Anomalous Cognition and Psychokinesis Research in Australia and Asian Labs

Abstract

Contemporary parapsychological research in Australia, Japan, and China is, after many decades of slow and impeded progress, now suggestive of a burgeoning field. In Australia, names such as Maurice Clement Marsh, Peter Delin, and many others from recent decades of psi research would be known to very few parapsychologists today, but others, such as Michael Thalbourne, Jurgen Keil, and Harvey Irwin, have international reputations - in fact, both Thalbourne and Irwin were recipients of the Parapsychological Association's Outstanding Contribution Award. Thalbourne in South Australia and Irwin in New South Wales started their parapsychological careers in the 1970s, and they are considered guiding lights in Australian parapsychology. Reviews of their independent theoretical work, and Thalbourne's laboratory-based psi research, comprise a major part of this chapter. We will also feature fellow Australian researchers H. H. Jurgen Keil, Peter Delin, Tony Jinks, Rafael Locke, Simon Harvey-Wilson, and Krissy Wilson, as well as our own research. We cannot overlook a number of up-and-coming researchers, including Hannah Jenkins, Vladimir Dubaj, George Van Doorn, and Alexander De Foe. Finally, we will briefly review some equally important work from researchers in Japan and China. We argue that the efforts of these researchers have made a substantial contribution to international parapsychology. However, to echo and extend the suggestion made by Harvey Irwin more than 25 years ago, the main reason parapsychological research fails to flourish in Australia and other remote regions compared to most other parts of the world is a financial one, and it would appear that "independently financed center[s] for parapsychological research" would solve the problems that confront the discipline of parapsychology.