The Most Undeniable Psi-Phenomena in 1 Paper | Etzel Cardeña
In 2018, Professor Etzel Cardeña, PhD, who holds the Thorsen Chair in Psychology, including parapsychology and hypnosis, at Lund University, published a landmark review paper surveying thousands of psi studies in “American Psychologist,” one of psychology’s most respected journals.
In this conversation with Hans Busstra, Cardeña explains his main findings and why a dismissal of psi without looking at the data is “as unscientific as you can get.”
Cardeña’s conclusion is that the cumulative evidence for psi phenomena is so strong that outright dismissal is no longer scientifically justified. Although the effect sizes reported in many psi experiments are small—for instance, in controlled laboratory settings, participants in precognition studies predict randomly selected images only slightly above chance—the statistical significance across large bodies of research is nonetheless striking.
In other words, if one applies the same standards of scientific rigor used elsewhere in psychology, it’s scientifically unjustifiable to dismiss psi phenomena simply because they challenge prevailing materialist assumptions or because their effects are small.
Etzel Cardeña’s university webpage:
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/etzel-carde%C3%B1a/
A selection from Cardeña’s work:
“The experimental evidence for parapsychological phenomena: A review. American Psychologist”, 73(5), 663–677. Cardeña, E. (2018). https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000236
“A Consensus Taxonomy of Altered (Nonordinary) States of Consciousness: Bringing Order to Disarray” (2025) by Etzel Cardeña and collaborators, https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-28269-001.html
“Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century.”, Cardeña, E., Palmer, J., & Marcusson-Clavertz, D. (Eds.) (2015). https://www.amazon.com/Parapsychology-Handbook-Century-Etzel-Carde%C3%B1a/dp/0786479167
Chapter marks:
0:00 Introduction
2:22 Unpacking the 2018 review paper: “The experimental evidence for parapsychological phenomena: A review”
5:33 The difficulty with macro-psychokinesis
7:11 The small but significant effect sizes of micro-psychokinesis
8:16 Why aren’t all people with precognition billionaires?
9:13 Can you influence dice?
10:55 Why are the effect sizes so small?
12:20 Extrasensory perception and survival
14:28 Instead of problematizing altered states of consciousness, we should problematize normal waking consciousness
18:28 On the importance of a taxonomy of states of consciousness
22:30 How to define the hypnotic state?
25:58 On the ineffability of altered states
27:32 Etzel’s view on the compatibility between psi and physics
31:02 The divide between people who have and haven’t had experiences of altered states of consciousness
33:04 On the Ganzfeld effect
40:30 What could be the mechanism behind the Ganzfeld results?
44:11 Metaphysics and the future of parapsychology
48:53 What is the quality of skeptical critique?
50:56 What about the “file drawer effect”?
51:59 On Jim Carrey’s impersonation of Andy Kaufman
57:38 Does your work in psi lead to a greater sense of meaning in life?
© 2026 Essentia Foundation. All rights on interview content reserved.
@ZedOhZed
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Bro actually cited SHAMANIC LITERATURE (???) about the possible harms of pay… Lol
@gloriaharbin1131
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Wonderful, ,uplifting, and inspiring curiosity from both of you. Unfortunately, main stream science doesn’t yet understand that study and incorporating PSI research does not devalue or threaten their own work.
@demikweer
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Excellent, I enjoyed a lot the interview. But according to my own experiences of altered states, I deny that all experiences can be put into words.
@hereiamiamhere
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
After studying and qualifying in hypnosis/CBT, I think the hypnotic state itself is quite a straightforward phenomenon: it’s the replacement of your inner monologue with anything else, whether that is music, a fantasy scenario on a screen, or as is typical in a “hypnosis” session someone else’s monologue. What I found is that when I was myself in a hypnotic state, I would be unable to access my usual inner monologue as that space was already full. For example, I would be given a hypnotic introduction, and then gradually asked to take myself to a place I knew well – in my case a place in a rocky mountain – I found not only that I could examine my surroundings in extreme detail, but that I felt very “present” in it, because I had no distracting thoughts competing for attention. All that I had left was a kind of executive oversight of it, some kind of a mental safety mechanism.
@FigmentHF
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
The EM noise, the TV, 5G, radio, etc are causing reality to be noisy and turbulent, I believe that if these tests were conducted in very "quiet" locations we might see more significant results
@FigmentHF
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
It's getting ready to collapse, but it's going to be turbulent, many "mainstream" academic fields are about to have their hi-pass filter ripped from them, they are about to be confronted with an undeniable phenomenon that will force us to rewrite much of our metaphysical assumptions and archeological time lines. We are becoming incoherent to the point of imminent collapse.
