Parapsychology

Parapsychology investigates alleged psychic phenomena, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis, using experimental and statistical methods. Its central claims remain outside the scientific consensus.

Telepathy: The alleged transfer of information between minds without known sensory communication. It is one of parapsychology’s principal forms of claimed extrasensory perception.
Ganzfeld experiment: A sensory-reduction procedure used to test whether a person can identify a remotely viewed target. It became a prominent laboratory method for testing telepathy.
Society for Psychical Research: A British organization founded in 1882 to investigate claims such as telepathy and apparitions. Its formation helped establish organized inquiry into alleged psychic phenomena.
Scientific skepticism: The practice of evaluating empirical claims through critical inquiry and evidence. Skeptical analyses scrutinize controls, statistics, and ordinary explanations for reported effects.
Clairvoyance: The alleged perception of distant or hidden objects without ordinary sensory access. Experiments often test whether participants can identify concealed targets.
Random number generator: A device or algorithm that produces a sequence intended to be unpredictable. Psychokinesis studies have tested whether intention shifts generated sequences from chance expectations.
Frederic W. H. Myers: A British classicist and psychical researcher who helped found the Society for Psychical Research. He shaped early research and introduced the term “telepathy.”
Confirmation bias: The tendency to favor information that supports existing beliefs or expectations. It can shape how striking coincidences and ambiguous experimental outcomes are interpreted.
Precognition: The alleged acquisition of information about events before they occur. Its forward-looking claims pose distinctive problems for experimental design.
Meta-analysis: A statistical method that combines results from multiple studies addressing a shared question. It is used to assess whether small effects recur across parapsychology experiments.

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