|
|
|
Summer
2007
Editor: Rick E Berger, Ph.D.
Website: The Parapsychological
Association |
|
|
PA Convention 2007: Halifax, Final Details!
NEWS FROM THE FIELD
PA Election results 2007
Researcher Seeks Assistance for Replication
News from the Parapsychology Foundation
News from the Rhine Center
New SPR President Announced
Parapsychology at Gothenburg University
NEW BOOK:
Opening to the Infinite
NEW BOOK:
The Gold Leaf Lady
NEW BOOK:
Parapsychology and the Skeptics
Online Digital Library for Psi
MEETINGS OF INTEREST |
 |
The
PA e*newsletter is a publication of
The Parapsychological Association, Inc.
1390 N. McDowell Blvd.
Suite G-208
Petaluma, CA 94954
Telephone / Fax:
+1 (202) 318-2364
OFFICERS 2006-2007
President:
Rex
G. Stanford, Ph.D
President-Elect:
Roger D. Nelson,
Ph.D.
Treasurer:
Cheryl Alexander, Ph.D.
Secretary:
Richard Broughton, Ph.D.
DIRECTORS
Rick E. Berger, Ph.D.
Etzel Cardeña, Ph.D.
Kathy Dalton, Ph.D.
Deborah Delanoy, Ph.D.
Jessica Utts, Ph.D. |
|
Copyright © 2003 - 2007
The Parapsychological Association, Inc. |
|
 |
|
|
PA Convention 2007, Halifax, Nova Scotia
The 50th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association will be
held from Thursday Aug 2 - Sunday Aug 5, 2007 in
Halifax, Nova
Scotia.
A frequently updated convention information page can be
found on the PA
website.
The FINAL PA PROGRAM AGENDA can be
found here.
GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING DETAILS
The General Business Meeting will be held on Sunday,
Aug 5, 2007 at the end of the formal convention
presentations. Only Full and Associate Members are
permitted to attend and are ENCOURAGED TO PLAN TO
ATTEND!.
LATEST
PASSPORT INFORMATION FOR US CITIZENS
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html
US citizens will be let back
into the US from Canada without a passport, if you can
show you have applied for one and have another
GOVERNMENT-ISSUED photo ID.
You need to check with your airline to see if you will
be allowed into Canada. Air Canada has the same rule as
the above US government announcement:
http://www.aircanada.com/en/news/travel_advisory5.html
"PLANNING FOR THE PA's FUTURE" MEETING
There will be a planning meeting of PA Board
members past and present, after the formal meeting,
with topics ranging from goals to very practical ideas
for changes in how we do things. Etzel Cardeña will
chair the meeting. Please send your suggestions and
proposals for the most important things to do to make
the PA vital and effective over the next few years to
Roger Nelson,
Rdnelson@princeton.edu, or Etzel Cardeña,
etzel.cardena@psychology.lu.se. |
|
 |
|
PA ELECTION RESULTS 2007 |
|
Etzel Cardena has been elected to the office of Vice
President-President Elect of the Parapsychological
Association. Three new members were elected to the PA
Board of Directors: Daryl Bem, Chris Roe, and Caroline
Watt. |
|
|
SENSITIVITY STUDY: RESEARCHER SEEKS ASSISTANCE FOR
REPLICATION
Through the good offices of Dr. Stanley Krippner,
researcher Michael Jawer is seeking research partners
with whom to conduct the next phase of a study examining
possible links between environmental sensitivity (e.g.,
susceptibility to allergies, migraine headache, chronic
pain and fatigue) and psi perception.
In the first phase of the study, a pronounced
association was found between environmental and psi
sensitivity. 62 self-described ‘sensitives’ completed a
55-item survey – as did a control group of 50
individuals who did not describe themselves as
especially sensitive. Another significant association
was found between self-reports of psi perceptions and
recollections of childhood trauma. The survey also
turned up intriguing links with synesthesia and
ambidexterity.
Jawer’s papers on this subject matter have been
published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research and the Elsevier journals Explore and Seminars
in Integrative Medicine. He is also the recipient of the
2005 D. Scott Rogo Award from the Parapsychological
Foundation. An independent researcher, Jawer’s work has
been covered in Spirituality & Health magazine and a
recent essay of his can be found on the website Science
and Consciousness Review. His papers can be accessed at
http://cogprints.org.
