René Warcollier: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|French chemical engineer and parapsychologist}} |
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{{Infobox person |
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| image = Rene Warcollier psychical researcher.png |
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|birth_date = 8 April 1881 |
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|death_date = {{dda|1962|5|23|1881|4|8|df=y}} |
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| occupation = Chemical engineer, [[Parapsychology|Parapsychologist]]}} |
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==Biography== |
==Biography== |
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Warcollier was born on |
Warcollier was born on 8 April 1881 at Omonville-la-Rouge in Paris. He obtained a degree in chemical engineering in 1903 from the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie. He patented several processes related to the synthetic production of precious stones, and invented special screens for movie projection.<ref name="biog">Pleasants, H. (Ed.). (1964). ''Biographical dictionary of parapsychology''. New York, NY, US: Helix.</ref> |
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In parapsychology, Warcollier first served as treasurer of the Institut Métapsychique (1929–1938), then editor of its journal, the ''Revue Métapsychique'', (1938–1940), and then as its president (1951–1962).<ref name="biog" /> He died on May |
In parapsychology, Warcollier first served as treasurer of the Institut Métapsychique International (1929–1938), then editor of its journal, the ''Revue Métapsychique'', (1938–1940), and then as its president (1951–1962).<ref name="biog" /> He died on 23 May 1962. |
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==Studies== |
==Studies== |
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Warcollier's main parapsychology studies involved experiments using a [[telepathy]] design in which one or more "agents" observed a target image while one or more "percipients" attempted to "blindly" reproduce it. Much of his work following from 1922 involved "batteries" of senders and receivers stationed across France; and he also used sender-receiver teams stationed between France and New York, and France and Great Britain. |
Warcollier's main parapsychology studies involved experiments using a [[telepathy]] design in which one or more "agents" observed a target image while one or more "percipients" attempted to "blindly" reproduce it. Much of his work following from 1922 involved "batteries" of senders and receivers stationed across France; and he also used sender-receiver teams stationed between France and New York, and France and Great Britain. He worked with [[Gardner Murphy]].<ref>Jesse Hong Xiong. (2009). ''The Outline of Parapsychology''. University Press of America. p. 90.</ref> |
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Supporters of Warcollier say that his experimental method was an advance in terms of evidence and informativeness on earlier studies using drawings of real objects as target stimuli. A major contemporary critic was the British parapsychologist [[Samuel Soal]]. He argued that Warcollier's method was sub-optimal as the targets were not sufficiently selected at random, and correspondences between targets and responses were identified without formal and objective limitations.<ref>Soal, S. G. (1932). Experiments in supernormal perception at a distance. ''Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research'', ''40'', 165-362.</ref> |
Supporters of Warcollier say that his experimental method was an advance in terms of evidence and informativeness on earlier studies using drawings of real objects as target stimuli. A major contemporary critic was the British parapsychologist [[Samuel Soal]]. He argued that Warcollier's method was sub-optimal as the targets were not sufficiently selected at random, and correspondences between targets and responses were identified without formal and objective limitations.<ref>Soal, S. G. (1932). ''Experiments in supernormal perception at a distance''. ''Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research'', ''40'', 165-362.</ref> |
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Warcollier discarded the statistical method and attempted to obtain direct evidence for telepathy. He claimed from his experiments that men transmit thoughts |
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| ⚫ | Warcollier reported his experiments in numerous articles, principally within 56 articles in the ''Revue Métapsychique'' published between 1924 and 1962, including "La télépathie expérimentale" (1926) and "Étude de dessins télépathiques de M. Vigneron au cours de vingt ans d'expérimentation" (1951). Results and reflections upon them were also published in his several books, including ''La Télepathie'' (1921) and ''La Métapsychique'' (1940; 1946). Gardner Murphy arranged to have ''La Télepathie'' translated and published in the United States, with additional material from Warcollier's articles, and an address he gave to the Sorbonne in 1946, as ''Mind to mind'' (1938). |
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better than women but that women are better receivers. He also stated that younger people are more sensitive to mental impressions than the elderly. His experiments were well received by parapsychologists such as [[Harry Price]] but were criticized by the scientific community.<ref>Price, Harry. (1940). ''Reviewed Work: Experiments in Telepathy by René Warcollier''. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. Vol. 88, No. 4569. pp. 848-849.</ref><ref>Asprem, Egil. (2014). ''The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900-1939''. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 352-354. {{ISBN|978-9004251922}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | Warcollier reported his experiments in numerous articles, principally within 56 articles in the ''Revue Métapsychique'' published between 1924 and 1962, including "La télépathie expérimentale" (1926) and "Étude de dessins télépathiques de M. Vigneron au cours de vingt ans d'expérimentation" (1951). Results and reflections upon them were also published in his several books, including ''La Télepathie'' (1921) and ''La Métapsychique'' (1940; 1946). Gardner Murphy arranged to have ''La Télepathie'' translated and published in the United States, with additional material from Warcollier's articles, and an address he gave to the Sorbonne in 1946, as ''Mind to mind'' (1938, 1963).<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3403804779.html René Warcollier (1881-1962)] in the ''Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology''. 2001.</ref> |
