However, many scientists would say that the Delphi oracle's extrasensory perception-both clairvoyance (seeing the king make his lamb—and—tortoise stew) and precognition (foretelling the outcome of the battle)-contradicts the laws of nature and is therefore physically impossible. Physicist Milton Rothman, author of A Physicist's Guide to Skepticism, believes that all activities-normal and paranormal- must follow physical principles:

Transmission of information through space requires transfer of energy from one place to another. Telepathy requires transmission of an energy—carrying signal directly from one mind to another. All descriptions of ESP imply violations of conservation of energy the principle that mass energy can be neither created nor destroyed in one way or another, as well as violations of all the principles of information theory and even of the principle of causality the principle that an effect cannot precede its cause...