After World War One: How Grief Built Parapsychology Labs
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Why did the science of psychic powers fade after the 1970s?
Parapsychology's 1970s promise of proving psychic powers failed to deliver evidence, but found new life in New Age spirituality.
In 1927, writer E.N. Bennett predicted that psychical research would soon prove psychic powers. This study traces what actually happened over the next 80 years—from post-WWI spiritualism through the 1970s university lab boom to today's blend of science and spirituality—examining why these ideas persist when the scientific evidence never appeared.
Key Findings
- Despite intense scientific interest and university backing in the 1970s, parapsychology never produced the solid, replicable evidence scientists required.
- Rather than disappearing, these beliefs transformed and resurfaced within the New Age movement, creating a 'syncretism' where spiritual ideas blend with scientific language from fields like string theory and quantum physics.
What Is This About?
The author analyzed Bennett's 1927 book and compared its predictions with the real history of parapsychology through the 20th century. He examined how the field evolved from Victorian séance rooms to respected university laboratories during the 1970s, then tracked where those ideas migrated when academic funding dried up. He also studied how parapsychology concepts became mixed with modern physics theories, holistic health trends, and popular culture.
Historical and cultural analysis comparing E.N. Bennett's 1927 predictions with actual 20th-century developments in parapsychology, tracing the field's evolution from post-WWI spiritualism through 1970s university laboratories to New Age movements.
The study concludes that despite significant academic investment during the 1970s, parapsychology failed to produce the convincing evidence scientists sought, with its core ideas later resurfacing within syncretic spiritual-scientific movements.
How Good Is the Evidence?
Proponents argue that parapsychology was unfairly marginalized by materialist science despite genuine anomalies, and that the 1970s research showed promising results that were ignored by the establishment. Critics counter that decades of controlled studies produced no replicable effects, demonstrating that these phenomena don't exist, and that the migration to New Age movements proves these were always spiritual beliefs seeking scientific credibility rather than genuine scientific questions.
Mainstream: Parapsychology is pseudoscience that failed because psychic powers are physically impossible and the 1970s labs were chasing illusions. Moderate: Parapsychology explored interesting psychological and anthropological phenomena but used flawed methods; its persistence in spiritual communities reflects universal human needs for meaning and transcendence rather than objective reality. Frontier: Consciousness fundamentally transcends physical laws, but materialist science refuses to accept the evidence that parapsychology actually produced in the 1970s, forcing these truths into alternative spiritual movements.
Many people believe parapsychology is an active, evidence-based scientific field with proven results. This study clarifies that while it had legitimate academic backing and university laboratories in the 1970s, it failed to produce convincing evidence and now exists primarily as part of broader spiritual and cultural movements rather than mainstream science.
To establish that parapsychological phenomena exist would require replicable, statistically significant results from controlled experiments conducted across multiple independent laboratories, with pre-registered protocols (analysis plans filed before data collection) and large sample sizes. This study does not provide such evidence; instead, it documents the historical record of their absence despite dedicated research efforts in the 1970s.
Nevertheless, the desired evidence was not forthcoming.
Stance: Skeptical
What Does It Mean?
Like a tech startup that receives major venture capital and media hype in the 1970s but fails to produce a working product—so the founders pivot to selling wellness lifestyle brands using the same futuristic buzzwords instead.
Scientific ideas can persist culturally and transform into new movements even when they fail to meet rigorous evidentiary standards, migrating from academic laboratories into popular spirituality where different rules of proof apply.
Understanding Terms
What This Study Claims
Findings
Parapsychology attracted increasing attention during the 1970s, resulting in the creation of various laboratories in American universities to study these phenomena.
weakParapsychology's basic tenets have resurfaced at the center of the composite New Age movement, far from being dead.
weakInterpretations
The desired scientific evidence for parapsychological phenomena was not forthcoming despite the establishment of university laboratories and increased research attention.
weakThe current age exhibits syncretism characterized by interaction among holistic attitudes, controversial scientific approaches such as string theory, and popular culture.
weakThis summary is for general information about current research. It does not constitute medical advice. The scientific interpretation of these results is debated among researchers. If personally affected, please consult qualified professionals.