How do we know what we know, if we know anything?

[Rampant.A.I.]

Telepathy and psychic phenomena are in my humble opinion, nothing but expert mental sleight of hand and the application of pattern recognition.

It's not unlike Déjà Vu: Your subconscious mind is recognizing a pattern your conscious mind has yet to. Most people I've talked to have had the experience of looking at an item on their way out the door in the morning, and thinking "I should bring that. Nah, what are the chances I'd need it?"

Then sometime later in the day, they realize they really could have used whatever the item was.

It's merely your subconscious mind being less burdened than your conscious mind, and more able to plan ahead.

What about maternal instinct? When a mother has a "gut feeling" that something is wrong with her child or her child is in some kind of trouble, and it proves to be a valid intuition? You don't think that ever happens?

Why do you think a mother is less likely to recognize patterns of behavior in her offspring than psychically intuit illness?

It seems we're arguing the same thing, the only difference being the connotative worldview of the terminology used.