ESP (extrasensory perception)

ESP or extrasensory perception is perception occurring independently of sight, hearing,

or other sensory processes.
People who have extrasensory perception are said to be psychic. Some think that
everyone has ESP; others think it is a talent that only special folks have. Some think
that animals (see below) orplants have ESP.
The term ESP was popularized by J. B. Rhine, who began
investigating paranormal phenomena at Duke University in 1927.
ESP refers to telepathy, clairvoyance (remote viewing),precognition, and, in recent
years, clairaudience.
The existence of ESP and other paranormal powers such aspsychokinesis (PK), are
disputed, though systematic experimental research on these subjects, known
collectively as psi, has been ongoing for over a century in a field known
as parapsychology.
Most of the evidence for ESP, however, is anecdotal. The anecdotes consist of two
parts: the experience itself and the interpretation of it. A story may be true, but the
attempt to make sense or give psychic meaning to the story often seems to the skeptic
to exceed the bounds of reasonableness. The following example is a classic.
Tart's coffee-making coup d'tat
Charles Tart was making coffee when he started saying coup d'tat aloud to himself. He
tells us that it is rare for him to say a word aloud or over and over. He says he had no
idea why he was doing this: he doesn't follow international news and he "could think of
nothing in my immediate past that had anything to do with coups d'tat (2009: p. 77; first
published in "A Case of Predictive Psi, with Comments on Analytical, Associative and
Theoretical Overlay"). He's also a trained psychologist and knows that all of us engage
in irrational behavior from time to time, and have no idea why we feel the way we do
about certain things because we've forgotten the experience that makes certain words
resonate with us. I know a couple who get sexually energized every time they pass a
road sign that reads "Green Valley Road." They had no idea why this happens until they
revisited a place they hadn't been to for over thirty years and found they were on Green
Valley Road, which led to the campground where they'd had had their first sexual
adventure together many years earlier. (I wondered myself why I described to two
people Tart's explanation of his experience as involving "overlays," since I rarely use
that word to describe anything. It became clear to me that I used that particular word
because Tart uses it in section heads ["analytical and associative overlay" and
"theoretical overlay"] and it's in the title of the paper Tart wrote, mentioned in a footnote
in his book The End of Materialism, the inspiration for these few paragraphs on wild and
crazy interpretations of the mundane.)
I certainly have no idea why the expression coup d'tat popped into Tart's head while he
was making coffee that day, but I could come up with dozens of possibilities. None of

them, however, could come close to the imaginative adventure Tart went on in his
attempt to make sense out it. (Maybe he unconsciously overheard the expression on a
radio news report while driving in his car. Maybe he heard a pigeon coo and it reminded
his subconscious of the word he heard on the radio or in the conversation of a passerby.
Maybe he inadvertently saw the name on the envelopebefore the expression popped
into his head. Maybe he was subconsciously expressing a wish to overthrow the dean
of his college. Maybe.)
The day after his coup d'tat experience Tart found a letter in his office mailbox from a
Mrs. Coudetat. Uncanny? Tart thinks so. He calls it "a clear example of what we might
call predictive psi phenomena." What follows is an excursion of the imagination that took
me back to my college days when I first read the exotic interpretations of dreams and
experiences by psychoanalysts. Two things stand out about those interpretations: they
were extremely farfetched and fanciful, and they were unfalsifiable. I'm not going to try
to prove Tart's interpretation is wrong because that would be impossible. I'll present his
interpretation. The reader can judge how plausible it is.
Tart gave immediate significance to the proximity of his coup d'tat experience and the
name of his correspondent, who is the mother of one of Tart's former students. Jung
might have seen the events as an example of synchronicity. We rule out coincidencethe
moment we invest an experience with deep meaning and significance. Why some of us
find an experience trivial or mundane, while others find the same kind of experience
deeply meaningful and significant, is something that I'll leave to others to try to explain.
Tart says he is "sure" that Mrs. Coudetat was thinking of him and her letter to him "at the
time the phrase 'coup d'tat' popped into my mind." He says that "it was a kind of coup
d'tat on her part to seize control like that from the usual processes governing my mind"
(2009: p. 89). He also writes: "I might also speculate that my psychic perception of the
imminent and somewhat critical letter from Mrs. Coudetat constituted my own
psychological coup d'tat in defending myself against possible guilt." In her letter, Mrs.
C implies that Tart's class on altered states of consciousness had something to do with
triggering anxiety attacks in her son and that Tart should make sure that troubled
students know how to get help.
Tart speculates that Mrs. C's need to communicate with him provided the power or force
that "resulted in my unusual behavior." He also says: "This line of reasoning seems
adequate on a common sense psychological level, and is probably mostly true." This
view seems to imply that every actual attempt to communicate in ordinary ways (by
letter, speech, etc.) is accompanied by psychic vibrations sent out with the same
purpose.
Tart writes: "I believe the associations of military dictatorships, cheering crowds, and
thoughts about efficient and disciplined organizations taking over when government fails
representanalytical and associative overlay following my initial psi impression of the
word 'coup d'etat'." Tart brings in the concept of overlays to explain why the initial
associations he made (and most people might make) with the idea of a coup d'etat
occur along with the telepathic impressions.

