Scientific Psychology in the 21st Century

Introduction

Since the late 19th century, Science in general has operated from a 'materialistic' perspective. This made sense in the Mechanical Age, when the entire world apparently could be modeled as a complex yet determinant machinery. This 'macro' view of the world and all that happened within it found favor with materialists of the period and was embraced by most physical scientists of the day. As the 20th century dawned, little had changed to cause anyone in the scientific mainstream at the time to believe that a one hundred diversion was about to begin.

During this same period, the late 19th century, modern scientific Psychology was beginning to establish its roots. Prior beliefs regarding the Mind had given way to a more expansive approach, initially and credibly due to the genius of one man: Frederic W. H. Myers. Myers' name is relatively unknown today, even in among many psychologists. If you ask a clinical or research psychologist who the 'father' or founder of modern psychology that person will most likely respond 'William James' if they are trained in the Western schools of thought.

In fact, James was a contemporary of Myers. And James himself credited Myers as the foundational thinker that in turn inspired and motivated some of James' own best known ideas as expressed in his most well-known early text "Principles of Psychology" (known to most psychologists today simply as the "Princples"). Few modern psychologists have even heard of the greater work which inspired the likes of James, Bernet and McDougall, which was Myers' "Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death", published posthumously in 1901.

At Myers' funeral, James delivered the obituary. James said at that time and in later lectures, that Myers was as great a mental giant as Darwin, and likened the future import of Myers' work to anything of Darwin's creation.

How then is it the case that so few know of Myers? And even more important, what has been the impact on 20th science and even more to the point, 20th century psychology? Where are we now at the dawn of the 21st century? Is there change in the wind; does it suggest any recognition of this groundbreaking work of a 19th century investigator? These heady questions demand clear answers. I shall endeavor to give a brief survey that attempts to concisely answer these questions and, in the process, answer the most important question of all: What is the full impact of all of this on science in the 21st century?

Rise of Materialism

Materialism made sense in the late 19th and early 20th century. In physics, as the 20th century progressed, more developments and discoveries in macrophysics and in the disciplines of engineering, mathematics, chemistry, and other 'hard' sciences reinforced the correctness of this approach. Scientists became convinced that everything either had been explained or certainly would be explained in a few short decades.

This was in direct contradiction to the urgings of Myers and those who were of a similar mind, including William James and many early Quantum physicists. While there was a general belief that quantum mechanics should fit into a materialist, objectivist and reductionist view of Science, as time progressed this became increasingly difficult. In retrospect it is now clear that many of the early errors in logic, especially in the field of quantum mechanics, are traceable to an initial lack of belief that mechanical principles could not be adapted to problems involing not the macrophysical world which classical physics in general so well described but instead the 'world of the very small' - the microphysical world, which quantum physics attempted to describe.

By the middle of the 20th century, it was becoming clear although not often openly discussed in scientific circles, that quantum mechanics and quantum physics were stretching mechanistic concepts beyond all reasonable limits. Clearly a new direction was called for. Mainstream physicists in the main turned a blind eye, preferring to return to the relative safety of classical experiments hoping desparately that somehow this 'quantum madness' would simply go away. This was not to be. And the challenges faced by quantum physicists were soon to be echoed from a quite unexpected camp, the field of research Parapsychology.

Ignorance of Mental Functions

In the early decades of the 20th century, the research world F.W.H. Myers, and his colleagues Edmund Gurney, Price and others - the 'pioneers' of psychical research - was already changing. Psychical researchers had focused primarily on anecdotal case studies, applying rigorous logic to their problems that is admirable even to this day. They successfully sorted the 'wheat from the chaff', ensuring that they discriminate for those case studies that were most likely to have merit without being concerned it the cases themselves fit into a model of physical reality.

It became clear that the world of classical physics would not be capable of explaining what these early pioneers were continuing to discover. As the body of evidence grew, objections from the classical science community likewise began to be heard. In a very real way, these objections have not - to this day - yet silenced. What was it that so concerned mainstream classical scientists, espousing this physical world view?

