Nobel Prize Winning Physicist Otto Stern Believed in Psychokinesis.

I have added Nobel Prize winning physicist Otto Stern to my web page on Eminent Researchers because of his belief in psychokinesis. Stern is the twelfth Nobelist on that page who believed in some type of paranormal phenomena because of their own experiences, their own research, or because of the research of others. The addition includes the following text:

Otto Stern won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1943. He believed in psychokinesis in the form of the Pauli Effect. Stern banned physicist Wolfgang Pauli from entering his laboratory because he believed Pauli could damage experimental equipment merely by being present in the lab. (Also see Wolfgang Pauli, above).

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

What is it like in the afterlife?

What is it like in the afterlife? Most people will go to a place that looks a lot like where they lived on earth, at least initially. There are different regions in the afterlife, so everyone can go to some place that looks familiar to help them adjust to the transition from being incarnated to being a spirit.

This description of the afterlife comes from The New Revelation, by A. Conan Doyle. (The book is free to download at the link.)

[This description] came in a private letter from Mr. Hubert Wales, and is, I think, most instructive. Mr. Wales is a cautious and rather sceptical inquirer who had put away his results with incredulity (he had received them through his own automatic writing). On reading my account of the conditions described in the beyond, he hunted up his own old script which had commended itself so little to him when he first produced it. He says:

"After reading your article, I was struck, almost startled, by the circumstance that the statements which had purported to be made to me regarding conditions after death coincided--I think almost to the smallest detail--with those you set out as the result of your collation of material obtained from a great number of sources. I cannot think there was anything in my antecedent reading to account for this coincidence. I had certainly read nothing you had published on the subject. I had purposely avoided Raymond and books like it, in order not to vitiate my own results, and the Proceedings of the S.P.R. which I had read at that time, do not touch, as you know, upon after-death conditions.

At any rate I obtained, at various times, statements (as my contemporary notes show) to the effect that, in this persisting state of existence, they have bodies which, though imperceptible by our senses, are as solid to them as ours to us, that these bodies are based on the general characteristies of our present bodies but beautified; that they have no age, no pain, no rich and poor; that they wear clothes and take nourishment; that they do not sleep (though they spoke of passing occasionally into a semiconscious state which they called 'lying asleep'--a condition, it just occurs to me, which seems to correspond roughly with the 'Hypnoidal' state); that, after a period which is usually shorter than the average life-time here, they pass to some further state of existence; that people of similar thoughts, tastes and feelings, gravitate together; that married couples do not necessarily reunite, but that the love of man and woman continues and is freed of elements which with us often militate against its perfect realization; that immediately after death people pass into a semi-conscious rest-state lasting various periods, that they are unable to experience bodily pain, but are susceptible at times to some mental anxiety; that a painful death is 'absolutely unknown,' that religious beliefs make no difference whatever in the after-state, and that their life altogether is intensely happy, and no one having ever realised it could wish to return here.

I got no reference to 'work' by that word, but much to the various interests that were said to occupy them. That is probably only another way of saying the same thing. 'Work' with us has come usually to mean 'work to live,' and that, I was emphatically informed, was not the case with them--that all the requirements of life were somehow mysteriously 'provided.' Neither did I get any reference to a definite 'temporary penal state,' but I gathered that people begin there at the point of intellectual and moral development where they leave off here; and since their state of happiness was based mainly upon sympathy, those who came over in a low moral condition, failed at first for various lengths of time to have the capacity to appreciate and enjoy it."

There are a lot of free e-books at spiritwritings.com that describe the afterlife. Scroll down to the section: Future Life in the Spirit World

The following are excerpts from near-death.com that describe what near-death experiencers learned about the afterlife. More information about the afterlife can be found at that site.

City of Light

Just a little ways off I could see a bridge with someone standing on it. Beyond the bridge, I saw a golden city with towers like European castles. The whole city seemed to be shining with light that shot up into the sky like a giant searchlight. I could see that some of the domes of the city were red, others were gold, and a few were blue. The gates and walls of the city seemed to be made of bright blue, red, and violet lights. (Randy Gehling)

...

