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Freaky Friday Files: Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

  • Writer: Ash
    Ash
  • May 29
  • 6 min read

Do you ever think about a certain person and then, randomly, a phone call from that person you were just thinking about pops up on your phone? Do you ever think to yourself, "My phone is about to ring", and then it does - even if it's just a spam call. Have you ever dreamt of something and then the next day it happened? Have you ever felt like someone knew exactly what you were thinking? Well, some people argue that these are forms of Extrasensory Perception (or ESP for short). I sometimes think that these phenomena are just kinda like highlighting how we're all quite similar as humans (i.e., built by the same building blocks), but I also think that maybe just maybe there is some sort of collective consciousness out there and we are way more connected than we think we are. I feel like the idea of a collective consciousness is more likely than ESP.


I am worried that in discussing ESP, I might lose a bit of academic credibility, but anyway, here goes! For this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files, we are obviously taking a look at the phenomenon known as "extrasensory perception" (ESP).


I don't know whether I think ESP is real or not, but researching it sounds fun. It's been a topic I've wanted to look into since I wrote my masters thesis.


Let's start with a quote I found interesting.

"Despite skepticism from the scientific community, there are pockets of belief that suggest all humans may have latent ESP abilities, although most do not recognize or develop them. Enthusiasts sometimes argue that ESP operates within a dimension beyond current scientific comprehension, relating it to concepts of spirituality and the afterlife. The ongoing debate about ESP highlights both the intrigue surrounding human potential and the challenges in verifying such extraordinary claims through conventional scientific methods" - EBSCO (2020).

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Extrasensory Perception (ESP)


According to Wikipedia, "Extrasensory perception (ESP), also known as a sixth sense, or cryptaesthesia, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind." The term was first adopted by a botanist called J.B. Rhine from Duke University to help denote "psychic abilities" such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokiensis. J.B. Rhine was known for being the founder of parapsychology.


There's also a thing called "second sight" - which is an alleged form of ESP where a person receives information in the form of a vision (usually a precognition of an event before it happens). I think remote viewing is also a part of second sight, where a person can see something at a remote location without being there. Both precognition and remote viewing are usually viewed as pseudoscience, as we have no scientific proof that either exists.


Quick sidenote - a premonition is categorised as an impending disaster/anticipation of an event.


According to EBSCO (2020), ESP can be put into 5 categories


  1. Clairvoyance - Being able to find out information about a person or an event that is taking place somewhere else (remote viewing). An example is that a mum sees her child fall while on a school field trip and then later learns her child scraped their knee.

  2. Telepathy - The ability to hear other people's thoughts (basically mind reading). I would love to have this. I don't know why; I don't need to know what people think of me, but if I had a superpower, this would be mine.

  3. Precognition - The ability to see the future.

  4. Retrocognition - The ability to see past events. An example could be that a psychic is claiming to know what happened to a missing person.

  5. Psychokinesis - The ability to move objects with one's mind.


Interestingly, there have been experiments done on whether people have ESP or can develop the ability to have it (if that makes sense). Anyway, one notable example of this comes from the researcher Daryl Bem, who was a professor at Cornell University. Bem prayed on university students (as a former 1st year psychology student, I'm aware of this hehe), to see if students could correctly predict random events. For example, where an image would appear on the computer screen. This was a longitudinal study that went for over 8 years and was conducted on at least 1000 students. Findings from Bem's study suggested that some students were able to accurately predict where the image would appear on the computer screen. Bem fully believed that he had "proven" the existence of ESP with his study, and it was published in a 2012 journal. However, once the experiment was repeated, the findings were unable to be replicated. I think that maybe Bem got kinda lucky with which students were getting the images right. I also don't think it's that hard to predict stuff - like just look at all the stuff with Prediction Markets right now, so I wouldn't go as far as to say this was 100% proof of ESP. I'm also curious as to why no other researcher could replicate it. What was it about Bem that made him so adamant that ESP was real and he'd found proof? What variables did he have in his experiments?


In other studies of ESP, participants use Zener cards to test for mind-reading abilities (telepathy). In such studies, there is one person known as the sender. The sender goes through the deck of cards (they all have symbols like a cross or a star), and then another person, known as the receiver, has to determine what symbol the sender is looking at. To help avoid body language cues, the sender is usually shielded from view. If a receiver could correctly identify the symbol more often than could be explained simply by chance, this "suggested" that ESP exists. However, in most experiments, researchers tend to find that receivers aren't accurate because they are literally just guessing what's on the card.


I'm pretty sure the CIA has even conducted experiments to find out if ESP is real. BUT I think they knew it wasn't even real when doing their weird experiments. I don't really trust the CIA, I mean, who does? They are responsible for MKUltra, for god's sake. I am getting grumpy and biased hahaha! Anyway, this is a big tangent to go down when you start talking about the CIA, but basically the gist of it is that the CIA wanted to find out if things like ESP and astral projection were real to see if they could use it to their advantage (they spent money on this sh*t, but it obviously didn't go anywhere!!)


So with all this debunking, why do people think ESP IS in fact a real phenomenon? Why do some of us hold out hope that maybe it's real? Well, I think there are a lot of reasons. Firstly, there's a lot to psychics and mediums - people really believe them. I hope my mum doesn't mind me sharing this story, but once she went to see a psychic when I was a teenager, who had told my mum that I was going to get pregnant. My mum was convinced that the psychic was legit and was like "be careful" - even though I was already on birth control. I think I was about 17 at the time, so nothing was illegal in NZ. I never got pregnant. I am a responsible adult! Safe s*x and s*x positivity is important. I also am kinda fascinated by psychics and mediums, but then my critical thinking part of my brain is like, well, it's kinda easy to do because 1) mediums usually know a bit about the person they're talking to, 2) it's easy to research stuff before a session, 3) if it's some sort of psychic/medium at an event with a large audience, if they're like "I'm sensing a there was a man who passed and their name started with G", someone is gonna say something. And then they go from there. Remember that TV show The Mentalist with Simon Baker (who is now dating Nicole Kidman, damn!)? Anyway, my point is that it's all very vague and is basically just reading people. It's called the Barnum Effect.


I also think we have to think about the fact that ESP/belief in psychic abilities tends to be shaped by cultural framing, publication bias, and cognitive biases, i.e., that we are more likely to search out the answer that aligns with our own biases. However, in my research, I haven't come across any irrefutable proof that ESP exists. I'm sorry!!!


Hey, at least my academic credibility is still intact, hehe ;)


Have you ever experienced anything like ESP? Let me know in the comments!!

Ash xx



References:





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