Abstract

Recently, I was chosen to be one of forty individuals invited to submit a short essay for a special issue of the Journal of Parapsychology. The topic we were asked to address was "Where will parapsychology be in the next 25 years?" This challenge encouraged me to reflect on the history of psi research and the continuing debate over its merits and results, and I found it to be a useful exercise. I also found it to be somewhat depressing, and I don't believe that was due merely to an uncharacteristic spasm of negativity. In any case, it led me to wonder what my SSE colleagues working in other areas of anomalies research would say about the future of their own respective disciplines. For example, can we speculate competently, based on the history of UFO research, where that research is likely to be in a quarter century? Or the quest for new and reliable sources of energy, including "cold fusion" or LENR? Hypnosis or altered states research? Are we seeing any notable and sweeping advances in any of these areas-say, increases in understanding among the few who do the research, or in the impact that research is having in the public at large? Can we predict competently which of the latest cutting-edge or trendy theoretical proposals (e.g., in earth science, astrophysics, or survival research) are likely to be genuinely fruitful? So, in the hope that my reflections on the future of parapsychology will encourage similar exercises among JSE readers (in addition to eliciting predictable cries of protest), what follows is an expanded and (freed from severe space limitations) rather less curmudgeonly version of my little essay for the Journal of Parapsychology, reproduced in part with the kind permission of editor John Palmer. Perhaps it would be interesting to have a roundtable discussion along these lines at some future SSE conference.