INTRODUCTION:

Parapsychology is a discipline that studies certain types of paranormal phenomena and seeks to
investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and life after death using the scientific
method. It is a field of psychology which studies unique experiences and unknown capabilities of
the human mind. Paranormal is a general term that describes unusual experiences that lack a
scientific explanation, or phenomena alleged to be outside of science's current ability to explain or
measure.

Parapsychology for the first time was coined by psychologist Max Dessoir in 1889. It was then
adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research to refer to the
scientific study of paranormal phenomena.

The paranormal refers to the study of behaviors, events or perceptions that seem to be explainable
in terms of our everyday understanding or known scientific principles. The word parapsychology
is said to have its origin from the

Greek word ‘para’ a prefix which means beyond, and psychology derived from the Greek word
‘psyche’ which means mind and ‘logos’ which means science.

From a scientific perspective, such parapsychological phenomena are called anomalous because
they are difficult to explain within current scientific models. This field suggests that the human
consciousness is capable of interacting with the physical world in a way that is not yet recognized
by science but it’s not even beyond the science's ability to investigate. Many people have a
common misconception that a parapsychologist is a psychic but it’s not so as a child psychiatrist
cannot be a child! So a parapsychologist is a scientist or scholar who is seriously interested in the
"paranormal." Parapsychology only studies those anomalies that fall into one of three general
categories: ESP, psychokinesis, and phenomena suggestive of survival after bodily death,
including near-death experiences, apparitions, and reincarnation.

J.B Rine for the 1st time proposed a Parapsychological Association (PA) on June 19, 1957 to
advance parapsychology as a science, to circulate its knowledge, and to integrate the findings with
those of other branches of science. Afterwards in 1969 it got associated with American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

WHAT IS NOT PARAPSYCHOLOGY?

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 Parapsychology is often linked inappropriately with a broad range of psychic entertainers,
magicians and some self-proclaimed "psychic practitioners". Parapsychologists are not
Ghostbusters, Exorcists or Psychics and are not those who study anything that is considered weird
or bizarre or something that is associated with astrology, UFOs, searching for Bigfoot, vampires,
or witchcraft. But the main focus of the Parasychological research is to study the potential unused
power of the human mind and attempts to describe things that are unusual and outside the realm
of traditional experience.

WHO ARE INTERESTED IN PARAPSYCHOLOGY?

Parapsychology is interesting mainly because of the inferences. The study suggests that
what science’s knowledge about the universe is incomplete, the capabilities and limitations of
human potential have been underestimated and the religious assumptions about the miracles may
have been mistaken. Many scientists have viewed parapsychology with great suspicion because
the term is said to be associated with a huge variety of mysterious phenomena, extreme topics, and
pseudoscience. Research about the psychic phenomena is said to be very difficult because it is
defined in a negative fashion and is said to be acquiring the knowledge in the absence of any
known scientific laws or means. When people talk about telepathic or telekinesis phenomena it
seems like some mechanical events have occurred that is unknown to current science, doesn’t
match with any known models to the world and is marked as the laws of chance.
So, many fields are said to be interested with parapsychology. They are physicists, biologists,
psychologists, philosophers, theologians and the general public. But present-day parapsychologists
frequently fall into one of two research types. They are:

▪ Proof-oriented researchers are those who design experiments to find proof of phenomena
amongst the general population or in a subsection of the population who recognize their special
abilities.
▪ Process-oriented researchers are those who begin from the standpoint that the phenomenon
exists and try to find the conditions under which it best operates.
Ex: are females more telepathic than males? Are believers better at ESP than non-believers? Is
a relaxed atmosphere more conducive to telepathy?
If the phenomena’s existence could be proved then it would lose its negative definitions and
would become the part of the fields of biology and physics.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

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 Parapsychologists employ a variety of approaches for the study of apparent paranormal
phenomena. These methods include qualitative approaches used in traditional psychology and also
quantitative empirical methodologies. Their more controversial studies involve the use of meta-
analysis in examining the statistical evidence for psi.

