Extrasensory perception (ESP) involves awareness of information about events external to the self not gained through the senses and not concluded from previous experience. The term was coined by Duke University researcher J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy, precognition, retrocognition, intuition and psychokinesis. ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth sense, gut instinct or hunch. The term implies sources of information currently unexplained by science.

Parapsychology is the study of paranormal psychic phenomena, including ESP. Parapsychologists generally regard such tests as the ganzfeld experiment as providing compelling evidence for the existence of ESP. The scientific community does not accept this due to the disputed evidence base, the lack of a theory which would explain ESP, and the lack of experimental techniques which can provide reliably positive results.

History of ESP

The notion of extrasensory perception existed in antiquity. In many ancient cultures, such powers were ascribed to people who purported to use them for second sight or communicate with deities, ancestors, spirits, and the like.