Kids & the Paranormal: 109 Years of Research
What paranormal abilities have researchers studied in children?
Imagine a child who seems to know things they shouldn't know, or whose presence coincides with objects moving on their own. For over a century, researchers have been quietly documenting such reports involving children from infancy through high school. In 1992, scientists compiled the most comprehensive collection ever assembled — 464 documented cases and studies spanning from 1881 to 1990, covering everything from apparent telepathy to poltergeist phenomena. This wasn't just a collection of stories, but a systematic attempt to map what might be one of the most intriguing puzzles in human development.
A comprehensive catalog reveals over a century of research into children's psychic experiences.
For over a century, researchers have documented unusual experiences in children — from toddlers who seem to read minds to teenagers who claim to move objects with thought alone. By 1992, this scattered research had never been systematically compiled. Two researchers decided to change that, creating the first comprehensive guide to paranormal research involving young people.
Over a century of research suggests that unusual phenomena involving children have been reported consistently enough to warrant systematic scientific documentation.
Key Findings
- The bibliography revealed that paranormal research with children has been surprisingly extensive and persistent, spanning multiple countries and research traditions over more than a century.
- The authors found studies covering the full range of claimed psychic phenomena, from laboratory experiments testing telepathy in school children to case studies of poltergeist activity around teenagers.
What Is This About?
The authors systematically searched through 109 years of published research, from 1881 to 1990, looking for any studies involving children and paranormal phenomena. They combed through 45 different journals, conference proceedings, and books, ultimately finding 464 relevant studies. Each entry was carefully annotated with summaries and organized into seven categories: telepathy (mind-to-mind communication), clairvoyance (perceiving distant objects), precognition (seeing the future), psychokinesis (mind over matter), poltergeists (unexplained disturbances), reincarnation memories, and miscellaneous phenomena including near-death experiences.
The authors compiled and annotated 464 research entries from 109 years of published literature on children's paranormal experiences, organizing them into seven categories including telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis.
The bibliography provides a comprehensive catalog of paranormal research with children, revealing the scope and evolution of this field from 1881 to 1990 across multiple phenomena categories.
How Good Is the Evidence?
464 studies over 109 years — that's roughly 4 studies per year, showing consistent research interest. This represents a substantial portion of all parapsychological research, as children have often been considered particularly promising subjects for psychic phenomena.
Supporters argue that children make ideal research subjects because they're less skeptical and more open to psychic experiences, potentially showing stronger effects than adults. They point to the century-long research tradition as evidence of legitimate scientific interest. Skeptics counter that children are more suggestible and prone to fantasy, making them unreliable subjects whose apparent psychic abilities reflect wishful thinking by researchers rather than genuine phenomena. They argue that the persistence of such research despite lack of conclusive evidence shows the field's resistance to negative results.
Mainstream: This bibliography documents a persistent research tradition that has failed to produce convincing evidence for psychic abilities in children or adults. Moderate: The extensive research history suggests some phenomena deserve continued investigation, though most claims remain unproven. Frontier: Children's natural psychic abilities have been systematically studied and documented, with this bibliography providing a roadmap to a century of evidence.
Many people assume research into children's psychic abilities is a recent New Age trend. In reality, this bibliography shows such research has been conducted systematically for over a century, often by mainstream psychologists and published in academic journals, not just popular magazines.
To settle questions about children's psychic abilities, we'd need large-scale, pre-registered studies with proper controls and independent replication. This bibliography provides a starting point by cataloging what's been tried before, helping researchers avoid repeating flawed approaches and identify the most promising methodologies from over a century of investigation.
This comprehensive annotated bibliography focuses on paranormal research with children from infancy through high school, containing 464 entries from 45 journals and proceedings, books, and related articles published between 1881 and 1990.
Stance: Mixed
What Does It Mean?
This collection spans 109 years of reports, suggesting that whatever is happening with children and unusual phenomena isn't just a modern curiosity — it's been consistently documented across different cultures, time periods, and scientific paradigms.
Think of how children sometimes seem to know things they shouldn't — like sensing when a parent is upset before any obvious signs appear, or having 'imaginary friends' that know real information. This bibliography catalogs scientific attempts to study whether such experiences might represent genuine psychic abilities rather than coincidence or imagination.
If even a fraction of these documented cases represent genuine phenomena, it would suggest that children might be particularly sensitive to processes we don't yet understand. This could revolutionize our understanding of human development and consciousness, potentially indicating that certain capacities diminish as we age. It might also point toward environmental or psychological factors that either enhance or suppress these reported abilities.
A good bibliography doesn't just list sources — it annotates them with summaries and context, helping researchers quickly identify which studies are most relevant to their questions.
Understanding Terms
What This Study Claims
Methodology
Research entries are organized into seven sections: Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Precognition, Psychokinesis, Poltergeists, Reincarnation, and Miscellaneous
strongThe bibliography contains 464 entries from 45 journals and proceedings, books, and related articles published between 1881 and 1990
strongThe bibliography systematically organizes research into seven distinct paranormal phenomena categories
strongThis is the only comprehensive annotated bibliography of its kind focusing on paranormal research with children
moderateThis summary is for general information about current research. It does not constitute medical advice. The scientific interpretation of these results is debated among researchers. If personally affected, please consult qualified professionals.