User:Annalisa Ventola/Sandbox

The Parapsychology article here at Wikipedia has been unstable for quite some time. It has suffered a number of attacks from skeptics (some scientific some dogmatic) and impartial observers alike. Some of the attacks have been unfounded, but a good number of them have been justified as well. At Wikipedia, editors strive for a neutral point of view, and this can be difficult to achieve for such a hotly debated topic. Though it may be difficult, I believe that it is possible to draft a parapsychology article that is comprehensive, balanced and neutral...an article that would stabilize over time.

I think the solution to the problem is to create a sketch of the field that is purely descriptive and unapologetic. Editors of this page should not be bullied into using weasel words, nor should they have to put the words 'ostensible', 'alleged', or 'supposed' in front of every parapsychological term. On the other hand, the article should not contain treatises on the results of psi experiments and their implications, or point-counterpoint debates with straw men. The article should inform the reader about a plurality of approaches to the study of both psi and anomalous experiences, and then refer them to other resources or Wikipedia articles for further investigation. This should be done in a way that is accessible to general public, but fully cited using Harvard referencing.

Below is an outline representing my vision for one way that the parapsychology article could be restructured. It was modeled after the Wikipedia articles for psychology, anthropology, and physics. I realize that this outline is kind of long, but the fields of parapsychology and psychical research includes hundreds of researchers, span over 100 years and involve dozens of laboratories and organizations around the world. Nobody here has the time to draft the entire article, but if every interested Wikipedian would tackle one or two sections, we could have a rough draft in a matter of days.

This particular outline is parsed out for ease of editing. Eventually sections of it can be collapsed together using fewer headings and employing bullets instead. Perhaps in the next week or two, we could start moving sections over to the main article. Let's make use of the [discussion page] to talk about it.

I have provided suggestions for the content in most places. I invite any interested person to tackle a section (using the 'edit' link) and remove my guidelines for content after doing so. Please cite your sources in the references section when you are done. This is just a sandbox, and not the real parapsychology article, so don't be afraid to edit away!

Introduction edit

Note from Annalisa: As much as I appreciate the edits to this section, I think it would be best if writing this section was saved for last. The point of this section is to summarize the article, and without a completed article, we can not have a summary.

definition and etymology of the term 'parapsychology':

definition and etymology of the term 'psi'

brief statement to the effect of scientific parapsychology being an area of dispute and criticism:

brief statement to the effect of parapsychology being worldwide representing a plurality of approaches to the study of psi.

Scope edit

Parapsychologists study a number of ostensible paranormal phenomena (FAQ, n.d.), including:

Telepathy: Mind-to-mind communication.

Precognition: Also called premonition. Obtaining information about future events, where the information does not appear to have been inferred through normal means.

Clairvoyance: Obtaining information about events at remote locations, beyond the reach of the normal senses.

Extra-sensory perception: General term for obtaining information about events beyond the reach of the normal senses (telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition).

Psychokinesis: Also called telekinesis. Mental interaction with physical objects, animate or inanimate.

Near death experience: An experience reported by those who were revived from nearly dying.

Out-of-body experience: The experience of feeling separated from the body, often accompanied by visual perceptions as though from above the body.

Reincarnation: The belief that we live successive lives.

Haunting: Recurrent phenomena reported to occur in particular locations that include apparitions, sounds, movement of objects, and other effects.

Poltergeist: Large-scale psychokinetic phenomena often attributed to spirits.

Psi: A general term for parapsychological phenomena. Psi, psychic, and psychical are synonyms.

Parapsychology does not study all paranormal phenomena, however, and does not concern itself with astrology, UFOs, Bigfoot, paganism, vampires, alchemy, or witchcraft (FAQ, n.d.).

History edit

Brief introductory statement.

Early psychical research edit

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR), was founded in London in 1882. The SPR was the first systematic effort to organize scientists and scholars for a critical and sustained investigation of paranormal phenomena. The early membership of the SPR included philosophers, scholars, scientists, educators and politicians of the day, such as Henry Sidgwick, Arthur Balfour, William Crookes, and Charles Richet(Beloff, 1977).

The SPR classified its subjects of study into several areas: telepathy, hypnotism, Reichenbach's phenomena, apparitions, haunts, and the physical phenomena of Spiritualism such as table-tilting and materializations. One of the first collaborative efforts of the SPR was its Census of Hallucinations, which researched apparitional experiences and hallucinations in the sane. The census was the Society's first attempt at a statistical evaluation of spontaneous cases of paranormal phenomena, and the resulting publication, Phantasms of the Living (1886) is still widely referenced in the parapsychological literature today. The SPR became the model for similiar societies in other European countries during the late 19th century, such as those in France, Germany, and Poland. Largely due to the support of William James, the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) opened its doors in New York City in 1885 (Berger & Berger, 1991).

