The Science of Spirit
Is there a spirit world? Do we go there when we die? Do spirits exist? Can we communicate with them? Are those who believe such things mentally ill, or deluded? Is there any scientific evidence that can answer these questions? The answer to that last question is ‘Yes’ and here is the evidence that says not all those who hear voices are mentally ill.
Neuroimaging during Trance State: A Contribution to the Study of Dissociation
Brought to our attention by Professor Alexander Morera-Almeida of the Research Centre in Spirituality and Health, School of Medicine, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Abstract
Despite increasing interest in pathological and non-pathological dissociation, few researchers have focused on the spiritual experiences involving dissociative states such as mediumship, in which an individual (the medium) claims to be in communication with, or under the control of, the mind of a deceased person. Our preliminary study investigated psychography – in which allegedly “the spirit writes through the medium’s hand” – for potential associations with specific alterations in cerebral activity. We examined ten healthy psychographers – five less expert mediums and five with substantial experience, ranging from 15 to 47 years of automatic writing and 2 to 18 psychographies per month – using single photon emission computed tomography to scan activity as subjects were writing, in both dissociative trance and non-trance states. The complexity of the original written content they produced was analyzed for each individual and for the sample as a whole. The experienced psychographers showed lower levels of activity in the left culmen, left hippocampus, left inferior occipital gyrus, left anterior cingulate, right superior temporal gyrus and right precentral gyrus during psychography compared to their normal (non-trance) writing. The average complexity scores for psychographed content were higher than those for control writing, for both the whole sample and for experienced mediums. The fact that subjects produced complex content in a trance dissociative state suggests they were not merely relaxed, and relaxation seems an unlikely explanation for the underactivation of brain areas specifically related to the cognitive processing being carried out. This finding deserves further investigation both in terms of replication and explanatory hypotheses.
BBC Panorama – The Mind Reader
These experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that even though a person is in a vegetative state, the mind can understand and the brain can respond, which demonstrates conscious awareness. In these experiments the subject is given verbal instructions by an experimenter to think (imagine) specific mental activities such as playing tennis. The experiments demonstrated that there is a correlation between the suggested mental activity and brain response in MRI scanners. It is my contention that the suggestions offered by the experimenters can also be delivered by the use of telepathy instead of speech. This version of the experiment would not only demonstrate the existence of conscious awareness whilst in a vegetative state, but also that such persons can be communicated with on a regular basis using telepathy. Now that would be really interesting, but who is brave enough to conduct such an experiment?
Neurosurgeon’s NDE – radio interviews
Eben Alexander, M.D., discussed his transcendental Near-Death Experience (NDE), in which he was driven to the brink of death and spent a week deep in coma in 2008 from a severe case of bacterial meningitis. In contrast to many other NDEs, his memory of his life on Earth was wiped out during his experience.
Tourette’s – a new treatment
Research on healing
Here is an excellent point of reference for a comprehensive range of resources and published research references.
http://www.councilforhealing.org/ResearchOnHealing.html
Exploring near-death experiences (NDE)
Le Roy Illness – channel 4 documentary
Transforming darkness to light
Abstract
This article looks at traditional treatment methods for severe emotional disorders and presents an alternative, integrative approach. It distinguishes between negative ideas that are generated from inside of a person and strong detrimental impacts that seem to attack from a source outside of the person. Two thousand years ago, these outside forces were called “evil spirits,” and the procedure used with them was exorcism, which is still being used in the Catholic Church today. Exorcism casts out the dark force entity, which would be the psychological equivalent of repressing, dissociating, or splitting off a problem. The alternative method presented is facing the negative ideas by whatever name they are called (evil spirits, dark force entities, or demons), finding the cognitive distortions motivating their destructive behavior, and transforming the entities with the light of consciousness. In Jungian terms, the process is one of facing our shadow material rather than running from it. A case example is included, demonstrating the Soul Detective protocols the author developed to shift a long-standing pattern of deep sadness.
Click on the author’s photo for the full research report.
Barbara Stone PhD