Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 6–11
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.6
Editorial: Förderung von Austausch und Diskussion
Editorial: Promoting Exchange and Discussion
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. S. 12–51
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.12
Informational Psi: Collapsing the Problem Space of Psi Phenomena
Sonali Bhatt Marwaha, Edwin C. May
Abstract – The data from precognition and real-time psi laboratory experiments and applications establish the validity of this phenomenon. Based on the theoretical foundations of decision augmentation theory and the multiphasic model of precognition (informational psi), we support an informational process for psi, and consider informational psi (IΨ) as the only form of psi. IΨ is defined as the transfer of information, which is based on entropic considerations, arising from a distant point in spacetime leading to the local acquisition of non-inferential information by an atypical perceptual ability. Scientific understanding always evolves towards simplicity. IΨ remains a viable alternative to the standard interpretations of many different varieties of psi: telepathy (for e. g., the Ganzfeld), presentiment/pre-stimulus response, statistically-based PK (RNG, DMILS, GCP), post-mortem survival (mediumship, reincarnation). In this paper we expand our arguments for the view that apparently different psi phenomena which generally require different theoretical approaches, collapse into one phenomenon—informational psi. Future directions for research on IΨ are discussed.
Keywords: psi research – theories of psi – entropy – parapsychology – informational psi – causal psi
Prerelease information about this article
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 52–72
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.52
Comments to „Informational Psi: Collapsing the Problem Space of Psi Phenomena“
- Hartmut Grote: A Brief Commentary on IΨ
- Walter von Lucadou: Neither Causal nor Information – Psi Always Slips Away and yet is Powerful
- Michael Nahm: Assessing the Problem Space of Precognition: Can it be the Only Form of Psi? A Commentary on the Multiphasic Model of Informational Psi
- Dean Radin: Yes, But What is New?
- Hartmann Römer: Remarks on Informational Psi
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 73–112
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.73
Response from the Authors
Signals: A Mechanism To Understand Psi Phenomena
Sonali Bhatt Marwaha, Edwin C. May
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 113–139
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.113
The Caravel Project:
The Location, Description, and Reconstruction of Marine Sites Through Remote Viewing, Including Comparison With Aerial Photography, Geological Coring, and Electronic Remote Sensing
Stephan A. Schwartz, Randall J. De Mattei, Roger C. Smith
Abstract – The Columbus Caravel Project is a multi-phase research program designed to locate and excavate from St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica the remains of Columbus’ last two ships, Capitana and Santiago de Palos. After an enforced exile, Columbus and his marooned crew were finally rescued. They departed for Hispaniola and Spain, leaving behind two of the oldest recorded shipwrecks. The Caravel Project was organized in 1982 by the Institute for Nautical Archaeology (INA) in conjunction with the Institute of Jamaica. The Mobius Society joined in the search during the summer field season of 1985. This report presents only that phase of the work involving the use of Remote Viewing data subjected to field confirmation. Two subsequent surveys of the Bay are also addressed in the discussion section.
Location: Remote Viewing selected, and then confirmed on-site, an area of 1041 feet x 541 feet = 0.02 sq. miles as the area where finds would be made. The discovery of artifact and ship remains were made within the Remote Viewing predicted areas, and nowhere else, although substantial areas outside of the Remote Viewing locations were searched. As described and located by the Remote Viewers, a previously unknown shipwreck was found in Consensus Area I. A second Consensus Area because of time and sea conditions was not searched. Visual diver inspection was the confirming source of each location prediction. To calculate the probability of selecting these locations by chance within the Search Area, consider the finds reported as a cell in a grid of 217 similar cells. The probability of finding this one is p = 0.0046, which strongly suggests that chance is not an explanation for the locations. Some of these remains are from unidentified ships of a period later than the Columbus wrecks, but much of the debris is unidentified, even as to period. Ultimately, identification of Capitana and Santiago de Palos may never be achieved because there may not be enough to answer the question of where the caravels are located.
Description and Reconstruction: Remote Viewing in addition to providing location, described the underwater and surface geography of the area to be searched, as well as providing descriptive and reconstructive data on the objects that would be found there. Overall 1012 concepts concerning Remote Viewing locations, descriptions, and reconstructions were presented during individual interviews by eight Remote Viewers. An evaluation of the accuracy of Remote Viewing data, was carried out by the INA Archaeological Field Director, based on archaeological, geological, and electronic remote sensing field surveys and historical analysis. It is presented with each concept evaluated on a four point scale: “Correct,” “Partially Correct,” “Incorrect,” and “Not Evaluable.” Forty five per cent (45%) of the concepts received other than “Not Evaluable.”
Keywords: anthropology of consciousness – archaeology – Christopher Columbus – caravel – history – Jamaica – nautical archaeology – parapsychology – remote viewing – underwater archaeology
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 140–150
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.140
Opinion Essay
Random Coincidence or Psi: What Are the Odds?
Henry H. Bauer
Abstract – Psi is the postulated cause or enabler of psychic or paranormal happenings. Apparently inexplicable coincidences are often taken to be indicative of psi. However, statistics teaches that the Law of Truly Large Numbers, or the Improbability Principle, shows that pure chance brings about coincidences that seem absolutely impossible to most people. The reality of psi will not become generally accepted in mainstream intellectual circles in absence of the demonstration, on demand and at will, of some phenomenon for which any other explanation is completely ruled out to the satisfaction of virtually all interested parties. Speculative models of psi suggest that possible psi abilities might be strengthened by enhancing the ability of human consciousness to access the human subconscious.
