Prior experimental studies of anomalous information reception (AIR) have been touted as strong evidence for postmortem survival of consciousness yet are plagued by several methodological weaknesses that preclude clear evidence of positive results. The present team provides an adversarial collaboration to identify and compensate for the major limitations of these previous approaches. We outline a more rigorous preregistered study design that eliminates or minimizes researcher bias in (a) data cleaning and (b) statistical analysis. Obtaining positive results with our recommended design (...) would arguably yield data that skeptics and sympathetic researchers would agree is more clearly interpretable and offers stronger support for a survivalist interpretation. However, this proposed study is not intended to be definitive but rather only a next step in a research program that aims to improve on earlier published efforts. It would also admittedly be time-consuming and expensive to implement, as well as raise ethical considerations in utilizing vulnerable research populations. However, these costs are required to achieve the rigor necessary to advance scientific knowledge in survival research. 1. Introduction -- 2. Laying a Working Foundation -- 3. Choice of "Survival Effect" -- 4. The Recommended Preregistered Protocol -- 5. Considerations and Caveats -- 5.1. Strengths of Such Protocol -- 6. Concluding Thoughts. (shrink)

Dr. Ian Stevenson, the pioneer of the study of reincarnation phenomena, conjectures that the reason why a person is born in a particular family might be accounted for in terms of psychic connections: Shared experiences leave mental traces within us and produce psychic connections between the persons concerned and the longer an association between two persons lasts, and the greater its intensity, the stronger the connections between them become; such psychic connections act as an agent to attract a deceased person (...) to be reborn to a particular person. This conjecture suggests that the most natural pattern of cases of the reincarnation type (CORT) is the one occurring within the same family since family members tend to develop such psychic connections most easily (Stevenson, 2001: 236-244). As Yanagida, who is known as the father of Japanese native folkloristics, reported skipped-generation reincarnation (grandparent to be reborn as grandchildren) might have been considered “normal” in some areas in prewar Japan (Yanagita, 2013). In Ohkado (2016a) I reported one same-family CORT occurring in contemporary Japan, suggesting that the phenomena are by no means obsolete. In the present article I would like to report another five same-family cases. (shrink)

One of the most valuable features of the early years of both the Proceedings and Journal of the Society for Psychical Research was the frequent publication of intriguing (and often scrupulously investigated) anecdotal reports. Indeed, the enterprising early SPR researchers produced some mammoth reports based on such material, including its 400-page “Report on the Census of Hallucinations” (Society for Psychical Research 1894) and the monumental Phantasms of the Living (Gurney, Myers, & Podmore 1886). The pioneers of psychical research were shrewd (...) enough to realize that apparent spontaneous occurrences of ESP and PK, and phenomena suggestive of postmortem survival, could provide valuable clues as to the nature of psychic functioning, and that the collection and careful study of this material was an essential precursor to doing serious theoretical work in the area. Sadly, that lesson seems not to have entirely survived the gnawing tooth of time, as more and more would-be psi researchers, in a misguided attempt to appear conventionally scientific and curry favor with mainstream science, confined their activities and attention strictly to the laboratory, having little familiarity with or comprehension of the day-to-day apparent eruptions of phenomena that drove earlier researchers into the lab in the first place. I mention this now because this issue of the JSE features a contribution by Russell Targ to the material suggestive of postmortem survival—two incidents pointing to the survival of his daughter Elisabeth. The two incidents are considerably more intriguing than most, and they highlight what is probably the most recalcitrant issue in the debate over survival—namely, the apparent standoff between the survivalist and living-agent psi (LAP) interpretations of the evidence. (shrink)

Numerous mediumship studies (e.g., Beischel & Schwartz, 2007; Kelly & Arcangel, 2011; Rock, Beischel, Boccuzzi, & Bisuso, 2014) have reported statistically significant results and, thus, suggest that various contemporary mediums are able to demonstrate anomalous information reception (AIR) under laboratory conditions. Importantly, however, such studies are unable to address the source of mediums’ AIR. Indeed, the source-of-psi problem (survival-psi and living agent psi being the most likely contenders) cannot be resolved using current methodologies (Beischel, 2012). However, innovative mediumship-testing techniques may (...) produce results that indicate a convergence towards one alternative or another (Jamieson & Rock, 2014). We present the methodology of one such test focused on investigating whether mediums, who work with well-rehearsed but ‘blind’ proxy-sitters, create telepathic links that we refer to as dyad-telepathy, thereby producing response sets that indicate the psi source is unlikely to be a discarnate entity. (shrink)

