Anonymously, Scientists Report the Paranormal as Much as Average People

For a long time, skeptics have attempted to use gaslighting to explain away observations of the paranormal. Gaslighting is when someone tries to shake confidence in an observational report by raising doubts about the mind or observational skills of the observer. A person engaging in gaslighting may try to suggest that you only reported seeing something because:

1. you were hysterical;
2. you simply got confused, and “mixed up” the observational details;
3. you overreacted;
4. you confabulated, filling in details later that you didn't actually see;
5. you failed to observe carefully because you're not a “trained observer”;
6. you're just a “fantasy-prone” person who confuses your imagination with reality;
7. perhaps you hallucinated;
8. perhaps you were intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

Gaslighting is used by skeptics of the paranormal and also by the defense attorneys of accused rapists and sex abusers.

A recent study by Dean Radin and four other scientists (the study "Exceptional Experiences Reported by Scientists and Engineers" you can read here) helps to discredit claims that reports of the paranormal come mainly from people with poor observational skills. The scientists sent an email to 254,102 people, asking them to fill out a survey about extraordinary experiences they may have had.  Many of the people who got the email were scientists. Of the people who filled out the whole survey, 283 were from the general population, 175 were scientists and 441 were “enthusiasts” who had been identified as having an interest in the paranormal or the extraordinary.

The subjects were asked to answer “Yes” or “No” to questions about a large variety of possible paranormal experiences. Large fractions of the scientists who completed the survey answered “Yes” to some of the questions. For example:

Question	Percent of survey-answering scientists answering “Yes”
Felt as though you were in touch with someone when they were far away from you?	59.2%
Received important information through your dreams?	59.4%
Known something about the future that you had no normal way to know ?	48.0%
Felt as though you were really in touch with someone who died?	39.1%
Experienced your awareness traveling outside of your body ?	27.0%
Known information about past events or an individual’s past experiences without any possible way of you knowing it?	43.4%
Seen events that happened at a great distance as they were happening?	15.5%
Caused your body to float in the air for any period of time using only your mind?	10.9%

From the table above, you might conclude that large fractions of scientists experience paranormal experiences. But that assumption might not be correct. The vast amount of people who got the survey email did not answer it. So it could be that only small percentages of scientists experience such things, and that people having such experiences were more likely to answer the survey.

But the survey does seem to offer important evidence relating to whether people who are “trained observers” are less likely to report paranormal experiences than average people. The table below compares some answers given by scientists in the survey to answers given by non-scientists.

Question	Percent of survey-answering general population answering “Yes”	Percent of survey-answering scientists answering “Yes”
Felt as though you were in touch with someone when they were far away from you?	52.7%	59.2%
Received important information through your dreams?	43.1%	59.4%
Known something about the future that you had no normal way to know ?	47.3%	48.0%
Felt as though you were really in touch with someone who died?	41.3%	39.1%
Experienced your awareness traveling outside of your body ?	20.2%	27.0%
Known information about past events or an individual’s past experiences without any possible way of you knowing it?	35.2%	43.4%
Seen events that happened at a great distance as they were happening?	12.1%	15.5%
Caused your body to float in the air for any period of time using only your mind?	7.8%	10.9%

We see from the table above that the percentage of scientists who reported such paranormal experiences was usually higher than the percentage of non-scientists who reported such things. The “trained observers” reported more paranormal experiences than the average person. This debunks claims or insinuations that reports of the paranormal are caused by unreliable observers.

It is interesting that the survey fails to ask about some of the main types of paranormal observations. If I had got the survey, I would have had to answer nothing but “No,” except for one or two questions, even though I have had very many paranormal-seeming observational events (as described here).

The survey should have had several additional questions, including the following:

• Did you ever have a strong impression that a thought was traveling between your mind and the mind of someone else, even though nothing was spoken, typed or written?
• Did you ever repeatedly get in photographs some type of  anomaly that you cannot explain?
• Did you ever see some event around your home or office that you cannot explain, such as a lamp seeming to turn on by itself, a door seeming to open or unlock itself,  or a TV seeming to change channels by itself?
• Did you ever notice some object that seemed to have appeared in an inexplicable way?
• Did you ever see with your own eyes some sight that you cannot explain, such as something like a ghost or a UFO?
• Did you ever have a thought of someone, just before the person unexpectedly called or unexpectedly appeared?

If these questions had been asked, an even higher percentage of respondents would have answered in the affirmative.