Dictionary:

parapsychology

  (păr'ə-sī-kŏl'ə-jē)

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The study of the evidence for psychological phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis, that are inexplicable by science.

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The study of allegedly paranormal phenomena. Also known as psychical research.

Parapsychology, a term denoting the organized experimental study of purported "psychic" abilities, such as telepathy (the knowledge of human thoughts without sensory communication), clairvoyance (the knowledge of physical objects without sensory aid), psycho-kinesis (the ability to influence an object physically without contact with it), and precognition (the knowledge of future events). The term, originally German, found its way into English in the 1930s and has supplanted the older term "psychical research" in America and to a degree in Great Britain.

Organized psychical research came into being in the United States in 1885, at the height of popular interest in spiritualism, with the founding of the American Society for Psychical Research. The most prominent American supporter of psychical research at this time was William James, although most American psychologists were, and are, hostile to the subject. Many famous mediums were studied, the most noteworthy being Leonora E. Piper, extensively investigated by James himself. The three principal leaders of American psychical research in its early years were Richard Hodgson, James Hervey Hyslop, and Walter Franklin Prince.

Funds and fellowships for the conduct of psychical research were established in three American universities—Harvard, Stanford, and Clark—in the first two decades of the twentieth century, but the work done there was greatly overshadowed by the work done in the early 1930s by Joseph Banks Rhine with associates in the Psychology Department of Duke University. Rhine ran thousands of tests with Duke students, some of whom achieved striking extra-chance results in card guessing. The results were published in 1934 in Extra-Sensory Perception; the methods described there soon became standard experimental procedure, and Rhine's term ESP (extrasensory perception) has become a common label for psychic abilities. Rhine established the Journal of Parapsychology in 1937, and in the 1940s he carried his investigations at his laboratory at Duke into the fields of psychokinesis and precognition.

Parapsychology aroused controversy and hostility in scientific and academic quarters; objections were made both to its experimental and statistical methods and to its philosophical implications. Fifty years after university studies began, the subject was still not yet well established academically and had not yet developed a clear professional structure and status. In the popular mind, and to some degree in the field, the connections with spiritualism and the occult remained close. Scientific clarity seemed an especially distant goal in the 1970s and 1980s, as parapsychology merged with popular curiosity in UFO and alien abduction lore, witchcraft, and New Age alternative religions and concepts of holistic health. But the revival of interest in occultism created a wide information network, and during these decades, research in parapsychology was being pursued at various academic centers, including the University of Virginia, the City University of New York, and Maimonides Hospital in New York City, as well as at the American Society for Psychical Research and at private foundations in Durham, North Carolina, and elsewhere. This later experimental work was broadly diversified, with researchers attempting to bring physiology, psychiatry, and studies of animal behavior to bear on parapsychology.

Bibliography

Beloff, John. Parapsychology: A Concise History. London: Athlone Press, 1993.

Griffin, David R. Parapsychology, Philosophy, and Spirituality: A Postmodern Exploration. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

The name given to the scientific study of psychic or paranormal phenomena. The Parapsychological Association, refers to it as, "The scientific and scholarly study of certain unusual events associated with human experience." The association also pointed out in its Parapsychology FAQs, on its website in 2000, that:

In spite of what the media often imply, parapsychology is not the study of 'anything parnormal' or bizarre. Nor is parapsychology concerned with astrology, UFOs, searching for Bigfoot, paganism, vampires, alchemy, or witchcraft.

Parapsychology largely replaced the earlier term "psychical research," the change indicating a significant shift in emphasis and methodology. The term "parapsychology" is an old one. It appears to have been coined in Germany in or before 1889 by psychologist Max Dessoir (1867-1947). Dessoir first used the term in an article the June 1889 issue of the German periodical Sphinx. Dessoir's use of the term "parapsychology," as also the term "parapsychic," predates the later use of the term by Emile Boirac (1851-1917) in a book in 1908.

