Maybe a sign of the tide turning in the culture war?

Something that might be of interest here in Psience Quest.

Since 1982 the Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE) has provided a critical forum for sharing and publicising original research into conventional and unconventional topics (mostly unconventional). The SSE publishes a peer-reviewed journal.

SSE has recently obtained much more funding for research into the fields mostly involved with paranormal phenomena and other mainstream "taboo" topics that Psience Quest is concerned about. This is somewhat of a breakthrough because of course the still prevailing closed-minded physicalist scientism has long prevented research into these topics by withholding funding. 

The upcoming 2024 SSE conference (to be held online as a live Airmeet event September 27-29) is ample evidence of an increase in interest in taking paranormal phenomena seriously and utilizing the increase in research funding, with a long list of papers and presentations devoted to these "taboo" subjects, as shown by the list below.

I think this just might be a sign of the tide turning in the culture war. I might mention that I am a long-term member of SSE and attended several of their in-person conferences some time ago.   

SSE 2024 Conference Schedule

Rupert Sheldrake, Keynote Speaker:  Scopaesthesia and the nature of visual perception
Robert Schoch:  Solar Outbursts and the demise of an early civilization
Evidence for the Yuga Cycle across ancient cultures
Igor Nasarov: Multiscale Resonances in Cosmic and Neural Systems
Bob Marks:  The Fourth Turning and astrological cycles
Peter Moddel: Transformation of black and white into color:  The Benham Top
Russell Scalpone: Personal shifts after a Mass Sighting Event, The Phoenix Lights
William Beaty:  Replication of Three of Nikola Tesla's devices
Tom Curren: The Great Shift: Potential Implications of official UAP disclosure
Olga Strashun: What does the knowledge of Subtle Energy add to our life?
J.E. Hardee:  Exploratory study of Qi emission
Glen Swartwout: Healing ‘irreversible’ blindness leads to a visionary Clinical Theory of Everything
Jacob Glazier: Apparitions in paranormal folklore
Elena Padilla: After-death communications with cell phones
Marieta Pehlivanova: Barriers to acknowledging NDEs
Helene Wahbeh: Nonphysical beings during Reiki
Ulf Holmberg: How Intense Feelings Affect Physical Random Number Generation
Wolfhardt Janu: Measurable vibrations in the field of consciousness
Daqing Piao:  Possible age-dependency in mind-matter interactions
Dean Radin:  SIGIL: Scientific Investigation of Gazing with Intention at Light
Ed Lantz: REGs and a Quantum Informational Model of Consciousness
Douglas Richards: Wild Randomness: Of Black Swans and White Crows
Beverly Rubik: Potential impact of 5G on health and environment
Debra Overberg: Anomalous Meta-Photonic Light
Kostyantin Savchenko: Biofield Therapy for the Treatment of Covid and Influenza
Federico E. Miraglia: Unreliability of the Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV) Device and the Bio-Well for Biofield Science
Simeon Hein: How Phase Singularities in the Brain May Enhance Human Capacity for Extended Sensory Perception
Scotch Wichmann: Psychic Hacking: Using Remote Viewing to Steal Computer Data
Eric Leskowitz: Life Energy: Phantom limbs, team chemistry and crop circles
Ruslana Remennikova: Interpersonal Biofields and Human Connection
Eileen Day McKusick: Biofield Tuning virtual sessions for anxiety disorder
Kathleen B Covalt: State of consciousness influences our perception of reality
Bernard Beitman: The Psychosphere: Our Mental Atmosphere
Jerry Gin and Meg Lund: Birth of a New Humanity

Not to debunk but to show that conclusions reached are somewhat open to personal bias in interpretation.  If any of this is proven, why is it not proven to everybody the evidence is presented to? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_fo...xploration

Kendrick Frazier, editor of Skeptical Inquirer and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry fellow, has suggested that:

    The JSE, while presented as neutral and objective, appears to hold a hidden agenda. They seem to be interested in promoting fringe topics as real mysteries and they tend to ignore most evidence to the contrary. They publish "scholarly" articles promoting the reality of dowsing, neo-astrology, ESP, and psychokinesis. Most of the prominent and active members are strong believers in the reality of such phenomena

I think "JSE" is supposed to read "SSE"

On June 19, 1998 it was reported that "an international panel of scientists" was convened to conduct "the first independent review of UFO phenomena since 1966", according to the wording used by Associated Press. The Skeptical Inquirer published an article by Robert Sheaffer who wrote that the SSE was a non-mainstream organization that was biased towards uncritically believing UFO phenomena, that the panel included many scientists that were UFO advocates but no scientists that were skeptics of UFO claims, and that all the uphold cases were old cases that had failed to convince any skeptic of its accuracy or veracity. These included the Cash-Landrum incident, the Trans-en-Provence Case and the Aurora, Texas UFO Incident.

Not to debunk but to show that conclusions reached are somewhat open to personal bias in interpretation.  If any of this is proven, why is it not proven to everybody the evidence is presented to? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_fo...xploration

I think "JSE" is supposed to read "SSE"

I think Kendrick Frazier and his Skeptical Enquirer and Committee for Skeptical Enquiry can be dismissed here as the diminishing and increasingly outdated vanguard of the dug-in closed-minded materialist scientism of the modern scientific establishment (which makes a pseudo-religion of the scientific enterprise), that doggedly attempts to debunk and scoff at the entire range of paranormal phenomena for which there has developed a boatload of evidence. A good example of this is his book Paranormal Borderlands of Science: Best of Skeptical Inquirer, by Kendrick Frazier (Editor). We only need to look at one of his books. The following is the synopsis of the book in Amazon:

"Headlines and television news reports feature accounts of reincarnation, the predictions of astrologers, and psychic "miracles." Citizens report UFO sightings. Police departments call on psychics to provide clues in baffling crimes. From every available information source, the public is bombarded with unsubstantiated claims of paranormal phenomena. How much of the evidence is reliable? What is the truth behind these claims?

Paranormal Borderlands of Science is an exciting, well-informed examination of the most publicized and exotic claims of astrology, ESP, psychokinesis, precognition, UFOs, biorhythms, and other phenomena. Written by respected psychologists, astronomers and other scientists, philosophers, investigative journalists, and magicians, the 47 articles in this superb collection present a skeptical treatment of pseudoscientific claims - an aspect often sorely neglected in sensationalized media reports."