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Survival of Bodily Death Reports from Experimentalists and Empiricists
Gary Schwartz Schwartz reported on some his current research at the University of Arizona looking at the accuracy of mediums. He mentioned the several challenges involved in creating reliable research protocols in this complicated and controversial field. In particular, he described his work on a multi-phase, multi-centered, double-blind, and double-deceased paradigm experiment (note: this is not a joke). One goal for this extremely complicated research protocol is to address the so-called super-psi hypothesis (for more information on this, please see an article on super-psi by the philosopher Stephen Braude at: http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/braude/superpsi.htm). After describing the nature of his research, Schwartz dialogued with some of the group members about the true difficulty in eliminating the super-psi hypothesis, or at least distinguishing that explanation from actual information that is indeed conveyed by a deceased person through a medium. During his report Schwartz mentioned his involvement with the now deceased Suzy Smith, who was a journalist interested in survival research for several years. (For example, she edited some of Frederic Myers’s papers for publication.) While she was alive, Smith was interested in after-life code research, but she died suddenly when she was nearly 90 years old. Schwartz had known and met Smith before she died. After her death, Schwartz had a series of seemingly bizarre experiences substantiating the accuracy of medium reports from the other-side (from the dead). Schwartz went into great detail describing these issues (too much for this summary), so the interested reader can learn more about Schwartz’s research by visiting his website at: http://veritas.arizona.edu/. This is the website of the VERITAS Research Program of the Human Energy Systems Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona.
Bruce Greyson Doctor Bruce Greyson reported on his most recent research protocol, which is seeking to get empirical evidence of people having NDEs or OBEs during heart operations. This type of planned experiment may produce evidence that can address some of the consistent criticisms of skeptics of NDEs. Greyson is doing this research at the University of Virginia with patients receiving cardioverter-defibrillator implantations (a device that can monitor the heart rhythm). During the implantation operation, the doctors must induce a cardiac arrest in the patient to make sure the device is working properly, thus this operation provides a high percentage chance of invoking an NDE. Dr. Greyson’s research design involves putting unexpected visual targets in the operating room that can be seen only from above the operating table. An open laptop computer is placed above the operating table that randomly selects 12 images as it cycles through all of them. Before the operation starts, Greyson administers a battery of psychological tests and goes over a consent form, and then during the post-op phase he asks about how the procedure went and eventually asks the patient to guess what picture was being displayed on the lap-top. He also interviews them 6 months after the operation, because sometimes they remember things that happened during the procedure only after some time has passed. Greyson noted that there are very tight procedural controls on what he can say to the patients and also what types of patients can be allowed into the experimental pool. Charles Tart Charles Tart gave a brief presentation on Thursday morning, in which he reviewed some of the highlights of his several years of conducting parapsychology experiments. He also discussed some of the advantages of thinking about the survival hypothesis in the context of virtual reality. Tart thinks the increasing use of computers and the popularity of movies like "The Matrix" have opened many to the possibility that the world we live in is a virtual reality of its own. Tart maintains two extensive websites that cover much of the material that he presented during this conference. The interested reader is strongly encouraged to visit those sites: Tart’s main website: http://www.paradigm-sys.com/cttart/ Tart’s website on scientists’s mystical experiences: http://www.issc-taste.org/index.shtml
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