JonoThora: Psionics expansion (01a + 01b): content authored / LaTeX-restored per local submodule; lint-clean.

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Psionics expansion (01a + 01b): content authored / LaTeX-restored per local submodule; lint-clean.

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= History of Psionics Research =

{{Audience_Sidebar
| difficulty = Beginner
| reading_time = 15 minutes
| prerequisites = General reader. No physics background required.
| if_too_basic_see = [[Famous_Experiments]]
| if_you_want_the_math_see = [[Psionics]]; [[5D_Action_Principle]]
}}

The systematic, empirical, scientific study of psionic phenomena is a little over a century old. The traditions that preceded it are much older — see [[Map_of_Traditions]] — but this page tracks the modern, scientific lineage from the late 19th century to the present.

The history is uneven. There are periods of major progress, periods of suppression, periods of fraud and overreach, and periods of quiet meticulous work. A truthful account includes all of them.

== 1882–1900: The Society for Psychical Research ==

The systematic study began in 1882 with the founding of the '''Society for Psychical Research (SPR)''' in London by Henry Sidgwick, Frederic W. H. Myers, and Edmund Gurney. The American branch (ASPR) followed in 1885. Their methodological standards — controlled experiments, statistical analysis, deliberate fraud-testing — were ahead of the broader psychology of their time.

Notable work: Eleonora Sidgwick on telepathy; Frederic Myers' two-volume ''Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death'' (1903); William James (Harvard) as president of both SPR and ASPR.

The early SPR established many of the methodological standards that would later be re-invented (often without acknowledgement) by 20th-century parapsychology.

== 1900–1930: Foundational physics ==

Independently, mainstream physics built the foundations that would later become the [[Psionics|psionic framework]]:

* '''1905, 1915''' — Einstein's Special and General Relativity.
* '''1919''' — [[Theodor_Kaluza|Kaluza]] proposes the 5D unification of gravity and EM.
* '''1925–1927''' — Quantum mechanics formalised (Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Dirac).
* '''1926''' — [[Oskar_Klein|Klein]] adds compactification to the Kaluza programme.
* '''1928–1932''' — Dirac equation; QED begins.

None of this was psi research, but every piece of it would later be needed.

== 1930–1965: Rhine, the Cold War, and parallel programmes ==

The locus shifted to '''J. B. Rhine at Duke University''' (1930s onward). Rhine introduced statistically-controlled card-guessing experiments (Zener cards) and coined the term "extrasensory perception" (ESP). His 1934 ''Extra-Sensory Perception'' presented thousands of trials with above-chance scoring.

The Rhine work was the first sustained attempt to ''quantify'' psi. It was also controversial: methodological critiques by sceptics (Hansel, others) led to tightening of protocols across the field over the following decades.

In parallel, government programmes emerged:

* '''1947–1972''' — Project SIGMA and related US intelligence-community studies (declassified piecemeal in the 1990s).
* '''1960s''' — Soviet "biocommunication" research (Vasiliev, later Naumov and Adamenko). Substantial state funding; classified results.

== 1965–1980: The Stanford / SRI era ==

The most rigorous US institutional programme began in 1972 at '''Stanford Research Institute (SRI)''' (later SRI International), funded initially by NASA and then by the CIA / DIA. Principal investigators: '''[[Russell_Targ|Russell Targ]]''' and '''[[Hal_Puthoff|Hal Puthoff]]''' (both physicists).

Key results:

* '''1972–1974''' — Targ and Puthoff work with Ingo Swann and Pat Price on what becomes called '''[[Remote_Viewing|remote viewing]]'''.
* '''1974''' — Targ & Puthoff publish "Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding" in ''Nature'' (vol. 251, 602–607). Statistically significant remote-viewing results.
* '''1975''' — Project SCANATE (CIA-funded remote viewing programme) begins.
* '''1978''' — Programme transitions to Fort Meade (Army), becoming [[Star_Gate_Program|Star Gate]] in 1991.

== 1979–2007: The PEAR programme ==

In 1979, '''[[Robert_G_Jahn|Robert G. Jahn]]''' (dean of engineering at Princeton) and '''[[Brenda_J_Dunne|Brenda J. Dunne]]''' founded the '''Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab'''. Over 28 years they collected approximately 2.5 million REG (random event generator) trials. Their headline result: a tiny but extraordinarily statistically significant bias in REG outputs in the direction of conscious intention.

PEAR's importance: a high-pedigree engineering school, careful statistical methodology, very large sample size. It established that anomalous human-machine interaction signals could be observed under controlled conditions and over enough trials to be statistically extreme.

PEAR closed in 2007. Many of its protocols were continued by the ICRL (International Consciousness Research Laboratories) and by the '''[[Global_Consciousness_Project|Global Consciousness Project]]''' (Nelson 1998–present).

== 1990s: Star Gate declassification and the AIR review ==

In 1995 the CIA commissioned the '''American Institutes for Research (AIR)''' to review the entire Star Gate programme. The review (Mumford, Rose, Goslin 1995) concluded:

''"A statistically significant effect has been observed in the laboratory ... [the effect] cannot be explained by known mechanisms."''

But also: ''"The information provided ... is not specific enough to be of operational utility."''

The CIA terminated funding. The classified records were largely declassified in 1995, providing one of the most detailed publicly-available records of a state psi research programme.

