Psi Encyclopedia

Welcome to the Psi Encyclopedia, a production of the Society for Psychical Research. 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 more than 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.

Featured

Titus Rivas

Dutch theoretical psychologist and philosopher (1964-2026) who studied NDEs and children who recall previous lives.

After-Death Communications (Overview)

ADCs have been interpreted through both psychological and survival-based models.

Animals in Psi Research

The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and laboratory tests.

Rhea A White

American parapsychologist, librarian, bibliographer, and editor of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.

Eminent People Interested in Psi (list)

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

Psi Research in Brazil

This article traces the development of interest in psi phenomena and parapsychological research in Brazil.

Maróczy Mediumistic Chess Match

Match played between a living Russian grandmaster and a deceased Hungarian one.

Key Topics

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.

Near-Death Experiences (Overview)

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

Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

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

Psychokinesis Research (Overview)

Research on PK has progressed from early tests with dice to random number generators, field studies, and quantum experiments.

Clinical Parapsychology

Therapeutic approach that aims to provide support for people disturbed by anomalous event experiences.

Early reincarnation beliefs in the West are associated with the Greek philosopher Pythagoras in the sixth century BCE

Reincarnation: An Introduction

This introductory article covers beliefs in reincarnation, evidence for reincarnation, and sceptical views of the research.

Psychedelics and Psi

A gradual easing of restrictions means that psi research with psychedelics, once prevalent, could soon resume.

Altered States of Consciousness and Psi

ASCs have long been known to be associated with psi experiences.

Recent Additions

Psychic Phenomena in Goethe’s Life and Work

The life and writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were deeply shaped by his psychic experiences.

Envelope, Cipher and Lock Tests of Survival

Prospective tests of post-mortem communication have not succeeded as planned.

Robert A McConnell

American physicist and parapsychologist (1914–2006) who challenged the rejection of psi by mainstream science.

Augustus De Morgan

De Morgan (1806–71) was a British mathematician who conducted experiments in mesmerism and early Spiritualism.

Haunted York

York's reputation as Britain’s most haunted city rests on a long history of reported apparitions and other anomalies.

Fraud in Experimental Parapsychology

Researcher fraud has been a problem for experimental parapsychology, as for other sciences.

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Minnie Meserve Soule

Important American trance medium (1867–1936) who worked closely with researchers for three decades.

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Sleep Paralysis and Anomalous Experience

Sensed presences and apparitions have been reported while the body is immobilized.

Joseph Jastrow

Pioneering American experimental psychologist (1863–1944) briefly associated with the ASPR, although sceptical of psi.

After-Death Communications (Overview)

ADCs have been interpreted through both psychological and survival-based models.

Elwood Worcester

American Episcopal clergyman and psychologist (1862–1940) who helped found the Boston Society for Psychic Research.

Siméon Edmunds

British researcher (1917–69) concerned with hypnotism, spirit photography, parapsychology and Spiritualism.

Global Consciousness Project (GCP) 2.0

GCP 2.0 extends the original GCP with a larger network of quantum random number generators.

Global Consciousness: Theories

This article considers interpretations of data gathered by the Global Consciousness Project.

Minot J.Savage (Harvard Divinity School Library)

Minot Judson Savage

Unitarian minister (1841–1918) who sat with Leonora Piper and was involved with the early American Society for Psychical Research.

Presentiment Research Methods

Confirmatory studies should be preregistered and use pre-stimulus physiological data to predict stimuli.

Charles Drayton Thomas

Methodist minister (1867–1953) who studied mental mediumship, chiefly of Gladys Osborne Leonard.

Edward F Kelly

American psychologist and parapsychologist concerned with consciousness and its relation to psi and postmortem survival.

Free-Response Methods

Targets such as random images or locations allow for richer impressions than do forced-choice tests.

Children’s Near-Death Experiences

New research employs creative, participatory methods to interview children about their NDEs.

Explore the Psi Encyclopedia

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.

DD Home, nineteenth century spirit medium

Daniel Dunglas Home

Well-known nineteenth century medium, some of whose phenomena were observed in controlled conditions.

Helen Duncan

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

Uri Geller

Israeli-born celebrity psychic renowned for metal-bending and telepathic feats which, however, are not without controversy.

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.

photograph of James Hyslop (1854-1920), one of the first to refer to spirit obsession in a therapeutic context

Spirit Release Therapy

Clinical treatment used with patients who appear to be ‘possessed’ by harmful spirit entities.

Pam Reynolds (Near-Death Experience)

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

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

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

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.

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.

Queen Victoria and Spiritualism

Queen Victoria took an interest in Spiritualism, particularly after the death of her mother and Prince Albert.

photograph of Dowses beach, Osterville, MA, where Bennie Judah lost his life

The Junot Sittings with Leonora Piper

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

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.

Carl Edon (reincarnation case)

Englishman who as a child related memories of being a German pilot shot down over England during World War II.

James Leininger (reincarnation case)

Famous American case in which an initially sceptical father researched and verified his son's past-life memories.

Sunita Khandelwal (reincarnation case)

Indian child case studied three times, the first investigator making a record of the memories before verifying them.

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.

Eric Robertson Dodds

Oxford classics professor (1893–1979), authority on supernatural beliefs in antiquity and sceptic of postmortem survival.

Christopher C French

British psychologist and prominent parapsychology sceptic who has carried out his own laboratory psi research.

Vasileios Basios

Physicist based in Brussels interested in understanding how consciousness interacts with the physical world.

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.

Noah’s Ark Society for Physical Mediumship

The NAS originated in a home circle in 1990 and indirectly fostered the later Scole Circle.

Southern California Society for Psychical Research

Organization founded in 1961 and merged with the International Foundation for Survival Research, now also defunct, in 1983.

Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)

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

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.

Martin Gardner

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

Criticisms of Reincarnation Case Studies

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

Trevor Hall

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

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.