It's important to know why some people consider parapsychology as a science and some others as pseudo-science.
Many of the supporters and practitioners insist
that parapsychology is a valid
scientific enterprise. But it seems that those
involved in more mainstream fields
often have little derision
towards it . Parapsychological Association was accepted as an affiliate of the
American Association for the
Advancement of Science in the year 1969.
Despite all this, it is not possible to say that
parapsychology is truly scientific .Most of mainstream science
completely ignores parapsychology.Claims of psychic powers present a
problem for traditional science
because they imply the existence of
powers which are not merely
unknown to science, but which in fact
contradicts the well-established scientific
laws and understandings of how
universe works. This does not mean
that claims of psychic powers are
necessarily false, but rather, their
existence is a priori unlikely.
Parapsychology tend to overthrow some of the well established scientific principles as given below:
1 . Future events cannot affect the
present before they occur.
2 . A person ’s mind cannot affect the
material world without the mediation
of some physical energy or force .
3 . One person cannot know the
content of a second person ’ s mind
except through the observation of
speech or behavior .
4 . A person cannot obtain knowledge
of a distant point in space without
sensory experience of that point or
the transmission of energy .
5 . A person ’s personality and
memories are dependent upon the
existence and proper functioning of
their physical brain .
This creates significant empirical
consequences.We already
have a tremendous amount of
empirical evidence which indicates
that our current understandings are
correct and implies the need for the re-working of the most fundamental laws of physics
and our understandings of matter and
energy.
