Famous Psychic

Famous Psychic People

History is full of people with psychic gifts. Some have later proved to be fraudulent, but others have confounded investigators and continue to be a source of mystery. Here you can read brief accounts of famous psychic people, from as far back as the 1800's to modern times.

Read more here: » Psychic Mediums: Famous Psychic People

Loch Ness Monster:

A legendary animal which lives in the depths of Loch Ness, a lake in the Highlands of northern Scotland. The size of this monster, Nessie as it is fondly called, is 12-15 m (40-50 ft) and it has a long, snake-like neck. It is popularly believed to be female.

The sightings date back to 565 CE when the Irish Saint Columba claimed he saw the Niseag (the Celtic name for Nessie) when he attended a burial for a man who had been bitten to death by the monster. While it has been sighted in the subsequent centuries, it was not until the 19th century that the sightings become more frequent.

The most famous encounter was perhaps in the summer of 1933. On that day Mr. and Mrs. Spicer, returning from a trip to London, saw a monster cross the road, with an animal in his jaws, and submerge in the lake. This incident drew the attention of the world press and Nessie became an international phenomena. There have been many expeditions since, but none as successful as to prove its existence. Also the many sightings, photos and films have been inconclusive.

(See also: Loch Ness Monster, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Seance

A gathering of people seeking communication with deceased loved ones or famous historical figures through a medium. Also gathering for the purpose of investigating or experiencing supernormal phenomena.

In the past they were sometimes called "circles", because participants, called 'sitters', sat around a table (or on chairs arranged in a circle) in order to link hands, in the belief that this boosted the psychic forces which encourage paranormal manifestations.

Generally seances involve a medium who enters a tance-like state and contacts a 'spirit friend' or 'spirit helper'. The spirit then communicates with the gathering through the medium or shannel, either mentally, or directly using the medium's vocal chords.

In the 19th century, seances were dominated by physical manifestations, such as rappings, strange smells, levitation, and materialization, many episodes of which were eventually exposed as fraudulent. Because of these fraudulent associations, the term 'seance' has fallen into disuse.

(See also: Seance, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Fire-Philosophers. The name given to the Hermetists and Alchemists of the Middle Ages, and also to the Rosicrucians. The latter, the successors of the Theurgists, regarded fire as the symbol of Deity. It was the source, not only of material atoms, but the container of the spiritual and psychic Forces energizing them. Broadly analyzed, fire is a triple principle; esoterically, a septenary, as are all the rest of the Elements. As man is composed of Spirit, Soul and Body, plus a four fold aspect: so is Fire.

As in the works of Robert Fludd (de Fluctibus) one of the famous Rosicrucians, Fire contains

(1) a visible flame (Body);

(2) an invisible, astral fire (Soul); and

(3) Spirit. The four aspects are heat (life), light (mind), electricity (Kamic, or molecular powers) and the Synthetic Essence, beyond Spirit, or the radical cause of its existence and manifestation. For the Hermetist or Rosicrucian, when a flame is extinct on the objective plane it has only passed from the seen world unto the unseen, from the knowable into the unknowable.

(See also: Fire-Philosophers, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

LIBRA

(Sept. 23- Oct.22). Equilibrium in both psychic and material works. The sign of the Sun's decline, hence Librans tend to passivity of some type, preferring to act behind the scenes and avoiding the limelight except when it becomes necessary to act as society's balance or opposition. Librans are either remarkably accommodating and cooperative or they are deliberately contradictory, negativistic and anti-social. In pre-writing times, during the oral tradition, Virgo and Scorpio appear to have been one sign (which can be observed by the similarity of their symbols, Virgo being closed, Scorpio being open. Libra is then the balance between the two extremes.

Famous Librans: Pavlov, Gandhi, Le Corbusier, Himmler, Saint-Saëns, Annie Besant, Verdi, Virgil, Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, Cervantes, Joan Fontaine, Carrol Lombard, Aleister Crowley, Timothy Leary.

(See also: LIBRA, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Fire-philosophers Philosophers of medieval Europe who regarded fire as the supreme principle. Their ideas were largely those of Oriental occult or semi-occult bodies; hence they may be described as either the Persian Magi, or the European followers of Robert Fludd (1574-1637), a student of Paracelsus who taught the analogy of macrocosm and microcosm and the four elements.

