Page 180 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysteries of the Mind 161

ESP Researchers

n their biennial report on the state of sci-
ence understanding released in April
I2002, the National Science Foundation
found that 60 percent of adults in the United
States agreed or strongly agreed that some
people possess psychic powers or extrasensory
perception (ESP). In June 2002, the Con-
sumer Analysis Group conducted the most
extensive survey ever done in the United
Kingdom and revealed that 67 percent of
adults believed in psychic powers. Report
author Jan Walsh, commenting on the statis-
tics that found that two out of three surveyed tion for the Advancement of Science. He J. B. and Louisa Rhine.
believed in an afterlife, said that as far as the became the founding president of the Parapsy- (DR. SUSAN
British public was concerned, “the supernatur- chological Association in 1957 and saw that BLACKMORE/FORTEAN
al world isn’t so paranormal after all.” group admitted to the American Association PICTURE LIBRARY)
Michael Shermer, author of Why People for the Advancement of Science in 1969. In
Believe Weird Things (2002) and publisher of McConnell’s opinion the adamant denial of
Skeptic magazine, was among those scientists the existence of extrasensory perception by
who deplored the findings that such a high materialist scientists can best be explained by
percentage of Americans accepted the reality their fear of the consequences that might fol-
of ESP. In Shermer’s analysis, such statistics low in the event of their acceptance.
posed a serious problem for science educators.
Complaining that people too readily accepted
the claims of pseudoscience, Shermer con-
cluded his column for Scientific American CERTAIN psychic-sensitives might have the
(August 12, 2002) by writing that “for those
lacking a fundamental comprehension of how ability to direct random energy at subatomic levels.
science works, the siren song of pseudoscience
becomes too alluring to resist, no matter how
smart you are.” According to McConnell in Joyride to
Ever since he entered the field of parapsy- Infinity (2000), “all general textbooks of psy-
chology full time in 1947, Dr. Robert A. chology and physics would have to be rewrit-
McConnell, holder of a doctorate in physics ten.” In the field of physics, recognition of psy-
and the leader of a radar development group at chic phenomena might require no more than
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dur- an acknowledgement that there is a nonphysi-
ing World War II (1939–45), has primarily cal realm “with which the physical realm can
devoted his efforts to answering the question of interact, both spontaneously and experimen-
why so many scientists reject ESP. As early as tally.” In psychology, however, McConnell
1943, after reading the literature on British states that “the fallout from a universal recog-
and American scientific psychical research in nition of the reality of [ESP] would be cata-
the Harvard library, he came to the conclusion strophic.” Experimental psychology as it is cur-
that ESP did occur, although presently beyond rently practiced would be destroyed as a “scien-
explanation by known physics and psychology. tific enterprise.” Psychiatry would have to go
McConnell is a life senior member of the Insti- back to its beginnings and start all over again.
tute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a The prevailing contemporary worldview of
fellow of the American Psychological Society, materialist science would shatter, McConnell
research professor emeritus of Biological Sci- says, and “any attempt by a thoughtful scientist
ence, and a fellow of the American Associa- to reconcile the established facts of parapsy-

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