Para holocM
                                         ffirooz 0
      Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00789R60 66-6
                        PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, INC.
                                  P.O. Box 12236
      Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
      Contact: Dr. Dean Radin, Princeton University, 609-987-2930
      PRESS RELEASE
                 NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL SUPPRESSES EVIDENCE IN
                           ASSESSMENT OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY
      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - The President of the Parapsychological Association, Dr. Dean 1.
      Radin, has released a report responding to the National Research Council's (NRC) recent assessment of
      parapsychology, commissioned by the US Army. The NRC Committee concluded that there was "no
      scientific justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years for the existence of
      parapsychological phenomena." The Parapsycholog ical Association, an affiliate of the American
      Association for the Advancement of Science, states in its report that the NFIC conclusion was biased
      through blatant suppression of evidence, including an attempt to delete favorable passages in a paper
      commissioned by the NRC itself.
      Specifically, the Parapsychological Association's report reveals that
      (1) The two principal evaluators of parapsychology for the NRC Committee have had a long-
      standing, public committment against parapsychology, while scientists with more favorable opinions were
      excluded from the Committee. This is in direct violation of the NRC's stated policy of assigning members
      to committees "with regard to appropriate balance."
      (2) The NRC report systematically omits findings favorable to parapsychology but quotes liberally
      from two background papers that support the Committee's position. More disturbing, it has been learned
      that the Chairman of the NRC Committee actually called one of the authors of a background paper that was
      favorable to parapsychology and asked him to withdraw his positive conclusions.
      (More)
      Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO3800370001 -0

      Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : ClA-RDP96-0079§RbV5Vffl7(fd69 -20
      (3) In spite of the Committee's prejudice against parapsychology, and in spite of its attempt to
      suppress favorable expert opinion, the report is self-contradictory. The Committee concluded that there
      was no evidence for parapsychological phenomena, yet by its own admission it could offer no plausible
      alternatives to much of the research it surveyed. Moreover, the Committee recommended that the Army,
      which paid a half a million dollars for the report, should continue to "monitor' parapsychological research
      being conducted at laboratories in the United States and in the Soviet Union.
      The Parapsychological Association's report, co-authored by Dr. John Palmer, Institute for
      Parapsychology, Durham, NC, Charles Honorton, Psychophysical Research Laboratories, Princeton, NJ,
      and Dr. Jessica Utts, University of California, Davis, CA, also listed classes of psi effects repeatedly
      demonstrated in laboratory studies, and included several examples of applications of psi phenomena of
      potential interest to national security.
      -30-
      Note: The press kit includes (a) this press release, (b) a letter to Dr. Frank Press (President of the National
      Academy of Sciences) and (c) the Parapsychological Association's response to the NRC report. The
      Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association will be held August 17-20, 1988, at Le Nouvel
      Hotel, Montreal, Canada. Among the scheduled events is a panel discussion on the NRC report by the
      authors of the Parapsychological Association report.
      For more information about the Parapsychological Association convention, contact Mrs. Laura Knipe at
      212-247-7847 or Patrice Keane at 212-799-5050.
      Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO3800370001 -0

      
         Approved For Release 2000108110 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO3800370001-0
         "The gist of this type of criticism is that test tubes should be clean when doing careful and important
         scientific research. To the extent that the test tubes were dirty, it is suggested that the experiment was
         not carried out according to acceptable scientific standards. Consequently, the results remain suspect
         even though the critic cannot demonstrate that the dirt in the test tubes was sufficient to have produced
         the outcome ...... (p. 199-200).
         In other words, the Committee could think of no scientific explanation for the selected studies that
         they reviewed. Parapsychologists often refer to these unexplained anomalies as psi phenomena.
         Considering the NRC Committee's bias against the phenomena studied, their admission of finding
         no plausible alternatives must be taken as a compelling endorsement of the existence of anomalous
         effects.
         In conclusion, we believe that the NRC's findings about parapsychological phenomena are wrong
         - anomalous effects that cannot be explained by prevailing scientific models continue to be
         demonstrated, repeatedly,. in laboratory studies.
         Sincerely,
         Dean I. Radin, Ph.D.
         President, Parapsychological Association, Inc.
         Department of Psychology, Green Hall
         Princeton University
         Princeton, NJ 08544
         Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO3800370001 -0