“Higher… Higher !!”
A US laboratory set up to study ESP and telekinesis is to close at the end of the month, ending a strained 30-year relationship with the scientific world.
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research lab (PEAR) was set up in 1979 to examine human consciousness and its affects on computers and machines.
A typical PEAR experiment had a person sitting in front of an electric box which flashed numbers just above or below 100.
The participant would be told to “think high” or “think low” as they watched the display.
Researchers concluded that people could alter the results in such machines about two or three times out of 10,000.
“Venues that appear to be particularly conducive to such field anomalies include small intimate groups, group rituals, sacred sites, musical and theatrical performances, and other charismatic events,” it [PEAR] adds.
Cripes!
I could sense this would happen! ;->
I would support this research if it definitively determined whether ESP is real or not.
After thirty years, you’d think that question would be answered, without doubt. But even this article was unclear, to me.
It said: Researchers concluded that people could alter the results in such machines about two or three times out of 10,000.
Isn’t this well within the range of statistical error or small testing bias? But the scientist guy seems to view this as proof.
What am I missing?
whats sad is when this place started it had some CIA funding for its research.
There comes a time when absence of evidence really is evidence of absence
I’m thinking Higher…
#4, no, what’s sad is that they don’t have any results… I really wanted telekinesis as a kid… hey, I’d still like that ability!
In other words, they won’t let them use LSD anymore.
#8, probably the best answer.
If they had any ESP or telekinesis then the participants could themselves change the administration’s mind.
The problem with human consciousness and functions like any kind of ESP is that they cannot be examined in the usual scientific manner which naturally produces doubters on the one hand and people who are “true believers” on the other. The abilities exist but they are not to be found in laboratories except by accident or in the publicly advertised psychic except by accident. Pity.
Uh, James (#11), why would these “powers” work outside the laboratory but not within a testing environment?
#5 said it best: “There comes a time when absence of evidence really is evidence of absence.”
KB you pose a very good question. The answer has to with the nature of what you call “powers” (they are not, although comic book mentality encourages us to think of them as such), and the emotional nature of any environment in which such an event might occur. Another fault might be found in the label extra-sensory. Incidentally, there really is no absence of evidence. There is only an absence of evidence which is considered acceptable.