paranormal

Paranormal refers to phenomena that lie outside the range of ordinary scientific understanding and current explanations. Claims frequently concern ghosts or spirits, extrasensory perception such as telepathy and clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, hauntings, near-death experiences, and unidentified flying objects, among others. Because these phenomena lack consensus or reliable reproducible evidence, they are studied and discussed within the field of parapsychology, although not all researchers accept them as genuine.

The term paranormal began to be used in the 19th century, and organized study of such claims emerged in the early 20th century. The Society for Psychical Research, founded in 1882 in Britain, played a pioneering role in documenting alleged phenomena. In the United States, researchers such as J. B. Rhine popularized laboratory testing of ESP using standardized tasks in the mid-20th century.

Research approaches vary from controlled laboratory studies to field investigations and case-based reporting. Experiments often aim to test for extrasensory perception or psychokinesis under predefined conditions, while field work investigates hauntings, apparitions, and other anecdotal reports. Critics point to methodological flaws, publication bias, and fraud as explanations for positive results, and emphasize the lack of robust, replicable findings. Some researchers dispute the extent of these concerns and argue that phenomena may be real but difficult to demonstrate with current methods.

Paranormal topics have a substantial presence in culture, including folklore, popular media, and contemporary paranormal investigation communities. Overall, the scientific community remains skeptical, and the consensus is that credible, repeatable evidence for paranormal phenomena is currently lacking.