Parapsychology articles and blog

The following post was originally posted on our Skeptiko forum but I liked it so much that I though of reposting it here. It was written by David Bailey, a regular on the forum and a proponent to the existence of psi phenomena. Following much discussion on the forum and frustrated by how some skeptics lead the dialog, he posted the following hilarious post, written as an imaginary letter to a trainee skeptic.

Letter to a trainee skeptic - The Screwtype e-mails

You are now well advanced on your training to become a professional skeptic. If you perform well, this job can bring you many perks, such as appearances on television, and the opportunity to write a bestseller book. However, it is extremely important to learn throughly some simple rules that can help you in your craft. Remember, that while success will be rewarded well, failure will not be tolerated.

All being well, your first few efforts at debunking will be easy. There are, after all, a lot of crazy people in this world, and a fair few of them believe they have psychic powers. However, do not let these easy victories lull you into a false sense of security - sooner or later, you will come into contact with an altogether more tenacious kind of scientific heretic - one who has learned the ways of science and uses them against us! A careless encounter with one of these individuals can be utterly catastrophic:

Dialogues and Controversies - Controversies - The Telepathy Debate or http://www.sheldrake.org/realaudio/atkins_sheldrake.ram

If you fail an encounter with one of these people, you will be cast out of respectable scientific circles, and you career as professional skeptic will be over, so take extreme care to prepare for all such encounters.

These loathsome individuals perform actual experiments with controls and blind procedures, and statistical analysis - a shocking mockery of real science.

Let us take as an example the issue of dogs that know telepathically when their owners are coming home. Of course, you as a professional skeptic will state categorically that telepathy is against the laws of science, and so impossible in principle. This may well be sufficient for an unsophisticated audience, and you should never offer a more detailed explanation unless forced to do so. Your first line of defence should always be to point out that your busy schedule does not leave you time to debate with such deluded individuals - or even to read their 'scientific papers' in detail. If you use this tactic, it is, however, essential that you do read their 'papers' extremely thoroughly, or you will be caught out.

If you absolutely need to examine such a claim in detail, it is almost useless to analyse one of the 'scientific papers' that these vile creatures produce for statistical flaws - they are much too cunning to make mistakes like that. However, here are a few more subtle techniques to instill a decent respectable doubt in your audience. Remember - you only need to introduce doubt in your audience, nobody is going to actually test anything you say provided you sound vaguely plausible.

Let us say you have examined your opponent's 'data' purporting to show the said telepathic link, and you can't fault it on obvious grounds - enough tests have been done to prove statistical significance, any subjective assessments have been performed blind, etc. This is where you, as a professional skeptic, are supposed to show your worth in the job! Suggest something outrageous, such as the idea that the owner unconsciously leaves more dog food in the dish if he/she is going to be away for a longer period of time. Since your opponent will not have any information regarding the weight of food in the dish at the time of the experiment, this technique can be used to discard a large swathe of otherwise troublesome 'data'. Remember, each time you can find a reason to discard a portion of your opponent's precious 'data' you are lowering the statistical significance of what remains.

At this point, it may be tempting to accuse your opponent of incompetent science because he did not weigh the dog food in the dish, but if used at all, this ploy should be used very subtly. A side remark about how "genuine scientists always try to record all the relevant experimental data" is as far as you can safely go unless you have an unusually cooperative helpful audience. Even a highly skeptical audience usually likes to feel that you have dispatched your opponent in a fair and honorable manner!

Over time, many of our brethren have made great creative use of the idea that our opponents get their 'results' by cheating. You may very well feel that loathsome scientific heretics of this sort, are almost certain to cheat. However, once again, if you feel the need to use this ploy, your best approach should be indirect. You might, for example, comment that you were shocked to discover only after reading the 'paper' that the owner had entered his pet at Crufts. Anyone reading a sentence like that will be left with a vague sense of unease that the owner had an ulterior motive. Note that it does not really matter if a statement like this is true or not - if your opponent contests it, you can subsequently make very useful casual references to the ongoing uncertainty relating to this experiment.

