Parapsychology Remains a Contested Field Amid Replication Concerns

As Halloween approaches in 2025, parapsychology — the study of psychic and paranormal phenomena — remains an active but contested field, with researchers pursuing a range of unexplained human experiences while mainstream scientists question its methods and claims. The discipline, which investigates subjects such as extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, apparitions and near‑death experiences, has organized research communities in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, including a London‑based Society for Psychical Research founded in 1882 that continues to fund and publish studies.

Parapsychologists commonly use the umbrella term psi to describe purported psychic phenomena. Two principal categories are extrasensory perception, or ESP, where individuals allegedly receive information beyond the known senses, and psychokinesis, an asserted mental influence on physical systems without physical contact. Researchers also study reports of after‑death communications, out‑of‑body experiences, and anomalous episodes linked to cultural and situational contexts.

Interest in these topics has produced a mix of experimental work and ethnographic studies. Recent projects have examined after‑death...