I finally have the time to continue my report of the 2013 SPR Conference in Swansea. The second paper offered a fascinating account of a sad chapter in the history of parapsychology, Dr. Soal’s falsification of data that rendered all his findings suspect. In their paper, “Dr. Soal: A Psychic Enigma,” Donald West and Betty Markwick studied Soal’s later research findings which had not been considered in earlier studies documenting fraud. Unfortunately, they found clear evidence of fraud in Soal’s later studies in the form of answers being altered in order to raise ESP scores. They suggest that perhaps Dr. Soal believed in psi so much that he felt he had to offer conclusive data to convince other scientists to accept psi. Unfortunately, Soal’s fraud increased skepticism of psi among scientists, even though it was parapsychologists themselves who discovered and publicized the fraud. Who know what motivated Dr. Soal—what we do know is that the damage he did to parapsychology has not fully been repaired.
My own paper, “The Principle of Credulity and Testimonial Evidence for Psi,” appeals to Thomas Reid’s notion that one should trust another person’s purported testimony unless there is good reason to think otherwise. I discuss the use of the Principle of Credulity in philosopher Richard Swinburne’s discussion of the evidence for miracles. Swinburne defends the general trustworthiness of people’s claims that they have experienced a miracle, arguing against David Hume’s thesis that natural explanations for purported miracles are always stronger than supernatural ones. I defend the Principle of Credulity from attacks by analytic philosophers such as Quine and from the postmodern critique of philosophers such as Derrida and Foucault. I argue that in general people’s claims of having experienced psi should be trusted unless there are very strong reasons to think otherwise.
David Vernon’s paper, “Exploring the Possibility of Precognitive Priming,” taking off, of course, from the work of Daryl Bem and his colleagues. After I heard the paper, the evidence for precognitive priming does not seem to be consistent across researchers, and it seems to me that the experimenter effect may be playing a role in the different results arising from similar studies.
The always entertaining and colorful character Sean O’Donnell presented a paper entitled “Awkward Questions Revisited: Ameliorations Proposed.” He strongly defends the notion that psi is a learned skill and that a person can improve over time by extensive practice. This is a claim also made by many of those involved in remote viewing studies. It seems reasonable that people may differ in how much they might accomplish through practice, just as not everyone can play the violin with equal skill. If practice is essential for improving psi, then for me this raises the question whether psi can be understood on a craft-like model in which practice makes the ability to access psi “second nature” in the Aristotelian sense.
David Wilson’s paper, “The Spiritualist Development Circle as Laboratory: Some Reflections on Methodology Arising from Apprentice-Participation” was fascinating in that Professor Wilson is both an academic parapsychologist and a practicing medium. His account of the Spiritualist Development Circle illustrates that mediums take their craft seriously and work hard to improve their abilities. He also noted the differences between various Spiritualist groups, with some being more traditionally religious (“Christian”) than others.
Rachel Browning presented a paper on “The Relationship Between Physical Phenomena and Electronic Voice Phenomena Reported in Séances with a Physical Circle from 2008 to 2013.” Electronic voice phenomena fascinate me, especially since when I go on investigations I pick up more voices than anyone else in the group—40 vs. 0 or 1. Why that is the case is mysterious—is it my own psychokinesis or am I a medium of some kind. Unfortunately, much EVP evidence is not that strong, with voices saying short phrases, the identity of which very few people agree. I was not impressed with the quality of voices played, though it would not surprise me that EVP would be detected in an attempt to elicit physical phenomena.
Ross Friday’s paper, “I Hear Dead People: Individual Differences in the Perception of Anomalous Voices in Ambiguous Electronic Audio Recordings” focuses on the problem of interpreting what a voice in a particular EVP says. Some sounds that are not voices at all are interpreted as voices. Even when a voice is present, it is rare that, without “priming” from the person who heard the EVP and thinks he knows that it says, that any two people agree on the content of the EVP. The examples from the presentation confirmed the difficulty.
Ann Winsper presented another paper on EVP, “The Psychology of Alleged Electronic Voice Phenomena.” She believes that EVP evidence thus far is weak, and those involved in EVP research must consider ways out of the difficulty of interpreting EVP, especially given the human tendency to hear voices even when all that is present is noise.
Responding to a lack of studies on near-death experiences in Japan, Mika Iwasaki and Tatsu Hirukawa presented a paper, “Near-Death Experiences and their After-effects: 18 Cases from Japan.” They note that the elements of various NDE scales such as Ring’s are present in Japanese NDEs. Their experiences lack the Christian imagery of NDEs in countries where Christianity is the dominant influence, but this is no surprise given the Shinto-Buddhist nature of contemporary Japanese religion. NDEs are interpreted through cultural filters; however, some elements remain stable—the feeling of peace, a bright light, in some cases dead relatives (or the god of the dead). Iwasaki and Hirukawa’s study fills a major gap in NDE research in Asia.
