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Page 3 |
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Journal of Parapsychology Review:
Spring/Fall 2008 by John Palmer
continued from page 1 |
In the
second article, David Luke reviews research
on the relationship between ESP and the use
of psychedelic drugs. After noting that such
drugs are often used specifically to induce
ESP in “primitive” cultures, particularly
among Shamans, Luke reviews the results of
questionnaire surveys and experiments from
the Netherlands and Brazil in which ESP
tests were given to participants under the
influence of psychedelics. The surveys
consistently revealed that belief in psi and
the frequency of paranormal experiences is
greater in users of these drugs than in
nonusers. The experiments produced mixed
results, but there was some tendency for
better ESP under psychedelics, especially
with free-response ESP tests. However, the
methodology of the studies was generally
poor: for example, lack of a control
condition and too boring an ESP task. Luke
offers a number of suggestions for
improvements in future research.
 Jung-Yong Shiah reports on two experiments
intended to test and train children in
finger-reading, a clairvoyance test in which
participants attempt to identify a picture
or symbol written on a sheet of paper
enclosed in an envelope while touching the
outside of the envelope. Remarkable success
has been reported with children in China,
but these studies did not do a good job of
guarding against sensory cues. Shiah wanted
to see if he could get comparable results
with better controls. In the first
experiment, 18 children in Scotland were
tested after 8 hours of training in imagery
development. The results showed no evidence
of finger reading ability. The second
experiment began with an initial screening
test of 1655 children in Taiwan, almost half
of whom successfully identified at least one
aspect of the target. However, the success
vanished when the successful children were
retested with tighter controls, raising the
possibility that they had cheated in the
first screening.
David Luke returns to report two
precognition experiments given by computer.
In Experiment 1, the participants were
visitors to a museum; in Experiment 2, they
were university students. Participants were
shown ten sets of four pictures and asked to
select each time which of the four pictures
they liked best. Unknown to them, one of the
four pictures had been randomly selected as
an ESP target. For half the participants,
their score (how often they liked the target
best) had consequences. If they got a good
score, they subsequently were given a
pleasant task (rating cartoon pictures). If
they got a bad score, the task was
unpleasant (identifying strings of three
successive odd digits in a long string). The
ESP scores were significantly above chance
in both studies, but what the participants
did afterwards made no difference. In
Experiment 1, participants who described
themselves as lucky on a questionnaire got
the best scores; in Experiment 2, it was
those who described themselves as “open to
experience.”
In the final article, Michael Thalbourne
reports the results of two experiments in
which he, as both experimenter and subject,
attempted to influence by psychokinesis (PK)
what might be called the electronic noise
output of a random number generator. This is
the standard way parapsychologists test for
small-scale PK or, micro-PK. Aided by music
and various visual patterns synchronized
with it, the author attempted to experience
Kundalini during the tests. In the five
previous studies in the series, also
reported in the JP, PK scoring overall was
higher on test runs in which the author
experienced Kundalini than when he did not.
This effect was significant again in
Experiment 6, but the exact opposite result
occurred in Experiment 7. In both
experiments, scoring got significantly
higher over the course of the study, which
might have been due to a corresponding
increase in psychological tension the author
experienced as the experiment progressed.
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Dick Lowrie on Entanglement and Animal Psi
continued from
page 1 |
| In the
late 1950s, Lowrie said, the Corps of
Engineers had a mine detection section that
asked J.B. Rhine at the Parapsychology Lab
at Duke to confidentially begin experiments
on dogs' capabilities for mine detection. Rhine was somewhat uncomfortable with
the confidentiality request, and the Duke
administration wanted more control of the
process, so the compromise was to have Dr.
Marquee, a Professor of Anatomy from the medical
college, to be the financial advisor and a
Stanford Professor, Ney, to join as well. Dick
Lowrie was the project manager, and Gaither
Pratt was involved in the research, as well.
They went to England to investigate how the
British used their dogs, and found that the
British dogs were trained to use detection by
odor, only. Lowrie and others wanted to research
and use dogs' extrasensory search capabilities. They went
to Germany where a Dr. Kramer was investigating
psi in birds. Specifically, he studied how they
find their way home. Much animal research was
going on in Germany at the time, Lowrie said,
for example, studying the dance of the bees to
show where to find the flowers, and studying the
homing ability of mice, and it added to
enthusiasm for the project.
