Parapsychology In The 21st Century

ABSTRACT: Ten years ago the author has identified ten areas of parapsychology potential coating problems as it approached the last decade of 20th century (1) Parapsychology is linked to problematic metaphysical origins, (2) parapsychology is linked with concepts that have been exploited and abused in the past (3) parapsychology can he easily connected with systems illusory (4) parapsychology threatens the order of our scientific methodology, (5) parapsychology forces us watching several theoretical concepts that science has found problematic in the past, (6) parapsychology threatens the fixed belief about how the world works, (7) Parapsychology '; s most potential research projects raise obvious often moral issues, (8) parapsychology involves the study of complex systems and open, (9) parapsychology has difficulty in theory-based hypotheses occurred and testing; (10) parapsychology was often a marked Pseudoscience by philosophers and sociologists of science. This paper revisits each of these ten sectors and offers six strategies for parapsychology adopted while entering the 21st century: (1) we need to assess more fully what we have learned, (2) we must learn more about our negative results (3) we should focus on measures which have good experience in terms of size and uniformity of effect, (4) we must break down the divisions between "; skeptic" and "; researcher"; , (5) because we're getting more interest from experts in other fields, we must integrate more effectively with them and their expertise, (6) we have as individuals and as groups become more effective interaction with the media. What do the future could he hold for us, or rather, what could the future hold for us if we are adequately proactive? The arbitrary time divisions such as millennia always provide a convenient excuse to plan for the future. In fact, earlier this decade I published a test editorial in the European Journal of "authorized by parapsychology, Parapsychology in 1990 '; s: Addressing the Challenge", (Morris, 1990-1). He discussed several problematic aspects of parapsychology and how we the Koestler chair planned to deal with them. I begin by summarizing, followed by commentary, as by some criteria we had some success during the past decade. We had thirteen people complete Ph.Ds specializing in parapsychology, and there are now units related parapsychology at several British universities additional: Hertfordshire, Coventry, Liverpool Hope and Higher Education Center, Northampton. All have programs begun by former students of Edinburgh, in addition to the University of South Pacific, in iji F. Each university encourages the development of potential centers of excellence in psychology / Abnormal psychology. In fact, there are two staff in the hope of Liverpool and three at the Higher Education Center, Northampton, with the academic strengths of parapsychology and Deborah Delanoy was recently appointed a professor of psychology at NCU. Several British universities also additional research on active parapsychology. We see more and more as a subject for legitimate scholarly research and several more include the material in coursework, and recently I was honored to serve as chairman of the psychology section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. A new manual national center for education by correspondence (Hayes, 1999) devotes half a chapter (seventeen pages) parapsychology. The point is that we seem to be regarded as doing something worthwhile by our own school peers who know us well, for example, those in Great Britain. Earlier this decade, my test has identified ten problematic aspects of parapsychology that I felt needed to be addressed if our field was to move forward. He then presented the strategies that we hoped to use in addressing each of them. The first six are conceptual, the last four have linked more with the methodological issues. PROBLEMATIC ASPECTS OF TEN PARAPSYCHOLOGY Problem 1: Parapsychology is linked to a problematic metaphysical origins faces problems of parapsychology is that it is generally identified with the spiritualist aspects of psychical research, where it had its roots, and with occultism, which is indirectly connected, the public tends to regard parapsychology as an attempt to use the tools of science to prove the existence of a nonphysical soul or to show that we all have special occult powers. Some parapsychologists are seen as people who have already made up their minds, who are now trying to use the tools of science to persuade others that parapsychologists'; the world view is correct (eg, Alcock, 1987). Thus, we acquire these enemies we haven ', t won and don', t deserve. Some are a neoreductionist, rationalist, secular humanist tradition, perhaps exemplified by several groups that have formal skeptics now include agencies in most major countries (Hansen, 1992). Others come from more orthodox religious traditions, linking easily parapsychology its predecessors heterodox metaphysical (eg Lindsay, 1972, Logan, 1988). Both views are fed by the current linkages for users of various current, spiritualist, occult traditions and new age often with parapsychology. The results of research and parapsychology psychic are frequently cited in support of various beliefs and practices of these traditions and often embedded in a host of false claims as evidence for their scientific validation