"The name given to the Hermetists and Alchemists of the Middle Ages, and also to the Rosicrucians. The latter, the successors of the Theurgists, regarded fire as the symbol of Deity. It was the source, not only of material atoms, but the container of the spiritual and psychic Forces energizing them. Broadly analyzed, fire is a triple principle; esoterically, a septenary, as are all the rest of the Elements. As man is composed of Spirit, Soul and Body, plus a fourfold aspect: so is Fire. As in the works of Robert Fludd (de Fluctibus) one of the famous Rosicrucians, Fire contains (1) a visible flame (Body); (2) an invisible, astral fire (Soul); and (3) Spirit. The four aspects are heat (life), light (mind), electricity (Kamic, or molecular powers) and the Synthetic Essence, beyond Spirit, or the radical cause of its existence and manifestation. For the Hermetist or Rosicrucian, when a flame is extinct on the objective plane it has only passed from the seen world unto the unseen, from the knowable into the unknowable" (TG 119-20).

(See also: Fire-philosophers, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Osiris (Greek) As-ar, Us-ar (Egyptian) The most famous deity of the Egyptian pantheon, corresponding to Zagreus-Bacchus of the Eleusinian Mysteries. In Plutarch's On Isis and Osiris, Osiris is represented as the son of Nut, space and primordial matter (equivalent to the Greek Rhea) by Seb, celestial fire (Kronos). He became king of Egypt, teaching the people the worship of the gods, and husbandry, and formulating laws. His brother Set, filled with envy, brought about his destruction. Isis, his distraught wife, set out in search of the body, and finally recovered it. But Set then dismembered the body into fourteen pieces, scattering them over Egypt, of which Isis recovered all but one.

After meeting with death on earth Osiris became resurrected, and then became the ruler of the other world (Khenti-Amentet). His death and resurrection depict the drama of the initiation chamber which is one interpretation of glorification or osirification of the defunct human, as mystically portrayed in the Book of the Dead.

Cosmologically, Osiris is the Third Logos, containing in himself the seeds of all things and beings in the universe to be unrolled from the Logos:

"the self-existent and self-creative god, the first manifesting deity (our third Logos), identical with Ahura Mazda and other 'First Causes.' For as Ahura Mazda is one with, or the synthesis of, the Amshaspends, so Osiris, the collective unit, when differentiated and personified, becomes Typhon, his brother, Isis and Nephtys his sisters, Horus his son and his other aspects. . . . The four chief aspects of Osiris were -- Osiris-Phtah (Light), the spiritual aspect; Osiris-Horus (Mind), the intellectual manasic aspect; Osiris-Lunus, the 'Lunar' or psychic, astral aspect; Osiris-Typhon, Daimonic, or physical, material, therefore passional turbulent aspect. In these four aspects he symbolizes the dual ego -- the divine and the human, the cosmico-spiritual and the terrestrial" (TG 243).

Osiris' place in cosmological mythology is seen to be that of the cosmic creator; thus on a more abstract scale Osiris is equivalent to the svabhavat of Buddhist thought. As in other archaic religions and philosophies, when Osiris is considered as an individual divinity, he becomes the cosmic source from which flow forth in hierarchical series of emanations the gradually descending groups of the hierarchy of Light; and from this aspect he is the chief of all initiates of the right-hand path, who thus trace their spiritual ascendance and origin directly to the Third Logos itself.

(See also: Osiris, As-ar, Us-ar, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Porphyry, or Porphyrius. A Neo-Platonist and a most distinguished writer, only second to Plotinus as a teacher and philosopher.

He was born before the middle of the third century A.D., at Tyre, since he called himself a Tyrian and is supposed to have belonged to a Jewish family. Though himself thoroughly Hellenized and a Pagan, his name Melek (a king) does seem to indicate that he had Semitic blood in his veins. Modern critics very justly consider him the most practically philosophical, and the soberest, of all the Neo-Platonists. A distinguished writer, he was specially famous for his controversy with Iamblichus regarding the evils attendant upon the practice of Theurgy. He was, however, finally converted to the views of his opponent.

A natural-born mystic, he followed, as did his master Plotinus, the pure Indian Raj-Yoga training, which leads to the union of the Soul with the Over-Soul or Higher Self (Buddhi-Manas). He complains, however, that, all his efforts notwithstanding, he did not reach this state of ecstacy before he was sixty, while Plotinus was a proficient in it. This was so, probably because while his teacher held physical life and body in the greatest contempt, limiting philosophical research to those regions where life and thought become eternal and divine, Porphyry devoted his whole time to considerations of the hearing of philosophy on practical life. "The end of philosophy is with him morality", says a biographer, "we might almost say, holiness - the healing of man’s infirmities, the imparting to him a purer and more vigorous life. Mere knowledge, however true, is not of itself sufficient ; knowledge has for its object life in accordance with Nous" - "reason", translates the biographer.