@Trayblazers_Official
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
42:20 I have strange experiences a lot, which is one of the reasons why I'm here watching all the time. Once, I was working with my best friend at the time, stocking. I heard her ask "Do you wanna stop here?" as we were pushing our giant stock pallet. I told her yeah, we should stop here. She then asked "What? Yeah we should, but I didn't ask, I was just about to though." I so clearly heard her ask that I wasn't even aware she didn't verbally say it. I will never ever forget it. A lot of wild things happen to me, and I'm here for answers. Side note: I have autism
@RamulusBramble
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
It happened to me again yesterday when I was out rock hounding, I was sitting & I turned to look at a rock just as it moved. I strongly believe it is a true electromagnetic repulsion bc every object I have experienced this will, is shiny metal / mirror like material, except for the rock yesterday, which is full of shiny minerals.
@zuluonepodcast
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
When will you have a conversation on the phenomenological process of family and systemic constellations developed by Bert Hellinger?
@blAnc1k
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Rupert Sheldrake explains all of this really well
@DNavarro-v1k
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Rather than thinking of evolution, maybe humans have devolved in modern times. Evidence for this may be found with indigenous or tribal people with an unbroken animist tradition. Surviving colonialism and industrialization. Entheogens like Ayahuasca done in a traditional ritualized setting, can wake this sensitivity up quickly in people, that's largely the appeal. It's difficult to maintain without a life focused on maintaining it, but a lot of people are permanently changed by the experience.
I don't view material progress negatively, it's just where we're at. The benefits have been incalculable for quality of life, and maybe it's just the end of the Kali Yuga, a predetermined course. According to Hindu myth or prophecy if you're a believer, we are entering a new era, a shift in consciousness. This subject may become impossible for academia to ignore in the future, especially with a renewed interest in the study of psychedelics and mental health, a field that was criminalized a half century ago.
@ZeonGenesis
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Wouldn't results then largely depend on whether someone is open or able to connect or disturb the realm of consciousness vs someone who is closed? How big of a sample would you need for this to settle into a specific %? And that % would be affected by culture, by sex roles, etc. You'd need to adjust for those before you even get to the possibility someone just can't due to genetics/nervous system. Also, if the 'psychic' results are so dreamlike, there's a huge interpreter issue, where you may allow something to fit which doesn't. "I see two boys" vs "I see too cartoon figures"… Instead of films, you'd need something simpler, undeniable. And you can't accept statements like "I saw an apple" when it's a banana, things like that. No wonder it doesn't get taken seriously, it's not properly reproducible – and the issue is, if these things are real, they may never be. It depends on inner psychological states, nervous systems, training, etc. It would be like consciousness itself, unverifiable. And perhaps that's how that field operates… and still, we can't allow the flood gates to open either, making anything possible. It's a tough field to apply the scientific method to.
@AvailableNameNo
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
I take issue with claims that time and space do not exist, because we can measure space with incredible precision. I am happy to say there are latent variables, and so on, but deny the undeniable – what can be measured – is borderline insane.
@lildogturpy
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
One issue with summarizing published work, is that there is an unspoken bias in the publication record for work that stands out from the ordinary. Studies that find no effect will not be published and so will be silently ignored by the dataset. Not sure if or how you could do it, but could you estimate the expected size of a random effect that shows up in published work given the publication bias?
In concrete terms, if there are 1000 publications about tossing a coin, they would only contain datasets where there was not a 50/50 split heads and tails. Datasets where the split was 50/50 would never get published. Meta-analysis of these datasets would be expected to show something that is not a 50/50 split.
@drivewithbishop4426
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Diving into some of these concepts of mind and psychic ability is good for beginners and the curious. Once I got to the point of realizing that time is an illusion, that this experience I’m having is just a manifestation to conceptualize my own growth and that I am in fact the Gods I read about, the deities that I see portrayed in art, and this entire existence is more or less an exercise of my ability to remember who I am; nobody else and nothing else matters if it or they don’t serve a purpose to my ability of achieving absolute nirvana and experiencing that realm for as long as I want to.
@pseudcast9099
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
You can also manufactur statistical significance very easily. That they found a statistically significant result doesn't mean much unless we can confirm that the methods they used to derive that significance are robust. I haven't seen the data itself, but I (for now) doubt that they are.
@Shibumi-4jn
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
The study can be explained by other scientific means other than the so called "psi-phenomena"? Then, maybe, sceptics have a good reason to not consider it.
@susannaemmerich1166
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Baie dankie Hans!!!!🙃🙏🎉
@akirasthecat
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Interesting!
@kriskrash4961
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Why would the government want people to know they were potentially psychic?
@Y0n3z
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
CAUSE WE ARE BEING MILKED BY AI COMPANIES AND HAVING IP SOLD ON MASS!!! THEY WERE PIPING MY PAPERS DIRECTLY TO PUBLISHERS. FUCKERS A WHOLE YEAR THEY DRAINED ME!!
@christianhansen8778
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Is he trying to say trance?
@susanvaughan4210
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
It looks Hans like this conversation was good medicine for your cold. I don't have a cold, but still, it was good medicine for me. : )
@mycount64
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Double blind studies?
