A Critical Review of the Experimental Evidence for the Extrasensory Perception Phenomenom: Hits and Misses of a Paradigm for Perceptual Monotonization

Abstract

In this article, we review the experimental evidence for extrasensory perception (ESP). We focus on studies carried out at academic centers and universities which used a particular experimental design for sensory isolation and perceptual monotonisation, the Ganzfeld. First, we describe the methodology U¡ed in these studies. Secondly, we review the results achieved, and examine the arguments put forward by the critics, in three phases of research in the area: 1) The first Ganzfeld studies, conducted and published from 1974 to 1981, and their methodological drawbacks; 2) the evidence provided with the Autoganzfeld studies conducted by Honorton and his colleagues at the Psychophysical Research Laboratory (Princeton) from 1983 to 1989, and published in the Psychological Bulletin in 1994; and 3) the studies from the new generation, from 1986, and the lack of replication observed. We also examine a critical review by Milton and Wiseman published, also in the Psychological Bulletin, in 1999, and analyse a series of aspects put forward in reply to the criticisms. To finish, we conclude that although the results achieved so far are highly indicative of the existence of an anomalous process of information transfer, proof-oriented work is pertinent at this stage of research in the area.