Psi Encyclopedia

Welcome to the Psi Encyclopedia! We aspire to provide a comprehensive introduction to academic parapsychology, which studies the range of psychic experiences collectively termed ‘psi’. The existence of psi phenomena – and the related idea that consciousness is independent of the physical body and so may survive death – is strongly disputed by materialist scientists, yet parapsychologists are convinced they have evidence for these things. The Psi Encyclopedia presents this evidence in more than 750 signed articles by over 80 authors, many of them senior academics, arranged in categories and subcategories that highlight the major interests of the field. It is owned and sponsored by the Society for Psychical Research.

Mark Boccuzzi created this short video that explains what we are about.

Featured

Titus Rivas

Dutch theoretical psychologist and philosopher (1964-2026) who studied NDEs and children who recall previous lives.

After-Death Communications (Overview)

ADCs have been interpreted through both psychological and survival-based models.

Animals in Psi Research

The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and laboratory tests.

Rhea A White

American parapsychologist, librarian, bibliographer, and editor of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.

Eminent People Interested in Psi (list)

A list of some 200 scientists, thinkers, writers, and artists who took seriously the possibility of psi.

Psi Research in Brazil

This article traces the development of interest in psi phenomena and parapsychological research in Brazil.

Maróczy Mediumistic Chess Match

Match played between a living Russian grandmaster and a deceased Hungarian one.

Key Topics

Ingo Swann, one of the first remote viewers

Remote Viewing

An experimental form of clairvoyance, in which a suitably trained person attempts to visualise the topography of a distant scene.

Near-Death Experiences (Overview)

This article describes anomalous mental events reported by people who have survived a near-fatal accident or illness.

Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

Membership organization founded in London in 1882 for the scientific investigation of claims of psychic phenomena.

Psychokinesis Research (Overview)

Research on PK has progressed from early tests with dice to random number generators, field studies, and quantum experiments.

Clinical Parapsychology

Therapeutic approach that aims to provide support for people disturbed by anomalous event experiences.

Early reincarnation beliefs in the West are associated with the Greek philosopher Pythagoras in the sixth century BCE

Reincarnation: An Introduction

This introductory article covers beliefs in reincarnation, evidence for reincarnation, and sceptical views of the research.

Psychedelics and Psi

A gradual easing of restrictions means that psi research with psychedelics, once prevalent, could soon resume.

Altered States of Consciousness and Psi

ASCs have long been known to be associated with psi experiences.

Recent Additions

Augustus De Morgan

British mathematician (1806–71) who conducted experiments in mesmerism and early Spiritualism.

Haunted York

York's reputation as Britain’s most haunted city rests on a long history of reported apparitions and other anomalies.

Fraud in Experimental Parapsychology

Researcher fraud has been a problem for experimental parapsychology, as for other sciences.

street-scene-corner-of-shawmut-avenue-and-dover-street-boston-massachusetts-usa-arthur-rothstein-us-farm-security-administration-april-1938-2T1B6CX

Minnie Meserve Soule

Important American trance medium (1867–1936) who worked closely with researchers for three decades.

Johann_Heinrich_Füssli_-_The_Nightmare_detail

Sleep Paralysis and Anomalous Experience

Sensed presences and apparitions have been reported while the body is immobilized.

Joseph Jastrow

Pioneering American experimental psychologist (1863–1944) briefly associated with the ASPR, although sceptical of psi.

After-Death Communications (Overview)

ADCs have been interpreted through both psychological and survival-based models.

Elwood Worcester

American Episcopal clergyman and psychologist (1862–1940) who helped found the Boston Society for Psychic Research.

Siméon Edmunds

British researcher (1917–69) concerned with hypnotism, spirit photography, parapsychology and Spiritualism.

Global Consciousness Project (GCP) 2.0

GCP 2.0 extends the original GCP with a larger network of quantum random number generators.

Global Consciousness: Theories

This article considers interpretations of data gathered by the Global Consciousness Project.

Minot J.Savage (Harvard Divinity School Library)

Minot Judson Savage

Unitarian minister (1841–1918) who sat with Leonora Piper and was involved with the early American Society for Psychical Research.

Presentiment Research Methods

Confirmatory studies should be preregistered and use pre-stimulus physiological data to predict stimuli.

Charles Drayton Thomas

Methodist minister (1867–1953) who studied mental mediumship, chiefly of Gladys Osborne Leonard.

Edward F Kelly

American psychologist and parapsychologist concerned with consciousness and its relation to psi and postmortem survival.

Free-Response Methods

Targets such as random images or locations allow for richer impressions than do forced-choice tests.

Children’s Near-Death Experiences

New research employs creative, participatory methods to interview children about their NDEs.

Psi Research in France

This article discusses psi research in France, from nineteenth century ‘animal magnetism’ to the present day.

Callum E Cooper

British psychologist who specializes in the study of spontaneous cases of psi phenomena.

Preventing Researcher Fraud

Preventive research practices offer the strongest protections against fraud in parapsychology.

