Is there any scientific psi research?
[Contributed by Roger Nelson of PEAR] In short, yes. According to a recent National Research Council report, there is a 130 year history of scientific research, albeit with no clear conclusion that the classical psi effects, telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, precognition, have been demonstrated. Most knowledgeable scholars would date the advent of controlled research later, to the early 1930’s when J. B. Rhine began his work with McDougall in Duke University’s psychology department. Rhine’s work has been much criticized, and is widely discounted, but inappropriately for the most part. In any case, later workers built on these foundations of experimental design and statistical analysis, and there has been a cumulative increase in scientific rigor and sophistication. Most of current psi research is conducted by a small number of investigators in universities and established institutes, and reports are presented at conventions of professional organizations such as the Parapsychologi