GANZEFELD EXPERIMENT: The experiment is a technique used to test individuals for

telepathy by isolating the sender and receiver. The sender is shown a video clip or still pictures
and asked to mentally send that image to the receiver. The receiver is kept in Ganzefeld state and
after sometime he is asked to describe images in his thought or mind. According to the response
of the receiver it is determined whether the receiver receives the same images thought by the
sender. In the Ganzefeld visual state the visual sense is isolated by creating a soft red glow which
is defused to half a ping pong ball placed over the recipient’s eye. The auditory sense is usually
blocked by playing white noise and the receiver is also seated in a position to minimize the sense
of touch.

REMOTE VIEWING: Remote viewing experiment tests the ability to gather information
about a remote target consisting of an object placed on person that is hidden from the physical
perception of the viewer and typically separated from the viewer by some distance.

Parapsychology operate somewhere in this open-minded middle ground. Most scientists try to
explain observed and observable phenomena. Parapsychologists try to observe unexplainable
phenomena. All the other sciences have led us away from superstition and magical thinking, while
parapsychology has tried to find a scientific basis for such things as mediumship.

But from the materialistic perspective, one of the foundations of the current scientific worldview,
human consciousness is nothing but an emergent product of the functioning of Brain, Body, and
Nervous System (BBNS). It doesn’t matter how mind is different from solid stuff like bodies as it
is solely generated by the electrochemical functioning of the BBNS, and so it is absolutely
dependent on it. When the BBNS dies consciousness also dies.

WHAT DOES A PARAPSYCHOLOGIST STUDY?

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 Many feel that the strangest and the most interesting aspect of parapsychological phenomena
is that they do not appear to be limited by the known boundaries of space or time. Most Paranormal
phenomena can be categorized in terms of whether they are primarily mental or physical. The
parapsychological phenomena are categorized generally falls under three categories:

▪ ESP known as anomalous cognition as it involves only mental abilities

▪ PK known as anomalous operation as it involves both physical and mental abilities
▪ Phenomena indicative of survival after bodily death

1. EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION (ESP)

It refers to the apparent ability of a human being to acquire information without using the
five ordinary senses of the body and without depending on logical inference. It is a mental
phenomenon. It is commonly referred to as the sixth sense that can provide an individual with
information about the past, present, and future. Its further division includes:

➢ CLAIRVOYANCE: The term has its origins from the French word claire which means
“clear” and voyance means “seeing”. It is referred to as 'clear seeing,' or 'second sight. It is
thus defined as the acquisition or sensing of images about a place, event, or object beyond the
range of physical vision or senses and does not depend upon contact with another person.
Ex: In ancient Hindu religion this was one of the siddhis, skills that can be acquired through
appropriate meditation and personal discipline.

Similarly, as Clairvoyance is related to sight, the other four senses can be further enhanced in
the following phenomena:

• Clairaudience is the ability to hear things not audible within normal hearing ranges.
• Clairsentience is the person’s ability to perceive energy fields through physical sensations.
• Clairalience is the ability to smell things that have no physical source and is thought to be
a method of the dead communicating with the living.
• Clairgustance is the ability to taste a substance without actually putting it in mouth.

➢ TELEPATHY: The term 'telepathy' was coined by F.W.H. Myers in 1882 from the Greek
words tele means “distant” and pathe means “feeling”. The ability is generally thought of as
mind-to-mind contact, wherein a person seems to acquire information directly from another's
mind, without using any of the five known senses. Popularly it is referred as to mind reading
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 and thoughts transmition ability. In cases of hypnotism, mind is controlled through telepathic
suggestion. The most common form of telepathic communication comes during a crisis
situation, and such information enters the mind during sleep, in the form of a dream or during
the waking state in the form of an intuition or crisis vision when one becomes aware that a
friend or close relative is in danger or has died. It has been suggested that telepathy operates
more when an individual is in a crisis situation. Telepathy is a common theme in fiction and
science fiction, with many superheroes and super-villains having telepathic abilities.
Ex: fictional telepaths include the Jedi in Star wars, professor x in the movie x-men etc.

