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QUANTUM PHYSICS AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY
The 23rd Annual International Conference of the Parapsychology Foundation,
Inc.
Hotel La Reserve,
Geneva, Switzerland
August 26-27,
1974
An interpretative conference report containing some comments about
prospects in parapsychological research.
SGI
I
i
October 28, 1974
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I, INTRODUCTION
23rd Annual Conference of the Parapsychology Foundation was
held at the Hotel La Reserve,
Geneva,
Switzerland on August 26 and
27,
1974.
Hie subject of the conference was
"Quantum Physics and Parapsychology",
a topic selected at the instigation of Arthur Koestler,
the well-known
author,, who in recent years has interested himself in the subject of
parapsychology.
His recent book,
The Roots of Coincidence ,
reflects
this interest.
The putative relation between quantum physics and para-
psychology arises because the apparent non-common sense features accepted
in quantum physics may be analogous to the non-common sense features
observed in parapsychological phenomena.
In any case the conference
was ostensibly devoted to an exploration of the physical bases for
parapsychology.
Complete texts of all ten of the papers presented at this conference
have previously been supplied.
A summary and critique of the contents
of each of the ten papers appears in the Appendix of this
rexx>rt.
At
the conference a discussion period followed the presentation of each paper,
and at the conclusion of the conference another more general discussion
took place.
The proceedings of this conference,
containing both the
submitted papers and the verbal discussion,
is scheduled for publication
in June 1975 by the Parapsychology Foundation,
Inc.,
29 West 57th Street,
New York,
A brief official account of the conference will appear sooner
in their "Newsletter of the Parapsychology Foundation".
The following discussion of conference content is based upon attendance
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at all the sessions,
subsequent study of written versions of the papers,
and private conversations with nearly all of the personalities present.
II. ANALYSIS OF THE PURPORT OF THE CONFERENCE
The reality of ESP was an accepted fact at this conference.
When
discussion of the reality of the phenomena occurred,
it was concerned only
with methods of securing public acceptance and belief in paranormal
cognition.
Some doubt was expressed of the usefulness of public
demonstrations to “blue-ribbon panels”,
but all agreed on the necessity
of more research support.
It became clear that there exists at present no adequate theory of
paranormal perception which can furnish a physical basis for the phenomena.
The existing attempts at physical theories are speculative,
Incomplete,
at at best poorly substantiated j although some ideas were presented
which might furnish the seeds of fruitful investigation.
These ideas
are discussed in more detail below.
The conference evidenced a rough division of attitudes toward
parapsychology into two schools of thought.
Researchers share a general
acceptance of the strangeness of it all, but on the working level some
believe progress in understanding can be achieved through extension
and use of existing scientific knowledge and methods, perhaps by some
new synthesis.
The others basically favor a more philosophical and
mystical approach, and believe that nothing short of a complete revolution
of thought, maybe into more spiritual directions,
can cope with the
challenge.
The “mystics” characterise the physical approach as
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naive reductionism.
The "reductionists",
for lack of a better term,
retain their faith in the efficacy of traditional scientific methods.
These categories are a convenient simplification of complex attitudes
and some individuals show traces of both orientations.
In view ’of the conference topic it was surprising that the "mystics"
were strongly represented.
The presentations of Chari,
Firsoff, Whiteman,
and Bastin seem to fall m the mystical category.
Verbal comments of
Arthur Koestler would, place him also in this group.
At the conclusion
of the conference he expressed disappointment that the ideas were not
"crazy" enough and voiced scepticism at seeking explanation of ESP in
existing physical theories.
These contributions
to the conference seem
to offer no avenues of physical understanding and will not be discussed
further.
The remaining papers presented at the conference are more physical'
in content.
Of the theoretical papers Costa de Beauregard gave the most
general and perhaps
the best formulated analysis of a possible physical
basis for ESP.
His presentation consisted of words,
and not equations,
but the concepts discussed vqvq readily understandable by a theoretical
physicist.
No specific mechanism was proposed,
but information theory
was interwoven with some established physical principles
to describe a
framework within which .ESP might be understood.
The ideas of Costa de
Beauregard are unifying in character,
rather analogous
to the unifying
character of the energy concept in conventional physics, ana like the
concept of energy could establish broad guidlines without supplying a
detailed mechanism.
For example,
the idea discussed by Feinberg,
that
precognition is a memory propagated from the future,
is subsumed in
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Costa do Beauregard’s thinking.
Puthoff presented some speculations about
apparent features of his PK experiments which are also consistent with
the same overall picture.
Indeed' if any common thread emerged from the
physical side of the conference,
it was that somehow information theoretic
concepts must play an important role in ESP.
The connection is established
through the equivalence of information theory with physical probability
and its role both in quantum theory and in macroscopic entropy.
A detailed and partially quantitative physical theory of ESP was
i
presented ty Walker.
This theory may err through its use of overspecific
and poorly justified assumptions.
It relies heavily on some explicit
conjectures about neural activity in the brain,
and also postulates an
essential function in consciousness and psi communication for the so-
called ’’hidden variables” of quantum theory.
A' simple empirical method of quantifying the results of ESP experiments
was proposed by Schmidt.
This quantification,
if appropriate, would
permit the various experimental manifestations of ESP
( precognition,
clairvoyance,
PK,
etc.)
to be interrelated.
Experimental papers describing striking PK and remote viewing
experiments with gifted paragnosts were presented by Puthoff and
Targ.
In terms of normal standards of scientific conferences the gleanings
of theoretical understanding from this conference are somewhat sparse,
particularly if a physical basis of ESP is the object.
The phenomena
of ESP have undergone a great deal of experimental verification,
but a
basic understanding of paranormal perception is evidently still lacking.
The material presented at this conference only indicates a bare beginning
of a rational,
physical,
interpretation of parapsychological phenomena.
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