Searching for the Impossible: Parapsychology's Elusive Quest
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Plain English Summary
This is the heavyweight skeptical takedown of parapsychology, published in the APA's flagship journal as a direct rebuttal to a 2018 paper arguing psi deserves attention. Reber and Alcock don't just say the evidence is weak -- they say psi is flat-out impossible. Their case rests on four physics pillars: no mechanism could cause it, precognition requires time running backward, psychokinesis (mind moving matter) creates energy from nothing, and psychic signals ignore the rule that forces weaken with distance. They dismiss quantum mechanics as justification, call parapsychological meta-analyses a house of cards, and cite Bem admitting his precognition experiments were more rhetorical than scientific.
Abstract
Recently, American Psychologist published a review of the evidence for parapsychology that supported the general claims of psi (the umbrella term often used for anomalous or paranormal phenomena). We present an opposing perspective and a broad-based critique of the entire parapsychology enterprise. Our position is straightforward. Claims made by parapsychologists cannot be true. The effects reported can have no ontological status; the data have no existential value. We examine a variety of reasons for this conclusion based on well-understood scientific principles. In the classic English adynaton, "pigs cannot fly." Hence, data that suggest that they can are necessarily flawed and result from weak methodology or improper data analyses or are Type I errors. So it must be with psi effects. What we find particularly intriguing is that, despite the existential impossibility of psi phenomena and the nearly 150 years of efforts during which there has been, literally, no progress, there are still scientists who continue to embrace the pursuit.
Links
Related Papers
Critiques
Cites
- Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect — Bem, Daryl J (2011)
- Feeling the Future: A Meta-Analysis of 90 Experiments on the Anomalous Anticipation of Random Future Events — Bem, Daryl J (2015)
- Can Parapsychology Move Beyond the Controversies of Retrospective Meta-Analyses? — Kennedy, J.E (2013)
- Effects of Consciousness on the Fall of Dice: A Meta-Analysis — Radin, Dean I (1991)
Companion
Responded To By
Cited By
- Quantum Aspects of the Brain-Mind Relationship: A Hypothesis with Supporting Evidence — Kauffman, Stuart A (2023)
- Cognitive Styles and Psi: Psi Researchers Are More Similar to Skeptics Than to Lay Believers — Pehlivanova, M (2024)
- Why Most Research Findings About Psi Are False: The Replicability Crisis, the Psi Paradox and the Myth of Sisyphus — Rabeyron, Thomas (2020)
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📋 Cite this paper
Reber, Arthur S, Alcock, James E (2019). Searching for the Impossible: Parapsychology's Elusive Quest. American Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000486
@article{reber_2019_searching,
title = {Searching for the Impossible: Parapsychology's Elusive Quest},
author = {Reber, Arthur S and Alcock, James E},
year = {2019},
journal = {American Psychologist},
doi = {10.1037/amp0000486},
}