WHAT IS PARAPSYCHOLOGY?
Three main kinds of alleged paranormal phenomena (called psi) are studied in parapsychology:
- ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception) - knowledge without the use of ordinary senses
- PK (Psychokinesis) - mind over matter
- SOC (Survival Of Consciousness) - life after death, communication with dead people, reincarnation, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences
Three main kinds of ESP:
The Historical Context of Parapsychology
The Origins of Parapsychology
The origins of parapsychology include a number of Red Flags, facts that indicate that critical thinkers should be skeptical about parapsychology claims.
Healthy skepticism about parapsychology claims does not mean refusing to consider evidence and arguments supporting such claims, which would amount to dogmatic skepticism. Healthy skepticism about parapsychology claims means that critical thinkers should be cautious about such claims and carefully examine the evidence and arguments presented for such claims, and should require strong and clear evidence before accepting parapsychology claims.
A major milestone in the history of parapsychology is the founding of The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in England in 1882 by William Barrett and Edmond Rogers. Barrett and Rogers were both spiritualists:
Barrett was a Christian and spiritualist member of the SPR. Although he had founded the society, Barrett was only truly active for a year, and in 1884 founded the American Society for Psychical Research. He became president of the society in 1904 and continued to submit articles to their journal.[1]
About 1843 Rogers was introduced by Sir Isaac Pitman to the work of Swedenborg. He went on to study mesmerism and mesmeric healing. He began to attend séances in 1869 with various mediums, especially Mrs Thomas Everitt and William Eglinton, and became a spiritualist. In 1873 he helped to form the British National Association of Spiritualists, and in 1881 founded the spiritualist journal Light, which he edited from 1894 until his death in 1910. In 1881–1882 he founded the Society for Psychical Research, with Sir William Barrett.[2]
The SPR still exists today, and according to its website, it was the first "learned society" formed to conduct scientific research into psychical and spiritualist phenomena:
In January 1882, a conference was held in London to discuss the viability of setting up an organisation to carry out formal scientific research into these matters. The following month the SPR was founded, the first learned society of its kind, with the purpose of investigating mesmeric, psychical and ‘spiritualist’ phenomena in a purely scientific spirit.[3]
The fact that both Barrett and Rogers, the founders of SPR, were spiritualists leads us to the first three Red Flags of Parapsychology:
- The Nature of Spiritualism
- The Origin of Spiritualism
- The Origin of SPR in 1882
RED FLAG #1: THE NATURE OF SPIRITUALISM
Spiritualism is a religious movement that began in the mid 1800s:
Although the stated purpose of the SPR was to investigate psychical and spiritualist phenomena by means of objective scientific investigations, the fact that both founders of SPR were involved in the same religious movement, and a religious movement that involved belief not only in life after death, but in communication with the dead by the living, casts doubt on the objectivity of the research conducted by the SPR.
Both founders of the SPR were religious believers who thought that living people can communicate with dead people. They were not skeptical about supernatural communication with dead spirits, nor were they merely neutral on this question. They were religious believers who were part of a religious movement that promoted the belief that living people can communicate with the spirits or ghosts of dead people.
This fact alone gives critical thinkers a good reason to be skeptical about the claims of parapsychology.
This is analogous to the fact that the founders of Scientific Creationism were fundamentalist or conservative evangelical Christians. Their belief that the theory of evolution is false, and that life has existed on the Earth for only a few thousand years, appears to be based on their religious beliefs, and on their literal interpretation of the biblical account of creation in the book of Genesis. Scientific creationism was not driven by objective scientific investigation; it was driven by religious beliefs.
The religious bias of the founders of Scientific Creationism, however, does not prove that they are wrong. Their view of the origin of life and of the origin of species might be correct, even if that belief was not based on objective scientific investigation. A critical thinker should not simply ignore the evidence and arguments of Scientific Creationists. That would be dogmatic skepticism. However, the obvious religious bias of the founders of Scientific Creationism does provide a good reason for critical thinkers to approach the claims of Scientific Creationism with healthy skepticism. The same is true of how critical thinkers should approach parapsychology claims, i.e., claims about the existence of ESP, PK, or SOC.
