Does Psi Exist and Can We Prove It? Belief and Disbelief in Parapsychological Research

Psychokinesis research is encountering difficulties in replicating its findings. While experimental and analysis methods became more and more professional in the last decades, researchers complain about a loss of effect size and evidence. Walter von Lucadou explained this erosion of evidence with his “Model of Pragmatic Information” (MPI). He proposed a new experimental paradigm for future research. In elaborating further theoretic implications and consequences of the MPI, it is shown that the MPI is not suitable to provide evidence. Some effects like successful replications of ganzfeld experiments or the successful replicated sheep-goats effect indicate that the MPI has to be upgraded. Some evidence is given that successful experiments are dependent on experimenter’s belief in paranormal phenomena. The best conditions for growing evidence might be the use of test subjects and experimenters who are open-minded and do not doubt in the existence of psi. The demand of skeptics to ban parapsychology from the realm of science have to be rejected. It is a science with its own special research conditions.