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Extra-sensory perception, or ESP, is the name given to any ability to acquire information by means other than the five canonical senses (taste, sight, touch, smell, and hearing), or any other sense well-known to science (balance, proprioception, etc). Senses are the physiological methods of perception. ...
Taste is one of the most common and fundamental of the senses of animals. ...
Visual perception is one of the senses, consisting of the ability to detect light and interpret (see) it as the perception known as sight or naked eye vision. ...
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Look up smell in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Hearing, or audition, is one of the traditional five senses, and refers to the ability to detect sound. ...
Equilibrioception or sense of balance is one of the physiological senses. ...
Proprioception (from Latin proprius, meaning ones own and perception) is the sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body. ...
Because the definition of sense is vague and ambivalent, the precise definition of extra-sensory perception is as well, but the term is generally used in reference to humans, to imply sensual sources of information unknown to modern science.
Types of ESP Specific types of extra-sensory perception include: - Perception of events in other places (clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairgustance, clairsentience) and in other times (precognition, retrocognition, second sight)
- Perception of aspects of others not perceivable by most people (aura reading)
- The ability to sense communications from, and communicate with, people far away (telepathy), beyond the grave (medium-hood and séancing, spirit walking), or in other dimensions (astral projection)
There are many other names for such powers of perception, from different cultures and different eras. It was first discovered by the Hindu tribe, Maanui.[citation needed] Clairvoyance is defined as a form of extra-sensory perception whereby a person perceives distant objects, persons, or events, including seeing through opaque objects and the detection of types of energy not normally perceptible to humans (i. ...
Clairaudience is the ability to hear things not audible within normal hearing ranges. ...
Look up Clairgustance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Clairgustance is defined as a form of extra-sensory perception that allegedly allows one to taste a substance without putting anything in ones mouth. ...
Clairsentience is the umbrella term for the psi (or psychic) sense of touch. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Prescience. ...
Retrocognition is the supposed ability to know something about a situation after its occurrence through psychic means. ...
(FROM: http://www. ...
An aura is: Aura (paranormal), a paranormal effect. ...
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...
In spirituality, a medium or spirit medium (plural mediums) is an individual who claims the ability to receive messages from spirits (discorporate entities), or claims that he or she can channel such entities — that is, write or speak in the voice of these entities rather than in the mediums...
A séance (pronounced: ) is, on its most basic level, an attempt to communicate with the dead. ...
Astral projection (or astral travel) is a controversial interpretation of out-of-body experiences (OOBEs) achieved either consciously or via lucid dreaming, deep meditation, or use of psychotropics. ...
The study of these abilities is called parapsychology, which also addresses other abilities, similarly outside the explanation of current science and sometimes associated with ESP (e.g., psychometry and psychokinesis). Parapsychology is the study of the evidence of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. ...
In parapsychology, psychometry is a psi (or psychic) ability in which the user is able to relate details about the past condition of an object or area, usually by being in close contact with it. ...
Psychokinesis (literally mind-movement) or PK is the more commonly used term today for what in the past was known as telekinesis (literally distant-movement). It refers to the psi ability to influence the behavior of matter by mental intention (or possibly some other aspect of mental activity) alone. ...
The word "psychic" is sometimes used as both a noun and adjective to denote a person capable of using ESP in any of its forms. Many who believe in ESP maintain that it is a power innate to only a relatively small percentage of the population; yet some believe that everyone is psychic, and that most people have just not learned to tap into their innate extrasensory potential.
History of ESP The notion of extra-sensory perception is a very old one, and in many ancient cultures it was taken for granted that certain people had such powers of perception, be it second sight, or the power to communicate with deities, ancestors, or spirits. However, in recent centuries this idea has been widely classified as superstition and denounced as fictitious, or at best unprovable and unscientific. (FROM: http://www. ...
A common European superstition dictates that it is bad luck for a black cat to cross ones path. ...
The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. ...
The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means...
For prophecy in the context of revealed religions see Prophet. ...