The research continued in the United States,
with dog testing done in California on Pacific
Beach where mines had been buried. The dogs had
a strong detection rate; out of ten mines they
found as many as six. However, as Lowrie noted,
six is not enough when you're dealing with
mines! So, though it seemed the dogs had some
psi ability, the research was discontinued.
However, the research was quite beneficial,
Lowrie said, and it generated much cross-talk
among interested researchers.
An interesting point Lowrie made was that the
Government's Office of Technical Information had
destroyed all record of this work (though in
1969 the contract was declassified), thus
Lowrie's story is our most reliable history of
the time. In 1972 Dr. Rhine wrote a lengthy
article about a man-dog team to detect mines in
the Journal of Parapsychology, using evidence
from this research.
Lowrie branched off from this story to discuss
the fact that humans and dogs may have a
connection that's more than just physical. In
Lowrie's opinion, it may be a form of
entanglement. The most active area in physics,
Lowrie said, is this topic of entanglement,
decoherence and nonlocality. As Lowrie
explained, quantum physics shows that photons
can become entangled in space and time, and,
extrapolating from this quantum evidence, it
seems that people, too, can become entangled.
For example, emotional entanglement could
explain "crisis telepathy," a known phenomenon,
evidenced by many instances such as the common
stories of mothers who have instinctively known
when their children were in serious danger.
Three things are important for human telepathy
due to entanglement, Lowrie explained:
- an
emotional connection
- intelligence
- some degree or receptivity, training
&
open-mindedness
He noted that some claim that
entanglement in time exists, for example, with
clairvoyance when people detect objects that
were lost long ago.
Lowrie's book, Life and Afterlife, which is
available for purchase through the Rhine Center,
discusses this and many other psi related
topics. It explains his theory that all life has
negative entropy. Life is improbable by nature,
Lowrie explained, with unusual characteristics,
for example, eating and reproduction. The idea
of a life force, he said, goes way back to the
Egyptians. Our inherent capability to exist and
maintain a state of low entropy is our life
force. This life force, he believes, can persist
after the death of organisms, as has been argued
throughout human existence by spiritualists and
such events as what we now label as Near Death
Experiences.
Entanglement is a mystery, he said, adding that
"a lot of times we are arrogant. We think we
know too much." Truly we have a lot to learn, he
continued, and we are only scratching the
surface of this knowledge.
When he concluded the talk and opened it do
questions and answers, the audience came back to
the topic of animal psi and many had intriguing
examples of animal psi experiences. One woman
had a unique story that connected the Rhine
Center with such an event. Her cat, Toby, had
been lost long ago in Raleigh. Some weeks later,
when she came to the Rhine Center at Duke, there
was Toby, just outside! Jerry Solfvin, from the
University of Massachusetts, was in the
audience, and he discussed an interesting
research project on animals and their effect on
unconscious people. He documented some of this
research and it was mentioned in the popular
press, he said, that people in comas would often
wake up when their dogs came in the room. The
records were not maintained well, however, so it
was not scientifically proven. Lowrie mentioned
stories of animals who find their way home from
30 miles away, psi trailing cases, and other
such stories. When his brother died, Lowrie
said, their two hound dogs howled -- he is
convinced they knew of the event at the moment
it happened. Though stories of animal psi
abilities abound, Sally Rhine Feather made a
good point that it is hard for scientists to do
animal psi research, for the scientists are not
the animals' regular caretakers, and they do not
have the emotional bond with them. Much of the
evidence is anecdotal, and the Rhine Center,
actually has amassed a great deal of anecdotal
evidence about animal psi abilities.
John Palmer brought the conversation back around
to entanglement when he made the point that
entanglement experiments are based on
photon/electron experiments, and with things
like telepathy, it's often found with those
related, especially twins. It was noted that Bob
Van de Castle, at UVA, is doing twin research
with dream psi experiences. The
movie, What the Bleep Do We Know, brought the
idea of entanglement to the mainstream public,
and it was widely popular.