The primary concern was that the psychologists in describing classical mental functions had, in the main, acquiesced that mental functions might be explicable in terms of physical processes. In other words, they had agreed at least in principle, that 'mind' was the product of the human brain. This was a necessary, albeit unfortunate, requirement from the scientific community if psychology was to be accepted as a 'science' at the turn of the 20th century.

However, when psychical research came forth and began describing even more anomalous phenomena that classical physics and materialism had no way to explain, there was only one response. The data or the analysis had to be, in some way wrong. It was unthinkable something could be accepted as scientific fact which had no foundation in physical laws. And yet this is precisely what the careful work of the psychical researchers of the late 19th century, like Myers and Gurney, were demonstrating clearly, concisely and evocatively.

When the final confrontation occurred, the matter came down to whether psychology wanted to be taken seriously. Psychical researchers, such as Myers - who had a significant stake in the future of modern psychology - could have simply acquiesced en masse. And in fact, most of Myers' colleagues reluctantly did so. However, Myers and to a degree James, were not so easily moved from a position they knew to be correct. Myers proposed a compromise. Myers suggested that perhaps science should expand to consider the psychical research as peer to all the physical research that had gone before. This was heresey from the majority viewpoint, and Myers was soundly rejected. Not until almost a century had passsed, into the final quarter of the 20th century, would a groundswell occur in the scientific community that would finally signal significant change and ultimlately lead to the beginnings of what today can only be called the most significant paradigm shift in science since the introduction of the Modern Age.

An Integrated Science

One key goal of 21st century science will be the integration of more traditional materialistic concepts that have served science so well in the past, with the newer elightenment that is coming from the research and methods described here. The traditional material, reductionist approach to macro physics will remain viable and intact in the short term at least. More likely during the next decade, we will begin to see the evolution of advanced physics based on premises founded in quantum dynamics and realizations of the need for a marriage of the material and the conscious worlds. It is highly probable that such a paradigm shift, for that is precisely what it is, will be required to advance 21st century science.

Psychical and Parapsychology Research

To understand what I do, it's important to understand the boundaries of psychical research and parapsychology research.

Psychical research began around 1885 in Western Europe and England. The most well-known Western organization and the earliest formed was the Society for Psychical Research in London. Psychical research focuses mostly on attempting to answer the question of survival of bodily death. Early attempts were characterized by careful analysis of anecdotal statements. Only those statements that met strict guidelines were considered. For example the stories reviewed had to have secondary substantiation in some form. Stories were grouped and rated. Of the thousands considered only a small percentage were ever considered satisfactory for incorporation into the initial body of evidence. At this phase, the research was far more speculative and less scientific in nature. Statistical analysis had yet to be incorporated.

The first President of the SPR was Henry Sidgwick, a Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University. Significant co-founders of the SPR included Frederic Myers and Edmund Gurney. Two great works were published by the SPR during this early period.

The first book was "Phantasms of the Living", written by Edmund Gurney, together with Frederic Myers and Frank Podmore, published in 1886 . This book was a collection of historical evidence and was the first landmark in psychical research. It contained over 700 carefully analysed cases, presented within the telepathic theory of crisis apparitions (interpreting reports of communications from people dying or in life-threatening situations as telepathically generated hallucinations).

The second book was "Human Personality and Survival of Bodily Death" written by F.W.H. Myers and published posthumously in 1903. The work spans two volumes and more than 1,000 pages. The eight chapters are: "Disintegrations of Personality," "Genius," "Sleep," "Hypnotism," "Sensory Automatism," "Phantasms of the Dead," "Motor Automatism," and "Trance, Possession and Ecstasy." This book is an expansive synthesis of Myers' thinking, presenting his theory of the "subliminal self". See Dr. Carlos Alvardo's SPR Journal review of "Human Personality".

The introduction of quantitative measurements and the use of laboratory procedures began in the 1920s with the likes of George Tyrell who explored a variety of methods for inducing altered states of consciousness, techniques to differentiate between telepathy and clairvoyance, and made attempts to automate the randomisation of targets.

In the 1930s, J.B. Rhine extended this work in the United States. Rhine was a prime exponent of the "experimental approach" which is used today in refined forms in modern research parapsychology. Replication and new quantitative methods were employed in everything from studies on "extra-sensory perception" (E.S.P) to experiments attempting to influence normally random pattern events, such as the outcomes of dice tosses. Rhine's original laboratory was on the campus of Duke University. The Rhine Research Center carries on and now extends this significant work off-campus.

