Dean Radin

{{short description|American parapsychologist}} {{Infobox person | name = Dean Radin | image =  | alt =  | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1952|02|29}} | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | nationality =  | education = {{plainlist|BS in Electrical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst *Master's in Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign *PhD in Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign}} | other_names = | occupation = Parapsychologist | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | module = {{Infobox musical artist | background = person | embed = yes | genre = Classical | instrument = Violin | years_active =  | label = | past_member_of = }} }} '''Dean Radin''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|eɪ|d|ɪ|n}}; born February 29, 1952) is an American parapsychologist.

Following a bachelor and master's degree in electrical engineering and a PhD in educational psychology Radin worked at Bell Labs, as a researcher at Princeton University and the University of Edinburgh, and was a faculty member at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

He then became Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Petaluma, California, USA, later becoming the president of the Parapsychological Association.<ref name="Haraldsson">{{cite web|title=History of the Parapsychological Association Presidents|author-link=Erlendur Haraldsson|last=Haraldsson|first= Erlendur|publisher=Parapsychological Association|url=http://parapsych.org/history_of_pa_presidents.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030219181924/http://parapsych.org/history_of_pa_presidents.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 19, 2003|access-date=January 30, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Institute Staff|newspaper=Ions |publisher=Institute of Noetic Sciences|url=http://www.noetic.org/directory/person/dean-radin/|access-date=October 20, 2013}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=October 2022}} He is also co-editor-in-chief of the journal ''Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Explore Editorial board|url=http://explorejournal.com/edboard|access-date=June 19, 2010}}</ref>

Radin's paranormal ideas and work have been widely criticized by skeptic scientists and philosophers.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Milton|first1=Julie and Richard Wiseman|title=Guidelines for Extrasensory Perception Research (Guidelines for Research in Parapsychology)|date=April 28, 1997|publisher=University Of Hertfordshire Press|isbn=0900458747}}</ref><ref name="Stenger2002">{{cite journal|last=Stenger|first=Victor J.|title=Meta-Analysis and the Filedrawer Effect|journal=Skeptical Inquirer|date=2002|volume= 12|url=http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/meta-analysis_and_the_filedrawer_effect|access-date=October 24, 2013|author-link=Victor J Stenger}}</ref><ref name="Carroll">{{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/refuge/entangledreview.html |title=Entangled Minds by Dean Radin - Book Review |publisher= The Skeptic's Dictionary |access-date=2014-08-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Krippner|first1=Stanley| author1-link = Stanley Krippner|author2=Harris L. Friedman |title=Debating Psychic Experience: Human Potential Or Human Illusion?|date=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0313392610}}</ref>

==Education== Following a career in classical violin, Radin went on to earn an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as well as both a master's degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.harpercollins.com/author/microsite/about.aspx?authorid=7963 |title=Author Listings: HarperCollins Publishers |publisher=HarperCollins |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref> After his graduation, Radin worked at Bell Labs, and then conducted research at Princeton University, GTE Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, SRI International, Interval Research Corporation, and was a faculty member at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.<ref name="Haraldsson"/>{{better source needed|date=October 2022}}

==Parapsychology== Radin was elected president of the Parapsychological Association in 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2005, and has published a number of articles and papers supporting the existence of paranormal phenomena, as well as two books directed to a popular audience: ''The Conscious Universe'' and ''Entangled Minds''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archived.parapsych.org/members/d_radin.html |title=Dean Radin |publisher=Archived.parapsych.org |access-date=2014-07-12 |archive-date=2014-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209093834/http://archived.parapsych.org/members/d_radin.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Radin believes that parapsychology is as repeatable as any scientific discipline, but that it is also, as paraphrased by sociologist Erich Goode, "elusive, subtle and complex", a field of study that is "difficult to replicate" and that "our understanding of it is incomplete".<ref name=PhilOfPseudoscience>{{cite book|last1=Pigliucci |first1=Massimo |author-link1=Massimo Pigliucci |last2=Boudry |first2=Maarten |author-link2=Maarten Boudry|title=Philosophy of pseudoscience : reconsidering the demarcation problem|date=2013|publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press|location=Chicago [u.a.]|isbn=9780226051796}}</ref>{{rp|157}}

