Ep. 642 - Zener Cards, the CIA and Psychic Phenomenon

Anyone who has followed and listened to History Goes Bump for any amount of time knows that we consider ourselves open-minded skeptics when it comes to paranormal activity. Particularly the kind of activity connected to psychics. When science gets involved in the paranormal, it lends it some credibility. Parapsychology became a part of college curriculum and at that same time, scientists and government agencies also started paying attention to psychic phenomenon. Intelligence organizations even tried to use it to spy on other countries. On this episode, we are going to look at one of the main tools used to test psi abilities - Zener Cards - and wind our way through the history of parapsychology and some of the famous names connected to this and operations like Project Stargate. The Moment in Oddity features a 1986 Concept Car.

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Show notes can be found here: https://historygoesbump.blogspot.com/2026/06/hgb-ep-642-zener-cards-cia-and-psychic.html

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Music used in this episode:

Main Theme: Creepy Carnival Theme
Created and produced by History Goes Bump
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

(Moment in Oddity) "Vanishing" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Title: "Nostalgia"
Artist: Tim Kulig (timkulig.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons By Attribution 4.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0997280/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1