Contributors

  • Dr Carlos S. Alvarado

    Carlos S Alvarado (1955–2021) received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh. He was a Research Fellow at the Parapsychology Foundation, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and a past President of the Parapsychological Association. Alvarado’s work centred on survey research… more

  • Mary Rose Barrington

    Mary Rose Barrington (1926–2020) graduated from ghost stories to Oliver Lodge’s Survival of Man while at school and later took a turn as President of the Oxford University Society for Psychical Research. She joined the SPR in 1957, becoming a Council member in 1962. She participated in many investigations and… more

  • Dr Julie Beischel

    Julie Beischel received her doctorate in Pharmacology and Toxicology with a minor in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Arizona and uses her interdisciplinary training to apply the scientific method to controversial topics. She is Director of Research at the Windbridge Research Center, an Arizona… more

  • Prof Dick Bierman

    Professor Dick J Bierman currently works at the Department of Psychology, University of Groningen. Dick started his academic career with research in atomic and molecular physics and then became engaged in consciousness research. He currently combines his physics background with his experience with experimental… more

  • Prof Stephen E Braude

    Stephen E Braude (1945–2026) was Emeritus Professor and former Chair of Philosophy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He served as President of the Parapsychological Association in 1991 and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration from 2010 to 2021. His earliest research was in logic… more

  • Dr Richard Broughton

    Richard Broughton gained a PhD in psychology at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied under John Beloff. Following appointments at the University of Utrecht and the State University of New York, he joined the Institute for Parapsychology (successor to the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory and now… more

  • Prof Etzel Cardeña

    Etzel Cardeña, the Thorsen Professor of Psychology at Lund University, Sweden, obtained his Ph. D. at UC Davis, and was a postdoctoral fellow and visiting scholar at Stanford University. Elected fellow of APA and APS, his research, theoretical and pedagogical contributions have received multiple awards. He has more… more

  • Prof Bernard Carr

    Bernard Carr is Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary University of London. His professional area of expertise is cosmology and astrophysics and includes such topics as the early universe, black holes, dark matter and the anthropic principle. He is also very interested in the role of consciousness in… more

  • Matthew Colborn

    Matthew Colborn received an MSc. in cognitive science from Birmingham University in 1977, and a DPhil. in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex in 2001. Having pursued independent research in areas of controversial science and consciousness studies, he is currently a freelance writer, lecturer and… more

  • Dr Barrie Colvin

    Dr Barrie Colvin is a specialist the chemistry and physics of polymers, having graduated with a doctorate degree from the University of Manchester. He worked as a senior research scientist for Shell Chemicals and now runs his own company. Barrie has been involved with the physical aspects of psychical research for… more

  • Dr Callum E. Cooper

    Callum E. Cooper, PhD, is a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, holding higher degrees with focus on: psychology, thanatology, social science research methods and education. He is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Northampton within… more

  • Michael Daw

    Michael Daw is a research scientist at the University of Northampton, where he has investigated the effect of maintaining vegetarian or vegan diets on psi abilities. His hypothesis that these diets promote psi abilities was confirmed by an independent study.

  • Dr Everton de Oliveira Maraldi

    Everton de Oliveira Maraldi, Ph.D, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is also a professional member of the Parapsychological Association (USA). He is a Laureate of the São Paulo Academy of Psychology – Best Doctoral Thesis (2013-2015), and a Member of the… more

  • Barbara Ensrud

    Barbara Ensrud, BA is a journalist and author with a long and keen interest in metaphysical subjects, particularly aspects of extra-sensory perception and its relation to human consciousness. Her journalistic career has also focused on the subject of wine and its role in culture and civilization. Her articles have… more

  • Nancy Evans Bush

    Nancy Evans Bush, MA, President Emerita of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), has for almost forty years been a voice for the substantial minority of near-death experiencers whose NDEs feature fear, guilt, and even terror rather than heavenly realms. A long-time editor of the IANDS… more

  • Dr Renaud Evrard

    Renaud Evrard is a clinical psychologist, PhD in psychology with a doctoral thesis on the clinical practice with exceptional experiences, published under the title Folie et paranormal : vers une clinique des expériences exceptionnelles (PUR, 2014). He is currently assistant professor at the University of Lorraine… more

