Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal

Vol. 5 No. 1 1
Vol. 5 No. 1 January 2014
ISSN: 2044-9216
Is the Anomalist
on a Fools Errand?
Vol. 5 No. 1 (January 2014)
Board of Reviewers
Dr. Fiona Bowie (Dept. Theology and Religious Studies, Kings College London)
Dr. Anthony DAndrea (Center for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago)
Dr. Iain R. Edgar (Dept. Anthropology, Durham University)
Prof. David J. Hufford (Centre for Ethnography & Folklore, University of Pennsylvania)
Prof. Charles D. Laughlin (Dept. Sociology & Anthropology, Carleton University)
Dr. David Luke (Dept. Psychology & Counseling, University of Greenwich)
Dr. James McClenon (Dept. Social Sciences, Elizabeth State University)
Dr. Sean O'Callaghan (Department of Politics, Philosophy & Religion, University of Lancaster)
Dr. Serena Roney-Dougal (Psi Research Centre, Glastonbury)
Dr. William Rowlandson (Dept. Hispanic Studies, University of Kent)
Dr. Mark A. Schroll (Institute for Consciousness Studies, Rhine Research Centre)
Dr. Gregory Shushan (Ian Ramsay Centre for Science & Religion, University of Oxford)
Dr. Angela Voss (Canterbury Christ Church University)
Dr. Lee Wilson (Dept. Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge)
Dr. Michael Winkelman (School of Human Evolution & Social Change, Arizona State University)
Prof. David E. Young (Dept. Anthropology, University of Alberta)
Honorary Members of the Board
Prof. Stephen Braude (Dept. Philosophy, University of Maryland)
Paul Devereux (Royal College of Art)
Prof. Charles F. Emmons (Dept. Sociology, Gettysburg College)
Prof. Patric V. Giesler (Dept. Anthropology, Gustavus Adolphus College)
Prof. Ronald Hutton (Dept. History, University of Bristol)
Prof. Stanley Krippner (Faculty of Psychology, Saybrook University)
Dr. Edith Turner (Dept. Anthropology, University of Virginia)
Dr. Robert Van de Castle (Dept. Psychiatry, University of Virginia)
Editor
Jack Hunter (Dept. Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Bristol)
Cover Artwork
Jack Hunter
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal
Vol. 5 No. 1 2
Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal
Welcome to Paranthropology Vol. 5 No. 1,
the rst issue for 2014. To start the year off,
Thomas E. Bullard asks a vital question: Is
the Anomalist on a Fools Errand?, ques-
tioning some of his past convictions about
the UFO phenomenon in light of recent
revelations. Yet, in spite of the successful de-
bunking of several classic UFO cases,
Bullard remains convinced that an irre-
ducible residue of unknowns remains. This
is followed by Jacob W. Glaziers examina-
tion of parapsychologys philosophy of sci-
ence, in which he argues in favour of ap-
proaching psi from a phenomenological, so-
cial scientic, perspective. Mark A. Schroll
then provides a commentary on Glaziers
thesis. Next, Christel Mattheeuws completes
her two part article on anthropological en-
deavours and synchronistic experiences.
Charles Laughlins paper explores the pri-
mordial roots of religion from a transper-
sonal and biogenetic structural perspective.
In The Paranormal Body Loriliai Biernacki
explores Indian perspecives on the para-
normal. Ohkado Masayuko and Okamoto
Satoshi outline their fascinating investiga-
tions into an apparent case of xenoglossy
and past-life memories occurring under
hypnosis. Finally, in Navigating to the In-
side Rafael G. Locke takes up Jake Glaziers
call for a phenomenological approach to the
study of consciousness and psi through rst-
person science.
Thomas Bullard, Loriliai Biernacki
and Rafael Lockes papers were all presented
at the recent conference on Anthropology
and the Paranormal, hosted by the Esalen
Institute in Big Sur, California. Interivews with participants at the conference can be found
here: http://anthreligconsc.weebly.com/esalen-interviews.html.
In other news, Paranthropology is currently on the look-out for guest-editors for forthcom-
ing issues. If you are interested in nding out more about this opportunity, or have any ideas for
specially themed issues, please get in touch with the editor via [email protected].
We hope you enjoy this issue.
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal
Vol. 5 No. 1 3
Contents
Is the Anomalist on a Fools Errand?
- Thomas E. Bullard (4-31) -
A Phenomenological
Evolution of Parapsychologys
Philosophy of Science
- Jacob W. Glazier (32-43) -
Commentary:
Contemplating Parapsychology's Evolving
Philosophy of Science
- Mark A. Schroll (44-50) -
Experiences of Synchronicity and
Anthropological Endeavours (Part 2):
Beyond a Psychology of Projection into a
Cosmology of Synchronicity
- Christel Mattheeuws (51-63) -
The Mystical Brain:
The Primordial Roots of Religion
- Charles D. Laughlin (64-80) -
The Paranormal Body:
Reections on Indian Perspectives
Towards the Paranormal
- Loriliai Biernacki (81-90) -
A Case of Xenoglossy Occurring
Under Hypnosis
- Ohkado Masayuko
& Okamoto Satoshi (91-97) -
Navigating to the Inside:
First Person Science Perspectives on
Consciousness and Psi
- Rafael G. Locke (98-112) -
This paper is about the elusiveness of evidence for
anomalous events. I will speak of UFOs because this
is the subject most familiar to me, but the underlying
theme concerns problems of knowing the unknown
and unaccepted, and the same arguments will apply
more or less equally well to other anomalies. My re-
cent preoccupation with evidence results from a crisis
in my long-time study of UFOs. It is not a crisis of
faith, because I am still convinced that an irreducible
residue of unknowns remains after all the conven-
tional cases are winnowed out of the mass of reports,
and that these unknowns hold their status not be-
cause they are merely unidentied, but because they
possess a robust strangeness that seems beyond con-
ventional solution. The crisis is rather one of con-
dence, a sense that I have taken too much for
granted, been too nave in what I have accepted, ne-
glected too many subtleties and pitfalls in a landscape
I thought I knew. I suffer from disquiet and embar-
rassmentdisquiet that I am more uncertain than I
realized, and embarrassed that Iand my fellow
ufologistsoverlooked weaknesses we had a respon-
sibility to notice.
The stimulus for my concern has been the recent
success of skeptics in shooting down some high-
prole UFO cases that once seemed unassailably
strong. Within the past two years or so they have pro-
vided a conventional explanation for the 1997 Phoe-
nix Lights, a case with thousands of witnesses, includ-
ing the governor of Arizona, and highlighted in Les-
lie Keans best-selling book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and
Government Ofcials Go on the Record. They succeeded
again with the 1996 Yukon giant mothership case,
advertised in a popular TV show as one of the ten
best UFO reports of all time. Most troubling of all
was an article in the Skeptical Inquirer by James
McGaha and Joe Nickell that offered a solution for
the Incident at Exeter, a 1965 classic that J. Allen
Hynek considered an exemplary close encounter of
the rst kind, and a case that most ufologists counted
on to stand forever. I certainly thought so, since I in-
cluded it in my 2010 book as high on my short list of
favoriteand genuineUFOs.
1
The ufological community has largely ignored
this string of successes. After all, explaining cases is
what skeptics do, or try to do. Many of their past at-
tempts have provided more laughs than enlighten-
ment, or at most gave cause for exasperation, but the
skeptics get it right now and then. Reasonable ufolo-
gists accept that most UFO reports describe conven-
tional events mistaken for something strange, and
even a few classic cases are bound to fall apart from
time to time thanks to new information or renewed
examination. For many ufologists proof is no longer
an issue, but an afterthought. They feel certain that
the existence of UFOs was established years ago and
an extensive body of high-quality unknowns provides
ample proof; now the mission is to understand the
meaning of UFOs, which usually means understand-
ing what our alien visitors are doing here. The loss of
a case or two, even a signicant one, means nothing
in this larger picture. We have plenty more good cases
on le and new ones coming in all the time, so why
pay any attention to the pitiful gnawing of the oppo-
sition?
My feelings are considerably more uneasy. To-
days skeptical attacks on UFOs belong to a different
breed than the woeful Air Force concoctions of the
1950s or the armchair pontications of Harvard as-
tronomer Donald Menzel. The modern skeptics
bring rigorous and informed criticism to their argu-
ments and highlight inconvenient facts that ufologists
overlook or ignore. This new caliber of skepticism is
nothing to laugh at; when its on target, it kills. And
their aim seems increasingly true. When ufologists
trust to numbers they pin their faith on a version of
the bundle of sticks fallacy, a false belief that many
4
References (Internet connections worked as of August-September 2013)
1
Bullard, Thomas E. The Myth and Mystery of UFOs (Topeka: University Press of Kansas, 2010), 35-38.
Is the Anomalist on a Fools Errand?
Thomas E. Bullard.
weak cases combine to build better evidence than one
strong case. The fact remains that the argument for a
unique and signicant UFO phenomenon depends
on the existence of at least one genuine UFO. We do
not have alien bodies or a piece of indisputably oth-
erworldly technology. What we have are reports,
some of them undeniably impressive but still the an-
ecdotal evidence that scarcely counts as evidence at
all among scientists. Supporting evidence may come
from correlations and patterns among independent
testimonies, or from photographs and radar, but the
uncertainties of human eyewitness testimony, human
memory, social and cultural inuences, and fallibili-
ties even in instrumental support eat away at the pur-
ported solidity of the best UFO evidence. These are
the very sorts of faults that the skeptics uncover with
increasing success.
The combatants square off with ufologists con-
vinced that they hold proof of unconventional ob-
jects ying in the sky. These cases describe more than
mere lights in the night. They have the support of
multiple reliable witnesses and instrumental conr-
mation, the objects display unconventional strange-
ness and no conventional solution can explain them.
These cases are worth standing up to defend as con-
crete examples of a real UFO phenomenon. On the
other side the skeptics maintain that with the right
information they can explain every UFO no matter
how strange it appears on the surface, while the
ufologists practice of substituting new unknowns
for failed cases simply ignores the ominous trend that
if one case after another has fallen in the past, all
others will topple in their turn. The verdict then has
to be that not even one unconventional UFO really
exists and all the claims of ufology, from objects in
the sky to alien abductions, evaporate into a cultural
castle-of-clouds belief just like the skeptics have
always maintained.
Cast in these stark terms, the skeptics success is
far from trivial. The whole issue is really at stake. If
the skeptics can make good on their claim that the
mystery in even the best UFO cases is apparent
rather than real, then the foundations of ufology
crumble and the superstructures of other UFO be-
liefs fall with it. The loss of classic cases comes as an
especial blow. They become classics for good rea-
sonfor being of exceptional quality and strange-
ness, and for having faced repeated challenges and
survived them with anomalousness and mystery un-
diminished. These enduring cases represent the best
face forward of the subject, cases to offer critics and
doubters, scientists and the interested public alike in
response to the question of why accept that UFOs
are real and a serious issue. When we lose such cases,
we lose the ground we stand on.
At a minimum these successes by the skeptics call
for reection and self-examination. They call for un-
derstanding what went wrong in investigations that
arrived at a desired conclusion and let the truth slip
away. Deeper still, they oblige a return to basic ques-
tions about the quality and air-tightness of the UFO
evidence, and ultimately to the question of whether
the evidence we have is adequate to establish the exis-
tence of an unconventional phenomenon at all.
Another question of vital importance is how do
ufologists (or anomalists of any stripe) address their
various audiences? When we talk to our own, much
of what we say is what we ourselves want to hear and
we forget the habit of asking demanding questions.
Too much preaching to the choir lulls us into thinking
our claims are self-evident as well as true, rather than
confronting the fact that the people we most want to
reachopen-minded doubters, hard but fair critics,
and any scientists willing to listennot only reject
most of our accepted wisdom, but take offense that
we sound so cock-sure when we have no right to be.
We can accept in our own hearts many things we
cannot prove. We can talk freely about unscientic
evidence among our fellows. What we cannot do is
expect the wider world to be so receptive. Our task is
not just to make assertions but to prove them, with
proof of such integrity that it will persuade or at least
confound the opposition. Most of what we know, or
think we know, will not sufce. It will belong in a vast
gray area of claims and theories meaningful to the
already convinced but questionable, even wild and
foolish, to adherents of consensus reality. We have to
choose carefully the evidential tools of our argument,
be rigorous and Spartan in our selection, leaving our-
selves nowhere to hide, no smoke and mirrors to con-
fuse the confrontation between our surest facts and
the harsh demands of scientic truth. Instead we are
often our own worst enemies, our words less likely to
persuade than to alienate, until the audience we want
to hear us closes us out as a matter of reex. Prob-
lems of whether we should ask scientic questions or
choose scientists for our audience loom even further
down the road; but like it or not, confess to it or not,
it is on the gate of science that most ufologists knock
in an insistent but futile effort to gain admission.
What we say about UFOs locates them squarely
in the realm of confusion. They are mysterious reali-
5
ties, they are mistaken identities; mechanical in na-
ture, not even physical in any ordinary sense; harbin-
gers of another world, testimonies of human fallibil-
ity. An important concept to bear in mind is an ana-
lytical dichotomy introduced by Jerome Clark and
destined to haunt the course of this paper from be-
ginning to end: He distinguishes event anomalies,
those reported occurrences that are strange and un-
known yet seem to be fully understandable as physi-
cal phenomena, from experience anomalies, occur-
rences observable like purely physical events and
sometimes seen even by multiple witnesses, yet mani-
festing a strangeness unlike any conventional phe-
nomenon. They are visions of the otherworldly, and
nothing brings them into or keeps them inside this
world in any but an experiential sense.
2
The folklor-
ist likewise recognizes personal experience ac-
counts, and a closer parallel to experience anoma-
lies, the memorate, a narrative cast as a rst-person
experience of a supernatural event.
For the moment the UFOs discussed here will be
unusual aerial sights observed directly by witnesses
and presented to an audience that did not share in
the experience by means of rst-person testimony. To
keep it simple these UFOs will be limited to bread-
and-butter basic reports that describe purported
physical objects. I will not introduce convoluted and
controversial matters like abductions or Roswell, nor
even high-strangeness elements in basic y-in-the-sky
UFO sightings. No talk about meanings or even ali-
ens will appear, since it would be premature to ven-
ture so far out into speculative space when we need to
stay here on the ground and consider the fundamen-
tal question of UFO existence. Three cases that skep-
tics have attacked recently will serve as examples to
anchor the discussion in concrete reality.
The Phoenix Lights
With an estimated ten thousand witnesses, events
over Arizona on the evening of March 13, 1997,
comprise perhaps the largest mass UFO sightings of
all time. The rst views of lights or objects in the sky
began in the late afternoon, while a V-shaped ar-
rangement of ve to seven lights seen headed toward
Arizona from the Las Vegas area after 7:00 p.m. set a
pattern that would unfold from the northwestern to
the southeastern corners of the state during the next
two hours. Just before 8:00 p.m. came the rst obser-
vations from the Prescott Valley of a low-ying V-
shaped UFO, with reports from Kingman, Scottsdale,
and Tempe over the next half-hour. Between 8:30
and 8:45 lights in a V-formation and an enormous
dark boomerang-shaped object with lights attached
reached Prescott, the Phoenix metro area, and the
airport. At the same time a triangular object esti-
mated to be two miles wide ew slowly over northern
Phoenix, bearing dozens of lights and apparent win-
dows. Between 8:30 and 9:00 reports of V-shaped
objects arrived from Oracle, Tucson, and Chandler,
while some witnesses continued to see UFOs over
Phoenix. About 10:00 p.m., just when the excitement
seemed about to subside, brilliant arc-shaped forma-
tions of lights appeared southwest of the city. Several
witnesses videotaped these lights and the footage
aired on TV to become media icons of the Phoenix
Lights events. Sightings continued as late as 2:00
a.m.
3
The sheer quantity of reports leaves a deep im-
pression, but no one better captures the awe and
wonder of the experience than eyewitness Tim Ley in
his personal account of the UFO that ew over his
home north of Phoenix. His ten-year old son called
his attention to a small arc of ve white lights oating
to the northwest at about 8:00 p.m. The family
watched the pattern of lights change into a V
shape as they drew nearer. Ley suspected military
helicopters but changed his mind as the lights sus-
tained a rigid pattern for over 15 minutes and he
concluded that the object was one solid structure.
When closer still, the object revealed a dark, sharp-
edged shape like a carpenters square against the
stars, with one light at the front and two in each of
the arms. The lights gave off a soft white glow that
6
2
Clark, Jerome, Hidden Realms, Lost Civilizations, and Beings from Other Worlds (Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2010), xiii.
3
Phoenix Lights. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights.
(Peter Davenport) National UFO Reporting Center News Release: UFO Over Arizona March 13, 1997,
www.nuforc.org/CB970313.html.
(Peter Davenport) Summary of Phoenix Lights Event, www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1276.htm.
(Peter Davenport) NUFORC Special Report: Phoenix Lights: Two Years Later, www.nuforc.org/ phoenix.html.
(William F. Hamilton) Phoenix Sightings Summary Report, www.ufoevidence.org/documents/ doc1509.htm.
did not illuminate the ground. No sound came from
the object as it passed 100 feet overhead traveling no
more than 30 miles per hour, but so enormous the
witnesses had to turn their heads to take in the sight
from one end to the other. The craft passed through a
gap in the mountains and reected the lights of
Phoenix on its surface, then became lost among dis-
tant aircraft lights and atmospheric haze a few min-
utes later. Ley believed that extraterrestrials displayed
their craft to send a message that they were here to
help the world. He illustrated his account with a se-
ries of computer images, one of which appeared in
USA Today.
4
Peter Davenports National UFO Reporting Cen-
ter (NUFORC) and the Mutual UFO Network (MU-
FON) began receiving reports even as the sightings
were underway. Witnesses have continued to submit
reports over the years, including one from then-
governor Fife Symington III, who stated on the tenth
anniversary of the event that he saw a massive,
delta-shaped craft between 8:00 and 8:30, and con-
cluded that as a pilot and a former Air Force ofcer,
I can say with certainty that this craft did not resem-
ble any man-made object I had ever seen.
5
A great
many witnesses from all walks of life had their own
stories to tell.
Two MUFON investigators were among the rst
to piece together a story of what happened that
night. William Hamilton concluded that at least seven
types of UFOs had appearedsome of them forma-
tions of lights, some of them triangular objects with
lights, and some disk-shaped objects with lights
around the circumference.
6
Media treatments simpli-
ed the sightings to two events, one the V-shaped ob-
ject or objects crossing the state and reaching Phoe-
nix around 8:00 p.m., the other those arcs of brilliant
lights southwest of the city about 10:00 p.m. Another
MUFON investigator, Richard Motzer, found it pecu-
liar that the 10:00 p.m. event that resulted in so many
videos actually attracted few individual witnesses. He
also noted that those witnesses all resided at higher
altitudes and concluded that these lights were located
at great distance from the city over a military test
range, and visible only to people whose view was not
blocked by an intervening mountain. He also ques-
tioned the earlier sightings on the grounds that sev-
eral witnesses identied the UFO as lights of military
aircraft ying in a V-formation at high altitude.
7
Further conrmation for military ares as the
solution for the 10:00 p.m. events came from ufologist
Bruce Maccabee, who triangulated the location of
the videotaped lights and found that their distance
corresponded to proving grounds some 75 miles from
the city.
8
The Air Force also conrmed that the
Maryland National Guard dropped ares there at the
time of these sightings. Some diehards continue to
defend the 10:00 p.m. lights as UFO events but skep-
tics and most ufologists alike now accept the are ex-
planation as the nal word, so that the 8:00 p.m.
sightings remain the real Phoenix Lights.
In contrast to the critical attention paid to the
later event, ufologists largely ignored the possibility
that aircraft were responsible for the earlier events. A
young amateur astronomer with a ten-inch telescope
and experience in viewing aircraft had looked at the
formation of ve lights as it ew over Phoenix and
recognized that the lights were attached to the wings
of aircraft.
9
Skeptics Tony Ortega and Tim Printy
found several other qualied witnesses who recog-
nized the lights as military aircraft, and argued that
the time it took these lights to pass from Nevada to
southeastern Arizona allowed a jet-like speed of be-
tween 300 and 400 m.p.h. Further evidence from the
one video taken of this ight showed independent
motion among the lights, meaning they were not at-
tached to a rigid object. Objections that the Phoenix
7
4
Tim Ley. Phoenix Lights UFO, www.phoenixlightsufo.com.
5
Kean, Leslie. UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Ofcials Go on the Record (New York: Harmony Books, 2010), 262.
6
(William F. Hamilton) Amazing Phoenix Lights Event Sequence of 3-13-97, http://rense.com/ufo6/ phoe.html.
7
(Richard Motzer) The Phoenix Lights, the Real Investigation, MUFON UFO Journal no.351 (July 1997), 3-6;
www.theufochronicles.com/2010/03/ph-lights-real-investigation.html.
8
(Bruce Maccabee) Report on the Phoenix Lights Arrays, http://brumac.8k.com/phoenixlights1.html.
9
(Tony Ortega) The Great UFO Coverup, www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-06-26/news/the-great-ufo-coverup.
airport should have picked up these aircraft on radar
failed because only the lead aircraft would typically
carry an active transponder for this type of ight.
10
The story that skeptics construct for the Phoenix
Lights states that many people were out looking for
the Hale-Bopp comet during the early evening of
March 13th. A ight of military aircraft caught the
attention of many watchers and the word spread un-
til large numbers of people saw something in the sky.
A common illusion lent the lights an appearance that
they were part of some dark solid craft. Reports of
the lights on the local news drew more people out of
doors, some to see normal air trafc and some, at
higher altitude, to catch sight of distant ares over
the Estrella Mountains. In the wake of widespread
publicity over the following months and years, more
and more witnesses recalled their own experiences
and added them to the le of Phoenix Lights sight-
ings, often under the inuence of the accounts, vid-
eos, and illustrations that had gone before.
The ufological story of that eventful night is quite
different. It runs that Arizona underwent a veritable
UFO invasion on the evening of March 13, with a
great many objects of varying size and shape passing
over the state. The most impressive were the mile-
sized V or chevron-shaped craft bearing lights and
often ying at low level over the countryside. A few
witnesses even stated that they saw jet ghters pursu-
ing the UFOs, and the conspiracy-minded suggested
that the Air Force dropped ares in a deliberate at-
tempt to confuse the public.
Much of the public preferred the ufologists more
exciting version. The undeniable sincerity of Tim
Ley and other witnesses who related their personal
experiences as moving, even life-changing events car-
ried deep emotional resonance. Many witnesses re-
sented the supposed assertion that they viewed ares,
since they knew what ares looked like or at least
knew that what they saw could not have been ares.
The status of the Phoenix Lights as a mysterious
UFO event has become an article of faith among
ufologists, witnesses, and the lay public alike. But the
hard facts remain that aircraft and ares could pro-
vide the stimulus for most of the observations and the
lights for all of the videos. Some ufologists object that
too many UFOs were visible that night for one ight
of aircraft to explain. Yet most witnesses saw an ob-
ject passing generally northwest to southeast, as a
formation of aircraft might y, but as multiple UFOs
are not obligated to do. The objects ying in varied
directions typically depend on the reports of indi-
viduals or small groups observing together, witnesses
who might have observed something other than the
aircraft ight. Though ufologists have plotted the
courses of various objects with painstaking care, they
have relied on accounts of times and directions that
are subjective, prone to human error, and liable to be
the same object different only in details cited by one
witness or another. Faith in the Phoenix Lights UFO
has little basis in fact.
The Yukon Giant Mothership UFO
Dozens of witnesses along a 200-mile stretch of the
Klondike Highway, in Yukon Territory, Canada, re-
ported an enormous UFO covered with lights on the
evening of December 11, 1996. Five witnesses from
the Fox Lake area reported extended rows of lights
crossing from west to east. One of these witnesses
drew an object shaped like a washtub with a shallow
pan on top, covered with multiple lights and bearing
two rows of rectangular windows. Four witnesses
from the village of Carmacks described multitudes of
lights, some ashing and some steady as an object the
size of a football eld ew from the northwest to the
northeast. One witness indicated how large the object
appeared by extending his arms toward the sky at a
60-degree angle. Six witnesses from the village of
Pelly gave accounts. One, a trapper, saw what he
thought was an airplane but soon realized that its
movements were too slow. When the object emerged
into full view he saw a row of perhaps a hundred
small rectangular lights, and above it another row of
seven large lighted rectangles. A dark oval form be-
hind the lights blotted out the stars. Beams of light
ashed out from the front, rear, and bottom of the
object, which appeared to be no more than 300 yards
high and three-quarters of a mile long. Another Pelly
witness described an object as long as the Big Dipper
with a cluster of lights like big stars amid a grid of
8
10
(Tony Ortega) The Hack and the Quack, www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1998-03-05/news/the-hack-and-the-quack.
(Tim Printy) The V-formation of lights and my analysis, http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/ azconc.htm.
smaller blue lights; still another saw a square of light
followed by several other squares, with the entire
formation disappearing behind a hill to the east.
11
In summary, all witnesses reported numerous
lights, some large and some small, some square or
rectangular and others round or star-like. The lights
covered an extended arc of sky in a passage that took
between half a minute to ten minutes, according to
witness estimates. Most witnesses believed the lights
were attached to a structured craft with windows,
rows of smaller lights, and ashing beams projecting
from it; all agreed that the object was enormous. For
most witnesses the object appeared north of them
and passed west to east (or northwest to northeast),
though one witness reported that the lights turned
southward and two others said the object ew nearly
over their heads. The times given for the event
ranged from 7:00 p.m. till 9 or 10 oclock, but the two
witnesses who actually looked at a clock gave 8:23
and 8:30 as the time. A widely circulated illustration
condenses the reports into the image of a huge circu-
lar craft with rows of windows and covered with
lights.
Martin Jasek, an engineer, began an investigation
of the case three years later for UFO*BC. He discov-
ered 31 witnesses and interviewed 19. He was able to
gather sufciently accurate information to triangulate
the size of the object and concluded that it was be-
tween one-half and a full mile in diameter. In his
formal report he considered and rejected alternative
explanations like hoaxes, auroras, military aircraft
and meteors. The most serious contender was a Rus-
sian space probe launched on December 11, but he
rejected it as not being visible as far east as the
Yukon, and because the UFO was too large and
structured for the space probe to explain. Without a
viable alternative, the ufological story prevailedan
enormous craft of unearthly origin ew low over the
startled witnesses. This happened to be a story that
the witnesses found congenial, since all of them
agreed that they observed something extraordinary
and most of them took the object to be a UFO.
12
Skeptics Robert Sheaffer and James Oberg took a
closer look at the Russian space probe. Oberg con-
tacted Ted Molczan, a Canadian expert on satellite
orbits and reentries, who conrmed that the second-
stage booster of Cosmos 2335 reentered the atmos-
phere about 8:30 p.m. on December 11 and should
have been visible low on the northern horizon to wit-
nesses in the Yukon. What the people saw was a long
train of incandescent debris sparkling and ashing as
it passed west to east in the upper atmosphere. This
passage may have taken as long as several minutes.
The brightness of the disintegrating rocket blotted
out the stars and gave the illusion that a solid object
blocked their light. For the skeptics this answer
brought the case to a decisive close.
13
Ufologists have objected that the sightings oc-
curred over two or three hours, not the few minutes
that a reentry would be visible. They also fault skep-
tics for ignoring one testimony that the object turned
south, another that it stopped and even began to ap-
proach the witness.
14
Yet the fact remains that the two
witnesses who looked at a clock state that their sight-
ings occurred about 8:30, the same time as the reen-
try, while the subjectivity of time can account for the
deviations in other accounts. The west-to-east motion
of the UFO is cited in all but one outlier instance,
and the fact that witnesses over the 200-mile stretch
of highway report the same motion offers ready evi-
dence that the UFO was distant and not close at
hand. Other details out of keeping with the conven-
tional explanation seem readily understandable as
error and illusion on the part of the individual wit-
nesses reporting them. No substantial evidence sup-
ports an anomalous identity for the Yukon UFO.
The Incident at Exeter
By 2:00 a.m. on September 3, 1965, eighteen-year
old Norman Muscarello had walked nine miles and
9
11
Jasek, Martin. Giant UFO in the Yukon Territory (Delta, BC: UFO*BC, 2000), 1-26; Pegasus Research Consortium: The UFO Files: Yukon
UFO Mothershp Incident: December 11, 1996.
www.thethievingmoon.com/46jkrog08/02Files/Yukon_UFO_Mothership_Incident_December_11_1996. html.
12
Jasek, Giant UFO, 27-34.
13
Sheaffer, Robert. Top Ten UFO Case: Yukon, Canada, 1996Busted! Skeptical Inquirer 36/5 (Sept.-Oct. 2012), 22-23. (Same title):
http://badufos.blogspot.com/2012/04/top-ten-ufo-case-yukon-canada-1996.html.
14
(abovetopsecret.com. Aliens and UFOs) Top Ten UFO Case, Yukon, Canada, 1996BUSTED!?
www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread835767/pg1 (see p.4)
had another three miles to go before he reached his
home in Exeter, New Hampshire. He had sold his car
because he was headed to boot camp in three weeks
and hitchhiked that evening to visit his girlfriend.
Rides were scarce on the return trip and he had to
walk most of the way. As he passed a farmhouse a
reddish glow illuminated the surrounding area. The
source was ve ashing lights tilted at a 60-degree
angle; only one light shone at a time as they pulsed in
a rapid pattern back and forth, 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1.
The lights were so bright that he could not distin-
guish any object behind them, but they stayed to-
gether as a body as they moved out over the elds
and swayed with a motion like a falling leaf. Some-
times the lights disappeared behind the house or
some trees then reappeared again, and once came so
close that he dived into a ditch for fear of being
struck. The UFO nally retreated across the wood-
lands after about fteen minutes.
Muscarello knocked at the farmhouse but re-
ceived no response. He was able to ag a passing car
and get to the Exeter police station, where the ofcer
on duty radioed Ofcer Eugene Bertrand to investi-
gate. Bertrand had heard the story of a woman mo-
torist upset by a red-lighted object that followed her
earlier in the evening, and after hearing Muscarellos
account, drove him back to the scene. They arrived
about 3:00 a.m. and the two of them had walked into
the eld when a group of ve red lights, ashing one
at a time, appeared over a stand of trees then moved
across the eld. The farm animals became agitated
and noisy at this time. As the lights approached him
Bertrand dropped to his knees and started to pull his
revolver, then thought better and pulled Muscarello
back to the cruiser. He radioed another ofcer, David
Hunt, who arrived in a few minutes. By the time
Hunt saw the lights they were moving off into the
distance, but he stated that the group of lights ashed
in sequence and maintained an altitude of about a
hundred feet. The animals quieted down as the UFO
departed to the southeast in the direction of Hamp-
ton, where a man phoned the police soon after to
report that a UFO had chased him.
15
When ufologist Raymond Fowler interviewed
Bertrand a week after the event, Bertrand compared
the brightness of the lights to facing an automobile
headlight at close range. They lit up the entire eld
and two nearby houses with a red light. The ve
lights always maintained a 60-degree angle and when
they moved, the lowest light always led the way. He
suspected that the lights were attached to an object
the size of a barn, and also remarked that the object
could stop, hover, and turn on a dime. When asked to
compare the apparent size of the UFO to a familiar
object, he said that the object at its closest looked as
wide as a grapefruit at arms length.
16
The Exeter case lacked nothing for documenta-
tion and eld investigation. All three witnesses led
statements with the Air Force and some of ufologys
best investigators followed up with further question-
ing. J. Allen Hynek took an interest in the case, while
Ray Fowlers meticulous report was published in the
Congressional Record for April 5, 1966, as part of the
House Committee on Armed Services hearings on
unidentied ying objects. John G. Fuller, a columnist
for Saturday Review, learned of the case from Fowler
and began his own investigation, leading to magazine
articles in Saturday Review, Look, and Readers Digest,
while a popular book, Incident at Exeter, followed in
1966. In this book Fuller also explored scores of
other cases reported around New Hampshire during
the fall of 1965.
The Air Force had a ready explanation for the
Exeter sightingnighttime maneuvers designated
Operation Big Blast operated out of Pease Air
Force Base, ten miles outside the town, on the eve-
ning of September 2. The witnesses simply saw an
aerial refueling operation at the end of these maneu-
vers. This seemingly plausible explanation foundered
on the fact that all Big Blast aircraft had returned to
base by 1:30 a.m. on the 3
rd
, while Bertrand com-
plained that he gained extensive familiarity with refu-
eling operations during his four years in the Air Force
and the UFO resembled nothing he had ever seen. As
a result of Bertrands protest Project Blue Book re-
versed its verdict and declared the case unknown.
17
10
15
Hynek, J. Allen. The Hynek UFO Report (New York: Dell, 1977), 154-165.
16
Fowler, Raymond E. Casebook of a UFO Investigator (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981), 34-43.
17
Hynek, Hynek UFO Report, 161-165.
Other attempts to explain this UFO have ranged
from the improbable, like an advertising aircraft (at
3:00 a.m.?) and electrical plasmas that detached from
nearby power lines and oated across the countryside
(unfounded and unlikely), to the more reasonable
proposal that the planet Jupiter was responsible
(probably true for some other reports but does not t
the testimony of the Exeter witnesses). Another ex-
planation postulated a hoaxer ying a kite with ash-
ing lights attached to the string. This proposal ex-
plained the 60-degree angle and the falling leaf
motion, but raised too many other questions, like why
would anyone carry out a hoax so late at night, or
how could anyone run off through the woods but not
entangle the kite string in the trees?
18
With no viable
conventional explanations at hand, ufologists trusted
that a genuine UFO had descended on the rural
elds outside Exeter, one of a series of sightings in
that same area. Three credible witnesses conrmed
the sighting and elements like the falling-leaf motion
and animal reactions tallied with other reports as
typical of UFO encounters. Truly, then, this case
seemed to be one for the ages.
A reexamination of the case by James McGaha
and Joe Nickell reopened the possibility that a refuel-
ing aircraft was responsible. They pointed out in the
November-December 2011 issue of Skeptical Inquirer
that the KC-97 tanker very probably participated in
the Big Blast maneuvers. This tanker had ve lights
above its refueling boom that ashed to guide aircraft
to docking, and since the boom hung at a 60-degree
angle, reections of these lights off the boom could
account for the witness observations. A slow-moving
tanker circling the rendezvous area might appear to
chase the witnesses on the ground while uttering of
the boom in the wind could explain the falling leaf
motion. The tanker could thus answer the most strik-
ing observational questions raised by the Exeter
UFO. At last a conventional solution to the long-
standing Exeter mystery seemed at hand.
19
Ufologists did not buy this new solution. No refu-
eling operations should have been underway an hour
and a half after the end of the maneuvers, and in any
case a low-level refueling operation over an inhabited
area in the dead of night would be foolhardy and
dangerous. And the fact remains that Ofcer Ber-
trand was familiar with nighttime refueling
operations.
20
The most trenchant rebuttal came from
Martin Shough, an association of the National Avia-
tion Reporting Center for Aerial Phenomena (NAR-
CAP). He pointed out that for the guide lights to ap-
pear as individual lights, the tanker would have to be
no more than a mile away, and more probably a half
mile at most. To stay in sight for as long as the obser-
vations lasted, the tanker would have to be ying as
slow as about ten miles an hour, far too slow to stay
airborne; and even allowing for signicant overesti-
mates in timing, the tankers air speed would still be
too slow. Shoughs rebuttal makes clear that the
tanker explanation does not t the reported facts and
is, in fact, mathematically impossible.
21
The dispute might end here, but Shough sug-
gested an alternative solution in which aircraft might
explain the Exeter incident. He said that rotating red
anti-collision beacons on several B-47s ying in for-
mation at some distance could explain both the UFO
lights and the duration of the sighting. The witness
observations would depend on a lot of coincidences
and he did not muster any enthusiasm for his own
proposal, but here at least was one conventional ex-
planation with some viability. Some evidence even
exists that there were B-47s or other large aircraft in
the air as late as 3:00 a.m., even if not related to Op-
eration Big Blast. The skeptics did not explain the
Incident at Exeter but they opened a dialogue that
led to another possibility. Ufologists may continue to
defend Exeter as a genuine UFO case, and legiti-
mately so; but these new examinations have dimin-
ished it to the point that it can no longer settle se-
curely on every ufologists top-ten list.
11
18
Bullard, The Myth and Mystery of UFOs, 37-38.
19
McGaha, James, and Joe Nickell. Exeter Incident Solved! A Classic UFO Case, Forty-Five Years Cold. Skeptical Inquirer 35/6
(Nov.-Dec. 2011), 16-19.
20
(The Big Study) The Recent Fuss about the Exeter Case. http://thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com/2012/04/
recent-fuss-about-exeter-case.html.
21
Shough, Martin. Exeunt Exeter? (posted April 2012). www.martinshough.com/aerialphenomena/
EXETER%20N.H.%20Sep%202-3%201965.pdf.
Whats Right With Ufological
Investigation
Lest anyone rush to judgment and condemn ufolo-
gists as always incompetent, amateurish, or cultists
bent on conrming a belief, a look at the Phoenix
Lights, the Yukon Mothership, and the Incident at
Exeter demonstrates just the opposite. Much effort
and a high degree of skill went into the investigation
of events that truly merited such attention. These
examples clearly t a checklist of reasons to regard
them as promising UFOs:
1) The three sightings were authentic events with
documentation to show that they were more
than a hoax, rumor, or media fabrication.
2) The objects observed had obvious intrinsic interest.
3) Descriptions of the objects were rich in informa-
tion.
4) Witnesses of the objects were dependable, credible
persons.
5) Corroborating testimony supported each case. This
support came from the testimonies of multiple
witnesses in all three, and from the instrumen-
tal evidence of photography in Phoenix.
6) The evidence was detailed enough that investiga-
tors could do some science with it and add
to their understanding, for example triangula-
tion of objects in the Phoenix and Yukon cases
allowed determination of distance or size from
the reported observations.
7) The testimonies provided coherent accounts and
largely conrmed one another.
8) Some descriptions matched previous experience
and these similarities tied the cases to other
UFO descriptions.
9) A thorough investigation gathered testimony and
supplemental evidence directly from the wit-
nesses, with inspection of the site and with
regard for exact positions, time, and angular
size of the object.
10) All three cases underwent critical examination
both by ufologists and skeptics in an effort to
nd conventional alternatives, yet survived (at
least for a while) as genuinely puzzling anoma-
lies.
A consideration of what is best in ufological investiga-
tion could start with recognition that these Ten
Commandments for identifying quality UFO cases
fulll reasonable, rule-of-thumb selection criteria that
could apply (at least with some modication) to any
anomaly. The three examples represent undeniable
experiential events, describe robust, intriguing obser-
vations, and rest on abundant, detailed testimony
from multiple sources. In the word of the witnesses
these sightings amounted to far more than nonde-
script lights in the distance. Something curious, some-
thing strange and worthy of investigation, was clearly
afoot.
The three cases exemplify the investigators obvi-
ous passion for thoroughness. Investigators in all
three cases collected extensive les of sightings and as
much supplemental evidence as possible, like video-
tapes. Field investigations and follow-up interviews of
witnesses also lled in the informational gaps to
gather as much rsthand information as humanly
possible. If ufologists arrived at wrong conclusions
the reason was not a lack of raw data.
Another strength was a willingness to listen to the
witnesses, to take them seriously and not be too quick
to second-guess or over-interpret what they said. The
investigators followed the lead of their informants
and accepted their descriptions as the factual founda-
tion on which to base interpretation, so that, for ex-
ample, if witnesses said they saw a dark, V-shaped
form behind the lights, this object becomes the given
reality to explain. At least ufologists did not com-
pletely distort testimonies and force them to conform
to some preordained idea.
When the time came to bring narrative order to
the collection of reports and tell a coherent story of
what the witnesses observed, the results in these three
examples held close to the testimonial evidence. The
Phoenix story included multiple UFOs, some triangu-
lar and at least one circular, crossing the state and
passing over or near the city. The Yukon story made
room for people at various positions along 200 miles
of highway seeing the same giant craft. The Exeter
story had a ashing red UFO appear twice over a
farm and scare two motorists the same night. Rather
than invent a story without foundation in the testi-
monies, the investigators combined individual stories
to encompass multiple accounts and different points
of vantage, resulting in a big picture narration that
is hypothetical yet rmly based on the full body of
testimony. If ufologists erred, they could say with
fairness that they simply followed the lead of the wit-
nesses.
Ufologists typicallyand understandablyhave
a desire to nd UFOs as the cause of a spectacular
case. This will-to-believe stigmatizes ufology with
12
suspicions that its practitioners are uncritical and de-
termined to make a UFO out of imsy evidence or
no evidence at all, but these three examples show
quite a different picture. Extensive investigations
probed each case, and far from any image of true
believers enjoying a holiday of self-conrmation,
ufologists did not automatically leap to the conclusion
that a UFO caused the sightings. Jasek considered a
list of conventional possibilities for the Yukon object
but rejected each one for due cause. Ufologists iden-
tied the 10 p.m. Phoenix Lights as ares but built a
sound case that the 9 p.m. lights were not ares. Such
explanations for Exeter as advertising aircraft, a kite
hoax, or KC-97 tankers met with effective refutation
from investigators who truly did their homework. Of
course ufologists wanted these cases to be UFOs, but
they based their defense on reason and evidence
rather than hope and delusion.
What Went Wrong
For the three example cases ufologists obeyed the Ten
Commandments of selection, carried out diligent
investigations, and defended their conclusions with
evidence and reason. This path of rectitude should
have led to genuine UFOs and cases of the highest
quality. The truth is just the oppositethe skeptics
seem to be correct and each of these cases appears to
have a conventional explanation. Ufologists were
righteous but not right; their methodology failed here
and the bitter conclusion must be that ufological
methodology is inadequate to do its job. That is, we
cannot pour in data at one end, expect the wheels to
turn and a guaranteed UFO to emerge at the other
end. The time of praise is over and a round of fault-
nding must begin, with a general drift that ufologists
trust too much in fallible human testimony and too
little in selective, informed judgment.
Failure to distinguish signal from noise. Even the least
controversial practice of ufologists, their accumula-
tion of exhaustive data, cannot qualify as an absolute
good. Important as such thoroughness is, too much
information can be too much of a good thing. Moun-
tains of facts can hide the total picture. The skies
around Phoenix seemed overrun with UFOs as re-
port after report ooded in, but the multiplicity of
reports could be deceiving, a matter of many people
seeing the same thing from different positions and
angles. Some defenders of the Phoenix Lights fall
back on this supposed multiplicity of objects to dis-
pute both ares and a single ight of aircraft as
causes, but this free acceptance of the confusing wel-
ter of reports may offer no more than false comfort.
Later reection has winnowed down the number of
independent objects, with errors of timing and direc-
tion or confusion over lights from ordinary air trafc
responsible for many other UFOs that night. The
argument for multiple objects based on the mass of
raw data grows thinner and thinner. Too much data
is better to have than too little, but mere accumula-
tion cannot serve as a goal in itself and data requires
discriminate understanding to become useful infor-
mation.
Failure to weigh evidence properly. Another hazard for
ufologists lies in their preference for literalist readings
at the expense of judicious interpretations. The word
of the witness holds great value. It brings listeners as
close as they can get to the actual experience, and
eyewitness testimony, the honest account of good
people, stands in the highest popular esteem for reli-
ability and trustworthiness. At the same time this
word is not sacrosanct. A great deal of scientic re-
search has probed the value of humans as instru-
ments of observation, and these studies make clear
that a more labyrinthine and treacherous process
than observing an event and relating an accurate re-
port can hardly be imagined.
22
The witness possesses
the authority of experience, but experience itself
combines real events with imagined ones, with errors,
misperceptions, preconceptions, and the reconstruc-
tions of memory, so that the story of the witness can
do great mischief to the description of an event. An
investigation has to be more than a conduit for testi-
monies; it also has to add value through an active
process of understanding, to make proper sense out
of literal testimonies through careful but unsparing
critical evaluation.
When ufologists come to construct a scenario of
events, they labor under the handicaps imposed by
their own good intentions. In their effort to take every
report at face value they strive to t in every bit of
testimony, but with the consequence that all faults
and errors inherent in the raw data mix with the le-
gitimate facts. The result is a half-truth that misleads
13
22
See Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham, The Myth of Repressed Memory (New York: St. Martins Press, 1994), especially
pp.3-4,47,77-79,90-100,266; Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters, Making Monsters (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1994), esp.
pp.36-43,62-63,107-111.
their own understanding and provides detractors with
an easy target. As a case in point, the Yukon sightings
spread over several hours if we accept all witness time
estimates, and a reentry event clearly would be im-
possible over such a long period. Yet the most denite
timings when witnesses actually checked a clock limit
the sighting to a short period around 8:30, the very
time that happens to correspond to the reentry. A
literalist reading of the times creates a UFO where
selection of the best-case evidence resolves the sight-
ings into a conventional event, for an obviously sig-
nicant difference in outcomes. Perceptions of time
are vulnerable to subjectivity, and critical rejection of
some reported times as probably erroneous is not
only reasonable, but clears away a major obstacle to
solving the case. In this instance an exercise of judg-
ment better serves the truth than strict adherence to
the word of every witness.
Failure to take account of human errors in witness testi-
mony. A vital consideration in understanding reports is
how they may go wrong. Even the most honest and
conscientious eyewitness faces potential errors of per-
ception and conception, of memory and communica-
tion, that threaten to distort anecdotal evidence at
every step. How a witness perceives an event depends
on physical conditions and perspectivefor example,
an advertising airplane looks very like a ying saucer
when seen at a particular angle and distance. Per-
sonal differences like diminished visual acuity may
limit perception, while some mistakes result from illu-
sions like autokinesis, the apparent movement of a
stationary light source against a dark background, or
mistaken frame of reference, most familiar in the case
of the racing moon against a background of bro-
ken clouds, when in fact the clouds are moving and
the moon stands still.
All three example cases show witnesses convinced
that the lights they saw were attached to some dark
framework that they inferred or discerned only
vaguely. A vivid part of the Phoenix Lights story was
the enormous V-shaped craft; of the Yukon case the
tub-shaped object as big as a stadium; of Exeter a
barn-sized bearer of the ashing lights. The lights
were plain enough but the object behind them be-
came evident only because it blotted out the stars or
appeared darker than the night sky. Many witnesses
were convinced they saw these dark objects but ufolo-
gists would be wise to doubt, since such appearances
can result from commonplace errors. One is the
contour illusion as the mind tends to ll in gaps
and connect unrelated objects into geometric forms,
another is an illusion of contrast as the brighter lights
make the adjacent eld of view appear darker, and
lesser lights like stars seem to fade out as if eclipsed
by a solid object. These illusions are well-known in
other contexts but ufologists often overlook them as
potential complications in a UFO sighting.
Conceptual errors occur when witnesses confuse
what they see with what they expect to see. Some
spectacular UFO reports, full of elaborate and sin-
cere details of ashing, multicolored lights from a
metallic craft that lands nearby, have resolved into
nothing more unusual than the planet Venus dis-
torted as it set by the thick atmosphere near the
horizon.
23
Space debris has provided the perceptual
basis for more spectacular UFOs than the Yukon
mother ship, as preconceptions of how a UFO should
look serve as a conceptual template that recongures
the burning lights high in the atmosphere into win-
dows on an elaborate alien craft near the ground.
Memory solidies the real and the erroneous
alike into the personal experience of the witness, but
memory itself remains plastic and pliant. It is subject
to modication from rethinking, reconciling the expe-
rience as it was with the experience that should have
been, or with the experience a witness wanted to
have. New information becomes incorporated into
the memory and the inuence of other individuals or
the media also presses for updates in the witnesss
recollection of the past. Memory of a UFO is not a
matter of replaying a permanent videotape but a
process of reconstruction with modications incorpo-
rated. Communication requires setting the memory
of an experience into words, and words bring their
own load of cultural baggage. The words we choose
depend on the words available to us. For example, in
describing reentry events some witnesses speak of a
formation of lights. The word is a familiar one for
several lights traveling together in the sky, but the
term introduces an element of error into the account.
A formation applies to objects ying together under
deliberate guidance, like aircraft, whereas a constel-
lation is the properbut unfamiliarterm for a
group of lights that happen to be ying near one an-
other at the same time and going in the same direc-
tion. The narrators know what they mean but when
14
23
See, for example, the Condon Committees case 15. Condon, Edward U., and Daniel S. Gillmor. Scientic Study of Unidentied Flying Ob-
jects (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1969), pp.290-291.
they speak of a formation they may leave unintended
and misleading impressions on the hearers.
No witnesses observe with their minds a blank
slate, and any effort to understand both reports and
interpretations must reckon with the expectations,
wishes, and predispositions that guide the thinking of
everyone involved. To understand an anomalous
event means to connect it to some established frame-
work. The witness has to nd the categories and
words to describe an observation; the interpreter has
to nd meaningful comparisons to make sense of
what the observer describes. Ufologists bring a ready-
made, well-developed system of facts and meanings
about UFOs to a fresh report of mysterious objects in
the sky. This accepted reality provides a template of
understanding and with it ufologists incorporate the
new observations into the old and established frame-
work. The resulting story is a UFO version that
makes sense of the described events in UFO terms.
Application of the UFO framework begins as soon as
the ufologist hears of an observation, and continues
as the ufologist investigating a sighting asks questions
and hears answers attuned to prior knowledge of the
nature of UFOs. At worst this process imposes expec-
tations in spite of anything contrary that the witness
says; more often the imposition is more subtle, with
the investigator slanting words of the witness to
square with UFO doctrine in ways that seem more
like a clarication than an alteration of the report.
But in any case a body of exterior ideas colors every-
thing written or said about a case from beginning to
end.
Failure to reckon with social and cultural inuences. The
fact that witnesses often share UFO ideas goes far to
lend the ufologist a helping hand. UFOs occupy such
a familiar place in popular belief and cultural my-
thology that they have become everymans go-to solu-
tion for any unknown objects seen in the sky today.
The witnesses in these three cases were willing
enough to regard their sightings as UFOs, reported
them as such, and attributed to them the properties
expected of UFOs. Since ufologists shared the same
ideas, investigators and witnesses joined in common
cause as they cast these experiences as UFO events.
The story that ufologists told mixed facts with inter-
pretations and expectations yet scarcely differed from
the story that the witnesses told, so that one narrative
reinforced the other in happy agreement.
This shared version of reality provides mutual
reinforcement for the prior beliefs of both witnesses
and ufologists, with the downside that a readily ac-
cepted UFO solution may appear more inevitable
that it should. The story of a UFO event promotes a
chosen image of facts assembled according to a pre-
existing template of ideas. A picture of what the wit-
nesses saw shows the supposed object but also min-
gles truth and ction in uncertain proportions. The
visual mythology associated with these cases is es-
pecially instructive since it exemplies how the alien
spacecraft version of a UFO event can thrive from
preferential treatment. The Exeter case has been the
subject of multiple depictions throughout its long
career. An illustration for an article by John Fuller
appeared in Readers Digest for May, 1966, showing the
UFO as a string of six grape-like lights over a farm-
house. The UFO Phenomenon, a Time-Life Book pub-
lished in 1987, dramatizes the event with a double-
page depiction of a glowing red disk with panels of
lights ashing around the perimeter. Another illustra-
tion circulating in the UFO literature by 1967 pre-
sents the Exeter object as a classic ying saucer with
silvery metal hull, lighted portholes, ns, antenna,
and a red glowing rim, so mechanical in appearance
that a chrome grill and license plate would not seem
out of place.
24
The Readers Digest picture was the least
explicit. It portrayed the UFO as something strange
and out of the ordinary without imposing too many
questionable details, whereas the ying saucer ver-
sion went to such extremes to transform the object
into an extraterrestrial spacecraft that little of the
original descriptions remained. The Time-Life illus-
tration did not turn the UFO into a metallic craft but
left no doubt that it was articial and unlike anything
from this planetand of course this book enjoyed a
wide readership.
Illustrations like these further a conviction that
the sighting was so unambiguous and well-dened
that the only legitimate question is, How could any-
one look at these pictures and doubt that the wit-
nesses saw a mechanical craft of unearthly origin?
These depictions take much of the imagination out of
the viewers reception. They tell the audience what
really happened with explicit images that are compel-
ling but misleading. These images impose a certainty
that may not reect the words of witness testimony
with close accuracy, and sometimes go to extremes of
15
24
Fuller, John G. Outer-Space Ghost Story. Readers Digest (May, 1966), 72; The UFO Phenomenon (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books,
1987), 100-101; cover of Flying Saucers (Ray Palmer, ed.), no.55 (December 1967).
distortion. Like the verbal construct of the sighting,
they reect choices ufologists make in how to tell the
story, what to notice in the testimony and what to
overlook, what to emphasize and what to downplay.
These choices seem truthful and accurate to ufolo-
gists but betray a preference, perhaps largely uncon-
scious, that the sight in the sky corresponded to the
ufological ideal of an alien spaceship. Whether in
visual or verbal form the UFO myth, like all myths,
threatens to replace sloppy, ambiguous reality with an
improved version, a clear and meaningful picture
appealing to the public and ufologists alike, with no
drawback aside from the inconvenient fact that it is a
ction or partial truth.
To speak of a UFO mythology does not mean
to dismiss the subject as a mere false belief. In fact the
term honors the complexity and rational integrity of
a well-structured system, replete with its own ac-
cepted facts, meanings, and consequences, that
equips the ufologist with a ready kit of intellectual
tools to assimilate new observations and understand
an unknown phenomenon according to the internal
truths of the system. At the same time our ufological
understanding is hypothetical, its factual building-
blocks often putative rather than proven, its structures
of understanding speculative rather than demonstra-
ble. Many of those facts depend entirely on lowly-
valued anecdotal testimony. Ufology does not share
the experimental evidence and consensus support of
an accepted science. Ufologists, unlike mainstream
scientists, have not been able to nail down each plank
in their structure and build each new step on the
sturdy and established steps before it. Therefore the
ufological version of reality remains mythical, a self-
contained system of knowledge that is well-
integrated, compelling, and rich in explanatory
power, yet still consists of beliefs to a considerable
extent. Mythic theories of reality may hit the target
for truth, but without a proper scientic foundation
they have increased likelihood of falling short or go-
ing astray. The burden of proof that UFOs are real
outside their own belief system rests on the propo-
nents.
Any attempt to separate the physical or objective
truth about UFOs from wishes and illusions must also
contend with human issues of personal commitment
and social pressures. Skeptics and ufologists bring
their own agendas to a UFO case. One side sees only
the misidentication of conventional sights and a
credulity that corrodes the rational order of society;
the other side sees exciting new knowledge and the
chance to be on the forefront of one of the most im-
portant discoveries in history. Both sides think they
know the truth, both want to win, both will ght
tooth and nail for their cause. Spectacular, well-
witnessed, well-publicized events like the three cases
discussed here raise the stakes for both sides. Ufolo-
gists see ambassador cases, the kind to send out to
hostile audiences and win them over, the kind to de-
fend at all costs as the best examples of the claims
ufology promotes. When a governor backs one case
and Hynek another, its value grows beyond simple
rational argument to become a matter of ego and
prestige for both sides; long familiarity adds to the
investment. Once personal involvement tips over
from mere curiosity into commitment, emotional ties
to the case entangle with rational connections and
retreat becomes difcult or ceases to be an option.
The more entrenched this commitment grows, the
more the committed resist any question or doubt.
Ufologists are sure they have a handle on evidence for
an amazing and important truth but they cannot per-
suade the opposition, to their considerable frustration
and anger. As a result the dispute often veers away
from evidence toward conspiracy theory and ad
hominem attacks. The discussion itself becomes per-
sonal, emotional, sometimes ugly. An atmosphere
corrosive of the dispassionate evaluation of truth set-
tles over the subject to the detriment of all inquiry.
The witnesses adhere with similar tenacity to
their experience. They may bow to authority on
quanta and dark matter since these subjects are re-
mote and recondite, but an experienced anomaly
places witnesses on the front line and they defend the
fact of their experience and perhaps also their rough-
and-ready understanding of it against any doubters
or detractors. An experienced anomaly is a very per-
sonal matter and likely to inspire more emotional
defensiveness than rational defense. Ufologists side
with witnesses to defend their truthfulness and to op-
pose the undeserved ridicule that often befalls them.
An embattled union takes shape and once the wagons
circle, social solidarity keeps everyone behind the de-
fensive perimeter loyal to the common cause. The
defenders expect the worst from the opposition and
resist even a reasonable conventional solution like
ares for some Phoenix sightings. Again truth falls as
a casualty in the crossre of human motives.
Failure of investigators to confront their own preferences.
By far the most hazardous step in an investigation
occurs when ufologists decide on the meaning of the
data they have gathered. However thorough, volumi-
16
nous, and meticulous the testimonies may be, they
need interpretation and explanation to make any
sense; and if ufologists are hesitant to evaluate the
testimonial evidence, they seldom hesitate to draw
conclusions about its underlying cause. The investiga-
tors choice stamps an identity onto the case that
holds more importance for everyone involved than all
the data and all the hard work that came before it.
Whether the case is a matter to forget or to treat as a
revolutionary challenge to current consensus opinion
starts here, and here concentrates the disputation
over the truth of the chosen identity. The same data
may support either a conventional or an unknown
conclusion depending on the reasoning behind it, and
the decision, along with all the arguments pro and
con that it inspires, often depends on more than
straight objective evidence. This outcome can turn on
such unwelcome factors as errors, preconceptions, or
shortcomings in knowledge.
These inuences weigh on ufologists conclusions
in all three of the examples. Observational er-
rorslike the illusion of a dark object behind lights
and a readiness to regard separate lights as part of
one solid object, mistakes about size and distance,
and subjective perceptions of the duration of an
event or the sense that an object reacts to the pres-
ence of a witnesscreate testimonial facts that are
dramatic and compelling, but false. Left to stand un-
challenged, these false facts lead to persuasive stories
or illustrations and go out into the world to persuade
the public that the evidence conrms genuine UFOs
of high strangeness. Take away the desired appear-
ances and the cherry-picked evidence, give equal
weight to alternatives and unsupportive testimony,
and an apparently robust case may diminish to a thin,
pale shadow of its former self. Whether ufologists will
face these aws and follow up with the right questions
remains uncertain. The three sightings met precon-
ceptions for a desirable UFO event so well that resis-
tance confronted even the most substantial criticisms,
and the cases circulate today in the UFO literature as
examples of the best evidence for UFOs without re-
gard for the signicant strikes against them
Failure to apply the right expertise to cases. Some ufolo-
gists are hard-nosed and duly skeptical. Richard
Motzer questioned the 8 oclock Phoenix Lights as
aircraft and the 10 oclock sightings as ares from an
early date; Martin Jasek tried out a list of alternatives
before deciding none of them could explain the
Yukon UFO. Some ufologists also bring deep exper-
tise to their explanations. Bruce Maccabee and others
plotted one formation of Phoenix lights to a military
test range far from the city for convincing proof of
ares. Martin Shough determined that the attractive-
ness of a KC-97 as the source of the Exeter UFO
could not save this explanation from the mathemati-
cal incompatibilities of distance and duration.
Most ufologists are less circumspect, less inquir-
ing, less ready or able to weigh alternatives. The fail-
ure to face telltale counterevidence can begin at the
basic level of common sense. For example, if we ac-
cept that multiple UFOs converged on Phoenix be-
tween 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. one evening, and that most
of those UFOs were a mile in size, we should ask our-
selves how many giant UFOs can share the sky and
yet be seen only one at a time. The easiest way out of
this bind admits that most witnesses saw only one big
something, while various individuals confused the
issue by reporting other unrelated lights or objects.
Few ufologists have asked this question in any public
forum, and maybe just as well from a proponents
perspective, because the ight of aircraft solution
gains credibility if most people reported the same
large object. The Yukon case poses problems that
should be game-stoppers from the start: Why does
the UFO stay to the north and always pass left to
right for observers along 200 miles of highway? A
single distant object explains the observations readily
enough; otherwise the UFO has to restage its appear-
ances for each witness, for an understanding as inele-
gant as it is unlikely.
Perhaps the single most important key to the
right solution is having the right expertise. Ufologists
work hard to amass evidence, collect testimony, and
build a case that a genuine UFO underlies the sight-
ings. That case can be persuasive and impressive, as
in these three examples. The testimony said yes to the
anomalousness of the events and efforts to nd alter-
natives said no to their viability, leaving an unknown
event as the only solution that tted the evidence. As
far as the investigators facts and reasoning went, the
UFO conclusion won out as the best available.
Maybe some of the effort was clumsy or partisan or
overly rhetorical, but at least ufologists made a good-
faith effort to reach the truth, and if it just happened
to favor the outcome they desired, then, after all,
somebody had to be right. Only in these three cases it
made no difference that the ufologists did everything
right, since in the end it seems that their answers
were wrong. In the nal reckoning expertise made all
the difference.
17
Ufologists may have fought a fair ght and sup-
ported the popular side of the issue, but a hard and
unfortunate fact about the truth is that it is neither
democratic nor fair. Hundreds or even thousands of
witnesses of the Phoenix Lights thought they saw ei-
ther a formation of ve lights or a V-shaped craft
bearing these lights. One witness turned his telescope
on the lights and recognized ve lighted aircraft. One
against a thousand does not carry much weight if
every vote counts the same and one dissenting voice
out of a thousand scarcely seems worthy of notice.
Many witnesses have decried the aircraft explanation
as wrong, or accused the dissenting witness of in-
competence. Yet he had the experience, the right
equipment, and reached a tenable conventional solu-
tion that also happened to square with the video tape
showing independent motion among the lights. This
one witness saw better than the thousand who lacked
a good telescope, knowledge of the appearance of
aircraft when seen through that telescope, or readi-
ness to accept a conventional solution. His expertise
and situation prepared him to be the better observer,
and for that reason his lone testimony outweighs a
thousand others. At least anyone receptive to a con-
ventional solution and willing to accept it as more
likely than an alien spaceship can choose the airplane
solution with a reasonable condence that it is true,
even against the governor and multitudes of sincere
witnesses and earnest eld investigatorsnot fair, just
true.
A telling fact in favor of a conventional solution
for the Yukon UFO was the reentry of a Russian
rocket over northern Canada at the time of the sight-
ings. In this case witnesses described appearances that
conformed to other observations of space debris
burning in the upper atmosphere. The ufologists in-
vestigating this case considered and rejected this pos-
sibility, but their reasoning depended on some of the
times cited by witnesses and some assumptions about
position that ruled out the visibility of the reentry
where the witnesses were located. This reasoning was
sound but its factual basis was not. Some reported
times were inaccurate, while skeptics consulted an
expert with authoritative knowledge of the reentry
event and found that timings and positions coincided
too closely to doubt that the reentry was responsible
for the sightings. The ufologists worked hard and well
to reach their conclusion but the skeptical expertise
trumped their limited and faulty knowledgeagain
not fair, but true.
An emergent theme in these reections is how
important just the right knowledge turns out to be for
solving UFO cases. It works very much like a key, a
narrow and exacting implement that succeeds when
it ts and otherwise does nothing. A case like Exeter
that seemed iron-clad against conventional explana-
tion as skeptics tried one wrong key after another -
nally opened, at least a crack, for a scenario with
multiple military aircraft. Real-world events do not
necessarily have one solution, or a simple solution, or
a tidy solution. The real world is complex and dif-
cult, its puzzles insoluble even to a roomful of bright
and tenacious people, until someone with just the
right knowledge or perspective or insight hits on the
answer. Like a crossword puzzle clue, the result may
seem obvious once it is found but until then appears
meaningless and destined to remain forever un-
known. The wonder is that successes come as often as
they do, given the diversity of causes that might lead
to a UFO sighting. Not so much a cause for wonder,
under these circumstances, is the failure of ufologists
to discover a conventional solution even when one
underlies a case.
Failure of cooperation. Ufologists comprise a diverse
group from many backgrounds and specialties. Taken
as a whole they gather a great deal of expertise, but
in practice they apply little of this potential variety to
the investigation of UFO cases. One cause for this
shortcoming is the amateur nature of ufology, an-
other the lack of time and resources, yet another a
personal commitment to the extraterrestrial hypothe-
sis or some other favored paradigm. No well-drilled
professionalism prepares a UFO investigator to over-
come self-taught prejudices or pressures originating in
the ufological community and investigate cases with
ideal scientic detachment. Moreover, in dealing with
real-world events that are complex and by their very
nature unfamiliar, no individual is likely to enter the
eld equipped for every eventuality. A mysterious
event calls for the broadest spectrum of expertise to
make sense of it and get at the truth. Doubters and
skeptics may hold that expertise, or have access to it.
Ufologists may not like people who question the real-
ity of UFOs, but in rejecting the contributions these
opponents can make for reasons of their attitude or
old enmity, the result is defending a belief at the ex-
pense of nding the truth. Some ufologists feel per-
fectly comfortable with that restriction, but I would
rather hear less combative rhetoric and more willing-
ness to listen to anyone with knowledge and insight to
18
contribute, no matter whether the dialogue leads for
or against my preferred outcome.
Is Science Really the Best Approach to
Anomalies?
This year, like most years, I attended the MUFON
International UFO Symposium. The location was
Las Vegas and the only way to reach the meeting
area was to pass through a casino, after which it was
hard to say which scene was more surreal, the earnest
and well-received talks about alien visitation or the
crowds of people engaged in long, solitary relation-
ships with electronic slot machines. But for ufologists
their subject is as real as microscopes and mineral
specimens. The subtitle for the 2013 convention was
Science, UFOs and the Search for ET, in keeping
with most MUFON proceedings over the past 44
years that have paired science and UFOs as the over-
arching conference theme, with The Emergence of
a New Science, A Scientic Paradigm, A Scien-
tic Enigma, and Connecting with the Scientic
Community just a few examples. Make no mistake
about it, mainstream ufologists insist on a militant
commitment to science by their persistence in laying
claim to the status and prestige of scientic knowl-
edge, if not to the methods and strictures of scientic
procedure. And by science ufologists mean hard
science, the type that studies material objects to in-
clude, by some stretch of imagination, the technology
of extraterrestrial visitors.
UFOs started out as the ideal hard-science
anomaly. The ying saucers were shiny metallic aerial
vehicles carrying physical beings, and if a saucer
landed, you could kick it and it would go clang in
the night. Saucers represented technology of a sort
many science-ction space operas had anticipated, a
technology we could foresee in our own future, a lin-
ear descendant of jets and rockets only advanced
enough to y circles around our aircraft and travel
between the stars. Even C. G. Jung writing in Flying
Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky (1959)
accepted that since these objects registered on camera
lm and radar they had to be physical. He did not
care about their physical nature or even if aliens pi-
loted them, only in their archetypal symbolism; and
for that purpose whether alien visitation was real or
imagined made no difference because observations or
visions served the psyche equally well as the collective
unconscious healed its imbalance in a time of crisis.
He could have his saucers both ways because they
belonged to the same psychological myth whatever
their ontology.
25
Most people interested in UFOs
wanted only the machine and cared nothing about
the psychology. For them the foregone conclusion
held that aliens from space were visiting us in the
same way we planned to visit other planets, maybe to
help and maybe to harm, and this possibility consti-
tuted the most exciting mystery of our time. People
who pursued this mystery saw themselves at the van-
guard of a wonderful discovery, and looked forward
to the imminent resolution of the mystery as the ali-
ens revealed themselves in open landings or the gov-
ernment gave up the truth that they had hidden from
the public to prevent mass panic.
The sharp metallic edge of the 1950s began to
blur in the 1960s as reports showed a seemingly less
technological side to UFOs and ushered in the high
strangeness era. UFOs became less mechanical and
more and more surreal, appearing and disappearing
rather than simply traveling. They shape-shifted and
emitted beams of light that bent, twisted, and broke
off like solid objects. As abductions came to the fore-
front, ufologists had to deal with the phenomenon of
missing time and UFO occupants that passed
through solid doors like ghosts; sometimes abductees
reported that aliens haunted them in ways reminis-
cent of poltergeist manifestations. Jacques Vallee rec-
ognized the similarities between activities of UFO
aliens and traditional fairies in his seminal book, Pass-
port to Magonia (1969). Some ufological apologists de-
fended straightforward materialism by reducing high
strangeness to an alien technology that only appeared
magical because it was so far advanced, but a new
door had opened and through it passed Men in
Black, aliens that acted more like traditional polter-
geists or demons than respectable spacemen, and en-
counters that seemed to happen in a parallel
universe.
26
The old image of straightforward alien
astronauts appeared inadequate and out of date, a
19
25
Jung, C. G. Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1959), xi-xiv, 8-11, 14-20, 151-152,
164-166.
26
See Jerome Clarks entry on paranormal and occult theories of UFOs in The UFO Encyclopedia (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1998), 696-708.
relic of 1950s science ction. Both reports and theo-
ries reected this new wide-open policy, and even
concerns like crashed saucers at Roswell that seemed
to draw ufology back toward its materialistic roots
mutated into a weird miasma of conspiracy theories
and gave us speculations that aliens joined with the
Illuminati to subvert human freedom and even hu-
man genetic integrity.
27
J. Allen Hyneks ambition to
create a scientic ufology took many wild detours
through Magonia and then into the paranoid shad-
owland of conspiracists.
Materialistic ufology holds an attraction for cer-
tain types of people. It appeals to engineers, tech-
nologists, and those who favor a hard-science view of
the world. Anyone looking for an adventuresome
quest, especially males, according to one study, favor
UFOs or cryptozoology as a pursuit suited to their
tastes, while ESP, reincarnation, or other anomalies
centered in the inner realm and calling for more
static or subtle investigations seldom excite these peo-
ple. Yet even reputably physical anomalies have
had a way of following UFOs into the insubstantial
twilight. Cryptozoologists of the tracks-and-turds
school seek out physical evidence for Bigfoot in the
Pacic Northwest, but he turns up in back yards and
on doorsteps all over the country with some of the
same supernatural properties attributed to aliens.
Psychical research is sometimes drawn out of Dr.
Rhines laboratory to investigate poltergeists and
ghostly manifestations in the everyday world. Many
of the happenings collected by Charles Fort and des-
ignated as Fortean on his behalf remain isolated
and inexplicable without any theoretical structure to
understand them. These encounters with things hav-
ing no place in this world comprise Jerome Clarks
experience anomalies.
The phenomenology of our anomalies continues
to surprise and confuse us. In this realm there is al-
ways something new under the sun. Such variety
keeps anomalistics an intriguing eld of inquiry, but
this same looseness clashes with basic scientic re-
quirements and lands our subjects of interest on the
wrong side of the scientic wall. The popular image
of science as the steady accumulation of accurate
knowledge about the natural world oversimplies the
real workings of science almost to caricature. Tho-
mas Kuhn in his famous book, The Structure of Scientic
Revolutions, presents a very different picture: What
scientists do most of the time is normal science, a
process of puzzle-solving guided by the accepted
theories of a given eld and destined to ll out the
implications of those theories with ndings and un-
derstandings that conrm predicted results. A ready
example is the periodic table, which anticipated ele-
ments not yet discovered and scientists responded in
their research by nding the unknown elements to ll
those gaps. This body of accepted theories comprises
a paradigm, in effect a total understanding that re-
lates a great deal of data to a system of explanations.
These explanations provide specic mechanisms that
seem to underlie observable nature, simplify its diver-
sity, and prescribe courses for fruitful future research.
The paradigm of a scientic eld stands as the best
understanding of truth available at a given time and
backed by a consensus of scientists engaged in the
eld.
28
As convincing and unassailable as a paradigm
might appear, it often proves to be transient. One of
the great strengths of science is that its knowledge
grows and changes in response to new discoveries and
ideas. Sometimes the conict between old ideas and
new ndings grows so irreconcilable that it over-
throws an established paradigm in an intellectual
revolution that restructures the very foundations of
human understanding. The Copernican revolution
replaced the Earth with the sun as the center of the
celestial bodies, and while subsequent discoveries
have continued to decentralize the Earths place in
the universe, the initial move that Copernicus pro-
posed shows no sign of reverting. The heliocentric
system seems here to stay. Few scientic paradigms
last so long. The enormous success of Newtons me-
chanics determined the course of research for some
300 years but in that time as physicists and astrono-
mers looked beyond the everyday world to events on
atomic and cosmic scales, problems began to accu-
mulate that Newtons formulation could not answer.
These problems posed challenges that no patchwork
xes could allay and called for radical rethinking. The
revolutionary theories of Einstein and quantum me-
20
27
See Dark Side in Clark, UFO Encyclopedia, pp.301-317.
28
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientic Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 10-11, 17-18, 24, 52-53, 65.
chanics settled the disarray with esoteric new under-
standings of issues that ranged from irregularities in
the orbit of the planet Mercury to the relation be-
tween space and time. Over and over the pursuit of
normal science under a given paradigm has led to the
discovery of anomalies the paradigm cannot explain.
As the anomalies accumulated a crisis gathered, busi-
ness as usual could not continue, and only the top-to-
bottom shakeup of a scientic revolution could insti-
tute a new paradigm that met the challenge of emer-
gent facts and theories.
29
Given their crucial role in fomenting every scien-
tic revolution, it seems only right that scientists
would exalt anomalies as a valued part of the re-
search enterprise. In fact just the opposite happens.
The course of normal science has no place for
anomalies and its practitioners have no use for them.
They are annoyances and distractions, matters to dis-
trust, ignore, or assimilate without taking their impli-
cations very seriously. The prevailing paradigm serves
too well, its successes have been too many, and its
followers have too much vested interest, practical,
personal, and intellectual, in the status quo for them
to spread out the welcome mat for any challenge.
Taken one by one anomalies do nothing to slow the
train of everyday research, much less stop it. Only
when they pile up do they interfere with normal pro-
cedures and precipitate a crisis, but most scientic
practitioners resist the implicated change with dog-
ged stubbornness until the old paradigm suffers too
much damage to save and a viable new paradigm
stands ready to take its place.
Another example of the fate of anomalistic ideas
within the scientic enterprise is prematurity in
observational or theoretical discovery. The history of
science is littered with instances of ideas now ac-
cepted as true but resisted or neglected for consider-
able time before gaining acceptance. A familiar ex-
ample is the long dispute and delay over the issue of
meteors, recognized by peasants and some scientists
early in the 19
th
century as stones that fell from the
sky, while high-ranking establishment scientists (and
Thomas Jefferson) denied this proposal in favor of
lightning striking stones on the ground. A premature
discovery is one that cannot be connected by a series
of simple logical steps to canonical knowledge of the
time.
30
In terms of Kuhns normal science, any ob-
servation or idea too far removed from the prevailing
paradigm is doomed to rejection or disinterest, and
any intellectual bridge from the known to the un-
known will have to build step by exacting step to have
any chance of acceptance, no leaps allowed.
A striking example of unequal treatments takes
shape in the contrasting responses of the scientic
community to exobiology and UFOs. The usual
starting-point of science is observable data, but exo-
biology has none. No one has observed life on an-
other planet, leaving exobiologists to postulate the
nature of such life and methodologies for studying it,
but the whole eld remains an exercise in speculation.
By contrast ufology is full of observational data, bur-
ied in it. Hypotheses and theories about UFOs ad-
dress these observations in what is usually considered
the proper order for understanding scientic subjects.
Yet aside from the quibbles of a few purists, exobiol-
ogy enjoys respect as a legitimate research pursuit
and has ample publication outlets for the work of its
practitioners, while ufology cannot get so much as a
hearing. Exobiology follows directly from the ac-
cepted scientic premise that life should arise wher-
ever conditions are suitable; UFOs violate an axiom
that extraterrestrial life cant get here from there.
Connection to the prevailing paradigm makes all the
difference between acceptance as a scientic subject
and rejection as unworthy of interest.
A picture emerges of modern science as ex-
tremely conservative. The scientist of ction may
pose as a free-wheeling explorer seeking out random
surprises in the realms of the unknown, but this im-
age contrasts as much with reality as the meticulous
digging of real-life archaeologists differs from the
tomb-robbing adventures of Indiana Jones. This con-
servatism manifests in a readiness to defend the para-
digm at the expense of the anomaly even to the point
of killing the messenger, as it were. Jacques Vallee
presents a depressing example from 1961 while he
worked as a satellite observer at the Paris Observa-
tory and observed unidentied objects:
21
29
Kuhn, 77-78, 84.
30
Hook, Ernest B. A Background to Prematurity and Resistance to Discovery, in Ernest B. Hook, ed. Prematurity in Scientic Discovery
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 8.
I saw a satellite brighter than second magni-
tude. I had time to log a few data points. On
another occasion several of us recorded no less
than eleven points. The next morning Muller,
who behaves like a petty Army ofcer, simply
conscated the tape and destroyed it, although
a similar object had just been tracked by other
astronomers. Why dont we send the data
to the Americans? I asked him. Muller just
shrugged. The Americans would laugh at
us.
31
So important is defense of the status quo that rejec-
tion of anomalies doubles as an obligatory act of sav-
ing face.
A modern scientist is more likely to question,
Can it happen, and if so, how? than to ask did it
happen, though this issue seems like the true bottom
line. This approach reects a condence (some would
say arrogance) that discounts random observation in
favor of established knowledge. Such dismissal was
not always the case. Cotton Mather sent reports of a
star within the tips of the crescent moon to the Royal
Society and the Philosophical Transactions duly printed
the account.
32
Throughout the 18
th
century and
much of the 19
th
, persons with an interest in science
or natural history felt duty-bound to report unusual
events, and scientic journals to publish such reports,
on the grounds that this anomalous data might lead
to eventual understanding and discovery. As the sci-
entic enterprise grew, as its theories crystallized, and
as professionals replaced gifted amateurs, paradigm-
based understanding fenced off scientic elds and
excluded the previous free-ranging curiosity that
found importance in anecdotal oddities of nature.
These unheeded tidbits became the subjects of Char-
les Forts collections. He gathered them out of suspi-
cion that an overcondent scientic orthodoxy really
didnt know it all any better than the priests and pon-
ticating wise-men of the past, and championed such
reports as factual challenges to the doctrines of estab-
lished science:
A procession of the damned. By the damned, I
mean the excluded. We shall have a procession
of data that Science has excluded.The
power that has said to all these things that they
are damned, is Dogmatic Science. But theyll
march.
33
J. Allen Hynek had condence that UFOs were one
anomaly that would eventually enter the scientic
mainstream. He cited the history of meteors as an
analogy for the stages of coming acceptance, and
ended by observing that there would be a 21
st
-
century science and, for that matter, a 30
th
-century
science, from which perspective the current denial of
UFOs would look as embarrassing as the establish-
ment denial of meteoric falls early in the 19
th