As we interpret Nous, however, not as Reason, but mind (Manas) or the divine eternal Ego in man, we would translate the idea esoterically, and make it read "the occult or secret knowledge has for its object terrestrial life in accordance with Nous, or our everlasting reincarnating Ego", which would be more consonant with Porphyry’s idea, as it is with esoteric philosophy. (See Porphyry’s De Abstinentia ., 29.) Of all the Neo-Platonists, Porphyry approached the nearest to real Theosophy as now taught by the Eastern secret school. This is shown by all our modern critics and writers on the Alexandrian school, for "he held that the Soul should be as far as possible freed from the bonds of matter, . . . be ready . . . to cut off the whole body". (Ad Marcellam, 34.) He recommends the practice of abstinence, saying that "we should be like the gods if we could abstain from vegetable as well as animal food". He accepts with reluctance theurgy and mystic incantation as those are "powerless to purify the noëtic (manasic) principle of the soul": theurgy can "but cleanse the lower or psychic portion, and make it capable of perceiving lower beings, such as spirits, angels and gods" (Aug. De Civ. Dei. X., 9), just as Theosophy teaches. "Do not defile the divinity", he adds, with the vain imaginings of men you will not injure that which is for ever blessed (Buddhi-Manas) but you will blind yourself to the perception of the greatest and most vital truths". (Ad Marcellam,18.)

"If we would he free from the assaults of evil spirits, we must keep ourselves clear of those things over which evil spirits have power, for they attack not the pure soul which has no affinity with them". (De Abstin. ii., 43.) This is again our teaching. The Church Fathers held Porphyry as the bitterest enemy, the most irreconcilable to Christianity. Finally, and once more as in modern Theosophy, Porphyry - as all the Neo-Platonists, according to St. Augustine - "praised Christ while they disparaged Christianity"; Jesus, they contended, as we contend, "said nothing himself against the pagan deities, but wrought wonders by their help". "They could not call him as his disciples did, God, but they honoured him as one of the best and wisest of men". (De Civ. Dei., X1X., 23.) Yet, "even in the storm of controversy, scarcely a word seems to have been uttered against the private life of Porphyry. His system prescribed purity and . . . he practised it".

(See A Dict. of Christian Biography, Vol. IV., "Porphyry".)

(See also: Porphyry, Porphyrius, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

PERICHORESIS

The word is Greek, as you might imagine: peri "around" + choreio "dance." But for the Greeks "dancing" wasn't the aimless shuffling we do. It was more like ballet. "Choreography" is a lot closer to the idea -- in which particular movements are carefully planned and executed. Travel from one dimension to another occurs simultaneously on all levels of reality. We travel in and out of the astral during sleep every night and think nothing of it. And, as you know, when the shaman interfaces with the earth by taking narcotic mushrooms or cacti into his system, he's moving deliberately and consciously between universes.

Parallel worlds stretch horizontally from sinister to dexter, or rather, from increasing shades of darkness to increasing degrees of light. Beings entering from the darkside are perceived by us not as merely ignorant but as demonic, whereas the wisdom of the beings from the lightside stands so far beyond our recognition that we see them simply as angelic beings. Depending on the level of reality that we happen to occupy, the dark and light worlds are perceived as more or less similar to the world we currently inhabit. On some levels of reality, the transfiguration is reversed and we perceive them as inhabiting regions above and below a horizontal plane of reality that stretches into inaccessible temporal limits of Past and Future. In such a world, reality is a given that is perceived as revealing itself only at such Past and Future vanishing points -- Alpha and Omega.

Everywhere horizontal parallel plane meets vertical parallel levels and an Aeon is established, symbolized by a cross. If the cross, however is not circumscribed by a circle (the familiar symbol of cross in circle, representing "earth"), there is no cohesion and the center does not hold. The so-called "extremes," in fact, are not extremes at all, but merely their own opposites in a spinning circle.

Because of the nature of infinity, we have to recognize that we may never stand at any of the four extremities, but always only at the exact center of the omniverse.

