PARAPSYCHOLOLGY Mrs Hart Psych II PARAPSYCHOLOGY DEFINITION Parapsychology

PARAPSYCHOLOLGY Mrs. Hart Psych II

PARAPSYCHOLOGY DEFINITION Parapsychology is the scientific study of interactions between living organisms and their external environment that seem to transcend the known physical laws of nature. It is a component of the broader study of consciousness and the mind. Parapsychologists search for evidence for unexplainable phenomena.

As its name indicates, parapsychology is sometimes considered a sub-branch of psychology since it involves the study of apparent mental faculties. In its modern form however, parapsychology is an interdisciplinary field, which has attracted physicists, engineers, biologists, psychologists and those from other sciences. Parapsychology has no formal affiliation with contemporary psychology nor is it studied in most psychology departments.

PSYCHOLOGY V. PARAPSYCHOLOGY Psychology Parapsychology In psychology, the scientific study of human behaviour, psychologists carry out research to understand the nature of and bases for observable phenomena. Parapsychology is the study of "paranormal" occurrences, such as the various types of ESP. Parapsychologists search for evidence for unexplainable phenomena. Uses systematic scientific methods in combination with statistical analysis to describe and explain "normal" phenomena. The evidence for ESP rests on paranormal or statistical oddities that cannot be explained by chance or any known natural cause. Psychology is a formal academic discipline represented in all major universities, with strong professional societies and scores of peer-review journals. Although parapsychology is not normally a formal university academic discipline, there are over half a dozen peerreviewed journals dedicated to parapsychology.

EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION Extrasensory perception (ESP), also referred to as the sixth sense, is the ability to perceive information without using the five physical senses. Types of ESP include precognition, retrocognition, telepathy, clairvoyance, , clairsentience, and mediumship.

PRECOGNITION Precognition refers to the ability to see or predict the future. Though the scientific community generally rejects precognition because of the lack of demonstration, many scientific explanations are available to explain it. Experiments conducted by the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University show the human mind has the ability to subconsciously predict an outcome of events by judging current circumstances. Such predictions, if they later become true, are then related to precognition. Nostradamus is one of the most famous people known for his predictions, as he has reportedly predicted several events throughout history that occurred long after his death.

PRECOGNITION Nostradamus is one of the most famous people known for his predictions, as he has reportedly predicted several events throughout history that occurred long after his death.

RETROCOGNITIO N Retrocognition refers to the ability to see in the distant past. It can be as simple as recognizing a place, or a person, or somehow knowing what happened in a certain situation one had nothing to do with at the time it took place. When someone experiences déjà vu, it could be a simple instance of retrocognition. Someone who has retrocognition abilities could possibly to you in the present about what it was like to be a passenger on the Titanic when it sank in 1912.

TELEPATHY Telepathy refers to the ability to read and other persons thoughts. Telepathy allows a person to communicate with one or more people using their mind and no other sensory input. If you’ve ever become so close to someone you can tell what they’re thinking, you may not be a telepath, but you can understand the idea behind this particular type of ESP.

CLAIRVOYANCE Clairvoyance refers to the ability to see objects or events that are happening to someone else. Similar to telepathy, clairvoyance refers to the ability to gain knowledge about a person, event, or thing without sensory input. Though typically thought to be strongest during meditation, many psychics can get information about the past, present, and future in a variety of environments.

Clairsentience refers to the ability to perceive a feeling throughout the whole body, without any stimulation related to the feeling or information. Some people with this ability may also be considered clairempaths as they can physically tune into other peoples, places, or animals’ emotional experiences. This is considered a type of telepathy that allows emotions to be felt. This comes from one’s ability to tune into the vibration and feel the aura.

MEDIUMSHIP Mediumship refers to the ability to communicate with the dead by channeling their spirits. Most mediums use a variety of types of ESP, including clairvoyance and clairaudience to obtain their information.

PSYCHOKINESIS Psychokinesis is the ability to move or bend objects at a distance by mental power without contact. Psychokinetic effects may include healing, influencing of animals, and influence on static targets. A PK experiment may have the subject attempt to influence falling objects to land in a designated area.

