Abstract

Discusses the relations between parapsychology and physics on a phenomenological and a theoretical level. A review of theories that have been put forward to explain paranormal phenomena indicates that one can distinguish between 3 types of relations: instances in which theoretical descriptions of psi and physical phenomena are identical; instances in which the psi phenomena are explained in an extended physical theory; and instances in which the theory for psi is constructed as an analogy with a physical theory. Empirical evidence concerning the relation between physical variables and psi is presented. The role of (conscious) observation of experimental results in the light of the so-called measurement problem is discussed. To illustrate this aspect, the present author's cumulative results of a long-term psychokinesis experiment in which singly observed trials were compared with multiply observed trials are presented. Data show consistently tight variance in the former and extra variance in the latter condition. (27 ref)