Don't Look to Physics for Validation of the paranormal - Brief Article

Modern twentieth century physics brought two major revolutions--relativity and quantum mechanics--that advanced wholly counterintuitive ideas about the nature of reality. Despite their seeming strangeness, these propositions have been confirmed countless times and stand as an integral part of modern science. But that very strangeness has led many people, including some popular writers, to assume that virtually anything goes--that the spooky properties of quantum mechanics, for example, provide some kind of scientific foundation for reports of premonitions, psychic experiences, extrasensory perception, and other experiential manifestations of what we call the paranormal. In this issue Gerard't Hooft, co-recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics, decisively deflates that idea. 't Hooft, professor of physics at the University of Utrecht, explores what he calls the "leeway and loose ends" of modern physics that lead to these suppositions. He shows how modern physics and biology so restrict the possibilities t hat they provide no basis for physical explanations of the paranormal. Look to ourselves instead, he says. Our thanks to our colleague Jan Willem Nienhuys for making this article possible.

In "Risky Business: Vividness, Availability, and the Media Paradox," social psychologist John Ruscio (Elizabethtown College) explores our skewed perceptions of risk. The extent and vivid detail with which some uncommon events are reported overpowers in our consciousness mundane reports of more frequent and thus more likely dangerous events. This contributes to what the calls the media paradox: The more we rely solely on popular media to inform us, the more apt we are to misplace our fears. Ruscio examines a variety of subtle issues involving the media and our perceptions of risk.

News reports in October brought claims of yet another published scientific study supposdly affirming the efficacy of prayer--specifically prayer when you are unaware people are praying for you. In this issue, Irwin Tessman, professor of biology at Purdue University, and Jack Tessman, professor of physics emeritus from Tufts University, critically assess the 1999 Harris et al. Study as well as the earlier 1988 Byrd study that made similar claims. They find serious faults that invalidate the conclusions. One study, they say, it improperly designed, the other fallaciously analyzed--and the two contradict each other.

The spooky feeling that someone is staring at us--it's one of the anecdotal experiences that contribute to belief in the supernatural. Recently some parapsychologists have been contending that this is more than anecdote, that people really can tell if someone is staring at them. Robert Baker, professor of psychology emeritus at the University of Kentucky, decided to carry out two demonstrations to test this claim. His report is in this issue.

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