Finally, remember that to become a truly great skeptic, you not only need to dispatch your opponent, but you should do it in style. Think of those melancholic pieces of classical music that come to an end in a paradoxical burst of optimism. When you are sure that your opponent is totally spent, jump up and shake his hand and offer him best wishes for his future research. It may be helpful at this point to explain that the only thing that keeps you in your career is the hope that one day you will finally encounter genuine evidence for paranormal phenomena, and that if your opponent can come up with such evidence you will, of course, be keen to examine it!

I hope these notes will help you prepare for battles to come.

Above all, put your trust in science, and I wish you a long and fruitful career!

Dr. Jeff Mishlove, Ph.D. in Parapsychology, whom I interviewed more than 2 years ago, posted on his blog article about scientific studies of reincarnation.

He summarizes 13 different published studies on reincarnation with test cases all over the world. Read his report at: http://Jeff.gaia.com/blog/2008/8/scientific_studies_of_reincarnation

Dr. Colin A. Ross, M.D., founder of the Colin. A. Ross institute applied for the $1 Million dollar prize of James Randi Educational Foundation. He claims he can make a tone sound out of a speaker using nothing but an energy beam that he sends out through his eyes.

Preliminary tests of the claim will hopefully take place in the near future, once the test protocol is agreed upon. To date, no one has passed the preliminary tests on the way to the $1 million prize.

Dr. Ross, founder of the Colin A. Ross Institute, is the author of over 135 scientific papers and 18 books, many of them dealing with psychological trauma and multiple personality disorder.

In a forthcoming book entitled Human Energy Fields, Dr. Ross explains a new science and medicine of human energy fields in detail.

“Once this energy is identified and captured, as I have done, then it can be studied and used for many applications in medicine and other fields,” said Dr. Ross.

Dr. Ross plans to use the $1 Million to develop scanning equipment for medical use and to carry out research on therapeutic uses of human energy fields.

Source: MarketWatch

Below is a guest post by Phil, who promotes Yan Xin Qigong method and Yan Xin Qigong audio cassette tapes. After the article, there’s a link to his Ebay store with the tapes. Previously, drew hempel, who contributed various article to this site, has also written about this qigong method on the article: The Highest Technology of All Technologies: The Yan Xin Secret.

Yan Xin Qigong is a qigong that was developed from traditional Chinese qigongs by Dr. Yan Xin. Dr. Yan Xin is one of the most popular qigong masters in both China and the United States and is often credited with achieving seemingly “miraculous” feats. In addition to many healings he has participated in scientific experiments some of which are presented in this paper in the Literature Review chapter. Unlike many qigongs, Yan Xin qigong’s Nine Step Child Longevity method utilizes an audio tape to accompany training that consists of Dr. Yan Xin instructing the proper steps and methods to take in entering the “qigong state.” Most practitioners I have communicated with only do the first step of the nine step method. It can be practiced alone or in a group but, in group practice better results are believed to be obtained. In all cases the practice method consists of listening to the tape and following along (as Dr. Yan Xin is speaking Chinese in the background, while being simultaneously translated into English on the tape, this can be quite an interesting feat for non-Chinese speakers). The reason for this is that it is believed that Dr. Yan Xin can “transmit” qi and information via his voice which helps training progress faster.

I participated in a Yan Xin Qigong practice at the University of Southern Mississippi on Good Friday, April 10, 1988, from seven p.m. to approximately ten-thirty that night. The fact that it was Good Friday was important to Yan Xin practitioners as they believe that when practicing in a group session on holidays better progress can be made as there are many people in approximate mental states or outlooks. The group was smaller than usual I was told, due to the holiday, and was composed of five people: two females and one male from Taiwan, one female from Thailand, and one older female white American (who was Catholic and had just gotten back from church) with the group being composed of people of various experience levels from beginner to many years. The session was led by the group leader, one of the females from Taiwan, and began with a discussion which consisted of us helping the girl from Thailand translate some of Dr. Yan Xin’s speeches into Thai. We had copies of the speech in the original Chinese and a translation into English which was an interesting process and exercise in linguistics.

