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.

gilbert murray

Gilbert Murray Telepathy Experiments

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


Ted Owens

American psychic who won notoriety by claiming macro-psychokinetic (PK) powers, including an ability to control the weather.


Jaytee (pet telepathy)

This article describes experiments that appeared to demonstrate a telepathic link between a dog and its owner.

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.

Maimonides Medical Centre, New York

Maimonides Dream Telepathy Research

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

The sense of being stared at

Sense of Being Stared At – Experimental Evidence

Recent investigations suggest that the phenomenon is real.

photo of Katie's face with gold leaf

The Gold Leaf Lady

Florida housewife who exhibits psychic effects, notably golden-like brass foil that appears on her skin and clothes.

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.

The Lutzes' house in Amityville

Amityville Hoax

Alleged 1970s haunting in Long Island, New York, which became the basis for sensationalist books and films.

hans holzer

Hans Holzer

Austrian-born American author (1920–2009) and lay paranormal investigator, largely of hauntings and poltergeists.

Cheltenham Ghost; Psi Encyclopedia; Society for Psychical Research; Rosina Morton

Cheltenham Ghost

An 1892 report described frequent sightings by multiple witnesses of an apparitional woman dressed in black.

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.

Gillian and Jennifer Pollock

Pollock Twins (reincarnation case)

Celebrated British case of two young sisters who died together in the same incident, then were reborn as twins to the same parents.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Will (reincarnation case)

Case of an American who seems to recall the past lives of two German military men who were killed during World Wars I and II.

The Ermine Lady, Sofonisba Anguissola, c. 1580

Antonia (regression case analysis)

Highly evidential story of a 16th century Spanish woman, recovered through hypnosis.

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.


Julia Mossbridge

American cognitive neuroscientist who has carried out parapsychological studies, notably on precognition and presentiment effects.

theodore besterman

Theodore Besterman

British researcher and longtime SPR librarian who investigated mediums and wrote on paranormal topics.

John Kruth 2

John G Kruth

Executive director of the Rhine Research Center. His research interests include bioenergy in healing.

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.

ions logo

Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)

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

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Institute of Paranormal Psychology (IPP)

Argentinian organization established in 1994 that conducts psi research and provides educational resources.


International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL)

Dedicated to understanding consciousness with a view to improving humanity’s future.

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.


Susan Gerbic

American studio photographer who exposes what she believes to be pseudoscience through a special brand of 'guerilla skepticism'.

Paul Edwards

Criticisms of Reincarnation Case Studies

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

james randi

James Randi

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

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.

photograph of testing in dermo-optical perception of colours

Dermo-Optical Perception

This article describes research into claims of being able to perceive colours through touch alone.

orbs

Orbs (Light Anomalies)

Light anomalies often seen in photographs and video are attributed by some to the presence of ghosts or spirit entities.

Extraordinary light phenomena

Extraordinary Light Phenomena

The widespread experience of a seeing an extraordinary light, one that brings comfort, love or healing.

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