Victorian Era: Experimentation and curiosity about the human mind and the supernatural lead to several trends of inquiry and experimentation in Victorian England. Mesmerism (now referred to as hypnotism) was thought to create alternate states of consciousness. Clairvoyance, the ability to read the thoughts of others, see into the future, or describe scenes of distant cities, etc., was also a subject of experimentation and general interest.

1999: There is general interest in E.S.P., tarot cards, "new age" spirituality, astrology, etc. Hypnotism is now used in psychotherapy, as well as other, less scientifically accepted, practices, such as getting in touch with past lives or the dead. Clairvoyance, now commonly referred to as extrasensory perception, (ESP), or the people who have this power as "psychics," is doubted by many, but also believed by many, to be a real phenomenon. Police detectives have been known to...