Notice also that in any formal religious painting, the god or saint is always placed in the exact center. If he is raised too high from the center, the lower world is given undue importance and power, because, after all, in completely "secular" pictures, the God has been raised so high as to have been left out of the picture altogether! Placing the God too far down divests him of his divinity because his intensity looks, on our level, simply grotesque. Likewise, if the God is placed too far to the left or right, an imbalance is also created.

Thus, uncircumscribed, the ends of the cross stretch unchecked into the infinite four directions and an uncontrollable wickedness is set forth into all manifestations. Without the "earthing" of the cross, there is no manifestation. The extremities lead only into infinite "otherness" and delusion. It is the inner being at the solar plexus that is the heart of the universe. When we nail (i.e., Christianize) the higher spirit of man to an ancient quadratic event, the center is blocked and closed forever. Moreover, the center has been locked in the past, away from the Eternal Now. Until the nail (Xtianity) has been pulled out, no further evolution is possible and Death will prevail.

The way out is toward the central, innermost point.

The parallel world-planes are accessible at all times. We move in and out of them constantly, but are mostly unaware of having done so. Occasionally we get the feeling that "things are suddenly different" or that "something is about to happen" and that means we've inadvertently stepped into a new probable world that is much different from the ones we've hitherto occupied. You can move back into the world you've just left, only if you do so at once.

Whatever can be imagined, exists, will exist or has existed. Whatever has existed or will exist continues to exist now because time is one of the four real dimensions of things. Alongside this Reality there are an infinite number of co-existent realities of equal "solidity" and "substance." There are also an infinite number of "probable" realities and an infinite number of "possible" worlds. A moment's reflection will show that if this is so, then, obviously, available access to them must not be merely possible, but inevitable. Jane Robert's Seth describes the infinite "probable worlds" stretching out in either direction from this one. The closest ones being hardly distinguishable from this, as we progress outward, the probable worlds become stranger, increasingly incomprehensible and frighteningly unpredictable. In the fifth dimensional world, four dimensional objects have their own much more complete and solid "substance" which we cannot perceive so long as we inhabit lower planes of being.

You can, however, willingly and deliberately get up and walk from this world into the nearest adjacency and from there to the next, and the next. The only problem is that you're playing roulette. There's no way of telling what kind of world you are moving into.

If you are seeking to avoid some trouble in this world, be advised that things could be a lot worse in the world next door. Moreover, if you leave unsolved problem behind, your karma will continue to take you back there in future lives until eventually you are forced to solve them. On top of that, if you leave muddy footprints behind you as you run through world after world, you'll have added onto your present karma the extra burden of going back to mop them up.

Actual entrance/exit sites are a matter of intuitive perception. Dimensional doorways are not likely, for instance, to be found in your living room. They need to be places you've never crossed before (except as interdimensional thresholds). It's best to look for two pillars to pass between -- a couple of tall trees in a forest or park make excellent pillars. The more difficult the access the better. And the direction and angle of entrance are crucial. Select a "picture" framed by the trees as most nearly representing the world you want to leave behind you and before you a picture of what intuitively or esthetically looks to be an improvement of that. Make sure that nothing passes across your line of vision as you are actually walking through. If necessary, keep your eyes closed or look down at your feet.

At first the difference between adjacent worlds is scarcely discernible. Variations only become immediately evident at some distance. But if you are observant, you will eventually begin to notice tiny, subtle changes for the better (or worse). By the time these changes become evident, it's already too late to go back where you came from. The metaphors of artistic symbolism, religion and magic can also assist in perichoretic travel. With the enhanced ability to will and to imagine, the human mind can perceive parts of alternate realities with increasing clarity and may begin to see how to transform the reality we normally inhabit. In fact, so many are the pathways to alternate experience, it's a wonder anyone still believes that reality has but a single face!

There is, to be sure, ultimately only the One Plenum in which everything else transpires, but that sphere transcends experience in the Void of Nirvana.

Although, as we've seen above, there are relatively easy methods of interplanary travel (between planes), the ability to discover significant doorways into alternate dimensions, advanced perichoresis, not only requires an out-of-the-ordinary state of consciousness, but is a difficult technique in its own right, mastered properly only by experienced shamans. For instance, travel through time in the past requires us to move "forward" (i.e., towards the Beginning of Time) simply by ignoring vast areas of experience and being -- as we also do in the present -- in order to maintain a strict continuity of our own. Travel from the future (i.e., the End of Time), however, even though employing the same declination, creates an ever-thickening wall behind us, preventing all possibility of return to the starting point.

