Editing Parapsychology (section)

===Physics===

The ideas of psi ([[precognition]], psychokinesis and [[telepathy]]) violate well-established [[Physical law|laws of physics]].<ref>[[Mario Bunge]]. (1983). ''Treatise on Basic Philosophy: Volume 6: Epistemology & Methodology II: Understanding the World''. Springer. pp. 225–226. {{ISBN|978-9027716347}}
* "Precognition violates the principle of antecedence ("causality"), according to which the effect does not happen before the cause. Psychokinesis violates the principle of conservation of energy as well as the postulate that mind cannot act directly on matter. (If it did no experimenter could trust his own readings of his instruments.) Telepathy and precognition are incompatible with the epistemological principle according to which the gaining of factual knowledge requires sense perception at some point."
* "Parapsychology makes no use of any knowledge gained in other fields, such as physics and physiological psychology. Moreover, its hypotheses are inconsistent with some basic assumptions of factual science. In particular, the very idea of a disembodied mental entity is incompatible with physiological psychology; and the claim that signals can be transmitted across space without fading with distance is inconsistent with physics."</ref> Psychokinesis violates the [[inverse-square law]], the [[second law of thermodynamics]], and the [[conservation of momentum]].<ref>{{cite book| author-link = Martin Gardner| last = Gardner| first = Martin| editor = Kendrick Frazier| title = Paranormal Borderlands of Science| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XjENAQAAMAAJ| date = 1981| publisher = Prometheus| isbn = 978-0879751487| pages = 60–65| chapter = Einstein and ESP}} [[Thomas Gilovich|Gilovich, Thomas]] (1993). ''How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life''. Simon & Schuster. pp. 160, 169, 174, 175. {{ISBN|978-0029117064}}.</ref><ref>[[Milton A. Rothman]]. (1988). ''A Physicist's Guide to Skepticism''. Prometheus Books. p. 193. {{ISBN|978-0879754402}} "Transmission of information through space requires transfer of energy from one place to another. Telepathy requires transmission of an energy-carrying signal directly from one mind to another. All descriptions of ESP imply violations of conservation of energy in one way or another, as well as violations of all the principles of information theory and even of the principle of causality. Strict application of physical principles requires us to say that ESP is impossible."</ref> There is no known mechanism for psi.<ref>Charles M. Wynn, Arthur W. Wiggins. (2001). ''Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins''. Joseph Henry Press. p. 165. {{ISBN|978-0309073097}} "One of the reasons scientists have difficulty believing that psi effects are real is that there is no known mechanism by which they could occur. PK action-at-a-distance would presumably employ an action-at-a-distance force that is as yet unknown to science... Similarly, there is no known sense (stimulation and receptor) by which thoughts could travel from one person to another by which the mind could project itself elsewhere in the present, future, or past."</ref>

On the subject of [[psychokinesis]], the physicist [[Sean M. Carroll]] has written that both human brains and the spoons they try to bend are made, like all matter, of [[quark]]s and [[lepton]]s; everything else they do emerges as properties of the behavior of quarks and leptons. The quarks and leptons interact through the four forces: strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravitational. Thus, either it is one of the four known forces, or it is a new force, and any new force with a range over 1 millimeter must be at most a billionth the strength of gravity, or it will have been captured in experiments already done. This leaves no physical force that could account for psychokinesis.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/02/18/telekinesis-and-quantum-field-theory/ |title=Telekinesis and Quantum Field Theory : Cosmic Variance |publisher=Blogs.discovermagazine.com |date=2008-02-18 |access-date=2014-04-11 |archive-date=2014-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203183828/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/02/18/telekinesis-and-quantum-field-theory/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Physicist [[John G. Taylor]], who investigated parapsychological claims, wrote that an unknown fifth force causing psychokinesis would have to transmit a great deal of energy. The energy would have to overcome the [[Electromagnetism|electromagnetic forces]] binding the atoms together. The atoms would need to respond more strongly to the fifth force while it is operative than to electric forces. Therefore, such an additional force between atoms should exist all the time and not only during alleged paranormal occurrences. Taylor wrote there is no scientific trace of such a force in physics, down to many orders of magnitude; thus, if a scientific viewpoint is to be preserved, the idea of any fifth force must be discarded. Taylor concluded there is no possible physical mechanism for psychokinesis, and it is in complete contradiction to established science.<ref>[[John G. Taylor|John Taylor]]. (1980). ''Science and the Supernatural: An Investigation of Paranormal Phenomena Including Psychic Healing, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, and Precognition by a Distinguished Physicist and Mathematician''. Temple Smith. pp. 27–30. {{ISBN|0851171915}}</ref>

Felix Planer, a professor of [[electrical engineering]], has written that if psychokinesis were real, then it would be easy to demonstrate by getting subjects to depress a scale on a sensitive balance, raise the temperature of a water bath which could be measured with an accuracy of a hundredth of a degree [[Celsius]] or affect an element in an electrical circuit such as a resistor which could be monitored to better than a millionth of an ampere.<ref name="Planer1980">Felix Planer. (1980). ''Superstition''. Cassell. p. 242. {{ISBN|0304306916}}</ref> Planer writes that such experiments are extremely sensitive and easy to monitor but are not utilized by parapsychologists as they "do not hold out the remotest hope of demonstrating even a minute trace of PK" because the alleged phenomenon is non-existent. Planer has written that parapsychologists fall back on studies that involve only unrepeatable statistics, owing their results to poor experimental methods, recording mistakes, and faulty statistical mathematics.<ref name="Planer1980"/>

According to Planer, "all research in medicine and other sciences would become illusionary, if the existence of PK had to be taken seriously; for no experiment could be relied upon to furnish objective results, since all measurements would become falsified to a greater or lesser degree, according to his PK ability, by the experimenter's wishes." Planer concluded the concept of psychokinesis is absurd and has no scientific basis.<ref>Felix Planer. (1980). ''Superstition''. Cassell. p. 254. {{ISBN|0304306916}}</ref>

Philosopher and physicist [[Mario Bunge]] has written that "psychokinesis, or PK, violates the principle that mind cannot act directly on matter. (If it did, no experimenter could trust his readings of measuring instruments.) It also violates the principles of conservation of energy and momentum. The claim that quantum mechanics allows for the possibility of mental power influencing randomizers—an alleged case of micro-PK—is ludicrous since that theory respects the said conservation principles, and it deals exclusively with physical things."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bunge|first1=Mario|title=Philosophy in Crisis :The Need for Reconstruction|url=https://archive.org/details/philosophycrisis00mari|url-access=limited|date=2001|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, N.Y.|isbn=978-1573928434|page=[https://archive.org/details/philosophycrisis00mari/page/n164 176]}}</ref>

The physicist [[Robert L. Park]] questioned if the mind really could influence matter, then it would be easy for parapsychologists to measure such a phenomenon by using the alleged psychokinetic power to deflect a [[microbalance]] which would not require any dubious statistics but "the reason, of course, is that the microbalance stubbornly refuses to budge."<ref name="Park 2000">[[Robert L. Park]]. (2000). ''[[Voodoo Science|Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud]]''. Oxford University Press. pp. 198–200. {{ISBN|0198604432}}</ref> Park has suggested the reason statistical studies are so popular in parapsychology is because they introduce opportunities for uncertainty and error, which are used to support the biases of the experimenter. Park wrote, "No proof of psychic phenomena is ever found. In spite of all the tests devised by parapsychologists like [[Robert G. Jahn|Jahn]] and [[Dean Radin|Radin]], and huge amounts of data collected over a period of many years, the results are no more convincing today than when they began their experiments."<ref name="Park 2000"/>