology. I'm not really interested enough to find out, but I'm thinking that whole books have been written about it, and we have the internet to add grist to the mill. Such tomes would undoubtedly capture the imagination of many people who love to suspend disbelief (quite a good thing to do occasionally). It's quite possible to persuade yourself that something you've experienced fits nicely with something you've read about which fired up your imagination. Nowt wrong with that. We're human beings, not Spocks. I definitely saw ball lightning one late evening in the early 1980s. I was on my own getting the cat in. Stone cold sober. I hadn't a clue what I was seeing, but on looking it up afterwards I discovered that it exactly fitted in all respects the phenomenon which had been described by many other people. I tried strenuously to discover If anyone else had seen it. No joy. Only me. Now the thing is I hadn't known anything about ball lightning. I didn't go out looking for it having read about it in books or New Scientist. I was an innocent abroad. Anyone who tells you that they can do telepathy has almost certainly read all about it. I'm not interested in it but even I've read all about it. The powers of suggestion are mighty. None of this negates the claims. But it does require that a mountain must be climbed in order to acquire plausible evidence. I have a slightly less lofty mountain to climb with my ball lightning because it is at least a phenomenon that has some scientific credibility. But equally I could have made the whole thing up in order to grab myself a moment in the limelight. I don't expect anyone to believe a word I've said about it. Not because I'm humble but because I wish to act rationally. It's ironic to me that people who claim far less feasible experiences often expect everyone else to take them on board straight away. Raggytash wouldn't do that, I know that. The other bloke, however, does not enjoy the same degree of required diffidence.