You do the same

Not really

They just had way too much money to spend.

NASA also researches the EM drive. Why? Because they already have the necessary equipment and two salaries for engineers are peanuts for them. They don't really belive that they stumbled upon a copper can which invalidates conservation of energy.

Beliving Astral projection or remote viewing is rejecting two centuries of scientific research.

Because some gigantic governmental institution had a dozen guys thinking about it? Please...

Someone also researched n-rays or poly water.

In the later case just to find out that they probably should clean their lab gear before claiming to have found a new modification of water.