‘Psi’, the Greek letter ψ, is the modern term for psychic phenomena. The existence of psi – and the related idea that consciousness is independent of the physical body (and so may survive bodily death) – are disputed, as they seem to violate well-established natural laws. However, researchers are convinced they have evidence for these things, posing a challenge to materialist science. The Psi Encyclopedia presents their reasoning in over 700 signed articles by 86 authors, many of them senior academics. It also provides links to books, articles and videos that are free to view.

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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.

albert einstein2

Eminent People Interested in Psi (list)

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

Describes informal observations, early tests and modern lab experiments looking at animals' psychic capabilities.

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.

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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.

photograph of Freiburg, where the IGPP, a leading parapsychology centre in Europe

Experimental Parapsychology in Europe

This article provides an overview of psi research in laboratories across continental Europe.

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Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology

Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure that combines studies in a particular area of research to provide more robust findings

Concealed Chinese words identified by Chinese children by anomalous non-sensory means

Extraocular Image (China)

1980s experiments in which children demonstrated an ability to recognize hidden images and words by touch alone.

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.

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Luiz Antônio Gasparetto

Brazilian medium well-known for paintings made in trance at high speed and attributed to deceased artists.


Stefan Ossowiecki

Polish businessman (1877–1944) whose clairvoyant abilities were the subject of successful tests with European psychical researchers.

Henry Slade

Henry Slade

Nineteenth century physical medium publicly accused of fraud who also produced striking phenomena in well-controlled conditions.

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.

Obstetrician Florence Elizabeth Barrett, whose observations of dying women seeing visions were recorded by her husband William Barrett

Deathbed Visions Research

Describes research into the phenomenon of deathbed visions by psi investigators Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson.

Pam Reynolds

Near-Death Experiences – Paranormal Aspects

List of NDEs with confirmed clairvoyance and other paranormality.

out-of-body experience

Out-of-Body Experience (OBE)

Reviews research on OBEs, the sense of having separated from the body and of viewing it from the outside.

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.


Transplant Cases Considered as Evidence for Postmortem Survival

Recipients of organ transplants may take on the personality of their donors.

image of exploding star

Physicalism and the Soul

Explores the nature of souls, afterlives, and possible gods compatible with modern physicalist science.

photograph of soldier of the Northumberland Fusiliers of World War 1

Drop-In Communicators

Communicators unknown to both medium and sitters who provide enough information for their identification.

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.

Hernani Guimarães Andrade

Brazilian Children with Past-Life Memories

List of cases of children’s past-life memories reported from Brazil, some relating to past lives in Europe.

Fourteen-month-old Osel correctly selects the bell that belonged to a recently deceased monk, Lama Yeshe, helping to confirm his reincarnation

Testing Children’s Past-Life Knowledge

Children who remember past lives are often set tests to try to establish the truth of their claims.

photograph of Hindu Brahmin

Jasbir Lal Jat (reincarnation case)

Well-verified case of the ‘replacement reincarnation’ type, in which there is a change of identity after birth.

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.

Detail from 'The Paddle Steamer “Royal William,” on her first voyage from Liverpool to New York, 1838” ' by S. Walters. Source: Internet Archive and the University of Toronto.

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.

Spichermatt House, Stans, Switzerland: home of the Joller family

Stans (Switzerland) Poltergeist

Mid-19 century poltergeist case, in which disturbances tormented a Swiss family for weeks.

James Herrmann, aged 12, was the focus of the anomalous disturbances at his family's Seaford, Long Island home

Seaford Poltergeist

Poltergeist-type disturbances in 1958 in Seaford, Long Island, New York, centering on a 12-year-old boy.

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.

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JW Dunne

JW Dunne (1875–1949) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and aeronautical engineer who became well-known for books about time and precognition.

adrian parker 6

Adrian Parker

Anglo-Swedish clinical psychologist and parapsychologist who was among the first researchers to adopt the ganzfeld technique.


Edith Lyttelton

British playwright and social activist (1865–1948) who became involved with psychical research and practised automatic writing

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.

Nineteenth-century table turning session

London Dialectical Society

19th-century rationalist debating club whose 1871 investigative report showed certain PK activity to be genuine.

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Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)

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

Psychologist Gardner Murphy led the ASPR during its heyday in the 1960s.

American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR)

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

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.

photograph of James Randi

The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

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

Ray Hyman

Ray Hyman

American psychologist, amateur magician and leading sceptic, co-founder of the Committee for the Scientific Inquiry (CSI).

Trevor Hall

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.

ufo

UFOs/Aliens and Psi

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

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Photography and the Paranormal

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

Charles Richet -Traite de Metapsychique and English translation Thirty Years of Psychical Research

Richet’s Traité de Métapsychique (Thirty Years of Psychical Research)

A classic review of the literature, published in 1922.

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