Although Peter Fenwick spoke last due to his busy schedule as a physician, I will discuss his talk now in the order of the original program. His talk was, “Do End of Life Experiences and Cardiac Arrest OBEs Contribute to Our Understanding of Survival?” Those who know Dr. Fenwick’s work will not be surprised that he does believe that such experiences best support a survival explanation. As a philosopher I wish to make two points: (1) clinical death is not death—it is a “near-death” state, and when Dr. Fenwick as well as Dr. Parnia refer to cardiac arrest as actual death they are being philosophically sloppy. Death is a state from which one does not return absent a miracle of God. Now near-death experiences may not be explainable in terms of brain processes, which would mean a paranormal experience is taking place, and it is also possible that the experience can support a minimally survalist life after death. Super-psi is another issue NDE researchers ought to consider—could the events, or at least some of the events, in an NDE be explained by the experiencer’s super-psi or someone elses.
I wanted to sightsee in Swansea, so unfortunately I missed three presentations on precognition; below are their titles and authors:
Suschat Meshram, “Precognitive Dreams – A REM Sleep Fourth Dimensional Consciousness”
Fernando de Pablos, “The Arrows of Time, Precognitive Dreams and the Human Brain”
Fergus Hines, “A New Approach to Precognition.”
Professor de Pablos kindly gave me a copy of his book, and if he is reading, yes, I still plan to review it! When I first began to study parapsychology, I was surprised by the strong evidence for precognition. There are possible implications for the nature of time and for our experience of time, some radical. What if time itself is fluid? What does that do to the stability of our lives?
I caught the tail end of Carolyn Watt’s paper, “Dream Precognition in the Sleep Laboratory.” It would be no surprise if such precognition is found because of the results of the Maimonides study. Dreaming is probably the state in which most people claim to have precognitive experiences—when the sensory stimuli are mitigated and other powers of the mind can come through.
Neil Spring’s paper, “The Ghost Hunters. What might have happened at Borley and Price’s Laboratory” offers a fascinating account of the equipment Borley and Price had and the methods they used to “hunt ghosts.” Harry Price, not to be confused with the philosopher H. H. Price, was one of the first people to market himself as a ghost hunter—and he did an excellent job of self-promotion. While questions arose concerning his claims he made, he remains the intellectual father of the “ghost hunting groups” that are so popular today.
Tony Percy’s paper, “The Selection and Use of Instrumentation in the Investigation of the Paranormal,” is an approach by a ghost hunter on which equipment to use in an investigation. He brought several items—cameras, video cameras, etc., and focused on those he found most useful in his studies.
Steven Parson’s paper, “It’s not Rocket Science!” offered what Parson describes in his reply below as “a personal observation and was aimed squarely at the frequent failures by Psychologists and Parapsychology when it comes to making to objective measurements of physical variables such as Temperature, Electromagnetism or Infrasound and a call for an adherence to the existing measurement standards such as those by the ISO etc. To illustrate this my presentation used the Radin & Rebman Psychomanteum and the French Haunt Project as examples.” I suggest that those who read this post also read Steve Parson’s full response below, including a conference abstract and a reply to comments I had earlier on this post regarding the Parascience website. As anyone working online knows, it is easy, without the nuances of speech, to always communicate what we really mean in an online format, and I appreciate Parson’s efforts to correct any errors I have made and any misunderstandings anyone might have of his work.
A phenomenological approach to paranormal experiences is valuable in bringing out what people subjectively perceive when they experience a paranormal event. Aaron Lomas presents such an account in “Phenomenological Aspects of the Apparitional Experience: A Current Study of How Individuals Have Experienced Such Anomalies.” Those familiar with the literature on apparitions would know that most, though not all, apparitions appear to be ordinary people, though in some cases they appear to be transparent. Lomas’ account showed the unity and diversity of apparitional experiences.
SPR members know that David Luke will present a paper with an interesting title, and 2013 was no exception. His paper, “The Men (and Woman) Who Stare at (Sheep and) Goats: Beliefs, Expectations, Experiences, Neurology and Gender in Haunt Site Vigils” reveals the role that expectations play in a person’s experience of an alleged haunt site. It is a well-know phenomena in psychology that expectations play a role in human experiences. Beliefs help focus the ways that human beings interpret experiences of all kinds, not just paranormal experiences. That such factors play a role in a person’s experience of a haunting site is no more or no less than the way human beings access experience in general.
