User:Annalisa Ventola/Sandbox
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The Parapsychology article here at Wikipedia has been unstable for quite some time. It has suffered a number of attacks from skeptics (some scientific some dogmatic) and impartial observers alike. Some of the attacks have been unfounded, but a good number of them have been justified as well. At Wikipedia, editors strive for a neutral point of view, and this can be difficult to achieve for such a hotly debated topic. Though it may be difficult, I believe that it is possible to draft a parapsychology article that is comprehensive, balanced and neutral...an article that would stabilize over time.
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Zen_Garden.jpg/640px-Zen_Garden.jpg)
I think the solution to the problem is to create a sketch of the field that is purely descriptive and unapologetic. Editors of this page should not be bullied into using weasel words, nor should they have to put the words 'ostensible', 'alleged', or 'supposed' in front of every parapsychological term. On the other hand, the article should not contain treatises on the results of psi experiments and their implications, or point-counterpoint debates with straw men. The article should inform the reader about a plurality of approaches to the study of both psi and anomalous experiences, and then refer them to other resources or Wikipedia articles for further investigation. This should be done in a way that is accessible to general public, but fully cited using Harvard referencing.
Below is an outline representing my vision for one way that the parapsychology article could be restructured. It was modeled after the Wikipedia articles for psychology, anthropology, and physics. I realize that this outline is kind of long, but the fields of parapsychology and psychical research includes hundreds of researchers, span over 100 years and involve dozens of laboratories and organizations around the world. Nobody here has the time to draft the entire article, but if every interested Wikipedian would tackle one or two sections, we could have a rough draft in a matter of days.
This particular outline is parsed out for ease of editing. Eventually sections of it can be collapsed together using fewer headings and employing bullets instead. Perhaps in the next week or two, we could start moving sections over to the main article. Let's make use of the [discussion page] to talk about it.
I have provided suggestions for the content in most places. I invite any interested person to tackle a section (using the 'edit' link) and remove my guidelines for content after doing so. Please cite your sources in the references section when you are done. This is just a sandbox, and not the real parapsychology article, so don't be afraid to edit away!