A new peer-reviewed study has identified more than two hundred genetic variants that appear to correlate with self-reported psychic experiences, adding a small but notable data point to a question researchers have circled for decades.
The paper, published in the journal Explore in mid-2026, was led by Helané Wahbeh and a team from the Institute of Noetic Sciences, including longtime parapsychology researcher Dean Radin. It builds on years of survey work suggesting that psychic experiences tend to run in families, and it tries to answer a much harder question. If these experiences cluster in bloodlines, is there something in the DNA itself that lines up with them.
What the Researchers Did
The study pulled together 102 adults who reported having had at least one psychic experience and who already had raw genetic data from services like 23andMe or AncestryDNA. Participants filled out detailed questionnaires measuring the breadth and intensity of their experiences, ranging from things like intuition and precognitive dreams to rarer claims like psychokinesis or channeling. Researchers also screened for mental health symptoms and personality traits to rule out simpler explanations.
From there, the team uploaded each person’s raw genetic file and cross referenced it against their survey scores. Using a machine learning method called a Random Forest classifier, they split participants into high and low scoring groups based on the frequency and strength of their reported experiences, then looked for genetic markers that reliably distinguished one group from the other. Out of more than fifty thousand markers tested, 212 passed a strict statistical correction for false positives.
The Standout Result
One variant stood far above the rest. A marker called rs10410488, located near a gene called ARHGEF18, showed an association so much stronger than any other result that the researchers flagged it specifically. That gene plays a role in how neurons grow their branching dendrites, the structures that let brain cells communicate with each other, and its activity depends heavily on calcium signaling.
A cluster of the other top variants pointed in a similar direction. Genes tied to calcium channel regulation, synaptic structure, and neuronal wiring showed up again and again in the results. The researchers noted that disruptions in some of these same pathways have also been linked to conditions like schizophrenia and epilepsy, though they were careful to point out that the study participants scored within normal, healthy ranges on mental health screenings. Most reported no clinical symptoms at all.
The paper also touched on some more speculative territory. It referenced older, largely unproven ideas about microtubules and consciousness, and it noted a handful of genes tied to hormone and light sensitive pathways that some researchers have connected to vivid dreaming. The authors were upfront that this part of the discussion is meant to generate future hypotheses rather than prove anything.
A Skeptical Read
It is worth being honest about the limits here. A sample of 102 people is small for genetic research of this kind, and the study’s own authors say as much. Standard genome wide association studies typically need thousands of participants to produce results that hold up. The group was also demographically narrow, mostly educated white women from the United States who already believed strongly in paranormal phenomena before the study even began, which raises the possibility of self selection bias.
There is also a more basic issue. The study measured whether people reported psychic experiences, not whether those experiences reflected anything real. A gene tied to how strongly someone believes they have precognitive dreams is not the same as a gene tied to actual precognition. The researchers acknowledge this distinction and frame the whole project as hypothesis generating rather than conclusive, which is a rare and honestly refreshing level of caution for a topic this loaded.
Family Patterns and Older Research
None of this comes out of nowhere. Eighty two percent of participants in the new study said family members had similar experiences, echoing older research on things like the Scottish tradition of second sight, where investigators in the twentieth century documented family trees that seemed to pass the trait down in patterns resembling classic genetic inheritance. Twin studies going back to the 1960s also found mixed but occasionally striking results when comparing identical and fraternal twins on telepathy style tests.
That family clustering has always been one of the more compelling pieces of circumstantial evidence in this field, separate from any single dramatic case or viral video. It suggests that whatever is happening, biology or belief or both, tends to travel through generations the way plenty of other human traits do.
Where This Leaves Things
The study does not prove that psychic ability is real, and it does not claim to. What it does is add a genuine data point to a conversation that usually runs on anecdote. If nothing else, it gives future researchers a specific, testable target. Does rs10410488 show up again in a larger, more diverse sample. Does it actually predict anything beyond a self report questionnaire. Those are answerable questions, and that alone makes this worth watching.
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