Psi Encyclopedia

Welcome to the Psi Encyclopedia! We aspire to provide a comprehensive introduction to academic parapsychology, which studies the range of psychic experiences collectively termed ‘psi’. The existence of psi phenomena – and the related idea that consciousness is independent of the physical body and so may survive death – is strongly disputed by materialist scientists, yet parapsychologists are convinced they have evidence for these things. The Psi Encyclopedia presents this evidence in nearly 750 signed articles by over 80 authors, many of them senior academics, arranged in categories and subcategories that highlight the major interests of the field.

Mark Boccuzzi created this short video that explains what we are about.

Featured

Robert McLuhan

British journalist, a prominent interpreter of parapsychology for general readers and the principal architect of the Psi Encyclopedia.

Francis Bacon and the Occult

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) believed in the possibility of psi but opposed its investigation on theological grounds.

photo of N'kisi, an African Grey parrot involved in ESP experiments

Animals in Psi Research

The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and tests, including modern lab experiments.

Eminent People Interested in Psi (list)

A list of some 200 scientists, thinkers, writers, and artists who took seriously the possibility of psi.

Psi Research in Brazil

This article traces the development of interest in psi phenomena and parapsychological research in Brazil.

Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?

Sceptics use the fact that apparitions appear fully clad as reason to doubt them. This article discusses why they might.

Maroczy Mediumistic Chess Match

Match played between a living Russian grandmaster and a deceased Hungarian one.

Key Topics

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.

Near-Death Experience (Overview)

This article describes anomalous mental events reported by people who have survived a near-fatal accident or illness.

Society for Psychical Research (SPR)

Membership organization founded in London in 1882 for the scientific investigation of claims of psychic phenomena.

Psychokinesis Research (Overview)

Research on PK has progressed from early tests with dice to random number generators, field studies, and quantum experiments.

Clinical Parapsychology

Therapeutic approach that aims to provide support for people disturbed by anomalous event experiences.

Early reincarnation beliefs in the West are associated with the Greek philosopher Pythagoras in the sixth century BCE

Reincarnation: An Introduction

This introductory article covers beliefs in reincarnation, evidence for reincarnation, and sceptical views of the research.

Psychedelics and Psi

A gradual easing of restrictions means that psi research with psychedelics, once prevalent, could soon resume.

Altered States of Consciousness and Psi

ASCs have long been known to be associated with psi experiences.

Recent Additions

Cyril L Burt

Influential but controversial British psychologist (1883–1971) who believed psychic phenomena merited serious attention.

Elizabeth Jane Puttock (Elizabeth d’Esperance)

British medium whose materialisation séances attracted both supporters and critics.

The Widow’s Mite

Veridical mediumistic communications about a misplaced ancient Roman coin that suggest postmortem survival.

Isaac K Funk

American clergyman, editor, publisher, and lexicographer, well-known as a psychical investigator in his day.

Psychical Research before 1882

Several investigators of séance phenomena helped prepare the ground for the creation of the SPR in 1882.

Cromwell Fleetwood Varley

Telegraph engineer (1828–83) who tested Florence Cook with apparatus of his own invention.

Rhea A White

American parapsychologist, librarian, bibliographer, and editor of the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.

Melvyn John Willin

English musician, psychical researcher and SPR audiovisual archivist whose work has centred on music-related anomalies.

John Björkhem

Swedish priest, physician, hypnotist and psychical researcher (1910–1963) who experimented with hypnosis and psychometry.

Thomas Warren Campbell

Originator of a theory of everything (TOE) that presumes consciousness to be at the root of all there is.

Boston Society for Psychic Research

Organisation that split from the American Society for Psychical Research in 1925, reuniting with it in 1941.

Marcello Truzzi

American sociologist known for distinguishing open-minded scepticism of psi phenomena from simple debunking.

Ada Goodrich Freer

Clairvoyant who contributed to studies of crystal-gazing, second sight and hauntings in the 1890s.

Placement Effects in Psychokinesis Tests

Haakon Forwald tested whether his willed psychokinesis could deflect thrown dice and other cubes.

Haakon Forwald

Norwegian-born Swedish engineer and inventor who conducted innovative placement PK experiments with dice and cubes.

