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to Carolina Skeptics
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Parapsychology: The State of the Science
 Dr. May |
Dr. Richard S. Broughton 11:00 Saturday, April 29
215 Phillips Hall UNC Chapel Hill |
 Dr. Broughton |
Parapsychology is a science that studies a range of communication anomalies that has puzzled mankind since the dawn of human history. Commonly called extrasensory perception (ESP), these human experiences came under systematic laboratory investigation with the start of the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory about 70 years ago. Although always a controversial and poorly supported science, parapsychology has spread to universities throughout the world and today musters an impressive base of experimental evidence that demands the attention of science.
Dr. Broughton will introduce parapsychology within the context of scientific endeavor and he will give a brief overview of the results of the many hundreds of experiments that converge to present a very interesting picture of so-called psychic abilities. Dr. May will explain some of the very latest experiments in neurophysiology, physics, and even astrophysics that may help us to understand the fundamental mechanisms of psychic phenomena.
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Edwin C. May, Ph.D. is internationally known for his work in parapsychology. Having spent the first part of his research career in his chosen Ph.D.-degreed discipline, Low Energy, Experimental Nuclear Physics, he became interested in serious parapsychology in 1971. Starting in August 1974, Dr. May spent nearly a year in India researching so-called psychic phenomena with Yogis and other Masters. In 1975, he returned to the States and worked for eight months with Charles Honorton at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY. It was there where he was introduced to formal research parapsychology. Beginning in 1976, Dr. May joined the on-going, U.S. Government-sponsored work at SRI International (formerly called Stanford Research Institute). In 1985, he inherited the program directorship of what was now called the Cognitive Sciences Program. That program shifted to Science Applications International Corporation in 1991. Dr. May's association with government-sponsored parapsychology research ended in 1995, when the program, now called STAR GATE, was closed. Dr. May has managed complex, interdisciplinary research projects for the US federal government since 1985. Currently, Dr. May is the Executive Director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, which now resides within the Laboratories for Fundamental Research. He has conducted physiology research through the careful investigation of the efficacy of biofeedback in a clinical setting. The Parapsychological Association, an affiliate member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, granted him the Outstanding Achievement Award for his contribution for research excellence. He was President, The Parapsychological Association for 1997. |
Dr. Broughton did his undergraduate studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. After a volunteer teaching assignment in the Middle East, he obtained his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1978. In 1978-79, Dr. Broughton was a visiting scientist at the State University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and from 1979 to 1981 he was research assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the State College of Optometry of the State University of New York in New York City. In 1981 he joined the Institute for Para-psychology in Durham, North Carolina as a Senior Research Associate, and in 1984 became Director of Research. In March 1995 Dr. Broughton was appointed Director of the Institute, which is the successor to the world famous Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory established by Dr. J. B. Rhine in 1930. Dr. Broughton is a twice past president and long-time board member of the Parapsychological Association, an international professional organization that is an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to numerous scientific papers, Dr. Broughton is author of Parapsychology: The Controversial Science (Ballantine, 1991) a popular and critically acclaimed introduction to the field that is now in its fourth paperback printing and has been translated into six lan-guages. He frequently serves as a commentator in television programs on the topic. Recent appearances include ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Dateline, and several docu-mentaries for the Arts and Entertainment Network, The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel, and various overseas networks. |
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Note: The Institute for Parapsychology is the
successor to the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory which
was established in 1930 by Dr. J. B. Rhine and which operated
on the Duke Campus until Dr. Rhine's retirement in 1965. Since
then it has been part of the non-profit Foundation for Research
on the Nature of Man, which changed its name to the Rhine Research
Center in 1995.
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may contact Eric Carlson at ecarlson@wfu.edu or (336) 758-4994.
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