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...the whole of those alleged experiments were bogus, and originated in the honest desire of two youths to show how easily men of scientific mind and training could be deceived when seeking for evidence in support of a theory they were wishful to establish.<ref>Andrew Neher. (2011). ''Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination''. Dover Publications. p. 220</ref>}}
...the whole of those alleged experiments were bogus, and originated in the honest desire of two youths to show how easily men of scientific mind and training could be deceived when seeking for evidence in support of a theory they were wishful to establish.<ref>Andrew Neher. (2011). ''Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination''. Dover Publications. p. 220</ref>}}


A famous experiment in telepathy was recorded by the American author [[Upton Sinclair]] in his book ''[[Mental Radio]]'' which documents Sinclair's test of psychic abilities of Mary Craig Kimbrough, his second wife. She attempted to duplicate 290 pictures which were drawn by her husband. Sinclair claimed Mary successfully duplicated 65 of them, with 155 "partial successes" and 70 failures. However, these experiments were not conducted in a controlled scientific laboratory environment.<ref>[[Martin Gardner]], ''[[Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science]]'' (Courier Dover Publications, 1957) Chapter 25: ''ESP and PK'', [http://books.google.com/books?id=TwP3SGAUsnkC& available online]; accessed July 25, 2010</ref>
A famous experiment in telepathy was recorded by the American author [[Upton Sinclair]] in his book ''[[Mental Radio]]'' which documents Sinclair's test of psychic abilities of Mary Craig Kimbrough, his second wife. She attempted to duplicate 290 pictures which were drawn by her husband. Sinclair claimed Mary successfully duplicated 65 of them, with 155 "partial successes" and 70 failures. However, these experiments were not conducted in a controlled scientific laboratory environment.<ref name="Gardner1957">[[Martin Gardner]], ''[[Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science]]'' (Courier Dover Publications, 1957) Chapter 25: ''ESP and PK'', [http://books.google.com/books?id=TwP3SGAUsnkC& available online]; accessed July 25, 2010.</ref> [[Martin Gardner]] wrote that the possibility of [[sensory leakage]] during the experiment had not been ruled out:

{{quote|In the first place, an intuitive wife, who knows her husband intimately, may be able to guess with a fair degree of accuracy what he is likely to draw—particularly if the picture is related to some freshly recalled event the two experienced in common. At first, simple pictures like chairs and tables would likely predominate, but as these are exhausted, the field of choice narrows and pictures are more likely to be suggested by recent experiences. It is also possible that Sinclair may have given conversational hints during some of the tests—hints which in his strong will to believe, he would promptly forget about. Also, one must not rule out the possibility that in many tests, made across the width of a room, Mrs. Sinclair may have seen the wiggling of the top of a pencil, or arm movements, which would convey to her unconscious a rough notion of the drawing.<ref name="Gardner1957"/>}}


The Turner-Owenby long distance telepathy experiment was discovered to contain flaws. Frances May Turner positioned herself in the [[Rhine Research Center|Duke Parapsychology Laboratory]] whilst Sarah Owenby claimed to receive transmissions 250 miles away. For the experiment Turner would think of a symbol and write it down whilst Owenby would write her guesses.<ref name="Sladek 1974">[[John Thomas Sladek|John Sladek]]. (1974). ''The New Apocrypha: A Guide to Strange Sciences and Occult Beliefs''. Panther. pp. 172-174</ref> The scores were highly successful and both records were supposed to be sent to J. B. Rhine, however, Owenby sent them to Turner. Critics pointed out this invalidated the results as she could have simply written her own record to agree with the other. When the experiment was repeated and the records were sent to Rhine the scores dropped to average.<ref name="Sladek 1974"/>
The Turner-Owenby long distance telepathy experiment was discovered to contain flaws. Frances May Turner positioned herself in the [[Rhine Research Center|Duke Parapsychology Laboratory]] whilst Sarah Owenby claimed to receive transmissions 250 miles away. For the experiment Turner would think of a symbol and write it down whilst Owenby would write her guesses.<ref name="Sladek 1974">[[John Thomas Sladek|John Sladek]]. (1974). ''The New Apocrypha: A Guide to Strange Sciences and Occult Beliefs''. Panther. pp. 172-174</ref> The scores were highly successful and both records were supposed to be sent to J. B. Rhine, however, Owenby sent them to Turner. Critics pointed out this invalidated the results as she could have simply written her own record to agree with the other. When the experiment was repeated and the records were sent to Rhine the scores dropped to average.<ref name="Sladek 1974"/>
Line 53: Line 55:
The full results of the experiments were published in 1942 in a book by Sherman and Wilkins titled ''Thoughts Through Space''. In the book both Sherman and Wilkins had written that they believed they had demonstrated that it was possible to send and receive thought impressions from the mind of one person to another.<ref>Hubert Wilkins, Harold Sherman. (2004). ''Thoughts through Space: A Remarkable Adventure in the Realm of Mind''. Hampton Roads Publishing. ISBN 1-57174-314-6</ref> The magician [[John Booth (magician)|John Booth]] wrote that the experiment was not an example of telepathy as a high percentage of misses had occurred. Booth wrote it was more likely that the "hits" were the result of "coincidence, law of averages, subconscious expectancy, logical inference or a plain lucky guess."<ref>[[John Booth (magician)|John Booth]]. (1986). ''Psychic Paradoxes''. Prometheus Books. p. 69</ref>
The full results of the experiments were published in 1942 in a book by Sherman and Wilkins titled ''Thoughts Through Space''. In the book both Sherman and Wilkins had written that they believed they had demonstrated that it was possible to send and receive thought impressions from the mind of one person to another.<ref>Hubert Wilkins, Harold Sherman. (2004). ''Thoughts through Space: A Remarkable Adventure in the Realm of Mind''. Hampton Roads Publishing. ISBN 1-57174-314-6</ref> The magician [[John Booth (magician)|John Booth]] wrote that the experiment was not an example of telepathy as a high percentage of misses had occurred. Booth wrote it was more likely that the "hits" were the result of "coincidence, law of averages, subconscious expectancy, logical inference or a plain lucky guess."<ref>[[John Booth (magician)|John Booth]]. (1986). ''Psychic Paradoxes''. Prometheus Books. p. 69</ref>


In 1979 the physicists [[John G. Taylor|John Taylor]] and Eduardo Balanovski wrote that the only scientifically feasible explanation for telepathy could be electromagnetism (EM) involving [[Electromagnetic field|EM fields]]. In a series of experiments the EM levels were many orders of magnitude lower than calculated and no paranormal effects were observed. Both Taylor and Balanovski wrote their results were a strong argument against the validity of telepathy.<ref>Taylor, J.G. and Balanovski, E. (1979). ''Is There Any Scientific Explanation of the Paranormal?'' Nature, 279: 631-3</ref>
In 1979 the physicists [[John G. Taylor|John Taylor]] and Eduardo Balanovski wrote that the only scientifically feasible explanation for telepathy could be electromagnetism (EM) involving [[Electromagnetic field|EM fields]]. In a series of experiments the EM levels were many orders of magnitude lower than calculated and no paranormal effects were observed. Both Taylor and Balanovski wrote their results were a strong argument against the validity of telepathy.<ref>Taylor, J. G and Balanovski, E. (1979). ''Is There Any Scientific Explanation of the Paranormal?''. Nature, 279: 631-633.</ref>


Research in [[anomalistic psychology]] has discovered that in some cases telepathy can be explained by a [[Covariance|covariation bias]]. In an experiment (Schienle ''et al''. 1996) 22 believers and 20 skeptics were asked to judge the covariation between transmitted symbols and the corresponding feedback given by a receiver. According to the results the believers overestimated the number of successful transmissions whilst the skeptics made accurate hit judgments.<ref>Schienle, A., Vaitl, D., and Stark, R. (1996). ''Covariation bias and paranormal belief''. Psychological Reports, 78, 291-305.</ref> The results from another telepathy experiment involving 48 undergraduate college students (Rudski, 2002) were explained by [[Hindsight bias|hindsight]] and [[Confirmation bias|confirmation]] biases.<ref>Rudski, J. M. (2002). ''Hindsight and confirmation biases in an exercise in telepathy''. Psychological Reports, 91, 899–906.</ref>
Research in [[anomalistic psychology]] has discovered that in some cases telepathy can be explained by a [[Covariance|covariation bias]]. In an experiment (Schienle ''et al''. 1996) 22 believers and 20 skeptics were asked to judge the covariation between transmitted symbols and the corresponding feedback given by a receiver. According to the results the believers overestimated the number of successful transmissions whilst the skeptics made accurate hit judgments.<ref>Schienle, A., Vaitl, D., and Stark, R. (1996). ''Covariation bias and paranormal belief''. Psychological Reports, 78, 291-305.</ref> The results from another telepathy experiment involving 48 undergraduate college students (Rudski, 2002) were explained by [[Hindsight bias|hindsight]] and [[Confirmation bias|confirmation]] biases.<ref>Rudski, J. M. (2002). ''Hindsight and confirmation biases in an exercise in telepathy''. Psychological Reports, 91, 899–906.</ref>

Revision as of 01:04, 10 February 2014

For other uses, see Telepathy (disambiguation).
This article is about the paranormal phenomenon. For the magical act, see mentalism.

Template:Infobox paranormal term

Telepathy (from the Ancient Greek τῆλε, tele meaning "distant" and πάθος, pathos or -patheia meaning "feeling, perception, passion, affliction, experience")[1][2] is the transmission of information from one person to another without using any of our known sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W. H. Myers,[3] a founder of the Society for Psychical Research,[4] and has remained more popular than the earlier expression thought transference.[4][5]

Scientific consensus does not view telepathy as a real phenomenon. Many studies seeking to detect, understand, and utilize telepathy have been done, but according to the prevailing view among scientists, telepathy lacks replicable results from well-controlled experiments.[6][7]

Telepathy is a common theme in modern fiction and science fiction, with many extraterrestrials, superheroes and supervillains having the telepathic ability.

Origins of the concept

According to Roger Luckhurst,[8] the origin of the concept of telepathy (not telepathy itself) in the Western civilization can be tracked to the late 19th century. In his view, science did not frequently concern itself with "the mind" prior to this. As the physical sciences made significant advances, scientific concepts were applied to mental phenomena (e.g., animal magnetism), with the hope that this would help understand paranormal phenomena. The modern concept of telepathy emerged in this context.

The notion of telepathy is not dissimilar to two psychological concepts: delusions of thought insertion/removal and psychological symbiosis. This similarity might explain how some people have come up with the idea of telepathy. Thought insertion/removal is a symptom of psychosis, particularly of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Psychiatric patients who experience this symptom falsely believe that some of their thoughts are not their own and that others (e.g., other people, aliens, demons or fallen angels, or conspiring intelligence agencies) are putting thoughts into their minds (thought insertion). Some patients feel as if thoughts are being taken out of their minds or deleted (thought removal). Along with other symptoms of psychosis, delusions of thought insertion may be reduced by antipsychotic medication.

Psychological symbiosis, on the other hand, is a less well established concept. It is an idea found in the writings of early psychoanalysts, such as Melanie Klein. It entails the belief that in the early psychological experience of the child (during earliest infancy), the child is unable to tell the difference between his or her own mind, on one hand, and his or her experience of the mother/parent, on the other hand. This state of mind is called psychological symbiosis; with development, it ends, but, purportedly, aspects of it can still be detected in the psychological functioning of the adult. Putatively, the experience of either thought insertion/removal or unconscious memories of psychological symbiosis may have led to the invention of "telepathy" as a notion and the belief that telepathy exists. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists believe and empirical findings support the idea that people with schizotypal personality disorder are particularly likely to believe in telepathy.[9]

Case studies

George Albert Smith

In the late 19th century the Creery Sisters (Mary, Alice, Maud, Kathleen, and Emily) were tested by the Society for Psychical Research and believed them to have genuine psychic ability however, during a later experiment they were caught utilizing signal codes and they confessed to fraud.[10][11] George Albert Smith and Douglas Blackburn were claimed to be genuine psychics by the Society for Psychical Research but Blackburn confessed to fraud:

For nearly thirty years the telepathic experiments conducted by Mr. G. A. Smith and myself have been accepted and cited as the basic evidence of the truth of thought transference... ...the whole of those alleged experiments were bogus, and originated in the honest desire of two youths to show how easily men of scientific mind and training could be deceived when seeking for evidence in support of a theory they were wishful to establish.[12]

A famous experiment in telepathy was recorded by the American author Upton Sinclair in his book Mental Radio which documents Sinclair's test of psychic abilities of Mary Craig Kimbrough, his second wife. She attempted to duplicate 290 pictures which were drawn by her husband. Sinclair claimed Mary successfully duplicated 65 of them, with 155 "partial successes" and 70 failures. However, these experiments were not conducted in a controlled scientific laboratory environment.[13] Martin Gardner wrote that the possibility of sensory leakage during the experiment had not been ruled out:

In the first place, an intuitive wife, who knows her husband intimately, may be able to guess with a fair degree of accuracy what he is likely to draw—particularly if the picture is related to some freshly recalled event the two experienced in common. At first, simple pictures like chairs and tables would likely predominate, but as these are exhausted, the field of choice narrows and pictures are more likely to be suggested by recent experiences. It is also possible that Sinclair may have given conversational hints during some of the tests—hints which in his strong will to believe, he would promptly forget about. Also, one must not rule out the possibility that in many tests, made across the width of a room, Mrs. Sinclair may have seen the wiggling of the top of a pencil, or arm movements, which would convey to her unconscious a rough notion of the drawing.[13]

The Turner-Owenby long distance telepathy experiment was discovered to contain flaws. Frances May Turner positioned herself in the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory whilst Sarah Owenby claimed to receive transmissions 250 miles away. For the experiment Turner would think of a symbol and write it down whilst Owenby would write her guesses.[14] The scores were highly successful and both records were supposed to be sent to J. B. Rhine, however, Owenby sent them to Turner. Critics pointed out this invalidated the results as she could have simply written her own record to agree with the other. When the experiment was repeated and the records were sent to Rhine the scores dropped to average.[14]

Another example is the experiment carried out by the author Harold Sherman with the explorer Hubert Wilkins who carried out their own experiment in telepathy for five and a half months starting in October 1937. This took place when Sherman was in New York and Wilkins was in the Arctic. The experiment consisted of Sherman and Wilkins at the end of each day to relax and visualise a mental image or "thought impression" of the events or thoughts they had experienced in the day and then to record those images and thoughts on paper in a diary. The results at the end when comparing Sherman's diary to Wilkins was claimed to be more than 60 per cent.[15]

The full results of the experiments were published in 1942 in a book by Sherman and Wilkins titled Thoughts Through Space. In the book both Sherman and Wilkins had written that they believed they had demonstrated that it was possible to send and receive thought impressions from the mind of one person to another.[16] The magician John Booth wrote that the experiment was not an example of telepathy as a high percentage of misses had occurred. Booth wrote it was more likely that the "hits" were the result of "coincidence, law of averages, subconscious expectancy, logical inference or a plain lucky guess."[17]

In 1979 the physicists John Taylor and Eduardo Balanovski wrote that the only scientifically feasible explanation for telepathy could be electromagnetism (EM) involving EM fields. In a series of experiments the EM levels were many orders of magnitude lower than calculated and no paranormal effects were observed. Both Taylor and Balanovski wrote their results were a strong argument against the validity of telepathy.[18]

Research in anomalistic psychology has discovered that in some cases telepathy can be explained by a covariation bias. In an experiment (Schienle et al. 1996) 22 believers and 20 skeptics were asked to judge the covariation between transmitted symbols and the corresponding feedback given by a receiver. According to the results the believers overestimated the number of successful transmissions whilst the skeptics made accurate hit judgments.[19] The results from another telepathy experiment involving 48 undergraduate college students (Rudski, 2002) were explained by hindsight and confirmation biases.[20]

In parapsychology

Zener cards

Within the field of parapsychology, telepathy is considered to be a form of extrasensory perception (ESP) or anomalous cognition in which information is transferred through Psi. It is often categorized similarly to precognition and clairvoyance.[21] Experiments have been used to test for telepathic abilities. Among the most well known are the use of Zener cards and the Ganzfeld experiment.

