January 2012
1 post
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Have yourself a very Kindle Christmas
A YouGov survey has estimated that 1-in-40 UK adults received an eBook Reader last Christmas. And 92% of those are thought to have been Kindles.
http://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2012/01/04/the-kindle-christmas/
Time for a promo on The Hidden Whisper ;)
Until the end of January, the ebook will be : $2.99, £1.92, E2.60. Hurrah!
November 2011
1 post
Neutrinos still Faster than Light in second test
Neutrinos still FASTER THAN LIGHT in second test.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/18/neutrinos_faster_than_light_confirmed/
Am really enjoying seeing where this goes :)
September 2011
1 post
Mind-Reading Tech Reconstructs Videos From Brain... →
August 2011
3 posts
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Stanford Prison Experiment - 40 years old
It has been 40 years since one of the most (in)famous experiments in psychology took place - Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment. What took place has become required reading on just about every human behaviour module on every Psychology course.
The premise was simple: take a group of people, divide them into Prisoners and Wardens and see what happens. Scheduled to last for 2...
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Parapsychology Article and Interview Index
It’s that time of year when I update the article index. I hope it’s useful for navigating the site. I’ve also added some Twitter and Fbook buttons to the blog, I’ll use them to help work out what sort of content people would like to see.
Articles I
Parapsychology and Consciousness Conference
What was the Star Gate Project?
What is Parapsychology ?
...
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Interview with Dr David Luke on Parapsychology,...
Dr David Luke is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Greenwich (London) in the Department of Psychology and Counselling. He currently teaches the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience, Individual Differences and Abnormal Psychology, and Research Methods. He is the current President of the Parapsychological Association
An oldie but a goodie to start with. What first got you interested...
July 2011
4 posts
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Parapsychology and Consciousness Conference
There’s a good looking conference coming this autumn!
The Best in Parapsychology: From our Minds to Yours Where? Virginia Beach. Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., 215 67th Street, Virginia Beach, VA, 23451, USA
When? October 14-16, 2011
How much? $395 (or $375 if you are a student with student i.d.). There is early bird registration ($325) until August 15th What’s it all about? (From the...
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What was the Star Gate Project?
The Star Gate Project was a US government research program (funded by the Defense Intelligence Agency, and subsequently transferred to the CIA) that sought to investigate the effectiveness of Remote Viewing.
Remote Viewing is the purported ability to gather information on places (that one has not seen before) ‘from a distance’. In other words, the descriptional information is obtained through...
1 tag
Amazon Book reviews
A great blog post from MobyLives about the Amazon reviews for: How To Avoid Huge Ships
Enjoy.
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Joke of the day
Thank you to the emailer who sent in this joke:
(Q) What do you call a possessed chicken?
(A) A poultry-geist
I then found out, there’s even a movie called Poultrygeist. From 2008. Anybody seen it?
I notice the top of the three disc boxset has some eggs-cellent punnery.
June 2011
2 posts
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Online Parapsychology Course (June 29 - Aug 31)
The Rhine Education Center has announced that it is running an online parapsychology course - starting at the end of the month.
It’s billed as: “…an academic course designed to provide professional education in the field of parapsychology”, lasts 10 weeks (Wednesday evenings), and is $240 per person ($195 if you are enrolled in a degree programme).
Full details here:...
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Improve your CV... you were Time Magazine's person...
May 2011
1 post
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Atlanta, GA
I’ve buzzed into Atlanta, Georgia for a few days. If anyone would care to share their wisdom on places to see, eat, etc. - it would be most appreciated!
April 2011
1 post
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The Hidden Whisper now in the Kindle store (promo...
Although you could download The Hidden Whisper ebook from Smashwords onto your Kindle - I have finally got my act together, and sorted out the relevant file for Amazon.
The great thing about it is that the endnotes are anchored to the text, so you can read the narrative then click to the linked endote (and back). I think the book works pretty well on it :)
...
March 2011
1 post
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Haunt sites - Dragsholm Castle, Engso Castle,...
(endnote 38) from The Hidden Whisper
Is there something special with the environment at haunt sites? Often with haunted buildings, one particular room might get a reputation for being especially ‘active’. This has led to research examining whether there’s something tangibly different about that room compared to others, and one line of consideration has been to ask whether there are particularly...
January 2011
1 post
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Interview with Professor Christopher French on...
Chris French is Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Chris heads up their Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, is the co-editor of The Skeptic Magazine (UK), and his main research interest is the psychology of paranormal beliefs and of ostensibly paranormal experiences.
In the book “Debating Psychic Experience”, your first contributing chapter is entitled:...
December 2010
1 post
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Interview with Chris Carter: Near Death...
