ee umm, Ss pan tone Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400100009-4 IMPROVING COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION BETWEEN EUROPEAN PARAPSYCHOLOGISTS: THE EURO-PA Deborah L. Delanoy Psychology Department University of Edinburgh Abstract European parapsychologists face a set of inter-rela militate against the existence of an effective communication and collaboration network between researchers, Primary among these problems are language differences, the physical isolation of manv res \ searchers, the dwindling number of established research centers and a lack of funding. In an attempt to combat same of these difficulties, European parapsychological researchers have started to hold an annual conference, the Euro-PA. The history and goals of the Euro-PA are discussed, and its effectiveness in overcoming some of the problems facing European parapsychologists is considered. A questionnaire was circulated to European parapsychologists collecting their Opinions on a variety of questions relevant to communication and collaboration issues. ‘The responses to this questionnaire are presented. ted problems which 53? fara psy chug (ca/ Cuentrenw A850 Ag 1946 Acknowledgements : My thanks to John Beloff, Robert Morris and Caroline Watt for their helpful camments on an earlier draft of this paper, Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400100009-4
100009-4 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400 Parapsychology, where Tresearchers are often working in relative iso from their colleagues, the importance of a good communication and collaboration network is greatly increased. Parapsychology, in canmon with other disciplines, Publishes a variety of journals and has a professional body, the Parapsychology Association (PA), which sponsors an annual convention, among many other activities, which helps to provide such a network, But, are these conventional means successfy] in providing the necessary communi cation/col laboration network? Researchers in parapsychology living in Europe confront a set of inter-related Problems, none unique to the European situation, which ma seen as militating against the success of these conventional communication and collaboration strategies, Primary among these problems of established research centers, and, last but by no means least, a lack of funding. It is not the intention of this paper to examine these various problems in detail. Instead, the reasons why these factors can defeat the conventional communication/col laboration means will be highlighted. ‘The efforts being made by European parapsychologists to The problems raised by the language differences found between researchers living in different countries has recently been admirably addressed by Carlos Alvarado (1989) in his article "The Language Barrier in Parapsychology", th this article Alvarado describes the various problems which arise fran language differences, the most important being that researchers, particularly those for whom English is their first language, are unaware of important work which has been and/or is being conducted by non-English Speaking researchers. As Alvarado notes, such ignorance has | detrimental consequences ; | "Clearly, a researcher should he aware of any publication in ; his or her field of Speciality, not only for complete coverage, i but also for Practical reasons, such as having knowledge of { Successful or failed replications, avoiding the repetition of | mistakes or problems found in Previous work, and obtaining ideas for further work." (Alvarado, 1989, p. 129) relatively small geographic area of Furope. While many Europeans, especially non-native English speakers, are commonly fluent in several languages, there are few who have mastered all the languages which would necessary to have a comprehensive knowledge ‘of al] the parapsychological ly-relevant work published in Europe. Another problem created by language differences concerns more direct communication between European Parapsychologists. Since most Europeans know scme English, 64 100009-4 Approved For Release 2000/08/11 : CIA-RDP96-00792R000400