Parapsychology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Parapsychology is the study of the evidence involving phenomena where a person
seems to affect or to gain information about something through a means not currently
explainable within the framework of mainstream, conventional science. Proponents of
the existence of these phenomena usually consider them to be a product of
unexplained mental abilities.
Contents
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1 Types of parapsychology
2 Status of the field
3 How science views the field
4 Interpretation of the evidence
5 Criticisms of parapsychological research
6 Responses from parapsychologists to criticisms
7 James Randi and The Randi Challenge
8 Early Scientific American challenge
9 Other objections to parapsychology
10 History and evaluation
11 Trivia
12 Famous parapsychologists
13 Claimed psychics
14 Critics of parapsychology
15 Psychic investigations
16 References
17 See also
18 External links
o 18.1 General organizations
o 18.2 Independent research organizations
o 18.3 University research organizations
o 18.4 Other links
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Types of parapsychology
The phenomena in question fall into two broad groups.
Extra-sensory perception (ESP) is also known as anomalous cognition, and includes
telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairalience, clairgustance, clairsentience and
precognition.
Anomalous operation includes psychokinesis (in the past referred to as telekinesis),
out-of-body experiences, astral projection, near-death experiences, mediumship, and
reincarnation.
The general term "psi phenomena" (or the somewhat older term, "psychic
phenomena," which was said to be the "psi factor" in an experiment) covers all of
these categories.
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Status of the field
The standing of the field of parapsychology has always been controversial within the
scientific community.
As its name indicates, parapsychology is sometimes considered a sub-branch of
psychology, and this has arisen historically since it involved the study of apparently
mental faculties. In its modern form, parapsychology is an interdisciplinary field,
which has attracted physicists, engineers, and biologists, as well as psychologists and
those from other sciences. (For an argument that parapsychological phenomena may
not in fact be psychological, see Peter J. King's "Psychology without the 'para' (or the
psychology)" (Think 3, 2003, pp 43 53).) Parapsychology often involves the use of
new and untested technologies and methods such as; neurofeedback, NLP, and past
life regression etc. As such, it may yet earn the right to be included as a modern and
proper science.
Many people are not satisfied with the term, and have proposed alternatives, such as
"psi research" (similar to the older term "psychical research"), but parapsychology is
the term that has gained the greatest acceptance today.
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How science views the field
Scientists treat all claims with scientific scepticism. After examining psi claims for
over a century, there has been significant difficulty in merging the results of
parapsychology studies with other fields of science. As a result, many in the scientific
community feel that parapsychology is not a real science, that psi phenomena do not
exist, and that parapsychology is a pseudoscience. Many scientists and sceptical
observers of the field believe that some parapsychologists knowingly commit fraud;
that some are incompetent; and that some are naïve and therefore easily deceived by
fraudulent participants; or perhaps some combination of the above.
Parapsychologists disagree with this assessment. Many have been formally trained in
science, and are familiar with the scientific method. Statistician Jessica Utts has
shown in a number of papers that:
"Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that
psychic functioning has been well established. The statistical results of the
studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance. Arguments that
these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments are
soundly refuted."
The precise percentage of scientists holding negative views about parapsychology is
unclear, since surveys targeting this group are far less common than those targeting
the general population. In his article Save Our Science: Paranormal Phenomena and
Zetetics, skeptic Henri Broch complains:
"These data are based on an investigation on the belief in parasciences among
Frenchmen (published in 1986). [...] Contrary to what might have been
thought, the level of belief in the paranormal is directly proportional to the
level of education, whatever the religious persuasion may be. Those with
higher scientific degrees fare slightly better, although their level of belief is
superior to [greater than] the average!"
Sociologist Andrew Greeley, studying surveys and polls since 1978, found not only
that the percentage of Americans admitting to psychic experiences had increased over
a decade, but that about two thirds of college professors accepted ESP, and more than
25% of "elite scientists" believed in ESP. Other polls have shown that many scientists
hold such beliefs privately but do not share such opinions publicly for fear of ridicule.
The Parapsychological Association is an affiliate of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS). There are chairs, centers, or research units
concerned with parapsychology in whole or in part at many universities around the
world, as well as independent laboratories involved in parapsychology.
A few parapsychologists are skeptics, for example Chris French and his colleagues at
the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College in London, and
Richard Wiseman and his colleagues at the Perrott-Warrick Research Unit in the
Psychology Department of the University of Hertfordshire, both of which units are
affiliates of the Parapsychological Association. These researchers do not approach the
field with a belief in the paranormal, but are rather interested in the purely
psychological aspects of those who report paranormal experiences, along with the
study of the psychology of deception, hallucination, etc. These researchers also have
provided their own guidelines and input to other parapsychologists for the design of
experiments and how to properly test those who claim psychic abilities.
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Interpretation of the evidence
Many scientists hold that the entire body of evidence to date is of poor quality and not
properly controlled; in their view the entire field of parapsychology has produced no
results whatsoever.
Other scientists hold that there is a small amount of data from properly controlled
experiments that can be trusted for a small number of psi phenomena. They hold that
this evidence is not definitive, but suggestive enough to warrant further research.
[edit]
Criticisms of parapsychological research
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Anecdotal evidence, characteristic of most of parapsychology, is inherently
unreliable. Anecdotes may have natural, non-anomalous explanations such as
random coincidence, fraud, imagination, or auto-suggestion.
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If an experiment is not controlled to prevent fraud, then the results may not be
trusted. This is especially so given the fact that many people who claimed to
possess psi abilities were later proven to be frauds.
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Parapsychology experiments are usually poorly designed. They often lack
proper controls, allowing paths of intentional or unintentional information
leakage through normal means, etc.
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Parapsychology experiments are rarely replicated with positive results at
independent laboratories.
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Positive results in psi experiments are so statistically insignificant as to be
negligible, i.e. indistinguishable from chance. For example, parapsychology
may have a "file drawer" problem where a large percentage of negative results
are never published, making positive results appear more significant than they
actually are.
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Currently unexplainable positive results of apparently sound experiments do
not prove the existence of psi phenomena, i.e., normal explanations may yet be
found. Concluding unexplainability from unexplainedness constitutes the wellknown fallacy Argument from Ignorance.
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Psi phenomena cannot be accepted as explanation of positive results until
there is a widely acceptable theory of how they operate.
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Parapsychologists may prefer and write selective history. The whole story may
be avoided.
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Parapsychology spends too much time simply trying to show that certain
phenomena occur, and too little time trying to explain them — yet it's
explanation that constitutes the heart of scientific enquiry, and wider, scientific
acceptance of parapsychological phenomena would come only with the
provision of explanation. (See King (2003) cited above.)
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Responses from parapsychologists to criticisms
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The hard evidence for psi phenomena today is founded on repeatable
experiments and not anecdotal evidence.
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Anecdotal evidence is considered valid in law and many other fields. The
validity of anecdotal evidence does not depend upon the opinion of those
listening to it.
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There is no such thing as a completely foolproof experiment in any field of
science, and it is unreasonable to hold parapsychology to a higher standard of
epistemology than the other sciences. Fraud and incompetence in
parapsychology is addressed in the same way it is addressed in any other field
of science: repeating experiments at multiple independent laboratories;
publishing methods and results in order to receive critical feedback and design
better protocols, etc.
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Experimental protocols have been continually improved over time, sometimes
with the direct assistance of noted skeptic. Meta-analyses show that the
significance of the positive results have not declined over time, but instead
have remained fairly constant.
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There are certain phenomena which have been replicated with odds against
chance far beyond that required for acceptance in any other science. Metaanalyses show that these cannot be accounted for by any file drawer problem.
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Anomalous phenomena do not disappear for lack of a theory. There have been
many instances in the history of science where the observation of an
anomalous phenomenon came before an explanatory theory, and some
commonly accepted non-psi phenomena today still lack a perfectly
satisfactory, undisputed theory. For instance, in the past, those who sighted
meteors falling to the earth were dismissed as madmen or false prophets.
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Theories abound in parapsychology for aspects of psi phenomena, though
there is not any one that is comprehensive and widely accepted within
parapsychology.
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It is not necessary to be a licensed psychiatrist or acquainted with clinical
psychology to test the validity of psi. The field of parapsychology overlaps
many disciplines, including physics and biology, and often physicists,
engineers and others trained in the hard sciences, in conjunction with stage
magicians and other experts in deception, are in a better position to design
experiments for certain types of phenomena than are psychiatrists or
psychologists.
The opinion of parapsychologists regarding the overall evaluation of the body of
evidence to date is divided. As noted above, some parapsychologists are skeptic and
do not believe that there is anything observed so far which cannot ultimately be
explained within the existing framework of known science. Probably a majority of
parapsychologists believe in the likelihood, or at least the possibility, of actual psi
phenomena, though there is a range of attitudes toward the evidence.
Regarding the evidence, the rule of the thumb of the sceptical community is that
extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Since skeptics may consider
paranormal claims extraordinary, they may think that the evidence needs to be better
than what normally would be required.
Most people use this approach to evidence in everyday life. For instance, if the news
reports that the president of the USA has just arrived in South Korea for a state visit,
most people will take this at face value. The news is considered a fairly reliable
source of information, and the president visiting a country such as South Korea is not
an extraordinary claim. However, if the same news broadcast later mentioned that a
92-year-old man has improved the world record time on the marathon by half an hour,
many reasonable people would require more evidence, even despite the assumed
reliability of the source, since the claim is extraordinary.
Some parapsychologists agree with critics that the field has not yet reached the degree
of consistent repeatability of experimental results needed for general consensus. John
Beloff, in his book Parapsychology: A Concise History, notes the evanescent – some
have said the apparently evasive – nature of psychic phenomena over time, and that
the range of phenomena observable in a given era seems to be culturally dependent.
For example, in earlier times, psychic research studied physical phenomena
demonstrated by spiritualist mediums that, according to the reports passed down to us
in the literature, far surpassed anything that any of today's "psychics" can
demonstrate. Skeptics consider this more evidence of the non-existence of psi
phenomena.
Yet many people, such as Beloff, cannot easily dismiss the entirety of all the positive
accounts – so many of which came from the experts of their day (including scientists
and conjurors), many of whom began as noted skeptics – and so believe that
continued research in the field is justified.
Other parapsychologists, such as Dean Radin and supporters such as statistician
Jessica Utts, take the stance that the existence of certain psi phenomena has been
reasonably well established in recent times through repeatable experiments that have
been replicated dozens to hundreds of times at labs around the world.
They refer to meta-analyses of psi experiments that conclude that the odds against
chance (null hypothesis) of experimental results far exceeds that commonly required
to establish results in other fields, sometimes by orders of magnitude.
Indeed, many parapsychologists have moved on from proof-oriented research,
intended primarily to verify the existence of psi phenomena, to "process-oriented"
research, intended to explore the parameters and characteristics of psi phenomena.
Time will tell whether these results prove to be evanescent as well.
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James Randi and The Randi Challenge
Magician James Randi demands that magicians as well as scientists be included as
observers of psychic experiments, to help detect trickery. Professional magicians such
as Randi have claimed that the feats performed by people who claim to be psychics
can also be achieved by concealed and fraudulent physical manipulation; Randi, Penn
and Teller, and other stage magicians often perform such tricks in public, and then
explain how they are done.
The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) offers a one million U.S. dollars
prize to anyone who can demonstrate any psychic or paranormal phenomenon. For
more information about this challenge, see the corresponding section of the James
Randi article.
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Early Scientific American challenge
The offering of prizes for demonstrations is not new to the field. Circa 1924, Scientific
American magazine offered a $5000 prize to anyone who could produce any "visible
psychic manifestation". Medium Mina Crandon, known in the literature as "Margery",
made a bid and was tested by a committee set up by the editorial staff. Her
performance was such that the committee members were split in their opinions. The
magazine published the mixed report in its November 1924 issue, no prize was
awarded, and the competition was declared closed the following year. In the early
1900s, the then well-known stage magician and skeptic Howard Thurston was
sufficiently impressed by the demonstrations of medium Eusapia Palladino that he
advertised in the New York Times his offer of $1000 to charity in the name of any
fellow conjuror who could duplicate the feats of Ms. Palladino under similar
conditions. He had no takers.
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Other objections to parapsychology
There are a variety of other objections to parapsychology as well.
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Psi Phenomena as a Violation of the Laws of Physics or Nature
Some critics claim that the existence of psi phenomena would violate "the
known laws of physics", and some of these critics believe that this is reason
enough that such phenomena should not be studied. Parapsychologists respond
that "laws of nature" are simply summaries of existing scientific knowledge
and do get revised from time to time during the course of scientific progress. If
the existence of psi phenomenon were ever proved, explaining how they work
might require revising or extending the known laws of physics. Precognition,
for example, would challenge commonly held notions about causality and the
unidirectional nature of time. However, these commonly held notions are often
not physical laws, and are already being challenged by modern physical
theories, quite apart from psi phenomena. Skeptics and parapsychologists alike
generally agree that, as per Occam's Razor, simple explanations should be
preferred for any resulting theories of psi.
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Parapsychology as Taboo
Some believe that paranormal phenomena should not be studied, either
because they are forbidden by their religious orientation, or because they
believe that to do so opens the investigators to some sort of "spiritual attack".
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Parapsychology as a Danger to Society
Some believe that parapsychology should not be pursued because it somehow
represents a danger to society. As is stated in the Y2000 NSF report Science
and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding: Belief in the
Paranormal or Pseudoscience:
"Concerns have been raised, especially in the science community, about
widespread belief in paranormal phenomena. Scientists (and others) have
observed that people who believe in the existence of paranormal phenomena
may have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. Their beliefs may
indicate an absence of critical thinking skills necessary not only for informed
decision making in the voting booth and in other civic venues (for example,
jury duty), but also for making wise choices needed for day-to-day living."
Although under the heading 'paranormal phenomena' the report lists topics such as
astrology, UFOs, and the Loch Ness Monster, it also lumps in belief in ESP and, by
implication, most parapsychology.
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Parapsychology as a Waste of Resources
Some believe that parapsychology should not be funded because it is a waste
of resources that would be better spent on other activities. Some of these
critics feel so strongly about this that they engage in activism to try to prevent
or remove funding from psi research. Psychic detectives may waste valuable
police resources.
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History and evaluation
See history of parapsychology.
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Trivia
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German psychiatrist Hans Berger originally invented the
electroencephalograph (EEG) in 1929 as a tool to study whether telepathy
might be explained by brain waves.
The first and only Ph.D. in Parapsychology awarded by the University of
California, Berkeley was to Dr Jeffrey Mishlove in 1980. Subsequently some
activists unsuccessfully lobbied the Berkeley administration to revoke the
degree. Reportedly, as many as 46 people in the UK have doctorates in
parapsychology.
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Patent #5830064, "Apparatus and method for distinguishing events which
collectively exceed chance expectations and thereby controlling an output",
was granted by the US Patent Office on Nov 3rd, 1998 to inventors including
several researchers from the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research
(PEAR) center. The patent in no way relies on the existence of psi phenomena,
but in the description the inventors do suggest that "One application of the
present invention is the investigation of anomalous interaction between an
operator and random physical systems, whether by serious scientists or curious
members of the public who would like to conduct experiments on their own."
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Famous parapsychologists
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Rais Amrohvi
Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi
Hans Bender
Susan Blackmore
William Crookes
Max Dessoir
Thomas Edison
Bob Garner
Gustave Geley
John Hasted
Charles Honorton
Robert G. Jahn
William James-founding father of American Psychology
Brian Josephson-Nobel Prize in Physics, 1973
Oliver Lodge
William McDougall
Gardner Murphy
Frederick W. H. Myers
Julian Ochorowicz
Harry Price
Dean Radin- Author of "The Conscious Universe", which examines the
scientific evidence in parapsychology.
Jim D. Ray
Carl Reichenbach
Joseph B. Rhine
Charles Robert Richet
Carl Sargent
Helmut Schmidt
Albert von Schrenck-Notzing
Gary Schwartz-Has stated he has scientific proof of established contact with
the dead
Stephan Schwartz
Henry Sidgwick
Ian Stevenson
Ingo Swann
Wilhelm Heinrich Carl Tenhaeff
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Mark Twain
G. N. M. Tyrrell
Alfred Russel Wallace
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Claimed psychics
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Sylvia Browne — received the Pigasus award, Category #4 for 2004 for
claiming to "see" in July, 2004 that Osama Bin Laden was dead, predicting in
2003 that Saddam Hussein would be found dead by year's end, and other
triumphs. Sylvia won in category #2 in 2003.
Kuda Bux firewalker
Edgar Cayce — claimed to be a psychic healer in the first half of the 20th
century.
Miss Cleo
Mina Margery Crandon — last noted physical and mental medium in the USA
Gerard Croiset
Jeane Dixon can look across the room and make Uri Geller drop his spoon
William and Horatio Eddy — 19th Century Vermont psychics. Their spirit
cabinet performances were very similar to that of the famous Davenport
Brothers. This tradition is carried on by the team of Glenn Falkenstein and
Frances Willard.
Tom Rannachan — Scottish "Psychic Medium" who claims to talk with the
dead & receive accurate premonitions.
John Edward — Host of TV show "Crossing Over" in which he claimed to
communicate with the dead.
Leslie Flint
Uri Geller — Israeli telekinetic, famous for bending handled spoons in
television shows. Traveled the world with his confederates, who sometimes
posed as news reporters. He was deported from Israel, his home country.
Stuart Harary probably means Keith Harary, OBEr
D. D. Home
Jim Jones — claimed to perform healings. He was the leader of the People's
Temple that committed mass suicide in 1978
Joseph McMoneagle Former US Army intelligence officer, currently a
corporate remote viewer
Wolf Messing — Stalinist seer. His daughter's puff book made him famous.
David Morehouse Government remote viewer
Dr. Mysterian
Stephan Ossowiecki
Eusapia Palladino— accused of using her foot to levitate table and other
deceptions by conjurors in hiding who watched her methods at close hand.
(Rinn, 1950)
Leonore Piper
Pat Price Government remote viewer
Sathya Sai Baba, big name Indian guru; materialization of small objects
S. G. Soal
Ingo Swann, involved in the formation of the remote viewing procedure.
Alex Tannous
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James Van Praagh
Rev. B. Anne Gehman
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Critics of parapsychology
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Susan Blackmore — Stopped lecturing and abandoned parapsychology
altogether, because she could no longer endure the near fanatic and rude
behavior of both believers and non-believers.
Milbourne Christopher — Noted Conjuring Historian. His works are
frequently overlooked.
Ray Hyman- Conjuror and noted research psychologist
James Randi
Ehrich Weiss (Harry Houdini)
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Psychic investigations
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Remote Viewing (includes Stargate project)
Global Consciousness Project
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References
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Parapsychology, by Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi, Al-Kitaab
Publication,1985.
The Conscious Universe, by Dean Radin, Harper Collins, 1997, ISBN
0062515020.
Parapsychology: A Concise History, by John Beloff, St. Martin's Press, 1993,
ISBN 0312096119.
Parapsychology: The Controversial Science, by Richard S. PHD Broughton,
Ballantine Books, 1991, ISBN 0345356381.
ESP,Seers & Psychics : What the Occult Really Is , by Milbourne
Christopher,Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1970, ISBN 0690268157
The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research, by Ray
Hayman, Prometheus Books, 1989, ISBN 0879755040.
Readings in the Philosophical Problems of Parapsychology, ed. Antony Flew,
Prometheus Books, 1987, ISBN 0-87975-385-4
Sixty Years of Psychical Research : Houdini and I Among the Spirits, by
Joseph Rinn, Truth Seeker, 1950
Roots of Consciousness, Jeffrey Mishlove, 2 editions
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See also
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Parapsychology basic topics.
List of spirituality-related topics
True-believer syndrome
Patapsychology
Ghostbusters
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External links
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General organizations
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The Psychic World An exploration of all types of psychic activity -and an
challenge to psychic fraud.
The 1-2-1 Psychics offer psychic readings and mediumship by telephone from
accredited UK Psychics.
The Parapsychological Association is the professional association of
parapsychologists and is affiliated with the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP), an advocacy group of scientists arguing for the anti-paranormal
point of view.
PsiPog.net : Psychic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance. Learn to be psychic,
and prove ESP to yourself, by reading the articles written by experienced
psychics. Non-profit organization.
The Veritas Academy - An online academy with forums, articles, and classes
for psi, chi, magick, and spirituality.
The Psion Guild - A non-profit organization being founded to provide services
for psions (psychics), including education, training, research, networking,
support, and defense. Includes forums, mailing list, and chat.
Psi Palatium - An online psionics and magick community offering information
and assistance to anyone seeking, following, or interested in psi.
[edit]
Independent research organizations
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Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was founded in 1973 by astronaut Edgar
Mitchell to explore the frontiers of consciousness through rigorous scientific
research.
The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program was
established at Princeton University in 1979 by Robert G. Jahn, then Dean of
the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Society for Psychical Research (SPR). The original scientific society founded
in London in 1882.
American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR).
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Rhine Research Center and Institute for Parapsychology, originally part of
Duke University, now an independent research center. The accomplished
physicist Irving Langmuir, a founder of many studies in atmospheric
electricity and plasma physics, visited Rhine at his laboratory in 1934. Rhine
admitted (rather proudly and contentiously) to Langmuir that he had discarded
data that was "wrong" because it did not support his belief in extrasensory
perception. See Langmuir's 1953 talk Pathological Science at Princeton
University
Galilean library: Falsificationism
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University research organizations
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Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh.
Global Consciousness Project at Princeton
Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology Research Unit of the Liverpool
John Moores University.
Psychology Research Cluster at University College Northampton.
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) at Princeton University.
Division of Personality Studies (DOPS), a unit of the Department of
Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia.
Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies at the University of Nevada, Las
Vegas (UNLV).
Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit (APRU) at the University of Adelaide.
Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths University of London.
Perrott-Warrick Research Unit in the Psychology Department of the
University of Hertfordshire.
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Other links
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Parapsychology Foundation
Parapsychology links
Philosophy of Parapsychology links
Dean Radin's A Field Guide to Skepticism from his book The Conscious
Universe.
The Need for Responsibility in Parapsychology: My Sixty Years in Psychical
Research by Eric Dingwall
Test your Psi with tests designed by Boundary Institute a nonprofit scientific
research organization.
The Project Alpha Experiment
Mindreader Sean Boon as featured on television and radio
The International Survivalist Society — includes an extensive collection of
on-line papers
Parapsychology: Science or Pseudo-Science?
realityshifters.com — many articles and first-hand accounts of reality shifts
are presented here
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alternativescience.com — forbidden science, science and censorship, and
pseudoscience
Psychic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance a practical guide to psionics with
articles and large community
Extra-sensory perception
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Extra-sensory perception, or ESP, is the name given to any ability to acquire
information by means other than the five canonical senses (taste, sight, touch, smell,
and hearing), or any other sense well known to science (balance, proprioception, etc).
Because the definition of sense is vague, the precise definition of extra-sensory is as
well, but the term is generally used in reference to humans, to imply sources of
information unknown to modern science.
Contents
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1 Types of ESP
2 History of ESP
o 2.1 Extra-sensory perception and hypnosis
o 2.2 Extra-sensory perception and technology
3 Ongoing debates about the existence of ESP
o 3.1 Difficulties testing ESP
o 3.2 The Randi Prize
o 3.3 The Zetetic challenge
o 3.4 General criticism
o 3.5 Independent research organizations
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
[edit]
Types of ESP
Specific types of extra-sensory perception include:
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
Perception of events in other places (clairvoyance, clairaudience,
clairsentience) and in other times (precognition, retrocognition, second sight,
lucid dreaming)
Perception of aspects of others not perceivable by most people (aura reading)
The ability to sense communications from, and communicate with, people far
away (telepathy), beyond the grave (medium-hood and séancing, spirit
walking), or in other dimensions (astral projection)
There are many other names for such powers of perception, from different cultures
and different eras.
The study of these abilities is called parapsychology, which also addresses other
abilities, similarly outside the explanation of current science and sometimes
associated with ESP (e.g., psychometry and psychokinesis).
The word "psychic" is sometimes used as both a noun and adjective to denote a
person capable of using ESP in any of its forms. Many who believe in ESP maintain
that it is a power innate to only a relatively small percentage of the population; yet
some believe that everyone is psychic, and that most people have just not learned to
tap into their innate extrasensory potential.
[edit]
History of ESP
The notion of extra-sensory perception is a very old one, and in many ancient cultures
it was taken for granted that certain people had such powers of perception, be it
second sight, or the power to communicate with deities, ancestors, or spirits.
However, in recent centuries this idea has been widely classified as superstition and
denounced as fictitious, or at best unprovable and unscientific.

