Applied Psi
Applied Psi, a term coined in the early 1980s by parapsychologist
Jeff Mishlove, refers to the technological aspect of
psychic phenomena as opposed to the purely scientific study of
it. Assuming that psychic phenomena (telepathy, clairvoyance,
psychometry, etc.) exists, one should be able not only to
describe it and predict its behavior, but to learn to control it to
some extent and use it in practical situations. The idea was announced
in a new periodical, Applied Psi, the first issue of which
appeared in 1982. Mishlove called for parapsychology to refocus
its attention, then almost exclusively oriented (in the face
of skeptical critics) to the accumulation of proof that psychic
phenomena existed, to study ways to develop psi application to
business and daily life. Shortly thereafter, E. Douglas Dean issued
a book-length study of his observations of business executives
who used their psychic talents in making crucial (and successful)
business decisions. If psi could be made operative, one
could imagine application in almost every field of endeavor.
Applied psi was an integral part of pre-scientific cultures.
Practitioners, who went under a variety of names from witch to
shaman, were called upon to predict the future, control the
weather, heal the sick, and locate lost objects. While attempts
Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed. Applied Psi
75
at such uses of psi are still common in Spiritualist and New Age
circles, their general application in society has been replaced
by more successful scientific methods. Unbeknownst to most
people at the time, during the Cold War the United States government
had, as had the Soviet government earlier, initiated
experiments in the use of remote viewing. Other experiments
were carried out in a more or less controlled manner on the use
of precognition to make money gambling or in the stock market.
While the government experiments yielded some impressive
results, ultimately, they were not reliable enough to use for
spy operations. In like measure, the gambling and stock market
results, which included some impressive successes, such as the
ability to predict rising stocks demonstrated by psychic Bevy
Jaegers, eventually leveled out.
Possibly the most extensive possibility of the observation of
psychic powers in a practical situation came in the field of crime
detection. Through the 1980s and 1990s, a number of police
departments have either invited or allowed the participation of
a psychic in the attempt to gather clues in an otherwise deadend
case. The widely publicized work of Dutch clairvoyant Gerard
Croiset had placed this option before police departments
around the world. While a few departments, in the wake of
some apparent successes, such as the efforts of psychic Dorothy
Allison, continue to use psychics, the practice remains controversial.
Psychics are also employed by lawyers for use in the selection
of jurists in important court cases.
Thus, while the major observation of Deanthat successful
executives often demonstrate an intuition that appears to be
psychic rather than simply good judgmentmay stand, the application
of psi to practical situations have yet to yield the results
hoped for by the exponents of applied psi in the early
1980s.
Applied psi has also been called psionics, but has to be distinguished
from the use of that term in radionics as initiated
by John W. Campbell.
Sources
Dean, E. Douglas, et al. Executive ESP. Englewood Cliffs,
N.J. Prentice-Hall, 1974.
Mishlove, Jeffrey. Psi Development Systems. Jefferson, N.C.
McFarland, 1983.
, and William H. Kautz. An Emerging New Discipline!
Applied Psi 1, no.1 (MarchApril 1982) 1.
Pease, Marshall. Intuition and the Stock Market. Applied
Psi 3, no.3 (fall 1984). 79.
