Editing Paranormal (section)

===Parapsychology===
{{main|Parapsychology}}
[[Image:Ganzfeld.jpg|thumb|right|Participant of a [[Ganzfeld experiment]] which proponents say may show evidence of [[telepathy]].]]

Experimental investigation of the paranormal has been conducted by [[parapsychology|parapsychologists]]. [[Joseph Banks Rhine|J. B. Rhine]] popularized the now famous methodology of using card-guessing and dice-rolling experiments in a laboratory in the hopes of finding evidence of [[extrasensory perception]].<ref>Hines, Terence (2003). pp. 119–120. {{ISBN?}}</ref> However, it was revealed that Rhine's experiments contained methodological flaws and procedural errors.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Harold O. |last=Gulliksen |author-link=Harold Gulliksen |title=Extra-Sensory Perception: What Is It? |journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]] |date=January 1938 |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=623–634 |doi=10.1086/217775 |s2cid=145317132 |quote=Investigating Rhine's methods, we find that his mathematical methods are wrong and that the effect of this error would in some cases be negligible and in others very marked. We find that many of his experiments were set up in a manner which would tend to increase, instead of to diminish, the possibility of systematic clerical errors; and lastly, that the ESP cards can be read from the back.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wynn|first1=Charles|last2=Wiggins|first2=Arthur|year=2001|title=Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends... and Pseudoscience Begins|publisher=Joseph Henry Press|page=156|isbn=978-0-309-07309-7|quote=In 1940, Rhine coauthored a book, ''Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years'' in which he suggested that something more than mere guess work was involved in his experiments. He was right! It is now known that the experiments conducted in his laboratory contained serious methodological flaws. Tests often took place with minimal or no screening between the subject and the person administering the test. Subjects could see the backs of cards that were later discovered to be so cheaply printed that a faint outline of the symbol could be seen. Furthermore, in face-to-face tests, subjects could see card faces reflected in the tester's eyeglasses or cornea. They were even able to (consciously or unconsciously) pick up clues from the tester's facial expression and voice inflection. In addition, an observant subject could identify the cards by certain irregularities like warped edges, spots on the backs, or design imperfections.}}</ref><ref>Hines, Terence (2003). p. 122. "The procedural errors in the Rhine experiments have been extremely damaging to his claims to have demonstrated the existence of ESP. Equally damaging has been the fact that the results have not replicated when the experiments have been conducted in other laboratories."</ref>

In 1957, the [[Parapsychological Association]] was formed as the preeminent society for parapsychologists. In 1969, they became affiliated with the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Harvey J.|last1=Irwin|first2=Caroline A.|last2=Watt|year=2007|title=An Introduction to Parapsychology|edition=5th|publisher=McFarland|page=249|isbn=978-0-7864-3059-8}}</ref> Criticisms of the field were focused in the creation (in 1976) of the [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] (now called the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) and its periodical, the ''[[Skeptical Inquirer]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kurtz|first=Paul|date=September–October 2006|title=Summing Up Thirty Years of the Skeptical Inquirer|url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2006/09/summing-up-thirty-years-of-the-skeptical-inquirer/|journal=[[Skeptical Inquirer]]|volume=30|issue=5|pages=13–19}}</ref> Eventually, more mainstream scientists became critical of parapsychology as an endeavor, and statements by the National Academies of Science and the National Science Foundation cast a pall on the claims of evidence for parapsychology. Today, many cite parapsychology as an example of a [[pseudoscience]].<ref>Stenger, Victor J. (1990). p. 192. "Today, parapsychology is widely regarded as a pseudoscience.... Over a century it has been tainted by fraud, incompetence, and a general unwillingness to accept the verdict of conventional scientific method."</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Massimo|last1=Pigliucci|author1-link=Massimo Pigliucci|first2=Maarten|last2=Boudry|author2-link=Maarten Boudry|year=2013|title=Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem|publisher=University Of Chicago Press|page=158|isbn=978-0-226-05196-3|quote=Many observers refer to the field as a 'pseudoscience'. When mainstream scientists say that the field of parapsychology is not scientific, they mean that no satisfying naturalistic cause-and-effect explanation for these supposed effects has yet been proposed and that the field's experiments cannot be consistently replicated.}}</ref> Parapsychology has been criticized for continuing investigation despite being unable to provide convincing evidence for the existence of any psychic phenomena after more than a century of research.<ref>Hines, Terence (2003). p. 144. "It is important to realize that, in one hundred years of parapsychological investigations, there has never been a single adequate demonstration of the reality of any psi phenomenon."</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Cordón|first=Luis A.|year=2005|title=Popular Psychology: An Encyclopedia|publisher=Greenwood Press|page=182|isbn=978-0-313-32457-4|quote=The essential problem is that a large portion of the scientific community, including most research psychologists, regards parapsychology as a pseudoscience, due largely to its failure to move beyond null results in the way science usually does. Ordinarily, when experimental evidence fails repeatedly to support a hypothesis, that hypothesis is abandoned. Within parapsychology, however, more than a century of experimentation has failed even to conclusively demonstrate the mere existence of paranormal phenomenon, yet parapsychologists continue to pursue that elusive goal.}}</ref>

By the 2000s, the status of paranormal research in the United States had greatly declined from its height in the 1970s, with the majority of work being privately funded and only a small amount of research being carried out in university laboratories. In 2007, Britain had a number of privately funded laboratories in university psychology departments.<ref name="Odling-Smee">{{cite journal |last= Oling-Smee |first= L |date= 2007-03-01 |title= The lab that asked the wrong questions |journal= [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume= 446 |issue= 7131 |pages= 10–11 |doi= 10.1038/446010a |pmid= 17330012|bibcode= 2007Natur.446...10O |doi-access= free }}</ref> Publication remained limited to a small number of niche journals,<ref name="Odling-Smee"/> and to date there have been no experimental results that have gained wide acceptance in the scientific community as valid evidence of the paranormal.<ref name="Odling-Smee"/>