The Paranormalist Community
I want to introduce you to the Paranormalist Community. By “Paranormalist Community,” I intend people who have more than a passing interest in things paranormal.
Before you read on, be aware that this entry is written from my point of view, both as a pragmatic engineer and from a longtime interest in phenomena such as psychic functioning (anomalous information access), psychokinetic expression (intended order), mediumship and healing intention. My focus from 2000 to about 2016 has was on Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC), the audio form of ITC is known as Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). In recent years, my focus has morphed into the desire to understand and apply the principles in nature that are involved in psychic expression and perception. I think of the Paranormalist Community from that perspective.
Since I hold a BSEEE and not a MS or Ph.D., I do not consider myself an academic. The people who have claimed scientific authority over things paranormal call themselves parapsychologists. I refer to people who are able to produce these phenomena as practitioners.
Skeptics are people who reject anything not mainstream science. I have decided their motto is “If it is not specifically defined by mainstream science, it cannot be and must be fraud misattribution of illusion.” That is pretty much the definition of scientism. You may think skepticism is healthy, and I agree, but skeptics have pretty much taken the term. It is better to think of skepticism (not skeptic) as discernment. Always seek to be discerning.
Skeptics are part of the paranormalist community because they have more than a passing interest and their objections help to shape the way we understand and work with things paranormal. For instance, they coined the term “pseudoscience” as a way to label and discount the study of things paranormal. Being much better organized than the rest of the community, and much more aggressive (think zealots of the religious of scientism), skeptics have convinced the US Federal Government that anything pseudoscience is a danger to the public. The effect is that there is virtually zero funding for research of paranormal subjects. See Why Has There Not Been More Study of the Paranormal?
I will say that the study of things paranormal remains on the fringe, at least in part, because the lay community is so silent. Rather than asking parapsychologists what they mean when a report is published, the majority of us simply do the polite thing with a thumbs up … often for something we really did not understand.
It is also common for one of us to listen to someone’s EVP example and tell them how wonderful it is, when in fact, all we heard is noise. We are not so good with discernment and that hurts all of us.
As it turns out, an important characteristic of the community is what I refer to as the Academic-Layperson Partition. By that, I intend that there is something of an academically-enforced separation between scientists and the people scientists are supposed to be serving.
Parapsychologists are mostly retired professors who have taken up the study of things paranormal as a hobby. It is not uncommon for professor of philosophy to pronounce about the nature of mediumship under cloak of academic authority. A professor may be better trained in disciplined thinking, but no better than laypeople when it comes to actual understanding of these phenomena. It is up to the lay community to be as informed as possible to help them “read between the lines” of “research” reports that are really efforts to prove the phenomena are illusion.
There are three main schools of thought amongst paranormalists. They are represented by:
Anomalistic Psychology is the study of reportedly paranormal phenomena to show that they are not paranormal. See definition at What is Anomalistic Psychology?
Exceptional Experiences Psychology is the study of paranormal phenomena based on the assumption that Anomalistic Psychology is mostly correct, but some experiences can be explained as Psi functioning. See definition at Exploring the Nature of Exceptional Human Experiences: Recognizing, Understanding, and Appreciating EHEs
Survival Hypothesis. The third category of parapsychologists is by far the smallest. This is the study of things paranormal while allowing that some may be mundane, some may be Psi functioning and some may be discarnate-to discarnate communication. See the A Case for the Survival Hypothesis essay
The result of research conducted by parapsychologists tend to confirm their beliefs. For instance, Anomalistic Psychologists seem to purposefully ignore evidence that supports the Survival Hypothesis. In terms used by scientists, this is Confirmation Bias. For a scientist, that is a cardinal sin. See definition at What is Confirmation Bias
Another way of dividing the community is in terms of Physicalism and Dualism:
- Physicalism — mind is an emergent quality of the bioelectric functioning of the brain. Mind is always related to some part of the brain. When the brain dies, mind ceases to exist.
- Physical Dualism — mind is an emergent quality of the bioelectric functioning of the brain, but has a nonphysical aspect represented by psi functioning (psychic sensing and psychokinetic expression). When the brain dies, mind continues as residual energy (memory).
- Strict Dualism — mind is entangled with the biological brain but is otherwise a separate entity (symbiont) that existed before and will exist after the lifetime of the biological host (avatar).
You can see that the paranormalist community is not of one mind. While the New Age community leans toward human potential, paranormalists tend to focus on Psi functioning (psychic, mediumship, healing intention) and survival. For instance ghost hunting is often an entry point for a person interested in figuring out how a dead person can be a ghost.
My writing is from the Strict Dualism point of view. I incorporate lessons learned from ITC, EVP and my psi training which included mediumship and healing intention. ITC is generally ignored by parapsychologists. That, along with the fact that I am a layperson means that my writing is largely ignored. Since I am one of the few people writing about ITC from an informed, academic-like perspective, it remains on the farthest frontier of science.
Here is an important point I need to make. You are scientist's customer. Funding for their work comes from you, either directly by way of you support or indirectly by way of grants. However few, those grants would not exist without your support.
I am writing everything I can, everywhere I can find, to inform you and encourage parapsychology to communicate better. If you find my writing useful, it is important that you tell others and remind parapsychologists that you want to know more about ITC.
