How paranormal is normal science?
There is a good reason for the conventional taboo against parapsychology, making it a kind of outcast from established science. The existence of psychic phenomena would seriously endanger the illusion of objectivity. It would raise the possibility that many empirical results in many fields of science reflect the expectations of the experimenters through subtle unconscious influences. Ironically, the orthodox ideal of passive observation may well provide excellent conditions for paranormal effects: An experimenter preparing his apparatus, getting his animals ready, and then leaving them with some feeling of assurance that the experiment will run and the animals will appropriately ‘do their thing’ cannot but remind us of certain aspects of magic, ritual, or perhaps petitionary prayer. Something is done with the confidence that it will produce a desired result, and the participant, once he has done this, psychologically puts a distance between himself and the outcome. He is not trying to