For the current project, assistance is sought to
replicate (or, for that matter, contradict) the earlier
survey findings with a broader population sample. The
aim is also to investigate whether ‘sensitive’ survey
participants score high on three potentially related
personality profiles: Hartmann’s Boundary scale (thin
boundary type); Thalbourne’s Transliminality scale (high
transliminality) and Telegen & Atkinson’s Absorption
scale. Anyone who is interested should email
mjawer2001@yahoo.com. |
|
|
NEWS FROM THE PARAPSYCHOLOGY FOUNDATION
By
Nancy L. Zingrone
 Summer
2007 Library Fellow & Visiting Scholar
Well-known Greek physicist and PF International
Affiliate, Dr. Fotini Pallikari, was named the Summer
2007 Eileen J. Garrett Library Fellow. She will be
arriving at the Library on July 18th, to spend a week in
residence. Dr. Pallikari will be working on the papers
of Admiral Angelos Tanagras, a Greek naval hero and
psychical researcher, who left his diary and other
materials to the Garrett Library.
Also in residence in the month of July will be the first
PF Visiting Scholar, Susan MacWiliams, an Irish
filmmaker and artist who is working on a series of art
installations dealing with the history of the field. Ms.
MacWilliams will also be attending the Parapsychological
Association’s upcoming conference in Halifax this
August.
Anyone interested in the Visiting Scholar Program should
contact Lisette Coly, the Executive Director of the
Foundation, directly at
lisettecoly@parapsychology.org.
The Library Fellowship, an all-expenses-paid one-week
residency program in Greenport, New York, will be
offered again either in the late Fall of 2007 or in
2008. Details will be available on the
Foundation’s main
website, later this year. PA
members who are interested in the Fellowship program may
also write me personally (at
zingrone@parapsychology.org)
and I will see that details are sent once they are
known.
PF’s Parapsychological Association Scholarly Incentive
Award
PF International Affiliate in Austria, Prof. Peter
Mulacz was awarded the PF’s PA Scholarly Incentive Award
to help to underwrite his travel costs to this year’s PA
convention. Also in attendance at the PA convention this
year will be last year’s PA Scholarly Incentive Award
winner, Dr. Alexander Moreira de Almeida who was unable
to attend the conference in Sweden last year. If any PA
members are interested in next year’s PA Scholarly
Incentive Award, you are invited to apply to the
Foundation by February 1st, 2008 at the latest.
(Successful candidates usually apply in the Fall of the
year preceding the convention, although on occasion the
Award is still available in the early spring of the
convention year.) For more information on this Award,
see the following
PF web page.
Upcoming Grant/Award Deadlines
By the time this Newsletter is circulated, the 2007
Eileen J. Garrett Scholarship application deadline will
have passed. However, the August 15th, 2007 deadline for
the $5,000 Eileen Coly Grant for Research is fast
approaching. For more information on last year’s
grantees, Thorsen Prof. of Psychology from Lund
University, Dr. Etzel Cardeña and his post-graduate
student, Devin Terhune, and on the application process
for this year, PA members who are interested are invited
to check the following
PF website page..
Also coming up are the deadlines for the Charles T. and
Judith A. Tart Student Incentive Award for
Parapsychological Research of $500 (endowed by long-time
PA member Charles T. Tart) and the Robert R. Coly Prize
essay contest that carries an award of $1000. November
15th, 2007 is the deadline for both the Tart Award and
the Coly Prize. More information on the Tart Award may
be found on the following
PF web page.. More information on the Coly Prize is
available on the following
PF web page..
Both of these awards were developed to aid undergraduate
and post-graduate students. Unlike the Garrett
Scholarship, applicants do not need to be enrolled in
programs that offer coursework or degrees in
parapsychology. A project description is required for
the Tart Award, and an essay dealing with “The Challenge
of Parapsychology” is required for the Coly Prize.
PF Lyceum Blogs
Finally, the PF would like to mention that permanent
memorial blogs that celebrate the lives of Dr. Ian
Stevenson and Dr. (Hon) Rhea A. White have been posted
to the PF’s educational website. In addition to
biographical essays written by PA Member Dr. Carlos S.
Alvarado, the memorial blogs include links to articles
on-line, and bibliographies. The memorial blog for Ian
Stevenson is available on this
PF Lyceum webpage.. The memorial blog for Rhea White
is available on this
PF Lyceum webpage.
|
|
|
NEWS FROM THE RHINE CENTER
 by Sally R. Feather
1. The RRC Board has voted to change the name of the
Rhine Research Center to: The Rhine Center: An
Institute for Consciousness Research and Education
2. The Rhine now has a largely new national Board of
Directors consisting of 15 people headed by President
Larry Burk MD, Vice President Bill Higgins, Secretary
Dagmar Ehling, and Treasurer Steve Baumann PhD. Sally
Rhine Feather PhD serves as the Acting Director of the
Rhine Center..
3. Research includes (1) Steve Baumann PhD and Bill
Joines PhD using a grant
from the Bial Foundation to investigate electromagnetic
emissions associated with psychic and spiritual healing,
(2) Jim Carpenter PhD using a grant from the Bial
Foundation to investigate the effect of pre-sensory
emotional primes on ESP performance, subject mood, and
the Mere Exposure Effect, and (3) Christine Simmonds PhD
and Sally Rhine Feather PhD using a grant from the
Hueston Foundation to conduct a qualitative study of
subjective PK experiences.
