| Countless movies, stories, and tales have spun gold | | | | and amazed at the results. It seems that ESP may be |
| out of the concept of extrasensory perception (often | | | | a little more likely than anyone previously thought. In |
| referred to as ESP). Consider popular television shows | | | | fact, some paranormal studies have found that alleged |
| and films like Medium and The Sixth Sense. People are | | | | psychics seem able to foretell the contents of sealed |
| fascinated with the paranormal - Ouija boards and | | | | envelopes and accurately draw images identical to |
| tarot card readings, once considered taboo and even | | | | those of people drawing the same image from a |
| somewhat dark - are now popular games sold in Toys | | | | remote locale. Parapsychology (especially the area of |
| R Us. But with all this talk and publicity, much of the | | | | extrasensory studies) has grown both in venerability |
| origin and science of extrasensory perception has | | | | and believer population. In fact, many large universities |
| been obscured. The actual definition of extrasensory | | | | now have Parapsychology programs including |
| perception is the "ability to acquire information by | | | | Edinburgh University in Scotland. |
| means other than the five canonical senses (taste, | | | | Most claims of psychic readings and abilities are similar |
| sight, touch, smell, and hearing), or any other sense | | | | to the three most commonly reported extrasensory |
| well-known to science (balance, proprioception, etc)", | | | | happenings which include telepathy, clairvoyance, and |
| but there are several different types of ESP, as well | | | | precognition. Telepathy is defined as mental |
| as interpretations of it. | | | | communication between two or more people. It entails |
| Before getting into all the different ideas and | | | | one person sending or receiving thoughts to or from |
| challenges associated with extrasensory perception, | | | | another person via some sort of mental or emotional |
| let's first consider the history of ESP. The concept | | | | link. |
| itself goes way back, far before popular culture turned | | | | Clairvoyance is often called a "second sight" or a "sixth |
| it into a cultural phenomenon of sorts. In fact, in many | | | | sense" -- that is to say, the person perceives events |
| past cultures (i.e. ancient China and Egypt), it was | | | | happening in a location other than his or her present |
| simply expected that people could communicate | | | | one, without having any previous knowledge of the |
| mentally with others, including the dead, gods, and other | | | | event. For example, a clairvoyant person may sense |
| supernatural spirits. While this possibility has been | | | | that something is wrong with a friend or a family |
| heavily criticized as, at best, speculation and at worst, | | | | member to find that he or she was in trouble. They |
| pure superstition, plenty of accounts (both ancient and | | | | also may "know" that their house is being robbed as |
| relatively recent) have described incidents of | | | | they are out to dinner. Precognition, on the other hand, |
| extrasensory perception, as well as everyday use of it | | | | is also known as "fortune telling" or "foresight" and |
| for divination. | | | | entails the ability to know or predict what will happen in |
| So, the big question is: Do people actually have ESP | | | | the future. Many prophets (including very false ones) |
| and can it be proved? Many paranormal scientists | | | | have risen to fame - and even religious worship -- |
| have run experiments to test the veracity of alleged | | | | through their apparent ability to predict the events of |
| psychic abilities and many have come out shocked | | | | the future. |