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.

Elizabeth Jane Puttock (Elizabeth d’Esperance)

British medium whose materialisation séances attracted both supporters and critics.

Psi for Financial Gain

Anecdotal accounts and lab tests suggest that psi can at times be used to advantage in gambling and financial speculation.

Twin Telepathy

Suggestions of telepathy between twins often appear in the popular press, but there is as yet no sustained research in this area.

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.

Music and Psi

This article explores the many ways music has been related to altered states of consciousness and psychic experiences.

Pam Reynolds (Near-Death Experience)

This near-death experience of an American woman is regarded as especially significant.

Marilyn Schlitz

American social anthropologist and psi researcher, studying distant intentionality, healing and special gifted populations.

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.

Table-Turning

‘Table-turning’ (or ‘table-tipping) refers to the anomalous movement of tables and other furniture during séances.

The Scole Circle

This Norfolk-based group held séances during the 1990s, claiming to have communicated with spirits and observed other phenomena.

Fox Sisters

American women who were at the centre of poltergeist-type disturbances and later helped found Anglo-American Spiritualism.

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.

Past-Life Memories Illustrated

Many children who talk about past lives also express their memories in art as a way of dealing with remembered traumas.

Nazih Al-Danaf (reincarnation case)

Lebanese case of a child's past life memories notable for the large volume of detail later verified as accurate.

Sumitra and Shiva (replacement reincarnation case)

Rare Indian case of a woman who appeared to die and then revived, with a complete change of identity.

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.

Robert Van de Castle

Robert Van de Castle (1927–2014) was an American psychologist specializing in dreams who also was active in parapsychology

Allan Kardec

French educator (1804–1869) whose work with mediums led to the development of Spiritism, today highly popular in Brazil.

Harold E Puthoff

American physicist and parapsychologist, a key figure in the US government-funded Star Gate remote viewing programme.

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.

Parapsychology Foundation (PF)

US-based forum, founded in 1951 by Eileen J Garrett, that supports parapsychology internationally.

Boston Society for Psychic Research

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

Koestler Parapsychology Unit (KPU)

A leading centre for parapsychological research and training, based at the University of Edinburgh.

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.

Richard Wiseman

British psychology professor, media personality and bestselling author who is a high-profile critic of parapsychology.

Criticisms of Reincarnation Case Studies

This article addresses objections critics have raised to the reincarnation case research of Ian Stevenson and others.

Antony Flew

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

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.

Eyewitness Testimony (Analysis)

This article discusses the reliability of eyewitness testimony about paranormal events.

Orbs (Light Anomalies)

Light anomalies often seen in photographs and video are attributed by some to the presence of ghosts or spirit entities.

Dermo-Optical Perception

This article describes research into claims of being able to perceive colours through touch alone.