A new U.S. study that suggests extrasensory perception — also known as ESP— may be real is causing a stir in academic circles ahead of its publication in a prominent journal of psychology.

A paper on the study’s results is set to be published as part of the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology at an undetermined date.

The study was done by Daryl Bem, a psychology professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who outlines nine experiments involving more than 1,000 subjects.

In an advance copy of the report, he writes that “all but one of the experiments yielded statistically significant results” of people sensing stimuli that were not yet available to one of their five known senses. It’s a phenomenon researchers such as Prof. Bem commonly refer to as “psi,” pronounced like “sigh.”

Asked to summarize his views on ESP,or extrasensory perception, Prof. Bem said in an email: “I believe the data (not just my own data) are strong enough to convince me that psi is real.”

In one of Prof. Bem’s experiments, subjects were shown images of two curtains on a computer screen and told there was a picture behind one of them. They were asked to choose which one they thought the picture was behind. Some of the pictures were sexually explicit.

Subjects correctly chose the curtain concealing the erotic pictures 53.1% of the time, which was deemed to be significant when compared to the 49.8% rate in which participants accurately pointed to the non-sexual pictures.

But many of Prof. Bem’s peers aren’t buying it.

“It’s craziness, pure craziness,” Ray Hyman, a psychology professor at the University Oregon, told the New York Times. “I can’t believe a major journal is allowing this work in. I think it’s just an embarrassment for the entire field.”

Many Canadian academics were reluctant to offer an opinion on this research, given its unconventional nature.

One psychology professor, Serge Larivee at the Universite de Montreal, said he’s “surprised” by Bem’s findings.

“Unless I’m mistaken, not a single study to date would lead us to formally confirm the existence of this phenomenon,” Prof. Larivee said, adding that he’d like to see if subsequent research can duplicate Prof. Bem’s results.

Albert Bregman, a retired psychology professor of McGill University in Montreal, said Bem’s methodology and statistical verification seem sound, and he’s in favour of its publication. However, he said the research still leaves many questions unanswered.

“It’s hard to think how one could go past what is done, which is merely to show statistical significance for tests to the effect,” he said. “If all we knew about atoms is that they existed, we wouldn’t have much use out of that information.”

Prof. Bem said he’s aware of the skepticism that exists over ESP.

In his paper, he writes: “Psi is a controversial subject, and most academic psychologists do not believe that psi phenomena are likely to exist.”

He adds: “The major theoretical challenge for psi researchers is to provide an explanatory theory for the alleged phenomena that is compatible with physical and biological principles. . . . Historically, the discovery and scientific exploration of most phenomena have preceded explanatory theories, often by decades or even centuries.”