How important is it to convince the scientific community that psi exists?

How important is it to convince the scientific community that psi exists?

[Edit: Immediately after posting this thread I realised the question might not make much sense to people who don't think psi does exist. If sceptics want to take part, perhaps they can make the question: "How important should it be to the field of parapsychology to convince the scientific community that psi exists?"]

It's really great the way this poll has really caught everyone's imagination and provided such a talking point*. But all good things come to an end, so I think it's time to wind it up now. So the conclusion will be that 100% of those who responded thought it was very important to convince the scientific community that psi exists. I hope there won't be any argument about that in the future. 

(* But seriously, thanks to the two other people who responded.)

Wait a minute, I haven't voted yet !

Wait a minute, I haven't voted yet !

Actually, voting is still open for the first option.

[Laird]

I voted "quite important" in the context of all of the other problems with the world to which a person might dedicate him/herself, many of which, in my view, are more pressing. But in isolation, I would have voted "very important".

I voted "quite important" in the context of all of the other problems with the world to which a person might dedicate him/herself, many of which, in my view, are more pressing. But in isolation, I would have voted "very important".

Thanks. Yes, the original question could be taken two ways - how important in absolute terms, or how important in the context of parapsychology. I was thinking more of the latter.

Perhaps a poll on "How important is psi in the scheme of things?" would also be interesting.

My feeling is that - unless people think that we already understand psi, or unless they think that science is incapable of investigating psi, or unless they think the scientific community is immovable on the issue - then convincing the scientific community should be the top priority. Because that would result in much greater resources for psi research, and (without disrespect to those already working in parapsychology) would attract many of the brightest scientific minds to the field.

Wow, this is getting really exciting now! 

If anyone would like to explain why they voted as they did, I'd be interested. (Though Laird has already explained, and I think I can guess that Pssst! doesn't consider science really to be where it's at.)

Unfortunately the human race has been poorly served by the “Scientific Community.” This should come as no surprise considering the disproportionate amount of funding the Scientific Community receives from Tax-Exempt Foundations, Multinational Corporations, the Department of Energy, the Pentagon and the military and central intel agencies just to name a few.

"To provide such funding and then encourage real scientific study of UFOs would defeat the purpose of the longstanding well documented debunking and disinformation campaign against UFO reality. Since scientists are conditioned and trained to discount the reality of UFOs, it is relatively easy to convince some of them to be UFO debunkers, especially if they will be paid for their debunking efforts. Scientists cannot be expected to think or behave any differently. They have been indoctrinated and are in need of funding."~ James Bartley

IOW, personally, my preference is to use my time in a more productive manner.

Wow, this is getting really exciting now! 

If anyone would like to explain why they voted as they did, I'd be interested. (Though Laird has already explained, and I think I can guess that Pssst! doesn't consider science really to be where it's at.)

( quite important)  Then we would see (hopefully) materialist dogma (and it's myopic view of existence)  consigned to the dustbin. It's been very successful in persuading a great many that existence is just birth to death in an ultimately pointless universe. But it's quite obvious now, that view is wrong.