0.7: Is there any scientific psi research?
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This article is from the Scientific Skepticism FAQ, by Paul Johnson Paul@treetop.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
0.7: Is there any scientific psi research?
[Contributed by Roger Nelson of PEAR]
In short, yes. According to a recent National Research Council report,
there is a 130 year history of scientific research, albeit with no clear
conclusion that the classical psi effects, telepathy, clairvoyance,
psychokinesis, precognition, have been demonstrated. Most knowledgeable
scholars would date the advent of controlled research later, to the early
1930's when J. B. Rhine began his work with McDougall in Duke University's
psychology department. Rhine's work has been much criticized, and is
widely discounted, but inappropriately for the most part.
In any case, later workers built on these foundations of experimental
design and statistical analysis, and there has been a cumulative
increase in scientific rigor and sophistication. Most of current psi
research is conducted by a small number of investigators in
universities and established institutes, and reports are presented at
conventions of professional organizations such as the
Parapsychological Association, and the Society for Scientific
Exploration, and published in professional journals of these groups
or, occasionally, in mainstream journals in physics, psychology, and
statistics. Professionals familiar with the literature, including
recent meta-analyses, find persuasive evidence for small, replicable
anomalous effects correlated with human consciousness and intention.
There are currently perhaps a dozen active research laboratories,
worldwide, and on the order of 50 to 100 researchers actually doing
experiments. It is a fact that their work is not well known to the
general public including most of the sci.skeptic readership. Thus,
the frequently negative, and sometimes disdainful commentary on psi
research from "skeptics" tends to be ill-informed, or refers to
something other than scientific research. Language usage is part of
the problem, as the terms psychic research, parapsychology, esp,
telepathy, etc., have been usurped by non-scientists and media people.
With suitable modifiers, the term anomalous is often used to describe
the subject of investigation in modern research, partly to avoid the
implied mechanisms and relationships attached to the older terms.
Much of current experimental psi research is not only scientific, but
adheres to more rigorous standards than are found in much contemporary
work in the social and physical sciences, largely because the
investigators understand the technical difficulties as well as the
implications of positive findings for our general scientific models.
It should be noted that constructive criticism from skeptics has made
important contributions to research quality.
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