Parapsychology FAQ

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Academic parapsychology project


Contents

What is parapsychology?

Parapsychology is the scientific study of certain types of paranormal phenomena.

What is not parapsychology?

First, if it's not scientific, it's not parapsychology. "Scientific" includes:

  • Correctly using the procedures and methods of science
  • Not coming to conclusions which the data do not support

Parapsychology only studies certain types of paranormal phenomena, such as psychic ability, near death experiences, and reincarnation, but it does not study topics such as UFOs and Bigfoot.

Why does parapsychology exist?

Parapsychology exists because people have experiences which seem paranormal. Examples range from prophetic dreams, telepathy, and out-of-body experiences to poltergeists and the materialization of spirits. Parapsychology is an attempt to study these phenomena scientifically.

When did parapsychology get started?

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), was founded in London, England, in 1882. Soon similar societies sprang up in other countries.

Why did anyone bother?

The phenomena reported by the Mesmerists (using methods which later gave rise to hypnotism) and then by the Spiritualists were extremely interesting. The Mesmerist phenomena included paranormal healing and clairvoyance, while the Spiritualist phenomena included materialization of spirits, levitation of objects, and spoken information which seemed highly suggestive of life after death.

Paranormal phenomena have been reported throughout history. Given that such phenomena were witnessed by high-ranking and seemingly sober-minded people, it would have been extremely surprising if serious scientific investigation had not been attempted.

But Spiritualism was proven to be bunk, right?

No one knows how the Spiritualist mediums produced all of their demonstrations (or perhaps how spirits produced the demonstrations using the medium's energy). Some of the phenomena, such as those of Daniel Douglas Home, were extremely impressive, and any modern conjuror would make a fortune by reproducing them under the same conditions in which the Spiritualist mediums performed. According to magician and CSICOP/CSI co-founder Ray Hyman

"It is true that no one who has studied the reports of seances by Home or Crookes' accounts of his tests on this medium has come up with plausible ways he could have cheated or produced the alleged results by normal means." [1]

Some of the information given by mediums was also very impressive, and no one has been able to explain it in normal terms.

However, there was a great deal of fraud associated with mediumistic demonstrations. It proved extremely difficult to establish beyond doubt that any of the phenomena witnessed in the field were really paranormal- even though no one knew how all of it was done. This is one main reason parapsychology (for the most part) abandoned field research and entered the lab.

Parapsychology is done in the lab?

The first laboratory studies in parapsychology were done at Stanford University, beginning in 1911, and hit their stride in the 1930s with the work of J.B. Rhine. As of 2007, hundreds of studies have been carried out in laboratories around the world. The results of these studies are highly statistically significant, though they are still very controversial.

So what did parapsychologists find in the lab

A lot of different things, but they usually fall into two main categories of psi detection: Extrasensory perception and psychokinesis.

Psi detected in the laboratory is different from the examples collected in field research. The effects are basically similar, and show similar characteristics- for example, they don't conform to our usual concepts of space and time. But psi in the laboratory has been extremely weak compared to psi in the field. Since psi in the field often occurs in life-or-death situations, or situations in which the subject is very comfortable, this may not be surprising.

How weak were the psi effects found in the laboratory?

Pretty weak when you compare them -for example- to precognitive visions or dreams which come true, or to the levitation or apport of objects. In ESP and clairvoyance tests, if you would normally get 25% by chance, then using psi you might get 27-36%. When statistics are applied, this may become very impressive, with the odds against the results occurring by chance being millions to one. But because the effect is so small, it is still somewhat controversial whether anything is being detected at all.

Since 1911

So parapsychologists have been doing laboratory work since 1911, and they haven't proven psi exists?

That depends on your point of view. Parapsychology has proven its phenomena to the standards of other sciences, but the claims it makes are so extraordinary that many do not accept the results. In recent years, the focus in parapsychology has shifted from proving the existence of psi, to documenting the different ways it manifests, and trying to figure out how it works.

No one knows how psi works?

There is no theory of psi. That is why many of the main terms in parapsychology are defined negatively, as things that occur outside the understanding of current science. Some phenomena in parapsychology seem similar to quantum mechanical effects. Others, such as psychokinetic metal bending, don't fit in any theory known to science. The lack of a well-developed theory of psi is one of the major reasons parapsychology is not more widely accepted, despite that its evidence set would normally be seen as proof of its phenomena.

What kind of experiments have been done- specifically?

PK experiments on RNGs

In this experiment, a subject tries to change the numbers put out by a RNG. This is like getting more heads or more tails when flipping a coin, or like influencing dice (dice were used in early PK experiments). A 1989 meta-analysis concluded that the results of the 800 experiments by over 60 researchers had only one chance in a trillion of occurring by chance. Although the quality of the experiments got much higher over time, the results did not get larger or smaller in response.