Today, the SPR and ASPR continues its investigations into anomalous phenomena. The SPR's purpose, as stated in every issue of its Journal is "to examine without prejudice or prepossession and in a scientific spirit those faculties of man, real or supposed, which appear to be inexplicable on any generally recognized hypothesis."

The Rhine era edit

In 1911, Stanford University became the first academic institution in the United States to study ESP and PK in a laboratory setting. The effort was headed by psychologist John Edgar Coover. In 1930, Duke University became the second major US academic institution to engage in the critical study of ESP and PK in the laboratory. Under the guidance of William McDougall, and with the help of others in the department, including Karl Zener, Joseph B. Rhine and Louisa E. Rhine, ESP experiments in the laboratory and in buildings on campus began, using volunteer subjects from the undergraduate student body. As opposed to the approaches of psychical research, which generally sought qualitative evidence for paranormal phenomena, the experiments at Duke University proffered a quantitative, statistical approach using cards and dice. As a consequence of the ESP experiements at Duke, standard laboratory procedures for the testing of ESP evolved and came to be adopted by interested researchers throughout the world (Berger & Berger 1991).

The publication of J.B. Rhine's book, New Frontiers of the Mind (1937), brought the laboratory's findings to the general public. In his book, Rhine established and popularized the word "parapsychology", which Max Dessoir had coined over forty years earlier, to describe the research conducted at Duke. Rhine also founded an autonomous Parapsychology Laboratory within Duke, and started the Journal of Parapsychology, which he co-edited with McDougall.

The parapsychology experiments at Duke evoked much criticism from academic psychologists who challenged the concept and evidence of ESP. Rhine and his colleagues addressed these criticisms through new experiments, articles and books, and summarized the state of the criticism along with their responses in the book Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years (1940). The administration of Duke grew less sympathetic to parapsychology, and after Rhine's retirement in 1965, parapsychological links with the university were broken. Rhine later established the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man (FRNM) and the Institute for Parapsychology as a successor to the Duke laboratory (Berger & Berger 1991). In 1995, the centenary of Rhine's birth, the FRNM was renamed the Rhine Research Center.

Establishment of the Parapsychological Association edit

The Parapsychological Association (PA) was created in Durham, North Carolina, on June 19th, 1957. Its formation was proposed by J. B. Rhine at a workshop on parapsychology, which was held at the Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University. Rhine proposed that the group form itself into the nucleus of an international professional society in parapsychology. The aim of the organization, as stated in its Constitution became "to advance parapsychology as a science, to disseminate knowledge of the field, and to integrate the findings with those of other branches of science" (History, n.d.). In 1969 the PA was elected an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest general scientific society in the world. The PA consists of about three hundred full, associate and affiliated members worldwide, and maintains its affliation with the AAAS today. The annual AAAS convention provides parapsychologists with a forum for presenting their research to scientists from other fields and for advancing parapsychology in the context of the AAAS's lobbying on national science policy (Irwin & Watt 2007: 308).

Government psi research edit

1-2 paragraphs about the Stargate Program.

The emergence of anomalous psychology edit

1-2 paragraphs about the emergence of anomalous psychology as a field and its relationship to parapsychology

Parapsychology today(?) edit

1-2 paragraphs mentioning something to the effect of parapsychology and anomalous psychology working in tandem as well as the increased use of computer technology (i.e. the virtual telepathy study at University of Manchester)

Research methods edit

Brief introductory statement.

Experimental research edit

Brief introductory statement.

Ganzfeld edit

The ganzfeld (German for "whole field") is a technique used to test individuals for telepathy. The technique was developed to quickly quiet mental "noise" by providing a mild, unpatterned sensory field to mask the visual and auditory environment. In the typical ganzfeld experiment, a "sender" and "receiver" are isolated, the receiver is put into the ganzfeld state, and the sender is shown a video clip or still picture and asked to mentally send that image to the receiver. The receiver, while in the ganzfeld, is asked to continuously speak aloud all mental processes, including images, thoughts, feelings. At the end of the sending period, typically about 20 to 40 minutes in length, the receiver is taken out of the ganzfeld and shown four images or videos, one of which is the true target and three are non-target decoys. The receiver attempts to select the true target, using perceptions experienced during the ganzfeld state as clues to what the mentally "sent" image might have been.

Chance expectation predicts that the correct target would be selected about 1 in 4 times, for a 25% "hit rate." After scores of such experiments and over 3,000 individual sessions conducted by about two dozen investigators world-wide, the results indicate that the target image is selected on average about 32% of the time (Radin 2006). Because the result is statistically significant, it has sparked debates within mainstream academic psychology in the journals Psychological Bulletin (Bem & Honorton 1994) and The Humanistic Psychologist (Delgado-Romero & Howard, 2005) over how to interpret the data.

