Title: Lecture 2: A Brief History of Parapsychology
1Lecture 2 A Brief History of Parapsychology
- 1. Introduction and basic terminology
- 2. Evidence from antiquity
- 3. The rise of spiritualism
- 4. The Society for Psychical Research
- 5. 1930-1960s The Duke University Period
- 6. Fraud within parapsychology
2Precognitive Dreams
3Miraculous Healing
4Strange Powers
5Divination
6Telepathy
7Historical Perspective
- Shows that ostensibly paranormal experiences are
an important part of human experience - Either paranormal forces exist
- Or we learn something useful about human
psychology - Makes us question our own assumptions
8Do you believe in fairies?
9Fairies in Folklore
10Cottingley Fairies (1917)Elsie Wright (13)
11Cottingley Fairies (1917)Frances Griffiths (10)
12Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
13Cottingley Fairies Articles
14Phrenology
15Basic Terminology
- Psychokinesis (PK) "the influence of mind on
external objects or processes without the
mediation of known physical energies or forces"
(Wolman, 1977)
16Psychokinesis (PK)Nina Kulagina
17Basic Terminology
- Psychokinesis (PK) "the influence of mind on
external objects or processes without the
mediation of known physical energies or forces"
(Wolman, 1977) - Extrasensory Perception (ESP) "knowledge of or a
response to an external event or influence not
apprehended through known sensory channels"
(Wolman, 1977)
18ESP includes
- 1) telepathy (transference of thoughts between
two people)
19Telepathy?
20ESP includes
- 1) telepathy (transference of thoughts between
two people) - 2) clairvoyance (awareness of remote objects or
events)
21Clairvoyance?
22ESP includes
- 1) telepathy (transference of thoughts between
two people) - 2) clairvoyance (awareness of remote objects or
events) - 3) precognition (knowledge of events before they
occur, other than as a result of inference)
23Precognition?
24Psi
- a general term to identify a person's
extrasensorimotor communication with the
environment (Wolman, 1977). - NB Strict definition of the paranormal, as used
by parapsychologists, limits subject matter to
PK, ESP, and (possibly) issues relating to
life-after-death.
25Oracles in Ancient Greece
26The Delphic Oracle
27King Croesus of Lydia(c. 550 BC)
28Biblical examplesPrecognitive dreams
29Apparitions
30Healing
31Physical Phenomena
32Prophetic Visions
33The Rise of SpiritualismHydesville, NY, March
1848
34The Fox Sisters
35Rapping Sounds in the Bedroom
36Communicating with the Spirits?
37Typical Seance
38Other Strange PhenomenaLevitation
39Playing of Musical Instruments by Unseen Hands
and Lips
40Lights in the Dark
41Apports
42Materialisation of Spirit Forms
43Ectoplasm
44Spirit Photographs
45Written Communications
46Table Tilting
47Michael Faraday
48Robert Hare,American Chemist
49Alfred Russell Wallace,Cofounder Theory of
Evolution
50Sir William Crookes,Discoverer of Thallium
51Florence Cook
52Katie King
53More than a passing resemblance?
54All down to trickery?
55The Society for Psychical Research
- Founded in UK in 1882
- American Society for Psychical Research founded
in 1885 - One major aim was to scientifically prove that
the soul survived bodily death
56Response to Darwins Ideas
57Daniel Dunglas Home
58Harry HoudiniThe Worlds Greatest Conjuror
59Houdini and Conan Doyle
60Luminous Faces Effect
61Bells rung by spirits?
62Houdinis Ectoplasm
63Houdinis Slate Writing
64Fox Sisters Confess (1888)
- Noises produced in various ways including
cracking of toe and ankle joints - Schoolgirl prank had got out of hand
- Spiritualists simply refused to believe confession
65A Time of Transition for Psychical Research
Phenomena most researched
- 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums
66Leonora Piper (as a child)
67Gladys Osborne Leonard
68Eileen Garrett
69A Time of Transition for Psychical Research
Phenomena most researched
- 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums (e.g.
Leonara Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen
Garrett) - 2. physical phenomena of the type produced by Home
70Eusapia Palladino
71Eusapia in Action
72A Time of Transition for Psychical Research
Phenomena most researched
- 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums (e.g.
Leonara Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen
Garrett) - 2. physical phenomena of the type produced by
Home (e.g. Eusapia Palladino) - 3. investigations of hauntings and poltergeists
73Poltergeist Activity
74A Time of Transition for Psychical Research
Phenomena most researched
- 1. mental phenomena of psychics and mediums (e.g.
Leonara Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen
Garrett) - 2. physical phenomena of the type produced by
Home (e.g. Eusapia Palladino) - 3. investigations of hauntings and poltergeists
- 4. the evolution of controlled experiments (e.g.
ESP studies of card guessing)
75The Duke University PeriodJoseph Rhine
76Louisa Rhine
77Joseph Rhines Approach
- Large scale investigations of presumed psychic
ability of ordinary people - Easily controlled simple tests
- Statistical evaluation of results
- E.g., use of Zener cards
78General Extrasensory Perception (GESP)
- Cannot rule out possibility of clairvoyance in
telepathy studies - Cannot rule out precognition in clairvoyance
studies - Cannot rule out PK in precognition studies
- So Rhine preferred GESP!
79Rhines Dice PK Studies
80Rhines Book (1934)
81Response to Rhine (1934)
- Attempts at replication
- Some claimed success
- Many failures (especially in Britain)
- Statistical criticisms
- Technically correct, but insubstantial
- Methodological criticisms
- More serious
- Led to improvements in methodology
82Samuel George SoalBritish Mathematician
83Soals Attempted Replication
- Around 160 participants
- 128,350 trials
- Attempted to remove all flaws and weaknesses from
Rhines design - No deviation from chance expectation
- But then found displacement effects for Gloria
Stewart and Basil Shackleton
84New Series of Studies
- Shackletons performance at MCE for direct hits
- But p-value with respect to next card in series
at 1 in 1035! - Stewart obtained a direct hit rate with p-value
of 1079!
85George Prices (1955) Critique
- Review of Soal and Bateman (1954) Modern
Experiments in Telepathy in Science - Results in favour of psi must be due to
- "clerical and statistical errors and
unintentional use of sensory clues" or - "deliberate fraud or mildly abnormal mental
conditions."
86Exposing Soals Fraud
- Mrs Gretls allegations
- Published in 1960 by Soal and Goldney
- Medhursts (1971) analysis
- Scott Haskells (1973, 1974) analyses
- Markwicks (1978) analysis
- J G Pratt still maintains Soals innocence
87Fraud Within Parapsychology
- Historical evidence of fraudulent mediums
- S G Soal
- Walter Levy in 1970s
- Circumstantial evidence against Uri Geller
- Geller kids
- Are parapsychologists easy to fool?
88James Randis (1980)Project Alpha
- Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards
- McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research,
Washington University - Over two year period, performed all standard
tricks metal bending, mind reading, divining
contents of sealed envelopes, etc - Described as gifted psychic subjects
89Acknowledgement
- With thanks to Hilary Evans, proprietor of the
Mary Evans Picture Library, for permission to use
illustrations featured in this presentation.
These illustrations must not be reproduced in any
form without permission from the Mary Evans
Picture Library.