2006,
Volume 6(1), pp. 5-20
ABSTRACT:
Human levitation occurs when the physical body rises into the air
seemingly in defiance of the force of gravity. Traditionally most
levitation reports have originated from seven groups: (i) mysticism, (ii)
shamanism, (iii) people supposedly possessed by demonic spiritual
entities, (iv) those subjected to poltergeist activity, (v) Spiritualism,
(vi) people who believe they have been abducted by aliens, and (vii)
martial arts such as qigong. So far almost no scientific research appears
to have been conducted into this phenomenon. In order to persuade
empirical scientists that human levitation warrants further investigation,
this qualitative study contains two components. First, there is a thematic
comparison of historical and modern levitation reports from the seven
groups to see what physical, cultural and phenomenological circumstances
they may have in common. Three kinds of evidence have been examined:
general features of the seven groups; interviews with a sample of
Christian priests and pastors, Spiritualists and qigong instructors; and
interviews with six people who claim to have levitated. Second, to assist
future researchers in their investigations, the present article includes a
hypothesis-generating exercise that seeks clues from the thematic
comparison and interviews as to how human levitation might work.
ABSTRACT:
The present article is a review of the ganzfeld meta-analytic literature.
It is found that significant results were obtained in all but one ganzfeld
meta-analysis
- that
of J. Milton and R. Wiseman (1999). However, with combinatorial
re-construction of the available databases and the uncovering of 11
studies overlooked by Milton and Wiseman, L. Storm and S. Ertel (2001)
reconfirmed that the ganzfeld was still the paradigm that delivered one of
the highest effect sizes of all the experimental domains in
parapsychology. More recent studies support this finding. Parapsychologist
and pioneer of ganzfeld research, Charles Honorton (Honorton, 1985) said
that the ganzfeld demonstrates a “significant psi effect” (p. 81), and
the evidence in the present article supports that claim.
Technical
Paper No. 12
Quasi-Experimental
Study of Transliminality, Vibrotactile Thresholds, and Performance Speed
JAMES
HOURAN, LARRY F. HUGHES, MICHAEL A. THALBOURNE, and PETER S. DELIN
ABSTRACT:
Transliminality has been hypothesised to derive from weak or erratic
cognitive mechanisms that are responsible for the active suppression (or
gating) of irrelevant information from consciousness. It was therefore
expected in a test of vibrotactile sensitivity that (i) individuals with
high transliminality scores (HT) have lower thresholds than individuals
with low transliminality scores (LT), (ii) the HT group take less time
than the LT group to obtain a threshold, (iii) and the presence of a
stimulus that competes for attention increases the time and thresholds of
the HT group to a greater extent than those of the LT group. Fifty
participants (17 HTs, 33 LTs) completed three repetitions of threshold
testing using the CASE IV System while exposed to each of four competing
auditory conditions (two Intensity x two Complexity). Results confirmed
predictions, but only the intensity of the competing stimulus, rather than
its relative complexity, interfered with the vibrotactile thresholds of
the HT group.
2006, Volume 6(2), pp.
114-124
ABSTRACT:
This article describes the traditional
reincarnation belief system of the Guminis, a small group of people living
in the southeast of the Simbu Province of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
This system embraces the belief that the spirit of some humans is, after
death, reincarnated within the body of another living person of similar age
and probably of the same sex as the deceased. This person, a stranger, then
represents the continuation of the life of the person who died in terms of
his/her social and kinship relationships. It is demonstrated that this
belief system was functional in traditional Gumini society, but may not
continue to be so in future due to rapid changes in rural and urban life
currently affecting the people of Papua New Guinea.
2006, Volume 6(2), pp.
125-134
ABSTRACT: Recent
research has indicated that the body experience of people who report a prior
out-of-body experience (OBErs) is qualitatively different on a number of
body-image variables to that of non-experients (non-OBErs). The present
study examined OBErs and non-OBErs Behavioural Embodiment during immersion
in a Virtual Reality system. It was hypothesised that OBErs would, compared
with non-OBErs, exhibit a disembodied behavioural interaction with the
Virtual Environment (VE), characterised by the proportion of time spent
navigating the environment from an elevated position and the number of
collisions with virtual objects. It was also hypothesised that OBErs would
score higher on measures of absorption, dissociation and somatoform
dissociation. There were no significant differences between OBErs (n
= 16) and non-OBErs (n = 28) on Behavioural Embodiment (i.e., the
proportion of time spent navigating the environment from an elevated
position and the number of collisions with virtual objects), although there
was a positive correlation with number of OBEs and proportion of trial time
spent navigating the environment from an elevated position. OBErs were found
to score significantly higher than the non-OBErs on measures of absorption,
dissociation and somatoform dissociation.
2006, Volume 6(2), pp.
135-155
ABSTRACT: The present
article completes the two-part review on meta-analyses in parapsychology
(for Part I, see L. Storm, 2006). The reviewed literature other than
ganzfeld/autoganzfeld studies, includes meta-analyses on: (i) biological
systems (DMILS), (ii) forced-choice ESP, (iii) free-response ESP, (iv)
dice-throwing, (v) micro-PK (RNG), and (vi) dream-psi. Meta-analyses by T.
R. Lawrence (1993), E. Haraldsson (1993), and R. G. Stanford and A. G. Stein
(1994) are also reviewed. Results indicate that these meta-analyses provide
considerable evidence that there is an anomalous effect in the field of
parapsychology in need of an explanation. It is concluded that these and
other meta-analyses in parapsychology have revealed significant non-zero
effects across studies, although these tend to be rather small, but
process-oriented research will further our understanding of these anomalies.
2006, Volume 6(2), pp.
156-166
2006, Volume 6(2), pp.
167-185
2006, Volume 6(2), pp.
186-191