➢ TELE-EMPATHY: A form of psychic phenomena where someone feels the physical or

mental pain or the emotional situation of somebody else. Twins frequently are so closely
connected that they feel each other's emotions whenever something out of the ordinary
happens. The same situation can exist between a mother and her child or between lovers. But
this also happens on a daily basis when people sense someone else's mood or emotions when
they meet, talk on the phone or just think of someone.

➢ PRECOGNITION: The term is derived from the Latin word prae means “prior” and
cognitio means “knowledge” refers to the direct perception of the future, obtained through
extrasensory means through paranormal means. It occurs during waking state, through auditory
hallucinations, flashing thoughts entering the mind, and the sense of knowing. Precognitive
knowledge also may be provoked through trance, channeling and divination.

Ex: in the movie Spider-Man Peter parker had the spider-sense that was also limited
precognitive sense.

➢ PREMONITION: It is derived from the Latin word praemonere to “forewarn”. prae means
“prior” and monere means “warn”. It is referred as to the feeling of warning about something
to happen in future a specific way without any details given. It bears similarities to the concept
of second sight in that it frequently comes in the form of a paranormal vision or as a vivid
dream. It is sometimes referred to as a "gut-level" feeling as the sensation tends to occur
previous to disasters, accidents, deaths and other traumatic and emotionally charged events.

Ex: Abraham Lincoln had a very vivid premonition of his death ten days before he was
assassinated. He dreamt he was in the East Wing of the White House where people were
mourning. When he asked a soldier who had died, he was told "The President".

➢ RETROCOGNITION: It is also known as post-cognition which was coined by Frederic

Myers and derived from the Latin word retro means "backward" and cognition means
"knowing" is the supposed paranormal transfer of information about an event or object in the
past.
Ex: Many fictional characters in television and movies exhibit this ability, like Angela Petrelli
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 of Heroes, Phoebe Halliwell of Charmed etc.

➢ PSYCHOMETRY: The term was coined for the first time by Joseph Rhodes Buchananis
in 1842 and is said to be derived from Greek word psukhe means "spirit, soul” and metron
means "measure". It refers to the ability to obtain information about an individual through
paranormal means by making physical contact with an object that belongs to that individual.
Psychometric people work with the police for describing the details about a murder and in
bringing out further information by telepathic impulses that can range from "feelings" to clear
verbal messages.

Ex: In the movie The Meteor Man, Jefferson Reed gains various superhuman powers from a
meteorite, including the ability to psychometrically and psychosomatically memorize by touch
the contents of a book.

➢ DÉJÀ VU: The term for the first time was coined by a French psychic researcher Emile
Boirac was referred to as "already seen". It is also called as Paramnesia derived from Greek
word para means "beyond" and mneme means "memory" is a kind of experience of feeling
sure that one has viewed or experienced the new situation in the past already. The experience
is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, something strange or weird. The
experience is quite common among adults and children alike. Evoking the experience is
extremely difficult in laboratory settings. Recently, researchers have found ways to recreate it
through hypnosis. Some believe déjà vu is the memory of dreams. The strongest pathological
association of déjà vu is associated with temporal lobe epilepsy and this correlation has led
some researchers to speculate that the experience of déjà vu is possibly a neurological anomaly
related to improper electrical discharge in the brain.

➢ HYPNOSIS: It was coined by the Scottish physician James Braid in 1841 that is said to be
derived from the term neuro-hypnotism means “nervous sleep”. It is a mental state usually
provoked by hypnotic generation that includes a series of preliminary instructions and
suggestions given by hypnotist in the presence of the subject and the hypnotist is in complete
control and can make the hypnotized person perform anything and is referred to as
"hypnotherapy". There is a common belief that a hypnotized person would be able to express
ESP.

Ex: is seen mostly seen in Hollywood and Bollywood movies, where some doctor is trying to
hypnotize a patient or a person using a swinging clock.

