In the Light of Occam's Razor: A Critical Analysis of Parapsychology

activity fall to mere supposition when viewed through the lens of Occam’s razor. The largest of
these assumptions was that made by J. B. Rhine in his study of extrasensory perception (ESP).
To examine the existence of what he believed to be psi phenomena, Rhine conducted tests in
which subjects attempted to guess the order of cards in a set on which was inscribed one of five
symbols. Over 90,000 of these tests were completed, and from the gathered data, this
investigator asserted that ESP is a real and quantifiable happening (Rhine, 1973). This
conclusion was based upon a small number of test subjects who were able to guess a larger
percentage of the cards correctly than statistical chance predicted. Such data does not tend to
show the absolute truth of the hypothesized occurrence, as it is not a preponderance of the
evidence and makes unjustifiable leaps to outlandish explanations. Adhering to the law of
parsimony, there are various potential explanations for these statistical anomalies with the first
being simple chance. With such a large number of tests performed, it is likely that some data
points will lie outside of the predicted average. Furthermore, dishonesty in experimental
procedure could very likely account for these outliers in the data. Greater than ten individuals
who assisted Rhine were found to be involved in fraudulent activities, yet their names were never
released and data gathered with their involvement was used to arrive at the final, bold statement.
Such simple interpretations of the data place the idea of metaphysical happenings far beyond the
scope of veritable science.
A second tenet in the field of parapsychology is the belief in the supernatural importance
of near-death experiences. By definition, a so-called near-death experience occurs when an
individual comes close to death or experiences clinical death and is revived; many of those who
have been in such a state report feeling elation and seeing the image of a light forming at the end
of a tunnel (“Near-Death Experiences”, n.d.). Men and women of the pseudoscientific world
have attributed these feelings to a variety of phenomena including the journey to a realm of life
after death and have offered these qualitative observations as evidence of the professed afterlife.
These individuals have strived to make scientific claims based solely upon the vague accounts of
those who underwent such trauma, and thus base what they believe to be rational conclusions
upon questionable, second-hand observations.
In addition to this fundamental error in the scientific reasoning behind parapsychologists’
explanation for these visions, the religious and paranormal associations of near-death
experiences are inane when viewed in the light of Occam’s razor. A plethora of simple,
scientifically accepted causes for these commonly reported sensations exist. The first of these
elucidations is that humans close to death often enter a state of shock, in which they may
experience delirium and impaired sensory perception, hence the sight of a small amount of light
and feeling of euphoria. Another logical cause of contentment and unusual visions during a
near-death experience are the potential physical ailments that caused a person to enter an infirm
state. Two common conditions that cause death or near-death are brain trauma and severe blood
loss, both of which can cause impaired mental abilities and altered visual perspective. These
explanations for the sensations of near-death experiences are significantly more parsimonious to
the conventions of science, and thus must be considered before the miraculous contrivances of
parapsychologists.