Parapsychology and transpersonal psychology were founded independently and have evolved separatel... more Parapsychology and transpersonal psychology were founded independently and have evolved separately as two distinct movements, although there is considerable overlap in both their content and in the interests of a number of scholars who are active in both areas. Harris Friedman, Co-President of the Association of Transpersonal Psychology, and Dean Radin, President of the Parapsychological Association, engaged in an informal discussion on the salient commonalities and differences between the two movements, focusing on exploring ways that the two could be brought into better alignment, such as including more transpersonal approaches within parapsychological studies and vice versa. Stanley Krippner, whose seminal work straddles both areas, chaired the panel, introducing and serving as a discussant for Friedman's and Radin's views, as well as in presenting his own views on the relationship between parapsychology and transpersonal psychology.
With one exception, near-death experiences (NDEs) may be interpreted as unusual forms of hallucin... more With one exception, near-death experiences (NDEs) may be interpreted as unusual forms of hallucinations associated with the injured or dying brain. The exception involves perceptions described from vantage points outside the body that are later confi rmed to be correct and could not have been inferred. Over a century of laboratory studies have investigated whether it is possible in principle for the mind to transcend the physical boundaries of the brain. The cumulative experimental database strongly indicates that it can. It is not clear that this implies the mind is separate from the brain, but it does suggest that a comprehensive explanation for NDEs will require revisions to present scientifi c assumptions about the brain-mind relationship. Neuroscientist Francis Crick famously quipped that the mind -the selfaware, subjective aspect of the brain -is "nothing but a pack of neurons." Crick asserted that all mental activity, all of "your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules." 1 This proposal, which is now a central tenet in the neurosciences, 2 suggests that near-death experiences (NDEs) are best understood as hallucinations caused by distortions in neural activity as the brain shuts down. No other explanation is possible, because from the "pack of neurons" perspective mind and brain are identical, in which case visions of distant environments or discussions with disembodied entities are both examples of bizarre dreams.
Transformative, noetic, and transpersonal experiences during personal development workshops
The global personal development market was valued at $38.28 billion in 2019 and is expected to gr... more The global personal development market was valued at $38.28 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow an additional 5% from 2020 to 2027. Many of these workshops promise to be transformational. This secondary analysis study examined transformative, transpersonal, and noetic aspects of personal development workshops. We found that 74% of post-survey records endorsed that participants experienced a moment of clarity or profound insight during their workshop. In addition, 66% endorsed that participants had experienced at least one noetic experience, and 84% endorsed at least one transpersonal experience. These analyses provide preliminary evidence for the transformational potential of personal development workshops and the common occurrence of transpersonal and noetic experiences across various workshop types.
Energy healing is a therapy said to manipulate and balance the flow of "energies" in the body. On... more Energy healing is a therapy said to manipulate and balance the flow of "energies" in the body. One such technique, the Bengston Healing Method (BHM), has shown some success in healing malignant tumors in animals and humans, but the mechanism of action and factors influencing therapeutic success of this method are poorly understood. In this study, we tested in vivo the antitumor potential of magnetic signals recorded during BHM healing. Balb/c mice engrafted with 4T1 breast cancer cells were exposed to this recording for 4 h/d on a weekly or daily basis for 28 days; control mice were not exposed at all. Tumors showed a trend to grow slower in the treatment versus control group during the fourth week of treatment. Elevated leukocyte counts, associated with an increase in blood levels of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and interleukin-6, were observed in tumorbearing mice exposed to the BHM recording but not in healthy animals exposed to the recording. This suggests that exposure to a recording of BHM may induce a biological response in tumor-bearing mice, but limited effects on tumor growth when observed within the predefined end point of 28 days. Studies involving longer end points are recommended to observe the progression of tumor growth.
Not So Fast: A Response to Augustine's Critique of the BICS Contest HIGHLIGHTS A prior cynical re... more Not So Fast: A Response to Augustine's Critique of the BICS Contest HIGHLIGHTS A prior cynical review of the outcomes of a recent contest on the best evidence for "life after death" arguably rehashes many familiar and trivial criticisms of paranormal research. Problems with survival-type studies exist, but some evidence seems much stronger than what skeptics assume or conclude.
Journal of anomalous experience and cognition, Oct 28, 2021
Objective: We set out to gain a better understanding of human psychic or "psi" functioning by usi... more Objective: We set out to gain a better understanding of human psychic or "psi" functioning by using a smartphone-based app to gather data from thousands of participants. Our expectations were that psi performance would often be revealed to be in the direction opposite to the participants' conscious intentions ("expectation-opposing"; previously called "psi-missing"), and that gender and psi belief would be related to performance. Method: We created and launched three iOS-based tasks, available from 2017 to 2020, related to micro-psychokinesis (the ability to mentally influence a random number generator) and precognition (the ability to predict future randomly selected events). We statistically analyzed data from more than 2,613 unique logins and 995,995 contributed trials using null hypothesis significance testing as well as a pre-registered confirmatory analysis. Results: Our expectations were confirmed, and we discovered additional effects post-hoc. Our key findings were: 1) significant expectation-opposing effects, with a confirmatory pre-registered replication of a clear expectation-opposing effect on a micro-PK task, 2) performance correlated with psi belief on all three tasks, 3) performance on two of the three tasks related to gender, 4) men and women apparently used different strategies to perform micro-PK and precognition tasks. Conclusions: We describe our recommendations for future attempts to better understand performance on forced-choice psi tasks. The mnemonic for this strategy is SEARCH: Small effects, Early and exploratory, Accrue data, Recognize diversity in approach, Characterize rather than impose, and Hone in on big results.
