from Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The scientific investigation of claims of psychic powers and paranormal events.
Interest in psychic phenomena was stimulated during the 19th century, particularly by the rise of the spiritualism movement. This coincided with the development of ‘scientism’ and a growing belief that science could provide the answers to questions about the nature of the world around us. Although many people of a scientific bent began to dismiss the idea of the supernatural and paranormal, others felt that a scientific approach could be applied in these areas for the purposes of proving (or disproving) the multitude of claims that were being made. In the UK the society for psychical research was founded in 1882 and very soon an American offshoot, the american society for psychical research, was formed. During this time many fraudulent mediums were exposed as the results of research, much ghost hunting was carried out and there were investigations into the emerging areas of spirit photography and ghost photography. Unfortunately, a lack of conclusive evidence, and some high-profile mistakes made by some of the more credulous ‘researchers’, led to psychical research attracting something of a ‘crackpot’ image among much of the general public. However, research continued.
In the 1920s and 1930s extrasensory perception became a popular area of psychical research and a new laboratory-based approach developed. The term ‘parapsychology’ was introduced in an attempt to move away from some of the negative connotations associated with the original name for the discipline. Prominent among the new investigators was j b rhine who set up a research unit at Duke University in North Carolina and provided a means of statistically analysing the results of experiments into telepathy with the introduction of card-guessing experiments. Since then, research and investigation has continued, into a wide range of phenomena, from ghosts, poltergeists and hauntings through to clairvoyance, remote viewing, metal bending and other examples of alleged psychokinesis.
The whole area of psychical research remains highly controversial. In 1976 a group of sceptics in the USA set up the committee for the scientific investigation of claims of the paranormal (CSICOP) in response to what they perceived to be poor experimental procedure, and biased consideration of data, resulting from research being carried out by ‘believers’. Many with an interest in the area countered that CSICOP’s own approach was equally flawed – they argued that its members had already dismissed the possibility that any paranormal phenomena exist and so brought their own bias to the interpretation of evidence.
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