The blog is posted on the uni website, but professor titch has decided to submit his paper on theories of psi to this esteemed publication for peer review, it was here or "nature" and here has better jokes.
I have no idea, its all quantum aint it?
There are many theories about psi, the main split being demonstrated at the beginning of chapter 8 off the course handbook, "it should be noted at the outset that attention is to be focused upon scientific rather then mystical theories" I would argue that since human beings are (even if they will deny it) spiritual beings it is missing a major part of the puzzle not look for answers in any place they can be found, it may be much harder, perhaps impossible to integrate the mystical and scientific aspects of psi, but would a more holistic approach, for all its doubt and difficulty not be potentially more rewarding then a pure scientific approach?
On a similar note am i the only person on the course that was surprised by the treatment of jung? If i am thinking of a close friend and that person phones up then yes, thats just a coincidence , but if a patient is describing a scarab beetle that she dreamed off ,and a similar beetle then knocks up against jungs window then surely thats a MEANINGFUL coincidence?
Mystic theories are not mentioned, jung is treated in an off hand way , but to my untutored eyes quantum mechanics seem just as outlandish, not that i disbelieve it, i just struggle to understand it. An atom has an infinite number of potential states, observation makes it collapse into one state. So you have a box with millions of billions of cats, the cats could be alive, dead. angry and going to shred the face from the first sap to open the box, happy its in a box, wondering when food is coming, or more likely just sleeping. It is not until the box is opened that the state of the cat is decided. At this point i would like to introduce schimdt's model of esp, but since i have no idea about quantum indeterminacy of neural processes of the brain i probably shouldn't . Schimdt thinks that state of the cat can influenced by a strong psi source, so the cat can be changed into a lovely purring ball of fluff that just wants its belly rubbed, before the box is opened.
I have been strongly influenced by the writings of Hilary Evans, in his books he builds up the theory of the "producer" using the same machinery as dreams, it is always running, sometimes in the background, sometimes to the fore. It is responsible for encounters with aliens, gods, demons, ghosts or whatever else the subconscious knows a person needs, even if they do not know themselves. Part of the producer is what evans calls "super esp" this is always scanning, like a radar, and is responsible for glimpses of the future and perceiving (or receiving) crisis apparitions.
Finally (hurrah!!! i hear you all cry) does a theory need to be either or? ending where i started should parapsychology not try for a holistic approach, with meaningful coincidence, archetypes , the producer ,quantum mechanics, spirituality, conformance theory, morphic resonance and anything else that may help give us answers , being considered worth looking at as a whole?
