When Haley Osment whispered the now famous line “I see dead people" in M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Sixth Sense, it sent a shiver down the spine of an audience that was held spellbound in a willing suspension of disbelief. There are however, many who seriously believe that it is quite possible for human beings to exercise the psychic sense and delve into hitherto unknown realms such as the superconsciousness involving soul, subliminal self and transcendent ego.

The “Sixth Sense” is a colloquial term that denotes the ability to receive or send information outside the realm of the five senses of touch, sight, sound, smell and taste. It is a blanket term that covers a whole gamut of experiences of Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) ranging from intuition and communing with God (deemed a supernatural being by many), to the netherworld of dark secrets like voodoo and black magic. In between the two extremes are interspersed other versions of ESP like psychokinesis, remote viewing, telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance and déjà vu, to mention a few.

The German researcher Dr. Rudolf Tischner used  the term “sixth sense” in his book "Telepathy and Clairvoyance" written in German in 1920. It was  later published in English in 1925. 

Intuition

“It is a knowing, a sensing that is beyond the conscious understanding—a gut feeling. It is not a pseudo science.” –Abella Arthur

In everyday life our intuition leads us to believe certain things without being able to give proof or reasons for such belief.  Extensive research in intuition supports the theory that everyone is born with a certain ESP capability, and that some may possess it more than others. Recent studies have recommended that honing intuitive skills will help people make snap judgments. Owing to the fact that we cannot always justify such beliefs, the study of intuition, touching upon the supernatural and the paranormal,  generates great interest.

Parapsychology and Psi

Parapsychology is a branch of psychology that attempts to demonstrate ESP using scientific methods. Parapsychologists use the collective term Psi (pronounced sigh) to refer to both ESP and psychokinesis (the ability to move objects by psychic power).

The term was coined by B.P. Weisner and used by R.H. Thouless to describe the ESP phenomenon in his article written in 1942 titled, "The Present Position of Experimental Research into Telepathy and Related Phenomena," (Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 47, part 166, pp. 1-19) and later by Dr. J. B Rhine (1948 Reach of the Mind), Professor of Parapsychology at Duke University, North Carolina, who is credited with the first serious paranormal research which he has painstakingly recorded.

According to Dr. Rhine  ESP experiments were beginning to change the way people thought the mind perceived information. Early experiments in ESP by Dr.Rhine and several others were critized for “unsound statistics” and the probability of sensory cues influencing the subject during the experiments.

Fact vs Fiction 

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.” Stuart Chase

Most of the Psi experiences have only anecdotal evidences, which make the claims highly subjective. Parapsychologists have attempted to demonstrate Psi, especially telepathy, in controlled settings with mixed results. The Ganzfeld (“total field” in German) experiments conducted between 1974 and 1981 and the subsequently improved autoGanzfeld experiments conducted between 1983 and 1989 tried to show evidence of energy transfer, telepathy or mind-to-mind communication and similar ESP experiences that defy known physical or biological mechanisms.