by Nancy Zingrone, Associate Editor
In a recent Editors’ Blog, I provided a written tour of the Psi Encyclopedia, the organisation of the materials, and examples of various types of finding tools built into the text. The importance of the PE was presented not only as a compendium of the field’s academic and experiential history, but also as a map of eras, countries, professions, experiences, theories, researchers, authors, adepts, international associations and societies as they emerged, endured, or faded away.
Founded in 2014 under the sponsorship of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), Robert McLuhan was the ‘principal architect’ of the PE, providing entries that strived to a clear, unbiased, evidenced-based narratives that honoured the various points-of-view, cultures, themes, and beliefs. The initial purpose is still the goal for the new team who took over in April of 2026: that is, to provide accurate, up-to-date information of all the materials within the PE.
At first, I found the PE a great place to look up an obscure researcher or medium, but as I started to spend more time with it, I realized that it was not just a source to check when something needs to be checked, but rather a very important source for teaching.
The Course I Teach
In the fall of 2025, I taught my first course at California Institute for Human Science in the Parapsychology Specialization headed by Jeffrey Mishlove and Callum E Cooper. I had three students, two in the master’s program, and one in the doctoral program. The course was called History of Psychical Research and Parapsychology (1880–1940). The materials were mostly similar, although the student in the doctoral version has more readings, and more tasks within the assignments. In composing the course lectures, I drew on several PE biographies of the SPR’s founders and essays on experiences, mediums, methodology, and so on. These were given to the students as primary readings or as suggested back-ups for the assignments.
A Questionnaire
Recently, I sent out five questions to some colleagues who I thought might be using entries in the PE in their course preparation. The questions were:
- Have you browsed the Psi Encyclopedia with a course you are teaching, or for an article or something else?
- If you have used the PE for a course, a lecture, an article or any relevant source to teaching, as you assigning PE entries for the students, adding PE information or photos on your PowerPoints, or elaborating on a theory, person, historical event that you have researched in the PE for materials in the course, lectures, or discussions for your students.
- Have you asked students to use the PE for an activity, such as choosing historical parapsychologists/researchers?
- Have you asked students to take a topic and use the PE to follow the people and progress of that topic by using the resources in the individual entries?
- If you have not done any of these, have these questions inspired you to browse the PE? If so, considering how you might use the PE for an educational purpose, what way might you use it the PE in the future.
Responses
Here are some of the replies I received:
John Kruth, of the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina, US replied to the first question that ‘The encyclopedia is one of the best online resources for our field. I use it often to get an overview of a topic or sometimes to find references for a specific author. The bibliography for each article is very useful to direct further research, and there are oftentimes that the articles are detailed enough to be a primary reference for a topic covered in a course’ (Kruth, J., 2026, Personal communication).
Dr Lance Storm, of the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia replied this way, ‘I visit PE quite often for just about anything I am working on that is parapsychological as it saves time going through indexes and searching the literature. I usually want a brief rundown on a concept or theory, and it’s a quick way to get confirmation and/or clarification’ (Storm, L., 2026, Personal communication).
Mark Boccuzzi of Windbridge Research Center, Tucson, Arizona, US commented, ‘I use PE ALL THE TIME, to get background info for classes, projects, papers, presentations, grant applications, etc.’ (Boccuzzi, M., 2026, Personal communication) and Loyd Auerbach of the Rhine Education Center and Atlantic University online, US said ‘Absolutely! Use it all the time’ (Auerbach, L., 2026, Personal communication).
Dr Mario Varvoglis, of the Institut Métapsychique International, Paris, France responded, ‘I’ve consulted PE myself several times, while looking up things for chapters I wrote for a French book that’s soon to come out (It’s a French version of the “For Dummies”)’ (Varvoglis, M., 2026, Personal communication).
The initial browsing through the PE I did for my course was important along with the assigned books and articles. I found useful having the photos in the PE for the PowerPoints, the biographic details in entries, or including the supplemental materials for assignments and bibliography.
When I asked the second question that touched upon using PE for teaching, the responses were more diverse. For example, Loyd Auerbach said:
‘I always list the PE as a resource for every class I teach. Depending on the course topics, I’ll also provide links to specific articles within the online classroom. So, different courses include links to relevant articles, mostly as assigned reading (occasionally adding extra article links as “supplementary reading”)’ (Auerbach, 2026, Personal communication).
John Kruth responded, ‘In each of our courses, we include a section on course resources. The PE is included in every online course room as a reliable and professional source of information’ (Kruth, 2026, Personal communication). He also commented that ‘Not every article is complete and some aren’t available, but the articles are well-structured and provide a reviewing source for information on parapsychology from the scientific perspective’ (ibid.).
When I went through the PE before I became a PE Associate Editor, I was looking for places and people I knew, or knew of, when I worked at the Foundation for the Research of the Nature of Man (FRNM was the name of the RRC when I was there in the early December 1982 to December 1993). I too noticed what I think Kruth was mentioning. Several entries pertaining to the Institute for Parapsychology, or the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory, some people, and quite a lot of details, were not available, or not yet as complete as they could be. However, there is a very large list of current and past entries that need updating, and some of the RRC-related entries are among those.
Finally, Mark Boccuzzi mentioned that he ‘makes it a point to do a module on the PE and encourage students to use it’ (Boccuzzi, 2026, Personal communication).
Questions 3 and 4 were about how to turn the PE into a crucial part of an assignment or activity. To be honest, I didn’t do that consistently in my course for the California Institute for Human Science in 2025, but I am planning on setting up at least two assignments that require entries in the PE. While I haven’t decided what all I would like to do when I teach my course again in 2027, I do plan to ask students to use the ‘Researchers & Authors’ section with its six 30-year organisation of the individuals. The assignment would entail comparing the education, occupation, and theory or method of an early researcher born between 1850 and 1879 with another researcher born between 1910 to 1930. Another possible option might be browsing the 30-year groups and writing an essay on the changing explanations for theories for paranormal experiences from 1850 to 1999.
Some of the respondents did include some of their own activities and activities for their students. For example, Lance Storm ‘ … quite often … get[s] email queries from lay public, students and even academics, and in all cases, I will refer them to PE, especially if they refer to something about parapsychology that …[they had]… read …[in]… Wikipedia’ (Storm, 2026, Personal communication), and Loyd Auerbach, while he often suggests to students to look through the progress of some sort, he commented that he hasn’t done that as an assignment.
Finally, the 5th question had to do with PE as is, how it can be used, and what was important for the future, theirs and ours. Auerbach mentioned that he liked that PE is ‘always considering new topics/articles as they are added’. Boccuzzi said ‘Yes! As I pull more classes together, I’ll keep these ideas in mind. It is an amazing resource’. Kruth mentioned that he ‘use[s] the PE all of the time and encourages students to do the same’.
Another Good Idea for the Future
I mention Varvoglis at the end because he responded to Questions 4 and 5 by those thoughts that opened up a very importance future problem to solve. Varvoglis said that he doesn’t ‘… give a formal parapsychology course; other members at the IMI do. I suspect that don’t use PE, because of the language barrier’ and … ‘I would be nice to have a French version of the PE, but I recognize that’s a tall order, even in the era of ChatGPT’.
That is definitely a tall order, but a very important one.
CODA
I would ask any of you who teach parapsychology, psychical research, remote viewing or anything that is within the remit of the PE, if you have responses to the questions, put forth new ideas, or suggest ways to use PE in teaching please feel free to send them to me. In my head, PE has enormous potential as a source for teachers of all levels for new ideas and activities that are relevant, enjoyable, and useful for learning. I would love to hear about that too.
You can write to me at [email protected].