  • John Fraser

    John Fraser gained a BA Hons in Philosophy and Economics from Keele University. He is the author of Ghost Hunting: A Survivors Guide published by the History Press in 2010. In 2015 he completed a detailed witness study involving alleged paranormal phenomena at The Cage in St Osyth. He has been an investigator with… more

  • Dr Alan Gauld

    Dr Alan O Gauld, MA, DLitt, PhD (1932–2024) was a reader in psychology, having taught biological psychology and neuropsychology at the University of Nottingham. He was the author of numerous journal papers in psychology and parapsychology and author or co-author of five books: The Founders of Psychical Research… more

  • Prof Hans Gerding

    Hans Gerding is Emeritus Professor at Leiden University (Institute of Philosophy) and has been director of the Parapsychological Institute in Utrecht. He wrote a dissertation on the Kant-Swedenborg controversy (Kant and the paranormal), incorporated psi reseach in his university-courses and was involved in… more

  • Dr Trevor Hamilton

    Trevor Hamilton has degrees from Oxford, London, Sussex and Exeter Universities, most recently a PhD assessing the work of FWH Myers and colleagues. He retired as Director of the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth in 2006. He is the author of three books:… more

  • Prof Erlendur Haraldsson

    Erlendur Haraldsson (1931–2020) was a professor in psychology at the University of Iceland. He wrote eight books, five of which appeared in English: I Saw a Light and Came Here, Children´s Experiences of Reincarnation; Indridi Indridason the Icelandic Physical Medium; The Departed Among The Living; Modern Miracles.… more

  • Dr Guy Hayward

    Dr Guy Hayward read music as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge. He stayed there to complete his MPhil in musicology, and then a PhD on the psychology/anthropology of communal singing traditions around the world. During his PhD, Guy was introduced to psychical research via Rupert Sheldrake’s work on… more

  • Dr Jack Hunter

    Jack Hunter received his PhD in 2018 from University of Bristol, having studied in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology there. His research interests are focused on developing an ethnographic and ecological approach to understanding psi phenomena, especially mediumship and trance states. In 2010, he… more

  • Dr Harvey J Irwin

    Harvey J Irwin (PhD, 1978) is a long-standing researcher with an interest in the psychology of parapsychological experiences and paranormal beliefs. His publications include 150 papers in academic journals and five books, including the highly praised and widely used text An Introduction to Parapsychology. Dr Irwin… more

  • Dr Hannah Jenkins

    Hannah Jenkins studied at the University of Sydney, and completed a PhD in analytical philosophy at the University of Tasmania, studying the evidence for psi in relation to explanation history and theory. She is founder and director of Quality Investigative Psi Projects (QIPP), which aims to develop ways of making… more

  • Wim Kramer

    Wim H. Kramer studied electronic engineering and holds a MSc. degree in clinical & experimental psychology, also two international MBA’s in business administration. He is Managing Director of the Dutch Foundation: ‘Het Johan Borgman Fonds’. He has published articles on clinical and historical aspects of… more

  • Dr David Luke

    Dr David Luke, PhD, BSc, completed his doctoral thesis on the psychology of luck in 2007, and is now Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Greenwich, where he teaches an undergraduate course on the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience.

  • Dr Fatima Regina Machado

    Fatima Regina Machado is a Brazilian psychologist with a special interest in the psychology of psi experiences, especially their symbolic aspects, as well as the psychology of religion grounded in the Brazilian interpretation of psi and anomalous experiences as religious experiences. More recently she has focused on… more

  • Dr Leonardo Martins

    Dr Leonardo Martins is a Brazilian psychologist, PhD and Master in social psychology; postdoctoral researcher in the Institute of Psychology at University of São Paulo, having completed a research internship at Coventry University in England; and researcher and member of the following laboratories, nuclei and academic… more

  • Dr James G Matlock

    James G Matlock received his PhD in anthropology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He has had a longstanding engagement in parapsychology and has written on the history of parapsychology, the anthropology of religion, postmortem survival, and reincarnation in both anthropology and parapsychology. He… more