An example of bias in the thinking of SPR founder William Barrett is his evaluation of the Creery Sisters:
In the late 19th century the Creery Sisters (Mary, Alice, Maud, Kathleen, and Emily) were tested by Barrett and other members of the SPR who believed them to have genuine psychic ability, however, the sisters later confessed to fraud by describing their method of signal codes that they had utilized. Barrett and the other members of the SPR such as Edmund Gurney and Frederic W. H. Myers had been easily duped.[1]
Barrett's prior belief in telepathy and communication with the dead led him to be insufficiently skeptical about claims of alleged psychics. Critical thinkers have good reason to be skeptical about the objectivity and reliability of the SPR investigations into alleged psychic phenomena.
RED FLAG #2: THE ORIGIN OF SPIRITUALISM IN 1848
As previously noted, spiritualism has roots in shamanism, and its origin has been traced to the Fox sisters in 1848:
Most people in the 21st century recognize that shamanism is an ancient superstition that existed among primitive peoples around the world for thousands of years, prior to the advent of modern science. Most modern people no longer view bad weather, natural disasters, physical disease, or mental illness as being the result of the actions of evil spirits, the way that primitive people did for thousands of years. The fact that spiritualism has roots in such ancient superstitious beliefs provides critical thinkers with a good reason to be skeptical about spiritualist phenomena and claims.
Furthermore, the important role of the Fox sisters in the origin of spiritualism also provides a good reason for critical thinkers to approach the phenomena and claims of spiritualism with healthy skepticism:
It turned out that the rapping of alleged ghosts was a hoax conducted by the Fox sisters[4]:
Beginning in 1850, some critics concluded that the girls made the rappings themselves, including physician E. P. Longworthy, John W. Hurn, Reverend John M. Austin, and Reverend D. Potts. In 1851, the Reverend C. Chauncey Burr wrote in the New-York Tribune that by cracking toe joints the sounds were so loud, they could be heard in a large hall. In the same year, investigators from the University at Buffalo concluded that the raps were made by cracking joints of their body and that the raps would not occur if they had cushions under their feet.
In 1851, Mrs. Norman Culver, a relative of the Fox family, admitted in a signed statement that she had assisted them during their séances by touching them to indicate when the raps should be made. She also claimed that Kate and Margaretta revealed to her the method of producing the raps by snapping their toes and using their knees and ankles.
Charles Grafton Page, a patent examiner and patent advocate, had developed a keen eye for detecting fraudulent claims about science. In his book Psychomancy (1853), Page observed that the rapping sounds came from underneath the girls' long dresses. In 1857, the Boston Courier set up a prize of $500 to any medium who could demonstrate a paranormal ability to their committee. The Fox sisters made an attempt and were investigated by a committee which included the magician John Wyman. The committee concluded the raps were produced by bone and feet movements and thus the Fox sisters failed the challenge. A report by the Seybert Commission in 1887 stated that after investigating various mediums including Margaretta, the phenomena could have easily been produced by fraudulent methods. The report noted that the raps were heard close to Margaretta and a séance sitter, Professor Furness had felt pulsations in her foot.
In 1888, Margaretta publicly revealed that the rappings were a hoax[4]:
In 1888, the two sisters traveled to New York City, where a reporter offered $1,500 if they would "expose" their methods and give him an exclusive on the story. Margaretta appeared publicly at the New York Academy of Music on October 21, 1888, with Kate present. Before an audience of 2,000, Margaret demonstrated how she could produce—at will—raps audible throughout the theater. Doctors from the audience came on stage to verify that the cracking of her toe joints was the source of the Sound.
Margaretta told her story of the origins of the mysterious "rappings" in a signed confession given to the press and published in New York World, October 21, 1888. In it, she explained the Hydesville events.
Because spiritualism has roots in the ancient superstition of shamanism, and because the origin of the spiritualist movement was based largely on a hoax conducted by the Fox sisters, critical thinkers have a good reason to be skeptical about the phenomena and claims of spiritualism.
RED FLAG #3: THE ORIGIN OF SPR IN 1882
Critical thinkers have good reason for healthy skepticism about parapsychology claims because of the origin of The Society for Psychical Research (PSR) in 1882.
First, this organization was formed during a time when the religious movement of spiritualism was rapidly spreading in England and internationally. Second, both of the founders of SPR were involved in the religious movement of spiritualism. Third, as we have seen, there is good reason to be skeptical about the phenomena and claims of spiritualism. Fourth, SPR was the first "learned society" to promote scientific investigation into psychical and spiritualist phenomena. So, the origin of SPR is a major milestone in the origin of parapsychology.
