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# Parapsychology/Talk

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I found an abundant glossary of parapsychology terms at http://www.mdani.demon.co.uk/para/paraglos.htm --[Magnus Manske]?

I'm still not entirely satisfied with the definition here..."the study of unexplained phenomena" to me implies that the phenomena themselves actually exist, and that we justdon't know what causes them. That is the issue in contention: scientists claim that the phenomena only exist in the minds of those who want to believe they exist. I can't think of a better definition offhand, though. --LDC

Doesn't the "psychology" part of the word indicate that it applies specifically to mental effects, such as telepathy, telekinesis, etc. but not to UFOs, alien abductions, hollow earths, or other weird beliefs?

Lee, I'd say that "phenomena" includes beliefs, nonveridical "experiences," and other phenomena that are not themselves paranormal. --LMS

My impression is that the term is usually restricted to paranormal occurrences. Hypnosis produces unverifiable experiences but psychic researchers don't seem to get interested unless there are stories of past-life memories or whatnot. Also, the Rhine Institute was at Duke University but was not connected to it; I don't know whether that's what the author is referring to. AMT.

Perhaps not stated well, but what I'm getting at is that things currently unexplained might not require any fundamental change in "science" if they were proved to occur. The idea of science that comes up in discussions of parapsychology just strikes me as vague and unexamined. A prehistoric fish is caught in a net off Africa and leads to no great restatement of biology, merely the observation that the species isn't dead yet. There's a good deal of criticism of parapsychological methods, of course. But that doesn't bear on the question of what mind-reading would mean if it did turn out to exist.

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