Extrasensory Perception

Extrasensory Perception John Djokaj

That the perception of the world is predominantly governed by the senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell is not disputed. However, scientists and amateur academics alike have historically disagreed about the existence of any additional senses, with the most contentious debate surrounding the phenomenon generally referred to as ESP, or "psi." Despite the vast number of people who claim to have or to have witnessed psychic abilities, the corresponding research has found little that is empirically valid or significant to corroborate the wealth of more anecdotal evidence. To establish their validity, it would be necessary to show how they occur in the sensory system - how the input is received and how the subsequent outputs are generated - and so far there is no evidence for the presence of a mechanism specified for this task. Regardless of the extent to which skeptics can take their argument, that so many people over time have reported some degree of extrasensory perception somewhat justifies an inquiry into its history as a cultural and scientific phenomenon as well as any potential empirical proof.

The very definition of that which is generally thought of in popular culture as a "sixth sense" is worth noting, given that its name - extrasensory perception - implies a capability of receiving external information through pathways that are not explicitly sensory. However, the understanding of sensation as it stands now depends on the existence of receptors within the nervous system that are specified for the respective types of sensation (James Elesvier, Sensing the Environment). An input can only be received and integrated if there exists within a system the proper kind of receptor, be it mechano- or thermo- or any other acknowledged sort. That the scientific literature does not support the existence of any receptors capable of picking up thought patterns does not...