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Actually, it does. The likelihood that ESP actually works is significantly less than the likelihood of "the decline effect", which is explained by a number of perfectly rational factors (touched upon in the article.)

If you want to claim that "ESP is bullshit" (as you and I both do, I imagine), you somehow need to account for those (rare) studies which oddly enough seem to support an ESP effect at a statistically significant level. "The decline effect" goes a ways toward providing this explanation.



In other words, parapsychology is the control group for science: http://lesswrong.com/lw/1ib/parapsychology_the_control_group...


This article is one example (pre-cognition as opposed to ESP, but in the same vein):

http://hplusmagazine.com/editors-blog/precognition-real-corn...

I think it comes down to we don't know nearly as much about our little existence as we like to think.




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