37 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Harvard psychiatrist John Mack's clinical study of people who reported alien abduction experiences — arguing they were genuine psychological events requiring serious investigation.
Timothy Good's compilation of evidence for a global government UFO cover-up — one of the most comprehensive early arguments for official secrecy about the UFO phenomenon.
American-Swiss Jungian analyst who has written extensively on the déjà vu experience — particularly the 'dream déjà vu' where the feeling arises from having previously dreamed the situation — contributing to the psychological understanding of anomalous time experiences.
Jeffrey Kripal's history of paranormal writing — arguing that figures like Frederic Myers, Charles Fort, Jacques Vallée, and Bertrand Méheust were engaged in a genuinely scholarly project of studying phenomena that exceed current scientific categories.
A book exploring the relationship between biological organisms and what have been traditionally conceived as divine or supernatural capacities — examining whether certain anomalous human capacities (psi, mystical experience) might be understood as biological rather than supernatural phenomena.
American parapsychologist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences who conducts meta-analyses of psi (psychic) phenomena — arguing that the statistical evidence for psi effects is robust.
The University of Virginia's academic unit for research into phenomena suggesting survival of consciousness after death — including children's past-life memories, near-death experiences, and cases of the reincarnation type.
American parapsychology researcher who led the government-funded remote viewing program at Stanford Research Institute (later moved to Science Applications International) — a physicist by training who became one of the most systematic researchers of anomalous cognition (ESP, precognition).
American neuroscientist and parapsychologist at the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies — lead author of Irreducible Mind — who argues from neuroscientific and parapsychological evidence that consciousness cannot be reduced to brain function.
American science writer and independent researcher who wrote Time Loops (2018) — arguing that precognition is real and that the mechanism involves information traveling backwards in time — a scientifically literate account of anomalous cognition.
Edward Kelly et al.'s 2007 800-page scholarly work arguing that the standard neuroscientific model of mind (consciousness as produced by the brain) is falsified by the evidence — including near-death experiences, psychical research, and exceptional human experiences — and that William James's 'transmission model' is better supported.
American botanist-turned-parapsychologist who founded the Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory — inventing the Zener cards for ESP testing, coining the term 'extrasensory perception' (ESP), and establishing parapsychology as a laboratory science rather than a mere spiritualist practice.
American professor of Religion at Rice University who has written extensively on the relationship between mysticism, the paranormal, and human sexuality — including Kali's Child (on Ramakrishna), Authors of the Impossible (on paranormal researchers), Mutants and Mystics (on comic books and the paranormal), and The Superhumanities.
Italian Franciscan friar (1603–1663) who is the most extensively documented case of levitation in the Catholic tradition — reportedly witnessed flying by dozens of credible witnesses including Protestant nobility — and who became one of the most important cases in parapsychological discussions of physical phenomena.
Parapsychology researcher associated with the Windbridge Research Center — involved in mediumship research and anomalous cognition studies.
Jim Tucker's account of his research into children who report memories of past lives — continuing Ian Stevenson's work at the University of Virginia.
American parapsychologist and J.B. Rhine's wife and scientific collaborator — who complemented the experimental laboratory work by studying thousands of spontaneous psychic experiences reported by ordinary people, compiling the most extensive database of spontaneous psi cases.
Joe McMoneagle's first-person account of his work as a remote viewer in the US Army's classified STARGATE program — the most detailed insider account by a participant.
Jeff Kripal's 2011 study of American superhero comics as secular expressions of religious and paranormal experience — arguing that comics authors like Jack Kirby, Alan Moore, and Stan Lee drew on their own anomalous experiences to create characters (X-Men mutants, Dr. Manhattan, Silver Surfer) that encode genuine mystical insight.
Former Burbank police commissioner who became one of the most gifted remote viewers in the CIA-funded Stanford Research Institute program — producing accurate descriptions of remote targets including Soviet military installations — before his unexplained death in 1975.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency's early classified remote viewing program (1978–1983) — the direct predecessor to STARGATE — using operationally trained military remote viewers for intelligence purposes.
Jim Schnabel's investigative account of the US government's secret program to develop psychic spying (remote viewing) during the Cold War — the STARGATE program.
Jim Tucker's second book — focusing specifically on American children with past-life memories, demonstrating that the phenomenon is not limited to South Asian cultures where reincarnation belief is normative.
American physicist and laser physicist who co-founded the SRI remote viewing program with Hal Puthoff — co-authored Mind Reach and The Mind's Big Bang — and who has spent his career arguing that remote viewing has been scientifically demonstrated and that consciousness extends beyond the brain.
The U.S. government's classified intelligence program (1978–1995) researching remote viewing — the claimed ability to perceive distant locations psychically — as an intelligence-gathering tool during the Cold War.
American philosopher at the University of Maryland who approaches parapsychological phenomena with rigorous philosophical analysis — writing The Gold Leaf Lady and other investigations of macro-psychokinesis, mediumship, and survival of bodily death.
Stephen Braude's 2007 book recounting his personal investigations of parapsychological phenomena — including Katie Rhea, a woman who allegedly precipitates gold leaf on her skin — examining these cases with philosophical rigor and personal honesty about the difficulty of drawing conclusions.
A book exploring the relationship between modern physics and mystical experience — arguing that quantum mechanics, non-locality, and the measurement problem open conceptual space for understanding mystical claims about consciousness and non-ordinary reality.
Anthology edited by Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf Smit — compiling over 100 veridical near-death experience cases where persons clinically dead accurately perceived events they could not have observed through normal sensory means — the most comprehensive case-based argument for consciousness's independence from the brain.
A book examining UFO phenomena through the lens of religious studies and consciousness research — arguing that UFO experiences share structural features with mystical and near-death experiences and may be evidence for a non-physical dimension of reality rather than extraterrestrial visitors.
Joe McMoneagle's full autobiography — tracing his life from near-death experience through his Army career as a remote viewer to his post-military work.
Jeff Kripal's 2022 manifesto arguing that the humanities need to take seriously the anomalous experiences that have always been their primary subject — and that doing so requires expanding the humanities into what Kripal calls the 'superhumanities' where consciousness, paranormal experience, and academic rigor converge.
J. Allen Hynek's systematic classification of UFO reports — by the astronomer who served as the US Air Force's scientific consultant on UFOs and coined the term 'Close Encounter.'
Joe McMoneagle's account of remote viewing applied to the future — his precognitive impressions of the 21st century based on his claimed remote viewing abilities.
John Alexander's insider account arguing — against popular belief — that there is no secret government UFO cover-up, but that the phenomenon is real and genuinely mysterious.
American physicist (Stanford) who has pursued the scientific study of intentional effects on physical reality — a fringe research program regarded skeptically by mainstream physics.
Ingo Swann was an American psychic, artist, and consciousness researcher who played a foundational role in the development of remote viewing — a technique for perceiving distant or shielded locations through extrasensory means — at the Stanford Research Institute in collaboration with Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff during the 1970s. His protocols became the foundation for the US government's classified STARGATE program.