As the twentieth century dawns, parapsychology is divided between ghost hunters—like Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle—and psi seekers—like a young Sigmund Freud, who takes deeper interest in ESP and telepathy than is commonly understood.
I guess the biggest misconception about the academic world is, that it is primariliy driven by a quest to find the truth. What is actually driving academia (and probably always has) is 1. a very hierarchical structure, where everyone who wants to make a career in that field basically has to kiss the butts of those ahead of them, and where the top few define what subjects are acceptable (everything else being "fringe"). And 2. the continual search for sponsors who will fund their research (which of course wipes out anything that has no chance to be commercially viable).
This is of course not only true for things like ESP but for other subjects too.
I guess the biggest misconception about the academic world is, that it is primariliy driven by a quest to find the truth. What is actually driving academia (and probably always has) is 1. a very hierarchical structure, where everyone who wants to make a career in that field basically has to kiss the butts of those ahead of them, and where the top few define what subjects are acceptable (everything else being "fringe"). And 2. the continual search for sponsors who will fund their research (which of course wipes out anything that has no chance to be commercially viable).
This is of course not only true for things like ESP but for other subjects too.