link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070211/ap_on_re_us/princeton_esp_lab;_ylt=AoYZ99rhi1H2Mxy9voEkSuTMWM0F)
I studied Jahn's work when I was at university as part of a philosophy of religion course and it started a life-long interest in attempts to apply the scientific method to weird shit
It's a shame, but I do think they'd taken it as far as they could go. They got some very interesting results, but nothing that was particularly useful. Without a model that explained what they got and also predicted other stuff that they could test (a "falsifiable hypothesis") it was doomed to stay just interesting weirdness
Princeton had an ESP lab???
Quote from: JongWKPrinceton had an ESP lab???
For 28 years no less, privately funded though. The head of it is a big thing in some form of engineering, in which field he is highly respected and I think that helped it too.
They mostly studied the effects of human consciousness on machines, looking for indications that psi could affect random number generators.
In my view, without evident success. And, to be clear, I am open to the possibility of psi phenomena, but I don't think PEAR did anything significant to evidence them.
They say its because they believe they've produced enough evidence and want to go on to new things, others indicate that the university considered it an embarassment. Both statements could of course be correct, in that they may believe that and the university may consider it an embarassment.
Some more links on the topic:
http://science.slashdot.org/article....20225&from=rss
http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/future.html
Does anyone know if Edinburgh University still has a parapsychology chair? I know it used to.
Quote from: BalbinusDoes anyone know if Edinburgh University still has a parapsychology chair? I know it used to.
Yep (http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/)
I know they did some good work in telepathy and remote viewing with the "Auto-Ganzfeld" series of experiments, but I don't know what they've been doing recently
The problem is, until they come up with a model that explains their results
and throws up some testable hypothesis's mainstream science just won't be interested
Quote from: Hastur T. FannonYep (http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/)
I know they did some good work in telepathy and remote viewing with the "Auto-Ganzfeld" series of experiments, but I don't know what they've been doing recently
The problem is, until they come up with a model that explains their results and throws up some testable hypothesis's mainstream science just won't be interested
Well, an explanatory model is probably too big an ask. If psi were to exist, it would indicate fundamental issues with our understanding of physics, asking people to explain that on their own is asking a lot.
I would have thought the first step merely a repeatable experiment demonstrating a phenomenon not explicable under current physics. Working out how it is happening is stage 2, and would probably involve different disciplines.