Like wingless birds, we swept into a city of cathedrals. These cathedrals were made entirely of a crystalline substance that glowed with a light that shone powerfully from within. I was awestruck. This place had a power that seemed to pulsate through the air. I knew that I was in a place of learning. I wasn't there to witness my life or to see what value it had had, I was there to be instructed. (Dannion Brinkley)

...

In the distance I saw a sight so magnificent and astounding - a city made up of what seemed to be glass or crystal! The lights were of many colors that radiated from it. Never have I ever seen such a sight! I began walking toward the city in a daze of unbelief! So many questions raced through my mind. I had to know where I was. What was happening to me? I reached the front of the city and saw a double door that looked to be about thirty feet or so in height and width! (Ricky Randolph)

Temple

Dr. George Ritchie's temple experience:

I began to perceive a whole new realm! Enormous buildings stood in a beautiful sunny park that reminded me somewhat of a well-planned university. As we entered one of the buildings and doorways, the air was so hushed that I was actually startled to see people in the passageway.

I could not tell if they were men or women, old or young, for all were covered from head to foot in loose-flowing hooded cloaks which made me think vaguely of monks. But the atmosphere of the place was not at all as I imagined a monastery. It was more like some tremendous study center, humming with the excitement of great discovery. Everyone we passed in the wide halls and on the curving staircases seemed caught up in some all-engrossing activity; not many words were exchanged among them. And yet I sensed no unfriendliness between these beings, rather an aloofness of total concentration.

...

Dr. Allen Kellehear's temple experience:

Kellehear published an interesting near-death account where a person sees Albert Einstein in heaven operating a computer in a heavenly library. This account has similarities to George Ritchie's heavenly temple/library accounts described on this web page. Here is an excerpt of the account from Dr. Kellehear's book Experiences Near Death:

This time we were audience to a choir of angels singing. Angels were totally outside my reality at the time, yet somehow I knew these beautiful beings to be angelic. They sang the most lovely and extraordinary music I had ever heard. They were identical, each equally beautiful. When their song was over, one of their number came forward to greet me. She was exquisite and I was mightily attracted, but I then realized my admiration could only be expressed in a wholly nonphysical manner, as to a little child. I was embarrassed by my error, but it did not matter. All was forgiven in this wonderful place.

Instantly we arrived in an art gallery. It contained the work of the great masters of all time and all places. The display was both classical and modern. Some of the great works seemed familiar. Others were unlike anything I had ever seen, indescribable. The beauty and form of the sculpture and paintings on display were beyond words. A lifetime could be spent in this place, but to see everything I needed to see during this visit, we must move on.

Next we materialized in a computer room. It was a place of great activity, yet peace prevailed. None of the stress of business was present, but prodigious work was accomplished. The people seemed familiar to me, like old friends. This was confusing, because I knew there to be present those who lived on Earth still, and those who had passed on. Some of them I knew by name, others by reputation; and all had time for me, to teach me if ever I need help understanding.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Psychic Development

Psychic Development Should be Undertaken as Part of Spiritual Development

Psychic development should be undertaken as a part of spiritual development. Psychic abilities are the abilities that come from the spirit. The brain normally filters out these abilities while the person is incarnated in a physical body but sometimes some psychic abilities leak through. Psychic development will therefore help a person to better understand their spiritual nature. If a person develops their psychic abilities to a sufficiently high level of effectiveness, they may use them to help other people which will also provide those people with evidence that we are all incarnated spirits. If a person is going to undertake psychic development, it is important that they develop spiritually at the same time to ensure that they use psychic abilities ethically. Unethical use of psychic abilities will have negative karmic consequences.

Background information about psychic phenomena can be at the Psychic FAQ.