Journal of anomalous experience and cognition, Apr 3, 2023
A veridical out-of-body perception during a near-death experience was the most frequently selecte... more A veridical out-of-body perception during a near-death experience was the most frequently selected controlled, prospective experiment. • Mediumship and reincarnation studies were also rated as potentially persuasive. Surveys among adults worldwide show that most believe they will survive after bodily death. "Survival" in this context means they will retain their personal sense of self. For example, of 18,000 people from 23 countries surveyed, over half said they believed in an afterlife, 23% said, "you simply cease to exist," and 26% said they were not sure . Other extensive global surveys show that 21% to 78% of respondents believe in survival after bodily death . This belief may arise for psychological or sociological reasons, including existential angst, comfort in the face of a loved one's death, faith in religious doctrine, or cultural dictates. People with first-hand experiences suggestive of survival, such as near-death experiences (NDEs), are often thoroughly convinced that they will survive (Lindsay & Tassell-Matamua, 2020). After-death communications (ADCs) are another such experience, suggesting that a deceased person can intentionally communicate with the living. Out of thousands of people questioned worldwide, 25% to 66% have reported that they have "felt as though [they] were really in touch with someone who died" (Wahbeh et al., 2018). A dissertation review of 35 studies collating data from more than 50,000 participants in 24 countries and spanning 102 years found that people of all ages, nationalities, ethnicities, education levels, incomes, and religious affiliations report ADCs . ADCs can take many forms, including sensory perception, dreams, symbolic means (e.g., a meaningful song on the radio or an unexpected appearance of a favorite animal), telephone calls, and apparitional phenomena . A recent study that characterized the sensory nature of 991 ADCs reported that 48% included touch, 46% were
Energy healing is a therapy said to manipulate and balance the flow of “energies” in the body. On... more Energy healing is a therapy said to manipulate and balance the flow of “energies” in the body. One such technique, the Bengston Healing Method (BHM), has shown some success in healing malignant tumors in animals and humans, but the mechanism of action and factors influencing therapeutic success of this method are poorly understood. In this study, we tested in vivo the antitumor potential of magnetic signals recorded during BHM healing. Balb/c mice engrafted with 4T1 breast cancer cells were exposed to this recording for 4 h/d on a weekly or daily basis for 28 days; control mice were not exposed at all. Tumors showed a trend to grow slower in the treatment versus control group during the fourth week of treatment. Elevated leukocyte counts, associated with an increase in blood levels of granulocyte–macrophage colony stimulating factor and interleukin-6, were observed in tumor-bearing mice exposed to the BHM recording but not in healthy animals exposed to the recording. This suggests t...
Objective: Clairvoyance denotes the purported capacity to perceive events or objects beyond the r... more Objective: Clairvoyance denotes the purported capacity to perceive events or objects beyond the reach of the six senses. We investigated this ability in a laboratory experiment with four self-identified professional clairvoyants and three laboratory staff who did not consider themselves to possess clairvoyant skills (as controls). Participants were asked to use extrasensory perception to sense a Buddha relic said to emanate “subtle energy.” Before the experiment, the relic was placed inside an opaque container, and the participants were allowed to familiarize themselves with any subtle energies emitted by the relic. They were permitted to hold their hands next to the opaque container but not touch it. For each experimental session, the relic was placed inside an opaque container randomly arranged alongside nine other identical containers. In a series of ten consecutive experimental sessions, participants attempted to detect which container held the relic without touching any of the ...
Objective: Human gene expression studies typically rely on peripheral blood samples as a cellular... more Objective: Human gene expression studies typically rely on peripheral blood samples as a cellular source, however there are numerous situations in which venipuncture is contraindicated. To this end, an oral rinse-based method for collecting salivary neutrophils as a cellular source for gene expression analyses was previously developed and shown in a pilot study with five male participants to yield mRNA expression results comparable to those obtained from peripheral blood samples. The objective of the current study was to characterize the generalizability of the oral rinse-based method by analyzing unpublished RNA quality data obtained through a parent study that collected salivary neutrophil samples using the method from a larger sample size and including both men and women. Results: The 260/280 nm absorbance ratios of the RNA obtained from 48 participants using the oral rinse-based method were within the expected range (average = 1.88 +/- 0.16) for the majority of the samples, and ...
