Abstract

Twelve approaches to the study of spontaneous psi experiences are described: individual case study, case collection, survey, cross cultural, longitudinal, clinical, psychological, phenomenological, ar chetypal, folklorist, active imagination, and social constructionist. The review begins with the older and more commonly used approaches. Although all 12 methods have been reported in the literature, the primary ones used thus far in parapsychology are the individual case study, the case collection, the cross cultural, the survey, and to a lesser extent, the clinical. The others have barely been tried, yet if given a fair trial, they might prove to be more useful ways of learning to understand the nature of spontaneous psi experiences than the first three, although the latter will always be useful for different purposes. In general, the more commonly used methods aim at establishing that the experiences occurred as reported and at delimiting the characteristics of the cases and details of their incidence. The lesser used methods are aimed at under standing the personal (and sometimes general) meaning of experiential accounts of psi experiences. Throughout the author has also interjected her own personal views of which approaches are to be preferred at this time, and why.