Advances in Parapsychological Research: 2 Extrasensory Perception

Montague Ullman The second volume of this series includes essays on methods and issues in ESP research (Morris), research findings in ESP (Palmer), and theories of psi (Rao). It thus complements the areas covered in Volume 1, the two volumes taken together providing the reader with a sound grounding in the progress and achievements of parapsychological research from its inception to the present day. What is immediately striking is the rapid increase in the amount and variety of experimental reports appearing in the last decade and the increasing number of centers in which research is being carried out. Work in parapsychology is moving toward a broader disciplinary base, the use of more imaginative technology, greater academic support, and more activity on an international scale. These are promising signs of a rapprochement between parapsychological research and the mainstream of science. Robert O. Becker, in his preface to Volume 1, holds out the hope that parapsychology will lead the way to a new view of the biological or­ ganism, one going beyond mechanism to "a new vision of the human being and his place in the universe" (Becker, 1977). Heavy as this respon­ sibility may be, a careful reading of the present volume should persuade the reader that a new view is very much in order.