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| {{sections}} | |||
| {{notability|Neologisms}} | |||
| :''Some 19th century and early 20th century writers writing of "paraphysics" are in fact writing about what is more commonly known as ].'' | |||
| {{tocright}} | |||
| According to James Edward Beichler<ref name=Beichler1>{{cite journal|title=The paraphysical principles of natural philosophy|author=James Edward Beichler|journal=DAI-B|volume=60|issue=11|pages=5561|date=May 2000|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999PhDT........52B}}</ref>, editor of ''YGGDRASIL: The Journal of Paraphysics''{{fn|1}}, what '''paraphysics''' is "has never been precisely defined". The word "paraphysics" itself, according to Beichler (citing Mitchell<ref name=Mitchell>{{cite book|author=Edgar D. Mitchell|title=Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science|editor=John White|location=New York|publisher=Putnam's Sons|date=1974|pages=25–26,486|id=ISBN 978-0399113428}}</ref>), appears to have been coined by German psychiatrist and psychical researcher Baron Albert F. von Schrenck-Notzing in the late 19th century. However, unlike the concept of ], which has been widely acknowledged (although not necessarily respected) as a field and "can be found in any standard dictionary or encyclopedia"<ref name=Beichler2>{{cite journal|journal=YGGDRASIL: The Journal of Paraphysics|date=1996|title=THE NEW AND IMPROVED PARAPHYSICS|author=James E. Beichler|url=http://members.aol.com/jebco1st/Paraphysics/pphysics.htm}}</ref>, the concept of paraphysics has not had proponents of the stature of people such as ] to pioneer it and has thus not garnered similar acknowledgement. The concept of paraphysics has indeed, again according to Beichler<ref name=Beichler2 />, been ''mis-used'' by the pop-culture of "occult phenomena", coöpting the name, resulting in what paraphysics actually is being ambiguous and not clearly defined, with many of the ]s who work in the field of paraphysics being widely regarded as working in the field of parapsychology. | |||
| The scientific research of parallels between known theoretical and experimental physics, against the phenomenon known as a Spirits or haunting types of events, in order to prove the existence of the human conciseness after death. | |||
| Paraphysics is the domain of '''paraphysicists'''. ] defines a paraphysicist as "a physicist who investigates the paranormal".<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Humanist|date=May/June 1977|title=Geller, Gulls and Nitinol|author=Martin Gardner|url=http://www.zem.demon.co.uk/gardner.htm}}</ref> The Society for Psychical Research defines a paraphysicist as a researcher into paranormal physical phenomena who has "the skills of an engineer or a physicist" (as opposed to a parapsychologist who researches extra-sensory perception as a branch of experimental psychology), although it argues that in fact psychical research involves skills from many disciplines.<ref name=SPR>{{cite web|title=A Career in Parapsychology|url=http://www.spr.ac.uk/index.php3?page=career|author=|work=|publisher=Society for Psychical Research}}</ref> | |||
| Beichler derives two summaries of what the concept of paraphysics is.<ref name=Beichler2 /> From the ]'s definition of "paraphysical" and "parascience" he extrapolates the summary that paraphysics is "the study of physical phenomena which seem to be beyond the scope of ordinary physics, or for which no apparent physical explanation can be found". The other he takes from Bletzer:<ref>{{cite book|author=June D. Bletzer|title=The Donning International Encyclopedic Psychic Dictionary|location=Norfolk|publisher=The Donning Company|date=1986|id=ISBN 089865372X}}</ref> | |||
| {{blockquote|'''paraphysics''' — the study of PHYSICS in relationship to psychic phenomena; | |||
| # Study of: (a) physics of paranormal processes; activity that resembles physical phenomena but is without recognizable physical cause; (b) (B. Herbert); anomalous physical effects not explained by current physical theories; | |||
| # (Laboratory) an approach to PSYCHIC ENERGY above and beyond the usual study of physics; | |||
| # Investigations made on the borderline of both physics and psychic phenomena. Syn. PARAPSYCHOLOGY.}} | |||
| Beichler criticizes Bletzer, in that her definition of paraphysics contradicts her definition of "paraphysical". Beichler argues that the latter is simply the ] form of the former, and that therefore the two definitions must have "an intimate and total correspondence". Beichler also criticizes Bletzer's definition of paraphysics as being problematic for its acknowledgement as a legitimate field because of the dedication of Bletzer's work to "New Age" religions and philosophies rather than a strict scientific discipline.<ref name=Beichler2 /> | |||
| Beichler states that renewed interest in paraphysics arose in the ], with the mainstream acknowledgement of the field of parapsychology engendering renewed interest in paraphysics. He points to essays on "The Emergence of Paraphysics" by James B. Beal and Brendan O'Regan, and Mitchell describing the "emergence of paraphysics as a science". Mitchell's own definition of the concept of paraphysics is that it is "a new field within ] that is extending the laws and methods of physics in an attempt to explain some ]".<ref name=Mitchell /> Beichler also gives a definition of the concept of paraphysics from Musés<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Musés|chapter=Paraphysics: A New View of Ourselves and the Cosmos|date=1977|title=Future Science: Life Energies and the Physics of Paranormal Phenomena|location=Garden City, NY|publisher=Anchor Press|editor=John White and Stanley Krippner|pages=280–288}}</ref>:"paraphysics the field of phenomena covering interactions of nonphysical things (such as consciousness) with physical bodies and objects". | |||