Chris Carter is the author of Parapsychology and the Skeptics, and Science and the Near Death Experience. He was educated at Oxford in Economics and Philosophy.
1. It’s always interesting to find out what motivates people. Can you explain what drives your interest in parapsychology. I have always been fascinated by science, and also by controversial topics in science and...
November 2010
1 post
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Precognition in New Scientist
Precognition research has been around a long time. This month’s New Scientist reports on a number of recent experiments by Daryl Bem which offer further evidence for its validity.
You can read the New Scientist article here.
The full paper is due out in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology later this year.
October 2010
4 posts
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What is Parapsychology ?
Parapsychology is a field of study that seeks to investigate the existence of (and causal factors underpinning) psychic abilities, Near Death Experiences, post mortem survival (aka Life After Death), and elements of Out of Body Experiences. Phenomena such as poltergeists and ghosts are all also applicable.
Psychic abilities include forms of Extra Sensory Perception, and Psychokinesis (Mind over...
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Paul the Psychic Octopus - no longer with us
Paul the Psychic Octopus - the real star(?) of the 2010 World Cup - is no longer with us.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/paul-the-world-cuppredicting-octopus-dies-2117224.html
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Psychokinesis (Telekinesis) - What is it ?
I sometimes get asked what the difference between Telekinesis and Psychokinesis is. The answer? In every day use, Psychokinesis (mind movement) has simply replaced the term Telekinesis (distant movement). Both refer to the phenomenon of the mind being able to influence events and objects without using any known physical means (either consciously or sub-consciously).
More technically, some people...
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“Advances are made by answering questions. Discoveries are made by questioning...”
– Bernhard Haisch, astrophysicist
September 2010
3 posts
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Interview with Nelson Abreu: Researching Out of...
Nelson Abreu is a Power Systems Engineer based in Florida, USA. Nelson was an intern at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory, is a contributing author on “Filters and Reflections: Perspectives on Reality” from International Consciousness Research Laboratories, and is a volunteer lecturer and researcher with the International Academy of Consciousness. Nelson’s...
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Interview: Professor Stanley Krippner
Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University, San Francisco, is a Fellow in four APA divisions, and past-president of two divisions (30 and 32). Formerly, he was director of the Kent State University Child Study Center, Kent OH, and the Maimonides Medical Center Dream Research Laboratory, in Brooklyn NY. He has authored scores of articles, papers and books. In 2002,...
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Parapsychology on your Kindle - The Hidden Whisper...
Previously, I blogged that The Hidden Whisper was available on Apple products through their iBooks store. But, I am now pleased to say that it is also available in all these electronic formats. Kindle (.mobi) Epub (open industry format, good for Stanza reader, others) PDF (good for highly formatted books, or for home printing) RTF (readable on most word processors) LRF (for Sony Reader) Palm Doc...
August 2010
1 post
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Parapsychology on the iPhone and iPad: The Hidden...
The Hidden Whisper can now be downloaded onto your iPad through iBooks!
July 2010
1 post
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Paul the Psychic Octopus
For those of you who do not know about Paul the Psychic Octopus…
Paul is a two year old Octopus (born in Weymouth, England - now living at the Oberhausen Sea Life Aquarium in Berlin) who correctly predicted all of Germany’s results at the World Cup in South Africa.
Yesterday, Germany was knocked out by Spain.
Earlier in the day, Paul had (correctly) climbed into a Spanish flagged...
June 2010
2 posts
1 tag
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Near Death Experiences - new study
Here is a write up, in a national newspaper, about a study that was detailed in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. It’s purportedly about Near Death Experiences.
The gist of it is: 1. The Researcher noticed that [quote]: “moments before death the patients experienced a burst in brainwave activity lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes.” 2. People have been known to experience Near Death...
May 2010
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April 2010
2 posts
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The Hidden Whisper 2nd edition
The Eagle Eyed of you will have noticed that a second edition of The Hidden Whisper is now available. It’s worth mentioning that the only thing that has changed is the cover; the internal content is the same. If you already have a copy, please do not buy the new version expecting a revised book ;)
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What is Kirlian Photography?
Is Kirlian Photography a paranormal effect? Here’s an extract taken from The Hidden Whisper endnote 63.
Semyon Kirlian discovered back in the late 1930s that if you photographed an object placed on a photographic film and subjected it to a powerful electric field, the developed image would often produce a ‘halo’ around that object. Some people believed that this halo represented a form of...
March 2010
4 posts
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Death by Psychokinesis
‘If Psychokinesis exists, why don’t people kill each other with the power of their minds?’
Laboratory evidence suggests that Psychokinesis (PK) is typically a low level effect. We seek to measure it on random systems where we know how a target system should behave, and where we can quantify what actually happens when people attempt to employ PK.