century.
34
This optimism overlooked the difference in
treatment for anomalies experienced in the pursuit of
normal science versus anomalies experienced outside
the connes of scientic practice. The anomalies that
scientists discover in the course of their work have
ties to the prevailing paradigm, in the sense that they
arise out of its working theories and bear directly on
normal practice. A revolution may overthrow a para-
digm, yet that paradigm reaches out from beyond the
grave to control much about its replacement. These
anomalies acquire their anomalousness only because
they contradict the old paradigm, and the new one
must embrace the successes and overcome the failures
of its predecessor. The conservatism of science mani-
fests itself since even a revolution that introduces
radically new theories still bridges the differences with
close steps of thought and evidence from old to new.
A scientic revolution amounts to a palace coup
rather than an uprising that turns the world upside
down.
Where ufologists and other anomalists have
pinned their hopes on some inevitable day of reckon-
ing and insist that surely our time will come, the basis
for this faith is tenuous at best. Our anomalies are not
the pressing consequences of conict between ongo-
22
31
Vallee, Jacques. Forbidden Science: Journals 1957-1969 (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1992), 41-42.
32
An extract of several letters from Cotton Mather. Philosophical Transactions 29 (1714), 66.
33
Fort, Charles. The Books of Charles Fort (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1941), 3.
34
Hynek, J. Allen. UFOs Merit Scientic Study. Science n.s.,164 (October 21, 1966), 329.
ing laboratory discoveries and prevailing paradigms.
Our anomalies might be called of the traditional or
heritage type, those mysteries that have puzzled
mankind for a long time without making much
headway as subjects for immediate scientic consid-
eration. A quote about ghosts from Samuel Johnson
sums up the perpetual state of traditional anomalies
in general:
It is wonderful that ve thousand years have
now elapsed since the creation of the world,
and still it is undecided whether or not there
has ever been an instance of the spirit of any
person appearing after death. All argument is
against it; but all belief is for it.
35
More than two centuries have passed since Dr. John-
sons time and nothing has changed. Popular interest
continues but expert opinion echoes stock conclusions
and the subject attracts negligible scientic examina-
tion. Anomalies relevant to active scientic paradigms
emerge, receive intensive attention as acute irritants,
and provoke rapid change even in fundamental para-
digms. These newcomers bypass traditional anoma-
lies that continue to go begging at the gate. A broader
paradigm covers the traditional types, a sort of basic
rationalism that explains them away without needing
to be overly specic or even rigorously rational, just
adequate to justify setting them aside as not really
important.
The prospect for any traditional anomaly becom-
ing a subject of scientic interest looks dim. Few
negligibly fewestablishment scientists hasten to un-
dertake such research, seek funding for it, teach it,
publish it, or speak up in its defense as an intriguing
possibility. As legitimate topics of science these sub-
jects simply do not exist. Old prejudice and institu-
tionalized habit can account for some of this disinter-
est, so can the structural constraints that conne re-
search to normal science within accepted paradigms
and exclude any possibility not linked by clear steps
to sanctioned interests. When a scientist puts tradi-
tional anomalies in their perceived place, they belong
on the outside, in or beyond the fringes of science
and for the bemusement of laymen, but not a part of
scientic business. Perhaps a more revealing name,
given their status, would be orphaned or exiled
anomalies.
As easy as it is to blame this rejection on hubris
or hidebound conservatism, such ad hominem expla-
nations provide more consolation than rightful un-
derstanding. Science is a human enterprise and
subject to the shortcomings that humans bring to
high-level, competitive work where egos and agendas
get in the way of dispassionate reason. Science builds
no pristine holy temple. Its drivers can be funding
and career advancement rather than inherent interest
or pure curiosity; it fails and takes wrong turns and
violates its own standards. Some scientists even fake
data and lie in their published papers, under the on-
going pressure to succeed and appear right. But sci-
ence also cleans up its own mess, and its self-
correcting qualities are one of its greatest assets. The
pursuit of traditional anomalies may aspire to scien-
tic credentials, in truth as well as in appearance, but
most efforts languish at a rudimentary level if they
progress even that far. A lot has been said and much
done to promote the reality of certain anomalous
claims and suppositional causes that underlie them,
but much of this effort has produced, even in chari-
table terms, ineffective and often counterproductive
results. Scientists may be guilty as charged of unfair
rejection, but for explaining the low status of tradi-
tional anomalies, the accusing nger points back just
as legitimately toward the anomalies themselves and
their proponents.
A look at the public image of anomalies today
shows a parade of phony psychics, TV shows exploit-
ing dubious hauntings, and a man in a monkey suit
pretending to be Bigfoot. Poltergeist manifestations
may resolve into the tricks of a deceiving or self-
deceived teenager that nevertheless fool even well-
intentioned investigators. Proponents often accept
and advocate theories of astounding human powers
or explicit alien motives with far more eagerness than
they establish adequate evidence to support such
claims, in violation of the basic rules of science and
in a practice that bemuses outsiders as if they have
overheard nonsense discussed in Neverland. Such
antics may provide entertainment for the masses but
the serious specialists these subjects need most to at-
tract see only ample reason to run in the opposite
direction.
Some of the worst offenders among both claim-
ants and proponents ock to ufology. Charlatans, op-
portunists, and pathological liars compete to tell the
23
35
(From Boswells Life of Samuel Johnson) Quotes on Ghosts: the Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page.
http://www.samueljohnson.com/ghosts.html.
most exciting tale then lead their following as far
astray as the leash of human credibility will stretch
without snapping. Whether the lure has been contac-
tee yarns, exotic conspiracy theories, or alleged in-
side scoops, UFO adherents have demonstrated the
remarkable elasticity of their credulity time and
again. Ufology draws enthusiastic and committed
followers, but much of this energy drives the eld in
the wrong direction. Ufological discourse rings with
the tinny noise of loud but insubstantial claims. Even
an honest proponent often seizes on any claim that
conrms his or her beliefs and rebuffs any truth that
contradicts themthe reaction against the Phoenix
ares being but one example. Some of the most visi-
ble proponents of UFOs tarnish the reputation of
their eld by asserting too much and proving too lit-
tle, with the result that no one with a critical mind
would want to join this club.
Though anomalies suffer by the company they
keep, inherent shortcomings undercut their scientic
credibility in even more harmful ways. A hard-to-
study, hard-to-believe characteristic of traditional
anomalies is their double-sided nature. Sometimes
they seem purely physical, like the UFO that appears
on radar and in front of multiple witnesses, or the psi
phenomena tested in laboratory experiments. At
other times anomalies appear thoroughly strange,
completely outside the scope of rational understand-
ing, as when UFOs behave like immaterial objects or
objects y about a room during a poltergeist haunt-
ing. To further confound the situation, an anomaly
may not appear as either the event kind or as the expe-
rience kind; rather it often manifests as both at the
same time. In practical terms the same anomaly pre-
sents a spectrum of phenomena from one occurrence
to another, and even during the course of a single
manifestation. Equally trustworthy witness accounts
support both descriptions. The scientist who can
grasp the physical side will likely shun the extranor-
mal elements as entirely outside the bounds of possi-
bility even when the physical and the strange seem an
inseparable part of the same package. The strange-
ness also reects badly on the more accessible phe-
nomena and raises suspicions that something is
wrong with the whole package. The reasonable
course for a sensible scientist, then, is to blame the
mercurial accounts on mistaken or dishonest wit-
nesses and drop the entire mess.
An even stronger motivation to avoid entangle-
ment is an engrained sense that the case for tradi-
tional anomalies is embarrassingly weak. Much of
the evidence is anecdotal, questionable, or contradic-
tory. These anomalies tend to manifest in natural set-
tings at haphazard intervals and so rarely that they
are often once-in-a-lifetime occurrences. Such ap-
pearances do not lend themselves well to laboratory
dissection, instrumental examination, or recurrence
and predictability. Researchers have little or no con-
trol over the phenomenon and have to work accord-
ing to its schedule, to grab glimpses of eeting and
unexpected events as best they can. More often the
researcher observes nothing and has to work with
secondhand data from less-than-ideal sources. A de-
fender of the reality of these phenomena seldom pos-
sesses evidence robust enough to stand on its own,
but instead resorts to a sort of special pleading that
mainstream scientists would not tolerate for any other
subject. Hynek spoke of the UFO phenomenon as
elusive, while the lab work that ESP experiments
make possible produces only occasional results and
marginally signicant statistical positives. The stories
of anomalous events are often vivid and striking but
the scientic substance is invariably underwhelming,
difcult or impossible to verify or duplicate and not of
a type to weigh and measure or to demonstrate in the
classroom. Scientists want convincing evidence that
anomalies are worthy of their attention before they
invest time and energy on such claims. What the
anomalist offers is disappointment, a case that lacks
the force to change the rigorous and doubting minds
of busy scientists. They expect the anomalist to bring
them proof, while the anomalist wants the scientists
to discover the real phenomenon underlying the an-
ecdotal evidenceand so the circle goes round and
round to arrive nowhere.
Another strike against traditional anomalies
comes from some ready conventional escapes avail-
able to the doubter. Folklorists have a cultural model
to explain extranormal encountersprior exposure
to folk narratives predisposes an individual to associ-
24
ate, for example, ghosts with graveyards. Once in that
situation a triggering event, like a beam of moonlight
on a wisp of fog, leads the witness to imagine a ghost
while the resulting fear stamps an emotional verisi-
militude on the experience. The witness shapes a
story based on cultural patterns and conrms the
traditional belief by describing another incident of
the expected type.
36
Psychologists have a battery of
explanations for seemingly strange events, like con-
fabulation and false memories to account for alien-
abduction experiences.
37
An organized skeptical
movement attacks efforts to promote traditional
anomalies, the foolish and the scholarly alike, as ex-
amples of pseudoscience misleading the public. As
their criticism of UFO cases has shown, the skeptics
have honed their skills over the years and their expla-
nations offer a plausible means to empty the strange-
ness out of the anomaly and return it to line as just
another conventional occurrence. Besides exploding
prominent UFO cases, writers for Skeptical Inquirer
routinely discredit psychics, nd fault with ESP ex-
periments, and offer plausible explanations for the
creatures of cryptozoology, most recently identifying
many sightings of sasquatch/Bigfoot as the result of
witnesses seeing a bear on its hind legs.
38
Scientists
seldom need to break their intellectual stride to ac-
count for traditional anomalies because these ready-
made explanations do the job for them. The answers
match scientists own predispositions and sound plau-
sible; and even if one answer proves wrong, as in the
Exeter case, the skeptics score more hits than misses
and pile up a record of successes to reinforce the be-
lief that all the answers to traditional anomalies have
already been written, with no mysteries left over to
obligate further attention.
The laboratory scientist nds traditional anoma-
lies uncongenial because they are rare and unex-
pected occurrences in the real world, where variables
multiply beyond control and much can happen out-
side the researchers expertise. Even the wisest experts
within their own elds can become babes in the
woods when confronted with the complexities of real-
ity. One classic example is the case of Clever Hans,
the horse with the ability to add. His owner honestly
thought the horse could tap out the sums and other
witnesses agreed, until the right investigator under-
stood that not arithmetical ability but the uncon-
scious nodding of the owner guided Hans to the right
answers. In other instances a psychic may have abili-
ties that bafe the researcher but prove transparent to
a professional magician. One cautionary example of
how labyrinthine a real-world investigation can be-
come concerns the advanced scientic knowledge of
the star Sirius supposedly held by the Dogon people
of western Africa. Marcel Griaule, a respected an-
thropologist, studied the Dogon for many years and
learned that their traditional mythology attributed a
heavy companion star to Sirius, even though Western
astronomers did not discover this companion till the
19
th
century, or understand that it was a dense dwarf
star until still later. Here seemed to be the perfect
smoking gun for ancient-astronaut contact, and Gri-
aules ndings appeared as such in the UFO litera-
ture. The reality turned out to be far less clear-cut.
No other anthropologist could conrm Griaules nd-
ings, and a probable explanation emerged that Gri-
aule became friendly with his main informant and
shared newspaper reports about astronomers knowl-
edge of Sirius with him. This informant internalized
the new information and returned it to the anthro-
pologist as part of traditional lore. A new myth sup-
plemented the old and Griaule jumped to the conclu-
sion that this knowledge originated in the distant past
rather than through his own conversations. In the
give and take of two friends talking the anthropolo-
gist stepped out of his shell of scientic reserve and
contaminated his ndings unawares. On this error
another proof of ancient astronauts lived and died.
39
Almost everything scientists see and hear about
traditional anomalies, and certainly the most relied-
upon sources, tell the same story: These anomalies
are not reputable; in fact they are not even factual. A
congenial belief becomes received wisdom after
enough repetitions, so that scientists now take for
25
36
Honko, Lauri. Memorates and the Study of Folk Belief. Journal of the Folklore Institute 1 (1969), 5-19.
37
See Steven Jay Lynn et al., Rendering the Implausible Plausible: Narrative Construction, Suggestion, and Memory. Joseph de Rivera
and Theodore R. Sarbin, eds. Believed-In Imaginings:The Narrative Construction of Reality (Washington, DC: American Psychological Associa-
tion, 1998), 123-143.
38
Nickell, Joe. Bigfoot Lookalikes: Tracking Hairy Man-Beasts. Skeptical Inquirer 37/5 (Sept.-Oct. 2013), 12-15.
39
Temple, Robert K. G. The Sirius Mystery (New York: St. Martins Press, 1976); Walter E. A. van Beek, Dogon Restudied. Current Anthro-
pology 12 (1992), 139-158.
granted that anomalies lack basic credibility without
even needing to investigate the issue. Long and deep
familiarity with anomalous subjects may reveal the
possibility of something genuinely puzzling, but only
to those of us who have invested the effort to nd it,
and who are willing to accept the degree of uncer-
tainty inherent in anecdotal evidence. For the scientist
used to black and white and suspicious of any shade
of gray, the disreputable proponents, weak evidence,
impossible strangeness, and alternative explanations
for anomalistic claims answer enough questions to
close the book on these mysteries. Perhaps scientists
need a step of faith to accept their truths, but
anomalists need, if not a leap, at least a broader
stretch; and the odds of hard reasoning favor the
smaller commitment of faith to the larger.
Can traditional anomalies nd a future within
scientic inquiry? A negative answer seems hard to
avoid, yet at the same time, where else is there to go?
Philosophy, theology, or humanistic scholarship an-
swers some questions but mainly about metaphysics
or means of human thought and representation. Psy-
chology and sociology address human participation
in anomalies but largely in reductive ways that stress
individual and collective behavior yet say nothing
about the anomaly itself. Some explanations for
anomalistic phenomena may rely on unconventional
mental processes, but answers of this sort still bring
the question back to the anomaly as phenomenon.
The anomalist starts with a basic tenet that a phe-
nomenon exists and wants to know what causes it.
The phenomenon may not be materialistic but we
expect a good substitute, something unknown and
remarkable unto itself and not just some variant of
garden-variety physical or mental activity. I think
most of us expect traditional anomalies to have an
independent reality of their own, as matter, energy,
extraordinary manifestation of mind, or some as-yet
unrecognized but equally signicant facet of the ex-
periential world. The anomalist cannot rest until that
belief or hypothesis achieves its proof, but that proof
requires the imprimatur of science, the most success-
ful by far of all of humankinds means for under-
standing the natural world.
This situation leaves anomalists mired in a di-
lemma: We need science to make any headway to-
ward removing traditional anomalies from long-
standing tradition and popular belief into acceptance
and high-powered investigation. At the same time
science is dead set against these anomalies, for rea-
sons that range from prejudicial misunderstanding to
sound rational judgment. No end of this stalemate
seems anywhere in sight. At a very minimum we need
a scientic study of anomalies to weed out unusual
conventional events, mistaken identities, and hoaxes
so that we can escape the confusion of false leads and
distinguish the core anomalous phenomena, if any
exist. Then the real study process can begin, but sci-
ence will not oblige except to issue blanket denials,
and we should entertain no illusions that any event or
change of heart is likely to end the current stagna-
tion. Anomalists are left pretty much on their own to
eke out what little research they can manage, most of
it on their own time and resources, with little hope for
breakthroughs, rewards, respect, or even tolerance.
The picture is bleak; yet it is not entirely gloomy.
One point we need to remember and emphasize:
Human experiential testimony is not worthless. Over
the years meteors or space-junk reentries have in-
spired lurid tales of spaceships with lighted windows
ying at treetop level, and skeptics have jumped on
these examples as proof positive that eyewitnesses are
unreliable. These examples warn of a real problem.
Witness reports are often full of misperceptions, er-
rors, and distortions; subject to social, media, and
cultural inuences; prone to rethinking and reshaping
to satisfy social expectations and personal desires.
Human observation, memory, and description are
fallible instruments for conveying the truth about an
event, and the extreme examples of error can be
truly extreme. Yet those same reentry cases so popu-
lar with the skeptics actually show a surprisingly posi-
tive image of witness capabilities when taken as a
whole. The Air Force received 78 reports of the
Zond-IV space probe reentry in 1968. Most infor-
mants gave accurate descriptions of the event, and
when distortions crept in they were usually minor and
predictable, like the misuse of the term formation
for the lights, or inaccurate estimates of distance and
speed. Only a few witnesses submitted extreme ac-
counts that bore little resemblance to the actual
stimulus of several burning lights a hundred miles
high over the earth. The observers who adhered to
the truth or committed minor deviations far outnum-
26
bered the small minority that turned a conventional
event into a spectacular UFO sighting.
40
A striking example of witness delity to truth
appears in the chronicle of John of Worcester for a
February night in 1130 or 1131 A.D. A little after
midnight two priests and two clerks were leaving
church when they saw a bright light.
The object from which the bright light came
was covered with a white cloud. For short peri-
ods it would emerge from the cloud as though
it was moving upwards, and then after a
short interval it would reenter the cloud to the
fear and amazement of the observers. Its col-
our was a blend of those of a full moon and of
bright ames. In shape and size it was like a
small pyramid, broad at the bottom and nar-
row at the top. The witnessesdeclared that a
fairly small plank, stretching upwards a long-
way was seen to stand on the cloud in which
the brilliant object had been.
Other people arrived in response to the outcries of
the witnesses but saw only the fading remnants. The
writer heard from a number of other witnesses to this
event.
41
A large meteor, generating its own cloud as it dis-
integrates or alternately lighting and being hidden
behind broken ordinary clouds, creates just such a
sight as the chronicler describes. His medieval world-
view contained no modern concept of meteors and
provided him with no ready vocabulary to draw on,
yet he detailed the observation with such accuracy
that the modern reader recognizes the object for what
it was. The text is plain and spare, devoid of beliefs
and interpretations. Some of the description is
clumsy in its struggle to convey an unfamiliar and
amazing sight, but what stands out is how factual the
account reads. Here and in other examples a witness
confronted with spectacular and strange events drops
all attempts to force the observation into a pregured
belief or theory. The strangest sights seem most likely
to clear the mind wonderfully of preconceptions
and compel a careful, factual account.
David Hufford has led an effort to appreciate the
value of experiential accounts through his advocacy
of an experience-centered approach to their study. In
The Terror That Comes in the Night (1982) he builds a
convincing case that not all extranormal experiences
originate in a culture-mediated misinterpretation of
conventional events. His research on the Old Hag
experience in Newfoundland and other cases of su-
pernatural assault around the world demonstrates
that the phenomenology of Mara attack, the sense of
paralysis and suffocation by a malevolent entity, is
universal and not attributable to ideas gleaned from
tradition. A genuine experience gave rise to the tradi-
tion, rather than the other way around. The most
likely basis is sleep paralysis accompanied by halluci-
nation, but while local traditions interpret the experi-
ence, the genesis of many phenomenological particu-
lars remains uncertain.
42
A considerable literature has
followed Huffords pioneering work in tracing tradi-
tions to experiential foundations. For instance some
monsters of mythology may owe their origin to an-
cient peoples discovering fossil skeletons, while relig-
ious traditions of visits to heaven echo the descrip-
tions of near-death experiences. Experiences of sleep
paralysis and Mara attack appear to inform some,
perhaps many cases of UFO abduction.
43
An experience-centered approach offers a valu-
able foundation for the methodology to explore tradi-
tional anomalies. The success of the approach further
afrms that witness testimony can provide reliable
data for study. At least we have a starting-place, but
where do we go from here? Solitude and isolation
inside or outside of the academic community limits
the chances an anomalist has for making any pro-
27
40
Hartmann, William K. Processes of Perception, Conception, and Reporting, in Condon, Scientic Study of Unidentied Flying Objects,
571-577; Donald H. Menzel. UFOsThe Modern Myth, in UFOs: A Scientic Debate, ed. Carl Sagan and Thornton Page (Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 1972), 155-156.
41
Chronicle of John of Worcester. Transl. P. McGurk (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), 199.
42
Hufford, David J. The Terror That Comes in the Night (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), x, xvi-xix, 1-11, 15, 25, 48-53,
248-249.
43
Mayor, Adrienne. The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000); Gregory
Shushan. Conceptions of the Afterlife in Early Civilizations: Universalism, Constructivism and Near-Death Experience (New York: Continuum Interna-
tional, 2009); Susan A. Clancy. Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2005), 35-36.
gress. The opportunity to share ndings, discuss
ideas, and participate in a communal effort provides
the sort of nurturing environment essential for suc-
cess and long-term engagement in any eld of study;
otherwise effort and interest are pretty likely to wither
and die.
No institutional berths will open up for
anomalists, but another possibility is to establish a
separate, parallel scientic discipline with the high
standards of recognized science but without its in-
hospitable negativity. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee
proposed the creation of an invisible college in the
wake of the Condon Committee asco of the late
1960s. This government-funded investigation of
UFOs at the University of Colorado raised high
hopes for a fair and objective study but collapsed as
the leadership ignored evidence to arrive at a preor-
dained conclusion. Ufologists were left to pick up the
pieces, but the idea of establishing a network of able
and interested individuals to carry out quality re-
search offered a new hope to fulll the promise that
the Condon study betrayed. The outcome was disap-
pointing on the whole, but the plan remains a good
one and even now not all is lost. The National Avia-
tion Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena
(NARCAP) exemplies an oasis of excellence amid
the desert of mediocrity and scientic mirages that
surround current ufology. NARCAP brings together
associates with extensive expertise to study hard data
and restrict their conclusions to the available evi-
dence, without any commitment to an explanatory
agenda.
44
This organization establishes a model that
could benet the study of any anomaly.
Recruiting participants might not be the mission
impossible it appears at rst glance. In my own expe-
rience I have found over the years that a surprising
number of academic faculty members have a per-
sonal UFO story to tell. I heard those stories because
they knew of my interest; otherwise they had seldom
conded these experiences to anyone. Such experi-
ences remain compartmentalized and hidden, but
might motivate active participation given a safe and
friendly outlet to peers with similar interests. My
small sample of academics with anomalous experi-
ences may extrapolate into signicant numbers if all
such secrets come into the open, and suggests a latent
curiosity that may recruit the staff for an invisible
college some day. Most of these academics have not
been scientists but anomalies still attract even high-
prole scientists. The stellar roster of the Society for
Psychical Research will not likely repeat itself, while
Hyneks position as the Blue Book consultant on
UFOs during the 1950s and 1960s was unique. Yet
Harvard psychiatrist John Mack took an intensive
interest in abductions, and Kary Mullis, who won the
Nobel Prize in 1993 for inventing the polymerase
chain reaction process, has gone public about having
an abduction-like experience of his own:
Some people have experiences that are so
strange, they attribute them to alien interven-
tion of some kind. I had one of those expe-
riences myself. To say it was alien is to assume
a lot. But to say it was weird is to understate it.
It was extraordinarily weird. I wouldnt try
to publish a scientic paper about these things
because I cant do any experiments. Its what
science calls anecdotal, because it only hap-
pened in a way that you cant reproduce. But it
happened.
45
He did not accept the alien interpretation but his
statements about the factuality of the experience and
the inability of conventional science to address it ring
true for the anomaly experience in general.
Accepting the possibility of an invisible college,
some desirable contributions from its members come
to mind. If the anomalist must work with anecdotal
testimony as primary data, that testimony needs to be
of the highest possible quality. The witness of an
anomaly is most likely to be a layman with no special
training as an observer but perhaps a great deal to
say in terms of cultural interpretations and beliefs.
Much trouble often results from this mixture. The
accurate reports will likely mingle with the distorted
ones, and one of the great dangers in collecting
anomaly reports is a selection bias that favors the col-
lectors expectations. A ufologist takes an interest only
when observers categorize an object in the sky as a
UFO, or allow the ufologist to interpret the object in
those terms. This bias can lead to a concentration of
distorted cases in the le to the exclusion of more
conventional descriptions; so for example, hearing
only the extreme UFO reports from the Zond re-
28
44
(NARCAP website) www.narcap.org.
45
Mullis, Kary. Dancing Naked in the Mind Field (New York: Vintage Books, 1998), 131, 136.
entry gives a very differentand very wrongim-
pression than the more accurate reports. A lack of
training handicaps many UFO investigators and
leads them into errors. Basic forensic skills would im-
prove interviews with witnesses and guarantee the
gathering of necessary basic data. An anthropolo-
gists training in ethnographic eldwork would pre-
pare the investigator to gather a thorough account
but also to be aware of the cultural background and
recognize the narrators personal slant in relating the
events.
A further need is awareness of the mythology
surrounding anomalies. UFOs y in an especially
dense matrix of beliefs, assumptions, and supposi-
tions that inuence observation, conception, interpre-
tation, communication, and reception. In short, eye-
witness testimony passes through too many prisms of
cultural expectation to ever allow a direct view of the
event, with even more distorting twists and turns to
follow as the report passes from person to person.
How the witness understands the event is a matter
valuable in its own right, but investigators familiar
with the concepts, explanatory traditions, and stylized
vocabulary used to speak of the subject possess some
insight to distinguish cultural elements imposed on
the phenomenon and separate them from the proper-
ties of the phenomenon itself.
The college would benet if its scope expanded
to include the greatest possible breadth and depth of
expertise. As the earlier examples demonstrated, the
answer to a problem often hinges on one individual
whose knowledge serves as the key that ts where all
others fail. A real-world problem in all its prickly
complexity demands a maximum variety of ap-
proaches, perspectives, and insights. We anomalists
may not like those experts or agree with their conclu-
sions, but we need to swallow our pride and invite
their help. They may have, or have access to, the very
expertise that can solve a problem that bafes the rest
of us.
Beyond these few rather obvious preliminaries
must follow a meaningful research program if the
eld of anomalistics is to make any progress. This
research may fare better on the eld science model
rather than the laboratory science model, given
that data-gathering for anomalies is opportunistic,
but at least the study of anomalies within a conven-
tional framework would not have to be the complete
abandonment of scientic integrity that some critics
would undoubtedly brand it. The means and meth-
ods and goals of such studies go beyond the scope of
this paper, and I have already wandered too far. All I
mean to suggest is a scientic future for research on
traditional anomalies stands a ghting chance, if
enough people have the interest and the organization
to give it a chance.
This discussion has so far skirted the deepest
problems posed by the experience anomaly. Its high-
strangeness aspect is the least congenial to conven-
tional science yet the essence of interest for
anomalists. The puzzlement this strangeness begets,
how far removed it seems from conventional phe-
nomena, raises questions of whether science with its
materialistic and Cartesian bias can provide mean-
ingful answers to manifestations that may transcend
accepted physics or understandings of mind. Quite a
few investigators have agreed and turned off the sci-
entic road onto unconventional paths. John Mack
accepted that UFO abductions were physical events
but paid limited attention to that aspect of the expe-
rience. He focused his interest on the messages that
abductees reported, messages of peace, environ-
mental concern, and a possible future apocalypse that
Mack, like Jung, interpreted as a transformational
signal redirecting human materialism toward a new
age of harmony for man, nature, and whatever
Other the aliens represented.
46
In this case the scientist ufologists got was not the
scientist they wanted. Their interests in machinery
and spacemen were disappointed by Macks turn to-
ward mysticism, but he was not the rst or the only
thinker in this vein. UFOs have inspired many con-
siderations that the purpose or earthly effect of the
phenomenon has more importance than the nature
of the phenomenon itself. Jacques Vallee speculated
that some unknown intelligenceextraterrestrial,
chthonic, inter-dimensionalor perhaps some mind-
less power, presented anomalous visions as a kind of
cosmic thermostat to regulate the course of human
development. John Keel introduced ultraterrestrials
existing on different wavelengths from the everyday
world but able to modulate in and out of this world
for motives that appeared primarily demonic, and
methods that alternately lured and frightened off, led
to wisdom or drove to madness the people with
whom these entities interacted. Others have noted
the relation between abductions and shamanic initia-
tions and proposed that abductions serve to shaman-
29
46
Bullard, The Myth and Mystery of UFOs, 48, 179, 214.
ize the planet. Whether the instigator is outside or
inside our minds, the process initiates growing num-
bers of people to new patterns of thought and prom-
ises to correct the destructive tendencies of humanity
worldwide.
47
An approach that overleaps the physical mystery
to address its meaning re-centers the inquiry on the
human condition. Perhaps more people nd that is-
sue compelling than where aliens come from, what
they want, and how they conspire with the govern-
ment, matters that so preoccupy materialistic ufolo-
gists. Another objection argues that UFOs cant really
be a scientic issue because science has already con-
cluded that aliens have no possibility of traveling here
over interstellar distances, and UFOs as space vehi-
cles work only in a science-ction realm where the
hard facts of physics do not apply. UFOs have a real-
ity or at least an effect, but since they lie fundamen-
tally outside of science, the argument implies, only
some alternative approach can study them.
I will not belittle efforts to nd meanings in
anomalistic events, or the argument that UFOs make
poor sense as alien vehicles, but I think both ap-
proaches suffer from similar faults. Both impose an
ornate structure of suppositions onto limited and se-
lective evidence. When meanings matter foremost,
the goal is to develop a system of thoughts and sym-
bols that associate as many facts and ideas as possible,
while the initial stimulus gets left behind as a lowly
pretext. The anomaly consequently provides little
support to the system but no matterthe system
counts because it offers solutions for human problems
and comes to stand on its own, a thing to discuss and
dispute with little reference to the aliens who suppos-
edly introduced the message. The witchcraft theory
of disease succeeds because it draws together many
seemingly unrelated observations and suspicions, ex-
plains everything in a coherent system, and provides
a plan of action to solve genuine problemsstop the
witch, stop the sickness. What works in social and
psychological terms does not, in this case, work in
natural terms where infectious microorganisms are
the cause. Systems of meaning become an exercise in
magical thinking, coherent and rich with answers, but
self-referencing and largely cut off from factual roots
that may differ markedly from the accepted terms of
the system. The same can be said for searching out
parallel phenomena like fairies, demons, and appari-
tions, then unifying them with UFOs to conclude that
some yet larger mystery encompasses all things
strange. This unied-eld theory may be correct. It
solves some problems and should not be dismissed
out of hand, but the same structural aw besets it. Its
solution for one mystery becomes other mysteries
drawn into a system of meanings where one part
conrms another, but no outside evidence conrms
the parts. Such speculative theories move the discus-
sion sideways, not upward.
The argument against treating an anomaly scien-
tically because it manifests unscientic properties
confuses the phenomenon with its interpretation. In
the case of UFOs almost everyone understands them
as alien spaceships. This meaning seems right, but it
imposes a mythology onto the phenomenon that is
not inevitably true. An attack on UFOs as unscientic
is really an objection to the extraterrestrial hypothesis
and says nothing about the phenomenon. Much of
the discourse about UFOs, whether from the materi-
alists or the mystics, the scientic hawks or the anti-
science doves, takes place within the framework of an
explanatory system that grows, controls the course of
much debate, and often exceeds its evidential basis.
All too often one speculation builds on another and
beliefs have no more support than other beliefs, in a
process that truly steers the subject into unscientic
territory; but the fault does not necessarily belong to
the phenomenon. The example of ufology should
serve as a cautionary tale against too much meaning
derived from too little fact, and a warning that in
theory-making it is better not to pick a winner too
soon.
Jerome Clark has said that unless we nd radi-
cally new ways to study anomalies, we will continue
to spin our wheels for decades to come as we have for
decades past. To that thought I nod a solemn
amen. The study of anomalies has to contend with
many obstacles imposed from without, but much of
the trouble comes from within, and a reformed ap-
proach may overcome some of the self-defeating
practices of the eld:
We need to make a right beginning. It requires
the establishment of a sound footing that distin-
guishes between phenomenon and explanation, and
one that emphasizes learning the facts before becom-
ing preoccupied with explanations, theories, and
meanings. At least part of the anomaly problem is
physical in appearance and amenable to conventional
scientic investigation. In any case establishing the
30
47
Bullard, 48.
existence of a phenomenon has to come rst, and
here is where science enters as a necessary prelimi-
nary to understanding. Most UFOs turn out to be
conventional phenomena, and it is a safe bet that
most anomalous occurrences will turn out to be mis-
taken identities, unusual conventional events, or re-
sults of aberrant thoughts or behavior. Clear away
what astronomers, psychologists, and the rest can ex-
plain in conventional terms and a puried sample will
remain, the true nuggets of gold separated from the
heaps of slag. This sample offers the clearest chance
to discern repetitions and patterns that might provide
solid clues to an underlying phenomenonand inci-
dentally, provoke curiosity among people otherwise
inclined to dismiss the subject.
Even the high-strangeness cases often mix both
physical and paraphysical properties. As long as the
anomaly offers something to observe, something for
instruments to detect and analyze, it can be a scien-
tic problem and we have a chance to learn about the
phenomenon, no matter if the manifestation comes
from a parallel universe or outer space, or whether
the entities arrive to save mankind or just to empty
the trash. Even where strangeness passes beyond ac-
cepted norms the means and methods of science still
have valueafter all, science has chased invisible
particles like atoms and ghost particles like neu-
trons and neutrinos with success. Where theres a will,
the means often follow. The will to study may be lack-
ing, but the chance to learn about an anomaly
through scientic observation is at least a possibility,
and the most likely hope for progress. The advantage
of scientic ndings is that they count as universal
currency, widely accepted except when Congress
meets climate change, or among a few romantics and
mystics whose heads are not made for these times.
But without a scientic foundation the explanatory
discourse about anomalies remains a belief system
that wins converts because the advocate is eloquent
or the ideas hold emotional appeal or some other
such questionable reason. As St. Paul wrote to the
Hebrews (11:1), Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. True
enough in religion, perhaps, but the truth we search
for in anomalies demands delity to their observa-
tional foundation, to a scientic approach and not to
hope or faith.
Of course most discoveries that suggest prema-
turity or could lead to revolution never fulll that
promise. They are simply wrongremember cold
fusion? This fact points to a personal danger in ad-
hering to the ideals of scientic inquiry, a risk of los-
ing something we hold dear. Those ideals oblige the
practitioner to follow the evidence, and if necessary,
to surrender even the most cherished belief if the
evidence fails to support it. This eventuality is espe-
cially hard on a human level. We have all devoted
time and energy, invested thought and labor, even
staked reputation and pride in the pursuit of anoma-
lous phenomena. Was it all a waste of time, a fools
errand? We have to allow that possibility; and for that
reason, I feel a frosty chill whenever a skeptic solves a
favorite UFO case. I still believe that theres some-
thing to this anomaly business, and still keep a list of
UFO cases that seem like inexplicable examples of an
unknown phenomenon; but I am also mindful that a
year ago, Exeter would have been on that list.
A nal thought of encouragement worth re-
membering: If a genuine anomalous phenomenon
hides within the masses of reports, that truth cannot
hide forever. If the anomaly is real, some cases will
resist conventional solution because they have no
conventional solution. The truth will come out in
time as long as efforts persist to nd it. Even if our
role is no more than to serve as curators of Charles
Forts damned, at least the anomalies will not be for-
gotten. If they all turn out to be mirages, they will
still serve the scholarly needs of historians, psycholo-
gists, sociologists, folklorists, religion scholars, and
practitioners of just about every other ology in
academia, if only to map the errors and oddities of
human belief through the ages.
But the universe would be a dull place if we al-
ready knew it from corner to corner and had nothing
new to nd. Ill still bet the lunch money that we have
only begun to be amazed, and anomalous experi-
ences vouchsafe us a glimpse of wonders to come.
***
Thomas E. Bullard received his undergraduate degree
from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and
his doctorate in folklore from Indiana University. He re-
mains a resident of Bloomington, IN, as an independent
scholar. His primary interest in the realm of anomalous
phenomena has been the UFO phenomenon, which was
the subject of his doctoral dissertation and most of his sub-
sequent writings. He has served as a board member of the
Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and the Fund for UFO
Research (FUFOR). His publications include The Myth and
Mystery of UFOs (2010); UFOs and Abductions: Challenging
the Borders of Knowledge (2000, contributing author); The
Sympathetic Ear: Investigators as Variables in UFO Abduction
Reports (1995); and UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mys-
tery (1987).
31
A Phenomenological Evolution of
Parapsychologys Philosophy of Science
What is this discipline called parapsychology? There
seems to be something unique about parapsychology
that sets it apart from other subjects that study
strange experiences. Mythology, literature, and art
each, in their own way, delve into the mysterious and
occult. Yet, parapsychological scholars and research-
ers typically ascribe some special power to their
method. Why?
Largely, since J. B. Rhine, parapsychologists have
attributed adherence to the scientic method as
paramount to the disciplines unique access to the
truth about these phenomena. Is this the case? Has
parapsychological science bared this out? This article
is an attempt to explore this question. I trace para-
psychologys scientic development from William
James, to J. B. Rhines experimentalism, and up
through the present day. I argue that the nature of its
scientic practice has long been misunderstood by
Rhinean parapsychology as apropos for the domain
of its phenomena. As a result, I propose that phe-
nomenology can help parapsychology better explicate
and integrate its philosophical assumptions while
helping it to align itself with the study of human ex-
perience.
Setting the Stage
The idea that science, as a value free enterprise, will
eventually culminate in a complete picture of the
world has long been shown to be problematic in the
phenomenological tradition (Husserl, 1954/1970;
Heidegger, 1927/1996; Merleau-Ponty, 1947; Giorgi,
1976). All varieties of scientic research contain spe-
cic epistemological, methodological, and ontological
assumptions, many of which often remain implicit or
ignored (Chalmers, 1999). Braude (1986), a trained
philosopher and scholar in parapsychology, laments
on how scientists tend either purposely to ignore the
conceptual foundations of their theories, or else dis-
play no awareness that they are implicitly philoso-
phizing (sometimes quite badly) each time they theo-
rize (p.220). Braudes point is well taken in that the
vast number of scientists within any given discipline
operate under the auspices of often poorly articulated
philosophical suppositions.
As a science, parapsychology also contains cer-
tain axiomatic assumptions about the way in which it
conducts its practice and research. The so-called
fringe phenomena it studies fall under categories that
include extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, and
survival after death (Irwin & Watt, 2007). Often used
by the discipline to make sense of these paranormal
experiences is the notion of psi. According to Irwin
and Watt (2007), psi is used to denote the unknown
32
A Phenomenological Evolution of
Parapsychologys Philosophy of Science
Jacob W. Glazier
Abstract
Parapsychology claims to be a scientic discipline. How has it adjudicated this claim? This article traces parapsy-
chologys understanding of its scientic practice beginning with William James, continuing through J. B. Rhine,
and up until the present day. What this reveals is that Rhinean experimentalism has been insufcient to legitimize
parapsychology as a widely established science. Whats more astonishing is that experimentalisms philosophical
assumptions may actually be incoherent with the nature of psi phenomena. Returning to an approach similar to
that as articulated by William James, parapsychology can realign itself with a human method of science as found
in phenomenology. Flowing from this analysis, future directions are offered for parapsychology as it relates to us-
ing its philosophy of science as a commentary on legendary science and further exploring the tricky nature of psi.
paranormal element in these experiences in much the
same way as the letter x represents the unknown in
an algebraic equation until its identity is determined
(p. 6). Bem and Honorton (1994) state that [psi] nei-
ther implies that such anomalous phenomena are
paranormal nor connotes anything about their un-
derlying mechanism (p. 4).
The methodologies used to investigate anomalous
experiences and psi have varied since parapsychol-
ogys inception (Beloff, 1993). Braude (1986) states
that psi research can be divided into three broad clas-
sications: experimental, semi-experimental, and an-
ecdotal with experimentalism claiming hegemony
since J. B Rhines attempt to align the discipline with
natural science methodologies in the 1930s. How-
ever, prior to the Rhinean revolution, beginning
around 1896 in the time of William James, parapsy-
chology tended to be more semi-experimental and
anecdotal (Beloff, 1993).
Early Roots and William James
VanOver (1972) divided early psychical research (pre-
1930s) as taking place representatively among 7
scholars: William James, F. C. S. Schiller, Carl G.
Jung, Sigmund Freud, William McDougall, and He-
lene Detsch. This time period (approximately be-
tween 1885-1926) Vanover (1972) characterized as
the Early Roots of psychical research. The desire
for a science in this early period is evident in the work
of Charles Richet who, in the preface to his mono-
graph Thirty Years of Psychical Research, writes I have
endeavoured to write on science, not on dreams; and
I have therefore conned myself to a statement of
facts and discussion of their actuality (Richet, 1923,
p. vii). This demonstrates that Richet was interested
in investigating ostensible paranormality via an objec-
tive and systematic approach.
Richets (1923) work is an important precursor to
the establishment of parapsychology by Rhine as an
experimentalist science. While institutions that sup-
ported psychical research emerged, such as the Soci-
ety for Psychical Research founded in 1882 (Weaver,
n.d.) and the American Society for Psychical Re-
search founded in 1885 (ASPR, n.d.), the profession
still remained prescientic during this early era with
scattered methodologies, where there was no com-
monly accepted research paradigm under which to
conduct normal science (Kuhn, 1970).
James perhaps best represents this period of psy-
chical research insofar as he is the foundational
scholar of American psychology and psychological
methodology. One of Jamess best known forays in
psychical research involved the trance medium Leon-
ora Piper who established, James believed, beyond
reasonable doubt the existence of telepathy and other
forms of paranormal knowledge that could not be
explained in conventional materialist terms (Kelly &
Kelly, 2012, p. 27). It was Jamess hope that this
would help demonstrate the failings of materialist
and physicalist science to provide an exhaustive pic-
ture of nature and the human mind.
Contradistinctive to physicalist perspective,
Jamess conception of the scientic project sought to
incorporate the personal point of view in methodol-
ogy (as cited in Wertz et al., 2011). Psychological re-
search, for James, must respect the nuances in mean-
ings that are felt in the lived experience of the indi-
vidual. Notice how the following description given by
James sought to understand subjective experience in
a very full and rich sense:
...the terror and beauty of phenomena, the
promise of the dawn and of the rainbow, the
voice of the thunder, the gentleness of the
summer rain, the sublimity of the stars, and
not the physical laws which these things fol-
low... [A]s soon as we deal with private and
personal phenomena as such, we deal with re-
alities in the completest sense of the term... the
world of experience. (as cited in Wertz et al.,
2011, p. 25)
James, on the one hand, made a distinction between
the study of the natural world and the study of psy-
chological life. On the other hand, he also pointed to
the qualia (e.g., promise, voice, gentless, sublimity) of
the phenomena and brings to the fore what David
Chalmers (1995) would later call the hard problem
of consciousness. That is, qualia (i.e., the irreducible
experience of phenomena) are unique to any given
organism and, thus, we can never know what it is like
to be something else (Nagel, 1974). As a result, James
and phenomenology take the qualia as the starting
point of their analyses.
Physicalism and Experimentalism
This privileging of qualia by James demonstrates that
he - a preeminent founding member of psychical re-
search - was not a physicalist. Physicalism (or meta-
physical naturalism) makes the claim that physical
33
properties are all that exist (ontological monism), and
adopts the epistemology of the natural sciences (e.g.,
physics); even emergent physicalist theories, whereby
consciousness arises as an epiphenomenon, still take
as their ontological ground materiality (Velmans,
2009). As Kelly and Kelly (2012) argue, one of the
unquestionable axioms for physicalism is:
...that everything in the human mind and con-
sciousness must be generated by, or superven-
ient upon, or in some mysterious fashion iden-
tical with, neurophysiological processes occur-
ring in brains. Ordinary perceptual experi-
ences are presumed to arise through the cen-
tral processing of identiable physical stimuli
impinging upon our various sensory surfaces,
and no other forms of contact with the envi-
ronmentin particular with any portions of
the environment that are remote in space and/
or timeare believed possible. (Kelly & Kelly,
2012, p. 27)
The view of physicalism as described above and the
nature of paranormal phenomena are in many ways
antithetical. That is, paranormal phenomena sine qua
non lie outside of a naturalistic worldview. They have,
after all, been described as anomalistic, paranormal,
exceptional, etc. - terms which render clear, at the
very least, the inherent evanescent quality of these
occurrences.
On the one hand, it makes sense that parapsy-
chology would pattern itself after a physicalist in-
spired experimentalism, a la J. B. Rhine (Braude,
1986). Certainly, it was enticing (and perhaps neces-
sary) to be granted the prestige of scientic legiti-
macy in its inaugural years. As Irwin (1994) argues
without an extensive experimental foundation,
parapsychology would have little claim to scientic
status and certainly the discipline would be dismissed
out of hand by the general scientic community to an
even greater extent than it already is (p. 10). Rhine
was clearly in good company with this practice since
Freud, it has been argued, conducted a similar ma-
neuver with psychoanalysis (Freud & Brill, 1938).
On the other hand, however, such a selling of
ones soul to the devil has led to a century of para-
psychology in which it is scarcely closer to achieving
its dream of mainstream scientic legitimacy
(Braude, 2012); nor, does it have a clearer alignment
between its philosophical assumptions and the phe-
nomena it seeks to explore. Times have changed in
the academy, the social sciences, and in psychology
generally. As evidence of this, a qualitative research
section was recently acknowledged by the American
Psychological Association, which is keeping with the
trend of other scientic disciplines such as anthropol-
ogy, biology, nursing, medicine education (Lyons,
2009). Furthermore, important historical scholars in
psychology such as James, Dewey, Festinger, Janis,
Lewin, and Allport have all used a form of qualitative
inquiry (as cited in Lyons, 2009). The formulation of
rigorous and structured qualitative techniques and
methodologies over the last several decades have al-
lowed researchers to study human experience and
sociality in new and scientic ways (e.g., Wertz,
Charmaz, McMullen, Josselson, Anderson &
McSpadden, 2011)
According to phenomenology, an irreconcilable
failing of the physicalist view is its belief in the ability
to construct a meta-language, which takes the form of
physics and, ultimately, mathematics. A meta-
language is a latticework of symbols overlaid on real-
ity such that it not only has the hope of offering a
totalized explanatory model, but also becomes a
quasi-transcendental epiphenomenon insofar as it
stands outside of that which it seeks to explain (a con-
tradiction for physicalism, indeed). Heidegger (1993)
calls this the mathematical projection because it al-
ready presupposes the way in which beings appear to
it vis--vis the language of mathematics; the projec-
tion necessarily mediates (and distorts) experience. To
say it a different way, the metaphor of mathematics,
when applied to the study of human experience, per-
verts the data. Braude (1986) echoes this point when
arguing that the application of physicalism in para-
psychology is misguided since there is no reason why
physics should have anything of great interest to say
regarding psi phenomena, because it is unclear why
physics should have anything of great interest to say
about organic activities in general (Braude, 1986, p.
17).
Another problem for physicalists has been the
problem of induction (proceeding from statements
about some to statements about all events of a par-
ticular kind), because it is impossible to precisely state
under what conditions a generalisation constitutes a
good inductive inference (Chalmers, 1999, p. 49).
David Hume (1711 - 1776 AD; 1748/1990) articu-
lated this problem in his famous example of the bil-
liard balls. He argued that it can only be claimed,
based upon previous observations, that hitting a ball
in a straight line towards another will cause the sec-
34
ond ball to move. On principle, the case could always
be otherwise. This is a problem for the physicalists
because it raises the question of how a meaningful,
substantiated, and grounded theory can be derived if
inference boils down to the expectancy of previously
observed patterns - i.e., if it is principally contingent.
This problem of inference was countered by
Popperian falsicationalists (cf. Popper, 2002) who
believed that, instead of induction, scientic theories
should be judged based upon their ability to with-
stand constant attempts at refutation. Thomas Kuhn
(1970) makes a regress argument against falsication-
ism such that it requires an appeal to a criterion of
degree of improbability in order to render the value
of a theory. This implicit need for a standard of falsi-
ability leads to a regress because once said criterion
is established it will need to be adjudicated by an ad-
ditional standard, ad innitum. I bring these points up
to demonstrate the difculty in using induction to
generate a theory out of the facts. What I will argue
for later is that parapsychology should shift from be-
ing in an exploratory approach that relies on induc-
tion, to more of a descriptive model that arises out of
phenomenology. Description and explanation are two
very different projects.
Even for William James, using induction to pro-
duce universal categories was seen as problematic
because abstraction was more misleading than en-
lightening (Wertz et al., 2011, p. 25). Instead, he
emphasized particulars relating to the feelings, acts,
experiences of individual men [humans] in their solitude, so
far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relations to what-
ever they may consider the divine (Wertz et al., 2011, p.
25-26, italics in original). This illustrates that, far
from being a physicalist, James was an advocate for
more of an experiential and qualitative approach to
research methodology.
If we accept that since the time of William James
parapsychology is nowhere nearer to developing an
accepted understanding of psi (Felser, 2001), then
perhaps, in part, it is because parapsychology devi-
ated from Jamess conception of psychical research as
based more on a nuanced understanding of experi-
ence and subjective awareness. Jamess approach was
largely overshadowed by J. B. Rhines experimental-
ism, which codied in the 1930s and has remained
more or less dominate in parapsychology for most of
the twentieth-century (Beloff, 1993).
Where Experimentalism Went Wrong
J. B. Rhine was able to bring psychical research under
one paradigm - parapsychology - and establish ar-
guably the closest thing to a paradigmatic normal
science, in the Kuhnian (1970) sense, that parapsy-
chology has since seen. A paradigm, for Kuhn (1970),
means that a discipline has reached a wide consensus
as to what constitutes its terminology, methodology,
and research aims. Under this paradigm, Rhinean
experimentalism, as Bauer (2012) articulates, implies
that mind is a real force called psychokinesis or that
ESP is something like an information transfer and
contains recurrent issues like the elusiveness of psi,
decline effects, or the replication problem (p. 8-9).
Under the umbrella of experimentalism, parapsy-
chology has been plagued by the aforementioned
hard problems, which it generally has failed to see as
a function of the very physicalist and experimentalist
assumptions it has adopted. Namely, they are a result
of experimentalist parapsychology making a category
error in the (mis)understanding of the domain of its
phenomena.
To explicate this category error: in the phenome-
nological tradition, there is a long held distinction
between the world of the natural sciences, like physics
and chemistry, and the world of human experience;
as Giorgi (1970, 1976) quips, world and nature are
not the same. For example, Heidegger (1927/1996)
argues that it is only on the basis of the pre-reective
world of human beings in which the domain of na-
ture becomes at all intelligible; to be more precise, the
worldliness of the world foregrounds the beingness of
the domain called nature insofar as the latters intelli-
gibility is predicated on the formers ontological pri-
mality - do we not interpret the world before it is
rendered comprehensible? Parapsychology, as made
explicit in experimentalism, has conated precisely
these two realms - nature with world - such that it has
taken the approaches used to study nature (i.e., ex-
perimentation) and applied them to the study of hu-
man experience. When this category error occurs
there is a serious distortion in the phenomena that
are being researched (Giorgi, 1976).
Perhaps this argument can be more thickly ar-
ticulated through a parallel comparison. Take, for
example, general psychology. The current state of
affairs in psychology proper is, in a word, disparate.
The American Psychology Association (APA) cur-
rently houses 54 divisions among which are Behav-
ioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology, So-
35
ciety for Humanistic Psychology, and Psychoanalysis
(APA, n.d.). These three divisions, in particular, illus-
trate the large extent to which psychology as repre-
sented by APA amalgamates a variety of perspectives
with incommensurable metaphysical, epistemologi-
cal, and methodological presuppositions. There has
been debate about whether or not this disparity actu-
ally constitutes a scientic discipline (Giorgi, 1976;
Kuhn 1970).
Giorgi (1976) has argued that psychology needs
to coalesce around a point of view or perspective
that constitutes an authentic paradigm (p. 288).
Importantly, though, to critique the multiplicity in
psychology (or parapsychology) does not mean to
imply a desire for uniformity, homogeneity, or lack of
problems but, rather, to express the need for agree-
ment on a claried perspective that differentiates
such as found in physics (Giorgi, 1976, p. 288)
whereby researchers may develop competing theories
but still operate under the aegis of internally consis-
tent philosophical assumptions.
Giorgi (1976) advocates for phenomenological
philosophy as the unied paradigm because psychol-
ogy is the study of human experience or the life-world,
which philosophical phenomenology has sought to
articulate since Husserl (1954/1970). In other words,
the methodologies of the natural sciences, when lifted
from their proper place in physics, chemistry, and
biology and are applied to human experience, are
out of their league and in a different ballpark, so to
speak. This would be like trying to play the game of
baseball on a football eld - the rules do not match
the setting.
This sentiment is echoed by Rhea White (1997)
who reports that parapsychology has adopted an
almost exclusively experimental approach that does
not yield results that can be applied meaningfully to
the needs of persons who report psychical experi-
ences (p. 90). Moreover, Whites observation has not
gone unsubstantiated by other scholars in the disci-
pline (e.g., Bauer, 2012; Beloff, 1993; Kelly & Kelly,
2012; Simmonds-Moore, 2012). In fact, Braude
(1986) goes so far as to argue that:
...It appears that an entire theoretical tradition
in parapsychology is deeply misguided. As a
rule, parapsychologists have tended to analyze
psi phenomena along lines familiar to the
physical and biological sciences. They assume
that observable psi phenomena have unobserv-
able underlying structures, and that the former
are thoroughly analyzable in terms of the lat-
ter. (p. 239)
In this analysis, experimentalism has been misguided
insofar as its analysis relies are rendering psi intelligi-
ble in regards to an underlying mechanism, which, as
Beischel (2012) notes, is a phantasm created by ex-
perimentalism. Beischel (2012) thinks that this is an
erroneous starting point for parapsychological re-
search and that psi will continue to exist sans
mechanism (p. 10) with or without the experimental-
ists permission.
Moreira-Almeda (2012) argues that the approach
of experimentalism is harming the growth of para-
psychology and is actually a naive form of scientic
practice:
This epistemological stance also favored an
anti-theoretical approach, in the belief that
mere collection of more and more rened ex-
perimental data would lead to complete scien-
tic knowledge. This is a major factor which
has been impairing theoretical development. In
contrast, I believe that research should be con-
ducted within the framework of what philoso-
phers of science have called scientic research
programmes (Lakatos 1970) or paradigms
(Kuhn 1970), which include methodological
principles and metaphysical and theoretical
assumptions. (Moreira-Almeda, 2012, p. 34)
Moreira-Almeda adds another voice to the argument
that predicts the impossibility of experimentalism
sans theory to succeed. If Rhines experimentalism
and physicalism is dead (Bauer, 2012; Braude,
1986), then perhaps the time is ripe for emergence of
new, more phenomenological centered understanding
of parapsychology.
Why a Phenomenologically Informed
Parapsychology and Not Others?
Underlying the proliferation of qualitative ap-
proaches in parapsychology and psychology proper is,
in part, greater acceptance of the unassailable cleft
between the study of the natural world and the study
of human beings. Wertz (2011), who hails from the
phenomenological tradition, describes how this dis-
tinction has a varied philosophical history and shows-
up in the ongoing debate between qualitative and
quantitative researchers:
36
Consistent with Diltheys ontology and episte-
mology, continental philosophy has developed
through the 20th century on the basis of the
conviction that the physical and psychological
realities are different kinds and therefore re-
quire different ways of knowing. Following this
philosophical position, many qualitative meth-
odologists assert that their methods have prior-
ity in the human sciences, in which inferential
methods are relegated to a subordinate role, in
contrast to mainstream researchers in psychol-
ogy whose methodological hierarchy privileges
hypothesis testing by quantitative analysis.
(Wertz, et al., 2011, p. 81)
In relation to parapsychology, Braude (1986) argues
concurrently with this distinction and couches it in
terms of organic versus non-organic inquiry:
Perhaps the main reason for this widespread
procedure is that parapsychologists have simply
adopted the confused principle that vitiates a
great deal of research in the behavioral sci-
ences - namely, that organic phenomena gen-
erally (including cognitive and intentional phe-
nomena) are analyzable in ways appropriate to
(most) purely impersonal, mechanical, or non-
organic phenomena. But behind this methodo-
logical assumption - or at least connected with
it - is a deeper assumption about the nature of
explanation and analysis that I believe to be
false, and which certainly deserves to be
brought clearly into the open. (Braude, 1986,
p. 239)
Yet, inspite of this argument, many researchers see
quantum physics as a heralding savior for parapsy-
chology, which, they hope, will bare-out evidence for
psi and enthrone parapsychology as a legitimate sci-
entic discipline.
Quantum Theory
Case in point, Parker (2012) believes that progress in
parapsychology could come from the study of non-
local effects occurring in the brain in relation to
quantum mechanics. Radin (2012) also advocates for
hitching the yoke to quantum theory and believes
that the development of a post-quantum theory will
need to arise in order to account for a deeper sense of
reality that will link subjectivity with objectivity. The
Parapsychology Associations website even lists nonlo-
cality as the new, cutting-edge paradigm in parapsy-
chological research; notably, the article is clearly writ-
ten with a physicalist tint (PA, 2012).
If we hold the distinction between the natural
world and the human world to be true, then these
hopes seem altogether misguided and, at worse, cate-
gorically false. From a phenomenological perspective,
parapsychology stands little to gain by interfacing
with quantum mechanics. The metaphors like non-
locality and quantum entanglement that research-
ers like Parker (2012) and Radin (2012) are so eager
to appropriate have their counterparts in philosophi-
cal phenomenology such as in being-in-the-world
and ready-to-handedness among a plethora of oth-
ers (e.g., Glazier, 2013). The latter metaphors are
more appropriate for parapsychology because (A)
they do not require a co-option of quantum physical
terms by researchers who most certainly do not have
an adequate understanding of the total quantum
theory (how could they when there are only a handful
of scientists in the world that do?) and (B) they map
onto the domain of human experience whereas the
others are meant to describe the physical world.
Furthermore, it could be argued that phenome-
nological philosophy was inaugurated by Husserl
(1954/1970) to overcome the very dichotomy that
Radin (2012) hopes will be dispelled by quantum
theory: the distinction between subjective and objec-
tive. Phenomenological philosophy and ontology up
through Heidegger (1927/1996) and Merleau-Ponty
(1947) are explicit philosophical treatises aimed at
unifying this split. Phenomenology, not quantum the-
ory, can offer parapsychology the very deeper sense
of reality that Radin (2012) was referring while re-
maining true to the topology of psi in human experi-
ence.
Exceptional Experiences
and Psychology
The trajectory of parapsychological literature shows
hope of shifting away from strict experimentalism
and towards increasing openness to qualitative,
therapeutic, and experiential approaches. For exam-
ple, there has been a move away from physicalist
theorizing in parapsychology (e.g., Carpenter, 2004;
White, 1997) with the accompaniment of an in-
creased acceptance and use of non-experimental,
qualitative approaches to research (e.g., Heath, 2000;
Kashara, 1983). In terms of breaking away from the
37
experimentalist tradition, Rhea Whites (1997) model
of exceptional human experiences (EHE) offers an
excellent example of this because it does not seek,
rst and foremost, to adjudicate the EHE in terms of
logical-scientic frameworks.
Building on Whites reconceptualization of para-
psychology, Simmonds-Moore (2012) advances ex-
panding parapsychology into a new discipline of ex-
ceptional psychology, which provides an avenue
whereby parapsychology can become more palpable
to traditional psychology and academia. She states
that Exceptional Psychology will include the system-
atic study of a number of phenomenologically-
related exceptional experiences, their correlates and
applications. Exceptional psychology will seek to un-
derstand exceptional experiences as the result of in-
teractions between the mind, subjective meaning, the
body, and the social and physical environment
(Simmonds-Moore, 2012, p. 55). Exceptional psy-
chology is philosophically commensurable with phe-
nomenology because it recognizes the need to place
human experience as primary and follows in the foot-
steps of the relatively recent qualitative movement
within the discipline of psychology proper (Lyons,
2009).
The upshot of reconceiving parapsychology in
this way is that it has the potential to lose itself as a
separate discipline. Schwartz (2012) seems to be set-
ting the stage for Tart (2012) by proffering that it may
be helpful to understand how the spiritual terms spirit
and soul could be employed as useful metaphors in
parapsychological research. Ultimately, Tart (2012)
takes this and runs with it by inciting parapsychology
to amalgamate with transpersonal psychology. While
Tarts rally is one possible scenario, I wonder if it is
necessary. Might it be possible for parapsychology to
retain its status as a distinct discipline while shifting
more toward a human science understanding of psi?
Perhaps under the banner of exceptional psychology?
Whites (1997), Carpenter's (2004; 2012), and
Simmonds-Moores (2012) theorizing are a welcomed
addition to the parapsychological literature that
maintains the discipline as distinct and, yet, shifts it to
more of a mixed-methods approach with an experi-
ential and phenomenological foundation. As has pre-
viously been argued, this is more in line with William
Jamess original conception of psychological practice
(Wertz, et al., 2011), which would mean that, in some
ways, parapsychology has come full circle.
Anomalistic Psychology
Part of the change that has taken place in the broad
eld of psi research is the emergence and relative
success of anomalistic psychology. While anomalistic
psychology began as a relatively skeptical enterprise
(Zusne & Jones, 1989), the more recent incarnations
of it have shifted from skepticism to a stance of neu-
trality regarding psi phenomena. This seems to be, in
part, what has constituted the success anomalistic
psychology has had in the United Kingdoms univer-
sities (Holt, Simmonds-Moore, Luke, & French,
2012). What is problematic from a philosophy of sci-
ence perspective is anomalistic psychology insistence
that research on psi phenomena be unequivocally
disinterested. As Irwin (2012) states that anomalistic
psychology believes in the explicit advocacy of a
dispassionate analysis of anomalous experience, a
stance that circumvents the source of much of the
stigma currently attaching to parapsychology at many
levels of academia (p. 25). This position begs the
question of whether scientic practice as such can
ever be totally disinterested.
The claim of the scientists neutrality in relation
to the phenomenon under investigation is becoming
increasingly recognized as an outmoded modus oper-
andi. For example, Dreyfus (2006), a Heideggerian
scholar, reiterates the phenomenological traditions
belief in the inability to achieve a dispassionate objec-
tivity by any scientist. Additionally, in recent years,
many disciplines like sociology, anthropology, and
psychology have initiated their own science studies
to generate scholarship in order to better understand
the relationship between subjectivity and research
(Hess, 1997). For instance, Osbeck, Nersessian, Ma-
lone, and Newsetter (2010) examined a STEM
(science-technology-engineering-mathematics) labo-
ratory at a division one research university using
qualitative methodologies and found that far from
being neutral, objective researchers, the scientists in-
fused the research with their subjectivity through
their emotionality, sociality, culture, and identity. In
contradistinction to this, anomalistic psychology
makes the claim of dispassionate analysis of anoma-
lous experience, which seems to ignore the inherently
value-laden nature of scientic practice.
Phenomenology recognizes that phenomena are
inuenced by the researcher through incorporating
this ontological fact into a rigorous methodology.
Husserl (1980) argued that there is no possibility of a
pure empirical observation because a relation to an
38
object is always intentional; that is, the thought of
something is always about that thing i.e., directed
toward that object in some way. Thus, we necessarily
change the object we are researching by the mere fact
that we are researching it. This kind of enmeshment
between subject and object is fundamental to phe-
nomenological philosophy.
Rising from the Ashes
The various polemics surrounding what constitutes
the parapsychological discipline are echoed by Kuhn
(1970) in his analysis of the development of the scien-
tic enterprise; that is, members of paradigms that
have become unsustainable take a defensive stance
and guard against what seems to be the impending
demise of the old way of doing normal science,
which indicates the stirrings of a crisis. In parapsy-
chology, this reaction has already been noted by
James Carpenter in what he calls the old guard of
parapsychologists who wish to retain the faltering
paradigm of experimentalism (Carpenter, 2012).
Braude (1986) describes the new trail-blazers of
psi research as being what sounds like psychothera-
pists or phenomenologists attuned to the nuances of
the lived world in that they will probably be masters,
not just of the data, but also of human psychology
and the subtleties of life. They will have to explain
the role of psi outside the situations in which parapsy-
chologists try to harness it for the purposes of investi-
gation (p. 255). He goes on to advocate for fewer
technicians and more parapsychological naturalists,
[we need] people with an eye for regularities and
connections, and a gift for qualitative analysis, re-
searchers whose keen perceptions and descriptive
powers will help reveal illuminating patterns and rela-
tionships in the data (Braude, 1986, p. 255).
Braudes position ts that of a phenomenological re-
searcher who is most apt in conducting future psi
scholarship because of the researchers unique rela-
tionship to psychological gradations and meanings.
Someone who, as Wertz (2005) says, can engage
in ongoing and continual reection by dwelling with
the data through an extreme form of care that sa-
vors the situations described in a slow, meditative way
and attends to, even magnies, all the details (p.172).
Phenomenology can offer parapsychology not only a
specic qualitative methodology (Giorgi, 1976), but
also a rich and extensive philosophical history upon
which to draw (Husserl, 1954/1970; Heidegger,
1927/1996; Merleau-Ponty, 1947).
Future Directions and Conclusion
In this manuscript, I have argued that phenomenol-
ogy can help parapsychology better align with the
domain of its phenomena; namely, that of the hu-
man world of experience. My endeavor has been (A)
to look at the philosophy of science of parapsychol-
ogy and (B) offer an alternative to experimentalist
physicalism in the form of phenomenology. I have
couched this argument within concurrent and emerg-
ing trends in the parapsychological literature (Braude,
1986; Carpenter, 2004; Simmonds-Moore, 2012;
White, 1997) in the hopes of understanding these
developments through a historically extensive, philo-
sophically robust, and psychologically astute ap-
proach in phenomenology. What follows are future
directions that ow naturally from this analysis.
It may be helpful for an increased proliferation of
scholarship within the parapsychology discipline itself
as to what the profession understands as science and,
then, subsequently using those ndings as a commen-
tary on the scientic enterprise proper. As a science,
parapsychology is in a unique position because, as
Kelly and Kelly (2012), point-out psi phenomena:
...clearly pose a direct threat to this presently-
dominant worldview, and that single fact
largely explains the implacable and vocal hos-
tility of its more scientistic public defenders.
Many of these selfappointed vigilantes for the
scientic status quo clearly seek to isolate and
quarantine parapsychology as though it repre-
sented the only serious threat to a physicalist
program that otherwise is advancing trium-
phantly all across the board. (p. 27)
Due to its domain of study, parapsychology has the
potential to use the inherently anti-physicalist nature
of psi as a means by which to contribute to a com-
mentary on physicalism and legendary science. One
such philosopher of science that may be a spring-
board for this dialogue in parapsychology is Paul Fey-
erabend (1990). Feyerabends anarchistic theory of
science could be helpful for parapsychology because
it undercuts legendary sciences claim to be a special
method at obtaining truth and, as a result, opens the
possibility for the legitimacy of phenomena that have
typically been on the fringe of mainstream science.
Another future direction that could be benecial
for parapsychology comes out of feminist scholarship
and bares a family resemblance to phenomenology.
39
The work of Donna Haraway (2003) is uniquely
suited for conceptualizing the tricky nature of psi
phenomena by offering a cosmology that is reminis-
cent of the coyote and trickster myths from around
the world. Hansen (2001) has already noted the afn-
ity between psi and the archetype of the trickster.
However, he did not have the epistemology and on-
tology that Haraway develops as a grounding for his
analysis. A project that undertakes an appropriation
of parapsychology in terms of Haraways metaphys-
ics has the potential to be extremely fruitful.
From a phenomenological perspective, it is inter-
esting that Haraways (2003) notion of truth is similar
to Heidegger's (1927/1996) in that there is both a
playful covering and uncovering. Haraways, though,
is a bit more disingenuous such that the world will
intentionally dupe the researcher - pure replication is
impossible and, stronger yet, the researcher should
expect to be tricked. Haraway (2003) also offers in-
sights on how to bring the material and semiotic to-
gether in her unique conception of the cyborg. This
opens-up interesting horizons for parapsychology in
terms of interfacing research ndings with semiotic,
lived systems thereby aiding in the conceptualization
of the interaction between mind, body, and the
world.
In forgoing article, I have set out to answer the
question of what makes parapsychology unique in its
ability to understand psi phenomena. I have argued
that the physicalist experimentalism that dominated
parapsychology for most of the twentieth-century
contains unresolvable philosophical problems when
applied to the study of human experience. As an al-
ternative, I suggested that phenomenology may be
able to help parapsychology better understand the
nature of its scientic practice. Whatever direction
parapsychology takes, it seems it must either evolve
and adapt to the broader cultural landscape or con-
tinue to struggle for survival and face continued os-
tracization and possible extinction.
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Washington, DC: Brunner/Mazel, Inc.
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Wertz, F. J. (2005) Phenomenological research meth-
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Wertz, F. J., Charmaz, K., McMullen, L. M., Jossel-
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tive research, and intuitive inquiry. New York: The
Guilford Press.
Wheatley, J. M. (1977). Implications for philosophy.
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42
Zusne, L., & Jones, W. H. (1989). Anomalistic psychology:
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***
Jacob W. Glazier, M.S. Ed., NCC, is a Ph.D. student pursuing
a degree in Psychology in Consciousness and Society at the Uni-
versity of West Georgia. He has his Masters degree in Clinical
Mental Health Counseling and practices at the Center for Coun-
seling and Career Development at the University of West Geor-
gia. Jake is also a Graduate Research Assistant. Jakes research
interests focus on using the ontology of phenomenological phi-
losophy as a grounding for exceptional and paranormal experi-
ences, especially appropriating the phenomenology of Martin
Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Similarly, he specializes
in the Descriptive Phenomenological Method to qualitative re-
search as developed by Amedeo Giorgi. As a clinician, Jake is
interested in clinical and counseling approaches to exceptional
experiences. Jake is a founding member of the Journal of Excep-
tional Experiences and Psychology (JEEP) which is a scholarly forum
dedicated to the exploration of exceptional experiences such as
survival after death, out-of-body experiences, extrasensory per-
ception, psychokinesis, poltergeists, mediumship, and hauntings.
Also included are cryptids, abduction encounters, possession,
psychic healing, and synchronicity.
43
Call for Submissions
Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psvchologv


