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The capricious, actively evasive, unsustainable nature of psi: a summary and hypotheses

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Spring, 2003 by J.E. Kennedy

ABSTRACT

Many parapsychological writers have suggested that psi may be capricious or actively evasive. The evidence for this includes the unpredictable, significant reversal of direction for psi effects, the loss of intended psi effects while unintended secondary or internal effects occur, and the pervasive declines in effect for participants, experimenters, and lines of research. Also, attempts to apply psi typically result in a few very impressive cases among a much larger number of unsuccessful results. The term unsustainable is applicable because psi is sometimes impressive and reliable, but then becomes actively evasive. One of the most testable models for this property is that psi effects occur against a background of supporting and opposing motivation and psi influence due to the extreme polarization of attitudes toward psi in the population. These attitudes may have genetic and gender associated components. Another possible explanation is that the primary function of psi is to induce a sense of myste ry and wonder. Other possible functions of psi also need to be investigated. For example, psi could contribute to evolution by briefly influencing random processes to enhance diversity, without specifically guiding evolution or having sustained effects. Some type of higher consciousness may influence or control psi effects.

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It appears to be relatively common for researchers who have spent 2 or 3 decades pursuing research on psychic phenomena to suggest that psi may be capricious or actively evasive. William James summarized the situation in his "Final Impressions of a Psychical Researcher":

For twenty-five years I have been in touch with the literature on psychical research, and have had acquaintance with numerous "researchers." I have also spent a good many hours in witnessing... phenomena. Yet I am theoretically no "further" than I was at the beginning; and I ... have been tempted to believe that the Creator has eternally intended this department to remain baffling, to prompt our hopes and suspicions all in equal measure, so that, although ghosts and clairvoyances, and raps and messages from spirits, are always seeming to exist and can never be fully explained away, they also can never be susceptible to full corroboration. (James, 1909/1960, p. 310)

About 8 decades later, Beloff (1994) reiterated this same theme and proposed that "paranormal phenomena may be not just elusive, but actively evasive" (p. 7). Braud (1985) described the "self-obscuring" characteristics of psi, and Eisenbud (1963/1992b) and Batcheldor (1994) discussed very similar ideas. Hansen (2001) recently published a book devoted to the concept that paranormal phenomena adhere to the archetype of a "trickster." Various other writers have also mentioned the possibility that psi is capricious. In addition, those who suggest that psi may exist, but reasonably repeatable experiments may not be attainable (e.g., Lucadou, 2001, 2002; White, 1994), are taking a similar position.

The present article describes key categories of evidence that suggest that psi is actively evasive and then discusses hypotheses for why this occurs. A previous article discussed the elusive or unreliable nature of psi more generally and mentioned, but did not delve into, the topic of the actively evasive nature of psi (Kennedy, 2001). The present article characterizes the key evidence for the various topics to provide an overview for integration. An exhaustive review of each

topic is beyond the scope of this article.

This article focuses on the characteristics of psi that appear to indicate something like an intent or mechanism that actively prevents reliable psi manifestations. Terms such as actively evasive and self-obscuring emphasize the suppression of psi effects with little attention to the possibility that periods of impressive, reliable psi can occur. The term capricious implies that impressive psi effects can sometimes occur, but such effects are unpredictable. The term unsustainable indicates that impressive psi effects can occur and may have predictable patterns, but the effects cannot be sustained and may become evasive. The general approach here is that these terms may offer differing connotations for a poorly understood property of psi.

PSI MISSING AND NEGATIVE RELIABILITY

In describing the evolution of ESP research at the Duke laboratory, Palmer (1981, p. 31) noted: "more typical of the new trend was the performance of a teenage boy identified as P.H., whose promising psi-hitting when tested informally reverted to significant psi-missing when better controls were applied (Russell & Rhine, 1942)."

Rao (1965) used terms like "bidirectionality" and "differential effect" to characterize the property that "shifts the mode of psi response from hitting to missing in a rather capricious manner" (p. 245). He summarized numerous examples and described this characteristic as preventing the useful application of psi.

Bierman (1981) pointed out that the shift between psi hitting and psi missing is not just low reliability, but negative reliability. He noted that the direction of scoring frequently reverses from pilot to confirmation, which is negative reliability. He also commented on several studies he carried out and other studies in the literature that showed unexpected reversals of scaring when the data for one study were divided into two groups. This division of data is essentially the same as a split-half method to estimate reliability.

The capricious, actively evasive, unsustainable nature of psi: a summary and hypotheses

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Spring, 2003 by J.E. Kennedy

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