What is Extra Sensory Perception (ESP)?

When most people think of ESP, they picture a tattered old woman hovering over a crystal ball, muttering inarticulately or some charlatan raising a table with his foot in the middle of a séance. While it is true that things like this typically did happen in the past, nowadays, it is taken much more seriously by researchers, scientists and even by governments.

Extra Sensory Perception is defined as communication or perception by means other than the known five physical senses. Over the years, ESP has come to be used as a generic term for a broad range of possible human ability including telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, precognition, psychometry and many others. These talents are also known as psionic ability or simply “psi.” It has also been called “the sixth sense,”  but don’t expect to see Bruce Willis any time soon.

The term ESP was first used in the1870s by researchers, although some say it was coined by Sir Richard Burton. Burton is more widely known as the man responsible for discovering the source of the Nile and for translating the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra into English.

Real popularity of the term did not come until 1934, when  a researcher named J.B. Rhine published his research he had conducted since 1927 at Duke University in collaboration with Professor William McDougall, an Oxford and Harvard educated psychologist.

Rhine and McDougall had experimented at great length and in various methods with Zener cards. A deck of 25 Zener cards has five each of five different symbols- square, circle, star, wavy lines and a plus sign. Subjects would try to “guess” the cards. Random chance says that five correct guesses out of the 25 cards would be normal. Their research would have far-reaching implications.

According the Parapsychological Association, an affiliate organization of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), by 1940 Rhine and McDougall had conducted thirty-three studies with almost a million trials. Out of those 33 studies, 27 showed statistically significant results. In one of them, 2400 guesses were made with 489 correct hits. Further, according to the association,  those are million-to-one odds against chance.

What is Telepathy?

Telepathy, from tele- far and pathein- to experience, is the psychic ability to communicate mind to mind. This can include feelings, ideas, thoughts, sensations and images. As a more famous example, for ten years researchers at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City have attempted to establish evidence of telepathy. While target subjects slept, “transmitter” subjects attempted to send information to the sleepers. According to Montague Ullman, M.D. and Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., experiments with more than 100 subjects over several years demonstrated a significant relationship between what was "sent" and what was "received."

What is Telekinesis/Psychokinesis?

Telekinesis, from tele- far and kinen- to move, is the psychic ability to move an object without the application of a physical force. As part of a study that the CIA conducted in 1972, two laser physicists with an interest in the paranormal, Dr. Targ and Dr. Puthoff, met with CIA officials from the Office of Strategic Intelligence. They had found a subject that exhibited telekinetic potential. As an experiment, a super conducting, heavily shielded magnetometer for use in a high-energy particle experiment was visited by the subject. When he focused his attention on the interior, the output reading was visibly disturbed. Those variations had never been seen before or after the subjects visit.

What is Clairvoyance?

Clairvoyance, from clair- clear and voyant- seeing, is the power to see objects and events not apparent to the senses. This may seem similar to telepathy, but clairvoyance is an independent phenomena that doesn’t require another mind to send the image. It is more of a gathering of information from an unknown “source.” 

There are also several sub branches of the “clear” phenomena, relating to other methods of reception. Clairaudience is the perception of ‘heard’ messages in the mind. Clairsentience is described as experiencing other realities or entities through the sense of touch. Even still lesser known is Clairgustance, which is experiencing messages or information by receiving tastes without putting anything in your mouth. Of course, some might say you just need to brush your teeth more often!

For obvious reasons, Clairvoyance has been the branch of parapsychology that has most interested governments worldwide. The tactical value of being able to see in your enemies’ bunkers and facilities without their knowledge would be an enormous advantage.

