Metaphor, Parapsychology and Psi: An Examination of Metaphors Related to Paranormal Experience and Parapsychological Research

Recent research into metaphor and the role of imagination in categorization has been particularly revealing. The contemporary view of metaphor as proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) attempts to provide a more useful and accurate account of human experience than the current objectivist explanations. In contrast to these, it emphasizes the importance of metaphor, imagination, and embodiment in our interactions with reality. This paper focuses on the metaphorical constructions employed in categorizing the phenomena investigated in parapsychology and psychical research. It is proposed that three main metaphors have been used: intrusions, transmissions/forces, and connections. These metaphors reflect the ways in which researchers, interested parties, experients, and laypersons have sought to structure their experiences and beliefs; as such, they provide valuable information about the way in which these parties understand psi. In addition, a brief examination is also made of the relevance of metaphors to quantitative and qualititative research and their use in the rhetorical communication of psi concepts. It was all a machine yesterday. It is something like a hologram today. Who knows what intellectual rattle we shall be shaking tomorrow to calm the dread of the emptiness of our understanding of the explanations of our meaningless correlations. (Laing, 1982, p. 66) Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 3) The essential point ... is that metaphors can sometimes have an extraordinary power, not only to extend the thought processes of science, but also to penetrate into as yet unknown domains of reality, which are in some sense implicit in the metaphor....it does suggest that scientific metaphors which link unrelated but fundamental concepts may be especially significant. (Bohm & Peat, 1987, p. 41) In the last few decades there has been a growing interest in examining language and the communication of social reality. Credit must be given to Wittgenstein as the main initiator of this movement. In contrast to his earlier theories, his later work argued that language is a toolkit and that word meanings are socially constructed (Wittgenstein, 1958). Further support for this view came from the work of Reddy (1993). In his classic analysis of the conduit metaphor, Reddy proposed that contrary to our normal view, words are not discrete packages that contain meaning (the meaning is in the words), but that meaning is constructed. Instead of getting my thoughts across to you, my communication involves using symbols from which you construct a meaning, and as we share the same culture this reconstruction should roughly correspond to the meaning I intended. We see the words themselves as units of communication, as containers of meaning, and this position lulls us into thinking that information and meaning is crystallized and independent of the communication process. Reddy proposes that it is much more fluid and reliant upon what we bring to the communication from our cultural and conceptual background. This postmodern focus on construction of meaning and the importance of text and textuality in psychology is succinctly communicated by Gergen (1994) and by Stenner and Eccleston (1994). This movement has caught the attention of