in ancient culture: the Delphic Oracle, shamans, soothsayers, ...
[edit]
Extra-sensory perception and hypnosis
When Franz Anton Mesmer and Grigori Rasputin were first popularizing hypnosis,
the legend came about that a person who was hypnotized would be able to
demonstrate ESP. Carl Sargent, a psychology major at the University of Cambridge,
heard about the early claims of a hypnosis-ESP link, and designed an experiment to
test whether they had merit. He recruited forty fellow college students, none of whom
identified him- or herself as having ESP, and then divided them into a group that
would be hypnotized before being tested with a pack of 25 Zener cards, and a control
group that would be tested with the same Zener cards. The control subjects averaged a
score of 5 out of 25 right, exactly what chance would indicate. The subjects who were
hypnotized did more than twice as well, averaging a score of 11.9 out of 25 right.
Sargent's own interpretation of the experiment is that ESP is associated with a relaxed
state of mind and a freer, more atavistic level of consciousness.
[edit]
Extra-sensory perception and technology
In the early days of radio and electronics, the technology seemed magical to most
people, including the engineers working on it. It was suggested that it might be used
to unleash previously impossible feats of mental ability. This included communication
with dead people, who were considered to have moved on to another world or
"plane". Alec Reeves, one of the pioneers of digital communications, considered ESP
a perfectly reasonable proposition. He believed that many of his inventions were
prompted by the dead pioneer Michael Faraday, and spent much of his earlier years
trying to perfect spiritualist telecommunication devices. Some of his experiments are
available as ActiveX pages on his website.
[edit]
Ongoing debates about the existence of ESP
Proponents of the existence of ESP point to numerous scientific studies that offer
evidence of the phenomenon's existence: the work of J. B. Rhine, a botanist at Duke
University in the 1930s, and of Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, physicists at SRI
International in the 1970s, are often cited in arguments that ESP exists.
Those who believe ESP does not exist point to alleged methodological flaws in such
studies, and point to numerous ESP studies which have failed to find any evidence of
the phenomenon. Many modern scientists and skeptics consider the fictitious nature of
ESP to be obvious, and are scornful of the idea of taking it seriously enough to study
it.
[edit]
Difficulties testing ESP
Among the difficulties associated with proving the existence or non-existence of
extra-sensory perception are that, if ESP exists, it may have a subtle rather than an
overt effect, and that the ability to perceive may be altered by the nature of the event
being perceived. For example, some proponents of ESP put forward that predicting
whether a loved one was just involved in a car crash might have a stronger effect than
sensing which playing card was drawn from a deck, even though the latter is better
suited for scientific studies.
There is some dispute over the interpretation of results obtained in scientific studies of
ESP, as the most compelling and repeatable results are all small to moderate statistical
results. Critics of ESP argue that the results are too small to be significant, while
proponents of ESP argue that the results are consistent in numerous studies, and that
the combined significance is large.
A few large prizes have been offered in the hopes of bringing people with strong ESP
into formal laboratories for rigorous testing, most recently the Randi Prize and the
International Zetetic Challenge.
[edit]
The Randi Prize
James Randi made his name and fortune as a stage magician, and later became a
skeptic devoted to debunking the claims of performers who pretended to offer more
than a good show. In 1996, he set up the James Randi Educational Foundation to
explore paranormal phenomena and educate the public about them. The foundation
has famously made a standing offer of a $1 million prize to anyone who could
demonstrate ESP or any psychic phenomenon.
The prerequisites for trying to claim the "Randi Prize" are non-trivial, however; as of
2005, no would-be claimants have passed Randi's preliminary test (which has a lower
significance level than the formal test), and no offers to conduct a formal test have
been extended by the Foundation.
[edit]
The Zetetic challenge
The zetetics laboratory at France's University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis conducts
research into paranormal phenomena. From 1987 to 2002, they offered an
International Zetetic Challenge in an attempt to prove or disprove the existence of, or
demonstrate events related to, the paranormal. This was a €200,000 prize offered to
"any person who could prove any paranormal phenomenon."
While there were a number of attempts at the prize, and a number of investigations
were made, the prize went unclaimed.
[edit]
General criticism
Claims of extra-sensory perception have been subjected to repeated criticism by
mainstream scientists. Most of the criticism hinges on two major contentions: first,
that studies which have shown evidence of ESP are almost always either anecdotal or
plagued with methodological flaws which allowed cheating, and second, that those
few studies which do not appear flawed methodologically do not produce
reproducible results.
An example of the first case is that of an allegedly psychic dog in England named
Jaytee, who his owners claim has a supernatural ability to sense when one of them
was leaving work to come home (which he allegedly displayed by running out to the
porch at that time). Parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake proclaimed that his tests had
shown that the dog had ESP ability. Two scientists from the University of
Hertfordshire, Richard Wiseman and Matthew Smith, then tested the dog under
scientifically controlled conditions, and found that the dog had no such ability -- after
four experiments, the dog showed no evidence of ESP. However when Sheldrake
analyzed their data he found that it in fact did show the same pattern of ESP as his
own experiments.
According to social psychologist David Myers, in his book Psychology, "a
reproducible ESP phenomenon has never been discovered, nor has anyone produced
any individual who can convincingly demonstrate psychic ability." The unclaimed
prizes offered by Randi and the IZC are often pointed to as strong evidence against
ESP. If ESP is a rare product of human emotions within abnormal psychiatry it is
doubtful it will ever be produced on demand.
[edit]
Independent research organizations


Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was founded in 1973 by astronaut Edgar
Mitchell to explore the frontiers of consciousness through rigorous scientific
research.
The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program was
established at Princeton University in 1979 by Robert G. Jahn, then Dean of
the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
[edit]
See also



Silva Method
List of spirituality-related topics
Mind-body connection
[edit]
References


"Psychic dog phenomenon brought back down to earth".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/155928.stm Accessed on December
9, 2004.
Myers, David G. Psychology. http://www.davidmyers.org/esp/ Accessed on
December 9, 2004.
o The information concerning the Randi Foundation tests appears in this
book. [1]
[edit]
External links





On-line Extrasensory Perception Test using Zener Cards
Paranormal Forums
Paranormal Forums for discussion of all Paranormal related topics including
ESP.
The Best Case for ESP?
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
Rhine Research Center, Institute For Parapsychology.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-sensory_perception"
Telepathy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Telepathy, from the Greek τηλε, tele, "distant", and πάθεια, patheia, "feeling", is the
claimed innate ability of humans and other creatures to communicate information
from one mind to another, without the use of extra tools such as speech or body
language. Considered a form of extra-sensory perception or anomalous cognition,
telepathy is often connected to various paranormal phenomena such as precognition,
clairvoyance and empathy. Because anecdotal claims of "strange currencies" and
similar related explanations have deep resonance in history, fiction, and belief,
telepathy carries perhaps greater interest than any of the other numerous subjects
which referred to as "paranormal."
Contents
[hide]



1 TELEPATHY
o 1.1 Truth and fiction
o 1.2 Telepathy in history
o 1.3 Historical background
o 1.4 Telepathy and technology
o 1.5 Telepathy and harmonics
o 1.6 Telepathy, Quantum Physics, and Nonlocality
o 1.7 Telepathy in fiction
2 ARTICLES
o 2.1 DARLING CHILD OF NATURE
o 2.2 GURU
o 2.3 THE ROOT-CAUSE
3 External links
[edit]
TELEPATHY
[edit]
Truth and fiction
Telepathy has traditionally been treated within the context of particular religious
concepts, which both extol the truth of non-physical (psychic) connectivity between
human beings, and go on assert guiding rituals and principles which govern that
communication toward positive human bonding traits such as love, friendship, and
community. Nearly all religions (by definition) embody aspects of "metaphysicality"
within their doctrines.
Since the beginnings of civilization, religious debates have often dealt with the
apparent emerging disparity between a religious concept of "truth" and an emerging
human rationality and empirical-based belief, which by dogmatic religious perception,
appeared akin to disbelief. This schism between "skeptic" and "believer" continues to
this day, typically in the form of greater debates between religion and science.
Modern skeptics often claim that scientific "proof" equates to "reality", and that
"reality" has exclusive title to any notion of "truth." Proponents have argued that the
consistent threads between "witnessed" and claimed metaphysical experiences have
reasonable and plausible (though not exactly scientific) explanations in the idea of
telepathic communication -- between individuals and even between larger collective
groups and societies.
Because current science has no plausible explanation for claims of telepathic
phenomena, there can be no "theory of telepathy," as all of the various explanations
have certain unbridgeable gaps to current science. Proponents on the other hand argue
that the difficulty in rationalizing or "proving" the concept does not diminish the fact
that most people have some belief in metaphysical concepts. And given the benefit of
the doubt, people maintain their beliefs not because they are ignorant of science, but
because science (by definition) ignores unexplainable personal experience.
Proponents point to concepts such as psychology and quantum mechanics, as areas of
research that are considered to be deeply based in the scientific method, but have
equally problematic and unexplainable links to the exclusively physical description of
reality.
Metaphysical and other non-standard religious concepts have prospered in the context
of this modern debate, by asserting links between skepticism and belief, while
avoiding the pitfalls of both exclusive religious dogma, and exclusive science-based
rationality. Within this context of seeking a resolution to the science-religion debate,
metaphysical explanations have abounded, which largely attempt to tie personal
experience of psychic community to the philosophies of religion, and the empiricism
of science. The rift between science and religion has been the center of popular focus
for related non-standard beliefs, like paganism and the occult, which (despite their
own inherent dogmas) are considered by their converts to provide an objectivity
toward mainstream views of religion and science.
Modern concepts of telepathy have attempted to draw both legitimacy and scientific
curiosity, by making both general and specific analogies between the "unaccepted
unknowns" of religion and parapsychology, and the "accepted unknowns" in the
quantum sciences, where the classical and understood concepts of physics (time and
space) don't generally apply. The relevant example is in quantum mechanics and its
exclusively theoretical cousin, string theory. Both have radically changed modern
concepts regarding the nature of time, space, energy, and matter, and the relationships
between each. In seeking a "scientific explanation," telepathy proponents have gone
on to claim a direct connection between scientific quantum theory as a basis for
telepathy, the basic idea claiming that the mind is simply a naturally-formed physical
scaffold for a matrix of electrical and quantum impulses. This system, in turn is
claimed to have evolved capabilities for influencing and receiving "quantum
fluctuations" from other minds. In essence, proponents claim that telepathy is not
"extrasensory", rather that the brain is the telepathic organ, its connections to other
brains are not physical, but psychic, and the very definition of the psychic medium is
the localized inertial frame of reference which is affected by the mind.
This new and "scientifically-grounded" concept of telepathy provides the context for
further speculations. However, physicists and skeptics state that quantum mechanics
does not show classical effects until objects are at sub-nanometer scales, and since the
physical components of the mind are all much larger, these quantum effects are
considered negligible. Proponents counter that the scientific statements carry two
flawed assumptions, namely that the experience of telepathy need be a classical effect,
and that the mind is sensitive to only classical effects.
[edit]
Telepathy in history
Very few anecdotal accounts of telepathy have been noted in many ancient cultures
since historical records have been kept. In the Bible, some prophets appear to have the
ability to see into the future (precognition). This seems to be a common claim from
ancient and primitive people. But the sending and receiving of messages from
individual to individual by mind alone is never mentioned at all. As with all psi
phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences, even
within parapsychology, as to the existence of telepathy.
[edit]
Historical background
Western scientific investigation of telepathy is generally recognized as having begun
with the initial program or research of the Society for Psychical Research. The apex
of their early investigations was the report published in 1886 as the two-volume work
Phantasms of the Living. It was with this work that the term "telepathy" was
introduced, replacing the earlier term "thought transference". Although much of the
initial investigations consisted largely of gathering anecdotal accounts with follow-up
investigations, they also conducted experiments with some of those who claimed
telepathic abilities. However, their experimental protocols were not very strict by
today's standards.
In 1917, psychologist John E. Coover from Stanford University conducted a series of
telepathy tests involving transmitting/guessing playing cards. His participants were
able to guess the identity of cards with overall odds against chance of 160 to 1;
however, Coover did not consider the results to be significant enough to report this as
a positive result.
Perhaps the most well-known telepathy experiments were those of J. B. Rhine and his
associates at Duke University, beginning in the 1927 using the distinctive ESP Cards
of Karl Zener (see also Zener Cards). These involved more rigorous and systematic
experimental protocols than those from the 19th century, used what were assumed to
be 'average' participants rather than those who claimed exceptional ability, and used
new developments in the field of statistics to evaluate results. Results of these and
other experiments were published by Rhine in his popular book Extra Sensory
Perception, which popularized the term "ESP".
Another influential book about telepathy in its day was Mental Radio, published in
1930 by the Pulitzer prize-winning author Upton Sinclair (with foreword by Albert
Einstein). In it Sinclair describes the apparent ability of his wife at times to reproduce
sketches made by himself and others, even when separated by several miles, in
apparently informal experiments that are reminiscent of some of those to be used by
remote viewing researchers in later times. They note in their book that the results
could also be explained by more general clairvoyance, and they did some experiments
whose results suggested that in fact no sender was necessary, and some drawings
could be reproduced precognitively.
By the 1960s, many parapsychologists had become dissatisfied with the forced-choice
experiments of J. B. Rhine, partly because of boredom on the part of test participants
after many repetitions of monotonous card-guessing and refusing the suggestion by
magicians of adding cards that were totally blank, partly because of the observed
"decline effect" where the accuracy of card guessing would decrease over time for a
given participant, which some parapsychologists attributed to this boredom.
Some parapsychologists turned to free response experimental formats where the target
was not limited to a small finite predetermined set of responses (e.g., Zener cards), but
rather could be any sort of picture, drawing, photograph, movie clip, piece of music
etc.
As a result of surveys of spontaneous psi experiences which reported that more than
half of these occurred in the dreaming state, researchers Montaque Ullman and
Stanley Krippner at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York,
undertook a series of experiments to test for telepathy in the dream state. A "receiver"
participant in a soundproof, electronically shielded room would be monitored while
sleeping for EEG patterns and rapid eye movements (REMs) indicating dream state.
A "sender" in another room would then attempt to send an image, randomly selected
from a pool of images, to the receiver by focusing on the image during the detected
dream states. Near the end of each REM period, the receiver would be awakened and
asked to describe their dream during that period. The data gathered suggested that
sometimes the sent image was incorporated in some way into the content of the
receiver's dreams.
While the dream telepathy experiments results were interesting, to run such
experiments required many resources (time, effort, personnel). Other researchers
looked for more streamlined alternatives. Among them are the so-called ganzfeld
experiments, which have been most closely followed in recent times and that some
people believe have provided perhaps the strongest experimental evidence of
telepathy to date.
To date there has not yet been any satisfactory experimental protocol designed to
distinguish telepathy from other forms of ESP such as clairvoyance.

