Evolver Learning Labs steps in to support the speakers who have been rejected by TED, research indicates memories of Near Death Experiences are more vivid than “real” memories, Spiritualist mediumship comes to Brooklyn, and a new study in the works from the Windbridge Institute looks at the therapeutic value of afterlife encounters in this edition of psi in the news.
If you are in New York this week, the Observatory Room in Brooklyn is hosting a series of events centered around the topic of mediumship:
- Thursday, April 4th – Traditional Spiritualist Message Service with UK Medium Myra Basey
- Friday, April 5th – Do Tables Tilt, Turn And Float? Table Levitation Phenomena, 1850-2006: An Illustrated Presentation with Walter Meyer zu Erpen
- Saturday, April 6th – Channeling Elvis? An Automatic Writing Demonstration with UK Medium Myra Basey
- These events are being hosted by the photographer Shannon Taggart, whose work exploring seance and mediumship phenomena is featured in a recent episode of Ronni Thomas’ award winning Midnight Archive series. (Disinfo)
Other news:
- On Wednesday, April 10th the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge is hosting a conference titled ” The geographical unconscious: mapping the supernatural in current research” (University of Cambridge)
- On Saturday, April 13th Stanford University will host the seventh annual Music and Brain Symposium. This year’s theme is “Hearing Voices,” and will bring together experts in the field of auditory hallucinations. (Hearing the Voice)
- On April 14th Evolver Learning Labs is hosting a webinar with Graham Hancock called “The War on Consciousness: What It Means for You,” which will expand on the themes explored in his “banned” TEDxWhiteChapel talk. (Reality Sandwich)
- On Thursday, April 25th The London Fortean Society is hosting Dr. Rupert Sheldrake for a talk on “The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Inquiry.” (London Fortean Society)
- The Rhine Education Center is hosting an Introduction To Parapsychology course with Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone. Application deadline is April 26th. (Rhine Education Center)
- The Windbridge Institute has created a donations page to help subsidize a Bereavement and Mediumship Study conducted by Dr. Julie Beischel. This research will include “randomized clinical trial examining the potential clinical benefits of personal mediumship readings.” ( The Windbridge Institute)
- Friday, May 10th The Sage Gateshead will host Electronic Voice Phenomenon, “a night of sonic innovation inspired by Konstantin Raudive ‘s 1970’s experiments into hearing unidentified voices in electronic interference.” (The Sage Gateshead)
- Reality Sandwich’s own Faye Sakellaridis covers TED’s decision revoke TEDxWestHollywood’s license after complaints were raised due to the inclusion of Russell Targ, Marilyn Schilitz, Larry Dossey and Marianne Williamson to the line-up of speakers. Sakellaridis includes links to the relevant articles and responses that have appeared around the web discussing the issue, including responses from Russell Targ and Larry Dossey. (Reality Sandwich)
- Dr. Rupert Sheldrake joins host Alex Tsakiris on the Skeptiko podcast to discuss TED’s decision to remove his TEDxWhitechapel talk from YouTube. (Skeptiko)
- Greg Taylor of The Daily Grail offers some thoughts on the TED situation, and questions their future relevancy as a platform for discussing cutting edge ideas. (The Daily Grail)
- Marc Demarest reports on the International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals’ acquisition of 1886 and 1887 volumes of Light, “a journal of psychical, occult, and mystical research.” (Chasing Down Emma)
- As a first offering from amidst the treasured volumes, Demarest has unearthed a letter from Arthur Conan Doyle to Light discussing his experiences with Spiritualism. As Demarest points out, this letter, dated 1887, comes shortly after Doyle had first started investigating Spiritualist phenomena. (Chasing Down Emma)
- Paul Devereux’s recent talk on ‘Time, Mind and Place: The Archaeology of Consciousness,’ is now available for listening from the Anthropology, Consciousness and Culture archive. (Anthropology, Consciousness and Culture)
- Research indicates that memories from Near Death Experiences are often more vivid and “real” than everyday memories. (Science Daily)
- Over at The Daily Grail, Greg Taylor offers some thoughts on the NDE memory study. (The Daily Grail)
- For those interested in reading the study itself, it’s available in full and free of charge via the PLOS One website. (PLOS One)
- Dr. Sam Parnia is interviewed about his NDE research in this episode of the BBC’s Saturday Live. Dr. Parnia’s segment begins at 24:15min into the program. (BBC)
- With so much coming out in the media on the topic of Near Death Experiences, this 2008 gallery of drawings from NDE experiencers, recently posted on the Society for Psychical Research’s Facebook page by Tom Ruffles, is quite interesting. (The Daily Beast)
- Stoyan Zaimov reviews Revealing Heaven: The Christian Case for Near-Death Experiences, by John Price. The book features over 200 anecdotal reports that Price has heard during his years as an Episcopal pastor from people who have had an NDE. (Christian Post)
- Dr. Nancy Evans Bush has posted a short survey for those who have experienced an NDE. (Dancing Past the Dark)
- Sharon Hill of Doubtful News discusses the benefits of listening and observing, rather than coming to the table with prior conclusions, when dealing with areas of anomalous experience. (Huffington Post)
- David Gerard, writing for RationalWiki, provides his opinion that parapsychology represents a sort of crippled doppelganger of real science. (RationalWiki)
- Robert McLuhan continues his exploration of the war on Wikipedia over topics which question the status quo, and includes some suggestions for alleviating the situation. (Paranormalia)
- Tamra Temple has uploaded a couple of documents from the declassified Stargate files detailing some of the “remote sensing” experiments that were conducted at Wright Patterson Airforce Base. (Stargate Interactive)
- The White Crow Books’ blog features some information on the famous Sioux leader Black Elk’s out of body experiences. (White Crow Books)
- Denyse O’Leary, co-author of The Spiritual Brain, reflects on the question of survival after bodily death. (Speaking Tree)
- Roger Clarke embarks on a journey to see why the United Kingdom is popularly considered one of the most ‘haunted’ places in the world. (The Lady)
- There are reports coming out of Saraj, India of a “savant” who is able to read her mother’s mind. It’s unclear what kind of controls or protocols have been put in place to test these claims. (Kaleej Times)
- A recent article in the Times of Oman discusses the odd phenomena of “phantom phone calls.” (Times of Oman)
- The open access Journal of Nonlocality recently published Larissa-Emilia Cheran’s paper titled Exploring the Mechanisms of Interaction between Human Consciousness and Networks of Living Neurons. (Journal of Non-Locality)
- The Beachcombing blog recently published a piece on some historical accounts detailing the belief in reincarnation among military officers. (Beachcombing)
- Deborah Delong provides a detailed post on the life of medium Lenora Piper. (Romancing the Bee)
- Uncanny UK presents a short review of Poltergeists: A History of Violent Ghostly Phenomena by P G Maxwell-Davies. (Uncanny UK)
- As well as an excerpt from the book, which details reports of “a Suffolk poltergeist in the Middle Ages.” (Uncanny UK)
- John Hogan reviews Thomas Nagel’s recent book Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False for Scientific American. (Scientific American)
- In a joint review, Peter Rogerson discusses Rupert Sheldrake’s recent publication, The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry, and Lawrence Krauss’ recent offering A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing. (Magonia)
Note: Special thanks to Tom Ruffles, of the Society for Psychical Research, Jack Hunter, Editor at Paranthropology Journal, Iona Miller, Angela Voss and Matt Staggs, Editor at Disinfo.com, for a number of links included in this edition of Reality Sandwich’s Psi-in-the-News.
