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 nearly 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.
Mark Boccuzzi created this short video that explains what we are about.
Featured
Robert McLuhan
British journalist, a prominent interpreter of parapsychology for general readers and the principal architect of the Psi Encyclopedia.
Francis Bacon and the Occult
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) believed in the possibility of psi but opposed its investigation on theological grounds.
Animals in Psi Research
The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and tests, including modern lab experiments.
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.
Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?
Sceptics use the fact that apparitions appear fully clad as reason to doubt them. This article discusses why they might.
Maroczy Mediumistic Chess Match
Match played between a living Russian grandmaster and a deceased Hungarian one.
Key Topics
Remote Viewing
An experimental form of clairvoyance, in which a suitably trained person attempts to visualise the topography of a distant scene.
Near-Death Experience (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.
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
Cromwell Fleetwood Varley
Telegraph engineer (1828–83) who tested Florence Cook with apparatus of his own invention.
Rhea A White
American parapsychologist, librarian, bibliographer, and editor of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.
Melvyn John Willin
English musician, psychical researcher and SPR audiovisual archivist whose work has centred on music-related anomalies.
John Björkhem
Swedish priest, physician, hypnotist and psychical researcher (1910–1963) who experimented with hypnosis and psychometry.
Thomas Warren Campbell
Originator of a theory of everything (TOE) that presumes consciousness to be at the root of all there is.
Boston Society for Psychic Research
Organisation that split from the American Society for Psychical Research in 1925, reuniting with it in 1941.
Marcello Truzzi
American sociologist known for distinguishing open-minded scepticism of psi phenomena from simple debunking.
Ada Goodrich Freer
Clairvoyant who contributed to studies of crystal-gazing, second sight and hauntings in the 1890s.
Placement Effects in Psychokinesis Tests
Haakon Forwald tested whether his willed psychokinesis could deflect thrown dice and other cubes.
Haakon Forwald
Norwegian-born Swedish engineer and inventor who conducted innovative placement PK experiments with dice and cubes.
Visualizing the Supernatural
This 2025–26 museum exhibition traced 250 years of visual culture surrounding apparitions, mediumship and the occult.
René Peoc’h
French researcher whose studies with imprinted chicks suggested they can bias the movement of a robot through PK.
Antony Flew
British analytic philosopher known for his influential critiques of theism, postmortem survival and parapsychology.
Coin Apports: The Mexico City Case
A variety of coins appeared without an obvious normal source or cause.
Robert McLuhan
British journalist, a prominent interpreter of parapsychology for general readers and the principal architect of the Psi Encyclopedia.
Annekatrin Angelika Puhle
German researcher whose work touches on cultural history, dreams, apparitions, magic and anomalous light experiences.
Ouija Board
Ouija boards have sometimes allowed for veridical communications from apparent spirit entities and for automatic writing in creative productions.
Susan Gerbic
American studio photographer who exposes what she believes to be pseudoscience through a special brand of 'guerilla skepticism'.
Julian Ochorowicz
Polish philosopher, psychologist and inventor (1850–1917), who made notable investigations of physical mediumship.
Minot Judson Savage
Savage (1841–1918) was a Unitarian minister who sat with Leonora Piper and was involved with the early American Society for Psychical Research.
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.
James Carpenter
American clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and parapsychologist, best-known for his innovative First Sight Theory of psi.
Feeling the Future (Precognition Experiments)
A ground-breaking ESP study that appeared to show a precognitive effect was reported in 2011.
Croiset Archive
Correspondence, reports, films and other materials relating to the Dutch psychic Gerard Croiset (1909–1980) are collected here.
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.
Meditation and Psi
Traditional Yogic teachings state that a person who attains a higher state of consciousness will manifest psychic powers.
Kenneth Ring
Retired American psychologist who is one the leading investigators of near-death experiences, about which he has written extensively.
Terminal Lucidity
Persons with long-term dementia and other severe neurological disorders may return to mental clarity shortly before dying.
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.
Ghost Hunting
'Ghost hunting’ is a popular term for the investigation of claims of site-based phenomena, such as apparitions and poltergeists.
Windbridge Institute
Institution founded in 2008 to conduct research on psi functioning, with an emphasis on real-world applications.
Philip Psychokinesis Experiments
Landmark 1970s experiment in which a Canadian sitter group created PK phenomena.
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.
Antonia Mills
Canadian anthropologist and reincarnation researcher who studied beliefs and experiences in India and British Columbia.
Reincarnation Intermission Memories
Memories of the intermission show clear signs of cultural influence, but there are also cross-cultural consistencies.
Kumkum Verma (reincarnation case)
Indian case of the young daughter of educated parents who remembered being the wife of a Muslim blacksmith.
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.
Antonia Mills
Canadian anthropologist and reincarnation researcher who studied beliefs and experiences in India and British Columbia.
James E Kennedy
American psi researcher specializing in experimental research, methodology and theoretical development.
Hugh Dowding
Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding (1882–1970), head of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, who became a Spiritualist.
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.
Robert Bigelow and the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies
Billionaire American businessman whose foundation funds research on post-mortem survival.
Rhine Research Center
Successor to the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, dedicated to psi research, education and community activities.
Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU)
A leading centre for parapsychological research and training, based at the University of Edinburgh.
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.
The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
Prize offered until 2015 by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) but never awarded.
Antony Flew
British analytic philosopher known for his influential critiques of theism, postmortem survival and parapsychology.
Cold Reading
Discusses the psychological strategies that can be used to simulate a mediumistic communication or psychic reading.
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.
The Hodgson Report on Theosophy
Controversial report on Helena Blavatsky by Richard Hodgson for the SPR, which alleged fraud.
Henry Gross
American game warden and dowser (1895–1979) who located water for landowners in his home state of Maine and in Bermuda.
Scientific Mysticism
Describes the theory of mathematician and mystic Michael Whiteman, based in part on his own experiences.