Tart must have known he was going down an interpretation lane traveled mostly by
parapsychologists and psychoanalysts because he gave an account of his overlays and
impressions to Jules Eisenbud. Eisenbud is the psychoanalyst and parapsychologist
who wrote a book about a Chicago bellhop named Ted Serios, who claimed he
could make images appear on Polaroid film just by thinking of an image. Eisenbud
encouraged Tart to consider another kind of overlay, theoretical overlay. This leads Tart
to consider the possibility that maybe he had some unresolved anger and guilt feelings
about the student with anxiety problems. This 'lingering unconscious residue" of anger
and guilt "might have sensitized me to psychically perceiving information...." Maybe,
thinks Tart, he was putting a positive bias on his interpretation of the experience by
"manifesting an altruistic theoretical overlay in analyzing the case."
Finally, Tart relates his coup d'etat experience to his attempt to do some psychic
healing, "using shamanistic methods," on a friend who was about to have surgery. "I
wonder if some part of me might have helped cause the coup d'etat incident so that my
own faith in psychic abilities might be strengthened, and thus retrospectively potentiate
my attempts at healing my friend and strengthening his faith." Sure, it's all possible, and
it can't be falsified, but how plausible is this account? Tart wards off criticism of such
anecdotes by skeptics by claiming that we consider them to be just stories, probably
inaccurate and incomplete, or lies. But it's not the stories that are the problem here: it's
the fanciful, unfalsifiable interpretive overlays that need to be called into question. Such
interpretations as this one by Tart seem indistinguishable from cases of apophenia.
(Actually, there is one more thing. If Tart is truly as open-minded as he seems, he
should admit that it is possible that his experience was not telepathic, but that Jaweh,
Thor, or Zeusdirectly implanted the expression coup d'tat in his brain. Maybe the gods
knew what was in his mailbox and how he'd likely react if they got him repeating an
apparently meaningless expression. Maybe he experienced a divine spark, intended to
ignite a blaze in his brain that would lead to a volcanic stream of consciousness that
would leave the gods howling. You can't prove that the gods aren't tricksters and enjoy
pulling one over on a parapsychologist just for fun. This explanation seems just as
plausible as that Mrs. C was trying to pull a coup on Tart or that he was trying to pull a
coup on himself. In fact, Tart brings up this possibility himself in his chapter on
psychokinesis in The End of Materialism. "Suppose," he writes, "there is, as we
consider in this book, a spiritual reality, perhaps with spiritual beings of some sort
existing in it? [sic] Are the desires and qualities of these spiritual beings part of our
experiments also? Is the idea of being 'teased' with inconsistent but unignorable psi
results more than just a metaphor?")
dismissal by skeptics
Both the anecdotal and laboratory evidence for ESP are usually dismissed by skeptics
for one or more of the following:
mistaking ordinary perception for psychic ability;
not giving alternative hypotheses a chance (i.e., not looking for or seriously
considering physical causesfor apparent psi events; sleep paralysis);

