Often times, we hear about para-normal activities such as Extra Sensory Perception (ESP), etc. What does Science about ESP? Can ESP be real?
Your comments are welcome.. Muchas Gracias.. - Dr. Sundar
In the sociology of science some intersting studies on this aspect have been preformed by, among others, Harry Collins (see below).
What is, in my opinion, lacking is theory. We cannot do experiments on tectonic plate movement, but we have a theory which explains what is going on. If someone wants to 'prove' ESP a theory should be formulated and this theory should form the bases for experimentation.
Article Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice
Chapter The Construction of the Paranormal: Nothing Unscientific Is Happening
It seems you are talking of paraphysical activity that is the ability of energy power to produce physical action beyond of our senses. Telepathy could be an example. I am not sure if it is 100% real or illusion but it happens. In my opinion there are many of metaphysical, metaphors and other mysterious things are happening but not captured scientifically in research.
I like string theory for its fancy and mathematical arguments on the existence of extra dimensions the space we live in has, which they call it hidden/curled dimensions.
Our activities and decision making processes are not due to information we get merely from our senses. For instance we anticipate and make decisions on that anticipation. We imagine and make a reasonable and knowledge based arguments and make a rational/irrational decisions on that.
Our cognitive power and hyper consciousness on self and things around us make us creatures of nature with hyper sensual understanding of things and events that are out of our common senses.
In the sociology of science some intersting studies on this aspect have been preformed by, among others, Harry Collins (see below).
What is, in my opinion, lacking is theory. We cannot do experiments on tectonic plate movement, but we have a theory which explains what is going on. If someone wants to 'prove' ESP a theory should be formulated and this theory should form the bases for experimentation.
Article Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice
Chapter The Construction of the Paranormal: Nothing Unscientific Is Happening
Extra Sensory Perception in Science
Sensors have become abundant because they keep getting smaller, cheaper and more powerful. A few decades ago the gyroscopes and accelerometers that are now in every smartphone were bulky and expensive, limited to applications such as spacecraft and missile guidance. Meanwhile, as you might have heard, network connectivity has exploded.
http://gershondublon.com/2014/06/scientific-american-extrasensory-perception/
The evidence of ESP (Bem, 2011): individuals can predict outcome on a variety of measures, from which side of a computer screen a picture will appear on to how many words they can recall from a list.
Dear friends - kindly read this article!
"Is ESP Real? Harvard Scientists Say They Have Settled The Debate"
Excerpts:
"Psychologists at Harvard University using neuroimaging say they have resolved the century-old debate over the existence of Extra-Sensory Perception(ESP) - and it doesn't exist.
The research was led by Samuel Moulton, a graduate student in the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University with Stephen Kosslyn, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology at Harvard and was published in the Jan. 2008 issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. The scientists used brain scanning to test whether individuals have knowledge that cannot be explained through normal perceptual processing.
"If any ESP processes exist, then participants' brains should respond differently to ESP and non-ESP stimuli," explains Moulton. “Instead, results showed that participants’ brains responded identically to ESP and non-ESP stimuli, despite reacting strongly to differences in how emotional the stimuli were and showing subtle, stimulus-related effects.”
http://www.science20.com/news_releases/is_esp_real_harvard_scientists_say_they_have_settled_the_debate
Dear: Vaiyanathan
I quote from CBS "The study od ESP, conducted by Daryl Bem, a well-known and highly regarded researcher, is the first that uses scientific techniques and method to provide evidence of ESP. Using nine studies and about 1,000 students, he demonstrated that individuals can predict outcome on a variety of measures, from which side of a computer screen a picture will appear on to how many words they can recall from a list. His findings show that just over half of those involved had the ability to predict outcomes. Although this is not a huge effect, Hartstein said, it is enough to be noteworthy."
There does not appear to be any strong evidence, except some studies that provide inferences on both sides based on the type of analysis of data.
"In summary, although Storm et al.'s (2010) [4] meta-analysis seems to provide a large degree of support for psi, more critical evaluation reveals that it does not. In our view, the evidence from Storm et al. for psi is relatively equivocal and certainly not sufficient to sway an appropriately skeptical reader." - [1]
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