Is there a connection between UFOs and psychic phenomena? An informed comment.
I should begin by stating that I was one of the very first individuals to formally study parapsychology - that’s the examination of alleged psychic or psi phenomena - as a young scientist at a university in the UK. My specific focus was the evidence for life after death. (And, no, I haven’t joined in with the recent clamour for money by writing an essay for Robert Bigelow, in case you’re wondering.) This was the mid-1970s, in London, ahead of the University of Edinburgh which later offered an option in parapsychology. Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia in the US was already doing his research into evidence suggestive of reincarnation, and the botanist J B Rhine at Duke University in North Carolina had earlier looked at extrasensory perception (ESP). Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ were just starting their research into psi phenomena at Stanford Research Institute in California. The Society for Psychical Research in Britain had been established way back in 1882, with several scholars as prominent members. I’d previously studied biology, ecology, and psychology at BSc (Hons) level.
I think this makes me suitably qualified to pass comment on this subject, supported by decades of reflection since my formal studies were concluded.
I’ll also toss in that, for several years of my earlyish childhood in the 1960s, I lived in a “haunted house”. This was at Keswick, in the Lake District, where my mother was matron of the girls’ boarding house, part of a large school. It had once been owned by the Poet Laureate Robert Southey, a close friend of fellow Lakeland poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge’s old room was my bedroom. Several strange happenings took place that were difficult to explain, attributed to “the ghost of Mrs Southey”. After we left, the headmaster begged my mother to return after several replacement matrons had fled the post within weeks of starting, citing “the ghost” as the reason for their hurried departure. We did return, for a few more years, until I was later considered to be “too old” as the only boy in a house of many girls. My mother died last year, and we never did work out a satisfactory explanation for some of what she, and a couple of other witnesses, went through with “Mrs Southey” - which doesn’t mean that there isn’t one, of course.
Fast forward to today and there’s a lot of chat and idle speculation within “ufology” about a possible connection or cross-over between UFOs and psychic/psi phenomena. This isn’t surprising because most people are desperate to know, but know almost nothing. As I’ve previously written, they’re vulnerable to belief and - given the void of an abundance of solid data - desperate to waffle. The speculation extends to other dimensions and even time travel - yet there’s zero evidence to support any of these exotic concepts. Many talk as if these options are known to be real, which, at least for now, couldn’t be further from the truth. And they enthusiastically babble on about “consciousness”, as if they know what that is too - and we’ll get to that in the next article.
So I’m somewhat reluctantly offering a few thoughts on this messy matter. And I have no intention whatsoever to make an already spurious and muddled situation any worse.
In the 1970s, parapsychology seemed that it might have something to offer. Yes, there’d been blatant cheating with “ectoplasm” in the early days of spiritualism when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had taken a keen interest. And many mediums in my day were using a “cold reading” technique to glean bits of information from their clients, rather than from the departed, though not necessarily motivated by outright deception. But there were also indications that real phenomena might be at work.
My interests in life went deeper, and I quickly left parapsychology behind after my further education studies were concluded. As the years went on, whenever I occasionally checked, it was going nowhere as an emerging field. There was some minimal scientific interest, but the data invariably proved to be inconclusive or outright disappointing. We retrospectively learnt that Puthoff and Targ’s research had been sponsored by the CIA, who became particularly involved in what became known as “remote viewing”, before later concluding that it was of no practical use to them. Authorities in the Soviet Union had likewise taken an interest for a number of years, probing to see what might be possible, if anything.
It got embarrassing when a major hoax exposed the lack of scientific rigour in parapsychology experiments. James Smith “Mac” McDonnell, founder and chairman of the aerospace manufacturing corporation and defence contractor McDonnell Douglas (the company that made the F/A-18 Super Hornets of Tic Tac fame, for example), was a believer in the paranormal. In 1979, shortly before his death, he arranged a grant of US$500,000 for the establishment and running of the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research (often abbreviated to MacLab) at Washington University in St Louis. Two budding young magicians, Mike Edwards (aged 18) and Steve Shaw (aged 17) independently contacted the professional stage magician James “The Amazing Randi” Randi, who was a vociferous sceptic and prolific debunker of claimed psychic phenomena.
A plan was agreed and the two young men presented themselves as having “psychic powers” to the researchers at MacLab. In a series of experiments, they “bent” spoons, “clairvoyantly saw” pictures in sealed envelopes, and used “psychokinesis” to blow electrical fuses, etc etc - all actually accomplished by sleight of hand and other means of deception. There was no “paranormal ability”. The parapsychologists were fooled, at least initially - and Randi, Edwards, and Shaw eventually revealed their hoax in a press conference. Randi was accused of unashamed showmanship, not without reason, but the bottom line was that parapsychology had been dealt a severe blow.
In recent decades, parapsychology has unsurprisingly waned to nothing of note, although it hasn’t completely faded away. Results of any experimentation have, however, continued to be inconclusive. Mainstream science still considers it to be pseudoscience - but, to be fair, they say the same thing about UFOs or UAP.
What’s abundantly clear is that it’s easy to have a belief in psychic phenomena or the paranormal. It’s also safe to say that people commonly misinterpret what’s happening around them. For example, most are clueless when it comes to the unseen intangibles of psychology, and misunderstandings are worryingly common when it comes to interpreting the physical world. If anything “strange” really is happening - and, to be clear, I’m not saying it is or isn’t - some now think that an eventual explanation might come from quantum entanglement. As my knowledge of quantum physics is near to zero, I couldn’t comment - other than pointing out that others who are as ignorant as myself about physics unfortunately make themselves look foolish by leaping in where angels fear to tread. (And, no, I’m not in any way implying a belief in angels here either; it’s just an expression!) But I will say two things: (1) We should be open-minded. (2) We mustn’t fool ourselves - and that means being acutely aware that there’s a strong vulnerability for doing exactly this.
I’ve recently written about the vulnerability and consequences of “I want to believe”. It’s crucial to develop a reasonable grasp of this aspect of psychology if you’ve got a keen interest in UFOs or UAP. And if you're lapping up a load of nonsense about psychic phenomena, then, to be blunt, you’re in danger of being a fantasist. The evidence for anomalous craft from elsewhere appears to be strong, if not yet conclusive, but there simply isn’t any evidence that holds up to rigorous examination for extrasensory perception or the paranormal. If you think otherwise, please think again because you’re very likely mistaken.
We’ll be looking at UFOs and consciousness next.
Written by Iain Scott, 7th December 2022