Cal Cooper’s paper, “Helpful or Harmful? Anomalous Experiences in Bereavement,” affirms that in most afterdeath experiences by the bereaved, the effect is positive, though there are rare cases in which the effect is negative. If there was a bitter relationship between the deceased and a particular relative, if the deceased were to communicate, the result might not be a friendly greeting. However, most people find such experiences positive, and they aid in the grieving process.
Overall, this was one of the best SPR conferences I have attended and hope I can say the same about the upcoming September 2014 conference.
Gratiaetnatura's Blog 
Dec 10, 2013 @ 04:53:28
The one area of the above which interests me and for which I believe I have a good explanation is precognition. Generally we conceive of the universe as vasts and the interior, subjective world as rather small by comparison. I believe this is simply a cultural habit. If instead the interior world is far vaster then we might imagine that external events have their origins in very subtle interior realms and take a certain amount of time to mature and take physical form. Thus in a dream one might access this subtle realm and see the inner idea of the event some time before it occurs. This has a certain parallel in our own lives where we make a plan and after taking care of details finally execute it. Between the image of our plan and the execution days, weeks, months even years may go by. This would of course suggest an intelligence working on a cosmic scale. But I see nothing wrong with that. It simply does not suit this age with its fixation on matter or the material.
I think there are two ideas missing in contemporary discourse that make life seem unintelligible. One of them is the notion of the soul as independent of the body and not co-terminus with it, There is considerable proof for a soul but only for those who are interested and looking. The other idea is reincarnation. Without this idea life seems unfair. If we consider that souls pass through a number of lifetimes then we can understand the vast differences in intelligence, sensitivity and moral behavior. I see no reason why Christianity is in anyway diminished by this. Whatever the thinking that led to its partial condemnation is not clear. But it certainly invites a great deal of fear in people to imagine this life as a one time test that they might fail. I suspect control is the factor sought.
I suppose psi phenomenon is a step for people towards the true spiritual. I don’t myself consider psychic abilities as a sign of spirituality. I can see how this capacity could be used for good but also for its opposite. I also think that trying to test this more subtle capacity could run into problems. It seems like something that happens naturally unless one tries to make it happen. Like knowing who it is that is calling on the phone. It often occurs unless one is trying to prove to someone else . . . and then it is an advertisement call or the like. It may be like trying to get a cat to perform. In any case the materially bound will not accept it unless they can find a way to make it a brain dependent phenomenon. No amount of proof will be enough. It is their fate to be extremely focused on the physical.
One final thought. The Buddhists have a very diffuse idea of the after life. It is not even clear if they accept the idea of a soul . . . they sort of go along with reincarnation. For example some Chan Buddhists think it meaningless to pray for the dead.
Dec 10, 2013 @ 09:44:55
I have just finished reading your review of the 2013 SPR conference held in Swansea and I think it is important that comment upon your review of my particular presentation in order to correct some of the points you made.
My Presentation “It’s Not Rocket Science” was not a perspective view by Para.Science on paranormal investigation. It was a personal observation and was aimed squarely at the frequent failures by Psychologists and Parapsychology when it comes to making to objective measurements of physical variables such as Temperature, Electromagnetism or Infrasound and a call for an adherence to the existing measurement standards such as those by the ISO etc. To illustrate this my presentation used the Radin & Rebman Psychomanteum and the French Haunt Project as examples.
As yet the SPR haven’t placed the conference abstracts online I trust you won’t mind me placing the original abstract here:
“It’s Not Rocket Science!”
Steven T. Parsons
It is often necessary for Parapsychology and associated areas of study including Anomalous Psychology to evaluate and test hypotheses that relate to areas of human experience involving disciplines other than psychology, such as when testing for possible interactions with the physical environment. It is therefore important to recognise that those involved in devising experiments and evaluating the results as well as those involved in the peer review process prior to the research becoming accepted should seek the early involvement and input by those from other areas of expertise in order to ensure wherever possible that the experimental design, implementation and subsequent publication is conducted in the most thorough manner possible. Failure to undertake this ‘multi-disciplinary’ approach has led on a number of occasions to flawed results becoming accepted within the Parapsychology, Anomalistic Psychology and the Psychical Research community.