Visualizing the Supernatural

This 2025–26 museum exhibition traced 250 years of visual culture surrounding apparitions, mediumship and the occult.

René Peoc’h

French researcher whose studies with imprinted chicks suggested they can bias the movement of a robot through PK.

Antony Flew

British analytic philosopher known for his influential critiques of theism, postmortem survival and parapsychology.

Coin Apports: The Mexico City Case

A variety of coins appeared without an obvious normal source or cause.

Robert McLuhan

British journalist, a prominent interpreter of parapsychology for general readers and the principal architect of the Psi Encyclopedia.

Explore the Psi Encyclopedia

ESP & Psychokinesis

Extra-sensory perception (ESP) comprises telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition. Psychokinesis (PK) is the direct influence on matter by mind alone. Both ESP and PK have been tested in the laboratory and studied in real life situations. Together they constitute psi, in the strict sense of the term. Subcategories group together overviews and general topics in psi studies, tests of ESP and PK, and researcher biographies.

Animals in Psi Research

The psi abilities of animals have been reported in informal observations and tests, including modern lab experiments.

Jacobo Grinberg-Zylberbaum

Mexican psychologist and consciousness researcher who carried out experiments in telepathy and extraocular vision.

Etzel Cardeña

Mexican-born psychologist with interests in consciousness, dissociation and altered states related to psi.

Mind & Body

This category contains articles that treat consciousness in relation to the body. Subcategories focus on consciousness and psi; dreams and psi; and distant healing and psychotherapy. Also included are sitter groups and macro-psychokinesis as well as poltergeists, often assumed to relate to discarnate entities but now known more often to have living agents. A final subgroup is concerned with out-of-body and near-death experiences and events reported on the threshold of death.

Sai Baba

Sathya Sai Baba was an Indian religious leader known worldwide for 'miracles' such as materializing sweets and ornaments.

Induced After-Death Communication (IADC) Therapy

Therapy thought to bring relief by facilitating visions of deceased loved ones.

Arigo

Brazilian celebrated for making diagnoses, prescriptions, even surgery, while possessed by ‘spirit doctors’ in a trance state.

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. Subcategories focus on hauntings and apparitions and on psychic (also called mental) mediumship.

Etta Wriedt

American direct-voice medium (1859–1942) of considerable power, according to observers who attended sittings in the US and Britain.

Maroczy Mediumistic Chess Match

Match played between a living Russian grandmaster and a deceased Hungarian one.

Barry E Taff

Barry Taff is an American author and investigator of hauntings, UFOs and alien abduction phenomena

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. Subcategories highlight case studies, past life regression, and biographies of major researchers.

photograph of birthmark in the waist region

Birthmarks in Reincarnation Cases

Birthmarks and birth defects in reincarnation cases correspond to injuries that caused deaths in the previous lives.

Sunita Chandak (reincarnation case)

Indian case in which the past life was identified after the child's memory claims were published in a newspaper.

Swarnlata Mishra (reincarnation case)

Indian case of a girl who recalled two past lives, in relation to one of which she sang songs in a foreign language.

Researchers & 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. The biographies are grouped in subcategories by 30-year age cohorts, highlighting contemporaries.

portrait by George Harcourt. Photo credit: Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford

LP Jacks

British preacher and philosopher (1860–1955) who was interested in psychical research and wrote about issues related to postmortem survival.

James George Piddington

John George Piddington (1869–1952) was a successful British businessman remembered for his investigation of mental mediumship.

Gustav Pagenstecher

German-born physician and psychical researcher (1855–1942) remembered for work on psychometry.

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.

Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP)

Under Etzel Cardeña at Lund University.

Noah’s Ark Society for Physical Mediumship

The NAS originated in a home circle in 1990 and indirectly fostered the later Scole Circle.

Sceptical Views

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.

Cold Reading

Discusses the psychological strategies that can be used to simulate a mediumistic communication or psychic reading.

James Alcock

Canadian psychology professor, amateur magician and career psi sceptic, member of the Executive Council for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Susan J Blackmore

British psychologist, consciousness researcher and psi sceptic, who has frequently appeared in the media promoting her views.

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, the Miscellaneous Anomalistic subcategory. Other subcategories list articles on psychics and mystic and on important articles, books and journals in the field of parapsychology.