PK on living systems

One example of this kind of experiment is using EEG and biofeedback technologies (as in lie detector tests) to monitor a person who is being stared at. Alternately, the researcher may try to calm or excite the person by mind power. If the subject has no normal way of knowing they are being influenced, but reacts anyway, this is either PK or telepathy. These experiments indicate that people are unconsciously effected by the intention of others. Similar experiments have been done to test for [#presentiment presentiment]. PK has also been tested on plants and animals, for instance to help heal skin wounds on mice, or to help seedlings grow.

Ganzfeld experiments

The ganzfeld experiment tests for telepathy by putting the subject into a very relaxed state, where all distractions have been blocked out. Then the subject is asked to report anything which occurs to her. While the subject says aloud anything which comes into her mind, someone in another room tries to send her a picture by telepathy. Studies show that the subject "receives" the correct picture about 34% of the time, when she would only get 25% by chance. There are several variations on this study method.

Remote Viewing (RV) experiments

Remote viewing is a procedure for sensing things at a distance using ESP. For instance, the remote viewer might try to describe a photograph which was randomly selected from among hundreds. The overall results of many studies indicate that RV happens, but is not dependable enough for real-world applications.

Many other kinds of experiments have been done in the lab, from experiments on promoting the growth of microbes to testing the claims of people who have out-of-body experiences.

Fieldwork

Needs filling in

Why is parapsychology so controversial?

This answer is the author's opinion.

Parapsychology is controversial for several reasons:

  • No one knows how psi works. If we could explain it and predict its behavior as we can, say, electricity, it would become non-controversial very fast.
  • The science needs to be stronger. If you could drop a psychic off a building and watch him float gently to the ground, psi would not be very controversial. Instead, psi is a small effect which can only be teased out with statistics. Alternately, psi is strong and obvious, but difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. Coupled with the lack of any theory which explains or predicts psi, it is very easy to ignore.
  • Admitting the existence of psi might be the thin end of the wedge. If psi exists, then perhaps the stories which confirm the existence of an afterlife are also true. If there is an afterlife, maybe there is also a God, or gods. During the last 100,000 years or so, humans have been subject to terrible regimes of superstition and oppressive religion, and most of the world is still in that state. Even though science has made the world seem quite meaningless on a human level, it has proven to be the only ladder out of the swamp of superstition.
  • Psi makes the atomic bomb look like a pop gun. Psi does not seem to be limited by time or space. If we can observe the past and the future with psi, could we also influence the past and the future? The more one thinks about this, and other implications of parapsychology, the more one sees that if humans were really able to control psi, they might not even be human any more. Access to other people's thoughts, to the past and the future, and to other dimensions would transform society far more than the Industrial Revolution.

All these factors working together (possibly amplified by others), are the main reasons parapsychology is controversial. They give rise to extreme pseudoskepticism, but also leave the layman legitimately wondering what is actually going on.

Are poltergeists real?

Poltergeists seem to be real. There is disagreement within the field about whether the effects are due to the psychic ability of humans -disturbed adolescents for instance- or to the action of deceased persons.

Where can I get a degree in parapsychology?

As of 2006, the Coventry University offered Master of Science in parapsychology, with the hope that students would go on to write doctorates on the subject. In general, there are few degree programs in parapsychology, although there are some courses offered, especially by specifically parapsychological institutions. For example, the Rhine Research Center offers courses in various parapsychological topics.

What does parapsychology say about life after death?

That's complicated. It would be better to break that question down into parts that are easy to chew.

Do parapsychologists study life after death?

Very few. The Society for Psychical Research has a Survival Committee which has continued to do significant research. However, survival studies (as they are called) are usually avoided within parapsychology. Instead, research is guided by hypothesis which do not require parapsychologists to talk about the actual notion of survival.

"I was at a meeting recently regarding the question of survival after death and there was about 14 of us and probably 10 of those were amongst the 10-15 most knowledgeable people about research into Survival on the planet. And that is ridiculous because most of us were theoreticians. We have almost no time to do any actual research into it. We are just able to give some part-time attention to whatever evidence has been collected in the past. Yet we are the experts! Now that's just plain ridiculous."[2]

Parapsychology is a field which encounters a lot of prejudice, and parapsychologists often do not want to open themselves to further criticism by embracing something as hokey-sounding as the study of a possible afterlife. A few parapsychologists such as David Fontana do study survival, but mavericks such as Gary Schwartz of the University of Arizona, who studies mediumistic phenomena, are rare. Subjects which come very close to survival, such as reincarnation research and the study of near-death experiences are mainstream parapsychological subjects. But survival itself is usually thought to be beyond scientific scrutiny, or at least beyond social expediency. It is probable that many parapsychologists are highly interested in survival, but do not want to admit it publicly (see the article: ITC at the Parapsychological Association’s 2006 Convention in Stockholm). Due to research into near-death experiences and the possibility that quantum physics might provide some insight into survival, parapsychology may be inching back toward a willingness to consider survival on a formal basis.

Can parapsychology prove life after death?