Kenneth Grant (Outside the Circles of Time) provides us with insights into the sexual avenue of interdimensional perichoresis and at the same time describes the procedure for creating a "moonchild." In his system, the door to our world opens inward in order for us to receive extratellurian immigrants.

Bipolar human sexuality, explains Grant, parallels cosmogenesis and the sacred void corresponds to the female vagina. Everything comes out of and falls back into this same eternal darkness. The creative light is sucked into its bottomless depths where it is swallowed up by vampiric blackness. Therefore, the doorway to the vacuum or zero of space is a priestess who has been chosen for her "master of the art of dream control." By allowing herself to become a mirror of impression-reception, she is able to generate illusions, "for all form is fantasy, and exists only in the dreaming mirror of the mind."

A material looking glass is placed above her, slanted to receive the starlight. Now, by her psychic ability she can project whatever star morph the magician requires onto the looking glass. A second mirror, creating an infinite regression reflection is placed 11 feet away, eleven being the number of the famous 11th Pathway of Black Magic. The circle of Daath is the corresponding doorway in the Qabalah.

Thereupon the priest uses his penis as the intergalactic conduit of the astro-seminal energy. His vibrations and invocations encourage the dream-manipulating priestess to focus the desired star-morph entity onto the mirrors. In the ultimate orgasm of priest, priestess and dream-entity, the eldolon rises briefly to life and erupts from the mirror as its starseed transmission runs down from the star to impregnate her. The zygote achieved by this cosmocopulation is a unique blend of human and extraterrestrial "genes."

According to most students, monstrous beings invisible to ordinary consciousness are entering our universe in unprecedented numbers, through this same interdimensional sexual doorway. (Apparently our time is a vector of unique significance.) The fantasy film, Ghostbusters, was a facetious rendering of this understanding, but revealed a good deal more than most viewers realized. Kenneth Grant teaches a heterosexual tantrism by which one may ride out again through the same door on the back of one of these demonic beasts and thereby escape. He calls this, again, the 11th Pathway. Others propose that there are homosexual and even solitary practices what serve this purpose equally well.

Sex and death are the two most common and well-known methods of conveyance between worlds, but such exclusively Scorpionic merkabahs are by no means the only ones. All of these methods follow the horizontal direction of planes to left and right, from darkness into light, or vice versa. There is also travel in the vertical direction from layers of reality and consciousness above and below. These cris-crossing horizontal and vertical planes endlessly extend out and recede into the vastnesses. Some of the planes are commonly thought, by the average person, to be "schizophrenic" because they appear to leave the traveller suspended in his "own little world." But such planes are of great importance to the magician or yogin. Reality, we must understand, is entirely a matter of the manipulation of illusion. The teacher, Gurdjieff, once pointed out that there is only one thing in the entire universe, but it is repeated endlessly in order to provide the illusion of "difference." Even chemistry and physics bear this out. The difference between each element is simply a difference in the number of their atomic electrons: Hydrogen 1, Helium 2, Lithium 3...

Some writers believe that there are denizens of other dimensions who use various perichoretic chariots that resemble the astral projections of those whose time and locality they visit. For Ezekiel and Daniel it was a fiery wheel bearing the tetramorph. For the Dogons it was a star ship. For our great grandfathers in the 19th Century it was frequently an airship. But they aren't just psychic experiences, say the witnesses, ufo's leave evidence behind ... a burned-out circle on the lawn, a map with indecipherable writing, MIBs, etc.

My own interdimensional visits to "the Other Side" have been neither A.D.E.'s nor OOBE's. They have occurred either through true-dreaming or by psychotropic methods, i.e., strictly via astral travel. In all, I have several times visited the "conventional" Astral Plane -- or abode of the (after-dead) spirits, three or four times encountered higher beings (although only at a distance), dwelt in the All-Consciousness of All-Phyla and once visited a previous time. Lately I have begun experimenting with ordinary consciousness as a routine means of perichoresis. The occult path I've travelled (until now) has always been the lonely one of the hermit. The beings I've encountered have been the traditional custodians of the pathways, that is to say, those archetypes hovering somewhere between being and non-being. Else they comprise the angels, Gods and daimones of pantheons we already know. But I have increasingly come under the purview of something more important: the existence of what seems to be an infinite number of Eternal Doorways between worlds. These doorways are available to us, of course, under very special circumstances -- that is to say, in altered psychic states lying clearly outside normal consciousness: Yoga, Tantra, sex magic, primitive rites of passage, repetitive rhythms (micro-events), sensory deprivation or stimulation, pain, extreme trauma, trance, all the multifarious REM/sleep/hypnotic states, rushes of adrenaline or fatigue intoxication, epilepsy, metamorphic anomaly, drug intoxication, illness, psychosis proper, thanatolepsy and death. (See SOLIPSISM.)