For example, Radin and Rebman (1996) constructed an instrumented ‘Psychomanteum’ chamber to examine the relationship between a participant’s mental state and changes within the local physical environment. Several physical variables were included in the experiment; Temperature was measured using a computerised thermometer with millidegree sensitivity. The temperature sensor was positioned close to floor level behind the participant’s chair, the output being recorded outside the chamber. The majority of reported significant correlations between the environmental and physiological variables were due to temperature changes within the chamber. The temperature initially rose then began to drop. Radin and Rebman (1996) suggested the initial presence of an experimenter, participant and facilitator, prior to the session’s commencement, would raise the temperature, the subsequent departure of the experimenter and facilitator then causing the temperature to fall. The continued fall in the temperature throughout the session probably relating to the participants general calming. Due to this suggestion, the experimenters excluded all ambient temperature cross-correlations from their subsequent data. The proffered explanation for this exclusion of data not only demonstrates the experimenters misunderstanding of a fundamental principle of thermo-dynamics i.e. that the lowering of the recorded temperature may have simply been due to the floor level placement of the temperature sensor where it may be expected that cooler air collects after being displaced by warmer rising air that has been heated by the participant, but also the exclusion of the temperature data meant that a number of other possibilities went untested, including the possibility that the discarded data might have represented a real correlation between the participants mental state and a change within the physical environment.
The “Haunt” Project (French et al, 2009) was undertaken in an attempt to construct a ‘haunted’ room in order to examine the hypotheses that electromagnetic fields and infrasound may be associated with a tendency within some individuals to report anomalous sensations or experiences. The experimental design necessitated constructing a chamber with the infrasound being generated using a “purpose-built cabinet” positioned outside the chamber in a corner of the main room. Despite a high proportion of the participants reporting anomalous sensations that have previously been linked to infrasound exposure (Leventhall et al, 2003); the researchers reported that they had failed to find any support for a link between the presence of Infrasound and the experiencing of anomalous sensations; suggesting that “The case for infrasound inducing haunt-type experiences now appears to be extremely weak”. However, the experiment did not adequately address a number of key issues relating to the physics and measurement of infrasound; in particular the lack of any properly stated measurement units for the ambient infrasound levels within the chamber and also the failure to recognise the intrusive nature of ambient infrasound from external sources which led the experimenters to assume that at various times during the experiment that there was an absence of infrasound within the test chamber; an assumption that was highly improbable.
These two studies illustrate a failing within both of the experiments to adequately address the physics involved when dealing with or measuring ambient or induced physical variables and also a failure within the second experiment to ensure that any measurements that are made must be correctly documented. If Radin & Rebman had for example, included a Physicist or Environmental scientist within their experimental team it might reasonably be expected that their misperception of the nature of heat transfer would not have gone unnoticed and the temperature correlation data may not have been discarded and it is suggested that The Haunt Project would have benefitted from the inclusion of an Acoustic specialist who could have advised the experimenters on low frequency sound level measurement and the nature of the ambient infrasound intrusion and interaction with their room and chamber. Such errors and omissions within the experimental design and the subsequent failure of the peer review process to pick up these serious flaws has sometimes resulted in a loss of potentially valuable information to parapsychology & associated research and has also led to a misperception within other researchers that such experiments have demonstrated a properly tested conclusion.
In both cases discussed, the early & ongoing involvement of expertise from those having a detailed knowledge of the physics involved or having a familiarity with the physical variables under scrutiny and the knowledge of the correct measuring and monitoring thereof would have prevented these errors from occurring and greatly diminishing the usefulness of the experiments. Likewise, the involvement of that same expertise within the peer review process would have allowed the errors & omissions to be picked-up prior to the publication and subsequent acceptance of the results within parapsychology and related areas of research.
French, Christopher C., Haque, Usman, Bunton-Stasyshyn, Rosie and Davis, Robert. (2009). The “Haunt” project: An attempt to build a “haunted” room by manipulating complex electromagnetic fields and infrasound. Cortex, 45 (5), pp. 619-629. ISSN 00109452
Leventhall, G., Pelmear, P., Benton, S., (2003). A Review of Published Research on Low Frequency Noise and its Effects. London. DEFRA Publications.
Radin, D.I., & Rebman, J.M., (1996). Are Phantasms fact or fantasy? A preliminary investigation of apparitions evoked within the laboratory. JSPR., 61, pp65-87
I was also dismayed to read that your review included the following statement
“I find that group interesting, though their website, unfortunately, reveals them to be anti-religious.”
This was an unusual comment and in my opinion bore little relevance to what was ostensibly a review of the SPR conference. It does however show that our website may be giving a false or misleading impression which we may need to correct and I would be grateful if you could illustrate your point by providing an example of where we are appearing to be ‘anti-religious’ ?
For the record, whilst Para.Science tries to maintain a fairly neutral stance on personal beliefs including religion, both of its founding members (myself and Ann Winsper) have a deep respect for, and interest in religion. This was demonstrated at the 2012 SPR conference when Ann Winsper gave a presentation on the life of Teresa Helena Higginson and our involvement in researching some of the claims that have been made on behalf of her beatification. The presentation I believe reflected our positive perspective of that case. Following on from that and from our shared personal experiences at that time (and ongoing) we have for many years supported and maintained a website http://www.teresahigginson.com
Moreover, many people who know Ann and I are aware of our deep interest in religion and our extensive collections of religious material and writings, although we consider this to be mostly separate from Para.Science which exists solely to investigate claims of spontaneous cases. I feel certain that Ann may wish to add some additional comments here in due course on this matter and will be equally interested to learn where on our website we are giving what is perhaps a misleading impression.