Science and the Afterlife Experience is the concluding volume of a trilogy that began with Parapsychology and the Skeptics (Carter 2007; reissued as Science and Psychic Phenomena, Carter 2012) and continued with Science and the Near-Death Experience (Carter 2010). These books provide handy introductions to parapsychology, psychical research, and allied concerns (such as the near-death experience) for a new generation of readers. They may best be described as quasi-scholarly, aimed primarily at a general (non-academic) audience, although they include notes, reference (...) lists, and indexes. Carter, who holds an M.A. from the University of Oxford, England, identifies himself as a philosopher and here and there addresses philosophical concerns, such as the implications of “paranormal” phenomena for concepts of personal identity. One of the hallmarks of the series is the attention given to materialistic skeptical positions, extended in the volume under review to include super-ESP. (shrink)

In Persons, Souls and Death, David Lund (2009) presents a cumulative case argument for postmortem survival based on the ostensible explanatory power of survival in relation to data drawn from psychical research. In this paper I argue that the survival hypothesis does not satisfy at least two necessary explanatory criteria accepted and deployed by Lund. First, the data that the survival hypothesis ostensibly explains are not otherwise improbable, as much if not all of the data may be adequately accounted for (...) in terms of psychic functioning among living agents—the LAP hypothesis. Here I argue in considerable detail that Lund’s criticisms of the LAP hypothesis, like those leveled by many other survivalists, are significantly defective. Second, the survival hypothesis does not lead us to expect the data Lund outlines, so it fails with respect to predictive power. Since the “best explanation” is one that leads us to expect what is otherwise improbable, the survival hypothesis i. (shrink)

The purpose of this note is to dispel the notion that ideas of human agency to account for the veridical mental phenomena of mediums began with persons associated with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in England, or with certain later individuals. In fact, the appearance of these ideas preceded the founding of the Society in 1882. Examples of earlier writers who discussed these ideas include Carl Gustav Carus, Edward W. Cox, Justinus Kerner, Asa Mahan, André-Saturnin Morin, Maximilian Perty, B.W. (...) Richmond, and Edward C. Rogers. In contrast to the speculation by later SPR authors and others, the concepts that appeared in the old literature involved belief in physical forces. Later authors who presented human agency as an explanation for mental mediumship included Walter Leaf, Frederic W.H. Myers, Charles Richet, and Eduard von Hartmann. (shrink)

Composer and musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky published a fascinating and delightful book entitled Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven’s Time (Slonimsky 1965). The book is a collection of what Slonimsky called “biased, unfair, ill-tempered, and singularly unprophetic judgments” (p. 3) about famous composers and their works. We find, for example, the Gazette Musicale de Paris on August 1, 1847, saying of Verdi, “there has not yet been an Italian composer more incapable of producing what is commonly called (...) a melody.” And this publication stuck to its guns. On May 22, 1853, it said of Rigoletto that it “lacks melody. This opera has hardly any chance to be kept in the repertoire.” The May 1804 issue of Zeitung für die Elegente Welt proclaimed Beethoven’s Second Symphony is a crass monster, a hideously writhing wounded dragon, that refuses to expire, and though bleeding in the Finale, furiously beats about with its tail erect................ (shrink)

It is generally supposed by psychical researchers that evidence suggestive of consciousness surviving bodily death would always be compatible with the so-called 'super-psi hypothesis', according to which living-agent psi is wholly responsible for the evidence. In this paper, I argue that, granted how super-psi is supposed to work, a case can be made for certain near-death experience cases to be incompatible with the super-psi hypothesis. From such a base, the explanatory impasse between the super-psi hypothesis and the survival hypothesis can (...) be broken. Keywords: near-death experiences, NDEs, super-psi, mind-body dualism, survival, consciousness. (shrink)

The study of mediums was part of a larger program of psychical research, begun in the late 19th century, intended to examine specifically whether human personality survives bodily death, and more generally whether the brain produces mind or consciousness, as most scientists since the late 19th century have assumed. Although a vast amount of high-quality research resulted from that effort, the study of mediumship was almost completely abandoned during the latter half of the 20th century, primarily because of the impasse (...) reached over whether the phenomena are best-interpreted as attributable to deceased agents or to living agents. In this paper the author examines some types of mediumship research that have been considered particularly important for the survival question: cross-correspondences, drop-in communicators, and proxy cases. She argues that a revival of research on mediumship, particularly with proxy sittings, could contribute importantly to present-day psychical research and, perhaps ultimately, move us beyond the current impasse. Keywords: mediumship--survival--proxy research--cross-correspondences--drop-in communicators. (shrink)