The next phase of the session was listening to an audio recording of one of Dr. Yan Xin’s qi-emitting lectures. These are lectures in which Dr. Yan Xin emits qi to those in the audience and he tailors each lecture to his specific audiences “needs” as he “senses” them and as well qi can be transmitted by the audio recording. I have serious reservations about the ability of qi to be transmitted by audio tape, however, as I have now been practicing qigong for a long enough time to sense or feel the manifestation that is called qi, I must admit that I did “feel” a strong qi presence or effect that was not there before or after the tape was played. Possibly this could have some relation to subliminal messages, the power of suggestion etc., which are widely believed to have an effect in people when they are implanted in audio recordings. The recording was in Chinese but the group leader translated it for us. For those of us who were non-Chinese speakers it was at times a humourous situation as Dr. Yan Xin likes to jump around to different topics, which often involved the tape being stopped so that we could be further informed of what exactly he was talking about.

Next, we progressed to the practice of the first step of the Nine Step Child Longevity method and our group sat in a circle. The method involves the playing of an audio tape and following the instructions and visualizations. In this qigong you can stand, sit on the edge of a chair or sit or lie down on the ground. Then your hands are placed facing upwards in a specific manner depending on your gender. Your tongue is then placed in various locations in the mouth depending on certain diseases or health states. You are then led through a series of visualizations in which you are to imagine yourself as a young child at different ages depending on your gender. Then progressive visualizations are added. The process reminds me very much of deepening techniques in hypnosis (see 1964 Elman). Thus, if you wished to look at qigong as a form of self-hypnosis then Yan Xin Child Longevity Qigong would most likely produce one of the deeper and more profound states of self-trance when all nine steps are able to be visualized. The ending procedure slowly brings one out of the “qigong” state and involves some additional visualizations and rubbing and massage of the body. There is a supplementary closing exercise for those that are having trouble coming out of the state. When the closing was completed everyone in the group had a profound sensation of heat and one individual had even removed his shirt, which is not recommended by Dr. Yan Xin. The American female, a newcomer to the group, had told me before the session that she had never had any sort of sensations during practice, however, during this session she as well felt the profound heat. This was one of the more powerful qigong sessions I have personally “felt” or experienced during a first time practice of a method among the various qigongs I have practiced or been exposed to.

Yan Xin (Yan Shin) Qigong: One of the most popular forms of qigong practice in China and worlwide. It represents the traditional Chinese qigong. It is an ideal art and technique to treat illness, preserve health, achieve longevity, improve efficiency, develop special human body functions, etc. There are hundreds of methods in Yan Xin Qigong, all have been refined over a long time and proven effective by millions of practitioners.

Nine Step Method (Child Longevity Nine Step Qigong): A very popular method in Yan Xin Qigong, safe and practical. In modern China, millions have been practicing the method for years with promising results. Practicing it’s first step is a starting point for the learning of all other Yan Xin Qigong methods.

Yan Xin Qigong Advanced Methods: Master Yan Xin has conducted training workshops in which he taught many special advanced methods in very unique ways. Due to the unconventional energy level of these methods, workshop participants are required to keep these methods confidential. The Nine Step Method is a popularized version of an advanced method in traditional Chinese Qigong.

Qigong (Chee- gong): A form of meditation and cultivation practice that is very popular in China. It is a holistic method for healing the body and the mind as well as for promoting the human potential. There are some similarities among qigong, tai-chi, martial arts, transcendental meditation, yoga, and zen. However, the true concept of qigong is beyond simple meditation.

Qi: A Chinese character which means air, atmosphere, vapor, and gas such as oxygen. In qigong and traditional Chinese medicine, qi has a broader meaning, involving intangible substances and abstract concepts, and is considered to exist as an energy field in myriad of things.

De: A Chinese character which literally means virtue and morality. De is a grounding concept in all qigong practice and cultivation. To make progress in and to keep the benefits of qigong practice, it is crucial to always hold the a moral standard.

External Qi: Well trained qigong masters and practitioners can emit qi to others through special ways. Usually, this type of qi is very productive in qigong therapy and qigong training.

Internal Qi: Qigong practitioners are able to feel certain substances flowing inside their bodies during practice and in other situations, which help the practitioners improve qi circulation among channels and acupuncture points.