Extra-sensory perception and hypnosis When Franz Anton Mesmer and Grigori Rasputin were first popularizing hypnosis, the legend came about that a person who was hypnotized would be able to demonstrate ESP. Carl Sargent, a psychology major at the University of Cambridge, heard about the early claims of a hypnosis-ESP link, and designed an experiment to test whether they had merit. He recruited forty fellow college students, none of whom identified him- or herself as having ESP, and then divided them into a group that would be hypnotized before being tested with a pack of 25 Zener cards, and a control group that would be tested with the same Zener cards. The control subjects averaged a score of 5 out of 25 right, exactly what chance would indicate. The subjects who were hypnotized did more than twice as well, averaging a score of 11.9 out of 25 right. Sargent's own interpretation of the experiment is that ESP is associated with a relaxed state of mind and a freer, more atavistic level of consciousness. Other scientists, using normal experimental controls, have been unable to reproduce Sargent's results. Franz Anton Mesmer. ...
Grigori Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Russian: ) (10 January 1869 – 29 December [O.S. 16 December] 1916) was a Russian mystic with an influence in the later days of Russias Romanov dynasty. ...
Hypnotic Seance, by Richard Bergh Hypnosis is understood to be a psychological condition in which an individual may be induced to exhibit apparent changes in behavior and thought. ...
The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...
Zener cards Zener cards are cards used to conduct experiments for extra-sensory perception, most often clairvoyance. ...
Extra-sensory perception and technology In the early days of radio and electronics, the technology seemed magical to most people, including the engineers working on it. It was suggested that it might be used to unleash previously impossible feats of mental ability. This included communication with dead people, who were considered to have moved on to another world or "plane". Alec Reeves, one of the pioneers of digital communications, considered ESP a perfectly reasonable proposition. He believed that many of his inventions were prompted by the dead pioneer Michael Faraday, and spent much of his earlier years trying to perfect spiritualist telecommunication devices. Some of his experiments are available as ActiveX pages on his website. Alec Reeves was one the 20th Centurys greatest, but least conventional, scientists. ...
Michael Faraday Michael Faraday, FRS (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) was a British scientist (a physicist and chemist) who contributed significantly to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. ...
In programming, the Component Object Model (COM), also known as ActiveX, is a Microsoft technology for software components. ...
R.H.Rhine In the 1930s, at Duke University in North Carolina, J. B. Rhine and his wife Louisa tried to transform psychical research into an experimental science. To avoid the connotations of hauntings and the seance room, they renamed it “parapsychology”. While Louisa Rhine concentrated on collecting accounts of spontaneous cases, J. B. Rhine worked largely in the laboratory, carefully defining terms such as ESP and psi, and designing experiments to test them. A simple set of cards was developed, originally called Zener cards (after their designer)—but now called ESP cards. They bear the symbols circle, square, wavy lines, cross, and star; there are five cards of each in a pack of 25.
In a telepathy experiment the “sender” looks at a series of cards while the “receiver” guesses the symbols. To try to observe clairvoyance, the pack of cards is hidden from everyone while the receiver guesses. To try to observe precognition, the order of the cards is determined after the guesses are made.
In all such experiments the order of the cards must be random so that hits are not obtained through systematic biases or prior knowledge. At first the cards were shuffled by hand, then by machine. Later, random number tables were used and nowadays, computers. An advantage of ESP cards is that statistics can easily be applied to determine whether the number of hits obtained is higher than would be expected by chance. Rhine used ordinary people as subjects and claimed that, on average, they did significantly better than chance expectation. Later he used dice to test for PK and also claimed results that were better than chance.
Rhine's controversial book, Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years (1940), led others to criticize his methods and to try to repeat his findings. Most failed, including the London mathematician Samuel Soal, who tried for five years without success. Eventually he re-analysed many of his results and found that one subject was apparently performing precognition. In the early 1950s, further tests with this subject, under tightly controlled conditions, gave statistically significant results—convincing many people that Rhine was right. Accusations and counter-claims abounded until, in 1978, it was finally proven that Soal had cheated and the results were worthless. However, many people had been convinced by these results for nearly 30 years.
Other parapsychologists found that some subjects scored below chance (psi-missing); scores tended to decline during testing (the “decline effect”); and people who believed in psi, called “sheep”, scored better than those who did not believe in it (“goats”)—which became known as the sheep-goat effect. However, none of these effects proved easy to replicate. In recent years parapsychologists have turned to other methods, notably free-response ESP tests and micro-PK.
