A convenient history of dreaming, Electronic Voice Phenomena are everywhere, Robin Foy recounts his experience with the Scole experiment, Christians investigate near death experiences, and Bare Normality asks what exactly is this Psi thing we’re talking about? — in this edition of Psi In the News.
- Renee Scheltema’s book, Something Unknown is Doing We Don’t Know What, will be free of charge on Kindle on March 30th and 31st. This book documents some of the information that Scheltema focused on in a documentary of the same name, which featured interviews with Dr. Dean Radin, Prof. Charles Tart, Dr. Larry Dossey, Prof. Gary Schwartz and Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. (Amazon)
- The 37th International Annual Conference of the Society for Psychical Research will be held at Swansea University from Friday, September 6th to Sunday, September 8th, 2013. There is an open call for papers for those who are interested in presenting. (Society for Psychical Research)
- A reminder that Paul Devereux, one of our special guests for an upcoming Evolver Learning Labs webinar on Sacred Geometry, will be speaking on “Time, Mind and Place: The Archaeology of Consciousness,” Wednesday, March 27 at Blackwell’s Books in Bristol, UK, as part of the Anthropology, Consciousness and Culture lecture series. (Anthropology, Consciousness and Culture) ??
- On March 28th at the Kensington Central Library Lecture Hall in London, Psychical researcher Leslie Price will be presenting a talk for the Society for Psychical Research dealing with “Fraud and Psychical Research.” (Society for Psychical Research)
- Beyond Borderlands: A Critical Journal of the Weird, Paranormal and Occult has issued a call for papers for its inaugural edition. (Beyond Borderlands)
- Thursday, May 30 – Sunday, June 2nd the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Reston, Virginia will host the 15th Annual Energy Psychology Conference with keynote talks from Eben Alexander, MD, Joan Borysenko, PhD, David Feinstein, PhD, Roger Jahnke, OMD and William Tiller, PhD. (Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology)
- The TED situation has reached a sort of stable plateau with the extended “debate” times and without any further input from the anonymous science board which sprang into action to originally denounce Rupert Sheldrake and Graham Hancock’s talks. Craig Weiler continues his detailed coverage of the proceedings. (Weiler Psi Blog)??
- In an ironic twist to TED’s reaction to Rupert Sheldrake’s statement that the Speed of Light may not be constant, Science Daily reports on two upcoming peer reviewed papers that may support this idea. (Science Daily)
- Robert McLuhan brings up some valid points about the use of Wikipedia as an information control valve in the debate on Psi in this recent post on Paranormalia. (Paranormalia)
- Here’s a handy timeline on the history of dream research. However, as David Luke noted, the infographic chart places Tibetan Buddhist practices about 1000 years earlier than they could have happened based on historical information. (World of Lucid Dreaming)
- Robin Foy, who was a member of the Scole Experimental Team, a well known 20th century experiment in physical mediumship, is interviewed on a recent epsidoe of the Supernatural Girlz podcast. (Supernatural Girlz)
- On Saturday, March 30th the Centre for Inquiry UK and Conway Hall are presenting a seminar entitled “Tricks of the Mind,” which will include a number of speakers discussing the psychological mechanisms behind perceptual errors. (CFI London)
- Nicolas Callis provides some basic tips for anomalous research in a recent piece for Bent Spoon Magazine. (Bent Spoon Magazine)
- In another article from Bent Spoon Magazine, anomaly investigator Carolyn Dougherty presents some of the problems with exploring Electronic Voice Phenomena. (Bent Spoon Magazine)
- On Monday, March 25th BBC radio began a two part episode of Out of the Ordinary which looks at the history of Electronic Voice Phenomena. (BBC Radio)
- Sound artist Joe Banks, whose book “Rorschach Audio” explores EVP as a cultural and psychological phenomena, provides some thoughts on the episode. (Rorschach Audio)
- Of interest as well is an older article from the sound artist Mike Kelley which features a different angle on Electronic Voice Phenomena and the history of Western pop music. (MikeKelley.com)
- Other World North East provides an interesting look at EVP in a Frank’s Box demonstration from an experiment at the Black Gate Castle, Newcastle upon Tyne in May 2012. (Other World North East)
- If you’ve an anomalous experience to report, Other World North East has also set up a reporting desk to collect qualitative data on exceptional experiences. (Other World North East)
- An exploration of the nuances between proof and possibility from the Life in B Flat blog. (Life in B Flat)
- Adrian Nelson talks about some recent experiments investigating possible connections between quantum states and consciousness in this Video Blog post. (MetaRising)
- In a recent post on his website, philosopher of religion, Michael Sudduth presents an abstract and outline of a proposed book on the survival hypothesis, “Survival and the Empirical World: A Philosophical Exploration of the Empirical Argument for Life after Death.” (Michael Sudduth)
- Dr. Mary C. Neal is intereviewed on a recent episode of “The Best People We Know.” Her book, To Heaven and Back, which describes her reported Near Death Experience and encounter with Jesus, preceeded the publication of Dr. Eben Alexander’s account by a few months in 2012, and also became a New York Times bestseller. (The Best People We Know)
- Near Death Experience researcher Dr. Nancy Evans Bush has a new article up which investigates how distressing NDE’s are a useful tool in uncovering the root experience beyond dogmatism and dismissal. (Dancing Past the Dark)
- Jack Hunter, editor of the Paranthropology Journal, has uploaded an interesting project he did with his first year anthropology students which looks at how they identify the “location of the self.” (Scribd)
- In an article for the Bulletin of the Biola University Center for Christian Thought, Dr. Gary Habermas tackles two big questions regarding Near Death Experiences: Do Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) potentially produce evidential reports that may indicate consciousness beyond near-death states? And do NDEs present conceptual problems for Christians? (Center for Christian Thought)
- What exactly are we looking for when we talk about investigating Psi? In a post on the Bare Normality blog this question is taken to it’s logical conclusions in an exploration of whether the Ganzfeld experiments are dealing with telepathy. (Bare Normality)
- Member of the Monroe Institute Professional Division, and Co-Director of the Psychognosia Institute, John Knowles presents a brief rebuttal of radical materialist critiques of Psi. (The Monroe Institute)
- After Matmos’ recent Ganzfeld EP release, another band is working Psi into their aesthetic. The Dare Devil Christopher Wrights’ new video for I & Thou features a psychometry theme. (Consequence of Sound)
- Brian Klingenfus brings us Part 2 of his exploration of parapsychological topics in contemporary movies. (Are you afraid of the dark?)
- A new ghost themed show will feature people purporting to investigate their own experiences in a reality tv format. (Huffington Post)
Note: Special thanks to Tom Ruffles, of the Society for Psychical Research and Jack Hunter, Editor at Paranthropology Journal for a number of links included in this edition of Reality Sandwich’s Psi-in-the-News.