Methods

The following links have detailed information on ways to develop psychic abilities:

• How to Communicate with Spirits
  
• Learn to feel Healing Energy
  
• Spiritual Healing
  
• How to have Precognitive Dreams
  
• Psychokinesis
  

Most people have some psychic ability and that ability can be improved with training and practice. However, just like most people can pick out a tune with one finger on the piano but not everyone can play in a concert hall, there are a wide range of psychic abilities and even with practice and training not everyone will be able to become a working psychic. But even if a person only has a few experiences each year, they add up over time and that evidence of a person's spiritual nature changes the way they look at the purpose and meaning of life. So there is no reason why anyone should hesitate to develop their psychic skills.

Meditation

The main method of psychic development is meditation. It calms the mind, particularly the logical analytical mind and makes your more aware of intuitive mental activity and psychic impressions.

Meditation also promotes spiritual development. Having a calm mind helps you live more mindfully, more in harmony with your spiritual values. When the mind is calm, and when you engage in relaxing concentration and mindfully notice when your mind wanders, you see that that poses, attitudes, and opinions are often just empty pretense. You see how distracting thoughts of attachments and aversions and selfishness are silly and you become less selfish, less egotistic. In the absence of selfishness, love arises naturally. Many, many near-death experiencers, mediums, and other teachers say the purpose of life is to learn to love. Meditation helps you to accomplish that purpose.

Quieting the mental noise helps you become more aware of faint mental impressions some of which might be psychic perceptions. In particular, meditation calms the analytical mind letting you become more in touch with the intuitive mental processes. It makes you more receptive to psychic impressions such as intuitions and communication from spirits of departed loved ones and spirit guides.

Practice

Practicing is also important for developing psychic abilities. In order to become more proficient using psychic senses you also have to test them so you know when they are working correctly. The book Discover your Psychic Powers by Tara Ward includes methods of meditation and ways to practice and test your psychic abilities.

Unbalanced Rationality

One obstacle to developing psychic abilities that some people experience is that due to education or career they are so habituated to analytical thinking that they cannot stop thinking analytically. Psychic impressions come from a different part of the mind so if you can't stop thinking analytically, you may have difficulty perceiving psychic impressions. If you think this might be a problem for you, it might help to try to suspend your logical and reasoning attitudes toward being psychic. This does not mean you should embrace irrationality, it means you should try to withhold judgment and be open to observation rather than relying on analysis and thinking. Try to be an observer rather than an analyzer or an explainer. There is nothing wrong with having strong powers of analysis and logic. However those modes are not the only way to be conscious. What is ideal is to be good at all modes of consciousness and know when to use each one rather than being unbalanced or uniformly weak.

If you are too analytical in your thinking it might be hard to accept the meditation exercises needed for psychic development. However consider the two following points:

1. In the spirit world, the spirits do things by using their mental abilities the way incarnated humans use tools. If you want to use your spiritual abilities you have to do it through a mental technique.
   
2. When harnessing your psychic abilities, the most important thing is intention. You need a technique to focus and maintain your intention and the details of that technique are arbitrary.
   

At first these two points might seem to be contradictory or mutually exclusive, however in actuality they are reinforcing and complementary. So, follow psychic development techniques as taught, understanding them as explained above and that the techniques seem to have worked for others. Once you see they work, you no longer need to worry about whether they make sense or not.

Classes

Classes in psychic development are an excellent way to develop psychic abilities because they allow you to practice giving readings to other members of the class. Another advantage to taking classes is that the spirit guides of the instructor may sometimes assist the students to have a more profound psychic experience in class than they can have outside of class. This is particularly true in mediumship classes. Also, there can sometimes be an effect from being in a group of people that enhances psychic functioning of the members of the group.

You can usually find classes in psychic development at Spiritualist churches and sometimes at New Age book stores and gift shops. Psychic development classes usually meet once a week. Classes at Spiritualist churches will usually cost less while classes by a popular psychic could be expensive.

Recommended Reading:

• Spiritual Practices and their Effectiveness
  
• How to cope with being psychic.
  
