This is the third in a trilogy of papers proposing a complete theory for ESP as an information transfer between living brains. The theory is based on the concept of the block universe in which future events already exist in spacetime, in accordance with the special theory of relativity. Information about a given series of events in the environment is represented in the brain as a spatiotemporal pattern of neuronal activity. The theory is considered to be a physical one since it requires changes to be produced in physical structures created in the brain. It does not deny the possibility of a dualistic influence from consciousness, but it does not necessarily require one to explain ESP.
The present paper consists of five sections, which attempt:-
Instantaneous healing of Deliberately Caused Bodily Damage (DCBD) has been reported by a Sufi School known as Tariqa, Casnazaniyyah. Followers of this school have demonstrated immunity to damage from spikes and skewers inserted into the body, daggers hammered into the skull, as well as the ability to chew and swallow glass. Such extraordinary ability is alleged to be accessible to anyone and not restricted to a few individuals. In this paper it is argued that such phenomena are not related to the use of hypnosis with explicit or implicit suggestion, nor altered states of consciousness, nor the placebo effect. A discussion of my personal experience with DCBD at the Casnazaniyyah School during my travels to Iraq will be presented. DCBD may represent an example of an energy based/metahypnotic phenomena where further research from Western scientists is needed.
Many people claim to have thought about a particular person who then calls them on the telephone. Through informal surveys I have found that seemingly telepathic telephone calls are common. Two telephone surveys were carried out in London and Bury to investigate the frequency of these experiences in a random sample of the population. In both surveys, half the respondents said they had felt that someone was about to telephone them just before they did. In Bury, 45 per cent of the respondents said they had thought about a person they had not seen for a while who then telephoned the same day, and two thirds of the Bury respondents said they had telephoned people who said they were just thinking about telephoning them. In Bury, 37 per cent of respondents who said they had know in advance who was calling without any possible clue said this happened often. In both surveys significantly more women than men gave positive responses, and in both surveys more pet owners than people without pets gave positive responses. In London significantly more people claimed to have anticipated telephone calls than to have had psychic experiences. Telepathic telephone calls may be one of the commonest kinds of psychic experience in the modern world, and I suggest ways in which they can be investigated empirically.
Reviewing classic cases from the past can guide contemporary approaches. The AVB communications through Mrs. Leonard featured prominently in SPR publications and included much material considered highly evidential. The social context in which the sittings took place and the motivations of those involved, which are now more widely known, are of more than psychological interest. They have a bearing on how the evidence is evaluated. Making maximum allowance for this information does not exclude evidence for paranormality.
An investigation into the link between infrasound and the perception of apparitions was performed in the 14th Century cellar beneath the Tourist Information Centre in Coventry. Based on the effect described in The Ghost in the Machine (Tandy and Lawrence, 1998) details of individuals' experiences were recorded and an analysis performed to test for any infrasound present in the cellar. Infrasound was found to be present at the point at which individuals had reported apparitional experiences at exactly the same frequency as that predicted in the original paper.
The role that context effects play in structuring the perception and report of entity encounter experiences is not well-understood. The data from four previous studies on the contextual mediation of such experiences (i.e., poltergeists, deathbed visions, angelic encounters, and shamanic trance states) by the author were compiled into a collective sample and analyzed as a group in order to verify the consistency of the previous results, as well as to test for interaction effects. The three main findings from the previous research were validated: (1). There was a strong congruence between the content of the experiences and the nature of the contextual variables available to the percipient; (2) the number of contextual variables was related to the percipient's state of arousal immediately preceding the experience, and (3) the number of contextual variables was also associated with the number of perceptual modalities involved in the experience. Many of the entity encounter experiences examined here were perceived predominantly on an individual rather than collective level. Further, many experiences involved only one or two contextual variables per encounter, but the various types of entity encounter experiences showed differential degrees of contextual mediation. Over all, these experiences seem reflective of the specific situational context in which they occur, rather than a function of the percipient's preexisting religious or cultural beliefs. Based on these findings, it is proposed that entity encounter experiences should be conceptualized as non-pathological hallucinations on a structured continuum, which is defined by the number of contextual variables present at the time of the experience.