Keywords: psi – coincidences – models of psi – reality of psi
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 151–171
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.151
The Significance of Autoscopies as a Time Marker for the Occurrence of Near-Death Experiences
Michael Nahm, Adrian Weibel
Abstract – The physiological and psychological underpinnings of near-death experiences (NDEs) are not yet understood. In this article, we show that also for “critical” NDEs reported after cardiac arrest, two different neurophysiological models were proposed that have, however, so far not been adequately distinguished from each other in the literature. In the first model, it is postulated that even in critical NDEs, residual activities in the cerebrum were sufficient to generate NDEs in real time. In the second model, however, it is assumed that critical NDEs could not have occurred at the time in question due to the severe oxygen deficiency, but that they were reconstructed later during the regeneration phase of the brain. Assessing the plausibility of these two models, we analyze the phenomenology of the view of one’s own body from above (autoscopy) that frequently occurs in the beginning of NDEs. In addition to the available literature, we use original descriptions of autoscopies obtained in an online survey conducted in 2015. Overall, we found that the reconstruction model is so far not supported by empirical findings and that some findings even speak against it. They include the complete lack of autoscopy reports relating to the time of the regeneration phase of the brain, although in the reconstruction model, precisely such reports should be expected according to the current state of research into autoscopies. Future discussions on explanatory models of NDEs should therefore focus primarily on the real-time model and a third model according to which autoscopies and NDEs can also occur in relative independence from the prevailing neurophysiological processes in the brain.
Keywords: Near-death experience – out-of-body experience – autoscopy – temporal anchoring – explanatory model
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 172–188
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.172
The Problem of Fraud in Parapsychology
Chris A. Roe
Abstract – Mainstream psychology textbooks tend to associate parapsychology with the possibility of experimenter fraud, typically citing two high profile cases involving S. G. Soal and Walter Levy. The implication is that fraud is more prevalent in parapsychology than other areas of the social sciences and may account for above chance scoring in psi experiments. In this article I review these two cases and others that have been identified as involving fraudulent activity and compare them with recent cases of fraud in other areas of science, particularly psychology. I conclude that both cases provide incontrovertible evidence of cheating, but they seem very typical for the sector rather than signalling something distinct about the subject area. Indeed, the transparent and public manner in which they were managed is actually quite unusual; similar incidents from other research areas tend to be dealt with discretely so that the host institution’s reputation is not tarnished. Anonymous survey data are presented that suggest questionable research practices such as multiple analyses and selective reporting are much more common than previously realized. In conclusion I note that the factors that increase the likelihood of fraud, such as materially rewards for getting away with cheating, likelihood of detection and consequences if detected, are not found in parapsychology.
Keywords: experimenter fraud – questionable research practices – replication problems
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 189–212
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.189
“I See Something you Don’t See” or
How (not) to Know Higher Worlds?
An Excursus on Rudolf Steiner’s “Spiritual Science”
Abstract – Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy and Waldorf education, based his extensive teachings on insights he claimed to have gained through psychical insights into world affairs and their history. He called this clairvoyant approach “spiritual science.” At numerous places in his work he emphasized that the findings of his “spiritual science” that referred to scientific and real-historical aspects would always coincide with the findings of the corresponding conventional scientific disciplines. He also strongly recommended that his statements in this regard should be tested and not simply believed unquestioningly. Nevertheless, such a critical questioning of Steiner’s statements has hardly taken place so far, especially not in the anthroposophical environment. Hence, in this essay, Steiner’s claims regarding the evolution of the solar system, the earth, and man are compared with findings of the natural sciences. The selected examples show that, contrary to Steiner’s repeated assertions, they do not agree with scientific findings, and that Steiner’s teachings also contradict each other in many important respects. Steiner’s findings acquired via “spiritual science” therefore lack an objective basis. Moreover, the extent of his false assertions suggests that the foundations of his other teachings are untenable as well, including his teachings about the “higher worlds” which are, in any case and as a matter of principle, unverifiable.
Keywords: Rudolf Steiner – anthroposophy – spiritual science – theosophy – untenability
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 213–214
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.213
Continued Discussions on Previous Papers
Re the book review from Uwe Schellinger on Angelos Tanagras: My Memoirs – A Collection of Short Stories, edited by Fotini Pallikari, Zeitschrift für Anomalistik, 18 (2018), pp. 356–360
- Fotini Pallikari: Important clarifications and corrections to the review of the book by Fotini Pallikari Angelos Tanagras: My Memoirs – A Collection of Short Stories (2017)
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 215–248
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2019.215
Book Reviews
- Theresa Cheung, Julia Mossbridge (2019). Der Zukunftscode: Wie die Neurowissenschaft Vorhersagen erklären kann
Reviewer: Marc Wittmann - Heiner Schwenke (Hrsg.)(2018). Jenseits des Vertrauten: Facetten transzendenter Erfahrungen
Reviewer: Michael Nahm - Imants Barušs, Julia Mossbridge (2017). Transcendent Mind: Rethinking the Science of Consciousness
Reviewer: Gerhard Mayer - Alex Tanous, Elaine Schwinge, Andrew Bambrick (2019). Psi in Psychotherapy: Conventional & Nonconventional Healing of Mental Illness
Reviewer: Sarah Pohl - Louis Proud (2019). Borderland Phenomena Volume One: Spontaneous Combustion, Poltergeistry and Anomalous Lights
Reviewer: Ulrich Magin - Ulrich Magin (2016). Geheimnisse des Saarlandes
Reviewer: Peter Ehret - Harald Walach (2018). Heilung kommt von innen: Selbstverantwortung für die eigene Gesundheit übernehmen
Reviewer: Florian G. Mildenberger
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Zeitschrift für Anomalistik 19 (2019), Nos. 1+2, pp. 249–257