Transcript Hövelmann Communication Escape from Wonderland Gerd H. Hövelmann, M.A. PF-U2 Escape from Wonderland  Alice: "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from.

Hövelmann Communication
Escape from Wonderland
Gerd H. Hövelmann, M.A.
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Escape from Wonderland
 Alice: "Would you tell me,
please, which way I ought to
go from here?"
 Cheshire Cat: "That depends
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a good deal on where you
want to get to."
(Carroll, L.: Alice‘s Adventures in
Wonderland. London: Macmillan,
1865).
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Escape from Wonderland
 The theme of the present conference, "Charting the Future of
Parapsychology," likewise is about the question where parapsychology
ought to go from where it currently is. And it also is about a prior
general decision about where we actually want to get to.
 We must realize, however, that the questions about the goals or the
aims we want to pursue, or about or the destination we would like to get
to, are not scientific ones at all. Rather, they are philosophical
questions, or, if you prefer, ones of our intellectual preferences. Science
cannot tell us where we ought to go. This is for us to decide.
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 But once we‘ve made that decision, once we‘re sure about our goals,
science is the best way to go – methódos being the Greek word for
"way".
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Escape from Wonderland
Three Traditional "Insider‘s" Attitudes
There have been many different attitudes towards the aims of
parapsychology both inside and outside the field. From the inside,
I‘d like to briefly mention three perspectives:
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


Miracles for the Sake of Miracles
Disillusionment and Resignation
Leaving Alice Behind
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Escape from Wonderland
Miracles for the Sake of Miracles (I)
One group of researchers have satisfied themselves that
paranormal phenomena ultimately cannot be subjected to
meaningful experimenting and theory building. They are content to
enjoy miracles for their own sake.
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A few years ago, Carlos Alvarado has provided an apt
characterization of that orientation. In Alvarado, C.S. (2002).
Thoughts on the study of spontaneous cases. Journal of
Parapsychology, 66, 115-125, he wrote:
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Escape from Wonderland
Miracles for the Sake of Miracles (II)
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"My impression … is that a segment of those concerned with the
study of spontaneous phenomena are not interested in explaining
or understanding the phenomena. They seem to be happy to
maintain the mystery for its own sake. In their view, the phenomena
is something sacred that should not be probed too much ... Some
of those interested in ... conceptualizing psychic phenomena as
manifestations that point toward nonphysical or spiritual aspects of
human being are generally not interested in showing how cases
relate to aspects of the natural world … These researchers ... do
not want the topic associated with mundane physical, biological
and psychological correlates because such correlates undermine
the more spiritual views they prefer." (pp. 17, 19)
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Escape from Wonderland
Miracles for the Sake of Miracles (III)
Those who share that attitude are deeply stuck in Alice‘s
Wonderland, presumably enjoying themselves. They will next
encounter the Hatter and the March Hare, one as mad as the other.
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“Miracles for the sake of miracles“ is not basically a scientific
attitude. Those who have adopted it have entered a different
intellectual game. It may be legitimate as a personal orientation,
but does not, and cannot, form part of science.
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Escape from Wonderland
Disillusionment and Resignation (I)
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Those who, like myself, have been spending more than three
decades in this difficult field of inquiry, will have experienced quite
a few disappointments and disillusionments along the way. And we
all have known persons who initially started off with a great deal of
enthusiasm and a couple of nice ideas, but then where not seen or
heard of anymore after it had become apparent that the
phenomena flatly refused to fit their respective pet ideas.
Science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick, in an interview on an entirely
unrelated topic, provided what seems like a pertinent description of
that feeling of disillusionment. He remarked:
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Escape from Wonderland
Disillusionment and Resignation (II)
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"Now how do you explain that? You're building a jigsaw puzzle, and
you keep building it, and you have only one piece left, and you
have one hole in the puzzle. You take the last piece and you start
to put it in the last hole. And it doesn't fit. And since it doesn't fit,
the whole puzzle is screwed up. You can never complete it. And
while you're standing there looking at it, it just slowly falls into a
million parts."
(Philip K. Dick in Williams, P. [1986]. Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K.
Dick. New York: Arbor House, pp. 98-99).
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Escape from Wonderland
Disillusionment and Resignation (III)
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I guess there are few among us who haven‘t had that kind of
experience once in a while. Some of those who have shared such
experiences have turned their backs on Wonderland and its
strange inhabitants, and they have devoted themselves to easier,
more comfortable (and maybe more rewarding) tasks. Some of
them may even have joined those who prefer the first approach, or
they have become card-carrying skeptics instead (such as John
Taylor and Sue Blackmore did in, respectively, the 1980s and
1990s).
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Escape from Wonderland
Leaving Alice Behind (I)
Let me briefly mention a third attitude.
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The following is essentially adapted from Hövelmann, G.H., & Krippner, S.
(1986). Charting the future of parapsychology. Parapsychology Review, 17,
(6), 1-5, and from Krippner, S., & Hövelmann, G.H. (2005). The future of psi
research: Recommendations in retrospect. In Thalbourne, M.A., & Storm, L.
(eds.). Parapsychology in the Twenty-First Century: Essays on the Future of
Psychical Research (pp. 167-188). Jefferson, NC & London: McFarland.
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Escape from Wonderland
Leaving Alice Behind (II)
Those who prefer this third attitude are attempting to normalize the
paranormal. They are trying to identify, isolate and describe wondrous
phenomena and to present them to and discuss them with their scientific
colleagues outside of Alice‘s Wonderland. My impression is that the vast
majority of those who have addressed us during this conference and of
those in the audience decidedly belong to this latter group that insists on
having explanations according to the rules of science.
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However, this means that we ought to follow the phenomena and our
experimental results and study the entire range of anomalies in consciousness wherever that may lead us, even if it may force us to adopt an
increasing range of non-psi approaches and eventually bring us back into
mainstream science. If we really are interested in scientific answers to the
questions that have plagued most of us most of the time we will have to
follow wherever our well-considered scientific methods will lead us.
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Escape from Wonderland
Leaving Alice Behind (III)
Otherwise, parapsychology might turn into an ever-shrinking field with
ever-shrinking competence and relevance, and it eventually might loose
its subject matter altogether once the other scientific disciplines have
taken over and provided the non-psi (or maybe even the sort-of-psi)
explanations we have been searching for all along.
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
So let us first get very serious
about answering the Cheshire
Cat‘s question of where we
want to get to.

And let us leave Alice to her
fate.
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Escape from Wonderland
Concerted Efforts
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Adhering to the 1953 PF Conference model, build committee(s) or
work group(s) that
 Register and coordinate empirical research in prominent areas
 Coordinate related activities (such as counseling / clinical
parapsychology, which, since the 2007 “1st International Expert
Meeting on Clinical Parapsychology,“ already is on a promising
path)
 Publish (and get our journals back on schedule)
 Design adequate ways of presenting findings to the scientific
community at large
 Consider application issues
No doubt, many of you will have additional suggestions for
concerted actions, and we are eager to hear about them.
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