Return to: Paranormal Phenomena Articles EXPLORING THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE AND BEYOND: RESEARCH STRATEGY AND STATUS

ABSTRACT: This paper offers a perspective or map of parapsychological research that focuses on the shifting boundary between answerable and unanswerable questions. The scientific method is based on accepting the simplest, most testable hypothesis consistent with available data and moving to more complex hypotheses only when compelled by data. J. B. Rhine's decision to defer study of survival of death and focus on psi effects by experimental subjects is consistent with this principle. After four decades of research on subjects ' characteristics and responses to test conditions, the data compelled acceptance of the more complex hypothesis of psi mediated experimenter effects. The hypothesis of goal-oriented psi experimenter effects, which views an entire experiment as one complex random event with.05 as the a priori probability of success, appears to be at the outer limit of testable hypotheses at present and will greatly alter parapsychological research if it is verified. The lack of correlation between sample size and significance level in meta-analyses of RNG and ganzfeld studies provides tentative support for this hypothesis, and the results of majority-vote studies provide stronger evidence. Many mor