Parapsychology

Parapsychology is the study of the evidence involving phenomena where a person seems to affect or to gain information about something through a means not currently explainable within the framework of mainstream, conventional science. Proponents of the existence of these phenomena usually consider them to be a product of unexplained mental abilities.

How science views the field

Scientists treat all claims with scientific skepticism. After examining psi claims for over a century, there has been significant difficulty in merging the results of parapsychology studies with other fields of science. As a result, many in the scientific community think that parapsychology is not a real science, that psi phenomena do not exist, and that parapsychology is a pseudoscience. Many scientists and skeptical observers of the field believe that some parapsychologists knowingly commit fraud; that some are incompetent; and that some are naïve and therefore easily deceived by fraudulent participants; or perhaps some combination of the above.

Related Topics:
Scientific skepticism - Pseudoscience - Fraud

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Parapsychologists disagree with this assessment. Many have been formally trained in science, and are familiar with the scientific method. Statistician Jessica Utts has shown in a number of papers that:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well established. The statistical results of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance. Arguments that these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments are soundly refuted."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The precise percentage of scientists holding negative views about parapsychology is unclear, since surveys targeting this group are far less common than those targeting the general population. In his article Save Our Science: Paranormal Phenomena and Zetetics, skeptic Henri Broch complains:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"These data are based on an investigation on the belief in parasciences among Frenchmen (published in 1986). Contrary to what might have been thought, the level of belief in the paranormal is directly proportional to the level of education, whatever the religious persuasion may be. Those with higher scientific degrees fare slightly better, although their level of belief is superior to the average!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some skeptics believe that there is a tendency for parapsychology researchers to select "good days" and discard "bad days" for the people in the test samples. But the "Theory of Runs" shows that the chance of a long run of successes (or failures) increases drastically when the periods of success or failure are selected as part of a larger sample. See: Feller, William (1968), An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, vol. I, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, p. 86. For a more recent discussion of the theory and the "arcsine law" see

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

http://almira.math.u-bordeaux.fr/jtnb/1996-1/manstavicius.ps or

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Unfortunately, what may skeptics are not aware of, is that the criticisms raised by statisticians like Feller are out of date by many decades. That is, the prevailing experimental methodology and conventions of statistical analysis in parapsychology have not been susceptible to such critiques since the 1940s and 1950s when Feller first raised his criticisms. See the chapter called "Field Guide to Skepticism"http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/guide/in Dean Radin's (1997) Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena" for a review of such out-to-date criticism. Radin's book also provides a review of experimental parapsychology up to 1997 that contradicts the "party-line" that many skeptics uncritically follow without having first-hand knowledge of the research literature of the field. (See Rochus Boerner's article "The Objectivity of Science: Seven Signs of Bogus Skepticism" for some examples of skepticism/criticisms raised without a familiarity with the research literature of a field http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/objectivity/bogusskepticism.htm.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sociologist Andrew Greeley, studying surveys and polls since 1978, found not only that the percentage of Americans admitting to psychic experiences had increased over a decade, but that about two thirds of college professors accepted ESP, and more than 25% of "elite scientists" believed in ESP. Other polls have shown that many scientists hold such beliefs privately but do not share such opinions publicly for fear of ridicule.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Parapsychological Association http://www.parapsych.orgis an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). There are chairs, centers, or research units concerned with parapsychology in whole or in part at many universities around the world, as well as independent laboratories involved in parapsychology. For example, the Koestler Parapsychology Unit in the School of Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistic Sciences at the University of Edinburgh http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/, the Parapsychology Unit of the Psychology Department at Liverpool Hope University http://hopelive.hope.ac.uk/psychology/parapsychology.htm, the Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology Unit at Liverpool John Moores University http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/ctp/smith.html, the Center for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes at University College Northampton http://almond.admin.nene.ac.uk:7777/portal/page?_pageid=473,2921704&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL, the Mind-Matter Unification Project at Cambridge University http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/, and the Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene of Frieburg University http://www.igpp.de/english/welcome.html, among others. Links to other research organizations, university units, periodicals is available under the "Psi Info" section of the website of the Parapsychology Foundation http://www.parapsychology.org/dynamic/060200.html. Many members of these units, while not considered to be skeptics per se, investigate the phenomena of the field from the point of view of conventional hypotheses, that is, looking at psychological correlates of reports of experiences, "successful" performances in laboratory tests, as well as looking for evidentially-supported extensions to current knowledge in physics, physiology, neuropsychology and other disciplines. The bulk of the refinements to the methodological repertoire of the field of parapsychology -- both in terms of experimental method and in terms of statistical and other evaluative techniques -- have come from this segment of the community, that is, from the so-called "proponents".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A few parapsychologists are skeptics, for example Chris French and his colleagues at the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College in London, and Richard Wiseman and his colleagues at the Perrott-Warrick Research Unit in the Psychology Department of the University of Hertfordshire, both of which units include individuals who are members of the Parapsychological Association. These researchers do not approach the field with a belief in the paranormal, but are rather interested in the purely psychological aspects of those who report paranormal experiences, along with the study of the psychology of deception, hallucination, etc. These researchers also have provided their own guidelines and input to other parapsychologists for the design of experiments and how to properly test those who claim psychic abilities. While some of these guidelines have been useful, many have suffered from a naive understanding of scientific practice in general and in parapsychology in particular, from a distorted view of the methodology actually in use in the field, and the unfortunate habit of some skeptics to make sweeping statements about the applicability of counter-hypotheses to lines of research without actually investigating the appropriateness of those counter-hypotheses to the details at hand. (See, for example a mostly-positive review of one of these guidelines written by skepticshttp://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320/is_3_63/ai_60054226.)

Related Topics:
Skeptics - Chris French - Goldsmiths College in London - Richard Wiseman - University of Hertfordshire

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The most important point that both proponents and skeptics raise is the need to be critical of the theory, methods, and conclusions of any one who investigates or comments on parapsychology as a science, no matter what point of view they represent. In order to be critical, one must have a first-hand knowledge of the published scientific literature in the field, and -- even more important -- have first-hand experience as an experimenter or investigator. The hands-on approach is essential to scientific progress in the field, whether one approaches it from a "paranormalist" or a "conventional theorist" point of view. Arm-chair cheerleading and arm-chair skepticism are equally useless in science.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~