http://science.howstuffworks.com/esp.htm/printable

A researcher tests whether or not a dork can guess what is on the other side of a card. In this instance, however, the dork is actually sending the researcher a telepathic message that - he hopes - will cause her to go on a date with him. This is a relatively common source of experimental bias, and should be considered when designing studies involving dorks. - JB

Experiments to Test for the Existence of ESP

In 1882, the Society for Psychical Research was founded in London, and apparently was the first institution to specifically study events that had been called "psychic" or whatever. Many noted people from Cambridge started this society. Their wives left them shortly afterward. Today, there are many of these sorts of institutions, including numerous ones in the U.S.

Here are a few experiments that have been purported (by their practitioners) to prove the existence of psychic phenomenon:

 

The Rhine Experiment: First conducted at Duke University in 1930, the Rhine experiment (named after Dr. J.B. Rhine) involves a subject who tries to guess what symbol is on the other side of a card. When a subject guesses which symbol is being held up in front of him, the result is recorded as a hit. When the number of hits recorded is greater than the number that can be expected by random chance, researchers conclude that the subject displays ESP.

 

The Ganzfeld Experiment: A subject (the "reciever") sits in a comfy chair, is blindfolded, and listens to white noise on some headphones. After a couple of minutes, he is asked to tell what images are on a TV screen in another room (which is being viewed by the "sender.") Researchers report that subjects produce hits 34% of the time - higher than the 25% that random chance would produce.

The Global Consciousness Project: Currently being conducted at Princeton, this projects involves senders who try to affect a random number generator by thinking about the same thing at the same time. Researchers are attempting to prove the existence of a universal conscience by showing that a machine can be affected by this energy field when people think about affecting it. Non-statistical changes in the randomness of numbers generated are scored as hits.