Ongoing debates about the existence of ESP Proponents of the existence of ESP point to numerous scientific studies that appear to offer evidence of the phenomenon's existence: the work of J. B. Rhine, a botanist at Duke University in the 1930s, and of Russell Targ and Harold E. Puthoff, physicists at SRI International in the 1970s, are often cited in arguments that ESP exists. Joseph Banks Rhine (September 29, 1895 - February 20, 1980) was a pioneer of parapsychology. ...
Duke Chapel Duke University is a private, coeducational, research university located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Although founded in 1924, Duke traces its roots back to 1838. ...
Russell Targ is a physicist and author who was a pioneer in the development of the laser, and cofounder of the Stanford Research Institutes investigation into psychic abilities in the 1970s and 1980s. ...
Harold E. Puthoff, PhD, is an American physicist. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Those who believe ESP does not exist point to methodological flaws in such studies[1], and point to numerous other ESP studies which have failed to find any evidence of the phenomenon. Many modern scientists and skeptics do not take ESP seriously enough to find it warrants study. Believers consider the widespread disbelief in the "taboo" subject of ESP among the scientific and rationalist communities as a sociological phenomenon, not a scientific one.
Difficulties testing ESP Among the difficulties having to do with proving the existence or non-existence of extra-sensory perception are that, if ESP exists, it may have a subtle rather than an overt effect, and that the ability to perceive may be altered by the nature of the event being perceived. For example, some proponents of ESP put forward that predicting whether a loved one was just involved in a car crash might have a stronger effect than sensing which playing card was drawn from a deck, even though the latter is better suited for scientific studies. This, in part, is why scientists remain skeptical, although cases of ESP involving subjects who are familiar with each other have yielded results that would indicate a positive demonstration of the ability [2]. There are no consistent and agreed-upon standards by which ESP powers may be tested, in the way one might test for, say, electrical current or the chemical composition of a substance. Often, when self-proclaimed psychics are challenged by skeptics and fail to prove their alleged powers, they assign all sorts of reasons for their failure, such as that the skeptic is affecting the experiment with "negative energy." This, and the practice of charlatanry in ESP and psychic circles[3], can cause scientists and rationalists to dismiss ESP claims out of hand. Set of 52 playing cards Some typical Anglo-American playing cards. ...
There is some dispute over the interpretation of results obtained in scientific studies of ESP, as the most compelling and repeatable results are all small to moderate statistical results. Critics of ESP argue that the results are too small to be significant, while proponents of ESP argue that the results are consistent in numerous studies. The combined significance is large and considered to be further proof by proponents. That an inordinately large number of trials must be conducted to obtain statistically significant results is seen as a problem for verifying the legitimacy of ESP claims. However other areas of science, such as the medical field, rely heaviliy on this method of data collection. For example, the statistical results of the positive affect of aspirin on the heart are far less than many ESP results. For Wikipedia statistics, see m:Statistics Statistics is the science and practice of developing human knowledge through the use of empirical data expressed in quantitative form. ...
In statistics, a result is significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance, given that a presumed null hypothesis is true. ...
For Wikipedia statistics, see m:Statistics Statistics is the science and practice of developing human knowledge through the use of empirical data expressed in quantitative form. ...
General criticism Claims of extra-sensory perception have been subjected to repeated criticism by mainstream scientists. Most of the criticism hinges on two major contentions: first, that studies which have shown evidence of ESP are almost always either anecdotal or plagued with methodological flaws which allowed cheating, and second, that those few studies which do not appear flawed methodologically do not produce reproducible results.
Skeptical scientists, however, sometimes misinform when demonstrating a replicated ESP experiment that has failed.