There have been rare claims of shared of visual hallucinations in folie a deux –
shared psychotic disorder. These are beyond the scope of science at this time.
The phenomena cannot be produced or reproduced on demand. There are also
claims that a psychosis with auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) is a form
of telepathy.
[edit]
Telepathy and technology
Some, for example the science-fiction writer Spider Robinson in the book Deathkiller,
have envisioned neurological research leading to technologically-assisted telepathy,
also called techlepathy. As of 2004, scientists have demonstrated that brain imaging
can be successfully used to recognise distinct thought patterns, and tell, for example,
whether experimental monkeys thought about juice or water, and whether a human
participant thought about a rotating cube or moving his paralised arm. Both implanted
electrodes recording neurons' activity and outside electrodes recording
electromagnetic activity of the brain can be used.
The technologically-assisted telepathy achieved so far is thus a very real phenomenon
and is significantly more accurate in tests than "natural" telepathy.
There are several schools of thought on how far technologically-assisted telepathy
(Type II Telepathy, as opposed to Type I, where technology plays no part) has gotten
with modern technology. There are some theories that the technology was mastered as
back as 1986, but its essential control elements were not known or perfected until the
early 1990s. It is speculated that Type II is very selective in its effect, the technology
being based upon neural engram interception and retransmission.
[edit]
Telepathy and harmonics
Based heavily on theories by Maturana and Francisco Varela in the 1980s, a recent
theory, focusing on the stable and powerful Delta and Gamma wavelength EEG
emissions brains produce during states of intense emotion, has been suggested. The
theory focuses the principle of neurokinetic harmonics into a rough framework called
neurokinetic telepathy. It emphasises the practice of 'telepathy game', which is similar
to ganzfeld type experiments, except that it is more energetically efficient, and treats
the Sender/Receiver as a single unit. The theory posits that experts in this type of
telepathy game could learn telepathy by co-adapting to their counterpart's specific
neurosynaptic reflexes.
[edit]
Telepathy, Quantum Physics, and Nonlocality
Some physicists, such as Nick Herbert [1], have pondered whether or not quantum
mechanics' "non-locality" (or "spooky action at a distance") principle would permit
instantaneous communication such as telepathy. Experiments have been conducted
(by scientists such as Gao Shen at the Institute of Quantum Physics in Beijing, China)
to study whether or not quantum entanglements (connections allowing instantaneous
information exchange) demonstrated at the level of electrons can also be verified
between human minds. Such experiments usually include monitoring for
synchronious EEG patterns between two hypothetically "entangled" minds. (See [2])
[edit]
Telepathy in fiction
Comic books and role-playing games take greater liberties with telepaths, giving them
the ability to not only control minds (through hypnosis-like capabilities, illusion etc.)
but actually turning telepathy into an offensive weapon by overloading the mental
communication channel with a "mind-blast" which causes great pain,
unconsciousness, and sometimes even death. More broadly, telepathy has been the
subject of much other science fiction and particularly soft science fiction.
[edit]
ARTICLES
Articles on Telepathy from Book "Telepathy" by Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi.
[edit]
DARLING CHILD OF NATURE
Analytical study of the convoluted network of life leads us to conclude that everybody
is desirous of living a joyful and happy life but the materialistic approach towards life
causes dismay on every step in this regard because each and every moment of our
lives is mortal, Persihable and variable. Materialistically we also are not aware what is
real happiness and how can we have access to it. In order to be acquainted with real
happiness we have to look for our actual base. When we were nothing, we must have
been something. Because not to be anything negates our being altogether. Our
material life commenses in the womb of the mother. After inception and passing
through a certain process when this matter reaches its climax a living picture comes
into being from nothingness. This picture receives such a training from its
surroundings that it remains oblivious of the meanings of real happiness, what to say
of the method of its acquisition. First of all, to embrace real happiness one has to have
this knowledge that life is not based upon the body alone but it has roots in that reality
which has adopted this body as a robe for its manifestations. This reality is associated
with the soul; the in-built operating computer of the body. It is worth consideration
where the soul used to reside before coming to this phenomenal world. The use of
word 'coming' is indicative of the fact that something was present somewhere. After
settling down that something exists somewhere we have to consider its form and
shape. And determination of relative place also becomes mandatory when the shape
and form are considered with careful deliberation. Time and space automatically
come under discussion when determination of place is attempted. Where we were
before our birth? A simple reply to this question is that all the living soul existed in
the realm of the souls prior to their birth and from there they came to this material
world. After birth we encounter such a situation in which every passing moment of
our life is dying after giving birth to another one. The moment which we recognise as
our childhood changes into boyhood and the moment we call youthfulness converts
into old age. Our access to reality is possible only when we would know that this
living picture is not merely a body but a conscious is considered that medium of our
identification upon which the whole edifice is erected. This also is in our knowledge
that annihilation of the material body puts an end to the material density and pollution
and we are also aware of the fact that the extinction of the material body does not
destroy the conscious but it is transferred to some other realm. All the sacred books
reiterate unanimously about the man's abode here-after and the life to come in that
realm. All these books also agree that man is not a material body only, rather they
emphasise that man is a conscious. When we happen to mention the material life span,
the birth to death period, we have to have this fact in our mind that the conscious
whose foundations were laid in the mother's womb decreases on one side, and keeps
on increasing on the other. The decrease of the conscious builds the past and increase
in the conscious constructs the future. Increase and decrease in the conscious
determines the age. One time of the conscious is called the childhood, the other is
termed as youth. And yet another is known as the old age. Infact it is the conscious,
which is responsible for maintaining the material life in all its various stages. The
conscioius that takes the material body through evolutionary steps remains intact even
after the body perishes. When we examine ourselves we find that we have a
perishable limited body as an identification of our life. The tangible body that we see
is constituted with density, dirt, putrefaction and effluvia. This physical body is based
upon the soul. The soul is not based upon this body. The body of flesh and bones
witnesses, hears, touches, speaks, feels and experiences sentiments only when the soul
is associated with it. The most limiting factor of everyone's ideology is that everyone
believes that he is matter, an offspring of the material world. This limiting ideology
confines everybody in a limitude and everyone finds himself incarcerated in the
cobweb of restrictions and limitations. And thus it eventually results in a further
restricted and limited ideology. Everybody living on the planet earth has categorised
himself as a Muslim, a Hindu, a Parsi or a Christian though the soul cannot be
denominated by any such name. Because light is only light, irrespective of it
belonging to any religion of any part of the world whether it is Arab or non-Arab,
Europe or Asia. Study of holy books reveals that God never leaves His creatures alone
in solitude no matter how much different they are in their physical forms, features or
ideology-wise. Holy Quran is the foundation of Islam Hindus worship in the words of
the Bhagvad Gita, and Judaism is established upon the words of the Old Testament.
When we deliberate upon the creation of the universe we again conclude that our
universe too is the voice of Allah. When Allah said "Be" the whole universe came
into being in obedience to His Command God whenever introducing Himself,
proclaims to be a friend of the creatures. Just as a father cannot forget his son, God
too is never forgetful of His creatures. God, the Lord Cherisher, provides us with
every type and kind of resources and makes us to undergo novel experiences at
various stages of our life, and is indeed our Friend. Allah wants that everything of this
universe should remain in continuous motion. Those who, in pursuasion of this wish,
decree and attitude after accepting it wholeheartedly, strive and struggle become the
active members of the universe. This membership further activates and keeps the
universe kinetic. It would be really interesting to note that whatsoever is there in the
universe or is existing in the earth has been created for man; the darling child of the
nature and the vicegerent of Allah on earth. Those who care to have an affinity with
their Lord and believe firmly that Allah is the One Who is encompassing every
activity of life, when they start enjoying this affinity, that are bestowed with such a
thinking approach which enable them to have this realisation that they are linked with
that one who is encompassing their lives. Recurrence and repetition of this feeling
results in a manifested form and they start observing that they are enveloped in a halo
of light, in which the whole universe is also present beside them. All the holy books
have explained it elaborately that the basis of the earth and the heavens is the light
which every existent of the universe is linked with Allah. The one who witnesses the
halo can study all the formulae, which are responsible for the creation. He also
comprehends the laws of the nature. This knowledge not only helps him to live in
harmony with nature but also liberates him from the clutches of worries and fears.
Since Allah Himself is far above and indifferent to the fears, worries and anxieties,
therefore, anyone with a strong sense of association with Him also becomes
emancipated from the fears and phobias and any sort of worries cannot cause anxiety
in him. According to the rule stated by Allah in the Holy Quran, the true friends of
Allah are those who have no fear, nor do sorrows overpower them, therefore, anyone
who fulfills this condition alone can live in a state of bliss and enjoy the pleasure of
real happiness without any obligation of the material means of comfort and luxuries.
Or to say, he starts living the life of the Paradise right away in this world, much
before his actual admission in the Paradise. When various forms of phobias are
examined we find an obsession of a question, what will happen? The tight grip of this
lingering question causing fear can only be avoided when one, settling upon his
association with Allah, considers that whatsoever that it is going to happen will be
positive and good for him because the future is unseen for us alone; it is not unseen
for the Almighty and He being the most merciful Friend would certainly not allow
anything go against us. Similarly when the various sorrows and griefs are studied, we
find the result of a question: why it happened? This question of the ensuing sorrow is
not only a proof of our ignorance but also evident upon our arrogance as this simply
amounts to questioning the Exalted authority of our Loving Lord. How can a creature
dare to challenge the will of the Creator?
[edit]
GURU
It has been proved by the scientific researches that by practicing certain exercises and
personal efforts, man can arouse the supernatural abilities. Keeping in view the
advancement in the fields of telepathy and hypnotism by the European countries and
particularly by the former U.S.S.R if the worshipping rituals and ascetic exercises are
considered to be the only means of acquiring the Metaphysical Sciences, it amounts to
belittling the subject because the nations which have altogether no faith and belief in
religions have excelled considerably in their achievements regarding the Metaphysical
Sciences. One thing which is frequently mentioned in Spiritualism is the conducting
Influence or Tassaruff, that is, the teacher; Shaikh, preceptor or the 'Guru' inducts
certain spiritual changes by focusing his attention in his pupil, disciple or the spiritual
son. Today a scientist can also do the same. He can also influence the desired people
telepathically and can force them to do a particular job, which he intends them to do.
A term commonly used in Spiritualism is 'To See in the Inner' that is, to observe the
outer space of this planet through the Inner Eye. This also has been done by the
scientists successfully and they have their claim of walking in space to their credit.
Man possesses certain abilities which if activated enables him to disclose those
informations which are not found in the books. Science has established its
advancement in this regard as well and knowledges which were initially hard to
believe and beyond the comprehension of the human intellect have been discovered
and as a result those things have come into existence which has forced man to believe
them. In such circumstances the terms of Spiritualism, like Attention, Influence
Opening of the Inner Eye, emancipation from Time and Space have become a
perplexing puzzle. Till date it is believed that the paranormal abilities of
foresightedness and clairvoyance etc. can only be activated through the recitation of
certain verses and repetition of certain words. It has become very important to
understand, in the present era of science, that if people who do not have faith in any
religion, can conduct the Influence, can activate their Inner Eye to function, can lay
the foundations of ever new sciences, can walk in Space, then what is this
Spirirualism? Religion is bound to come under discussion when we talk of
spiritualism. The principle on which the religions have been founded is that
performance of the religious duties should enable man to bring a change in his own
life or to enable him to Conduct Influence in the lives of others, the things hidden
with the earth or in the outer sphere of the earth may appear before his Inner Eye. But
when we study the lives of the followers of the religions we hardly find a single
person, in the multitude of millions and billions of religious people who can exercise
the power of Conductive Influence or Tassaruff and his Inner Sight is operative. It is
quite astonishing that the religious people are ignorant of the knowledges which have
been discovered by the people who have no faith in religions. Naturally, in such
circumstances every serious minded person would be constrained to think, (what is
his religion?) There are countless species in the universe. Each and every species and
every individual of every species in their individual capacity is in constant and
continuous contact with one another through the waves of thoughts, and the same link
is the cause of introduction and intimacy between them. These waves of thoughts, in
fact, are the individual and collective informations which are responsible for bringing
the individuals of the universe close to life every moment and every second. In fact
our whole life is associated with the thoughts and the effectiveness of the thoughts
depends upon the certitude and dubiety, belief and disbelief. This is the main point
upon which the edifice of religion is found. Man passes through the variouis stages of
life in small intervals of time and utilizes the fractions of time to live his life by
combining and connecting these fractions together in his mind. We either advance
from one fraction of time towards the next consecutive fraction or revert back to the
previous one. In order to understand this, man thinks of taking food but due to an
upset stomach the intention is relinquished, how long will he abstain from it? He has
no idea in this regard. Likewise thoughts are the ingredients of his life which either
makes him successful or unsuccessful. An intention is formed, then is relinquished or
is postponed whether within minutes of its formation or in hours, in months or in
years, anyhow it is ultimately abandoned. This abandonment or to relinguishment is
the chief constituent of man's life. Thee are many things like hardships, difficulties,
worries, diseases, anxiety, depression etc. etc. and to equalise all these there is one
thing called 'peace' in which man seeks all types of eases and comforts. Most of them
are not real but hypothetical and for man they appear to be the easy ones. This creates
the trend of inclination towards the easy going. Actually, formation of the human
brain is such that it makes him go for facilities and to avoid the difficulties. These are
evidently, two directions and man spends these two directions through his thoughts.
Every activity is motivated in one of these two directions. When we decide a plan, we
were organizing it, it was perfect and complete in all its aspects and its direction was
also correct but it happens that after taking only a few steps, a change takes place in
our mind, with the change the direction of our thoughts also undergoes a change
resulting in a net change in the direction of our activity. And the target towards which
we were heading goes into oblivion. What is left with us? Groping and taking steps
gropingly. This is why only one out of millions of people takes a step which is in the
right direction and is not withdrawn. It may please be kept in mind that all this is
about the inbetween states of doubts and beliefs. So far as the majority is concerned,
the main force that controls their minds is that whim and doubt, which is ceaselessly
effecting the cells of their minds. The more the intensity of doubts, the more will be
the deterioration of the brain cells. It will not be out of place to mention that all the
nerves of the body work under the brain cells and the activities of the nerves are the
life. Believing something is equally difficult for man as coming out of the illusions,
dubiety and disbelief, for example, amn presents himself contrary to what he actually
is. He always hides his weakness and boosts about those hypothetical virtue which
actually are not possessed by him.
[edit]
THE ROOT-CAUSE
Man of the present era, inspite of luxuries available and the sources of comfort at his
disposal, is suffering Form anxiety and restlessness. This invites very considered
attention and demands ponderous contemplation. Where we are lacking in our efforts?
After striving hard man explored and established his advancement in physical
sciences. Awareness of physical laws enabled him to discover almost everything that
used to be fantasy once. His inventions on the one hand were ensuring physical
comforts and material facilities but were proving inner calm on the other. Tension,
anxiety, restlessness, depression and phobias of almost every kind were the enducing
damaging side effects of his expedient progress materialism due to the accelerated
advancement in the physical sciences. Demands of the soul had been totally ignored
in the course of his advancement in world of matter. Overlooking the needs of soul
resulted depression and anxiety and all the means of material comfort fail to soothe
his mind and soul. Tired of exhaustion and depressed despite his achievement in every
field of physical science man refuge in the psychological sciences and started
considering psychology the optimum remedy of his restlessness, dissatisfaction,
anxiety, complexes and phobias. He wasn't very worng. Psychology did everything
possible within its limits to pacify the agony in which man had launched successfully
after conquering the domain of the material world. Psychotherapists informed him
about complexes and phobias that were haunting him but failed to suggest an effective
program to eradicate the mental agony ensuring him in various forms of morbid
complexes and phobias, anxiety and mental disorders. Trapped in this situation of
material achievements and spirtual dissatisfaction man still wants to enjoy his
inventions and discoveries with peace of mind. Peace that cannot be destroyed by any
thing. Peace which is desparately needed by the soul. A tranquillity which is pursued
by him ever since the genesis of mankind. Sacred books of religions do promise peace
of mind and soul. But when we come to the actual results keeping the achievements
and the performance of the religious followers in mind, our frustration is further
enhanced and the programs contained in the books of religions appear to be
inapplicable. These do not seem to be effective any longer. rituals of worship
performed with minds suffering from depression, anxiety, and suppressed fears have
become mechanical movements of the limbs only. The procedual movements of the
limbs have proved to be unable to yield any positive result concerning the promise,
peace of heart and soul. How can we have peace of mind and soul? The peace which
become the crying need of the hour. Is there any refuge for the mind earnestly longing
for inner calm and tranqillity? Peace and inner calm---the eventual outcome of the
right approach of thinking-could very easily be ours. It is very important to keep in
mind that peace and inner calm, tranquillity and happiness has nothing to do with
material achievements, it only surges from within. When our thinking approach is in
harmony with nature rather than that of the artificial and devised material systems,
peace and tranquillity starts showering in our heart and soul. Inner calm tranquillity,
peace of mind and modification of thinking approach in this respect requires
implementation of an amazingly simple technique having its basis upon a very
profound science, the spiritual science. This science tells us that indestructiable peace
is very much possible even in all the pollution around us. One has to only practice the
feeling of one's association with one's Creator---the cherishing Lord. The reason is
quite simple and easy to understand. It is one of our routine observation that a sapling
loses its colour and charm when unrooted whereas a plant grows and grows when it
remains fixed to its roots. This also is in our notice that a branch of tree withers away
when it is detached from the main trunck. This phenomenon is valid for everything,
including the human being. If they remain attached and associated with their rootcause; their Lord and Creator, they live happily but if this association and relationship
becomes weak or is denied altogether, man feels uneasy, restless and uncomfortable
as an unrooted sapling or a broken branch of a tree should feel. This natural law and
basic lesson has been taught and preached by every prophet of God and sain and now
once again have been taken up by spiritual science-parapsychology---to enable man to
achieve the inner calm, tranquility and peace without his exposure to expensive means
of comfort and luxury or fear of drug addiction. Parapsychologists have evolved a
technique known as 'Muraqaba technology' for the purpose. Muraqaba, in its initial
stages gives us peace, inner calm and tranquillity. When the peace of mind is
consolidated the same exercise of Muraqaba starts taking us towards that realm where
the ultimate realities are made available. For entering the unseen realm and exploring
the metaphysical world which is always considered to be something mysterious
Muraqaba is the only solution. All the lessons taught in the course of spiritual
associability are programed to enable a person to have a free mind. Emptymindedness can be practiced, at any time, by willful Muraqaba in this regard. Inhale
deeply for few times and let your body relax. With open eyes try to listen the heartbeats and try to focus to the inner recesses of your heart. A principle is determined
herein that when one wants to make ones mind enter the realm of unconscious, one is
required to try to liberate oneself from the clutches of onrush of ambience. After
emancipating from the surroundings and drifting away from the world of conscious
mind the human mind tends to enter the realm of unconscious. This activity of mind
has been termed as 'Istaghna'. This state of Istaghna is the reflection of Allah's
Attribute of Undependency, generally known as vacating the mind. By performing the
given Muraqaba one can masterly vacates one mind.
[edit]
External links
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The Best Case for ESP? – from The Committee for the Scientific Investigation
of Claims of the Paranormal
GOING INSIDE – the features
Paranormal Forums – Paranormal Forums for discussion of all Paranormal
related topics, including Telepathy.
Skeptic's Dictionary on telepathy
Evolving Towards Telepathy – an article on the potential for technologically
endowed telepathy, or "techlepathy"
California Institute of Technology study using implanted [electrodes] in the
ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPF), yielding findings on predicting the
intentions of subjects to make movements
PDF article in Nature Neuroscience on "Spatial selectivity in human
ventrolateral prefrontal cortex"
Quantum Physicist Nick Herbert Ponders Instantaneous Communication[3] Primary
Quantum Model of Telepathy [4]
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepathy"
Clairvoyance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Clairvoyance is defined as a form of extra-sensory perception that it is claimed
allows a person to perceive distant objects, persons, or events, including "seeing"
through opaque objects and the detection of types of energy not normally perceptible
to humans (i.e. radio waves). Typically, such perception is reported in visual terms,
but may also include auditory impressions (sometimes called clairaudience) or
kinesthetic impressions.
The term clairvoyance is often used broadly to refer to all forms of ESP where a
person receives information through means other than those explainable by current
science. Perhaps more often, it is used more narrowly to refer to reception of presenttime information not from another person, there being other terms to refer to other
forms: telepathy referring to reception of information from another person (i.e.
presumably mind-to-mind); and precognition referring to gaining information about
places and events in the future. The term clairsentience is often used in reference to
psi phenomena falling under this broader context.
As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the
sciences and even within parapsychology as to the existence of clairvoyance and the
validity or interpretation of clairvoyance related experiments (see Parapsychology).
[edit]
Clairvoyance through history
There have been anecdotal reports of clairvoyance and claims of clairvoyant abilities
on the part of some throughout history in most cultures. Often these have been
associated with religious figures, offices, and practices. For example, ancient Hindu
religious texts list clairvoyance as one of the siddhis, skills that can be acquired
through appropriate meditation and personal discipline. But a large number of
anecdotal accounts of clairvoyance are of the spontaneous variety among the general
populace. For example, many people report instances of "knowing" in one form or
another when a loved one has died or was in danger before receiving notification
through normal channels that such events have taken place. Similar presentiments that
are not eventually fulfilled are soon forgotten, however. While anecdotal accounts do
not provide scientific proof of clairvoyance, such common experiences continue to
motivate research into such phenomena.
Clairvoyance was one of the phenomena reported to have been observed in the
behavior of somnambulists, people who were mesmerized and in a trance state
(nowadays equated with hypnosis by most people) in the time of Franz Anton
Mesmer. The earliest recorded report of somnambulistic clairvoyance is credited to
the Marquis de Puysegur, a follower of Mesmer, who in 1784 was treating a local
dull-witted peasant named Victor Race. During treatment, Victor reportedly would go
into trance and undergo a personality change, becoming fluent and articulate, and
giving diagnosis and prescription for his own disease as well as those of other
patients, and forgetting everything when he came out of the trance state. All this is in