Channels or Meridians: In the view of traditional Chinese medicine, the Qi and other substances circulate inside one’s body through these certain routes. Many of them originate from internal organs and end at fingers, toes, or certain acupuncture points.

Acupuncture points: Over a hundred of special points in human body that serve intricate functions and are critical in many acupuncture therapy. Many of them are located on the head and along the spine. Some examples are:

Bai Hui (accumulation) acupuncture point: located on the top of the head, Tian Mu (heavenly eye) acupuncture point: located between the two eye brows, Shen Que (spirit’s palace) acupuncture point: located at the navel, and Yong Quan (sprouting spring) acupuncture point: located at the center of the foot.

Opening: Almost all methods have particular opening positions to prepare the mind and the body to enter a qigong state. It is important that the opening method is followed exactly to maximize the benefits of qigong practice.

Lotus: An aquatic plant, native to southern Asia, having large leaves, fragrant, pinkish flowers, and a broad, round, perforated seed pod (The American Heritage Dictionary). The lotus flower has a long relationship to Chinese philosophy and is commonly used to symbolize virtue and morality.

Spontaneous movements and sounds: During qigong practice, some people may feel that certain parts of the body have the tendency to move or may want to make sounds. The movements can be either gentle, such as stretching arms and waving hands, over very dynamic, such as running and trembling. The sounds can be either soft, such as whispering and singing, or very loud, such as laughing or crying. These qigong reactions are usual and helpful to the practitioners and their family members. It is very important to keep good thougths and positive attitudes should such reactions occur. Follow the spontaneous reactions naturally whenever the body perceived, and do not panic. However, do not use force to intentionally induce such movements and sounds.

Thought Adjustment and Mind Cultivation: In qigong practice it is very important to keep good hopes, optimistic attitudes, considerate thoughts, benevolent wishes, etc. Constantly think of the good side of life, and forget all past regretful mistakes, unfortunate incidents, miserable experiences, and sorrowful feelings. Always forgive, pardon, understand, and sympathize other people and things, regardless of what happened in the past. Indeed, holding high virtue and morality is the fundamental principle of all qigong practice. Regarding everyone and everything as teachers and treating all as kins are criteria for thought adjustment and cultivation.

Breath Adjustment: As in all other meditation methods, qigong practice also requires suitable breathing control. Deep, long, subtle, and smooth breathing is most favorable. When, at certain point, holding the breath is needed, it is extremely advantageous to hold the breath as long as possible. Other forms of breathing can be achieved gradually with systematic training.

Ending: This last part of a qigong method helps to maintain the effects of each practice. It cannot be neglected since it is an important part integrated into the method. Good results often come out during the ending procedures. It is also intended to seal the Qi energy inside the body and to protect the individual from any undesired feelings.

—

Yan Xin Qigong – Audio Cassette Tape Child Longevity Nine Step Qigong Step by Step instructions with the Voice of Dr. Yan Xin Rare collectors item. Perfect condition. No refunds allowed, Exchange Only,

http://www.stores.ebay.com/yanxinqigong

The Rhine Research Center – one of the leading parapsychology research centers, has a number of studies. A member of our parapsychology forum, PSI hippie, reported about a new study that calls for participants in the Rhine Research Center. I find its subject interesting, since I’ve heard about such things.

This is the call, below. I copied/pasted it from their site. I hope they don’t mind me helping them:

• RESEARCH PARTICIPATION OPPORTUNITY! **

MIND OVER MATTER STUDY: UNEXPLAINED PHYSICAL EVENTS RELATED TO CRISIS AND DEATH,
by Sally Rhine Feather, Ph.D., Christine Simmonds-Moore, Ph.D., and Jean Hamilton, M.D.

“Psychokinesis” was first studied in the early years of the Duke Parapsychology Lab when participants attempted to influence the outcome of falling dice by mental intention. Studies of PK have continued with more modern techniques at the Rhine Center and other laboratories around the world. However, except for the occasional poltergeist investigation, there has been little attention directed to PK experiences that occur spontaneously in everyday life.

