Parapsychology is “the field of study that deals with paranormal phenomena in psychology.” (OED). Paranormal is defined as “supposed psychical events and phenomena such as clairvoyance or telekinesis whose operation is outside the scope of the known laws of nature or of normal scientific understanding; of or relating to such phenomena.” (OED). Parapsychology studies phenomenon which are outside of the scope of normal scientific understanding. E.g., phenomenon which cannot be studied using the scientific method. Therefore, parapsychology is not a science.
Modern parapsychologists recognize that they are not scientists in the modern sense of the word, which is why they publish papers saying that the notion of science should be redefined. This redefinition is, of course, far more inclusive, less rigorous and generally more friendly to parapsychologists. Proper controls and repeatability, the former rarely being present, and the latter never having been present in parapsychology experiments, are not necessary.
To the extent that a parapsychologist follows the scientific method, and establishes a career that consists solely of publishing negative results, they may call themselves scientists. Judging by a scan through the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and others, this is not the state of the field, and most parapsychologists practice pseudo-science.
These comments are inspired by the bollocks in this thread.
I’m not sure i’d agree with that “e.g.”. I can see why you would have difficulty in examining paranormal phenomena scientifically, but I don’t think i’d rule it out altogether.
IANAParapsychologist, but I’ve experienced enough paranormal events to believe that my experiences are evidence of SOMETHING. And I believe that paranormal events can be proven via Scientific Method…it’s just that you’d have to create an identical, parallel universe with the earth, stars, moon & sun and all the people on earth plus the extraterrestrial beings (who may or may not exist) elsewhere in the galaxy. It’s impossible to conduct such an experiment. But that doesn’t mean these forces do not exist.
That seems like overkill to me; I’d say that a single person who can unassistedly guess the playing cards correctly 100% of the time would be recordable in a scientific matter and sufficient to “prove” parapsychology via the scientific method.
Parapsychology is only outside the purview of science if it’s imaginary. (Which it very likely is; hence all the pseudoscience.)
Oh, and IANAParasychologist either; I wonder how many of them post on the SDMB (thus enabling them to answer this thread’s invitation)?
Multiple identical universes? The many worlds theory in physics does not allow communication between universes, and they are not identical. Nor is there a god-like observer who can perform such experiments. Saying that this is what you would need to prove that something exists is hand waving.
Now, let’s get back to science. How about a paranormal phenomenon that is repeatable over time under identical, well controlled conditions, in the same universe.
Which is exactly why we have the scientific method; why we use it; and why it has led to such scientific progress. Your experiences are indeed evidence of something; they are a demonstration of how people can be fooled by emotions.
Except, such a person does not exist. Unless they lie just to get on TV. (Keep in mind that most celebrity psychics, including those that take up Randi’s challenge, are total charalatans.)
Ghost sightings, energy healing, etc. are a different matter.
Okay, here we need to define our terms. I would posit that imaginary stuff is just as real as deterministic stuff. Just as real. For example…imagine you’re eating a Wendy’s Big Bacon Classic w/extra cheese. Is that image real? Yes, it is. Because, that image is created by your brain cells. How that works exactly, no one knows yet. But even the most skeptical creationist would willingly accept the existence of human brain cells.
If there are any, I don’t blame them for keeping their mouths shut. The 'Dope can be extremely hostile towards those who believe in the paranormal. Trust me, I know this.
Fine, test the energy healing. If it’s real, then it should be doable under sufficiently controlled conditions to do a study. (And do your ghosts avoid scientists for some reason?)
Let’s define the term “real” to not include imaginary stuff, since things that are only imagined aren’t actually real. The thought describing them might be real. There might even be images of them that are real. But that does not mean you can create real unicorns just by drawing pictures of them.
The medium is not the content, and let’s keep it that way.
Only if they can’t back it up. (Which would, I admit, be hard to prove across a message board. (But not impossible: what are my two favorite numbers?)
Clever. As I claim no parasychic abilities, though, I can honestly say I don’t know, and ask you to tell me what you think they are. (This of course, would only prove your supposed ability to me personally; it would be trickier to make a good demonstration that could convince third-party observers.)
Some do. But many ghosts actually like scientists. Unfortunately, most scientists don’t like ghosts. And people who believe in a 100% deterministic universe (including most scientists) tend to be a little…well, thick-headed. Which makes it hard to get their attention, even if you’re a real person!
Okay, well…this is going to be tricky.
Are you telling me there’s a clear dividing line between the objective universe and the subjective universe?
Which begs the question…if I correctly guess your two favorite numbers, and you tell me I’m wrong…how am I to know that you aren’t lying?
Riiiight… :dubious: Have it your way; I don’t intend to seriously debate this here.
Presuming that the subjective universe = a person’s thoughts and impressions about the objective universe as gathered by their senses and modified by their analysis thereof and other incidental thoughts:
Yes. A subjective universe doesn’t have objective existence; the objective universe does. The subjective universe is therefore not itself real, and further it only reflects reality to the degree that it is in agreement with the objective universe.
The objective universe constitutes reality, for the purpose of a discussion between multiple different people (who have no shared subjective universe). Your thoughts do have a real presence in the objective universe, but only as electrochemical signals in the brain. The ‘subjective universe’ that you have tucked away in those thoughts does not have similar reality.
You don’t have to know; the demonstration would be to convince me of your abilities, not to convince you about them. If you didn’t know that your abilities worked, you probably wouldn’t be making claims about them.
Well, I did say you were clever; take what consolation in that that you may.
And nope; my numbers are 13 and 12,345,679. 13 because it’s proven historically to lucky for me (I’ve tended to win things on it), and 12345679 because it’s the most awesome* number I know.
(This of course invalidates any persuasive power of subsequent answers; I didn’t want to turn this thread into a guessing game anyway.)
Try multiplying it by any positive integer number -any such number-, and then take the result modulus 999,999,999** , and look for patterns in the digits of the resulting number. 8 is a fun one to start with.
** Or, if you prefer, just take all the digits past the first 9 and add them as a separate number into the first 9 digits repeatedly until the result is 9 digits long or less. That’ll give the same result as the modulus.
Okay, it’s my belief that the subjective universe does have an objective reality, and in fact the subjective world can be more real than the objective world. And since our philosophies differ, it will be very difficult to continue this debate. (No offense.)
Just so we’re clear, I have made NO claims of psychic ability in this thread. I have experienced paranormal events, but that’s different. (And I would make a terrible psychic…I’d be tempted to say things like, “Yes, I see your father, he’s still burning in hell…and your mother says she never loved you…and your brother has a tumor growing in his left knee…”)
Because often when people study paranormal stuff they don’t actually have a hypothesis as to why it’s happening. There are many studies which look into telepathy, TK and so on that try to observe the effects whilst not actually having an idea at what is causing the effects; they’re trying to prove they are there, first. So it’s hard to totally eliminate confounding variables if you don’t know which is actually a variable you’re studying.
To a certain degree, this is a semantic difference, but it’s worth being careful about. The word “real” is a little tricky to define, but I think that we can agree that there’s a difference between a real sandwich and a drawing of one. (“This is not a pipe”, and all that.) Similarly, I think you can agree that just because you imagine something, certainly doesn’t make it real to anyone else, and so calling it “real to you” and “not real to them” leaves you with an inability to consistently define the thing as being simply “real” or not, since it would depend on perspective. By defining the term “real” to refer exclusively to the objective universe, then the object’s reality is consistent across viewers, and one at least avoids things being both real and not-real at the same time.
And, while certainly a person’s subjective universe is more real-seeming to them than the objective universe is (since on can never directly observe the objective universe, but instead can only access their subjective impression of it), I still think it’s damaging to the definition of the world if nothing that can be imagined isn’t real (since, really, that would mean that everything we can discuss would be real, making the term essentially useless.)
I know; I tried to remember to keep it third person speculative, but I have a nasty confrontational tendency to phrase hypothetical situations in the second person. I really never thought that you were explicitly claiming psychic powers. (Though claiming the existince of ghosts does come pretty close.)
Nope; just an example of a possible test. And those really are my favorite numbers; what’s the trick?
I mean, after 150 years of research, and NOTHING to show for it? I’d love to know if the human mind has powers beyond what we know…but it seems that nothing has turned up, or is likely to. So, can your “parapsychology” degree and open a bar.
Is the British Society for Paranormal Suff still around? What do they discuss at their meetings?
When you say, “I’m thinking of two numbers,” people assume you mean small numbers, one or two digits at most. You would have fooled the best cold-reading psychic with that 8-digit mouthful. Of course, if I knew you were such a math nerd, I probably would have guessed it eventually.
The cynic in me wonders if 150 years of experiments actually HAVE proven how psychic powers work, but the government is keeping it secret. Think about it…if you had the power of telepathy, telekinesis, remote viewing, prognostication, etc…imagine what havoc you could cause! Imagine if those powers fell into the hands of terrorists.
OTOH, I don’t see any potential terrorist threat from aura readings & energy healing. And those kind of things are basically mental exercises to help you focus & relax. Same with meditation. (Please don’t say you disbelieve meditation…)
The fact that there is no evidence is evidence that the government is hiding the evidence? This isn’t logic-this is an excuse to believe in whatever you want to believe in and dismiss all evidence that contradicts your beliefs-an absolute dead end.