An example of this case is that of an allegedly psychic dog in England named Jaytee, who his owners claim has an ability to sense when one of them was leaving work to come home (which he allegedly displayed by running out to the porch at that time). Biologist Rupert Sheldrake tested JayTee extensively, including more than 50 videotaped trials, and claimed that his tests had shown that the dog had ESP ability. Two skeptical scientists from the University of Hertfordshire, Richard Wiseman and Matthew Smith, then used Sheldrake's video camera setup, conducted 4 trials of their own, and claimed that the dog had no such ability. Wiseman and Smith concluded that while Jaytee made several trips to the window during the day, the action was more in response to having heard some kind of noise outside [4]. However, Sheldrake believes the data they collected actually matched his own convincingly[5]. Sheldrake has commented on the experiment conducted by Wiseman[6]. Dr Rupert Sheldrake (born 1942) is a controversial British biologist and author. ...
The University of Hertfordshire is a modern university based largely in Hatfield, in the county of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, from which the university takes its name. ...
"As in my own experiments, he sometimes went to the window at other times, for example to bark at passing cats, but he was at the window far more when Pam was on her way home than when she was not. In the three experiments Wiseman did in Pam's parents' flat, Jaytee was at the window an average of 4% of the time during the main period of Pam's absence, and 78% of the time when she was on the way home. This difference was statistically significant" - Rupert Sheldrake
The Challenges
The Randi Prize James Randi, was a founding fellow and prominent member of CSICOP. He made his name and fortune as a stage magician, and later became a skeptic devoted to debunking the claims of performers who pretended to offer more than a good show. In 1996, he set up the James Randi Educational Foundation to debunk paranormal phenomena and educate the public about them. The foundation has famously made a standing offer of a $1 million prize to anyone who could demonstrate ESP or any psychic phenomenon. James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928 in Toronto, Canada), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, a skeptic, best known as a debunker of pseudoscience. ...
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, skeptic, and opponent of pseudoscience (including homeopathy). ...
The prerequisites for trying to claim the "Randi Prize" are non-trivial, however; as of 2005, no would-be claimants have passed Randi's preliminary test (which has a lower significance level than the formal test), and no offers to conduct a formal test have been extended by the Foundation.
The way Randi responds to people claiming to have a paranormal ability is considered to be heavy handed and rude by some and his method of choosing who is accepted for testing allows JREF full control over who and who isn't tested [7]
There are also those who believe that Randi is not an honest broker and who consider his offer of a prize nothing more than a PR game. Randi's response to these criticisms has been to point out that he suspects they are commonly made by believers in the paranormal who wish to discredit him, and that as a tax-exempt organization, his foundation is obliged to provide proof of their financial accountability. While some of Randi's opponents, like Sylvia Browne, have openly claimed that Randi does not actually have the money[8], other critics say they don't question whether the prize money exists, but rather whether someone quoted as saying "I always have an out - I'm right" with regards to the prize, is going to pay up to a legitimate claimant with a demonstrable ability[9]. There is no direct way to confirm Randi indeed made the quote attributed to him by Rawlins, and the quote appears in none of Randi's books or other writings. Regarding the mistrust that paranormal believers have concerning Randi's fairness [10], he has pointed out that to fail to pay the prize money to a claimant who successfully and legitimately passes the test would open up the JREF to criminal prosecution. Sylvia Browne Sylvia Browne (born Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker on October 19, 1936 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a self-proclaimed psychic medium, and author of numerous books on spirituality. ...
The Zetetic challenge The zetetics laboratory, the french center of CSICOP, is based at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis and conducts research into paranormal phenomena. From 1987 to 2002, they offered an International Zetetic Challenge in an attempt to prove or disprove the existence of, or demonstrate events related to, the paranormal. This was a €200,000 prize offered to "any person who could prove any paranormal phenomenon." The International Zetetic Challenge (from Greek zêtêin, to search) was an attempt to prove or disprove the existence of, or demonstrate events related to, the paranormal. ...
While there were a number of attempts at the prize, and a number of investigations were made, the prize went unclaimed.
See also Intuition has many but close meanings across many cultures, including: Quick and ready insight seemingly independent of previous experiences and empirical knowledge Immediate apprehension or cognition Knowledge or conviction gained immediately and without detailed consideration The power or faculty of attaining knowledge or cognition immediately without thought and inference. ...
This is a list of topics that may be of interest to a person who is researching subjects related to spirituality, esotericism, mysticism, or parapsychology. ...
The Silva Method, originally called Silva Mind Control, comprises a self-empowerment system to shape beliefs and augment personal success. ...
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