Claims of parapsychology

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Though some parapsychologists still pursue the study of "macro" or large scale phenomena, such as spoon bending and events of the type reported from the era of the spiritualist mediums, these have not been well-established experimentally from the point of view of most parapsychologists. The strongest experimental evidence of psi phenomena have been of smaller-scale phenomena, such as telepathy, event guessing (e.g. card-guessing experiments and their offspring), and "micro" psychokinesis experiments such as influencing random-event generators. In these experiments the effects are typically visible only with statistical analyses. In this sense, the observed effects are small compared to the anecdotal macro phenomena. However, these effects are not small when compared to statistically measured events in many fields of science outside of parapsychology.^[1][2]

Contents 1 Statistical evidence 2 Models and features of parapsychological phenomena 3 See also 4 External links 4.1 Independent research organizations 4.2 University research organizations 4.3 Other 5 References

[edit] Statistical evidence

In his book The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, Dean Radin reviews statistical meta-analyses of psi experiments in several different categories with the following overall results, where the 95% confidence interval excludes chance in all analyses:

• Clairvoyance and telepathy experiments: several categories of experiments ranging from ESP card tests, to dream and ganzfeld telepathy studies, to remote viewing and PEAR precognitive remote perception studies, all normalized for chance hit rate of 50%, the categories range from about 54% to 67% hit rate, averaging about 60%.
• Psychokinesis experiments:
  • Dice tossing: 51.2% hit rate (vs. chance = 50%) over 148 experiments from 1935 to 1987, involving thousands of participants and millions of tosses.
  • Random Number Generator (RNG) studies: 51% hit rate (vs. chance = 50%) over 832 studies from 1959 to 1987 (1989 analysis).
  • The on-going PEAR program, started at Princeton University in 1979, analyzed millions of random bits. They found a small deviation from the 50% chance expectation, of the order of 0.01%. While this effect is tiny, it is statistically significant: with 7 standard deviations, the probability that the origin of the effect is a statistical oddity (odds against chance) is around 10^-12.
• Distant mental influence on human electrodermal activity: 53% (vs. chance = 50%), over 400 sessions as of 1997.
• Feeling of being stared at: 63% (vs. chance = 50%) over studies from 1913 to 1996.

Radin says the odds against chance of these meta-analysis outcomes ranges from on the order of one in thousands to one in trillions, i.e. statistically large effects.

[edit] Models and features of parapsychological phenomena

There are many theories or models being offered within parapsychology to account for various aspects of psi (psychic) phenomena, though there is no widely accepted comprehensive theory that accounts for all phenomena. Some of the observations and conclusions based on experiments include the following:

• Psi ability seems to be latent in all human beings, though there does appear to be a non-uniform distribution of talent. Some individuals can apparently improve their psi abilities through training, though apparently there are different limits or capacities among individuals. The analogy is that most people can learn to ride a bicycle or play an instrument, though few will ever compete in the Tour de France or play in Carnegie Hall.
• Psi phenomena do not appear to be impeded by physical or electro-magnetic shielding, such as faraday cages or several hundred feet of water, nor do they appear to diminish in strength or intensity over distances of thousands of kilometers. This would appear to discount an electro-magnetic basis for the phenomena.
• Psi phenomena do not appear to be time-bound according to our common notions of causality. Precognition and presentiment experiments suggest abilities to perceive events in the (near) future. The PK experiments of Helmut Schmidt and others suggest abilities to affect events in the past, while some of the PEAR studies suggest ability to affect events in the future.
• There are as yet no experiments to test for telepathy which can rule out the more general clairvoyance in accounting for positive results. Similarly there are other psi experiments which allow for more than one type of psi phenomenon to account for positive results.

[edit] See also

Parapsychology

[edit] External links

[edit] Independent research organizations

• Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was founded in 1973 by astronaut Edgar Mitchell to explore the frontiers of consciousness through rigorous scientific research.
• The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program was established at Princeton University in 1979 by Robert G. Jahn, then Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
• Society for Psychical Research (SPR). The original scientific society founded in London in 1882.
• American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR).
• Rhine Research Center and Institute for Parapsychology, originally part of Duke University, now an independent research center. The accomplished physicist Irving Langmuir, a founder of many studies in atmospheric electricity and plasma physics, visited Rhine at his laboratory in 1934. Rhine admitted (rather proudly and contentiously) to Langmuir that he had discarded data that was "wrong" because it did not support his belief in extrasensory perception. See Langmuir's 1953 talk Pathological Science at Princeton University
• Parapsychology Foundation
• Parapsychological Association This organisation has been a member of the AAAS for over 20 years.
• International Academy of Consciousness

[edit] University research organizations

• Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh.
• Parapsychology Research Group at Liverpool Hope University.
• Global Consciousness Project at Princeton
• The VERITAS Research Program at the University of Arizona
• Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology Research Unit of Liverpool John Moores University.
• Psychology Research Cluster at University College Northampton.
• Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) at Princeton University.
• Division of Personality Studies (DOPS), a unit of the Department of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia.
• Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
• Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit (APRU) at the University of Adelaide.
• Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths University of London.
• Perrott-Warrick Research Unit in the Psychology Department of the University of Hertfordshire.

[edit] Other

• Entry on parapsychology in the Skeptic's Dictionary
• Dean Radin's A Field Guide to Skepticism from his book The Conscious Universe.
• The Project Alpha Experiment
• The online Library of Exploratory Science contains the complete text of many of the major peer reviewed journals in parapsychology and psychical research.
• Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism in Accordance with the Bequest of the Late Henry Seybert, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1887, ISBN infinity online
• PEAR home
• Parapsychological Association Official Website

[edit] References

1. ^ The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean I. Radin Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0
2. ^ http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~abraham/psy1.html Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer By Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton