Hello everybody!
First of all, sorry for the long break we have all had a ton
of deadlines for uni work, etc so we have all been focussed on getting that
done- but we haven’t forgotten about this blog!
Today’s post is going to be the first in a series of posts surrounding
the phenomenon of parapsychology. Parapsychology refers to the psychological investigation
of events that cannot be explained by natural occurrences such as biology [1].
These include telekinesis, near death experiences, ghosts and, the subject of
todays post, extra sensory perception. Over the next few weeks, we are going to
be dropping posts focusing on many different aspects of parapsychology, going
into detail about the mechanisms and possible explanations of different paranormal
phenomena.
As mentioned above today we are going to be looking at Extra
Sensory Perception (quick note-for ease of writing I am just going to refer to
this as ESP). You may have heard of ESP as it has been used widely in TV and
film including in Ghostbusters and even in a mini challenge of RuPaul’s Drag
Race. You have probably heard of this phenomenon already but under the guise of a 'gut instinct' or a 'sixth sense'. The term ESP was first coined by J. B. Rhine to describe one’s psychic
ability (such as telepathy) [2]. Bem and Honorton’s 1994 paper sums this up as ‘anomalous
processes of information or energy transfer, processes such as telepathy… that
are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological
mechanisms’ [3]. In all there are 9 types of ESP- clairvoyance,
clairaudience, mediumship, psychometry, precognition, remote viewing, retrocognition,
telepathy, and telekinesis [7]; we will be discussing these throughout this series but feel free to look through the sources below for more information!
ESP is often investigated using Zener cards which are used
to test abilities including telepathy and clairvoyance. The cards, created by
psychologist Karl Zener in the 1930’s, resemble playing cards and consist of a
deck of cards with different shapes; a star, three wavy lines, a circle, a square,
and a cross [4]. The test was simple, the researcher would have the cards and
would ‘send’ information of the content of these cards to the participant telepathically,
the participant would then be asked to repeat back what they thought was the
symbol on the card [5]. Interestingly, it was found that the probability of guessing
the first card correctly was 1 in 5, but the probability of correctly guessing
10+ cards was 1 in 20 [5]- so promising but not too ground-breaking.
Obviously, this method is not exactly representative of real
life, it’s not every day you ask someone ‘hey guess what’s on this card’ whilst
tensing your forehead really hard trying to ‘send’ them information about the
card. But, this arguably not the biggest issue here. The big issue is the fear
of all psychologists- chance. In psychological experiments we want to avoid
chance as it suggests that the findings are not as a result of the variable of
interest- e.g. correct guesses in the Zener card paradigm is not due to ESP but
rather a fluke. In one of the first experiments by Rhine and Zener, one participant
guessed 404 out 1500 cards correctly, but researchers deduced that 300 of these
correct answers were due to chance [5]- so not great odds and not showing great
causality.
ESP has been linked to many psychological phenomena from
hypnosis even to introversion/extraversion- hypnotised individuals perform better
than non-hypnotised participants in ESP experiments, likewise extroverts
perform better than introverts [6]. There have been a multitude of studies
examining ESP and whether it exists or not. Some argue that there is not enough
evidence as well as pointing to the chinks in the armour of the methodology of
these experiments. Many scientists also say that ESP is just too extraordinary
to understand without an overwhelming amount of significant evidence [8]. When
we look at everyday stuff like a gut feeling that your bus is going to be late
and then it is it may not seem so outlandish but the mechanisms behind it are
complex and, most importantly, difficult to explain. The truth is, we don’t
know the reasons behind ESP mainly because we are still arguing over whether it
exists; how can you explain something that might not even exist (don’t answer
that this is completely rhetorical)?
So how do we move forward? Experiment, experiment and
experiment again! Scientists perhaps need to keep working on a good method of ‘measuring’
ESP, if the sceptics aren’t convinced due to lack of evidence then look to
create that evidence. Like all the topics we will be discussing in this
parapsychology series, there is great debate over whether these phenomena exist
and why. But what do you think about ESP? Do you believe in this sixth sense or
is it nothing more than pseudoscience? Debate in the comments below and I will
see you next time for the next instalment in this paranormal psychology series.
[3] http://www.roma1.infn.it/rog/group/frasca/b/honor1.html
Bem, D. J., & Honorton, C. (1994). Does psi exist? Replicable evidence for
an anomalous process of information transfer. Psychological Bulletin, 115(1),
4.
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