The Journal oI Exceptional Experiences and Psychology (JEEP) is a an international
scholarly Iorum dedicated to the exploration and advancement oI exceptional
psychology which is a Iield that studies experiences and phenomena traditionally
germane to parapsychology and, yet, goes beyond in breadth. Some examples oI
experiences under investigation by exceptional psychology include survival aIter death,
out"oI"body experiences, extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, poltergeists,
mediumship, and hauntings. Also included are cryptids, abduction encounters,
possession, psychic healing, and synchronicity.

The Journal oI Exceptional Experiences and Psychology encourages the submission oI
manuscripts or artwork related to exceptional psychology. The journal is peer"reIereed
and submissions will be blindly reviewed and a recommendation Ior acceptance,
revisions, or denial will be made to the editors. JEEP is published biannually and
welcomes submissions all year.

Technical manuscripts should conIorm to APA style. Creative writing and narrative
accounts do not need to adhere to a proIessional style, although proper citation oI
sources is required. All written documents must be sent as a MicrosoIt Word Iile
(.doc / .docx). Visual submissions should be sent as separate attachments, preIerably in
either .jpeg or .pdI Iormat. Video and/or audio submissions should be sent as a YouTube
link. Authors will be notiIied by email oI the review board`s decision.


The Journal oI Exceptional Experiences and Psychology is a double"blind,
peer"reIerred open access (OJS) online journal.
Published by the Journal oI Exceptional Experiences and Psychology in
Atlanta, Georgia, USA. ISSN 2327"428X


