PSI: Scientific Studies of the Psychic Realm

Charles Tart is a psychologist and a leading figure in bridging the gap between academic orthodoxy and the new curiosity on psychic matters. He acknowledges a lifelong interest in something beyond factual science but not stamped with religious dogma. For him (and his wife) it was psychic phenomena, which he began studying at Duke years ago. Much of the book discusses the nature of science and experiment, its methods and: suppositions, following the familiar arguments of science historians such as Thomas Kuhn. For the rest Tart described experiments to analyze what happens in a psychic experience and suggest models of mind or consciousness, prompted by various attempts to qualify, train, explain, or improve ESP in the lab. The author discusses remote viewing, psychic dreams, and precognition among other psi phenomena. His point of view could be summed up as a belief that experiencing psi requires listening to a still small voice within--often difficult because of inhibition, background noise, lack of feedback. This seems a reasonable starting point, but after a while the acronyms proliferate and jargon obscures, e.g., ""transtemporal inhibition,"" ""PMIR""--Psi-Mediated Instrumental Response. One is sympathetic with the attempts to analyze and refine, but the layering of new language on old imprecisions may not be the way to enlightenment.