Radin's paranormal claims have been rejected by those in the skeptical and mainstream scientific communities, some of whom have suggested that Radin's beliefs embrace pseudoscience and that he misunderstands the nature of science.<ref name=PhilOfPseudoscience />{{rp|158}}<ref>Smith, Jonathan (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=sJgONrua8IkC&dq=%22dean+radin%22+pseudoscience&pg=PT237 ''Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit'']. Wiley-Blackwell. {{ISBN|978-1405181228}}. Retrieved October 22, 2013.</ref><ref name="Park2000">Park, Robert (2000). ''Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud''. Oxford University Press. pp. 196-200. {{ISBN|0-19-860443-2}}</ref> The physicist Robert L. Park has written "No proof of psychic phenomena is ever found. In spite of all the tests devised by parapsychologists like Jahn and Radin, and huge amounts of data collected over a period of many years, the results are no more convincing today than when they began their experiments."<ref name="Park2000"/>

Chris French criticized Radin for his selective historical overview of parapsychology and for ignoring clear evidence of fraud. French recounts that the medium Florence Cook was caught in acts of trickery and two of the Fox sisters confessed to fraud, but that Radin did not mention this fact.<ref>French, Chris (2010). ''Missing the Point?''. In Stanley Krippner, Harris L. Friedman. [https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-p5TIyoNMC&dq=%22dean+radin%22+pseudoscience&pg=PA149 ''Debating Psychic Experience: Human Potential Or Human Illusion?'']. Praeger. {{ISBN|978-0313392610}}. Retrieved October 22, 2013.</ref> Radin has claimed the results from parapsychological research are as consistent by the same standards as any other scientific discipline, but Ray Hyman has written that many parapsychologists disagree with this, openly admitting that the evidence for parapsychology is "inconsistent, irreproducible, and fails to meet acceptable scientific standards".<ref>{{cite web|author=Ray Hyman |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/anomalous_cognition_a_second_perspective/ |title=Anomalous Cognition? A Second Perspective |website=csicop.org |date=July 2008 |access-date=2014-07-12|author-link=Ray Hyman }}</ref>

Radin and his colleagues have suggested that small-scale studies have produced a "genuine psychokinetic effect",<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Radin|first1=Dean|last2=Nelson|first2=Roger|last3=Dobyns|first3=York|last4=Houtkopper|first4=Joop|title=Reexamining psychokinesis: Comment on Bösch, Steinkamp, and Boller (2006)|journal= Psychological Bulletin|date=Jul 2006|volume=132|issue=4|pages=529–532|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.132.4.529 |pmid=16822164 |url=http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-08436-003|access-date=14 July 2014|url-access=subscription}}</ref> but critics have asserted that Radin has not shown evidence that the null hypothesis of such an effect could be confidently rejected.<ref>Wilson, David B.; Shadish, William R. (2006). [http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/132/4/524/ "On blowing trumpets to the tulips: To prove or not to prove the null hypothesis--Comment on Bösch, Steinkamp, and Boller" ](2006). ''Psychological Bulletin'' 132: 524-528.</ref><ref name="Bower2006">{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mind-matter-data-analysis-challenges-psychokinesis |title=From Mind to Matter: Data analysis challenges psychokinesis |publisher=Science News |date=2006-07-19 |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref> Further, psychologists David B. Wilson and William R. Shadish, writing in ''Psychological Bulletin'', criticized claims made by Radin and his associates that human minds can psychically influence random number generators, saying that parapsychologists "need to go beyond statistics and explain how the mind might influence a computer, then test that prediction".<ref name="Bower2006"/> Radin has appealed to quantum mechanics as a mechanism, claiming that it can explain the non-locality and backward causality associated with psi phenomena, though such ideas are harshly criticized by many physicists who study quantum mechanics as being pseudoscientific.<ref name=PhilOfPseudoscience />{{efn|See also Quantum mysticism and Quantum mind}}<ref name="Carroll" /><ref name=npr2009>{{cite web | url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104351710 | publisher = National Public Radio | title = Can Positive Thoughts Help Heal Another Person? | series = The Science of Spirituality | author = Barbara Bradley Hagerty | date = 2009-05-21 | quote = The 'Quantum Entanglement' Of Love: So how do you explain this? No one really knows. But Radin and a few others think that a theory known as "quantum entanglement" may offer some clues. }}</ref> Radin has written that not all people experience paranormal phenomena (or see ghosts) because they block such signals due to the process of latent inhibition.<ref>Blum, Deborah (2006). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20061030&id=3r4aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mUUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6636,6787491 "Team won't give up the ghost"]{{dead link|date=February 2017}}. ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel''. Monday October 30. p. 26</ref><ref>Radin, Dean. ''Entangled Minds'', Paraview Pocket Books, New York, 2006</ref>