4. In March the Rhine Center sponsored its first annual
conference entitled
Consciousness Today: Where Psychics and Scientists Meet
in Myrtle Beach, SC. The program included: panel
discussions on Medicine and Healing, Business Intuition,
Intuitive Diagnosis and Psychic Amplifiers, ten
scientific papers, a talk about Dr. Alex Tanous by his
nephew Mark Tanous, a video presentation about Dr. J.B.
Rhine by his nephew Larry Trevarthen, a keynote address
by Joe McMoneagle, a banquet address by Erlendur
Haraldsson, and a closing address by Joseph Chilton
Pearce, author of A Crack in the Cosmic Egg.
5. A gala “Welcome to the Rhine” party attracted 80+
people in May including a reunion of more than 30
members of the Psychical Research Foundation, formerly
active in the Durham area in the 1970’s. On hand to
address the crowd was the PRF founder and director
Professor Bill Roll.
6. An active Fund-Raising Committee consisting of Joe
Eubanks, Larry Burk, Steve Baumann, Frank Auman, Bill
Hendrickson and Sally Feather is spearheading a drive to
rebuild the Rhine Center with a projected endowment to
allow the Center to become self-sustaining. |
|
|
NEW SPR PRESIDENT
In May, 2007
Professor Deborah Delanoy
was elected to serve as President of the Society for
Psychical Research. |
|
|
PARAPSYCHOLOGY AT GOTHENBURG UNIVERSITY
Effective July 1, 2007, Dr Adrian Parker has been
appointed by Gothenburg University as professor of
psychology with approved research areas in
parapsychology and altered states. The content of his
research became an issue which required special scrutiny
by the faculty committee and took two years to settle
but the positive outcome does mean that this is now
officially approved by Gothenburg University, "the
largest and the most central university in Scandinavia".
Dr Parker sees this appointment as a success that
validates the pioneering efforts of Martin Johnson, Jan
Dalkvist, Joakim Westerlund, Jan Fjellander and Goran
Brusewitz to get parapsychology taken seriously by
Swedish universities. |
|
|
|
NEW BOOK:
|
 Opening To The Infinite
by
Stephan A. Schwartz
An explanation of the relationship of nonlocal awareness
with spiritual practice, creativity, and the modern
mental martial art known as Remote Viewing, and what
this tells us about our nature as human beings. Clear,
concise, explanations about what science has to say
about nonlocal awareness, and how one opens to it using
scientifically validated protocols. The importance of
meditation in opening to nonlocal consciousness, as well
as a technique for Western minds. How to put these
abilities to practical use in fields as diverse as
business, medicine, and crime solving. |
|
|
|
NEW BOOK! |
 The
Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological
Investigations
by
Stephen E. Braude
For over thirty years, Stephen Braude has studied the
paranormal in every-day life, from extrasensory
perception and psychokinesis to mediumship and
materialization. The Gold Leaf Lady and Other
Parapsychological Investigations is a highly
readable and often amusing account of his most memorable
encounters with such phenomena. Here Braude recounts in
fascinating detail five particular cases—some that
challenge our most fundamental scientific beliefs and
others that expose our own credulousness. [order
form] |
|
|
|
NEW BOOK! |
 Parapsychology
and the Skeptics
by
Chris Carter
A critical examination of the arguments of the skeptics.
Starting with the history of the controversy, dating
back to the scientific revolution of the 17th century,
this book reappraises the controversies in
parapsychology in light of 20th and 21st century
scientific and philosophic developments.Highly readable
and immensely entertaining, the book also provides the
reader with some striking anecdotal case studies. Upon
finishing this book, the reader will understand the
startling nature of the ‘holy war’ that has been fought
for three centuries by opponents and proponents of the
paranormal. [Available 31 Aug 2007] |
|
|
ONLINE DIGITAL LIBRARY FOR
OLD MATERIALS RELATED TO
PARAPSYCHOLOGY
by
Carlos S. Alvarado
Those of you interested in the old literature about
psychic phenomena will find much of interest in the
books and articles available in the digital library
Google Book Search (http://books.google.com). The
library contains scanned facsimile files of thousands of
books and journals, some of which are relevant to
parapsychology and can be freely downloaded.
|
There
are several issues of relevant journals in the
collection. This includes a volume of the Zoist (Vol
7, March 1849-January 1850),as well as issues of the
Proceedings and Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research and the American Society for
Psychical Research (JSPR, 1887-1890, 3-4,
1901-1904, 10-11; PSPR, 1884-1890, 2-6, 1894, 10,
1903-1907, 18-19; JASPR, 1908, 2; PASPR,
1907-1909, 1-3, 1911-1913, 5-7, 1918-1919, 12-13). In
addition, there are many issues of the Revue
Philosophique de la France et de l’Étrangere, which
had several papers on psychical research.
