Parapsychology and the New Renaissance

Luke, David (2010) Parapsychology and the New Renaissance. In: A New Renaissance: Transforming Science, Spirit and Society. Floris Books, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, pp. 137-144. ISBN 978-086315-759-2

Abstract

The scientific study of apparently psychic abilities, currently termed ‘parapsychology’, has been represented by an official organ since the 1882 formation of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in the UK. The SPR came into being only three years after the establishment in Germany of the first psychological laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt, which gave birth to psychology itself as a modern science, so has accompanied psychology as a discipline since its infancy. In the last 125 years or so there’s been a very small, but steady, chipping away at the block of our empirical understanding of telepathy, precognition and clairvoyance (collectively termed ‘psi’). Regrettably, this sculpted work in progress has been mostly either ridiculously ignored by the vast majority of more mainstream scientists, or ignorantly ridiculed by
a few others, despite parapsychology being one of the most rigorously executed branches of social science. Lately, however, there appears to be a turning of the tide, such that we may be witnessing a renaissance in the study of parapsychology as part of a larger New Renaissance occuring across many disciplines. This chapter explores the significance of this change and its possible implications.

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