The question addressing the meaning of parapsychology is often asked, maybe not even using the official term, but when answered is masked with doubt and disbelief. Parapsychology or psi refers to a term in psychology defined as the field of study dedicated to the investigation of paranormal and psychic phenomena. Other fields of science, including psychology study different realms of phenomena that are seen. For example, biology studies the workings of the human bodily systems. Psychology studies the human mind and behaviour. These sciences investigate what has been established and explained, however, parapsychology investigates the unexplained science of the human mind and consciousness.
The Parapsychological Association defines parapsychology as the study of “apparent anomalies of behaviour and experience that exist apart from currently known explanatory mechanism that accounts for organism-environment and organism-organism information and influence flow”. Psi is an umbrella term for telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, near-death experiences, psychokinesis and other paranormal activities. There are many misconceptions associated with the field of parapsychology, however, simply stated it the study of the unexplained or paranormal phenomena. The following essay will discuss the experiments and research of Daryl Bem, in order to conclude whether he proved the existence of psi phenomena.
Harvey Irwin explains in his book, ‘An Introduction to Parapsychology’: “Parapsychology is the scientific study of experiences which, if they are as they seem to be, are in principle outside the realm of human capabilities as presently conceived by conventional scientists. Thus, parapsychological phenomena ostensibly indicate the operation of factors currently unknown to or unrecognized by orthodox science.
Daryl Bem is a social psychologist who later went on to study and research in the field on psi. Intrigued by the experiments and various encounters with the field, he started to study parapsychology. The term parapsychology, shortened to psi, is described by Daryl Bem to be: “Anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained by known physical or biological mechanisms.” Bem explains two deviations of psi; precognition and premonition. Precognition refers “conscious cognitive awareness”, whereas premonition refers to “effective apprehension” (Bem, 2011). Psi also includes the term ‘extrasensory perception’ or ESP, defined as the sixth sense or “when you can perceive things that are not immediately available in space or time” (Engber, 2017).
In 2011, psychologist Bem conducted a series of nine experiments focusing on unconscious influences from future events in his article “Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect” in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Bem’s experiments used traditional psychological methods, such as free recall. The experiments were conducted with over 1000 participants, ensuring the elimination of a sampling bias. One of the key features of Bem’s experiments is his attempt to create one of the first testable frameworks for the existence of psi that can easily be replicated. Bem also follows basic experimental methods such as minimal experimenter and participant contact. Therefore, Daryl Bem’s research on parapsychology has validity and reliability; key factors in assessing the accuracy and soundness of an argument.
The first two experiments aimed to touch upon ‘precognitive detection of erotic stimuli’ by using erotic images as reinforcement to accurately guessing the correct answer. The experiment involved participants being presented with two curtains, only one of the curtains had a picture behind it. Participants were asked to choose which curtain had an image behind it. Once the participants chose the curtain, the computer then conducted a random search and selected the curtain, separate from the choice of the participants to reveal which one had the image. Several images used contained erotic content.
Predicted results of the experiment were an equal division of guessing correctly half of the questions. However, results of the experiments showed a rate of 53.1 percent of anticipating the correct answer. Although this was a very small number, it was enough to be proven ‘statistically meaningful’.
The following two experiments investigated retroactive priming, where the response of participants is measured before the prime to investigate if primes influenced participants. The procedure of the experiment involved choosing whether a given word was pleasant or unpleasant. Response times were measured for how quickly participants responded. After the answer had been recorded, a picture was flashed. The second set of the experiment tested forward priming, where participants were shown the image before responses were recorded. A positive result (faster responses to congruent trials) based on the participant records demonstrates evidence that the participant has been influenced by psi phenomena. An equal distribution of positive and negative images assured that participants could not predict the type of image. Through these experiments, a process called habituation was observed. Habituation is when unpleasant stimuli are shown frequently, they become ‘more neutral or less negatively arousing’. When participants are presented with pleasant stimuli, eventually the stimulus becomes ‘more neutral and less positively arousing’.
