Experimental Parapsychology

Claims of ESP and PK have long been examined through controlled tests designed to distinguish chance results from genuine anomalies. This subcategory of ESP & Psychokinesis covers classic and modern testing paradigms, experimental refinements, study participants and notable findings in the effort to assess whether psi capacities can be demonstrated scientifically and what their correlates are.

malcolm bessent

Malcolm Bessent

English-born Malcolm Bessent participated as a subject in successful dream precognition experiments carried out in the US.

John Edgar Coover

Coover Telepathy Experiments

Early telepathy experiments, once thought a failure, now considered statistically significant.

Creatives have been tested for ESP

Creative Participants in the Ganzfeld

Series of successful ESP experiments with dance, drama and music students of New York’s Juilliard School.

Teenage girls in Victorian fashion engraving

Creery Telepathy Experiments

Apparently successful early experiments in telepathy later discredited by admissions of cheating.

graph showing decline

Decline Effect in Psi Research

Review of the 'decline effect’ in psi testing, a falling off in participants' performance over time.

Source: Koestler Parapsychology Unit, Project Ganzfeld

Delgado-Romero and Howard Telepathy Experiments

Ganzfeld tests intended to correct perceived flaws in experimental design.

JB Rhine tests a subject with Zener cards at Duke University

Experimental Parapsychology

Overview of efforts to apply experimental methods to the study of psi experiences, from the 1870s to today.

photograph of parapsychologist explaining an experiment to student participants

Experimenter Effects in Psi Research

Parapsychologists have come to believe that experimenters play a major role in influencing the outcome of psi tests.

Photograph of Ariel Farias during a laboratory experiment

Ariel Farias

Argentinian factory worker and martial arts teacher who took part in recent successful recent psychokinesis experiments.

Daryl Bem

Feeling the Future (Precognition Experiments)

A ground-breaking ESP study that appeared to show a precognitive effect was reported in 2011.

Psi Ganzfeld: in the laboratory

Ganzfeld ESP

The Ganzfeld is a sensory deprivation laboratory technique that has proven effective in facilitating telepathy and remote viewing.

gilbert murray

Gilbert Murray Telepathy Experiments

Successful informal ESP tests carried out by an Australian-British classics scholar (1866-1957).

image of Sean Harribance

Lalsingh ‘Sean’ Harribance

Trinidadian psychic of Indian descent who participated in ESP and PK experiments with American researchers from the 1970s.


Jaytee (pet telepathy)

This article describes experiments that appeared to demonstrate a telepathic link between a dog and its owner.

Maimonides Medical Centre, New York

Maimonides Dream Telepathy Research

This article describes ESP dreaming experiments carried out in a New York sleep laboratory.

image of graph

Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology

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

uri geller bending spoon

Metal-Bending Research

Survey of research into claims that cutlery and other metal objects can potentially be bent by mind force alone.

Aimée Morgana teaching N'kisi to speak

N’kisi (pet telepathy)

Successful telepathy experiment carried out with an African Grey parrot which had been taught to speak several words.

photo of Wolfgang Pauli

Observational Theories of Psi

Review of research on the idea that psi works by cognizing and manipulating the invisible underworld of quantum probabilities.


Stefan Ossowiecki

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

image of clockface

Precognition Without Retrocausation

Precognitive dreams may be interpreted in terms of retrocausation, but is this the best way?

Dean Radin, a leading investigator of presentiment

Presentiment in Laboratory Studies

An unconscious form of precognition that can be demonstrated with techniques commonly used in research on psychophysiology.

a personal objects such as a watch or wallet can is used by a psychometrist to discover information about its owner

Psychometry

Clairvoyance facilitated by holding an object, which enables a psychic to describe key incidents associated with it.

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.

Charles Richet, physiologist and psi researcher

Richet’s ‘La Suggestion Mentale’

In a 1884 paper, physiologist Charles Richet pioneered the use of statistics in telepathy tests.

Ted Serios

Ted Serios

Ted Serios (1918–2006) was an adept in the rare phenomenon of ‘thoughtography’ (an ability to 'think' images onto photographic film).

Gertrude Schmeidler

Sheep-Goat Effect

In experimental tests, participants who believe in psi (sheep) score positively while those who do not believe (goats) score at chance.

photo of Mary Craig Sinclair

Sinclair Telepathy Experiments

A successful series of ESP drawing experiments carried out by American author Upton Sinclair and his wife Craig.

pavel stepanek

Pavel Stepanek

Czech ESP subject who performed consistently well in experiments carried out in Prague and in the US during the 1960s.

photo of Ingo Swann

Ingo Swann

American artist (1933–2013) whose psychic ability led him to participate in successful ESP and PK experiments in the 1970s.

Zoltan Kekecs

Transparent Psi Project

This article describes a failed effort to replicate a famous precognitive effect reported by Daryl Bem in 2011.

photo of Suitbert Ertel

Unusual Ways of Testing for Psi

Psi abilities have been tested in more ways than the usual ones of card guessing, dice throwing, remote viewing and Ganzfeld.

Aklavik, a settlement in Canada's Northwest Territories visited by Sir Hubert Wilkins during his telepathy experiment.

Wilkins and Sherman Telepathy

A successful long-distance telepathy test was carried out over a five-month period in 1938.

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