Clinical Parapsychology Extrasensory Exceptional Experiences 1st Edition

Clinical Parapsychology: Extrasensory Exceptional Experiences is a graduate-level textbook designed to facilitate more reliable diagnosis, classification, treatment, and research. It is designed for clinicians, educators, and researchers challenged with investigating into the nature of distressing extrasensory (psychic) exceptional experiences. This textbook assists in interpreting extrasensory experiences reported in a wide diversity of context that are often viewed as religious, spiritual, anomalous, or transpersonal, and that vary greatly in subjective experience. This textbook is a valuable resource for both students and experienced professionals and is designed to be utilized by both individuals and educational institutions. Part I: Diagnosis (Differential & Co-Diagnosis), Part II: Classification (Dimensional & Categorical), Part III: Treatment Options (Recovery & Prevention), and Part IV: Research Methods & Measures.

Beginning with an introduction to the methodology, this book provides the reader with a sympathetic yet critical overview of current research into unexplained phenomena including visions, telepathy, psychokinesis, and out-of-body experiences.

If extrasensory perception is a common human ability,why can't we all score high on ESP tests? This book answersthe question by describing psychological determinants ofsuccess and failure in extrasensory perception. Some ofthe most signifi cant points raised in the editor's enlighteningintroduction are developed in greater detail in thenine essays that follow, all of them important statementsgiving a clear picture of research into ESP and the debatethat surrounds it. Each essay is followed by a commentrelating the essay to the field as a whole. In essays on the debate about ESP, an attack (by C. E.M. Hansel) is followed by a rebuttal (by J. B. Rhine and J.G. Pratt), off ering the reader insight into the peculiar tensionsurrounding the ESP controversy. The book also includes abalanced overview of problems in the field by J. C. Crumbaugh,and six other essays on the psychological factors thatinfl uence research on ESP. Controversy over ESP is of specialinterest also because the questions critics raise relate closelyto problems within psychology itself. In addition, the essaysreflect a quality common to much research: the excitementof uncovering results that advance our knowledge. This book is intended for supplementary course use.Because of the fundamental problems it addresses, italso off ers richly rewarding reading for all teaching andpracticing psychologists as well as for the interested generalist.A substantial number of research reports are citedthroughout, so that any reader seeking further informationwill find the cited references invaluable. Gertrude Schmeidler is professor emeritus of psychology atCity College, City University of New York. She has held theposition of president of the Parapsychological Association andthe American Society for Psychical Research. She is the authorof Parapsychology: Its Relation to Physics, Biology, Psychology,and Psychiatry; Parapsychology and Psychology: Matches andMismatches; and ESP and Personality Patterns.

Often seen as supernatural, unpredictable, illusory and possibly dangerous, ESP, telepathy, clairvoyance and other parapsychological activities are actually happening all the time and help us make sense of everyday experiences. First Sight provides a new way of understanding such experiences and describes a way of thinking about the unconscious mind that makes it clear that these abilities are not rare and anomalous, but instead are used by all of us all the time, unconsciously and efficiently. Drawing upon a broad array of studies in contemporary psychology, the author integrates a new model for understanding these unusual abilities with the best research in psychology on problems as diverse as memory, perception, personality, creativity and fear. In doing so, he illustrates how the field of parapsychology, which, historically, has been riddled with confusion, skepticism and false claims, can move from the edges of science to its center, where it will offer fascinating new knowledge about unmapped aspects of our nature. The author demonstrates that the new model accounts for accumulated findings very well, and explains previous mysteries, resolves apparent contradictions, and offers clear directions for further study. First Sight also ventures beyond the laboratory to explain such things as why apparent paranormal experiences are so rare, why they need not be feared, and how they can be more intentionally accessed. Further study of this theory is likely to lead to a "technology" of parapsychological processes while drastically revising our conception of the science of the mind toward a new science more humane and more replete with possibility than we have imagined in the past.

This is a thoroughly updated and revised edition of our highly acclaimed university textbook on the science of parapsychology. The objective of this book is to provide an introductory survey of parapsychologists' efforts to explore the authenticity and bases of anomalous, apparently paranormal phenomena. It outlines the origins of parapsychological research and critically reviews investigations of extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, poltergeist phenomena, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and the evaluation of parapsychology as a scientific enterprise. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The account of the basic experiments in parapsychology, out of which came the phrase, 'extra-sensory perception'.

This is a new release of the original 1934 edition.

The study of the effect of "exceptional" experiences and beliefs on health--including anomalous, placebo, or hypnotic healing and mystical, religious, transpersonal, and creative experiences--is attracting increasing academic and public interest. This collection of essays explores the nature of mind, its impact on the body, and the relationship between "exceptional" experiences and physical health, mental health, and the potential for other types of perception. Examining the influence of spiritual practices, mental imagery, and alternative healing methods such as Reiki and Johrei, the essays encourage the expansion of mental health practice to include the full range of exceptional experiences. By normalizing experiences that are often pathologized, this book recognizes that exceptional human experiences can and do have value for physical and mental health.