A small band of real-life "ghostbusters" are at work in British universities, including Northampton, trying to understand paranormal activity from UFOs to telepathy.

Two decades after the Hollywood blockbuster introduced the concept of parapsychology to an audience of millions, a number of research centres in the UK are now dedicated to the field.

And despite scepticism from some, the academics conducting the research are convinced the paranormal is a rich topic for study.

Dr Richard Broughton, from Northampton University's Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes, is convinced there is a need to look into the matter.

"I am firmly convinced that there are phenomena here that need to be investigated and may provide a radically new view of the capabilities of human consciousness," he told the Times Higher Education Supplement.

Professor Chris French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, said most people "believe in this stuff".

"If psychologists have nothing to say on this topic, they are missing out on a broad part of the human experience," Prof French said.

Specialists at Edinburgh University's Koestler Parapsychology Unit studied the possibility of people sending positive thoughts to each other, the paper reported.

Such research includes investigating "paranormal healing" and whether people in different rooms can share the same physical sensations.

Parapsychology is also proving useful for undergraduate teaching, as a good basis for exploring critical thinking.

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on Northampton Chronicle and Echo