Citation

While sharing key theoretical and methodological assumptions with human psi research, animal psi research poses its own unique conceptual and empirical challenges. We explore two main strands of animal psi research: (1) experimental research, which has tended to explain animal psi as an evolutionarily adaptive process of information transmission, and (2) fieldwork, which has emphasized the importance of the human-animal relationship for the expression of psi. Although there is some support for both explanatory frameworks in animal psi research, we argue that the evidence suggests that animal psi may function as an expression of relationship or “resonance” between individuals. We suggest that it may be more profitable to search for animal psi in the context of close humananimal relationships, and that parapsychology needs to seek methodologies that engender the expression of psi in relational contexts.