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What is extrasensory perception? -

Extrasensory perception, or ESP, is the claimed reception of information or communication outside of normal sensory capability. Put another way, ESP is the ability to know things without using hearing, sight, touch, taste, or smell.

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Sixth sense -

This paranormal phenomenon is also called the "sixth sense" because people with ESP seem to have a natural ability to know about things before other people, or to know things that other people do not know.

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Brain activity -

ESP is a controversial topic in neuroscience and psychology. Parapsychologists believe that the existence of extra sensory perception may be due to the presence of a certain type of brain activity.

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Right on! -

Studies suggest that the right hemisphere of the brain appears to be activated during ESP. This is because the right side of the brain is more visual and deals in images more than words. It's often described as the creative, artsy side of the brain.

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Symptoms and signs of ESP -

Physic capabilities associated with ESP include telepathy. This is the claimed ability to know what is on someone else's mind, or to communicate with someone mentally.

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Intuition -

ESP is also associated with intuition, a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness without obvious deliberation or recourse to conscious reasoning.

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Precognition -

Precognition is the assumed ability to predict the future, either as a vague idea or a clear knowledge of the sequence of future events. This is commonly called "second sight."

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Retrocognition -

Likewise in the context of the paranormal, retrocognition is the ability to sense the past, the knowledge of which could not have been learned or inferred by normal means.

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Psychometry -

Psychometry is a supposed psychic ability in which a person can sense or "read" the history of an object by touching it. This process is also called "object reading."

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Clairvoyance -

Perhaps the most outward sign of ESP is clairvoyance, which is the claimed power or faculty of discerning objects not present to the senses. This ability extends to gaining information in the same manner about a person.

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Psychokinesis -

ESP also denotes the ability to perform psychokinesis, or possessing the power to move objects without physical contact.

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J. B. Rhine (1895–1980) -

The term extrasensory perception was coined by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine in the 1930s. Rhine founded parapsychology as a branch of psychology.

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Louisa E. Rhine (1891–1983) -

Rhine worked with his wife Louisa (pictured in 1914) conducting investigation into ESP. Her pioneering work in the field led many to refer to her as the "first lady of parapsychology."

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Zener cards -

Also resident at Duke University was Karl Zener (1903–1964), who together with Rhine devised a set of cards of conduct experiments for ESP. Known as Zener cards, they depicted five symbols on the face: a hollow circle, a plus sign, three vertical wavy lines, a hollow square, and a hollow five-pointed star.

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Mind reading -

Essentially a research experiment for examining parapsychology, Rhine would hold up a card with the back side forward and ask the subject to tell him which design was on the front of the card. In its simplest form, it was a mind reading exercise. He's pictured (right) in 1934 with a student during one of the experiments. Image: Extra-Sensory Perception, Boston Society for Psychical Research

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The origins of ESP -

The fascination with ESP can be traced back to the spiritualist movement of 19th-century Britain and the United States. Séance gatherings became a fashionable pastime for society's elite, the members of which included scientists and scholars.

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Society for Psychical Research -

The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882 in London to understand and investigate events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. Its first president, English philosopher Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900), is pictured here in 1890.

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American Society for Psychical Research -

The society's transatlantic equivalent was the American Society for Psychical Research. Based in New York City, it is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology, having been founded in 1884. Image: Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research. Volume 1, 1885

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Ganzfeld experiment -

The ganzfeld experiment (from the German word for "entire field") is a pseudoscientific technique used in parapsychology to test individuals for ESP. It involves a person undergoing sensory deprivation by having their eyes covered with halved ping-pong balls. They also wear a set of headphones through which white or pink noise (static) is played. It is suggested that the ganzfeld effect may cause an altered state of consciousness or extrasensory perception, when people start seeing vivid hallucinations and experience a different state of consciousness— somewhere in between being asleep and awake. Image: Nealparr

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Star Gate program -

One of the most bizarre examples of ESP research involved the American Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In 1978, the DIA established the Star Gate program. Based out of Fort Meade in Maryland, this was a fully-funded investigation into the potential for psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence applications. The project was terminated in 1995 after the CIA concluded that Star Gate was never useful in any intelligence operation.

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'The Men Who Stare at Goats' (2009) -

After its declassification, Star Gate caught the attention of Hollywood. The 2009 film 'The Men Who Stare at Goats,' starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, and Jeff Bridges, features the project, though it's never mentioned by name.

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Hypnosis -

Hypnosis was once regarded as a sixth sense. But unlike telepathy and séances for example, hypnosis is now backed by science. And here's the thing: ESP is an unproven paranormal phenomenon. There is no scientific evidence that ESP, sixth sense, or second sight exist. Indeed, they are all classified as pseudoscience.

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Where's the evidence? -

Furthermore, after over a century of research, there is no convincing evidence for the existence of any psychic phenomena. The scientific consensus is one of skepticism.

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Joaquín Argamasilla (1905–1985) -

And skepticism has hounded parapsychology since the term was coined in 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir. It didn't help when in 1924 Joaquín Argamasilla, known as the "Spaniard with X-ray eyes" who claimed to be able to read handwriting or numbers on dice through closed metal boxes, was exposed by escape artist and illusionist Harry Houdini as a fraud. The pair are pictured confronting each other. 

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Clever illusion -

As early as 1894, American magician Harry Kellar claimed to possess psychokinesis and could levitate subjects by the power of thought alone. In fact, his levitation act was a clever illusion—and one of his most memorable stage acts. Image: Strobridge Lithographing Co/US Library of Congress

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Uri Geller -

The most celebrated self-proclaimed psychic of recent history is Uri Geller. Back in the early 1970s, Geller stunned audiences with his apparent ability to bend cutlery by employing psychokinesis and telepathy. Most magicians and commentators have declared Geller a fraud, though he still manages to baffle fans with his spoon-bending tricks.

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Nostradamus (1503–1566) -

But what about Nostradamus? Were all his amazing prophecies and predictions just down to a fertile imagination, or did ESP have something to do with it?

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Emotional trauma -

Studies such as the one published by the National Library of Medicine suggest that emotional trauma, for example due to displacement or the death of a close relative or friend, can predispose an individual—especially a child—to experiencing ESP.

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Seek psychiatric counseling -

Patients who experience what they believe is ESP and are unable to explain the event should seek psychiatric counseling in order to better understand what is happening to them. 

Sources: (NeuroQuantology) (American Psychological Association) (University of Canterbury) (WebMD) (SAGE) (BBC) (The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease)

See also: Overcoming the stigma of psychiatric medication

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