Ray Hyman
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 6
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| On the Timeline | 1 event, 1995 |
Ray Hyman (born 23 June 1928) is an American psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, known as a leading critic of parapsychology. He was one of the two main evaluators, with statistician Jessica Utts, of the U.S. government's remote-viewing research in 1995.[1]
Career
Hyman was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He earned a PhD in psychology from Johns Hopkins University in 1953 and taught at Harvard before joining the University of Oregon in Eugene, from which he retired in 1998. He founded the Skeptic's Toolbox workshop held at the university.[1]
Skeptical work
Hyman was a founding member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry), alongside James Randi, Martin Gardner, Marcello Truzzi and Paul Kurtz. His guide to "cold reading", the techniques by which fortune tellers appear to know about strangers, became one of the most reprinted articles in Skeptical Inquirer. He also wrote critiques of the "ganzfeld" telepathy experiments, arguing that they meant nothing unless independently replicated.[1][2]
Remote viewing evaluation
In 1995 the American Institutes for Research asked Hyman and Utts to review the CIA-funded remote-viewing experiments. Hyman found the later experiments free of the more obvious flaws and agreed that the effect sizes were too large and consistent to dismiss as flukes, but he argued that this did not establish psychic ability, given possible hidden flaws and the lack of independent replication. The program was ended in 1995.[1][3]
Honours
Hyman's awards include CSICOP's In Praise of Reason Award (2003) and an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University (2007).[1]
On the UAP Timeline
- End of Stargate (1995) (30 June 1995) — The CIA ends Star Gate, its remote viewing program.
References
- Ray Hyman — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Ray Hyman, "Guide to Cold Reading", Australian Skeptics · skeptics.com.au · archived copy
- Ray Hyman, "Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena" (1995) · web.archive.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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