Abstract

Discusses psychoenergetics and psychotronics (terms proposed by certain Eastern European scientists to describe the interdisciplinary investigation of the relationships among consciousness, energy, and matter) most often referred to as consciousness research. Consciousness research includes such areas as altered states, biofeedback, brain-mind relations, creativity, general systems theory, holistic medicine, and parapsychology. It is pointed out that psychoenergetics, humanistic psychology, and related developments have influenced research in special education along several lines: acknowledgment of the utility of case studies in research with exceptional children; attention to the labeling process and how it may affect self-concept; a focus on prevention of retardation and disturbance as well as remediation; emphasis on the whole person in research rather than on isolated parts; the position that creativity is a basic human potential not limited to a small elite; flexibility as to research methods, including the use of phenomenological techniques and field studies, when appropriate; and an insistence that experiments do not violate the rights of subjects or compromise human values. It is suggested that special educators learn to separate the "flamboyant public relations" that often accompany a new technique from the benefits which that technique may have to offer handicapped children. (33 ref)