Zenar Cards

Zener cards are marked with five distinctive symbols. When using them, one individual is designated the "sender" and another the "receiver". The sender selects a random card and visualize the symbol on it, while the receiver attempts to determine that symbol using Psi. Statistically, the receiver has a 20% chance of randomly guessing the correct symbol, so to demonstrate telepathy, they must repeatedly score a success rate that is significantly higher than 20%.[22] If not conducted properly, this method can be vulnerable to sensory leakage and card counting.[22]

J. B. Rhine's experiments with Zener cards were discredited due to the discovery that sensory leakage or cheating could account for all his results such as the subject being able to read the symbols from the back of the cards and being able to see and hear the experimenter to note subtle clues.[23] Once Rhine took precautions in response to criticisms of his methods, he was unable to find any high-scoring subjects.[24] Due to the methodological problems, parapsychologists no longer utilize card-guessing studies.[25]

Ganzfeld experiment

When using the Ganzfeld experiment to test for telepathy, one individual is designated the receiver and is placed inside a controlled environment where they are deprived of sensory input, and another is designated the sender and is placed in a separate location. The receiver is then required to receive information from the sender. The nature of the information may vary between experiments.[26]

The ganzfeld experiment studies that were examined by Ray Hyman and Charles Honorton had methodological problems that were well documented. Honorton reported only 36% of the studies used duplicate target sets of pictures to avoid handling cues.[27] Hyman discovered flaws in all of the 42 ganzfeld experiments and to access each experiment, he devised a set of 12 categories of flaws. Six of these concerned statistical defects, the other six covered procedural flaws such as inadequate documentation, randomization and security as well as possibilities of sensory leakage.[28] Over half of the studies failed to safeguard against sensory leakage and of all of the studies contained at least one of the 12 flaws. Because of the flaws, Honorton agreed with Hyman the 42 ganzfeld studies could not support the claim for the existence of psi.[28]

Possibilities of sensory leakage in the ganzfeld experiments included the receivers hearing what was going on in the sender's room next door as the rooms were not soundproof and the sender's fingerprints to be visible on the target object for the receiver to see.[29][30]

Hyman also reviewed the autoganzfeld experiments and discovered a pattern in the data that implied a visual cue may have taken place:

The most suspicious pattern was the fact that the hit rate for a given target increased with the frequency of occurrence of that target in the experiment. The hit rate for the targets that occurred only once was right at the chance expectation of 25%. For targets that appeared twice the hit rate crept up to 28%. For those that occurred three times it was 38%, and for those targets that occurred six or more times, the hit rate was 52%. Each time a videotape is played its quality can degrade. It is plausible then, that when a frequently used clip is the target for a given session, it may be physically distinguishable from the other three decoy clips that are presented to the subject for judging. Surprisingly, the parapsychological community has not taken this finding seriously. They still include the autoganzfeld series in their meta-analyses and treat it as convincing evidence for the reality of psi.

Hyman wrote the autoganzfeld experiments were flawed because they did not preclude the possibility of sensory leakage.[28]

Types

Parapsychology describes several forms of telepathy:[5]

  • Latent telepathy, formerly known as "deferred telepathy",[31] is described as the transfer of information, through Psi, with an observable time-lag between transmission and reception.[5]
  • Retrocognitive, precognitive, and intuitive telepathy is described as being the transfer of information, through Psi, about the past, future or present state of an individual's mind to another individual.[5]
  • Emotive telepathy, also known as remote influence[32] or emotional transfer, is the process of transferring kinesthetic sensations through altered states.
  • Superconscious telepathy involves tapping into the superconscious[33] to access the collective wisdom of the human species for knowledge.