| Angoff<ref>{{cite book|title=Century of Psychical Research: The Continuing Doubts and Affirmations. Proceedings of an|author=Allan Angoff|id=ISBN 0912328193|publisher=Parapsychology Foundation|date=]|pages=145}}</ref> writing in the 1970s gives a more general definition of paraphysics as being akin to parapsychology but "with the accent on physics rather than upon psychology", and thus being "the study of anomalous physical events". | |||
| However, the renewed interest in paraphysics faded in the 1980s, in part, Beichler states, because of the failure of parapsychology to produce the hoped-for results. As the Society for Psychical Research puts it, "the yield in terms of testable scientific hypotheses, or of dependable effects of sufficient magnitude, consistency, and reproducibility to permit advances in understanding, has been disappointingly small".<ref name=SPR /> | |||
| Bonewits and Emmons<ref>{{cite book|title=Real Magic: An Introductory Treatise on the Basic Principles of Yellow Magic|author=Isaac Bonewits and Philip Emmons|id=ISBN 0877286884|publisher=Weiser|date=]|pages=212}}</ref>, writing in the 1980s, define the field of paraphysics as "the study of (a) the overlaps between parapsychology and physics and (b) the study of the various forms of ]". | |||
| Beichler, writing in the 1990s about what he expects to be the "birth of paraphysics as a legitimate science", presents an argument that there is an expectation by several physicists of a ] in physics in the (relatively) near future, and that some physicists are defining the concept of paraphysics as being what they predict physics will be like after that shift. Beichler quotes ]<ref>{{cite book|author=Victor J. Stenger|title=Physics and Psychics: The search for a world beyond the senses|location=New York|publisher=Prometheus Books|date=May 1990|pages=8|id=ISBN 087975575X}}</ref> as writing "If physics is the study of the nature of matter, then we might term the study of a world beyond matter paraphysics." and characterizes this new concept of paraphysics as "the physics of other worlds". | |||
| Stenger himself writes<ref>{{cite conference|title=Paraphysics: Physics Misused and Misinterpreted|author=Stenger, Victor J.|booktitle=American Physical Society, Annual March Meeting, March 20-24, 2000 Minneapolis, MN|date=]|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000APS..MAR.M8003S}}</ref> that physics is "misused and misinterpreted in support of a wide range of paranormal and paranatural claims", decrying what he states to be the mis-use of the words "energy" and "quantum" to suggest a scientific basis for "energy therapies" and mind-over-matter healing, the misinterpretation of ] to imply that psychic phenomena such as ] are real, and the employment of the ] as evidence for ]. | |||
| Beichler's own definition of paraphysics is thus that it is a "branch of physics" that is "the logical study of paranormal phenomena within the normal context of physics", or, more broadly, the "logical study of those phenomena occurring in nature which cannot be understood within the context of either matter in motion or our normal concepts of space and time" incorporating the "physics of other worlds".<ref>{{cite journal|journal=YGGDRASIL: The Journal of Paraphysics|date=1996|title=PHYSICS AND PARAPHYSICS|volume=1|issue=1|author=James E. Beichler|url=http://members.aol.com/jebco1st/Paraphysics/issue1.htm}}</ref> | |||
| == Notes == | |||
| * {{fnb|1}} Another ''Journal of Paraphysics'' was published by Benson Herbert in England in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.williamjames.com/Theory/BIOLOGY.htm|work=The Roots of Consciousness|title=4.1: Theory of Consciousness: The Biological Perspective|author=Jeffrey Mishlove}}</ref> | |||
| == References == | |||
| <references /> | |||
| == Further reading == | |||
| * {{cite book|title=Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources|id=ISBN 1556432488|publisher=North Atlantic Books|author=Jon. Klimo|date=]|chapter=Biology and Physics|pages=306–364}} — Klimo writes on "physics and paraphysics" | |||
| * {{cite journal|journal=Journal of Scientific Exploration|volume=15|issue=1|article=3|title=To Be or Not to Be! A "Paraphysics" for the New Millennium|author=James E. Beichler|url=http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/pdf/15.1_beichler.pdf|publisher=Society for Scientific Exploration|format=PDF|date=Spring 2001}} | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * exploring the frontier of spirit and matter | |||
| * http://paraphysics-research-institute.org/Contents/Articles/What%20is%20Paraphysics.htm - What is paraphysics? | |||
| * http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10/psi.html - ]'s parapsychology page | |||
| * http://www.ciul.ul.pt/~patnev/interview_ALegget_EPN2006.pdf - An interview with ] discussing the topic a.o.t. (also at http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/38/epn37_2.pdf ). | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Latest revision as of 01:01, 31 January 2023
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The scientific research of parallels between known theoretical and experimental physics, against the phenomenon known as a Spirits or haunting types of events, in order to prove the existence of the human conciseness after death.