Since the beginning of recorded human history, people worldwide have been fascinated by those perceived to have psychic abilities. Many cultures from all over the world have a long history of rich, traditional folklore with seers, witches, wizards, mediums, shamans, priests, and priestesses. All ancient societies had people who divined the future or interpreted signs, people who were believed to be capable of perceiving or manipulating extrasensory information.

The value of psychics in today's society is still very high despite the advances in modern science and the answers that it provides. Many industries seek out psychics, such as movies, television and book authors. Once a criminal case has exhausted all possible leads, for example, the case may become a psychic job as police and detectives search for more insight and clues.

People who want some extra guidance or counsel in their personal life or career may also hire those reported to have psychic abilities. However, con artists and charlatans can also use their advanced powers of intuition, charm, and understanding of human behavior to take advantage of grieving, scared, or otherwise vulnerable people. They can easily pass a desperate person's informal psychic ability test.

Parapsychology describes the study of paranormal psychological phenomena and abilities. Psychic abilities can be divided into groups and then rated and compared in degree of strength. There is no sole psychic ability test. However, there are many ESP tests that try to measure the strength of particular ESP skills that people have.

There is a psychic ability test available for testing many abilities, such as telepathy, ESP abilities, or psychokinesis. Since the ability to read another's thoughts, feelings, or send out thoughts or feelings to create control over another without the use of physical means can be quite useful, mental telepathy tests are very popular for science fiction and parapsychology tests. These tests utilize two subjects where they are both asked to think about a series of objects, or colors, and their telepathic ability is measured by how much their answers correlate without any exchanging of information.

Some extrasensory perception skills which can be tested for include clairvoyance, precognition, and remote viewing. Someone with the trait of clairvoyance will be able to learn about places or events in distant locations. If someone possesses the trait of precognition, he or she will be able to describe future events and places in advance. Remote viewing is a skill analogous to clairvoyance, and refers to someone able to visualize an event or place without needing to be in attendance physically.

Other psychic abilities tested in experimental studies are psychokinetic abilities, which embody a "mind over matter" philosophy. In telekinesis, objects can be moved with only the use of mental exertion. Psychokinetic abilities also include the power to affect temperature, weather, or electricity.