Psi Text Resources Thread

The SPR has a positive review of Dean Radin's book (full title: "Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe") by Nemo C. Mörck:
https://www.spr.ac.uk/book-review/real-m...dean-radin

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, "Psychical Research: The Science of the Super-Normal" by Hans Driesch (1933; translated by Theodore Besterman) is available at the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/PsychicalRes...pgsPSY.sml

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here's a blog post by Carlos S. Alvarado, describing a discussion of precognition in a recent issue of the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice. The articles don't seem to be freely available online, but Alvarado quotes the abstracts:
https://carlossalvarado.wordpress.com/20...y-journal/

After an editorial, there is an article by Jonathan W. Schooler, Stephen Baumgart, and Michael Franklin making the case for the scientific investigation of anomalous cognition. Then there is a comprehensive review of the evidence by Julia Mossbridge and Dean Radin, then two invited criticisms of the review, by D. Samuel Schwarzkopf and by James Houran, Rense Lange, and Dan Hooper (apparently dealing mainly with plausibility in the light of theoretical physics and statistical analysis), and finally a response by Mossbridge and Radin.

I quite liked the thrust of the abstract by Schooler et al:
They distinguish between the criteria that justify entertaining the possibility of anomalous cognition from those required to endorse it as a bona fide phenomenon. ... we provide arguments for why researchers should consider adopting a liberal criterion for entertaining anomalous cognition while maintaining a very strict criterion for the outright endorsement of its existence. Grounded in an understanding of the justifiability of disparate views on the topic, the authors encourage humility on both the part of those who present evidence in support of anomalous cognition and those who dispute the merit of its investigation.

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here's a blog post by Carlos S. Alvarado, describing a discussion of precognition in a recent issue of the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice. The articles don't seem to be freely available online, but Alvarado quotes the abstracts:
https://carlossalvarado.wordpress.com/20...y-journal/

After an editorial, there is an article by Jonathan W. Schooler, Stephen Baumgart, and Michael Franklin making the case for the scientific investigation of anomalous cognition. Then there is a comprehensive review of the evidence by Julia Mossbridge and Dean Radin, then two invited criticisms of the review, by D. Samuel Schwarzkopf and by James Houran, Rense Lange, and Dan Hooper (apparently dealing mainly with plausibility in the light of theoretical physics and statistical analysis), and finally a response by Mossbridge and Radin.

Actually, four of the six articles are freely available online in one form or another.

Schooler et al:
https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/schooler/jon...241js3.pdf

Mossbridge and Radin review:
https://www.academia.edu/36395925/Precog...e_Evidence

Schwarzkopf:
https://sampendu.files.wordpress.com/201...eradin.pdf

Mossbridge and Radin response:
https://www.academia.edu/36395926/Plausi...ion_Review

As if to prove my pessimistic statements about Skeptiko wrong, Mr.Sandman has posted there about an interesting experimental proposal by the theoretical physicist Lucien Hardy, for a test of Bell's inequalities, in which random number generators are replaced by the output of EEGs. This has sparked off some discussion:
http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/a-...tter.3831/

Funnily enough, a professor of theoretical physics recommended a little while ago that I should look at the work of Hardy and his former research supervisor, Euan Squires. (I had also noted previously the paper referred to on "Quanta and Qualia" by Professor Adrian Kent, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Cambridge [England] = http://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-ad...ualia-2016 )

Regardless of the details I think it is encouraging that mainstream theoretical physicists are willing to ask questions like these. 

I'm afraid my understanding of the relevant physics is virtually non-existent, but based on my feeble efforts to grasp what this is about, I don't think Hardy is coming at it from quite the same angle as the parapsychologists who think "spooky action at a distance"/entanglement may be the physical process that underlies psi phenomena. 

Subject to correction, it seems there is a viewpoint that the "spookiness" could be dispelled if the universe were in some fundamental sense deterministic, so that the random number generators used in tests of Bell's inequalities were really only pseudo-random, allowing an escape from the spectre of non-local action. 

Apparently Hardy's idea is that even if this were true, the human mind might not be deterministic - either because it didn't depend entirely on the material world, or because complex systems somehow transcended the prevailing determinism of the physical universe. If I understand correctly, that's the notion this experiment would test - though I'm happy to be corrected if I've misunderstood.

[Laird]

As if to prove my pessimistic statements about Skeptiko wrong

Or perhaps you were right after all! That thread is almost a year old - only the most recent post is new.

Or perhaps you were right after all! That thread is almost a year old - only the most recent post is new.

That's interesting. I must admit I didn't notice the dates of the posts. In fact, I found the first post so interesting that I didn't even notice there were any other posts when I first looked.

Oh well, I'll keep looking for something interesting and new on Skeptiko.

Another (on the whole) positive review of Dean Radin's book has appeared at the Daily Grail:
https://www.dailygrail.com/2018/04/revie...eal-magic/

This one is quite detailed, giving a better idea of the structure of the book than the others I've seen.

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here's a link to a new blog post by ersby listing nine examples of high-quality writing in parapsychology:
https://ersby.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/bes...ology.html

https://www.researchgate.net/journal/002...psychology

"From its beginning in 1937, the Journal of Parapsychology has been recognized worldwide as an authoritative resource for anyone interested in the scientific study of paranormal phenomena. J. B. Rhine and William McDougall of the famed Duke University Parapsychology Lab established the JP to share experimental research findings with the scientific community. Their strict criteria for evaluating research reports remain in place today through peer review. In addition to professionally scrutinized articles about original research, the JP includes theoretical discussions, book reviews, correspondence, and abstracts of papers from the Parapsychological Association's annual convention. Editor John Palmer and Managing Editor Dave Roberts maintain the tradition of thorough research and careful documentation in the JP today."