Submission inIormation:
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Further inquiries:
exeptionalpsychologygmail.com
In his paper, A Phenomenological Evolution of
Parapsychologys Philosophy of Science, Jacob W.
Glazier asks a question worth contemplating. Has J.
B. Rhine's effort to demonstrate whether or not
parapsychological phenomenon are real by assessing
them using the experimental method (which supports
a particular kind of physical or material assumption
about reality) resulted in more confusion than clarity?
Glazier argues that the lure of scientic respectability
was reason enough for parapsychology to pursue this
line of inquiry, yet a century later has failed to
achieve scientic legitimacy; nor, Glazier contends,
does it have a clearer alignment between its philo-
sophical assumptions and the phenomena it seeks to
explore (Glazier, 2014, p. 34). Likewise Glazier re-
jects aligning our investigation of parapsychological
phenomenon with quantum theory because its
paradigmatic foundations seek (like the experimental
method) to provide a physical or materialistic under-
standing of reality. Glazier argues that all these efforts
should be abandoned (including Charles T. Tart's
suggestion to merge exceptional psychology with
transpersonal psychology). Instead Glazier favors the
creation of a distinct discipline while shifting more
toward a human science understanding of psi (Gla-
zier, 2014, p38), thereby aligning parapsychological
inquiry with a phenomenological and qualitative ori-
entation. All these points and assertions are worthy of
discussion, and I have replied to a few of them in the
short time I was given to respond to Glazier. Thus
beyond my brief comments following this introduc-
tion, I want to encourage all of us to participate in re-
assessing our familiar paradigmatic scenery, our un-
conscious infrastructure of ideas, our fundamental
conceptual proposals holding together our views of
science and culture.
Materialism, Qualitative Research, and a
Reassessment of Science
Tart provides the briefest explanation that I know of
as to why science is so materialistic, telling us:
...science had to separate itself from the
agenda of the Church by saying that it was not
going to deal with anything spiritualthey
were just going to look at the physical facts that
can be observed and measured in terms of
quantitative analysis. The Church was not in-
terested in this way of approaching under-
standing, which helped to provide science with
an opportunity to pursue its questions about
the physical world. But then science became
attached to perceiving reality as nothing more
than this physical world (Tart, 2012:20).
This preference for a purely materialistic view be-
came increasingly predominant over the next two
centuries. Tart tells us that by the early 19th century,
sociologists were talking about scientism when they
recognized that for a lot of scientists, the practice of
science was no longer a method for trying to rene
our knowledge about reality. It became an arrogant
agenda where we [had] basically gured out every-
thing important, and we could ignore all of the
worldviews that did not t (Tart, 2012, p. 20). Here
their is agreement between Tart and phenomenolo-
gist William A. Luijpen, who argued that: Phe-
nomenology is the disavowal of scientism ( Luijpen,
1966: 8). Luijpen claries his critcism of science as
scientism as our forced acceptance of a worldview
that declares there is only one way to talk objectively
about reality and this way was exemplied by the
physicist. . . . and that our spontaneous and ordinary
experience of the world would have to be replaced by
a system of scientic experiences ( Luijpen, 1966:7).
44
Commentary:
Contemplating Parapsychology's Evolving
Philosophy of Science
Mark A. Schroll
I therefore agree with Glazier that investigating
psi or psychical phenomena using the experimental
method has put parapsychology in an awkward posi-
tion. This is because most of us continue to view the
existence of psi and/or its modus operandi as some-
thing other than physical reality. Lance Storm agrees,
quoting Pratt (1960) who regards psi phenomena as
precisely those psychological events which defy de-
scription in terms of any physical theory now avail-
able (p. 25) (Storm, 2005:286). Taking a further step
in support of Pratt, Storm argues:
...his characterization of psi is in harmony with
the psi hypothesis: psi may be incompatible
with current scientic principles, but that
should not preclude its existence when it may
be the case that the problem lies with our sci-
entic principles, not the psi hypothesis (Storm
2005:286).
Stanley Krippner agrees, My feelings about psi phe-
nomena are that they're alleged interactions between
organisms and other organisms, or organisms and
their environment that appear to violate mainstream
science's concepts of space, time, and energy
(Schroll 2010b:4) (Schroll 2012:61). Krippner sums
up the problem we are seeking a solution to by argu-
ing: Furthermore psi phenomena apparently exist,
but they are not supernatural, they are natural; they
are not paranormal, they are normal. They're
anomalies; we just haven't gured out how they t
into the scheme of things (Schroll 2010b:4) (Schroll
2012:61). The question this raises is does saying that
psi phenomena are normal mean that they are
material? No is the short answer, a slightly longer
answer is in the next section. A much longer answer,
yet one I continue to feel is introductory, can be
found in my paper Understanding Bohm's Holoux:
Clearing Up a Conceptual Misunderstanding of the
Holographic Paradigm and Clarifying its Signicance
to Transpersonal Studies of Consciousness (Schroll,
2013b).
From a slightly different perspective, Glazier has
offered the solution that a better way of investigating
psi phenomena is through phenomenology and quali-
tative research:
Roe (2012) also is a believer in the need for
parapsychology to consolidate into a single
paradigm. If Rhines experimentalism and
physicalism is dead (Bauer, 2012; Braude,
1986), then perhaps the time is ripe for emer-
gence of new, more phenomenological cen-
tered understanding of parapsychology (Gla-
zier 2014:??).
I too have summed up my criticisms of Euro-
American science by analogy (which includes a cri-
tique of experimentalism and physicalism) by saying
that:
the assumptions and methods of science are
similar to a voyeur watching two people having
sex while looking through a keyhole. The key-
hole's outline constitutes the paradigmatic pa-
rameters that dene its domain of inquiry (i.e.,
its ontology), while our noninterfering observa-
tions represent its analytic and objective crite-
ria (i.e., its epistemology). Limiting its ontologi-
cal inquiry, EuroAmerican science has been
able to formulate some basic laws that hold
at least within its limited framework. But the
whole of reality is larger than what science can
see through the ontological parameters of its
keyhole; likewise its objective epistemology fails
to provide us with an understanding of the
subjective qualities that the two people making
love are experiencing. This image of the in-
nite depth of reality, whose basic structure is a
dynamic, undivided whole, is the vision of
human potential that informs the worldview of
transpersonal psychology, the anthropology of
consciousness, and related disciplines (Schroll
2010a:6).
Similarly I too was drawn to an ethnomethodological
perspective (grounded in phenomenology), and found
the work of Amedeo Giorgi insightful (Giorgi 2000,
2005). This inquiry (now spanning 30 years) led to
my paper, Toward a New Kind of Science and Its
Methods of Inquiry (Schroll 2010a), whose sugges-
tions for the investigation of shamanism and alter-
nate states of consciousness has (I recently learned)
offered support to Jean-Francois Sobiecki's eld re-
search with Psychoactive Ubulawu Spiritual Medi-
cines and Healing Dynamics in the Initiation Process
of Southern Bantu Diviners (2012), who tells us:
experiential accounts have value in indicating
potential psychoactive actions and furthering
our understanding of healing consciousness.
The experiential insight gained from psychoac-
45
tive plant use and related enhanced states of
awareness should be promoted among re-
searchers, instead of being stigmatized. There
is a call for this type of expanded experiential
insight-based methodology in the eld of eth-
nography (Schroll 2010[a]), and this could ex-
tend to elds such as psychology, ethnobotany
and pharmacology (Sobiecki 2012:222).
Nevertheless, despite this support in both theory and
practice (i.e., eld research), my views on methodol-
ogy continue to evolve, and in 2010a led me to con-
clude:
...that even though ethnography and other
narrative heuristic approaches are improve-
ments on strict quantitative methods, ideo-
graphic methods also collect data in an objec-
tive way. Data is treated as an ontological
other or thing that is separate from the ob-
server. This approach is not an I/Thou, Da-
sien, or wu-wei orientation, which are perspec-
tives that allow the researcher to truly become
a participant observer. Similar to nomothetic
methods of research, participant observation
collects, analyzes, and interprets data as an I/it
relationship, failing to grasp the beingness of
the experience. Ultimately therefore, none of
this is doing any good (Schroll 2010a:15-16)
Similar views and considerations have been boiling in
a cauldron of controversy for years and decades prior
to my taking up these concerns, that include (but are
not limited to) Goulet & Miller 2007; Madsen, 1971;
Polanyi 1958; Polkinghorn 1983; Prattis 1997; and
Rogers 1985. These concerns have also been taken
up in Paranthropology by Hunter 2013, and by
Bowie 2013. But this inquiry into methodology con-
tinues to have many unanswered questions pleading
for our attention. Until then:
...the jury of scientic inquiry as a whole is still
deliberating the thing-in-itself, and as a con-
sequence continues to be restrained by the
straightjacket of a dualistic paradigm that re-
fuses to acknowledge the existence of psi/
spirit. This restraint has kept us from achieving
the necessary paradigm shift whose conceptual
transformation would allow EuroAmerican
science to envision a comprehensive theoretical
understanding of psi/spirit/transpersonal ex-
perience. Thus we still have further to go. Nev-
ertheless, with individuals in the elds of hu-
manistic, transpersonal psychology, and the
anthropology of consciousness working to-
gether, we are coming closer to envisioning a
new kind of science and its methods of inquiry
(Schroll, 2010a:21).
Quantum Theory, David Bohm,
and the Physics of Psi
Glazier's concern regarding the reduction of psi to
physicalist interpretations (this volume), are well
taken. It is with this concern in mind that I want to
state clearly I do not reduce the phenomena of psi to
a physicalist interpretation, yet neither do I view psi
as non-physical. Nevertheless it is conceptually and
linguistically problematic to offer a discussion of psi
phenomena as anything other than physical or non-
physical. And yet Robert Oppenheimer, publishing in
the journal American Psychologist, called attention to
this general problem in 1956, telling us:
...it seems to me that the worst of all possible
misunderstandings would be that psychology
be inuenced to model itself after a physics
which is not there any more, which has been
completely outdated. We inherited, say at the
beginning of this [sic, the 20th] century, a no-
tion of the physical world as a causal one, in
which every event could be accounted for if we
were ingenious, a world characterized by num-
ber, where everything could be measured and
quantied, a determinist world, a world in
which there was no use or room for individual-
ity, in which the object of study was simply
there and how you studied it did not affect the
object, it did not affect the kind of description
you gave of it, a world in which objectiability
went far beyond merely our own agreement on
what we meant by words, and what we are
talking about, in which objectication was
meaningful irrespective of any attempt to study
the system under consideration. It was just the
given real object; there it was, and there was
nothing for you to worry about of an episte-
mological character (Oppenheimer, 1956:50).
But very few people (including new generations of
physicists and psychologists) have sought new ways of
envisioning old problems in terms of the continually
46
evolving physical science understanding of reality. I
have offered my own views on this in Schroll 2013a,
2013b. It is a problem so pervasive that in his book In
Search of Reality (1983) physicist philosopher Ber-
nard d'Espagnat also sought to address this problem.
In response to the experimental verication of nonlo-
cality, violating the postulate of physical realism
(which Schroll 2010b has summarized), d'Espagnat
comments:
If I would retain my realistic requirements, I
am therefore compelled to embrace a non-
physical realism, which might be called a the-
ory of veiled reality. . . . I understand non-
physical realism or the theory of veiled reality
to mean any realism that does not satisfy the
hope. . . [of Einstein] which the postulate of
physical realism summarizes (d'Espagnat,
1983: 94).
Therefore like David Bohm (1980), d'Espagnat has
found it necessary to postulate a domain of reality
beyond the framwork of space-time, and beyond de-
scription in terms of our current concepts. During a
luncheon meeting with d'Espagnat at the 13th Inter-
national Wittgenstein-Symposium in Kirchberg am
Weschel, Austria, I inquired about the similarities
between d'Espagnat's concept of non-physical realism
and Bohm's implicate order; d'Espagnat pointed out,
Bohm is generally more optimistic than I am regard-
ing the generalizability of his theory. My concept of
non-physical realism is therefore much more limited
than Bohm's concept of the implicate order (per-
sonal conversation, August 17, 1988).
This is why whenever someone offers a critical or
favorable comment on quantum theory, my rst re-
sponse is to ask, what version are you talking about?
Currently there are eight distinct versions of quan-
tum theory, with various subtle differences on each of
these intrepretations. To assist us in sorting out these
various interpretations, I recommend Heinz R.
Pagels book The Cosmic Code (1983) (in particular
chapter 13, The Reality Marketplace pp. 153-165),
for an entertaining clarication and overview of
quantum theory's many intrepretations, Likewise I
recommend Nick Herbert's book Quantum Reality:
Beyond the New Physics (1985), which offers an
equally well-written overview of quantum theory's
various intrepretations in chapter 9 Four Quantum
Realities pp. 157-175, and chapter 10 Quantum
Realities: Four More pp 177-197.
In consideration of my personal preference for
Bohm's interpretation of quantum theory, Sheldon
Goldstein, Department of Mathematics, Rutgers
University, assists us in driving this message home,
telling us:
Bohmian mechanics is more than merely an
alternative to the orthodox Copenhagen inter-
pretation of quantum theory, more than a
choice between equals. After all, orthodox
quantum theory, with its invocation of meas-
urement in a fundamental and irreducible
manner, with all its appeal to collapse and to
the observer, does not exist as a precise, well-
formulated physical theory. In fact, it could be
argued that orthodox quantum theory is physi-
cally vacuous. This of course raises the ques-
tion as to how physicists have managed with
such great success to employ orthodox quan-
tum theoryhow this theory could work so
well for all practical purposes! The reason for
this, I would argue, is that in using orthodox
quantum theory physicists are thinking in
Bohmian termsdespite the fact that they
would claim they are doing precisely the oppo-
site (Goldstein, 1996:162-163, italics added)
This then is a tremendous transformation of our
worldview. It is shifting the focus of our assumptions
from thinking of atoms as independent self-contained
methematical points that exist in some manifest state,
whose change of location and arrangement in space
is the result of external forces acting on them, to this:
a worldview of fundamental unity, whose transforma-
tion and evolution is described as an interlocking set
of probability patterns, whose actual location in rela-
tion to the whole is indeterminate, but whose relation
to other particles in particular experiments is quite
determinate; it is a concern with change in space-
time or velocity. Moreover we must remember that
the particle/wave does not move like we perceive (or
think of) motion in manifest objects.
Unfortunately due to its inherent elusiveness, it
has to be said that all of our current attempts to
make sense of the quantum revolution's view of real-
ity are open to a variety of interpretations. Conse-
quently the one I have offered here is (to the best of
my ability) a summary of how Bohm's interpretation
of quantum theory relates to the general topic of
constructing a new philosophy of science for para-
psychology. It is toward achieving this hopeful vision
47
that I will let Bohm have the last word on these mat-
ters:
What is under discussion here is, of course, not
merely a way of understanding and working
with parapsychological phenomena. It is a dif-
ferent self-world view, emerging out of modern
physics and yet going beyond the restrictive
framework from which modern physics grew.
In this way, the discoveries of modern physics
come to give support to the movement in
which the rigid division between observer and
observed can be droppeda movement that
could evidently be the beginning of a funda-
mental change in [our understanding of] con-
sciousness itself (Bohm, 1986:134).
Conclusion
Glazier's paper raises important questions about how
the continuing evolution of parapsychological studies
should be explored. Particularly the importance of
breaking away from physicalist theorizing, and the
potential benets of utilizing non-experimental,
qualitative approaches to research and embracing
Rhea Whites (1997) model of exceptional human
experiences. In offering my assessment of these con-
siderations, we have discussed how Oppenheimer
pointed out the limitations of physicalist theorizing to
mainstream psychology in 1956; as well as examining
the potential benets of Bohm's interpretation of
quantum theory toward a new philosophy of science
for parapsychology.
We also discussed the benets and limitations that
are part of non-experimental, qualitiative ap-
proaches. Likewise (even though this was not dis-
cussed in this commentary) Tart's (2009, 2012) call
for an essential science includes within it his own
view of exceptional human experiences. Tart (1986)
elaborated on these methods, where he emphasizes
our need to work with deeper experiential data (p.
295). Also Tart and I share a preference for including
exceptional human experiences within transpersonal
psychology (Tart 1993; Schroll 1998), and the an-
thropology of consciousness (Schroll 2010a). Never-
theless, I remain open to the consideration of other
approaches.
Moreover with regard to methodology, while
Glazier (this volume) mentioned that prior to the
Rhineian revolution, parapsychology tended to be
more semi-experimental and anecdotal. It is worth
pointing out even after J. B. Rhine's experimental
approach to parapsychology was adopted that anec-
dotal accounts of psi did not cease to be a method.
Sally Rhine Feather points this out, reminding us
that, In 1948, my mother, Dr. Louisa Rhine began
to collect letters describing interesting, sometimes
bewildering, and occassionally unsettling ESP experi-
ences (Feather & Schmicker, 2005: xiv). Following
the passing of her mother, Rhine-Feather has contin-
ued collecting anecdotal accounts, and to develop
ways she can improve a methodology for working
with them. During the symposium Non-Local Con-
sciousness, Dreams, Psi and Religion, Rhine-Feather
recalled several anecdotal accounts of psi phenom-
ena, as well as her ideas for improving their methodo-
logical assessment (Schroll 2006).
To conclude, in addition to the many questions
raised so far, a few more came to mind during the
composition of this commentary that are worthy of
consideration. What is our purpose for wanting to
understand psi phenomena? Is it to prove psi's exis-
tence so that science can be shown that its under-
standing of reality has been limited? Is it to offer
proof of psi's existence for those of us who have ex-
perienced it, so we can have peace of mind that we
are not suffering from some form of mental illness?
Finally, I have often wondered if the real goal of
parapsychological inquiry is it to provide an under-
standing of an ability we all have, and to reveal to us
that psi represents the connective principle to our
cosmic co-evolution (past, present, and future)?
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ing R. Van de Castle, J. Gackenbach, S. Rhine-
Feather, & S. Krippner. 23rd International Asso-
ciation for the Study of Dreams, Bridgewater
State College, Bridgewater, MA. Accessed De-
cember 18, 2014
http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/abstracts2006/
schroll.htm.
Schroll, M. A. (2010). The physics of psi: An inter-
view with Stanley Krippner. Transpersonal Psy-
chology Review, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 3-15.
Schroll, M. A. (2012). Reecting on paranthropol-
ogy. In J. Hunter (ed.) Paranthropology: Anthropo-
49
logical Approaches to the Paranormal. Bristol, UK:
Paranthropology, (pp. 59-67).
Schroll, M. A. (2013a). Scientic controversies shap-
ing the worldview of the 21st century: Shel-
drake's theory of non-local memory revisited.
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches
to the Paranormal, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 23-30.
Schroll, M. A. (2013b). Understanding Bohm's
Holoux: Clearing Up a Conceptual Misunder-
standing of the Holographic Paradigm and
Clarifying its Signicance to Transpersonal
Studies of Consciousness. International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies, Vol. 32, No. 1: pp. 112-135.
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Medicines and Healing Dynamics in the Initia-
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nal of Psychoactive Drugs, Vol. 44, No. 3, pp. 216-
223.
Storm, L. (2005). A socioempirical perspective on
skepticism about psi. In M. A. Thalbourne & L.
Storm (Eds.), Parapsychology in the 21st century.
Forward by B. D. Josephson. Jefferson, NC, and
London: McFarland and Company, Inc., Pub.,
pp. 275-304.
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***
Mark A. Schroll, Ph.D., Research Adjunct Faculty, Sofia
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50
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In the previous issue of paranthroplogy (Mattheeuws
2013) I introduced the phenomenon of synchronicity
based on personal experiences. For Jung, who
launched the term, synchronicity refers to a certain
psychic event (a vision, a dream, a feeling) that is
meaningfully paralleled by some external non-psychic
material event without a causal connection between
them. Synchronistic experiences have no logical ex-
planation or physical cause. What binds is meaning.
Although I can give examples of beautiful experi-
ences, many other events have been rather unsettling,
embedded in a traumatic return to Europe from
eldwork and growing symptoms of chronic fatigue
syndrome. This is not unusual since experiences of
synchronicity appear more often during emotional
distress and as part of transformations.
In this second part of the essay on synchronicity I
will make an initial attempt to explore the phenome-
non of synchronicity academically and its relevance
in anthropological endeavours towards a more holis-
tic worldview in the discipline. I will give you rst my
reading lines where after I will show the directions of
my thoughts through the eyes of some prominent
scholars who have taken Jungs discussions on syn-
chronicity into different terrains of research. I will
end this essay with some reections on anthropologi-
cal endeavours by respectively Ingold and Goethe
towards a wholistic world view and how to en-soul
research.
Reading Lines
Rather late in his career in 1952 and after a long pe-
riod of hesitation, the Swiss psychiatrist and psycho-
51
Experiences of Synchronicity & Anthropological
Endeavours (Part 2):
Beyond a Psychology of Projection Into a
Cosmology of Synchronicities
Christel Mattheeuws
In March 2003, one and a half years after eldwork, I returned to the village Sarogoaika with two questions. Do
the Zanadroandrena understand the astrological destinies in terms of the changing features of the weather and is
their history related to the backward movement of the astrological moon in the sun year over a course of about 30
years? Luck was with me. The answers were given to me without I even had to pose my questions. While I had
been pondering over the weather features in relation to Zanadroandrena astrology in Belgium, some members of
the Zanadroandrena family had suffered material destruction from severe thunder attacks which they related to
sorcery. Forces of thunder and other related weather aspects became the discussions of the day since then. If this
was not enough cause for distraught, the wooden posts of their ritual centre that gathers all the invisible forces of
the land had also collapsed. During their yearly ritual at the centre in the beginning of March the healer in charge
of the place revealed that they should renew the posts in the beginning of April. If not, they would have to wait
about 30 years before they could do it again, he said. At the time of my visit in March 2003, the new moon
bringing the destiny Alasaty, the destiny of the Zanadroandrena in relation to their land, had almost reached its
starting position in conjunction with the path of the sun and other stars before it would move again backwards
through the solar year. Ever since, I understood the Zanadroandrena destiny Alasaty (the simmering re in
autumn) as the marriage of earth and sky when the village slumbers for a while wrapped in the silence of the
morning haze. This image was given in a dream the day before I travelled to Madagascar. [Today, in December
2013, I found out that Jung is a Lion (Alasaty) by birth, the solar power in conjunction with the earth (Dunne
2012, pg. 218).]
therapist Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 6 June
1961) published a small work Synchronicity: An
Acausal Connecting Principle (Jung 1973). His hesita-
tion to publish this work came from the fact that it
did not t into the causal explanations of nature and
the Cartesian divide between outside and inside or
matter and mind. According to Jung however syn-
chronicity is no more bafing or mysterious than the
discontinuities of physics. It is only the ingrained be-
lief in the sovereign power of causality that creates
intellectual difculties and makes it appear unthink-
able that causeless events exist or could ever occur
(Jung 1973, pg. 102). To make it thinkable he ex-
tended the notion of the phenomenal realm by trying
to integrate synchronicity into empiric research. Ac-
cording to him, ESP (extra-sensory perception) and
PK (psychokinetic) experiments could provide a sta-
tistical basis for evaluating the phenomenon of syn-
chronicity, yet they ignore the importance of the psy-
chic factor in experiences of synchronicity. He then
gives the example of the Chinese I Ching oracle as
an intuitive and mantic method of divination that
starts with the psychic factor and takes the existence
of synchronicity as self-evident. However, Jung con-
tinues, although the results of the procedures look in
the right direction, they do not provide any basis for
statistic evaluation. Therefore he looked for another
intuitive technique, astrology, which, at least in its
modern form, claims to give a more or less total pic-
ture of the individuals character. However, when he
tested the probabilities of synchronistic occurrences
in relations between astrological constellations of
birth and the married state of individuals I became
lost in his statistical explanations. Generally speaking,
I have no expertise to proof scientically the reality of
synchronicity as a principle other than causality in
the world. I will therefore not elaborate on this kind
of research. I have also put the vast range of litera-
ture on analytical psychology (of which Jung was the
founder) aside because, again, analytical psychology
demands a specic prociency which I lack.
I have found much help in biographies of Jung
that bring the mystical or esoteric dimensions of his
personality forward (Dunne 2012; Lachman 2010).
The biographies deal with Jungs extraordinary expe-
riences and experiments with dreams and visions,
showing very vividly that a person and his or her
world consist of more than only visible or sensible
things. Related to these biographies are the authors
who delve into the (western) esoteric traditions to give
explanations on Jungs views and even formulate
methodologies to deal with esoteric experiences and
phenomena (Voss, K-C 2011; Voss, A 2009; Romany-
shyn 2000, 2013). Others pick up on his examples of
intuitive and mantic techniques. Richard Tarnas
(2007), for example, demonstrates the synchronistic
principle in histories of mankind in relation to astrol-
ogy. The Japanese philosopher Yasuo Yuasa (2008)
and the Korean specialist in religious studies Young
Woon Ko (2011) discuss Jungs vision on the I Ching
and show how an endemic view of this book can help
to understand Jungs principle of synchronicity and
even overcome some of its challenges and ambigui-
ties. Another critical study is Main (2004). Only few
studies elaborate on the spiritual or religious dimen-
sion of synchronicity (Main 2007). This is strange
since many experiences reveal the presence of the
invisible other. One reason behind this lack might be
the fact that these kinds of appearances are kept
within a clinical framework as part of the patients
imagination instead of endowing them with an ob-
jective or socio-cultural embedded nature. Also an-
thropological sources are very scarce. I explain this in
the problematic Cartesian divide between mind and
matter and between the anthropologist and his or her
subjects. Ingolds perception of a world without
boundaries can bring us closer to the phenomenon of
synchronicity although the realm of the unconscious
is missing in his work (Ingold 2000, 2007, 2011,
2013). The same applies for Goethes phenomenol-
ogy of nature although this approach has helped me
to understand and describe my transformations into a
new anthropologist in relation to my eldwork in
Madagascar (Mattheeuws 2011). Nevertheless Jungs
understanding of the unconscious shows similarities
with Goethes world view. A comparison of Goethes
perception of man and the world with Jungs under-
standing of the nature of synchronicity is supported
by Paul Bishop (Bishop 1999; Gunter 1999), a spe-
cialist in German language and literature.
The Jungian Psyche and Synchronicity
Since I am quite unfamiliar with psychology I prefer
to initiate my anthropological endeavours into the
nature of synchronicity (from a human experiential
point of view) with a general formulation of psyche.
From Greek origin (ps!kh" #$%&, life in the sense of
breath) it was rst used in English in the 1640s in the
meaning of animating spirit (Online Etymology
Dictionary n.d.). Mind, soul, spirit and even breath or
52
life have been used since ancient times, sometimes
interchangeable, to denote a part or parts of human
features that are not physical. The contemporary
denition of psychology as the science of mental
functions (thought, perception, emotion, will, mem-
ory, imagination, creativity) and behaviour shows that
the mind has become the focus of study (rst re-
corded in 1748) instead of the study of the soul and
spirit in mid-sixteenth century (Online Etymology
Dictionary n.d.). There are attempts, however, to
bring the soul back into psychology like James Hill-
mans archetypal psychology (Edwards and Jacobs
2003) or Romanyshyns research with soul in mind
(2013).
Generally speaking, psyche in the meaning of
mind, soul or spirit is seen as opposed to the body
following the Cartesian divide. The psyche is the
centre of thought, feeling and motivation, con-
sciously and unconsciously directing the bodys reac-
tions to its social and physical environment (The
American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Lit-
eracy n.d.). Although the principle of synchronicity
reveals the existence of a meaningful relation be-
tween mind and matter, Jungian studies on synchron-
icity also start from the division and explain the
bridge of meaning that the experience of synchronic-
ity makes between mind and matter by something a-
priori and transcending. Jungs psychological model
on which synchronicity rests lingers between an em-
pirical and a metaphysical concept (Main 2004). Aziz
suggests that there is a distinction in Jungs thinking
between the transcendental synchronistic principle
and the temporal synchronistic event. The rst one
refers to the archetypal world of the unconscious in
which the categories of space and time as they are
experienced by ego-consciousness do not apply. What
is a unitary event in the unconscious is refracted into
multiple contexts in consciousness, so that the com-
ponents of the synchronicity are experienced as sepa-
rated in time and space as well as differentiated into
psychic and physical events (cited by Main 2004, pgs.
52-53).
In Jungs psychological model human beings are
much more than what is visible and there exists much
more than what is known through everyday percep-
tion. The world of appearances is only a limited con-
struction of reality. As the (only) way to overcome the
divide between mind and matter and to be able to
explain synchronicity, the visible and the known must
be embedded or nested in something that transcends
or that remains deeply hidden as a surrounding. For
Jung, the unconscious of an individual is the larger
sphere which includes within it the smaller sphere of
consciousness. The collective unconscious is the
larger historical matrix in which individual life is em-
bedded.
Consciousness comprises all the experiences,
memories, thoughts, imaginings, intentions, and so
on, of which the ego is aware. Psychic content of
which the ego is not aware, even if they happen to be
related to the ego, are unconscious. The Jungian un-
conscious is not some dark basement full of un-
wanted, disreputable things [as Freud saw], but a liv-
ing, creative, and often wise partner with conscious-
ness in the business of becoming a fully actualized
human being, a partner who frequently knows more
than we do and who speaks to us in symbols, those
remarkable products of the transcendent function
(Lachman 2010, pg. 202). Jungs psychology is much
concerned with the development of consciousness
that is, becoming aware of an ever-wider range of
ones psychic activity and thereby increasing ones
ability to act intentionally in relation to that psychic
activity. Synchronicity can enhance consciousness by
disclosing its connection both to the unconscious psy-
che and to the outer world. Although synchronicity is
an unconscious act (the experience comes out of the
blue, there is no conscious intention and it expresses
the perspective of the unconscious) the discrimina-
tion and continuity of the ego (the me emerged
from consciousness) are essential for the task of inter-
preting and integrating the meaning of synchronici-
ties. Yet, the limited perspective of the ego can ob-
struct the realisation of meaning of the unconscious
contents emerging in the synchronicity. Synchronicity
is normal, but the meaning given can be part of a
pathological condition (Main 2004, pgs. 14-15) .
Jung accounts for the relationship between con-
sciousness and the unconscious largely in terms of
psychic energy (Main 2004). When the archetype is
active, there is a lessening of energy of consciousness
and a corresponding heightening of the energy of the
unconsciousness. Contents are able to ow more
readily than usual from one to the other, by which
intuition becomes activated (Yuasa 2008, pg. 140).
Archetypes are not intellectually invented. The arche-
typal patterns are to the conscious what the biologi-
cal patterns are to the body. They are natural (Dunne
2012). Gunter says that for Jung archetypes are pri-
mordial images, crystallized forms of the libido [in
the Bergsonian understanding of life-energies] which
lack the libidos pregnant dynamism as experienced
53
by artists and mystics. They are forms from the past
that render the possibilities of the future and shape
the understanding of evolution of both Bergson and
Jung (Gunter 1999, pgs. 274-275). Psychic energy
exists as a tension between two opposing forces. Op-
posites are the ineradicable and indispensable pre-
conditions of all psychic life (Main 2004, pg. 20).
Most fundamental is the opposition between con-
sciousness and the unconscious. But also synchronici-
ties often manifest according to a principle of opposi-
tion. The content of a synchronicity typically ex-
presses a point of view of the unconscious that is op-
posed to that of the consciousness. In Jungs model,
the psyche is considered a self-regulation system that
aims to maintain a balance between opposites
through the mechanism of compensation very similar
to Goethes notion of compensation and the creation
of new organic forms (Tantillo 2002). The idea of
compensation makes explicit one of the most impor-
tant dynamics of synchronicity: synchronistic events
compensate a one-sided conscious attitude, thereby
relating consciousness to the unconscious (Main
2004). Compensation and the reconciliation of oppo-
sites, the self-regulating character of the psyche as
becoming a whole, serves the process of personality
development that Jung called individuation. Indi-
viduation is coming to self-hood or self-realisation in
which the self is the transpersonal centre and totality
or wholeness of the human psyche. It is reached
through processes of active imagination, the method
invented by Jung to amplify and activate dreams or
fantasy images. It is a way of meditating imagina-
tively, without conscious goal or program, on objec-
tive hints being thrown up by the unconscious. Indi-
viduation is a process to an acceptance of ourselves
as we are, to letting life be (Dunne 2012, pgs. 110-
112).
According to the Jungian model, synchronicity
points to the psychoid and essentially transcenden-
tal nature of the archetype as an arranger of the
psychic forms inside and outside the psyche, pointing
to its ability to relativize space and time. It can ex-
plain how a persons mind can register images of
things that are simultaneously happening a great dis-
tance away or have not yet happened but will do so in
the future (Main 2004, pg. 26). The reason for this
capacity is the fact that the archetypes of the uncon-
scious are from an a-priori timeless and spaceless or-
der. They are Kantian noumena (things as they are in
themselves) that come to consciousness as phenom-
ena in the shape of archetypal images. Jung explains
knowing the unknown in synchronic experiences by a
harmony or correspondence that is at work in the
interrelation of both psychic and physical events, in a
meaningful arrangement. The subject brings the ob-
jective event into a meaning system by meaningfully
interpreting the event to the subjects own inner mind.
The idea is not that the world turns around one per-
son, but rather, that the individual is a participant in,
and meaningfully related to, the actual patterning of
events in nature (Aziz cited in Ko 2011, pg. 92).
According to Main (2004), accepting synchronic-
ity simply as the experiential phenomenon of mean-
ingful coincidences or arrangements does not require
that one should subscribe to a Jungian psychological
model and his concept of causality against which the
principle of synchronicity is formulated. Jung used a
restricted understanding of causality, namely physical
causality. There are other forms of causality like
Sheldrakes hypothesis of formative causation, and
kinds of causation in Buddhist and Chinese philoso-
phy. The same argument is worked out by Yuasa
(2008) and Ko (2011) who are both informed by
western and East Asian epistemologies. They accept
Jungs understanding of the psyche but explain the
Chinese form of causality exemplied in the I Ching
(, Book of Change) as a means to avoid the idea
of the phenomena and noumena in respectively the
archetypal images and archetypes. In their work they
interweave traditional East Asian notions of time and
space with theories developed by Husserl, Bergson,
Heidegger and Prigogine on time-consciousness.
A Chinese Perception of the Cosmos
and Synchronicity
Yuasa (2008) and Ko (2011) appreciate both Jungs
endeavour to explain the phenomenon of synchron-
icity. They agree with him that the ideas of the I
Ching accommodate indeed non-rational (non-
mechanical) phenomena in the concrete empirical
world. However they do not follow him when he
identies the I Ching text with the readable arche-
types deeply associated with Platos Idea and the
Kantian a priori category because the text of the I
Ching does not maintain some form beyond our ex-
periences. Jungs mistake in the context of the I
Ching is his emic view on East Asian understandings
of (Ko 2011).
In the course of his book on synchronicity and
image-thinking Yuasa comes to four denitions of I
54
Ching divination that touches the core of the matter
which should become clear below. I Ching divination
is:
A technique of externalizing to conscious
awareness the unconscious intuition about a
situation in which one is placed in the present.
A method and technique for knowing the fu-
ture and the past (a working of the mind).
An attempt to know the characteristics of the
operation of time that mobilizes all things,
changes them and bring them to maturation.
The knowledge of the state of spatial thing-
events in the future (or the past) by means of
intuition arising from the unconscious.
The I Ching is a text giving the meaning and inter-
pretation of 64 hexagrams that are formed by full
(yang , light) and broken (yin , dark) lines. Cast-
ing the I Ching oracle is done by asking a clear ques-
tion and throwing three coins or manipulating fty
yarrow stalks several times to form one hexagram as
an answer on that question (see for example the dem-
onstrations by respectively Hanna Moog and Curle-
dUpWithMachines on YouTube, n.d.). The synchro-
nistic moment is dened in the process of casting
when the subjective mind of the individual casting
the I Ching oracle is related to the appearance of the
hexagram as the objective event. This is certainly
obvious when using the yarrow stalks. The physical
handling of the stalks is accompanied by the working
of the unconscious mind. Perceptual consciousness
(the ego-mind) and sensory organs (the body) alone
do not enable us to understand the future or the past
since they register only the present condition of a
spatial thing-event. The mode of knowing in the ma-
nipulation of the yarrow stalks is identied by Yuasa
as intuition arising from the unconscious. Since intui-
tion takes the form of image-experience, Yuasa pro-
ceeds to show that the I Ching formalised this image-
experience in terms of the 64 hexagrams. The hexa-
gram that results from the manipulations of the stalks
or the throwing of the coins explains the quality of
time (chairos) and timing in which the question
should be understood. This temporal situation should
help the person with his or her decisions. There is a
rule by which the I Ching prohibits performing divi-
nation twice over the same matter. Time in the I
Ching relates to the issues of making a decision in
each specic temporal situation when one is living
through ones life. Divination is not established upon
causal determinism. Determination is left to the per-
sons free decision. Timing (Middle English: hap as
ones luck or lot, occurrence or happening) or the
situation of that temporal condition designates the
character of each and every situation how one
ought to act in such a situation. Divination is for the
purpose of being able to appropriately act, without
mistaking the timing, by knowing the circumstances
in which one is currently placed. This is also what
Zanadroandrena astrology is all about: nding ways
to build fruitful relations with all inhabitants of the
world by not mistaking the timing in their astrological
acts as to create compatible destinies. Encounters that
end up in fruitful relations are called anjara, that
which a person is allotted (Mattheeuws 2008, pgs.
338-342). In this respect it is worthwhile to mention
Joseph Cambray who writes (from the point of view
of analytical psychology) that synchronicity may help
to detect emergent properties of the psyche (levels of
psychological organisation that transcend ego-
psychology) which can be very transformative. Stud-
ies on emergence across scientic disciplines focus on
ways in which the order and organisation of various
systems can arise spontaneously out of chaotic condi-
tions through processes of self-organisation. Jungs
theory of synchronicity is itself a delicate balance of
brilliant insight and irrationality that is poised at
the edge of chaos and order. Synchronistic occur-
rences associated with disturbed mental states may be
the psyches desperate attempt at self-organisation,
trying to make links to the external world in a bid to
reconnect to life (Cambray 2002). Individual con-
sciousness and the unconscious are not closed with
the subject level but perform self-transformation
through objective events occurring in the continuum
of time and space (Yuasa 2008, pg.151).
The notion of the self in the I Ching is based on
the worldview of the East Asian tradition in which
the empirical world is not static but continuously
moving in correlation of the self and the world. From
this perspective, the self is not xed but changes with
the empirical process developed in time. Because the
self cannot be simply located at a moment but is in-
volved in the process of change through its relation
with the rest of the world, it is not always known to
our sensory perception (Ko 2011, pg. 113). Yuasa uses
the Bergsonian concept of pure perception (body
55
separated from the mind) and pure duration (the
mind separated from the body) to show that our cog-
nition occurs where the mind as pure duration en-
counters matter as pure perception. That is when
the ow of time is spatialised. This is a characteristic
of the cosmos in the Chinese tradition. The Chinese
name for cosmos is y'zhu (), respectively the
four directions, up and down and the coming and
going, old and new. Space-time for the Chinese is a
time-zone. Even though life force (q ) that pene-
trates the cosmos changes its phases in the intimate
relation between opposite poles such as yin/yang,
mind/nature and feminine/masculine, it nevertheless
preserves its quality in a given time-zone, wherein
energy of the same quality ties everything together.
This implies that in a given time-zone, thing-events
appearing far and distant, resonate and harmonize
with each other. This is the view of nature on which
Jungs theory of synchronicity [should] rest which is
very similar to the notion of time-zone in Zanadro-
andrena astrology that one can imagine as different
things being caught in the same weather circum-
stances since the Zanadroandrena understand the
qualities of the destinies in terms of the weather
(Mattheeuws 2011).
The connection between the external world and
the internal world is an integrated body-mind matter.
Einstein said that the time that is distinguished into
past, present and future holds no meaning for science.
Time in this sense is an illusion. The distinction of
past and present belongs to the problem of the mind,
and has no bearing on the laws governing matter. On
the contrary, the time of the I Ching is not only psy-
chological but also possesses the characteristic of life-
time, in the German sense of time: Zeit-Zeitig: op-
portune, well-timed, in time, timely Zeitigen: to
ripen, to mature, to iname Zeitigung: maturation,
a qualitative time that constantly changes its charac-
teristics. The ancient Chinese view of nature (cosmos)
is that it has been lled with all things from the (be-
ginningless) beginning. Yuasa gives the example of a
famous Confusianist commentary on the Book of
Changes: What is above form this is called the
Dao; what is under form this is called the vessel
(Yuasa 2008, pg. 89). He explains that Dao does not
transcend form, but is prior to form, while the vessel
designates all the things on the earth (thing-events
like utensils, plants, animals, mountains, streams and
human beings) receiving the activity of Dao. Oppo-
site to the notions of chaos and cosmos in the west, in
East Asia chaos is in the heavens and the cosmos is on
earth, without a clear distinction between them how-
ever since the activity issuing from Dao dwells in all
things, enabling them to be generated and to go
through changes. Hence, Dao or heaven is conceived
more as an interior and the epistemological subject as
a mind/heart cognition hidden in the background of
the self itself. In other words, the essence of time and
space must be grasped from the perspective of the
total activity found within the interior of the world.
Time-space is the life-activity that exists behind all
that is formed in the world as a whole. And by de-
scending into the bottom of the unconscious, a per-
son as an incarnate subject can have an intuitive lived
experience of that activity.
Nowadays We Only Dream
the World of Soul
The arguments of Yuasa (and Ko) centre around the
loss of an integrated body-mind vision in the Carte-
sian divide. The example of an endemic pre-
modernist Asian view of the I Ching makes us aware
of this loss, and suggests a different view of reality
that connects the external and internal world without
the need of a transcendental theory as Jung pro-
posed. As already addressed before, Jung has never
been able to get fully rid of the Cartesian divide in
his own scientic work. His psychology is haunted by
a dualism of inside and outside theorizing in terms of
projections. It is no surprise to read in Jung that
projection is an automatic process whereby a
content that is unconscious to the subject transfers
itself to an object, so that it seems to belong to the
object (cited in Romanyshyn 1999, pg 43). His initial
understanding of synchronicity is also an example of
projection that
rests upon a philosophy of space which sepa-
rates the inside form the outside, a dualism of
interiority and exteriority which identies the
interior with the mind or consciousness and
the exterior with the world, a world without
qualities, a world drained of its erotic com-
plexities, a world of matter that has been de-
animated (Romanyshyn 1999, pg. 43).
Although Jung was aware that the process of indi-
viduation did not happen in the solitary connement
of the Cartesian head, he struggled endlessly with
the question how to understand symbolic life which
56
he dened as life that is meaningfully and consciously
lived only if our experience has metaphorical and
sacred resonance (Brooke 1999, pg. 23). He has al-
ways acknowledged that he had two personalities, an
earth-rooted scientic one and a spiritually centred
mythical one. The last one became more and more
prominent in the process of aging after a midlife cri-
sis and a near death experience caused by a heart
attack.
In the period after the break with Freud in 1913,
Jung became concerned about his own health be-
cause of multiple visions or hallucinations as if some-
thing from inside him wanted to break through. Hav-
ing exhausted what his rational mind could suggest,
he decided to do whatever came to him whatever
his unconscious wanted. Among other things Jung
had many dreams, visions and fantasies in which
strange gures appeared. The most important was
Philemon.
In paintings Jung did at the time Philemon
is depicted as a bald, white-bearded old man
with bulls horns and the wings of a kingsher.
In one of the many synchronicities that ac-
companied Jungs inner journey, while working
on the painting, he came upon a dead king-
sher; the birds were rare in Zrich and Jung
had never before found a dead one (Lachman
2010, pg. 113).
According to Romanyshyn (1999) Philemon is not a
projection of Jungs psyche [as he called Philemon
himself]; rather, he is an inhabitant of the land of
soul. To Romanyshyn a Jungian psychology of pro-
jection is at odds with a psychology which acknowl-
edges the autochthonous character of the soul.
Philemon is indigenous to the psyche, one who
from the earliest times belongs to the soil of the
soul, part of the tribe of that country there
before our time of colonization, that time of
ego-consciousness when we have already taken
possession of the soul. The subjugation of soul
and its indigenous inhabitants, like Philemon,
by ego-mind is of a piece with the domination
of the native peoples of the New World by
European powers. The soul is another country
as different from mind as it is from matter, and
in this sense it makes perfect sense for Jung to
say that Philemon brought home to me the
crucial insight that there are things in the psy-
che which I do not produce, which produce
themselves and have their own life(Romany-
shyn 1999, pg. 24).
Corbin, an expert in Susm, calls this kind of coun-
try the mundus imaginalis from his understanding of
the country of non-where (transl. of Persian alam
al-mithal), a place where where becomes meaning-
less, at least in terms of meaning it has in the realm
of sensible experiences or with the mind. It is a
neither/nor world. This country is albeit this form of
negation not less ontologically real. The mundus
imaginalis is a very precise order of reality, which
corresponds to a precise mode of perception, namely
the imaginative consciousness or cognitive imagina-
tion which can perceive subtle bodies in between
pure spirit and material body, hence being in sus-
pense (Corbin 1972).
Philemon is a subtle body which is neither fact
(matter) nor idea (mind) but haunts the margins of
the sensible world. It is the work of the heart that is
neither mind nor eye. Jungs encounters with
Philemon suggest the possibility of another way of
knowing the world and being in it which has nothing
to do with the notion of projection. According to
Romanyshyn, Philemon carries us beyond a psychol-
ogy of separation based on projection into a cosmol-
ogy of relations based on synchronicities in the later
works of Jung. He calls the third form between em-
pirical facts of matter and the ideas of the mind or
psychological experiences, metaphors. Philemon is
not a metaphor but the kind of presence metaphor
brings (Romanyshyn 1999, pg. 45). Metaphor has a
neither/nor logic, tting the experiential realm more
than any other description like in the metaphoric de-
scription of a purple nch that is a sparrow dipped
in raspberry juice instead of an analytical descrip-
tion about a male purple nch that has about the
size of a house sparrow, rosy-red, brightest on head
and rump (Romanyshyn 1999, pg. 46). A metaphor
is a moment of synchronicity and such a moment, as
von Franz notes, situates us in the between of the
imaginal. Synchronicity is the manifestation of a
concrete living principle (cited in Romanyshyn 1999,
pg. 53). This concrete living principle is well known
by (spiritual) alchemists.
Like in alchemy, a metaphor dis-solves separa-
tion between knower and unknown; it holds us
in relation with the other without erasing the
difference between us. The neither/nor logic
57
requires that one must give up the notion of
being able to attribute with nal certainty that
the epiphany of meaning belongs either on the
side of consciousness as experience or on the
side of the world as an event. The density of
facts and the clarity of ideas are dis-solved and
confused in the softer texture and diaphanous
mist of the imaginal. In Jungs view of al-
chemy, smoke and vapours, dust and mist are
the stuff that the soul is made of. The subtle
body of alchemy, like the subtle body of meta-
phor, is the stuff of mood, an ambience which
pervades and penetrates the eld. The imagi-
nal is neither in us nor in the world. It sur-
rounds us, like light or wind. Philemon in his
subtle imaginal body is an aroma, a perfume.
Indeed, the work of soul, like that of alchemy,
is about dis-solutions rather than solutions.
The dream is a nightly alchemical work which
dissolves or undoes the xed solutions of the
daily ego-mind. And metaphor does in day-
light what the dream does at night. It frees us
into the imaginal depths of the world. In
achieving (intellectual and factual) clarity, what
is lost is the creative tension which reveals the
desire, longing, hunger on the part of the spirit
to matter, and that equally strong hunger on
the part of matter to be in-spired (fragments
from Romanyshyn 1999, pgs. 49-59).
Unfortunately Yuasa and Ko do not mention any-
thing about the East Asian understanding of soul(s)
whether the capacity of seeing and conversing with
subtle images are based on the same kind of intuition
as the intuition of the I Ching divination. Further-
more an elaboration on and a comparison of differ-
ent methodologies for self-cultivation in Eastern tra-
ditions, Western traditions or elsewhere exceeds the
scope of this paper. However, it is clear from the dif-
ferent examples I have given in this article so far that
we need other epistemological claims than the logical
and analytical ones to come to an understanding and
use of synchronicity because the experience of syn-
chronicity rests upon intuition (active imagination,
spiritual imagination, metaphor ). The growth of
consciousness, the work of individuation as growth
into that which it was from the very beginning
(Dunne 2012, pg. 83) is a historical and evolutionary
process that stretches back into the past and ahead
into the future. Myths and especially myths of crea-
tion are ongoing. My eldwork in Madagascar shows,
for example, that the Zanadroandrena live till today
the perpetual cosmogony of their land through astro-
logical practice (Mattheeuws 2008, pgs. 150-156).
On a trip to Taos, New Mexico, a Pueblo Indian
Chief, Ochwiay Biano (Mountain Lake), brought the
point home very directly to Jung about the Euro-
peans loss of vitality and a forcing underground of
the primitive (I prefer archaic) parts of the psyche.
See, Ochwiay Biano said, how cruel the
whites look. Their lips are thin, their noses
sharp, their faces furrowed and distorted by
folds. Their eyes have a staring expression; they
are always seeking something. We do not
understand them. We think that they are
mad. They say that they think with their
heads. We think here, indicating his
heart. [Your] knowledge does not enrich
us; it removes us more and more from the
mythic world in which we were once at home
by right of birth. The raison dtre of his
pueblo had been to help their father, the sun,
to cross the sky every day (Dunne 2012, pgs.
91-92).
As long as other epistemologies are neglected, there
will be realities that remain unexplored, misunder-
stood or only understood from the outside.
Synchronicity and Anthropological
Endeavours
I have come a long way to arrive at this essay on syn-
chronicity. The example I gave at the beginning of
this part was the rst and maybe far most intriguing
experience of synchronicity I ever had at an early
stage of writing my doctoral dissertation in 2003,
nevertheless stretching out towards my readings on
Jung. When I talked about this experience to my
mentor in Belgium and my wish to take this experi-
ence as a leading thread through the dissertation he
declined this proposal saying that many anthropolo-
gists think they have something special after coming
from the eld. I have no idea how the dissertation
would have developed if the proposal was accepted,
but I do not regret the delay of 10 years to nally
take up the discussion since on my way, or detour if
you like, I have met with the work of two scholars
who have deeply inuenced my thoughts and present
standpoint towards the cosmology of synchronicity:
Tim Ingold and Wolfgang Goethe. With their work in
58
mind which helped me understand the astrological
practices shaping Zanadroandrena land in Madagas-
car, I share the East Asian interpretation of Jungs
synchronicity embedded in an organic worldview
given by Yuasa and Ko.
Ingolds ecology of life is a contemporary ap-
proach in anthropology that inquires into the condi-
tions and possibilities of human (and other) beings in
the world. He challenges the anthropological claim
that only humans are social, producing culture. He
also rejects the sociobiological premise that the social
attitude is an inbuilt disposition of animal and hu-
man individuals, brought out only in the presence of
conspecics. His anthropological explorations bring
him into different but related domains in philosophy,
geography, history, psychology, biology, and art so as
gradually to come to a clear insight into common
misconceptions, opening ways for the development of
his own arguments and propositions. Addressing the
academic community, he adduces many examples of
how our thoughts and actions enclose and set us
apart because we spend too much time in our rooms,
our houses, our laboratories, our disciplines and even
our own bodies, while watching through the window,
through technical instruments or through our skull to
the world behind or outside so that we no longer see
and experience what is really happening. He calls for
us to go outside again and to reconsider what is un-
derstood by life. While the period before his book
The Perception of the Environment (2000) was dedi-
cated to questioning the boundaries between suppos-
edly natural evolution and human history, his more
recent research is focused on the boundaries between
a so-called solid material world and the moving and
active animals (including human beings) whose bodily
skills develop from their practical engagement in and
with the world (an understanding that had been
formed in his earlier work). The result is a description
of the world as a meshwork of leaking things which
has brought him to his interest in lines (Ingold 2007).
The transformations of his paradigms of life-forms
from animals, to fungi and then to lines is not a
movement from the concrete towards the abstract.
He gives many examples of thread-like or trace-like
shapes of lines, as the trails that are left by a moving
being, the texture of our muscles, the web that is
made by a spider or the lines of a written text or
drawing. Our own bodily skills of writing, storytel-
ling, weaving, walking, singing, observing and draw-
ing all have in common that they evolve along lines
(although this is often obscured by the way our mod-
ern life takes shape).
Can we dene his lines as the gestures of the
world, its intentions and directions? Can we call these
kinds of movements the verbal character of life that
talks in all its manifestations? Goethean scientists say
that nature appears as a written or spoken text. They
bring this verbal character into their theories by using
a specic language, drawings or other forms of art.
Likewise, Ingold and colleagues are exploring this
way of writing anthropology in projects on walking,
drawing and knowing from the inside. In relation to
my discussion on synchronicity, I wonder if we can
understand Ingolds lines as an expression of the
primal phenomenon of movement, its linearity. With
other words, are Ingolds lines the image of a kind of
archetype that has its expression in all kinds of physi-
cal and mental forms? In an article Ways of mind-
walking he compares walking in the landscape of
real life with walking in the imagination, as in read-
ing, writing, painting or in listening to music. He
concludes that the terrains of the imagination and
the physical environment, far from existing on dis-
tinct ontological levels, run into one another to the
extent of being barely distinguishable. Both, however,
are inhabited by forms that give outward, sensible
shape to an inner generative impulse that is life itself
(Ingold 2010, pg. 15).
Goethean science has its origin in the work of
Goethe, who lived two centuries ago at a time when
the modern sciences were taking on their present
shape. Goethe's approach is a reaction against the
evolution he saw in the paths of his contemporaries.
Goethe, who saw the earth and the atmosphere as a
pulsating, oscillating organism, refused to study na-
ture by rst reducing it to a unity of solid bodies to be
able to measure it. He describes the scientic investi-
gations he met in his time as bringing phenomena to
torture rooms. Goethe saw pulsations not only in the
growth of plants, the formation of clouds, or the play
of the light, but also in skeletons. He linked the
movements of formation and transformation in the
bones to the life-style of animals and human beings
and later also to the environment. He refused to ac-
cept the assumption that human beings distinguish
themselves through the absence of the intermaxillary
bone which made language possible. When he found
that bone, he expressed with great satisfaction and
delight that nothing in the morphology of the human
skeleton showed any distinction between humans and
animals. Humans are intrinsic to the natural world
59
(Kuhn 1987). Darwinism is sometimes described as a
continuation of what Goethe started, but that is in-
correct. Goethe always avoided the question of de-
scent since it implied going beyond the appearances
of phenomena. Nature as a whole acts like an organ-
