Med Hypotheses. 2003 Jun; 60(6): 864-8.

Paranormal phenomena in the medical literature sufficient smoke to warrant a search for fire.

Bobrow RS.

Department of Family Medicine, Health Sciences Center, Stony Brook, New York, USA

Paranormal phenomena - events that cannot be explained by existing science - are regularly reported in medicine. Surveys have shown that a majority of the population of the United States and Great Britain hold at least one paranormal belief. Information was retrieved by MEDLINE searches using keywords 'paranormal' and 'psychic', and from the author's own collection. Reports are predominantly by physicians, and from peer-reviewed, MEDLINE-indexed literature. This is a representative sample, as there is no database for paranormal medical phenomena. Presented and discussed are: a case of systemic lupus erythematosis ameliorated by witchcraft; an analysis of studies on distant healing; acupuncture, as a bridge between what is now accepted but recently would have been deemed paranormal; a carefully-done study of a psychic; auditory hallucinations informing a patient, correctly, that she had a brain tumor; two nearly-identical lay press reports of self-predicted death; lycanthropy (the delusion of being an animal); the development of Carl Jung's collective unconscious; hypnosis - still questioned despite documented therapeutic benefit, and a well-researched report of a person speaking a foreign language, apparently unlearned (xenoglossy) while hypnotized; and multiple examples of children who spout the details of the life of an unknown, deceased person. The inability of existing paradigms to explain these observations does not negate them; rather, it elucidates a need for more research.