a manner reminiscent of the reported behaviors of the 20th century psychic Edgar
Cayce. It is reported that although Puysegur used the term 'clairvoyance', he did not
attribute any of this to the paranormal since he accepted mesmerism as one of the
natural sciences.
Clairvoyance was in times following a reported ability of some mediums during the
spiritualist period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was one of the aspects
studied by members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Psychics of many
descriptions have claimed clairvoyant ability up to the present day.
While experimental research into clairvoyance began with SPR researchers,
experimental studies became more systematic with the efforts of J. B. Rhine and his
associates at Duke University, and such research efforts continue to the present day.
Perhaps the most well-known studies of clairvoyance in recent times was the US
government funded remote viewing project at SRI/SAIC during the 1970s through the
mid-1990s.
Results of some parapsychological studies, such as the remote viewing studies,
suggest that clairvoyance does exist (though that interpretation is disputed strongly by
critics), and that it does not in general require another person to send the information
being received, i.e. it can to some extent be distinguished from telepathy. However
there are as yet no satisfactory experiments designed that cleanly separate the various
manifestations of ESP. Some parapsychologists have proposed that our different
functional labels (clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition) all refer to one basic
underlying mechanism, although there is not yet any satisfactory theory for what that
mechanism would be.
Clairvoyance as a term has its origins from the French word claire, which means
"clear", and voyance, "seeing". It literally means 'clear seeing' in French.
There is ongoing criticism and debate of all these results in the literature.
[edit]
Training
Current thinking in clairvoyant circles posits that most are born with clairvoyant
abilities but then start to turn them off as children are brought up to adhere to
demonstrable social norms. Numerous institutes offer training courses that attempt to
revive the abilities present in those early years.
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anomalous cognition
James Randi's $1,000,000 Challenge
parapsychology
pseudoscience
Retroactive clairvoyance
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Precall
[edit]
External links
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The Best Case for ESP?
Boundary Institute
Paranormal Forums
Paranormal Forums for discussion of all Paranormal related topics including
Clairvoyance.
Psychic Horizons
Aesclepion
Clairvoyance, voluntary and involuntary, the pituitary body and the pineal
gland, unused sex force, types of sensitives, children
Precognition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Precognition is a form of extra-sensory perception which allows a "percipient" to
perceive information about future places or events before they happen (as opposed to
merely predicting them based on deductive reasoning and current knowledge). A
related term, presentiment is used to refer to information about future events which
may not present itself in conscious form but rather in the form of emotions or feelings
at the autonomic level. These terms are considered by some to be special cases of the
more general term clairvoyance.
As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the
sciences and even within parapsychology as to the existence of precognition and the
validity or interpretation of precognition related experiments.
Contents
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1 History
2 Precognition in fiction
3 References
4 See also
5 External links
[edit]
History
Throughout history there have been many people who have claimed to have
precognitive abilities, and the gift of prophecy is a common feature of many religions.
Just as prevalent are anecdotal accounts from the general populace of precognitions,
such as someone "knowing" who is on the other end of a ringing telephone before
they answer it, or having a dream of unusual clarity with elements of content that later
turn out to be events that actually occur. The French term, déjà vu, meaning "already
seen" was coined by French psychic researcher, Emile Boirac to describe the often
eerie sensation, and its companion term, future memory was coined by American
Near-death experience researcher PMH Atwater in her 1996 book by the same title.
While anecdotal accounts do not provide scientific proof of precognition, such
common experiences continue to motivate research into such phenomena.
Experimental research of precognition began at least as early as the work of J. B.
Rhine, and eventually came to be his preferred mode of conducting his tests. This was
a variation of his famous card-guessing experiments in which the participant was
asked to record his guess of the entire order of a card deck before the deck was
shuffled. Precognitive experiments have since been studied in a variety of formats by
various parapsychologists, for example by the remote viewing researchers, and at the
Princeton Engineering Anomalous Research center (PEAR).
Sometimes evidence suggesting precognition has appeared in unexpected places as
well. One line of research began with the work of Swedish psychologist Holger
Klintman in the early 1980s (who was not a parapsychologist, at least not to begin
with). He was investigating reaction times in a Stroop task, in which a color block is
displayed to a participant followed by the printed name of a color and the participant
is asked to say whether the name matches the color displayed. As with most Stroop
task studies, there is significant variation in reaction times depending on whether
there is a match or not (slower for a mismatch). Klintman was interested in more
precise measurements, so he decided to measure the time required for each step,
assuming that the reaction time to recognize the color of the color block (RT1) (before
the color name was displayed) could be used as a baseline for the subsequent
measurement of the reaction time to indicate a match with the color name
subsequently displayed (RT2). Since the name displayed was chosen by a random
number generator and only after the color block identification was made, he expected
a uniform measurement for RT1. Instead he found that RT1 varied more than
expected and moreover correlated with whether the subsequent name displayed was a
match (slower for a mismatch). After checking for conventional explanations, i.e.
apparatus calibration, etc, he considered the possiblity of a precognitive effect, and so
he designed a series of experiments to test this hypothesis, with positive results which
he published in 1983 in the European Journal of Parapsychology. Participants were
generally unaware that their reaction times showed this behavior.
In 1997 parapsychologist Dean Radin designed a new series of automated
experiments to test for presentiment. In these experiments, participants are monitored
for biophysical parameters such as galvanic skin response, blood volume at the
extremeties, etc, and then presented randomly with photographs which have either a
"calm" content (e.g. landscapes, still life, etc), or an "emotional" content (erotic or
violent). Within predicted parameters, the experiment showed positive results that for
some participants there was a correlation between the content of the picture (calm vs.
emotional) and a participant's measurements in the several-second interval preceding
the presentation of the photo. The experiment's design is fairly secure in that the
system is automated and double-blind, and the participant's measured reactions do not
involve conscious responses.
There is ongoing criticism and debate of all these results in the literature.
[edit]
Precognition in fiction
A precog is a shorthand for a fictional technology precognition, which is an ability to
foresee future happenings. It is often featured in the stories by Philip K. Dick such as
Minority Report.
Jedi Knights, depending on their knowledge of the "force", often have precognition
talents which lead to them to demonstrate adroit-reactions and dexterity, as they see
physical changes in their environment before they happen and can anticipate them.
Spider-Man's "spider-sense" is also a limited precognitive sense.
Jean Grey of the X-Men also has a limited precognitive sense.
It appears briefly in White Palace, but is not a major plot element.
Kagome Higurashi From Inuyasha, She also has a limited precognitive sense in
detecting the Shikon Jewel Shards.
Rei Hino of Sailor Moon had Precognitve sense due to her miko powers.
[edit]
References
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Evidence for an anomalous anticipatory effect in the autonomic nervous
system (PDF), Dean Radin, Boundary Institute, 1999.
Evidence for a retrocausal effect in the human nervous system (PDF), Dean
Radin & Edwin May, Boundary Institute, 1999.
Time-reversed human experience: Experimental evidence and implications
(PDF), Dean Radin, Boundary Institute, 2000.
The Conscious Universe, by Dean Radin, Harper Collins, 1997, ISBN
0062515020.
Future Memory, by PMH Atwater, Hampton Roads, 1999, ISBN 1571741356.
[edit]
See also
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Premonition
Anomalous cognition
Déjà vu
Time travel
Pseudoscience
James Randi's $1,000,000 Challenge
List of spirituality-related topics
[edit]
External links
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The Best Case for ESP?
Failed Psychic Predictions for 1998
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precognition"
Psychokinesis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Psychokinesis (literally "mind-movement") or PK is the more commonly used term
today for what in the past was known as telekinesis (literally "distant-movement"). It
refers to the psi ability to influence the behavior of matter by mental intention (or
possibly some other aspect of mental activity) alone. As of 2004 the term remote
influencing is becoming widely used for certain kinds of psychokinesis.
Contents
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1 Psychokinetic events
2 Remote influencing
3 Cultural references
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
[edit]
Psychokinetic events
There have been anecdotal reports of such apparent phenomena throughout history in
various cultures. For example, poltergeist activity is typically characterized by objects
being moved without apparent explanation, though some people claim that this is
accounted for as unintentional PK by children going through puberty.
As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the
sciences and even within the field of parapsychology as to the very existence of
psychokinesis and the validity or interpretation of PK-related experiments. To date,
there has never been a scientifically demonstrated instance of psychokinesis.
Parapsychologists usually make a distinction between macroscopic PK (large-scale
effects observable by the naked eye or by a single measurement) and microscopic PK
(small-scale effects only observable by statistical analysis of multiple measurements),
and both types are still studied today, with more attention to the micro variety. Some
of the more extravagant accounts of macro PK in recent times were the so-called
physical phenomena claimed to be observed during seances with mediums of the
spiritualist era in the late 19th and early 20th century and studied by members of the
Society for Psychical Research. Such phenomena included table tipping, rapping, and
levitation, and the playing of musical instruments with minimal or no contact. In more
modern times, claimed macro PK phenomena include the remote bending of cutlery
(usually forks or spoons) or metal bars, and the production of images on unexposed
photographic film by Uri Geller and other psychics.
By its nature, study of micro PK phenomena requires an experimental approach. The
first recorded experiments of this type were conducted by J. B. Rhine and his
associates in 1934, investigating whether subjects could affect the throws of dice.
Similar experiments were soon conducted by many other parapsychologists.
Statistical results were generally far less than that observed for telepathy tests, and
though a few anomalies were observed, no consensus emerged for the dice-tossing
experiments. However, a 1989 meta-analysis by Diane Ferrari and Dean Radin of all
such experiments in the literature from 1935 to that date showed an overall hit rate of
51.2% compared with chance expectation of 50%. Given the large number of trials
involved, this is a significant figure, with odds against chance of more than a billion
to one. There are critics of this analysis.
In more recent times, micro PK experiments have typically involved testing whether a
subject can affect the outputs of random number generators (RNGs), aka random
event generators, which generate a random bit stream based on the decay of
radioactive materials or by electronic noise circuits. In a typical experiment, a subject
is given feedback regarding the output of a RNG in one form or another, e.g. audible
clicks in one ear and the other through headphones or a graphical readout of an
accumulator, and is asked to try to mentally influence the RNG to favor one output
over another, e.g. cause more clicks in the right ear, or cause the graph to move to the
left. There are several reasons for the development of this type of experiment, one of
them being the ease of automating such experiments, which not only makes data
collection easier, but also makes it easier to design more secure (fraudproof)
experimental protocols.
Notable researchers who pursue RNG experiments are Helmut Schmidt, who
pioneered them in the 1960s; Robert Jahn and his associates at the Princeton
Engineering Anomalies Research Lab center (PEAR); and Dean Radin. A 1987 metaanalysis by Radin and Roger Nelson of such experiments from 1959 to that date
covering 832 studies (235 of them control studies) showed a hit rate of about 51% for
the experimental studies compared to 50% for the control studies (i.e. comparable to
the dice tossing studies), with odds against chance of about 1 trillion to one. There are
critics of this analysis.
During the 1950s-1960s, the Soviets conducted and presented research to various
worldwide audiences in Psychokinesis, including levitation. One case was Nina
Kulagina, a Leningrad housewife who demonstrated PK abilities to Western
scientists. They witnessed the leviation and movements of various stationary objects,
the changing of course of objects already in motion and the change of the rate of
beating to a removed frog's heart. Apparently the effort from speeding up and slowing
the heart caused a lot of strain and could not be continued indefinitely, so Kulagina
stopped the heart.
RNG studies continue today, with long-term studies conducted at the Princeton
Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) center. RNG devices are also used by the
Global Consciousness Project. As a technological curiosity, on Nov 3rd, 1998 the US
Patent Office granted Patent #5830064, "Apparatus and method for distinguishing
events which collectively exceed chance expectations and thereby controlling an
output", to inventors including several researchers from PEAR. The patent in no way
relies on the existence of psi phenomena, but in the description the inventors do
suggest that "One application of the present invention is the investigation of
anomalous interaction between an operator and random physical systems, whether by
serious scientists or curious members of the public who would like to conduct
experiments on their own." The central idea of the patent is that a single device
(microchip) includes both a true RNG and an accumulator circuit which can detect
when the output of the RNG varies significantly from expected chance output. The
output of the accumulator/detector circuit can then be used as an input to some control
circuit. The idea then is that if a PK channel is truly available, then an operator should
be able to mentally affect the RNG such that the detection circuit triggers, providing a
psi-controlled switch. No actual applications of this patent are known at the time of
this writing.
Perhaps the most remarkable (and controversial) PK experiments involving RNGs
were first conducted by Helmut Schmidt. Noting that some reported psi phenomena
do not appear to be time bound, and that some interpretations of quantum theory posit
a relationship between observer and the observed and the indeterminacy of some
events until observed, Schmidt designed experiments in which a subject was asked to
influence the output of an RNG after the output had already been recorded, i.e. the
subject was being asked (unknown to the subject) to affect the behavior of the RNG
over an interval of time in the past. One of the advantages of such an experiment is
the degree of security (fraud prevention) that can be designed into the protocol. After
a series of such experiments with positive results (odds against chance of 1000 to 1)
involving independent third-party observers, one of the observers, theoretical
physicist Henry Stapp of UC Berkeley, wrote an article for the prominent journal
Physical Review in 1994 in which he attempted to show how PK might be consistent
with a generalization of quantum theory, and that such phenomena merited further
study.
There have also been studies of possible mental influence on living systems, such as
the effects of prayer and remote healing, or, in research conducted in the former
Soviet Union, the ability of one subject to induce hypnosis or wakefulness in another
subject remotely.
Various models have been proposed for various aspects of PK as well as other psi
phenomena, but so far there is no widely accepted physical theory or proposed
mechanism that explains how such phenomena might occur. Many parapsychologists
with backgrounds in physics point out that despite lack of a proposed mechanism for
psi phenomena, the currently understood laws of physics do not preclude such
phenomena, and they are confident that eventually extensions to today's physical
theories will fill this gap. There are critics who disagree with this assessment.
Some Christian religious scholars believe that Psychokinesis is a spiritual gift and is
apparent in various Bible stories, such as the release of Paul and Silas's bands during
their escape from prison in Acts 16, and others. Other religions also cite various cases
of psychokinesis including Astral projection in Shamanism, Yogic flying, poltergeists
and various healings.
Many parapsychologists believe that there is sufficient evidence of psychokinesis in
controlled experiments to prove its existence and to justify it as a field of study.
[edit]
Remote influencing
In recent years, the term remote influencing has become popular to describe the
application of psychokinesis to biological systems. This may be to impact either
positively or negatively upon health, alter mood, or influence decision making.
In a similar fashion, remote viewing has been applied to clairvoyance. These terms
emerged from research undertaken by the American government, for the application
of psychic abilities to intelligence gathering, military force, and remote assassination.
Some of the most detailed claims in this area are made in The Men Who Stare At
Goats, written by Jon Ronson to accompany his British TV series The Crazy Rulers of
the World.
According to Ronson, over 100 de-bleated goats were shipped to Fort Bragg, North
Carolina along with a significant quantity of hamsters, to facilitate this research, and
remote influencers were said to have stopped the hearts of goats and hamsters long
enough to cause death.
The programs are generally said to be secret, making verification difficult. Incidents
of illness in world figures, such as George W. Bush's loss of consciousness after
choking on a pretzel in January, 2002, have been ascribed to psychic attacks. Many
websites offer to sell courses that purportedly teach remote viewing and remote
influencing.
[edit]
Cultural references
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The Jedi and Sith, wielders of the mysterious "Force" within the Star Wars
universe, have the ability to telekinetically move objects of various sizes and
from various distances.
A young Courteney Cox played a telekinetic teenager in the short-lived TV
series, Misfits of Science
Sissy Spacek played a telekinetic high school girl in the 1976 film Carrie,
based on the Stephen King novel of the same name
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, witches are shown to be telekinetic as a whole.
In Charmed, telekinesis is a power possessed by most witches, warlocks,
upper level demons and angels.
In X-Men, Jean Grey and many other mutants have telekinetic abilities.
In the TV show Static Shock, Madelyn Spaulding developes telekinesis after
Static sends a surge of electricity through her brain.
In Teen Titans, both Raven of the titular team and Jinx of H.I.V.E. Academy
wield telekinetic powers.
In Earthbound, PK or PSI is the primary form of 'magic' in the game, however
this variation also includes manipulation of full energy with the mind
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In the children's novel Matilda by Roald Dahl, the protagonist, Matilda
Wormwood, develops telekinetic abilities as a result of untapped intellectual
ability.
In Witch Hunter Robin, certain witches have the power to control the
movement of objects such as trash cans at will.
The Tomorrow People TV series features characters possessing psychokinetic
abilities.
In the video game Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy by Midway, Nick
Scryer uses many different abilities to defeat enemies (pyrokinesis, telekinesis,
etc.)
In the TV show The Secret World of Alex Mack, Alexandra "Alex" Mack
gains telekinesis after being drenched in the chemical GC-161.
In the Pokemon game/show, many of the Pokemon wield telekinesis and many
other psychic gifts.
In Akira, both the movie and the manga, telekinesis is a subject of secret
government research, culminating in extremely powerful individuals such as
the main antagonist, Tetsuo, and the titular character, Akira.
In Zapped! a teenage high school whiz kid discovers a formula for telekinetic
powers and uses it for various mischief, including undressing girls, and in the
sequel Zapped Again! a new generation of high school kids find the old potion
and perform similar pranks.
The vampire hunter Donovan Baine and the young girl Anita whom
acompanies him, uses telekinesis to a large extent. Donovan's main weapon is
a giant spirit sword known as Dhylec, which he mostly wields with just the
power of his mind. Donovan and Anita hail from the Darkstalkers video game
series.
In the Gundam meta-verse, there is a type of evolved human being known as a
Newtype, predominantly in the Universal Century timeline. This happens
when humanity begins to migrate to space, and to adapt to the new
enviornment humanity begins to slowly evolve to adapt to space. Although
Newtypes mostly exhibit enhanced senses and varying degree's of heightened
mental awareness, they have sometimes performed amazing feats that are very
Telekinetic. For example, the main protagonist of Zeta Gundam, Camille
Vidan has his titular Mobile Suit perform far beyond its expected performance
with the power of his mind during instances where he becomes deeply
enraged. There are also Newtype only weapons known as "Funnels" which are
psychically controlled modules which are used to remotely attack enemies
mentally.
Vampires in popular fiction often have a form of telekinesis. Usually it is the
older, more powerful vampires whom exhibit this. Vampires aquire power the
longer they stay alive usually.
In the game series Golden Sun, the ability to use powers granted to the mind,
ingame called "Psynergy", does exist. Adepts are naturally born knowing they
have these powers, though, anyone can use them if they put their mind to it.
Four kinds of psynergy exist, Venus (Earth), Mars (Fire), Jupiter (Wind), and
Mercury (Water). Amongst these, the most notable is Jupiter and Mercury;
Jupiter adepts are naturals at reading minds and being able to pick up on future
events, and Mercury can heal through prayer and concentration. Venus have
the ability to manipulate objects with their mind, giving them such powers as
"Move" and teleporting "Retreat", while Mars can gain abilities that are a
mixture of three, knowing "Move" and healing moves are natural to them.
[edit]
See also
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Anomalous operation
James Randi
-kinesis
Parapsychology
Pseudoscience
Pyrokinesis
Spoon bending
Silva Method
[edit]
References
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Radin, Dean, The Conscious Universe, Harper Collins, 1997, ISBN
0062515020.
Ronson, Jon, The Men who Stare at Goats, Picador, 2004, ISBN 0330375474
[edit]
External links
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Paranormal Forums Paranormal Forums for discussion of all Paranormal
related topics including Psychokinesis / Telekinesis.
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) center
The RetroPsychoKinesis Project has links to many of the papers related to
Helmut Schmidt's experiments.
PsiPog : Psychic Students In Pursuit Of Guidance
Contains "How-To" information on a variety of psychic abilities, including
Psychokinesis and Telekinesis.
Parapsychological Practitioners Society
Psi Online : A well-regarded repository of "how-to" information.
The Veritas Academy
realityshifters.com a collection of articles, stories, books and links on
psychokinetic reality shifts
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychokinesis"
Out-of-body experience
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality.
This article has been tagged since February 2005.
See How to Edit and Style and How-to for help, or this article's talk page.
About one in 10 people claim to have had an Out of Body Experience (OBE) at some
time in their lives, typically involving a sensation of floating and seeing their own
physical body from outside themselves.
For some, the phenomenon occurred spontaneously, while for others it was linked to
dangerous circumstances, a near-death experience, a dream-like state or use of alcohol
or drugs. Despite this, relatively little is known about OBE
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4177912.stm).
Psychologists at Manchester University have set up (August 2005) an online survey
that they hope about 3,000 people will fill out at:
http://www.freeresponse.org/muobe2005/ .
Contents
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1 Other types of projection
2 The OBE experience
o 2.1 Spontaneous OBEs
o 2.2 Other types of spontaneous OBEs
3 Non-spontaneous (or induced) OBEs
4 External verification of OBEs
5 Other observations of OBEs
6 Possible explanations
7 See also
8 External links
[edit]
Other types of projection
Astral projection:
Astral projection is a controversial interpretation of forced out-of-body experiences
achieved either consciously or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. Proponents of
astral projection maintain that their consciousness or soul has transferred into an astral
body (or "double"), which moves free of the physical body in a parallel world known
as the "astral plane," which is said to exist via the "collective conscious." Unlike the
typical OBE, astral projection does not typically posit that one's consciousness or soul
actually travels through the day-to-day physical realm.
Virtual reality projection:
Part astral and part real time (as mentioned above), called Virtual Reality Projection
by most, is when a projector moves on the physical plane, yet interacts with the astral
plane at the same time. An example of this is if one walks into a "real" poster or
picture, they are transported to a -perfect- reconstruction of this place/world by
concentrated experiences and thoughts of every beholder of the concept of the picture.
This is part of the reason many try to project, but admittedly only a speck in the
(literally) infinite possibilities. This concept is associated with the occult and the New
Age movement, and is not accepted by the majority of the scientific community.
Remote viewing:
In some instances, astral projectors have described details of the outside world whilst
in projection that they could not have known beforehand. This has been studied
extensively and is known as remote viewing. In remote viewing, however, the viewer
does not leave his or her body, but "sees" remote sites by other means.
[edit]
The OBE experience
[edit]
Spontaneous OBEs
The following general observations can be made based on a collection of 66 case
studies of firsthand accounts of "spontaneous" OBEs (those not part of a planned
program to induce the experience) at Spiritual Spectrum Stories:
Initiation:
OBEs are often initiated through lucid dreaming, where one is aware they are