ism, which includes the ideas of development, pro-
creation, self-regulation and the reproductive ability
of nature. The term archetype, which Darwin bor-
rowed from Goethe (Webster and Goodwin 1996:
111), takes on completely different meanings in Dar-
wins theory of the origin of species, even to the ex-
clusion of what Goethe was looking for. For Goethe
the archetype is the primal phenomenon, the idea of
internal law of morphological organisation. This idea
is not a physical reality, yet it is present in nature to
guide and delimit the formation-drive of the forces
giving rise to nutrition, growth and reproduction. For
Darwin, archetypes are the effects of natural selec-
tion operating on the descendants of a common an-
cestral form. They are supposed to be real, as the
shape of common ancestors (that often have to be
guessed, however), of which variations are inherited
in the descendant organisms that are themselves pas-
sive in the process of evolution. Whereas for Goethe
law is in the form, for Darwin the form is in the law.
While for Darwin, change must be studied in the law
of natural selection, for Goethe, it is in the moving
form. Goethe, felt intuitively that going beyond phe-
nomena is a step too far in studying the phenomena.
He argued that if we want to study changing phe-
nomena, then we cannot go further back than the
moment when these phenomena appear (Kuhn 1987;
Lenoir 1987). Apart from the inuences of theories of
development of his time, Goethes way of seeing
must also have had its source in his writing skills as a
poet. The understanding of living nature needs both
a living thinking and a living expression by way of
gurative language, drawings or sculptures (Root
2005; Wahl 2005; Hoffman 1998; Riegner and
Wilkes 1998). Artful creativity should not be confused
with the creativity of the organising mind. The latter
is the driving force in conventional sciences which
brings change upon nature. Artful creativity follows
nature's form-giving movements (Hallam & Ingold
2007). Goethean scientists consider Goethes path as
a possible cultural therapeutics to rediscover the right
direction of progress and development (Robbins
2005). Many are involved in educational programmes
where people can learn to apply the Goethean way of
seeing and doing in their daily or professional life.
These programmes focus on the development of an
intuitive imagination, which I translate as a living
mind, giving the capacity to see the theory disclosed
by the studied object in its manifold transformations.
For Goethean scientists, the living mind is intrinsi-
cally part of the organs of perception that develop
and change in what has to become apparent in the
process of their generation and growth. According to
Goethean scientists, in the research process, that
which naturally happens in the world should become
a conscious experience. This conscious experience is
an understanding that is generated and shaped in and
by what we try to understand.
In Believing the Malagasy (Mattheeuws 2011) I
explain how the Zanadroandrena, Ingold and Goethe
got interwoven in my work in a way I can say that the
Zanadroandrena became my eyes (in the way I see
the world), Ingold my mouth (in the way I explain the
world) and Goethe my feet (in the way I walk to
learn). Yet there is something missing: the heart. In
An Anthropologist goes Weird (Mattheeuws 2013) I
mention that I cannot discuss the invisible [real]
with Tim Ingold in relation to his otherwise mind-
opening work in anthropology. Ingold and Goethe,
both advocate a holism that is relational where every
phenomenon enfolds its relation to all the others, in-
cluding the researcher. Knowledge emerges through
active, perceptual participation in the coming-into-
being of the world. Knowledge in their approaches is
not a subjective state of the knower and is not onto-
logical separate from the known. And nally, they
both point in the direction of a relational develop-
ment of the body, mind and other (physical) beings
and phenomena in practical engagements (Mat-
theeuws 2011). But, I argue, that they do not give
space in their research path to the dead and other
creatures dwelling in the country of the soul who are
also part of the world as exemplied in my encoun-
ters for example (Mattheeuws 2013). With other
words, they do not pay attention to the (Jungian) un-
conscious in their research. It is possible that they
have never travelled in the country of the soul or that
the dead and creatures of the soul have never visited
them since this country lay beyond the integrated
body-mind perception in research. The same argu-
ment can be used to explain why Yuasa and Ko do
not talk about the soul in Chinese culture. Does this
mean that intuition or imagination have more than
one meaning or ground depending on whether they
are a faculty of consciousness or unconsciousness.
And does this make any difference? In the examples
given by Ingold of reciting bestiaries by medieval
60
monks as perambulatory meditations on the presence
of god or of the aboriginal Yolngu reading paintings
in a meditative quest for ancestral knowledge and
wisdom (Ingold 2010), the monks see the hand of
God and the Yolngu initiates see the Dreaming (the
activities of the Ancestors). But can they see God or
the Ancestors? And how does God and Ancestors
become manifest in the writings and paintings? Is it
through techniques of increased awareness that
opens up the unconscious realm (or spiritual realm) of
the artists to render present the inhabitants of the
soul (or spiritual world) in their work? Is this aware-
ness the same or different from the experiences of
reading? Research on extraordinary experiences
might require research techniques that go beyond
the integrated body-mind experiences to get a
glimpse of the country of soul, such as the creative
imagination of Jung, the imaginative approach of
Romanyshyn, the intuitive inquiry of Anderson or
the transpersonal experience of Laughlin to give only
a few examples. But this goes beyond the scope of
this article.
Towards and Increased Awareness in the
(Anthropological) Academic Curriculum
The tandem essay on synchronicity set off from my
personal experiences of synchronicity related to hap-
penings in Madagascar, my study eld. These kinds
of experiences most often happen during or because
of heightened emotion and can be amplied and ac-
tivated through self-cultivation, or in a Jungian ter-
minology, individuation or self-realization. Would the
anthropological academic curriculum become en-
riched if increased awareness courses would become
part of the training? Staying with the example of
synchronicity to elaborate on this issue I have the fol-
lowing questions in mind. Is the principle of syn-
chronicity universal? Is the seat of synchronicity the
unconscious (as Jung states) and is the unconscious
universal to humankind? Is the principle of synchron-
icity transcendental or not? These questions relate to
cosmologies and nature philosophies in which con-
cepts and understandings of life are embedded. Do
we need increased awareness to understand syn-
chronicity? This question relates to ways of knowing
and their limits. Related to the rst two questions is
the kind of self-cultivation we are seeking. Does it
relate to brain function, to the mind, the psyche, the
body, to all of them and how? Do we need theory or
practice or both? And nally, how do we relate this to
the eld where anthropologists often go? How can an
anthropologist become prepared enough to go to the
eld and explore the extraordinary among or with
the other? And what happens if the anthropologist
comes back?
I have not been able to answer all the questions
in this article but I do believe that in certain cases of
research increased awareness courses would enrich
the curriculum since the unconscious, for example,
possesses knowledge unknown to the individual ego.
It would also enrich the curriculum as a support for
students and researchers in their own experiences
that can be very traumatic or difcult. From a holistic
point of view of reality where everything emerges in
relation to the other, also theory from practice, it is
unavoidable that the researcher changes in the proc-
ess of research. And as my case shows, if the uncon-
scious takes the lead over ego-consciousness also an-
thropologists need an appropriate guidance as what
happens in clinical settings of analytical psycholo-
gists. And yet we should not be afraid of the inhabi-
tants of the soul since this country is not as different
from the country of the body and the mind as we
might think. When I was reading about Jungs under-
standing of the unconscious and its relation with the
conscious mind I recognised much likeness with Go-
ethes description of the physical world where polari-
ties, complementarities and intensications are three
great driving forces of organic nature. This leads us
to the idea that the unconscious is not a weird land
outside of ordinary life but yet another manifestation
of life itself and ontological not different from the
body and mind.
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***
Christel Mattheeuws is an honorary research fellow at
the University of Aberdeen. She graduated in Eastern
Philology and History (Sinology) at the Catholic University
of Leuven (Belgium). She obtained a special diploma in
Social and Cultural Anthropology at the same
university. In December 1999 she started eldwork in
Madagascar and was initially a Ph.D. student in Leuven.
She became a full time student in Aberdeen in 2007 and
graduated in 2008 under the supervision of Prof. Tim In-
gold.
63
Paranthropology is currently
seeking guest editors for
forthcoming issues.
If you think you might be interested in
doing this please get in touch with the
editor via [email protected]
to discuss possibilities and ideas for
special themes.
Religion should connect the rational generality
of philosophy with the emotions and purposes
springing out of existence in a particular soci-
ety, in a particular epoch, and conditioned by
particular antecedents. Religion is the transla-
tion of general ideas into particular thoughts,
particular emotions, and particular purposes;
it is directed to the end of stretching individual
interest beyond its self-defeating particularity.
Alfred North Whitehead,
Process and Reality
The anthropological study of religion is as enduring
as it is difcult to dene and research. I would like to
briey describe the strengths and weaknesses of the
anthropology of religion, and then proceed to show
the ways that the neuroanthropological and neuro-
phenomenological approaches bolster some of the
weaknesses in both ethnographic research and an-
thropological theory construction. I will pay particu-
lar attention to how ethnographers may be ade-
quately trained to get at the more critical experiential
dimensions of religion, and will argue for the advan-
tages of a mature neurophenomenology. I will con-
clude with some suggestions about future directions
we may wish to consider.
The Anthropology of Religion
From the very beginning of anthropology as an or-
ganized discipline, theorists like Adolf Bastian
(Koepping 1983), Edward Tylor (1881) and Andrew
Lang (1901) expressed a signicant interest in relig-
ious institutions and their relationship to experiences
had in alternative states of consciousness (see Mac-
Donald 1981, Laughlin, McManus and Shearer
1983). Most of the leading anthropological theorists
since those early days have published major works
relevant to religious studies. Over the years, numer-
ous anthropological studies have broadened our un-
derstanding of religious institutions and practices of
all kinds, including the use of psychotropic drugs,
myth, shamanism and the priesthood, visions and
hallucinations, trance, and healing. As any ethnogra-
pher knows, to come anywhere near the life of tradi-
tional peoples is to encounter cultural material which
in our society we would call "religious." But dening
the exact boundaries of "religion" as an operational
concept is very difcult. The trouble of course is that
"religion" is another one of those Western terms we
project onto the multitude of this planet's cultures.
The Navajo among whom I lived on and off for years
have no such concept. The closest one can come to
"religion" in Navajo are words or phrases that mean
something like "walking around ritually" and "walk-
ing in beauty." Yet we as Western anthropologists
have no trouble recognizing aspects of Navajo prac-
tice as examples of "religion." Moreover, when Ti-
betan lamas have passed through Navajoland, they
and the Navajo medicine men have no problem
agreeing that they are discussing the same thing.
The cross-cultural study of religion is even more
difcult to competently research. To get at and un-
derstand the core of another people's religious life is
the hardest ethnography to accomplish. It is far easier
to understand how the local system of intensive agri-
culture or clan structure works than to appreciate the
religious signicance of dreams or vision quests. In-
deed, the available ethnographic studies of religious
culture often leave those of us interested in the
deeper spiritual domains of religion profoundly dis-
satised. This is because most classical studies of re-
ligion were carried out and reported within a
structural-functionalist paradigm which pretty much
ignored native experience altogether. Descriptions of
religious activities were limited to observed patterns
of behavior, symbolism and religious texts couched in
terms of "belief systems." Religious institutions were
seen as social subsystems that conditioned behavior
and belief, and that performed a variety of functions
64
The Mystical Brain:
The Primordial Roots of Religion
Charles D. Laughlin
that maintained the greater fabric of the society. Ex-
planations of religion were in terms of an organic
model of social and cultural solidarity that had little
to do with the natives' own understanding or experi-
ence.
Ethnology has always been challenged by the
enormous task of "getting inside the native's head"
and apprehending events from the native's point of
view. Quite often we have taken the easy way out and
have restricted our ethnography to descriptions of
observations of our hosts' behavior. As a conse-
quence, the ethnographic approach to religion has
typically been, as it were, from the outside in. Few
ethnographers have taken up the epistemological
challenge presented by their hosts' claims to knowl-
edge about the hidden (i.e., the mystical or spiritual)
domain of the cosmos and practised the techniques
themselves in order to attain the experiences that of-
ten lay behind these claimsin other words, few have
worked from the inside out.
Of course, some ethnographers have broken
through, or attempted to break through to encounter
the extraordinary experiences that inform their hosts'
religious knowledge (see e.g., Bruce Grindal's 1983
experience of a dancing corpse in Sisala, Chagnon's
1982 experiment with Yanamamo shamanic dance
and chanting, Richard Katz's 1982:6 attempts at
Bushman trance dancing, Carol Laderman's 1991
profound experience of psychic energy during a Ma-
lay healing ceremony, Edith Turner's 1996 spirit en-
counters with the Eskimo, and Mariane George's
1995 co-dreaming experiences in Barok, Bonnie
Glass!Cofns 2010 twenty years of shamanic ap-
prenticeship in Peru). Yet even when such a break-
through is accomplished, ethnographers sometimes
fail to follow the path very far. In the rst place, such
transpersonal (or extraordinary; see Coult 1977,
Campbell and Staniford 1978, Laughlin 1989a,
1994a, Laughlin, McManus and Shearer 1983,Young
and Goulet1994; Goulet and Miller 2007) experi-
ences are usually serendipity, and thus the possibility
of entering a developmental progression to the matu-
ration of spiritual experience and religious knowledge
is frequently missed. In the second place, the
transpersonal experiences they do encounter often
produce profound confusion and uncertainty (or
worse) in the mind of the ethnographer. Transper-
sonal experiences are precisely thattranspersonal.
They are anomalous to the ethnographer having
them and will often bring one's ego and worldview
into serious questionsometimes producing serious
psychological and social sequelae that may last for
years (Glass-Cofn 2010; Grindal 1983).
Even when we have clear evidence of an institu-
tionalized sequence in the development of esoteric
knowledge, as with the Telefolmin of Papua New
Guinea (Jorgensen 1980), the Baktaman of New
Guinea (Barth 1975), the Tamang shamans of Nepal
(Peters 1982), the Tukano of Amazonia (Reichel-
Dolmatoff 1971), the Dogon of Africa (Griaule
1965), and Tibetan lamas (Beyer 1973, Given 1993,
Laughlin, McManus and Webber 1984), there is usu-
ally little ethnographic follow-through into the course
of mysteries that inform the native understanding of
themselves and their world. Few ethnographers give
themselves over as long-term apprentices to masters
of esoteric knowledge (but see Glass-Cofn 2010;
Rodd 2006). Yet information about systems of eso-
teric knowledge is obviously critical to the under-
standing of traditional religious life in many societies.
In such systems, one becomes initiated into a higher
level of mystical understanding as one masters and
then "outgrows" the older, lower level. Students of
the Western Mysteries traditions will recognize this as
the principle underlying the various Masonic Orders.
The phenomenological naivet of ethnographers
of religion is often both profound and systemic. Eth-
nographers who pay attention only to the visible so-
cial structure and behavioral manifestations of relig-
ion remind me of that old yarn about the drunk who
is stumbling around under a street lamp when a
friend walks up and asks him what he is doing. "Look-
ing for my car keys!" exclaims the drunk. "Well," asks
the friend, "where did you lose them?" The drunk
points off into the darkness of the parking lot. "If you
lost them over there, why are you looking for them
here?" asks his friend. "Cause the light's better," re-
sponds the drunk.
Religion from a Neuroanthropological
Point of View
My colleagues and I have been more interested in the
esoteric aspects of religion, rather than the more
mundane institutional aspects. Moreover, we have
developed methodological and theoretical tools that
shed light on these more murky areas of human ex-
perience. We have also tried to bolster the weaker
aspects of the study of comparative religion
namely, the phenomenological naivet and lack of
structural foundation to ethnological understanding.
65
Our approach is simultaneously neurobiological,
phenomenological and sociocultural, incorporating
all the avenues of scientic research appropriate to
the study of religion (see Laughlin, McManus and
d'Aquili 1990:13, Rubinstein and Laughlin 1977).
First and foremost, we require that any psychological
phenomenon be treated with reference to the neural
structures producing it, as well as its sociocultural
conditioning and its experiential dimensions. These
"windows" onto the scope of inquiry apply especially
to religious phenomena in which it is very easy for
ethnographers to err by excluding the structural and
experiential dimensions.
Our approach to religion begins from a stance
similar to that of William James's radical empiricism,
a method that requires: (1) that all of the ideas and
theories in science be grounded in direct experience,
and (2) that no experience be excluded from the sci-
entic purview (James 1976 [1912]; see also Laughlin
and McManus 1995). In the present context, it is the
second requirement that makes our approach some-
what radical. This stricture requires that experience
be the primary locus of research, and not treated
merely as a peripheral or ancillary concern (see
Laughlin and Throop 2006, 2009; Throop 2000,
2002).
Experience
Experience is the play by which the body enacts the
world for itself. The world-play occurs on the stage
constituted by networks of neurophysiological struc-
tures, the entire set of which we term the sensorium.
The on-going, moment-by-moment play of experi-
ence is a depiction of the extramental world, or real-
ity. The structures of experience, which we call mod-
els, are conditioned in their form and function by the
regulation of physical processes in the body. The
regulatory function of the organ of experiencethe
nervous system including the brainmanifests a
trade-off between the necessity of adaptation to real-
ity and the necessity to maintain the integrity of so-
matic organization. Biological organisms naturally
strive to autoregulate their activities in a way that
simultaneously answers these twin demandsWhat
Jean Piaget (1977, 1985; see also Edelman
1989:151-153) called a dynamic state of equilibra-
tion.
The production of experience by the nervous
system is a complex during which cells organize
themselves under the simultaneous press of genetic
guidance, sensory information, feedback about the
cognitive anticipations and the efcacy of its own
actions in the world, and the lawful demands of
autoregulation. The veridicality of immediate sen-
sory experience is informed from past experiences
stored as developing cognitive structures in the nerv-
ous system. Over the lifespan, the organism develops
an internal experiential world which provides an in-
creasingly more complex informational standpoint
from which to act in the world (Piaget 1985:7-10).
The structures mediating experience begin as
nascent neurognosisthe initial, genetically deter-
mined organization of neurons and support cells dur-
ing early neurogenesis. Because neurognosis, or neu-
rognostic models, are living cells, they function neu-
rophysiologically as soon as they grow, nd their
place and become interconnected via reciprocal
processes (i.e., axons and dendrites). They function to
mediate genetically determined properties of the sen-
sorium (i.e., the mental properties of sensing, percep-
tion, cognition, feeling, etc. that make up experience).
Neurognosis produces our earliest standpoint with
reality, the "already there-ness" of our experience of
self and world (Laughlin 1991).
With respect to development, neurognostic struc-
tures grow and complexify their internal organization
in part from a developmental plan which is inherent
in maturation of the body (i.e., the oak is imminent
in the acorn), and in part from adaptational press of
the real world. Neurognosis, I repeat, is an organiza-
tion of living cells, and thus is subject to the tension
between conservation of structure and adaptation to
reality. A major orientation of human adaptation is
toward the social environment. Enculturation may be
understood as the process of socially guiding the
maturation of neurognostic structures. At the expense
of appearing simplistic, certain neurognostic struc-
tures are socially selected for development and other
are not (see Changeux 1985, Edelman 1987, Varela
1979, LeDoux 2003 on the neurophysiology of this
process). Certain domains of experience are socially
encouraged to develop while other domains are ig-
nored or discouraged. There exists a great deal of
overlap in the experiences of peoples everywhere,
due primarily to species-specic neurognosis develop-
ing along similar lines in roughly the same conditions
on the same planet. But details of conditioning and
the entire complement of experiences may vary dras-
tically across cultural lines, for not only is the general
outline of neural development guided by genetics,
there is also no such thing as a totally implastic neural
66
network, and reorganization of neural connections is
a major process that makes adaptation possible.
States of Consciousness
Of particular signicance to the comparative study of
religion is the cross-cultural variance in access to and
conditioning of alternative phases of consciousness
(dreaming, visions, drug trips, spiritual experiences,
etc.). Experience seems to be distributed across a
range of states from those concerned with adaptation
to the outer world to those depicting relations inter-
nal to the organism (Tart 1975). The most common
alternation is between what we call waking and
dreaming states. In modern Euroamerican cultures,
children are taught to disattend their dream states
and to focus on adaptational interactions with the
external world. Moreover, religious and quazi-
religious practices geared to accessing alternative
states of consciousness are discouraged or negatively
sanctioned. Thus Western-style technocratic aware-
ness is primarily concerned with tracking, cognizing
and responding to external events in the so-called
waking state. Western culture thus tends to be mono-
phasic in orientation, in enculturation, in the devel-
opment of self-identity and in responses to the world.
The majority of cultures on the planet, however,
value access to multiple states of consciousness which
are positively sanctioned and enculturated. We term
these polyphasic cultures. In these cultures, experi-
ences had in dreams, in visions, under the inuence
of various psychotropic drugs and herbs, and under
various ritual conditions inform the society's general
system of knowledge, as well as developing self-
identity. The important thing to note is that the hu-
man brain is neurognostically structured to experi-
ence in multiple states, and not merely in the wak-
ing states so treasured by materialist cultures such as
our own.
Neurognosis and the Quantum Sea
Some people are concerned that a fully embodied
view of consciousness, such as the one I am
sketching-in here, leaves no room for life after death,
or consciousness before birth or conceptionthat it
eliminates the possibilities for the survival of the soul
or karmic reincarnation, or diminishes the signi-
cance of transpersonal experiences such as near-
death or out-of-body experiences. In their concern,
people reect the existential matters of "ultimate
concern" facing peoples everywhere (Tillich 1963,
Becker 1973). But such worries arise only as a conse-
quence of reducing consciousness to a mechanistic,
materialistic conception of the body (brain) and the
physical world, and although such a metaphysical
view of the nervous system is common in science, it is
by no means the only possible scientic view. Indeed,
the impact of modern quantum physics is having a
modulating effect upon the more mechanistic biases
in biology and neurobiology. Some researchers have
related various transpersonal experiences to quantum
mechanics (e.g., Puthoff, Targ and May 1981, Walker
1973), and some of us have begun to look at the con-
scious brain, and particularly its neurognostic struc-
tures, as very complex manifestations of coherence in
the sea of quantum energies that permeate the entire
universe (see Wallace 1993, Laughlin 1996a, Deutsch
1985, Penrose 1989, Lockwood 1989, Laszlo 1995).
Contrary to a materialistic view of the conscious
brain, which would of necessity conceive of the indi-
vidual body as a discrete entity, a quantum physical
view requires that a totality of energy relations be
considered in any account of the physical body
(Schroll 2005). That is, the physical body, including
its conscious nervous system, must be considered as a
locus of coherence in the sea of energies that are the
universe. The direct interaction of neurocognitive
structures with quantum eventsevents that may be
distant in space and time (Bohm 1980, 1990, Bohm
and Hiley 1995)becomes possible from this new
view. Non-local causation through the medium of the
quantum sea might explain a variety of phenomena
encountered in paranormal experiences (Barnouw
1946, Long 1976, 1977) and the anthropology of
religion, including co-dreaming, certain kinds of
magic, remote viewing, archetypal consciousness,
telepathy, and so on.
Neurognosis has evolved within the greater
framework of the evolution of the quantum universe.
It no longer makes sense to consider neurocognition
apart from our understanding of the biophysical
properties of the universe. Neurognosis, being or-
ganizations of cells, is a very complex type of coher-
ent energy, and as a consequence is structured in such
a way as to produce not only nascent knowledge
about material phenomena of local signicance (i.e.,
space, objects, relations and movements among ob-
jects and people, etc.), but also nascent knowledge
about the structure of the universe itself (Laughlin
and Throop 2001, Schroll 2005). In short, we are
born knowing both the world as locality and the
67
world as universality. The former knowledge results
in awareness related to objects in proximity to our
senses, and the latter to experiences of the quantum
sea as Plenum Void (see dAquili and Newberg 1996,
1998, 1999, 2000).
Enculturation into a monophasic culture will en-
courage development of neurognosis that is impor-
tant to the adaptation to local material objects and
relations, while enculturation into polyphasic cultural
traditions may result in more advanced development
of neurognosis pertaining to the totality of the quan-
tum sea (however the sea may be metaphorically
coded by any particular society; e.g., "Holy Wind" in
Navajo cosmology, see McNeley 1981). The differ-
ence in the kind of enculturation is crucial to under-
standing why it is so difcult for anthropologists to
come to grips with the experiential dimensions of
traditional religious life.
Training Transpersonal
Anthropologists
The anthropology of religion is systematically ham-
pered by the monophasic conditioning of most of
our ethnographers. Competent ethnographic eld-
work, among some religious systems at least, requires
nothing less than a trained transpersonal anthropolo-
gist (Laughlin, McManus and Shearer 1983, Laugh-
lin 1989a, Laughlin 1994a; LaHood 2007; Rodd
2006). A transpersonal anthropologist is one that is
capable of both attaining whatever extraordinary
experiences and phases of consciousness that inform
the religious system, and evaluating these experiences
relative to invariant patterns of symbolism, cognition
and practice found in religions and cosmologies all
over the planet (Rich 2001).
In keeping with James' radical empiricism, the
goal of a transpersonal approach to the study of re-
ligion is to understand: (1) the maximum potential
genetic and developmental limits to patterns of hu-
man consciousness in any and all cultures, (2) the
mechanisms by which societies orchestrate patterns of
human experience, and the maturation of experi-
ence, (3) the mechanisms by which societies produce
recurrent extraordinary experiences in some or all of
their members so as to enliven and inform their
worldviews, and (4) by extrapolation, the possible fu-
ture evolutionary possibilities of human conscious-
ness (e.g., Laughlin and Richardson 1986).
Transpersonal anthropology is really just a natu-
ral extension of the grand tradition of participant
observation that has made ethnology so unique
among the social sciences. But it is an extension that
requires the ethnographer to "suspend disbelief" in
the native worldview to an extraordinary extent and
to participate actively in those native procedures that
guide one to the extraordinary experiences that give
the worldview its spiritual grounding (see Young and
Goulet 1994, Hume 2013). Transpersonal ethnogra-
phy depends upon the researcher being able to apply
something like the method outlined by Ken Wilber in
A Sociable God (1983:133):
1.# Injunction: Any transpersonal exploration be-
gins with the injunction, "If you want to know
this, do this."
2.# Apprehension: The work is done, the "thick
participation" carried out, and cognitive appre-
hension and illumination of "object domain"
addressed by the injunction are attained.
3.# Communal conrmation: The experiences
attained are checked with those members of the
host culture who have adequately completed the
injunction and illuminative procedures.
In my own work among Tibetan Buddhist lamas, op-
erationalizing the injunction was relatively straight-
forward. Tibetan gurus teach by a system of ritual
initiations (wang kur) that dramatize the attributes of
the focal deity. The deity represents a state, or series
of states of consciousness to be eventually realized by
the initiate. The initiate participates rather passively
in the initiatory drama, but is given more active
meditation work to complete in the weeks and
months following the initiation. In keeping with many
esoteric religious systems, the lama knows the extent
of the maturation of an initiands meditation by the
experiences reported back to him as the meditation
unfolds. Tantric meditations incorporate such ritual
drivers as chanting, percussion, visualization, intense
concentration, special diet, fasting, breathing exer-
cises, body postures, etc., that all participate in incu-
bating and eventually evoking transpersonal experi-
ences that become the meaning of the symbolism for
the initiand (Wilber's "apprehension and illumina-
tion"). Conrmation is attained in dialogue with one's
teacher and with other meditators who have under-
gone the same or similar disciplines. It becomes clear
over time that in order to comprehend the meaning
of the symbolism, one must do the work necessary to
esh out the experientially rich meaning. In a word, if
68
the ethnographer hasn't undergone the apprehension
phase, he or she cannot possibly comprehend the real
meaning the symbolism holds for the mature con-
templative.
Training in Phenomenology
One reason why anthropologists have so often ne-
glected the transpersonal realm of religious experi-
ence is that the culture of science in our age is, and
has been for some generations, anti-introspectionist in
its positivist bias. This is particularly noticeable today
in some schools of cognitive science where introspec-
tive methods are still considered anathema. What is
needed in ethnology as a counter for this culturally-
driven bias is training in phenomenology, especially
for those wishing to do cross-cultural research on re-
ligious, spiritual and healing systems. Phenomenology
is the study of the essential (invariant) processes of
consciousness by the application of mature contem-
plation. Phenomenological training directs the mind
inward in a disciplined way. The student learns to
direct concentration and inquiry toward his or her
own internal processes, be those processes dreaming,
bodily functions (such as breathing, movement, etc.),
imagery, feelings, thought processes, etc. The training
builds habit patterns that counter the naive condi-
tioning toward ignoring or repressing internal proc-
esses, and prepares the student for the kind of proce-
dures used in many alien cultural traditions for incu-
bating and attaining transpersonal experiences.
The Ritual Control of Experience
A major focus of our research has been the study of
the relations between rituals of various kinds (i.e.,
performances, festivals, ceremonies, repetitive tech-
niques, myth-ritual complexes, etc.) and experiences
which the rituals are designed to evoke (see especially
Laughlin, McManus, Rubinstein and Shearer 1986,
Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili 1990, Laughlin
2011). Among other things, we have looked at what
Gellhorn and Kiely (1972; see also Lex 1979) termed
drivers embedded in the fabric of ritual that operate
to trigger neurophysiological structures. A driver may
be dened as any recurrent element in a ritual that
has a predictable effect upon the operating neural
structures mediating experience.
One way to conceive of drivers is to distinguish
between those that are extrinsic and those that are
intrinsic to the body. Extrinsic drivers are elements
such as drumming, chanting, dancing or concentra-
tion upon an icon that depends upon external stimuli.
Intrinsic drivers such as fasting or breathing tech-
niques occur wholly within the body. Table 1 lists
some examples of both kinds of ritual drivers:
Examples
Intrinsic Drivers
Breathing
excercises
Buddhist meditation
Auto-rhythms:
Chanting
Hindu and Buddhist
Mantra
Visualization,
Vision Quest,
Dream Incubation,
Fever, Movement,
Circadian Rhythm
Tsimshian
Shamanism,
Iroquois Handsome
Lake
Fasting, Physical
Exertion, Fatigue,
Long Distance
Running
Tibetan Trance
Running
Concentration,
Directed Attention
Navajo Stargazing,
Zen Koan
Meditation
Seclusion Tsimshian
Shamans
Sensory
Deprivation
Kogi Mamas
Extrinsic Drivers
Rhythm:
Dancing Bushman n/um
dance
Drumming, Group
Chanting
Tsimshian Healing
69
Examples
Flickering Light,
Psychotropic Drugs
Imagery:
Art Navajo
Sandpainting
Skrying Shaman!s Mirror
Kasina Buddhist Ten Basic
Meditations
Mnemonics Tsimshian Power
Songs
Ordeal:
Scary Task Firewalking, Snake
Handling, Drinking
Poison
Pain Plains Indian
Sundance
Sweat Bath Sweat Lodge
Performance
Bloodletting Maya Ritual Blood-
letting
Another way to conceive of drivers, or driving as a
process, is in terms of a hierarchy of neurocognitive
functioning (Laughlin, McManus and d'Aquili
1990:105, 317). The neuroendocrine system of the
human body may be driven from the "top-down," so
to speak, by means of symbolic penetration (see
Laughlin, McManus and dAquili 1990:189-195),
whereas symbolic activity mediated by the brain's
cortex may be driven from the "bottom-up" by lower
neurological, metabolic and endocrine activitiesfor
example, among long-distance runners (see Jones
2004). The driving in either case may be extrinsic or
intrinsic. Intense concentration upon a salient ritual
symbol may (from the "top-down") result in profound
transformation of energy and feeling within the body.
The symbol may be a meditation object out in the
world, or an eidetic image constructed before the
mind's eye. On the other hand, fasting (intrinsic driv-
ing) or ingesting psychotropic substances (extrinsic
driving) may (from the "bottom-up") result in signi-
cant alteration of sensory and cognitive activity.
The Cycle of Meaning
The sociocultural process of integrating knowledge,
memory and experience in groups we call the cycle of
meaning (Laughlin, McManus and d' Aquili
1990:214, Laughlin 1997b). A society's worldview is
expressed in its mythopoeia (myth, ritual perform-
ance, drama, art, stories, etc.) in such a way that it
evokes direct experiences in various states of con-
sciousness (see Figure 1). The experiences and memo-
ries that arise as a consequence of participation in
mythopoeic procedures are interpreted in terms of
the worldview in such a way that they instantiate, and
thus verify and vivify the society's theory of the
worlda theory that frequently posits the existence
of what Alfred Schutz (1945) called "multiple reali-
ties."
An intact, living cycle of meaning would seem to
be a delicate process by which socially shared knowl-
edge is balanced with intersubjective sharing of direct
experience, and one that requires change or "revitali-
zation" (Wallace 1966) over time in order for an effec-
tive and meaningful t to continue between world-
view and personal experience. The social construc-
tion of knowledge and individual experience would
seem to be involved in a reciprocal feedback system,
the properties of which may be changed by circum-
stances in such a way that the link between knowl-
edge and experience may be hampered, and even
lost. In other words, a religious system may become
moribund due to the failure of a reciprocal dialogue
between worldview and direct experience.
Many polyphasic societies encourage their mem-
bers to explore multiple states (dreams, visions, medi-
tation states, drug trips, trance states, etc.) and inter-
pret experiences that arise according to culturally
recognized systems of meaning (d'Aquili 1982,
McManus, Laughlin and Shearer 1993b, Winkelman
1986, 2010, Laughlin 2011). This process of explor-
ing experiences of multiple realities, combined with
social appropriation of the meaning of these experi-
ences within a single cycle of meaning, is typical of
polyphasic cultures (see e.g., Tonkinson 1978 and
Poirier 2004 on the Australian Aborigines, Guedon
70
1984 on the Tsimshian in Canada, Laderman 1991
on Malay culture, Peters 1982 on Tamang shaman-
ism, and Schele and Freidel 1990 on the shamanism-
based kingship among the ancient Maya). Many so-
cieties go so far as to compel initiation into alternative
states of consciousness by putting their members
through ritualized procedures, including ingesting
psychotropic drugs and mandatory vision quests (see
Bourguignon 1973, Naranjo 1987). The experiences
encountered during these procedures in turn tend to
reify the society's multiple reality cosmology.
The role of the shaman or ritual specialist in
both initiating practitioners into experiences and in-
terpreting those experiences for the practitioner and
the society at large is often crucial. In other societies
the "shamanic" role may be diffused throughout the
population of elders who have themselves undergone
the requisite initiations. In still other societies, control
of initiation and interpretation may be in the hands
of the elders of a secret society. In still other societies,
particular individuals may be recognized as especially
adept at leading others through healing and other
initiatory experiences, and interpreting experiences
that arise of the initiate in dreams and other phases
of consciousness.
The Mystical Brain
A central question is, why do so many human socie-
ties practice rituals that are clearly designed to alter
peoples' normal everyday experience? What is the
motive here? As Erika Bourguignon (1973) noted
while considering the almost ubiquitous use of psy-
chotropic substances cross-culturally, there seems to
be an inherent drive on the part of humans to alter
their state of consciousness. Part of the answer, I
think, lies in the very nature of the relationship be-
tween the world of experience and reality, certain
elements of which are universal to all people every-
where. Among other things, traditional religions are
concerned with the hidden aspects of reality, the
causal forces behind events. Traditional systems op-
erate on the principle that in order to control the
visible, the invisible domain of causes must be re-
vealed and manipulated.
The Transcendental
71
Figure 1. The Cycle of Meaning. The society's worldview is expressed symbolically in its mytho-
poeia, especially in its ritual, which leads to direct experiences that are interpreted in such
a way that the worldview is confirmed and enlivened. Shamans may mediate the process
by structuring the symbolic expression and again by helping to interpret experience.
The world of experience, constructed and mediated
by the brain, is how we know and experience our-
selves and our social and physical world. Our brain is
the product of millions of years of evolution to pro-
duce an inner movie version of reality that is fun-
damentally adaptive. Yet extramental reality, which
includes our own organism, is transcendental relative
to our world of experience in at least three senses:
1. The sense of part to whole. There is always
more to learn about the real world, or anything
within it, than any of us can actually come to
know. What we come to know about the real
world is always and only a partial model. I may
know more about toy ray guns (a hobby of mine)
than anyone around here, yet there is far more
to know that I could ever learn.2. The sense of
locality. Our world of experience reects the fact
that we are located in the local environmenta
locus in space-time. Thus the demands of adap-
tation privilege local knowledge relative to uni-
versal knowledge. Moreover, our experiences are
always intentional, whereas reality is everywhere
all the time, and has no intentional focus. We
may be watching the TV, but meanwhile an in-
nite universe unfolds around us.
3. The sense of the invisible. Most of reality is
invisible to our senses, and thus can only be
known by inference. We cannot see electromag-
netic waves, only their effects once they strike
our sense receptors. This is especially true of
complex causal processes. Causes may be invisi-
ble because the effective elements are too sepa-
rated in space or time to be apprehended, or
they may be invisible because they cannot be
detected given the limitations of our senses or
technology. We cannot feel the gravitational pull
of nearby galaxies, only the pull of the earth, yet
both are present in our environment.
The transcendental is mysterious in all these senses.
We lose track of the transcendental nature of things
when we know something, when we feel we are in
control of events, but when we lose that sense of be-
ing in control and perhaps enter the vast cloud of
unknowing that is the beginning of wisdom. Our
knowledge, stored in memoryour taken for granted
worldalways has a horizon (to use Edmund
Husserl's term; see Welton 2000: Chap. 15) beyond
which we may discern the great mystery of existence
and the greatest challenge to limited ability to know.
Most of reality is invisible to direct sensory experi-
ence and must be adumbrated and conceptualized or
imagined in our ongoing, moment-by-moment en-
counter with reality. By implication, we are each of us
a transcendental being that is forever beyond the
grasp of either our own self-knowledge or omnis-
cience about the consequences or our actions upon
the world. Our knowledge is to reality as a map is to
landscape. However, our experiential map is never
static. It is rather a living, breathing representation
produced by transformations in the organization of
living cells that make up our being. At a micro-level
of organization, these transformations have their ma-
terial reality in patterned coordinations among neu-
rons whose initial interconnections are neurognostic,
whose eventual developmental complexity will be
variable, and whose evocation may or may not be
environmentally triggered.
A peoples cosmology may be expressed in ritual
performances that reveal the normally hidden, causal
forces behind matters of vital concernforces that
are considered to be real in the society's worldview
and that recurrently tax the limits of our comprehen-
sion. Participation in a ritual, either as an actor or as
a spectator, may lead to experiences (e.g., visions, en-
actments, dreams, intuitions, hallucinations, etc.) that
reveal previously hidden aspects of the world or our
self. In this way, symbolic forms both "come alive" in
the experiences of people and accrue socially relevant
signicance by way of the societys the cycle of
meaning.
It is not uncommon for the normal state of the
body to be altered in the service of some epiphany,
especially alterations of the face, as happens when
one participates in a ritual drama while wearing a
mask (Young-Laughlin and Laughlin 1988, Webber,
Stephens and Laughlin 1983). For example, the Na-
vajo, Hopi, Zuni and other peoples of the American
Southwest stage elaborate performances during
which masked and costumed dancers enact the vari-
ous deities described in myth (see e.g., Beck, Walters
and Francisco 1990). Masked dancers on the island of
Bali in the Pacic are considered to have special pow-
ers, that their actual performances may be prefaced
by long hours of preparation involving diet, purica-
tion and protection rituals (McPhee 1970). The key to
understanding such metaphorical rituals is to recog-
nize the reversal of the readily visible normal person
to the status of invisible, and of the usually invisible
72
force (deity, spirit, ancestor, hero, etc.) to the status of
visible (see Young-Laughlin and Laughlin 1988).
The Mystical Brain
One point to be drawn from all this is that the human
brain is inherently mystical; that is, the human brain
is driven by its own inherent structure to know the
spiritual, the hidden (see dAquili and Newberg
1999:14). The brain is mystical in respect both to its
neurognostic structure (we are born to know the spiri-
tual), and to its encounter with the transcendental
nature of itself and the extramental world. Again,
there is nothing hidden in the universethe entire
universe is all there all the time. The brain is pre-
pared by virtue of its neurognosis to both come to
know the self and the world, and to experience the
transcendental nature of reality in ways that surpass
the normal limitations of either the senses or rational
thought. Our brain is embedded in the quantum sea
and is a product of the evolution of coherence within
the quantum sea. As such, the brain is structured
from its earliest period of neurogenesis to intuitively
comprehend the quantum seathe Plenum Void
and to reveal that great totality within its conscious
processes by way of insight, imagery, metaphor and
performance. As my late friend and colleague,
Eugene G. dAquili would say, we are wired to expe-
rience our local environment by way of objects, cate-
gories, relations and time, and also wired to know the
truth of the universe in the experience of absolute
unitary being (AUB; see dAquili 1982, d'Aquili and
Newberg 1993).
Neurognostic comprehension of the quantum
sea/Plenum Void has been an indispensable ingredi-
ent in nature's strategy for maintaining the neurocog-
nitive tension between the need for internal conserva-
tion of form, and the need to adapt to reality. There
are cultures on the planet in which individuals are
encouraged to know in both the cosmological and the
adaptational modes, whereas most of us in the West
have been guided away from the cosmological and in
favor of local adaptational way of knowing. Thus,
traditions that foster techniques and experiences per-
taining to the direct apprehension of the nature of
the cosmosthose leading to the state of AUBare
experienced by us as very "exotic" and "mystical."
Sensate, Idealistic and Ideational
Cultures
The mystical brain is a major corrective against ex-
tremely unrealistic and maladaptive views of reality.
As Pitirim Sorokin (1957, 1962) showed us, cultures
that are way out on the adaptational pole in their way
of knowing (he called these sensate cultures) tend to
compensate by swinging back toward a more bal-
anced view in which knowledge derived from the
adaptational mode becomes integrated with that of
the conservational mode (he called these idealistic
cultures). This seems to be happening in Western cul-
ture at the present time with the rise of charismatic
movements, conversion to alternative Asian religions
and the growth of various New Age movements like
neoshamanism. The problem, of course, is that cul-
tures never stand still, and the balance struck in one
generation between rational and mystical ways of
knowing may be lost to subsequent generations in the
movement of the culture toward the opposite mysti-
cal pole (Sorokin called these ideational cultures).
From the point of view of people in an ideational
culture, what we might consider "mystical" knowl-
edge or experience is not mystical at all. It is simply
"the way things are." After all, the word "occult" in
English just means "hidden from view" or "hard to
see." When we experience and comprehend the mys-
teries, they are no longer hidden, and hence no
longer "occult" or mysterious. The human brain is
neurognostically prepared to apprehend the myster-
ies, but to the extent that we have been discouraged
from doing so is perhaps the extent that we must ap-
ply effort and exotic techniques to produce the requi-
site and corrective experiences. It is common among
mature contemplatives that the more advanced their
meditation skills become over the years, the more
subtle their "mystical" experiences become. As Carl
Jung occasionally remarked, the more out of touch
our ego is from our greater self, the more dramatic
may be our calling to the path of mystical awareness.
Conclusion
The mystical brain strives for balance in response to
the tension produced by conservational and adapta-
tional forces operating during development. If the
press of environmental and social conditions result in
an over-emphasis upon adaptational develop-
mentwhich is a condition that seems endemic to
the more technocratic of sensate culturesthe inher-
ent processes of biological integration will tend to
reassert themselves where possible. Such compensa-
tory activities may be experienced by the individual
73
as "mystical" dreams, visions and other phenome-
naperhaps interpreted as a calling from the depths
of the psyche.
This is why something like a monastic subculture
emerges in some spiritual traditions. Monasteries are
social institutions that minimize the adaptational
press so that more energy and attention may be paid
to the mysteries. Monasteries are manifestations at
the social level of the innate drive of the brain to
know the mysteries of existencethe hidden forces of
realityand to commune with totality. More com-
mon still are traditions of "retreat" that remove peo-
ple from the daily grind for a period of time so that
the compensatory drive to the mysteries may, how-
ever briey, assert itself.
Of course there are always multiple ways of
knowing, of interpreting mystical experiences within
ones cultural framework and cycle of meaning. Po-
lyphasic peoples typically have cultures that incorpo-
rate a transpersonal cycle of meaning. That is, not
only do the people mount symbolic and ritual meth-
ods for evoking transpersonal experiences, they also
provide interpretations, or models if you will, that are
easily projectable onto whatever experiences arise
during the process. If you speak in tongues, that is
because you are lled with the Holy Spirit. If you
dream of a conversation with your long-dead relative,
then it is because your relative has travelled from the
City of the Dead to impart important information.
Such experiences instantiate the cultural theory, be-
cause the cultural theory is easily projectable onto the
experience. This is the root of all real-life, everyday
hermeneutics. In a word, people tend to project their
experiences onto extramental reality, and are rarely
aware of any distinction between the two.
However it manifests itself, our mystical brain is
poised, like the Tarot's Fool, on the brink of our own
individual spiritual horizon, neurognostically pre-
pared at any moment to step off into the mysteries
(see Ridington and Ridington 1970). The experiences
attained in one context become the stuff of good sci-
encegood science being dependent upon minds
that strive to explain anomalous data. Experiences
had in another context become the food of spiritual
awareness. Although institutionalized science and
religion may appear to represent the opposite ends of
a social spectrum, genuine mysticism and good sci-
ence are not as far apart as many would have us be-
lieve(Globus, Pribram and Vitiello 2004). For both
mysticism and good science depend upon the unfet-
tered exercise of the mystical brainthe willingness
and ability to leap into the great cloud of unknowing.
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***
Charles D. Laughlin <[email protected]> is
an emeritus professor of anthropology and religion in
the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Carle-
ton University, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1S
5B6. He is co-author of Biogenetic Structuralism (1974),
The Spectrum of Ritual (1979) and Brain, Symbol and Ex-
perience (1990), all from Columbia University Press,
and author of Communing with the Gods: Consciousness,
Culture and the Dreaming Brain (2011) from Daily Grail.
He has done ethnographic eldwork among the So of
Northeastern Uganda, Tibetan lamas in Nepal and
India, Chinese Buddhists in Southeast Asia, and the
Navajo people of the American Southwest.
80
Registration Now Open for the 2014 Conference
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Julie Beischel
21st-23rd March 2014, Gettysburg College, PA, USA
http://etenetwork.weebly.com/american-conference-2014.html
81
In the conventions of the intellectual world
we now inhabit there is no item of knowledge
so solid as a matter of fact.
Leviathan and the Air Pump, 23
Shapin and Schaffer
I.
We meet here on the edge of the Pacic Ocean to
press forward against the edges of a scientically un-
comfortable topic, one where the edges indeed feel a
little blurry: the anthropology of the paranormal. We
may perhaps even suggest that the word itself, para-
normal, (though not the idea) is conceptually oxy-
moronic. The para fundamentally pointing to the
beyond and the normal always conning us to the
narrow limits circumscribed by that which cannot go
beyond. The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that
the paranormal designates:
supposed psychical events and phenomena
such as clairvoyance or telekinesis whose op-
eration is outside the scope of the known laws
of nature or of normal scientic understand-
ing; of or relating to such phenomena.
1
The word supposed here no doubt reects the
oxymoronic and uncomfortable emotions the word
paranormal incites. With this the Oxford English
Dictionary gives us also the words rst use, incorpo-
ration into the Merriam Webster dictionary in 1920
and also among other quotes, a salient partial quote
by Aldous Huxley in 1955: [t]wo sensitives, one
who specializes in paranormal diagnosis, the other a
healer.
2
I offer this quote by Huxley in part be-
cause of the intimate history Huxley has with Esalen,
but also, and more on this later, because Huxleys
quote points us towards an idea that I think is key in
understanding the relationship the paranormal pre-
sents for Westerners living in the 21
st
century.
The word normal on the other hand indicates the
ordinary, typical, conventional, regular or stan-
dard, the rule by which we judge. The normal di-
rects us towards normativity, a prescriptive way of
encountering the world.
3
This mode of normativity,
of prescriptive pronouncement on the way things are,
as we learn in disciplinary studies, is fundamentally
not a productive procedure for an anthropologist to
approach a foreign world of study. Rather than a
normative or prescriptive, that is, pre-emptive, al-
ready decided upon view of what is, instead what is
called for in the anthropological study of any new
worldand we might argue especially for the para-
normalis a descriptive approach, or even better a
thick description, to invoke the ghost of Clifford
Geertz.
4
Of course, we ought not to be blind to the
irony of a situation where the paranormal leaks most
promiscuously in those sets of texts frequently criti-
cized by Western scholars for their normative, pre-
scriptive accounts of the world, Indian texts, and
1
In OED online, referenced 8/28/13:
https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/default.aspx?r=authentication::init&groupcode=RWUColBoulder
2
ibid.
3
ibid. Also from OED: Normative: that constitutes or serves as a norm or standard; implying or derived from a norm, pre-
scriptive.
4
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 5-6, 9-10.
The Paranormal Body:
Reections on Indian Perspectives Towards the
Paranormal
Loriliai Biernacki
82
here I am looking especially towards Indian Tantric
texts, redundant in their normative, prescriptive,
formulaic expressions, and yet bursting out all over
with the paranormal. No doubt, we can probably
trace the rejection of using a normative or prescrip-
tive perspective in a social scientic study, or at least a
kind of lip service to this notion, to the beginnings of
the scientic revolution, where an open-ended dis-
covery of truth formed the basis of the experimental
ideal in thinkers like Francis Bacon, who advocated a
move away from deductive analysis towards human
observation and description, and Robert Boyle, one
of the earliest promoters of the experimental way of
life. There, the experiment proposed to let nature
speak, rather than obscure the truth through all too
human intrusions entailed by deductive logic or pre-
scriptive theology or normative expectations of
what reality ought to be.
5
For this paper I will follow the contours of this
ideal of the experimental method and with it propose
that the difculty the scientic West has with the
paranormal stems less from a rigorous attention to
the experimental method (no surprise here
6
), but
rather more from a decient, too conning, too nor-
mal, and normalizing image of the body that our
current materialism, buoyed by the initial assump-
tions of the experimental method, entails. By way of
contrast, an opening to a bigger view of what the
body is, I will draw from Indian notions of the body,
particularly its formulation of the subtle body, s!k"ma
#ar$ra, magical powers (siddhis) and attendant ritual
practices, which I suggest are a kind of deliberative
practice of eshing out the nonmaterial. Pun in-
tended. These are what I will here call cultivated
expressions of the paranormal.
Certainly the smallness, the narrow view with
which we understand the body today derives from a
lack of imagination on the part of a powerful and
dogmatic science of materialism.
7
One might even
suggest an emotionally driven fear impels a contin-
gency of Western science to deny the blurry edges,
the porosity between body and nonmaterial con-
sciousness. The paranormal is thus inevitably an
oxymoronic, impossibleand here a nod to Jeff Kri-
pals idea of the impossible
8
union of mechanistic
matter conjoined with the elusive nonmaterial, non-
local beyond, which the para of the word paranor-
mal repeatedly, so uncannily and uncomfortably elic-
its. The idea of the body as mere matter, manipulable
and in no way imbued with the mystery of soul or
sentient spirit became the normative presentation of
the body for an early scientic view, one which pre-
vails still today. Implicit in my argument is the notion
that it is precisely the impossible coincidence, the con-
joining of both the physical and nonmaterial that
brings forth our current societys uncomfortable re-
pudiation of the paranormal. Freuds discussion of
the uncanny, the unheimlich, is instructive for the
paranormal. It is unsettling precisely because it is so
familiar.
9
To help illustrate my proposal, I will begin with a
story, one that draws on a comparative sensibility as a
way of thinking through a where to? for tapping
into a program for understanding the paranormal.
My story begins in the 17
th
century.
At the very beginnings of the scientic revolution
in the middle of the 17
th
century, a pivotal period for
the introduction of a new (our current) cosmological,
scientic paradigm, great debates were breaking out
across Europe and England over the nature of the
vacuum. Aristotles earlier rejection of the possibility
of a vacuum had collided head on with the Churchs
interpretation of the Bibles act of creation by God
out of nothing. Was this nothing a vacuum? Did the
emptiness of originary creation contain pneuma?
Spirits? Invisible, though still material bodies? Noth-
5
Yet, the very idea of the experiment was already deeply ensconced within a particular normative perspective of material-
ism, a Cartesian expectation that matter be fundamentally distinct from mentality and fundamentally inert, expectations that
quantum theory has begun to question.
6
A point amply made by Irreducible Mind: Towards a Psychology for the 21
st
Century, eds. Ed Kelly, Emily Kelly, et al., (Lanham,
MD: Rowman and Littleeld 2007).
7
A representational view of the body can be found in Daniel Dennetts Consciousness Explained (Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
1991). By imagination I do appeal to the lyrical outpouring of that earlier Romantic revolt against an overweening materi-
alism in the 19
th
century.
8
Jeffrey Kripal, Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2010.)
9
Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, rst published in Imago, 5, (5-6), 1919, reprinted in New York: Penguin Classics 2003,
transl. by David McLintock.
83
ing at all? On the surge of a budding mechanistic
materialism seeking to overthrow the weight of cen-
turies of apparently nonsensical superstitions, people
like Thomas Hobbes argued stridently for a mecha-
nistic view of nature, and with this an explicit materi-
alism as the basic explanatory framework.
Hobbes spent time in France visiting and discuss-
ing with Descartes (and also Gassendi) and argued
against Descartes conception of a bifurcation of
matter and spirit. Hobbes wanted a totalizing
mechanization, one that would rule out the possibility
of some unseen component of spirit. Hobbes plenist
view was that the notion of a true vacuum was a c-
tion; our reliance on our senses, on the visual, was
overemphasized, that not all bodies were opaque and
even where our human eyes detected emptiness, there
was still matter, physical body occupying that space,
only one we couldnt see with human eyes. Of course,
such a view bore a context, a larger context of the
nascent struggles between religious views of a non-
material reality and a mechanistic view of nature.
Hobbes argued against a vacuum (like Aristotle), and
against a biblical reading of nature that proposed
that God created the world from a vacuum.
Writing in 1640, Hobbes insisted that men would
falsely believe that there were insubstantial beings
or spirits. This idea of incorporeal substance was
for Hobbes a dangerous idea, smacking of the ille-
gitimate usurpation of political authority by the
priestly group.
10
Hobbes didnt reject the Bibles
claims of souls and the like, merely the claim that
they were fundamentally incorporeal. Soul had no
existence separate from the body;
11
we might suppose
Hobbes would have been comfortable with the notion
of the mind as an epiphenomenon. Hobbes, in a de-
cided and committed materialism, also rejected the
teleological reasoning of the Aristotelian Scholastics,
where bodies ascend or descend because of their
fundamental mental heaviness. Hobbes tells us: as if
stones and metals had a desire, or could discern the
place they would be at, as man does; or loved rest, as
man does not; or that a piece of glass were less safe in
the window, than falling into the street.
12