  • Robert McLuhan

    Robert McLuhan studied English Literature at Oxford, then worked as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian in Spain and Portugal. He now works as a freelance journalist. He has been a member of the Society for Psychical Research since 1993, blogging and speaking on paranormal topics. His 2010 book Randi’s Prize is… more

  • Brian Millar

    In the late 1970s Brian Millar did extensive parapsychological research under John Beloff at the University of Edinburgh, through a Perrott-Warwick studentship, and then at the University of Utrecht. In the course of this considerable practical experience his results were repeatedly ‘no psi’. Colleagues, however,… more

  • Dr Michael Nahm

    Michael Nahm studied zoology, botany, genetics and palaeontology, and earned his PhD with a dissertation on tree physiology. During the recent years, he initiated and coordinated national and international research projects in forestry science. In addition, he follows a second line of research by exploring frontiers… more

  • Roberto R. Narváez

    Roberto R Narváez received an MA in History from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). His research interests include the history of scientific methods, the history of religions and philosophy, the history of psychical research in Europe and North America, classical American pragmatism, and the history… more

  • Dr Roger D Nelson

    Roger Nelson is an experimental psychologist with a PhD from New York University. His background also includes physics and engineering. Nelson was Research Coordinator for the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory at Princeton University from 1980 to 2002. He is the founder of the Global… more

  • Dr John Newton

    John Newton undertook postgraduate research into sixteenth- and seventeenth-century beliefs about ghosts at the University of Durham and the University of Oxford. He received his doctorate from the former in 2004 for his thesis exploring the relationship of the period’s literature to both the official theology and… more

  • Dr M Ohkado

    Ohkado Masayuki (his surname precedes his given name) is a Japanese linguistics professor and parapsychologist, with interests in postmortem survival phenomena, chiefly reincarnation but also memories of birth, pre-birth and intermission, and near-death experiences. He is the author of Katsugoro and Other… more

  • Dr John Palmer

    John Palmer received a PhD in psychology from the University of Texas. He has worked at the Rhine Research Center (formerly Foundation of Research on the Nature of Man) almost continuously since 1984, serving as director of research and director of education. He was editor of the Journal of Parapsychology from 1994… more

  • Dr Adrian Parker

    Adrian Parker is an Anglo-Swedish clinical psychologist and parapsychologist based at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg. He is the recipient of the first UK doctorate in psi studies and one of the first researchers to use and help develop the ganzfeld technique for telepathy testing. His main interests are the… more

  • Steven Parsons

    Steven Parsons is an experienced researcher of ghosts, hauntings and related human experiences, a Council member of the Society for Psychical Research, and advisor to the Ghost Club. He is author of five books and numerous articles on ghost hunting and related subjects. A regular speaker at conferences and… more

  • Patricia Pearson

    Patricia Pearson is an award-winning journalist and author whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times, Huffington Post and Businessweek. Her most recent book, A Brief History of Anxiety – Yours and Mine, challenged the notion that mood disorders are purely brain-based with no relation to culture and… more

  • Guy Lyon Playfair

    Guy Lyon Playfair (1935-2018) joined the SPR in 1974 and was a member of its governing Council. A graduate of Cambridge University, he worked as a freelance journalist and photographer since 1963. He spent fourteen years in Brazil where he collected material for the first two of his twelve books, including Twin… more

  • Dr Michael Potts

    Michael Potts is Professor of Philosophy at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His Ph.D. is from The University of Georgia. He is the co-editor of Beyond Brain Death: The Case against Brain-Based Criteria for Human Death (Kluwer, 2000), and has authored numerous articles and book reviews for… more

  • Prof John Poynton

    John Poynton is Professor Emeritus of biology at the University of Natal, South Africa, a research associate of the Natural History Museum, London, and a scientific fellow of the Zoological Society of London. His main research has been in African zoology and biogeography; he has also published in the philosophy of… more

  • Erika A Pratte

    Erika A Pratte is a professional writer, mental health clinician/counselor, and researcher in the field of exceptional experiences. She is the editor, co-creator, and owner of the Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology. Erika holds a BA in English, an MA in psychology and is currently working on a PhD in… more

