"I see dead people!"
In the blockbuster movie, The Sixth Sense, a psychologist is determined
to help an eight-year-old client who sees ghosts. The film is a haunting fiction
that asks the question: can dead people roam the Earth?
Ben Willemsen is a parapsychologist. He's got an answer: "I work with
the afterlife. I work with people that left their bodies but didn't leave
the physical world. They are actually humans without bodies and they have
difficulties."
Humans without bodies are in a tough position. According to Willemsen,
they generally relate their troubles to living members of the family by hanging
around the house, trying to get attention and making things uncomfortable.
"I deal with those situations," he says.
Willemsen, who worked in the engineering field for more than 20 years,
says common theories of the psyche are unnecessarily mystical. "I took the
mystics out of it and made it very simple and easy to understand," he says.
He applies engineering principles to his study of people without bodies.
"Engineering is not that far away from the human body because the human body,
if you look at it, is an organism. I look at the human body as an organism,
[not] as being me. 'Me' is mind and the rest is body," he explains.
If the two things, body and mind, are separate entities, then perhaps they're
able to exist separately on Earth; hence people without bodies!
Dean Radin is the director of the Consciousness Research Laboratory. "What
[parapsychologists] do is serious science, using calm, deliberate, rational
methods no different than those used by other scientists," he says.
"And yet we're always asked to describe our most frightening and weird
experiences as though we're like Ghostbusters in the movies. Because
of television, people are seriously confused by the difference between fantasy
and reality.
"I'm constantly fighting against the stereotyped assumptions about
parapsychologists. Most of those stereotypes are wrong."
Radin and the 40 or so scientifically trained parapsychologists worldwide
conduct scientifically sound experiments using established scientific methods.
Most take an empirical, data-oriented approach to psychic phenomena. They
specifically avoid discussing speculative assumptions that aren't supported
by data.
"If you're interested in applying the most rigorous methods developed
by Western science to study some of the most ancient mysteries about the nature
of the human mind, then this is for you," Radin says.
He says the hardest part of his job is "raising funds for research and
dealing with irrational zealots: both on the skeptical and the enthusiast
sides." He constantly has to prove to others that he's a serious scientist
and that he's not alone.
Perhaps the world's most pre-eminent parapsychologist is Charles Tart.
"In spite of all the work I've done in parapsychology -- work I'm
scientifically proud of -- when I'm introduced as a parapsychologist,
I almost always try to correct this to my identity as a psychologist, part
of whose research has been in parapsychology."
Despite the drawbacks and negative stereotypes, the field offers many rewards.
Most parapsychologists love the scientific method.
Cheryl Alexander works with the Rhine Research Center at Duke University.
"Very little compares to the thrill of discovery, whether it's a result
in an experiment or development of a new idea," she says.
"The scientific life is mostly a solitary, quiet pursuit, which doesn't
appeal to everyone. In fact, it appeals to very few."
Tart also talks about the importance of the work he does. "Studying these
areas is important for real understanding of human nature. [They] have so
much to potentially contribute to making our world a better place. I'm
inspired by students' interest in working in these areas."
These practitioners believe there is a social importance and implication
to what they do. Psychic phenomena suggest that what science knows about the
nature of the universe is incomplete and that human potential has been underestimated.
Parapsychologists believe there are many practical reasons
for studying parapsychology. Remote viewing could help find missing children,
solve police cases and speed up medical diagnoses.
As Radin says, "A better understanding of what we've called psychic
may lead to a new worldview suggesting the presence of much stronger interconnections
among people than previously imagined, which in turn may raise social responsibility
to new heights."
Parapsychology offers a challenge and allows a person to work with mysterious
and unknown phenomena. "It's made my life less boring than it might have
otherwise been," says Radin.
"I've probably run across a more peculiar, interesting and even exceptional
set of people through this profession than if I had remained in conventional
science."