Religious Perspectives on Psi - Syllabus

Course Description

Religion is one of the most common and profound aspects of human life. It often deals with experiences that are considered extraordinary or outside the normal operation of nature. Historically, these have been called supernatural experiences, but today they might be called paranormal.

Parapsychologists take a scientific approach to the phenomena and experiences that are sometimes reported in religious contexts. This course will explore parapsychology from the viewpoint of different world religions. It will survey key parapsychological topics and how they are understood by some of the major world religions (including indigenous religions, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam).

It is important to note that this course will be presented from a religiously neutral point of view. That is, it will focus on the phenomena and perspectives, but it will not presuppose the truth or falsity of any religious beliefs.

Course Objectives

The course has two main objectives:

  • The primary objective of the course is for students to develop an introductory-level understanding of how eastern and western religious traditions have acknowledged, interpreted, and assimilated phenomena which parapsychologists classify as psi or as psi related.
  • The secondary objective is for students to understand how, from a religiously neutral point of view, psi phenomena can be leveraged as (i) support for core religious ideas and (ii) an interpretative framework for other religious phenomena.

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will have demonstrated an understanding of:

  • the core ideas in the eastern and western religious traditions,
  • the ways researchers have argued that psi can be viewed as supporting core religious concepts,
  • examples of how religious traditions have interpreted psi-related phenomena that are ostensible evidence for personal survival of death: out-of-body and near-death experiences, mediumship, and past-life memories and other features associated with cases of the reincarnation type,
  • the ways religious traditions have appealed to psi or psi-related phenomena to underwrite or support religious narratives,
  • how psi can be related to ostensibly supernormal or supernatural religious phenomena – for example, miracles, efficacious petitionary prayer, revelation and meditational insight, and prophecy, and
  • how religious traditions have distinguished between benign and malevolent manifestations of psi

Course Outline

Week 1

Course Introduction

  • Religion and Science
  • The Supernatural and the Paranormal
  • Parapsychology
  • Which Religions?
  • History of Religion & Parapsychology
  • The Causation Question: Who’s Psi?
  • Agents (God, the gods, angels, demons, spirits, etc.)
  • Psi and Psi-Effects
    • Agents (God, the gods, angels, demons, etc.)
    • Psi & Psi-effects

Week 2

Background on World Religions

  • Indigenous Religions
  • Hinduism
  • Judaism
  • Buddhism
  • Christianity
  • Islam

Week 3

Extrasensory Perception - Part I

  • General ESP
  • Precognition

Week 4

Extrasensory Perception - Part II

  • Telepathy
  • Clairvoyance
    • Dowsing

Week 5

Psychokinesis - PK

  • What is PK?
  • Macro-PK
  • Micro-PK
  • Healing
  • Psychic Attack (e.g. the Evil Eye)

Week 6

Survival - Part I

  • Introduction to the Survival Hypothesis
  • Out of Body Experiences
  • Death Related Experiences
    • Deathbed Visions
    • Near-death Experiences
    • Spontaneous After Death Experiences

Week 7

Survival - Part II

  • Spirit Communcation
  • Cases of the Reincarnation Type (CORT)

Week 8

Field Investigations and Conclusions

  • Miracles
  • Hauntings
  • Apparitions
  • Poltergeists
  • Exorcisms
  • Theories of Psi
  • Summary

Course Materials

  • There is no specific text for this class, however, students will be provided with short readings or videos which will help them to better understand the content of the lectures.

Course Activities

  • Students will be expected to view the class broadcasts or the recordings of the classes each week.
  • Students will be expected to participate in weekly discussion forums and activities. Each student will be expected to provide an original posting each week and to respond to at least one other student in the discussion forums. Greater participation in this area will be considered during class evaluations.
  • Two multiple choice or short answer evaluations will be assigned after the 4th week of class.
  • Final Exam

Evaluation and Grading

Students who are taking the course for a grade will be assessed using a letter grade based on the standard letter grade format.

  • A (90-100)
  • B (80-89)
  • C (70-79)
  • D (60-69)
  • F (below 60)

Participation in the forums is a large component of the grading, and substantive postings are necessary to get full credit for each discussion topic.

The following activities will be considered to contribute to the courses as follows:

  • Discussions (5 points per week; Total 40%)
  • Midterm (30%)
  • Final (30%)