What Does ESP Stand For?

Types

• ESP stands for a wide range of theoretical mental abilities. These include telepathy (reading minds), precognition (predicting the future), postcognition (sensing the past) and clairvoyance (sensing things through foreign objects). Some people also associate other paranormal powers to the term ESP. These include telekinesis (ability to move things with the mind), spiritual healing (curing others with the mind) and channeling (communicating with other intelligence not present).

History

• There have been references to ESP-like experiences throughout recorded history. They were described as visions, prophecies, second sight or a sixth sense. The existence of mediums, oracles and fortune tellers in large part relies on a belief in the existence of ESP. Research into the phenomenon began in the late nineteenth century, but the studies lacked a scientific approach. Instead, they merely recorded reported incidents of ESP and attempted to explain them. Serious scientific studies started in 1927 by J.B. Rhine of Duke University. Rhine popularized the term ESP.

Function

• The study of ESP gave rise to the science of parapsychology. It is the study of paranormal phenomena. It all started in 1882 with the Society for Psychical Research in London. Members investigated what they called "hallucinations in the sane." Their work was recorded in the landmark 1886 book "Phantasms of the Living." The Parapsychological Association was established in 1957. The organization's studies did much to establish parapsychology as a legitimate area of scientific research. By the 1970s, major universities around the world were funding large scale parapsychology projects. However, in 1988 the National Academy of Sciences declared that 130 years of study on the matter did not prove that parapsychological phenomena exists.

Features

• Early ESP research involved a deck containing five types of card with different shapes on them. One subject would draw a card at random and think about it. The other subject would try to predict what the card was. Researchers found that subjects picked the correct card more often than would be expected by chance. By the 1960s, parapsychological methodology changed to test subjects for open-ended responses instead of forcing them to pick a particular card. The most famous study is the Ganzfeld experiment. It involved sensory deprivation of a subject, blocking what they see, hear and feel. A second subject then attempted to project an image into the sensory deprived subject's mind. Studies found that the subject succeeded about one third of the time which is significantly better than chance. The amount of parapsychology research has fallen considerably since the 1970s. In the United States, only the University of Arizona and the University of Virginia still have parapsychology laboratories.

Considerations

• There are many skeptics who insist that ESP does not exist. They say the so-called evidence is anecdotal and believed by those who want to believe in ESP. Skeptics point to a long history of fortune tellers, psychics and mentalists who trick audiences with cold reading. This is where the person who supposedly has ESP makes assumptions based on the appearance and behavior of the person being read. They will float vague predictions like, "I see someone tall" and watch for a response. If the person reacts, more predictions follow. Skeptics claim no unbiased scientific study has proven the existence of ESP.