== 1990s–2010s: The Bem-Honorton synthesis and the autoganzfeld ==

In parallel, the '''[[Ganzfeld_Procedure|ganzfeld]]''' paradigm matured. Charles Honorton (Maimonides Medical Center, later Psychophysical Research Laboratories) and Daryl Bem (Cornell) collaborated on automated, multiply-shielded "autoganzfeld" experiments. Their 1994 ''Psychological Bulletin'' meta-analysis showed durable, statistically robust above-chance scoring.

Sceptical reactions (Hyman, Wiseman, Schwartz) prompted methodological tightening. The current state of the ganzfeld literature: a small but durable positive effect that even most sceptics acknowledge as statistically real, though disputed in interpretation.

== 2007–present: Physics integration ==

Two parallel developments in this period:

# '''Anomaly accumulation in mainstream physics.''' The Tate Cooper-pair mass anomaly (1989), the Tajmar gravitomagnetic London moment (2007 onwards), and several other measurements remain unexplained within the Standard Model + General Relativity. Each is small, none is conclusive, all are consistent with the kind of small extra coupling the psionic framework predicts. See [[Famous_Experiments]].
# '''Neural-quantum-coherence research.''' [[Roger_Penrose|Penrose]] and [[Stuart_Hameroff|Hameroff]]'s [[Orchestrated_Objective_Reduction|Orch-OR]] proposal (1994) provided a possible neural substrate for ψ-coupling. The Bandyopadhyay group (NIMS Japan / NIST USA) reported microtubule electrical-conductance anomalies (Sahu et al. 2013). The Celardo group (2019) showed microtubule superradiance. The Kalra group (2023) showed anaesthetic-microtubule coupling.

These are the threads the present framework integrates — see [[Psionics]] §"Integration with neural / biological research".

== Suppression, fraud, and overreach ==

A truthful history cannot omit:

* '''Suppression.''' Several historical figures (Wilhelm Reich, T. Townsend Brown, Royal Rife) were targeted by state actors and scientific institutions in ways that suppressed both their legitimate and their pseudo-scientific work. Some claims of suppression are documented; some are exaggerated.
* '''Fraud.''' Stage psychics, mediums, and a small number of researchers committed outright fraud. Walter Levy at Duke (Rhine's lab, 1974) is the most famous case from within parapsychology itself.
* '''Overreach.''' Some claimed effects (Geller's spoon-bending, certain remote-viewing demonstrations, several psychokinesis subjects) collapsed under proper scrutiny. The Cottingley fairy hoax (1917) and Project Alpha (Randi 1980s) are reminders that scepticism is healthy.

The field that survived this is the small subset of effects that ''replicated under increasingly tight methodology'' — the ganzfeld, the REG, the SRI/Star Gate effect, the Tate anomaly, the Tajmar anomaly. The robust signal is much smaller than the field once claimed but is also more credible than the sceptical position once held.

== Status today ==

As of the mid-2020s:

* The empirical signature of "something happening" is well-established at small effect sizes across multiple paradigms (ganzfeld, REG, remote viewing, presentiment).
* The mainstream physics community has not embraced these results, but neither has it produced a clean refutation.
* Several physics anomalies (Tate, Tajmar) sit unexplained.
* The neural-coherence picture (microtubules, biophotons, gamma-band synchrony in meditators) is increasingly well-supported as a candidate substrate.
* A coherent theoretical framework (the one this wiki documents) that ties these threads together is in active development.

The history is not over.

== Where to go next ==

* For specific experiments: [[Famous_Experiments]]; [[Ganzfeld_Procedure]]; [[PEAR_Program]]; [[Remote_Viewing]]; [[Star_Gate_Program]]; [[Cooper_Pair_Mass_Anomaly]]; [[Gravitomagnetic_London_Moment]].
* For the methodological context: [[Replication_Crisis_in_Parapsychology]].
* For the theoretical framework: [[Psionics_Primer]] → [[Psionics]].
* For the traditional pre-history: [[Map_of_Traditions]].
* For what's still open: [[Open_Questions_in_Psionics]].

== See Also ==

* [[Psionics_Primer]]
* [[Famous_Experiments]]
* [[Map_of_Traditions]]
* [[Open_Questions_in_Psionics]]
* [[Falsification_Criteria_for_Psionics]]

== References ==

* Gurney, E., Myers, F. W. H., Podmore, F. (1886). ''Phantasms of the Living.'' SPR / Trübner.
* Rhine, J. B. (1934). ''Extra-Sensory Perception.'' Bruce Humphries.
* Targ, R., Puthoff, H. E. (1974). "Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding." ''Nature'' 251: 602–607.
* Jahn, R. G., Dunne, B. J. (1987). ''Margins of Reality.'' Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
* Mumford, M. D., Rose, A. M., Goslin, D. A. (1995). ''An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications.'' AIR.
* Bem, D. J., Honorton, C. (1994). "Does psi exist?" ''Psychological Bulletin'' 115: 4–18.
* Radin, D. (2006). ''Entangled Minds.'' Paraview Pocket Books.
* Mayer, E. L. (2007). ''Extraordinary Knowing.'' Bantam.
* Kaiser, D. (2011). ''How the Hippies Saved Physics.'' W. W. Norton. (For the SRI / Esalen / counterculture-and-physics era.)

[[Category:Psionics]]
[[Category:Plain language]]
[[Category:History]]

History of Psionics Research - Revision history

JonoThora: Psionics expansion (01a + 01b): content authored / LaTeX-restored per local submodule; lint-clean.