Scientific reception

A variety of tests have been performed to demonstrate telepathy, but there exists no scientific evidence that the power exists.[6][34][35][36] The scientific community considers parapsychology a pseudoscience.[37] There is no known mechanism for telepathy.[38] Mario Bunge has written telepathy would contradict laws of science and the claim that "signals can be transmitted across space without fading with distance is inconsistent with physics".[39]

Outside of parapsychology, telepathy is generally explained as the result of fraud, self-delusion and/or self-deception and not as a paranormal power.[40] Virtually all of the instances of more popular psychic phenomena, such as mediumship, can be attributed to non-paranormal techniques such as cold reading.[41][42][43] Magicians such as Ian Rowland and Derren Brown have demonstrated techniques and results similar to those of popular psychics, without paranormal means. They have identified, described, and developed psychological techniques of cold reading and hot reading.

Telepathy is commonly used in fiction, with a number of superheroes and supervillains, as well as figures in many science fiction novels, etc., use telepathy. The mechanics of telepathy in fiction vary widely. Some fictional telepaths are limited to receiving only thoughts that are deliberately sent by other telepaths, or even to receiving thoughts from a specific other person. For example, in Robert A. Heinlein's 1956 novel Time for the Stars, certain pairs of twins are able to send telepathic messages to each other. In A. E. van Vogt's science fiction novel Slan, the mutant hero Jommy Cross can read the minds of ordinary humans.

Some telepaths can read the thoughts only of those they touch, such as Vulcans in the Star Trek media franchise. Star Trek science consultant and writer André Bormanis has revealed that telepathy within the Star Trek universe works via the "psionic field". According to Bormanis, a psionic field is the "medium" through which unspoken thoughts and feelings are communicated through space.[44] Some humanoids can tap into this field through a kind of sense organ located in the brain; in the same manner that human eyes can sense portions of the electromagnetic field, telepaths can sense portions of the psionic field.

In the book Eragon, Eragon can communicate mentally with his dragon Saphira, and it is possible to block people from one's mind with a barrier. In the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, telepathy is a magical skill known as Legilimency. In the John Wyndham novel The Chrysalids, the main character and narrator David Strorm is one of a group of nine telepaths. In Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five series twins Jamie and Scott Tyler were born with telepathic powers that enable them to read people's minds and, ultimately, control them. They always know each other's thoughts, which earns them money doing tricks at a circus in Reno, Nevada, USA.

Some writers view telepathy as the evolutionary destiny of humanity. In Tony Vigorito's novel, Just a Couple of Days, telepathy emerges across the entire human species as a result of the Pied Piper Virus, which inadvertently eliminates humanity's symbolic capacity. In this instance, telepathy is seen as a latent ability that emerges only when the distractions of language are bypassed.

Some fictional telepaths possess mind control abilities, which can include "pushing" thoughts, feelings, or hallucinatory visions into the mind of another person, causing pain, paralysis, or unconsciousness, altering or erasing memories, or completely taking over another person's mind and body (similar to spiritual possession). Examples of this type of telepath include Professor Xavier, Psylocke, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and numerous other characters in the Marvel Universe, along with Matt Parkman from the television series Heroes.

The radio crimefighter The Shadow had "the power to cloud men's minds," which he used to mask his presence from others.

The film Scanners concerns people born with telepathy and those with telekinetic abilities.

The Urdu novel Devta is based on the character of Farhad Ali Taimur, a telepath involved in the fight of good and evil.

Television show The Listener centers around a telepathic paramedic.

Telepaths play a huge role in the science-fiction show Babylon 5, with several of the main characters being telepaths as well as a drug known as "Dust" that can artificially induce telepathic abilities in someone.

See also a composite list of fictional characters with telepathy.