Our present study is designed to learn more about the broad general range of possible spontaneous PK experiences. In the current phase of this study, our focus is on those unexplained physical events that seem to occur specifically around the time of crisis, death or near-death. Typical reports in our collection include the falling or breaking of objects, unusual noises, unexplained behavior of animals, or the malfunctioning of electronic equipment that occur around the time of a crisis, near-death, or death of a family member or loved one.

If you have noted this type of unexplained physical event, we would very much appreciate hearing about your experiences by email or postal mail. All reports are confidential.

Please send your experiences to Sally@Rhine.org or by postal mail to:

Sally Rhine Feather, Ph.D. Rhine Research Center 2741 Campus Walk Avenue, Building 500 Durham, NC 27705.

Thank you for your help.

An article in OregonLive.com reports about various studies performed by different scientists related to meditation and the brain.

The first one, performed in the University of Oregon by Michael Pisner and Yi-Yuan Tang, compared focusing ability of college students, those who received meditation training and those who didn’t. After five days, meditators outpaced non-meditators on the attention test, and they became significantly better at handling stress. Saliva samples revealed lower levels of the hormone cortisol when the meditators were subjected to an anxiety-inducing math quiz.

Another study, in the University of Wisconsin at Madison, showed that meditation may sharpen the ability to focus by training the brain to apply limited processing power more efficiently. In this study, volunteers had to identify two numbers flashed on a computer screen amid a stream of letters. After three months of meditation training, volunteers were able to name the second number significantly more often. EEG recordings of brain activity showed that those subjects devoted less effort to finding the first target, thus freeing more brainpower to focus on finding the second.

A study at San Francisco University showed that meditation improved pain endurance. They mapped electrical activity in the brain of a yoga master while he had his tongue pierced. The research found that the pattern of brain activity suggests that the meditating yogi entered a state similar to that produced by pain-numbing drugs.

Another study showed that long-term* meditators showed a 40 percent to 50 percent reduction in brain activity in response to pain* compared with a control group of non-meditators.

A few studies suggest that meditation can change how the brain responds to advancing age. Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta compared 13 older adults who regularly practiced Zen meditation with non-meditators of similar age. Among the latter, shrinking brain size and declining performance on attention tests correlated with age: The older the subject, the smaller the brain volume and the worse the performance. Among meditators, advancing age did not correlate with brain shrinkage or declining attention skills.

The findings match those of a 2005 study at Harvard Medical School, which found that brain regions involved in focusing attention and processing sense information were thicker in meditators than age-matched non-meditators.

Source: OregonLive.com

One of Britain’s leading researchers into complementary medicine offered £10,000 to the first person to prove homeopathy works.

Professor Edzard Ernst – a former homeopath himself who now researches complementary medicine at Exeter University – said 200 strictly controlled trials had failed to find any evidence that homeopathy worked.

‘If you do a systematic look at all the evidence you fail to demonstrate strong evidence in favour of homeopathy,’ he added.

Some selectively pick studies that support the treatment, but ignore those that don’t, or misquote the findings of trials, or rely on flawed studies, he claimed.

Dr Simon Singh, who co-authored the book Trick or Treatment with Professor Ernst, said homeopathy only worked as a placebo.

‘If homeopathy could be proven to be effective it might earn the researcher a Nobel Prize in Medicine,’ he said.

‘He or she would also deserve Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics because the laws of science would need to be re-written.’

To win the money, homeopaths will need to publish evidence through the Cochrane Collaboration, a respected UK independent group which investigates medicines.

Last night, the British Homeopathic Association claimed the challenge was nothing more than a gimmick to boost sales of Professor Ernst’s book.

Source: Daily mail

I’m a bit of a fan of Steve Pavlina who runs one of the best websites on personal development. In addition, his wife, Erin is a psychic medium and has a site of her own, where she tells her own interesting stories and insights on life. Steve is also interested and practicing some of the psychic stuff, but he’s not as experienced and as natural as she is.

Anyway, Steve also has a podcast where he mostly talks about his topics but from time to time he’ll shift to the more esoteric topics. His latest podcast episode is called “Being Psychic” and it’s 1 and half hours of conversation between him and Erin about her experiences. It is a very interesting episode and it gives some insight into her life and her view of the esoteric part of life.