I trust that you won’t mind me making this comments and hopefully correcting some of the factual errors in your review.
Steve Parsons
Dec 10, 2013 @ 15:25:10
Steve, my apologies–I had lost my written notes and had to rely on my not-so-good memory. I will make the appropriate changes in my report.
Dec 10, 2013 @ 18:41:46
Thank you Michael – look forward to catching up with you in 2014 in York I believe 🙂
Dec 10, 2013 @ 18:56:45
York–I sure hope that is the place–the most haunted place in the UK.
Dec 10, 2013 @ 15:37:36
John, I believe that psi is a natural, not a supernatural, capacity. While I believe in supernatural intervention into history (as an orthodox Christian), I would not include such interventions under psi. The bodily resurrection of Christ would be an example of a supernatural intervention. Christ’s miracles may have been a natural process due to Him being perfect man–this suggestion is not original to me, but I do not remember the name of the Roman Catholic writer who suggested that.
Dec 10, 2013 @ 17:31:08
Yes, I believe we are in agreement. However, there is a subtle zone where the psi fades out and a genuine spiritual perceptivity commences, Various saints have this capacity to help those that come to them. “Curé d’Ars” comes to mind. The danger of psi is that persons will confuse this capacities for something spiritual and spend their lives chasing phantoms. That is all. Indian Yogis have thousands of years of examining the psi area. It is wise to view Yoga as a science and not a religion as it is based on observation and experiment and not on belief or dogma. The subtle nerves they speak of and the acupuncture points of Chinese medicine are clearly related to psi as conceived in the West. What about a series of experiments done by a Russian? scientist that found there was a slight but measurable weight loss when a person died? I believe this was immediate and not something that could be accounted for by evaporation. Does something that has a density leave the body at death? Interesting area to research. Since the word death is used rather casually did Jesus actually die or did he merely go into a profound trance/coma? There are numerous Catholic records of saints going into death like states and almost getting buried before they came back. This is also not uncommon in the annals of India spiritual history. In the West brain dead has been commonly used–but even this is not definitive. You have probably read the account by Dr Stevenson where he left his body due to an illness and traveled about and then had trouble finding his way back. He was at the time in the military becoming a doctor–WWII. With the passing of time more and more of this sort of thing will come out. It will be a rough time for the materialists–but then they are a clever lot.
Jan 13, 2014 @ 04:16:42
The OBE and NDE evidence is difficult for materialists to explain. Chris Carter has a good popular level book on NDEs and another on life after death that summarize the evidence nicely.
Dec 10, 2013 @ 18:17:09
The Rhine Research Center received a grant on a study on weighing those who die before and after death, so I suppose that is in process or nearly in process now.
Dec 10, 2013 @ 18:42:35
The one I heard about had the bed and all on scales. The change registered was a few grams. This happened many times. The vanishing weight might not be the soul but something equivalent to the after birth or placenta. A psi phenomenon. I have psi experiences all the time as I assume you do. Mostly they are not spectacular. One summer though each evening the face of someone would enter my mind and the next day I would encounter this person by sheer chance. This went on for quite some time. The older of my daughters for years had dreams that outlined the next day or day after–not all the details just some significant ones. These dreams were fairly frequent. I often “feel” when something is the case–like a book I have ordered through the library has come in. I think most people have these feelings but don’t notice or care to investigate them. I know of a few people in America who have had life changing experiences that began with visits from visible beings who gave them instructions. I have absolutely no reason to doubt their veracity, Like NDE I believe the majority of this select community of people keep these events to themselves for fear of ridicule–a justified concern. When society was still predominantly Christian they had some way to digest these events but now . . . the course of action is psychiatric medication which is a poison and very dangerous according to many reputable doctors now.
Jan 13, 2014 @ 04:19:16
Yes, I have had psi experiences–a premonition that a great uncle was dead, the many EVP voices I capture, many answering questions I ask and quite a few calling my name, experiences of synchronicity, Zener card guessing (I won three competitions at the Rhine Center in a row before I could not relax one night and lost), and others.