dreaming, though other types of initiation are discussed later. The majority of subjects
(55+ of the 66 cases), who claim to have had an OBE, reported being asleep, on the
verge of sleep, or having been asleep shortly before the experience. A large
percentage of these cases referred to situations where the sleep was not particularly
deep (due to illness, noises in other rooms, emotional stress, exhaustion from
overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.). In most of these cases, the subjects then
felt themselves "wake up"; about half then noted a feeling of physical paralysis.
There appear to be two common forms of such lucid experiences. The first involves
lucid dreaming, where the subject is immersed in unrealistic worlds, or in a modified
form of the reality with impossible or inconsistent features. A second experience is of
a more physical nature where the environment is consistent with reality; this is often
called an etheric or ethereal experience. This type can be frightening, as extremely
realistic physical sensations may occur, often including magnetic and vibrating
phenomena, loss of balance, and confusion. The person believes he has awoken
physically and panic can be caused by the realization that limbs appear to be
penetrating objects. Transition can occur between these states one or several times;
this transition may feel much like awakening, including the sensation of numbness
often felt on awakening.
Case Study Quotes:
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I soon realized that I was capable of moving only my eyes. Neither my
head nor fingers would budge. I remember desperately trying to move
even a toe to no avail.
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Suddenly I could no longer move or even lift a finger. As I was
struggling to move, there was a sudden jerk and I was pushed out of
my body and was floating upwards.
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I had gone to bed, woke up suddenly and found that although I was
fully conscious I couldn't move a muscle.
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I lay paralyzed, unable to move or blink.
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Then my mom woke me for school and I felt sensation slowly return to
my limbs (before that I couldn't move anything).
Duration:
In some cases, the subjects either willed themselves out of their bodies or found
themselves being pulled from their bodies (these were usually preceded by the feeling
of paralysis). In other cases, the feeling of being outside the body was something
suddenly realized after the fact; the subjects saw their bodies almost by accident.
Subjects claim they can (at will or otherwise) see a silver cord linking their astral
form to their physical body. This cord mainly appears to a beginning traveler as
assurance they will not become lost. However, even experienced travelers find it
useful, claiming it is a fast way to return to the body.
The OBE is not generally long; on the order of a minute or so. Those who experience
an OBE may note that the subjective experience is much longer than the objective
time passing.
Conclusion:
The OBE may or may not be followed by other experiences which are self-reported as
being "as real" as the OBE feeling; alternatively, they may fade into a state selfreported as dreaming, or they may wake completely.
The OBE is sometimes ended due to a fearful feeling of getting "too far away" from
the body.
Many of these OBEs end with a feeling of suddenly "popping" or "snapping" back
into their bodies.
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I was lying in bed and I felt myself rising. This freaked me out, so I
slammed back into my body.
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As soon as I noticed myself still lying on the couch I was instantly shot
back in my body.
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I reached the floor and touched my bed in a sitting position. I
whooshed back into my body.
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I realized that I was floating and became very frightened. In that
instant of revelation I felt a sense of great speed and an impact as
though I had smashed into a brick wall. I "woke up" crumpled up at
the bottom of my bed in the hotel.
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I was pulled violently back into my body and I jerked.
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The next moment I was fully awake and in my bed, no journey upstairs,
nothing, I was back in an instant.
Some subjects experience spiritual epiphanies; others experience a general feeling of
peacefulness and love; still others experience fearfulness and anxiety. Finally, some
experience only the OBE itself, with no direct spiritual experience.
A majority describe the end of the experience as "then I woke up". It's worth noting
that even those (perhaps especially those) who describe the experience as something
fantastic that occurs during sleep, and who describe the end of the experience by
saying "and then I woke up", are very specific in describing the experience as one
which was clearly not a dream; many described their sense of feeling more awake
than they felt when they were normally awake. One compared the experience to that
of lucid dreaming, but said that it was "more real".
[edit]
Other types of spontaneous OBEs
A small minority of the OBEs were not accompanied by sleep.
Ghost walking:
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I can remember walking home from junior school with my friend, and
then, I saw myself in the distance walking and talking to her.
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The next thing I knew, I looked straight out in the woods, and I had an
OBE. I saw the lights from the back porch, I was about 100-150 feet
away from the house looking at me and my friend.
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The doctors did not use any anesthetic at the time because I was too
young [two years old]. When they cut me open, I felt severe and
intense pain and I left my body because it was too much for me to bear.
Near death experience:
Another form of a spontaneous OBE occurs during a near death experience (or NDE).
The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and
transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001) such as subjective
impressions of being outside the physical body (an out-of-body experience), visions
of deceased relatives and religious figures, transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal
boundaries and other transcendental experiences (Lukoff, Lu & Turner, 1998;
Greyson, 2003). Typically the experience follows a distinct progression, starting with
the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed
by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, and
concluding with encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985).
[edit]
Non-spontaneous (or induced) OBEs
Although the above experiences were "spontaneous", some people have attempted to
develop techniques to "induce" an OBE. Methods vary. See below:
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Attempting to fall asleep without losing consciousness. This method is
generally believed to be what causes involuntary OBEs. Some who use it
consider dreams to be a form of OBE in which the conscious mind is
suppressed; alternatively, others believe that an OBE is a form of dream in
which the conscious mind is not suppressed. A known related technique is for
the subject to remind himself of his current position in time and space with
daily conscious effort, every now and then. This can then occur during sleep
and cause the subject to "awaken" in lucid states required to cause the
experience. "See Lucid Dreaming."
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Deep trance and visualization. The types of visualizations vary; some common
imageries used include climbing a rope to "pull out" of one's body, floating out
of one's body, getting shot out of a cannon, and other similar approaches. This
technique is considered hard to use for people who cannot properly relax.
Common sensations can arise such as deep vibrations, impressions of very
high heart rate (when it actually is in a relaxed state) and these sensations are
likely to cause anxieties. An good example of such a technique consists of the
popular "Golden Dawn Body of Light Technique".
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Audio/visual stimulation intended to bring the subject into the appropriate
state. An example of this consists of binaural sound technology, in which a
constant sound frequency is played in each ear individually, to cause the brain
to naturally respond to the rhythm caused by the slight frequency difference
between the two. The theta (4Hz) brainwave frequency was observed as
effective by the Monroe institute (and corroborated by others). Another
popular technology uses sinusoidal wave pulses to achieve similar results. The
beta/theta simultaneous brainwave patterns (12Hz/4Hz) were also observed as
effective, apparently easing the lighter sleep condition. The theta frequency is
observed monitoring brains of dreaming patients, notably in REM (Rapid Eye
Movement) sleep, while the beta frequency range is that of normal, relaxed
awakened individuals. It is believed that one of the unsuspected powers of the
drumming of the American natives during religious ceremonies caused the
brain to swift among frequencies to become more receptive to the "other
worlds" using similar means.
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Chemically induced experiences. OBEs induced with drugs are generally
considered to be hallucinations (i.e., purely subjective), even by those who
believe the phenomenon to be objective in general. There are several types of
drugs that can initiate an OBE. Primarily that of dissociative hallucinogens
such as ketamine, DXM and PCP.
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Electrical stimulation of the brain (See below).
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Sensory deprivation or overload. Various techniques aim to cause intense
disorientation of the subject by making him lose his space and time references.
The first technique, attempting to fall asleep without losing consciousness, can
be considered to be a passive form of sensory deprivation. The brain tends to
fill in the gaps when there is nothing getting into the senses for some time.
Sensory overload consists of the opposite, where the subject can for instance
be rocked for a long time into an especially designed cradle, or submit to light
forms of torture, to cause the brain to shut itself from all the sensory overload
eventually. Both conditions tend to cause confusion, and this disorientation
often permits the subject to experience vivid, ethereal out of body experiences.
This tends to happen when the subject believes to be in a particular position,
when the actual body really is not (either rocking in a cradle actively, or still
lying down). Consciousness suddenly transfers to the mental body in a flash.
[edit]
External verification of OBEs
Only 2 of the 66 cases involved (from the previously mentioned study) attempt to
verify the experience as being "really" out-of-body by checking the positions of
people or objects in another room. The basis for the subject's belief that the
experiences was real was not primarily the external evidence. Very few of the 66
cases considered it needful to verify for themselves they were physically out-of-body
by checking on events at other locations. This type of verification was not what
caused them to believe the experience was "real" in the first place. Instead, it was the
quality of the experience that drove their perception of its reality, and made it
different from a dreaming or illusory experience.
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I can say one thing I remember vividly, I felt no different than in body
form. This is what was so unbelievable.
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I could see the details in my room and the ceiling from up close exactly
as if I was seeing it in real life.
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The room was bright and I was looking at a dress that was hung on my
bedroom wall. My gaze was fixed on this dress taking in all its details.
I knew it was not possible to see this dress from the position I was laid
in bed, this frightened me again.
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I knew I was asleep on the living room floor when I was floating on the
ceiling because, I was in shock in the "dream" how I could feel my
breast dangle downward. I was completely aware.
[edit]
Other observations of OBEs
Not every OBE has exactly the same aspects, but the subjects all agree. There are
several different types of OBEs with different causes and meanings. Some examples
are discussed below.
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These people claim they are not "faking" their experiences.
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They were not, in general, "trying" to have the experience through autosuggestion, hypnotic trance, etc. Many seemed frightened and/or confused by
the experience; some even to the point of doubting their sanity.
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A belief that they were physically "out of body" is a key feature of the
experience. Even though other features of their experience might be selfdescribed as dreamlike, the OBE part was experienced "lucidly", and was very
real to the subjects. Several described their subjective state as "very awake",
"more awake than usual", etc. Some quotes:
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I knew that these were not dreams, I can now tell the difference and
that's what frightened me, (sic) a dream you can ignore but not an
experience like these (sic) it made me want to try and find out why are
(sic) these things happening to me.
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Consciousness was as clear and lucid as any wakening experience.
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I was very alert. It was exactly as if I was awake.
Something else to note. The quality of the experiences which were strictly part of the
OBE had no direct bearing on the remainder of the experience. For example, some
describe vivid spiritual experiences following the OBE, which continue to influence
their lives. On the other hand, others describe a kind of fading into what are selfreported as dreams of no consequence. Conversely, many people report spiritual
experiences during sleep or otherwise which are not preceded by an OBE.
[edit]
Possible explanations
Opinions regarding the objective reality of OBEs are mixed. An appreciable number
of people believe the phenomenon is exactly what it feels like, and that the soul is
leaving the body and exploring. Many OBE accounts are positive that the usual
explanation, that the experience was a dream, is insufficient and often cite the
experience as having a spiritual effect. See examples:
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If it was [a dream] why am I still so affected by it?
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I just don't understand this - how can this happen?
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I realized at that instant my body was just a vehicle, a work horse so to
speak.
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The experience changed my life, and was profound
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It has made me want to explore and learn as much as I can.
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This experience is as vivid to me today, as it was the night it actually
happened. I will always remember it.
Despite claims of some "projectors" who aver that they can initiate the experience at
will, there is to date no reliable evidence that any imagery or information acquired
during the experience could not have come from normal sources (see near-death
experience for some inconclusive attempts to test the hypothesis).
While the subjective experience may be very compelling, most skeptics discount the
idea that the phenomenon is somehow linked to an actual physical relocation of
consciousness. They note that, in the absence of the typical conviction that the
experience is real, these experiences would simply be considered dreams; and that
lacking hard evidence to the contrary, the simplest explanation would be that the
experiencer's sense of heightened reality, however powerful, is a subjective one.
In support of this idea, some neurologists point to experiments in the context of
treatment of epilepsy involving electrical stimulus of a particular part of the brain, the
right angular gyrus located in the parietal lobe, which produce subjective experiences
having all of the hallmarks of an OBE, including the sense of enhanced reality and
extreme disembodiment. This evidence, as well as similar results involving use of the
drug ketamine, support the hypothesis that at least some OBEs are caused by an
unusual but natural brain state in which one's body perception and sense of reality are
altered.
Skeptics also point to the increasing body of evidence which ties mental functions
such as perception and memory to exclusively physical processes which occur in the
brain; and note that no known mechanism would account for how these processes
could occur at a distance (the mind-body problem). However, in some instances, such
as patients during surgery, people describe OBEs in which they see something they
could not possibly have seen while under anesthesia (for instance, one woman
accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as
conversation that occurred while she was clinically dead). See near-death experiences.
OBE's cannot be disproved, but there is no solid evidence that anyone has actually left
their body. Many experiencers have made detailed observations they reportedly could
not have made by any other means, but these have not yet been studied to the
satisfaction of the scientific community.
[edit]
See also
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Astral projection
[edit]
External links
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Detailed information about out-of-body experiences by author William
Buhlman
Robert Peterson Book on OOBEs (available online)
Accounts of Out of body experiences
OBE Forum
Out of body Experiences and the Brain
Is death the end?
Discuss O.B.E's/Astral Projections and N.D.E's here
The International Academy of Consciousness and Research/Education
Resources
Brazilian Research and Education Campus centered on Psychic Development
and Out-of-body experiences
An in-depth psychological and philosophical analysis of OBEs and selfperception
The Monroe Institute research organization and Hemi-Sync technology
Out of Body Experience Journal
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience"
Near-death experience
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ascent in the Empyrean (Hieronymous Bosch)
A near-death experience (NDE) is the perception reported by a person who nearly
died or who was clinically dead and revived. They are somewhat common, especially
since the development of cardiac resuscitation techniques, and are reported in
approximately one-fifth of persons who revive from clinical death. The experience
often includes an out-of-body experience.
The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and
transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001) such as subjective
impressions of being outside the physical body (an out-of-body experience), visions
of deceased relatives and religious figures, transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal
boundaries and other transcendental experiences (Lukoff, Lu & Turner, 1998;
Greyson, 2003). Typically the experience folllows a distinct progression, starting with
the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed
by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, and
concluding with encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985).
A 'core' near-death experience reflects—as intensity increases according to the Rasch
scale (Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004)—peace, joy and harmony, followed by
insight and mystical or religious experiences. The same study also notes that the most
intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time.
Contents
[hide]
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1 Near-Death Research
2 As an afterlife experience
3 As a naturalistic experience
4 Spiritual and psychological after-effects
5 See also
6 References and further reading
o 6.1 Clinical and academic
o 6.2 Personal experiences
o 6.3 Fiction
7 External links
o 7.1 Academic
o 7.2 On-line sites and articles
[edit]
Near-Death Research
Dr. Raymond Moody is recognized as the father of NDE research. He has chronicled
and studied many of these experiences in his books The Last Laugh, Life After Life
and Reflections on Life After Life. Another early pioneer is Dr. Kenneth Ring, cofounder and past President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies
(IANDS).
Major contributions to the field include the construction of a Weighted Core
Experience Index (Ring, 1980) in order to measure the depth of the Near-Death
experience, and the construction of the Near-Death Experience Scale (Greyson, 1983)
in order to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have
experienced a genuine NDE. These approaches include criteria for deciding what is to
be considered a classical or authentic NDE. Well-known researchers in the field who
support a moderate view, or sympathize with aspects of the after-life view are Kevin
Williams, Bruce Greyson, Michael Sabom, Melvin Morse, PMH Atwater, Yvonne
Kason, Sam Parnia, Peter Fenwick, Jody A. Long and Jeffrey P. Long. Much of this
research is co-ordinated through the field of Near-Death Studies.
Among the researchers who support a naturalistic and neurological base for the
experience we find the British psychologist Susan Blackmore, and founding publisher
of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer. The possibility of altered temporal lobe
functioning in the near-death experience is suggested by Britton & Bootzin (2004). In
this study Near-Death experiencers were also found to have altered sleep patterns
compared to subjects in the control group. Dr. Rick Strassman has attempted to
induce NDE in a clinical setting by injecting subjects with DMT. This research is
described in his book DMT - The Spirit Molecule (2001).
According to Martens (1994), the only satisfying method to address the NDE-issue
would be an international multicentric data collection within the framework for
standardized reporting of cardiac arrest events. The use of cardiac arrest-criteria as a
basis for NDE-research has been a common approach among the European branch of
the research field (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001; van Lommel, van Wees,
Meyers & Elfferich, 2001).
[edit]
As an afterlife experience
Many see near death experiences as an afterlife experience, and some accounts
include elements that they say are most simply explained by an out-of-body
consciousness. For example, in one, a woman accurately described a surgical
instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while
she was clinically dead. In another from the proactive Dutch NDE study[1], a nurse
removed the dentures of an unconscious heart attack victim, and was asked by him
after his recovery to return them.
But researchers have been unsuccessful in running proactive experiments to establish
out-of-body consciousness. There have been numerous experiments in which a
random message was placed in a hospital in a manner that it would be invisible to
patients or staff yet visible to a floating being, and thus far, no person experiencing a
near death experience has been able to reproduce the message.
Regardless of the origin of the phenomenon, the subjective experience of NDEs is
well-documented, and follows certain patterns:
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
It is generally accepted that some people who reported NDEs were shown to
be clinically dead, sometimes longer than a day. However, it is not shown that
the experiences themselves took place in any time other than just before the
clinical death, or in the process of being revived. In altered states of
consciousness such as this and during dream states or under the influence of
drugs, the subjective perception of time is often dilated.
Those who report NDEs typically respond by a major change of life
perspective and direction, generally away from self-orientation toward
outward orientation, or what they call a more loving life. The NDE is reported
by some to feel "more real than life"[2]. Some former atheists have adopted a
more spiritual view of life after NDEs[3] (for example Howard Storm and
George Rodonaia).
Those who report NDEs typically look forward to death, but despise suicide.
The similarities amongst the experiences of the many documented cases may simply
show that the pathology of the brain during the dying and reviving process is more or
less the same in all humans, as written by Russian specialist Dr. Vladimir Negovsky
in Clinical Death As Seen by Reanimator.
[edit]
As a naturalistic experience
Many see near death experiences as a purely naturalistic phenomenon.
One scientific hypothesis that attempts to explain NDEs was originally suggested by
accounts of the side-effects of the drug Ketamine (see Dr. Karl Jansen). Ketamine was
used as an anesthetic on U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; but its use was
abandoned and never spread to civilian use because the soldiers complained about
sensations of floating above their body and seeing bright lights. Further experiments
by numerous researchers verified that intravenous injections of ketamine could
reproduce all of the commonly cited features of an NDE; including a sense that the
experience is "real" and that one is actually dead, separation from the body, visions of
loved ones, and transcendent mystical experiences.
Ketamine acts by blocking the receptor for the neurotransmitter glutamate. Glutamate
is released in abundance when brain cells die, and if it weren't blocked, the glutamate
overload would cause other brain cells to die as well. In the presence of excess
glutamate, the brain releases its own glutamate receptor blocker to defend itself; and it
is these blockers Dr. Jansen (amongst others) hypothesize as the cause of many
NDEs.
Critics of this hypothesis point out that although some aspects of the experience may
be similar, not all NDEs exactly fit the ketamine experience; and that while it might
be possible to chemically simulate the experience, this does not refute the possibility
that spontaneous NDEs have a spiritual component. As even Dr. Jansen notes:
Claims that NDE's must have a single explanation (e.g. Ring, 1980), or that a
scientific theory must explain all of the experiences ever given the name of
NDE (e.g. Gabbard and Twemlow, 1989) are difficult to justify.
Swiss scientists published in 2002 in Nature[4] found that electrical stimulation on the
brain region known as the right angular gyrus repeatedly caused out-of-body
experiences to the patient[5].
Also see out-of-body experience in which experiences like NDE occur in epilepsy or
during brain stimulation and lucid dreaming in which subjects also report experiences
that seem more "real" than waking life.
[edit]
Spiritual and psychological after-effects
Accounts by NDE subjects sometimes include long-term after-effects such as a
heightened sense of intuition; seeing apparently disconnected events being connected
as in the phenomenon of synchronicity; and internal feelings of bodily energy and/or
altered states of consciousness similar to those associated with kundalini (Greyson,
2000).
Greyson (1983) developed The Near-Death Experience Scale in order to measure the
after-effects of a near-death experience. This research note that the aftermath of the
experience is associated with both positive and healthy outcomes related to
personality and appreciation for life, but also a spectrum of clinical problems in
situations where the person has had difficulties with the experience (Orne, 1995).
These difficulties are usually connected to the interpretation of the experience and the
integration of it into everyday life. The near-death experience as a focus of clinical
attention and the inclusion of a new diagnostic category in the DSM-IV called
"Religious or spiritual problem" (Code V 62.89) is discussed more closely by
Greyson (1997).
Simpson (2001) notes that the number of people that have experienced an NDE might
be higher than the number of cases that are actually reported. It is not unusual for
near-death experiencers to feel profound insecurity related to how they are going to
explain something that the surrounding culture perceives as a strange, paranormal
incident.
[edit]
See also