I’ve already been somewhat familiar with parts of the content, since I follow their sites, but for anyone not familiar with them I’m sure it will be even more interesting. Some of the topics covered in this podcast are:

• Story of how Erin developed her psychic skills from a young age
• Lucid dreaming
• Astral projection
• How Erin made the shift to doing professional psychic readings
• Erin’s Criss Angel story
• Lessons from 1000+ professional readings
• Skeptics, skepticism, disbelief, and reading for skeptics vs. believers
• Psychic junkies
• The role of free will
• Spirit guides, angels, and humans who’ve crossed over
• What happens when you die? What is it like on the other side?
• Distinguishing genuine psychic impressions from emotions and imagination
• Why charge money for readings? Why not do them for free?
• How to price your readings when you read professionally
• What happens during a psychic reading? How does it work?
• Why do different people get such different readings?
• Chakras
• Do psychics predict the future?
• Difference between a psychic and a medium
• How to develop your own psychic/intuitive skills
• How personal development continues after you die

You can read more about the episode and listen to it from Being psychic podcast.

I’ve received an email from Buril Payne. At one time I was already in contact with Buril, who invented an apparatus called Biofield Meter and wrote a book about it, called “The spin force”, (which he sent me for a review in electronic form). I haven’t yet read it thoroughly but it looks quite interesting and has a collection of scientific work by the author. Buryl holds a M.S. in physics and a Ph. D. in psychology, both from the University of Washington. Anyway, it seems that age takes its toll and he asks for a distant group healing. If you have the ability and the time, take part in this healing. Here’s the email from him:

Help!

I, Buryl Payne, am in need of a group healing for a brain dysfunction that has slowly and increasingly hindered my balance, speech, and walking. I need my body to work well for a bit longer.

So, I invite and request you and any of your friends to do a thought power remote group healing for me on Thursday, June 19th at 7 p.m. Pacific time. Also, if you want, join in on the Global Meditation Healing during these special few days. See website, under Academy for Peace Research, www.buryl.com

For one minute, please visualize my brain working normally; normal balance, speech, walking easily, and with good coordination.

I will be sitting under a Biofield Meter, an invention of mine which measures the spin force around the body. In the past it has rotated as a result of remote healing.

Results will be posted on my website: www.buryl.com

Positive results from this experiment will add to all the other positive results of remote healing, prayer healing, and perhaps ultimately help hundreds of thousands of people.

Thank you in advance, Buryl Payne

P.S. You might like to check out my latest little ebook: THE QUANTUM THEORY OF LOVE at www.buryl.com

This is a guest post by Heather Johnson.

The current state of our nation’s healthcare has turned many people to alternative medicine. Some uses are as old as humanity itself and have been effective forever. So why don’t more people trust this age-old healing process? There are many myths out there concerning holistic healing. Many people think that it’s only for hippies or bizarre people. Whatever the reason for people’s hesitance there are just as many people that are believers. Here are five tips for the people that are serious about feeling better through non-traditional method:

1. Continue with prescription drug use. If you’re turning to holistic healing then it doesn’t mean you should ditch the medication that has been prescribed for you. Eventually you may be able to wean yourself off your prescriptions but it doesn’t mean that you can automatically stop taking the drugs that a physician has deemed proper for your care. The hope is that you’ll eventually be in a position where you can stop relying on your prescriptions but holistic healing isn’t going to instantly prove miraculous.
2. Comfort is crucial. You have to make sure that you’re comfortable with your holistic healer. If you’re feeling uneasy about your relationship then try out a few until you have the right fit. Trust is the biggest thing you have to achieve with your healer before you can totally put yourself in their hands.
3. Know your practitioners’ education. If you feel that your practitioner isn’t the most qualified person then find out where they’ve studied. People can get degrees from less than reputable institutions and if this frightens you then do some research to find out where they’ve learned their craft.
4. Don’t be worried if you feel worse before feeling better. With holistic healing chances are that you’re going to feel worse before you start to feel better. This is called the healing crisis. Don’t be worried about this period as it’s completely natural to go through a period where the treatment is beginning to take effect.
5. Embrace the non-conventional. Alternative medicine doesn’t focus on surgery and drugs. Rather, it centers on nutrition, herbs and other natural sources. It will take a while to realize that you’re not receiving the care you’re used to. Most people will be wary at first, but realize that this is a process that has been around for thousands of years or as long as man has roamed the earth.

