Make the study of psi a science

The experiments on extrasensory perception are unusual, but the method used for the study is rigorous, even if the results are variable.


The lights dim, the relaxing sound of waves rushing at the beach gives way to silence. Then an erotic video will appear on the screen in front of me. It is not the return of adolescent fantasies but a serious study on the telepathic transmission of emotions, taking place in what may be the strangest of British laboratories: Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU ) at the University of Edinburgh.

Parapsychology is by far the area of ​​investigation farthest scientific research that usually take place in this distinguished university. This is the study of phenomena "called" paranormal, and subjects studied in the recent laboratory experiments range from Koestler extrasensory perception in clairvoyance, psychokinesis through.

Parapsychologists have a rational approach to these phenomena and use rigorous scientific methods. Striving to achieve academic recognition, researchers at the KPU are particularly careful about their methodology and their expression.

"The extraordinary claims of parapsychologists," said Caroline Watt, head of the parapsychology unit. "They must take extreme care during their experiments." It emphasizes the type of results, because even the most keen believers to "psi" (Greek letter used to designate the paranormal) accepts that the evidence for psi anomalies are low often difficult to identify with certainty.

One of the main protocols used by parapsychologists is the Ganzfeld, which allows the study of telepathic communication. In this experiment, a volunteer (the transmitter) is placed in front of a screen projecting a video. A second subject (the receiver) is sitting in a chair placed in another room, his eyes covered, and listening to a neutral noise (the "white noise", to eliminate any sensory stimulation). At the end of the experiment, four videos are shown to the receiver. One of them was issued before the emitter and the other three are decoys. The receiver must identify which was viewed by the issuer.

The receiver should choose the right video on average only once out of four. But parapsychologists argue that subjects more often choose good video than would be the simple result of chance. This is where the real problems of parapsychology begin. Even if one assumes that psi exists, how does he? "Impossible to say," said Paul Stevens, a researcher at the KPU. "We still do not know. The majority of the work done so far have aimed to prove the existence of psi, rather than determining a mechanism that would explain its operation. "

But this could soon change. Stevens is part of the small number of researchers involved in this area and is looking into the laws of physics a rational explanation for psi phenomena. "The fundamental laws of physics must be involved," he said. "If there are none, then we operate in the supernatural realm." He admits that research aimed at identifying physical laws have been unsuccessful to date.

The failure of parapsychology to determine an underlying theory is particularly problematic. The discrepancies in interpretations of experimental data are in fact the main reason the pariah status of this discipline.

Parapsychologists spend most of their time to experiment, but, to date, they found no law to predict precisely their results and they have failed to agree on theories to explain cesrésultats.

This lack of understanding about what is really going on that explains unexpected results may emerge. A search for Peter Ramakers, a doctoral student at PKU, advanced science gaps without a theoretical basis to support it. His research topic is the telepathic transmission of emotional responses. In the experiment that uses, the issuer is subject to strong triggering images positive reactions (erotic, extreme sports, etc..), Negative (eg mutilated bodies) and neutral (objects of everyday life, landscapes, etc..). The receiver on the other hand, sees nothing.

During this experiment, the researchers measured the rate of sweating of the hands of participants, as it assesses the emotional change. As expected, the transmitter reacts intensely to the positive and negative images, and so lower with neutral images. The results are more surprising for the receiver. Ramakers expecting an emotional peak when the issuer saw images positive or negative. Instead, he found slight increases at the receiver during negative and neutral images. No reaction to what is positive images.

Leaving the KPU and back on the campus of the University, I wondered what scientists out of the unit would think of these results. Indeed, there is little interaction between psychology and parapsychology. "Psychologists have generally an open mind," said Richard Wiseman, professor of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, "but unless you have something directly related to their work, it does not interest them ". While the evidence for psi were flagrant, it would be too far from their schools of thought ...