History of Psychic Studies
Evolution of the study of the extraordinary
The History of Psychism
The study of psychic abilities has a long history stretching back to ancient civilisations. From the oracles of classical Greece to Victorian mediums and modern parapsychology, humanity has always sought to understand the limits of the mind.
🏛️ Antiquity
Greek oracles, Egyptian seers, and Chinese mediums documented psi experiences for millennia.
🕯️ Victorian Era
The Spiritualist movement of the 19th century popularised the study of psychic phenomena in the West.
🔬 Modern Era
From J.B. Rhine to contemporary research, parapsychology has become more professional.
Milestones of systematic study
1882: founding of the Society for Psychical Research in London. For the first time, scientists such as William Crookes and Frederic Myers studied paranormal phenomena with rigorous methodology. 1930–50: J.B. Rhine at Duke University popularised Zener cards and coined the term "extrasensory perception" (ESP). 1970–90: the US government's Stargate programme investigated remote viewing for intelligence purposes. 2000–present: systematic meta-analyses with shared databases (Bem 2011, Storm 2010) reignite the debate.
The great controversies
Parapsychology has always lived between two fires: on one side, 19th-century Spiritualism that mixed serious experimentation with parlour spectacle; on the other, academic psychology that by default rejects any "non-naturalistic" hypothesis. Famous cases such as Uri Geller (1970s) polarised the public. The fact is that between obvious fraud and dogmatic dismissal there is a grey zone where science still has open questions.
Non-Western traditions
Long before Western laboratories, traditions such as Siberian shamanism, Raja Yoga in India, Sufism in the Islamic world, and Japanese Zen developed disciplines to cultivate subtle perceptions. Without claiming to prove anything, these traditions have bequeathed techniques (meditation, retreat, fasting, breathwork) that contemporary psychology studies with renewed interest for their verifiable effects on the brain and behaviour.