Category: General

I’m going to be attending this lecture given by by George Hansen on Saturday, June 15 at 5pm, titled History of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. This lecture will be immediately followed by another titled: The Decline of Parapsychology, or Whatever Happened to Parapsychology?

George Hansen worked for three years at the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina, and for five at Psychophysical Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. He is also the author of The Trickster and the Parnormal.

Coincidentally, I’ve been meaning to post a link to Carlos Alvarado’s blog post, Distortions of Parapsychological History: I. It will be interesting to see if there is any overlap or disagreement.

And, I’ve also been meaning to post Dean Radin’s excellent collection of links titled, Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications on Psi Research.

The picture below is of scientists from the former Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University, now the Rhine Research Center.

Carlos S. Alvarado, PhD, and visiting scholar at the Rhine Research Center, has a new blog called Parapsychology: News, History, Research. I love the sections he has: Education, Recent Publications, and Voices from the Past. His initial posts are about Larry Dossey and the lack of familiarity with the literature of parapsychology among people in the field (and like fields), B. J. Williams’s book Extrasensory Perception and the Brain Hemispheres: Where Does the Issue Stand Now?, and French physician Gustave Geley and ectoplasm,

And Anomalist Books has a new book out about parapsychology researchers called Men and Women of Parapsychology, Volume 2, edited by Rosemarie Pilkington. From their website: “In this second volume of personal reflections by Men and Women of Parapsychology, Rosemarie Pilkington has asked some brilliant, talented people who have spent most of their lives exploring the mysteries of consciousness why they entered the realm of parapsychology, why they persisted in investigating it even though they might be ridiculed or ostracized by many mainstream scientists, and what advice they have for young people entering the field.”

Mitch Horowitz is going to give a one-hour + walking tour of the occult influences/designs behind Grand Central Station. Mitch wrote “Occult America,” and he’s the vice-president and editor-in-chief at Tarcher/Penguin, a division of Penguin books that is dedicated to metaphysical literature. You have to hurry for this one. As of this writing, there’s only one spot left for this Sunday’s tour and five spots for the one in May.

The second cool thing is an online course offered by the Rhine Research Center titled, An Introduction to Parapsychology, and taught by Dr. Nancy Zingrone, with a guest lecture by a prominent parapsychologist. The course will be held from April 29th to June 17th. From the course description:

“Dr. Nancy Zingrone will present a series of seven (7) online classes to introduce students to the basics of parapsychology; the scientific study of paranormal experiences. This interesting course will use case studies and experiments to explore extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis (mind over matter), near death and out of body experiences, apparitions (including ghosts), and modern research in parapsychology. Students taking this course will gain a deeper understanding of subjective paranormal experiences and the nature of consciousness, and learn that there are a variety of ways to explore these fascinating experiences.”

I planned to post about TED’s removal of the Sheldrake and Hancock videos from YouTube, but Greg Taylor over at The Daily Grail has done such a wonderful job I’m just going to refer everyone over to his posts. The most recent one is here, and his initial post (I believe) is here. If I’m understanding correctly, the videos are back now, but TED has removed them from their distribution channel.

Rupert Sheldrake at TEDx.

Take this with a great big grain of salt, because these were the results I got when I searched on the word “parapsychology.” When you search using “parapsychology books” you get different results, and of course you would get different results if you searched under “paranormal,” or ESP and so on. Still, I was very happy to see my book made the list.

1. Parapsychology by Richard S. Broughton Ph.D. (Sep 1, 1992)

2. I Believe by Patti Roberts (Nov 30, 2011)

3. An Introduction to Parapsychology by Harvey J. Irwin and Caroline A. Watt (Feb 21, 2007)

4. Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology… by Stacy Horn (Mar 9, 2010)

5. The Parapsychology Revolution: A Concise Anthology of Paranormal and Psychical Research by Robert M. Schoch and Logan Yonavjak (Jan 31, 2008)

6. The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean Radin (Jun 30, 2009)

7. Science and Psychic Phenomena: The Fall of the House of Skeptics by Chris Carter and Rupert Sheldrake (Feb 22, 2012)

8. Your Psychic Potential: A Guide to Psychic Development by Richard Ireland and Mark Ireland (Jan 11, 2011)

9. Parapsychology: Research on Exceptional Experiences by Jane Henry (Dec 31, 2004)

10. Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality by Dean Radin (Apr 25, 2006)

Reality Sandwich is a website that I thought would be of interest to people who stop by this blog. From their About section:

“Reality Sandwich is a web magazine for this time of intense transformation. Our subjects run the gamut from sustainability to shamanism, alternate realities to alternative energy, remixing media to re-imagining community, holistic healing techniques to the promise and perils of new technologies. We hope to spark debate and engagement by offering a forum for voices ranging from the ecologically pragmatic to the wildly visionary (which, to our delight, sometimes turn out to be the one and the same). Counteracting the doom-and-gloom of the daily news, Reality Sandwich is a platform for voices conveying a different vision of the transformations we face. Our goal is to inspire psychic evolution and a kind of earth alchemy.”

They have a regular section called Psi in the News, which is written by David Metcalfe, “a Contributing Editor to Reality Sandwich and Books Editor for The Revealer, the online journal of NYU’s Center for Religion and Media.”

In other news: here is a list of courses that are being offered at the Rhine Education Center Winter Session, 2013. Loyd Auerbach is teaching a class titled, Investigating Apparitions, Hauntings, and Poltergeists.

J. B. Rhine, teaching class at Duke University (I believe). This picture makes me think of that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones is teaching an archaeology class.

The very charming drawing below is the work of the late Dr. Elizabeth McMahan—BettyMac to her friends. BettyMac was a scientist and a researcher at the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory from 1943 to 1954 (and she died in 2009).

When I was researching the history of the former Duke Parapsychology Laboratory, BettyMac’s letters were my favorites to read because she always included personal details and I feel like I got to know the lab scientists, many long gone, through her.

I couldn’t find a list of illustrations to explain this drawing, but I believe she made it in 2001, and I’m guessing it was for her nieces and nephews. Thank you for sharing your wonderful drawings BettyMac, and Happy Holidays everyone!