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Originally Posted by Chris Noble  The problem with small effect sizes with "psi" is that if the effect is close to that achievable by chance guessing then there is no possible way that somebody could have simply stumbled across it by trial and error. You don't have a sound scientific basis to guide the generation of hypotheses. There is no theory of "psi" let alone one that has been supported with experiments. |
There is. And it predates nearly all parapsychology lab trials, so it is not post hoc either. Nobel Laureate philosopher Henri Bergson's theory that the brain is a filter of consciousness, not the soruce of consciousness. Here telepathy is not evolving to become stronger, the brain evolved to filter it out.... it is viewed more like brain filter leakage. The effects are expected to be borderline.
The problem is that parapsychologists from Richet to Rhine to Radin have been keen to view psi as a brain function (it is more compatible with materialistic paradigm) however the logic for brain evolution to filter itself doesn't make much sense.... and never will IMHO. They need to return to testing hypotheses the brain/mind/ consciousness are not quite the same thing. To be fair to Radin he is open minded to the survival hypothesis just prefers the unfortunately named (super-) psi hypothesis, since psi is seldom ever 'super'.