Parapsychology/Parapsychology/ESP
Extrasensory perception, or ESP, is the ability to acquire information without observing it with one of the five basic senses. There are multiple ways in which it manifests:
- Clairvoyance or Remote Viewing: The subject experiences a vision an event that they are not a part of, possibly from a far location.
- Precognition or Retrocognition: The subject not only sees an event that they are not a part of, but one that takes place in a different time. In the event of retrocognition, they experience something from that past that they did not experience when it occurred (which could be before the subject's birth). In precognition, the subject sees into the future, later realizing that they had foreseen the event.
- Psychometry: The subject obtains information about an individual from an object belonging to that individual.
- Telepathy: The sending of decipherable messages without the use of the five senses.
- Out of Body (OOB) Experience or Astral Projection: The subject mentally leaves their body and experiences event occurring at the current time. This often occurs during sleep or lucid dreaming.
- Mediumship: The ability to communicate with dead spirits.
- Psychokenisis: The ability to move objects without touch.
Criticisms
All of these facets of ESP are extremely difficult to prove scientifically. For example, should someone claim that they experienced precognition, they could be accused of making it up on the spot. Obviously, the general public does not write every image that enters their mind, and would have no record of their earlier thoughts. Additionally, some claim that precognition is simply the sudden remembering of formerly repressed memories. Mediumship and psychometry are often attributed to cold reading. In addition, there is no way to conclusively prove that communications through a medium are real- should a supposed medium invent information, it could not be known by others.