Russell Targ - Practical Applications of Psychic Abilities

Russell Targ is an American physicist and author, an ESP researcher, and pioneer in the earliest development of the laser. At the Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s and 1980s, Targ and his colleague Harold E. Puthoff co-founded a 23-year, $25-million program of research into psychic abilities and their operational use for the U.S. intelligence community, including the CIA, Defence Intelligence Agency and Army Intelligence. These abilities are referred to collectively as "remote viewing.

Entangled Minds: A noetic science talk by researcher and professional noetic scientist Dean Radin

Noetic Sciences, illusionism, delusions and frauds,

The history of psychical research includes some precedent of frauds and unintentional delusions.

By this reason, magicians have played a role in psychical research, both as debunkers and as qualified experts that offer suggestions to better the experimental design when testing psychics.

It's well known that magicians can replicate almost every kind of paranornal phenomena. And magicians like the great illusionist David Copperfield can do things as far better and beyond the skills of real psychics or mediums.

Just watch these videos by Copperfield, and you can understand what I mean:






For the purposes of noetic sciences in general and psychical research in particular, what's of interest is that psi (or paranormal) phenomena might be replicated by experienced magicians.

For this reason, it is wise, useful and necessary to know the relevant methods and tricks of professional magicians when designing experiments to test psychics and mediums.

There is an interesting paper by George Hansen about frauds and delusions in psychical research and how to avoid them.

Perfecting the experimental designs when testing psychics and mediums is always a wise and scientifically correct idea.