A field of study concerned with the investigation of paranormal and psychic phenomena which include telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, near-death experiences, reincarnation, apparition experiences, and other paranormal claims. It is identified as pseudoscience by a majority of mainstream scientists.
As what the definition says it is a field of unscientific study of psychology that concerned with the investigation of paranormal phenomena identified as pseudoscience (with the absence of evidence gathered and constrained by appropriate scientific methods).
These so-called parapsychologists study 5 broad area of paranormal phenomena:
Telepathy – mind to mind communication through a means other than the normal senses
Clairvoyance or Remote Viewing – knowledge of objects, people, or events that are hidden via space or time. For example, an object hidden in a box in a different room, a photograph sealed in an envelope, an event that is occurring to a loved one who is thousands of miles away, or the characteristics of a room that only existed in the past.
Precognition – knowledge of an event that has not yet occurred, or information that appears to be transferred from the future into the present.
PK or Psychokinesis – Mind interacting with the matter at a distance. Mind interactions with living systems (including energetic healing) are sometimes included in this category.
Survival Studies – The nature of human consciousness and an examination of whether consciousness survives the physical form. This includes mediumship research, reincarnation, out of body experiences, apparitions, and ghost activities.
But parapsychological theories are viewed as pseudoscientific (without or in absence of scientific evidence) by the scientific community as they are incompatible with well-established laws of science. As there is no repeatable evidence for psi, the field is often regarded as a pseudoscience.
The philosopher Raimo Tuomela summarized why the majority of scientists consider parapsychology to be a pseudoscience in his essay "Science, Protoscience, and Pseudoscience".
1. Parapsychology relies on an ill-defined ontology and typically shuns exact thinking.
2. The hypotheses and theories of parapsychology have not been proven and are in bad shape.
3. Extremely little progress has taken place in parapsychology on the whole and parapsychology conflicts with established science.
4. Parapsychology has poor research problems, being concerned with establishing the existence of its subject matter and having practically no theories to create proper research problems.
5. While in parts of parapsychology there are attempts to use the methods of science there are also unscientific areas, and in any case, parapsychological research can at best qualify as prescientific because of its poor theoretical foundation.
6. Parapsychology is a largely isolated research area.
Some of the more specific criticisms state that parapsychology does not have a clearly defined subject matter, an easily repeatable experiment that can demonstrate a psi effect on demand, nor an underlying theory to explain the paranormal transfer of information.
But according to many practitioners of this field they are not studying all paranormal phenomena, nor are they concerned with astrology, UFOs, cryptozoology, paganism, vampires, alchemy, or witchcraft.
Sources: Wikipedia, Rhine.org, My General Psychology Book (Just a glimpse of it particularly)
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