Bill, there's a difference being scientific and being bull-headed. If, as most spiritually inclined people seem to believe, there is a non-material essential viewpoint from which all the more solid aspects of thought are viewed, weighed, etc. then it makes complete sense not to try and weigh the sucker on the scales you use for brass and gold. You have to use scientific principles in addressing a non-material proposition. If you can't think of a way to do that, you're up the creek as far as evaluating this body of data. To insist on purely physical protocols does indeed embed your intended outcome into the experimental structure in exactly the same way that a right-wing survey discovers that "Americans" have a peculiarly right-wing bent.
One sure way to get the answers you expect is to ask the wrong questions.