The Psi Encyclopedia is a collection of articles and case studies about psi research, the scientific investigation of psychic phenomena - launched in September 2016. It's a work in progress, created by the Society for Psychical Research in London.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/
Summary:
About Psi Research
‘Psi’ is the modern collective term for the psychic functions of telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychokinesis. Psi phenomena were studied by Fellows of the Royal Society, among others, in the late seventeenth century, and were noted in the late eighteenth century in relation to hypnosis. In the second half of the nineteenth century, scientists such as Robert Hare, William Crookes and Johann Zöllner began to uncover more evidence in their experiments with séance mediums. Systematic study began in 1882 with the founding in London of the Society for Psychical Research, which, besides investigating the claims of spirit mediums, carried out surveys of ‘spontaneous’ phenomena – experiences of telepathic connections, ghosts, apparitions and poltergeists, precognitive dreams and the like – and conducted the first formal experiments.
From the 1930s the focus switched to experimentation based on statistics, pioneered by Joseph Banks Rhine at Duke University in the US. The Society for Psychical Research, Parapsychological Association and other privately-funded organisations continue to investigate psychic claims and carry out experiments, publishing the results in their peer-reviewed journals.
About the Psi Encyclopedia
There is now a vast research literature that validates the existence of psi as an anomalous, fleeting and little understood aspect of human experience. Psi researchers believe that it has been demonstrated many times over, and in a variety of contexts. But this remains controversial, since psi appears to contradict long-accepted scientific principles. In particular, accumulating evidence of links between mental experience and biological brain functions lead many to believe that the brain is the sole source of consciousness. Some scientists are known to sympathize with psi experimentalists, who use well-established statistical methods and robust methodology: the possibility of psychic experience has been seriously considered by an impressive number of Nobel prize winners and other eniment people. However, a vocal minority of sceptics – often active in sceptic organisations – campaign in books, articles and in the media against psi research, disparaging it as 'pseudoscience' and disputing its conclusions.
In recent years this conflict has spread to the Internet, notably the free encyclopedia Wikipedia, where editors hostile to ‘fringe science’ routinely edit articles on psi research to make them conform to their view. As a result, articles that were originally written by knowledgeable experts have become adulterated with misleading claims and assertions.
The Psi Encyclopedia is being created by the Society for Psychical Research, funded by a bequest, to provide a more informative view of psi research (also referred to as ‘psychical research’ and ‘parapsychology’), one that reflects the findings of experimenters and investigators.
Overview of the a-Z Contents of Psi Encyclopedia:
- Altered States of Consciousness and Psi
Anomalistics
Anthropology and Psi Research
Backster, Cleve
Beaulieu Abbey
Beloff, John
Béraud, Marthe (Eva C)
Birthmarks
Bongkuch Promsin (past life)
Borley Rectory
Bozzano, Ernesto
Broad, CD
Brown, Rosemary
Cheltenham Ghost
Children Who Remember a Previous Life (List)
Cideville Poltergeist
Collective Apparitions (Theories)
Creative Subjects in Ganzfeld
Distressing Near-Death Experience
Dream ESP Reports (list)
Dreams and ESP
Edmonds, John W
Eisenbud, Jule
Eminent People Interested in Psi
Enfield Poltergeist
Experimental Parapsychology (Overview)
Eyewitness Testimony (Analysis)
Felix Experimental Group
Flournoy, Théodore
Forteana
Garland, Hamlin
Geller, Uri
Ghost Hunting
Ghosts - Why Do They Wear Clothes?
Glanvill, Joseph
Glastonbury Scripts, The
Gurney, Edmund
Hodgson, Richard
Home, Daniel Dunglas
Hyslop, James
Infrasound
Jagdish Chandra (past life)
James, William
Joad, CEM
Koestler Parapsychology Unit
Kumkum Verma (past life)
Lang, Andrew
Lodge, Oliver
Marcel, Gabriel
Martial Arts and Psi
Meditation and Psi
Mediumship and Multiple Personality
Mediumship and Possession (Cross-Cultural Overview)
Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge
Moses, William Stainton
Music and Psi
Myers, Frederic WH
Near-Death Experience
Nigel Buckmaster
Out-of-Body Experience (OBE)
Padre Pio
Palladino, Eusapia
Past Life Memories Research (Overview)
Past Life Regression
Patience Worth (analysis)
Patience Worth (Pearl Curran)
Peirce, Charles S
Phenomena Relating to Danger, Death, Bereavement
Photography and the Paranormal
Piper, Leonora
Poltergeists (Overview)
Postmortem Survival
Precognition
Presentiment
Psi for Financial Gain
Psi Healing Research
Psychedelics and Psi
Psychometry
Puharich, Andrija
Ratana Wongsombat (past life)
Raymond
Religious Levitation
Richet, Charles
Richet’s Traité de Métapsychique (Thirty Years of Psychical Research)
Russia, Psi Research in
Schneider, Rudi - Investigated by Eugene Osty
Scientific Mysticism
Scole Circle
Serios, Ted
Sheldrake, Rupert
Slade, Henry
Smith and Blackburn
Soal, Samuel
Society for Psychical Research
Spirit Release Therapy
Stans (Switzerland) Poltergeist
Stead, William T
Sunil Dutt Saxena (past life)
Table-Turning
Tanous, Alex
Tedworth Drummer
Thompson Gifford Case
Thurston, Herbert
Twin Telepathy
Vennum, Lurancy
Vienna Workshop Poltergeist
Whiteman, Michael
Worksop Poltergeist
Xavier, Chico