Abstract

Points out that one of the major assumptions underlying most experimental parapsychological research is that psi and sensory processing are redundant. Psi is assumed to exist to the extent that it provides the same types of information that one's conventional senses provide. Ss are asked to psychically detect and describe the formal, sensorily evident properties of target materials and to call psychic impressions "correct" or "accurate" only when those impressions happen to provide the same types of information (e.g., forms and colors) that would be immediately evident if Ss inspected the target materials at one point in time with their regular senses. Researchers typically restrict themselves further by working almost exclusively with visual target materials. Therefore, researchers may provide more information about the commonality between psi and visual processing but little about possibly unique nonperceptual aspects of psi. The author suggests some nonevident psi possibilities and some of the less obvious "messages" psi might provide about the world, so that researchers can develop ways of testing the validity of such messages. (7 ref)