Category: Research

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Hallucinations or Hearing Voices?

Chapter Fifteen of The Science of Spirit Possession constitutes a research project proposal to test the efficacy of spirit Release Therapy in the treatment of schizophrenia, and this series of posts will provide free transcripts from the book. To avoid missing any posts on this topic register with the site and receive notifications of all updates. Any researcher or student who would like a copy of the book at the researcher’s special 20% discount should register and ask for the special discount code.

Project Protocol
Auditory Hallucinations
or Hearing Voices?

The 1st part of this proposal is to test the hypothesis that Spiritist mediums are able to tell the difference between autogenic (self-created) hallucinations and voices that are veridical (emanating from an external source) in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The 2nd part is to test the hypothesis that the same mediums are able to relieve sufferers of discovered external discarnate entities.

Aims and objectives

The objective of this experiment is to test the efficacy of Remote Spirit Release Therapy (RSRT) otherwise known as dis-obsession by Spiritist healers, in the treatment of mental illness. This method of intervention is regularly applied by SRT practitioners and Spiritists with variable degrees of success for people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, it has not yet been subjected to rigorous scientific testing in the UK. This research proposal therefore aims to initiate a research programme on the principles of healing the mentally ill with spiritual practice in the UK for the first time (to my knowledge). The first stage of the project is to determine the accuracy of clairvoyant diagnostics, and the second stage is to test the efficacy of spirit release therapy resulting in a positive health outcome.

Hypotheses

The first experimental hypothesis is that spiritual mediums can differentiate between autogenic (self-created) hallucinations and veridical voices from disembodied spirit entities. Testing the second hypothesis is dependent on the first hypothesis being supported.

The second experimental hypothesis is that removing the source of an externally located spirit entity will alleviate the patient(s) from their intruding voices, thereby producing a better health outcome.

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Discernment: Recognising the Presence of Spirits

Wild or Domestic is an interdisciplinary conference to be held in Helsinki from 20th to the 22nd of September.

Discernment is a key skill in many traditions concerned with non-physical, non-ordinary beings, whether in the context of shamanism, spirit possession and mediumship, or spirit release therapies and ghost hunting in contemporary post-industrial societies. How do practitioners know that spirits are present? How do practitioners distinguish between what they perceive to be an external, ontological other and the ‘normal’ self? What methods are employed to make this distinction? Inherent in such questions are issues relating to the nature of personhood and consciousness – what exactly constitutes a ‘person,’ and what is ‘consciousness’? This workshop will explore the theme of discernment from a range of different cultural contexts, and will discuss the implications of traditions of discernment for wider questions about the nature of consciousness and self.

Convenors:
PhD candidate Jack Hunter University of Bristol, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, UK
Dr. Fiona Bowie, King’s College London, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, UK

Dr Terence Palmer will be presenting evidence of how Spirit Release practitioners can discern the differences between different types of spirit. For a pdf of all abstracts for the workshop click on this link. Helsinki Abstracts – Discerning Spirits.

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SPR LECTURE – TERENCE PALMER – THE SCIENCE OF SPIRIT POSSESSION

May 1st, 2014 6:35 PM   through   9:00 PM

 

Lecture Hall of the Kensington Central Library
Campden Hill Road
Kensington
London
W8 7RX
United Kingdom
Phone: 020 7937 8984

Spirit Release Therapy, as a clinical alternative to religious exorcism and traditional shamanistic practice is largely unknown by mainstream medical practice and psychiatry.   This is due to several interrelated factors.  Primarily, materialistic science does not recognise any concept of a spirit world and doctors are therefore not yet trained in SRT principles and techniques.   SRT sits uncomfortably between the disbelief of a materialist secular society and the subjective experience of spirit possession: whether that experience is a symptom of psychosis, symbolic representation, socio-cultural expectation or a veridical manifestation.  In contrast to the monism of mechanistic science, every culture and religious belief system throughout human history has its traditional beliefs of spirit possession in some form or another with corresponding rituals for the release or exorcism of spirit entities.   It is common knowledge that Christianity has its angels, devils and demons (although the majority of modern so-called Christians probably don’t believe they really exist). Islam has its Jinns and the Hindus have a variety of evil spirits.

