Extrasensory perception, or ESP, is the claimed ability to acquire information without the known senses, through telepathy, clairvoyance or precognition. The term was popularized by the American parapsychologist J. B. Rhine in the 1930s. Despite more than a century of experiments, the scientific consensus is that ESP has not been demonstrated under reliable, repeatable controlled conditions.
ESP (Extrasensory Perception) at a glance
| Abbreviation | ESP; also called the "sixth sense" |
|---|---|
| Main forms | Telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition |
| Popularized by | J. B. Rhine, Duke University, 1930s |
| Field of study | Parapsychology (also "psi" research) |
| Classic tests | Zener card guessing, Ganzfeld experiments |
| Scientific status | Not accepted; regarded as unproven |
Definition and forms
ESP is an umbrella term for perception said to occur independently of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Parapsychologists traditionally distinguish three main forms:
- Telepathy: awareness of another person's thoughts or feelings.
- Clairvoyance: awareness of distant or hidden objects or events, sometimes called remote viewing.
- Precognition: knowledge of future events.
Related claims include retrocognition (knowledge of the past) and psychometry, reading information from objects. Together with psychokinesis, these are grouped by researchers under the neutral label "psi."
History of research
Reports of seers, prophetic dreams and oracles are found in nearly every culture, but systematic investigation began with the Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in 1882. Its members collected cases of apparent telepathy and investigated mediums, some of whom were exposed as frauds.
In the 1930s J. B. Rhine and colleagues at Duke University moved the subject into the laboratory. Rhine's 1934 monograph Extra-Sensory Perception popularized the term and reported card-guessing experiments using Zener cards, a deck with five symbols (circle, cross, wavy lines, square and star). Chance would give one correct guess in five; Rhine reported subjects who scored above chance. Critics soon identified problems: cards could sometimes be seen through or from behind, recording errors occurred, and other laboratories often failed to replicate the results.
From the 1970s researchers turned to the Ganzfeld procedure, a mild sensory-deprivation setup in which a "receiver" describes impressions while a "sender" concentrates on a target image. The United States government also funded remote viewing research, later known as the Stargate Project, which was ended in 1995 after an evaluation concluded it had not produced useful intelligence.
Evidence and controversy
Supporters of psi research point to meta-analyses of Ganzfeld studies that report hit rates slightly above chance. Critics answer that such effects shrink as experimental controls tighten, that publication bias and flexible analysis can produce spurious results, and that no experiment has been designed that reliably produces ESP for independent investigators. A 2011 paper by the psychologist Daryl Bem claiming evidence of precognition became a focus of debate and contributed to wider discussion of the replication crisis in psychology, after attempted replications did not confirm it.
No proposed mechanism for ESP is consistent with established physics or neuroscience. For these reasons the mainstream scientific view treats ESP as unproven and parapsychology as operating outside accepted science, although a small number of academic researchers continue to study it.
Psychology of belief
Surveys consistently find that a substantial share of the public believes in some form of ESP. Psychologists explain many personal experiences, such as thinking of a friend just before they call, through coincidence, selective memory and the difficulty people have in judging probability. Subtle cues, prior knowledge and cold reading can also produce convincing impressions of "knowing."
Stage magicians and skeptics, including James Randi, have shown how apparent ESP can be simulated. Randi's foundation offered a large prize for a demonstration of paranormal ability under agreed conditions; it was never awarded.
ESP in esoteric and popular culture
In spiritualism, Theosophy and New Age thought, extrasensory abilities are often seen as latent human faculties that can be developed through meditation and practice, and ideas such as the Akashic Records assume clairvoyant access to hidden knowledge. ESP is also a staple of fiction, film and comics. The term remains useful for historians and psychologists as a name for a set of widely held beliefs and experiences, whatever their explanation.
Key terms and related phenomena
Researchers and writers on ESP use a specialized vocabulary. Psi is the neutral term for any presumed paranormal process, covering both ESP and psychokinesis. A percipient or receiver is the person who attempts to acquire information, while an agent or sender tries to transmit it. Remote viewing is a protocol in which a viewer attempts to describe a distant, hidden location. Sensory leakage refers to ordinary sensory cues that can unintentionally reveal a target, and eliminating it is one of the central problems of experimental design in this field.
ESP is also frequently connected in popular culture with crystal gazing, mediumship and dream prophecy. Historians of religion treat these practices as part of a long tradition of divination, while psychologists study the experiences people report and the reasons such beliefs persist.
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Frequently asked questions
Who coined the term ESP?
The expression "extrasensory perception" had earlier uses in German psychical research, but it was the American parapsychologist J. B. Rhine who made it standard. His 1934 book Extra-Sensory Perception, based on card-guessing experiments at Duke University, brought the term into scientific and popular vocabulary.
Has ESP ever been scientifically proven?
No. Despite many experiments since the late nineteenth century, no ESP effect has been reliably reproduced by independent researchers under strict controls. Positive results have often been traced to methodological flaws, sensory leakage or statistical problems. The scientific consensus considers ESP unproven.
What are Zener cards?
Zener cards are a deck of 25 cards showing five symbols: circle, cross, wavy lines, square and star. Designed by the psychologist Karl Zener for J. B. Rhine's experiments, they were used to test whether people could guess hidden cards more often than the one-in-five rate expected by chance.
Sources and further reading
This entry replaces an article from the original Mystica encyclopedia (online since 2001). It was rewritten from the sources above by The Mystica Editorial Team under our editorial standards. Last reviewed: September 30, 2026.