See also

Part of a series on the
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Notes

  1. ^ telepathy. CollinsDictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved December 06, 2012.
  2. ^ Following the model of sympathy and empathy.
  3. ^ Hamilton, Trevor (2009). Immortal Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian search for life after death. Imprint Academic. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-84540-248-8.
  4. ^ a b Carroll, Robert Todd (2005). "The Skeptic's Dictionary; Telepathy". SkepDic.com. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
  5. ^ a b c d Glossary of Parapsychological terms - Telepathy — Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
  6. ^ a b Jan Dalkvist (1994). Telepathic group communication of emotions as a function of belief in telepathy. Dept. of Psychology, Stockholm University. Retrieved 5 October 2011. Within the scientific community however, the claim that psi anomalies exist or may exist is in general regarded with skepticism. One reason for this difference between the scientist and the non scientist is that the former relies on on his own experiences and anecdotal reports of psi phenomena, whereas the scientist at least officially requires replicable results from well controlled experiments to believe in such phenomena - results which according to the prevailing view among scientists, do not exist.
  7. ^ Willem B. Drees (28 November 1998). Religion, Science and Naturalism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 242–. ISBN 978-0-521-64562-1. Retrieved 5 October 2011. Let me take the example of claims in parapsychology regarding telepathy across spatial or temporal distances, apparently without a mediating physical process. Such claims are at odds with the scientific consensus.
  8. ^ Luckhurst, R. (2002). The Invention of Telepathy, 1870-1901. Oxford University Press.
  9. ^ Pickup, G. (2006). Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Volume 11, Number 2, Number 2/March 2006 , pp. 117-192
  10. ^ Ray Hyman. (1989). The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research. Prometheus Books. pp. 99-106
  11. ^ Gordon Stein. (1996). The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. p. 688
  12. ^ Andrew Neher. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. p. 220
  13. ^ a b Martin Gardner, Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science (Courier Dover Publications, 1957) Chapter 25: ESP and PK, available online; accessed July 25, 2010.
  14. ^ a b John Sladek. (1974). The New Apocrypha: A Guide to Strange Sciences and Occult Beliefs. Panther. pp. 172-174
  15. ^ Simon Nasht. (2006). The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Hero of the Great Age of Polar Exploration. Arcade Publishing. pp. 267-268
  16. ^ Hubert Wilkins, Harold Sherman. (2004). Thoughts through Space: A Remarkable Adventure in the Realm of Mind. Hampton Roads Publishing. ISBN 1-57174-314-6
  17. ^ John Booth. (1986). Psychic Paradoxes. Prometheus Books. p. 69
  18. ^ Taylor, J. G and Balanovski, E. (1979). Is There Any Scientific Explanation of the Paranormal?. Nature, 279: 631-633.
  19. ^ Schienle, A., Vaitl, D., and Stark, R. (1996). Covariation bias and paranormal belief. Psychological Reports, 78, 291-305.
  20. ^ Rudski, J. M. (2002). Hindsight and confirmation biases in an exercise in telepathy. Psychological Reports, 91, 899–906.
  21. ^ Glossary of Parapsychological terms - ESP, Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
  22. ^ a b Carroll, Robert (2006-02-17). "Zener ESP Cards". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
  23. ^ Jonathan C. Smith. (2009). Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1405181228. "Today, researchers discount the first decade of Rhine's work with Zener cards. Stimulus leakage or cheating could account for all his findings. Slight indentations on the backs of cards revealed the symbols embossed on card faces. Subjects could see and hear the experimenter, and note subtle but revealing facial expressions or changes in breathing."
  24. ^ Milbourne Christopher. (1970). ESP, Seers & Psychics. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. p. 28
  25. ^ James Alcock. (2011). Back from the Future: Parapsychology and the Bem Affair. Skeptical Inquirer. "Despite Rhine’s confidence that he had established the reality of extrasensory perception, he had not done so. Methodological problems with his experiments eventually came to light, and as a result parapsychologists no longer run card-guessing studies and rarely even refer to Rhine’s work."
  26. ^ The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean I. Radin Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0
  27. ^ Julie Milton, Richard Wiseman. (2002). A Response to Storm and Ertel (2002). The Journal of Parapsychology. Volume 66: 183-186.