Given that the origin of SPR has strong roots in the religious movement of spiritualism, and given that the founding of SPR is a major milestone in the development of parapsychology, we have good reason to be skeptical about parapsychology claims.
RED FLAG #4: EARLY INVESTIGATIONS BY THE SPR
Although both founders of SPR were spiritualists, some important members of SPR were not and were more skeptical about the mediums who inspired the spiritualist movement. The first president of SPR was Henry Sidgwick, and he was agnostic about the existence of spirits and about alleged communication by mediums with dead people:
Investigation by members of the SPR exposed the world-famous medium Eusapia Palladino as a fraud, thus giving critical thinkers a good reason to be skeptical about spiritualist beliefs and claims.
However, the SPR also investigated another world-famous medium named Leonora Piper:
The lack of clear evidence supporting the claim that Piper was communicating with dead people and the existence of clear evidence indicating that she was NOT communicating with dead people should have led SPR investigators to reject spiritualist claims about Piper. Their failure to reject those claims gives critical thinkers a good reason to be skeptical about the objectivity and reliability of the "learned society" of SPR investigators.[5]
One significant piece of evidence was the absurd claims allegedly made by the ghost of Sir Walter Scott:
As with other mediums of the era, Piper claimed the use of spirit guides or "controls" in trance. In some of Piper's early sittings her control, supposedly Walter Scott, made absurd statements about the planets. He claimed beautiful creatures live inside Venus and the Sun is populated by "dreadful looking creatures" which he described as monkeys that live in caves made out of sand and mud.[6]
Sir Walter Scott was a famous writer and editor who died in 1832. It is obvious that the well-educated and sensible Walter Scott would not have made such absurd claims about Venus or the Sun, so it is clear that the ghost of Walter Scott was NOT communicating through Piper.
Further evidence comes from alleged communications from the ghost of George Pellew:
Among her controls was a personality referred to as G.P., who claimed to be George Pellew (1859–1892), a writer who had died in New York City and a friend of Richard Hodgson. In 1888 Pellew had attended a séance sitting with Piper. After he had died Hodgson claimed that Pellew communicated through Piper, however the family members and friends of George denied this. Andrew Lang wrote that when alive George Pellew was a scholar and metaphysician but the Pellew control of Piper had forgotten his Greek and philosophy and when asked for proof of his identity was incoherent or wholly mistaken.[6]
The writer "George Pellew" who allegedly communicated through Piper had "forgotten his Greek and philosophy" and was unable to provide any clear proof of his identity. But in the face of this evidence that the ghost of Pellew was NOT communicating through Piper, the SPR investigator Richard Hodgson came to the opposite conclusion.
There is also the evidence concerning alleged communications from the ghost of a French doctor:
Another control was called "Phinuit" who was purportedly a French doctor. Phinuit's French was limited to salutations like "Bonjour" and "Au revoir" and had little apparent knowledge either of the French language or of medicine. According to some accounts, medical people were surprised Phinuit did not
know the French or Latin names for the many remedies Piper advised for her sitters, and Phinuit's historical existence could not be verified by SPR investigations.[6]
The alleged ghost of a French doctor named Phinuit had little knowledge of either French or medicine, and no historical record of his existence could be found, providing SPR investigators with clear evidence that the ghost of a French doctor named Phinuit was NOT communicating through Piper. Yet the SPR failed to draw this skeptical conclusion.
Furthermore, consider the evidence concerning the alleged communications of the ghost of Frederic Myers, who was himself an investigator of mediums and psychics:
After the death of Frederic Myers in 1901, Piper claimed to receive messages from Myers for his widow. ...Before his death Myers had left a message in a sealed envelope; Piper's control did not reveal the message. In 1906 the Myers control was completely baffled when given a message in Latin by a séance sitter, and took three months to get the meaning of the message. This was unlike Myers, as whilst alive he was a classicist who knew Latin.[6]
The ghost of Frederic Myers allegedly communicated through Piper. But this "ghost", unlike Myers, did not know the contents of a message written by Myers and placed into a sealed envelope before he died, and this "ghost", unlike Myers, did not know Latin. This evidence clearly indicates that Frederic Myers was NOT communicating to others through Piper.
