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OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
International Security and Commerce Program
Workshop
September
30,
1988
Professor James Alcock
Glendon College
Toronto
,
Canada
Daryl
Bern
Professor of Psychology
Cornell University
Ithaca,
NY
Charles Honorton
Director
Psychophysical Research Laboratories
Princeton,
NJ
Ray Hyman
Professor of Psychology
University of Oregon
Eugene
,
OR
Rapporteur
Courtland Lewis
Arlington, VA
Robert
G,
Jahn
Professor of Aerospace
Studies
Princeton University
Princeton,
NJ
John Palmer
Institute of Parapsychology
College Station
Durham,
NC
Theodore Rockwell
Chevy Chase,
MD
Marcello Truzzi
Department of Sociology
Eastern Michigan University
Ann Arbor,
MI
Jessica Utts
Professor
University of California,
Davis
Davis
,
CA
Chairman
Alan Shaw
Office of Technology Assessment
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CONTENTS
I.
INTRODUCTION
Historical Background
Nature of Research
Recent Controversy
Purpose of the OTA Workshop
II.
DESIGN AND CONDUCT OF EXPERIMENTS
Methodology
Replicability
Criteria for Acceptable Experiments
n
III.
ANALYSIS OF DATA
IV.
THE MEANING OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Assessments of Meaning and Meaningfulness
What Would Constitute Proof of Psi?
Conflicting Orientations
Need for
a Theory of Psi
V.
RELATION OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY TO THE BROADER WORLD OF SCIENCE
Is Parapsychology a Science?
Resistance by "Establishment"
Science
Choices
for the Future
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I
.
INTRODUCTION
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The modern field of study known as parapsychology grew directly out of
19th-century "psychical research"
into reported psychic phenomena such
as
telepathy and clairvoyance.
The field had its earliest roots
in various
investigations
into a wide range of supernatural,
occult,
and mystical
topics
reaching far back into human cultural history.
However,
the field did not
become formalized as an arena of organized scholarly research until
1882,
with
the establishment in London of the Society for Psychical Research
(SPR).
A
U.S.
counterpart,
the American Society for Psychical Research
(ASPR)
,
was
founded in 1885.
Both societies
still exist
today.
From the beginning,
the field represented by these organizations has been
highly controversial.
Although
it has occasionally attracted and engaged
well-known scientists,
it has generally encountered substantial resistance and
criticism from the scientific
"establishment"
on the basis
of
its aims and
methods.
To
its detriment,
parapsychology has had difficulty in freeing
itself of association,
in the minds
of those outside
the
field,
with extreme
and unsubstantiated claims,
commercial ventures
of questionable validity,
and
a certain amount of quasi -scientific
"research" carried out in its general
area of inquiry.
NATURE OF RESEARCH
Throughout this century a considerable body of parapsychology research
has been conducted in a manner that attempts deliberately
to follow scientific
methodology.
The research approaches most often derive from and resemble
research in psychology,
although a few programs based on engineering and
applied science have recently appeared.
A seminal example of academic
research in the field was
the work of J.B.
Rhine and Louisa Rhine at Duke
University,
beginning in the 1920s.
The Rhines established many of the basic
concepts and protocols of modern parapsychology.
In 1937,
they founded The
Journal of Parapsychology
,
which
is perhaps
the leading journal
in the field
today
.
The general focus of parapsychological research
is
on "psychic
phenomena,"
or
"psi," which
is defined as
"processes of information and/or
energy exchange which involve animate consciousness
in a manner not currently
explicable
in terms of known science." 2
The field can be divided into several
major categories and subcategories,
as
shown in Table
1.
Most
(but not
all)
of the parapsychological research in laboratory settings
involves categories
I
and
II.
For a detailed examination of the development of parapsychology,
see:
Jahn,
R
. G
.
& B
. J
.
Dunne
.
Margins of Reality:
The Role of Consciousness
in the
Physical World.
New York:
Harcourt,
Brace,
Jovanovich,
1987.
2 Jahn,
R.G.
The persistent paradox of psychic phenomena:
An engineering
perspective.
Proceedings
of
the IEEE
.
1982,
70(2):
136-170.
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RECENT CONTROVERSY
In 1957
a professional organization
in the
field,
the Parapsychological
Association
(PA),
was formed.
(Unlike
the
SPR,
membership
in the PA requires
formal recognition of professional status by the Association's
Council.)
It
was accepted as an affiliate by the American Association for the Advancement
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TABLE
CATEGORIES OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA
I.
Extrasensory Perception
(ESP)
A.
Telepathy
B.
Clairvoyance
C.
Precognition/Retrocognition
D.
Animal ESP
II,
Psychokinesis
(PK)
A,
Physical Systems
(equipment,
etc,)
B.
Biological Systems
III
. Survival
A.
Reincarnation
B.
Apparitions
C.
Mediumship
IV,
Out-of-Body Experiences
(OBE)
SOURCE:
Jahn,
R.G.
The persistent paradox of psychic
phenomena:
An engineering perspective.
Proceedings
of the
IEEE
.
1982,
70(2):
136-170.
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