• Discover your Psychic Powers by Tara Ward
  

Discussion Forum

If you have questions about psychic development you can ask them at the Psychic Support Forum

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Charlatans, Demagogues, and Scientists

Charlatans, Demagogues, and Scientists

You often hear people complaining about spiritual scams such as charlatans who pretend to be psychic, or religious leaders who pervert religion to suit their thirst for power. But one of the biggest scams is hardly even recognized. This is the scam perpertrated by scientists who deny the reality of ESP and the afterlife. The evidence for ESP and the afterlife is overwhelming and the claims of materialist pseudoskeptics to the contrary don't stand up to a close examination of the facts. What could be more important to science than the huge gaps in scientific understanding revealed by ESP and the afterlife? What could be more important to humanity than the knowledge that we survive death? What would the world be like if everyone understood that they survive death and they are responsible for what they did while living on the earth? - The world would be a much better place. When you consider this, you see that Science is a huge scam, has done immense harm, and is a colossal and repeated failure to itself and to humanity.

This scientific scam was first perpetrated when philosophical naturalism was incorporated into mainstream science and it has been perpetuated ever since by scientists and other materialists who claim moral authority from science.

The scientific scam makes other scams possible.

The charlatans who pretend to be psychic are small time operators. Compared to the scientific scam they haven't influenced society significantly. But the scientific scam is also partly responsible for the harm done by these charlatans who pretend to be psychic. Because scientists dissuade people from believing in psychic phenomena, they prevent the government from developing a licensing process for psychics like there is for doctors, lawyers, plumbers, and electricians. By pushing the psychic industry out of the mainstream and into the shadows, they make it harder for people to get reliable information on the industry. By calling everyone a fraud they obscure the fact that psychics are genuine and the charlatans are only pretending to psychic.

If scientists had allowed themselves to take up the study of psychic phenomena such as mediumship the way Nobel prize winning scientists such as Charles Richet, Pierre Curie, and Marie Currie, and many other scientists such as Sir William Crookes, wanted to, much harm would have been avoided.

Scientism exonerates religion.

Religious leaders who pervert religion to quench their thirst for power do immense harm. However the fact that the science scam perverts science into the religion of Scientism shows that you can't blame religion in general for the abuses that some people perpetrate. No one would blame the scientific method for the lies of Scientism and so no one can blame the phenomenon of religion in general for the problems caused by those who abuse religious belief.

Scientists who are the priests of Scientism, who put themselves up as intermediaries between the public and Truth, use science to control people, to keep them from accessing other sources of information. Mediums, near-death experiences, aliens, alien technology, and alien contactees are all sources of truth that threaten scientist's power. Similarly, scientists try to suppress information about intelligent design and even unorthodox theories like cold fusion. In order to protect their position of power, the priests of Scientism are doing everything they can to suppress access to sources of information that will demonstrate current science is incorrect or incomplete.

There are many people who dislike anything that has to do with religion and look to science to protect society from the harm they think religion does. However the same evil they claim is inherent in religion is found in Scientism. They can't blame religion for the problems they complain of because similar problems result from science and from political philosophies. The problem is not religion or science, or political philosophy, the problem is human nature. Power hungry demagogues will use whatever ideology happens to be convenient to gain power over others. The fact that science is perverted into Scientism by people who want to maintain a position of power is the proof of this.

A religion, Spiritualism, has succeeded where Science has failed: in bringing the truth of psychic phenomena and the afterlife to the public.

I have been a member of several Spiritualist churches. I never encountered cold readers, hot readers, or any other type of charlatans at these churches. The mediums I saw giving demonstrations at Spiritualist church services were expected to give veridical evidence of survival. If a medium did not have the ability to give meaningful, verifiable evidence that they were communicating with a spirit, they wouldn't be working for the church.

