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.

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Key Topics

photograph of JB Rhine, one of the first to explore psychological variables underlying psi

Psychology and Parapsychology

Explores the overlap between psychology and parapsychology, such as personality and other variables linked to psi.

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.

Tunnel in Near-Death Experience

Near-Death Experience (Overview)

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

photo of N'kisi, an African Grey parrot involved in ESP experiments

Animals in Psi Research

The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and tests, including modern lab experiments.

Gladys Leonard, medium studied by the Society for Psychical Research

Mediumship and Multiple Personality

The personalities of mediumistic communicators are similar to dissociative identity disorder.

vernon mews

Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

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


European Children with Past-Life Memories

European children speak of past lives less often than Asian children do, yet the cases are very similar.

Bronislaw Malinowski among the Trobriand Islanders

Anthropology and Psi Research

Anthropologists have long been fascinated by belief in psi, a near universal aspect of human culture.

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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.

noreen renier

Noreen Renier

American psychic detective who claims to have worked on more than 400 cases, mainly related to murder, rape and missing persons.

JB Rhine tests a subject with Zener cards at Duke University

Experimental Parapsychology

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

Teenage girls in Victorian fashion engraving

Creery Telepathy Experiments

Apparently successful early experiments in telepathy later discredited by admissions of cheating.

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.

fmri

Neuroimaging and Psi

Recent advances in brain imaging technology have been exploited in several lines of psi research.

Illustration from The Phenomena of Astral Projection by Muldoon & Carrington (1951)

Does Something Leave the Body During OBEs?

Discusses early ‘projection’ theories of the out-of-body experience.

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.

Everton Maraldi

Everton de Oliveira Maraldi

Brazilian psychologist with research interests in the psychology of non-ordinary experiences, spirituality, religion and health.

English Credulity or the Invisible Ghost (1762). Contemporary drawing by unknown artist.

Cock Lane Ghost

Notorious 1762 haunting episode, in which disturbances in a London house became the cause of heated public controversy.

Andover, a market town in Hampshire, UK

Andover Poltergeist

Poltergeist disturbances in a household in Andover, southern England, in 1974.

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.

Virginia Tighe, who under hypnosis recalled a nineteenth century life as Bridey Murph

Past Life Regression

Detailed and historically accurate 'memories of previous lives' are routinely elicited during past life regression therapy.

okhado2

OHKADO Masayuki

Japanese linguist whose psi research centres on children's memories of previous lives and of the period between lives.

Katni, northern India

Swarnlata Mishra (reincarnation case)

Indian case of a girl who recalled two past lives, in relation to one of which she sang songs in a foreign language.

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.

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Robert Van de Castle

Robert Van de Castle (1927–2014) was an American psychologist specializing in dreams who also was active in parapsychology

jeffrey mishlove

Jeffrey Mishlove

American parapsychologist who as host of New Thinking Allowed has interviewed hundreds of experts on psi-related topics.

photo of chris roe

Chris A Roe

British psychology professor and psi researcher interested in the nature of anomalous experiences and the psychology of belief.

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.

vernon mews

Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

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

Tuscon, Arizona

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.

cold reading 2

Cold Reading

Discusses the psychological strategies that can be used to simulate a mediumistic communication or psychic reading.

Trevor Hall

Trevor Hall

English chartered surveyor and amateur conjuror (1910–1991), author of books attacking deceased psychics and researchers.

photo of Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner

American critic of parapsychology and paranormal claims (1914–2010), a founding member of the modern sceptical movement.

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.

photo of Alex Malarkey

‘The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven’ (recanted NDE)

Best-selling American book describing the supposed NDE of a 6-year-old child.

albert einstein2

Eminent People Interested in Psi (list)

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

Concealed Chinese words identified by Chinese children by anomalous non-sensory means

Extraocular Image (China)

1980s experiments in which children demonstrated an ability to recognize hidden images by touch alone.

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