Parapsychology articles and blog

Take part in an online survey of unusual human experiences

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:17:40 +0200

The Atlantic University is conducting an interesting study and asks people to participate in an online survey.

Below is the message from the researchers:

We are interested in learning more about a variety of human experiences, some of which are unusual, but are by no means uncommon in the general population. We are undertaking an online survey to explore individual differences, synesthesia (the tendency for some people to experience two senses together, e.g., colored words or numbers; tasting shapes; spatially organized calendars, etc.), and a variety of anomalous experiences (for example, extrasensory perception).

We would very much appreciate it if you would take the time to complete this online questionnaire, even if you have never experienced the things described on the questionnaire.

Please email Dr. Christine Simmonds-Moore if you have any questions about the survey. Christine Simmonds-Moore, Ph.D. University of West Georgia, csimmond@westga.edu

Michael Prescott debunks super-psi

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:23:23 +0300

The author Michael Prescott, whose often writes on his blog on the subjects of NDE and mediumship, wrote an article that looks at the subject of super-psi. Super-psi refers to the ability of the subconscious mind to get information about people and events in past and the future somehow to give the impression that the information actually comes from the spirit world, through the medium. The idea of super-psi is a way to explain the mediumship without actually involving the spirit world, supposing that it doesn’t exist.

Prescott argues in the article that the super-psi explanation is actually much less probably than the more parsimonious explanation of actual contact with dead relatives. Here’s what the super-psi subconscious has to do to “cover-up” for a real mediumship:

Our unconscious, then, would have the ability (actually or potentially) to reach at will into other minds, regardless of how widely scattered they might be, and even if the minds in question belong to total strangers, people of whose existence we were and are consciously unaware. Moreover, our unconscious would have the ability to perceive, through clairvoyance, information unknown to any living person, peeking into hidden places without restriction and virtually instantaneously, on demand. It has even been hypothesized that the unconscious could peer back in time (retrocognition) or gaze into the future (precognition) in order to obtain additional information. And all of this extraordinary power would be deployed in the service of a charade – the illusion of communication with a specific deceased personality that has, in reality, ceased to exist. Even the medium herself would have not the slightest idea that her unconscious mind was carrying on this amazing deception on a colossal scale.

But since the evidence for anomalous information received through mediums in many cases appears to be strong, Prescott argues, then the survival of consciousness after death appears to be the only probably explanation, given that super-psi is even more improbable.

I suggest you all go and read the article and its almost 50 high-quality comments yourself.

Medium on reading skeptics

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Mon, 30 May 2011 01:19:46 +0300

An article of Erin Pavlina, one of the mediums whose blog I like to read, relates to the difference that she feels between reading to skeptics and reading to people who are more open to them. The short version is that reading for skeptics is much harder to her and she can’t see as clearly as for people who are open to readings. Here are some excerpts from her article:

When I read for someone who is skeptical of psychic abilities it’s like asking me to read a book in the dark. Sure my eyes still work. Sure I can technically still see. Yes I still know how to read. But the light is bad and it’s hard to make out the words… Sometimes it’s like being handed a book but every other word is blacked out. I can kind of piece the information together but the information definitely doesn’t come through that easily. The reading goes slowly and I end up having to get a lot of clarification. It’s like trying to watch tv with a faulty antenna; sometimes all you get is static.

Erin argues that this happens because of free will. That people block themselves from the readings, for one of two reasons: either they try to test the psychic or because the proof of psychic abilities would shatter their own belief system, and they’re afraid of this.

She concludes the article with the following:

Skeptics, be skeptical if you want. Totally your choice. But if you’re looking for proof of psychic abilities, turn on the light before you hand the psychic your book.

And I wonder, if her experience is true, then could we also project this idea on to other experiments that try to detect psi? I mean, will psi experiments conducted by skeptics be more prone to negative result while the same experiments performed by proponents more likely to succeed?

An honest medium...

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Sun, 22 May 2011 06:56:44 +0300

An honest medium…

Should not ask who you want to hear from before a reading
Will provide unsolicited evidential proof of survival of consciousness
Should not engage in psychic predictions or fortune telling
Will be 100% honest, even when they are 100% wrong
Should not turn you into a psychic junkie or a spiritual dependent

The above paragraph is a quote from the most scientific medium I know, Marcel Cairo. Marcel’s site contains an interesting story of his way into mediumship and his approach, where science is tool to learn more about consciousness. Go read it.

