The mainstream scientific community has a tendency to shy away from belief in psychic phenomena. When they do consider it and try to experiment with the phenomena, they oftentimes do so with a condescending approach. They are typically more concerned with trying to debunk it than they are they trying to prove it. There are some scientists, such as Dean Radin and Rupert Sheldrake, who take a more positive approach to studying psychic phenomena, but Radin and Sheldrake are a rare breed in the scientific community.
However, the opinion of mainstream science on the subject of psychic phenomena hasn't been of much interest to some government agencies. It's no secret that some law enforcement agencies have consulted with psychics to gain tips on cases they are trying to solve. And it's has now been known for some time that the U.S. government had secret research projects regarding psychic phenomena that went on for many years. The Stargate Project, which was a code name for several sub-projects by the U.S. government regarding research on psychic phenomena, existed from the 1970s until 1995.
Obviously there are 'authority' figures in both politics and science that have taken the subject seriously. So why do the academics typically shy away from it? Are they afraid they won't be able to come up with a good enough explanation? Or are they really that closed-minded? I wouldn't be surprised if, considering many universities are government supported, the government has purposely coaxed the educational establishment to avoid the subject and try to debunk it just to keep the public consciousness away from the subject so they can monopolize on the advantages psychic phenomena could potentially bring.
Although if that was their plan, their plan has failed. Public interest in psychic phenomena has not waned, and I think interest in the subject is actually booming now. The government has acknowledged their own research on the subject and you can see many TV shows and documentaries relating to psychic (and paranormal) phenomena in general.
But not mainstream science. They still aren't that interested They are still avoiding the subject or trying to debunk it. It's like these guys are in some sort of Darwinist dark age.
I mean, if the government declassified documents that state they have some sort of partnership with gray aliens and Larry King interviewed a little gray alien, would the academics still rush to debunk the whole thing? Would they be like, "Well, the alien is obviously a genetic altered human. We took a DNA sample and we saw the similarities. See look here at this picture. You see how similar that strand is? Here, let me circle it. You see it? You see it? That indicates it's a genetically altered human. The whole thing was probably a Soviet experiment from the beginning."
I doubt they would react that way (although I wouldn't be surprised if some did), so why are they so apprehensive about psychic research? Why are guys like Radin and Sheldrake thought of as mavericks?
I think mainstream science needs more mavericks.
I just love your insights. You give things due consideration and really have a very open-minded way of treating a subject. I agree with what you've said. I think I understand better why scientists are scared about the subject of psychics. Our gov't and cops might work with them, but there are two problems with the psychic dilemma.
ReplyDelete1. We don't have enough knowledge of how it works to be consistent with its use. It's like sending Michael Jordon out for a game and one night he can't even hit the basket and the next night, he's making 3-pointers. Until us psychics can become better trained, we look like fools when we hit the wrong note.
2. Psychics are seen like religious leaders. Some are scam artists looking for quick cash with lost of soothing words and promises of a great future. If people are skeptical, it's because of false psychics who make money and gain power through their skills (which are often just skills in cold reading). Some folks turn away from religion altogether rather than seeing their spirituality prostituted and some folks walk away from psychics because some very vocal ones are hoaxers.
I really appreciate what Radin is doing especially. He's found enough empirical evidence of psychic skills through testing and he knows he's onto something. I hope he works harder to probe the way the minds work in psychics. We definitely are very synesthetic in that we don't see things in the same spatial realm, the same senses, or the same general texture. We're honestly as baffled as they are about how we do it. I'm doing my own experiments with my skills to come to some conclusions. I hope others continue to search--at least the brave ones. The researchers to continue to look into psychic skills are like I am with ghost hunting. I saw some amazing unexplainable things and I want to know what ghosts are and how they work. These researchers have obviously seen some true psychic skills. When it happens, it's like witnessing a miracle. It changes you and your course of study forever. We really need each other. I hope they continue to find magic and pursue it.
You know another thing I was thinking about the other day when the weather report said it was going to raining and storming all day long here and by early afternoon it was sunny, I thought about how often weather reports have been wrong. Despite their fancy gadgets, the meteorologists still get a lot of predictions wrong. I thought about how ironic it was that weather reports are taken so seriously, yet a comparison of track records for accurate predictions from meteorologists and track records for accurate predictions from psychics probably wouldn't show much difference between the two (I'd like to see some statistics on that).
ReplyDeleteJeff;
ReplyDeleteBrilliant analogy! I was just thinking this morning when I was on gotpsi.org site doing my morning testing that it would be so cool to put an EEG hookup to a psychic tester and have them do the tests throughout the day, compare their scores when they get lousy ones compared to their EEG when they have a spot-on high score. This morning, I got a pretty impressive score on one of the card tests and I could feel a strange "click" inside of me when it's going well and I can encourage it to continue--feels exactly like Deja vu--like you're in the groove. I did the test in about 100 seconds, at least one choice a second because I don't let myself second guess. I wish I'd been hooked up to figure out how I got in the groove and what goes on inside my head when I am "right" psychically...
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ReplyDeleteJeff - that last one had misspellings! This post of yours is a real synchronicity. Our post today is on Joe McMoneagle, a former remote viewer with Stargate.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I haven't had a chance to read yours yet but I bet its probably a good one!
ReplyDeleteBeing a neuroscientist and psychic I may have a unique perspective on this. I think resistance from the scientific community comes primarily from the inability to measure it reliably.
ReplyDeleteI think as our ability to study phenomenon at the quantum level improves you'll see more mainstream scientists start to study it. It may be a quantum physicist that breaks through with a discover that introduces quantum psychology as a new field of study.