lack of understanding of probability and wishful thinking leading to farfetched

interpretation of personal experience of coincidental events (apophenia);
dubious methods such as optional starting and stopping and shotgunning;
sensory leakage;
experimenter effect;
not giving the null hypothesis a chance (assuming that if x happens it is evidence of psi
and then when x happens claiming that they now have evidence of psi:the psi
assumption);
dubious concepts that smack of special pleading, e.g.,displacement, analytical and
associative overlay, psi-conducive state, psi-missing, psi-focus assumption, and psychic
drift;
pathological science;
trickery by children or mentalists;
cold reading and subjective validation;
selective thinking and confirmation bias;
shoehorning, retrospective clairvoyance, andretrospective falsification;
gullibility and self-deception;
fraud by researchers and cheating by subjects being tested for psychic ability.
ESP in dogs
The belief in psychic dogs seems to be popular among true believers in the
paranormal. The following case is typical of those cited as proof of ESP involving dogs.
The dog in question is a terrier who has achieved fame as having ESP as exhibited by
his ability to know when his owner, Pam Smart, is deciding to come home when she is
away shopping or on some other business. The dog's name is Jaytee. He has been
featured on several television programs in Australia, the United States, and England,
where he resides with Pam and her parents, who were the first to perceive the dog's
psychic abilities. They observed that the dog would run to the window facing the street
at precisely the moment Pam was deciding to come home from several miles away.
(How the parents knew the precise moment Pam was deciding to come home is
unclear.) Parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrakewho has validated a telepathic parrot in a
scientific experimentinvestigated and declared the dog is truly psychic. Two
scientists,Dr Richard Wiseman and Matthew Smith of the University of Hertfordshire,
tested the dog under controlled conditions. The scientists synchronized their watches
and set video cameras on both the dog and its owner. Alas, several experimental tries
later, they had to conclude that the dog wasn't doing what had been alleged. He went to
the window and did so quite frequently, but only once did he do so near the exact time
his master was preparing to come home and that case was dismissed because the dog
was clearly going to the window after hearing a car pull up outside his domicile. Four
experiments were conducted and the results were published in the British Journal of
Psychology(89:453, 1998).
Much of the belief in ESP is based upon apparently unusual events that seem
inexplicable. However, we should not assume that every event in the universe can be

explained. Nor should we assume that what is inexplicable requires a paranormal (or
supernatural) explanation. Maybe an event can't be explained because there is nothing
to explain.
Most ESP claims do not get tested, but parapsychologists have attempted to verify the
existence of ESP under controlled conditions. Some, like Charles Tart, Dean
Radin, Gary Schwartz, and Raymond Moody, claim success; others, such as Susan J.
Blackmore, Richard Wiseman, and Chris French claim that years of trying to find
experimental proof of ESP have failed to turn up any proof of indisputable, repeatable
psychic powers.
Defenders of psi claim that the ganzfeld experiments, the CIA's remote viewing
experiments, and attempts to influence randomizers at Princeton Engineering
Anomalies Research have produced evidence of ESP. (Please follow the links for more
details and criticisms of those experiments.) Psychologists who have thoroughly
investigated parapsychological studies, like Jim Alcock (1990, 2003), Ray
Hyman (1989), David Marks (2000), and Susan Blackmore (1980, 1995), have
concluded that where positive results have been found, the work was fraught with
questionable assumptions, lack of randomization, serious problems with controls (no
use of control groups or controls of any kind, irrelevant controls), statistical legerdemain,
lack of replication, or fraud.
My opinion of the scientific evidence for psi is given in my "Short History of Psi
Research" and my reviews of Dean Radin'sConscious Universe and Entangled
Minds, and Gary Schwartz'sAfterlife Experiments. I have no reason to think that fraud is
more likely in psi research than in any other scientific field. Cheating is a human
problem, not a unique psi-researcher problem. Cheats have been exposed in all the
sciences and social sciences. The problem is not unique to parapsychology. There are
many problems with psi research, but researcher fraud is not a particularly important
one. Most of the significant cheating in parapsychology research has been done by
those being tested. For more details, I refer the reader to the material mentioned at the
start of this paragraph.
See also dermo-optical perception, dream, extraordinary human
function, medium, mentalist, psychic surgery, retrocognition,retrospective
falsification, sixth sense, sance, the Soal-Goldney experiment, Zener cards, and "What
If Dean Radin is Right?" by Robert T. Carroll
further reading
reader comments (psi)
books and articles
Alcock, James E. (1981). Parapsychology: Science or Magic?Pergamon Press.
Alcock, James E. Science and Supernature: a Critical Appraisal of
Parapsychology (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1990).
Alcock, James E. (1995) "The Belief Engine," Skeptical Inquirer. 19(3): 255-263.

