Have you ever had the feeling that youve been in an establishment beforeyouve actually gone inside? Did you ever feel like youve known thatsomething was about to happen before there were any signs that it was about tooccur? If youre not a skeptic about the powers of the mind, then there mightjust be an explanation for your seemingly coincidental premonitions. Its aphenomenon called extra sensory perception, better known as ESP. The textbookdefinition of this classification of parapsychology is “sensing”anything beyond the normal.
(www. paranormalatoz. com) Most scientists do notbelieve that this phenomenon exists. Nevertheless, controversial evidence can beused to sway the incredulous. By viewing and researching evidence of ESP and/orhaving a personal experience, the truth lies within the eye of the beholder. Theman who said it best was C.
G. Jung during a lecture given to the Society forPsychical Research in 1919. He quotes, “I shall not commit the fashionablestupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud. ” (http://moebius. psy)ESP includes telepathy, precognition or premonition, and clairvoyance or”remote viewing”. (www.
paranormalatoz. com) Telepathy is the directresponse to another individuals thoughts. (Schmeidler,805) Premonition is adirect response to a future event. (Schmeidler,805) Clairvoyance is the directresponse to a future event. (Schmeidler,805) These types of ESP and other formsof parapsychology were not even studied until 1882. (Schmeidler,806) In 1882, theSociety for Psychical Research was established in London , England by aextraordinary group of Cambridge scholars.
Its purpose was to examine allegedlyparanormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way. It was the first societyof its kind in the world. (http://moebius. psy) This society is still in fulloperation today, 117 years later.
The actual term extra sensory perceptionwasnt used until the early 1930s. During this time an American scientist,Joseph Banks Rhine first began his ground breaking experiments testing ESPsvalidity. (Encarta) His research was conducted at the Parapsychology Laboratoryof North Carolinas, Duke University. (Encarta) Rhines most well-knownexperiment involved a deck of twenty-five cards. On the cards, written in heavyblack ink, each card had a different design on them.
The designs included astar, a cross, a square, or wavy lines. (Encarta) The concealed deck oftwenty-five cards was shuffled. One random card was drawn from the deck at atime and the test subject was asked to identify the hidden marking on theflip-side of the card. If the test subject correctly identified five out oftwenty five cards correctly, it was considered pure chance. (Encarta) Rhine andhis associates concluded that if the individual named six out of ten of thecards correctly, then indeed the test subject possessed extra sensoryperception. (Encarta) From his experimentally proved evidence, it can easily beseen which stand Rhine took on the controversial existence of ESP.
However, notall scientists had acknowledged the authenticity of his trials and thelegitimacy of this branch of pseudo-science called parapsychology. Certainscientists do not believe in the reality of extrasensory perception due to theirlack of faith in the experiments that test its existence. These scientistsclaim that the ESP experiments are hard to if not impossible to repeat. (Encarta)In researching, scientists also observed that test results differ according tothe subjects attitude. Individuals that had biased opinions of the ESPtesting did not score nearly as high as those who were open-minded toward theexperiment.
(Schmeidler 805) Psychologists analyzing the testing methodsconcluded that the subjects who doubted the credibility of extrasensoryperception were consciously trying to succeed in the testing, but could havebeen unconsciously wanting to fail. (Schmeidler 805) This is an example of whatscientists call the “file drawer” effect. This is better explained bystating that the “results that the experimenter likes are published, butother results stay buried in the files. ” This makes it hard to know ifinformation given is accurate or falsely misinterpreted.
(Schmeidler 806) Thismain recognition of possible false data is why the majority of conventionalscientists disregard the findings made in the field of parapsychology. Thediscoveries are labeled unscientific or at best inconclusive. However, even ifthe most solid evidence is found to conclude that ESP does in fact exist, therewill always be the skeptical scientist who will feel that the entire basis onwhich parapsychology is grounded is nothing but a fraud. Perfect examples ofthis ignorance are psychologists, Samuel Moss and Donald C. Butler.
