This article concentrates to a certain extent on laboratory experiments involving ESP because that is where the most definitive scientific investigations of disputed psychic occurrences have been carried out.

While reports of spontaneous psychic phenomena are plentiful, scientist prefer to set up experimental situations where various sources of error, such as observer bias, can be ruled out.

In the popular understanding, "psychic" covers a motley accumulation of beliefs and happenings that defy a single definition. It may include occult, apparently supernatural, and (to some) irrational topics such as fortune telling; character analysis by graphology or phrenology; dowsing; faith healing; witchcraft; poltergeist; out-of-body experiences; unidentified flying objects (UFOs); and reincarnation and communication with the dead.

It may include phenomena within the realm of parapsychology, which many responsible scientific investigators reject as unproved but which others accept as verified: extrasensory perception or ESP (telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition) and psychokinesis or PK (moving objects by mental effort). And finally it generally encompasses what we have recently come to be called "altered states of consciousness" - hypnosis, dreaming, drug-induced states and established Eastern forms of meditation such as Yoga, Zen and transcendental meditation.

AN EXPERIMENTAL MILESTONE

Where will psychic research go next? One of the major domains undoubtedly will be altered states of consciousness (ASCs). One [of several trends] is the deliberate effort by many people to enter an altered state either by taking such drugs as Marijuana or LSD or by learning self-hypnosis or some meditative process. It may not be sufficient just to observe ACSs from the outside. [Charles T. Tart, associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Divas] argues that much current research is "relatively trivial" because it does not focus on the real experiences involved. "Experiences of ecstasy, mystical union, other 'dimensions,' rapture, beauty, space/time transcendence, transpersonal knowledge and the like, common in ASCs are simply not treated adequately in the most conventional scientific approaches." The solution, according to Tart, is to develop "state-specific sciences," utilizing skilled, trained researchers who are able to achieve certain states of consciousness. Within each state they can approach specific problems using the scientific method - making observations that can be confirmed by others in that state, theorizing about their findings and then testing their theories by predicting the consequences and seeing whether the theories hold true.

THE REACTION OF SCIENCE

This is an area of heated controversy. Edward U. London [writes], " Flying saucers and astrology are not the only pseudo-sciences... there used to be spiritualism, there continues to be extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and a host of others... In my view, publishers who publish or teachers who teach any of the pseudo-sciences as established truth should, on being found guilty, be publicly horse-wipped..."

William James, the first great American psychologist, served as president of the Society for Psychical Research (London England) and investigated several phenomena himself, including the accomplishments of a medium. Of these particular woman he said, "[I] believe she has supernatural powers." But he also exposed another medium, about whom he wrote, "Everyone agrees she cheats in the most barefaced manner whenever she gets an opportunity."

Prominent people from almost every walk of life have expressed serious interest in psychic phenomena. Actress Marlena Dietrich tried to persuade the secretary-general of the Untied Nations to reschedule a General Assembly meeting because the astrological portents were bad for a certain time. The exact amount of popular interest, stimulated by events such as these, is difficult to measure. The practice of witchcraft was notably increased following the appearance of the movie Rosemary's Baby, in which a witches' coven practiced black magic.

THE NEW FRONTIER

Searching for new ways to improve mankind, many persons have actively challenged established values and approaches. They question the findings of "rational" science and may seek new avenues to fulfillment and involvement through an exotic experience such as meditation or exposure to the occult. They may argue that if rational man cannot control his own future, why not accept astrology and let the stars do it?

The leading investigator of ESP for several decades has been Joseph Banks Rhine, first at Duke University and then at the Foundation for research on the Nature of Man, at Durham, NC. The principal technique utilized by Rhine involved a pack of cards with only five symbols. Five cards with each symbol make up a pack of 25 cards. If an individual were to guess the identity of each card in order, without seeing it, just on the basis of chance he would get one out of five correct. The odds against chance occurrence of any score can be calculated statistically.

Rhine conducted what he considered a milestone experiment in 1933. The subject Hurbert E Pearce, Jr, performed well on preliminary trials (once scoring 25 "hits" out of 25) and was to be given a particularly careful test with "conditions thoroughly adequate to exclude all the factors that could produce extra-chance scores except ESP." Pearce was in the Duke University library, 100 yards away from a building where Rhines assistant, JG Pratt, was to turn over the cards. They conducted 12 runs or 300 trials. Pure chance would have produced 60 hits, but Pearce scored 119. "A score as large as this," Rhine wrote, "...Would be expected to occur by chance only once in approximately a quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) of such experiments." Therefore chance could be ruled out. "There are no know sensory processes that could be supposed to operate under these conditions... we... were forced to decide that, whatever clairvoyance or the extrasensory perception of objects is, this was a case of it."