An Introduction to Parapsychology

Parapsychology is the scientific and scholarly study of certain unusual events associated with human experience. These experiences have been called "psychic" for want of a better term. However, this associated term has often given rise to misconceptions, in that people have started regarding parapsychologists as psychics. This is indeed a misconception. A parapsychologist is someone who studies the paranormal. Nothing else. There is no magic, voodoo, occult or psychonormal activity associated with this person's capabilities.

Now, a psychic phenomena can be defined as follows: We have often held the assumption that the objective and subjective portions of the world cannot be mixed together. By subjective, I mean things pertaining to our mind, spiritual or otherwise. The objective realm deals with everything that we see in our daily lives, things such as gravity, electricity, etc. Parapsychology studies the phenomena suggesting that this assumption of their mutually exclusive nature is false. We have all experienced events which make us feel that not everything is as it seems, and that these two realms may indeed overlap. Such events are called "anomalies" because they cannot be explained within the scope of current scientific areas.

The anomalies fall within three general categories: Mental Phenomena, Physical Phenomena, and phenomena related to survival of the body after death (NDE, OBE, apparitions, reincarnation, etc).

Mental Phenomena

  • Extrasensory Perception
  • Telepathy
  • Clairvoyance and clairaudience
  • Psychometry
  • Precognition and Premonitions
  • Remote Viewing
  • Mental mediumship
  • Dowsing
  • Past-life memories
  • Possession
  • Out of body and near death experiences
  • Apparitions
  • Automatic writing
  • Xenoglossy



Physical Phenomena

  • Psychokinesis
  • Physical mediumship
  • Psychic photography
  • Thoughtography
  • Healing
  • Poltergeist activity
  • Materialization and dematerialization
  • Levitation



Other Phenomena

  • Bizarre coincidences
  • Miracles
  • Unidentified Flying Objects
  • Other mysterious sightings
  • Alien Abductions
  • Animal Mutilations
  • Crop Circles
  • Stigmata
  • Occult systems of knowledge and practice
  • Psychological Phenomena (e.g., lucid dreaming, glossolalia).



Parapsychologists are generally hopeful that further research will eventually explain and classify these events in scientific terms. However, it is pretty clear that significant strides will have to be taken with regards to our current scientific knowledge in order for us to start understanding these phenomena. There are, however, some parapsychologists who feel that current scientific models are sufficient to explain most parapsychological phenomena.

What Parapsychology is not


Parapsychology does not deal with UFOs, aliens, cryptozoological creatures such as Bigfoot and Chupacabra, nor does it have anything to do with religion, vampires, and witchcraft.

It is a common misconception that parapsychology deals with these, and thus has often been viewed wih great suspicion. Not only that, but parapsychology is often associated with entertainers engaged in pseudoscience.

Reasons for Interest


Parapsychology is an interesting field for several reasons. One, in that it implies that our scientific knowledge of the nature of the cosmos is incomplete, in addition to emphasizing that human potential and limits have been underplayed, that humans are capable of far more than is apparent to us currently. It is also interesting because the fundamental assumptions and philosophical beliefs about the mind and body being two separate entities might be incorrect, and that the assumptions regarding the divine nature of miracles may in fact be very human!

Of course, speculative implications regarding the study of parapsychology differ, depending upon the extent to which it is being studied, the person studying it, and the very nature of the phenomena. While some might have important implications regarding the spirituality of mankind, some might be the very opposite.

A physicist would be interested in parapsychological phenomena because of the implication that we may, perhaps, have a misunderstanding about space and time, and the transmission of energy and information. A biologist would take an interest because it hints at the existence of additional, unexplained methods of perception and sensing of the world. Psychologists would like it for what it addresses regarding the nature of perception and memory. And a philosopher would like parapsychological phenomena because it also addresses several philosophical questions including the role of the mind in the world, and the nature of objective and subjective entities. Theologians and the general public tend to be interested because personal psi experiences are often accompanied by feelings of profound, ineffable meaning. As a result, psi is thought by some to have "spiritual" implications, although this is merely an individual's guess at the phenomenon.

Implications, and Applications


It is a common notion that human consciousness is nothing but the result of the interaction and functioning of the brain, body and nervous system. In other words, it is the electrochemical functioning of the brain, body and nervous system that defines consciousness, and when these cease to function, consciousness ceases to exist. However, this does not address the issue of survival of bodily death, ghosts and apparitions. Additionally, given our current view of the world as it is, ESP and Psychokinesis seem to be an impossibility.

