| Extra-sensory Perception |
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TYPES OF ESP Many different, or seemingly different, types of ESP have been described:
The scientific study of paranormal phenomena such as ESP is called Parapsychology , and includes other phenomena such as and Reincarnation , Near-death Experiences , and Psychokinesis . It is highly controversial whether ESP abilities exists, and if so which abilities are real. HISTORY OF ESP The notion of extra-sensory perception existed in antiquity. In many ancient cultures, such powers were ascribed to people who purported to use them for Second Sight or communicate with deities, ancestors, spirits, and the like. Extra-sensory perception and hypnosis When Franz Anton Mesmer and Grigori Rasputin were first popularizing Hypnosis , the legend came about that a person who was hypnotized would be able to demonstrate ESP. Carl Sargent , a psychology major at the University Of Cambridge , heard about the early claims of a hypnosis–ESP link and designed an experiment to test whether they had merit. He recruited 40 fellow college students, none of whom identified him- or herself as having ESP, and then divided them into a group that would be hypnotized before being tested with a pack of 25 Zener Card s, and a control group that would be tested with the same Zener cards. The control subjects averaged a score of 5 out of 25 right, exactly what chance would indicate. The subjects who were hypnotized did more than twice as well, averaging a score of 11.9 out of 25 right. Sargent's own interpretation of the experiment is that ESP is associated with a relaxed state of mind and a freer, more atavistic level of consciousness. Skeptics believe that Sargent's experiments lacked proper controls. J.B. Rhine In a telepathy experiment the "sender" looks at a series of cards while the "receiver" guesses the symbols. To try to observe clairvoyance, the pack of cards is hidden from everyone while the receiver guesses. To try to observe precognition, the order of the cards is determined after the guesses are made. In all such experiments the order of the cards must be random so that hits are not obtained through systematic biases or prior knowledge. At first the cards were shuffled by hand, then by machine. Later, random number tables were used and, nowadays, computers. An advantage of ESP cards is that statistics can easily be applied to determine whether the number of hits obtained is higher than would be expected by chance. Rhine used ordinary people as subjects and claimed that, on average, they did significantly better than chance expectation. Later he used dice to test for psychokinesis and also claimed results that were better than chance. Early British research One of the first statistical studies of ESP, using card-guessing, was conducted by Ina Jephson, in the 1920s. She reported mixed findings across two studies. More successful experiments were conducted with procedures other than card-guessing. G.N.M. Tyrrell used automated target-selection and data-recording in guessing the location of a future point of light. Whateley Carington experimented on the paranormal cognition of drawings of randomly selected words, using participants from across the globe. J. Hettinger studied the ability to retrieve information associated with ''token objects''. All reported evidence suggestive of extra-sensory perception. Less successful was University of London mathematician . His findings were especially convincing for many other scientists and philosophers regarding telepathy and the claims of Rhine. Critics offered claims of fraud, the invalidity of probability theory to science, and the possibility of unconscious whispering, as accounting for Soal's results. These charges against Soal, and spirited defenses by his colleagues, continued until after his death in 1975. In 1978, parapsychologists largely abandoned any further defence of the findings when a computer-based analysis identified inexplicable sequences in the target lists used for one of Soal's experiments. Sequence, position and psychological effects Rhine and other parapsychologists found that some subjects, or some conditions, produced significant below-chance scoring ( Psi-missing ); or that scores declined during testing (the "decline effect"). Personality measures have also been tested. People who believe in Psi ("sheep") tend to score above chance, while those who do not believe in psi ("goats") show null results or psi-missing. This has became known as the "sheep-goat effect". Prediction of decline and other position effects has proved challenging, although they have been often identified in data gathered for the purpose of observing other effects.Beloff, J. (1986). Retrodiction. ''Parapsychology Review'', ''17'' (1), 1-5. Personality and attitudinal effects have shown greater predictability, with Meta-analysis of parapsychological databases showing the sheep-goat effect, and other traits, to have significant and reliable effects over the accumulated data.Lawrence, T. R. (1993). Gathering in the sheep and goats: A meta-analysis of forced-choice sheep-goat ESP studies, 1947-1993. ''Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association 36th Annual Convention'', pp. 75-86http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320/is_3_62/ai_54194994 Honorton, C., Ferrari, D. C., & Bem, D. J. (1998). Extraversion and ESP performance: A meta-analysis and a new confirmation. ''Journal of Parapsychology'', ''62'' (3), 255-276. Cognitive and humanistic research In the 1960s, in line with the development of Cognitive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology , parapsychologists became increasingly interested in the cognitive components of ESP, the subjective experience involved in making ESP responses, and the role of ESP in psychological life. Memory, for instance, was offered as a better model of psi than perception. This called for experimental procedures that were not limited to Rhine's favoured forced-choice methodology. Free-response measures, such as used by Carington in the 1930s, were developed with attempts to raise the sensitivity of participants to their cognitions. These procedures included relaxation, meditation, REM-sleep, and the Ganzfeld (a mild sensory deprivation procedure). These studies have proved to be even more successful than Rhine's forced-choice paradigm, with meta-analyses evidencing reliable effects, and many confirmatory replication studies.Sherwood, S. J. & Roe, C. (2003). A review of dream ESP studies conducted since the Maimonides studies. ''Journal of Consciousness Studies'', ''10'', 85-109.Bem, D. J. et al.