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. It is sponsored by the Society for Psychical Research.
Mark Boccuzzi created this short video that explains what we are about.
Featured
Rhea A White
American parapsychologist, librarian, bibliographer, and editor of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.
Francis Bacon and the Occult
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) believed in the possibility of psi but opposed its investigation on theological grounds.
Animals in Psi Research
The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and laboratory tests.
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.
Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?
Sceptics use the fact that apparitions appear fully clad as reason to doubt them. This article discusses why they might.
Maroczy Mediumistic Chess Match
Match played between a living Russian grandmaster and a deceased Hungarian one.
Key Topics
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.
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
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 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.
Psi Research in France
This article discusses psi research in France, from nineteenth century ‘animal magnetism’ to the present day.
Callum E Cooper
British psychologist who specializes in the study of spontaneous cases of psi phenomena.
Preventing Researcher Fraud
Preventive research practices offer the strongest protections against fraud in parapsychology.
Dealing with the Stacking Effect
When several test participants respond to the same target, their trials are statistically dependent.
Peter Underwood
British paranormal researcher long associated with the Ghost Club, author of more than 50 about haunting phenomena.
Gustav Theodor Fechner
German pioneer in experimental psychology who proposed an influential theory of immortality.
Psi Research in China
Recent experimental and theoretical work in China includes successful attempts to train ESP abilities in blind children.
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.
Bryan J Williams
Student of cognitive psychology interested in field-like influences on the behaviour of random number generators.
René Peoc’h
French researcher whose studies with imprinted chicks suggested they can bias the movement of a robot through PK.
Gertrude Schmeidler
American psychologist and parapsychologist, noted for her theory that ESP ability relates to belief.
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.
Alex Tanous
Alex Tanous (1926–1990) was a noted New England psychic and parapsychologist, who contributed to out-of-body research.
Peter Fenwick
British neuropsychiatrist and neurophysiologist (1935–2024), leading authority on near-death and end-of-life experiences.
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.
Enfield Poltergeist
Celebrated 1970s case in which poltergeist disturbances were documented over a two-year period.
Post-mortem Survival
This article describes research on the question of whether the human mind can survive bodily death.
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.
Past-Life Memories from Before 1900
Accounts of past-life memory documented in historical sources share many features with cases studied more recently.
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.
Rakesh Gaur (reincarnation case)
Indian child case about which two investigators reached different conclusions, hence an important case for sceptics.
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.
Helmut Schmidt
German American parapsychologist (1928–2011) who pioneered the use of random event generators in studying psychokinesis.
Marjorie Hines Woollacott
American neuroscientist who has studied the veridical and transformative effects of near-death experiences.
James Hervey Hyslop
James Hervey Hyslop (1854–1920) was an American philosopher and psychologist who was deeply engaged in psychical research.
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.
Boston Society for Psychic Research
Organisation that split from the American Society for Psychical Research in 1925, reuniting with it in 1941.
Society for Psychical Research (SPR)
Membership organization founded in London in 1882 for the scientific investigation of claims of psychic phenomena.
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.
Richard Wiseman
British psychology professor, media personality and bestselling author who is a high-profile critic of parapsychology.
James Randi
Canadian-born conjurer (1928–2020) and public scourge of psychics, faith healers, parapsychologists and practitioners of alternative medicine.
Blackmore-Sargent Controversy – A Reconsideration
This article presents a new analysis of cheating accusations made by Susan Blackmore.
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.
Dowsing
Traditional method of locating underground water or minerals by the movement of a pair of metal rods, a forked stick or a pendulum.
Boggle Threshold
Term coined by Renée Haynes to refer to the level of tolerance of a discomforting new idea, varying from person to person.
Human Radiations
The idea that humans radiate biophysical forces was once used to explain phenomena such as auras, ESP, healing, and luminous effects.