THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYand concluded that there was evidence for a tiny but significant distorting
effect of people’s thoughts on random-number output. Critics said that
if you combine enough studies, you’ll be bound to uncover an effect
and that it’s the size of that effect that’s more important. They further
dismissed the average size of the effect observed in the meta-analysis as
meaningless. However, Dean Radin at the Institute of Noetic Sciences,
a believer in psychokinesis, countered that the energy within a single
atomic isotope is similarly small, but our understanding of that energy
eventually ushered in the atomic age.
Probably the most consistent finding to come out of parapsychology
research is that believers in paranormal effects tend to report posi-
tive results, whereas sceptics tend to report negative results. Richard
Wiseman, a sceptic, and Marilyn Schlitz, a believer, tried to get to the
bottom of this in 2005. Both had previously investigated the idea that
people can feel when they were being stared at – with Wiseman finding
no evidence that this “sixth sense” really exists and Schlitz finding
evidence that it does. The pair of them ran some tests together, taking
turns at doing the meeting and greeting of participants and other duties
including the actual staring. In this case, no evidence for the sixth sense
was found, consistent with Wiseman’s earlier work. Most importantly, the
pair showed that collaboration between sceptics and believers is possible.
Uri Geller bending a spoon by gently rubbing it – one of his best-known routines.
Geller has frequently claimed psychic abilities, but there is no evidence that he is
anything other than an illusionist.