Explore the Psi Encyclopedia

ESP & Psychokinesis

Extra-sensory perception (ESP) comprises telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition. Psychokinesis (PK) is the direct influence on matter by mind alone. Both ESP and PK have been tested in the laboratory and studied in real life situations. Together they constitute psi, in the strict sense of the term. Subcategories group together overviews and general topics in psi studies, tests of ESP and PK, and researcher biographies.

Indridi Indridason

Icelandic trance medium (1883–1910) who produced physical phenomena comparable to DD Home.

Leanna Standish

American neuroscientist and naturopathic physician who has performed successful psi experiments in distant interactions.

Carlos Mirabelli

Brazilian medium (1889–1951) credited with phenomena of similar power and frequency to those associated with DD Home.

Mind & Body

This category contains articles that treat consciousness in relation to the body. Subcategories focus on consciousness and psi; dreams and psi; and distant healing and psychotherapy. Also included are sitter groups and macro-psychokinesis as well as poltergeists, often assumed to relate to discarnate entities but now known more often to have living agents. A final subgroup is concerned with out-of-body and near-death experiences and events reported on the threshold of death.

Stanislawa Tomczyk

Polish woman whose ability to produce visible psychokinetic effects in controlled conditions is well documented.

James F McHarg

Scottish psychiatrist and medical historian (1917–2003) who studied the kinds of psychic experiences reported by his patients.

Oskar Estebany

Twentieth-century Hungarian-Canadian psychic healer whose abilities were demonstrated in successful laboratory experiments.

Survival of Death

Life continued in a spiritual or purely mental form after bodily death is a staple of religious beliefs worldwide, and likely is as old as humanity. The question of evidence for it has been central to the Society for Psychical Research since its founding in 1882. Subcategories focus on hauntings and apparitions and on psychic (also called mental) mediumship.

Eusapia Palladino

Nineteenth century Italian trance medium (1854–1918) who produced psychokinetic phenomena of striking strength.

Mediumship and Pathology

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, some in medicine regarded mediumship as an abnormal condition.

photograph of Gladys Leonard, one of the mediums consulted by the Vandy brothers

Edgar Vandy (proxy case)

In this 1930s case, four mediums independently gave strikingly similar information about a young man's death by drowning.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation beliefs are widespread in the world and in recent decades researchers have found what they believe is evidence of them through the study of people (mainly children) who claim to have lived before. Subcategories highlight case studies, past life regression, and biographies of major researchers.

Titus Rivas

Dutch theoretical psychologist and philosopher (1964-2026) who studied NDEs and children who recall previous lives.

photograph of Bobby Jones, the 1920s golf star whose life was remembered by a two-year-old American boy

Behavioural Memories in Reincarnation Cases

Reincarnation cases include not only past life memories but behaviours consistent with these memories.

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, where a collection of 2500 past life memory cases is held

Patterns in Reincarnation Cases

Universal, near-universal and culture-linked patterns can be discerned in the dataset of reincarnation cases.

Researchers & Authors

Here can be found more than 300 biographical profiles of key figures who have been involved in psi research and parapsychology as field investigators, experimentalists, theorists and commentators. The biographies are grouped in subcategories by 30-year age cohorts, highlighting contemporaries.

Herbert Hans Jürgen Keil

German-Australian psychologist and parapsychologist (1930–2024) who studied psychokinesis, ESP, and child reincarnation cases.

Satwant Pasricha

Indian clinical psychologist known for her research on childhood past life memories and near-death experiences.

Andrew MacKenzie

New Zealand-born journalist and novelist (1911–2001) who also wrote and reviewed books about psychical research.

Organizations

The oldest organizations devoted to parapsychology were member organizations like the Society for Psychical Research, established in London in 1882. Since JB Rhine founded the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University in 1930, there have been university-based units as well. This category comprises both historical and contemporary bodies concerned with research and education in parapsychology.

Institute of Paranormal Psychology (IPP)

Argentinian organization established in 1994 that conducts psi research and provides educational resources.

Lay Paranormal Research in the UK

Overview of non-university organizations that carry out psi research in the United Kingdom.

Windbridge Research Center

Non-profit research institute based in Tucson, Arizona, dedicated to the rigorous study of mental mediums.

Sceptical Views

Sceptics argue that psychics and mediums achieve their effects by trickery, that psychic experience is an illusory effect caused by a combination of brain misperceptions and confirmation bias, and that evidence of psi in laboratory tests can be attributed to poor methodology. This category includes biographies of leading sceptics as well as general articles discussing their allegations.

Marcello Truzzi

American sociologist known for distinguishing open-minded scepticism of psi phenomena from simple debunking.

Antony Flew

British analytic philosopher known for his influential critiques of theism, postmortem survival and parapsychology.

Susan Gerbic

American studio photographer who exposes what she believes to be pseudoscience through a special brand of 'guerilla skepticism'.

General Topics

This category contains articles on a variety of topics that do not fit well in any of the main categories, from dowsing to crop circles and other anomalistic phenomena, the Miscellaneous Anomalistic subcategory. Other subcategories list articles on psychics and mystic and on important articles, books and journals in the field of parapsychology.