By-line:

Heather Johnson is a regular commentator on the subject of Online CNA Certification . She welcomes your feedback and potential job inquiries at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

This is a review of the book Practicing Conscious Living and Dying: Stories of the Eternal Continuum of Consciousness by Annamaria Hemingway. I’ve been sent this book for a review by Annamaria’s publisher.

I was not sure what to expect from this book, when I received it for a review. Annamaria has contacted me in August 2007 and told me the book was about “researching survival of consciousness” and that she would arrange a review copy for me when the book publishes in January 2008. I’m interesting in this topic very much, so I, naturally, agreed. But let me tell you, although this book deals with the subject of research of consciousness, it is much more than that.

About the structure of the book. The book is divided into 3 sections. Each section has an introductory chapter, followed by a number of personal stories. There are 16 such personal stories in the book. The sections are:

1. Near-Death Experiences – Not the end but a new beginning (5 stories)
2. Dying to experience Life (4 stories)
3. Birth, death and rebirth: A continuum of consciousness (7 stories)

In the first section, there’s an introduction into NDE (Near Death Experience). Annamaria covers the subject from a historic perspective, by describing historic writings, such as Republic by Socrates and the Myth of Er by Plato which also touches the subject of dying and the world beyond. From historical accounts she moves into modern era research, such as those conducted by Dr. Pim van Lommel, Dr. Michael Sabom, Dr. Peter Fenwick and others. It is a good introduction into the subject of NDE, OBE and related research. The five personal stories tell different accounts of NDEs, including the personal background, the NDE experience itself and its effect on the life of the person. From the story of Reuben who wanted to commit suicide, through story of Tiffany, who was struck by a lightning, all the accounts are very interesting and in all of them the experience changes the lives of the people in a very strong way and in the positive direction.

The third section (I’ll return to the second) deals with the subject of the spiritual world, the continuum of consciousness, mediumship and other aspects of spirituality. The personal stories following the introductory chapter, are very touching as they usually deal with the deaths of close ones and later contact with them, either through mediums or some other way.

But the stories in the second section are those that made me cry when I read the book. There is nothing supernatural in these stories, except maybe the almost supernatural compassion that people may feel after being touched by the death of the loved ones. These 4 stories alone are worth the entire book, even you have no interest in NDE’s, spirits etc. Take the story of Joanne Cacciatore who gave birth to a stillborn and how this experience changes her life into a life of great compassion as she established the Kindness Project. She also befriend Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and then continued her work of teaching people to come to terms with the dying process.

Story of Peter Samuelson whose almost random act of helping a child dying from cancer to fulfill a dream turned him into establishing several philanthropies to help ill children pulled a lot of tears from my eyes. Other stories are very emotional as well and they give a small glimpse into the lives of some great people who after seeing death changes their life to help others in very remarkable ways. I believe these are the stories that tell about how to live and die consciously.

This is one of the more interesting and touching books I’ve read in a long time. Being interested in NDEs and the survival of consciousness I found the book very inspirational and thought provoking. It is not a scientific book, although it cites scientific work, and it is not written in such a manner. The book is written by a woman and it can be felt in the writing. It was much more emotional than I expected a book on NDE to be.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone. Even if you don’t take the subject of NDE and life after death too seriously, the stories are interesting and touching nonetheless. And if you are interested in these subjects then your enjoyment of the book will only be larger and more complete.

I have written about Miroslaw Magola, the Magnetic Man, including my interview with him. Miroslaw has been telling me about his contacts with James Randi and Randi has several times written about him as well on his site. Now, Miroslaw Magola wants to publish the following article. I publish it verbatim as he sent it to me, except for some minor editing for spelling and presentation.

The true story about Mr. James Randi and me, Miroslaw MAGOLA, the „Magnetic Man“

Our first contact dates to 1996 when I learned that my „human bio-magnetism“ ability (magnetism not in the original physical sense) may fall into the area of the JREF prize organised by James Randi http://www.randi.org/.