Experimental data suggests find that the...
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Paranormal Debate on Skeptiko.com
Debates between advocates and counter-advocates of paranormal phenomena are always interesting and enlightening events. Skeptiko.com has a good one. Skeptiko’s Alex Tsakiris hosts a discussion between Dr Rupert Sheldrake (Advocate; Director of the Perrott-Warrick project at Cambridge University) and Dr Richard Wiseman (Counter Advocate; Professor of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire)...
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What is Extra Sensory Perception?
Occasionally there can be a little confusion as to the different types of ESP (especially with the term Clairvoyance). So, to help explain, here’s endnote 1 taken from The Hidden Whisper.
1. Extra Sensory Perception (ESP). The term ‘Extra Sensory Perception’, although already in existence, gained widespread recognition following the 1934 publication of J.B. Rhine’s book (wait for it…)...
Online Parapsychology Course
I was asked recently whether I could recommend an introductory course into Parapsychology, and the answer is yes.
Dr Caroline Watt (Koestler Parapsychology Unit, University of Edinburgh) has pioneered a 10 week distance learning course. As the blurb explains:
“This short course is taught entirely online and is open to anyone regardless of geographical location. It is a non-accredited...
January 2010
1 post
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November 2009
1 post
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Talk at the University of Sunderland
I wanted to write a quick note and thank everyone who came along to my talk last week on iZangoma REG Healing effects, at the University of Sunderland. It was really good to meet and talk with so many of you.
If you want to dig out the original paper, the reference is:
Lumsden-Cook, J.J., Thwala, J. & Edwards, S.D. (2006) The effects of traditional Zulu healing upon a Random Event...
September 2009
1 post
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Interview with Dr Stuart Wilson - Psychologist and...
Next in my interview series… please let me introduce my old friend Dr Stuart Wilson.
Stuart completed his Ph.D at the University of Edinburgh on the cognitive aspects of “parapsychological” phenomena. He is now a Lecturer in Psychology (and the BSc Hons Programme Director of Psychology) at Queen Margaret University.
I could not find a picture of Stuart, so I have pasted a picture of...
August 2009
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July 2009
1 post
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Interview with Dr Ian Baker - Psychologist and...
Ian Baker and I were both at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit (University of Edinburgh) many moons ago. Since then, Ian has gone on to become a Lecturer in the Psychology Department at the University of Derby. He teaches a variety of modules, specifically on statistics and research methods, and on parapsychology.
Ian very kindly took time out to answer a few questions of mine.
What prompted...
June 2009
2 posts
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Marrakech awaits
I’m off to Marrakech this week, and am really looking forward to it. I have long list of must-do things to see and experience, but if anyone has any particular recommendations - please email me and let me know what I can’t miss out. Shoukran bazzef!
May 2009
3 posts
4 tags
The future of Book buying (maybe a small part of...
The Hidden Whisper will soon be available for purchase through The Espresso Book Machine (EBM) Channel.
The Espresso Book Machine is a printing device (3.8 feet wide by 2.7 feet deep by 4.5 feet high - for those of you who care about these things) where you can print your own personal copy of a book… there and then.
Assuming that the title you want is on the Espresso system, find an...
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Win a Signed Copy of The Hidden Whisper
For those of you who might be interested, there’s a signed copy of The Hidden Whisper up for grabs.
Just go to The Hidden Whisper’s microsite and answer the multiple choice question :)
Click Here
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Interview with Roger Nelson, Founder and Director...
You began your career as an Experimental Psychologist examining Cognition. What career path took you to becoming Director of the GCP?
After 8 interesting years as a Professor at a College in Vt, teaching research methods in psychology, among other things, to undergrads who often wanted to study parapsychology, I decided to take a job at Princeton in what became the PEAR laboratory. I coordinated...
April 2009
3 posts
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“Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.”
– George Edward Pelham Box, Statistician.
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What is The Global Consciousness Project?
Following on from my post about micro-PK research, this seems like a good opportunity to discuss the Global Consciousness Project, which originated at Princeton University in 1998.
In a nutshell, the GCP is an international collaborative effort that uses a network of RNGs dotted around the world to purportedly measure Global Consciousness effects.
Each RNG is referred to as an Egg, and there...
March 2009
3 posts
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Basic micro-Psychokinesis research in 5 easy steps
Okay, here goes.
1. Connect Random Number Generator to computer. (The RNG is going to be sampled to create a datastream of ones and zeros)
2. Ask participant to ‘mentally influence’ RNG for some length of time. e.g. a trial length of 5 mins. “Generate more ones than zeros, please.” Or vice versa.
3. Using the RNG and Computer system, sample 200 binary events over a...