[Recent update: March 17th, 2021]

Recently a nice short article on WikiHow came to the attention of The AZIRE. The article, called “3 Ways to Find Parapsychology Courses,” is quite good, but the article is a tad outdated, having been last updated two years ago. We wanted to write a long reply with many possibilities for independent study, finding good adult education, and accredited courses in the field but ran up against the URL limit for comments. So, while Nancy has joined WikiHow and can edit the article, we decided it would be better to do a new page on The AZIRE website on educational opportunities and link to that, the Parapsychology Foundation YouTube Channel, and the Parapsychological Association’s page on university-based accredited education on an international level in the comment.

So, what motivated this updating interest was that one of the first recommendations, Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire, no longer teaches parapsychology courses in the psychology department. In the day, Professor Bill Jack taught a minor in the scientific parapsychology there, but he retired some years ago. A quick search of the catalog of psychology courses doesn’t reveal any remaining opportunities in serious parapsychology.

However, one recent development along these lines is Professor Kate Noble and her colleagues who have set up consciousness studies minor for undergraduates at the University of Washington at Bothell. The UWB consciousness studies minor includes a single course specifically on the field at the beginning of the minor, and all its courses — taking a wider approach to parapsychology as a segment of consciousness studies as a whole — are much more friendly to the findings of scientific parapsychology in its other courses than any other conventional university. The scope of the minor is fascinating. It is a very welcome fresh look at the scientific study of psychic phenomena and other related areas within the wider consciousness context.

Most universities that feature parapsychology at all in the US have a single course on scientific parapsychology findings. The WikiHow article mentions many of these, and an extensive list is available on the Parapsychological Association’s website on its accredited international course and degree possibilities page. No university in the US has a comprehensive program or series of courses on the field’s history and content. How long this program will continue is anybody’s guess, though. Such programs sometimes depend on the founder’s presence, so always check, and see what’s still available.

Adult education for those who wish to be researchers or learn more about the research is unsure when it is not under the guidance of organizations with a serious interest in the field’s scientific side. The WikiHow article mentions the Rhine Education Center, which provides solid adult education courses several times a year. While we can recommend those, we also recommend our own ParaMOOC series, which started in 2015 and continued through 2020. The 2021 iteration has been canceled due to health challenges that we are facing this year. We hope to restart the course in 2022 if possible.

The course is organized by The AZIRE and supported financially by the Parapsychology Foundation (PF), a not-for-profit organization that is now in its 70th year and has always had an earnest commitment to supporting the scientific study of psychic phenomena. The PF also issues certificates of completion for those students in the ParaMOOC courses who engage with a significant portion of the course materials and/or complete agreed-upon requirements. You can find lectures from the ParaMOOC series on both the Parapsychology Foundation YouTube channel and the Parapsychology Online YouTube channel.

The PF has also committed to the international nature of the field and has long believed that scientists and academics in various disciplines from a variety of countries are necessary to understand the complex problems that psychic phenomena bring to science. So, of course, the PF’s emphasis on educational opportunities and the importance of understanding research traditions in other countries is paramount. Not only does the Foundation support an international affiliates program, but it has also provided online events that focus on research and education in the affiliates’ home countries.

This is how another great resource for serious students has come into being, the Parapsychology Foundation YouTube playlist on its International Affiliates Conference. There are reviews of the history of the topic and current educational opportunities in the UK, Brazil, Argentina, and France on this playlist, all drawn from the First PF International Affiliates Conference online held in 2016. Coming soon to the playlist are the presentation of the 2017 PF International Affiliates Conference: New Faces in Parapsychology, for which four of the PF International Affiliates nominated new researchers in the field (two doctoral students, one in Scotland, one in Brazil, and a young researcher from Hungary) to present their work.

To the left is The Parapsychology Research and Education Course Logo for the 2017 logo that includes the speakers, organization team, and the Parapsychology wordle created by the artist RadiantSkies that was licensed from our favorite stock photo and original graphics arts site, 123rf.com.

Finally, a word about the best places to start an independent study on the field’s scientific side. First, these are (in The AZIRE’s opinion) the best YouTube channels for credible lectures/interviews/overviews of education in the field are the Parapsychology Foundation, our own Parapsychology Online, and the channels of the Parapsychological Association, New Thinking Allowed, and IONs (The Institute of Noetic Sciences).

Combine these YouTube channels with the new SPR Psi Encyclopedia website, Carlos’ blog, Parapsychology: News, History and Research, and the Parapsychology Foundation’s PF Blog and PF News, and you’ve got an excellent set of resources to build up your knowledge in the field while you’re hunting up the right course or set of courses for you.

So, while in the US, accredited programs are incredibly to find, as the authors of the entry on WikiHow noted, there are some ways that folks with a serious interest in the field can get a good grounding in scientific parapsychology. At this stage, though, Americans with an interest in the field need to be self-starters.