Alister Hardy
Beyond and Back
Journal of Near-Death studies
Near-Death Studies
[edit]
References and further reading
[edit]
Clinical and academic


Blackmore S. (1993) Dying to live: Science and Near-Death Experiences.
London: Harper Collins.
Britton WB, Bootzin RR. (2004) Near-death experiences and the temporal
lobe. Psychol Sci. 2004 Apr;15(4):254-8. PubMed abstract PMID 15043643
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Ellwood, G.F. (2001) The Uttermost Deep: The Challenge of Near-Death
Experiences. New York: LanternBooks.
Greyson, B. (1983) The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction,
reliability, and validity. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 171, 369-375.
Greyson B. (1997) The near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention.
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 1997 May;185(5):327-34. PubMed
abstract PMID 9171810
Greyson, B. (2000) Some neuropsychological correlates of the physiokundalini syndrome. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 32, 123-134.
Greyson, Bruce (2003) Near-Death Experiences in a Psychiatric Outpatient
Clinic Population. Psychiatric Services, December 2003, Vol. 54 No. 12. The
American Psychiatric Association
Lange R, Greyson B, Houran J. (2004) A Rasch scaling validation of a 'core'
near-death experience. British Journal of Psychology, Volume: 95 Part: 2
Page: 161-177
Lukoff, David, Lu, Francis G. & Turner, Robert P. (1998) From Spiritual
Emergency to Spiritual Problem - The Transpersonal Roots of the New DSMIV Category. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 38(2), 21-50, 1998
Martens PR. (1994) Near-death-experiences in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
survivors. Meaningful phenomena or just fantasy of death? Resuscitation.
1994 Mar;27(2):171-5. PubMed abstract PMID 8029538
Morse M., Conner D. and Tyler D. (1985) Near-Death Experiences in a
pediatric population. A preliminary report, American Journal of Disease of
Children, n. 139, 1985. PubMed abstract PMID 4003364
Orne RM. (1995) The meaning of survival: the early aftermath of a near-death
experience. Research in Nursing & Health. 1995 Jun;18(3):239-47. PubMed
abstract PMID 7754094
Parnia S, Waller DG, Yeates R, Fenwick P (2001) A qualitative and
quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death
experiences in cardiac arrest survivors. Resuscitation. 2001 Feb;48(2):149-56.
PubMed abstract PMID 11426476
Ring K. (1980) Life at death. A scientific investigation of the near- death
experience. New York: Coward McCann and Geoghenan
Shermer, Michael (1998) Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience,
Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. W.H. Freeman & Company
Simpson SM. (2001) Near death experience: a concept analysis as applied to
nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2001 Nov;36(4):520-6. PubMed
abstract PMID 11703546
Strassman R. (2001)DMT - The Spirit Molecule. Rochester, VT: Park Street
Press
van Lommel P, van Wees R, Meyers V, Elfferich I. (2001) Near-Death
Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A prospective Study in the
Netherlands. Lancet. 2001 Dec 15;358(9298):2039-45.
[edit]
Personal experiences