The deceased father of an SPR investigator allegedly communicated to his son, James Hyslop, through Leonora Piper. Hyslop became convinced that Piper had indeed passed on messages from his dead father, but there was evidence to the contrary:
Physiologist Ivor Lloyd Tuckett criticized Hyslop's interpretation of Piper's mediumship and gave an example of a mistake her control had made which was alleged to be the spirit of Hyslop's father. The control when asked if he had remembered a "Samuel Cooper" responded that he was old friend in the West, and that they used to discuss philosophy on long walks together, but the statement was proven to be false. Tuckett came to the conclusion that Piper's controls were fictitious creations and her mediumship could best be explained without recourse to the paranormal.[7]
Another SPR investigator named Richard Hodgson died in 1905, and his ghost allegedly communicated to the living through Piper. But there was significant evidence indicating that this was not actually the case:
After the death of Hodgson between December 1905 and the beginning of 1908 Piper held about seventy séances during which the spirit of Hodgson was said to have communicated through her. However the control of Piper sounded nothing like Hodgson. According to Joseph McCabe "when Hodgson died in 1905 and left a large amount of manuscript in cipher, she could not get the least clue to it. When friends put test questions to the spirit of Hodgson about his early life in Australia, the answers were all wrong." The Hodgson control was asked the name of his schoolmaster in Melbourne but failed to give the correct answer, Hodgson's sister who was sent the messages was not convinced they were from Hodgson. Before he died Hodgson had written a test letter, and claimed that if he was to communicate through Piper he would reveal the contents inside the letter. Piper's Hodgson control failed to reveal the test letter.[8]
It is possible that, unlike the medium Eusapia Palladino, Leonora Piper was not a fraud or deceiver. But even if Piper was an honest and sincere person, the investigations of the SPR should have drawn the conclusion that she was NOT actually communicating with dead people. But the SPR investigators were too naive and credulous to accept the evidence showing this to be the case.
Among the early investigations of the SPR, two international superstars of spiritualism were evaluated: Eusapia Palladino and Leonora Piper. Palladino, a physical medium, was revealed to be a fraud, thus giving critical thinkers a good reason to be skeptical about spiritualist phenomena and claims.
However, Leonora Piper, a mental medium, was taken seriously by SPR investigators and viewed as having communicated messages from the ghosts of dead people, even though there was clear evidence that this was NOT the case, thus giving critical thinkers a good reason to be skeptical about the objectivity and reliability of investigations by the SPR.
RED FLAG #5: THE ORIGIN OF THE DUKE PARAPSYCHOLOGY LAB IN 1930-1935
The term "parapsychology" was originally coined in German:
But the term was popularized in English in the 1930s:
This popularization of the term "parapsychology" in the 1930s is historically appropriate because there was a shift towards "more rigorous experimental methodologies and laboratory-based studies" at that time, particularly with the initiation of the parapsychology lab at Duke University by J.B. Rhine:
Joseph Banks Rhine was a bona fide scientist, but his PhD from the University of Chicago was in botany, not psychology. J.B. Rhine and his wife, Louisa, became interested in psychic phenomena largely as a result of a lecture by the superstitious spiritualist and SPR member Arthur Conan Doyle. The excitement of the Rhines about the prospect of scientifically establishing the existence of psychic phenomena indicates that they were probably not objective or neutral investigators of such phenomena.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a credulous spiritualist and a member of the SPR:
Doyle had a longstanding interest in mystical subjects and remained fascinated by the idea of paranormal phenomena, even though the strength of his belief in their reality waxed and waned periodically over the years.
In 1887, in Southsea, influenced by Major-General Alfred Wilks Drayson, a member of the Portsmouth Literary and Philosophical Society, Doyle began a series of investigations into the possibility of psychic phenomena and attended about 20 seances, experiments in telepathy, and sittings with mediums. Writing to spiritualist journal Light that year, he declared himself to be a spiritualist, describing one particular event that had convinced him psychic phenomena were real. ...
In 1889, he became a founding member of the Hampshire Society for Psychical Research; in 1893, he joined the London-based Society for Psychical Research; and in 1894, he collaborated with Sir Sidney Scott and Frank Podmore in a search for poltergeists in Devon....
