If there's effective collective unconscious intentionality to protect us from harm, why not permit ESP at better than chance level, and marginalize thoughts and acts of war? Doesn't make sense. Doesn't fit with how the world appears to work in all other respects.
Chance level? The collective unconscious (or objective psyche) does indeed permit psi at a better-than-chance-level. "The magnitude of psychic functioning exhibited appears to be in the range between what social scientists call a small and medium effect. That means that it is reliable enough to be replicated in properly conducted experiments, with sufficient trials to achieve the long-run statistical results needed for replicability." -Jessica Utts
How do we tell the difference between a world in which aspirin can prevent a second heart attack and a world in which it doesn't? Very carefully!
There is of course evidence that aspirin can prevent you from having a second heart attack. It's a small effect, but it's enough to put on an aspirin label as a selling point.
In contrast there is FAR MORE evidence that psi is real than that aspirin can prevent a second heart attack, but you won't read
that on a label.
Of couse lots of people will live their entire lives without giving a crap that aspirin can prevent a second heart attack. Lots of people will live their lives not giving a crap whether psi is real or not.
But even a small to medium effect size is important. It says something about who we are, what we can become, and what the nature of reality is. It says that there is a part of human nature, which we are mostly unaware of, which can utterly transcend time and space.
So why is psi so weak? There are several theories.
1) alleged psi results are actually due to methodological artifacts and oversights
2) few people have psi
3) psi depends on precarious psychological conditions
4) psi occurs frequently without notice
5) psi is an efficient goal-oriented process subject to shifting goals
6) fear of psi suppresses psi
7) evolution has inhibited psi
8) psi serves ecological rather than personal purposes
9) the purpose of psi is personal or spiritual growth
10) psi effects are influenced by many people in the future
11) psi is controlled by nonphysical beings.
Most of JREF will favor #1. I favor a combination of all the above, with the exceptions of 1, 2, and 11. WRT #11, I don't consider the archetypes to be nonphysical beings. I consider them part of
our being, and us a part of theirs.
The biggest difference psi has made in my life is #9, it has opened me to a level of reality that is transcendent. It has blown my mind many times over, and forced me to see past the limits of belief systems. That is not an easy thing to go through.
Psi enables us to reach out of our skulls and pursue the art of union with reality. That is the key to reaching our full potential as a species, and it's the key to spiritual growth. Psi enables us to tap into the collective unconscious and make a home there, which we can go to after our bodies can no longer sustain us.