 All in all, it was a vibrant discussion with
great scientific information presented by
Lowrie. He was kind enough to write the
scientific premises behind the talk in an
article entitled "Entanglement, the Implicate
Order, Synchronicity, and Parapsychology,"
and,
with his permission, we are including it with
this newsletter.
Click here to download. |
|
Kathe Martin, Ellen Kaye Gehrke, and Mary Jo
Bulbrook on Conversations from the Other Side
continued from
page 1 |
 Kathe
Martin, for example, says that when
something is true, she feels it in her heart
chakra. When something is off, however, she
feels it in her knees. Her knees are her
weak spots. Through this physical guidance,
she has more discernment. For 35 years
Bulbrook has been doing this work, and she
has learned somewhat, how it occurs. Our
physical being and our subtle energy system
are our instruments of communication to the
other side. Set your intention, she said,
state that you are willing to be open and to
receive guidance.
 Guidance
came in a surprising form to Ellen Kaye
Gehrke, PhD, who has a strong scientific
background and found it strange to be
included in a panel of this nature. However,
along with her academic career, she also
takes care of 12 horses, five cats, numerous
dogs, and a gopher. She told a fascinating
story of her horse, Roanie, with whom she
was very close. She knew Roanie was sick,
but she had to leave to teach her college
class. While teaching, she heard a voice in
her head. It said, "I just want you to know
I'm leaving. I don't want you to feel bad or
sad." At the same time, she saw a picture of
a horse in front of her. "Don't worry, I'm
going to join Franklin and Seemore." Just
then, while still in front of her class, a
call came, and it was the veterinarian
saying that Roanie was going to die in the
next hour; he had twisted a gut.
She knew
that Roanie had come to say goodbye, and
from then on, she became much more open to
communicating with her animals. From this
new, open-minded perspective, her world
began to change. Someone asked her to bring
her horses and do a grief camp for kids; it
was incredibly successful. At UCSD she
started a workshop where she taught medical
students to do energy work with horses to
help them become better doctors; again, it
was quite successful.
Gehrke also mentioned some fascinating new
research about heart rate variability.
Between horses who were friends, heart rates
synchronized. Between non-friends, it did
not. Additionally, horse heart rates could
synchronize with their close human
companions. More research is underway about
heart rate variability, but, for a scientist
who has always been used to trusting her
rational judgment, she said she has learned
something important: when you have a choice
between your head and your heart, your heart
is always right!
Kathe Martin, a professional psychic medium
with over 20 year’s experience, made the
point that we are .001% physical matter, all
the rest of us is nonphysical. Become aware
of the energy, she said. Sense it, feel it,
and then you will get into this world. It is
very subtle; messages are quick and
fleeting. Your whole body is an instrument;
learn how it best communicates. Learn to
meditate, for meditating is listening. You
have to listen!
Connecting with the other side is something
anyone can do, Martin insisted, it is just a
matter of listening intently. Guidance is
always there, you just have to know how to
tune in. Everything, she continued, has some
kind of meaning. It may not have meaning to
you, but to the other, it is important.
Mary Jo Bulbrook added, let go of your
expectations and your need to understand,
let go of needing to please others, and
honor the integrity of what you experience
and perceive. Do not be the judge of what is
important or correct; as you become clear,
open, and sensitive to your means of
communication, trust the messages you are
getting, and relay them with integrity. |
 |
|
Bob Van de Castle on Dreams
continued from
page 1 |
|
In the 19th
Century, dreams became less aligned with
religious beliefs and studied more
scientifically. For example, in 1869, Frank
Seafield and Alexander Grant published
The Literature and Curiosities of Dreams.
Wordsworth, the famous poet, used
the term "unconscious" in the late 1700s,
and dreams were beginning to receive more
notoriety as a way to connect with one's
unconscious.
Unfortunately, when Sigmund Freud came along
and produced the notion that everything that
one dreams has a direct connection to sex,
people became much less comfortable sharing
and analyzing their dreams.
