Research Issues in Parapsychology Essay -- survival-after-bodily-death

"I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud." -C.G. Jung (Society for Psychical Research) "Parapsychology is a belief in search of data rather than data in search of an explanation." -C.E.M. Hansel (Alcock ix) For years, ghosts and poltergeists have been a part of our popular lexicon. From stories told around the campfire, to motion pictures like The Haunting, to books like the Scary Story series, everyone has heard a good ghost story or two. Many people claim to have actually been party to a few supernatural experiences themselves. But for as long as we have told these frightful stories, science has been attempting to explain them beyond the typical bump in the dark. This investigation into the paranormal eventually evolved into the field of parapsychology. Current research in parapsychology has three focuses: psychokinesis (PK), extrasensory perception (ESP), and survival-after-bodily-death experiences. Psychokenisis is direct mental interaction with objects animate or inanimate. Extrasensory perception is a general term for obtaining information about events beyond the reach of the normal senses ("Parapsychology FAQ"). Survival-after-bodily-death is the investigation into events and phenomena dealing with life after death. In this paper, I intend to look at parapsychology and the study of survival-after-bodily-death. This area of parapsychology is perhaps the most recognizable, yet also the least investigated. I intend to look at the rise of this field of inquiry as a science, the arguments for it and against it, and why survival-after-bodily-death is not as prominent a field as it once was. History Parapsychology's roots can be traced back to the... ...botree.com/ [Accessed 20 April 1999]. Parapsychological Association (1999, Dec.). Parapsychology FAQ. [Online]. Available: http://www.parapsych.org [Accessed 20 April 1999]. Price, Harry. Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter. Putnam & Company: London, 1936. "Online Research in Parapsychology." Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. [Online] Available: http://search.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=70964&sctn=1 [Accessed 26 April 1999]. Rhine, Louisa E. The Invisible Picture. McFarland & Company: Jefferson, 1981. Society for Psychical Research. [Online]. Available: http://129.215.50.44/spr.html [Accessed 20 April 1999]. Tyrrell, G. N. M. Apparitions. Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.: London, 1953 Weiner, Debra H. and Radin, Dean I., eds. Research in Parapsychology 1985. The Scarecrow Press, Inc.: Metuchen, 1986. Wilson, Colin. Mysteries. New York: G.E. Putnam's Sons, 1978.