Parapsychology is a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and cause

s and conditions ofpsychic abilities, near-death experiences, out-of-the-body ex

periences, crisis apparitions, retro-cognitions, reincarnation memories, regress
ion memories, prophecy, astrology, ghosts and life after death. Parapsychologica
l experiments have included the use of random number generators to test for evid
ence of precognition and psychokinesis with both human and animal (e.g. cat) sub
jects and Ganzfeld experiments to test for extrasensory perception.
Parapsychological laboratory and field research is conducted through private ins
titutions and several universities. Privately-funded units in psychology departm
ents at universities in the United Kingdom are among the most active today. In t
he United States, interest in research peaked in the 1970s and university-based
research has declined since then, although private institutions still receive co
nsiderable funding from donations. While parapsychological research has occasion
ally appeared in mainstream academic journals, most of the recent research is pu
blished in a small number of niche journals. Journals dealing with parapsycholog
y include the Journal of Parapsychology, Journal of Near-Death Studies,Journal o
f Consciousness Studies and Journal of Scientific Exploration.