"Life after death" does not have an obvious definition. What most people mean by "life after death" is that some part of their personality survives. Concepts vary greatly, but it can be said with certainty that death is a large change, and that any change in environment will produce a change in many measures of personality. People often assume that if there is life after death then there is some essential part of a person which survives and does not change. But it is also known that personality is tied both to environment and to bodily capabilities and needs. Thus, it is unknown exactly in what sense a person might survive; it is unknown how long a person might survive. And if the person continues to exist, it is unknown how long they might consider themselves to be the "same person" as when they died. It is also unknown just which faculties would carry over from physical existence to after-death existence; and it is unlikely that any sensory faculties would be truly comparable to our physical senses.

If the question of whether we survive death is carefully framed to ask if some aspect of a person continues to exist, then it should be possible to establish clinical proof. This is because if personality survives then there is obviously some form of interaction between our current minds and any part of ourselves which might survive death. This evidence is being gathered in research conducted by parapsychologists into the subjects of reincarnation, Near-Death Experiences (NDE) and mediumship.[3]

The study of what is commonly referred to as "After Death Communication" (ADC) such as mediumship has provided evidence of the survival of personality after physical death.[4] Induced ADC in the form of visual and audio forms of Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) has shown some promise for the eventual establishment of proof of survival as well.[5]

However, even if parapsychology could find extremely compelling evidence of life after bodily death, the survival of the personality could not be proved to the standards of the physical sciences. This is because there is no theory of psi. We don't know how psi functions, or how powerful it is. Therefore, we can't rule out that what seems to be evidence of life after death is actually only evidence that psi is very powerful. This is known as the "Super-psi hypothesis."

Tell me more about super-psi

Imagine you had a physical medium who could create -or facilitate the creation of- materializations. These materializations would be of completely realistic-seeming human beings in good lighting under strictly controlled conditions. They would submit to any test, give any requested piece of information about the lives they said they had once lived on Earth. Then they would dematerialize from within a well-lit sealed chamber while being filmed and monitored by highly skilled skeptical magical conjurors. This still wouldn't prove life after death. All it would prove is that a medium, using psi, could look into the past and get the full details of the life of someone who lived in a previous time. The medium could then form a materialization and give that materialization a semblance of life and memory. But when the materialization disappeared, there might not be a spirit which survived. Similar arguments can be made about any manifestation which seems to indicate survival. There is no evidence supporting the idea that super-psi is actually possible. The super-psi hypothesis rests completely on our ignorance of what is actually possible with psi.

So how good is the evidence?

There is no evidence which proves survival, but there is a lot of evidence which points toward it. This evidence includes a very small percentage of the information given through mediums, poltergeist phenomena, reincarnation research, and near-death experiences, among others. Some of this evidence cannot be tossed aside as delusion or frauds perpetrated on the innocent by skilled hoaxers. Some of it is also reported by reliable witnesses who could not reasonably be said to have been suffering from delusion. If they were not lying, then there exist quite a few lines of evidence which point toward survival. Scientific proof, however, is lacking, and such proof probably awaits scientific breakthroughs of the future. Alternately, all of the main lines of evidence for survival could be explained someday by conventional science. In that case, the arrow of probability would point toward the absence of survival.

So it is scientifically reasonable to believe in survival?

Yes, based on the evidence in isolation. But questions also arise:

  • Why, after all these years, is there no fully convincing evidence of survival, given the concerted effort which has been put into finding it (although by only a small handful of researchers)?
  • If, as many believe, we survive in a kind of ethereal body, why is it so hard to detect this body?
  • Who would reincarnate as a human?
  • Why are we able to manipulate nature so well, yet none of our theories or discoveries point directly to the nature of consciousness being something which might survive?
  • If we survive in some form of body, why are we unable to easily detect this body with sensitive conventional scientific instruments?

These and many other questions occur to those who examine the evidence. Spontaneous phenomena are sometimes extremely strong. So if those who survive wished our society to know this, it would seem a simple matter to provide the proof. This is the case with many other aspects of psychic phenomena, not just survival. Some parapsychologists have speculated that there is some mechanism whereby psi -and by extension proof of survival- remains just out of our scientific reach. However, there do appear to be individuals who have every reason to believe in survival. For them, it is the only reasonable and scientific conclusion. But they are not able to relay this proof to the rest of us, because we can never know whether they are lying.

References

  1. ↑ The Zetetic Scholar #7 Dec 1980
  2. ↑ http://www.thepsychictimes.com/articles/tart.htm Charles Tart - a man of many passions by SIMON FORSYTH The Psychic Times 2004-2005
  3. ↑ http://renospiritualistchurch.org/media_watch/2003_reports/2003_february.htm Scholars Assemble Evidence of Life After Death
  4. ↑ The VERITAS Research Program of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health (formerly the Human Energy Systems Laboratory) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona was created primarily to test the hypothesis that the consciousness (or personality or identity) of a person survives physical death.
  5. ↑ http://aaevp.com/survival/survival_hypothesis_explained.htm
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