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.

Sinclair Telepathy Experiments

A successful series of ESP drawing experiments carried out by American author Upton Sinclair and his wife Craig.

Remote Viewing

An experimental form of clairvoyance, in which a suitably trained person attempts to visualise the topography of a distant scene.

Maimonides Dream Telepathy Research

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

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.

Franek Kluski

Polish banker (1873–1943) with psychic abilities and for some years submitted to investigation as a materialization medium.

Ted Serios

Ted Serios (1918–2006) was an adept in the rare phenomenon of ‘thoughtography’ (an ability to 'think' images onto photographic film).

Oskar Estebany

Twentieth-century Hungarian-Canadian psychic healer whose abilities were demonstrated in successful laboratory experiments.

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.

AWARE NDE Studies

AWARE and AWARE II were large-scale studies testing for veridical perceptions recalled by hospital patients during NDEs.

Psychoanalysis and Psi

Psychoanalysts have often reported instances of psi occurring between patient and practitioner.

Ernesto Bozzano’s ‘Phénomènes Psychiques au Moment de la Mort’ (Psychic Phenomena at the Moment of Death)

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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.

Mediumship and Pathology

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, some in medicine regarded mediumship as an abnormal condition.

The Junot Sittings (Leonora Piper)

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

Edgar Vandy Case

In this 1930s case, four mediums independently gave strikingly concordant information about a young man's death by drowning.

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.

Gretchen Gottlieb (regression case)

Case of an American woman who recalled a German life under hypnosis and seemingly spoke German.

Native American Children with Past-Life Memories

Collection of cases of the reincarnation type among Tlingit and other native North American cultures.

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.

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.

Poltergeists (Overview)

This article provides an introduction to poltergeist research, describing major cases and theoretical perspectives.

Wilmot Apparition

19th century case in which a woman felt herself go out-of-body to her husband's ship, where she was perceived by him and another person.

Andover Poltergeist

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

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.

Cottingley Fairies

1920s hoax by two girl, who persuaded Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that they had photographed themselves playing with fairies.

UFOs/Aliens and Psi

Review of the research literature on UFO sightings and alien encounters, which may include claims of psi phenomena.

Photography and the Paranormal

Apparently paranormal images captured on film are vulnerable to claims of misinterpretation, malpractice or fraud.

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.

James McHarg

Scottish psychiatrist and medical historian (1917–2003) who studied the kinds of psychic experiences reported by his patients.

Giovanni Battista Ermacora

Italian scientist (1858–1898) who devoted much time to researching telepathy and other psychical phenomena.

Zofia Weaver

Council member of the Society for Psychical Research (b 1947) with a particular interest in the history of mediums in her native Poland.

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.

Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR)

The PEAR lab carried out ground-breaking experimental psi research for nearly three decades.

Division of Perceptual Studies

Within the University of Virgina's Department of Psychiatry, the world's oldest extant academic body devoted to psi phenomena.

Bial Foundation

Foundation set up by Portuguese pharmaceutical giant to support research in neuroscience, psychophysiology and parapsychology.

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.

Michael Shermer

Well-known American author, media personality and career sceptic, founder of the Skeptics Society and its magazine Skeptic.

Reincarnation Case Studies: Criticisms

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

Martin Gardner

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