I know some people would like to blame Spiritualism for the charlatans pretending to be mediums and who have committed fraud, but that is a double standard. No other field is blamed for the charlatans who pretend to be practitioners. Even though science is abused by those who turn it into Scientism, science is not discredited by fraud. Scientific fraud only creates stronger arguments for stricter adherence to scientific principles, it does not discredit those principles. By the same logic, it is incorrect to blame Spiritualism for the charlatans who pretend to be mediums.

In the realm of psychic phenomena, Spiritualism is a clear case where an organized religion has outshone any other segment of society. Spiritualists have kept alive the knowledge of psychic phenomena, they have taught many people to develop and use psychic abilities, they have certification programs for mediums and healers, they help educate the community about psychic phenomena through lectures, demonstrations and classes, they provide demonstrations of mediumship and healing services to the community for free (or for whatever one puts in the collection basket).

Compared to the religion of Spiritualism, science is a fraud and a failure. In an area where Science has failed miserably and has been a force for ignorance and deceit, Spiritualism has been a force for reason, truth and light.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Are materialists dodos afraid of extinction?

I've been reading some old science fictions stories from the 1950s in Galaxy Magazine. I'm up to 1953, and I've noticed a common theme in several stories: Humankind is evolving into a new species that has psychic powers and the first mutants of the new species are considered a threat to the normal people who are going to be left behind or become extinct. One story makes an analogy with Neanderthals.

Fear of psychic phenomena is one reason for pseudoskepticism and prejudice against psychics but it might be more than just fear of spooky phenomenon like having someone read your mind or fear of ghosts. It might be fear of being inferior or of being left behind in evolution. Evolution is an area of great importance to materialists. They might not like to think that they are on a terminal branch.

If you believe in the afterlife or reincarnation, there is no reason to fear a new superior species of humanity because at the spiritual level we are all the same. The physical incarnation is just a temporary condition taken on for particular purposes but the souls all come from the same place.

But if you are a materialist, if you don't believe in the afterlife or reincarnation, then the fact of ESP forces you to confront the possibility that you are a member of an inferior species that might go extinct. Evolution is important to materialists because it is part of their creation myth. Faced with the reality of psychic phenomena, faced with the possibility that they are an evolutionary dead end, it would create a existential crisis of epic proportions. It would shake their faith that they are rational, intellectual, supermen and instead suggest that they are like the dodo, which was doomed to extinction because of stupidity. It would suggest materialists are inferior to people with psychic abilities, particularly since psychic ability seems to run in families and thus probably has a genetic and therefore (according to materialist belief) an evolutionary basis. The existence of ESP threatens materialists' most sacred faith about their origins and their place in the universe.

Just to be clear - I am not saying psychics are superior to other people. They are not. Being psychic is no different than having any other talent such as musical ability or mathematical ability. I am saying materialists who lack spiritual understanding will misunderstand the implications of the existence of people who are psychic and it could lead them to reject evidence for psychic phenomena and explain why they persecute psychics.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Powerless Pseudoskeptics

The parapsychological community should stop worrying about pseudoskeptics and start lobbying congress to allocate funds for parapsychological research.

For over a hundred years psychical researchers and parapsychologists have been trying to convince mainstream scientists that psychic phenomena are genuine by providing scientific proof. Despite the unambiguous proof that has been supplied over and over starting in the late 1800's, the reality of psychic phenomena are still not acknowledged by mainstream science. It should be obvious that trying to convince the pseudoskeptics who lead the scientific community is a waste of time.

The pseudoskeptics are actually powerless. Spending time reacting to them is not necessary. In the US we have the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (wikipedia) which provides government funding for research in alternative medicine. The pseudoskeptics did not want this organization funded and they did everything they could to stop it. Everything they could do was, in fact, nothing. They were completely powerless to prevent it. This exposed them as impotent. Any power the pseudoskeptics have is ceeded to them by parapsychologists who respond to pseudoskeptics or consider them when setting research goals. Parapsychologists and others should recognize this example for what it is and they should not waste time reacting to pseudoskeptics nor should they let the pseudoskeptics set the agenda for parapsychology.