Wary of an intention-based anthropomorphism,
Hobbes thorough-going materialism recalls in some
respects the familiar perspective of many contempo-
rary neuroscientists and philosophers of mind, Dan-
iel Dennett for instance, Richard Dawkins, or cogni-
tive scientist Douglas Hofstadter. And like Richard
Dawkins, Hobbes explains this dismal philosophy and
sloppy use of philosophical speech as the prot mo-
tives of the priests and their allies, the Scholastics. In
his 17
th
century world, though, he still accepts the
Biblical precepts, only he understands them to oper-
ate metaphorically. In good Protestant fashion, the
host is consecrated, but not transubstantiated; no
spirits and nothing like possession by spirits, and for
Hobbes materialism, it is nonsense to say that the
soul survives apart from the body at death.
13

Meanwhile Hobbes had an adversary in Robert
Boyle, with whom he engaged in a longstanding de-
bate. However, like Hobbes, Boyle was also convinced
of the truth of a mechanistic materialist view of na-
ture. Unlike Hobbes, though, he proposed a some-
what new method for deciding the truth of one view
over another. This method came to be called the ex-
perimental method, the basis of our current scien-
tic program. Boyle used this method as a means to
nd out whether indeed it is possible for there to be
a vacuum; Boyles new method proposed to sidestep
the questions of the political and existential meanings
of the vacuum and attempted to experimentally
prove it one way or the other.
14
Boyles new method
involved building an air pump, a large glass ball with
a pump attached whereby he could pump the air out
of the glass ball to see what might remain with the air
gone, to see if indeed there could exist a vacuum.
Here the method is neither prescriptive or normative,
nor deductive, but rather experimental. He pro-
ceeded to demonstrate the existence of a vacuum by
a number of experiments, one of the most dramatic
involving leaving a bird in the glass chamber, (which
set the stage for the numerous experiments on ani-
10
Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the air-pump : Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life : including a translation of
Thomas Hobbes, Dialogus physicus de natura aeris by Simon Schaffer, (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1985), 92.
11
Ibid.
12
Leviathan , p 678, in Shapin and Schaffer, p. 94.
13
Shapin and Schaffer, 95.
14
Shapin and Schaffer, 41.
84
mals to follow), which then dies as the air is pumped
out. Despite the numerous problems with the idea of
whether it is truly possible to conduct an objective
experiment, (I will touch on this further down in a
way that is relevant to our purposes here), whether
the absence of air indicates a vacuum, whether it is
important that the glass chamber leaked, and so on,
Boyles experimental method took hold; it has be-
come the normative scientic modelour norma-
tive method for ascertaining knowledge and truth.
II.
Much is at stake here, in a history that fundamentally
affects the way we do the kinds of work we do today,
and indeed even sets the parameters for what is pos-
sible in studying the paranormal. Of course, this ex-
perimental method has from its very beginnings in-
cipient biases built into the model, mechanistic and
materialist assumptions about the nature of the body
and bodies in general. At the heart of the experimen-
tal mode is the notion that an experimenter can actu-
ally fundamentally be separate from the objects he or
she experiments on (albeit post-quantum much criti-
cized). At base then, our standard, normative mode
for producing truth relies upon a clear demarcation
between our minds and the bodies of objects we ma-
nipulate.
For instance, if we return to the originary con-
icts around the idea of the vacuum and those insub-
stantial beings that were such a source of ire for
Hobbes, the implications are not so far from the kinds
of phenomena we call the paranormal. Insubstan-
tial beings, ghosts and spirits not following the physi-
cal laws we expect, non-mechanical causation, i.e.,
nonlocal causality, and so on.
To give a sense of other possible explanatory
frameworks: meanwhile, elsewhere in the 17
th
cen-
tury, across several oceans, in India, we nd a very
different perspective on what we call the paranor-
mal. In an Indian context it is not so parabeyond
the normal at all, but rather an extension of the ca-
pacities of the body in its less material, or subtle, in-
stantiations. That is, ghosts, (bh!tas, pretas), spirits of a
variety of levels, magical powers, (siddhis) and appar-
ently magical happenings, rainbows in the wrong
place, hail or a sudden inexplicable death for instance
when none might be expected, a shower of owers
(though no rain of shes as far as I have encoun-
tered
15
), are not so much the fantastic stuff of fairy
tales and nightmares, but rather an integrated part of
the fabric of religious virtuosity. Indian metaphysical
traditions across the board sought to explicate these
insubstantial beings with something like a naturalis-
tic, that is non-magical, even non-theological, expla-
nation, even if these explanations typically assumed
the existence of entities and events not subject to our
notions of physical laws. Rather, these other forms of
naturalistic explanatory frameworks relied upon a
different typology of mechanistic principles and or-
dering principles. These principles were structured
around ideas of a causality of intentionhere, in ideas
of karma, and also, related to this, in the notion of
effects derived from ritual performance, based on a
logic of resemblances. What we should note here,
contra the assumptions of the early scientic West, is
the inclusion of a mental component, intentionality,
within the universalizing impetus of a cross-tradition
naturalistic explanatory model.
India also bears a crucial difference from the
Christian West insofar as it presented a persistently
pluralistic religious society. Different traditions with
different deities and beliefs, side by side, where no
particular religion maintained an exclusive hegemony
over others, encouraged an overarching schematiza-
tion that could account for these differences in a
meta-system. To put this in another way, a kind of
universalizing explanatory framework was needed,
which necessarily entailed a type of naturalism in
order to talk across religious belief systemseven as
this naturalism presupposed the possibility of siddhis,
magical powers, different non-embodied entities like
ghosts or tree spirits and water spirits (yak"as) and so
on.
16

