Parapsychological Association

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The Parapsychological Association (PA) was formed in 1957 as a professional society for parapsychologists following an initiative by Joseph B. Rhine. Its purpose has been "to advance parapsychology as a science, to disseminate knowledge of the field, and to integrate the findings with those of other branches of science." The work of the association is reported in the Journal of Parapsychology and the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research . [1]

Contents

The Parapsychological Association became affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1969, and it is still an affiliate as of 2019. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

History

The Association was created in Durham, North Carolina, on June 19, 1957. Its formation was proposed by Rhine, then Director of the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, at a Workshop in Parapsychology held there. Using the occasion afforded by this wide representation of the field, Rhine proposed that the group form itself into the nucleus of an international professional society in parapsychology.[ citation needed ]

Its first president was R. A. McConnell, then of the Biophysics Department, University of Pittsburgh, and the first vice-president was Gertrude R. Schmeidler of the Department of Psychology, City College of New York. Rhea White was named Secretary Treasurer. Four others were elected to the council, bringing the total to seven: Margaret Anderson, Remi J. Cadoret, Karlis Osis, and W. G. Roll. One of the co-founding supporters of PA was anthropologist Margaret Mead. [8]

In 1984, Richard Feynman spoke at the annual convention of the association. [9]

Activities

In 1969 the association became formally affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). [10] [11] The work of the association is reported in the Journal of Parapsychology and the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. [1] The Association confers the Outstanding Career Award to recognize members who have sustained 20 years of research or service contributions to advance the discipline. [12]

The current president of the PA is American clinical psychologist James C. Carpenter. [13]

Criticism

The association has its critics, including physicist John Archibald Wheeler, who tried but failed to convince the AAAS to expel the organization in 1979. [14] During his presentation Wheeler incorrectly stated that J. B. Rhine had committed fraud as a student. Wheeler retracted that statement in a letter to the journal Science. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parapsychology</span> Study of paranormal and psychic phenomena

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychic</span> Person claiming extrasensory perception abilities

A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology such as extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, such as psychokinesis or teleportation. Although many people believe in psychic abilities, the scientific consensus is that there is no proof of the existence of such powers, and describes the practice as pseudoscience. The word "psychic" is also used as an adjective to describe such abilities.

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A ganzfeld experiment is an assessment used by parapsychologists that they contend can test for extrasensory perception (ESP) or telepathy. In these experiments, a "sender" attempts to mentally transmit an image to a "receiver" who is in a state of sensory deprivation. The receiver is normally asked to choose between a limited number of options for what the transmission was supposed to be and parapsychologists who propose that such telepathy is possible argue that rates of success above the expectation from randomness are evidence for ESP. Consistent, independent replication of ganzfeld experiments has not been achieved, and, in spite of strenuous arguments by parapsychologists to the contrary, there is no validated evidence accepted by the wider scientific community for the existence of any parapsychological phenomena. Ongoing parapsychology research using ganzfeld experiments has been criticized by independent reviewers as having the hallmarks of pseudoscience.

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John Archibald Wheeler was an American theoretical physicist. He was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr to explain the basic principles of nuclear fission. Together with Gregory Breit, Wheeler developed the concept of the Breit–Wheeler process. He is best known for popularizing the term "black hole" for objects with gravitational collapse already predicted during the early 20th century, for inventing the terms "quantum foam", "neutron moderator", "wormhole" and "it from bit", and for hypothesizing the "one-electron universe". Stephen Hawking called Wheeler the "hero of the black hole story".

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The Journal of Parapsychology is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on psi phenomena, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis, as well as human consciousness in general and anomalous experiences.

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Deborah Delanoy is an American parapsychologist. She was the President of the Parapsychological Association in 1994, and a co-editor of the European Journal of Parapsychology from 1990 until 1999. She was also the director of the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes at the University of Northampton, where she studied whether people could unconsciously respond to remote influences, such as another person's thoughts.

References

  1. 1 2 "Psi Journals & Publications". Parapsychological Association. Archived from the original on 2002-12-11. Retrieved 2010-05-20. (primary source)
  2. ↑ "Parapsychology and the Integrity of Science". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  3. ↑ "List of AAAS Affiliates". AAAS. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  4. ↑ "About The Parapsychological Association". Parapsychological Association. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  5. ↑ "Parapsychology". Annalisa Ventola. Retrieved 2019-10-14.
  6. ↑ "What is Parapsychology?". Parapsychology and Magic. Russian Information Network.
  7. ↑ "What on earth?". Halfway There. 18 August 2007.
  8. ↑ Melton, J. G. (1996). Parapsychological Association. In Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Thomson Gale. ISBN   978-0-8103-9487-2.
  9. ↑ Solfvin, Jerry (1985). "Preface: The Twenty-seventh Annual Convention". In White, Rhea; Solfvin, Jerry (eds.). Research in parapsychology, 1984 : abstracts and papers from the twenty-seventh Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, 1984. London: Scarecrow Press. p. vii. ISBN   978-0-8108-1812-5.
  10. ↑ Etzel Cardeña (January 27, 2014). "A call for an open, informed study of all aspects of consciousness". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 8: 17. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00017 . PMC   3902298 . PMID   24478682.
  11. ↑ "AAAS Affiliates". American Association for the Advancement of Science . Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  12. ↑ "Outstanding Career Award - The Parapsychological Association". www.parapsych.org. Retrieved 2024-07-01.
  13. ↑ "Board of Directors - The Parapsychological Association". www.parapsych.org.
  14. ↑ Wheeler, John Archibald. "Drive the Pseudos out of the Workshop of Science". Archived from the original on 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  15. ↑ Wheeler, J. A. (1979). "Parapsychology - A correction". Science. 205 (4402): 144–148. doi:10.1126/science.205.4402.144-b. PMID   17750301.
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