Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is a hero.

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist and a well-known figure in the field of parapsychology, recently did an interview at Skeptiko.com.  The interview at first deals with the controversy surrounding Richard Wiseman's latest book and his attempts to misinform the public.  However, the truly interesting stuff is in the discussion that stems from talking about the controversy in which Dr. Sheldrake goes on to give a beautiful and poignant observation of a huge problem in modern science.  What is that problem?  Dogmatic materialism and how it has stifled progress.  Dr. Sheldrake says it so much better than I ever could so I'll just link you to the interview.

Dr. Rupert Sheldrake on the Persistence of Richard Wiseman’s Deception

You can read the transcript, you can listen to the interview, or you can even download the interview to listen to later.  Whichever way appeals to you, I highly recommend that you take a look at this if you love science as well as the paranormal.  It's like Dr. Sheldrake took everything I've had floating around in my head on the subject and laid it down neatly and plainly for all to see.  He is a hero for saying what few seem to be willing to say and he has my respect for that.  I only hope that by writing about this interview here that his views and work get the attention they deserve and we can all move on to finding real answers and truly exploring reality without the limits of a particular philosophical stance smothering us.

I think it's suiting that this will be my one hundredth blog post.  It's the fact that people from all over the world are reading what I write that has kept me going with this experiment for so long.  It's my love for all of the subject matter that I cover that inspired me to start this blog in the first place and I'm very happy that I've kept writing about it.  This blog is for everyone that wonders about the strange things out there and those that want to find answers for themselves instead of just buying a ready-made explanation.  Thanks to all of you that keep coming back to read my thoughts and opinions.

Human Invisibility

Most people have wished to become invisible at some point in their lives.  Whether in a particularly embarrassing situation or trying to do something they perhaps should not do, being invisible would be very useful in many circumstances.  What if you involuntarily and spontaneously became invisible though?

Spontaneous Human Invisibility

What if you could become invisible at will?  I happen to have some ideas about that.  I think that most esoteric or occult methods for invisibility won't make you physically invisible but something more like "psychically invisible."  By that I mean that you simply won't register in the minds of others.  Of course, if you touch someone or talk to them they will probably snap out of it, but that's just me musing on the subject.

I think that if one wanted to try to make themselves psychically invisible then they could try a variation of the shielding technique I give in this post.  That variation would be to imagine you and your aura as transparent, or that you are blending into your surroundings.  Visualize this as you form the shield.  Know that you will be unnoticed.  It's very hard to get any kind of concrete data on how effective this is from the personal perspective, but I've tried it before and it seemed to have the desired result most of the time.  You should probably experiment with the efficacy of this technique before relying on it too much.

Is there a specific center in the brain for telepathy?

Pinpointing the telepathy center in the brain

The study isn't really the best as it has a few problems, but it makes the suggestion that there is a part of the brain that allows for psychic functioning.  I'm unsure about such a specific brain center existing, myself.

Esoteric teaching tells us that the pineal gland (the "third eye" chakra) plays a large part in psychic functioning.  While it does rest near the center of the brain, the pineal gland is part of the endocrine system.  This makes me think that if the pineal gland has anything to do with psychic ability then it is a hormonal release that produces the effect rather than any specific structure.

I happen to think that psychic abilities have more to do with consciousness or the mind as a whole rather than a specific brain area.  We haven't been able to find a "consciousness center" in the brain yet, as far as I'm aware, mostly because we have almost no understanding of how consciousness arises in the first place.  I think that in order to get to the bottom of how psychic functioning works we will have to learn more about consciousness itself.

Stimulus Seekers Do Better on ESP Tests

I finally got around to reading Daryl Bem's paper that I mentioned in this post.  (You can find the whole paper in .pdf format here.)  I have to say that I'm impressed and I'm anxious to see if this paper will have a very large impact.  One thing that it does make more clear is that extroverts (specifically stimulus seekers) seem to do better on ESP tests.  This makes psychological sense based on what we know about cortical arousal and stimulus-seeking tendencies.

This is not the first study to discover this; it builds on earlier work that says essentially the same thing.  So, if you're the type of person that gets bored easily you may do better on ESP tests than an introvert.  I still think we're a while away from unlocking the secrets of psi, but at least this is a start.

How To View Your Aura

Following up on my last post, I'm going to give a very simple method for viewing your own aura (or part of it) with the naked eye.  This will also work for viewing the auras of others.

