Introduction by the Editor: A Most Ingenious Paradox

Abstract

Nicola Tesla reportedly said that when science began exploring non-physical phenomena that it would uncover more knowledge in 10 years than it had in all of the previous centuries of its inquiries. This special issue of The Journal of Humanistic Psychology explores the work that is currently being undertaken by academic psychologists who use the structures and caveats of science to inquire into the presence, nature, and impact on humans of phenomena that elude perception by the physical senses on a predictable and replicable basis.On first pass it seems incongruous that the confines of our current positivist scientific paradigm could possibly be employed to prove that there are phenomena that exist beyond the limited ability of our physical senses to perceive them. The articles in this issue are examples of accepted scientific paradigms and procedures being used in ingenious, creative ways to accumulate documented evidence affirming the strong possibility that anomalous phenomena are not substance-induced or pathologically based glitches in someone's cognitive apparatus. Rather, the researchers contributing to this issue have used laboratory experiments, quantitative instruments, and qualitative methods in controlled environments to observe, measure,