Alcock, James. 2003. "Give the Null Hypothesis a Chance," in Psi Wars - Getting To
Grips With the Paranormal. ed. James Alcock, Jean Burns and Anthony Freeman.
Imprint Academic, pp. 29-50.Available online here.
Bem, Daryl J. and Charles Honorton (1994). "Does Psi Exist?" Psychological Bulletin,
Vol. 115, No. 1, 4-18.
Blackmore, S. J. (1980). "The extent of selective reporting of ESP ganzfeld
studies," European Journal of Parapsychology 3:3 , 213220.
Blackmore, Susan. 1987. A Report of a Visit to Carl Sargent's Laboratory. Journal of the
Society for Psychical Research. 54 186-198.
Blackmore, Susan. (2001.) "What Can the Paranormal Teach Us About
Consciousness?" Skeptical Inquirer, March/April.
Blackmore, Susan (2003). Consciousness: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Christopher, Milbourne. ESP, Seers & Psychics (Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1970).
Christopher, Milbourne. (1975). Mediums, Mystics & the Occult. Thomas Y. Crowell
Company.
Cole, Richard. "U.S. didn't foresee faults in psychic spies program," Associated
Press, Sacramento Bee, Nov. 29, 1995, A2.
Frazier, Kendrick. editor, Science Confronts the Paranormal(Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus
Books, 1986).
Frazier, Kendrick. editor. The Hundredth Monkey and Other Paradigms of the
Paranormal, (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1991).
Gardner, Martin. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (New York: Dover
Publications, Inc., 1957).
Gardner, Martin. Science: Good, Bad and Bogus (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books,
1981).
Gardner, Martin. How Not To Test a Psychic: Ten Years of Remarkable Experiments
With Renowned Clairvoyant Pavel Stepanek (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1989).
Gardner, Martin. On the Wild Side (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1992).
Gordon, Henry. Extrasensory Deception: ESP, Psychics, Shirley MacLaine, Ghosts,
Ufos (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1987).
Hansel, C. E. M. The Search for Psychic Power: ESP and Parapsychology
Revisited (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1989).
Hansen, George P. (2001). The Trickster and the Paranormal. Xlibris Corporation.
Hines, Terence. Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books,
2003).
Hyman, Ray. The Elusive Quarry : a Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research (Buffalo,
N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1989).
Hyman, Ray. (1995). "Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental
Phenomena," Journal of Scientific Exploration, Volume 10 Number 1.
Keene, M. Lamar. The Psychic Mafia (Prometheus, 1997).
Luckhurst, Roger. 2002. The Invention of Telepathy: 1870-1901.Oxford University
Press.

Marks, David. The Psychology of the Psychic (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2000).
Milton, Julie and Richard Wiseman. (1997). Guidelines for Extrasensory Perception
Research. University of Hertfordshire Press.
Neher, Andrew The Psychology of Transcendence (1980). This Prentice-Hall book is out
of print. Used copies may be available from Amazon.com. It was reissued in 1990 by
Dover Books asParanormal and Transcendental Experience.
Radin, Dean (1997). The Conscious Universe - The Scientific Truth of Psychic
Phenomena. HarperCollins.
Radin, Dean. (2006). Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum
Reality. Paraview Pocket Books.
Randi, James. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions (Buffalo, New
York: Prometheus Books,1982),especially chapter 13, "Put Up or Shut Up," where he
gives accounts of tests done on several psychics who have tried to collect the $10,000
Randi used to offer to anyone who can demonstrate any psychic power. So far, no one
has collected, even though the offer is now $1,000,000!
Reed, Graham. The Psychology of Anomalous Experience : A Cognitive
Approach (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988).
Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York:
Random House, 1995).
Scott, Christopher. (1988). Remote viewing. Experientia, 44, 322326.
Steiner, Robert A. (1989). Don't Get Taken! - Bunco and Bunkum Exposed - How to
Protect Yourself Wide-Awake Books.
Steiner, Robert A. "Fortunetelling," in The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal edited by
Gordon Stein (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996) pp. 281-290.
Stein, Gordon. editor, The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal(Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus
Books, 1996).
Stenger, Victor J. (2002). "Meta-Analysis and the File-Drawer Effect." Skeptical Briefs.
Vistica, Gregory. "Psychics and Spooks, How spoon-benders fought the cold
war," Newsweek, Dec. 11, 1995, p. 50.
Vyse, Stuart A. Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition (Oxford University
Press 2000).
Wiseman, Richard and Matthew Smith, "Can Animals Detect When Their Owners Are
Returning Home?" British Journal of Psychology, 89:453, 1998.
Wiseman, Richard and Ciarn OKeeffe. 2004. "Testing Alleged Mediumship: Methods
and Results," by (paper presented to the Parapsychological Convention).
Zusne, Leonard and Warren Jones. Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical
Thinking 2nd edition. (Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. 1989).
websites
New Analyses Raise Doubts About Replicability of ESP Findingsby Scott O.
Lilienfeld, Skeptical Inquirer, Nov/Dec 1999
The Telepathic Terrier
news stories

Neuroimaging Fails To Demonstrate ESP Is Real

According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 41% of Americans believe in ESP. This is a decline
from surveys done during the last decade of the 20th century that found belief in ESP
steady at 50%.
Last updated 12-Sep-2014