It’s disturbing how little imagination researchers in parapsychology have. Why is so much of their effort directed at answering the same narrow set of questions, like whether someone can “see” the pictures on cards in the next room. This type of extransensory perception (ESP) research is a dead end and has failed to deliver meaningful, replicable findings.
Why not investigate other types of supernatural abilities instead? There are people who can sense their surroundings using echolocation like bats. There may be people who can see colors others can’t.
Are there also people who can sense magnetic or electric fields? How about other types of radiation? Can anyone see infrared or ultraviolet light? Can anyone see polarized light? Are there people who can pick up sounds that are beyond the threshold of perception in terms of volume or frequency? Can anyone perceive motion that’s so fast it’s missed by everyone else? Can anyone sense the presence of great computational power, as represented by data centers or supercomputers, in their vicinity?
The answer for most of this questions will be “No”, but I wouldn’t bet that this is true for all of them.
In general terms, the aim of this research would be to chart the limits of human perception. We need to understand what’s possible not just for one in a hundred, but one in a million and even one in a billion. Once we know what’s possible, we can think about whether those skills are acquirable, and how those who possess them may want to use them.
Nehaveigur 