Embraced by the Light by Betty Eadie (1992). One of the most detailed neardeath experiences on record.

Saved by the Light by Dannion Brinkley. Brinkley's experience documents one
of the most complete near death experiences, in terms of core experience and
additional phenomena from the NDE scale.
[edit]
Fiction

In Passage, a 2001 novel by Connie Willis, the principal storyline centers
around a researcher who has developed a technique for inducing an experience
very much like a natural NDE. By studying the effects and comparing them
with real NDEs, she hopes to find a biological basis for NDEs.

The novel Fearless (1993) by Rafael Yglesias is about an architect that
survives a planecrash. His Near-Death experience starts a period of
fearlessness and existential concerns which puts him in conflict with both his
family and the surrounding culture. The book was later adapted to the screen
by director Peter Weir, starring Jeff Bridges as the main character, Max Klein.

Flatliners (1990) is about a group of medical students who wanted to study the
Near-Death experience. One of them each time would voluntarily die clinicaly
and then his or her fellow students would use their practical knowledge to
revive them. But their experiment begins to go awry.
[edit]
External links
[edit]
Academic
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Kluwer Academic Publishers - Journal Of Near-Death Studies
The International Association for Near-Death Studies, Inc
University of Virginia Health System - Division of Personality Studies
University Of Wales, Lampeter - The Alister Hardy Society Religious
Experience Research Centre
University of Southampton News Release - Research body will shed more
light on near death experiences
University Of Wales, Lampeter - Press Releases: A Near Death Experience?
Susan Blackmore - Near-Death Experiences: In or out of the body? Article
from Sceptical Inquirer, 1991
[edit]
On-line sites and articles

The Website of PMH Atwater - one of the internet's most comprehensive sites
on near-death phenomenon.
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CSICOP Online - Have You Seen "The Light?"
The Ketamine Model of the Near Death Experience: A Central Role for the
NMDA Receptor, Jansen, Karl
Jansen, K. L. R. (1996) Using ketamine to induce the near death experience:
mechanism of action and therapeutic potential. Yearbook for Ethnomedicine
and the Study of Consciousness (Jahrbuch furr Ethnomedizin und
Bewubtseinsforschung) Issue 4, 1995 (Ed.s C. Ratsch; J. R. Baker); VWB,
Berlin, pp55-81.
Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF)
Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife
Crank.net page on NDEs
The Campaign for Philosophical Freedom - The secular scientific case for
survival after death
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience"
Reincarnation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Past Lives redirects here. For the Black Sabbath album, see Past Lives (album).
Reincarnation, as a doctrine, sometimes confused with transmigration of souls, is
the rebirth in another body (after physical death), of some critical part of a person's
personality or spirit, namely, the Ego. The natural process is considered integrative of
all experiences from each lifetime. A human being always reincarnates as a human
being according to the doctrine. "Transmigration" is a separate and different theory
that considers the process to allow inter-species embodiments. Its occurrence is a
central tenet of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Surat Shabda Yoga, some African
religions, as well as various other religions and philosophies. Most modern Pagans
also believe in reincarnation.
It has traditionally also been understood to be akin to the Buddhist concept of Rebirth,
but it has always been clear that the two concepts are very distinct - Buddhism teaches
that there is no self to reincarnate. There is an alternate view, based on a different set
of inherent assumptions, that the teachings of Buddhism as a religion might stress one
aspect, the teachings of Hinduism might stress another aspect, but that an advanced
Buddhist and an advanced Hindu would directly perceive the phenomenon of
reincarnation identically.
Contents
[hide]
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1 Origin of the belief
2 Reincarnation in Eastern religions and traditions
o 2.1 Hinduism
o 2.2 Buddhism
o 2.3 Jainism
o 2.4 Ayyavazhi
3 Reincarnation in the First American Nations
4 Reincarnation in Western religions and traditions
o 4.1 Classical Greek Philosophy
o 4.2 Judaism and kabbalah
o 4.3 Gnosticism
o 4.4 Christianity
5 Contemporary movements and thinkers
o 5.1 New Religious Movements
 5.1.1 Common Variations in the belief
 5.1.2 Scientology
o 5.2 Reincarnation in contemporary thought
 5.2.1 Evidence of reincarnation
 5.2.2 Objections to reincarnation

