Resources
“Synesthesia” by Miguel Sun
Interviews & Conversations
Click below to watch these in-depth conversations about WISER.
These conversations feature Sean Esbjörn-Hargens discussing the project’s research approach and the extraordinary phenomena super experiencers report. We’ll continue adding more resources over time, so look out for updates.
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens on the Danny Jones show
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens on New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove
Current Initiatives
We’re just getting started. Here are a few exciting projects on the way.
- Pilot Survey Journal Article
We are currently writing up results from the WISER Pilot Survey for submission to a leading academic journal. The data was rich and revealing—well worth learning from—and offers fresh insight into how extraordinary experiences emerge, evolve, and impact people’s lives. - Special Issue of ReVision: The Journal of Consciousness and Transformation
A forthcoming ReVision special issue will spotlight WISER and its broader vision—how studying the extraordinary can expand the boundaries of science, philosophy, and culture. Bringing together scholars, experiencers, and other visionaries, the issue will invite readers into a vibrant dialogue about what it means to encounter and live with the extraordinary.
Selected Resources
Across cultures and centuries, people have described experiences that defy the ordinary. We have gathered both firsthand stories and key research on anomalous and noetic phenomena below. Start with these general resources, or click here to explore each experience type in greater depth.
- Consciousness Unbound: Liberating Mind from the Tyranny of Materialism (Kelly & Marshall, eds.) — Continues the important work begun in Irreducible Mind and Beyond Physicalism, highlighting the significance of extraordinary experiences for expanding our understanding of consciousness and reality.
- Deep Weird: The Varieties of High Strangeness Experience (Hunter, ed.) — A rich anthology exploring diverse extraordinary experiences and proposing innovative methods for researching them.
- Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science and the Paranormal (Presti) — Explores evidence from neuroscience, psychology, and Buddhist contemplative traditions suggesting that consciousness may not be fully generated by the brain but instead reflects a deeper, nonlocal dimension of mind.
- Mysterious Minds: The Neurobiology of Psychics, Mediums, and Other Extraordinary People (Krippner & Friedman, eds.) — Brings together research on the neural and psychological correlates of psychic and mediumistic phenomena, seeking biological insights into extraordinary human capacities.
- Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century (Cardeña, Palmer, & Marcusson-Clavertz, eds.) — A comprehensive modern reference covering the full range of anomalous phenomena and related scientific investigations.
- The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities (Kripal) — A bold call to re-envision the humanities with extraordinary human experiences and capacities at their center.
- The Supernatural After the Neuro-Turn (Craffert, Baker, & Winkelman, eds.) — A scholarly collection examining how neuroscience reshapes the study of supernatural and religious experiences, integrating brain-based models with cultural and phenomenological approaches.
- The Transcendent Mind (Baruss & Mossbridge) — An accessible postmaterialist overview of extraordinary experiences in everyday life.
- Varieties of Anomalous Experience, 2nd Edition (Cardeña, Lynn, & Krippner, eds.) — An APA volume surveying research across mystical, psychic, paranormal, and other exceptional experiences.