2. PSYCHOKINESIS:

It is a term coined by Henry Holt in 1914 derived from the Greek word psyche stands for
“mind or soul” and Kinesis means “application of energy” and thus psychokinesis means the

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 “application of energy of the mind or soul”. It literally means mind-movement that refers to
the exercising of power over objects by the ability of the mind to influence matter, time, space,
or energy that is unknown to current science. This is the movement or change of state caused
in an object by an individual through non-physical means. PK is the more commonly used term
today for what in the past was known as telekinesis literally meant distant-movement.it
includes various other abilities like:

➢ TELEKINESIS: The term was coined by Russian psychical researcher Alexander N.

Aksakof in 1890 and is said to be derived from the Greek word tele means “distance” and
Kinesis means “application of energy”. Therefore, telekinesis means the application of energy
from a distance. It is the process of using the spiritual ability to the energy of matter of the
object to levitate it. On the other hand it is also known as psycho-kinesis. Consequently, the
correct word would be tele-psycho-kinesis, the application of mind power from a distance.

Ex: In the comic book character Jean Grey of the X-Men exhibits extremely powerful
telekinetic ability.

➢ TELEPORTATION: The term was coined by American writer Charles Fort in 1931
which was derived from Greek word tele means "distant" and from the Latin word portare
means "to carry" which is defined as the ability to move matter from one point in time and
space to another point in time and space immediately. It has been widely utilized in works of
science fiction and on the contrary, bilocation is an ability in which an individual or object is
said to be appearing or located in two distinct places at the same instant time.

Ex: in the x-men movie the famous character Nightcrawler exhibits a mutanagenic ability to
teleport himself and other objects he touches and The famous example of bilocation includes
our Hindu deity Siridi Sai Baba.

➢ PSYCHIC HEALING: It refers to the channeling of spiritual energies by the healer to re-
energize the patient to deal with illness or injury. In the East, these energies are called “prana”
which means life.The most powerful psychic healer of all times was Jesus of Nazareth. It is
reported that his touching the sick person was enough to heal them.

Ex: In X men movie, character Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman posses psychic healing
powers.

➢ LEVITATION: It is derived from Latin word levitas which means "lightness" is the
phenomena by which an object is suspended against gravity, in a stable position, without
physical contact. The duration of the phenomenon may last from a few minutes to hours and
requires a great amount of concentration or being in a state of trance. It also includes self
levitation where the psychic himself/herself can rise in the air unsupported and fly.

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 Ex: Tricks used by magicians in which they suspend the person in mid-air. By using these
formulas while in the deep transcendental state of meditation one is able to perform
extraordinary feats such as Yogic Flying.

➢ PYROKINESIS: A minor form of psychokinesis which was coined by novelist Stephen

King and is said to be derived from the Greek words pur means "fire” and kinesis means
"motion" which refers to the ability to create or to control fire with the mind. But it is not
accepted by paranormal studies and is regarded as fictional.

Ex: In movie fantastic four, Human Torch posses the ability to control fire.
Additional terms used mainly in science fiction related to the psychokinesis ability:

• Cyrokinesis: which includes the ability to decrease temperature and or freeze objects.
• Aerokinesis: includes the ability to control the air and other gases.
• Electrokinesis: includes the ability to control electricity.
• Magnetokinesis: the ability to control magnetism.
• Photokinesis: is the ability to control light.
• Body swap: is an ability in which two people exchange minds and end up in each other's
bodies but not the voice.

➢ POLTERGEIST: It is said to be a phenomena derived from German word poltern means

“to make noise” and Geist means "ghost" denotes an invisible spirit or ghost that manifests
itself by moving and influencing objects being pushed, tugged, or knocked down by an
unknown force, are moved or thrown around, sometimes at the victim. Poltergeists have been
reported in many cultures. According to parasychological study, poltergeist and ghosts are not
same.