(2001). Updating the Ganzfeld database. ''Journal of Parapsychology'', ''65'', 207-218. Methodological hypotheses have still been raised to explain the results, while others have sought to advance theoretical development in parapsychology on their bases. Moving research out of the laboratory and into naturalistic settings, and taking advantage of naturally occurring conditions, has been a related development. SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF ESP See Also: Parapsychology Scientific investigation of telepathy Ganzfeld experiment The Scientific Field which investigates Psi phenomena such as ESP is called Parapsychology . The Scientific Consensus in the field of parapsychology is that certain types of psychic phenomena such as Psychokinesis , Telepathy , and Precognition are well established scientifically.http://www.psy.gu.se/EJP/EJP1984Bauer.pdf ''Criticism and Controversy in Parapsychology - An Overview'' By Eberhard Bauer, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, in the European Journal of Parapsychology, 1984, 5, 141-166, Retrieved February 09, 20075http://www.parapsych.org/faq_file3.html#20 What is the state-of-the-evidence for psi? Retrieved January 31, 2007 A great deal of reported Extra Sensory Perception is said to occur spontaneously in conditions which are not scientifically controlled. Such experiences are often been reported to be much stronger and more obvious than those observed in laboratory experiments. These reports, rather than laboratory evidence, have historically been the basis for the extremely widespread belief in the authenticity of these phenomena. However, it has proven extremely difficult (perhaps impossible) to replicate such extraordinary experiences under controlled scientific conditions. ''The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena'' by Dean I. Radin Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0 Those who believe that ESP may exist point to numerous scientific studies that appear to offer evidence of the phenomenon's existence: the work of J. B. Rhine , Russell Targ , Harold E. Puthoff and physicists at SRI International in the 1970s, and many others, are often cited in arguments that ESP exists. The main current debate concerning ESP surrounds whether or not statistically compelling laboratory evidence for it has already been accumulated.''Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality'' by Dean I. Radin, Simon & Schuster, Paraview Pocket Books , 2006 ISBN-13: 978-1416516774 ''The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena'' by Dean I. Radin Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0 The most compelling and repeatable results are all small to moderate Statistical results. Some dispute the positive interpretation of results obtained in scientific studies of ESP, because they are difficult to reproduce reliably, and are small effects. Parapsychologists have argued that the data from numerous studies show that certain individuals have consistently produced remarkable results while the remaider have constituted a highly significant trend that cannot be dismissed even if the effect is small.Psychological Bulletin 1994, Vol. 115, No. 1, 4-18. ''Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer'' By Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton SKEPTICISM See Also: Parapsychology#Criticism Among scientists in the National Academy of Sciences, 96% described themselves as " Skeptical " of ESP, although 2% believed in Psi and 10% felt that parapsychological research should be encouraged.McConnell, R.A., and Clark, T.K. (1991). "National Academy of Sciences' Opinion on Parapsychology" Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 85, 333-365. The National Academy of Sciences had previously sponsored the ''Enhancing Human Performance'' report on mental development programs, which was critical of parapsychology.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320/is_n3_v56/ai_13771782/pg_5 Retrieved February 04, 2007 A scientific methodology that shows statistically significant evidence for ESP with nearly 100% consistency has not been discovered. The lack of a viable theory of the mechanism behind ESP is also frequently cited as a source of skepticism. Historical cases in which flaws have been discovered in the experimental design of parapsychological studies, and the occasional cases of fraud marred the field. Critics of experimental parapsychology hold that there are no consistent and agreed-upon standards by which "ESP powers" may be tested, in the way one might test for, say, electrical current or the chemical composition of a substance. It is argued that when psychics are challenged by skeptics and fail to prove their alleged powers, they assign all sorts of reasons for their failure, such as that the skeptic is affecting the experiment with "negative energy." SEE ALSO
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