From: utzoo!decvax!duke!mcnc!unc!tim Newsgroups: net.philosophy Title: The Observability of "Psychic Phenomena" Article-I.D.: unc.4699 Posted: Wed Feb 23 01:34:36 1983 Received: Thu Feb 24 08:12:42 1983 There is a fairly discredited school of research known as parapsychology. It is discredited because its main pro- ponent and researcher admitted falsifying most of his data. Every week, the National Enquirer and its ilk publish vast numbers of alleged "prophecies" and "clairvoyant dis- coveries" that are obvious nonsense to any even slightly intelligent reader. Every month, books like "The Bermuda Triangle", "Chariots of the Gods", etc., are published, and every day most newspapers print an either vague or blatantly false "horoscope". Uri Geller is still making money with his stage magic show; so are faith healers, card readers, and the like. The obvious charlatanry of virtually all purveyors of "psychic phenomena", "the occult", and such is taken as evidence for the nonexistence of such phenomena. In fact, this is only evidence for a skeptical attitude. It can in no rational way be considered evidence for the nonexistence of a class of phenomena. Consider these things in the abstract. If psychic phenomena (for want of a better name) did exist, what laws would govern their behavior? It is neccessary to formulate a hypothesis of this sort before experimentation in any field. One law usually laid down is scientific provability. This means that the phenomena can be observed in a controlled fashion. In order to impose controls on an experiment, one must know what factors in the environment of the experiment will cause changes in the subject (whether the subject is a person or a cluster of subatomic particles), and one must be able to control these factors. (I'm sorry, because this is already well known to virtually all of you, but I want to make sure we agree on definitions.) What would be the relevant factors affecting observations of psychic phenomena? The answer is simple: no one knows. This is a whole new ball park. The weather could possibly be vital: it certainly alters people's moods, which might or might not be related to observability of psychic phenomena. There might be some obscure but critical factor in the chemical composition of the central nervous system. Also, if psychic phenomena exist they imply a whole new medium of information transfer. We have no way of knowing how to control the environment imposed by this medium. This is most emphatically not a defense of psychic research in its current form. It is overly mechanistic and not at all psychological, in an attempt to not seem like witchcraft. It's hard to see how such an approach could ever hope to isolate the variables involved. I am also not saying that scientific psi research is currently possible. If your sole criterion for worthiness of a topic is that it is scientifically testable using current methods, then you should certainly discard this topic, as well as most topics of every day life, and particularly any belief in the existence of emotion. I should also add that I myself am not convinced that such phenomena exist, nor that they do not. Tim Maroney