  • Leslie Price

    Leslie Price is an associate editor of the quarterly journal Theosophical History which he founded in 1985. He has served on the SPR Council and library committee, and was secretary of the first SPR international conference in 1977. He is also the founder editor of The Christian Parapsychologist in 1975, and of … more

  • Dr Dean Radin

    Dean Radin, PhD, is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, and SRI International. He is author or coauthor of over 250 technical and popular articles, three… more

  • Dr Sharon Hewitt Rawlette

    Sharon Hewitt Rawlette, PhD, is a philosopher and writer who studies extraordinary experiences and what they have to tell us about consciousness and the deeper nature of the world in which we live. She earned her doctorate in philosophy from New York University in 2008, studying metaethics under Thomas Nagel and… more

  • Dr Sally Rhine Feather

    Sally Rhine Feather, PhD is a retired clinical psychologist, who credits her lifelong interest in parapsychology to growing up as the daughter of JB and Louisa E Rhine. Dr Feather worked as a research assistant at the Duke Parapsychology Lab before and after earning a doctorate in experimental psychology from Duke… more

  • Titus Rivas

    Titus Rivas is a Dutch independent philosopher, researcher and author with a strong interest parapsychology, especially reincarnation, near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences. He has investigated many cases of these phenomena and co-authored multiple books on their evidential value and philosophical… more

  • Prof Chris Roe

    Prof. Chris Roe, Bsc, MSc, PhD, AFBPs, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Northampton in the UK. He is Director of the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes and is Course Leader for Northampton’s MSc in Transpersonal Psychology and Consciousness Studies. Chris was awarded his PhD by… more

  • Dr Serena Roney-Dougal

    Serena Roney-Dougal gained a PhD in parapsychology at the University of Surrey (one of around fifty people in Britain who have this qualification). She has over forty years of study and experience in scientific, magical and spiritual explorations of the psyche, and has lectured and taught courses, seminars and… more

  • Dr Leo Ruickbie

    Dr Leo Ruickbie, FRHistS, FRAI, PhD (Lond), MA, BA (Hons), Associate of King’s College, is a social scientist specializing in controversial beliefs and exceptional experiences. He was awarded a PhD for his work on contemporary witchcraft, magic and re-enchantment from King’s College London and is the author of six… more

  • Dr Penny Sartori

    Dr Penny Sartori worked as an intensive care staff nurse for 17 years. She undertook the UK’s largest and first long term prospective study of near-death experiences (NDEs) under the supervision of Dr Peter Fenwick and Professor Paul Badham and was awarded a PhD for her research in 2005. She is uniquely qualified as… more

  • David Saunders

    David Saunders is a psychology lecturer and PhD candidate at the University of Northampton working within the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes (CSAPP). His research interests include lucid dreaming, the function of dreams, the psi and survival hypotheses, motor-learning, mental-Imagery,… more

  • Stephan Schwartz

    Stephan A Schwartz is an American consciousness researcher, future trends analyst and author. His experimental research focuses on remote viewing, which he has used to make significant discoveries in the field of archaeology. Schwartz is especially concerned with the means of creating social transformation and is… more

  • Dr Rupert Sheldrake

    Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and 14 books (seven of them in collaboration with other authors). He was among the top 100 Global Thought Leaders for 2013, as ranked by the Duttweiler Institute, Zurich, Switzerland’s leading think tank. Sheldrake is known both for… more

  • Dr Djohar Si Ahmed

    Djohar Si Ahmed, PhD, is a psychoanalyst. She studied psychology and psychopathology at Paris Nanterre University, where she was a lecturer in clinical psychology. She worked for more than 20 years as a psychologist and psychoanalyst in a children’s centre for mental disorders, and in a psychiatric hospital. She is… more

  • Dr Andreas Sommer

    Dr Andreas Sommer is a historian of science and the occult. His doctoral thesis (University College London), which reconstructed the co-emergence of modern experimental psychology and psychical research in the late 1800s, won an award from the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.… more