2014 ET Seminars include Precognition - Theresa J Morris
Dec 10, 2013 @ 18:26:03
Dec 10, 2013 @ 19:03:59
I have had some experiences that could be psi–I saw a cat that died clearly lying on the bed in his usual spot, and I was able to stroke his belly like I always did. Some may discount that because I was in the hypnogogic state, but I felt comforted for the first time that day. When I was in Tennessee visiting my parents, I was waiting for my aunt outside her church, and I was thinking of my white Spitz, Fuzzy, who was run over when I was around seven years old. It was near the place where he was killed, and a large white Spitz, clean as a whistle (which is rare for that breed), walked across the road from near that place and went to the yard where Fuzzy used to go to meet the female dog there. He went into the yard and around to the back. When I looked at the back yard, I found no trace of a dog–and with chickens in the yard I’m sure a dog would have been interested. Yes, it could have been a real dog, coincidence (or synchronicity), but I don’t know. I get Class A and B electronic voice phenomena that answer my questions–I have no idea what to make of those. And I’ve had feelings I’d see someone who lived far away in the next two weeks that turned out to be true. Plus, I’m pretty good at guessing Zener cards–I won three contests in a row at the Rhine Center before I couldn’t relax one night and lost.
Dec 11, 2013 @ 00:02:03
The idea of subtle matter and subtle energy is essential to understand these phenomena. The body that floats above the operating table is a subtle body version of the gross physical body that can slip out to dream or watch the physical body being operated on after an accident. Beyond this plane of matter we enter the spiritual realm of an even finer substance. I believe C.S. Lewis has a story about this with grass going through the protagonist’s feet. This is also a very Neoplatonic view of things–but much of that entered Christianity, even their very Platonized Aristotle through Aquinas. The spiritual realm one enters in Contemplative Prayer. The Cure d’Ars and other powerful saints and mystics are born with unusual access to these higher and intense energies–hence, their healing abilities.
People who involve themselves in Satanic rites visit the lower subtle realm which is the product of sin and crime. Absorbing in the dark energy causes these people to feel powerful. I suspect this is where demons hang out in hopes of being taken in by naive visitors. Plotinus would argue that the subtle realm is more real than the material or physical realm. And of course the spiritual realm beyond the subtle even more real.
The lower astral as it is called in metaphysical circles is also the place of sex magic. Unfortunately women like Miley Cyrus and Madonna can be used to convert people to this negative way of life. My guess is that the majority of persons who believe themselves to be gay or lesbian are actually simply unable to find suitable partners due to the great social confusion generated by negative centers and an especially pathological ruling elite. Formerly Christianity protected society from most of this. Despite its flaws and faults it keep the society fairly clean and moral. So atheism’s job has been to destroy all the religions. The result will be a period of great darkness and despair. The fact that Hitler knew of and used occult symbolism is one reason he continues to enjoy popularity in the world. The swastika is an ancient and extremely powerful form. According to General Rommel when presented with a very difficult technical problem by the military Hitler would enter a trance and come out with a solution that surprised and pleased the generals, He also had a phenomenal memory capacity. That plus his unusual physical bravery made him an ideal leader! Of course we don’t usually get told these things. It may be that Germany was as successful as it was in the ’30’s and for part of the war because it was uniquely gifted with access to the subtle plane. Just a guess on my part. The fact that the USA now is so connected in many ways to the lower dark astral plane is not at all a good sign. War crimes add to this darkness considerably. And our President is clearly hooked into some very dark and devious subconscious energies. We are at a point where only prayer can save us as a nation. Or perhaps not.
Dec 11, 2013 @ 08:01:43
It’s definitely York – pack your ghost hunting kit 🙂
Dec 11, 2013 @ 21:14:28
The Science of Reincarnation
U.Va. psychiatrist Jim Tucker investigates children’s claims of past lives
by Sean Lyon
http://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnation
I know your reluctance to accept reincarnation is due to your Christian affiliation. However, the evidence just becomes more and more compelling. Just how vital a part of Christianity is the denial of reincarnation; and why did it take a questionable Church Council to condemn it after so many years? I am sure you encounter many people that consider psi phenomenon fantastic and deserving of ridicule; but really reincarnation belong to the same set of unorthodox beliefs. I see nothing in the New Testament that would necessarily rule out reincarnation–and of course, the New Testament itself is the work of human minds, some of whom clearly had motives for including this and excluding that. Appealing to authority is always first and foremost appealing to one’s own judgement and authority.
Dec 15, 2013 @ 00:28:20
I think most Christians would agree that the soul is the more essentially them than the body. At least at death we know the body drops away and in most cases disintegrates and vanishes, The soul at least in Catholic dogma then goes either to heaven, purgatory or hell. At a minimum the soul has feeling so that it can experience the bliss of heaven or the pains of hell–or the healing pain of transformation in purgatory. It must also retain a sense of identity, I see no reason not to assume other supernatural capacities like sight, hearing, touch, smell and so on. This equipment then must have a basis like that of the physical body in some kind of nervous system and so on. Unless we want to imagine a vast gulf between the physical and the soul world, we might consider that the soul does have substance such that it might possibly register on highly sensitive scientific equipment. A few hundred years ago electricity was something strange and not conceived of as something that could travel for hundreds of miles down copper wires. And while it could be felt it could not be seen. Can we conceive of a devise that would not only register the soul but identity it? Perhaps it has identifying characteristic just like the physical body. I believe psi research is proceeding somewhat like this,
If someone could track a soul from one body to another later on then we would have something new to contemplate indeed.
