ESP & Psychokinesis

The term extra-sensory perception (ESP), introduced in the 1930s, comprises telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition, acknowledging that these categories may considerably overlap. Psychokinesis is the direct influence on matter by mind alone, without physical action. All have been successfully tested in the laboratory and studied in real life situations.

Dreams and ESP

This article describes the study of psi in dreams, notably of telepathic interactions and precognition of future events.

Jaytee (Pet Telepathy)

Describes experiments that appeared to show a telepathic link between a dog and its owner.

Psi Research in Russia

Limited but significant psi research has been carried out in Russia since the nineteenth century.

Gifted People

Most people may only experience a psychic event once or twice in their lives, but for a few it’s a natural ability, which some develop as a professional career. Two types feature in the Psi Encyclopedia: those who have demonstrated telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition or psychokinesis in some way, and those who believe themselves to be in communication with the deceased.

Miguel Alberto Mantilla

Mexican boy (b 1904) with a remarkable ability to calculate calendar dates at high speed, rarely making mistakes.

Margery (Mina Stinson Crandon)

Controversial American physical medium who caused a split in the ASPR in the 1930s.

Hester Travers Smith (Hester Dowden)

British automatist who believed she was in contact with the deceased Oscar Wilde.

Mind & Body

This category contains articles that treat consciousness in relation to the body. Major topics covered include healing and psychotherapy; dreams and dreaming; and out-of-body experiences, end-of-life experiences, and near-death experiences, all of which suggest that consciousness may have an existence independent of the physical body.

Near-Death Experiences – Paranormal Aspects

List of NDEs with confirmed clairvoyance and other paranormality.

Healing at a Distance (DMILS Research)

Since the 1980s, parapsychologists have studied distant mental interactions with living systems.

Religious Levitation

Reports of individuals being seen, spontaneously and involuntarily, to rise into the air and remain suspended

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. This category includes articles on mediumship as well as general topics related to the survival question. Other survival-related topics appear under other category headings.

Is Xenoglossy Evidence of Survival?

Xenoglossy in mediumship is less indicative of survival than some researchers assume.

Physicalism and the Soul

Explores the nature of souls, afterlives, and possible gods compatible with modern physicalist science.

Did Robert Swain Gifford Survive Death?

Analysis of the Thompson-Gifford case of ostensible possession as evidence of survival.

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. This category includes case studies and overviews of phenomena that appear regularly in the cases. Some articles deal with past life regression as well.

Reincarnation Cases with Sex Change

Memories of a life as a member of the opposite sex are often accompanied by cross-sex behaviours and identifications.

Wael Kiwan (reincarnation case)

Lebanese Druze case involving a child who recalled the life of an identified individual who died by suicide in the USA.

Purnima Ekanayake (reincarnation case)

This article describes a Sri Lankan girl who remembered a life as a male incense maker and exhibited cross-sex behaviours.

Haunting

Location-based hauntings have been relatively little studied by parapsychologists, but the frequent incidence of apparitional episodes (the appearance of a deceased family member) attracted the attention of early researchers. Much interest has also centred on so-called ‘poltergeist’ episodes, of powerful domestic disturbances now often attributed to involuntary psychokinetic effects by living agents.

Cideville Poltergeist

Mid-nineteenth century French poltergeist case, with testimonies given in court about the phenomena.

Stans (Switzerland) Poltergeist

Mid-19 century poltergeist case, in which disturbances tormented a Swiss family for weeks.

Theories About Collective Apparitions

Apparitions perceived by more than one person provide some theoretical challenges.

General Topics

This section lists articles on a variety of topics that are not found in any of the main categories, from brain research and altered states of consciousness to dowsing, crop circles and other anomalistic phenomena.

Eminent People Interested in Psi

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

Kirlian Photography

Photographic technique pioneered in Russia that reveals light radiating from living organisms and other objects.

Crop Circles

The intricate patterns that sometimes appear in crop fields have been attributed to various factors, including supernatural ones..

Scientists & Authors

Here can be found some 300 biographical profiles of key figures who have been involved in psi research and parapsychology as field investigators, experimentalists, theorists and commentators. Many have scientific and academic backgrounds – in psychology, physics, biology, philosophy, engineering and other disciplines.

William T Stead

Nineteenth-century British journalist, author, social reformer and medium, who wrote about psychic experiences and postmortem survival.

York Dobyns

A long-term member of the research team at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory.

Reginaldo Hiraoka

Brazilian philosopher and psychologist with research interests in ganzfeld ESP and collective influence on random number generators.

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.

Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research (AIPR)

Australia’s oldest extant psi research organization, founded in Sydney in 1977.

Emotion and Motivation Laboratory

Laboratory which conducts psi research, based at the University of Munich, Germany.

Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP)

Swedish research organization headed by Etzel Cardeña.

Scepticism

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.

James Alcock

Canadian psychology professor, amateur magician and career psi sceptic, member of the Executive Council for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Reincarnation Case Studies: Criticisms

Addresses the objections critics have raised to the research of Ian Stevenson and others.

Richard Wiseman

British psychology professor, media personality and bestselling author who is a high-profile critic of parapsychology.