Harry Price (1881-1948) was the best-known British psychical researcher of the twentieth century and his output of published work was immense. Yet during his lifetime he was scorned by some of the leading members of the SPR, and after his death attempts were made to destroy his reputation by accusations of fraud. The present paper examines some of the reasons for the antipathy to Price, and argues that the case against him has been grossly overstated. It is suggested that a careful reappraisal of his earlier work with physical mediums might yield valuable clues for the understanding of macroscopic PK phenomena.
We hypothesized that software offering a precognition test with weighted feedback - the closer to the target, the higher the score - would enable average people to train themselves in intuitive skills. Twelve subjects together improve at the .05 level. Overall scoring is significant at the .01 level. Seven out of 12 subjects show improvement, with three subjects attaining significance, two at the .01 level. Two subjects achieve overall significant scoring, including one who also showed significant improvement. The odds against chance for his dual performances are over 3,000 to 1. Six subjects achieve both improvement and positive overall scoring. Over 30,000 additional subjects would need to be tested to dilute the 12 subjects' dual performances to chance.
It is proposed that the good quality hits of high psi-scorers with the ganzfeld can provide a rich and as yet unexploited source of material for studying how psi mediated information enters consciousness. A qualitative study is made here of the good hits which have occurred up to now in our programme of research. For most of these sessions a technique was used of recording the mentation report as it was given in real time on to a copy being made of the target video clip. The analysis of the content of these tapes strongly suggests that psi functions in a similar way to other sensory modalities when there is reduced information input. While perceptual images can be in some aspects quite accurate, the information responsible for it is often modified by top down processes so as to also contain misperceptions. Both the accurate and distorted aspects of the perceptual experience come however to be regarded as equally real. A theory of the involvement of top down processes specifies the parapsychological markers that will be evident in the mentation reports and how target selection and judgement can be improved.
This case concerns a young boy in Sri Lanka who made several statements regarding a previous life, among them where he had lived and how he was killed when travelling in a truck through a forest. The boy associated two birthmarks with his claimed memories. His statements were recorded and published, and afterwards a person was found in the area whose circumstances had corresponded to the boy's statements. The birthmarks corresponded to the location of injuries of the person later identified as the previous personality.
A substantial investigation was made of places where it has been claimed that music from a paranormal source has been heard. The available literature was studied and where possible direct contact was made with the owners of such properties. With the exception of a few intriguing examples conclusive evidence was not obtained for the existence of such phenomena.
An analysis was carried out on 61 subjective precognitive dreams collected by one of us between 1968 and 1977. There was significantly lower geomagnetic activity at the times of the dreams (p=0.027) when compared with 61 randomly selected nights than would be expected by chance.
The results of five standard ganzfeld studies and one multiple target ganzfeld (the serial ganzfeld) study are reported. The standard ganzfeld studies form a highly significant and consistent data base with an overall hit-rate of 35% (39% in the case of auditory monitored studies) and a mean effect size of .24 (.33 in the case of the monitored studies). This database has been used to study psychological correlates of psi in terms of psychometric tests. The most successful of these tests are the Australian Sheep Goat Scale, the Magical Ideation Scale, and "Feeling" scores on the Myers-Briggs Inventory. Other scales that were used as predictors of psi-scores with varying degrees of success included the Transliminality Scale, the Defence Mechanism Test, and the Tellegen Absorption Scale. A further investigation suggests on the basis of confidence ratings made before and after ganzfeld relaxation, that there may be some awareness of the psi-content of the imagery generated during the ganzfeld state. The report includes a review of current work in developing the ganzfeld into a portable digital technique for process-orientated research.
Children who speak of memories of a previous life may explain birthmarks as related to wounds inflicted upon them in the former life. In this case a girl claims to have been an incense-maker, and to have died in a traffic accident. After a location had been given an incense-maker was identified whose life corresponded to many of her statements. He had died in a traffic accident two years prior to her birth, and the post-mortem report revealed that wounds had been inflicted on him in the same area as her birthmarks.
This study examined the differences between the account-giving styles of psychic detectives compared with a control group. It was hypothesised that psychics would employ many devices commonly associated with known cold reading strategies, a distinct style of account-giving or 'psychic rhethoric'. Eight psychics and twelve controls examined 3 objects from 3 crimes and were asked for their opinions about the likely characteristics of the offender. Although independent t-tests confirmed that psychics were no more accurate than controls, content analysis confirmed the hypothesis that psychics relied more heavily on a variety of rhetorical devices.