The term "parapsychology," as used currently was popularized by J. B. Rhine (1895-1980) and fellow pioneers William McDougall and Louisa E. Rhine to distinguish the laboratory based study, including the use of careful experimental methodology, of psychic phenomena in both its mental (telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition) and physical (psychokinesis) form. In 1927, McDougall and the Rhines began research on mediumship, survival, and telepathy in the Department of Psychology at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

Rhine established the now familiar outlines of laboratory method with card-guessing and dice-rolling experiments. Card-guessing had been used already in scientific tests implemented by psychical researchers in Britain. It was Rhine who popularized the use of Zener cards, devised by his colleague psychologist Karl Zener. This experiement of sorts consisted of holding 25 cards bearing simple symbols in groups of five of a kind: star, circle, square, cross and waves. The pack simplified the mathematical calculations involved in evaluating chance factors in guessing.

In addition to this work, Rhine popularized the terms "parapsychology," "extrasensory perception" and "psi." In the 1930s his attempts to find a statistical validation of ESP transformed parapsychology into a legitimate area for scientific research for many who had eschewed psychical research previously.

Assisted by J. Gaither Pratt, who later became a prominent parapsychologist himself, Rhine looked for psychically gifted people to study. One prominent subject was a Duke student, Hubert E. Pearce. In a significant set of 74 runs which Rhine named the Pearce-Pratt Series, the odds against the successful guesses being merely chance were estimated as 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Many variants in experimental setup were developed in card-guessing, and the results were often significantly above chance expectation.

The idea for the classic psychokinetic (PK) experiments developed after a casual visitor to Duke boasted that he could will dice to fall so that he could get the numbers he needed to win. Experimental techniques were devised in which subjects threw dice for the face of their choice The results were analyzed mathematically. The results over several years indicated strong evidence for the reality of PK. Such findings were later confirmed by experimenters elsewhere, using a variety of experimental techniques. Various methods were developed to ensure that PK tests with dice were not influenced by mechanical factors (weight of dice, etc.) or unconscious skills in throwing. Apparatus was designed which threw dice automatically.

Some special terms that have developed in the study of PK are: PK-MT (psychokinetic effect on moving targets such as dice); PK-LT (influence on living matter, such as growth in plants, healing, influencing animals); PK-ST (influence on static targets). Another initialism that grew up in evaluating PK was "QD," which indicated the division of record sheets into four equal quarters. Study of quarter divisions showed a consistent pattern of fall-off in scoring results as between upper left and lower right quarters of the record sheet, with the other two quarters bridging the gap in success fall-off. It became clear that this fall-off in success during the course of a series of tests was a characteristic feature of PK, suggesting the operation of some unknown mental process which affected the continuity of PK achievement.

In 1934, Rhine published his first book, Extrasensory Perception, which caused something of a furor in scientific and academic circles. For a time it was fashionable to attack his preliminary findings favoring ESP. The scientific community especially, and a large portion of the general public, were still much opposed to, and highly suspcious of parapsychology as a study. The identification of Duke University with such controversial and scientifically marginalized research, was also highly criticized; and eventually Rhine was obliged to open a separate Parapsychology Laboratory, seeking outside sponsorship for research. The persistent patient work of Rhine, his associates and other parapsychologists over decades eventually established a place for parapsychology as a proper scientific study, however many skeptics stood by with disbelief.

The early years of parapsychology were chronicled in a book by Rhine and others: Extrasensory Perception after Sixty Years; a Critical Appraisal of the Research in Extrasensory Perception (1940). In it they detailed the ESP research at Duke University from 1927 through 1940 in the context of the former period of psychical research from 1882 to 1927. Valuable scientific investigation of ESP and related phenomena and some laboratory research had been conducted during this earlier period by both the Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in 1882, and the American Society for Psychical Research, founded in 1885. For example, from 1921 on, an important series of card tests was conducted by G. N. M. Tyrrell in Britain. The British experimenter W. Whately Carington did important tests on telepathy and PK and developed a stimulating "association theory" of telepathy. Other British experimenters included: G. W. Fisk and Donald J. West working on PK scoring, S. G. Soal, and Kathleen M. H. Goldney.