The Journal of Scientific Exploration is devoted to the open-minded examination of scientific anomalies and other topics on the scientific frontier. Its articles and reviews, written by authorities in their respective fields, cover both data and theory in areas of science that are too often ignored or treated superficially by other scientific publications. This issue of the Journal is devoted to a single multifaceted topic: mediumship, and mental mediumship in particular. The authors of the lead paper describe several varieties of (...) mediumship, and propose that the psychosocial and cultural aspects of mediumship are as important as its psychophysiological features. They consider the differences between spiritism and spiritualism, the relevance of the trance state to mediumship, and the extent to which processes properly considered mediumistic infiltrate many everyday human activities. The next paper surveys some of the major nonparapsychological issues that have fascinated researchers into mediumship. These include the nature and prevalence of the mediumistic trance, the varieties of mediumistic mentation, the evolution of mediumship over time, the dramatic capabilities of the subconscious, and the relationship between mediumship and psychopathology. The third paper focuses on positive aspects of mediumship, and in particular its connection with various forms of artistic and practical creativity, as well as its potential for personal development or transformation. The fourth paper considers whether mediumship ever indicates that human personality survives bodily death, or whether even the best cases instead indicate psychic functioning among the living. The author surveys types of mediumship that have been especially relevant to this question, and advocates the revival of so-called proxy sittings with mediums. The final paper recounts a period in France's recent history during which a group of researchers lobbied to have parapsychology broadened into a multidisciplinary field embracing (in additional to strictly experimental and proof-oriented investigations) wide-ranging enquiries that could be applied to mediumship and other apparent instances of psychic functioning in real-life settings. This issue of the JSE is then filled out, as usual, with correspondence and substantive book reviews. (shrink)

This paper consists of commentaries about and the reprint of an autobiographical essay authored by Italian medium Eusapia Palladino and published in 1910. The details of the essay are discussed in terms of the writings of other individuals about the life and performances of the medium. The essay conveys a view of Palladino as a person who has suffered much in life and has a mission to help scientific research into mediumship. Typical of the positive emphasis in autobiographies in general, (...) the medium did not discuss negative aspects of her performances. Due to the fact that the essay appeared during Palladino's visit to New York City in which many authors branded her as a fraud, it may be speculated that the purpose of this autobiography was to elicit sympathy from the American public. While some of the statements that Palladino made about phenomena are consistent with the statements of other authors who have written about her, there are several statements that show alternate or incomplete versions of particular events in her life. The differences suggests that Palladino's essay and other discussions about the medium's life are not reliable when it comes to specific details and to biographical accuracy. (shrink)

It’s not often that I get to feel like a spokesperson for empirical conservatism. But that happened recently when I was invited to give a talk at the 50th Annual Conference on Anomalous Phenomena sponsored by the International Fortean Organization (INFO). The occasion provided several healthy illustrations about what I suppose we can call boggle relativity. The conference was stimulating, challenging, and professionally run, and I was happy to meet quite a few very smart and pleasant attendees—among them, the SSE’s (...) treasurer John Reed, MD. In fact, I very much look forward to attending future INFO conferences. (shrink)

359 The Placebo Response and the Power of Unconscious Healing, by Richard Kradin - Robert Epstein 363 Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic, by Russell T. Hurlburt and Eric Schwitzgebel - Etzel Cardeña 365 Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, by Christopher Lane - Tana Dineen 369 Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness, by Alva Noë - Greg Ealick 371 Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys (...) to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe, by Robert Lanza with Bob Berman - Richard Conn Henry 375 Proving Shakespeare: In Ben Jonson’s Own Words, by David L. Roper - C. Richard Desper 376 Encounters at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited, by Karl Pfl ock and Peter Brookesmith; Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience, by Stanton T. Friedman and Kathleen Marden - Barry Greenwood 381 UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, by Robert L. Hastings - John Alexander 384 Medical Miracles: Doctors, Saints, and Healing in the Modern World, by Jacalyn Duffin - Michael Grosso 388 Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, by Stacy Horn - Deborah Blum 390 The Art of Dying, by Peter Fenwick and Elizabeth Fenwick Jeffrey Long - Jody Long 393 Life Beyond Death: What Should We Expect?, by David Fontana - Michael Sudduth. (shrink)