Abstract

Contrary to the beliefs of both extreme skeptics and spiritually committed people that parapsychologists are either, at the one extreme, mainly driven by attempts to validate their personal spiritual convictions under the guise of science or, at the other extreme, too unaware of the spiritual implications of parapsychological research findings, empirical survey data from almost half of the members of the relevant scientific association, the Parapsychological Association, show 49% giving an unqualified "no" answer to spiritual motivation being important in their entering the field and 36% saying "yes." A third of the respondents indicated spiritual interests were of some importance in their current work, but many of these felt these interests were in conflict with the dominant laboratory orientation of contemporary parapsychological research. Illuminating comments on these issues by the respondents are available in a Web archive.