==Books== While Radin's books have been reviewed favorably by groups that give general reviews such as ''Publishers Weekly'' and ''Kirkus Reviews'',<ref name="publishersweekly1">{{cite web|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-307-98690-0 |title=Nonfiction Book Review: Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities by Dean Radin|date=16 July 2013 |publisher=Publishers Weekly |access-date=2014-07-23}}</ref><ref name=Kirkus>{{cite web|last=Love |first=Robert |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dean-radin/supernormal/ |title=SUPERNORMAL by Dean Radin |publisher=Kirkus Reviews|date=2013-07-16 |access-date=2014-07-24}}</ref> independent reviews by scientists and skeptics, as cited below, have often been negative.

===''The Conscious Universe''=== A critical review of ''The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena'' (1997)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Radin|first1=Dean I.|title=The conscious universe : the scientific truth of psychic phenomena|date=2009|publisher=HarperOne|location=New York|isbn=978-0061778995|edition=1st HarperCollins pbk.}}</ref>{{efn|In Great Britain this book is titled ''The Noetic Universe''.}} was published by the British mathematician I. J. Good in ''Nature''. The review charged that Radin ignored the known hoaxes in the field, made statistical errors and ignored plausible non-paranormal explanations for parapsychological data.<ref name="good97">{{Cite journal| last1 = Good | first1 = I. J.| title = Where has the billion trillion gone?| journal = Nature| volume = 389| issue = 2| pages = 806–807| year = 1997| doi = 10.1038/39784|bibcode = 1997Natur.389..806G | s2cid = 2001477| doi-access = free}}</ref> Good wrote about flaws in Radin's method for evaluating the file-drawer effect.<ref name="good97"/> Radin replied to Good in a follow-up letter in the correspondence pages of ''Nature'', saying that Good in his review had misinterpreted a reference to a probability value. Good replied, saying that most readers would not arrive at the same interpretation of what Radin had written noting that readers would be surprised to learn that by "more than a billion trillion", Radin meant more than 10<sup>100</sup>. Further, Good noted that the file drawer effect does not account for intentional fraud, as was very probably the case with prominent ESP proponents such as Samuel Soal, nor is there any real means of estimating such "intellectual, observational or ethical lapses" within ESP.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Radin | first1 = D. | title = Extrasensory statistics | last2 = Good | first2 = I. J. | journal = Nature | volume = 394 | issue = 6692 | page = 413 | year = 1998 | doi = 10.1038/28721 | bibcode = 1998Natur.394..413R | s2cid = 5349010 | doi-access = free }}</ref> In 2002, Victor J. Stenger gave a criticism of ''The Conscious Universe'' that aligned with Good's arguments that Radin did not perform the file-drawer analysis correctly, made fundamental errors in his calculations, and ignored non-paranormal explanations for the data.<ref name="Stenger2002"/>

The book was reviewed by the philosopher and skeptic Robert Todd Carroll in a thirteen-page chapter-by-chapter critique which noted how Radin had not cited the skeptical literature on the subject of parapsychology. Carroll stated that Radin had ignored "the many hoaxes and frauds that dot the landscape in the history of psi research."<ref name=Todd>* {{cite web|title=The Conscious Universe by Dean Radin - Book Review|first= Robert T.|last= Carroll|author-link=Robert T. Carroll|publisher=The Skeptic's Dictionary|url=http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/radin1.html|access-date=January 30, 2010}}</ref>