The nature of consciousness is considered one of the most perplexing and persistent mysteries in ... more The nature of consciousness is considered one of the most perplexing and persistent mysteries in science. We all know the subjective experience of consciousness, but where does it arise? What is its purpose? What are its full capacities? The assumption within today’s neuroscience is that all aspects of consciousness arise solely from interactions among neurons in the brain. However, the origin and mechanisms of qualia (i.e., subjective or phenomenological experience) are not understood. David Chalmers coined the term “the hard problem” to describe the difficulties in elucidating the origins of subjectivity from the point of view of reductive materialism. We propose that the hard problem arises because one or more assumptions within a materialistic worldview are either wrong or incomplete. If consciousness entails more than the activity of neurons, then we can contemplate new ways of thinking about the hard problem. This review examines phenomena that apparently contradict the notion...
We explored personal development workshops’ transformative effects by evaluating participants’ tr... more We explored personal development workshops’ transformative effects by evaluating participants’ transformative, noetic, transpersonal, and relational experiences during workshops and their association with interconnectedness, well-being, and extended perception measure changes in a prospective, uncontrolled, within-participant design study. Participants reported positive changes that a majority felt would affect their behavior and relationships. Perceived contact with the dead was associated with an increased interconnectedness, as was a meaningful experience with wildlife or animals. A meaningful experience with a person, place, or thing was associated with increased well-being. These analyses support the idea that engaging in personal development workshops is positively transformative.
Data from a cross-sectional study on the prevalence of anomalous information reception in general... more Data from a cross-sectional study on the prevalence of anomalous information reception in general, and differences between the general population, scientists and engineers and people who are biased towards anomalous information reception.
These files represent the extended data for the Noetic Experience and Belief Scale validation stu... more These files represent the extended data for the Noetic Experience and Belief Scale validation study. 1. Appendix 1. Noetic Experience and Belief Scale2. Supplemental Data A - Table of previous studies and Supplemental Data B - Definitions of terms. 3. Consent Form
Genetics of psychic ability - A pilot case-control exome sequencing study
EXPLORE, 2021
INTRODUCTION It is commonly believed that psychic ability, like many mental and physical traits, ... more INTRODUCTION It is commonly believed that psychic ability, like many mental and physical traits, runs in families. This suggests the presence of a genetic component. If such a component were found, it would constitute a biological marker of psychic ability and inform environmental or pharmacologic means of enhancing or suppressing this ability. METHODS A case-control study design was used to evaluate differences between psychic cases and non-psychic controls. Over 3,000 candidates globally were screened through two online surveys to locate people who claimed they and other family members were psychic. Measures of relevance to the claimed abilities (e.g., absorption, empathy, schizotypy) were collected and based on those responses, individuals with indications of psychotic or delusional tendencies were excluded from further consideration. Eligible candidates were then interviewed and completed additional screening tests. Thirteen individuals were selected as the final "psychic cases," and ten age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched individuals with no claims of psychic ability were selected as controls. DNA from the saliva of these 23 participants was subjected to whole-exome sequencing. Two independent bioinformatics analyses were blindly applied to the sequenced data, one focusing exclusively on protein-coding sequences and another that also included some adjacent noncoding sequences. RESULTS Sequencing data were obtained for all samples, except for one in the control group that did not pass the quality controls and was not included in further analyses. After unblinding the datasets, none of the protein-coding sequences (i.e., exons) showed any variation that discriminated between cases and controls. However, a difference was observed in the intron (i.e., non-protein-coding region) adjacent to an exon in the TNRC18 gene (Trinucleotide Repeat-Containing Gene 18 Protein) on chromosome 7. This variation, an alteration of GG to GA, was found in 7 of 9 controls and was absent from all psychic cases. DISCUSSION The most conservative interpretation of these results is that they result from random population sampling. However, when the results are considered in relation to other lines of evidence, the results are more provocative. Further research is justified to replicate and extend these findings.
In this study, a classification task asked participants to look at 180 facial photographs of dece... more In this study, a classification task asked participants to look at 180 facial photographs of deceased individuals (photographs were taken years prior to their deaths) and guess the cause of death from three equiprobable categories: heart attack; death by firearm; or car accident. Electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) data were simultaneously collected during the task. The participants included individuals who claimed "mediumistic" (psychic) abilities and controls who claimed no mediumistic ability. Pooled data showed accurate guesses for the cause of death (partial η 2 = 0.12; p = 0.004), and control subjects were primarily responsible for this effect (partial η 2 = 0.11; p = 0.005). EEG and ECG differences were found between the mediums and controls. Control participants had larger amplitude event-related potentials (ERP) following the presentation of the images than the mediums, between 80 and 110 ms, and between 200 and 350 ms. This could be interpreted as reflecting greater attention and less response inhibition by controls as compared to the mediums. Participants in the control group also had lower average heart rates than the mediums, possibly indicating less stress during the task. Speculations and limits regarding why controls performed better than mediums are discussed.
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