information. – Psychologists = interested because of what psi implies about the
nature of perception and memory. – Biologists = interested for what psi implies
about the existence of additional, unexplained methods of sensing the world. -
Philosophers = interested because psi phenomena specifically addresses many
age-old philosophical problems including the rate of the mind and the physical
world, and the nature of the objective verse the subject. – 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 (CRL Parapsychology
FAQ 5). There are many reasons why people are interested in parapsychology. Most
of them are because psi phenomena suggests: – that what science knows about the
nature of the universe is incomplete. – that the presumed capabilities and
limitations of human potential have been underestimated. – that fundamental
assumptions and philosophical beliefs about the separation of mind and body may
be incorrect. – That religious assumptions about the divine nature of
⌠miracles■ might have been mistaken (CRL Parapsychology FAQ 5). So
then there is the famous question, Why aren`t psychics breaking the bank in Las
Vegas casinos?■ Casino environments are intentionally designed to be noisy
and visually distracting. For a psychic to make any profits they have to: -
understand the strategies of each game they play – consistently play according
to those strategies – stop when they are ahead – consistently apply strong
reliable psi (CRL Parapsychology FAQ2 7). For a psychic to concentrate they
almost always need an environment with not too many things happening in the
surroundings. So this answers the question as to why psychics are not breaking
the banks in Las Vegas casinos, but it does not exactly answer the question as
to why they are not winning the lottery. But then, how would we know if all the
people that have won in the past were not psychic? Many people assume that
experimenters use the well-known ESP cards. This is a deck to 25 cards with 5
repetitions of 5 cards showing symbols of a square, circle, wavy line, cross or
a star. These were used extensively in the 1930`s – 1960`s. They actually
provided persuasive evidence for ESP, but today are rarely used by professionals
(Parapsychology FAQ2 3). There are some psi experiments going on today. One is
PK on random number generators (RNG). This is when a subject attempts to
mentally change the distribution of random numbers (CRL Parapsychology FAQ2 5).
The next one is ESP in the ganzfeld. Ganzfeld means whale field. It is done with
a telepathic sender and receiver both are isolated and the receiver is put in
the ganzfeld state while the sender is shown a picture. At the end of the
sending period (20-40 minutes) the receiver is shown pictures and has to
predict/guess, which is the correct one. Results show that the correct target is
picked 34% of the time √ which is good (CRL Parapsychology FAQ2 6). And
the last one is remote viewing. This is when a third party selects a picture and
someone is asked to draw it (CRL Parapsychology FAQ2 6). There are many
criticisms of parapsychology. 1) Apparently successful experimental results are
due to sloppy procedures, poorly trained researchers, methodological flaws,
selective reporting and statistic problems Response: Successful results can not
be explained away by these criticisms. – Research by Harvard University
specialists in scientific methods showed that psi research today is conducted
according to proper scientific standards. 2) Psi phenomena violate basic
limiting principles of science, and are therefore impossible. Response: 20 years
ago this was a common criticism to report of psi claims. – The scientific
worldwide view is rapidly changing. 3) Psi does not have a repeatable
experiment. Response: What people have in mind about repeatable are elementary
physics classes demonstrating the acceleration of gravity, etc. (Telepathy 2).
There are many reasons why parapsychology is so controversial. First: – much of
the public often confuses psi with unscientific beliefs and stories about the
paranormal. – Has led many scientists to dismiss the topic as unworthy. -
Therefore they do not take their time to study the existing evidence. – But
understanding it is not easy. – Requires specialized knowledge to understand. -
If people do not understand or believe statistics (which is a misunderstanding).
- They look for in-your-face evidence or the big stuff and will find almost no
credible data. – The truth is that the scientific evidence for some forms of psi
is extremely persuasive (CRL Parapsychology FAQ2 4). Second: even if someone did
want to study the evidence it is hard to obtain (CRL Parapsychology FAQ2 4).
Third: Some people are afraid that psi might be true, fear about psi arises for
the following reasons, – 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 are crazy. – If you experience psi maybe you are crazy. – Before you
were six, your parents provided negative reinforcement for your little
demonstrations of telepathy. – Thinking of psi leads to medieval superstition
mentality, which in turn support a rising of dangerous primitive thinking. -
With ESP, you might learn things you do not want to know about yourself and
others. – 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 to service in this factor? – If psi exists how many other
cherished beliefs will I have to give up? – If psi exists, does that mean that a
psychic can watch me while using the bathroom facilities? – If psi exists, then
perhaps I cannot wall off myself so easily from the pain and suffering in the
world (CRL Parapsychology FAQ2 7). Parapsychology is not the search of just
anything paranormal or witchcraft-like. It is the study of certain unusual
events associated with human experience. Much of it has been scientifically
proven today and is believed by a great number of scientists. Parapsychology
probably will someday get the recognition it is worth.