Extra-sensory
perception, or ESP, is the ability to acquire information
by means other than the known senses of taste, sight,
touch, smell, hearing, balance and proprioception. The
term implies sources of information as yet unknown to
science.
Specific types of extra-sensory perception include:
Perception of events in other places (clairvoyance,
clairaudience, clairgustance, clairsentience) and in
other times (precognition, retrocognition, second sight)
Perception of aspects of others not perceivable by most
people (aura reading)
The ability to sense communications from, and communicate
with, people far away (telepathy), beyond the grave
(mediumship, séancing, and spirit walking), or in other
dimensions (astral projection)
The study of these abilities, called parapsychology,
includes other phenomena such as psychometry and psychokinesis,
which are associated with ESP. A person capable of using
ESP is referred to as a psychic or as having psychic
powers
The term has been attributed to Sir Richard Burton in
the 1870s, although Gustav Pagenstecher (Pagenstecher,
1924) made a more concrete use of the term. Other authors,
such as Dr. Rudolph Tischner in the 1920s, also used
this concept to describe a form of “externalization
of sensibility.” ESP phenomena are traditionally classified
into three categories.
These are:
(1) telepathy, understood as the awareness of the thoughts
or feelings of another person;
(2) clairvoyance, or awareness of objects, events, or
people without the use of the known senses; and
(3) precognition, or the knowledge of future events.
The first studies of ESP were conducted in the 1880s.
This early work consisted mostly of investigations of
cases and “gifted” individuals. The study of ESP progressed,
becoming more and more scientific in the first quarter
of the century. It was in the 1930s when J. B. Rhine
conducted a series of experiments at Duke University
which called the attention of the scientific community
to the research.
Some theorists argue that ESP is the remnant of an ancient
sense which has deteriorated in human beings as their
cultures have developed. Conversely, other theorists
claim that ESP is a “supersense” which evolved in the
nervous system. There are also speculations that some
people (psychics) are born with this gift. However,
research supports that everyone is born with ESP capability,
although some may possess more than others. This is
reinforced by the fact that, according to survey work,
most people report having experienced ESP at least once
in their lives.
One of the first theories on the nature and functioning
of ESP was put forward by Frederic W. H. Myers in his
Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death published
in 1903. This author described ESP in terms of a particular
functioning of perception that occurred below the threshold
of consciousness. Myers realized that a large number
of the reported cases of ESP occurred while percipient
were experiencing an altered state of consciousness.
He suggested that this phenomenon could be most noticeable
in dreams, trance states, or hypnosis. Laboratory studies
on dream ESP, such as the Maimonides dream telepathy
study, as well as hypnosis studies.
