My Library

When psychical research was transformed into parapsychological research, this kind of inquiry soon ceased and it was apparent that parapsychologists were no longer interested in the matter. I asked Schmeidler about this, and her answer was as follows. Almost all of the psychic subjects said different things, and in ways which were largely inarticulate to the researchers, and which made it difficult for the researchers to understand. Most subjects did not possess a functional background regarding psychical research, parapsychology or the routines of science. And so the basis for direct communicating was very wobbly. This ultimately created a morass of "inarticulateness" which was hard to negotiate by the researchers, and (in Schmeidler’s words) "everyone just gave up trying to do so." ARTICULATE means "to give clear and effective utterance to or about something." But it also means to discuss things in ways which permit OTHERS to comprehend what one is uttering. In other words, one may be articulating something quite clearly within one’s own head and within one’s own realities. But the whole of this may be quite confusing, even alien, to others. One may well be uttering something quite clearly. BUT even so, if another person is simply not understanding it anyway, then one has to sense that this is so and adapt one’s utterances to the other’s level of understanding. Otherwise all that will transpire is that the