  28. ^ a b c Ray Hyman. Evaluating Parapsychological Claims in Robert J. Sternberg, Henry L. Roediger, Diane F. Halpern. (2007). Critical Thinking in Psychology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 216-231. ISBN 978-0521608343
  29. ^ Richard Wiseman, Matthew Smith, Diana Kornbrot. (1996). Assessing possible sender-to-experimenter acoustic leakage in the PRL autoganzfeld. Journal of Parapsychology. Volume 60: 97-128.
  30. ^ Robert Todd Carroll. (2014). "Ganzfeld" in The Skeptic's Dictionary.
  31. ^ Rennie, John (1845), "Test for Telepathy", Scientific American, V3#1 (1847-09-25)
  32. ^ Plazo, Dr. Joseph R., (2002) "Psychic Seduction." pp.112-114 ISBN 0-9785922-3-9
  33. ^ St. Claire, David., (1989) "Instant ESP." pp.40-50
  34. ^ Simon Hoggart, Mike Hutchinson. (1995). Bizarre Beliefs. Richard Cohen Books. p. 145. ISBN 978-1573921565 "The trouble is that the history of research into psi is littered with failed experiments, ambiguous experiments, and experiments which are claimed as great successes but are quickly rejected by conventional scientists. There has also been some spectacular cheating."
  35. ^ Robert Cogan. (1998). Critical Thinking: Step by Step. University Press of America. p. 227. ISBN 978-0761810674 "When an experiment can't be repeated and get the same result, this tends to show that the result was due to some error in experimental procedure, rather than some real causal process. ESP experiments simply have not turned up any repeatable paranormal phenomena."
  36. ^ Terence Hines. (2003). Pseudoscience and the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. p. 144. ISBN 978-1573929790 "It is important to realize that, in one hundred years of parapsychological investigations, there has never been a single adequate demonstration of the reality of any psi phenomenon."
  37. ^ Massimo Pigliucci, Maarten Boudry. (2013). Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem. University Of Chicago Press p. 158. ISBN 978-0226051963 "Many observers refer to the field as a "pseudoscience". When mainstream scientists say that the field of parapsychology is not scientific, they mean that no satisfying naturalistic cause-and-effect explanation for these supposed effects has yet been proposed and that the field's experiments cannot be consistently replicated."
  38. ^ Charles M. Wynn, Arthur W. Wiggins. (2001). Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins. Joseph Henry Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-0309073097 "One of the reasons scientists have difficulty believing that psi effects are real is that there is no known mechanism by which they could occur. PK action-at-a-distance would presumably employ an action-at-a-distance force that is as yet unknown to science... Similarly, there is no known sense (stimulation and receptor) by which thoughts could travel from one person to another by which the mind could project itself elsewhere in the present, future, or past."
  39. ^ Mario Bunge. (1983). Treatise on Basic Philosophy: Volume 6: Epistemology & Methodology II: Understanding the World. Springer. pp. 225-226. ISBN 978-9027716347
    • "Precognition violates the principle of antecedence ("causality"), according to which the effect does not happen before the cause. Psychokinesis violates the principle of conservation of energy as well as the postulate that mind cannot act directly on matter. (If it did no experimenter could trust his own readings of his instruments.) Telepathy and precognition are incompatible with the epistemological principle according to which the gaining of factual knowledge requires sense perception at some point."
    • "Parapsychology makes no use of any knowledge gained in other fields, such as physics and physiological psychology. Moreover, its hypotheses are inconsistent with some basic assumptions of factual science. In particular, the very idea of a disembodied mental entity is incompatible with physiological psychology; and the claim that signals can be transmitted across space without fading with distance is inconsistent with physics."
  40. ^ Skepdic.com on ESP. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
  41. ^ Bauer, Eberhard (1984). "Criticism and Controversy in Parapsychology - An Overview" (PDF). European Journal of Parapsychology. 5: 141–166. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-06-13. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
  42. ^ O',Keeffe, Ciarán and Wiseman Richard: Testing alleged mediumship: Methods and results. British Journal of Psychology (2005), 96, 165–17.
  43. ^ Rowland, Ian: The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading
  44. ^ André Bormanis discusses telepathy in Star Trek
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