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ABSTRACT: Although there has been considerable progress in laboratory studies of psi phenomena (telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis) in the past 50 years, both in terms of firmly establishing the reality of these phenomena and investigating variables that affect their manifestation, the field of experimental parapsychology has been increasingly co-opted by the dominant materialistic philosophical paradigm, such that investigators tend to overlook both the philosophical and the spiritual implications of psi phenomena and do not deal well with the deep and frequently irrational resistance to psi in mainstream scientific culture. This article reminds investigators that psi phenomena manifest in the complex dynamics of real life and often have great meaning to experients. Psi is not merely an "anomaly" or a laboratory curiosity but has fundamental relevance to questions about the nature of human consciousness and to issues of our relations to others. The relations of parapsychology to essential, fundamental science, as opposed to scientism, and to transpersonal psychology are discussed, and directions for an enriched study of psi, as a basis for a pragmatic dualism, as an empirical basis for transpersonal psychology, and as a more humanly relevant discipline are suggested.
It is a real pleasure to be here today, and I look forward to giving this talk with anticipation. I have already stirred up quite a bit of excitement, judging by comments I have gotten, by having the word spirit in the title, and also by asking, in my recent e-mailed questionnaire to Parapsychological Association (PA) members, about the importance of spiritual values in motivating them to become parapsychologists. I am glad to have stirred up this excitement, because I am not happy with the current state of parapsychology, and I want to stimulate some thinking about that, which I think will be helped by excitement.
To give us some context, I want to provide a brief update on where popular culture in the United States is. Table I shows some May 2001 Gallup poll results. From it, you can see that a majority of the United States population believes in psychic healing or mind-body healing, up 8% from 11 years ago, and well over a third of the population believes in such phenomena as ESP, haunted houses, the return of spirits of...