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.

Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology

Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure that combines studies in a particular area of research to provide more robust findings

Unusual Ways of Testing for Psi

Psi abilities have been tested in more ways than the usual ones of card guessing, dice throwing, remote viewing and Ganzfeld.

Experimental Parapsychology

Overview of efforts to apply experimental methods to the study of psi experiences, from the 1870s to today.

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.

Matthew Manning

British man, the focus of poltergeist activity in his teens, later known for his metal-bending, psychic activities, and healing.

Francis Bacon and the Occult

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) believed in the possibility of psi but opposed its investigation on theological grounds.

Helen Duncan

Controversial Scottish physical medium (1898–1956) sentenced to jail under England’s Witchcraft Act of 1735.

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.

Dreams and ESP

This article describes the experience and study of ESP in dreams, notably of telepathic interactions and precognitions of future events.

Healing at a Distance (DMILS Research)

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

Dream ESP Reports (list)

Summaries of reports, surveys and analyses of dream ESP in the SPR archives from 1889 to 1998.

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.

Did Robert Swain Gifford Survive Death?

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

The Junot Sittings (Leonora Piper)

Highly evidential communications purporting to come from the surviving spirit of a deceased teenager.

Encounters With the Deceased

Describes types and characteristics of encounters with deceased loved ones in dreams and elsewhere.

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.

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.

Reincarnation and the Population Problem

The idea that increases in population are a problem has been addressed in various ways.

Sunil Dutt Saxena (reincarnation case)

North Indian case of a boy who began to talk about being a wealthy businessman when he was less than two years old.

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.

Ghost Hunting

'Ghost hunting’ is a popular term for the investigation of claims of site-based phenomena, such as apparitions and poltergeists.

Cideville Poltergeist

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

Vienna Workshop Poltergeist

A Viennese member of the Society for Psychical Research describes poltergeist distrurbances he witnessed.

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.

Witchcraft

Traces the development of witchcraft as the socially proscribed practice of magic, from Antiquity to the present day.

Jott: Phenomena of Spatial Discontinuities

The everyday misplacements of objects may sometimes have a non-normal cause.

Psychische Studien (journal)

Early German psychical research journal (1874–1925) that contained reports of experiences and investigations.

Scientists & 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. Many have scientific and academic backgrounds – in psychology, physics, biology, philosophy, engineering and other disciplines.

Robert Monroe

American busnessman (1915–1995), founder of The Monroe Institute, which offers training in his Hemi-Sync technology to explore consciousness.

Robert Hare

American chemistry professor and inventor (1781–1858), whose experiments with mediums convinced him of postmortem survival.

Giovanni Battista Ermacora

Italian scientist (1858–1898) who devoted much time to researching telepathy and other psychical phenomena.

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.

Windbridge Research Center

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

Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)

American research institute co-founded in 1973 by astronaut Edgar Mitchell to research human potential using scientific methods.

Exceptional Experience and Consciousness Studies (EECS)

Based at the University of Northampton, this is the largest centre for parapsychological research in the world.

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 Randi

Canadian-born conjurer (1928–2020) and public scourge of psychics, faith healers, parapsychologists and practitioners of alternative medicine.

Richard Wiseman

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

Harry Houdini

The legendary stage magician (1874–1926) was hostile to Spiritualism and wrote books about his debunking of mediums.