Ex: The term was used in Harry Potter where J.K. Rowling names a poltergeist as 'Peeves' who
causes disruption at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

3. PHENOMENA INDICATIVE OF SURVIVAL AFTER BODILY DEATH

Direct studies of survival like reincarnation NDE to date do not prove survival in any absolute
sense, but they do make a significant case for it. Others believe that survival after death comes in
the form of ghosts. Many believe that they can communicate with the deceased either directly or
through a medium or a psychically gifted person, who can speak to ghosts and revert back what

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they say. It includes phenomena like near death experience, out of body experience, reincarnation,
midiumship etc

➢ NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES(NDE): It refers to a broad range of personal

experiences associated with approaching death, surrounding multiple possible sensations
including detachment from the body, feelings levitated, extreme fear, total quietness, warmth,
and experienced being drawn toward a light which is regarded as a spiritual sight into the life
after death. The clinical circumstances that leads to NDE include conditions like cardiac arrest,
electrocution, coma, intracerebral hemorrhage, suicide attempt, asphyxia, apnoea, and serious
depression etc. It mainly occurs after a crucial experience like when a person has the subjective
feeling to be in a serious situation or at accident time.

➢ OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES (OBE): The term was introduced by G.N.M Tyrrell
in 1943 which refers to a sensation of floating outside of one's body and perceiving the physical
body outside one's body. OBE is said to be experienced among one in ten people at some time
in their lives which last from few seconds to several minutes to several hours. During this
people have also observed details about earlier unknown events. In some cases it appears to
occur suddenly, in others it is associated with a physical or mental trauma, use of drugs, during
the dream stage between REM sleep and arousal but does not involve any stressful situation
like surgery or accident where they feel like being pulled from their bodies by a feeling of
paralysis. Astral projection refers to the episodes of the out of body experience that leaves the
physical body and travel to one or more physical world.

➢ REINCARNATION: It is the rebirth of a soul or other non-physical aspect of human

consciousness in a new physical body after death. It is a belief that we live successive lives,
with primarily evidence coming from the clear memories of previous lives by children. The
essential part referred to as the spirit or soul of a living being survives death to be reborn in a
new body. According to some beliefs, a new personality is developed during each life in the
physical world, but some part of the self remains constant throughout the successive lives.

Ex: It is a common theme in contemporary Indian popular Hindi cinemas and TV serial and
has appeared as a main theme in movies like Om Shanti Om, Karan Arjun and in TV serials
like Kumkum, Banu main teri dulhan etc and in the popular hollywood movies like The
Mummy.

➢ MEDIUMSHIP: It refers to a form of communication with spirits. It denotes the ability of

a person to experience what they or others believe is contact with spirits of the dead, spirits,
angels etc. The medium’s role is to attempt to aid communication with spirits who have
messages to share with non-mediums. It claim the abilities to listen to and relate conversations
with spirit voices, go into a trance and speak without knowledge of what is being said, allowing
a spirit to control their body and speak through it, relaying messages from the spirits to those
who wish to contact them with the help of a physical tool, such as a writing instrument. It even

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 claims to be able to produce physical paranormal phenomena such as materializations of
spirits, apports of objects, or levitation. It’s type includes :

• Mental mediumship: It is communication of spirits telepathically where the medium

mentally hears, sees, or feels messages from spirits and then passes the information to the
recipient.
• Trance mediumship: It is a form of mental mediumship that was popular during1860s
and 70s. During the communication period the spirit uses the conscious medium's mind to
communicate by influencing the mind with the thoughts to be conveyed. The medium may
not have a clear recall of all the messages conveyed while in an altered state.
• Physical mediumship: It is defined as phenomena where external spirits manipulate the
source energies and substances of a medium to form physical manifestations such as spirit
bodies in human form where a spirit can speak directly from their world to ours. It involves
observable symptoms such as loud raps and noises, voices, materialized objects, apports,
materialized spirit bodies, and levitation. The medium is used as a source of power and
substance for such spirit manifestations. Most physical mediumship is presented in a
darkened or dimly lit room., and most physical mediums make use of a traditional array of
tools and appurtenances, including spirit trumpets, spirit cabinets, and levitation tables.

