A Sample and Critique of psi Research :: Telepathy Precognition Psychic Papers

Do you remember how electrical currents and unseen waves were laughed at? The knowledge somewhat man is still in its infancy. - Albert EinsteinIntroductionPerception of rising events (precognition), communication through thoughts (telepathy), material manipulation without physical contact (telekinesis), imagination of an object or place millions of miles away with enough accuracy to go past it (remote viewing) these are a few cases of what is referred to as psi phenomena, also cognise as parapsychological or psychic phenomena. Psi refers to anomalous processes of naught or information transfer... that are currently unexplained in basis of known physical or biological mechanisms.(1) Long dismissed by scientists and other skeptics all over the world, these occurrences are often attributed to trickery, hallucination, lying, chance, and even religious influence. Claims of psychic ability come from many varied sources. From the friend who has premonitory dreams and the dog who k nows when the master has decided to come home, to the glamorous astrologer with a 900-number and the clairvoyant with a TV show, stories of paranormal abilities range from personal and intriguing to distant and Hollywood-esque. Are these things really possible? What does the scientific community actually know about these phenomena? Ultimately, one must ask the question, what can the scientific community know about these phenomena?This paper is intended to provide a small sample and critique of the available scientific research on these unexplained and often dismissed phenomena. The examples which form this review are research on unexplained phenomena not associated with psychic individuals, large-scale research direction on many individuals with psychic talent, and an investigation of the claimed abilities of a single internationally celebrated psychic.Despite the historical and prevalent stigma and sensationalization associated with this field, many regard educational establishm ents have laboratories involved in the research of psi. The Princeton Engineering Anomalies question program, instituted in 1979 to investigate mind-matter interactions (2) the Parapsychological Association, a 1957 offshoot of the Duke Laboratory (3) the Koestler psychic phenomena Unit at the University of Edinburgh (4) and Stanford Universitys 1946 endeavor, Stanford Research Institute are four of these. It should be noted that Stanford Research Institute separated from the university in 1970, and became SRI International. (5)ExamplesImpersonal phenomenaIf a person is asked to identify the color of a rectangle, and is subsequently asked to read a randomly generated color phone, it is well-known that a matching color name will be called out faster than a mismatching color name.