In a declassified report by a CIA project officer, Dr. Kenneth Kress says that since at least World War II, when Hitler had reportedly consulted with astrologers, US national security agencies had often received reports of ESP capabilities. In 1952, the Department of Defense was even given a lecture on the potential uses of ESP as a tool for psychological warfare. In 1961, reports induced one of the earliest U.S. government parapsychology investigations when the chief of CIA's Office of Technical Service became interested in the claims of ESP. Project officials contacted Stephen I. Abrams, the Director of the Parapsychological Laboratory, Oxford University, England. Under the auspices of Project ULTRA, Abrams prepared an article that stated ESP was demonstrated but not understood or controllable. The article was read with interest but no real action was taken until later in the early seventies.

In one of these tests in the seventies, a man by the name of Pat Price was given rough map coordinates of an area in the Soviet Union that was of interest to the CIA. He was able to draw an eerily close copy of some heavy crane equipment that was in use at the site. He was also able to accurately describe some buildings under construction and several spherical holding tanks.

What is Precognition?

Precognition is knowledge of the future by extrasensory means. For example, there is a story about the Tangshan City, China earthquake on July 28, 1976 that killed over 240,000 people.

A few hours before the quake hit, an old woman in her seventies had a strong sense of impending doom. Fearing ridicule and worse from local authorities, she said nothing to her neighbors. However, she approached the local Communist Party secretary and told him that something terrible will happen later, that the land would collapse causing countless deaths. She further told him not to stay inside that night.

She was finally able to convince him and another local authority through much pleading to stay outside that night. When the quake hit, only her family and the families of those two local officials had no one injured

Afterwards, she was regarded as somewhat of a local deity, but when higher officials found out, she was jailed for spreading superstition and planning to usurp the local authority.

What is Psychometry?

Psychometry is the ability to gain images from objects by touch. It is believed to be a special form of Clairvoyance.

Though many won’t admit it, more than a few police departments worldwide have resorted to consulting a psychometrist. Psychic Noreen Renier from Orlando, Florida has stated that she has worked with police in 28 states and three foreign countries to help solve cases.

In one case from 1996, she was approached to try to find an elderly man who had gone missing. Using nothing but a piece of  his clothing, she told police she had a strong sense that the missing man would be found a few miles from his home in a water-filled area near railroad tracks.

That information led divers to a water-filled lime pit outside town. However, the chief of police was puzzled because there were no railroad tracks visible. While divers were searching in the pit, nearby workers uncovered something - an abandoned railroad track. Hours later, the man’s body was found inside his truck at the bottom of the pit.

Where do these powers come from?

One thing that skeptics and believers alike can agree on is that the phenomenon is hard to reproduce on a consistent basis. You may have noticed occasionally that the harder you try to demonstrate something, the harder it is to do it. Because of this lack of consistently verifiable results, many theories have evolved over the years.

Some say that spirits or entities do the bidding of the person. Others say that it is a manifestation of ability that humans had in the far past. Some say that we are all born with them, but as we age and become more rational, they atrophy.

A more popular belief of late is that people who exhibit some of these tendencies interact with information on a sub-atomic level. This may stem from part of the theory of quantum entanglement, (or as Einstein called it- “Spooky action at a distance”) which basically says that any two particles that have interacted before are each bound to other. What happens to one, regardless of distance, affects the other.

Other theories suggest that the natural emission of the body’s magnetic and electrical fields act like an antennae and are able to draw information in to it. By extension, some are able to access these fields or the fields of other objects/persons and are somehow able to use them to influence things.

How Can You Test Your ESP?

If you have a desire to test your own ESP ability, here’s what you can do.

1. Get a hold of an ordinary deck of playing cards.
2. Find an area where you can have some time to yourself, preferably a quiet place.
3. Shuffle them very well, as randomly as possible. Don’t fear, we’re not going to have you guess the card, just the suit!

With the deck face down in front of you, try to guess if the card is a spade, heart, diamond or a club. It may help to touch the top card or to hold the deck. It may also help if you go with your first initial gut reaction. No peeking or card marking now!

Statistically, you will have a one in four chance of being correct. With those odds, you should have around 13 correct guesses. Anything more and you might be psychic!