Parapsychology articles and blog

Immrama Institute Insight and Focus CDs are now available as MP3 downloads

2010-08-23T02:01:31Z

I have previously praised the two sets of CDs from Immrama Institute, the Insight CD and the Focus 2-CD set.

These are layered-brainwave CDs with separate goals in mind.

Insight ”...utilizes harmonically layered brainwave audio technology combined with soothing sounds of natural rain to help your brain quickly and effortlessly reach extraordinary levels of enhanced performance not normally attainable without years of training”.

Focus, as the name suggests, helps you to improve your performance by letting you get rid of disctractions and better focus on the task.

Also, since the last time I reviewed them, there is now an option to order the brainwaves with ocean waves background sounds, or the previously available “gentle rain” background, which is what I have.

Well, the really good news is that these great CDs are now available as MP3 downloads from Immrama Institute. MP3 downloads are cheaper, faster, “greener”, so there’s no reason not to get them.

Here are direct links to the various downloads:

Insight Program with gentle rain
Insight Program with ocean waves
Focus Program with ocean waves
Focus Program with rain

A contest of magnetic people

2010-08-06T14:14:10Z

If you thought that Miroslaw Magola (my interview with him), the magnetic man, is somehow unique in his abilities to stick object to his body, check out the photos from the supernatural contest that took place in Vientam, where people stuck objects on themselves, including some very heavy ones.

By the way, the winner held a block that weighs 70 lbs (32 kg) on his chest.

To the photos.

Rupert Sheldrake talks about his experiments in Schumacher College

2010-07-19T13:11:31Z

The famous biologist and parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake gave a talk at Schumacher college in the UK. In this talk he presented his various research projects about telepathy, in animals and in people.

He presented his “Dogs that know when their owners are coming home” experiment with the dog Jaytee and showed an experiment video that was done for Austrian television on that. This is a very famous experiment and I’d like to hear if any of you know of a similar behavior with your pets.

He also talked about phone telepathy and showed another video of an experiment between 5 sisters which had a hit rate of 50% instead of the expected 25%. Sheldrake told that the overall hit in over 1000 trials of telephone telepathy is 42%, which is highly statistically significant. Do you sometimes know who calls you?

Sheldrake performs simple and low-cost experiments for testing telepathy, mostly because the established science hold these subjects as taboo and doesn’t provide funds. Dr. Sheldrake talks a little about this as well, in his introduction to the lecture.

There’s also a discussion of this video on our forum at: http://forum.mind-energy.net/skeptiko-podcast/1429-new-video-rupert-sheldrake.html

A link to the page on Schumacher college website or watch in below.

http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/community/mind-and-cosmos-an-open-evening-with-rupert-sheldrake

Watch the video below:

"No One Dies in Lily Dale" documentary premiers on HBO

2010-07-04T18:03:23Z

Located just south of Buffalo, tiny Lily Dale, NY, is home to the world’s largest concentration of mediums, people who claim to be able to communicate with spirits of the deceased. Every year, thousands of visitors from all over the world flock to this quaint Victorian community to have their questions answered and grief assuaged. Directed by Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Steven Cantor (HBO’s “Devil’s Playground”), "No One Dies in Lily Dale" follows visitors on their emotional quests, chronicling their mysterious and deeply personal interactions with the town’s unusual residents.

"No One Dies in Lily Dale" premieres this Monday, July 5th at 9pm on HBO.

Some stills from the movie:

More information on the show and schedule on HBO: http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/no-one-dies-in-lily-dale

Meditation benefits appear after several days of practice

2010-06-28T13:59:20Z

There have been numerous studies about the benefits of meditation. I have written about some of them in 2008 in the article Benefits of meditation researched by scientists.

Lately, I have found about a new study that took place in Wake Forest University School of Medicine, NC, USA. The new study is titled “Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: evidence of brief mental training” and you can read its abstract on the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.

The authors tried to see if the unexperienced meditators had any benefits from meditation after only several days of simple meditation. They also had a control group that listened to an audio book, instead of meditating. The results were that meditation was more beneficiary in many aspects. From the abstract:

We examined whether brief meditation training affects cognition and mood when compared to an active control group. After four sessions of either meditation training or listening to a recorded book, participants with no prior meditation experience were assessed with measures of mood, verbal fluency, visual coding, and working memory. Both interventions were effective at improving mood but only brief meditation training reduced fatigue, anxiety, and increased mindfulness. Moreover, brief mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning.

The group only had 4 days of meditation (20 minutes each day) and the benefits were already apparent. The authors of the article also suggest that in more experienced meditators the beneficial effect should be more profound.

