Alan Turing and psi

I made a similar point in another thread but I'll copy the quote from the 2014 article here too.

Out-of-body experiences, meanwhile, are now accepted neurological phenomena, while certain visual illusions could confound the healthy brain and create mythical beings.

Again: accepted by whom?

I made a similar point in another thread but I'll copy the quote from the 2014 article here too.


Again: accepted by whom?

Last night I made a complaint to the BBC specifically about the references to Alan Turing, but I'm inclined also to complain about the lack of impartiality. The BBC is bound by its guidelines to distinguish fact from opinion and to represent a range of views, particularly on controversial subjects. The older article makes absolutely no attempt to do either.

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here's a short article and video from the BBC, asserting that belief in the "paranormal" arises from psychological reasons, such as brain damage, visual illusions, or a need to make order out of chaos. Paranormal belief seems to be equated with "superstition":
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171215...al-beliefs

Absurdly, the article begins "Having paranormal beliefs is impressively common, even among intelligent people like Winston Churchill and Alan Turing." Of course, if the journalist who wrote the article (and a longer one from 2014 which it links to) had bothered to read what Turing wrote, he would have learned that Turing's opinion had nothing to do with superstition, brain damage or the like. Obviously, it was based on his assessment of the experimental evidence available at the time. But looking at the evidence seems to be an alien concept to BBC journalists these days.

I heard some time ago that in response to my complaint, the reference to Alan Turing had been removed from that page. 

I suppose that's something, though the article from 2014 wasn't amended, and what the article said about Turing was worse:
His supposed contact with the supernatural puts Churchill in illustrious company. Arthur Conan Doyle spoke to ghosts through mediums, while Alan Turing believed in telepathy. Three men who were all known for their razor-sharp thinking, yet couldn’t stop themselves from believing in the impossible. 
...
As Churchill, Turing and Conan Doyle showed us, even the most astute minds can be given to fancy from time to time.
[emphasis on Turing in original]
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141030...paranormal

I had been thinking of making a further complaint about that and the general lack of balance in the old article, but I see the complaints form specifies a 30-day time limit, so I'd guess they would refuse to consider a complaint about a three-year-old article.