Modern parapsychology research focuses on two key areas, anomalous cognition and anomalous perception. Anomalous cognition has been known as E.S.P. in the past. It includes claimed abilities such as telepathy (the ability to send and receive symbols, phrases, words and numbers between two living subjects). Anomalous perception was formerly known as 'clairvoyance' (the ability to see at a distance or perceive unknown facts visually).

Anomalous cognition has been demonstrated in well-controlled experiments worldwide. It has been successfully replicated in telepathy tests under strictly controlled conditions. It is one of the two scientifically proven phenomena that continue to replicate in modern experiments.
A related ability, known to many as 'remote viewing' was of great interest during the Cold War when governments recognized the ability to potentially incorporate these abilities into intelligence programs.

Dr. Edwin C. May organized a small team of remote viewers under a government contract to study this phenomena at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in California. Later this research continued at SAIC. The outcome was a series of experiments that clearly demonstrated the viability of Anomalous Perception as it was known in the 1970s. Key parapsychologists who designed and executed these and related experiments were Dr. Harold Puthoff and Dr. Russell Targ. Dr. Jessica Utts performed a meta-analysis using this aggregate data. Her seminal 1996 paper, "An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning", demonstrates the statistical validity of this work in the latter half of the 20th century.

There are many other references that demonstrate the broad nature of and interest in the field of research parapsychology. One example is "The PK Zone" by Dr. Pamela Heath. This has been called a 'tour-de-force in PK research'. Psychokinesis (PK) is the apparent ability to move or affect objects with the mind, in other words, mind over matter.

Another recent work worthy of some time is Dr. Dean Radin's "Entangled Minds". Radin has capably outlines the broad field of research parapsychology in this book, and makes the compelling case that not only is parapsychology a legitimate discipline based on scientific methods and principles, but that it is also far more expansive than most readers might otherwise believe.

Parapsychologists study Anomalous Cognition (AC) and what has come to be called Anomalous Participation (the new name for PK or psychokinesis). Anomalous Participation (AP) has been studied both at the micro- and macro levels.

Micro-PK experiments attempt to influence the outcomes of what should be random events. Random event generator technology is used to create the events. Subjects are asked to attempt to de-randomize these events. Modern experiments of this type are conducted online. See the Parapsychological Association website for the currently ongoing experiments in this area worldwide.

Macro-PK experiments are less common since they don't lend themselves as well to control evironments. However similar effects are often reported in anecdotal cases as 'poltergeist' phenomena. Some of the principle work in field PK and poltegeist phenomena was done by Dr. William G. Roll beginning in the 1960s. Dr. Andrew Nichols has studied this phenomena as well. Only recently has one U.S. researcher been able to create a sufficiently large database of case study data to be able to predict the primary causal factors involved in such incidents. Dr. Barry Taff now believes that he not only is beginning to understand the basis of this phenomena, but that it could even be created on demand in a laboratory setting.

Adjunctive studies such as the effects of electromagnetic fields on human perception and the potential induction of hallucinations as a result, have been studied by Dr. Michael Persinger. Following on his work, Dr. Jason Braithwaite et al. have pioneered magnetic anomaly detection using high-quality fluxgate magnetometers and spectrum analysis software. They have successfully detected suspicious patterns in various locations around the UK where anomalous phenomena has previously been reported. For a more complete discussion see the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) research website.

While the field of parapsychology is potentially expansive, with many areas of adjunctive study. However, from the most conservative parapsychologist's point of view the field is currently restricted to AC and AP investigations, principally in laboratory settings or other well-controlled environments. The primary reason for this control conditions can be truly and repeatably established in such settings. This is one of the reasons that most parapsychological research is done in the lab and not in the field.

There is a growing trend to move (again) out of the lab. With this comes the attendant issues of how to maintain control conditions and document findings in such a way the relevance and replicable data is gathered. This is the 21st century challenge for parapsychology research as the field evolves to an even more mature science.