ran across this one today:
The Journal of Scientific Exploration, Volume 10, Number 1, in which
this article first appeared... To read articles from past issues,
and/or for subscription information, click here to visit their Website.
An *****sment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning
by Jessica Utts
Division of Statistics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Volume 10 Number 1: Page 3.
Research on psychic functioning, conducted over a two decade period, is
examined to determine whether or not the phenomenon has been
scientifically established. A secondary question is whether or not it
is useful for government purposes. The primary work examined in this
re****t was government sponsored research conducted at Stanford Research
Institute, later known as SRI International, and at Science
Applications International Cor****ation, known as SAIC. Using the
standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that
psychic functioning has been well established. The statistical results
of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance.
Arguments that these results could be due to methodological flaws in
the experiments are soundly refuted. Effects of similar magnitude to
those found in government-sponsored research at SRI and SAIC have been
replicated at a number of laboratories across the world. Such
consistency cannot be readily explained by claims of flaws or fraud.
The magnitude of psychic functioning exhibited appears to be in the
range between what social scientists call a small and medium effect.
That means that it is reliable enough to be replicated in properly
conducted experiments, with sufficient trials to achieve the long-run
statistical results needed for replicability. A number of other
patterns have been found, suggestive of how to conduct more productive
experiments and applied psychic functioning. For instance, it doesn't
appear that a sender is needed. Precognition, in which the answer is
known to no one until a future time, appears to work quite well. Recent
experiments suggest that if there is a psychic sense then it works much
like our other five senses, by detecting change. Given that physicists
are currently grappling with an understanding of time, it may be that a
psychic sense exists that scans the future for major change, much as
our eyes scan the environment for visual change or our ears allow us to
respond to sudden changes in sound. It is recommended that future
experiments focus on understanding how this phenomenon works, and on
how to make it as useful as possible. There is little benefit to
continuing experiments designed to offer proof, since there is little
more to be offered to anyone who does not accept the current collection
of data.
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