ESP Test Online

What is ESP?

ESP stands for extrasensory perception. It's a measurement of one’s ability to acquire information without the use of the typical five senses. The five senses include sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell, with ESP often called the "sixth sense". Duke University researcher J.B. Rhine coined the term ESP, and he included the following abilities in his definition :

• Telepathy: The ability to sense another person’s thoughts or feelings
• Procognition: The ability to see the future or foretell future events
• Clairvoyance: Seeing or sensing other people

All of the definitions above include the caveat that the person demonstrating these abilities is not using his or her five senses. Paranormal investigators attempt to use various tests and tools to prove that ESP exists, but to date, no rigorous scientific research proves that ESP in humans is a fact. However, many people believe that everyone possesses some degree of ESP, despite the lack of scientific evidence.

How Is ESP Tested?

As part of his work at Duke, Rhine and his wife Louisa created a scientific structure around the emerging field of parapsychology and attempted to quantify psi or psychic abilities. Rhine invented a series of simple cards, originally called Zener cards after the Swiss scientist who created them and now usually referred to as ESP cards, to test psychic abilities in volunteer subjects. The cards used in the ESP tests depict five symbols, including a circle, square, star, wavy lines and a cross or plus symbol. Rhine and his colleague J.G. Pratt describe their procedure and subsequent findings in a fascinating article published by Psychic Investigator.

Typical ESP experiments include one volunteer as the telepathic "sender" and one volunteer as the clairvoyant "receiver". The sender shuffles the cards, and then looks at each one, mentally sending the image to the receiver. The receiver then notes his or her psychic impressions of the symbol on the card. The higher the right guesses, the more researchers claim that telepathic abilities are present. An online ESP test substitutes the computer for the sender and includes randomly generated test elements to make it more difficult for the receiver to guess the right answer.

ESP Test Online

In today’s modern world, Zener cards still exist, but computers replace the sender in the typical ESP experiment. An ESP test online may include electronic images of the traditional Zener cards, or use flash animation to depict random colors, patterns or sounds that the user must guess.

Many wonderful and fun ESP tests exist online. Here are a few favorites to try:

• Try the classic Zener card experiment online at the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena.
• Another version of the classic card experiment provided by the Koestler Parapsychology Unit] includes more information on psychic abilities.
• The Psychic Science website offers many variations of the card deck test.
• Another ESP test at Psychic Science uses random photos that the viewer ranks/orders to mimic the sender and receiver combination.
• Test either your clairvoyant or precognitive ESP abilities with two tests offered by e-Tarocchi.
• A.R.E, the Virginia Beach-based foundation continuing the work of respected psychic Edgar Cayce, provides an interactive color wheel-style psychic ability test online. Note that you’ll need Shockwave installed to view and use the test. They provide a link for you to download Shockwave.
• The Psychics Directory includes a typical color-wheel style ESP test. Participants use their mouse to click on the color they intuitively feel is the next one randomly generated on screen by the computer.

Criticism of ESP Tests

Criticism abounds regarding all ESP tests, including ESP tests online. Traditional scientists overwhelmingly discard ESP evidence, citing mathematic probability and chance as the explanation of why parapsychology researchers discover subjects demonstrating some measure of psychic ability. Countless research studies have yet to yield hard evidence that psychic abilities exist.

People who claim they are psychic describe their abilities as beyond the bounds of testing with simple cards. Psychic abilities, unlike typical senses like sight and touch, may come and go unbidden, or only under particular circumstances such as times of great stress or periods of quiet meditation.

Whether you are a believer or a skeptic, if you choose to try an online ESP test, bear in mind that these tests remain an imprecise science at best. If you genuinely feel you have some psychic ability but do not do well on the tests, your particular abilities may reveal themselves in other circumstances. Developing your ESP abilities takes time. Keeping a diary or journal of events you believe are paranormal can help you discern whether you have any ability, and if so, what form it takes.