 However,
throughout the 1800s and 1900s, many reports
of spontaneous ESP in dreams exist, and
numerous books and articles were published
about dreams and their meanings. Van de
Castle himself conducted a large study in
1966, interviewing 500 female and 500 male
college students to discover how often
certain things would be in their dreams. He
found curious gender differences and
similarities, and his book Our
Dreaming Mind has a detailed
discussion of this and other research.
Here at the Rhine Center, Louisa Rhine was
consistently gathering accounts of dreams
over the years. Van de Castle notes that of
15,000 reports where people sent in their
psychic experiences, 60% involved
dreams. Dreams may very well be one of our
most common and reliable gateways into
psychic experience.
In a normal lifetime, Van de Castle reports,
one has around 100,000 dreams. Dreams are
typically for problem solving, but certainly
they have precognitive elements as well.
They seem to allow us to bypass our
space/time limitations in some way.
If you are interested in dreams, Van de
Castle recommends connecting with the
International Association for the Study of
Dreams. He predicts that future
dream studies will include geomagnetic
studies linking better ESP with sunspot
activity, research of heart transplant
patients (as those who receive the
transplant often dream of the donor),
research with twins and dream telepathy, and
more work with the concept of dream helpers,
a workshop which Van de Castle conducted
here at the Rhine Center during the
following day (see the article below).
During the question and answer session,
intriguing aspects of dreams came up. For
example, the concept of entanglement, the
potential of lucid dreaming, tips for how to
remember dreams (put a journal by your bed -
have the intention to remember), and the
preponderance of precognitive dreams and
9/11.
In sum, pay attention to your dreams!
Precognition is quite real and remarkably
common. Though it is impossible to have
clear statistics of just how often dreams
have precognitive elements, Van de Castle
noted one Atlanta researcher who tried to
figure it out: 80% are precognitive, he
concluded. Though it may be just a crude
baseline number, it's certainly enough to
warrant the respect and intention of recall
for your own dreams. Precognition is not
the only reason to remember dreams, either;
as Jung and Freud popularized, dreams are
great ways to uncover deeper aspects of the
self. For the highest, most profound life
guidance, perhaps all one needs is a good
night's sleep and a dream journal by the
bed. |
|
The Dream
Helpers
Workshop
continued from
page 1 |
|
To
be eligible to be the focus person, you had to -
want to be the
focus of all this dreaming -
have some
significant issue in your life, the kind of
thing you might go to counseling for -
be
chosen, randomly, out of all the participants
who were willing to be in the focus position.
Out of respect for the depth and intensity of
discussion, I will not use names in this
summary, but I do want to explain, briefly, the
simple yet brilliant concept of dream helpers.
From a
personal perspective, I have always made a
point to remember my dreams, and, as Freud,
Jung, and common psychology seem to suggest,
I have also always assumed that the dreams
were all about me. Dreams about excrement,
for example, would mean that I was dealing
with a lot of crap in my life. A dream where
I was lost in a blizzard or some sort of fog
would mean that the path before me in life
was murky, that I was having trouble seeing
my way.
Once I had a dream where I was in Times
Square, and a friend with whom I played
pick-up basketball was standing in the
middle of the intersection with a machine
gun. He was calmly peppering shots at the
crowd in a steady semi-circular movement,
and I was just to the side, watching in
horror, and screaming his name, begging him
to stop. I woke up completely shaken by the
reality of it. A few days later, when I was
at a party at his house, another friend had
given him a nerf disc "machine" gun that
shot pellets in rapid succession, and, in
the exact same stance, with the exact same
look on his face, he was turning in a
semi-circle, shooting harmless discs at the
members of the party. I was struck by the
vividness of the dream and the sameness of
the event, though, thankfully, in reality no
one was being harmed. In sum, dreams have
always intrigued me by their access to
knowledge from the future as well as the
past.
Until I participated in the dream helpers'
workshop, however, I had not recognized the
notion that, with intention, dreams can help
others understand the goings-on of their
lives in the same way that they help the
dreamer understand his or her own. It was a
powerful concept for me, and I was excited
to participate in the workshop to see how it
played out.
We had three participants who volunteered to
be the focus of the evening's dreams, and
Van de Castle had someone pick one of the
three names out of a hat to "let the
universe decide" who was to be our focus.