You will be viewing the aura around your hand and fingers.  In order to make this easier you should get a uniform background to hold your hand in front of.  This makes it easier to make out the aura as objects and textures in the background won't be distracting you.  For simplicity, you could just put a piece of white or black paper on the table and then hold your hand over it when viewing until you get the hang of it.

Now for the good stuff.  Hold your hand (either one works) out in front of the background (if you choose to use a background; it's not absolutely necessary).  Hold your hand there with open fingers (with either the palm facing you or the palm facing away).  Look between your fingers, like you're looking at their outline.  Don't focus your eyes on the background or your hand will go out of focus.  You want to look out from the edge without letting your eyes focus on the background.  It may sound kind of tricky but it's really not.  Moving your hand slowly while you look can make the aura even more obvious.

Your aura won't be as spectacular as fireworks or searchlights.  It can better be described as a haze or a smoke that clings to your skin.  You'll know it when you see it.  It should be noted that you need to make sure that you don't confuse an afterimage for your aura.  Afterimages can result from staring at something for too long and appear as the complimentary-colored outline of what you're looking at.  If the "aura" remains on the background even after you've taken your hand away then it is an afterimage.

You can use this same technique to look at the auras of other people, animals, and even inanimate objects.  Of course, you'll probably need to adjust the distance between you and the subject in order to view their whole aura.  Don't be afraid to experiment with this.  If you're having trouble, sometimes it helps to take a few deep breaths and make sure you're relaxed before you begin.  You may also need to adjust the lighting; very bright light may wash out the aura.  If your eyes are tired or strained then you should rest them and try again later.  Again, be careful not to confuse an afterimage for an aura.  Also, be aware that many people find it impolite to stare, so be careful with that.

A device for viewing the aura?

For those of you that aren't familiar with the concept, the aura is the proposed etheric energy field that surrounds the human body (as well as animals and inanimate objects).  While there are methods for training yourself to view the aura with the naked eye (or at least using the faculty of vision to interpret the sensing of the aura), there exist technological methods that claim to be able to show you your aura or the aura of others.

You may be familiar with aura photographs that are sometimes sold at psychic fairs.  My understanding is that these machines actually determine your skin's electrical conductivity through the apparatus you place your hand(s) on, and then this data is converted into colors which are them superimposed on your photograph.  While this may give some information about your energy field, I don't feel that it shows your true aura.  It is instead an interpretation of what your aura may look like based on a physical property that may or may not have anything to do with your etheric energy field.

The second, and perhaps the most popular, "aura-viewing" technology is Kirlian photography.  An object (usually living) is placed on an electrically charged plate in complete darkness and then a snapshot is taken.  What shows up on the photograph appears to be similar to the concept of the aura; it is light surrounding the physical form and even extending to complete an incomplete physical form.  However, what is captured in a Kirlian photograph is believed to be the coronal discharge of whatever is being photographed.  While interesting, I don't think that these can be said to be true aura images any more than "aura photographs" can.

The third technological method that I'm aware of (and apparently the oldest) is a Kilner Screen.  I had not heard of this device until a few days ago and I have to say that I'm rather excited about it as it seems to be the simplest and most low-tech of all the devices said to be capable of viewing the aura.  It also seems to be the only one capable of viewing what I consider to be the "true aura," (the etheric energy emanating from the body) rather than some spark brought about by electrical charge or some colored photo made by a computer from skin readings.

What is a Kilner Screen then?  It consists of two pieces of glass with a particular dye encapsulated in the middle.  One looks through this screen in order to train the eye to see the aura.  After training, the screen is no longer necessary.  The only drawbacks of this device seem to be the rarity and hazard of the dyes used in making the screens.

I have been able to see auras (when I want to) for a few years now and I don't find it to be particularly interesting.  Some people do though, so for those that are having trouble acquiring the skill with naked-eye methods there is the option of making or procuring a Kilner Screen (or a similar device that doesn't use the nasty chemicals).  To this end, I provide the links below.

The Wikipedia article on Walter Kilner, the inventor of the screens.
A much more in-depth look at Kilner's methods and the aura itself.  (I agree with most of the observations made about the aura as they largely coincide with my own observations.)

Spoon (and Fork) Bending

Anyone that's interested in psychokinesis is aware of the idea of bending a spoon with your mind.  This has become a stereotype of ESP and PK research/ability.  When I was starting out with psi I tried my hand at bending cutlery using the instructions at forkbend.com, back when it was called fork-you.com.  I'll let you peruse the site and decide whether you want to try it or not.  I just want to leave some pictures of my results; maybe you'll find them motivating.  The three pictures below are of my first successful fork-bending.

