Psi Encyclopedia

I know there's a thread for text resources but I thought this deserves a thread to itself.

The Psi Encyclopedia is a resource which attempts to provide some balance to the negative bias towards psi that we are used to from Wikipedia, RationalWiki, CSI(COP), The Skeptic's Dictionary and countless sceptic blogs.

Some scientists are known to sympathize with psi experimentalists, who use well-established statistical methods and robust methodology: the possibility of psychic experience has been seriously considered by an impressive number of Nobel prize winners and other eminent people. However, a vocal minority of sceptics –  often active in sceptic organisations – campaign in books, articles and in the media against psi research, disparaging it as 'pseudoscience' and disputing its conclusions.

In recent years this conflict has spread to the Internet, notably the free encyclopedia Wikipedia, where editors hostile to ‘fringe science’ routinely edit articles on psi research to make them conform to their view.  As a result, articles that were originally written by knowledgeable experts have become adulterated with misleading claims and assertions.

The Psi Encyclopedia is being created by the Society for Psychical Research, funded by a bequest, to provide a more informative view of psi research (also referred to as ‘psychical research’ and ‘parapsychology’), one that reflects the findings of experimenters and investigators. The project began in 2014 and by May 2017 offered nearly 200 entries written by more than 40 authors and experts.  Readers are asked to bear in mind that this is a work in progress, a multi-year project that will see numerous additions, changes and improvements.

A big new article entitled "Psi Research in North America" has appeared:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...th-america

Another big article on J. B. Rhine has appeared:
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/jb-rhine

New article:
Dermo-Optical Perception
The phenomenon commonly known as dermo-optical perception (DOP) refers to the apparent ability to discern the colour of a stimulus object purely on the basis of touch, that is, without any visual access to the object.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...perception

I used to own J. Romains Eyeless Sight. Highly recommend, if you can find it.

More new articles:

Medieval Near-Death Experiences
Accounts of visionary episodes are found in European late-medieval literature that bear striking similiarities to modern near-death experiences (NDEs), as well as marked differences. They have been summarized by religious scholar Carol Zaleski in her comprehensively-researched book Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times, from which much of the information in this introductory article is drawn
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...xperiences

Animals in Psi Research
This article describes parapsychological research involving animals, from relatively unsophisticated testing in the 1930s to the well-designed laboratory work of today.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...i-research

Arigo
José Pedro de Freitas (1918-1971), known as Zé Arigo or Arigo, was a Brazilian mediumistic healer celebrated for an apparent ability to make instant diagnoses, prescribe unusual but effective medications, and even to perform surgery without anesthetic, while possessed by ‘spirit doctors’ in a trance state.
Details are drawn from John Fuller’s 1974 biography Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife, unless otherwise stated.  
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/arigo

More new articles:

The Gold Leaf Lady
American philosopher and parapsychologist Stephen Braude describes his investigation of a Florida housewife who exhibits psychic effects, notably the spontaneous, involuntary and seemingly inexplicable appearance on her skin and clothes of flakes of golden-like brass foil.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...-leaf-lady

Lourdes Cures
Healing powers attributed to the shrine of Lourdes in southern France are said to have brought about miraculous cures from a range of debilitating diseases. Scrutiny has revealed methodological flaws and subjective biases in the evaluations but confirms that at least some of the cures are medically inexplicable.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...rdes-cures

And more still:

Natasha Demkina
Natalya Nikolayevna Demkina, known as Natasha, is a Russian woman who claims the ability to view organs and tissues within human bodies, and correctly diagnose diseases. She briefly came to the attention of Western media under the nickname ‘X-ray Girl’ and submitted to scientific testing in the US and Japan, with mixed and controversial results.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...ha-demkina

Morselli’s Psicologia e Spiritismo
Enrico Morselli (1852-1929), an Italian psychiatrist, contributed to the study of the mediumship of Eusapia Palladino, notably regarding its clinical and psychological aspects. This work is contained in his 1908 two-volume book, little known to English-language writers, Psicologia e ‘Spiritismo’ (Psychology and ‘Spiritism’) on which this article is largely based (the original Italian edition can be read online).1 Morselli adopts an anti-survival stance, rejecting discarnate agency in favour of fraud, psychological processes, or psychic means involving human agency.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...spiritismo

Natasha Demkina
Natalya Nikolayevna Demkina, known as Natasha, is a Russian woman who claims the ability to view organs and tissues within human bodies, and correctly diagnose diseases. She briefly came to the attention of Western media under the nickname ‘X-ray Girl’ and submitted to scientific testing in the US and Japan, with mixed and controversial results.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...ha-demkina

There has been a small controversy over the correctness of the calculated probability of the result obtained in the CSICOP test of Demkina, designed by Hyman and Wiseman. She was given cards describing seven medical conditions, and had to try to match them to seven people. The required success rate was set at 5 correct choices out of 7. Demkina matched only 4 conditions correctly.

The Psi Encyclopaedia article (presumably quoting the Discovery Channel TV programme) says that the probability of 4 out of 7 correct matches was "2% or 1 in 50". Subsequently John Rudkin argued that Hyman and Wiseman had got their sums wrong, because the probability of 4 out of 7 matches is only 1/72:
http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/D...ility.html

Strictly speaking that's correct, but I think it's pretty clear that the 2% figure was meant to be an approximation for the probability of 4 or more correct matches, which is 23/1260, or about 1.83%. Of course, Hyman also argues that this figure can't be taken at face value because the experiment was flawed:
https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/s...of_natasha

More new articles:

William Crookes
William Crookes was the first British scientist of note to engage in psychical research, conducting experiments with Daniel Home and other mediums in the 1870s. His claim to have discovered a new ‘psychic force’ was strongly contested by other scientists, but his reports continue to be widely cited and discussed today.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...am-crookes

Amyr Amiden
Amyr Amiden is a Brazilian physical medium known for the appearance near him of ‘apports’ (psychically-materialized objects), sometimes on request. The phenomenon was investigated in 1994 by a team of researchers led by Stanley Krippner, on whose reports this article is based.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/amyr-amiden