The phone rings, and for some inexplicable reason you find yourself thinking of an old friend you’ve not heard from in years – only to find that it is that friend on the telephone.

A woman awakens in the middle of the night, certain that her sister is in grave danger. The feeling is so strong that she dresses and drives to her sister’s house where she surprises a prowler who takes flight as her car pulls into the driveway.

A man calls the police to tell them of an odd, persistent dream he’s had. He describes a setting in precise detail, and tells them that there is a body buried there. The police investigate, and to their surprise, find the body exactly as the man described it.

Is there some force at work here that makes these people different? Are there really powers of the mind that only a few of us possess?

Extra Sensory Perception – ESP or E.S.P. – is a term that was popularized by J.B. Rhine, a researcher into the paranormal at Duke University. It refers to knowledge that is acquired by a person through means outside the ‘normal’ five senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. Generally, when people use the term ESP, they are referring to one or more of the following sub-categories of paranormal phenomenon:

Clairvoyance – the ability to sense/see events that are not apparent to the physical senses.

Telepathy – reading the thoughts of another person or sending one’s thoughts to other minds.

Precognition – Knowing that something will happen before it does.

Telekinesis – the ability to move objects with the mind.

ESP has been a hotly debated topic for centuries. In some cultures, people who showed abilities to predict the future or to know things they could not have seen or heard were revered. In others, they were burned as witches. In today’s world that mingles science with New Age mysticism, ESP and those who claim they have it have acquired a new celebrity as scientists and psychologists try to prove or disprove the existence of ESP.

Do some people really possess the ability to learn things without the use of their eyes, ears and other sense organs? Take a look at the evidence for and against ESP, and decide for yourself.