Bothpsychologists are set in denying the existence of ESP despite seeminglywell-founded evidence. Their mutual view is that the widespread belief in extrasensory perception can be, “attributed to cultural and psychologicalfactors. “(Rubenstein,46) For example, Christian theology supports thepresence of spiritual phenomena. (Rubenstein,46) According to Moss and Butlerchildren might also be prone to believing in ESP because of fairy tales andtelevision shows featuring heroes that possess supernatural powers.
This wouldbe an acceptable explanation for ESP fraudulence , except for the blatantlynoticeable fact that children arent normally found setting up their ownfortune telling businesses claiming to predict the future. The adult populationmakes up the majority of people who publicly profess their telepathic orpremonition abilities. However, overall Moss and Butler believe that the,”power to predict and control without undue effort is alluring thatwishful thinking becomes hardened beliefs. ” Which undoubtedly explainsthose among us that have proceeded from their childhoods still believing thatthe powers of their favorite super human idols are in fact real. Not allscientists conform to one set method of reasoning. One of these psychologists,K.
Ramakrishna Rao has fought back against the negative remarks made bypsychologists who do not accept the existence of ESP. Rao argues thatindifferently to what other scientists believe, that experimental design ofsuccessful experiments in parapsychology are just as good as any in thebehavioral sciences. (Rubnstein, 58) Parapsychologists, even tried to convinceconventional scientists that ESP is in fact a sixth sense with support fromquantum physics. (Encarta) Why should the same experimental methods be used totest two completely different areas of study? It doesnt make sense. This wasRaos point exactly, that it was unjust to compare two uncommon things andjudge between the two on which is correct.
The main complaint of theconventional scientists, was that the parapsychology experiments lacked a keyfactor in scientific discovery methods. This factor being repetition. Rao alsoargued that experiments involving extrasensory perception were indeed repeatedto a certain extent. (Rubnstein, 58) However, the scientists based their argumentover parapsychology on inadequate testing procedures alone. The rebuttal to thatargument was exactly what Rao had believed in all along.
Simply that”the scientific method, as currently understood, is too restrictive aformulation for exploring the unknown. “(Encarta) Since the early, groundbreaking experiments of Joseph Banks Rhine, the parapsychology world has come along way. Announcing his retirement in 1965, Joseph Banks Rhine transferred allof research to an organization called the Foundation for Research on the Natureof Man. (Encarta) Since that, parapsychology has become better established inuniversities across the nation. Educational institutes are beginning to offermore credit courses based upon the field of parapsychology. (Encarta)Encouraging the further exploration of the field involving extrasensoryperception, grants are presented to various organizations such as theParapsychological Association and the American Association for the Advancementof Science.
Though most conventional scientists continue to discreditextrasensory perception, there is some evidence that almost everyone has atleast some faint ESP ability. How else could something as seemingly coincidentalas “mothers intuition” be explained? History tells us stories ofESP as well. For example, what about the enlightenment of a 12 year old girl,Jean DArc, who saved the nation of France because of her foretelling visions?The fact is that, there is evidence out there. Getting individuals to believe inits substantiality is another battle. Despite this, soon enough, throughcontinuous research and testing of parapsychology, the evidence that currentlyexists will be proven valid and these inquiries and many others concerning theunknown will be answered.
The real question is, can anyone predict when?BibliographyMicrosoft Encarta 1997 Encyclopedia. “Physical Research”. Ó1993-1996Microsoft Corporation. Rubnstein, Joseph and Slife, Brent D. “Has ScienceDiscredited ESP?”. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on ControversialPsychological Issues.
3rd edition. The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc. SluiceDock, Guilford, CT. 1984. pp.
46-59 Schmeidler, Gertrude. “ExtrasensoryPerception”. The Encyclopedia Americana. International Edition. GrolierIncorporated. Danbury, CT.
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