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.
Featured
Stephen E Braude
American philosopher and parapsychologist (1945–2026) remembered for his field investigations of apparent psychokinesis.
Meditation and Psi
Traditional Yogic teachings state that a person who attains a higher state of consciousness will manifest psychic powers.
Psychedelics and Psi
A gradual easing of restrictions means that psi research with psychedelics, once prevalent, could soon resume.
Psi Research in China
Recent experimental and theoretical work in China includes successful attempts to train ESP abilities in blind children.
Clinical Parapsychology
Therapeutic approach that aims to provide support for people disturbed by anomalous event experiences.
Psi for Financial Gain
Anecdotal accounts and lab tests suggest that psi can at times be used to advantage in gambling and financial speculation.
Coover Telepathy Experiments
Early telepathy experiments, once thought a failure, now considered statistically significant.
Key Topics
Psychology and Parapsychology
Explores the overlap between psychology and parapsychology, such as personality and other variables linked to psi.
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.
Animals in Psi Research
The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and tests, including modern lab experiments.
Mediumship and Multiple Personality
The personalities of mediumistic communicators are similar to dissociative identity disorder.
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.
Anthropology and Psi Research
Anthropologists have long been fascinated by belief in psi, a near universal aspect of human culture.
Recent Additions
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.
Noah’s Ark Society for Physical Mediumship
The NAS originated in a home circle in 1990 and indirectly fostered the later Scole Circle.
Martin Johnson
As a major European experimental parapsychologist, Johnson (1930–2011) helped build the programme at the University of Utrecht.
Milan Ryzl
Milan Ryzl (1928–2011) was a pioneer in exploring hypnosis as a facilitator of ESP, best known for his extensive work with Pavel Stepanek.
Cold Spots
Sudden sensations or measurements of temperature variations recur in reports of apparitions, séances and hauntings.
Dieter Vaitl
German consciousness researcher who directed the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP) for two decades.
George P Hansen
Hansen has critiqued both belief in and scepticism of psi. His Trickster Theory tries to explain the instability and elusiveness of the phenomena.
Edward William ‘Serjeant’ Cox
EW Cox (1809–1879) was an English lawyer, publisher, writer and researcher of psychical phenomena.
Soul Weighing Experiments
Attempts have been made to confirm the existence of a soul by seeking a change of weight in bodies at the point of death.
Battersea Poltergeist (1928)
Disturbances reported in a small house in Battersea, London, investigated by Harry Price.
AWARE NDE Studies
AWARE and AWARE II were large-scale studies testing for veridical perceptions recalled by hospital patients during NDEs.
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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.
Walter von Lucadou
German physicist interested in consciousness studies who has developed a theory of psi based on quantum mechanics.
Padre Pio
Italian Roman Catholic friar and mystic (1879–1968) known for producing 'stigmata', bleeding sores recalling Christ's crucifixion.
Garret Yount
American researcher who explores the links between molecular biology and aspects of consciousness, including energy healing.
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.
Phenomena Related to Danger, Death, and Bereavement
Anomalous mental phenomena may be triggered by emotional crises.
Nigel Buckmaster
The benefactor whose bequest financed the Psi Encyclopedia describes the mystical vision that prompted his interest in psi research.
Maimonides Dream Telepathy Research
This article describes ESP dreaming experiments carried out in a New York sleep laboratory.
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.
Jesse Shepard (Francis Grierson)
Outstanding musical performer (1848–1927) who attributed his gifts to discarnate entities through mediumship.
Copenhagen Fire
Early nineteenth-century mediumship case in which a communicator in Iceland reported a fire then underway in Denmark.
Charles Bailey
Charles Bailey (1870–1947) was an Australian medium known for an ability to produce ‘apports’ of great variety.
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.
International Reincarnation Cases
Cases that have been studied suggest that reincarnating internationally may require intention to do so.
Ma Tin Aung Myo (reincarnation case)
Study of a Burmese girl whose statements and behaviours suggested she was remembering the life of a Japanese soldier.
Ian Stevenson
Canadian-born American psychiatrist (1918–2007) best known for his work on children's claims to remember previous lives.
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.
Anthony D Cornell
Investigator associated with the SPR (1923–2010), specially concerned with hauntings and poltergeists.
Hereward Carrington
British-born psychical researcher (1880–1958) and prolific author of popular of books on psi and postmortem survival.
John Beloff
John Beloff (1920–2006), a British psychologist, was concerned with the philosophy of mind and psi-related topics.
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.
Southern California Society for Psychical Research
Organization founded in 1961 and merged with the International Foundation for Survival Research, now also defunct, in 1983.
International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS)
US-based outfit founded in 1981 to study NDEs and provide support and educational resources.
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.
Richard Wiseman
British psychology professor, media personality and bestselling author who is a high-profile critic of parapsychology.
Fraud in Parapsychology and Other Sciences
Psi researchers have sometimes been caught in fraud but so have scientists in other fields.
The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
Prize offered until 2015 by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) but never awarded.
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.
‘Raymond’ by Oliver Lodge
The soldier son of Sir Oliver Lodge killed in battle in 1915 thereafter communicated with his family through mediums.
Crop Circles
The intricate patterns that sometimes appear in crop fields have been attributed to various factors, including supernatural ones..
Cottingley Fairies
1920s hoax by two girl, who persuaded Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that they had photographed themselves playing with fairies.