Yet, such phenomena are inherent in cultures all over the world, and throughout history. These also continue to occur, several phenomena verified as well. Since these phenomena seem to transcend the assumed limits of material functioning, some people like to interpret this as the implication of the existence of a soul and a god.

On the flip side, a scientific explanation of these phenomenon would debunk that notion. However, Parapsychology is far from being able to gauge phenomena at a standard equivalent to that of current mainstream scientific methods.

It should also be noted that parapsychology does not hold a hidden spiritual agenda. It is not a science with the sole purpose of establishing to the scientific world the existence of a supernatural entity. It is the general public and media who wish to jump upon such studies, and give their opinions on he matter. This would be just like saying that chemistry holds a hidden agenda wherein all chemists know how to turn lead into gold, but are not telling us.

Among the more practical applications of parapsychology, one could be able to one day understand the phenomenon of psychic healing, in which mental interactions with living systems have been capable of healing them. These techniques may include distant healing, prayer, etc., and there is the possibility that these are based upon parapsychology or psi-mediated effects. Perhaps, once these are understood, it would be possible to develop upon these existing techniques for better healing methods.

I like to think that these phenomena are somehow a factor that comes into play in Murphy's Law, "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong." There are innumerable instances where computers or other machines always behave erratically or inexplicably fail at the very moment in which their usage was most required. Perhaps the human intention to use the machine somehow interacts with it, causing it to fail. Perhaps someday, we'll really know.

I also need not mention the benefits of "scientizing" psi-research in regards to the development of Artificial Intelligence. For if the soul can be defined properly, or explained in scientific terms, it would be possible to bestow an AI machine with a "soul," making it a living entity.

Scientific Basis of Parapsychology


The most common question that centers in regards to parapsychology is, "Is parapsychology a real science?". Let's take a broad view of this. There is a community of researchers, there are journals, institutes and websites relating to parapsychology. Just like any modern science. However, the parapsychology community doesn't merge into the mainstream scientific community. Findings are not commented on in other journals, and papers don't appear in the mainstream, for the reasons mentioned above.

An important key to resolve this discrepancy for the acceptance of parapsychology is experimental replication. Replication is at the heart of science, and it was once asked, "Can claims of extrasensory perception, or ESP as it is commonly called, be studied as a science? Can assertions of psychic phenomena be subject to the scientific method of experimental design, statistical significance, and independent replication?"

However, an important point is being overlooked here. When someone says "A repeatable psi experiment," they usually have in mind an experiment similar to those conducted in school to demonstrate speed, chemical reactions, etc. In these experiments, the major factor coming into play is the fact that there are few, well-known and controllable variables. The experiments are simple to replicate at any given time. Considering the type of phenomenon being researched in parapsychology, asking for such a level of repeatability is inappropriate and brash. Psi experiments always involve several unknown variables, some of which are hardly understood, or are difficult to control. This is countered by saying that in such cases, one would have to go by statistical observations. However, if we say that a 3% success rate determines proof of the existence of a psi- phenomenon, it would again be ignored by looking at the 97% failure rate present. Therefore the statistical method is inherently unreliable in this case as well.

My personal belief is that parapsychology is indeed a science, however, in a realm that does not exist within our three- dimensional world, but perhaps beyond that. There is a possibility that when it comes to the phenomenon involved in parapsychological studies, one cannot depend upon current scientific standards to define the same. Apples and oranges are not the same.

Controversies


As mentioned repeatedly, the media and public often confuse parapsychology with sensational, unscientific or fantasy beliefs and stories about the paranormal. Such widespread confusion has led scientists to dismiss the field as being one unworthy of serious study.

One must remember that thoroughly understanding the nature of the existing evidence is not an easy task. It requires specialized knowledge to understand it. For people who do not understand it, the evidence will not seem persuasive. These may be the same people looking for in-your-face evidence, and would not prefer anecdotal evidence. So while I'm not saying whether the existing evidence is proof or not, I am saying that it would be better to have an understanding of the field before jumping to conclusions.