➢ APPARITIONS: It is said to be derived from Latin word appareo which means "appear" or
"I become visible". The entire process of disappearing and reappearing is referred to as
Apparition. However, appearing is often referred to as Apparition and disappearing is often
referred to as Disapparition. It is a magical method of transportation, and is basically magical
teleportation, having the user focus on a desired location in their mind, then disappear from
their current location and instantly reappear at their desired location. It is by far the fastest way
to get to one's desired destination. It can cause an audible noise ranging from a small, faint,
pop to a loud crack. Apparition becomes increasingly difficult with the distance to be traveled.

Ex: In the movie Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Dumbledore apparated at the Astronomy
Tower proving that apparate or disapparate exists in Hogwarts and in both the harry potter
series Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, Apparition is seen as the person transforming
into a cloud of smoke, and re-forming elsewhere.

CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISMS:

Scientists treat all claims with scientific skepticism. After examining psi claims for over a century,
there has been significant difficulty in merging the results of parapsychology studies with other
fields of science. As a result, many in the scientific community feel that parapsychology is not a
real science and such phenomena do not exist.

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Many critics feel that parapsychologists are engaged in the study of phenomena that disappear
under severe experimental conditions and are thus, normal processes and stated that extraordinary
claims require extraordinary evidence and so sees it as pseudoscience.

Because parapsychology focuses on areas of profound human ignorance and also areas of deep
meaning such as superstition, and traditional beliefs, it is extremely controversial.
It is regarded as a taboo because they are forbidden by their religious orientation. Some see
parapsychology as a danger to society and the belief of its existence may have trouble
distinguishing fantasy from reality. Their beliefs may indicate and absence of critical thinking.

Many parapsychological analysts hold the evidence that to date, it is of poor quality and not
adequately controlled. Skeptics have also challenged that people's desire to believe in paranormal
phenomena causes them to reduce strong evidence that it does not exist.

Some of the more specific critics state that parapsychology does not have a clearly defined subject
matter, can’t easily demonstrate a psi effect on demand, nor can explain underlying theory of the
paranormal transfer of information.

According to James E. Alcock parapsychology would always remain as an isolated science as its
legality is questionable and as a whole, can’t be regarded as scientific. Parapsychology is regarded
as a pseudoscience because despite of failure to provide experimental results it continues to explore
the hypothesis that psychic abilities exist.

A few parapsychologists like Chris French et al were interested in the purely psychological aspects
of those who report paranormal experiences, along with the study of the psychology of fraud,
hallucination, etc. they have designed experiments to properly test those who claim psychic
abilities.

A well known Stage magician, skeptic James Randi and critic of parapsychology shown that magic
tricks can account for some apparent psychic phenomena. Another factor which makes
parapsychology highly controversial is that there is no theory which can account for
parapsychological results.
Some believe that parapsychology should not be funded because it is a waste of resources that
would be better spent on other activities.

Although some critical analysts feel that parapsychological research is scientific, they are not
satisfied with its experimental studies. Skeptical reviewers argue that actually successful
experimental results in psi research are more likely due to casual procedures, poorly trained
researchers, or methodological flaws than to genuine psi effects. It has also been stated in reasoning
that if a person is psychic, then that individual will do better than chance in experiments.

Although there are grounds for philosophical differences, some of us feel that psi abilities do not
fit in with current, conventional materialistic views of the nature of human consciousness, views
which are frequently used as a basis for denying the possibility of survival a priori or the

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worthwhileness of research on the possibility of survival. Thus the existence of psi abilities creates
a general scientific but indirect basis for the possibility (not "proof," but possibility) of some aspect
of consciousness surviving death.

If the Parapsychological experiments can’t be controlled to prevent fraud, then the results may not
be trusted. And the experiments are usually poorly designed which often lack in proper controls,
allowing paths of intentional or unintentional information leakage through normal means and are
even rarely replicated with positive results at independent laboratories.

Positive results in these experiments are so statistically insignificant as to be negligible and the
currently unexplainable positive results of apparently sound experiments do not necessarily prove
the existence of psi phenomena and it can’t be accepted as explanation of positive results until
there is a widely acceptable theory of how they operate.

The Parapsychologists may prefer and write selective history and the whole story may be avoided.