(See also: PERICHORESIS, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

The issue of psychics charging for their services is a controversial one. Over the years, I've received a few messages through my personal site that complained that psychics and mediums should never charge for their work. In researching this article, I spent some time in an online chat room that advertised free psychic readings, and I asked for people's opinions on the matter. The topic certainly sparked controversy.

Read more here: » Money and Spirituality: The Controversy Over Charging for Psychic Services

Parapsychology is the study of the evidence of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. Most objects of study fall within the realm of "mind-to-mind" influence (such as extra-sensory perception and telepathy), "mind-to-environment" influence (such as psychokinesis) and "environment-to-mind" (such as hauntings). The premiere professional organization, the Parapsychological Association (PA), is a member in good standing of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science ...

Including:

• Parapsychology - Types of parapsychology
• Parapsychology - Status of the field
• Parapsychology - How science views the field
• Parapsychology - Interpretation of the evidence
• Parapsychology - Criticisms of parapsychological research
• Parapsychology - Responses from parapsychologists to criticisms
• Parapsychology - Early Scientific American challenge
• Parapsychology - Other objections to parapsychology
• Parapsychology - History and evaluation
• Parapsychology - Trivia
• Parapsychology - Famous parapsychologists
• Parapsychology - Claimed psychics
• Parapsychology - Critics of parapsychology
• Parapsychology - Psychic investigations
• Parapsychology - General organizations
• Parapsychology - Independent research organizations
• Parapsychology - University research organizations
• Parapsychology - External links

Read more here: » Parapsychology: Encyclopedia - Parapsychology

The following are famous primarily for fields other than parapsychology but still had important working interests in the field: Hans Eysenck Alister Hardy Carl Jung Arthur Koestler Rupert Sheldrake ...

See also:

Parapsychology, Parapsychology - Types of parapsychology, Parapsychology - Status of the field, Parapsychology - How science views the field, Parapsychology - Interpretation of the evidence, Parapsychology - Criticisms of parapsychological research, Parapsychology - Responses from parapsychologists to criticisms, Parapsychology - Early Scientific American challenge, Parapsychology - Other objections to parapsychology, Parapsychology - History and evaluation, Parapsychology - Trivia, Parapsychology - Famous parapsychologists, Parapsychology - Well-known psychic mediums, Parapsychology - Other claimed psychics, Parapsychology - Critics of parapsychology, Parapsychology - Independent research organizations, Parapsychology - University research organizations, Parapsychology - External links

Read more here: » Parapsychology: Encyclopedia II - Parapsychology - Famous parapsychologists

Uri Geller (born December 20, 1946 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a famous but controversial alleged psychic and television personality. Originally a magician in Israeli nightclubs, he then became well known for a number of years for performances featuring claimed paranormal abilities such as telekinesis, dowsing and telepathy; metal objects were bent and watches were apparently stopped or made to run faster without any apparent physical force being applied to them. Although many people believe he is a psychic, he also has numerous cr ...

Including:

• Uri Geller - History
• Uri Geller - Controversy and criticism
• Uri Geller - Parallels to stage magic
• Uri Geller - Disagreements over measuring success
• Uri Geller - Controlled testing
• Uri Geller - Litigation

Read more here: » Uri Geller: Encyclopedia - Uri Geller

Jeron Criswell King (August 18, 1907 – October 4, 1982) born Jeron Criswell Konig, and known by his stage-name The Amazing Criswell, was an American psychic who was famous for his wildly inaccurate predictions. Criswell was born with the last name of Konig but later changed it to King and often represented it as his middle name, frequently credited as Jeron King Criswell. Criswell found cinematic infamy in the movies of Ed Wood, including Plan 9 from Outer Space and Orgy of the Dead. He was ...

