A Meta-Analysis of Anomalous Information Reception by Mediums: Assessing the Forced-Choice Design in Mediumship Research, 2000-2020

Abstract

Within the field of parapsychology, psi is a generic term used to refer to anomalistic cognition or <i>extra-sensory perception</i> (ESP) and anomalous motor action or <i>psychokinesis</i> (PK). The acronym ESP denotes three categories of psi communication: telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. Telepathy may be defined as the "paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings or activity of another conscious being" (Thalbourne, 2003, p. 125). Clairvoyance refers to the "paranormal acquisition of information concerning an object or contemporary physical event; in contrast to telepathy, the information is assumed to derive directly from an external physical source" (Thalbourne, 2003, p. 18). Precognition may be defined as "a form of extrasensory perception in which the target is some future event that cannot be deduced from normally known data in the present" (Thalbourne, 2003, p. 90).