More than 3 years ago I interviewed Marcel Cairo on this site.

Something Unknown film is available for viewing online

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 20:03:35 +0300

About a year ago I reviewed a great new film about the research in parapsychology called “Something Unknown” which was filmed and produced by Renée Scheltema from South Africa. I have also recorded and published an interview with Renée. You might want to read both articles, if you missed them.

Renée has recently announced that the movie can now be viewed and purchased in digital form online. Specifically, the film can be bought or rented through the iTunes Store. The link to its page in the store is: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMovie?id=424161325&s=143441. From what I see it can be purchased for $14.99 or rented for $3.99.

If you can’t or don’t use iTunes Store you can also rent it to watch through the following site for $5 at http://www.sweetfilmstream.com/Something/. This site also has trailers available.

If you are interested about what the leading psi researchers have done in the past and what they do in the present, this is an invaluable movie. Support Renée and her work by viewing her great film!

Hereafter - a new Clint Eastwood movie about life after death

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:15:10 +0200

A new Clint Eastwood film that has opened today in the UK and Europe, after a successful run in the US, and just been Academy Award nominated for best visual effects.

The movie, "Hereafter", tells the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. George (Matt Damon) is a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie (Cécile de France), a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus (George McLaren and Frankie McLaren), a London schoolboy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each on a path in search of the truth, their lives will intersect, forever changed by what they believe might—or must—exist in the hereafter.

“Hereafter” is produced by Clint Eastwood, Kathleen Kennedy and Robert Lorenz, with Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Peter Morgan and Tim Moore serving as executive producers.

What happens after death? How can someone so close just disappear? How can those left behind continue to live? “Hereafter” is a drama that explores three characters’ search for answers about their own lives in the face of what lies beyond.

Peter Morgan wrote the screenplay for “Hereafter” shortly after having lost a dear friend in an accident. It forced him to mull the question everyone considers at some point in their lives. “He died so suddenly. So violently. It made no sense. His spirit was still so alive around us, at his funeral I was probably thinking what everyone else was: ‘Where has he gone?’” poses the screenwriter, who also served as an executive producer. “We can be so close to somebody, know everything about them, share everything with them, and then they’re gone and suddenly we know nothing. I wanted to write a story that asks some of those questions. There’s kind of an epic quality to that search.”

“Hereafter” unfolds through the eyes of three individuals in different parts of the world. Though their lives ultimately converge, they begin their journeys alone. Matt Damon plays George Lonegan, a reluctant psychic medium trying to break free from the desperate people seeking one last moment with loved ones that have passed on.

Thinking Allowed interviews on YouTube

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:46:47 +0200

I have recently stumbled upon the great video resource on YouTube.

This is a series of interviews started in 1986 by Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove. Dr. Mishlove is a past director of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and has served as President of the Intuition Network. The series is called “Thinking Allowed”.

I have interviewed Dr. Mishlove in 2006, as he holds the only doctoral diploma in parapsychology to be awarded by an accredited American University (University of California, Berkeley) and wrote a couple of books on the subject.

The interviews encompass multiple aspects of the subjects of psychology, consciousness research, alternative medicine and mysticism.

There are about 60 videos at this time and more are being added frequently. Most of the videos are excerpts from the interviews but recently longer videos were added.

I suggest you take a look at this great resource.

Bending spoons by example

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 06:38:49 +0200

A reader of the blog sent me some pictures of the result of her spoon bending attempts. She writes the Spoon bending instructions article helped her more than the spoon bending video, both of which were done by Shannan exclusively for this site. The reader also wrote the following:

The first one was easy, but the second one i had lost my concentration in the middle of bending the spoon.

I read the article and then I tried it. I concentrated for several minutes. I focused only on the spoon, which is hard because I am paranoid. I rubbed the handle. Then I bent the spoon. The second time I tried i watched the video and it didn't help as much as the article did.

As I wrote previously, if you've also tried to do some spoon bending and have some experience or pictures to share, please write me to jacob@mind-energy.net. We'd like to hear your stories.

If you feel the urge to comment that this proves nothing, it's not scientific and he bent it with his hands, don't bother. You're right on all these accounts.

So, finally, here are the photographs as received:

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

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:01:31 +0300

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

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:14:10 +0300

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

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:11:31 +0300

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

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:03:23 +0300

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

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:59:20 +0300

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

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:40:07 +0300

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

nospam@example.com (Jacob) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:18:39 +0300

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 ”.