Abstract
For over a century, a growing body of research suggests that aspects of consciousness operate beyond the constraints of classical physics. This chapter overviews a portion of the evidence for these “nonlocal” consciousness phenomena—commonly known as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis. Thousands of controlled experiments assessed by multiple meta-analyses have demonstrated small but statistically significant, repeatable effects. Such outcomes challenge assumptions based on philosophical materialism, but they find potential explanation in emerging scientific frameworks based on quantum physics (e.g., Orch-OR, von Neumann-Wigner models) as well as other frameworks that more explicitly incorporate consciousness, such as idealism, and property or substance dualism. This chapter traces the field’s methodological maturation from early empirical tests in the late-nineteenth century, to simple statistical tests in the 1930s, to contemporary experiments using the same tools and techniques commonly found in many mainstream scientific disciplines. Overall, the preponderance of the evidence viewed in light of promising theoretical models suggests that consciousness may play a fundamental role in the nature of the physical world.
