by Nancy L. Zingrone, Associate Editor
As the Psi Encyclopedia (PE) has developed under the new editorial team and the staff writers, the General Editor, James G Matlock, has been particularly keen to expand our use of social media in order to bring these important materials to educators, organisations, and individuals seeking a reliable reference resource.
When Robert McLuhan founded the PE in 2014, one of his principal aims was to provide in-depth and accurate entries that could counterbalance the many unreliable materials available online. His work developed the PE to the point where it now contains 740 well-written entries covering organisations, biographies of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), scientists, sceptics, authors, experiencers, psychics, and mediums, as well as clear descriptions of research methods and the phenomena themselves. Over the last twelve years, McLuhan worked with more than eighty expert authors in bringing this vision to life.
Matlock, who spent several years working with McLuhan, has launched the Editors’ Blog, which will be updated every third week. The first Editors’ Blog is entitled ‘New Team, Old Direction‘. In that blog, Matlock introduced his editorial team and discussed his vision for continuing McLuhan’s important work, expanding coverage of the many subfields of parapsychology. At the same time, the team hopes to improve some aspects of the layout and page design to make the PE is more attractive and accessible.
My own remit has been to expand the PE‘s social media presence, helping regular readers remain aware of newly uploaded or updated entries, while also introducing the PE to educators, students, and researchers who are entering the field of academic parapsychology. Although I previously worked on promoting the Parapsychology Research and Education online course from 2015 to 2020, and again from 2022 onward, my experience had largely been confined to Facebook. With the guidance of Matlock and Tom Ruffles of the SPR’s Education and Publicity Committee, I have been broadening my understanding of the different forms of social media that may help us spread the word more effectively. I still have much to learn, but I am very pleased to have this opportunity.
My work began on 16 April. The social media platforms we are using now are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and Bluesky. Because I began with the Psi Encyclopedia Facebook page, fourteen posts and one repost has been uploaded, including new or updated PE entries and the first Editors’ Blog. LinkedIn and Bluesky currently have thirteen posts and one repost each, Instagram nine and one repost, while X, the most recently established platform, has two posts and one repost. Each social media platform allows different amounts of text and has different expectations regarding images.
Each social media platform that features updated or new entries to the Psi Encyclopedia includes a link for each entry. In recent days, I have also added the link for the author of the entry if the platform allows sufficient space for an additional paragraph. Here are the entries I posted:
- The reposted entry was a video created by Mark Boccuzzi, the executive director of the Windbridge Research Center, who created an excellent guide to what the PE is and how to use it to your benefit. Boccuzzi uploaded the video to his Mark Boccuzzi ParaMark YouTube channel on 8 May. We are very grateful for his support and hope that the video will help introduce many new readers to the PE.
Ouija Board, written by David Brandon Hodge and John Fraser with additional information from James G Matlock, posted on 28 April. - Annekatrin Angelika Puhle, written by Melvyn Willin with additional information from James G Matlock, posted on 30 April.
- Editors’ Blog, New Team, Old Direction, written by James G Matlock with input from the other editors, posted on 4 May.
- Robert McLuhan, written by Melvyn Willin, posted on 5 May.
- Coin Apports: The Mexico City Case, written by Michael Duggan with additional information from James G Matlock, posted on 7 May.
- Antony Flew, written by Roberto R Narváez, posted on 11 May and updated on 20 May.
- René Peoc’h, written by Michael Duggan with additional information from James G Matlock, posted on 13 May.
- Visualizing the Supernatural, written by Andreas Sommer, posted on 15 May.
- Haakon Forwald, written by Nemo C Mörck, posted on 18 May and updated on 21 May.
- Placement Effects in Psychokinesis Tests, written by Brian Millar, posted on 20 May.
- Ada Goodrich Freer, written by Melvyn Willin with additional information from James G Matlock, posted on 23 May.
These posts are now available for discussion on the social media platforms, something we are unable to provide on the PE site. In the last 35 days, the level of engagement for these new or updated posts has been encouraging. The pages were set up as professional accounts, allowing us to examine the analytics provided by each platform.
The platform with the greatest reach was Facebook, where the PE posts received 12,329 views. Overall, 74 individuals shared the posts, obtained 188 ‘likes’, and 10 comments. Instagram, despite having only eight posts uploaded, generated 418 views, 60 ‘likes’, and three shares, while LinkedIn brought in 308 views and one share. The three posts uploaded to X generated 117 views and two hearts. In addition, because I already manage several other Facebook pages — including Parapsychology Online, The Alvarado Zingrone (virtual) Institute for Research and Education, the Study of Human Experiences Project, and the Parapsychology Foundation pages — a further 2,310 views and eight more shares of Psi Encyclopedia entries were obtained through those networks.
Managing social media, of course, involves more than simply counting views. I am also learning how to invite followers and encourage them to share materials more widely. Within our international field, colleagues and organisations have been especially supportive. These include Andreas Sommer’s Forbidden Histories project; Mark Boccuzzi’s excellent video introducing the PE; Tom Ruffles’ work on behalf of the SPR and the PE before our team took over; Michael Duggan; and organisations such as Unidad Parapsicológica de Investigación, Difusión y Enseñanza (UPIDE), all of whom helped spread the word.
I felt that our first 35 days were very encouraging. We’re hoping that individuals who come in contact with the posts will click the link to read the entry. So many individuals with deep knowledge of the field have contributed to the PE over the years that the encyclopedia has become an invaluable resource not only for researchers and students, but for anyone wanting to know more about psychical research and parapsychology.