In the United States, notable ESP pioneers included Gardner Murphy and Gertrude R. Schmeidler. Murphy joined the Society for Psychical Research, London, as early as 1917. He did graduate work at Harvard University in the field as the Richard Hodgson Fellow from 1922 to 1925, and also served as vice-president and president of the American Society (1940-62).

In 1937, Rhine began publication of the Journal of Parapsychology, devoted to original publication of experimental results and other research findings in extra-sensory perception and psychokinesis.

Rhine's early work with Eileen J. Garrett, a notable psychic whom he tested in the early days at Duke, bore fruit in 1951 when she established the Parapsychology Foundation, in New York City, to promote laboratory parapsychology and fund and sponsor research. From 1953 on, the foundation published a bimonthly newsletter, Newsletter of the Parapsychology Foundation, which was superseded in 1970 by the bimonthly journal Parapsychology Review. Between 1959 and 1968 the foundation also published a valuable International Journal of Parapsychology. The Parapsychology Foundation plays an important role in encouraging parapsychological research in universities and among scholars with established scientific reputations.

The Second Generation

A new day arrived for parapsychology with the founding of the Parapsychological Association in 1957 as the professional society for parapsychologists. The association projected a threefold effort to advance parapsychology as a scientific discipline, engage in public education, and integrate the results of their research with the findings of other branches of science.

By 1957 parapsychology and psychical research had developed a working partnership and tolerance of the particular contributions both made. Boundaries were blurred as individuals worked both areas. Researchers saw the need to investigate the claims and phenomena which emerged in the noticeable revival of the occult and occult religion in the 1960s. As psychical researchers examined a broad range of phenomena (Spiritualism, evidence for survival after death, hauntings, poltergeist occurrences, out-of-the-body traveling, reincarnation, psychical healing, and magical practices) parapsychologists expanded the range of topics covered by laboratory experimentation.

Popular interest in psychic and occult phenomena in the 1960s helped create a general climate of belief in the paranormal at both critical and uncritical levels. The most significant sign of the changing climate was the acceptance of the Parapsychological Association into membership of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in December 1969, after three previous rejections. This improved scientific status of parapsychology owed much to the patient laboratory work on ESP by Rhine and others since the 1930s.

Parapsychology and Fraud

Parapsychology, as science in general, is a very competitive field. The sense of urgency to produce results is heightened in this field. Undergirded as it is with the belief that positive results would necessitate a significant revision of currently operative scientific models of the universe the pressure is great. With such high stakes, the field has had to pay constant attention to improving its methodology and tightening its controls. Consequently, it has also had to watch out for the occasional production of fraudulent reports, especially the altering of laboratory statistics, in order to give significance to mundane or negative experimental results. With parapsychology being such a controversial field, it is not unexpected that ideological critics of the field have seized such revelations of fraud and widely publicized them. Many of these critics of parapsychology organized and affiliated with the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP).

While parapsychology has some well-publicized cases of fraud, the cases must be understood in the larger context of fraud that afflicts every field of science. Most cases of fraud go undetected as they concern peripheral matters of insignificant technological or philosophical consequence. Yet it only would follow that the temptation to fraud is everywhere. This temptation was vividly illustrated by CSICOP itself in their early investigation of the work of Michel Gauquelin in astrology. When CSICOP results confirmed Guaquelin's results, data was changed to conceal that fact. Even after the fraud was pointed out to the committee, the original papers were republished without any reference to the cheating that had occurred. That refusal to deal with internal fraud has blunted much of the usefulness that the committee might have had as a watchdog in the field.

