…topics such as sleep paralysis, false memories, eye-witness testimony, paranormal beliefs and magical thinking. French first encountered psychic claims while giving adult education classes, researching subjects requested by his class that sometimes included astrology and ESP. Initially inclined to give some credence to such things, he became more sceptical after…
…initial scepticism, Playfair became increasingly intrigued by the phenomena he investigated and was eventually persuaded of their genuineness. He researched a number of cases of ‘psychic surgery, automatic writing, materializations and poltergeist activity’,3Murdie (2018). and experienced a personal healing encounter at the hands of Edivaldo,4Fryer (2018). a psychic surgeon local…
…critical analysis of the Pratt-Woodruff experiment.Journal of Parapsychology 25, 99-113. Haraldsson, E. (2009).Alleged encounters with the dead: The importance of violent death. Journal of Parapsychology 73, 91-118. Haraldsson, E., Houtkooper, J.M., Schneider, R., & Backstrom, M. (2002). Perceptual defensiveness and ESP performance: Reconstructed DMT-ratings and psychological correlates in the first…
Matthew Smith is a psychologist and parapsychologist based at the Buckinghamshire New University, with research interests in positive psychology and ‘luckiness’. Career Matthew Smith was awarded a degree in Applied Psychology in 1992 from Liverpool John Moores University, followed by PhD in 1998 from the University of Hertfordshire under the…
…themselves into the conscious awareness of a case subject, contrary to the idea advanced by some critics that the motive for past-life memory lies entirely on the side of the case subject.23Matlock (2017, 2019). James G Matlock Literature De Groot, J.J.M. (1901). The Religious System of China, Vol. 4. Leiden,…
Emerging from the intellectual orbit of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory, this consortium seeks to understand consciousness through collaboration across science, art, education and health. It functions as a network, providing research grants, publications, workshops and public discussion in the wake of PEAR’s closure in 2007. ICRL grew…
Mark Boccuzzi represents a strongly contemporary strand of psi research in which mediumship, instrumental transcommunication, random systems, machine learning and AI are treated as parts of one experimental landscape. His work explores whether survival-related claims can be studied with tighter protocols, new technologies and unconventional datasets. Boccuzzi has helped study…
The ‘population problem’ in reincarnation research refers to the argument, first advanced in ancient times, that the continually growing human population proves the impossibility of reincarnation. Several solutions to the problem have been proposed. History The early Christian philosopher Tertullian of Carthage (160–222) is the first person known to have…
Contemporary mediumship research has shifted from séance-room anecdote to tightly controlled laboratory design. Julie Beischel’s work sits at that transition, testing whether mediums can obtain accurate information under multiple blinding conditions while also exploring how mediumship is experienced, and whether after-death communication may have therapeutic value. Assisted after-death communication may…
