Most researchers in the field divide psychic abilities into two basic types.
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Extrasensory Perception (ESP) – psychic abilities focused on perceiving phenomena at a distance or the transmission of information at a distance—without using known senses or communication channels.
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Psychokinesis (PK) – psychic abilities focused on affecting phenomena or causing effects at a distance—without using known physical energy or forces.
Below, we’ll take a closer look at each of these two types—the different names for each, the abilities that fall under them, and common characteristics of each type. At the end, we’ll also explore their striking similarity with the two types of psychic powers in Star Wars—“force sense” and “force alter.” As well as the strange connection between the omni-present energy field known as “the force,” and our modern day scientific concept of “quantum fields.”
Explore Each Type
Names Throughout History
Across the history of psychic research and even science fiction, we’ve renamed the first two basic types of psychic abilities again and again. Although the vocabulary changes, the underlying distinction remains the same.
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Extrasensory Perception (ESP) and Psychokinesis (PK) — The traditional parapsychological terms. They were popularized in the 1930 and 40s by parapsychologist, J.B. Rhine, through his experimental research into ESP and PK conducted at Duke University, and reported in his book “Extra-Sensory Perception” (1934) and.
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Extrasensory perception (ESP) — Emphasizes perception beyond the ordinary sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, skin, tongue).
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Psychokinesis (PK) — Combines the Greek psykhē ("soul, mind”) and kinēsis ("movement”), so etymologically it means “mental movement.” It was coined by Henry Holt in 1914 then adopted and popularized by J.B. Rhine.
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Anomalous Cognition (AC) and Anomalous Perturbation (AP) — U.S. government psychic programs era terms, which reframe ESP and PK into neutral scientific language. They were coined in the 1980s by physicist Edwin May, while he was working at Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), within a US government psychic program (CIA Archives, 1991).
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Anomalous Cognition (AC) — Emphasizes “cognition” (mental processes) which deviate from the normal.
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Anomalous Perturbation (AP) — Emphasizes “perturbation” (influence on systems) which deviate from the normal.
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Bioinformation and Bioenergetics —Soviet-era terms vastly different from ESP and PK, as they emphasize these abilities work not through the ghastly mind, but through “information” and “energy” which has a biological basis. Both terms were actually the names of prominent Soviet psychic laboratories. The first the name of an ESP laboratory in Moscow, “Bio-Information Section of Popov Society,” which studied telepathy and clairvoyance, ran from ~1965-1975, and which declassified U.S. documents believe may have been officially supported by the Soviet government (CIA Archives, 1982) (Ostrander and Schroeder, 1970) (Ebon, 1983).
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Bioinformation — Emphasizes this type of abilities work through “information” which likely has a biological basis.
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Bioenergetics — Emphasizes this type of abilities work through “energy” which likely has a biological basis.
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Non Local Perception (NLP) and Non Local Influence (NLI) — Modern terms which emphasizes these abilities are of perception and influence which is “non-local,” or not confined to phenomena in close spatial or temporal proximity to the psychic subject. For instance, perceiving or inflluencing with things over vast distances, in the past and future, or even seemingly beyond space and time altogether. The term is inspired from quantum physics, where there are non-local spatial and temporal effects—particles can affect each other at a distance, and even across time (Albert Einstein called this “spooky action at a distance”).
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Remote Information (RINFO) and Remote Influence (RINFLU) — Neutral terms coined by me, which emphasize abilities of information exchange at a distance vs abilities of influence at a distance. They’re alliterative terms, meaning they sound similar (the first 8 letters ”RINF”), which may help you remember them.
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Psychic Perception vs Psychic Influence — General terms emphasizing perceptual-based psychic abilities versus influence-based psychic abilities.
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Remote Perception and Remote Perturbation —
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Force Sense and Force Alter — A fictional term from the Star Wars universe, referring to the ability to sense through “the Force,” an omnipresent energy field that permeates the Star Wars universe—connecting all things.
Sources
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Duncan, Paul (2020). The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005.