Two revelations of fraud have had the most effect on parapsychology. The first concerned the experiments in telepathy carried out by S. G. Soal with the percipient Basil Shackleton from 1941-1943. They had been regarded as highly evidential for many years. In 1971, serious doubts were raised about the experiments and Soal's handling of them. An article by R. G. Medhurst in the Journal of the S.P.R. in 1971 questioned the method of constructing quasi-random series in the tests. Med-hurst implied inaccuracy (or worse) in Soal's methods. As early as 1960, Gretl Albert, an agent at some of the sittings, had alleged that she had seen Soal "altering the figures" several times on the score sheets. Thus the Medhurst article opened a controversy within parapsychology which resulted in a 1978 article by Betty Markwick in the Proceedings of the S.P.R. Markwick presented an overwhelming case for conscious or unconscious manipulation of data by Soal, based on computer analysis of his records. (Not all parapsychologists agree that Soal was deliberately fraudulent; but the validity of his telepathy experiments with Basil Shackleton has been shown to be inadmissible.)

In another case, the research of Walter J. Levi, Jr., formerly the director of the Institute for Parapsychology offered a rival for the Soal experiments as an instance of fraud. In 1974 J. B. Rhine reported that Levy had been caught falsifying results in an experiment. Levy was asked to resign and left the field. A re-examination of all his research in the field, including independent replication of his experiments, began. His papers were from that time no longer cited as providing any evidence of psi.

During the 1980s a controversy developed around the ganzfeld psi experiments of Carl Sargent at Cambridge University. An article "A Report of a Visit to Carl Sargent's Laboratory" authored by Susan Blackmore (Journal of the S.P.R., vol. 54, 1987) cast serious doubt on the methods and validity of Sargent's experiments. A defense of Sargent against the implication of fraud, "Cheating, Psi, and the Appliance of Science; A Reply to Blackmore" by Trevor Harley & Gerald Matthews, was published in the same issue of the Journal.

Contemporary Parapsychology

The general openness to psychic and occult phenomena that led to the burgeoning of the New Age movement and the acceptance of the Parapsychological Association into the American Association of the Advancement of Science served to create a decade of heightened parapsychological research in the 1970s. The founding of new research organizations such as the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine (1970); the Institute of Parascience (1971); the Academy of Religion and Psychical Research; the Institute for Noetic Sciences (1973); and the International Kirlian Research Association (1975) created an optimistic climate. It offered promise that new breakthroughs were imminent. The reports of new work in parapsychology at the Stanford Research Institute further inflated the hope.

Parapsychology had become an international affair before World War II. During the last half of the twentieth century it became even more intricately woven into the everyday lives of people the world over. The decade of the 1970s saw further expansion of parapsychology. By the end of the 1980s the Parapsychological Association reported approximately 300 members working in more than 30 countries. In the United States alone by 1990, the organization listed over 150 members, including many professionals and scientists. Additionally, research not affiliated with the association was being carried out in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Not surprisingly, both the scope and methods of parapsychology expanded greatly by the end of the twentieth century. Notable new directions included Kirlian photography, remote viewing, the investigation of altered states of consciousness (including alpha-related states and dream experiences) prompted by the influx of spiritual teachers from the East who made extraordinary claims for the abilities produced by meditation and related disciplines; experiments in the paranormal healing of animals; and, possibly the most controversial of all, the work of Ian Stevenson in the investigation of the evidence for reincarnation. The 1970s and 1980s also saw a significant amount of attention paid to the testing of the claims of paranormal feats by psychic Uri Geller followed by the emergence of a number of others, especially in Japan, who claimed similar abilities.

Parapsychologists still found themselves faced with strong opposition from their academic colleagues. Research and teaching positions were difficult to obtain, and unstable at best. No university seemed willing to establish a parapsychological department. Continued opposition both to parapsychological findings and the lack of any formal acknowledgement to the field remained a constant aggravation and threat to the work. The core of the opposition was focused in the Committee for the Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal, founded in 1976, (CSICOP) and in its periodical, Skeptical Inquirer.