Some
works valuable for the historical study of the subject
include William Howitt’s The History of the
Supernatural (1863), and Frank Podmore’s Modern
Spiritualism (1902). Furthermore, the collection has
three of the four volume collection of Louis Figuier’s
Histoire du merveilleux dans les temps moderne
(1860).
The collection has many important classics. Some of them
are Carl Ludwig, Baron Reichenbach’s Physico-Physiological
Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity,
Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemism, and their
Relation to Vital Force (1850), Agénor de Gasparin’
Des tables tournantes (1855), William Denton and
Elizabeth Denton’s Nature’s Secrets or Psychometric
Researches (1863), William Crookes’
Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism (1874),
Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the
University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern
Spiritualism (1887), Theodore Flournoy’s Des
Indes à la Planète Mars (1900), and Frederic W. H.
Myers’ Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily
Death (1903).
Among books surveying psychical research I will mention:
Hereward Carrington’s The Coming Science (1908),
Camille Flammarion’s Mysterious Psychic Forces
(1909), Cesare Lombroso’s After Death—What?
(1909), Joseph Maxwell’s Metapsychical Phenomena
(1905), and Frank Podmore’s Studies in Psychical
Research (1897).
Many
aspects of ESP are discussed by Julian Ochorowicz in his
Mental Suggestion (1891), and by Frank Podmore in
Apparitions and Thought-Transference (1894). Both
books include the work of the SPR and work conducted in
Europe such as Charles Richet. The latter’s classic
paper, “La Suggestion Mentale et le Calcul des
Probabilités,” published in the Revue Philosophique
de la France et de l’Étrangere (1884) is also in the
collection. Many of the early experiments on
thought-transference published in the PSPR are
available. Two examples of research reports with the
same title, “An Account of Some Experiments in
Thought-Transference,” were authored in 1884 by Malcolm
Guthrie and James Birchall, and by Oliver J. Lodge.
The
holdings of this digital library also include materials
about spontaneous experiences. One of them is an
important classic, H. Sidgwick et al.’s “Report on the
Census of Hallucinations,” published in the PSPR
(1894). An influential study, particularly in France,
was Camille Flammarion’s L’inconnu: The Unknown
(1900).
There are also many works about different aspects of
mediumship. Among those published in the
PSPR
are the series of papers about Leonora E. Piper “A
Record of Observations of Certain Phenomena of Trance,”
(1890), with sections by Frederic W. H. Myers, Oliver
Lodge, Walter Leaf, and William James. Other papers were
Myers’ “Automatic Writing—II” (PSPR, 1885), and
William James’ “Report on Mrs Piper’s Hodgson Control” (PASPR,
1909). There is much about mediumship in Theodore
Flournoy’s Spiritism and Psychology (1911), James
H. Hyslop’s Contact with the Other World (1919),
and Oliver J. Lodge’s The Survival of Man (1920).
Physical mediumship is represented in the above
mentioned books by De Gasparin and Crookes, as well as
in James Coates Photographing the Invisible
(1911), and W.J. Crawford’s Experiments in Psychical
Science (1919). An overview, with emphasis on fraud,
is Hereward Carrington’s The Physical Phenomena of
Spiritualism (1920).
|
I
have not mentioned many other relevant works, as well as
holdings about mesmerism, Spiritualism, and
dissociation. Some of this material has been discussed
in other bibliographic notes (Alvarado, 2007, in
press).
References
Alvarado, C.S. (2007). Bibliography of books and
articles about mesmerism, Spiritualism, psychical
research, and related topics in Google Book Search.
Psypioneer, 3, 113-120 (Online)
Alvarado, C.S. (in press). Note on online books and
articles about the history of dissociation. Journal
of Trauma and Dissociation. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
August 2-5, 2007 |
|
|
50th Annual Meeting of
the Parapsychological Association,
Halifax, Nova Scotia |
|
|
|
|
August 17-20, 2007 |
|
|
115th
Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA),
San Francisco, CA |
|
|
|
|
Assorted conference calendars by
category |
|
|
Psychology |
|
|
Alternative Medicine |
|
|
Paranormal |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MISSED A NEWSLETTER?
FIND THEM ALL HERE! |
|
|
|
| The Parapsychological
Association e*newsletter
is a publication of The Parapsychological Association, Inc. and is
solely intended for its membership. |
|
|
Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Contributions?
Or if you wish to receive this e-Newsletter in plain text instead of HTML
Please e-mail us at webmaster@parapsych.org
|
|
|
|
|
|