@goncalodias1975
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
We have evolved past the point of materialism, but you guys still insist on rationalism. It is a good starting point. But all answers lie in paradox. I doubt, therefore doubt is what I call me. It is not a question, it is the paradox. As many report in higher states of awareness, you stop caring about knowing, because you know that you know. Doubt as a fact, not as a question. Logic is false by default, as long as it does not contradict itself. Every logic premise and conclusion is false, even if valid. Paralogic is not lack of understanding. It is the only absolute truth.
@LuminiferousEther369
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Can anyone tell me what author/physicist hes talking about when he mentions a book title Physics and Philosophy? The only author Im finding for that title ia Werver Heisenberg but what he said sounded like Vertrand Espana
@Megha-rm8bh
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
I am so grateful for those white Christians on In 2010 they gave me a scholarship to study and work in US. Not just me they even encouraged me so much by bringing Indian actress Priyanka Chopra to motivate me to the greatness. I owe them so much. Don't I ?
@AJScraps
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Its interesting to me how science is allergic to certain hypotheses or evidence just based on the topic. Very unscientific if you ask me
@marclipska1991
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
If the subconscious, who constructs the sensory product impressed on the ego structure milliseconds before the ego observer is aware, exists in the actual present we lag behind, they might have a way to impose last-moment impressions.
@jessicaf6358
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
You need to read Bill Bengston's "The Energy Cure" (he didn't think "it" was energy, btw) but the — non-fiction, mind you — book explains how he took a psychic who was truly ALWAYS right to THE facility in New York City where they test psi abilities. They asked the psychic to do the thing. He DID the thing they asked. Rather than be happy and amazed that they found someone, they said "huh. That's weird — it's not working right all of a sudden!" and moved the psychic on to the NEXT test, which he passed. to which the scientists said "oh no! The machine is broken! So sorry about that!"
THE SCIENTISTS REFUSED TO TAKE THE DATA AS ACTUAL, CORRECT DATA… which was meant to be the whole point of the test facility, but it wasn't.
Bengston was disgusted by this — and other "science" people — that he created his own Society for Scientific Exploration, because it's the DATA that matters. But science is just like a religion following a god if it holds onto dogma rather than updating its ways when new information presents itself — raw data, no less.
It's a GREAT book and also technique, if yoi learn it.
@BlackTortoiseOfTheNorth
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Is this why electronic things malfunction when I am very upset and close to them?
@paulbattista7736
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Very good
@Benyaminmalakouti
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
❤❤❤
@lizhao6979
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
我佛愛因斯坦，奧本海默靠猜的？😅
@lizhao6979
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
所有本源的知識來自於冷酷仙境，而抑制腦電波來猜概率就是笑話。
@ejenkins4711
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
I had encounter with something inside in 2004 after a witch gave me her book a brief history of time
T432
CGJ
🐝🙏👍🍀
@lizhao6979
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
當下科學界包括心理學界沒有一百年前科學家們那樣神勇，是有的人會模糊運算但不會寫程序，更多的人用各種語言寫程序，但不會模糊運算，要麼影子是死的，要麼原始得不懂現實社會的一切規則。要進入模糊運算，同時把運算結果寫成好賣的小說😅
@dvdmon
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
I don't know, you'd think that if this stuff was real, then we would have very clear, repeatable data, but that simply doesn't happen. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I think a lot of it is desire for something "mysterious" and unexplainable, because that might pose some hope that we are more than just mortal organisms that will cease to be once our time is up. The mind is an incredible rationalizer, and it will create whatever mechanisms that it thinks will help make life less scary.
@CoreyAllen-i6b
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Huxley coined the term
@Jack-u8h
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Is consciousness the transmitter or the receiver? It can't be both unless there is more than one consciousness.
@RodCornholio
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
Subscribed. Great content.
@mdlahey3874
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
The kind of childish and unscientific resistance encountered by Prof. Cardeña is exactly what was encountered by Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne at Princeton University in response to their excellent work as explained in "Margins of Reality" (1987). If trained scientists are going to respond in this fashion, what can we expect from ordinary citizens?
@zapbutton8553
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
I would love you taking him as a surprise through a meeting with like people who have the 2nd face how it is also called, or mediums, channelers, and seeing how he "feels" with what they come up with. To many shows visit people that are prepared even when they pretend they were'n't. You could have a hundred names, and have an independent lawyer, like guiness book jury or so, lead the way, to have really unprepared random picks and time close do the meetings. Or even choose someone random and accompany their visit.
I myself dabbled very shallow in tarot as a form of self reflection and the whole classic reading is so flexible, you can make up whatever you think. I never found a thing i couldn't interpret, having a good imagination, if you can sell tupperware you can read tarot.
@angelajohnson1902
May 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm
It's so interesting how things play out. Keep it love and light
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