Doyle and the spiritualist William Thomas Stead (who would die on the Titanic) were led to believe that Julius and Agnes Zancig had genuine psychic powers, and they claimed publicly that the Zancigs used telepathy. However, in 1924, the Zancigs confessed that their mind reading act had been a trick; they published the secret code and all other details of the trick method they had used under the title "Our Secrets!!" in a London newspaper. Doyle also praised the psychic phenomena and spirit materialisations that he believed had been produced by Eusapia Palladino and Mina Crandon, both of whom were also later exposed as frauds.
...he [J.B. Rhine] enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he received his master's degree in botany in 1923 and a PhD in botany in 1925. While there, he and his wife Louisa E. Rhine were impressed by a May 1922 lecture given by Arthur Conan Doyle exulting the scientific proof of communication with the dead. Rhine later wrote, "This mere possibility was the most exhilarating thought I had had in years." Rhine's interest in this topic was furthered after reading The Survival of Man, Oliver Lodge's book about mediumship and life after death.[9]
The Rhines became devoted investigators of alleged psychic phenomena largely as a result of the influence of two famous promoters of spiritualism: Doyle and Lodge. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a credulous spiritualist and a member of the SPR:
Doyle had a longstanding interest in mystical subjects and remained fascinated by the idea of paranormal phenomena, even though the strength of his belief in their reality waxed and waned periodically over the years.
In 1887, in Southsea, influenced by Major-General Alfred Wilks Drayson, a member of the Portsmouth Literary and Philosophical Society, Doyle began a series of investigations into the possibility of psychic phenomena and attended about 20 seances, experiments in telepathy, and sittings with mediums. Writing to spiritualist journal Light that year, he declared himself to be a spiritualist, describing one particular event that had convinced him psychic phenomena were real. ...
In 1889, he became a founding member of the Hampshire Society for Psychical Research; in 1893, he joined the London-based Society for Psychical Research; and in 1894, he collaborated with Sir Sidney Scott and Frank Podmore in a search for poltergeists in Devon....
Doyle and the spiritualist William Thomas Stead (who would die on the Titanic) were led to believe that Julius and Agnes Zancig had genuine psychic powers, and they claimed publicly that the Zancigs used telepathy. However, in 1924, the Zancigs confessed that their mind reading act had been a trick; they published the secret code and all other details of the trick method they had used under the title "Our Secrets!!" in a London newspaper. Doyle also praised the psychic phenomena and spirit materialisations that he believed had been produced by Eusapia Palladino and Mina Crandon, both of whom were also later exposed as frauds.
Oliver Lodge was a bona fide scientist, but he, like Doyle, was also a credulous spiritualist and a member of SPR:
Lodge is remembered for his studies in psychical research and spiritualism. He began to study psychical phenomena (chiefly telepathy) in the late 1880s, was a member of The Ghost Club, and served as president of the London-based Society for Psychical Research from 1901 to 1903. After his son, Raymond, was killed in World War I in 1915, he visited several mediums and wrote about the experience in a number of books, including the best-selling Raymond; or, Life and Death (1916). Lodge was a friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, who also lost a son in World War I and was a Spiritualist.
Lodge was a Christian Spiritualist. In 1909, he published the book Survival of Man which expressed his belief that life after death had been demonstrated by mediumship. His most controversial book was Raymond or Life and Death (1916). The book documented the séances that he and his wife had attended with the medium Gladys Osborne Leonard. Lodge was convinced that his son Raymond had communicated with him and the book is a description of his son's experiences in the spirit world.[10]
The origin of the Parapsychology Lab at Duke University, like the origin of the Society for Psychic Research, is directly connected with the religious movement of spiritualism. This gives critical thinkers a good reason for healthy skepticism about the investigations carried out by J.B. Rhine at the Duke Parapsychology Lab.
RED FLAG #6: EARLY INVESTIGATIONS BY THE DUKE PARAPSYCHOLOGY LAB
END NOTES
1. From the Wikipedia article "William F. Barrett":
2. From the Wikipedia article "Edmund Rogers":
3. From the "Our History" article on the SPR website:
4. From the Wikipedia article "Fox sisters":
5. Richard Hodgson and James Hyslop were SPR investigators who concluded that Leonora Piper was communicating messages from the ghosts of dead people.
6. From the Wikipedia article "Leonora Piper": https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leonora_Piper&oldid=1307401769
7. From the Wikipedia article "James H. Hyslop":
8. From the Wikipedia article "Richard Hodgson":
9. From the Wikipedia article "Joseph Banks Rhine":
10. From the Wikipedia article "Oliver Lodge":