===''Supernormal''=== Radin's book ''Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities'' (2013), argues support for psychic phenomena, linking them to the siddhis from yoga-related legends.<ref name="publishersweekly1"/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Parapsychology-researcher-Dean-Radin-on-ESP-2503036.php|title=Parapsychology researcher Dean Radin on ESP, spirituality, and how the consciousness of individuals is connected|last=Miller|first=David Ian|work=SF Gate|date=2008-02-25|access-date=2014-03-29}}</ref> Publishers Weekly has reviewed it, saying of the book, that it is "unfocused and opaque at times" but "nevertheless an admirable attempt to bridge the gap between the scientific and the spiritual realm".<ref name="publishersweekly1"/> The anonymous review by ''Kirkus Reviews'' gave it a positive review saying "certainly not for everyone, but a smart reminder that we haven’t got the whole scene covered".<ref name=Kirkus/>

Dale DeBakcsy, writing for the ''Skeptical Inquirer'', a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, reviewed ''Supernormal'' and criticized the work as "misrepresenting report data, lowering success criteria, and playing a somewhat loose game with how rigorously confidence information is presented". Debakcsy examined Radin's claim that a meta-analysis of forced choice recognition published in parapsychological literature showed that Psi effects were present above chance to a probability of 10<sup>15</sup> to 1, noting that the study also reported that results varied wildly with an extremely unusual standard deviation, such that they dropped 10% of the most extreme variations which reduced the effect size. According to DeBakcsy, Radin chose not to report those variations.

Debakcsy also criticized Radin's characterization of the results of a free-response experiment conducted at Princeton. Radin cited a test subject's response when asked to describe the future location of a distant agent: <blockquote>"A rather strange yet persistent image of [the agent] inside a large bowl—a hemispheric indentation in the ground of some smooth man-made materials like concrete or cement. No color. Possibly covered with a glass dome. Unusual sense of inside/outside simultaneity. That’s all. It’s a large bowl. If it was full of soup [the agent] would be the size of a large dumpling!"</blockquote> Radin wrote that the subject's response "successfully" described the actual randomly selected location of the distant agent: the Radio telescope at Kitt Peak. Debakcsy noted that there are several radio telescopes at Kitt Peak, such as the Very Long Baseline Array, but that telescope does not match the description given. DeBakcsy contends that, while the ARO 12m Radio Telescope has some similar characteristics, it also differs in several aspects from the subject's description. DeBakcsy further commented that, considering this is the best example out of 653 possible other tests made at Princeton, it is quite poor. Noting the spread of meta-analyses of the same studies (where the individual studies are weighted differently), have wildly varying odds returned (from trillions to one, to indistinguishable from chance), DeBakcsy argues that this undermines the reliance on meta-analysis in the work since they lack standardization.<ref name=CSI>* {{cite web|author=Dale DeBakcsy |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/when_big_evidence_isnt_the_statistical_pitfalls_of_dean_radins_supernormal |title=When Big Evidence Isn't: The Statistical Pitfalls of Dean Radin's Supernormal |website=csicop.org |date=January 2014 |access-date=2014-07-12}}</ref>

===Other books=== * ''Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality'' (Paraview / Pocket Books, 2006) {{ISBN|9781416516774}} ** Second edition: Simon & Schuster, 2009. {{ISBN|9781439187937}} * ''The Noetic Universe'' (Random House, 2011) {{ISBN|9781446438886}} (British version of ''The Conscious Universe'') * ''Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe'' Harmony Books, 2018) {{ISBN|9781524758820}}

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== * {{Official website|http://www.deanradin.org/}} * {{IMDb name|2119510}} * {{cite web|title=Book Review: Dean Radin, "The Conscious Universe"|author=Pedersen, Morten Monrad|website=SkepticReport|date=January 1, 2004|url=http://skepticreport.com/sr/?p=537|access-date=2010-01-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807102814/http://www.skepticreport.com/sr/?p=537|archive-date=2011-08-07|url-status=dead}} * {{cite web|title=Entangled Minds by Dean Radin - Book Review|author-link=Robert T. Carroll |first= Robert T.|last= Carroll|website=The Skeptic's Dictionary|url=http://skepdic.com/refuge/entangledreview.html|access-date=January 30, 2010}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radin, Dean}} Category:Living people Category:1952 births Category:American parapsychologists Category:American male classical violinists Category:20th-century American fiddlers Category:21st-century American fiddlers Category:American banjoists Category:People from Petaluma, California Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century American male musicians Category:Grainger College of Engineering alumni Category:21st-century American classical violinists Category:Quantum mysticism advocates Category:University of Illinois College of Education alumni