The following three pictures are of my first successful spoon-bending.

These two are by far my best attempts.  I've had limited success since but I don't really play with this anymore.  Once I accomplished it a couple of times, I got bored.  In case you want to skip right to the chase, here is the beginning of the how-to at forkbend.com.  Note that I did not do any of this in a group setting.  While it may be easier (as the site suggests), it is not necessary to be in a group the first time.  Good luck!

How To Make a Psi-Ball

A psi-ball is a concentrated ball of your own psychic energy/life force/qi/ki/prana.  It is widely considered as the basic starting point for the practice of psionics.  I'm going to give you a procedure for making a psi ball of your own and you can be the judge of whether there's anything to the idea.

Sit somewhere comfortable, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths to relax.  Once you are completely relaxed and breathing normally (whatever that may be for you), with your eyes still closed, draw your attention to the top of your head.  Visualize and actually feel a large ball of glowing white energy above you.  This energy is infinite.  See (and feel) a beam of energy coming from this larger sphere and entering the top of your head.  As you breathe in draw the energy into yourself.  As you breathe out, feel the energy flowing down your arms to your hands.

Place your hands close together, like you are holding a small ball (five or six inches across) in your hands.  Breathe in the energy and feel it entering you; breathe out and feel it flowing down your arms to your palms.  As you force the energy down your arms and to your hands, force it out of your palms and form a ball with it.  Visualize the ball and feel it forming.  Inhale energy and then exhale it into the ball, making it more concentrated.  Keep pouring energy into the ball in this way; actually feel the energy as you do this.  After a short while you'll feel a very real presence in your palms.  Some people feel this as a tingle, some as a heat sensation, and for some it's like a magnetic repulsion.

I've found that tactile imaging (feeling the energy, not just seeing it in your mind) is more effective for me than simple visualization, but do what works best for you:  visualization, tactile imaging, or both.  It can take some time to get the hang of doing all of these things at once, but practice will make it easier.

And that's how you form a basic psi-ball.  When you get good at this there are lots of ways to expand the practice, such as adding colors or using different shapes.  Even programming the energy to act as a thoughtform is possible once you're proficient.

The Plethora of Kinetic Abilities

If you hang around in psionics-oriented forums and communities for very long you will eventually see such fancy terms as "pyrokinesis" or "electrokinesis" or even "geokinesis."  I can understand the desire to want to differentiate between things that you may be affecting with terms specific to the substance.  However, I think that there comes a certain point when it becomes cumbersome and unnecessary.  All of this is why I prefer the umbrella term of psychokinesis.

Thinking about it logically for a second, all of these abilities consist of you using your mind to control or move something.  This would qualify them all as psychokinesis.  I just don't see the reasoning behind giving a fancy name to every particular way you could possibly use psychokinesis.  In my opinion, if you can move one thing with psychokinesis you should have the same ability to move another substance unless there's some kind of psychological block in place.

Words like "pyrokinesis" are convenient for telling people that you're working on  manipulating fire through psychokinesis.  Terms like "atmokinesis" or "aerokinesis" seem to overlap, as I imagine there would be a lot of air manipulation going on if you were manipulating the atmosphere.  Because of this, I just think that sometimes it's superfluous to use these terms.  I have nothing against people that use these terms, but they probably shouldn't be surprised when others have to ask "What is that?" and the practitioner has to explain it anyway, perhaps defeating the purpose of the specialized term.

In summary, I don't really care much for it.  I prefer to just use the umbrella term of psychokinesis.  I recognize that these designations must be useful to someone though, so to each their own.  I sometimes substitute "telekinesis" for "psychokinesis" when around people that don't know what psychokinesis means.

Is there a concerted effort to suppress evidence of the paranormal?

In my studies of the paranormal I have noticed what seems to be an effort by some to obscure, hide, or debunk the most convincing evidence.  I'm not talking about Men in Black silencing people that have UFO encounters; I'm talking about supposed "skeptics" making attempts to debunk evidence for things that they are ideologically opposed to, whether it be UFOs or ESP.

One example might be the controversies surrounding the Mars Effect.  Another example might be the extensive debate surrounding the results of the ganzfeld and auto-ganzfeld ESP experiments.  Perhaps the best examples of this kind of bias against evidence for the paranormal would be "rational skeptics" and the endless attempt to debunk anything and everything that may lend validity to the field of the paranormal.  The James Randi Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge is a component of this effort (but not the extent of it) and it should be noted that not just anyone can participate in the Challenge.