  • Charmaine Sonnex

    Charmaine Sonnex is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Buckingham. Her research interests include Transpersonal Psychology, non-contact healing, Paganism, and the psychology of religion and spirituality. She was recently awarded a PhD at the University of Northampton, exploring Neo-pagan healing spells … more

  • Dr Douglas M Stokes

    Douglas M Stokes (  -2022) held a BA (magna cum laude) from Harvard University and a PhD in experimental parapsychology from the University of Michigan. He was a regular contributor to the academic literature of parapsychology and also wrote for skeptical publications such as the Skeptical Inquirer. He published… more

  • Dr Lance Storm

    Lance Storm earned a B.A. (Honours) in psychology (1998) and a Ph.D. in parapsychology (2002) at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. He has published in Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Parapsychology, Journal of Scientific Exploration, the Jungian journal Quadrant, and elsewhere. He is a full member of… more

  • Andrew Tomlinson

    Andrew Tomlinson is a psychologist and psychotherapist. He has also been trained in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and Regression Therapy, and is a qualified Life Between Lives therapist from the Michael Newton Institute. Andrew has run a private practice dedicated to Regression Therapy since 1996 and is the Founder of the… more

  • Dr Jim B Tucker

    Jim B Tucker, MD, a child psychiatrist, retired as Bonner-Lowry Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia in January 2025. While at Virginia, he continued the work of Ian Stevenson at the Department of Psychiatry’s Division of Perceptual Studies with children who… more

  • Michael Tymn

    Michael Tymn has contributed more than 1,500 articles to some fifty publications over the past fifty years. Writing assignments have taken him to such diverse places as Bangkok, Panama, Glastonbury, Jerusalem, Hollywood, St. Paul, and Tombstone. He currently serves as editor of The Journal for Spiritual and… more

  • Maurice van Luijtelaar

    Maurice J. A. van Luijtelaar, MSc (Psychology) MA (Philosophy), worked as a researcher at Radboud University Medical Center. A recent large scale project in the field of parapsychology was to arrange and describe the archive of Dutch psychic Gerard Croiset. He has contributed articles to Tijdschrift voor… more

  • Prof Caroline Watt

    Professor Caroline Watt holds Edinburgh University’s Koestler Chair of Parapsychology and runs the Koestler Parapsychology Unit. Caroline was born in 1962, raised in Perthshire, Scotland, and has two sons. She graduated with an Hons Psychology degree from the University of St Andrews in 1984, and in 1986 was… more

  • Zofia Weaver

    Zofia Weaver is an independent researcher, translator and author whose academic interest is mediumship in her native Poland, leading her to write extensively about Franek Kluski and Stefan Ossowiecki. She joined the Society for Psychical Research in 1982, served as editor of its journal from 1999 to 2002, and is… more

  • KM Wehrstein

    KM Wehrstein, BAA (Journalism) is an independent reincarnation researcher, freelance writer and novelist, and one of the Psi Encyclopedia’s most prolific writers, also working as an editor. Her interest in reincarnation dates back to personal experiences both in adulthood and childhood, and began learning in depth… more

  • Donald J West

    Donald J West (1924–2020) joined the SPR as a teenager and made numerous contributions to its Journal and Proceedings. These included two surveys of apparitions and a series of collaborative ESP researches with the late GW Fisk, for which they received jointly the McDougall Award (1958) for distinguished work in… more

  • Bryan Williams

    Bryan Williams is the Research Director of the Psychical Research Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Carrollton, Texas, USA, which is dedicated to research and education in parapsychology. He previously studied psychology at the University of New Mexico and had been a research student of the late… more

  • Melvyn Willin

    Melvyn Willin was born in St Albans and educated at Francis Bacon Grammar School. He took degrees at several British universities including doctorates in paramusicology (Sheffield) and history (Bristol). He was closely associated with Bob Morris, Koestler Professor Parapsychology at the University of Edinburgh for… more

  • Dr Wellington Zangari

    Wellington Zangari is a professor of social psychology at the University of São Paulo who has an interest in the psychology of anomalistic/religious experiences, including mediumship, as well as altered states of consciousness, hypnosis and the philosophy of mind. Together with his partner Fatima Machado, he… more

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