So not all that appears to be
psychic is in fact such. And not everything that goes under the scare-term of "the
paranormal" is of interest to psi researchers. For example, UFOs, Bigfoot, and The
Bermuda Triangle are not psychic phenomena, and are not studied by parapsychologists. A
common misconception is that the subject matter of parapsychology is "anything
mysterious" that is not explained by normal science.
We can spend a lot of time talking about what ISN'T psi, but let's stick, for now, to what
we think psi IS. A large number of phenomena or experiences are considered psychic, or at
least legitimate topics of parapsychological inquiry: these include telepathy,
clairvoyance, psychokinesis (or mind-over-matter), psychic healing, out-of-body
experiences, poltergeists and a number of others. In the months to come, I'll be covering
many of these phenomena in depth -- the evidence for them, the theories which have been
proposed, the dynamics which favor or suppress them, and the techniques for discovering
them in ourselves. But for now, let's start with telepathy, probably one of the most
common forms of psi. |
