Experiential reclamation and first person parapsychology

Luke, David (2011) Experiential reclamation and first person parapsychology. Journal of Parapsychology, 75 (2). pp. 185-200. ISSN 0022-3387

Abstract

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
By restricting the agenda to maintaining that paranormal experiences really are just normal experiences—and not potentially phenomena currently inexplicable by scientific knowledge— the paranormal experience itself is being wholly appropriated by the so called skeptical anomalistic psychology community. As such I am calling for the reclamation of "the experience" from anomalistic psychology, which is pushing to make us all believe that anyone having an anomalous experience is cognitively faulty. Also, experience tells us that a first-person approach can help us to deal with both the fear of psi and with the restrictions of an ethnocentric perspective. Furthermore, we have heard a good deal today about altered states of consciousness, and it is hard to deny their relevance and importance to the field of parapsychology. There are exceptions, of course, in various pockets of the study of consciousness, and following from his work investigating the cognitive psychology of so-called hallucinations through the use of ayahuasca.

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