Arthur Conan Doyle
by Karen Wehrstein
The novelist and creator of Sherlock Holmes claimed often to have witnessed séance phenomena and to have received communications from the dead. In his later years he became an evangelist for spiritualism, promoting the religion in his writings and lectures. Among the wider public his credibility suffered from an uncritical support of fraudulent claims.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...onan-doyle
Observational Theories of Psi
by Brian Millar
The so-called ‘observational’ theories offer an alternative view of how psi works, one loosely based on quantum mechanics and at odds with the conventional view held by most parapsychologists. Here, psi does not work on events directly, but rather on the invisible underworld of quantum probabilities. A feedback channel connects an external quantum system via the senses to a hypothetical quantum system (psi source) in the brain, creating a weak quantum(-like) correlation. A human must observe the external system in order to be able to affect it, hence ‘observational’.
This explanatory framework sees psi as firmly anchored in the physical world and not as a kind of omniscience, which is the classical viewpoint associated with the school of parapsychology founded by JB Rhine in the 1930s. Another major point of divergence is that the psi source is not just the nominal subject of a psi experiment, as Rhineans believe, but rather consists of all the observers including the researchers themselves, leading to ‘experimenter effects’. Of great potential interest to parapsychologists, the observational theories also imply that some command might be gained over psi effects, by controlling the feedback to the various observers.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...eories-psi
John Palmer
by Michael Duggan
John Palmer is an American psychologist and parapsychologist who has carried out psi research using a variety of experimental approaches. In recent years he has drawn attention to the challenge of 'experimenter effects' in psi research.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/john-palmer
Tina Resch (Columbus Poltergeist)
by Karen Wehrstein
Tina Resch (married name Christina Boyer) is an American woman who as a teen was at the focus of poltergeist-type phenomena at her home in Columbus, Ohio, in 1984. The episode generated international publicity and controversy. Resch was later sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of her young child, a crime she probably did not commit.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...oltergeist
William Roll
by Karen Wehrstein
William George Roll Jr (1926-2012) was an American psychologist and parapsychologist, noted in particular for reports of dramatic poltergeist phenomena, which he attributed to unconscious psychokinesis in emotionally disturbed young persons.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...lliam-roll
Gerard Croiset
by Karen Wehrstein
Gerard Croiset (1909-1980) was a Dutch psychic known for demonstrations of precognitive clairvoyance (chair tests) and for finding missing persons. His psychic detection work was investigated and publicized by parapsychology professor WHC Tenhaeff, making him internationally known. His reputation was later damaged by posthumous revelations that Tenhaeff exaggerated and sometimes falsified accounts of claimed successes.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...rd-croiset
If I may:
Psi Research in China
by Yi-Fang Chang
This article describes some recent experimental and theoretical work in China, including successful attempts to train ESP abilities in blind children. It has been contributed by Professor Yi-Fang Chang, a physicist and experimental parapsychologist at China’s Yumman University.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...arch-china
This is the sort of article I really value the Psi Encyclopedia before, despite its problems. I can't say what the merit of this research is, but I never would have heard of it otherwise. Coverage of even mainline science in the Western popular press is heavily weighted toward Western countries, and parapsychology coverage is, if anything, worse in that regard. I've never seen proponents, skeptics, or agnostics weigh in on anything from China, or anything from Asia that wasn't tied into Ian Stevenson's research.
Bridey Murphy
by Karen Wehrstein
Virginia Burns Tighe (1923-1995) was a Chicago resident who under regression hypnosis offered surprisingly accurate details of life in Ireland in the nineteenth century. The details were published by the regressionist Morey Bernstein 1956 in a bestselling book The Search for Bridey Murphy, in which Tighe is referred to as Ruth Simmons. This was the first major reincarnation claim in modern times, the focus of intense media interest and controversy.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...dey-murphy
J Gaither Pratt
by Karen Wehrstein
Joseph Gaither Pratt (1910-1979) was an American psychologist and parapsychologist. He worked at Duke University’s parapsychology department under JB Rhine for nearly 30 years, then at the University of Virginia. He is best known for carrying out successful ESP experiments and for extensive research with Pavel Stepanek, a Czech psychic.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...ther-pratt
Carl Sargent
by Michael Duggan
Carl Sargent (1952-2018) was a British parapsychologist who in the 1970s reported successful ganzfeld telepathy experiments. The results were later cast in doubt by claims of deception by a prominent sceptic. He left the field shortly afterwards and turned to developing role-playing games under the name Keith Martin.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...rl-sargent
James G Matlock
by Karen Wehrstein
James G Matlock (b 1954) is an American anthropologist and leading reincarnation researcher. He has adopted a comprehensive, multicultural and interdisciplinary approach to reincarnation studies, and has advanced a theory on how it happens, the ‘processual soul theory’.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...-g-matlock
William McDougall
by Karen Wehrstein
William McDougall (1871-1938) was an eminent British psychologist who during appointments at American universities contributed largely to the establishing of parapsychology as an experimental science.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...-mcdougall