LEVITATION Psychokinesis may also include levitation; the rising of physical objects, tables, pianos, or of human beings into the air, contrary to the known laws of gravitation and without any visible agency.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE An out-of-body experience (OBE) is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one’s body and, in some cases, the feeling of perceiving one's physical body as if from a place outside of one’s body. According to surveys, around 10% of the population have experienced an OBE at least once.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE OBEs have been documented in a variety of situations. These can be split into two categories: spontaneous and induced. A variety of factors could trigger a spontaneous OBE. These include: • Sleep: Spontaneous OBEs are most commonly reported as occurring just before falling asleep or just prior to waking. They are more likely to occur when sleep is not particularly deep - due to noise, stress, or illness, for example. • Physical effort: OBEs have also been reported following or during extreme exertion.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE • Near-death experiences: OBEs sometimes occur alongside "light at the end of the tunnel" visions. • Other spontaneous OBEs have been reported during meditation, non-lifethreatening accidents, anesthesia, hypnosis, child birth, when suffocating, after being shot, while dancing or talking, or, as one 36 -year-old police officer relates, during her first night at work.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE Induced OBEs offer a more tantalizing glimpse into the physical basis of OBEs. They include: • Drugs: Hallucinogenic drugs can give rise to induced OBEs. • Sensory deprivation or overload: Either too little sensory information (listening to white noise) or too much (torture) can also trigger them. • Strong G-forces: Pilots and astronauts occasionally experience OBEs. For instance, when extreme G-forces are encountered, blood can partially drain from certain parts of the brain. This, it seems, has the power to induce an OBEs occur as part of a phenomenon called "gravityinduced loss of consciousness. " The more surreal parts of this experience are not freely discussed by most pilots, but some give vivid accounts.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: REINCARNATION Reincarnation is the belief that an individual's soul at death is reborn into a new body. Evidence has been collected which shows that a living person, usually a child, has information which would not normally be known to him but which was part of the intimate, daily knowledge of some dead person. The living person sometimes also has special abilities, tastes, habits, or even physical stigmata characteristic of the dead person.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFO) A UFO is an object seen in the sky or landing on earth which cannot be identified and which is often believed to be from another planet. UFO is an abbreviation for 'unidentified flying object. Some people claim that they have been victims of an alien abduction, a purported experience in which a person claims to have been taken away by extraterrestrial beings.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: POLTERGEISTS Many believe that poltergeist activity is caused by an invisible ghost that interacts with a particular person by moving and influencing physical objects. However, most researchers believe that it is not caused by the work of spirits or ghosts but by a person in unconscious state usually by his or her subconscious mind. This phenomenon is generally termed in parapsychology as a type of uncontrolled psychokinesis called RSPK (Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis) and the person around whom this phenomena occur is clinically called as RSPK agent.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: POLTERGEISTS During the 20 th century many scientists and researchers have undertaken further study to find more about poltergeist activity. According to researchers at the Rhine Research Center, poltergeist activity is the outward manifestation of psychological trauma. Some of the signs that indicate that poltergeist activity are appearing or disappearing objects, electrical disturbances, scents and odors, objects levitating or thrown, flying pots, knocks, rapping and other noises, and most dangerous is physical abuse to the victim. It is observed that none of the activity will occur unless that particular person is present. As soon as that person is removed from the environment, the activity ceases. The person causing this is usually unaware that they are the reason behind this activity.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: GHOSTS/SPIRITS A ghost is believed to be the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting the living. Cultures all around the world believe in spirits that survive death to live in another realm. In fact, ghosts are among the most widely believed of paranormal phenomenon: Millions of people are interested in ghosts, and a 2013 Harris Poll found that 43 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. Belief in ghosts is part of a larger web of related paranormal beliefs, including near-death experience, life after death, and spirit communication.

PARANORMAL EXPERIENCES: GHOSTS/SPIRITS Ghost hunters use many creative (and dubious) methods to detect the spirits' presences, often including psychics. Virtually all ghost hunters claim to be scientific, and most give that appearance because they use high-tech scientific equipment such as Geiger counters, Electromagnetic Field (EMF) detectors, ion detectors, infrared cameras and sensitive microphones. Yet none of this equipment has ever been shown to actually detect ghosts. For centuries, people believed that flames turned blue in the presence of ghosts. Today, few people accept that bit of lore, but it's likely that many of the signs taken as evidence by today's ghost hunters will be seen as just as wrong and antiquated centuries from now.