The conflict between the epistemologies of modern science and religion lies in the conceptual differences in perception that are arrived at through empirical data and radical empirical experience.  In short, it is a difference between what we believe to be true and what we know to be true.

Society for Psychical Research

 

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Historical and cultural aspects of the pineal gland: comparison between the theories provided by Spiritism in the 1940s and the current scientific evidence

Author information

  • 1Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil, Brazil. g.lucchetti@yahoo.com.br.
  • 2Anapolis University Center and Brazilian Medical Spiritist Association, Brazil.
  • 3Anhanguera University, Brazil.
  • 4University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Abstract

Significance has been attached to the pineal gland in numerous different cultures and beliefs. One religion that has advanced the role of the pineal gland is Spiritism. The objective of the present study was to compile information on the pineal gland drawing on the books of Francisco Cândido Xavier written through psychography and to carry out a critical analysis of their scientific bases by comparing against evidence in the current scientific literature. A systematic search using the terms “pineal gland” and “epiphysis” was conducted of 12 works allegedly dictated by the spirit “André Luiz”. All information on the pineal having potential correlation with the field of medicine and current studies was included. Specialists in the area were recruited to compile the information and draw parallels with the scientific literature. The themes related to the pineal gland were: mental health, reproductive function, endocrinology, relationship with physical activity, spiritual connection, criticism of the theory that the organ exerts no function, and description of a hormone secreted by the gland (reference alluding to melatonin, isolated 13 years later). The historical background for each theme was outlined, together with the theories present in the Spiritist books and in the relevant scientific literature. The present article provides an analysis of the knowledge the scientific community can acquire from the history of humanity and from science itself. The process of formulating hypotheses and scientific theories can benefit by drawing on the cultural aspects of civilization, taking into account so-called non-traditional reports and theories.

PMID:
24522019
[PubMed – in process]
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scientific experiments that prove thoughts and intentions can alter physical reality

One of the greatest researchers and alternative healers of our times, Dr. Masaru Emoto, has provided the world with a great deal of scientific evidence demonstrating the magic of positive thinking.

Dr. Emoto’s molecule experiments were featured in the 2004 film What The Bleep Do We Know?, which gave him international fame. The result findings of his experiments show that human thoughts and intentions can alter physical reality. For example, one of his impressing findings is that our thoughts and intentions can have an impact on the molecular structure of water.

Now, given that the human organism is mostly comprised of water, this discovery has tremendous implications. Really, can anyone who is familiar with these studies afford to have negative thoughts or intentions?

– See more at: http://theunboundedspirit.com/scientific-experiments-prove-thoughts-intentions-can-alter-physical-reality/#sthash.ksRMJ6mW.dpuf

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Rare medical conditions and suggestive past-life memories: a case report and literature review

Author information

  • Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil; São Paulo Medical Spiritist Association, São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address: g.lucchetti@yahoo.com.br.

Abstract

We aim to report the case of a 38-year-old male with suggestive past-life memories during a regression session and to show how these memories were related to unusual medical conditions: (1) isolated obstruction of the right coronary artery in a young patient, (2) omental infarction, and (3) right aortic arch with isolation of the left subclavian artery. These conditions were related to the following suggestive past-life memories: (1) a priest who committed suicide with a crucifix nailed to his chest and (2) a medieval weapon (skull flail) hitting his cervical and left back region. There was an intriguing relation between the patient’s suggestive past-life memories and rare medical conditions. In this article, the authors highlight possible explanations, rarity of findings, and similarities/differences from previous cases and potential pitfalls in this area.

© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS:

Reincarnation, Spirituality, Suggestive past-life memories

PMID:
24199777
[PubMed – in process]
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