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==Theories== |
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Warcollier interpreted "distortions" in what he felt were telepathically-transmitted messages and used these to propose several "laws" of [[psi (parapsychology)|psiological]] perception. He wrote that images were telepathically transmitted with spatial dissociation of their geometric properties that often stripped them of any functional organisation and that the geometrical properties were recombined through "primitive" rules of organisation such as physical likeness, and equally primitive transformations of features, such as inversion, reduction, fusion, and duplication. Citing [[Pierre Janet]]'s proposition that "every idea of an object contains the germ of an act appropriate to it" (''Mind to mind'', p. 22), Warcollier wrote that "primitive" movement was often added to or abstracted from an image, and a subject's ability to describe geometric properties of a target without being able to name it or describe its function was evidence of such "primitive" structuring of perception. |
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==Publications== |
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Consistent with the theories of other psychic researchers of the time, Warcollier conceived of his experiments as involving telepathy in which a telepathic signal was transmitted from one mind and received by another. He theorized that the common distortions between the transmitted and received signals were the result of error at the receiving rather than transmission end. He felt that telepathic signals had a "staccato character" due to the need to successively shift attention from the signal to present environmental stimuli, and led to "disassembling" the target in the process of deploying attention towards it. He advocated hypnosis and relaxation as a means to stabilize attention to "telepathic signals". |
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*''Experiments in Telepathy'' (1938) |
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*''Mind to Mind'' (1948) |
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Warcollier argued against a recency or identity advantage in the contents activated for representation of "telepathic signals". He proposed that recent memories were more likely to be inhibited, and remote memories were more likely to be activated, hence the telepathic product would reflect the "dynamic patterns" that constituted the personality. Warcollier concluded that "telepathy is facilitated when the agent and the percipient scarcely know each other" (''Mind to mind'', p. 36). He felt that affinity appeared to be facilitative in spontaneous cases of apparent telepathy but could also be problematic, he proposed, as it amplified personal meanings in association to the targets. |
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Warcollier described his theory of telepathy as the "coupling of agent and percipient into a poly-psychic whole."<ref>Warcollier, R. (1948). Suggestions for experiments in parapsychology. ''Journal of Parapsychology'', ''12'', 119-123.</ref> His communication model of psi included the notion of transmission between senders and receivers.<ref>Stanford, R. G. (1978). Toward reinterpreting psi events. ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', ''72'', 197-214.</ref> Many of Warcollier's specific propositions have been used by parapsychologists to interpret their own models of "psi". In particular, his interpretation of the role of altered states in "signal transmission" was represented in [[Charles Honorton]]'s ''noise-reduction model'' of psi facilitation, which, in turn, served as a rationale for [[Ganzfeld]] methodology.<ref>Honorton, C. (1977). Psi and internal attention states. In B. B. Wolman (Ed.), ''Handbook of parapsychology'' (pp. 435-472). New York, NY, US: Van Nostrand Reinhold.</ref> According to parapsychologists and psychical researchers, key components of Warcollier's experimental observations have been confirmed by the [[Mental Radio|Sinclairs]] and the [[Remote viewing|remote-viewing]] experiments in the early 1970s conducted at the Stanford Research Institute by Puthoff and Targ.<ref>Puthoff, H. E., & Targ, R. (2002). A perceptual channel for information transfer over kilometer distances: Historical perspective and recent research. In C. T. Tart, H. E. Puthoff & R. Targ (Eds.), Mind at large: IEEE symposia on the nature of extrasensory perception (pp. 13-69). Charlottesville, VA, US: Hampton Roads. Originally published 1979.</ref><ref>Sinclair, U. (2001). ''Mental radio''. Charlottesville, VA, US: Hampton Roads. Originally published 1930.</ref> |
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Parapsychologists such as Rhea White say that although Warcollier's studies have been superseded by [[Remote viewing|remote-viewing]] and [[Ganzfeld]] paradigms, his attention to the cognitive processes of reproducing targets, with details of [[introspection]]ist data in his reports, stood him apart from much of the American research into [[extrasensory perception]].<ref>White, R. A. (1964). A comparison of old and new methods of response to targets in ESP experiments. ''Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', ''58'', 21-56.</ref> which in turn, inspired the key participant procedures in the remote-viewing and Ganzfeld paradigms. |
