Parapsychology

Parapsychology

Gabrielle Melanson

Mrs. Lee

Psychology

May 27, 2015.

Reincarnation

Telepathy

• the belief that the soul or spirit of a person, which exits separately from their body, does not die when the body dies, but is/can be born again into another body.

Phenomenons

• refers to communication between people via the direct transfer of thoughts between minds.

It is also referred to more popularly as "mind-reading" or "mind-to-mind communication"

Parapsychologists study paranormal phenomenons such as;

• psychokinesis
• telepathy
• precognition
• medium ship
• clairvoyance
• near-death experiences
• reincarnation
• apparitional experience

Research Methods

-Ganzfield technique uses sensory deprivation to determine telepathic abilities.

-Zener cards

-Qualitative interviews extensively used to report individual experiences (case studies, interviews, ect.

-Majority of parapsychology seen as pseudoscience, lacking validity in essentially every area.

-The placebo effect is the only exception.

- Developed from their theories based off spiritualism.

Apparitional experiences

• AKA ghosts are generally defined as the spirit of a dead person, especially one believed to appear in bodily likeness to living persons or to haunt former habitats.

History

Definition

-Society for Psychical Research was founded in London in 1882.

-Early membership included; philosophers, scholars, scientists, educators and politicians. Such as; Henry Sidgwick, Arthur Balfour, William Crookes, Rufus Osgood Mason and Nobel Laureate Charles Richet.

- In 1911, Stanford University became the first academic institution in the United States to study extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK) in a laboratory setting.

- In 1930, Duke University became the second.

- J.B Rhine and Louisa Rhine and Karl Zener were given credit for founding Parapsychology.

• J.B Rhine coined the term 'extrasensory perception (ESP)' in 1934.

Parapsychology is a Pseudoscience concerned with the investigation of paranormal and psychic phenomena.

Clairvoyance

*Pseudoscience= a collection of beliefs mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method.

Limitations

• NOT associated with astrology, Loch Ness, occult practices, UFOs, witchcraft, yeti etc., but they are not correlated in subject with parapsychology.

-Criticized due to nature of study.

-Research is hard to replicate.

-Experiments often lack controls.

Research is often on individual level- hard to generalize.

-Experimenters beliefs and biases often effect outcomes.

• The ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or event by means other than senses.

Otherwise known as a 'sixth sense.'

Precognition

Near Death Experiences

• refers to a type of extra-sensory perception which would (if it exists) allow a person to perceive future events.

Effects on the Brain

• refers to anything spiritually experienced by someone in clinical death, such as an out-of-body experience, and is often cited as evidence for the existence of an afterlife by believers.

-The temporal lobes functions could be integrated in psi experiences.

-The frontal lobes functions could logically be associated with psychokinesis (moving objects with the mind).

-The occipital lobes are likely candidates for apparitions, "visions," and perceptions of so- called "auras" because of their involvement in visual associations.

-The parietal lobes are involved in visual- spatial distortions such as those that characterize reports of psi.

-No other brain condition stimulates spontaneous psi like experiences of limbic temporal lobe epilepsy.

Mediumship

• is someone who claims to speak with spirits.

Content

Terms

Discussion Questions

ESP= Extrasensory perception involves reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. (Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis. Psychokinesis)

PK= Psychokinesis is the ability to manipulate the environment without physical means. (Movements of objects, bending of metals, and determining the outcome of events)

PSI= the vague term for the phenomenon claimed to underpin parapsychology which may not be explained by known by physical or biological mechanisms.

1. Do you believe it is possible to go to heaven and back?

2. Have you ever seen a ghost?

3. Do you know anyone who is psychic? Do you have any personal experiences?

Definition

Terms

History

Phenomenons

Other Concepts

Effects on the Brain

Research Methods

Limitations

Short Video Clip

What's Your Sixth Sense?

Discussion Questions

Other Concepts

• Astral Body Projection= is an interpretation of an out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separates from the physical body and is capable of traveling outside it.

• Abacomancy= patterns in dust, dirt, silt, sand, or the ashes of the recently deceased believed to give some insight into the future.

• Levitation= is the process by which an object is held aloft, without mechanical support, in a stable position.