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5.2.3 Another theory of reincarnation
5.2.4 Jane Roberts
5.2.5 Reincarnation and the New Age movement
6 See also
7 References
8 External Links
[edit]
Origin of the belief
This doctrine has its roots far back in primitive culture. According to some scholars,
this idea developed out of three common beliefs: (1) that man has a soul, connected
with the breath, which can be separated from his material body, temporarily in sleep,
permanently at death; (2) that animals and even plants have souls, and are possessed
to a large extent of human powers and passions; (3) that souls can be transferred from
one organism to another. (This idea still has adherents in many schools of Hinduism,
the oldest of extant modern religions)
Alternatively, some consider that reincarnation as a phenomenon (not simply a belief)
has been occurring through history, and has been discovered and re-discovered by
societies both primitive and advanced.
Transmigration of human souls into non-human bodies is implied in totemism.
[edit]
Reincarnation in Eastern religions and traditions
[edit]
Hinduism
In India this doctrine was thoroughly established from ancient times. While
metempsychosis was not established in the older sections of the Vedas, it was
explicated first in the Upanishads (c. 1000 BC - AD 4), which are philosophicomystic texts held to be the essence of the Vedas.
The idea that the soul reincarnates is intricately linked to karma, whose first
explication was also seen in the Hindu books of the Upanishads. The idea is that
individual souls, jiva-atmas pass from one plane of existence and carry with them
samskaras (impressions) from former states of being. These karmic agglomerations on
the soul are taken to the next life and result in a causally-determined state of being. In
some schools of Hinduism liberation from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth, is
considered the ultimate goal of earthly existence. This is known as Moksha,
mahasamadhi (or nirvana) in Hinduism. Other Bhakti traditions assert that liberation
from samsara is merely the begginning of real spiritual life and beyond nirvana
activities still continue, but that they are no longer of a worldly nature. Both sides
agree on the pheomenom of reincarnation itself.
Buddhism and Vedanta (in particular Advaita Vedanta) further promoted the notion of
nirvana following the advent of the great Hindu sage Adi Shankaracharya. The idea
that stilling one's karmas (actions) and becoming at one, harmonious, with all would
free one, ultimately, from reincarnation, became a central tenet of Hinduism. It
displaced more complex Puranic systems positing the gradual progression of a soul
through 8,400,000 (sometimes more) lives until eventual awakening. Instead, it relied
more on the idea of self-growth and enlightenment through Yoga. Buddhism differed
in that it felt there was no soul to reincarnate and developed an elaborate complex of
metaphysical explanations for temporary states of ego to explain rebirth.
[edit]
Buddhism
Since according to Buddhism there is no permanent and unchanging soul there is no
metempsychosis in the strict sense. However, Buddhism never rejected samsara, the
process of rebirth or reincarnation; there is debate, however, over what is transmitted
between lives.
See also: Rebirth (Buddhist)
In spite of the doctrinal beliefs against the idea of a soul, Tibetan Buddhists do believe
that a new-born child may be the reincarnation of someone departed. In Tibetan
Buddhism the soul of an important lama (like the Dalai Lama) is supposed to pass
into an infant born nine months after his decease.
[edit]
Jainism
In Jainism, gods reincarnate after they die. A Jainist, who accumulates enough good
karma, may become a god; but, this is generally seen as undesirable since gods
eventually die and one might then come back as a lesser being.
[edit]
Ayyavazhi
Ayyavazhi says all souls are continuosely reborn unless they reach Dharma Yukam, a
state of union with God.
[edit]
Reincarnation in the First American Nations
Reincarnation is an intrinsic part of many Native American and Inuit traditions.
Regardless of the actual religious beliefs and practices of today's Native Americans,
with varying religious beliefs, the idea has survived for centuries. In the now heavily
Christian Polar North (now mainly parts of Greenland and Nunavut), the concept of
reincarnation is enshrined in the Inuit language. The survival of the concept of
reincarnation applies across the Nations in varying degrees of integrity. The Nations
are, of course, now sandwiched between Eastern [Native] and Western traditions.
[edit]
Reincarnation in Western religions and traditions
[edit]
Classical Greek Philosophy
Some ancient Greek philosophers believed in reincarnation; see for example Plato's
Phaedo and The Republic. Pythagoras was probably the first Greek philosopher to
advance the idea.
We do not know exactly how the doctrine of metempsychosis arose in Greece; most
scholars do not believe it was borrowed from Egypt or that it somehow was
transmitted from ancient Hindu thinkers of India. It is easiest to assume that earlier
ideas which had never been extinguished were utilized for religious and philosophic
purposes. The Orphic religion, which held it, first appeared in Thrace upon the semibarbarous north-eastern frontier. Orpheus, its legendary founder, is said to have taught
that soul and body are united by a compact unequally binding on either; the soul is
divine, immortal and aspires to freedom, while the body holds it in fetters as a
prisoner. Death dissolves this compact, but only to re-imprison the liberated soul after
a short time: for the wheel of birth revolves inexorably. Thus the soul continues its
journey, alternating between a separate unrestrained existence and fresh reincarnation,
round the wide circle of necessity, as the companion of many bodies of men and
animals." To these unfortunate prisoners Orpheus proclaims the message of liberation,
that they stand in need of the grace of redeeming gods and of Dionysus in particular,
and calls them to turn to God by ascetic piety of life and self-purification: the purer
their lives the higher will be their next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the
spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes. Such was the
teaching of Orphism which appeared in Greece about the 6th century BC, organized
itself into private and public mysteries at Eleusis and elsewhere, and produced a
copious literature.
The earliest Greek thinker with whom metempsychosis is connected is Pherecydes;
but Pythagoras, who is said to have been his pupil, is its first famous philosophic
exponent. Pythagoras probably neither invented the doctrine nor imported it from
Egypt, but made his reputation by bringing Orphic doctrine from North-Eastern
Hellas to Magna Graecia and by instituting societies for its diffusion.
The real weight and importance of metempsychosis in Western tradition is due to its
adoption by Plato. Had he not embodied it in some of his greatest works it would be
merely a matter of curious investigation for the Western anthropologist and student of
folk-lore. In the eschatological myth which doses the Republic he tells the story how
Er, the son of Armenius, miraculously returned to life on the twelfth day after death
and recounted the secrets of the other world. After death, he said, he went with others
to the place of Judgment and saw the souls returning from heaven and from purgatory,
and proceeded with them to a place where they chose new lives, human and animal.
He saw the soul of Orpheus changing into a swan, Thamyras becoming a nightingale,
musical birds choosing to be men, the soul of Atalanta choosing the honours of an
athlete. Men were seen passing into animals and wild and tame animals changing into
each other. After their choice the souls drank of Lethe and then shot away like stars to
their birth. There are myths and theories to the same effect in other dialogues, the
Phaedrus, Meno, Phaedo, Timaeus and Laws. In Plato's view the number of souls was
fixed; birth therefore is never the creation of a soul, but only a transmigration from
one body to another. Plato's acceptance of the doctrine is characteristic of his
sympathy with popular beliefs and desire to incorporate them in a purified form into
his system. Aristotle, a far less emotional and sympathetic mind, has a doctrine of
immortality totally inconsistent with it.
In later Greek literature the doctrine appears from time to time; it is mentioned in a
fragment of Menander (the Inspired Woman) and satirized by Lucian (Gallus 18 seq.).
In Roman literature it is found as early as Ennius, who in his Calabrian home must
have been familiar with the Greek teachings which had descended to his times from
the cities of Magna Graecia. In a lost passage of his Annals, a Roman history in verse,
Ennius told how he had seen Homer in a dream, who had assured him that the same
soul which had animated both the poets had once belonged to a peacock. Persius in
one of his satires (vi. 9) laughs at Ennius for this: it is referred to also by Lucretius (i.
124) and by Horace (Epist. II. i. 52). Virgil works the idea into his account of, the
Underworld in the sixth book of the Aeneid (vv. 724 sqq.). It persists in antiquity
down to the latest classic thinkers, Plotinus and the other Neoplatonists.
[edit]
Judaism and kabbalah
Classic works of the Kabbalah, Shaar ha Gilgulim ("Gate of Reincarnations") of
Arizal or Isaac Luria, describes complex laws of reincarnation gilgul and
impregnation ibbur of 5 different parts of the soul. It shows many references of
reincarnation in the Hebrew Bible (the Tanach).
The notion of reincarnation, the transmigration of a soul after death into a new body,
is not openly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The classical rabbinic works (midrash,
Mishna and Talmud) also are silent on this topic. These beliefs originally existed
among the gnostics and other non-Jewish faiths. Although how this occurred is still a
matter of debate among Jewish historians, the doctrine of reincarnation eventually
made its way into the mainstream of Jewish mysticism.
In the eighth century these ideas had found their way into the beliefs that the belief of
reincarnation existed among some Jews despite the inherent "nonsense and
stupidities" of such beliefs. The concept was elucidated in an influential mystical
work called the Bahir (Illumination) (one of the most ancient books of Jewish
mysticism) around 1150. After the publication of the Zohar in the late 13th century,
the idea of reincarnation spread to most of the general Jewish community.
While ancient Greek philosophers like Plato and Socrates attempted to prove the
existence of reincarnation through philosophical proofs, Jewish mystics who accepted
this idea did not. Rather, they offered explanations of why reincarnation would solve
otherwise intractable problems of theodicy (how to reconcile the existence of evil
with the premise of a good God.)
Rabbis who accepted the idea of reincarnation include Levi ibn Habib (the Ralbah),
Nahmanides (the Ramban), Rabbenu Bahya ben Asher, Rabbi Shelomoh Alkabez and
Rabbi Hayyim Vital. The argument made was that even the most righteous of Jews
sometimes would suffer or be murdered unjustly. Further, children would sometimes
suffer or be murdered, yet they were obviously too young for them to have committed
sins that God would presumably punish them for. Jewish supporters of reincarnation
said that this idea would remove the theodicy: Good people were not suffering; rather,
they were reincarnations of people who had sinned in previous lifetimes. Therefore
any suffering which was observed could be assumed to be from a just God. Yitzchak
Blua writes "Unlike some other areas of philosophy where the philosophic
battleground revolves around the truth or falsehood of a given assertion, the gilgul
debate at points focuses on the psychological needs of the people." (p.6)
Other rabbis who rejected the idea of reincarnation include Hasdai Crescas, Yedayah
Bedershi (early 14th century), Joseph Albo, Abraham ibn Daud and Leon de Modena.
Crescas writes that if reincarnation was real, people should remember details of their
previous lives. Bedershi offers three reasons why the entire concept is dangerous: (a)
There is no reason for people to try and do good in this life, if they fear that they will
nonetheless be punished for some unknown sin committed in a past life. (b) Some
people may assume that they did not sin in their past life, and so can coast on their
success; thus there is no need to try hard to live a good life. In Bedershi's view, the
only psychologically tenable worldview for a healthy life is to deal with the here-andnow. (c) The idea presents a conundrum for those who believe that at the end of days,
God will resurrect the souls and physical bodies of the dead. If a person has lived
multiple lives, which body will God resurrect? Joseph Albo writes that in theory the
idea of gilgulim is compatible with Jewish theology. However, Albo argues that there
is a purpose for a soul to enter the body, creating a being with free will. However, a
return of the soul to another body, again and again, has no point. Leon De Moden
thinks that the idea of reincarnation make a mockery of God's plans for humans; why
does God need to send the soul back over and over? If God requires an individual to
achieve some perfection or atone for some sin, then God can just extend that person's
life until they have time to do what is necessary. de Modena's second argument
against reincarnation is that the entire concept is absent from the entire Bible and
corpus of classical rabbinic literature.
The idea of reincarnation, called gilgul, became popular in folk belief, and is found in
much Yiddish literature among Ashkenazi Jews. Among a few kabbalists, it was
posited that some human souls could end up being reincarnated into animal bodies.
These ideas can be found in a small number of Kabbalistic works from the 1200s, and
even existed among a few mystics at least into the late 1500s.
"Over time however, the philosophical teaching limiting reincarnation to human
bodies emerged as the dominant view. Nonetheless, the idea that one can reborn as an
animal was never completely eliminated from Jewish thought, and appears centuries
later in the Eastern European folk tradition". [Simcha Paull-Raphael,Jewish Views of
the Afterlife, p.319]
While many Jews today do not believe in reincarnation, the belief is common amongst
Orthodox Jews, particularly amongst Hasidim; some Hasidic siddurim (prayerbooks)
have a prayer asking for forgiveness for one's sins that one may have committed in
this gilgul or a previous one.
[edit]
Gnosticism
Many Gnostic groups believed in reincarnation. For them, reincarnation was a
negative concept: Gnostics believed that the material body was evil, and that they
would be better off if they could eventually avoid having their 'good' souls
reincarnated in 'evil' bodies.
The Gnostic Gospel of the Nazirenes - Chapter 69:
1. As Yeshua sat by the west of the temple with his disciples, behold there
passed some carrying one that was dead, to burial, and a certain one said to
Him, "Master, if a man die, shall he live again?"
2. He answered and said, "I am the resurrection and the life, I am the good,
the beautiful, the true; if a man believe in me he shall not die, but live
eternally. As in Adam all (1997 = are bound to cycles of rebirth) die, so in the
Messiah shall all be made alive. Blessed are the dead who die in me, and are
made perfect in my image and likeness, for they rest from their labors and
their works do follow them. They have overcome evil, and are made pillars in
the temple of my God, and they go out no more, for they rest in the eternal."
3. "For them that persist in evil there is no rest, but they go out and in, and
suffer correction for ages, till they are made perfect. But for them that have
done good and attained to perfection, there is endless rest and they go into life
everlasting. They rest in the eternal."
4. "Over them the repeated death and birth have no power, for them the wheel
of the eternal revolves no more, for they have attained to the center, where is
eternal rest, and the center of all things is God."
The texts contains several parallels to the Gospels, which are, though, traditionally
interpreted differently in their context:
"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet
shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. John 11:25f
RSV
Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again
will he leave it. Revelation 3:12 (NIV)
[edit]
Christianity
See Bible and Reincarnation.
[edit]
Contemporary movements and thinkers
[edit]
New Religious Movements
At the Renaissance we find the doctrine in Giordano Bruno, and in the 17th century in
the theosophist van Helmont. During the classical period of German literature
metempsychosis attracted much attention: Goethe played with the idea, and it was
taken up more seriously by Lessing, who borrowed it from Charles Bonnet, and by
Herder. It has been mentioned with respect by Hume and by Schopenhauer. Modern
theosophy, which draws its inspiration from India, has taken metempsychosis (or
rather reincarnation as a cardinal tenet; it is, says a recent theosophical writer, "the
master-key to modern problems," and among them to the problem of heredity. The
idea of reincarnation is also part of the New Age culture.
Today, among newer movements, belief in reincarnation is widespread in New Age
and Neopagan circles. It is an important tenet of Theosophy, and central to Spiritism,
founded by Allan Kardec.
Toward the Light is an example of a contemporary work originating in the western
world, which very detailed accounts for reincarnation.
[edit]
Common Variations in the belief
In recalling past lives, there are a number of variations that need to be examined,
which are important to it's adherants.
In the Urantia Book, reincarnation is does not always happen. Reincarnation takes
place among those souls who have devined the devine meaning and purpose and
signification of their life, basically having evolved sufficiently to awaken some form
of immortal awareness. Otherwise, death is a permanent affair. The cosmology of the
Urantia Book is very complex, but is similar in some regards to the system seen in
Theosophy.
Theosophical texts maintain that people are constantly evolving, gradually becoming
one of the Ascended Masters. In this system, one may be incarnated anyplace in the
chain of life, and this is often in connection with life lessons that need to be learned.
One often meets with ones spirit guides, one of the Ascended masters, etc. in order to
plan the major events for the next life. The element of karma in reincarnation is often
seen as a system of devine justice. See also Elizabeth Clare Prophet for a modern
exponent of Theosophy.
In many common new age beliefs, past life recalls involving lifetimes within the
historical record (real or supposed, including legendary places such as Atlantis) are
commonly accepted. It is sometimes beliefed that prior to that there was a succession
of lifetimes in other lifeforms where one was working to become Human. Lifetimes
outside the context of earth are rarely acknowledged.
Often, the doctrine of karma as commonly believed is seen to be a mechanism of
divine justice, imposed or enforced by rules of the universe. One variation is what one
does, comes back to you multiplied three fold.
In Tibetan Buddhism one finds the concept of the Six Worlds, where dependant on
the quality of one merit or karma, one is re-incarnated as a citizen of one of the six
Worlds, these being the world of Gods, World of DemiGods, World of Men, World of
Animals, world of Demons, and the world of Hell. The advantadge of the Human
realm is that this is the only place where it is possible to achieve enlightenment, and
so pass beyond the cycle of suffering. Incarnations in other realms and worlds are
acknowledged, but usually this is considered so long ago that it is not very relevant.
Theosophical and other related beliefs systems explain the common inability to not
remember past lives as a part of the devine plan, and that this is a good thing for a
variety of reasons.
An interesting variation can be seen in the work of Author Peter Novak[1], who
proposes that reincarnation is part of a larger scheme, where soul and spirit are two
different entities, united as one during one's lifetime, and which separate at death, in a
process he calls consciousness division or Division Theory. The division of
consciousness is not considered to be a good thing.
[edit]
Scientology
See also the article Scientology beliefs and practices
Scientology is another new religion that accepts past lives.
Scientology holds that all beings are truly immortal, although in a variety of levels of
awareness. In Scientology, and without karma or personal wisdom, a person's own
actions, reactions, decisions, and the rest are sufficient to ensure a great deal of
adventure, boredom, and strife, along with all the combinations of problems that can
be experienced in life. In this context, a lack of personal responsibility and other
factors can act together to create something that is similar to karma in other belief
systems. Scientology does not focus on the doctrine of karma as commonly believed
(i.e. a mechanism of divine justice). The term karma is not generally used.
The first writings in Scientology regarding past lives date from around 1951 and
slightly earlier. The controversy brought the subject to public awareness, and was
followed by such cases (not related to Scientology) as Bridey Murphy in 1952
Much of the controversy involving Scientology arises from the logical extension of
the concept of past lives to what is effectively eternity. In this context, past lives not
only take place prior to Earth, but also in non-Earth civilizations, and even in
universes prior to this one, where conditions and rules of existence can be different.
One could even have past lives in civilizations where advanced technology was
common and/or routine. Thus a person who once lived in a world destroyed by
nuclear war could become upset living in a world where nuclear power has been rediscovered.
Scientology does not look to Theosophical writings for explanations on the system of
past lives, or for a cosmology. Scientology does not assume that beings in the between
life area necessarily have the best interests of the individual at heart (it varies), and
that the path to increased awareness is not a guaranteed thing.
Scientology also holds that people are composite beings, in that there is a body
awareness which can have recalls in parallel to the genetic line. This entity is separate
and distinctly different from the spirit, called a thetan in Scientology. Scientology
procedures exist to address this body level awareness, although primary consideration
is given to the liberation of the Spirit.
Scientology does not consider the lack of awareness of past lives to be a good thing. It
attributes the general amnesia of past lives to a variety of causes, including, but not
limited to, pain, unconsciusness, lack of personal responsibility, and even the decision
to forget what had just transpired.
[edit]
Reincarnation in contemporary thought
[edit]
Evidence of reincarnation
The most detailed collections of personal reports in favor of reincarnation have been
published by Dr. Ian Stevenson in works such as Reincarnation and Biology: A
Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects, which documents
thousands of detailed cases where claims of injuries received in past lives sometimes
correlate with atyptical physical birthmarks or birth defects.
Perhaps the most significant anecdotal evidence in this regard is the phenomenon of
young children spontaneously sharing what appear to be memories of past lives, a
phenomenon which has been reported even in cultures that do not hold to a belief in
reincarnation. Upon investigating these claims, Stevenson and others have identified
individuals who had died a few years before the child was born who seem to meet the
descriptions the children provided.
In the most compelling cases, autopsy photographs reveal that the deceased
individuals have fatal injuries that correspond to the unusual marks or birth defects of
the child; for example, marks on the chest and back of a child line up precisely with
the bullet entry and exit wounds on the body of an individual who has been shot.
However, Stevenson cautions that such evidence is suggestive of reincarnation, but
that more research must be conducted.
[edit]
Objections to reincarnation
Objections to metempsychosis include: that personal identity depends on memory,
and we do not remember our previous incarnations. An answer given by Hindu
philosophers (like Swami Vivekananda) is that though we do not remember our
infanthood, we cannot deny its reality.
The second is that the soul, whatever it may be, is influenced throughout all its
qualities by the qualities of the body. Modern psychology discredits the idea that the
soul is a metaphysical essence which can pass indifferently from one body to another.
If the soul of a dog were to pass into a man's body it would be so changed as to be no
longer the same soul; and so, in a less degree, of change from one human's body to
another.
A great number of scientists and skeptics, such as Paul Edwards, have analyzed many
of these anecdotal accounts. In every case they found that further research into the
individuals involved provides sufficient background to weaken the conclusion that
these cases are credible examples of reincarnation.
Others, such as philosopher Robert Almeder, having analyzed the criticisms of
Edwards and others, say that the gist of these arguments can be summarized as "we all
know it can't possibly be real, so therefore it isn't real."
Critics who claim that reincarnation is impossible often espouse the alternate theory
that a large number of mental phenomena such as memory and ability are already
accounted for by physiological processes; and may point to moral and practical
inconsistencies in the various theories of reincarnation. To the materialistic mind,
Occam's Razor would then seem to dictate that the critical view is to be preferred, as
it demands no extraordinary new evidence beyond what is already known to science.
A more skeptical view is that without conclusive evidence showing that reincarnation
exists (regardless of the current state of science), the theory of reincarnation cannot be
considered to be a valid scientific theory regarding the real world.
Some skeptics explain the abundance of claims of evidence for reincarnation to
originate from selective thinking and the psychological phenomena of false memories
that often result from one's own belief system and basic fears, and thus cannot be
accounted as empirical evidence.
Another argument often made is that claims of reincarnation by casual adherents are
usually of having been some famous historical figure instead of being another animal
or an insignificant person. This argument, however, is seldom substantiated with a
quantitative count of famous and non-famous reincarnation claims.
[edit]
Another theory of reincarnation
A belief in reincarnation does not discount the existence of heaven, hell, or a final
judgment. There are a number of small children who have reported having memories
of past lives prior to their present life, and some also report being able to recall a time
between lives (see books by Dr. Ian Stevenson, Carol Bowman, and Elisabeth
Hallett). In some cases these children have also reported being in a place like heaven
between lives, and sometimes that they were given some degree of choice as to
whether and when to be reborn, and even in selecting their future parents.
Some of these children claim that being reborn is not necessarily a punishment for
past bad "karma", but rather an opportunity for a soul to grow spiritually. Additional
lifetimes could give individual souls a greater opportunity to accomplish more for
God, if that is a person's goal, and to develop better character traits. Eastern views of
reincarnation vary and several parallels with this idea are to be found in certain
branches of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Quote: "So convincing is the evidence in favor of past life influences that one can
only conclude that those who refuse to consider this to be an area worthy of serious
study must be either uninformed or excessively narrow-minded." -- Stan Grof M.D.,
Holotropic Mind
[edit]
Jane Roberts
In the Seth series of books Jane Roberts talks about reincarnation and life after death.
Seth believed that time and space are basically illusions. Consistent with this view,
Seth argues that only parts of each person incarnate (appear in physical reality). This
last argument is part of Seth's view that man is a multi-dimensional entity
simultaneously alive in many contexts.
[edit]
Reincarnation and the New Age movement
There are many people nowadays who allegedly "remember" their past lives and use
that knowledge to help them with their current lives; this kind of occurrence is fairly
central to the New Age faith.
Some of the people who remember claim simply to remember without any effort on
their part. They simply "see" previous times and see themselves interacting with
others.
Most of the people who experience this are certain of the veracity of their experience.
As this type of experience is not in line with the teachings of Western science and
knowledge it can create tension with the world, and so most people are circumspect as
to whom they confide in.
[edit]
See also
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gilgul, ibbur
Hinduism, Hindu philosophy, Atman (Hinduism), karma, tantra, yoga
Buddhism, Anatta, Vajrayana, Mahayana, Theravada, Rebirth (Buddhist),
Tulku
Edgar Cayce -- Carol Bowman
Afterlife -- Bible and Reincarnation -- Death -- Life
False memory
Metempsychosis
Esoteric Christianity
[edit]
References
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Ian Stevenson, Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of
Birthmarks and Birth Defects ISBN 0275952835
Paul Edwards, Reincarnation: A Critical Examination ISBN 1573929212
Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation by Gina Cerminara
Joseph Head and S.L. Cranston, editors, Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire
Mystery ISBN 0-517-56101-8
Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Erin L. Prophet, Reincarnation: The Missing Link in
Christianity ISBN 0922729271
[edit]
External Links
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Gate of Reincarnations - classics
Shaar ha Gilgulim of ARI
Articles on reincarnation
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Death and Immortality
Children's Past Lives
Reincarnation In Buddhism
Reincarnation: Pros and Cons
Theosophy on reincarnation
A CSICOP review of Reincarnation: A Critical Examination
Reincarnation, from the skeptic's dictionary
Rudolf Steiner, How Karma Works
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"About Reincarnation," discusses traditional Hindu teachings, empiric
evidence, and skeptical objections.
In Another Life, documentary project including streaming video interviews
and articles.
Rebirth, the Master Key
The Cycle of Life
Bhagavad-gita online Includes Lord Krishna's classic teachings about
reincarnation (especially in chapters 2, 8, and 15.)
Dr. Morris Netherton's Past Lives Therapy
Vijay Kumar God Creation Reincarnation
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation"
History of parapsychology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Anecdotal reports of psychic phenomena have appeared in every culture since the
dawn of history up to the present day. Historically the existence of such phenomena
was commonly accepted even among the learned, and so many of the forerunners of
modern science expressed interest in such phenomena.
[edit]
The dawn of science
With the scientific revolution, and led by the British Royal Society, a distinction came
to be made between "natural philosophers" (later to be termed scientists in 1834) and
other philosophers. Many of the natural philosophers, including Newton, were
adherents of Renaissance magic (alchemy and the like).
The period known as the Enlightenment followed the Scientific Revolution, with its
apex in the 18th century, and featured the ideas that life should be lead by reason as
opposed to dogma or tradition, and the universe as a mechanistic, deterministic
system that could eventually be known accurately and fully through observation,
calculation, and reason. As such, the existence or activity of deities or supernatural
agents was discounted, and so the beginnings of antagonism towards the existence of
psychic phenomena along with all forms of magical thinking.
Franz Anton Mesmer (b 1734 - d 1815), a Viennese physician, wanted to be
considered a man of the Enlightenment. At the time, electricity and magnetism were
thought of as invisible "fluids". Mesmer believed that he had discovered another type
of natural fluid which he called animal magnetism, which he claimed to harness to
heal various ailments without resorting to the supernatural. He developed a technique,
today called mesmerism, for inducing an altered state of mind which today most
people equate with hypnosis. Of import here is that it was discovered that some
individuals exhibited "higher phenomena" such as apparent clairvoyance while in the
mesmerized, "somnambulistic" state, much like the latter day psychic Edgar Cayce.
The mesmeric movement never gained scientific acceptance, and in 1784
commissions of the French Royal Society of Medicine and the French Academy of
Sciences made investigations and issued negative reports. One researcher eventually
associated with mesmerism, Baron Carl Reichenbach, who is known for his discovery
of paraffin fuels, developed a vitalist theory of the Odic force to explain
parapsychological phenomena. Though elements of the mesmeric movement
remained well into the 19th century, by the 1850s the movement had pretty much died
out. However, due partly to shifting religious attitudes, the feats of the mesmeric
somnabules were soon to be repeated, without resorting to mesmerism, by the
mediums of the newly emerging Spiritualist movement who claimed contact with the
spirits of the dead. By the mid-1850s, mediums and "home-circles" were to be found
throughout Europe and in every stratum of society.
[edit]
Scientific investigation of psychic phenomena
The idea for a learned, scientific society to study psychic phenomena seems to have
originated with the spiritualist E. Dawson Rogers, who hoped to gain a new kind of
respectability for spiritualism. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded
in London in 1882, and by 1887 eight members of the British Royal Society served on
its council. Soon after its founding many spiritualists left the SPR due to differing
priorities and skeptical attitudes within the SPR to some prominent mediums.
However the SPR continued work on its research program, publishing its finding
periodically in its Proceedings. Similar societies were soon set up in most other
countries in Europe as well as the American SPR in the United States. Of these, the
British SPR remained the most respected, conservative, and skeptical of these
societies.
While most of the early SPR research had an anecdotal flavor, where experiments
involved testing the abilities of specific mediums and other "gifted individuals" with
claimed psychic abilities, there were some probabilistic experiments involving card
guessing and dice throwing. But it was not until the development of statistical tools by
R. A. Fisher and others about the 1920s that modern experimental parapsychology
came into its own, with the efforts of J. B. Rhine and his colleagues. It was during this
time that the term 'parapsychology' largely replaced the term 'psychic research'.
The "Rhine revolution" had three aims: First to provide parapsychology with a
systematic, progressive program of sound experimentation, progressive in the sense of
trying to characterize the conditions and extent of psi phenomena rather than merely
trying to prove their existence; Second, to gain academic status and scientific
recognition. Rhine helped form the first long-term university laboratory devoted to
parapsychology in the Duke University Laboratory, later to become the independent
Rhine Research Center; And third, to show that psychic ability was not restricted to a
few gifted individuals, but was widespread, and perhaps latent in everyone. While not
wholly successful in any of these aims, Rhine did much to move the field in these
directions. By the end of his era, now the modern era, we find that much if not most
experimental psychology today is geared toward "ordinary people" as subjects rather
than mediums or "gifted psychics". Rhine also helped found the Journal of
Parapsychology in 1937, which remains one of the most respected journals in the
field today, and the Parapsychological Association in 1957, the foremost professional
body of parapsychologists today, that was accepted into the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1969. Rhine also popularized the term
"extra-sensory perception" (ESP).
[edit]
Government investigations into parapsychology
There have been a number of investigations into parapsychology performed by
agencies of various governments. One of the more famous of these is Project Star
Gate, a project undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s with the cooperation of the Central
Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency to investigate remote viewing.
Another famous set of remote viewing experiments were the SRI (Stanford Research
Institute) experiments done by the SAIC (Science Applications International
Corporation) for the Department of Defense in the 1990s.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_parapsychology"
Poltergeist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the film series, see Poltergeist movie series. For the TV series, see:
Poltergeist: The Legacy
A poltergeist (German for rumbling ghost) is widely believed to be an invisible ghost
that interacts with others by moving and influencing inanimate objects. Stories
featuring poltergeists typically focus heavily on raps, thumps, knocks, footsteps, and
bed-shaking, all without a discernable point of origin. Many stories detail objects
being thrown about the room, furniture being moved, and even people being levitated.
A few poltergeists have even been known to speak (The Bell Witch, 1817; Gef the
Talking Mongoose, 1931). Most classic poltergeist stories originate in England,
though the word itself is German.
Poltergeist phenomena is a focus of study within parapsychology (a discipline which
does not have wide acceptance within the mainstream scientific community).
Parapsychologists define poltergeist activity as a type of uncontrolled psychokinesis.
Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK) is a phrase suggested by
parapsychologist William G. Roll to denote poltergeist phenomena.
Poltergeist activity tends to occur around a single person called an agent or a focus
(typically a prepubescent female). Almost seventy years of research by the Rhine
Research Center (Raleigh-Durham, NC USA) has led to the hypothesis among
parapsychologists that the "poltergeist effect" is a form of psychokinesis generated by
a living human mind (that of the agent). According to researchers at the Rhine Center,
the "poltergeist effect" is the outward manifestation of psychological trauma. Skeptics
believe that the phenomena are hoaxes perpetrated by the agent. Indeed, many
poltergeist agents have been caught by investigators in the act of throwing objects. A
few of them later confessed to faking. However, parapsychologists investigating
poltergeists think that most occurrences are real, and the agents cheat only when they
are subsequently caught cheating. The longevity and consistency between poltergeist
stories (the earliest one details the raining of stones and bed shaking in ancient Egypt)
has left the matter open for debate within the parapsychology community.
Another version of the poltergeist is the "wrath version." When a person dies in a
powerful rage at the time of death, that person is believed by some to come back to
fulfill that vengeance. In some cases, the vengeance is too strong to let go or forgive,
and the metaphysical ghost becomes a poltergeist, in which the newly formed ghost
can affect solid objects, and in some cases are deadly. According to yet another
opinion, ghosts and poltergeists are "recordings." When there is a powerful emotion,
sometimes at death and sometimes not, a recording is believed to be embedded into
the fabric of time, and this recording will continue to play over and over again until
the energy embedded disperses.
Some people theorize that poltergeists are caused by the Hutchison effect.
William Roll and Harry Price are perhaps two of the most famous poltergeist
investigators in the annals of parapsychology. Harry Price investigated Borley
Rectory which is widely regarded as "the most haunted house in England."
[edit]
Famous alleged poltergeist infestations
Although poltergeist stories date back to the first century, most evidence to support
the existence of poltergeists is anecdotal. Indeed, many of the stories below have
several versions and/or inconsistencies.
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The Bell Witch (1817)
The Haunting of The Fox sisters (1848) - arguably one of the most famous, as
it started the Spiritualism movement.
The Borley Rectory phenomena (1929)
The Rosenheim (Bavaria) Poltergeist (1967) (
http://www.ufopsi.com/psidc/rosenheim_poltergeist.html )
The Enfield Poltergeist (1977)
See also: Stigmatized property. also known as Daniel Holcom
[edit]
Poltergeists in fiction
Both the name and concept of the poltergeist became famous to modern audiences by
the Poltergeist movies and the subsequent TV series Poltergeist: The Legacy. The
first Poltergeist movie actually gave an excellent depiction (during the first half of the
film) of a "typical" poltergeist infestation, right down to the depiction of the focus as a
prepubescent girl.
There is a poltergeist named Peeves in the Harry Potter books. Peeves, however, does
not conform to the classic definition of a poltergeist. The fact that he manifests
visually would seem to indicate that he is something similar to a ghost, though J. K.
Rowling has stated that a poltergeist is not the ghost of any person who has ever lived.
Perhaps she intended Peeves to be more of a literal translation of the word poltergeist,
as Peeves is quite noisy and mischievous. However, it is also possible that Harry and
other students can perceive Peeves because they are Wizards, and that he would be
still invisible to Muggles.
[edit]
External links
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Rhine Research Center
International Journal of Parapsychology
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research
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Skeptic's Dictionary
Ufopsi
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltergeist"