Extra-sensory perception

Extra-sensory perception (ESP), often referred to as "sixth sense", is defined in parapsychology as the ability to acquire information by paranormal means. ESP is not dependent on the known physical senses, nor on deduction from previous experience. Information can be about present, future, or past events, objects, or people. The term was used by researcher and parapsychologist J. B. Rhine to denote abilities such as telepathy, precognition and clairvoyance. The term "psi" is also used to refer to paranormal processes like ESP. As with all paranormal phenomena, the existence of ESP is often the subject of debate between skeptics, critics, and believers.

Types of ESP

Some of the more prominent types of extra-sensory perception include:

• Clairvoyance: Sometimes called remote viewing, clairvoyance is the paranormal visual acquisition of knowledge about a contemporary object, situation, or event.
• Precognition: Clairvoyant-like knowledge of future events, objects, or situations. Perception of the past is known as "retrocognition".
• Telepathy: The paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings, or activity of another person. Telepathy differs from clairvoyance in that the information comes from the mind of another person.
• Clairaudience: The paranormal auditory acquisition of knowledge; clairaudience often occurs in conjunction with clairvoyance.

Several of these types of ESP are often present in mediumship, as well as others like aura reading and channeling. People adept at using their paranormal abilities are often known as psychics. ESP and other forms of paranormal phenomena are often referred to by the blanket term "psi". Parapsychologists often differentiate between paranormal phenomena of an cognitive nature like ESP (psi-gamma) and paranormal action like psychokinesis (psi-kappa).

History of ESP

The concept of extra-sensory perception has been a part of many cultures throughout history. Precognition and prophesy have been an important part of many cultures, including the Celts of the Scottish Highlands, the Sami in Scandinavia, the Native Americans, the Zulus of Africa, and the Maori of New Zealand. ESP abilities have also been a part of spiritual development, such as in Hinduism, which lists clairvoyance as part of one of the siddhis, or skills that can be acquired through meditation and discipline.

ESP was reportedly observed in the early days of hypnosis, with the followers of Franz Anton Mesmer. Patients put into a trance state were observed to demonstrate telepathic abilities, vision with the fingertips, and clairvoyance. Unlike the parapsychologists to come, the followers of Mesmer believed such abilities to have a physiological cause, not a paranormal one.

As Spiritualism gained popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, more scientists and researchers became interested in psi phenomena. In 1882, the British Society for Psychical Research was founded to study paranormal phenomena like ESP. A few years later, in 1885, the American Society for Psychical Research was founded.

One of the most well known researchers of ESP was J. B. Rhine. Beginning in the 1930's, Rhine worked on a number of experiments designed to test for ESP at Duke University in North Carolina. Using sets of Zener cards (often referred to as "ESP cards"), Rhine tested for ESP; results above the chance statistics were attributed to psi phenomena. Rhine carefully defined terms like "ESP" and "psi", and continued to research psi phenomena at Duke until his retirement in 1965, when he transferred his research to the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man. Partly due to the work Rhine and his associates performed, parapsychology has become better established in other universities.

Scientific Investigation of ESP

Some of the first studies in what would be later termed ESP were conducted by William Barrett in 1881, shortly before he assisted in the founding of the Society for Psychical Research. Barrett investigated the case of the five Creery sisters, who were between the ages of ten and seventeen and could apparently use telepathy to psychically identify an object that had been selected in their absence. After sending one sister out of the room, Barrett would write the name of an object on a piece of paper, which he would then show to the remaining sisters. The first girl was then called back in, and usually correctly guessed the name of the object. Later, a second set of experiments was done involving playing cards. It was not until after the investigators had published their results that it was discovered that the girls had used a number of signals, including slight head movements and coughing, to tell their sister what to guess, thereby nullifying the results of the experiments.

In the 1920's, investigator G.N.M. Tyrrell created automated devices to randomize target selection, and others experimented with drawings or token objects. The most well-known results, however, were not until the 1930's, when Rhine began his series of experiments. To test ESP, Rhine would use decks of Zener cards, consisting of five different designs. In some experiments, cards were laid face down for the subject to guess, to test clairvoyance; in others, the researcher would hold the card so could see it, to test telepathy. Because of the laws of chance, it would be expected that participants would be able to guess one out of five symbols correctly, but Rhine found that subjects often exceeded these expectations, even if it was only by a small percentage.

In the 1970's, parapsychologists began using ganzfeld tests to test for ESP ability. Ganzfeld tests attempt to test for telepathy by separating two individuals into isolated rooms, where one attempts to send a telepathic image to the other. The sender of the message is generally shown either a still image or a short video clip, which he/she then attempts to send to the receiver. The receiver sits in a comfortable reclining chair under a red light, wearing headphones that play white noise or pink noise, and has his/her eyes covered with halves of ping pong balls. These conditions help the receiver enter what is termed the "ganzfeld state", a trance-like state similar to being in a sensory deprivation chamber. After the sender has attempted to send the image for a set number of time (generally 20 to 40 minutes), the receiver is asked to choose the correct image out of a group of four images. Parapsychologists have collected the results of approximately 700 individual ganzfeld sessions performed by about two dozen investigators, and claim the correct image is selected 34% of the time. This increase above the 25% that would be expected from chance alone has been cited as proof of the existence of telepathy, although critics point out numerous ways in which ganzfeld experiments may be flawed.

Researchers have found that ESP abilities are apparently heightened under hypnosis. The results of experiments have been found to be consistently higher when subjects are put into trance than when they retain normal consciousness. Since hypnosis typically involves relaxation and suggestion in an atmosphere of friendliness and trust, it is thought that perhaps one of these factors, or a combination thereof, may be responsible for heightened psi scores.

The absence of psi ability is also sometimes considered significant. Researchers employ the term "psi-missing" to denote situations where the subject consistently scores below what would be expected by chance. According to experimental results, believers in psi tend to score higher, whereas skeptics often score significantly below chance. This phenomenon, referred to as the "Sheep-goat effect" (where believers are "sheep" and non-believers are "goats"), has been observed by many researchers. This phenomenon lends itself to the idea that one's attitudes may affect one's reality; disbelievers may create a void of psi experiences, while believers experience the opposite.

Controversy

A great deal of reported ESP is said to occur spontaneously under 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 anecdotal incidents, rather than laboratory evidence, have historically been the basis for the extremely widespread belief in the authenticity of psi phenomena. However, because it has proven extremely difficult (perhaps impossible) to replicate such extraordinary experiences under controlled scientific conditions, skeptics regard them as unproven hearsay. Eyewitness accounts can be flawed; memories tend to be become modified when the experience is often spoken about or when there is emotional involvement in the subject matter; and people may misinterpret anomalous occurrences which, while unusual, may have perfectly normal explanations. While situations with more emotional attachment may have stronger ESP effects (sensing that a loved one has been in a car crash, for example), such situations would be difficult and morally reprehensible to replicate for testing purposes. Strong ESP effects remain anecdotal, and skeptics remain unconvinced of their veracity. Supporters of ESP maintain that the more subtle effects proven in the laboratory support the existence of larger effects.

Proponents of the existence of ESP 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 are often cited in arguments that ESP exists. Skeptics like James Randi, however, argue that most of these studies were not conducted with proper scientific controls, and that many studies did not adequately protect against fraud or manipulation. Due to the nature of ESP, results are also often difficult to replicate, even within the same experiment using the same subject and researcher. Parapsychologists call one such effect the "decline effect", which describes how a subject's initial performance often slowly declines as testing continues.

While there have been numerous proven examples of willful fraud, such as the case of the Creery sisters, skeptics often discuss the possibility of unconscious fraud (as well as the fact that prominent researchers have been historically duped by simple mentalist techniques). For example, during ganzfeld testing, the handling of a printed target image by the sender may create subtle differences, such as creases or textural changes, that may cause the receiver to choose the target image out of a group, even though he/she may not have consciously noticed such handling marks. Researchers have, over time, responded to critiques of their experimental protocol to combat such criticism; the ganzfeld tests are one such test that has gone through a number of revisions, as well as critiques by well-known mentalists in order to make it a more reliable gauge of ESP phenomena. But the simple fact that fraud has, in many instances, been a part of alleged ESP phenomena has made it hard for the concept to gain legitimacy in scientific circles. Only 10% of polled members of the National Academy of Sciences felt that parapsychological research should be encouraged; 25% felt it should actively be discouraged.

While some ESP studies have been published that fail to find any evidence indicating the existence of ESP, it can be argued that the vast majority of such studies suffer from what is called the "file drawer effect"; in essence, studies that fail to support the existence of ESP are never put out for public examination. This may be because parapsychologists have historically had to fight to be recognized as a legitimate science, and do not wish to provide any further evidence that can be cited by critics, as well as potentially having an effect on the funding of future studies. If such studies had been published, they could have certainly influenced any meta-analyses they were included in.

Fraud and methodological flaws aside, parapsychologists continue to produce what they consider statistically significant results. Parapsychologists such as Dean Radin argue that the positive results from reputable studies, when analyzed using meta-analysis, provide strong evidence for ESP that is almost impossible to account for using any other means except broad-based charges of fraud. Some critics argue that such statistics are not as significant as claimed, and do not deviate from chance enough to constitute proof of any external effect. Some skeptics, such as Dr. Raymond Hymen, who evaluated the CIA's clairvoyance experiments in the Star Gate program, have said that such phenomenon may not have been proven to exist, but that findings were promising enough to merit continued research.

Bibliography

• "Psychic dog phenomenon brought back down to earth", accessed December 9, 2004.
• Myers, David G. Psychology. Accessed on December 9, 2004. Contains information concerning the Randi Foundation tests.
• Radin, Dean. Entangled Minds Pocket Books, 2006
• Milbourne, Christopher. ESP, Seers & Psychics: What the Occult Really Is, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1970, ISBN 0-690-26815-7
• Milbourne, Christopher. Mediums, Mystics & the Occult by Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1975
• Milbourne, Christopher. Search for the Soul , Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers, 1979
• Charpak, Georges, Henri Broch, and Bart K. Holland (tr), Debunked! ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience, (Johns Hopkins University). 2004, ISBN 0-8018-7867-5
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• Mishlove, Jeffrey .Roots of Consciousness: Psychic Liberation Through History Science and Experience. 1st edition, 1975, ISBN 0-394-73115-8, 2nd edition, Marlowe & Co., July 1997, ISBN 1-56924-747-1 There are two very different editions. online
• White, John. ed. Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science, published by Edgar D. Mitchell and G. P. Putman, 1974, ISBN 0-399-11342-8
• Wiseman, Richard. Deception and self-deception: Investigating Psychics. Amherst, USA: Prometheus Press. 1997
• Wolman, Benjamin B. ed.Handbook of Parapsychology, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977, ISBN 0-442-29576-6
• Feather, Sally Rhine and Michael Schmicker. 2005. The Gift: ESP, the Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312329199

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