Remote viewing edit

The ganzfeld technique is used to test if information can be exchanged mentally after the receiver is placed in a mild altered state of consciousness. The remote viewing experiment, in one of its many forms, investigates whether information can be gained without requiring a special altered state, and without a sender. In one type of remote viewing experiment, a pool of several hundred photographs are created. One of these is randomly selected by a third party to be the target. It is then set aside in a remote location. The remote viewer attempts to sketch or otherwise describe that remote target photo. This procedure is repeated for a number of different targets. Many ways of analytically evaluating the results of this sort of experiment have been developed. One common method is to take the group of seven target photos and responses, randomly shuffle the targets and responses, and then ask independent judges to rank order or match the correct targets with the participant's actual responses. If there was an anomalous transfer of information, the responses should correspond more closely to the correct targets than to the mismatched targets.

Several thousand such trials have been conducted by dozens of investigators over the past 25 years, including by Princeton University's Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory (PEAR) and by scientists at SRI International and Science Applications International Corp., under contract by the US government. The cumulative database indicates that information about remote photos, actual scenes, and events can be perceived beyond chance expectation (Tart et al 1980).

Psychokinesis on random number generators edit

The advent of powerful and inexpensive electronic and computer technologies has allowed the development of fully automated experiments studying possible interactions between mind and matter. In the most commmon experiment of this type, a Random Number Generator (RNG), based on electronic or radioactive noise, produces a data stream that is recorded and analyzed by computer software. A subject attempts to mentally alter the distribution of the random numbers, usually in an experimental design that is functionally equivalent to getting more "heads" than "tails" while flipping a coin. In the RNG experiment, design flexibility can be combined with rigorous controls, while collecting a large amount of data in very short period of time. This technique has been used both to test individuals for psychokinesis and to test the possible influence on RNGs of events which focus the attention of large numbers of minds.

Major meta-analyses of the RNG database have been published every few years since appearing in the journal Foundations of Physics in 1986 (Jahn & Dunne, 1986). The effect size in all cases was found to be very small, but consistent across time and experimental designs, resulting in an overall statistical deviation far beyond a chance effect. The most recent meta-analysis was published in Psychological Bulletin, along with several critical commentaries (Bosch et al, 2006; Radin et al, 2006). The meta-analysis was comprised of 380 studies, which produced an overall effect size that was very small but statistically significant.

Direct mental influence on living systems edit

This experimental domain was previously called "bio-PK." More recently, researchers refer to it as 'direct mental interactions with living systems' (DMILS). It studies the effects of one person's intentions on a distant person's psychophysiological state.

One type of DMILS experiment looks at the commonly reported "feeling of being stared at." The "starer" and the "staree" are isolated in different locations, and the starer is periodically asked to simply gaze at the staree via closed circuit video links. Meanwhile the staree's nervous system activity is automatically and continuously monitored. The cumulative database on this and similar DMILS experiments suggest that one person's attention directed towards a remote, isolated person, can significantly activate or calm that person's nervous system, according to the instructions given to the starer. A meta-analysis of these experiments published in the British Journal of Psychology in 2004 found overall significant evidence in favor of the DMILS effect (Schmidt et al. 2004).

Spontaneous case research edit

brief introductory statement

Case report analysis edit

just a few words about the work of Lousia Rhine, Rhea White's Work on exceptional human experiences, and/or any discussion about the phenomenology of psi.

Hauntings edit

short description of the approaches of Schmeidler and Maher, as well as recent work by Houran.

Poltergeists edit

short discussion of William Roll and anyone else I'm forgetting

Survival Research edit

brief introductory statement

Near death experiences edit

A near-death experience (NDE) is an experience reported by a person who nearly died, or who experienced clinical death and then revived. NDEs include one or more of the following experiences: A sense of being dead; an out-of-body experience; a sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area; a sense of overwhelming love and peace; a sensation of moving upwards through a tunnel or narrow passageway; meeting deceased relatives or spiritual figures; encountering a being of light, or a light; experiencing a life review; reaching a border or boundary; and a feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance (Mauro, 1992).

Interest in the NDE was originally spurred by the research of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, George Ritchie, and Raymond Moody Jr. Moody's book Life after Life (1995)brought a great deal of attention to the topic of NDEs. The International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS) founded in 1978 in order to meet the needs of early researchers and experiencers within this field of research. Later researchers, such as Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring and Michael Sabom, introduced the study of Near-death experiences to the academic setting (Mauro, 1992).

Out of body experiences edit

should discuss past experiments by Osis, as well as current research by anomalous psychologists.

Reincarnation edit

brief discussion of the work of Ian Stevenson.

