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.
Get a hold of an ordinary deck of playing cards.
Find an area where you can have some time to
yourself, preferably a quiet place.
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!
