John G. Taylor - Parapsychology

Parapsychology

Taylor after witnessing metal bending by Uri Geller became interested in parapsychology. At first he believed that Geller's feats were genuine as well as other reported paranormal phenomena. He wrote a book titled Superminds: an enquiry into the paranormal (1975) in which he argued for a physical explanation for the paranormal. He believed the explanation for metal bending, psychokinesis, ESP and other paranormal phenomena may be found in electromagnetism. He was concerned to establish whether there is an electromagnetic basis for the phenomena however after failing to find it, he did not believe that there could be any other physical explanation. Many of his experiments under laboratory conditions were negative which left him skeptical regarding the validity of the reported phenomena. Taylor later became a skeptic of the paranormal, in his book Science and the Supernatural (1980) he declared that all reports of ESP and psychokinesis were either frauds or hallucinations as he came to the conclusion that the paranormal can not be reconciled with modern physics.