Psi: A Brief Discussion

As an avid and life-long fan of science fiction, the ongoing research on psi has always fascinated me. In popular fiction, psi encompasses both the ability use one's mind to manipulate one's surroundings and to gather relevant information about people or the environment. Science fiction authors often treat psi romantically, and characters in fiction with psi abilities are often able use their powers to communicate fluidly, without words or body language. This ability almost always comes at a cost; psi users in fiction typically have deeply ingrained psychological disorders, or else suffer some physiological set-back caused by their abilities.

The reality of psi is nowhere near as fantastic; many people consider déjà vu, vivid dreams, and the altered states of mind induced by meditation to be a psi phenomenon (Bem & Honorton, 1994). When psychologists test psi, however, they're examining anomalies that could only be explainable if our reality allowed for psi (Bem & Honorton, 1994). The World of Psychology textbook categorizes psi under Unusual Perceptual Experiences and then mentions various types of psi, including clairvoyance, precognition, and telepathy (Wood, Wood, & Boyd, 2008). This revised, real-world definition of psi is almost exactly the definition I brought with me from the world of science fiction, the only difference being that psi abilities would not necessarily be accompanied by negative physiological effects.

I wanted to open with this definition of psi, because that is how Bem and Honorton have opened their article. The authors state, "The term psi denotes the anomalous process of information or energy transfer [...] that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms," (Bem & Honorton, 1994, p. 4) and that "it neither implies that such anomalous phenomena are paranormal nor connotes anything about their underlying mechanisms" (Bem & Honorton, 1994, p. 4). They wanted to remove themselves as much as possible from the stigma of speaking scientifically about what the community considers to be magic.

Scientists should approach a topic with an open mind. Heuristic thinking often precludes something from existing, but this does not mean that outrageous phenomena cannot exist. This should especially be a concern for scientists studying apparently paranormal phenomena, because the complexities of string theory and quantum mechanics are constantly revising our model of reality (Bem & Honorton, 1994). Unfortunately, many scientists approach psi with a closed mind. Even though a person is more likely to exhibit extra-sensory perception in strict Ganzfeld (sensory deprived) testing conditions than aspirin is to prevent a heart attack (Bem & Honorton, 1994), the scientific community has collectively made it common knowledge that aspirin can save one's life, but that one can never gather information with psi abilities (Bem & Honorton, 1994).

The majority of Bem & Honorton's 1994 article consists of the authors accounting for various common errors in studies attempting to replicate high rates of success in Ganzfeld psi experiments. They demonstrate mathematically that, even removing studies where methodological flaws may have been present, the occurrence of telepathic communication in these studies is too high to be reasonably attributed to chance (Bem & Honorton, 1994).

The high replication rates in studies on the anomalous transfer of information (telepathy) do not, by themselves, suggest how information went from a sender to a sensory deprived person--merely that it did.

Despite the painstaking effort behind Bem & Honorton's attempt to validate psi as an anomalous phenomena (in simpler words, their plea that the scientific community acknowledge that telepathy does, on occasion, happen, not that it be attributed to magic), many of the studies using Ganzfeld sensory deprivation did not follow methodological guidelines closely enough (Milton & Wiseman, 2001).

Painful as it may be to do so, many - perhaps all - of the studies on psi using Ganzfeld techniques should be discarded, and new studies, rigorously following the accepted methodology, should be conducted in order to remove any possibility of statistical manipulation, dishonest reporting, and flawed methods ruining the gathered data. Attempts to use these older studies to validate psi cast parapsychology as a whole in a bad light.

Many years ago, the scientific community laughed at the idea that South America and Africa could have once been connected. It was common knowledge that continents did not move. Then we discovered the mid-Atlantic ridge, and our model of reality changed. Today, it is an accepted fact that these two continents were once a part of Pangaea. With appropriately conducted studies, I feel that the existence of psi will be validated in the same way.

References

Bem, D. J., & Honorton, C. (1994). Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer. Psychological Bulletin , 115 (1), 4-18.

Milton, J., & Wiseman, R. (2001). Does Psi Exist? Reply to Storm and Ertel. Psychological Bulletin, 127 (3), 434-438.

Wood, S. E., Wood, E. G., & Boyd, D. (2008). The World of Psychology. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.