I suggest that at the heart of the difference be-
tween these two geographically distant 17
th
century
15
See Charles Forts The Book of the Damned (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher 2008).
16
In some respects, I suspect this kind of naturalism, or what our materialist biases would understand as a pseudo-
naturalism, may be similar to the kind of naturalistic, cross-system explanatory schemes that new-agers and the spiritual but
not religious employ in the quest for a larger framework that can incorporate the difference of metaphysical systems while
not rejecting the experiences of the weirdly anomalous, the non-mechanistic incursion of ghosts and levitating tables.
85
perspectives is a difference in the understanding of
the nature of the body. The Western conception of
bodies as basic matter and a wariness to give space to
an idea of spirit that Hobbes typies, or that Des-
cartes works to cordon off from the body as res extensa,
contrasts a fundamental porosity, an interactivity be-
tween consciousness and the physical that Indian
models of the body assume. So we nd whole genres
of texts seeking to map out the nature of the body
17

in terms of its combinatory mental and physical
components. We nd this in medical texts and also in
the cosmological, philosophical model in S()khya
that proposed to map this mix of mental and physi-
cal. The model assumes both mental components of
the human bodythings like mind (manas), and voli-
tion (aha%k&ra) as well as physical elements like water,
earth, as well as perceptual components, like the eye
and a capacity for sight, the ear and a capacity for
hearing. For a S()khya model, all these components
seamlessly integrate within the larger rubric of Na-
tureand more pointedly, all of these, including mind,
are fundamentally a part of matter, as such ultimately
insentient.
18
While I will focus here not so much on
S()khyas matter-based model, but rather on a gen-
eral Hindu Tantric model (and there is of course
more than one model), it is instructive to point out
that even with the fundamentally atheistic S()khya
model we see a mixing of mentality and physicality,
something we dont nd in Hobbes, or Descartes, and
which is implicitly excluded from the premises of an
experimental method.
To give a sense of some of the richness and in-
teractivity between mentality and consciousness on
the one hand and matter on the other, I offer a few
snapshots of traditional Indian perspectives on the
body. For instance, we nd in an early text, the
roughly 2
nd
century BCE 'veta#vat&ra Upani"ad this
quote: The soul is born and grows by means of
water, food, with delusion, vision, touch and
intentions. The soul obtains stable forms in places
following its different deeds.
19
Here the soul (&tman)
is fundamentally inuenced by food and water, the
kind of materiality that we associate with our bodies,
but also, the soul grows by intentions and obtains
various forms (r!p&ni --bodies?) based upon deeds.
Even the notion that something like a soul, or
conscious self
20
is capable of deeds works against a
Western sensibility, even a Cartesian notion that
preserves both a body and a separate consciousness.
Moreover this notion that a body takes form based on
something as insubstantial as actions is one that
continues through Indian traditions. Abhinavagupta,
a Tantric philosopher in the 11
th
century CE,
drawing on this truism of Hindu traditions, tells us
bodies are produced from deeds, actions.
21
Of
courses this idea shows up probably most famously in
Patajalis Yoga S!tras, where he tells us that our ac-
tions, our karma, determines for our next life our
17
Here Im thinking not only of Samkhya which I discuss here, but also Vai*e+ika and early Buddhism.
18
S&(khy& K&rik& v.19-20, translation in Gerald Larson, Classical S&(khya (Varanasi: Motilal Banarsidass 1969), 264-265.
19
,veta*vat(ra Upani+ad V.11:
sa-kalpanaspar*anad.+/imohair gr(s(mbuv.+/y( c(tmaviv.ddhijanma /
karm(nug(ny anukramena deh0 sth(ne+u r!p(1y abhisa-prapadyate //
20
Even if we follow Patrick Olivelles interpretation of &tman as body in Patrick Olivelle, The Early Upanisads-Annotated Text
and Translation (New York: Oxford University Press 1998), still in any case the mix of registers from body to intention demon-
strates my point.
21
Abhinavagupta, )#vara Pratyabhij& Viv*ti Vimar#in$, (2PVV hereafter), in the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, 3 vols.;
edited by Pa13it Madhusudan Kaul Sh(str0. (reprinted, Delhi: Akay Reprints, 1985), vol. 3, 284.
86
species-- that is, our bodies-- along with our life span
and pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
22
So, not so
much a model of parental inheritance, though this is
not entirely absent, this ubiquitous Indian notion rou-
tinely assumes a link between our mind states, our
food and deeds and the physical body.
An even earlier text, the roughly 6
th
century BCE
Taittir$ya Upani"ad proposes a model of bodies within
bodies, evolving in an evolutionary scheme from self
or soul (&tman) into space then air, re, water and
earth. Like the Russian dolls that contain one inside
the other, with this model we nd a series of bodies
encapsulated within one another consisting rst of
the physicality of food (annamaya ko#a), but then
contained within sheaths of different layers also a
body of breath (pr&+amaya ko#a), a body made of
mind (manomaya ko#a), a body made of intellect
(vij&namaya ko#a) and a body made of bliss
(&nandamaya ko#a).
23
All of these are bodies and all
these bodies link together to make you and I, familiar
human bodies.
We also nd an entanglement between the
physical and nonmaterial in a different way, in the
Jain notion of the soul being burdened by the weight
of the bad karma of a person. Here one pervasive
remedy for lightening the load of the soul is to pull
out ones hair. This very physical substrate of our
bodies, our hair, carries the weight of the
insubstantial, of former deeds,
24
and with this a
mixing of the physical and the mental. Hair can hold
the imprint of consciousness.
25
Also we should keep
in mind the widespread pervasive belief in an Indian
context in reincarnationeven with Buddhism,
which is at pains to deny a notion of a soul (the key
Buddhist doctrine of an&tma). With this we nd across
these traditions a notion of insubstantial body, the
subtle body, s!k"ma #ar$ra, which is what retains both
memories and an imprint of our deeds as we go from
one reincarnation to the next, even for a tradition like
Buddhism, which has no use for a soul. These subtle
bodies sound uncannily like the folklore of ghosts.
My point here however, is that with this notion,
an Indian context incorporates a bigger, wider view
of the body. The body is not just the physical
congregation of cells, the plenitude of bacteria and
viruses that co-exist within our physical frames, with
bone, muscles, water, brain mass and so on. The body
also consists of mental components, and other
nonphysical components, which nevertheless retain
some of the capacities we associate with our physical
bodies including a capacity for sight and movement
and thought. This added nonphysical body is still
connected to our physical bodies and registers the
experiences that our physical bodies undergo. I am
reminded here of Jim Tuckers research on
reincarnation cases in which he discusses the
phenomenon where injuries to one incarnation, a
bullet wound in the shoulder, show up in the next
incarnation as a birthmark and often pain associated
with the previous lifes injured areas.
26
The
nonphysical body, the subtle body, interacts with the
physical body, feels the pains of the physical body
and is also separable from the physical frame and
capable of traveling away from the physical body and
then returning to it.
So, in our Indian context, for instance, we nd in
the Tripurarahasya, another 17th century text,
27
a tale
of a king who wants to enter inside a mountain. The
sage with him tells him to put his physical body in a
nearby cave, so it will be safe, and then to use his
subtle body to enter inside the mountain. The king
does not know how to do this and wonders if he will
die if he leaves his physical body. (No doubt across
the ocean Hobbes would have agreed.) The sage
22
Patajali, Yoga S!tras 2.13.
23
Taittiriya Upanishad, 2.1-2.6
24
This does sound not so far off from that common English expression, the weight of ones sins, suggesting perhaps this
other notion of a mixing of these registers as part of a popular sensibility.
25
See for instance, Alf Heitelbeitel and Barbara Miller, eds, Hair: Its Power and Meaning in Asian Cultures (Albany: State Univer-
sity of New York 1998).
26
Jim Tucker, Life Before Life: A Scientic Investigation of Childrens Memories of Previous Lives (New York: St. Martins Press), 2005.
27
Tripurarahasya, 12:v.71-96, in Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, vol. 25, Srinagar, also with translation Tripurarahasya,
transl. by Swami Sri Ramananda Saraswathi (Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramanasramam 1989). It may be possible to date the
Tripurarahasya to the 16
th
century or earlier than 17
th
century; commentaries are dated to the late 18
th
and early 19
th

centuries.
87
laughs, instructs him to close his eyes, and then the
sage enters the kings body and separates the kings
subtle body from the gross physical body. The sage
puts the physical body aside, safe in a small pit. Here
we can imagine the king may be walking around like
a medium, possessed, like Mrs. Piper as the sage
controls his body. The sage then travels with his own
subtle body and the kings subtle body to the interior
of the mountain. When the king manages to recover
a sense of consciousness, the sage gives him a subtle
body that the sage makes for him, since the king has
not really gured out how to make his own subtle
body at this point in his life yet. Inside the mountain
the king sees a whole new universe created by the
sages mind, with planets, a solar system and so on.
When they get back outside the sage puts the kings
subtle body back into his physical body and wakes
him up.
We see with this both a physical body and a
subtle body. The two are connected but separable.
They mix and interact with each other. Both of these
bodies are really bodies, part of the framework that
makes up the body as a whole and there is a porous
interface between the physical and the nonphysical
body. What is especially interesting in this story is the
need to make a suitable, travel-ready nonphysical
body. The king doesnt have a suitable subtle body for
travel because he hasnt made it yet. He needs a good
subtle body, which the sage makes for him. We see a
similar story in the much earlier, well-known turn of
the rst millennium epic, the Mah&bh&rata, where
Vidura, an intelligent character skilled in yoga enters
into the body of Yudhisthira, the eldest of the ve
brothers who are protagonists of the epic. With this
mixing of one consciousness in another persons
body, like Spocks mind-meld, Yudhisthira is able to
access the wisdom Vidura has. Similarly in the
approximately 14
th
century 'a,karadigvij&ya, the sage
,a4kara also uses his subtle body to leave his physical
body and then inhabit the body of a newly dead king,
so that he can win a debate with his philosophical
opponent Ma13ana Mi*ra.
28
His goal here is to use
the dead kings body to experience what sex is like
and at the same time not be guilty of breaking his
celibacy vows as a monk. I should note again that
these incidents are not portrayed in these stories as
against the workings of nature, as taboo or as
paranormal. Rather they reect a skill set that
comes with recognizing that the body has wider
parameters and wider capacities than what we
associate with just the physical body.
Within a variety of Tantric systems in India we
also see a much greater renement and mapping of
the notion of the subtle body. Firstly, the subtle body
gets much more delineated. We get the cakra system,
which has become a popular mainstay of new-age
movements in the West. (There are multiple systems
in India typically incorporating from four to twelve
cakras, and in some systems even more.) The familiar
and popular image of six cakras with the addition of
an expanded center at the top of the head as the
sahasr&ra derives from a likely sixth to eighth century
Tantric system known as the Kubjikam(ta, the
western tradition (pa#cim&mn&ya). We also nd the
idea of subtle channels of energy ow in the body,
the n&-is, which are integrated with the spine and
perhaps the nerves, but distinctly separate from them.
These also form a part of the subtle body and carry
pr&+a through the body. This term, pr&+a, itself
particularly exemplies the interactivity between the
physical and the nonmaterial components of the
body. Pr&+a is air, a physical substance, if elusive; it is
what Boyle pumps out of the glass globe in his
radical world-shifting experiments. However, it is
more than air; it is also a kind of subtle life force that
connects the subtle body with the physical body and
exists beyond and apart from air.
Secondly, the subtle body gets fundamentally
connected to ideas of sound, especially sound as
vibration, as mantra. Here again, this sound has both
physical and non physical components. Mantra as
sound is audible, at the same time in its more
powerful rendition, there is no audible sound
connected with mantra at all; it is rather a subtle
vibratory frequency without a physical counterpart. It
is what makes up the bodies of deities.
29
Also, these
28
M(dhava Vidy(ra1ya, 'a,karadigvijaya (,r0ra4gam: ,r0va1ivilasamudran(laya5 1972).
29
Lak+m0stotra, v.4: O Goddess, your body is the mantra in B*hadstotraratn&k&ra, ed., ,ivadatta Mi*ra ,(str0 (Varanasi:
Jyotisha Prakasha 1997), 258.
88
vibratory frequencies, which do not have physical or
audible sound attached do nevertheless transfer
through physical substances. Prasad, a food substance,
for instance a banana, which has been transformed
by ritual performance, especially including mantra,
carries a subtle energetic signature that is not
physical, but nevertheless changes the nature of the
banana, even apparently makes the banana tastier by
some reports.
30
This same type of subtle property is
also what makes relics so powerful. The good luck or
magical property of the relic clings somehow to the
physical object.
In a fairly denitive Tantric depiction of the
subtle body, Abhinavagupta tells us that the subtle
body is like the physical body, but it does not have
limitations in terms of its spatial dimensions.
31
It is
also not bound by the divisions of time into past and
present, though it is still connected to time as a
universal.
32
In Abhinavaguptas inuential 11
th
cen-
tury schematic, the subtle body (purya".aka) is com-
posed of eight components: rst, the ve vital
breaths, called pr&+as. These are the in-breath, the
out breath, the upward breath, the downward breath
and the breath which mixes all of these. This makes
ve of the eight. Along with this is the anta/k&ra+a,
the inner organ, subdivided into three, including the
mind, the intellect and the ego. Finally, two more are
added to these six to make eight. These are the two
groups of sense organs, the buddh$ndriya, including the
ear for hearing, the nose for smelling and so on, and
the karmendriya, the group of organs of action, which
includes the hand, the foot, the sex organ.
33
So the subtle body is rather like a physical body,
even containing as essence or template, if not actually
corporeally, hands and feet and genitalia.
34
Thus the
subtle body, that component of ourselves which rein-
carnates, takes on a new body still has a basic bodily
shape, with subtle feet and hands. It is not bound by
space and minimally bound by time. Starting to
sound quite a lot like a ghost? Moreover, it is precisely
the interactions of the physical body with the subtle
that affords the manifestation of what we consider
the paranormal. By working to develop and rene the
subtle body and the interactivity between the subtle
and the physical body, the practitioner develops ca-
pacities beyond normal bodies, magic, paranormal
powers, the siddhis. These include telepathy, telekine-
sis, a capacity to effect changes in weather, all stuff
right out of the X-men.
35
Again, it is important to
emphasize that the paranormal occurs precisely
through the interactions between the physical and
nonphysical bodies.
We also nd in a variety of Tantric texts, and I
especially reference here the 17
th
century Tantric
texts from eastern Indian that focus on left-handed or
illicit techniques, methods prescribed, handbooks, we
may say, for developing these paranormal powers,
siddhis. One of the most pervasive practices is one
designed especially to accentuate the interactivity
between the physical body and the subtle body.
Called ny&sa, this technique entails ritually inserting
subtle body energies, in the form of monosyllabic
mantras, though often without pronouncing these
sounds out loud. This mental insertion of subtle body
energies works to transform the physical body into a
supercharged, superbody, by enlivening the subtle
body via the subtle vibrations of the unspoken man-
tras. Most Tantric ritual performances, regardless of
the deity invoked, utilize this preparatory establish-
ment of an interface between the physical body and
the subtle body in order to generate paranormal
powers, siddhis, with other specic ritual practices.
These practices are physically oriented; they require
for instance physical gestures, yet the import is to de-
30
Oral information relayed by with a contact connected with the ISKCON movement.
31
IPVV 306.
32
IPVV 306.
33
IPVV 334.
34
Abhinavagupta emphasizes that this subtle body is really a body. He tells us, the City of Eight does in fact have the na-
ture of a body, because the great elements, [re, earth etc.] inhere in it, [via the connection of the subtle elements to the
sense organs]. Here, in order to remove delusion, [Utpaladeva] uses the word "body" [to describe this extremely subtle state,
the City of Eight] precisely to instigate [the reader] to voice doubts about the nature of this body and the applicability that
the word body [with its physical implications] entails for this subtle existence. IPVV, 306.
35
See for instance Anonymous, B*hann$la Tantra, Pa/ala 6, Ed. Madhusudhana Kaul, (Delhi: Butala and Co. Publishers
1984).
89
velop an interaction between the physical body and
the subtle body. They emphasize the porosity be-
tween the physical and nonmaterial components of
the body. These types of practices, pervasive through
India, historically entail a kind of cultivated expres-
sion of the paranormal. Tantra sets about to systema-
tize the mechanisms for generating interactivity be-
tween the subtle body and the physical body and with
this attempts deliberate, experiential, if not experi-
mental, replication of paranormal incursions.
III.
To return to our story of the 17
th
century use of ex-
perimental science, what are the differences between
the 17
th
century deliberate cultivations of the para-
normal, these attempts to codify, replicate and ma-
nipulate the paranormal in India, and the 17
th
cen-
tury deliberate experiments with the air and the vac-
uum in England? Historians of science Shapin and
Schaffer suggest a number of factors contributed to
Boyles success in establishing his new experimental
method, including political factors, Boyles emphasis
on the public nature of the knowledge derived from
experiments, among others. One factor, however, is
worth examining in relation to the differences we see
in the idea of the body across these continents. That
is, Boyles emphasis on the use of machines facilitated
a shift in understanding the idea of objectivity. Boyle
writes that the Informations of Sense assisted and
highlighted by Instruments are usually preferrable to
those of Sense alone.
36
Shapin and Schaffer point
out that the machine constitutes a resource that fac-
tors out human agency in the product.
37
The ma-
chine adds a capacity to see without the interpreters
lens; the use of a machine proposes to achieve an
objectivity that human senses cannot obtain.
This emphasis on the power of the machine for
determining truth has only heightened over the last
three centuries. And, of course Galileos use of the
telescope to point out the several moons of Jupiter
and the craters on the moon also operates on this
principle. What the machine does for both these cases
is to increase the capacity of our senses, in a way
which apparently edits out the subjective, mental
component of human sensitivities. Indeed the big
debate of the vacuum in the 17
th
century may be
framed as what do we do with the things our eyes
cannot see, the insubstantial bodies that may be lurk-
ing in the empty glass jar? The use of instruments
takes this in one direction; for instance the micro-
scope allows us to see smaller and smaller entities, the
germs that our eyes dont see, but which certainly
affect our guts. The traditional and new-age explora-
tion of the paranormal seeks to expand our vision in
a subjective framework, incorporating emotions and
intentions. These are the sensitives that Huxley as-
sociates with the paranormal. Notably Huxleys sen-
sitives retain the incorporation of mentality, con-
sciousness to improve their senses, precisely what the
machine factors out. The senses of these paranor-
mally attuned individuals are also heightened. They
can see things that ordinary human eyes miss. They
also often intermix sensory apparatus; (there is a
growing body of literature on the connections be-
tween synesthesia and paranormal abilities), again
pointing to that other body, the subtle body, as also a
capable instrument for sensing that which is difcult
to sense with basic physical body.
38
We see this seep-
ing even into the realm of the paranormal. The hu-
mor of Men in Black, Ghostbusters both rely on an ex-
cess of instruments, gadgetry, typifying the 21
st
cen-
tury response to that which cant be seen and follow-
ing in a sense on Boyles programmatic use of in-
struments to rene human senses. We can compare
this with the priests holy water and crosses for an
exorcism. In the latter, the implements themselves are
imbued with a cross-over of subtle energy, unlike the
mechanical sensitivity of a ghostbusters tools.
The shifts in the 17
th
century have left a mark.
My engineering and physicist colleague at Colorado,
Garret Moddel, who works on the paranormal, psi
and related phenomena opened a recent article with
the following statement:
36
In Shapin and Schaffer, 36.
37
Ibid, 77.
38
See for instance, Richard Cytowic and David Eagleman, (2009). Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia
(with an afterword by Dmitri Nabokov). (Cambridge: MIT Press 2009).
90
The ideal experiment is one in which humans
are not involved. That was my approach when
I started researching psi (precognition, telepa-
thy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis), just as for
other physics and engineering elds in which I
had carried out research.
39
The current president of the Society for Scientic
Research, one of the larger organizations devoted to
exploring the paranormal, Moddel reects our larger
societys reliance on the machine, even as he repre-
sents a contingency of scientists remarkably open-
minded towards the possibility of odd things out
there, the paranormal. In the experiments docu-
mented in this article Moddel attempts a variation on
the well-known psi experiment, where humans
(mostly all of us, not just the sensitives) register a
precognitive awareness of a disturbing loud sound
about to happen in the future, before it actually hap-
pens. We all seem to be able to see about two seconds
into the future. In Moddels variation, rather than
human subjects he uses computers as subjects, and
the counterpart to the disturbing loud sound is pull-
ing the plug. Will a computer register a precognitive
disturbance one or two seconds before its power
source it taken away, a kind of fear effect that it will
imminently die? Moddels idea is that if he could get
a psi effect from a machine, then psi is clearly a real
phenomenon, locatable outside the subjective pur-
view of human personality and intention. (Never-
mind that other less tolerable interpretation, where it
may be that computers are also capable of sen-
tience
40
) This, of course brings up a number of is-
sues, many of which we cannot address here. While
Moddels data registered a signicant statistical effect
initially, in the end he chalked it up to the experi-
menter effect, where the experimenters desires
somehow (magically?) inuence machines. For our
purposes, I use this to note the bias towards the ma-
chine as bearer of truth because it is considered de-
void of mentality, consciousness. Fundamentally, this
suggests that the very means that 17
th
century Indian
Tantrics employed to interface with that other part of
the body, the subtle part, will tend to be systemati-
cally discounted, precisely because it is generated
through means of mentality, intentionality, because it
operates from a different premise, this older Indian
notion that mentality, consciousness are fundamental
parts of the body, of matter.
***
Loriliai Biernacki is Associate Professor and Director of
Graduate Studies in the Religious Studies Department at
the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research interests
include Hinduism, ethics, gender and the interface be-
tween religion and science. Her first book, Renowned
Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex and Speech in Tantra (Ox-
ford, 2007) won the Kayden Award in 2008. She is co-
editor of Gods Body: Panentheism across the Worlds Re-
ligious Traditions (Oxford, 2013). She is currently work-
ing on a study and translation of a Sanskrit philosophical
text by the 11th century Indian philosopher Abhinavagupta
that addresses God, cosmology and the subtle body.
39
Garret Moddel, Building a Prescient Machine, EdgeScience, #11, June 2012, pp10-13. Web link:
http://psiphen.colorado.edu/Pubs/Moddel12a.pdf.
40
The key here in this anecdote is the presence of erotic charge. We should also keep in mind the role of the erotic in Daryl
Bems recent experiments, documented in Daryl Bem, Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for the Anomalous Ret-
roactive Inuences on Cognition and Affect, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100 (2011), 407-425. Also, Jeff Kripal
(personal correspondence) has noted the particular force erotic charge has towards a development that entails the occurrence
of the paranormal. It is not an accident that sexual rites gure so prominently in Tantric rituals designed to engender siddhis
and the paranormal. There is much more to say on this, but this is another, different, paper.
Submissions are now open for
Paranthropology
Vol. 5 No. 2 (April 2014)
Deadline April 15th 2014
For more information see:
www.paranthropology.co.uk
1
Introduction
Responsive Xenoglossy, which is important in the
sense that it provides potential support for survival
over super-psi hypotheses (Ducasse, 1962; Stevenson,
1974, 1984), is a rare phenomenon and as far as we
are aware, there are only two well-documented cases
occurring under hypnosis, both of which are reported
by Dr. Ian Stevenson (Stevenson, 1974, 1984).
2
This
paper reports another case of xenoglossy occurring
under hypnosis. Although our case shares some of
the weaknesses with the two cases reported by Dr. Ian
Stevenson (cf. Thomason, 1996), taking into consid-
erations the condition of the subject and the linguis-
tic distance between the subjects native tongue and
the language spoken under hypnosis, it can be re-
garded as presenting a stronger piece of evidence for
the paranormal nature of the phenomenon.
Fieldwork was also conducted in Nepal to verify
the subjects statements concerning her past-life. Al-
though the past-life personality was not identied, it
was found that the subjects statements matched the
life and customs of the place where the previous-life
personality was considered to have lived.
The Subject
The subject is a housewife who lives in central Japan.
Her native tongue is Japanese. She majored in home
economics when she was a college student and had
some experience working as a dietician. When she
was 47 years old, due to physical problems and dif-
culties in her household, she sought the help of a
hypnotherapist. In the 70-minute hypnotic session
conducted on June 4th 2005, she recalled past-life
memories as a village chief in Nepal.
3
She gave some
proper names and some information about her vil-
lage life. In response to the hypnotherapists request
to speak in Nepali, she uttered two non-Japanese sen-
tences. The hypnotherapists attempt to verify the
information the subject gave during the session was
not successful and experts opinion about the two
seemingly Nepali sentences was unidentiable.
1
The present research is partly supported by Chubu University (Chubu University Grant A, 22IL05A). We are deeply grateful to Inagaki
Katsumi, Dr. Suetake Nobuhiro, and, especially, the subject. Portion of this paper was presented at the 29th and 31st Symposia of the
International Society of Life Information Science (ISLIS) held in Yokohama National University (March 20th, 2010 and March 19th,
2011, respectively), and the SPR 35th International Annual Conference held at University of Edinburgh (September 3rd, 2011). We
would like to thank the participants for their invaluable comments. We are also grateful to an anonymous reviewer for his/her helpful
comments on an earlier version of this paper. The present case is also reported in Inagaki (2010) and Ohkado (2011) in Japanese from
different angles.
2
There are two thoroughly researched examples of possession-type responsive xenoglossy (Stevenson, 1984; Barrington, Mulacz, and
Rivas, 2005). We are not sure whether these cases should be treated on a par with the cases of xenoglossy occurring under hypnosis. See
Stevenson (1974, 1984) for some discussions about possible differences.
3
The regression therapy conducted by the therapist is a unique one called SAM (Soul Approach Method), which is based on a specic
theory of the structure of human consciousness (cf. Inagaki 2006). In the rst session in which the subject recalled the past-life as a Nepali
village chief, she was guided to recall a past-life which was supposed to be relevant to the problems in her present-life. In the session we
report here she was guided to recall the past-life as the village chief.
A Case of Xenoglossy Occurring Under Hypnosis!
Ohkado Masayuki & Okamoto Satoshi
Abstract
This paper reports a case of xenoglossy occurring under hypnosis, in which a Japanese woman recalled past-life
memories as a village chief in Nepal and talked with a Nepali speaker in Nepali, a language which she has no
knowledge of in her normal state. The utterances the subject made are linguistically analyzed and eldwork in
Nepal was conducted in order to verify her statements.
Reading a report written by the hypnotherapist (Ina-
gaki, 2006), we borrowed the audio data of the ses-
sion and examined the contents including the two
sentences with the help of three native speakers of
Nepali. The three Nepali speakers judged that the
two sentences were indeed Nepali and that some of
the proper names given by the subject sounded famil-
iar to them. Upon our request the subject and the
hypnotherapist agreed to have another session, which
took place on May the 9th, 2009. The session was
attended by a Nepali speaker, Paudel Kalpana, a
graduate student of Asahi University.
Results of the Session
The subject was able to communicate in Nepali for
about 24 minutes till the hypnotherapist decided to
terminate the session because the subject became
tired and less responsive. The conversation data was
transcribed and analyzed with the help of Ms. Paudel
Kalpana, who talked with the subject in the session,
and Dr. Khanal Kishor Chandra, a visiting re-
searcher of Chubu University. Detailed grammatical
analysis from the point of view of Nepali linguistics
was undertaken by Professor Kiryu Kazuyuki of
Mimasaka University.
The subjects statements concerning her past-
life as a Nepali village chief named Rataraju are
summarized in Table 1.
4
Table 1
Summary of the Subjects Statements
his own name Rataraju
occupation chief of Nallu vil-
lage
wifes name Rameli
sons name Kujaus
daughters name Adis
fathers name Tamali
tribe (of his father) Tamang
village chief when he
was still young
Kira
food lentil, rice, millet
number of villagers/
households
25
funeral (going to ?) Hima-
laya, cremation
Overall impression of the two Nepali speakers con-
cerning the subjects ability to speak Nepali is that,
although far from the level of native speakers, she did
have some command of the language. Attempting to
quantify that impression, we divided the data into 81
chunks and analyzed the rst 70, chunks 71-80 being
excluded because the subjects response was very
weak, probably due to fatigue. The results are given
in Table 2.
Table 2
Analysis of the Data by Chunk

Conversation
Established A
27 (38.6%)
Conversation
Established B
26 (37.1%)
Inappropriate
Responses
6 ( 8.6%)
Ambiguous 11 (15.7%)
Total 70
The Conversation Established A chunks are illus-
trated by the example where in response to the ques-
tion Tapaiko nam ke ho? (What is your name?), the
subject said Mero nam Rataraju (My name is
Rataraju). In this example, the subject appropriately
answered the question.
The Conversation Established B chunks are
illustrated by the example where in response to the
question Kati barsa hunu bho? (How old are you?)
the subject said Ke? (What?) or the example where
in response to the question Gharma shrimati
hunuhuncha ki hunuhunna? (Is your wife at home
or not at home?), the subject said Bujina (I dont
know). In these examples, although the subject an-
swered the questions in Nepali, she might not have
understood the questions. One can pretend, at least
for a short period of time, that he/she has some
command of a language which he/she actually does
not know by memorizing and using certain phrases
meaning I dont know. For this reason, these chunks
are analyzed separately from the Conversation Es-
tablished A chunks.
4
The original transcript was made using the TRANSliteration system. Here, for the sake of convenience, simplied forms the Nepali
speakers we consulted regularly use are adopted. Upon request, we are willing to send the entire transcript to interested researchers.
The chunks classied as Inappropriate Re-
sponses are illustrated by the example where in re-
sponse to the question Tapai, bihana beluka ke
khanu huncha tapaile gharma? (What do you eat at
home in the morning?) the subject said Ah ... ah ...
Shiba ... e ... e ... dharma (Ah ... ah ... God Shiba ...
e ... e ... religion).
The Ambiguous chunks involved examples
where the subject made such utterances as Ah ... so
that the utterance can be interpreted either as an an-
swer (in this case yes) or just a gap-ller.
If we count the Conversation Established A
chunks as examples in which the subject successfully
communicated with the native speaker in Nepali, the
percentage will be impressively high, 75.7% (53
chunks). As we have just pointed out, this percentage
should be treated with some reservations. Yet, even if
we wholly exclude the Conversation Established B
chunks, about 39% of the conversation can be re-
garded as established.
Next, let us consider the subjects vocabulary.
The number of words she used is not large, only 34.
5

However, of these 34 words, 20, which are shown in
(1), were rst uttered by the subject, suggesting that
she had at least some knowledge of basic Nepali vo-
cabulary.
(1) Words First Uttered by the Subject:
mero (my), ke (what), tis (30), ma (my),
bujina (I dont know), ho (yes), kodo (mil-
let), shiba (shibo) (alcohol) dharma (religion),
pachis (25), pet (stomach), dukahuncha
(hurt), rog (disease), guhar (help), at (eight),
satori (70), dal (dall (curry)), kana (food),
sathi (friend), gaun (village)
The fact that the subject uttered these words within a
short conversation seems to suggest that she has at
least a minimum level of vocabulary knowledge to
communicate.
An interesting fact pointed out by Dr. Khanal
Kishor Chandra, who is an anthropologist and quite
familiar with linguistic situations in Nepal, is that,
when asked for the name of his wife, the subject did
not seem to understand the word shrimati wife, which
is the word Ms. Kalpana rst used in her question.
This is a word usually taught in language lessons of
Nepali, and educated people are familiar with. When
Ms. Kalpana replaced the word with swasni wife, a
non-standard word, the subject instantly understood
the meaning and answered appropriately. This seems
to indicate that the Nepali the subject used is, even if
she had learned the language, it must not be in a
standard way.
Now consider the morphosyntactic properties of
the subjects speech. First, it should be pointed out
that the subjects responses tend to be short, either
words or simple sentences, and no complex structures
like subordinate clauses are observed. One notable
point, however, is that the subject used two forms of
the same verb hunu be in accordance with the situa-
tion as shown in (2).
(2) a. Tapai Nepali huncha? Are you Nepali?
b. Mero buwa Tamang hunu-huncha. My father
is the Tamang.
The Nepali verb hunu be shows a complicated con-
jugational pattern depending on the properties of the
subject. In (2b) the high-grade form is properly used
showing respect to the father of the previous person-
ality. On the other hand, in (2a), the singular low-
grade form of the same verb is used. The form here
is the third person singular low-grade form rather
than the expected second person singular low-grade
hunchas or second person middle grade hunchau. Dr.
Khanal Kishor Chandra explains that using the third
person singular form in an environment where the
second person form is required is quite common, es-
pecially among speakers whose rst language is not
Nepali (like Rataraju, who seems to belong to the
Tamang), and that the usage here, although un-
grammatical from the viewpoint of the standard
grammar, makes more sense than the proper form.
The usage of the proper forms in the two environ-
ments is especially surprising in view of the fact that
Japanese, the native language of the subject, lacks
Subject-Verb Agreement, and that learners of lan-
guages with this property, like English, tend to have
considerable difculty in acquiring this part of the
grammar.
6

We should not, however, ignore the fact that the
subject rarely initiated the conversation and responses
were relatively slow. So, the present case shares
5
We counted two inected forms of hunu be, huncha and hunu-huncha, which we discuss directly below, as one word.
6
In Ohkado and Yanagi (2004), who analyzed the Hiroshima English Learners Corpus data, it is reported that 78.5 percent (117 out of
149) of junior high school learners failed to conjugate the English verb BE.
the weaknesses (the limited vocabulary and sentence
structure of the subjects utterances, and the spotty
nature of the subjects response) with the two cases
reported by Dr. Ian Stevenson (cf. Thomason 1995).
Yet, there are two important differences between
the present case and the cases investigated by Dr. Ian
Stevenson.
First, the hypnotic session about which we report
here is the second one for the subject, and being spo-
ken in Nepali, the language which she does not know
in her normal state, is her rst experience. This is in
sharp contrast with the case of Jensen, the Swedish-
speaking personality examined in Stevenson (1974),
who appeared in eight sessions and the case of
Gretchen, the German-speaking personality exam-
ined in Stevenson (1984), who appeared in 19 ses-
sions. It might be plausible to assume that past life
personalities need to be called out a number of times
for them to fully recover the language they used and
in the present case the number of times the previous
personality was called out was not enough.
7

Second, Japanese, the native language of the pre-
sent subject is genealogically unrelated to Nepali,
which is an Indo-European language. This is in sharp
contrast with the cases of Jensen and Gretchen,
where the subjects native language, English, and the
languages of the past life personalities, Swedish
and German, are classied as Germanic languages
and genealogically very close to English. Therefore,
in these cases, we might suspect that the subjects were
somehow able to utilize their linguistic knowledge, at
least at the level of grammar, in speaking the un-
known language. This possibility, however, can be
excluded in the present case.
In addition, we might also be able to point out
the strong possibility that the Rataraju personality is
not a native speaker of Nepali, since he referred to
himself as belonging to the Tamang, whose native
tongue, Tamang, is in the Sino-Tibetan family. This
could have contributed to the lack of uency in his
speech.
Because of these differences, we might be able to
say that the present case is stronger in evidential
value than the cases investigated by Dr. Ian Stevenson
Opportunities to Have Learned Nepali
by Normal Means
The subject claims that she has never studied Nepali
nor has she had contact with Nepali speakers. In or-
der to conrm the subjects remarks, we conducted
the following three investigations.
First, we investigated the personal history of the
subject, which led us to conclude that it is highly un-
likely for the subject to have learned Nepali.
Second, we asked the subject and her husband to
sign a pledge that the subject had never learned Ne-
pali in her entire life, which they willingly did.
Third, we gave the subject a polygraph test,
which was conducted by Arasuna Masana of the
Houkagaku Kantei Center (Forensic Science Investi-
gation Center). Mr. Arasuna was chief of the Osaka
Prefectural Police Criminal Investigation Laboratory
and has conducted a polygraph test on more than
8,000 people. The test was conducted on August 6,
2009 at the home of the subject. In the test, three
questions related to the subjects ability of Nepali
were asked. Two of them were whether the subject
was able to recognize two Nepali words, chimeki
(neighbor) and chora (son), which she apparently
understood in the hypnotic session. No notable reac-
tions were observed so that it was concluded that the
subject did not recognize the two words, which sug-
gests that she has never learned Nepali consciously.
The third question was about the Nepali currency,
which any person who has learned the language will
be expected to know. Again, the subjects reaction
shows that she lacked the relevant knowledge.
Verications of the Subjects
Statements
At the time of the session, the village of Nallu, which
the subject had mentioned in the 2005 session, was
not found. After considerable effort,
8
a likely candi-
date was found in the location about 25 kilometers
south of Kathmandu, in Lalitpur district. According
to the 2001 Nepal census data, it had a population of
7
Unfortunately physical conditions of the subject do not allow us to conduct another session to obtain more information about her ability
to use Nepali.
8
The village was not on Google Maps in May 2010. None of the Nepali we consulted had heard of the village. Nor our Internet search
including sending messages to universities and government ofces was successful. The problem, we eventually found, was that we thought
that the village was spelled as either Nalu or Naru.
1849 living in 320 individual households in 1991.
9