Daryl Bem’s experiment tested the habituation process observed previously. First, participants were exposed subliminally to a picture several times. Bem refers to the picture as the ‘habituation target’. Then, two pictures (habituation target and a similar matched one) are presented to the participant and they indicate which one they prefer. Correctly choosing the habituation target would result in a hit trail, i.e. results are above chance. Participants chose the target 53.1 percent of the trails. The second experiment included more erotic pictures and revealed opposite results; participants chose the target picture less than 50 percent of the trails.
The next experiment tested “retroactive induction of boredom on non-arousing neutral stimuli”. These experiments measure “boredom proneness” which earlier experiments have shown that participants not easily prone to boredom showed an increased liking for repeatedly exhibited stimuli. The experiment carried on the following procedure: participants were shown two similar pictures and asked to choose a preferred one. Then, the assigned computer selected one picture and flashed it repeatedly 10 times (supraliminal exposure). The results of the experiments showed a success rate of 49.1 percent and revealed that participants avoided the stimulus selected for supraliminal exposure.
Bem’s last set of experiments tests retroactive recall facilitation i.e. repeated words after the trail. The procedure of the experiment involved participants being shown a wide selection of words on a computer screen then asked to recall as many words as possible in order of their choice. The computer program randomly generated six words and scrambled with the other 24 words and participants were given the task of selecting six words from each category for a total of four times and typing out each set. Bem states the results as: “practicing a set of words after the recall test does, in fact, reach back in time to facilitate the recall of those words” (Bem, 2011). Similar to the original the ninth experiment followed the same procedure except after the recall test words were presented in groups relating to their nature, instead of random groups. The results showed a stronger psi effect, whereas the last experiment had a differential recall of 2.27 percent, this experiment was 4.21 percent.
Daryl Bem claims that his experiments provide enough evidence for the existence of psi, also giving reason to his experimental method by mentioning the strategies he used, for example, minimal experimenter-participant interaction and simple experimental procedures. However, many scientists do not approve of Bem’s research, pointing out flaws and not meeting the same conclusion as Bem.
Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist of Arizona State University, commented on Bem’s paper, “bad research [which] gets happily buried in the dustbin of history, which is what I expect will happen in this case”.
Fellow psychologists James Alcock states that there are several mistakes in Bem’s paper. For example, he fails to clarify the terms he uses and how measures them. In the case of the first experiment, Bem uses erotic and non-erotic pictures. First, he claims that each session has sets of eighteen erotic and non-erotic pictures. However, Bem later changes the division to twelve negative and twelve positives. Alcock also states, “These included pictures featuring couples in romantic but non-erotic situations. How many were of high or low arousal weighting, or what those terms even mean, he does not say” (Alcock, 2011). Alcock also notes that Bem has failed in analyzing the data properly, for example, examining the sexes separately. He concludes that Bem’s article does not add on to the position of parapsychology, rather it only adds confusion.
Ray Hyman, a former psychologist at the University of Oregon, comments on Bem’s article “craziness, pure craziness. I can't believe a major journal is allowing this work in. I think it's just an embarrassment to the entire field. He's got a great sense of humor, I wouldn't rule out that this is an elaborate joke.” Suggesting Bem’s work may just be an elaborate attempt at a joke.
Klaus Fiedler et al, list three crucial problems in Bem’s research paper in. First, as stated by James Alcock, a lack of theoretical explanation. The paper discusses “the possibility of selective filtering of empirical results” and “the confusion of the explanans with the explanandum” as other flaws found in Bem’s article.
Although Daryl Bem’s article has mistakes relating to the operations of the experiments and relation to the conclusion, his research methods are valid and reliable. However, in my opinion, Bem’s research is not sufficient to prove the existence of psychic phenomena or the unexplained sciences. However, Bem’s article is important for the progression of the field of parapsychology because it provides the first testable basis to investigate parapsychological phenomena. His research also spans across a decade and is well thought out in most aspects, thus being easily replicable. In addition, Bem’s research concludes to an extent that humans can experience retrocausation (cause precedes effect temporarily)