Mystic Board

The need for control has been investigated in numerous studies and is a basic human motivation that influences many activities, including religion and science (Baumeister, 1991; Schumaker, 2001; Spilka, Hood, Hunsberger, & Gorsuch, 2003).  Spilka, et al. (2003, pp. 46-47, 58, 484-485) note that...

Psychical and mystical experiences have several characteristics in common that suggest that they derive from the same or very similar processes. Personality – As discussed above, paranormal and mystical experiences are associated with the same personality characteristics and appear to be components ...

Paranormal and mystical beliefs are closely related.  The personality factors most consistently associated with paranormal beliefs and experiences are the interrelated cluster of absorption, fantasy-proneness, and temporal lobe symptoms.  All three of these personality constructs involve a...

Discussions of belief in psi must recognize the problematic properties of psi experiments that make scientific conclusions controversial.   The inability to develop reliable practical applications of psi after a century of research indicates a fundamental lack of scientific progress (Kennedy, 2...

Behavioral genetic and related research indicates that personality has significant genetic components and is also influenced by experiences, particularly during childhood (Cary, 2003; Collins, et al., 2000; Heath, Cloninger, & Martin, 1994; Rutter, Pickles, Murray, & Eaves, 2001; Stallings, et a., 1...

Terminology and Concepts Certain distinctions in the terminology and concepts related to paranormal phenomena are useful for this discussion.  Following the definitions in the American Heritage Dictionary (3rd Edition), paranormal is a broad term that means beyond scientific explanation.  ...

By J. E. Kennedy Abstract: Paranormal beliefs and experiences are associated with certain personality factors, including absorption, fantasy proneness, and the Myers-Briggs intuition and feeling personality dimensions.  Skepticism appears to be associated with materialistic, rational, pragmatic...

Psi effects are unsustainable. They are sometimes impressive and reliable, but then become actively evasive. One of the most testable models for this property is that psi effects occur against a background of supporting and opposing motivation and psi influence due to the extreme polarization of att...

The most obvious, empirically grounded model for the unsustainable nature of psi is that the primary function of psi is to induce and maintain a sense of mystery and wonder. To fulfill this purpose, psi effects must remain mysterious and unsustainable. William James’s (1909/1960) comment that psi ap...

Eisenbud (1963/1992b) proposed that the declines and lack of usefully repeatable results in psi research reflect a fundamental, insurmountable property of nature. He suggested that psi has a role in and is constrained by the basic laws of probability. Beloff (1994) proposed ideas with similar conclu...

The initial hypothesis for explaining declines in psi effects was declining motivation, enthusiasm, and novelty by the experimenters and/or participants (Pratt, 1978; J. B. Rhine & Pratt, 1957). This hypothesis may contribute to a loss of effect, but it does not explain the full range of actively ev...

As background for this discussion, it may be useful to summarize some findings related to psi that are reasonably well established. 1. The incidence of psi varies greatly among people (Kennedy, 2000, 2001; Palmer, 1979; Pratt, 1975). This is true for experimenters, participants, and the occurrence o...

Inconsistent psi effects are not just due to many uncontrolled variables and a poor signal-to-noise ratio. Investigation of a phenomenon with many uncontrolled variables will have either increases in effects as some variables are controlled or uniformly flat results. The declines and evasiveness fou...

The overall evidence indicates that psi sometimes manifests consistently for periods of time and then almost universally becomes actively evasive. After a century of repeatedly confronting this situation, it may be time to consider this pattern as a basic property of psi. In fact, understanding this...

Hansen (2001) suggested that the overall decline in funding and research in parapsychology is due to and indicative of the trickster nature of psi. Activity in the field of parapsychology generally increased in the decades up to the1980s but has declined significantly since then. Hansen described th...