Psychic Staring

Psychic Staring

Seven Experiments that Could Change the World

In his book, “Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science”, Rupert Sheldrake had exposed a vision of things (Sheldrake, 2002). It is important to note that performing scientific experiments in a thoughtful and controlled environment is a very tricky and challenging operation to do. Sheldrake conducted research on the paranormal, and in such case the claims which are made are usually difficult to prove with empirical evidence as the effects are often unreliable and small.

The Theory of the Staring Effect

Rupert Sheldrake had a new and radical theory of staring effect and perception. According to Sheldrake, people do not see the images of things inside their brains. He felt that there is a possibility for images to exist outside of us, and stated that vision involves a process that is two-way, including a movement of light that is inwards and a projection of mental images that is outwards (Sheldrake, 2002). However, there seems to be not much support for this belief of his as it is against the rules of science for images to be formed outside us. Science says that images are formed inside our brains and that is how we develop the vision of the things we see. Even then, Sheldrake did propose statements to support his claims. He said that as people read a page, the rays of light travel from the paper in front of them, go into their eyes and then they enter the centers of visual processing of the brain.

Sheldrake suggested that people's perceptions and images of these words are usually projected outwards by means of one's eyes into the outside world. During the time this happens, the perceptions and images of the words are projected outwards into the world through people's eyes, and they rest at the exact point where the page is (Sheldrake, 2002). However, this claim of Sheldrake does not seem to make complete sense since if the images were projected outwards, they would not necessarily end up at the exact point where the object was. Therefore it can be said that Sheldrake made a statement without any critical evidence to support it and his claims did seem to make sense to those who wanted to believe them, but scientifically, his claim of outward projection does not seem to be viable and true. It is not possible for a conflict to not exist between the image of the page and the real page even if they look the same and occupy the same area of space. It would thus be wrong to say that images are projected outwards, since they are always projected inside the brain as the rules of science depict (Colwell & Marks, 2000). Also, in case of hallucinations and illusions, the images do not go in line with the things that are outside us even when they are involving projection, and if Sheldrake's claim was to be followed, the image would coincide with the ...