Description

Throughout recorded history in every culture and period, many persons have believed that they could perceive or influence events at a distance without known physical means of communication or action. These abilities-now called paranormal-were either rejected by skeptics as "recrudescence of superstition" or accepted by believers as "evidence of the supernatural" without an objective basis for doing so (Barrett, 1911) . Scientific investigation of such claims began about a hundred years ago, A number of eminent scientists from various fields, including the physicists Sir William Barrett (1844- 1925) and Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940), the chemist Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), and the biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) gave serious thought to the subject. They felt that the reports of such occurrences had much more to offer than conventional scientists had recognized.