Including:

• The Amazing Criswell - Predictions
• The Amazing Criswell - Private Life
• The Amazing Criswell - Quotes

Read more here: » The Amazing Criswell: Encyclopedia - The Amazing Criswell

Cold reading is a technique used by salespeople, interrogators, hypnotists, psychics, graphologists, palmists, astrologers, con men etc. to convince another person that they know more about them than they actually do. Shotgunning is a technique used by purported psychics and mediums. The psychic gives a huge quantity of information, some of which is certain to be correct, observes the subject's reactions, and then refines the original statements according to th ...

Read more here: » Cold reading: Encyclopedia - Cold reading

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in 1882 by three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge, Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, and Henry Sidgwick, because of their interest in spiritualism. The Society holds no corporate opinions: all opinions expressed are those of the individual members. It publishes the quarterly Journal of The Society for Psychical Research< ...

Including:

• Society for Psychical Research - History
• Society for Psychical Research - Today

Read more here: » Society for Psychical Research: Encyclopedia - Society for Psychical Research

A premonition occurs when future events, often calamitous in nature, are foreknown via individual psychic experience. Cassandra in myth is a woman whose premontions allow her to foresee the worst, and yet is disbelieved by her people. This is an empirically unverifiable yet anecdotally supported phenomenon. Individuals alleging to have had premonitions often report the experience to have taken place within the context of a dream. Experiences range in nature from a strong sense or conviction that something will occur, which is t ...

Read more here: » Premonition: Encyclopedia - Premonition

The origins of the practice in Brazil are obscure; it may derive from Candomblé rituals, or it may have been inspired by reports from the Philippines. In any case, by the late 1950s several "spiritual doctors" were practicing in the country. Many of them were associated with Kardecism, a major spiritualistic religion in Brazil, and claimed to be performing their operations merely as channels for spirits of deceased medical doctors. The most famous Brazilian psychic surgeon was José (Zé) Arigó, who claimed to be channeling for a ce ...

See also:

Psychic surgery, Psychic surgery - Psychic surgery in the Philippines, Psychic surgery - Psychic surgery in Brazil, Psychic surgery - Psychic surgery around the World, Psychic surgery - Fraud and Sleight-of-Hand

Read more here: » Psychic surgery: Encyclopedia II - Psychic surgery - Psychic surgery in Brazil

In the scientific disciplines there is a belief that all claims should be treated with scientific skepticism. Mainstream science believes that after examining psi claims for over a century, there has been significant difficulty in merging the results of parapsychology studies with other fields of science. A growing network of scientists — in association with the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which was founded by American Astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell — is seeking to bridge t ...

See also:

Parapsychology, Parapsychology - Types of parapsychology, Parapsychology - Status of the field, Parapsychology - How science views the field, Parapsychology - Interpretation of the evidence, Parapsychology - Criticisms of parapsychological research, Parapsychology - Responses from parapsychologists to criticisms, Parapsychology - Early Scientific American challenge, Parapsychology - Other objections to parapsychology, Parapsychology - History and evaluation, Parapsychology - Trivia, Parapsychology - Famous parapsychologists, Parapsychology - Well-known psychic mediums, Parapsychology - Other claimed psychics, Parapsychology - Critics of parapsychology, Parapsychology - Independent research organizations, Parapsychology - University research organizations, Parapsychology - External links

Read more here: » Parapsychology: Encyclopedia II - Parapsychology - How science views the field

Many scientists hold that the entire body of evidence to date is of poor quality and not properly controlled; in their view, the entire field of parapsychology has produced no results whatsoever. Frequently, however, those who hold this view have not had any contact with the published literature of the field such as that which can be found in the Journal of Parapsychology, the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, or in the proceedings of the annual convention of the Paraps ...

See also:

Parapsychology, Parapsychology - Types of parapsychology, Parapsychology - Status of the field, Parapsychology - How science views the field, Parapsychology - Interpretation of the evidence, Parapsychology - Criticisms of parapsychological research, Parapsychology - Responses from parapsychologists to criticisms, Parapsychology - Early Scientific American challenge, Parapsychology - Other objections to parapsychology, Parapsychology - History and evaluation, Parapsychology - Trivia, Parapsychology - Famous parapsychologists, Parapsychology - Well-known psychic mediums, Parapsychology - Other claimed psychics, Parapsychology - Critics of parapsychology, Parapsychology - Independent research organizations, Parapsychology - University research organizations, Parapsychology - External links

Read more here: » Parapsychology: Encyclopedia II - Parapsychology - Interpretation of the evidence