Although so far I have not applied officially, and although James Randi keeps a list – „I have a little list“ http://www.randi.org/jr/031204busted.html – of 178 applicants as of 2004 (in which he includes my name), he thought enough of my internet publications that he dealt with me in two further publications (twice in 2004 – http://www.randi.org/jr/032604why.html as well as in http://www.randi.org/jr/082704gluton.html – and latest in March 2008 – http://www.randi.org/joom/swift/swift/swift-march-14-2008.html).

About my abilities: Details of these can be found in my interviews with Mysteries magazine ( http://www.mysteries-magazin.com/index.php?menu=journal&op=journal&func=covers&id=2008 ) and Mind-energy.net (http://www.mind-energy.net/archives/281-Interview-with-Miroslaw-Magola-the-magnetic-man.html). Just to give you a few examples I am able to lift various items of different materials (metal, wood, plastic, ceramic) with palms, forehead and chest in a vertical direction and – if using palms – to bang them together without the objects falling down. I have proved my abilities not to be a hoax during several public appearances and demonstrations, e.g. at the Basel PSI days (http://www.psi-infos.de/2002_fahigkeiten.html), and on television, e.g. in a live show for the British ITV programme „Beyond-Belief“ (http://www.uri-geller.com/bb.htm), SF1 and Telebasel (Switzerland), RTL and PRO7 (Germany) (http://users.aol.com/mmagola/mh.html) and „Unbelievable“ on Fuji-TV in Japan . All demonstrations can be viewed on the internet and I’m inviting anyone whoever is interested to do so. (http://www.magola.com/English/welcome.html http://www.magneticman.org http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk7-8ckQtpY&watch_response).

These are the things that I can do. How do you choose to call them, is up to you. I call it „human bio-magnetism“ Several reputable scientists have conducted research in this area. To name few: Prof. Dr. Ruhenstroth-Bauer and Dr. Friedbert Karger of the Max-Planck-Institut in Germany, Prof. Alex Schneider Msc, Dr. U.E. Hasler of Switzerland, Dr. Alexander Imich , Barbara G. Koopman of USA, Prof. Dr. Konstatin Korotkov, Professor of Physics at St. Petersburg State Technical University in Russia.

Getting back to Mr. James Randi and me.

He doubts my abilities and thinks they are down to „trickery (i.e. like adhesive, glue etc.)“. I can reassure and prove to you that adhesive or glue do not play any role, neither does suction with the help of humidity such as „natural perspiration“ or „the natural skin oil“, or any other similar things. These suspicions are also a reason why he suggests to „dust [my] skin with talcum powder before such a test“. With regards to his thoughtful concern that „perhaps Magola is allergic to talcum powder“ I can put your mind to ease – I won’t need medical assistance any time soon. If you look closely at the photos and videos you will see that in these demonstrations I use talcum powder and even rubber gloves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaJWA5o_t4&feature=related¸ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTMekYqvbVA&feature=related).

To precisely define the terms:

My abilities are not about „drawing physical force“, but instead about bio-magnetic power producing movement of objects wchich stick to a part of my body even when dusted with talcum powder.

Furthermore, I am appalled by Mr. Randi’s allegation in his article „That Pot Head Man“ (http://www.randi.org/joom/swift/swift/swift-march-14-2008.html#i14, 14 March 2008) where he accuses me of bad hygiene ; I see this as a personal attack of the lowest kind. I understand that Mr. Randi „has no urge whatsoever to travel across the world to see yet another ‘sticky skin’ demo“ (“A sticky person“, http://www.randi.org/jr/032604why.html). Therefore, I’m willing to accept his conditions to coordinate a meeting in a place and time convenient for Mr. Randi, where I would be able to demonstrate my human bio-magnetic abilities on a public forum through a television program or any other way Mr. Randi would agree to. We can establish before hand the type of materials ,their weight and any other details necessary, including „a few grams of talcum powder“.

I also assume that Mr. Randi carries his cheque book when he travels.

Miroslaw MAGOLA