Source: Percolator, The Chronicle of Higher Education’s blog about ideas

Prahlad Jani allegedly lives 15 days without food or water under surveillance

2010-05-13T20:40:07Z

In 2006 I wrote a short article about Prahlad Jani, an Indian yogi who claims he can live without eating or even drinking. The news at that time were driven by another alleged “breatharian”, Ram Bahadur Bamjan, then a 16 year old boy, who was meditating for six months at that time.

Recently, Prahlad Jani returned to the major news after he was again under a 15-day surveillance in a hospital to verify his claims of not eating and drinking.

There are many sources about the latest tests. Here are some links to learn more:

The following paragraphs mostly summarize what’s new:

Prahlad Jani, 83, who says he has not had a bite to eat for 70 years, was put under constant surveillance to test his astonishing claims by a team of 30 military medical staff.

During a 15 day stay in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad, India — he astounded doctors by not eating, drinking or going to the bathroom.

The person claims to not have eaten for 70 years. That's quite a hard claim to swallow, frankly. A 15-day surveillance sounds good but the suspicious fact here is that the 2003 study and this one were conducted by the same hospital in Ahmedabad, the Sterling hospital. I think it was even the same crew leading researcher, Dr. Sudhir Shah.

What is new this time is that 1) the test was longer (15 days and not 10) and 2) that the study initiated by India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). I hope they're not as naïve as to let the hospital run the test without overseeing it themselves.

So, it is interesting news and it would be better, more reliable, if this man was tested by some western hospital, to reduce the chance of fraud by co-operating.

I originally learned about this new test from our forums. OC68 has posted the original news and much conversation still follows. You're welcome to join the discussion there.

What do you think about all this?

The Living Matrix movie review

2010-04-23T14:18:39Z

There’s a documentary movie, released in 2009, called “The Living Matrix ”. As some other movies in the field before, it is a mix of documentary, interviews and computer graphics. The movie’s focus is what’s called energy or alternative medicine.

The movie interviews a list of notable guests, some of whom appeared in other movies, such as What the Bleep!? and my recently reviewed Something Unknown. The list of guests include:

Lynne McTaggart – author of “The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe ”
Dr. Bruce Lipton, PhD, MD – a cell biologists, author of “The Biology of Belief ”
Peter Frasier – expert in traditional Chinese medicine and author of “Decoding the Human Body-Field ”
Dr. Eric Pearl, DC – healer and author of “The Reconnection ”
Edgar Mitchell, PhD – scientist, Apollo 14 astronaut and the founder of Institute of Noetic Sciences
Marilyn Schlitz, PhD – President of the Institute of Noetic Science
Rupert Sheldrake, PhD – Professor and Cambridge biologist, and author of “The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature ”, “Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals ”
Dean Radin, PhD – Author of “The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena ,” senior researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, international speaker and cofounder of the Boundary Institute
Fritz-Albert Popp, PhD – Biophysicist, professor, researcher, founder of the Institute of International Biophysics, and author of “About the Coherence of Biophotons”
8 more guests from the field of alternative medicine

The movie also includes numerous stories told by people who recovered from difficult diseases using alternative medicine and the power of intention.

The movie presents of picture where the human is body is described not only being controlled by chemicals and DNA but also by our intentions, intra-cellular communication in the form of biophotons and other effects that are on the fringe of science. It does not speak about parapsychology, or psi as "Something Unknown" movie by Renée Scheltema does.

If you are interested in the alternative medicine, especially in finding scientific explanations to some of its possible explanations of effectiveness, I can recommend “The Living Matrix ”.

Get rid of stuffed or running nose without drugs

2006-06-03T17:15:34Z

Nasal congestion, stuffy nose, runny nose – these are common problems experienced by everyone, usually many times a year. We generally disregard it, if it’s on moderate levels but can get very annoyed when they are strong and require our attentions.

Yes, you could use a nasal spray to depress it for a while. But there are some problems with the sprays:

First, they are drugs (chemicals), might have side effects and are somewhat addictive.
Second, they cost money.
Third, you should have it with you whenever your nose drives you mad. This might not be the case every time, since you have to buy it first, and then carry it with you whenever you go (work, for example).

When I was little, one of my grandmothers has taught my father and me a very simple point massage technique that relieves nasal congestion fast and effectively, without leaving the bitter taste in your mouth. I wanted to share it with you.

Please look at the comments below the article to read about the many successes of this technique. Write about your results in the comments as well. (comments are moderated, so give time for them to appear).

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