There did not seem to be any other village of the
same name, and more importantly, 96.7 percent of
the villagers were reported to be Tamangs, the tribe
the Rataraju personality claimed to belong to.
With the village of Nallu located, and since the
subject under hypnosis seemed to refer to the Rana
dynasty, which ruled the kingdom of Nepal from
1846 to 1951, we hoped that we might be able to
track down the past-life personality by doing some
eldwork in the village. One of the authors (Oh-
kado), undertook this task, spending a week in the
village (the 4th to the 11th of August, 2010). Dr.
Khanal Kishor Chandra served as a guide and an
interpreter. The people with whom we had relatively
long interviews were as follows.
Yagya Tamang: 38 years old, an elementary school
teacher
Shyamial Panthi, secretary of the Village Develop-
ment Committee (VDC) at Nallu village from
June 2008 to July 2008
Bidur Ghimire, vice secretary of the VDC at the
Nallu village since June 2008
Pritivi Ghalan, 78 years old, son of the oldest man in
the village, serving as a virtual chief of the area,
keeping the key of the VDC ofce
Jaya Bahadur Ghalan, 103 years old, the oldest man
in the village
Krishna Bhadur Tamang, 53 years old, former village
chief, serving as an unofcial chief (There was
no ofcial chief at the time of the interview be-
cause of the election delay caused by political
instability in the country.)
Shambhu Ghimire, 65 years old, secretary of the
VDC in 1980-1984, and 1992-2010
Nallu village, where the subjects past-life personal-
ity purportedly served as a chief, is, as we have seen
above, located in the Lalitpur district. The coordi-
nates are 27.55N 85.34E. The village is at an alti-
tude of 1685 meters. Due to the poor road condi-
tions, it takes about one and half hours to travel from
the capital, Kathmandu to the village.
Results of the Fieldwork
The village did not have a custom of keeping written
records before 1950. Furthermore, all the documents
in the VDC at the village were burned in 2003 at the
time of the Peoples War so that there are no village
specic documents. The only relevant record we
found is the electoral roll of 1994 stored in the Elec-
tion Commission of Nepal. Rataraju might be too
old to be listed in the document as a voter, but we
hoped that we might be able to nd the names of his
son or daughter. We even hoped that we might be
able to nd Rataraju himself as a guardian because
for a female voter, the name of her husband or, when
she is not married, the name of his father is listed as
well, so possibly we would be able to nd the name of
Adis, a daughter of Rataraju.
However, none of the people in Table 1 was
found among the 1643 voters (plus corresponding
guardians for women) listed in the document. The
names which Dr. Khanal regarded as close to those
listed in Table 1 are given in Table 3.
Table 3
Close Names
Rataraju Ratnaraj Shapkota
Ratna Shanktan
Ratna Bha Ghalan
Ratna Bha Ghalan
Rameli Ramita Lopchan
Chamali Lopchan
Chamali Thing
Kujaus Kailash Bha Thing
Adis Adhi Maya Shanktan
Neither is it the case that the people whose names are
close to Adis or Rameli have husbands or fathers
whose names are close to Rataraju.
The villagers interviewed gave two people, Rat-
naraj Shapkota and Rana Bahadur, as possible can-
didates, the rst of whom is listed in Table 3 as well.
However, the names of their wives and children are
different and neither of them could have been Rata-
raju.
In conclusion, neither the interview-based nor
the document-based research was able to identify the
people listed in Table 1.
On the other hand, the subjects remarks about
food and funerals shown in Table 1 turned out to be
correct, or apparently correct. Lentil and millet are
both principal foods in the village, and rice is also
eaten on special occasions. The reference to the Hi-
9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nallu
malaya, which all the Nepalis we consulted in Japan
said they did not understand, seems to indicate the
funeral custom in the village, in which bodies are
brought to a mountain from where the Himalaya can
be seen and cremated.
The subjects remarks about the number of vil-
lagers are not off the point either: According to the
former village chief, Krishna Bhadur Tamang, the
village used to be divided into 25 small groups. (But it
is not the case that there were only 25 households, let
alone 25 people as far as the former chief knows.)
Apparently, the most intriguing nding is con-
cerning how to count numbers. When asked about
the age when he died, the Rataraju personality an-
swered at satori (eight and seventy), putting the
digit of ones place before the digit of tens place. All
the Nepali speakers we consulted in Japan com-
mented about this part as unnatural. In some lan-
guages such as German the digit of ones place is put
before the digit of tens place, but Nepali is not such a
language. It turned out that counting numbers by
putting the digit of ones place before the digit of
tens place used to be the common way in the village,
especially before the dissemination of education. Ac-
cording to 78 year-old Pritivi Ghalan, he himself is
not very familiar with the old custom. 103 year-old
Jaya Bahadur Ghalan unintentionally showed us this
custom when we asked him how old he was. Since he
can no longer speak, he communicates with gestures.
In answering our question, he rst showed three
and then, 100 in accordance with the old custom
he is familiar with.
Conclusion
There are many cases in which subjects past-life
recalls are to be regarded as products of their imagi-
nation as pointed out by Baker (1982), Spanos et al.
(1991), Stevenson (1994), and Venn (1986). However,
although rarely, hypnotic regression seems to induce
something that can only be accounted for paranor-
mally: A case of Antonia Ruiz de Prado, a 16th-
century Catholic woman reported in Tarazi (1990)
and two cases of xenoglossy reported by Dr. Ian Ste-
venson. We hope it has been shown in this article that
the present case is another such example.
References
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Lives regression. American Journal of Clinical Hypno-
sis, 25, 71-76.
Barrington, M. R., Mulacz, P. and Rivas, T. (2005)
The Case of Iris Farczdy A Stolen Life. Journal
of the Society for Psychical Research, 69, 49-77.
Ducasse, C. J. (1962) What Would Constitute Con-
clusive Evidence of Survival after Death? Journal of
the Society for Psychical Research, 41, 401-406.
Inagaki, K. (2006) Explorations in Past Life Regression
Therapy. Tokyo: Shunjusha (in Japanese).
Inagaki, K. (2010) Reincarnation was Scientically Proven!
Tokyo: Natural Spirit (in Japanese).
Ohkado, M. (2011) A Study of Spirituality, with Special
Reference to Xenoglossy. Nagoya: Fubaisha (in Japa-
nese).
Ohkado, M. and Yanagi, T. (2004) On Language Ac-
quisition Data of English Learners and Their
Theoretical Implications. Journal of the College of
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Ohkado, M., K. Inagaki, N. Suetake and S. Okamoto
(2010) On Xenoglossy Occurring in Hypnosis
and What It Suggests, Journal of International Society
of Life Information Science 28, 128-133 (Proceedings
of the oral presentation).
Ohkado, M. and S. Okamoto (2011) Verication of
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ternational Society of Life Information Science 29, 87-89
(Proceedings of the oral presentation).
Spanos, N.P., Menary, E., Gabora, N.J., DuBreuil,
S.C., and Dewhirst, B. (1991) Secondary identity
enactments during hypnotic past-life regression: A
sociocognitive perspective. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 61, 308-320.
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versity Press of Virginia.
Stevenson, I. (1984) Unlearned Language. Charlottes-
ville: University Press of Virginia.
Stevenson, I. (1994) A Case of the Psychotherapists
Fallacy: Hypnotic Regression to Previous Lives.
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 36, 188-193.
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pedia of the Paranormal, ed. S. Gordon, Amherst:
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Faculty of General Education
OHKADO Masayuki
Chubu University
1200 Matsumoto, Kasugai, 487-8501/
Division of Perceptual Studies
University of Virginia
210 10th Street NE, Ste 100
C h a r l o t t e s v i l l e , VA 2 2 9 0 2 , U. S . A .
[email protected]
Department of Humanities
OKAMOTO SATOSHI
Chubu University
1 2 0 0 Ma t s u mo t o , Ka s u g a i , 4 8 7 - 8 5 0 1 , J APAN
[email protected]
!Science Revealed" considers the
apocalypse in science as discovery.
Biographies of scientists including
Tesla and Einstein reveal how our
most groundbreaking ideas result not
from rational thinking and tapping on
calculators, but from visions, dreams,
feverish delirium and other non-
rational revelations. The controversies
that blow up when such insights clash
with received wisdom are often re-
solved in a manner most unscientic,
and this is just one of the ways in
which what is simplistically called !ra-
tionalism" often obscures truth in a
fundamentally complex world.
Coming Soon from our friends at Psychedelic Press UK
www.psychedelicpress.co.uk
Coming Soon:
Talking With the Spirits:
Ethnographies from Between the
Worlds
Edited by Jack Hunter & David Luke
Featuring contributions from:
Fiona Bowie, Hannah Gilbert,
Deirdre Meintel, Jack Hunter,
Tamlyn Ryan, Barbara Stoeckigt,
Diana Espirito Santo, Bettina Schmidt,
David Luke, Everton de Oliveira Maraldi,
Fatima Regina Machado,
Wellington Zangari, Stanley Krippner,
Charles F. Emmons & Fabian Graham.
Published by Daily Grail Press.
www.dailygrail.com
One of the most exciting developments in research
on consciousness in recent years has been the devel-
opment of the notion of a rst-person science. But,
while its evident promise is explored, it is increasingly
a hotly contested notion within philosophy, neurosci-
ence, psychology and other disciplines. While there
are keenly fought engagements over whether there
can, actually, be a rst-person science of any kind
and, if that were to be the case, what methodologies
would it embrace or require to be identied as a sci-
ence, one of the peculiarities of this agonistic saga is
that it rarely takes a look at some of the most funda-
mental questions about being a researcher-scientist
and doing research. While there is a signicant his-
tory of interest in the sociology, psychology and phi-
losophy of science, there is very little which engages
the processes inherent in the lived experience of per-
sons involved science and research.
Recent work in consciousness, especially the cor-
relation of experience with brain events or dynam-
ics, which has been labeled neurophenomenology
(Varella,1996: Dennett, 2001; Thompson, 2007) fo-
cuses on the very specic ways in which a rst-person
science might be developed contra-distinction to sec-
ond- and third-person approaches where the latter is
that which denes most of scientic endeavor revolv-
ing about systematic observation and measurement of
phenomena of interest the methodologies, instru-
mentation and theorizing of empirical science. Much
of the case for a rst-person science, as a genuine
contributor to all knowledge and not just to the
subject of consciousness, has owed from phenome-
nological philosophy in its various forms for ex-
ample, the phenomenology of perception, embodi-
ment, lived experience constitutive of a social world.
There have been some striking and useful perspec-
tives and tools which have emerged from this work,
especially that of Gallagher and Zahavi (2008), Hurl-
burt (2001), Hurlbert and Schwitzgebel (2007), Peti-
mengin (2009), Smithies and Stoljar (2012), Thomp-
son (2001, 2007) Varela (1996) and Varela and Shear
(2002). But, at the same time, there are some crucial
decits.
The decit aspect of current rst-person investi-
gations reminds me of the movement from classical
physics to quantum physics where the homogenized
observer-scientist of the classical model, made secon-
dary to the logic of investigation and instrumenta-
tion, gave way to the re-introduction of the observer
and the process of observation: observer, conscious-
ness, observation and the object became fused in a
radical departure from a mindless empiricism.
Strangely, while the argument about the validity and
relevance of such a construction of the foundations
of science has raged for over nearly a century now, a
decit is still there and it takes a specic form: Sci-
Navigating to the Inside:
First Person Science Perspectives on
Consciousness and Psi
Rafael G. Locke
Abstract
The fundamental aim of this paper is to explore three important areas of research: First, the ways in which a rst-
person science may be conceived of within anthropological and experimental research mainly using existential-
phenomenological approaches. Second, how an existential-phenomenological approach may illuminate some of
the key aspects of mediumship with respect to state of consciousness and state of being change as well as ques-
tions concerning the place of agency and ownership in human experience and behavior. Third, an exploration of
the ways in which rst-person data may be presented in relation to the consciousness-psi relationship. The overall
analysis moves from the exterior to the interior of human life-worlds, to the phenomenology of doing rst-
person science.
ence and research is done by persons installed in social
and cultural worlds through which science is articu-
lated. Persons are part of an intersubjective order
which denes social and cultural phenomena and,
in this sense, research is never performed by monads
to be analysed and understood discretely.
These latter considerations take us directly to
some of the more important developments in the so-
cial sciences, psychiatry and psychotherapy which
emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and which reect
long-standing European fascination with differences,
and possible rapprochement, between the hard sci-
ences and the sciences of history, sociology and an-
thropology. In brief, can there be a meeting which is
meaningful and productive in theory-building about
the world, between sciences which cancel the perspective
of lived experience in a rationality which links reason,
observation, explanation and prediction and those
which focus on the primacy of lived experience, the
domains of meaning and action and understanding (Ver-
stehen) which comprises the axis of the everyday world
and which is constitutive of a lived world (Lebenswelt)?
The question is important for a number of reasons,
not the least of which is, Can there be a rst-person
science? which entails the question, Where are per-
sons, social actors, and subjective experience in such
a science and, indeed, within third-person science?
We can frame a line of enquiry around these is-
sues which is relevant to our topic by pointing out
that from Max Weber to Alfred Schutz and Harold
Garnkel, from Edmund Husserl to Maurice
Merleau-Ponty and Martin Heidegger, there is a
thread out of which a useful approach to rst-person
science can be constructed. This thread is picked up
and articulated by Nagel in his provocative paper,
What is it like to be a bat? (1974) which grounds the
rst-person debates in the extrapolated question,
What is it like to be a researcher doing research in a
specic domain? While there are psychological, socio-
logical, historical and philosophical, as well as bio-
graphical studies of how science is done, there is very
little on what it means to address the previous ques-
tions from within the perspective of a person experi-
encing and acting within the lived world of science
and research.
For anthropologists, these sorts of questions are
essential to the business of doing ethnographies. But,
of course, the same debates as those which inhabit
the hard sciences are to be found in social and cul-
tural research and most evident in question surround-
ing the conditions under which one enters, under-
stands and interprets other cultures other than
ones own. The idea of the participant observer is a
standard way of summarizing the complex of factors
which concern anthropological and sociological
eldwork: there is a sense of balancing reexive ob-
servation and cultural immersion through a sustained
distance, deposited in suspensions of belief about
cultural contents (beliefs, values, perceptions, feelings
and explanations for actions, for example) in order to
generate acceptable data and theoretical positions
written as ethnography. In this balance there is a
family relationships with the dynamics of psycho-
therapy, where empathy is required as a tool and in-
terpersonal axis through which effective relationships
are established and maintained, despite any funda-
mental differences in world-views and behavior which
may obtain between therapist and client. These ele-
ments of relationships, and being able to grasp other
minds, other worlds, other ways of being, are
stretched as accomplishments in situations where cul-
tures are radically different from that of the re-
searcher and where the world of the client is radically
different from that of the therapist, as in dealing with
schizophrenia.
A preliminary question which arises here is this:
How far is one able to extend ones involvement with
another culture or another person who is a client in
order to generate what may be a more comprehen-
sive view of the data of cultural membership or psy-
chiatric disorder experience? Just what the data
might look like takes us back to perspectives which
ow from Searles seminal paper.
The axis of mutuality in cultural enquiry and
clinical practice, the creation of a reciprocity of per-
spectives revolves around the phenomenological di-
mension of strangeness and familiarity which has been so
beautifully explore by Alfred Schutz in his idealiza-
tions of The Stranger and the Homecomer (1962).
At this point, we can begin to extend the possibilities
for data which arise from a rather particular kind of
involvement with those who are subjects in research
projects. Schutzs work derived principally from Max
Webers work which was directed at creating a sociol-
ogy of social action which was founded in the con-
cept of understanding (Verstehen) both as a tool for
research and as the focus on what social or cultural
members do as meaningful action. He introduced the
idea that rationality, as the code for intelligibility of
action, could be cast in a broader framework than
instrumental reason, for both researchers and sub-
jects, including traditional, value and emotional ra-
tionality. However, Weber was interested in establish-
ing ways in which research could be informed by
techniques which grasped the essential features of
certain kinds of social action and generated sets of
hypotheses about actual social dynamics. The fun-
damental tool which he created was that of idealiza-
tions which were constructs which abstracted the pat-
terns of social action in specic domains. The most
famous of his idealizations was that of bureaucracy.
In this way, following closely on the work of interpre-
tive history and philosophy, he was able to ask some
important questions (often missed by his critics): spe-
cically, How faithful is this rendition of everyday
social action in a particular society to that which is
experienced and understood by cultural members?
In this straightforward way, Weber introduced the
concept of adequacy. It translates into a sharp re-
quirement: social science constructs or theories about
everyday action need to be understandable by social-
cultural members, otherwise, they are, as Husserl
(1962) reminds us, distant abstractions which may not
capture the elements of the Lebenswelt at all; they may
actually obscure it.
I will not pursue in any detail Webers rumina-
tions about the conditions of adequacy which were
largely tied to economic models current in Germany
at the time (Eberle, 2010); rather, it is more important
to focus on Schutzs work and where it may lead in
the quest for a rst-person science. Returning to his
idealizations, and especially The Stranger, Schutz
encapsulates the social phenomenology of familiarity
and strangeness and its correlation with questions
about belonging, social and cultural membership,
identity, boundary states (self-other, inside-outside,
me-not me, and so on). He creates the idealization in
these terms:
Each term in a scientic model of human ac-
tion must be constructed in such a way. That a
human act performed within the life-world by
an individual actor in the way indicated by the
typical construct would be understandable for
the actor himself as well as for his fellow-men
in terms of common-sense interpretations of
daily life. Compliance with this postulate war-
rants the consistency of the constructs of the
social scientist with the constructs of common-
sense experience of the social reality. (Schutz,
1962: 44)
But, in order to develop those scientic constructs
which are faithful to the reality of which they are os-
tensibly about there is a further requirement of
adequacy which must be met and this is spelled out
by Garnkel (1967) in his postulations of ethnometh-
odology. Specically, scientic research which grasps
what membership in a lived world is like is an ac-
complishment which depends upon the acquisition of
certain life skills the nuances of language, the dis-
cerning of meaning, the production of typical and
acceptable acts, the establishment of a viable identity,
and the exemplication of what it means to be rec-
ognized as a competent social-cultural member. In
other words, What is it like to be a cultural member?
or, How does one pass as a cultural member?
Garnkels counterpoint idealization in this is The
Cultural Dope who does not pass as a cultural mem-
ber in their own culture, which condition limits their
ability to pass as a cultural member in any other cul-
ture since what is to be suspended in order for that to
occur is not well known, not competently lived out.
The relevance of Schutzs Stranger and Homecomer
in this context is clear what does it require to move
from the outside to the inside of a society or culture?
Also, what exactly is the inside? This is where phe-
nomenology, existential phenomenology and intro-
spection conate to provide some insights. In short,
participant observation and empathic clinical de-
tachment may be inadequate and a more profound
immersion may be required.
Immersion requires more than and different from
conventional ideas about learning roles in situ or ac-
quiring and performing pre-scripted roles in research
projects. It involves moving into the interior of the lived world
as an embodied experience. While this will certainly in-
volve all the practical behavioral competencies, one
of the key features which grounds the life-world expe-
riences in any culture, which is the axis and source of
intersubjective life, is its ontology. So, a rst-person sci-
ence of culturally framed phenomena requires not
only using the tools of the phenomenological reduc-
tion and its variant, the ethnographic reduction, but
it also demands suspending disbelief, insofar as that is
possible, and being in the cultural life-world looking
into it, living out its natural attitude (Husserl 1962), its
taken-for-granted notions of the real, expectable
and typical, and looking out into the life-world from
which one becomes distant socially, existentially and
epistemologically.
It is of considerable importance here that we ask
the obvious questions: What would the data of such
enquiries look like? and, Are there any exemplars of
such data? It is quite fascinating that in some of the
leading work on rst-person science, the observation
is made that the whole issue of how to do rst-person
science and what it might look like as a form of re-
porting in the end is so complex and daunting that
we may be best directed to the work of novelists
(Schutz, forthcoming; Varella and Shear 2002;
Thompson 2007) for example, James Joyces Ulys-
ses and Frank Herberts Dune or Haruki Murakamis
After Dark who seem able to dwell vividly in the
worlds of their characters, in their embodied pres-
ence and experience. Herberts work is particularly
interesting since he takes a step away from the purely
effected stream of consciousness of Joyce and settles
on an interior view of state of consciousness change
in a cultural idiom and presenting what we would call
psi in these terms. However, the novelists methodol-
ogy is something which remains unspecied in rst-
person research despite its obvious appeal and we
await a fuller treatment of its possible contributions.
But, this brief excursus reinforces the require-
ment for a closer look at some of the phenomena
which are central to the anthropology of conscious-
ness and psi. In our recent re-working of our mono-
graph, Altered States of Consciousness and Psi (2009), Ed
Kelly and I repeated our assertion that the whole pro-
ject which maps states of consciousness emerging out
of distal factors (social-cultural-environmental) and
proximal factors (situational-immediate-triggering)
will be greatly enriched by thorough-going phe-
nomenological investigations of mediumship, sha-
manism and other expressions which embody state
change and correlated psi.
The following treatment of mediumship focuses
in the rst instance on developing a phenomenologi-
cal prole. It then moves to consideration of the pos-
tulate of adequacy as a prime feature of rst-person
scientic investigation and, in particular, explores the
ways in which rst-person data may be proffered.
Mediumship:
Some Phenomenological Perspectives
Conducting a phenomenological analysis of medi-
umship is, of course, an enormous task which re-
quires much more than can be encompassed within
this paper. However, it will serve the project of ex-
ploring ways in which a rst-person science of con-
sciousness may constructed if a denite focus is
chose, offering a benchmark from which other re-
search may ow. Much of the material I will refer to
is concerned with anthropological research on medi-
umship, shamanism and the development and appli-
cation of transpersonal psychotherapy which have all
been part of professional and academic career. At the
core of this corpus of work is the steady assembly of
a phenomenological approach to these domains,
cross-culturally and in an interdisciplinary frame-
work, so that some constant features of mediumship
may be identied.
With respect to phenomenological analysis,
which I suggest is the ideal starting point for a rst-
person science investigation, there are several phases:
1. Establishing the phenomenological characteristics
of mediumship as a domain for investigation.
This is as much informed by an existential-
phenomenological (Merleau-Ponty 1965, for
example) as it is by a social-phenomenological
(Schutz 1962) approach.
2. From this starting point, specic features of medi-
umship and the general area of the relation-
ship between consciousness and psi phenom-
ena may be selected and opened to phe-
nomenological enquiry.
3. This step-wise form of address will also allow the
delineation of some of the salient problems in
rst-person science of consciousness construc-
tion some current questions and controver-
sies.
4. Finally, a preliminary description of how a rst-
person science investigation of mediumship
might be undertaken is presented.
Recently, Michael Grosso (see Grosso, 2010: 225-246)
issued a timely reminder that mediumship offers us
an opportunity to investigate the ways in which hu-
man beings are extraordinarily creative in the con-
struction of the contents of their consciousness and
especially regarding the ways in which they forge
identity, agency and actions. Grosso puts aside the
question of whether the identities and information
produced in classical and recent studies of medium-
ship and its current incarnation, channeling, are the
result of some kind of commerce with other worlds
which involve, for example, spirits, gods or ancestors.
Emily Kelly (2010) has likewise drawn attention to
the fact that, while Spiritualists have dened medi-
umship in terms of communication of various kinds
with discarnate entities, there is also a strong point of
view which suggests that mediums draw upon some
supernormal process, but that the nature of that
process is the source of some disagreement.
In the last 40 years, an enormous number of
cross-cultural studies of mediumship from cultural,
social, psychiatric and psychological perspectives
(Bourguignon, 1973, 1976; Rock 2013) has emerged.
However, the ontological status of the mediumistic
phenomena, especially culturally dened spirits or
other entities and forces which reside beyond the eve-
ryday ranges of experience for cultural members,
remains moot. Some anthropologists (for example,
Hunter, 2011; Turner, 1998) have taken a step toward
resolving this matter by immersing themselves in me-
diumistic and healing practices, abandoning the con-
ventional position of participant observer. There are
some obvious difculties relating to this procedure,
especially with respect to the conditions under which
one might genuinely be considered to be a cultural
member, while the matter of just how well the expe-
riential content, ow and dynamics of individuals
who make this step articulate with typical and repro-
ducible features of meaning and action in cultural
terms are articulated. Some of these issues are cur-
rently being aired in this journal. But the better point
of entry to mediumistic research, as it relates to our
current task, is through the human multiplicity and
associated creative potentials (Crabtree, 1985;
Grosso, 2010).
One of Crabtrees primary interests was Multiple
Personality Disorder, now called Dissociative Identity
Disorder (DID), as well as possession. And herein lies
one of the principal areas of contention: just what is
it that mediumship is expressing? Is it a form of par-
tial or complete possession by already existing alter-
nate, internal personalities or identities with their
own imprimatur, communicative and expressive style,
social, cognitive and behavioral features; or due to
the intrusion or inuence of some discarnate entity
upon the mediums psychological and embodied
states? Or both? The former is substantially associ-
ated with a history which has assigned mediumship to
various categories of psychopathology such as hys-
teria, multiple personality/DID, and more recently, to
a range of dissociative disorders which are presented
in DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association,
2000) and its related handbooks of unusual disor-
ders, some of which are correlated with culturally-
specic disorders.
The introduction of dissociation and dissocia-
tive disorders clouds the issue somewhat since there
is a substantial history of dispute over the nature of
dissociation, although it is clear that it does revolve
around control centres outside of those central to
everyday focal awareness coming into play (Kelly,
forthcoming), and there are further matters to be
dealt with in this context; for example, the notion of
identity and agency. To illustrate: If one describes
being out of the body in near death experiences
(NDEs) or out-of-body experiences (OBEs), as in
those associated with severe trauma, an important
question is; Just which body is one out of ? And a
second question is; Who or what is it that is out of
the body and, perhaps, having an NDE? These ques-
tions are essential to conducting a phenomenological
enquiry into mediumistic phenomena. These ques-
tions can be translated into fundamental aspects of
the embodied consciousness of human beings. In
other words, what general relevance do these ques-
tions and perspectives have for the understanding of
consciousness in everyday life, across human popula-
tions and for a rst-person sciences possible contribu-
tion in this arena?
In the rst place, the issue of which body is the
framework for description may be described in terms
of Merleau-Pontys (1965) views of embodiment as a
crucial existential aspect of all human life:
. . . there is in man, superimposed upon actual
space with its self-identical points, a virtual
space in which the spatial values that a point
would receive (for any of our corporeal coor-
dinates) are also recognized. A system of corre-
spondences is established between our spatial
situation and that of others. The insertion of
our factual situation as a particular case within
the system of possible situations begins as soon
as we designate a point in space with nger.
For this pointing gesture, which animals do not
understand, supposes that we are already in
virtual space . . . at the end of the line prolong-
ing our nger in a centrifugal and cultural
space. (ibid, p. 7)
There are some associated notions and derivatives
from this picture. Merleau-Ponty establishes this fas-
cinating description out of the separation of the
presence of the body in the world in two forms: the
en soi, in itself, or physical-biological object and the
pour soi, for itself, as embodiment through which we
reach out and constitute the life world. This reaching
out takes place in the form of the intentional arc
which is exemplied in this pointing, and also, more
crucially, in the way in which we project ourselves
into the world(s) which we inhabit and which we
haunt. The metaphor of haunting is used very spe-
cically to direct attention to the ways in which hu-
man beings navigate through and thereby constitute
social and cultural worlds, domains of typical experi-
ence, actions, and actors as well as the expectable
sphere of ones everyday life and therewith how this
might be transcended or disrupted.
One form of rupture which we could examine
concerns situations where we are disabled by injury
or illness so that what we can usually reach and en-
gagethe world we routinely hauntis inaccessible.
In these limitations, our agency is sometimes altered.
We may describe our behavior in terms such as I am
not my usual self or It was the illness speaking. In
addictions, expressions may include, It was not me;
the drugs took over or, in the case of explanations of
actions which are psychoanalytically informed, I was
not conscious of doing those things; It was my
Shadow, my hidden demons, my unconscious. In
these cases a common denominator is the description
of experience and behavior as not of or from me.
Agency, the authorship of acts, is not attributed by an
actor to themselves as they ordinarily understand
themselves. Moreover, this change in agency may also
be attributed to actors by observers.
One of the more signicant implications follow-
ing from the discussion of the intentional arc revolves
around the circumstances of its disruption. On the
one hand, we can easily see in what ways the integrity
of world constitution being interrupted in some ways
can shape the experience of self, world and self in the
world as in the cases of illness, injury or disability. On
the other hand, the disruption can be construed as a
form of de-automatization in the sense that Deikman
(1973) originally formulated it. His aim was to show
how states of consciousness can be changed by a
number of methods (breath-control, fasting, pain,
drugs, and so on), moving a person to another state
which may then become stabilized or automatized. But,
from the point of view of Merleau-Ponty, this is not
just a change in consciousness as perception, emo-
tion, cognition and associated behavior; rather, it is a
change in the way in which self, body and world are
changed so that state of consciousness becomes
state of being (in a world). This is important since it
changes the focus from mental constructs of con-
sciousness and intrapsychic dynamics to modes of
existence and domains in which existence resides.
This is an ontological shift, at least.
Clearly, embodied consciousness in Merleau-
Pontys terms, and related notions of agency, are im-
portant in determining what precisely is going on in
socially recognized forms of mediumship. And this,
then, raises a further important aspect of medium-
ship: It is clearly the case that mediums have impor-
tant social and cultural functions to fulll in many
societies. They may be diviners, healers, mediators
with the dead and other beings belonging in spirit
worlds as well as dispensers of wise counsel (Maraldi,
Machado, & Zangari, 2010), all of which may be
originated and mediated by an everyday state of con-
sciousness or in a socially dened trance. However,
as in shamanism, there may be a spectrum of ways in
which these roles are executed. As previously noted,
the performances may be in a range of states (keep-
ing in mind the previously noted existential-
phenomenological analysis surrounding states and
state changes) and may also include inspired, crea-
tive activities such as dance, art, musical composition
and drama. There seems to be little doubt that many
nineteenth-century mediums had a considerable in-
vestment in their acting skills with some exhibiting an
impressive array of personae and their correlated
ability to engage and seduce audiences and sitters in
sances into the Spiritualist belief system (Moore,
1977; Nelson, 1969).
Culturally, traditional and emergent forms of
mediumship, such as those of the mid- to late-
nineteenth century Western societies, have an acting
component in them. Indeed, acting in itself needs to
be brought into the picture in relation to its relevance
for understanding just what is going on in the overall
phenomenology of mediumship. Putting aside DID
and other forms of disorders for the moment, we
can look at acting not only as a form of creative ex-
pression in human life, but also as a way of being
immersed in invented personae, imagined experien-
tial domains and mythopoeic realms. There are, quite
obviously, degrees to which one can be immersed in
an acting role and its constructed identity so that one
is at a distance from ones conventional, non-acting
role and identity. There are distances and differences
which describe the phenomenal properties of acting
as a device for communication, entertainment and
the creation of aesthetic worlds, as Grosso (2010)
points out. These distances and differences are to do
with matters of agency (my routine authorship of
acts as opposed to those which I perform in acting) as
well as ownership (the actions I am performing and
the ideas, beliefs and values I express are not mine,
but those of an other. In a play, ownership may be
ascribed to the author ultimately).
As in shamanism, a medium may warily navigate
the sphere of acting as an intentional undertaking
and, perhaps, on the one hand, for the purposes of
inuence and persuasion and on the other hand, sur-
rendering agency to another which may belong to
various ontological domains. It is also worth pointing
out that, as in shamanic practices, acting may be used
as a tool for creating atmospheres which then facili-
tate state change, identity change associated with a
range of ascribed and believed in sources of agency,
and mediumistic behaviors.
From this overview of some of the phenomenol-
ogical factors in mediumship, a consolidation of
viewpoint can be established. Mediumship is a phe-
nomenon which occurs in all societies. Its forms of
expression and phenomenological composition have
the following properties:
1. Socially, it has several faces which include the
social-dramatic or acting aspect which may be
undertaken for purposes of inuencing cul-
tural members or for exemplifying fundamen-
tal cultural beliefs and values. Acting may
include the ability to create scenarios which
are appealing and convincing to cultural
members and which may serve as a display of
cultural knowledge, wisdom and creative
abilities of the medium. Acting may be per-
formed with varying degrees of distance from
the usual personality and embodiment of the
medium and, indeed, the mediums perform-
ance may be evaluated in terms of the degree
to which the medium has provided a satisfy-
ing and valid performance in these terms.
Acting may be a precursor for or an actual
induction technique for a change in state of
consciousness and agency, becoming an
other (spirit, ancestor, alternate personality).
2. Mediumship in all forms of its appearance in-
volves a change in the range and content
marked out by the intentional arc. The me-
dium comes to haunt the world in another
way with respect to the other they become.
This may involve a transformation of the
body as object as in cases where there are
perceptible changes in bodily comportment;
for example, stiff, relaxed, animated, somno-
lent. Also, and more important, mediumship
involves the generation of a different domain
which is haunted; this is the domain of the
intentional arc as dening the haunted world,
the world of possibilities of belonging, navi-
gating in and making sense of. In the case of
the other being dened as an alternate per-
sonality, as in DID, or an external agent such
as a spirit, then agency becomes a coextensive
transformation of en soi and pour soi such that
there is an automatic and perhaps automa-
tized (settled pattern) distance and difference
between everyday embodiment, identity and
agency and that of the medium. The distance
and difference may be expressed in terms of
changes in physiology, including neurophysi-
ology, personae, behavioral and physical ge-
stalt and, most important, the experience of the
person becoming and then being mediumistic. In addi-
tion, the distance and difference can be de-
scribed phenomenologically as a rupture in
the intentional arc which constitutes the life-
world of which we are a part and, as a result,
changes the domains which are haunted and
capable of being haunted, inhabited and hab-
itable, actual and possible to extend points
made about this process previously.
3. State change, variously referred to as (for example)
trance, deep trance, possession, inspira-
tion, and mental mediumship, may best be
described as changes in states of being
(SOBs) rather than changes in states of con-
sciousness (ASCs). This follows directly from
the previous discussion on embodiment and
haunting. These are all notions of being in
worlds, not just changes in, for example,
mental states, perception, body image, or
identity (Locke, 1999).
4. Mediumship in the above terms is a phenomenon
which is about an existential shift through
social, sociocultural, bodily and experiential
worlds in which the transformations which
occur, by any degree whatsoever, can also re-
sult in the extension of ordinary human ca-
pabilities into areas referred to as paranormal
or spiritual. This may also include the possi-
bility that individuals who are dened as me-
diums, DID or with some other identity/
agency change may experience these condi-
tions as a result of psychobiological, sociocul-
tural or paranormal factors, separately or in
combination. And, for those who are de-
scribed as having disorders relating to agency
change (DID, schizophrenia), the creative as-
pects of SOB change may be a form of ther-
apy. Indeed, returning to the opening stanzas
of this chapter, mediumship may serve as
both an autonomous expression of human
creative potentials as well as a healing force
for some types of suffering, dysfunction or just
plain unhappiness and lack of fulllment.
Having mapped out some of the phenomenological
f eat ures of medi umshi p, f rom exi st ent i al -
phenomenological and social-phenomenological per-
spectives, which may be useful in enriching con-
sciousness and psi research, I would like to move to
another form of phenomenology, that which com-
prises the interior relative to the exterior of con-
sciousness understood as that which is the grounds of
possibility of experience in all of its forms. In stating
my focus in this way, I am being faithful to the posi-
tions and legacies of both William James (1890/2007)
and Edmund Husserl (1962;1970): both assert that
the appropriate trajectory of enquiry into the nature
of consciousness is through attention to experience as
a radical empiricism (James) and as the antidote to
idealizing, abstracting science which marginalises
subjectivity (Husserl).
The Mobius Strip of First-Person Data
It is no coincidence that Lacan (2002) used the Mo-
bius Strip as a device for addressing the complexities
of his psychodynamic modeling since the Strip has
some paradoxical features as a topology which seems
to be intuitively two-sided, yet is demonstrably one-
sided. Moreover, if one pinches the Strip at the centre
of the gure 8-like intersection, one may gain a sense
of a movement along the surface moving from an
open to a concealed appearance, much as experience
can be focal and subtended by other forms at the
same time. If one makes a number of Strips and joins
them all at the intersection, then there is an expan-
sion of the complexity of movement which has the
appearance of outside-inside, centre-periphery. In
brief, it looks rather like a model of the self as an
embedded hermeneutic within consciousness, within
the spectrum of experience of ourselves and others.
Moroever, if one imagines moving along the surface
of the Strip looking outward, there is a sense of
inside-outside vistas deriving from a constancy in per-
spective which derives from the fact of being one-
sided a simulation of the I in Husserlian terms as
in I (Noesis) ! Noema.
But the Strip, even though it is limited as are all
such models of aspects of consciousness, does point
out the very interesting and important question
which we must ask in research: When are we actually
on the inside or outside of something we are re-
searching? In asking this question, there is the simple
caveat that the answer will depend upon the ontology,
epistemology and acts of consciousness (Husserl
1962) which we start with, transform and engage.
Phenomenology demands that we always include the
perspective or position from which we experience
anything at all so that the data. As in Husserls classi-
cal noesis-noema correlation (act of consciousness/
observation : : that which is observed), the data is the
correlation, not just what is observed. And, experi-
ence is always in some world, as an expression of
embodied consciousness, as an agent. So, the chang-
ing and static forms in all of the latter and the atten-
dant correlations are the data. Mediumship involves
these kinds of shifts as noted in relation to the
existential-phenomenological modication of Deik-
mans concepts about state change and the shifts
would seem to be just as important as the stable con-
ditions. Regarding psi: What expressions of psi phenomena
can be extricated from both stable and transition states of be-
ing?
At this stage of the investigation, it will serve the
enterprise better in terms of clarication of what
data can mean in rst-person science, if we go to
some approaches and examples of research into me-
diumship and related phenomena.
1. What is it Like to Become and Be a
Medium?
Gaining an insiders perspective on mediumship can
certainly ow from cinematic and novelistic materials.
However, they are, perhaps, best regarded in a strictly
research context as providers of guidelines for en-
quiry. What is required to ground this kind of address
to the data as described earlier is to extrapolate from
the Nagel and Garnkel reasoning and to suggest
that the production of data (which I shall address as
an existential grammar below) should proceed from
immersion in the process of becoming and being a
medium, rather than being an observer in the sec-
ond- and third-person modalities. Of course, there is
no absolute escape from distance and difference as
they come into play with respect to the experience of
becoming and being a medium, reporting it as re-
search data or ndings. First-hand experience will
always be reported as that which happened or took
place, an account, in a time-line and within memory.
This is the hermeneutic qualication regarding phenome-
nological enquiry: specically, all descriptions or re-
porting of experience are interpretations in the end
since, in both linguistic and dynamic terms, what is
pointed at, indicated or described is a matter of dis-
closure which arises out that which is automatically
hidden (language, the descriptive methodology itself,
and temporality). This is not necessarily, I believe, a
well warranted source of criticism of phenomenol-
ogical method in the end, since phenomenological
reduction entails embracing these aspects of the
process of creating anything that becomes identied
as data.
The most important requirement in this is to
make sure that the substance and modalities of re-
porting are subject to a phenomenological, reductive
protocol which unpacks positionality, and acts of con-
sciousness through which objects are built up, throughout the
reporting and as a whole event. In Merleau-Pontys terms,
this means unpacking the intentional arc as it
emerges from embodied consciousness and, at the
same time constitutes it in a world, and in terms
which describe both its seamless and its ruptured
expressions.
One aim of this intensive from of is to create
idealizations of the experience of becoming and be-
ing a medium, as Schutz and Garnkel have done,
except here the interiority of this process is the pri-
mary focus and not the social context in which medi-
umship is played out along the spectrum of possibili-
ties from acting to possession trance forms. My own
work in this area, beginning in 1974 (Locke) has been
characterized largely as trying to establish a reporting
of interiority which owed from my own second-and
third-person observations of mediums while adding
the rst-person perspective from immersion in medi-
umship through learning how to be a medium in a
range of settings sance groups, Spiritualist
churches, private encounters and instruction.
And the format in which this work was reported,
in its nal form, was to triangulate three fundamen-
tal axes of data:
1. Descriptions of what happens as a person displays
the process of learning to be a medium and
being a medium, their reporting of the inte-
rior of that process and what they thought,
felt, sensed, the full spectrum of sensory-
perceptual, cognitive and symbolic experi-
ences which may be partially expressed at the
time of mediumistic performance or recov-
ered later in interview or self-reports.
2. Perspectives derived from research on the psycho-
biology and neurophysiology of state change
for example, correlating arousal states (er-
gotropic trophotropic; specic activation
sites in relationship such as thalamus, pre-
frontal cortex, parietal lobe, for example) with
observations of bodily changes and behavior,
including utterances, and the experience of
the subject. This are of data gathering has to
do with what has become identied as neural
correlates of consciousness (NCCs) and represents
one face of the experience-brain relationship
which has become identied as neurophenome-
nology (Varela
3. Idealizations which, in contradistinction to those
afforded by Weber, Schutz and Garnkel, are
expressions of what it is like to be a medium
from the interior, with the capacity of being a
witness to ones own experience included as
part of the data (as a form of positionality).
The idealizations do not, and cannot, repre-
sent or point to the whole of the experiences
had by a typical medium; rather, they repre-
sent moments in the experience of medium-
ship which are pivotal (hypotheses) in its un-
folding as a recognized form. In these terms,
idealizations are the result of the phenome-
nological reduction, suspension of the natural
attitude (a priori ideas about what mediums
are or what they do or what they experience
deriving from ones own culture of origin) and
the eidetic reduction which may follow from
the initial phenomenological enquiry and
which is concerned with identifying invariant
features of phenomena in this case, medi-
umship. They are, in a sense, typications or
grouped categorizations of experiential re-
sponses from the reports of a range of sub-
jects in a range of settings.
To exemplify this form of data, I shall set out the
components in a brief slice of the life of a student
medium being instructed by a teacher, in a con-
tracted form since a full presentation is outside the
scope of this paper:
a. Observations of student and teacher (3
rd
person
data): The student, a young woman, sits on a
wooden, straight-backed chair in a darkened
room in the presence of experienced instruc-
tors in the art of mediumship. The principal
instructor tells the student to relax and slow
her breathing and to simply notice everything
which happens and not to make any judge-
ment whatsoever about what is happening
(her experience) but, rather, to let her guide
come to her (Guide in this context is under-
stood to be a spirit being which can invest it-
self in the body, and displace the personality/
mind of the medium, and also to facilitate the
entry and exit of other spirit beings into the
mediums body). The student takes a deep
breath and lets it out slowly, according to prior
instructions, and visibly settles into the chair,
her breathing slowing, right hand beginning to
twitch slightly, eyes moving rapidly, now
slumping slightly forward and, after about 5
minutes, beginning to mutter sounds which
are unintelligible to the observer. The princi-
pal teacher says, Let yourself go. Your control
is close (situationally dened clairvoyance) and
you need to feel settled enough to let him en-
ter into you and guide you. You will notice
yourself changing and going deeper . Si-
lence, all breathing slowly.
b. Observations of physiological changes (3
rd
person
data): The student appears (this qualication is
necessary if no measurements of NCCs is
taking place) to have entered into a tropho-
tropic relaxed/deeply relaxed state with some
facilitation by the instructor. Muscle tone is
decreased, posture loses its rigidity, breathing
slows and evidence of increased mental im-
agery appears rapid eye movements. In the
meditative band of trophotropic states, there
is often a change in boundary states (self-other,
self-environment, body boundaries, for exam-
ple) which may ultimately be associated with
loss of sense of self as in mystical experience
(Kelly and Locke, 2009) or loss of self in the
sense of the appearance of another personal-
ity, identity or presence in the medium
(Locke, 1974). Some substantial analysis of
mediumship with continuous EEG recording
was undertaken at the Duke University Expe-
riential Laboratory, 1976-80 (Kelly 1981) in
which continual, rapid multivariate analyses of
phase shifts in the spectrum of EEG frequen-
cies indicated clear patterns associated with
each personality or other appearing in the
mediumship episode. This technique, using
more sophisticated EEG recording has been
taken forward by NIMH in relation to DID.
Idealization 1: Student:
Student report (1
st
person data)
The chair is a bit hard on my butt and I am beginning to feel
uncomfortable trying to get my arms and body in the right
position as I have been told arms resting on my lap, palms
of my hand upward to be open to the guides taking a deep
breath and breathing slowly, waiting, waiting. My eyes are
closed and the room is dark but Im seeing some lights and col-
ours ickering before me. Im trying not to make any judgements
about this and my aching butt, but Im wondering whether these
are signs of the guide coming close. Relaxed, breathing slowly.
Can hear the instructor telling me to let go, but Im not sure
whether he is really talking to me or not. I remember the rule
they taught me When I can control myself and the guides
can control themselves, then the guides can control me Im
trying to let go, but .
Idealization of surrender to otherness
I hear you speaking to me and using the term you but do you
mean you as in the ordinary way in which you address me
when we are not being mediums? Or perhaps you are speaking
to me, using you as an address which indicates the presence of
me (as I am ordinarily present) and the spirit guide? Is it the
ordinary you who is speaking to me or is it some spirit guide I
am hearing through you? As I am reecting on this, I muse
upon whether the I of I am musing is really me or some
other being, a spirit being. Perhaps my body slumping and the
ickering visuals as well as the tingling which has developed in
my arms signal the imminent arrival of my guide.
Later, after lesson 9: I relax and let the guide come. The guide
is close because I feel the tingling in my arms, like electrical
sensations or pins and needles, and see the ickering in my eye-
lids and then I am feeling the presence of the guide lling me up
like a gentle warmth spreading through my body and mind and
I am giving control . to him
Later: All I have to do is sit still and imagine the lights and
pins and needles and I am gone the guide takes (me) over
..
Note 1: The changes in the students experience pass
from the map of the transition into mediumistic
trance to the use of the indicators of the transition
(sensory-perceptual) as inductions for the transition
state of being changes.
Note 2: The phenomenological aspect of this sort of
reection and exchange, intersecting with social and
psychological points of view), can be construed in
terms of the G.H. Mead I-Me construction of the
social self, but it can be stretched to include I-Am-Me
congurations which loop internal representations of
identity and agency, subjectively, and social presenta-
tions of self and agency such as those which appear
in Goffmans work and my own recent work on Vi-
sionary Practice in shamanism and transpersonal
psychotherapy (Locke, 2011b)
Idealization 2: The Instructor
As I am sitting here, breathing gently, I feel the presence of my
guide not taking me over, but shaping what I say and do.
My body relaxes into this presence and I feel her (the guide)
close to me (outside of me) and directing me occasionally (inside
of me). I can see the students guide close to her, just to the up-
per right side of here head, waiting to enter. I speak to the guide,
telling them to wait until the student is very relaxed and recep-
tive. The guide acquiesces and waits . I am me as I usually
am (Jim) and I am also Ah Chee (my Chinese guide).
The data: This is presented in two ways:
A. The materials from a,b,c are arranged in parallel
with clear indications of positionality who ob-
serves, writes, analyses, reports at what time and
in what circumstances. The triangle makes up
the data with those specications which also in-
corporates indicators of ontological status of ex-
perience reported (especially with regard to psi as
subjective, social and scientic constructs) so that
in reading the material as a whole, there is a spi-
raling into the arena of subjective experience and
out to the social and social-scientic.
There are two elements in c:
1. The student and instructor self-reports (untutored
without phenomenological expertise);
2. The idealizations.
So, the total presentation of data is as follows:
* The experience of the subject and the instructor
approaching, engaging and then disengaging from
mediumistic activity (Question: to what extent is
engagement/disengagement independent of for-
mal mediumistic performances?). What is it like to
be a medium in situ?
* The experience of the researcher throughout
approaching mediumistic performance, observing
directly, and following up. What is it like to be a
researcher of mediumship in situ?
* Reports of the subject post-factum self-report or
interview (2
nd
person data).
* Reports of the researcher post-factum self-
report, pro forma, or interview (2
nd
person data).
* Neurophysiological and other biophysical data, NO
(3
rd
person data).
* Neurophenomenology: 1
st
person and 3
rd
person
data (NO) correlated.
But, here is the interesting part. Varela, Thompson
and Varela and Shear as well ass Chalmers have all
suggested that there is a need for improved ways of
expressing rst-person data and that we might draw
some inspiration from novelists, as mentioned previ-
ously. However, there is also a need for better for-
malizations which, of necessity, would have to be
phenomenologically generated and, in terms of the
requirements of phenomenology, must be translat-
able into experiential formats which are adequate
(empirically adequate).
Imagine this:
There is a line from to to tn which describes the expe-
rience of a person who is a research subject. Under-
standably, we cannot assume that it should appear as
a continuous, uniformly expressed line given the
variegation of human experience which we are ad-
dressing ow does not solve the problem either,
since it has certain in-built assumptions.
Emerging intentionally (in the conventional, not phe-
nomenological sense) from this:
a. Subjects expression of their experience in phe-
nomenological terms focusing on the
noesis-noema hermeneutic correlation, at-
tending to how experience is constituted,
built up.
b. Researchers expression of their experience of be-
ing a researcher, paralleling a.
c. Observations of a 3
rd
person kind: NO
d. A series of idealizations which are successively re-
ned to describe, in essence (eidetic reduction
in phenomenology), what it is like to become
and be a medium.
e. The whole process, moving dynamically through
chronological time, is comprised of spiral
movements to 1
st
person then out to 2
nd
and
3rd person data so that the whole of report-
ing, the whole of data and outcome of the
investigation is this spiraling movement.
f. More imaginings: To what extent does this process
correlate with or match the experience of ad-
dressing the acquisition of a skill-knowledge
set where we approach the task of acquiring it
from the outside, as it were, so that we need to
get hold of , understand, grasp and ex-
press the set adequately. The set may seem to
be over, and sometimes against us (as in learn-
ing to ride a bike and falling off) until there is
a critical change different from the incremental
changes we have been making. We make a shift
to being on the inside of the set: we em-
body it! The distance from performance is
overcome or cancelled and the overt details of
the performance which an observer may rec-
ognize are now distant. What is it like to have
this set is lived, unquestioned, automatized
and immediately accessible.
B. Performing as a medium. Providing a culturally
relevant, socially competent performance as a
medium, passing as a medium in any or all of the
phenomenal modalities of mediumship described
above.
2. Myth and Symbol in Healing:
The previously described way of addressing the busi-
ness of researching mediumship could also be ex-
tended to some of the fascinating aspects of sha-
manic and mediumistic healing which are mapped
out in Levi-Strausss (1965) rather famous analysis of
shamanic healing in Cuna society. Without going into
all of the details of his rendition of the healing myth
and how it is implemented in a ritual, the power of
his work lies in the suggestion that the social per-
formance of a myth (ritual), already known by the
recipient of the healing, enters into a relationship of
homologous interactions at the social-symbolic (myth-
ritual), psychological (patient) and physiological (pa-
tient). Changes in the rst cascades into changes of a
constructive kind a healing outcome (reduction of
pain, stress, mental chaos and inhibited childbirth, in
this case).
It is unlikely that homologous relationships alone
are sufcient to explain the effectiveness of healing
unless some more compelling data about phenomena
such as resonance (electrodynamic, physiological, for
example) or, for that matter, the dynamics of hypnosis
which are still contentious what is hypnosis, state
or motivated behavior to perform or comply for ex-
ample, and how does it translate from social-
psychological interaction to physiological changes
and what is its relationship to placebo and similar
phenomena?
What may seem to involve, ostensibly, a psi com-
ponent or unexplained homologous interactions may
be re-investigated using the rst-person approach
advocated above. For example, the socially shared
myth is a part of the culturally specic natural atti-
tude which is the horizon and context for ritual ac-
tions and correlated personal meanings subjective
experience. Monitoring physiological changes which
may occur as the mythical-symbolic landscape is
navigated through, shaped by the shaman and intro-
jected by the patient, while accessing the rst-hand
experience of the patient in this landscape triangu-
lates the elements of third- and rst-person data.
3. Existential Grammars:
I have set out an extensive guide to existential-
phenomenological research, focusing on shamanism
and mediumship, in Locke (2000a). This stands as a
complement to and extension of the triangular
model and, indeed, unpacks it, or any other project in
research, according to thorough-going phenomenol-
ogical and eidetic reductions. The core of the existen-
tial grammars methodology is set out in an abbrevi-
ated form below, but readers are referred to the full
exposition.
Returning to Merleau-Pontys notion of the in-
tentional arc, it is clear that it moves in two direc-
tions: into the world and constituting that world and
associated embodied presence and identities and also
into the self and the esh, into the subjective and
psychological- psychosomatic realms. This dual
pointing outward and inward takes the following,
abbreviated, form:
6
Being
a
in a world of esh: neurobiological factors; physical
substrate
b
in a world which is experienced physioognostically: as a
physiognomy which is pre-reective with an implicit
rationality
c
in a world as embodied consciousness
d
in a world as lived and typied experience (Lebenswelt)
having projects: attending, creating horizons of rele-
vance, possibility and copresence
e
expressed in forms, formalizations and formulations
out of which and into which one can point, describe,
note and analyse (S/s)
f
performance, acting: search and demonstration relat-
ing to the world out there for inspection and investi-
gation. All pointing, noting, describing
g
the world experienced telegnostically: an artifact of
overt rationality, of techne
Doing
7
"
6
Conclusion
It is my position that, drawing upon recent develop-
ments in rst-person science, a productive foray can
be made into research in the area of culture, con-
sciousness and psi. This involves abandoning some
old research chestnuts which encase rather blighted
and limited notions of objectivity and opening the
process of research up to the questions, What is it
like to be a researcher? and, for example, What is it
like to be a medium? These questions cannot be an-
swered in a satisfactory manner by conventional so-
cial, psychological or neuroscience perspectives.
Rather, what is required is development of method-
ologies of immersion which are prepared from
t hr o ug h e x t e ns i ve wo r k i n e x i s t e nt i a l -
phenomenological methods, as is currently occurring
in neurophenomenology (Thompson, 2007), for ex-
ample.
The convention of writing research data and
analysis in technically informed, contracted language
may have to be abandoned in favour of a greater
faithfulness to the objects of our interest, expressed
as correlations which lead on from Husserls work
and which produce a rendition which has strong simi-
larities to a device in ction hypotyposis which
means making a scene so lifelike that it gives the
reader the impression he can see it with his own eyes
(Binet, 2013: 15) and, we might add, feel, smell,
touch, taste, intuit, think about, get a sense of and so
on.
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***
Rafael G. Locke undertook doctoral research on spirit
mediumship at the University of Western Australia followed by a
CSIRO (Australia) post-doctoral fellowship and a post- doctoral
fellowship in behavioral science at Harvard and MIT. Rafael has
been involved with the research program established at Duke
University and now at UVA Charlot-tesville since 1979, focusing
on cross-cultural analysis of states of consciousness and psi, with
Prof. Ed Kelly. His current research at UVA is concentrated on
rst-person science in relation to the major research emphasis
and especially neurophenomenology. Rafael has undertaken
extensive research on shamanism with specic attention to states
of consciousness and psi (especially healing phenomena) and
established a training program in shamanic practice in Australia
20 years ago. He is the head of Ikon International Institute and
the Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society which focus, respectively,
on transpersonal psychotherapy and medicine and research and
practice in ethnomedicine. Rafael has published with Ed Kelly
the monograph, Altered States and Psi (Parapsychology Foundation,
NY), The Gift of Proteus: Shamanism and the Transformation of Being
(SCI: Durham, NC) and Visionary Practice: Shamanic Foundations of
Psychotherapy (Ikon Institute: Perth, WA). He is currently
producing a handbook of shamanic practice as well a
comprehensive program set in the Central Australian Desert
called The Australian Dreaming Project.
A Call for an Open, Informed Study of All
Aspects of Consciousness - Etzel Cardea
Science thrives when there is an open, informed discussion of all evi-
dence, and recognition that scientic knowledge is provisional and subject
to revision. This attitude is in stark contrast with reaching conclusions
based solely on a previous set of beliefs or on the assertions of authority
gures. Indeed, the search for knowledge wherever it may lead inspired a
group of notable scientists and philosophers to found in 1882 the Society
for Psychical Research in London. Its purpose was to investigate that
large body of debatable phenomena without prejudice or prepossession
of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned inquiry
which has enabled Science to solve so many problems. Some of the ar-
eas in consciousness they investigated such as psychological dissocia-
tion, hypnosis, and preconscious cognition are now well integrated into
mainstream science. That has not been the case with research on phe-
nomena such as purported telepathy or precognition, which some scien-
tists (a clear minority according to the surveys conducted) dismiss a priori
as pseudoscience or illegitimate...
Read the Full Article: http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00017/full
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Publisher: White Crow Books
ISBN: 9781908733559
Website: http://whitecrowbooks.com/books/page/conversations_with_ghosts/
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