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Psi (parapsychology)
 
 
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Psi is a term from parapsychology
Parapsychology

Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism using the scientific method....
 derived from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, ? psi, 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BCE....
; from the Greek ???? psyche, "mind, soul".

term was coined by biologist
Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life.Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment....
 Bertold P. Wiesner, and first used by psychologist Robert Thouless in a 1942 article published in the British Journal of Psychology. Psi was argued by Thouless and Wiesner to offer a non-theoretical manner of referring to extrasensory perception and psychokinesis
Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis , also known as telekinesis , sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy....
, these terms being unjustifiably loaded with suggestions as to how the phenomena were caused or experienced.

itionally the term has had two sub-categories:

ough Thouless and Wiesner were careful to offer psi as merely referring to certain paranormal activity worthy of study, it has come to connote the processes that somehow cause them, or a certain faculty of human psychology.






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Psi is a term from parapsychology
Parapsychology

Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism using the scientific method....
 derived from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, ? psi, 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BCE....
; from the Greek ???? psyche, "mind, soul".

Etymology

The term was coined by biologist
Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life.Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment....
 Bertold P. Wiesner, and first used by psychologist Robert Thouless in a 1942 article published in the British Journal of Psychology. Psi was argued by Thouless and Wiesner to offer a non-theoretical manner of referring to extrasensory perception and psychokinesis
Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis , also known as telekinesis , sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy....
, these terms being unjustifiably loaded with suggestions as to how the phenomena were caused or experienced.

Types

Traditionally the term has had two sub-categories:
  • Psi-Gamma - Pertaining to paranormal cognition (ESP, remote viewing, etc.)
  • Psi-Kappa - Pertaining to paranormal action (psychokinesis, etc.)


Definitions

Although Thouless and Wiesner were careful to offer psi as merely referring to certain paranormal activity worthy of study, it has come to connote the processes that somehow cause them, or a certain faculty of human psychology. In a 1994 paper in the Psychological Bulletin, Daryl J. Bem
Daryl Bem

Daryl J. Bem is a social psychology at Cornell University, and the originator of the self-perception theory of Attitude change. He has also carried out research on Psi phenomena , group decision making, handwriting analysis, sexual orientation and personality psychology theory and assessment....
 and Charles Honorton
Charles Honorton

Charles Honorton was a U.S. parapsychologist. From his early childhood, his interests were centered on the mind, consciousness and its potentials....
 defined psi thus:

The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer, processes such as telepathy or other forms of extrasensory perception that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms. The term is purely descriptive: It neither implies that such anomalous phenomena are paranormal nor connotes anything about their underlying mechanisms.


Similarly, according to the Parapsychological Association, psi can be

used either as a noun or adjective to identify paranormal processes and paranormal causation; the two main categories of psi are psi-gamma (paranormal cognition; extrasensory perception and psi-kappa (paranormal
Paranormal

Paranormal is a general term that describes unusual experiences that lack a scientific explanation, or phenomena alleged to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure....
 action; psychokinesis
Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis , also known as telekinesis , sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy....
), although the purpose of the term "psi" is to suggest that they might simply be different aspects of a single process, rather than distinct and essentially different processes.


However, it has been pointed out by parapsychologist Carl Williams:

Historically, the study of psi has been viewed as existing far outside the normal boundaries and concerns of 19th - and 20th - century science. Whether proposing the possibility of contact with the dead or novel forms of communication, books with titles such as Beyond the Reach of Sense (Heywood, 1974) and Beyond Reality (Rogo, 1990) establish psi as an object of scrutiny out of this world; and to many the study of psi and its existence are seen as existing in the Margins of Reality (Jahn & Dunne, 1987).
In popular culture, "psi" has become synonymous with psychic
Psychic

The word psychic refers to a proposed ability to perception information hidden from the senses through what is described as extrasensory perception, or to those people said to have such abilities....
 and "psionic" abilities.

See also

  • List of psychic abilities
    List of psychic abilities

    This is a list of psychic abilities. Only abilities that have been notably attributed to real-world people are listed here, List of superhuman abilities are not included....
    , for summaries of claimed phenomena.
  • Psi
    Psi

    Psi may refer to:...
    , for other meanings.
  • Psi (Cyrillic)
    Psi (Cyrillic)

    Psi is a letter in the early Cyrillic alphabet, derived from the Greek language letter Psi . It represents the sound /ps/, as in English naps....
     Legend ?
  • Parapsychology
    Parapsychology

    Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and Survivalism using the scientific method....
  • Psionics
    Psionics

    Psionics is the study and/or practice of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis and other workings of the outside world through the psyche....
  • Extra Sensory Perception