Of the rules listed in the application for the Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge I find number twelve to be particularly suspicious.  The "media presence" aspect is what I find suspicious and Randi has a history of going after prominent paranormal performers.  Going after public figures and exposing their fraud is commendable, but not when that is taken as some kind of strike against the paranormal as a whole.  I think that Randi wishes to draw out challengers and then publicly humiliate them in an effort to support his anti-paranormal agenda.

But is there a concerted effort to suppress evidence of the paranormal?  I don't think that it's a "concerted" effort.  I don't think there's a huge conspiracy to keep people from knowing the truth.  I think that the reason why most people aren't aware of the significant evidence for the paranormal is because most people don't like to read academic papers and to a lot of people the paranormal is seen as taboo.  When it comes to academics, it seems that any suggestion that there may be truth to paranormal claims is met with harsh criticism.  When no evidence of fraud or methodological error is found, those that cannot accept that precognition may be a reality, or find the idea of psychokinesis to be absurd, will often resort to simply ignoring it or attempting to discredit the researcher(s).  Worse still is the halfhearted attempt at replication that doesn't use the original protocol but claims negative results that bear on the validity of the original experiment.

My opinion is that these people are just trying to preserve their worldview.  It's really no different than creationists doing everything they can to cling to their belief.  If one has a totally materialistic and secular view of reality then something like ESP can really shake things up.  They really can't be blamed in this sense as everyone participates in this kind of behavior whether we admit it or not.  Does this mean that I like this kind of pseudo-skepticism?  Not at all.  I do, however, accept that the reasons for it don't seem to be any more sinister than simple fear of what we don't understand.

Can psychic abilities be learned?

Psychic abilities are typically thought of as gifts that are bestowed on a person, usually at birth.  This is what makes them special and able to use ESP and other similar abilities, at least in the popular view.  What if it's not just about being born with it, but what if psychic abilities can be learned?

My personal opinion on the matter is that everyone has the potential to be psychic; most people just don't tap that potential.  I think that some people are probably more predisposed to psychic functioning than others just as some people are born predisposed to being better at math or sports or art.  Does this mean that only those born with the predisposition can have psychic abilities?  No more than it means those with the predisposition for math or sports or art are the only ones that can learn those things.

This just means that some people will have to work harder to attain the same level of skill.  This also assumes that they even want that skill in the first place.  If you don't have the desire to have the skill or to be good at it then there's really no getting it unless you've been gifted with it from the start.  Even then, with a predisposition, if you choose not to use that ability then it will atrophy and you may as well not have it at all.

Then we have different areas of psychic ability.  Most people are probably better suited to some areas more than others, just like with anything in life.  Someone may be really good with the perceptive aspects but have no skill at all with more active abilities like psychokinesis.  Some people may be better suited to experiencing things visually while others may be better suited to sensing through feeling or intuition.  Again, predispositions come into play with this.  This is the view that Pete A. Sanders, Jr. takes in his book You Are Psychic!  I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to tap into their own psychic abilities.

I think we also have to take into consideration our society and the overall worldview towards things like psychic abilities.  Children are said to have more psychic experiences than adults.  The reasoning behind this is that children are still experiencing the world in a fresh way.  They haven't had a particular paradigm imposed on them yet so they are more open to whatever may come.  As they grow up they are told that things like magic and auras are not real, but just pretend.  As they start to believe this then it becomes true to them and they ignore and close off abilities that were natural and effortless to them.  That's the popular reasoning anyway.

My advice for (re)awakening your own psychic abilities is to listen to your intuition and take note of how it feels when something is right.  Practice the more active abilities.  Work out your psychic muscles so they'll grow.  Like any skill worth learning, it's going to take some practice to get the hang of it.  You can use the Quick ESP Test gadget at the bottom of the page to see how your skills are coming along.

Parapsychology going mainstream?

Can science prove we're psychic?

I haven't found time to read the paper that this article is about, but I hope to soon enough.  Judging from the article though, I'd say that this is going to encounter the same stumbling blocks that most parapsychology studies finding positive results encounter.

It seems that already people are trying to shrug the study off because it doesn't provide a working theory.  I'm not a science historian, but it seems to me that most often we discover the phenomenon first and then work out the theory afterward.  Expecting a theory before an objective phenomenon is taken seriously seems like a very backwards way of doing things to me.

Then we have the problem of replicability.  Not everyone agrees on what counts as replicability in the first place, but for now let's focus on the people that have attempted a replication and got negative results.  Going solely by the article, it doesn't seem that they really attempted a replication as they didn't follow the exact procedure of the original experiment.  How can this be called a failure to replicate when they weren't even copying the original experiment?

