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ABSTRACT:
Parapsychology can build bridges to many different scientific disciplines. Demonstrating that it can make valuable contributions to mainstream science will help establish parapsychology's relevance and credibility. Taking psychology as an example, the article gives cases from parapsychology's past and present in which the study of apparent anomalous communication or influence may lead to developments that are of mainstream benefit. First, at a time when experimental psychology was beginning to focus on measuring simple perceptual, cognitive, and motor functions, early psychical researchers helped develop ideas of the mind in psychology. Second, the methodological challenges facing those investigating paranormal claims have led to important developments, such as the use of blind methods that have become widely adopted by the mainstream. Constructive engagement with critics can help identify methodological improvements that have the potential to benefit parapsychology as well as other mainstream areas that are dealing with similar problems such as difficult-to-replicate effects. Last, to build a more persuasive case for psi, parapsychologists need to work together to systematically investigate promising methodologies rather than hopping from one method to another. Preregistering studies as pivotal or exploratory would help to avoid the current problem of controversy over interpretation of meta-analyses conducted with knowledge of study results.
Many of us have happy memories of the 2004 PA Convention in Vienna, where Bob Morris was his usual sociable self. No one could have guessed then, as Nancy Zingrone handed over the Presidency to me, that Bob would tragically die less than a week after the convention ended and exactly a year ago from the date of this address, August 12.1 never imagined that he would not be sitting proudly in the audience as I gave my first Presidential Address.
It is a tribute to Bob Morris's leadership that parapsychology will continue to be integrated into the psychology department at Edinburgh. I think that one of the reasons that Morris was so successful was that he was particularly good at seeing the contribution that parapsychology could make to many different areas, such as medicine, physics, and philosophy. I'm going to speak to that theme in this address, focusing on what parapsychology has to offer psychology. I will draw on examples from our past and our present, and from my own...