Editing Parapsychology (section)

====Remote viewing====
{{Main| Remote viewing}}
[[File:Russell Targ, physicist.jpg|thumb|upright|right|alt=Russell Targ, co-founder of the Stargate Project|[[Russell Targ]], co-founder of the [[Stargate Project (U.S. Army unit)|Stargate Project]]]] Remote viewing is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using subjective means, in particular, extrasensory perception. A remote viewer is typically expected to give information about an object, event, person, or location hidden from physical view and separated at some distance.<ref>Leonard Zusne, Warren H. Jones (1989). ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking''. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 167. {{ISBN|0805805087}}</ref> Several hundred such trials have been conducted by investigators over the past 25 years, including those by the [[Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory]] (PEAR) and by scientists at [[SRI International]] and [[Science Applications International Corporation]].<ref name="EnhancingHuman">{{Cite book|editor1-first=Daniel|editor1-link=Daniel Druckman|editor1-last=Druckman|editor2-first=John A. |editor2-last=Swets|title=Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques|publisher=National Academy Press|year=1988|page=176}}</ref><ref name="ReinventingMedicine">{{Cite book|last=Dossey|first=Larry|author-link=Larry Dossey|title=Reinventing Medicine|journal=Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine|publisher=HarperCollins|year=1999|volume=6|issue=3|pages= 125–128|pmid=10836843|isbn=978-0062516220|url=https://archive.org/details/reinventingmedic00larr/page/105}}</ref> Many of these were under contract by the [[U.S. government]] as part of the espionage program [[Stargate Project (U.S. Army unit)|Stargate Project]], which terminated in 1995 having failed to document any practical intelligence value.<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine |last=Waller |first=Douglas |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983829,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070209085903/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983829,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 9, 2007 |title=The Vision Thing |magazine=Time |date=1995-12-11 |access-date=2014-04-11 }}</ref>

The psychologists [[David Marks (psychologist)|David Marks]] and Richard Kammann attempted to replicate [[Russell Targ]] and [[Harold E. Puthoff|Harold Puthoff]]'s remote viewing experiments that were carried out in the 1970s at SRI International. In a series of 35 studies, they could not replicate the results, motivating them to investigate the procedure of the original experiments. Marks and Kammann discovered that the notes given to the judges in Targ and Puthoff's experiments contained clues as to the order in which they were carried out, such as referring to yesterday's two targets or having the session date written at the top of the page. They concluded that these clues were the reason for the experiment's high hit rates.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Marks | first1 = David | author-link = David Marks (psychologist) | last2 = Kammann | first2 = Richard | year = 1978 | title = Information transmission in remote viewing experiments | journal = Nature | volume = 274 | issue = 5672| pages = 680–81 | doi=10.1038/274680a0| bibcode = 1978Natur.274..680M | s2cid = 4249968 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Marks | first1 = David | author-link = David Marks (psychologist) | year = 1981 | title = Sensory cues invalidate remote viewing experiments | journal = Nature | volume = 292 | issue = 5819| page = 177 | doi=10.1038/292177a0| pmid = 7242682 | bibcode = 1981Natur.292..177M| s2cid = 4326382 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Marks was able to achieve 100 percent accuracy without visiting any of the sites himself but by using cues.<ref>Martin Bridgstock. (2009). ''Beyond Belief: Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal''. Cambridge University Press. p. 106. {{ISBN|978-0521758932}} "The explanation used by Marks and Kammann clearly involves the use of [[Occam's razor]]. Marks and Kammann argued that the 'cues' - clues to the order in which sites had been visited—provided sufficient information for the results, without any recourse to extrasensory perception. Indeed Marks himself was able to achieve 100 percent accuracy in allocating some transcripts to sites without visiting any of the sites himself, purely on the ground basis of the cues. From Occam's razor, it follows that if a straightforward natural explanation exists, there is no need for the spectacular paranormal explanation: Targ and Puthoff's claims are not justified".</ref> [[James Randi]] wrote controlled tests in collaboration with several other researchers, eliminating several sources of cueing and extraneous evidence present in the original tests; Randi's controlled tests produced negative results. Students could also solve Puthoff and Targ's locations from the cues included in the transcripts.<ref>{{cite Encyclopedia of Claims |title=Remote Viewing |first-letter=r |access-date=26 January 2022 }}</ref>

In 1980, [[Charles Tart]] claimed that rejudging the transcripts from one of Targ and Puthoff's experiments revealed an above-chance result.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tart | first1 = Charles | author-link = Charles Tart | author-link2 = Harold E. Puthoff | author-link3 = Russell Targ | last2 = Puthoff | first2 = Harold | last3 = Targ | first3 = Russell | year = 1980 | title = Information Transmission in Remote Viewing Experiments | journal = Nature | volume = 284 | issue = 5752| page = 191 | doi=10.1038/284191a0 | pmid=7360248| bibcode = 1980Natur.284..191T | s2cid = 4326363 | doi-access = free }}</ref> Targ and Puthoff again refused to provide copies of the transcripts and it was not until July 1985 that they were made available for study, when it was discovered they still contained [[sensory cue]]s.<ref>[[Terence Hines]]. (2003). ''Pseudoscience and the Paranormal''. Prometheus Books. p. 136. {{ISBN|1573929794}}</ref> Marks and Christopher Scott (1986) wrote, "Considering the importance for the remote viewing hypothesis of adequate cue removal, Tart's failure to perform this basic task seems beyond comprehension. As previously concluded, remote viewing has not been demonstrated in the experiments conducted by Puthoff and Targ, only the repeated failure of the investigators to remove sensory cues."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Marks | first1 = David | author-link = David Marks (psychologist) | last2 = Scott | first2 = Christopher | year = 1986 | title = Remote Viewing Exposed | journal = Nature | volume = 319 | issue = 6053| page = 444 | doi=10.1038/319444a0 | pmid=3945330| bibcode = 1986Natur.319..444M | s2cid = 13642580 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

PEAR closed its doors at the end of February 2007. Its founder, [[Robert G. Jahn]], said of it, "For 28 years, we've done what we wanted to do, and there's no reason to stay and generate more of the same data."<ref name="NY Times 2007-02-06"/> Statistical flaws in his work have been proposed by others in the parapsychological and general scientific communities.<ref name="Hansen">{{cite web|author=George P. Hansen |url=http://www.tricksterbook.com/ArticlesOnline/PEARCritique.htm |title=Princeton [PEAR&#93; Remote-Viewing Experiments – A Critique |publisher=Tricksterbook.com |access-date=2014-04-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url= http://www.csicop.org/si/show/pear_proposition_fact_or_fallacy/ |title= The PEAR proposition: Fact or fallacy? |journal= [[Skeptical Inquirer]] |author= Stanley Jeffers |date= May–June 2006 |access-date= 2014-01-24 |volume= 30 |issue= 3 |archive-date= 2014-02-01 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140201122738/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/pear_proposition_fact_or_fallacy/ |url-status= dead }}</ref> The physicist [[Robert L. Park]] said of PEAR, "It's been an embarrassment to science, and I think an embarrassment for Princeton".<ref name="NY Times 2007-02-06">{{cite news
  | last = Carey
  | first = Benedict
  | title = A Princeton Lab on ESP Plans to Close Its Doors
  | newspaper = New York Times
  | date = 2007-02-06
  | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/science/10princeton.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=2f8f7bdba3ac59f1&ex=1328763600
  | access-date = 2007-08-03 }}
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