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Educating Parapsychologists
Journal of Parapsychology, The, Sept, 1999 by Matthew D. Smith
Perhaps the most striking proliferation of undergraduate degree programs which include an option in parapsychology can be found in the UK. At present I am aware of at least five higher education institutions in the UK which offer parapsychology courses as part of a BA, BSc, or MA degree program (usually as part of a degree in psychology). These are Coventry University University of Edinburgh, Liverpool Hope University College, Liverpool John Moores University, and University College Northampton. In addition, some other UK universities run courses that include parapsychology as part of a wider consideration of the paranormal, such as those offered in the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and in the Department of Behavioural Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. At all of these institutions, undergraduate students may also choose to examine a parapsychological topic for their independent research project (for example, their final year dissertation). Such projects typic ally link parapsychology with some other area of psychology by, for example, conducting a study to explore the relationship between performance on a psi task and selected psychological variables (such as extroversion, belief in psi, and so on).
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Even at the graduate level the opportunities are greater than they have been for some time. For example, at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, one can study towards a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology by including courses in parapsychology and conducting research on parapsychological topics. Also in California, the Saybrook Institute in San Francisco offers opportunities to study for an MA or PhD in an area that could include parapsychology, while the California Institute for Integral Studies offers a graduate course in Intuition, Parapsychology, and Consciousness as part of the Institute's distant learning program.
In the UK, one can undertake research towards a PhD including a parapsychological element, usually linked with one or more other areas of psychology, at practically all of the institutions I mentioned earlier as well as one or two others (most notably the University of Hertfordshire).
In short, although we are not at the point at which parapsychology features on the majority of psychology degree programs, nor is it yet possible to obtain a degree in parapsychology, the opportunities to obtain some kind of formal education in parapsychology (usually as part of a wider education in, say, psychology) are better than they have been for a long time (at least in the UK). [1]
So much, then, for the present state of education in parapsychology. What about the prospects for the future? In the final section of this paper, I would like to give some consideration to various educational strategies that are likely to give parapsychology the best chances of prospering as an academic discipline.
PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN PARAPSYCHOLOGY
As I noted at the beginning of this paper, the education of future researchers in parapsychology is of utmost importance if the discipline is to flourish and expand in a way that many of us may believe it deserves to. How, then, should we go about ensuring that the educational opportunities we do provide give the kind of training that is most valuable to those people who may wish to contribute to the field of parapsychology?
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