parapsychology
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008
parapsychology study of mental phenomena not explainable by accepted principles of science. The organized, scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena began with the foundation (1882) of the Society for Psychical Research in London. Such early efforts attempted to dissociate psychical phenomena from spiritualism and superstition, and particularly to investigate mediums and their claims of evoking spirits or apparitions. The society also studied automatic writing, levitation, and ectoplasmic and poltergeist activities. One of its principal founders, Frederic William Henry Myers, summed up the society's early efforts in Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (1903). An American Society for Psychical Research was also founded, with James Hervey Hyslop as its leading spokesman. Considerable experimentation has been conducted, perhaps the best-known being that of Joseph Banks Rhine at Duke Univ. The Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, created in the early 1960s, has since replaced the Duke program. In Great Britain the work of Whately Carington and Samuel George Soal paralleled that of Rhine. The great majority of parapsychological studies have focused on the area called extrasensory perception (ESP), which includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. The popular press often reports stories that are parapsychological in nature. Many scientists criticize the claims made by parapsychologists, arguing in particular that there can be no proof of such phenomena.
Bibliography: See S. Coblentz, Light Beyond: The Wonderworld of Parapsychology (1981); A. P. Dubrov and V. N. Pushkin, Parapsychology and Contemporary Science (1982); H. Edge et al. Foundations of Parapsychology (1986); A. Berger, Lives and Letters in American Parapsychology (1988).
Author not available, PARAPSYCHOLOGY.,
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research
|
Correspondence.(Letter to the editor)
The Journal of Parapsychology; 3/22/2006; Fontana, David Kelly, Emily Williams Alvarado, Carlos S.; 3704 words
; To the Editor: Emily Kelly's review of my book Is There an Afterlife? (JP, 69, 390-395) raises a number of points that require a reply. I list these points with my responses to them. 1. Typing errors and the omission of some references. No one was more concerned about these copyediting errors and
Read more
|
|
|
ESP and altered states of consciousness: an overview of conceptual and research trends.
The Journal of Parapsychology; 3/1/1998; Alvarado, Carlos S.; 16329 words
; Parapsychological phenomena has a long tradition of being associated with alterations of consciousness. This tradition extends from the performances of ancient oracles and other diviners to the mesmeric and mediumistic trance, and to more recent claims in the context of laboratory work that used
Read more
|
|
|
On the centenary of Frederic W.H. Myers's Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death.(Biography)
The Journal of Parapsychology; 3/22/2004; Alvarado, Carlos S.; 15362 words
; The purpose of this book aims at the satisfaction of scientific curiosity as to man's psychical structure (Myers, 1903, Vol. 1, p. 68) A hundred years ago several interesting works were published related to psychical research. These included Ernesto Bozzano's Ipotesi Spiritica e Teoriche
Read more
|
|
|
(book reviews)
The Journal of Parapsychology; 12/1/1997; Cook, Emily Williams; 2701 words
; Edited by Frank B. Dilley. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. Pp. xix + 294. $59.95, hardcover. ISBN 0-312-12607-7. What Murphy and Ballou (1960) did for William James nearly 40 years ago, Frank Dilley has now done for another philosopher, H. H. Price. Like James, Price's interest in psychical
Read more
|
|
|
Reflections on being a parapsychologist.
The Journal of Parapsychology; 9/22/2003; Alvarado, Carlos S.; 16095 words
; ... Psychical Research, 67, 65-95. ALVARADO, C. S., & ZINGRONE, N. L. (1996). The forgotten phenomena of parapsychology. EHE News, 3, 22-24. ALVARADO, C. S., & ZINGRONE, N. L. (1998-99). A study of the features of out-of-body experiences in relation to ...
Read more
|
|
|
Guest editorial: thoughts on the study of spontaneous cases.(Editorial)
The Journal of Parapsychology; 6/1/2002; Alvarado, Carlos S.; 4707 words
; The new millennium provides us with an opportunity to take stock, to reflect on the state of parapsychology and its different areas of study. In this brief essay, I would like to offer some comments on aspects of the study of spontaneous cases. Many problems characterize this area of research. My
Read more
|
|
|
The subliminal consciousness: F.W.H. Myers's approach to the problem of survival. (Frederic Myers)
The Journal of Parapsychology; 3/1/1994; Cook, Emily Williams; 8535 words
; When one is invited to give a lecture, the organizers almost immediately ask for a title, which is unfortunate, because I usually find that an appropriate title does not occur to me until much later, after I have finished writing the paper. And that is what happened in this case. Many readers are
Read more
|
|
Contemporary challenges to William James's white crow: William James's belief that he had found his white crow, thereby proving the legitimacy of spiritualism as a suitable subject for a science of psychology, evoked strong reaction from psychologists--and from his dying sister.
Skeptical Inquirer; 1/1/2004; Spitz, Herman H.; 3249 words
; But when was not the science of the future stirred to its conquering activities by the little rebellious exceptions to the science of the present? Hardly, as yet, has the surface of the facts called psychic begun to be scratched for scientific purposes. It is through following these facts, I am
Read more
|
|
Cultural exchange and religious change: Buddhism, Vedanta and immortality in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain (1).
Canadian Journal of History; 8/1/2004; Falby, Alison; 12095 words
; Secularization and modernization have traditionally been considered co-terminous. That is, theorists have traditionally defined secularization as an inevitable religious decline due to modernization, caused by industrialization, urbanization, class conflict, and other social forces. (2) In the past
Read more
|
|
|
Bibliography of the published works of Charles Honorton. (special issue: a tribute to Charles Honorton)
The Journal of Parapsychology; 6/1/1993; Alvarado, Carlos S. White, Rhea A. Zingrone, Nancy L.; 3761 words
; This bibliography of Honorton's published works includes a variety of material, such as experimental reports, literature reviews, and book reviews. Our efforts have been facilitated by having access to Honorton's own list of publications in his curriculum vitae. Nonetheless we have added some
Read more
|
Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses
|
parapsychology
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
... through the usual sensory abilities. Parapsychology studies the cognitive phenomena often ... phenomena may be traced to earliest times, parapsychology as a subject of serious research originated ... In the 20th century research into parapsychology was also conducted at some universities ...
Read more
|
|
ESP Researchers
Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained
... interested in the field of parapsychology in the 1960s, developed the ... researchers that the subject was free from any dependency on Ryzl ... observed in the Duke University parapsychology laboratories where Rhine ... Although the staff in a parapsychology laboratory must be careful ...
Read more
|
|
|
The Parapsychological Association, Inc.
Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained
... Association provides readers with Parapsychology FAQ which is a three-part ... explanation of the basics in parapsychology; Available FYI — books ... video tapes, CDs, etc.; and Parapsychology Online — science papers ...
Read more
|
|
mind reading
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
see parapsychology ; telepathy .
Read more
|
|
|
thought reading
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
see parapsychology ; telepathy .
Read more
|