Second, some people are apprehensive about psi, or parapsychological phenomenon being true. The reasons for this are several:

  • It is associated with diabolic forces, magic and witchcraft.
  • It suggests the loss of normal ego boundaries.
  • People might be able to read your mind and know that you secretly (or unconsciously) harbor sexual and aggressive thoughts, or worse.
  • If you talk about it, people might think you're crazy.
  • If you think you experience psi, maybe you are crazy.
  • Maybe there is a god
  • Maybe there is no god
  • Before you were six years old, your parents provided negative reinforcement for your little demonstrations of telepathy.
  • Thinking about psi leads to a medieval superstitious mentality, which will in turn support a rising tide of dangerous, primitive thinking. If you don't believe this, think of how Galileo was killed for his studies
  • With ESP, you might learn things that you do not want to know about yourself or other people -- i.e., accidents that are about to happen, and things you would rather not be responsible for knowing about.
  • Psi might interfere with the normal human process of ego separation and development. Therefore, we have devised subtle strategies for cultural inhibition.
  • If you are telepathic, how will you distinguish other people's thoughts from your own? Perhaps this will lead to mental illness.
  • Many people have a self-destructive streak to their personality. What damage would result if psi were used in the service of this factor?
  • If psi exists, how many of my other cherished beliefs will I have to give up?
  • If psi exists, does that mean that a psychic could watch me while I am using bathroom facilities?
  • If psi exists, then perhaps I cannot wall myself off so easily from the pain and suffering in the world.


The list is huge, but these are the main points that can be associated with the subconscious fear of the paranormal.

Criticism


As a new discipline, it is expected that parapsychology would be under the fire of severe criticism from others. However, it is unfortunate that the most common criticism are based upon prejudices, instead of thorough understanding of the field. Here is a brief compilation of a few criticisms and responses:

Criticism: Apparently successful experimental results are actually due to sloppy procedures, poorly trained researchers, methodological flaws, selective reporting, and statistics problems. There is therefore not a shred of scientific evidence for psi phenomena.

Response: These issues have been addressed in detail by meta-analytic reviews of the experimental literature . The results unambiguously demonstrate that successful experiments cannot be explained away by these criticisms. In fact, research by Harvard University specialists in scientific methods showed that the best experimental psi research today is not only conducted according to proper scientific standards, but usually adheres to more rigorous protocols than are found in contemporary research in both the social and physical sciences. In addition, over the years there have been a number of very effective rebuttals of criticisms of individual studies, and within the past decade, experimental procedures have been developed that address virtually all methodological criticisms, even the possibility of fraud and collusion, by including skeptics in the experimental procedures.

Criticism: Psi phenomena violate basic limiting principles of science, and are therefore impossible.

Response: Twenty years ago, this criticism was a fairly common retort to claims of psi phenomena. Today, with advancements in many scientific disciplines, the scientific worldview is rapidly changing, and the basic limiting principles are constantly being redefined. In addition, the substantial empirical database in parapsychology now presents anomalies that simply won't "go away," thus this criticism is no longer persuasive and is slowly disappearing. Given the rate of change in science today, assigning psi to the realm of the impossible now seems imprudent at best, foolish at worst.

Criticism: Parapsychology does not have a "repeatable" experiment.

Response: When many people talk about a repeatable psi experiment, they usually have in mind an experiment like those conducted in elementary physics classes to demonstrate the acceleration of gravity, or simple chemical reactions. In such experiments, where there are relatively few, well-known and well-controllable variables, the experiments can be performed by practically anyone, anytime, and they will work. But insisting on this level of repeatability is inappropriate for parapsychology, or for that matter, for most social or behavioral science experiments. Psi experiments usually involve many variables, some of which are poorly understood and difficult or impossible to directly control. Under these circumstances, scientists use statistical arguments to demonstrate "repeatability" instead of the common, but restrictive view that "If it's real, I should be able to do it whenever I want."

Under the assumption that there is no such thing as psi, we would expect that about 5% of well-conducted psi experiments would be declared "successful" (i.e., statistically significant) by pure chance. But suppose that in a series of 100 actual psi experiments we consistently observed that 20 were successful. This is extremely unlikely to occur by chance, suggesting that psi was present in some of those studies. However, it also means that in any particular experiment, there is an 80% probability of "failure." Thus, if a critic set out to repeat a psi experiment to see if the phenomenon was "real," and the experiment failed, it would obviously be incorrect to claim on the basis of that single experiment that psi is not real because it is not repeatable.

A widely accepted method of assessing repeatability in experiments is called meta-analysis. This quantitative technique is heavily used in the social, behavioral and medical sciences to integrate research results of numerous independent experiments. Starting around 1985, meta-analyses have been conducted on numerous types of psi experiments. In many of these analyses, results indicate that the outcomes were not due to chance, or methodological flaws, or selective reporting practices, or any other plausible "normal" explanations. What remains is psi, and in several experimental realms, it has clearly been replicated by independent investigators.