Instead of constantly responding to pseudoskeptics, the parapsychological community should lobby congress for research funds. The current budgetary environment is not encouraging, but money could be reallocated to parapsychology from other areas. What could be more important to humanity that the huge gaps in our understanding of consciousness? What could be more important to science than the huge gaps in our understanding of the universe revealed by the evidence of parapsychology? Making the argument that parapsychology is more deserving of research funds than other branches of science should be very easy to do.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Harnessing the Paranormal Community

Harnessing the "Paranormal Community" by Loyd Auerbach is an article the current issue of Edge Science, the on-line magazine published by The Society for Scientific Exploration. In the article, Auerbach asks people who are knowledgeable about parapsychology to read internet forums on paranormal phenomena and post information on parapsychology. Auerbach explains that most people have a very poor understanding of what is known about paranormal phenomena because they get most of their information from television programs that are not reliable sources of information. Auerbach hopes that a better awareness of parapsychology in the paranormal community will result in more useful data being reported and greater support for parapsychology.

I think Loyd Auberach is correct. I have been reading and posting to the reddit paranormal subreddits and occasionally to the Above Top Secret paranormal forum. I have seen many people who don't know where to go for reliable information and who have been misinformed by the television shows. My main interest on these forums is to help people cope with psychic experiences , and help people who have ghosts in their homes to help those spirits to complete their transition to the spirit world. But I have also been posting information on parapsychology, such as Evidence for the Afterlife, Proof of ESP, how materialist pseudo-skeptics spread misleading information, and after it was posted recently, Dean Radin's list of Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles on Psi.

But, there are two sides to this divide between parapsychologists and the paranormal community. It is a good idea to educate ordinary people about what parapsychologists are doing. But parapsychologists should also recognize that ordinary people have played a genuine role in this field and it is equally important for parapsychologists to gain a better understanding of what ordinary people are doing. Ghost hunter TV shows mislead ordinary people about paranormal phenomena but they also mislead parapsychologists about what ordinary people know about paranormal phenomena. Botanists recognize the value of knowledge about the uses of plants gained through first hand experience by shamans. Parapsychologist should not dismiss the value of the knowledge ordinary people may have about paranormal phenomena.

Some ghost hunters are just teenagers with EVP recorders out for a lark, but others are psychic or involve psychics and do serious work. Parapsychologists might benefit from identifying the more serious investigators among the ghost hunters and opening a dialog with them, not just to teach them about parapsychology, but to learn from them about the phenomena they study.

I have had many paranormal experiences at Spiritualist churches taking classes in medumship and spiritual healing, and observing mediumship demonstrations that occur during the Sunday service. It is not just the experiences of doing mediumship but also the teaching methods, and stages of development that should be of interest to parapsychologists. Parapsychologists should learn about these aspects of psychic phenomena which ordinary people are involved in. They could do this by attending Spiritualist services, which welcome anyone regardless of their beliefs, or even by taking classes. Parapsychologists may learn as much from trying to develop their own psychic abilities as they can by studying the psychic abilities of other people. Anyone who has undertaken any large project will know that when you get involved in the details of doing something, when you get your hands dirty, you find out things you never imagined when you were only thinking about the subject in an abstract sense. Also, the most qualified person to identify conditions that are conducive to psychic perception is someone who is psychic, particularly if they developed their abilities through a systematic learning process. If parapsychologists want to obtain positive results, personal knowledge of what it is like to develop and use psychic abilities would be valuable.

Furthermore, there are many psychics to be found at Spiritualist church services. They represent a potential pool of subjects who have developed psychic abilities and might be willing to participate in parapsychological experiments if they were personally familiar with the investigator. A lot of high quality evidence on mediumship could be collected (using appropriate blind protocols) if someone earned the trust and cooperation of an advanced class in mediumship at a Spiritualist church. Those students and the spirits of the relatives of their classmates have years of experience communicating. They are trained mediums and trained spirits who are all practiced at communicating with each other. As Richard Hodgson discovered many years ago when he studied Mrs. Piper, spirits improve their ability to communicate through mediums with practice. However, I am not aware of any studies on mediumship that tried to take advantage of this phenomenon.