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==Further reading== |
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*Pleasants, H. (Ed.). (1964). ''Biographical dictionary of parapsychology''. New York, NY, US: Helix. |
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*Swann, I. (2001). Preface. In R. Warcollier, ''Mind to mind'' (pp. ix-xv). Charlottesville, VA, US: Hampton Roads. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{reflist|2}} |
{{reflist|2}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Parapsychology}} |
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* {{Internet Archive author |sname=René Warcollier}} |
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{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. --> |
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| ALTERNATIVE NAMES = |
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = French parapsychologist |
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| DATE OF BIRTH = 1881 |
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| DATE OF DEATH = 1962 |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Warcollier, Rene}} |
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warcollier, Rene}} |
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[[Category:Parapsychologists]] |
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[[Category:1881 births]] |
[[Category:1881 births]] |
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[[Category:1962 deaths]] |
[[Category:1962 deaths]] |
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[[Category:French chemical engineers]] |
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[[Category:French parapsychologists]] |
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[[Category:Scientists from Paris]] |
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Latest revision as of 10:43, 22 July 2023
René Warcollier | |
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| Born | 8 April 1881 |
| Died | 23 May 1962 (aged 81) |
| Occupation(s) | Chemical engineer, Parapsychologist |
René Warcollier (8 April 1881 – 23 May 1962) was a French chemical engineer and parapsychologist. He was president of the Institut Métapsychique International, and edited and wrote theoretical and experimental reports for its journal.
Biography
[edit]Warcollier was born on 8 April 1881 at Omonville-la-Rouge in Paris. He obtained a degree in chemical engineering in 1903 from the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie. He patented several processes related to the synthetic production of precious stones, and invented special screens for movie projection.[1]
In parapsychology, Warcollier first served as treasurer of the Institut Métapsychique International (1929–1938), then editor of its journal, the Revue Métapsychique, (1938–1940), and then as its president (1951–1962).[1] He died on 23 May 1962.
Studies
[edit]Warcollier's main parapsychology studies involved experiments using a telepathy design in which one or more "agents" observed a target image while one or more "percipients" attempted to "blindly" reproduce it. Much of his work following from 1922 involved "batteries" of senders and receivers stationed across France; and he also used sender-receiver teams stationed between France and New York, and France and Great Britain. He worked with Gardner Murphy.[2]
Supporters of Warcollier say that his experimental method was an advance in terms of evidence and informativeness on earlier studies using drawings of real objects as target stimuli. A major contemporary critic was the British parapsychologist Samuel Soal. He argued that Warcollier's method was sub-optimal as the targets were not sufficiently selected at random, and correspondences between targets and responses were identified without formal and objective limitations.[3]
Warcollier discarded the statistical method and attempted to obtain direct evidence for telepathy. He claimed from his experiments that men transmit thoughts better than women but that women are better receivers. He also stated that younger people are more sensitive to mental impressions than the elderly. His experiments were well received by parapsychologists such as Harry Price but were criticized by the scientific community.[4][5]
Warcollier reported his experiments in numerous articles, principally within 56 articles in the Revue Métapsychique published between 1924 and 1962, including "La télépathie expérimentale" (1926) and "Étude de dessins télépathiques de M. Vigneron au cours de vingt ans d'expérimentation" (1951). Results and reflections upon them were also published in his several books, including La Télepathie (1921) and La Métapsychique (1940; 1946). Gardner Murphy arranged to have La Télepathie translated and published in the United States, with additional material from Warcollier's articles, and an address he gave to the Sorbonne in 1946, as Mind to mind (1938, 1963).[6]
Publications
[edit]- Experiments in Telepathy (1938)
- Mind to Mind (1948)
References
[edit]- ^ a b Pleasants, H. (Ed.). (1964). Biographical dictionary of parapsychology. New York, NY, US: Helix.
- ^ Jesse Hong Xiong. (2009). The Outline of Parapsychology. University Press of America. p. 90.
- ^ Soal, S. G. (1932). Experiments in supernormal perception at a distance. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 40, 165-362.
- ^ Price, Harry. (1940). Reviewed Work: Experiments in Telepathy by René Warcollier. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. Vol. 88, No. 4569. pp. 848-849.
- ^ Asprem, Egil. (2014). The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900-1939. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 352-354. ISBN 978-9004251922
- ^ René Warcollier (1881-1962) in the Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. 2001.
External links
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