Clinical research edit

brief introductory statement

Transpersonal psychology edit

Anomalous psychology edit

A number of studies conducted in the American, European, and Australasian continents have found that a majority of people surveyed report having had experiences that could be interpreted as telepathy, precognition, and similar phenomena (Targ, Schlitz, & Irwin, 2000). Variables than have been associated with reports of psi-phenomena include belief in the reality of psi, the tendency to have hypnotic, dissociative, and other alterations of consciousness, and, less reliably so, neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience (Cardeña, Lynn, & Krippner, 2000). Although psi-related experiences can occur in the context of such psychopathologies as schizotypal personality, dissociative, and other disorders, research has shown that most individuals who endorse a belief in psi are well-adjusted, lack serious pathology, and are not intellectually deficient or lack critical abilities (Targ, Schlitz, & Irwin, 2000).

Criticism edit

Brief introductory statement.

Controversy over scientific status edit

The scientific reality of parapsychological phenomena and the validity of parapsychological research is a matter of continued criticism. The methods of parapsychologists are regarded by some critics as a pseudoscience (Beyerstein 1996; Stenger 2002). Some of the more specific criticisms, as addressed by James E. Alcock (1981, 2003), state that parapsychology does not have a clearly defined subject matter, an easily "repeatable" experiment that can demonstrate a psi effect on demand, nor an underlying theory to explain the paranormal transfer of information. Additionally, Alcock said that few of parapsychology's experimental results have prompted interdisciplinary research with more mainstream sciences such as physics or biology. Alcock states that parapsychology remains an isolated science to such an extent that its very legitimacy is questionable.

Controversy over experimental results edit

Although some critics acknowledge the status of parapsychology as scientific field, they are not satisfied with its experimental results (Alcock 2003, Hyman 1995, Randi 2003). Critics contend that apparently successful experimental results in psi research are more likely due to sloppy procedures, poorly trained researchers, methodological flaws, or selective reporting, than to genuine psi effects. For example, critics have said that parapsychologists misuse meta-analysis to create the incorrect impression that statistically significant results which indicate psi phenomena have been obtained (Stenger, 2002, Stokes, 2001).

Fraud edit

There have been instances of fraud in the history of parapsychology research. Soal-Goldney experiments of 1941-43 (suggesting precognitive ability in subjects) were long regarded as some of the best in the field because they relied upon independent checking and witnesses to prevent fraud. However, many years later suspicions of fraud were apparently confirmed when statistical evidence, uncovered and published by other parapsychologists in the field, suggested that Dr. Soal had cheated by altering the raw data (Scott and Haskell, 1973, Alcock, 1981, Markwick, 1978). Another parapsychologist, Walter J. Levi, Jr.'s also falsified experimental results. He was caught by J.B. Rhine and asked to step down from his position as director for the Institute for Parapsychology (Hansen, 2001:323).

No scientific field is immune to instances of fraud or deception by its researchers. However, parapsychologists have to be especially alert to deception on the part of their subjects. Fraud undoubtedly played a part in creating the positive reputations of Spiritualist mediums who were caught in the act of cheating. In the 1920s, Magician and escapologist Harry Houdini said that researchers and observers could not create experimental procedures which absolutely preclude fraud (Houdini, 1924). In 1979, magician and debunker James Randi trained two young magicians and sent them under cover to Washington University's McDonnell Laboratory with the specific aim of exposing poor experimental methods and credulity thought to be common in parapsychology. Although no formal statements or publications from the McDonnell laboratory supported the likelihood that the effects demonstrated by the two magicians were genuine, both of Randi's trainees reportedly deceived experimenters over a period of four years with demonstrations of supposedly telekenetic metal bending (Randi, 1983). Such methodological failures have been cited as evidence that most, if not all, extraordinary results in parapsychology derive from error or fraud.

Laboratories, organizations and journals edit

Brief introductory statement.

North America edit

There are two academic laboratories devoted to parapsychological studies in the United States. The Division of Perceptual Studies, a unit at the University of Virginia's Department of Psychiatric Medicine, studies phenomena suggestive of the survival of consciousness after bodily death. The University of Arizona's Veritas Laboratory conducts laboratory investigations of mediums.

North America is also home to several research organizations promoting parapsychological research, such as the American Society for Psychical Research and the Parapsychology Foundation in New York City, the Instituto de Latinoamericano de Parapsicologia in Queretaro, Mexico, The International Association for Near Death Studies in Connecticut, the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina, and the Society for Scientific Exploration, with officers throughout the U.S.

The major parapsychological journals that are published in North American are Journal of Parapsychology, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Journal of Scientific Exploration, and International Journal of Parapsychology. Other North American journals that have published articles on parapsychological topics include Psychological Bulletin, The Humanistic Psychologist, Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Alternative Therapies, Behavioral and Brain Science, Science, and Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.