James Randi and Parapsychology

Sometimes when discussing reason it's easy to get a bit too lofty about ideals such as the scientific method. I'm not knocking the method - it's the only way we can reliably find out about the world. Sometimes however the work of a scientist is not quite so elegant - years of hard slog through jungles or equations (or sometimes both) to get the tantalising first glimpse of new knowledge. I'm not convinced parapsychology will ever pay off - but it's only by trying to bring it into the umbrella of natural science that it can. Of course, if it can't be bought into line factually and methodologically with natural science, then.....