Lastly, I suspect that as soon as conventional explanations for the positive results run dry then the cries of fraud will go up.  Never mind that an accusation of fraud requires evidence to prove it; it was surely a trick all along!  Some people just don't want ESP or psychic abilities to be demonstrated as a reality.  It would topple their worldview.

I have a hard time understanding the ferocious opposition to the idea of ESP and psychic abilities in the age of quantum strangeness.  There are plenty of things that we can't explain; why ignore ESP when there is evidence that it is a real phenomenon?  This is by no means the first study to show results in favor of ESP, though it could turn out to be one of the best known.  It could even be the study that makes people stand up and take notice, if it's replicated.  Call me a pessimist, but I don't think it will be that simple or easy to get this taken seriously.

Scientific Evidence for ESP

Not many people know that subjects like ESP and PK are accumulating scientific evidence in favor of their existence.  The best evidence of psychokinesis is manipulation of random event generators (such as occurred at Princeton's now defunct PEAR lab).  The best evidence for ESP seems to be in the ganzfeld and auto-ganfeld experiments, but there have been many more experimental setups for ESP.

It seems that no matter what the psychic ability being tested is, the effect size is usually very small.  Yet, the effect size appears to remain consistent across studies.  Meta-analysis has been put to great use in parapsychology because of the ability to compare and examine data from multiple studies.  It also allows for small effects to become apparent by putting all of the data into one study.

I could go on and on about parapsychology and the evidence of psychic abilities but I mainly wanted to write this post in order to share with you one of the best papers on the subject I've read.  It's by Jessica Utts who is a professor of statistics at UC Davis.  It's kind of long and gets a little technical, but if you're as interested in the evidence as I am then you may find it worth your time.

Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology

Psychics and World Governments

It should come as no surprise to students of the paranormal that the governments of the world have an interest in utilizing psychic powers for their own ends.  This first seemed to take precedence during the Cold War.  While there was a space race and a nuclear arms race going on between the United States and the Soviet Union, there was also a kind of psychic arms race.  The story goes that a French hoax about the US using telepathy to communicate with submarines sparked the Soviets to delve into parapsychology in order to keep up.  The rise of Soviet psi research meant that the US had to do the same thing in order to keep up with Soviet advances.

There was an increase of interest in researching parapsychology by both countries going as far back as (at least) the 1970s.  The Soviets seemed to be just as advanced as the Americans when it came to the psi war, if not more so.  The telekinetic Nina Kulagina comes to mind when I think of Soviet psi research.  When I think of American psi research I think of Ingo Swann and the work done at Stanford Research Institute.  The work done at SRI led to the creation of a group of psychic spies that worked for the US military and intelligence services.

The story of how the US military developed remote viewing as an espionage tool is one that has been told over and over so I won't recount it here.  An Internet search of "remote viewing" or related terms is sure to yield a wealth of information and there are a lot of books on the market that detail the story.  For our purposes I am more interested in what the present state of psi is in connection with world governments.  This piece from the American Chronicle suggests that after the CIA remote viewing program was canceled in 1995 there was another post-9/11 NSA psychic program.  This leads one to wonder what else the government might be doing in the realm of the paranormal since publicly outing and discrediting the remote viewing program just 15 years ago.

For years I've heard rumors of the government using psychics for everything from security to assassinations as well as rumors of gifted individuals being picked up by the government and never heard from again.  To this day I still consider all of this to be rumor as I have never seen any corroborating evidence.  However, I can't help but to think that there could be something to it.  If there are individuals that are particularly gifted then I can see why the government might want to "recruit" them.  I can see how it would be useful to use psychic operatives to accomplish missions or acquire information because there is always the element of deniability.  Most people don't believe that these things are even possible and simply scoff at the notion.  What better weapon could there be than one that no one believes even exists?

If the reports out of China of individuals that can teleport objects with their minds are true (as mentioned in my previous blog post) and the US continues to use remote viewers then one can only imagine what abilities might have been developed after decades of research.  Until there is more disclosure it seems that all we can do is imagine.  What are our minds really capable of?  Should we be concerned about literal thought police?  Where can I sign up for the Psi Corps?

If you would like to read more about the remote viewing program of the United States Military then please see this paper by Commander L. R. Bremseth.  It really is a fascinating read and a good primer for someone new to the subject.  I hope that it tides you over until next time.  Take care until then.