‘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.
Featured
Stephen E Braude
American philosopher and parapsychologist (1945–2026) remembered for his field investigations of apparent psychokinesis.
Meditation and Psi
Traditional Yogic teachings state that a person who attains a higher state of consciousness will manifest psychic powers.
Psychedelics and Psi
A gradual easing of restrictions means that psi research with psychedelics, once prevalent, could soon resume.
Psi Research in China
Recent experimental and theoretical work in China includes successful attempts to train ESP abilities in blind children.
Clinical Parapsychology
Therapeutic approach that aims to provide support for people disturbed by anomalous event experiences.
Psi for Financial Gain
Anecdotal accounts and lab tests suggest that psi can at times be used to advantage in gambling and financial speculation.
Coover Telepathy Experiments
Early telepathy experiments, once thought a failure, now considered statistically significant.
Key Topics
Psychology and Parapsychology
Explores the overlap between psychology and parapsychology, such as personality and other variables linked to psi.
Eminent People Interested in Psi (list)
A list of some 200 scientists, thinkers, writers, and artists who took seriously the possibility of psi.
Remote Viewing
An experimental form of clairvoyance, in which a suitably trained person attempts to visualise the topography of a distant scene.
Near-Death Experience (Overview)
This article describes anomalous mental events reported by people who have survived a near-fatal accident or illness.
Reincarnation: An Introduction
This introductory article covers beliefs in reincarnation, evidence for reincarnation, and sceptical views of the research.
Psychokinesis Research
Overview of experimental research on mind-matter interaction, commonly referred to as psychokinesis (PK).
American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR)
The oldest parapsychological organization in the United States, founded in 1884, now practically defunct.
Animals in Psi Research
Describes informal observations, early tests and modern lab experiments looking at animals' psychic capabilities.
Recent Additions
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.
Battersea Poltergeist (1928)
Disturbances reported in a small house in Battersea, London, investigated by Harry Price.
AWARE NDE Studies
AWARE and AWARE II were large-scale studies testing for veridical perceptions recalled by hospital patients during NDEs.
Robert Bigelow and the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies
Billionaire American businessman whose foundation funds research on post-mortem survival.
Christopher Robinson
British psychic said to possess precognitive dream ability of use to UK police and security services.
The Telepathy Tapes
Podcast series exploring claims that certain nonspeaking autistic individuals possess telepathic abilities.
Psychische Studien (journal)
Early German psychical research journal (1874–1925) that contained reports of experiences and investigations.
Allan Kardec
French educator (1804–1869) whose work with mediums led to the development of Spiritism, today highly popular in Brazil.
Neuroimaging and Psi
Recent advances in brain imaging technology have been exploited in several lines of psi research.
Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP)
Under Etzel Cardeña at Lund University.
Reincarnation and the Population Problem
The idea that increases in population are a problem has been addressed in various ways.
Witchcraft
Traces the development of witchcraft as the socially proscribed practice of magic, from Antiquity to the present day.
Planned Reincarnations
Planned reincarnation suggests that next-life circumstances can be chosen not just between lives but prior to death.
Alexander Nikolayevich Aksakov
First Russian psychical researcher, a government official who studied mediums and psychics.
FJM Stratton
British soldier and astrophysics professor (1881-1961) who investigated hauntings and other psychic phenomena.
Àlex Gómez-Marín
Alex Gomez-Marin is a Spanish physicist and neuroscientist with research interests in parapsychology.
Garret Yount
American researcher who explores the links between molecular biology and aspects of consciousness, including energy healing.
Kim Penberthy
Kim Penberthy is a clinical psychologist at the University of Virginia with research interests in psi and spirituality.
Arnaud Delorme
American neuroscientist who has carried out experiments exploring the relation between consciousness and psi.
Explore the Psi Encyclopedia
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.
Psi for Financial Gain
Anecdotal accounts and lab tests suggest that psi can at times be used to advantage in gambling and financial speculation.
The Brain and Psi
Describes how electroencephalography (EEG) and brain imaging technology are being used to demonstrate psychic functioning.
Ganzfeld ESP
The Ganzfeld is a sensory deprivation laboratory technique that has proven effective in facilitating telepathy and remote viewing.
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.
Michael Whiteman
British-born mathematician and philosopher who was inspired by his own psychical and mystical experiences.
Apollonius of Tyana
Itinerant first-century preacher and healer reputed to have performed miracles and supernatural feats.
Arigo
Brazilian celebrated for making diagnoses, prescriptions, even surgery, while possessed by ‘spirit doctors’ in a trance state.
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.
Out-of-Body Experience (OBE)
Reviews research on OBEs, the sense of having separated from the body and of viewing it from the outside.
Eben Alexander
Near-death experience described by an American neurosurgeon that attracted media attention and controversy.
Religious Levitation
Reports of individuals being seen, spontaneously and involuntarily, to rise into the air and remain suspended
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.
Edgar Vandy Case
In this 1930s case, four mediums independently gave strikingly similar information about a young man's death by drowning.
Goligher Circle
Northern Irish Spiritualist group said to produce striking psychic phenomena, the subject of research in the 1910s.
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.
Gnanatilleka Baddewithana (reincarnation case)
Sri Lankan case studied by two teams, with past-life memories recorded before verifications.
Testing Children’s Past-Life Knowledge
Children who remember past lives are often set tests to try to establish the truth of their claims.
Katsugoro (reincarnation case)
Famous 19th century Japanese case, the subject of three separate contemporary investigations.
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.
Drummer of Tedworth
Poltergeist case investigated by Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680), one of the first to receive serious scrutiny.
Ghosts and Apparitions in Psi Research (Overview)
Types of ghostly phenomena, methods of research and theories of causation.
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.
Gertrude Schmeidler
American psychologist and parapsychologist, noted for her theory that ESP ability relates to belief.
Wilhelm Wundt
German psychologist whose scepticism of psi phenomena was motivated by religious concerns.
Sylvan J Muldoon
American who wrote about his out-of-body experiences, which occurred throughout his life, and which he was able to control.
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.
International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS)
US-based outfit founded in 1981 to study NDEs and provide support and educational resources.
Institut Métapsychique International (IMI)
Since 1919, France's IMI has made important contributions to psi and mediumship research.
Rhine Research Center
Successor to the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, dedicated to psi research, education and community activities.
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.
Harry Houdini
The legendary stage magician (1874–1926) was hostile to Spiritualism and wrote books about his debunking of mediums.
Michael Shermer
Well-known American author, media personality and career sceptic, founder of the Skeptics Society and its magazine Skeptic.
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.
Electromagnetism and Paranormal Phenomena
Electromagnetism may be implicated in reports of seemingly paranormal phenomena.
Cottingley Fairies
1920s hoax by two girl, who persuaded Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that they had photographed themselves playing with fairies.
Richet’s Traité de Métapsychique (Thirty Years of Psychical Research)
A classic review of the literature, published in 1922.