[JohnMakin]

There actually has been some science done on the monks in the example I am talking about, particularly their ability to control their body temperature in a controlled setting, and the conclusion was that they can, but there was some skepticism as to what precisely was going on: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2002/04/meditation-ch...

skepticism is healthy but if you discard things out of bias immediately without looking further, you’re kind of practicing the same kind of ignorance that leads to these types of superstitions.

[nuc1e0n]

Another factor is a poor understanding of selection bias and statistics can skew expectations as well. Mentalists like Darren Brown make use of this for their stage shows.