New lines of hopeful research soon proved to be dead-ends. The effects of Kirlian photography disappeared as more stringent controls were applied, as did most of the effects produced by Geller and his imitators. Stevenson was unable to pass on the enthusiasm he had for his reincarnation research. The Stanford Research Institute abandoned its parapsychological research. The Academy for Parapsychology and Medicine disbanded and the problem of the nonacceptance of parapsychology by the academic world continued to provoke concern and debate in parapsychological circles.

Charles Thomas Cayce, the grandson of Edgar Cayce, and director of the Edgar Cayce Foundation, and the Association for Research and Enlightenment, (ARE) reported in 1995 that the foundation's Atlantic University, was expected offer the first Master's Degree in Transpersonal Studies, much of the program directed to the readings of the elder Cayce and the meaning of his psychic revelations. Much of the research that previously had been conducted at Duke University, was being conducted through Atlantic and the ARE, as well as programs and seminars around the United States, and internationally. ARE's approach to studying paranormal phenomena consisted of understanding the whole person. Through holistic medical clinics, spiritual reflection and meditation the work to develop psychic ability must be a lifelong process. Again, the true believers worked hard to overcome the impression the non-believers had that the entire pursuit of uncovering the complexities of the paranormal world was the domain of the non-thinking person. While the Parapsychological Association wanted to specifically exclude paranormal as a part of their ongoing scientific research, and disassociate from the term, "paranormal," many outside the organization insisted on using both the terms and the phenomena in conjunction with any unexplained occurrence that involved the human mind.

Yet if the experts and scientists were skeptical, in 1991, American Demographics, reported that a Gallup poll indicated that people in the age group of 30 to 49, a generation more educated than any previous one in America, were more likely than any other to believe in paranormal phenomena. According to that poll, between 1978 and 1991, certain statistics emerged: 1), the proportion of people believing in ghosts increased to 25 percent from 11 percent; 2), belief in devils increased to 55 percent from 39 percent; 3), belief in deja vu, the belief that a person holds when a new experience gives the feeling that it has already occured, in this life or another, increased to 55 percent from 30 percent; 4) 18 percent of adults believe in the possibility of communicating with the dead; and, 5), 70 percent believe in an afterlife. That poll also indicated a decline in certain paranormal beliefs, including a drop from 51 percent to 49 percent of the people who claimed to believe in ESP. One person who appeared on television sets at the end of the 1990s was James Van Praagh. Van Praagh, a world-famous medium, wrote books and produced audio tapes, recounting his communication with the spirits of dead people. He received wide acclaim, particularly regarding his spiritual approach.

Popular television shows and movies at the end of the twentieth century belied, too, that skepticism was as rampant as CSICOP claimed. In any case, Hollywood especially took advantage of the interest the average person seemed to have in the area of parapsychology—from ghosts to satanic possession. One popular network show, "Unsolved Mysteries," featured at least one piece a week on some paranormal occurrence, right along with their true-crime mysteries of kidnapping, murder, and other crime-related stories. The weekly television series, "The X-Files," had its two fictional heros, FBI agents, experiencing the "out of the ordinary" phenomena as they hunted down mysterious criminals and sometimes supernormal forces. A 1999 hit summer movie, "The Sixth Sense," even won an Academy Award nomination for its 11 year-old star. The line that became most infamous was familiar to those who did not see the movie, as well as those who had. "I see dead people." A line that revealed the perplexed youngster's dilemma, was pronounced on movie trailers for the months surrounding the picture's opening. Indeed, the idea fascinated people enough to give the movie some of the highest ratings and biggest box office sales of the year.

Parapsychological phenomena did not abide by the constraints of time or space, according to those involved in its research. It does not distinguish between mind and matter—both are one, inextricably connected to each other. Still, the majority of parapsychologists believed that all of the unexplained experiences that included, ESP, PK, and the body surviving after death, to name only a few, would eventually be explained scientifically as scientific knowledge expanded.

Sources:

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The study of extrasensory perception (ESP), communications with the dead, telekinesis (using mental energy to cause distant objects to move), and other mental phenomena that have not been explained or accepted by scientists. (See psychic research.)

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