Parapsychology

 Introduction

What is Parapsychology? Parapsychology, according to Irwin & Watt's An Introduction to Parapsychology, p.1, is “…the scientific study of experiences, which, if they are as they seem to be, are in principle outside the realm of human capabilities as presently conceived by conventional scientists.”
    Researchers of the field of parapsychological investigation and experimentation are called parapsychologists. Parapsychological experiments explore a vast range of topics, including psychics, mediums, animal psychics, complementary therapies, extra-sensory perception (ESP for short), telekinesis, psychokinesis (PK) and recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK for short), psychometry and all sorts.
      In Richard Cavendish's Encyclaepedia of the Unexplained, p. 178, under the entry 'Parapsychology', parapsychology is defined as being "...the science of 'psychic' abilities. Parapsychologists, the people who study these abilities, prefer the Greek letter psi to he popular word 'psychic', but the two have the same meaning." 
    However, "...the abilities can clearly be described. They enable a person to make contact with the word around him without the aid of his senses and muscles. On the recieving side, he obtains knowledge by extrasensory means, which is called extra sensory perception (ESP). On the outgoing side, the ability is known as 'mind over matter', or psychokinesis (PK). PK ability allows a person to influence his physical environment without the use of his body, muscles and glands. The two main types of psi interaction, ESP and PK, make up the entire field covered by parapsychology thus far."
    
    

When was Parapsychology developed?

Parapsychology was originally developed by a group of people from Cambrige University, some of whom were philosophers, in 1882, when the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was established. The SPR is still running today, conducting its research on psychical phenomena. Parapsychology, however, has branched off psychical research and instead researches other topics.
The SPR run on a donations basis, which is very much like another organisation which also takes a serious look at 'paranormal' and anomalous phenomena: the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP). 
An important organisation which funds parapsychology studies is the Parapsychology Association. 

The Society for Psychical Research

The Society for Psychical Research is a charity which funds psychical research. It has an American counterpart, called the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) which was established 3 years after the SPR was in 1885. However, according to http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael_prescotts_blog/2014/10/decline-and-fall.html, the Society "...has had a storied history marked by the contributions of many leading figures in the field, including William James, James Hyslop, Walter Franklin Pierce, Gardner Murphy, and Karlis Osis. In 1972 membership peaked at 2,554." Furthermore, according to the website, This House Is Haunted author, Guy Lion Playfair, argues that these days "it's all gone downhill". And:

"With the retirement of Osis in 1983, in-house activity slowed down and soon ground to a near-halt, or so it appears. For the past 20 years or so, information on the Society’s current activities has been hard to come by. My own request for it was not answered or acknowledged. There have been no Journal or Proceedings since 2004, although the ASPR website remains, inviting those with personal experiences to report to send them to William Roll (although he died in January 2012). Veteran parapsychologist George Hansen estimated in 2007 after a trawl through the society’s tax returns, that membership had fallen from 591 in 1988 to just 23 in 2005. He also noted that its current executive director still enjoys a six-figure salary. His tersely understated conclusion: “It is unclear what services the ASPR actually provides.”

Furthermore "Author Stacy Horn is quoted as saying that her repeated requests to access the ASPR’s archive were rebuffed. 'For a year and a half they put me off and I finally accepted that they just didn’t want me to see anything. They wouldn’t even tell me what they had. I’ve since learned that I am just one in a long line of people who had similar experiences with the ASPR.'" Indeed, the ASPR website does appear to be rather neglected.

Concepts

Barnum effect - Believing that given information is uniquely applicable to yourself or a loved one even though the information is applicable to the majority of the population. The 'Barnum effect' can be found in: astrology readings, auric readings, mediumistic readings, numerological readings, palm readings, psychic readings, psychometric readings, Tarot readings.

Cognitive dissonance - Accepting all information that confirms a belief and forgetting any information that does not confirm the belief; hence, the belief becomes strengthened, not weakened. It can be found in: Astrology readings, auric readings, mediumistic readings, numerological readings, palm readings, psychic readings, psychometric readings, Tarot readings.

Cold reading - Information that is vague, general, ambiguous and does not give any way, specific (such as home addresses). It can be found in: astrology readings, auric readings, mediumistic readings, numerological readings, palm readings, psychic readings, psychometric readings, Tarot readings.

Conformity, Social - See normative social influence and information social influence. Can be found in any social group, including: Mediumship/psychic circles, energy sensing groups.

Extrasensory perception

Medium

Parapsychological experimenter effect

Poltergeist

Psychic

Psychic (or Psi) abilities