One very fine thing about Chinese society going back many centuries was the fact that the most humble family could prepare their son to take a test which if he passed would potentially allow him to rise to the highest level of that society. To my knowledge the West never had anything like this. But if he failed, that was it. No second chance. This is much like Christianity. The one lifetime policy. In those places where reincarnation is believed, to use an analogy, our student could try over and over again, indeed he had to, until he passed the test. Perhaps with some waiting time in between. I see a problem with the one chance arrangement. I think it makes for self centered people preoccupied with their salvation and often filled with fear of death. And even when as now Christianity has waned, the society carries on this fear and selfishness to quite an extreme. I personally suspect the one chance idea was originally a pious fraud designed to scare people into behaving well. Well, Joseph, either you shape up or you go to eternal damnation. As opposed to, well Rama either you take your life seriously and go straight, or you will be coming back here again and again! Naturally the one chance scheme seems harsh and cruel compared to the discipline and demand of eventually passing after so much effort. The one time opportunity though seems in harmony with the God of the Old Testament. Given all the violence in and produced by the West one might speculate that it is a fear bound civilization. Performing like a threatened beast.
Dec 31, 2013 @ 23:46:01
Since the soul is the form of the body, there is no radical separation between the two–in any case, I like Neoplatonism’s not sharply distinguishing spirit and matter. Too many people forget that the Neoplatonists condemned Gnosticism every bit as harshly as Irenaeus and other Christian critics.
Jan 01, 2014 @ 02:10:44
Aristotle! I have always found Aristotle’s presentation of the soul unsatisfactory. For one thing it is not very clear. Does he mean the patterns of the body? It’s physical outline? I must admit that it sounds rather sophisticated at first. But it goes against almost all ideas regarding the soul here and there through history and around the world. It would be intelligible if he meant that the soul forms the body and governs its operations. That alone would amount to a marvelous and complex job. Otherwise, I think he is simply wrong.
How then to account for the verified statements of persons who watched their bodies being operated on from above? Or the brain dead or brains of those during operations when there is no brain activity that heard things and saw things even though their eyes were blindfolded and their ears plugged?
Of course, I see how this idea might appeal to a Christian. Why must we resurrect a physical body when it is easy to imagine finer substances that would make a better body? I don’t think one has to be a gnostic to see that the physical realm has its limitations. Why in some remote future have a physical body that will last “forever”? Makes no sense to me. I wonder if there is the hint of a heresy here where the Christian prefers this resurrected body more than union with God? The body physical as an idol?
Jan 01, 2014 @ 04:53:50
After note: if the soul is the form of the body as you say, then at death the soul would remain with a corpse and slowly lose its content until in some cases the content would dissipate completely. And be formless. Haven’t you simply reified an abstraction? After all form and content are inseparable. Even the outline of a sphere has some content in order for it to be visible. We pretend the line has no width. And the same with content which also has some shape even when we say amorphous. Content and form are inseparable and really meaningless one without the other. We have things. Content is a very abstract notion itself. I am not sure what caused Aristotle to wander into this contradictory area–but evidently it got inside of Aquinas and became a part of Thomism. This seems to me a perfect example of words and concepts bedazzling thinkers into some absurd conclusions. This seems a little like Platonism or better yet Plotinus gone off track. Aristotle is not the philosopher that Plato was. He had not the gift.
No wonder in my Catholic days of long ago I could not get a grasp on my soul. The Thomist philosophy had reduced the soul to an abstraction. And this notion somehow pervaded the whole Church at that time. I often think that theologians and philosophers went to a lot of trouble to make sense out of things that had been gotten wrong due to the fact that Jesus authored no book. We have hearsay and memory. Sketchy stuff. Add a few touches of Greek and a dash of the Hebrews and we get a painful confusion to sort out. A religion that does not exactly make sense and which lack of sense is then seen as revelatory and mystical when it definitely is not.