PARAPSYCHOLOGIST’S RESPONSE TO THESE CRITICISMS:

➢ No field of science has 100% foolproof experiment, and it is difficult to hold parapsychology
to a higher standard of science. Fraud and lack of ability in parapsychology is addressed in the
same way it is addressed in any other field of science like repeating experiments at multiple
independent laboratories, publishing methods and results in order to receive critical feedback.
➢ Some parapsychologists agree with critics that the field has not yet reached the degree of
constant repeatability of experimental results needed for general consent and the vague nature
of psychic phenomena over time, and the range of observable phenomena in a given era seems
to be culturally dependent.
➢ There are certain phenomena in parapsychology which are stacked with obstacles which is far
more what is required for acceptance in any other science.
➢ There are some instances where anomalous phenomena have been described or observed
before an explanatory theory of that instance but still lack a perfectly satisfactory, undisputed
theory.
➢ Theories flourish in parapsychology for parts of psi phenomena, though there is not any one
that is complete and widely accepted within parapsychology.
➢ For testing the validity of psi, a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist is not necessary. As the
field of parapsychology go beyond many disciplines, like physics, biology, engineers in
combination with magicians and other experts in fraud, can design experiments for certain
types of phenomena than are psychiatrists or psychologists.
➢ Many experts and noted skeptics can’t easily dismiss the total of all the positive accounts and
so believe that continued research in the field is justified and as skeptics needs to think about
the evidence for paranormal claims to be extraordinarily better than normally what may be
required.
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➢ Sociologist Andrew Greeley’s surveys since 1978, states that percentage of Americans
accepting to the psychic experience have increased over a decade as about two thirds of college
professors accepted ESP, and more than 25% of "elite scientists" believed in ESP. and shown
that many scientists hold such beliefs privately but do not share such opinions publicly for fear
of ridicule.
➢ Other parapsychologists take the stand about the existence of certain psi phenomenon which
is well established with reasons although there are several fake experiments at lab around the
world.
➢ Many parapsychologists have moved on from proof-oriented research, to "process-oriented"
research, to explore the limits and characteristics of psi phenomena because they believe
experimental success has already been established, and instead looking at more detailed factors
it’s better to understand the phenomena.
➢ Instances of survival after bodily death is seen commonly within Eastern saints as means of
attaining enlightenment, thus showing an interaction between parapsychology and spirituality.
Spiritual beings are offended by the skeptics who refer to their art form as a magic trick.
➢ The Poltergeists phenomena manifest strange electrical effects and unexplained movement of
objects which were thought to be due to ghosts, but after decades of investigations by
researchers, notably by William G. Roll, the evidence now suggests that poltergeists are PK
effects produced by one or more troubled adolescent individuals.

CONCLUSION:

Many are interested in evaluating human abilities that are outside the normal range, and in
testing a abilities like telepathy, predicting future, or moving objects with minds. Parapsychology
still remains controversial today, even with significant, convincing, and scientifically edible
results, because of the media and much of the public who confuse parapsychology with
sensational, unscientific beliefs and stories that led many scientists to simply dismiss the field as
being unworthy of serious study. Parapsychological research has also been augmented by other
sub-disciplines of psychology. These related fields include transpersonal psychology, which
studies transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human mind, and Anomalistic psychology, which
examines paranormal beliefs and subjective anomalous experiences in traditional psychological
terms.

Despite of such controversies Paranormal phenomenon has been of intense interest to the general
public. This is supported in the numerous books, films and television shows that deal with one or
more aspects of the paranormal. In the 2000s, there have been as many as 7-8 television series
running at the same time which concern themselves with main characters who have paranormal
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abilities. This interest has led to the support and formation of parapsychology departments at some
universities, and several large parapsychology organizations. The Parapsychological Association
have shown the statistical evidence regarding the experiments of studying parapsychological
effects that provides strong and scientifically convincing evidence for these effects.

While all of these phenomena is not scientifically proven they have all gained a cult following.
Among all, ESP has been more widely accepted due to its emphasis on mental anomaly as opposed
to the science-fiction related psychokinesis based on physical anomalies but understanding the
existing of parapsychology is difficult.

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