ESP and all that

Last night I was reading a book from the 1970's about the study of Parapsychology, probably pretty outdated by now, but nevertheless it really suprised me when it described these experiments into telepathy, clairvoyance and telekinesis that took place between the 1930s and the end of the '70s. I had no idea such incontrovertible evidence existed, even then, of the widespread occurence of these phenomena. When the research began, there was this enormous opposition from the scientific community towards even conducting these experiments. The researchers were slandered and persecuted, some to the point of suicide, all in an attempt to discredit their evidence.

Why? Well, fear of the new and fear of change and anything that could rock the status quo. Basically the old orthodoxy, which was religion and the church and fought fiercely against the new science, for example Darwin's Theory of Evolution, has been replaced by the new orthodoxy of science, and the same old "head in the sand" attitudes have grown up around science, working actively against its claimed objectitiy and detachment.

Where once (and again, actually, if you look at the growth of religious fundamentalism in the US, for example), science was hounded for daring to suggest that there might be other explanations for the nature of the universe, now it is science which refuses even to look into paranormal phenomena and a sort of conspiracy of silence seems to have built up around the whole issue. Its a kind of taboo to mention it in polite society, people think you're bonkers and look at you strangely. Why! When this is all longstanding proven fact?

I just can't understand how those who claim to be rigorously objective and realistic in their appraisal of the universe can justify such claims whilst ignoring truths that actively contradict their world-view.

For example, some of the experiments carried out in the UK found out that not only could subjects transmit mental messages across spaces as large as 250 miles with no loss of (and sometimes even an improvement in) accuracy, but that just as frequently as messages were accurately received after being transmitted, they were received before they had even been selected!

This obvioulsy means that both time and space can be transcended by the mind, and offers clear evidence that our perception of reality, as firmly grounded in physical space and linear time, is not reality, or at least not the whole story.

Am I mad or isnt that incredible? Why hasn't such knowledge shaken the foundations of our beliefs to their core? Is it that its too much for us to contemplate so we just shut it out? Is it a conspiracy by those in power to keep us ignorant?

And now physics is now showing up masses of the same evidence, time and space being sort of invented or perceived realities not objective facts.

Excuse my lack of real knowledge about any of this. It s the ideas that fascinate me, but I dont have any grounding in science. Am going to try and find some easy layman's texts to get a bit more knowledgable.