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.

Decline Effect in Parapsychology

Review of the 'decline effect’ in psi testing, a falling off in participants' performance over time.

Global Consciousness Project

International project the looks for deviations from chance on random number generators.

Gilbert Murray Telepathy Experiments

Successful informal ESP tests carried out by an Australian-British classics scholar (1866-1957).

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.

Padre Pio

Italian Roman Catholic friar and mystic (1879–1968) known for producing 'stigmata', bleeding sores recalling Christ's crucifixion.

Emanuel Swedenborg

Swedish engineer, philosopher, seer and psychic (1688–1772), who wrote about his encounters with spirits.

Doris Stokes

Doris Stokes (1920–1987) was a controversial celebrity medium who was much in the public eye in Britain during the 1980s.

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.

Maimonides Dream Telepathy Research

This article describes ESP dreaming experiments carried out in a New York sleep laboratory.

Pam Reynolds (Near-Death Experience)

This near-death experience of an American woman is regarded as especially significant..

Near-Death Experiences – Paranormal Aspects

List of NDEs with confirmed clairvoyance and other paranormality.

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.

De Rochas on Physical Mediumship

A 1896 book gives a detailed description of phenomena produced by Eusapia Palladino and others.

Windbridge Institute

Institution founded in 2008 to conduct research on psi functioning, with an emphasis on real-world applications.

The Glastonbury Scripts

Communications through a medium, seemingly in an attempt to help an archaeologist with his excavations.

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.

Shanti Devi (reincarnation case)

Famous Indian case of the 1930s, striking for the quantity, accuracy and persistence of the child’s past-life memories.

Thusita Silva (reincarnation case)

Sri Lankan case of a girl who recalled a life which ended by drowning when she fell off a footbridge.

Reincarnation Case Studies: Criticisms

This article addresses objections critics have raised to the reincarnation case research of Ian Stevenson and others.

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.

Psychological Aspects of Poltergeist Cases

Reasons to think that most poltergeist disturbances have living rather than deceased agents.

Angelique Cottin

French girl who was the centre of psychokinetic disturbances that made an international sensation.

Tina Resch (Columbus Poltergeist)

Focus of poltergeist-type phenomena at her home in Columbus, Ohio, in 1984,

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.

Crop Circles

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

Eyewitness Testimony (Analysis)

This article discusses the reliability of eyewitness testimony about paranormal events.

Witchcraft

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

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.

Marios Kittenis

Researcher whose work has included presentiment, remote psychophysical interactions, and the psi effects of psychedelic drugs.

Caroline Watt

Scottish psychologist who has made contributions to understanding psi from both a proponent and sceptic angle.

Glen Rein

Glen Rein is an American biochemist who has investigated the influence of human intention on DNA activity.

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.

Parapsychology Foundation (PF)

US-based forum, founded in 1951 by Eileen J Garrett, that supports parapsychology internationally.

American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR)

The oldest parapsychological organization in the United States, founded in 1884, now practically defunct.

Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)

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

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.

The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

Prize offered until 2015 by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) but never awarded.

Fraud in Parapsychology and Other Sciences

The assumption that psi researchers are more likely to commit fraud than other scientists is wrong.

Blackmore-Sargent Controversy – A Reconsideration

This article presents a new analysis of cheating accusations made by Susan Blackmore.