PS1620: Parapsychology In Applied Settings

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PS1620 Parapsychology In Applied Settings

• Mike Eslea
• 3 March 2006
• www.uclan.ac.uk/psychology/bully

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Introduction

• Few paranormal abilities have real, practical
  uses the Uri Geller method would surely be the
  least efficient way to bend a spoon ever invented
  but there are some people who make a living by
  selling paranormal services to professional
  people, such as engineers and police officers,
  who (one would hope) should have a healthy
  respect for real evidence and real results...

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Outline

• Dowsing
• Psychic detectives
• Remote viewing
• Psychic Surgery Healing

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Aims Objectives

• To examine four different forms of applied
  parapsychology, and examine the evidence for the
  existence of real phenomena in each case
• To consider some of the reasons why people might
  come to believe they have paranormal powers

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Dowsing (Divining)

• What is Dowsing?

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Types of Dowsing

• Pendulum dowsing
• Map dowsing
• Hi-Tech dowsing(14,000 each!)

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What Do Dowsers Claim To Be Able To Locate?

• Water
• Running? Natural?
• Alien influence
• Crop circles
• Oil, coal etc
• The future...

• Precious metals
• Gold deposits
• Buried treasure
• Human remains
• Dead or alive?

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Dowse Your Fate
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Tests Of DowsingDoes It Actually Work?

• The Kassel tests
• Germany, 1990
• Probably the best, most exhaustive tests ever
  conducted on dowsers
• 19 dowsers, DM 20,000 prize
• All declared, before starting, that they were
  happy with the setup, and could perform without
  interference
• 100 success on non-blind tests

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The Setup

• For water dowsers

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• For gold dowsers

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Results

• First, all agreed (again) that the setup was fair
  and they had not been impeded in any way
• In the water dowsing
• Chance predicts 50 success
• Actual success 52
• For gold dowsing
• Chance predicts 10 success
• Actual success 11
• Nobody came anywhere near winning the prize

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So What DOES Explain Dowsing?

• The Ideomotor Effect
• Involuntary and unconscious bodily movements can
  be initiated by the mind
• Such movements are consistent with expectations,
  emotional states, suggestions..
• But really FEEL like an external force!
• Ideomotor effects also probably explain Ouija
  Boards, facilitated communication, numerous
  massage-based quackeries, and many other phenomena

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Dowsing Verdict

• It seems likely that FEW dowsers are deliberate
  frauds
• Most genuinely believe they have powers...
• ...But they are probably being fooled by
• Confirmation bias
• The ideomotor effect

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Psychic Detection

• Many psychics (including map dowsers) claim to be
  able to help with police investigations
• Find missing persons, or murder victims
• Find hidden loot etc
• Find perpetrators

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Sylvia Browne

• Famous media psychic in USA
• Agreed 228 weeks ago to be tested by James Randi
• Has not yet submitted to the test
• Has claimed, in TV shows, to have been involved
  in at least 35 successful police investigations
• These claims were tested by Brills Content
  magazine
• In 21 cases, the details were to vague to be
  verified
• In the other 14, NO evidence of useful
  intervention could be found

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Do Psychics EVER Help?

• Some (self-proclaimed) psychics do help, but not
  for any psychic reasons
• Some use the exact same info/skills as the police
  do
• There are a vast numbers of cases where psychics
  have been proved wrong
• This is an appalling abuse of desperate
  relatives, as well as a complete waste of police
  time

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Why Do Police Turn To Psychics?

• According to Lyons Truzzi, few cops ever claim
  to believe in psychic powers
• Instead, they argue that cops use psychics
• To intimidate suspects who DO believe in psychic
  powers
• To cover for the real sources of information
• Informants
• Illegally obtained

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Remote Viewing

• Essentially, RV is another form of dowsing
• Maps
• Trance
• RVers have claimed to have visited
• Other planets
• Secure institutions (banks etc)
• Foreign embassies

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Ingo Swann

• Famous RVer who claimed to have visited Jupiter
  Mercury
• Pronounced genuine by Targ Puthoff
• (who also declared Uri Geller genuine)
• Saw 30,000 ft mountains on Jupiter
• No such mountains exist
• Ah, but space travel is so fast!!!

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CIA Stargate

• Bizarrely, the US military and CIA have been
  impressed enough by RVers to spend millions on a
  secret RV programme called Stargate
• Started 1974
• Ended (so far as we know) in the mid 1990s
• First Earth Battalion
• The men who stare at goats

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Psychic Surgery

• Very popular in Brazil Philippines
• Uses Spiritual Energy toperform surgery with
  barehands
• Current furore over John of God programme on
  ABC

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How Is It Done?
Faith Healing
To view the movies, go to www.darat.org/dimossi/J
ames.Randi.debunking.on.Tonight.Show.wmv
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Applications of Paranormal Powers Summary

• Despite the endorsement of many supposedly
  intelligent people, there remains NO evidence for
  any useful application of psychic power
• Most applied psychics are either
• Deluded but genuine believers, fooled by the
  ideomotor effect, confirmation bias etc
• Frauds using (third-rate) magician skills