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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
People who do not share the drive for rational thinking and control may be a threat and natural target for the more extreme members of this group. The possibility that different values and less rational, less controlling styles of thinking could lead to prominence and status may be fundamentally threatening. This may explain the irrational degree of ridicule in the writings of the extreme skeptics and their equally irrational fear that belief in psi is a dangerous threat (Hansen, 1992).
Feelings of threat and hostility were defining characteristics for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). Martin Gardner, a member of the all-male founding board, described the early split that resulted in Marcello Truzzi leaving the group:
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[Truzzi] wanted our periodical to provide scholarly discussion between skeptics and fringe scientists. He disliked calling anyone a crank. Marcello has always had a friendly, at times admiring, attitude toward pseudoscientists and psychic con artists. He seldom perceives them as any sort of threat to science or to the public.... For the rest of us on the founding board, to expect our periodical to treat outrageous pseudoscience with respect was like expecting a liberal or socialist magazine to seek articles by right-wing extremists. (Gardner, 2001, P. 360)
As Gardner indicates, GSICOP is more like a political propaganda organization than a scientific organization.
The other pole with regard to attitude toward psi may be those who have a strong innate sense that life is interconnected and has a higher purpose. Those with these characteristics often view psi as evidence for and a natural manifestation of this interconnectedness and higher purpose. These characteristics are associated with spirituality and may have natural selection advantages because they promote cooperation, and optimism and resilience when confronting situations that cannot be controlled. Epidemiological studies indicate that religion or spirituality is associated with better physical and mental health (Koenig, McCullough, & Larson, 2001; Mueller, Plevak, & Rummans, 2001). Women tend to be more religious or spiritual than men (Stark, 2002) and to develop altruistic, reciprocal relationships, whereas men tend to base relationships on power and dominance (Campbell, 2002; Geary, 1998). The extreme skeptics tend to consider that both religion and belief in paranormal phenomena are irrational (Hansen, 1992) .
The hypothesis of a genetic component for attitude toward psi is also supported by evidence for genetic components for (a) the psi-related personality characteristics absorption (Tellegen et al., 1988) and hypnotic susceptibility (Morgan, 1973), (b) interest in religion and spirituality (Bouchard, McGue, Lykken, & Tellegen, 1999; Kirk, Eaves, & Martin, 1999; Wailer, Kojetin, Bouchard, Lykken, & Tellegen, 1990), and (c) possibly psi ability (Cohn, 1999). Stark (2002) concluded that the difference in spirituality between men and women appears to have a genetic component.
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