Tested, replication failed

Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is the claimed ability of seeing objects, places or events beyond the reach of the senses. It has been tested — The ganzfeld experiments — Bem and Honorton meta-analysis, 1994. Hit rate reported at roughly 32–35% against a 25% baseline. Milton and Wiseman then pooled 30 further studies in 1999 and found no effect at all.

The experiment

The ganzfeld experiments — Bem and Honorton meta-analysis, 1994

How it was run The receiver sits in uniform red light with halved ping-pong balls over the eyes and white noise in headphones, then picks which of four images the sender was looking at.

Sample Around 350 sessions in the 1994 meta-analysis; hundreds more since

Result Hit rate reported at roughly 32–35% against a 25% baseline. Milton and Wiseman then pooled 30 further studies in 1999 and found no effect at all.

The disagreement is not about whether 32% beats 25% — it does. It is about whether the 32% survives when the people running the study expect nothing.

Claim Seeing objects, places or events beyond the reach of the senses

Word from French clair "clear" + voyance "vision"

Status Tested, replication failed

Searched 4,760/mo

Where the word comes from

Entered English in the 1840s from French mesmerism.

Terms in this field are younger than they sound. Most were coined between 1840 and 1930, in the Spiritualist and Theosophical revivals, and then presented as ancient. Dating them is the cheapest reality check available.

The other 10

Mediumship Telepathy Precognition Clairsentience Clairaudience Psychometry Psychic empathy Astral projection Psychic healing Aura reading

All eleven, with what was tested →