The chosen participant then passed around a
few things (such as her earrings) that were
connected to her so that we could each feel
her energy pattern. Additionally, she wrote
her name on a piece of paper for each of us
so that we could have something connected to
her to place by our bed, by our dream
journal, or under our pillows that evening.
It was a wonderful group, and we were all
quite enthusiastic about being dream
helpers. The focus person did not tell us
anything at all about her issue, though she
was quite thankful for the dream help, and
we left for the evening, intent on devoting
our dreams to this woman.
As instructed, I, for example, wrote in my
dream journal: "Tonight my dreams will be
for _______." Each of us, in our own ways,
made the intention to dream for our focus
person. The next day was to be spent
analyzing each of our dreams, person by
person. I was so conscientious about
dreaming, and scared that I would not
remember any dreams, that I woke up about
five times during the night! Each of us had
that sort of desire - of wanting to help. As
we relayed our dreams to the group, the
focus person could listen, but she could not
comment nor could she be in a place where we
could watch her for reactions or clues as to
the appropriateness of the dream content.
She sat off to the side, listening for
hours.
As each person related his or her dreams, we
noted more and more similarities. Without
going into great detail, I will give a few
examples. Three people had triangles show up
in their dreams. Numerous people had images
of something being mailed or delivered. Dogs
or horses showed up in a few dreams. Images
of repression and then a celebratory
decision to "loose the chains" came about in
various ways. Non-traditional relationships
showed up. Various scenarios of times of
transitions appeared, covering the spectrum
from an almost romantic meeting with a dark,
cloaked man (who appeared to be associated
with death) showing a magnificent view from
a hillside to the joyous, detailed
preparations for a sacred and pure wedding
with the focus person the bride-to-be.
After hours of discussion and analysis, what
a relief it was for all of us, especially
the focus of our dreams, to have her give
feedback. The last part of the day was spent
with her candid interpretations of all that
was said and how it related to her life,
past, present and future. Everything seemed
to have its place in the understanding and
interpretation, and all of us left a bit in
awe of the power of dreams and the obvious
interconnection between all people. Though
we had stayed in various places throughout
Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill on Friday
evening, each of us was connected in a
profound and mysterious way.
With gratitude to Van de Castle, Pimm, and
all of the participants, we left for the day
wiser and more enlightened from the night
before. As one participant e-mailed after
the fact, "the weekend was a
life-changing experience for me -- the
interconnectedness we all shared. I had not
felt that in many years with a group."
A follow-up e-mail from the brave and
insightful woman who was our dream focus
ended with: "A thousand thank-you’s would not
be enough . . ." |
|
Volunteers Needed
At The Rhine Center! |
Do you have
some extra time during the day or after
hours to help develop and promote the Rhine
Center's expanding research and
educational programs?
Here is a sample of some of the current
needs:
- Handling & Shipping: Help in screening
incoming calls, signups
for programs and membership, sales and
mailings of books and products.
- Friendly Greeters: Program registration,
hosting and sales
activities at the regular evening talks,
workshops and yearly
conferences.
- Publicity Paragons: Preparing notices for
email and website
posting of programs as well as expanding the
overall media contacts to
better publicize Rhine Center events.
- Book Buddies: Help with general library
work such as logging in
of new books, adding onto software program,
writing selected book
reviews for the newsletter, and/or
developing and a lending library of
extra library books.
- For the Record: Backup assistance to
audiovisual technical staff
in audio and video-recording of programs
- Historians: Assistance
in organizing and preserving archival
materials from the Rhine Center
past and reorganizing the Rhine Museum.
- Research Acolytes: Occasional assistance
to research staff on
selected research projects or grant
proposals.
- Developmental Demons: Assist in
fund-raising and general
promotional activities of the Center.
- Enthusiastic Docents: Train in the
history of the Rhine and help
by giving talks to outside groups and/or
tours of the museum.
If you are interested, please contact
Lisa@Rhine.org or call
919-309-4600 during weekday hours. |
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Rhine Online: Institute
for Consciousness Studies Newsletter
Volume 2 2009 |
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