Jan 01, 2014 @ 20:21:51
Having refreshed my memory of Aristotle a bit, it looks like he and Henri Bergson have something in common, i.e. the elan vital = soul. In any case let’s imagine Jesus born near Athens Greece at the same time. He might well have grown up and become a philosopher teacher at the Academy. I suppose we can then imagine him preferring the philosophy of Aristotle over Plato. But this is not easy. Aristotle definitely has a strong tendency towards materialism. Also there are problems with the Greek words we translate as reason and intellect. I am not sure what to make of the Intellect existing apart from a body. Are you? In any case Jesus in Palestine is hardly likely to ever say to the apostles, well, you know the soul is the form of the body. This is a very intellectual idea. A Greek idea which causes me to think of Pythagoras. Numbers after all are very abstract and can be considered as existing without a material manifestation. Aristotle’s soul could certainly not be dipped in the River Lethe. My hunch is that not all good and educated Christians would go along with your idea of the soul. Aristotle must have been a very left brain type . . . Another thing early Christianity was perhaps shaped as much by the heretical schools as by the orthodox. This fear of the Gnostics which you indicate could easily lead to an over valuation of the physical–which I believe has happened. I notice you have not addressed the confusion between the soul leaving the body at death and going to either the Inferno, Purgatory or Heaven; and then after the Resurrection of the Body evidently being called back to the New Earth. Would you say that the damned will be here too or only the saved? This seems to be a really tangled idea which I strongly believe was pasted on by someone who wanted to stay on earth. What heresy might that be? One of the problems I find with Christianity is that there are inconsistencies and contradictions which theologians and philosophers have tried to resolve only to create new contradictions and inconsistencies. Too many cooks I believe.
Jan 01, 2014 @ 21:25:23
This is a very stimulating area. You seem to be Lutheran in that you would probably take the position that the soul is mortal and only returns at the resurrection of the body. Though I suppose you might take the Aristotelian position that in the meantime the immaterial (?) intellect would persist. But that intellect would without senses and feeling have neither pleasure nor pain nor much else–it could go on thinking I suppose. One need not turn to the East to find a more intelligible creed as either Platonism or the Neoplatonism of Plotinus makes better sense to me. Had the Neoplatonists had a church when I was developing I might have attended and become a member. I have to be able to live my ideas. I have to have a real feel for them, Too much of Christianity is dissonant. Wikipedia has some uses and presents a whole range of Christian ideas about the soul and the afterlife. Which if any are true? It simply becomes a matter of background (family) and temperament as none seem better than the others. What did C. S. Lewis think? You would feel more at home with his position as an academic. What about Charles Williams, his friend and sometimes mentor? Or George Mac Donald. Artists are apt to prefer a less mental philosophy than what Aristotle produced. But the man on the street will want his Christianity simple and more devotionally oriented.
Here from Wikipedia is what one academic Christian has to say: Richard Swinburne, a Christian philosopher of religion at Oxford University, wrote that “it is a frequent criticism of substance dualism that dualists cannot say what souls are… Souls are immaterial subjects of mental properties. They have sensations and thoughts, desires and beliefs, and perform intentional actions. Souls are essential parts of human beings…” I wish Mr Swinburne would keep in mind that immaterial subject is incomprehensible. Why the resistance to the idea of subtle matter? Immaterial creatures are going to have a hard time doing all the things Swinburne wants them to do. How much easier to imagine the soul as a real body not so very different from the physical though much more illumined and vibrant and having senses the body does not have, etc. Is that too occult? The so called evil doers would have fragmented souls or incomplete souls. The saints and mystics would have very beautiful souls. Think of Dante’s Divine Comedy and its cast of players. Why just assume it is purely imaginative?
Jan 06, 2014 @ 00:25:15
Rise of the exorcists in Catholic Church
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10550800/Rise-of-the-exorcists-in-Catholic-Church.html
Jan 13, 2014 @ 04:24:09
There are various versions of the Aristotelian version of the soul–some are like Aristotle’s mortal soul (though that’s tricky since at death the soul joins the active intellect, though it loses its individuality) to Aquinas’ more semi-Platonist view of the soul as the form of the body but subsistent and continuing to exist after death. He thinks the soul has a “longing” for the body and is incomplete without one. Of course if the soul is quasi-material, it might do as a body of some kind. Tertullian believed that, though he also believed in a new, more solid body to be reunited to the soul at the resurrection–Stoicism plus Christianity. I believe the soul survives death, and if it is quasi material, could have sensations.
Dec 19, 2013 @ 13:31:24
Jan 06, 2014 @ 01:03:34
Formalization, Mechanization and Automation of
G ̈odel’s Proof of God’s Existence
⋆ http://arxiv.org/pdf/1308.4526v4.pdf
Now you can print this out for your skeptical friends; if they say that can’t understand, then you can tell that nothing is easy and that some effort on their part should eventually do the job. Nice to see this proof as I had read of it, but had never come across it. Godel also found a flaw in the US Constitution but have never found any trace of what that was.