Term Papers on SPHERICAL PERCEPTIONS

Term Paper Title	SPHERICAL PERCEPTIONS
# of Words	1460
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.84

SPHERICAL PERCEPTIONS

     Works of Science Fiction are typically written to thrill, amaze, and instil thought into their readers.  Science Fiction novels often entail what is impossible or not yet discovered on Earth.  Extrasensory perception is surrounded in mystery and uncertainty in today's society, and is the basis of Sphere, a chilling novel by Michael Crichton.
     Extrasensory perception, or ESP, is a method of communicating and being aware of something without using man's known senses (Alcock 466).  A scientific approach at studying ESP and psychic phenomena began in the late nineteenth century in England (Klein 28).  Studies of ESP have led to the discovery of several types of ESP, including psychokinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance.
     First, psychokinesis, or PK, is a form of ESP in which objects are moved or altered with the power of the mind (Schmeidler 805).  It is said that if a baseball batter could utilise psychokinesis, he could control every movement of the ball in play (Klein 14). Psychokinesis is not researched quite as often as other forms of ESP, which makes it unclear and mysterious.
     Second, telepathy is when another's thoughts and feelings can be sensed by someone else in a way that defies understanding (Alcock 466).  If a baseball batter had telepathy, and could read the minds of others, he could determine where the pitcher was planning to throw the ball (Klein 13).  Telepathy is the most frequently researched form of ESP today.
     Third, clairvoyance is having an awareness of objects and events without the use of known senses (Alcock 466).  Many feel that Saint Bernard dogs have clairvoyance due to their superb tracking abilities in finding stranded travellers in the Arctic.  Clairvoyance is often tested by researchers with a deck of cards, testing their subjects' ability to read the cards without seeing them.
     In support of this, parapsychologists are those who study paranormal activities (Myers 2).  Although parapsychologists are recognised by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, their field is funded so poorly that little research for ESP and other paranormal activities

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is done (Schmeidler 206).  This lack of funding is due to much scepticism in the scientific world.
     In fact, many scientists today do not accept ESP because it is often mistaken as being an occult or magician practice (Schmeidler 1).  Ninety-six percent of scientists in the National Academy of Sciences do not believe in ESP (Myers 2).  This is mainly due to the fact that ESP, if accepted, would change their views and opinions-and doubt breeds scepticism.  Accordingly,
Arthur Koestler . . . once complained that today's sceptical scientist resemble Italian philosophers who refused to look at Jupiter's moons through Galileo's telescope because they knew such moons did not exist (Myers 3).
Modern scientists refuse to seriously approach ESP, even though a scientific approach at analyzing the field of ESP can still be undertaken.
     Moreover, humans and animals have several senses, including smell, sight, sound, and others like the sensing of an appendage's location, which are all controlled by receptors (Klein 56).  An amoeba is an organism with one cell that responds to stimuli without any receptors (Klein 59).  With these facts in consideration, it is obvious that reception, and possibly perception, can take place without the existence of a particular type of receptor.  Alongside these ideas, many experiments have been performed to test for physical evidence of ESP.
     For instance, modern techniques for researching ESP include pictures or illustrations which subjects must look to deduce their meaning of each (Schmeidler 1).  In experiments where subjects were told that ESP was beneficial, they scored 20.66 percent correct, while scores dropped to 19.49 percent when subjects were told that ESP was damaging (Myers 3).  The card technique is often used in testing for ESP, but is criticised the most by scientists not in support   of ESP.  They believe it is easy for subjects to cheat.
     Furthermore,...

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