There are many independent Spiritualist churches as well as those that belong to these organizations:

• National Spiritualist Association of Churches
  

• American Federation of Spiritualist Churches
  

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Darwinism must be false because matter cannot produce consciousness.

If matter cannot produce consciousness, Darwinism must be false. Darwinism, the theory of evolution by natural selection, is a theory of how organisms, such as conscious human beings, evolved from simpler forms of matter through natural processes. If matter cannot produce consciousness, than it is impossible for conscious human beings to have evolved through natural selection and so Darwinism must be false.

This concept was explained by Gary Gutting in Nagel's Untimely Idea on commonwealmagazine.org. This article contains three reviews of Thomas Nagel's book Mind and Cosmos. Gutting writes:

Why does Nagel insist on a radical rejection of the materialist metaphysics rather than endorsing Chalmers’s dualistic supplement to it? Because, Nagel maintains, materialist accounts rely on Darwinian evolution, which is not capable of explaining the origin of consciousness from matter.

But why is it impossible for consciousness to originate from matter? One line of reasoning that explains why matter cannot produce consciousness is suggested in the same article by physicist Stephen M. Barr:

Even if one knew all the variables of a physical system, their values at one time or at all times, and the equations governing them, there would be no way to derive from that information anything about whether the system in question was conscious, was feeling anything, or was having subjective experiences of any sort.

Barr is saying that the experience of consciousness, what you are feeling, what sensations feel like, is unexplainable by physics.

You can describe brain states in terms of neurotransmitters and cell organization, and neuron firing patterns, and in as much detail as you like, but you will never be able to understand from that what it is like to feel happy or what it is like to see the color red. A physical description of brain a state is fundamentally different from an experience. You can't explain what an experience is like through brain states. You might be able to say such and such a brain state produces the feeling of happiness, but you can't explain, based on a description of brain states, what it feels like to experience being happy, or what it is like to experience seeing the color red. Consciousness is something that is fundamentally different from any material process.

There are many other lines of reasoning and many independent forms of evidence that indicate that matter cannot produce consciousness. I have written about several of them on this blog and on my web site. Most of what I have written on the subject can be accessed from my article Materialism Cannot Explain Consciousness. This article links to discussions of philosophical arguments and also to several independent forms of empirical evidence that consciousness survives death. If consciousness can exist after the brain has died, then the matter in the brain cannot be responsible for the production of consciousness.

Since matter cannot produce consciousness, conscious beings like humans cannot have arisen through any purely material process such as Darwinian evolution. Therefore Darwinism must be false.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

What are Ghosts?

There are several different phenomena that are sometimes described as ghosts.

Sometimes a spirit doesn't complete its transition to the spirit world when its body dies. The spirit may stay on the earth plane rather than moving on to the spirit world (heaven). These are called "earthbound" spirits. Usually this is caused by a sudden unexpected death or if the spirit had a strong emotional attachment to something or someone on the earth and doesn't want to leave it. Their mind may be obsessed with something on the earth, and when you are a spirit, your thoughts influence where you go. Also, sometimes a spirit may be afraid of punishment in the afterlife and so may linger near the earth rather than make the transition. An earthbound spirit has a complete personality and can sometimes communicate with and react to living people. When encountered, even if they seem friendly, but particularly if they are causing problems, earthbound spirits should be helped to complete their transition to the spirit world. The way to do that is explained in my article: How to help spirits complete their transition to the spirit world.

In a normal death due to declining health, the spirits on the other side have time to prepare the person for the transition and it usually goes smoothly. Evidence of this preparation comes from death bed visions.

Sometimes spirits that have completed their transition to the spirit world will come down to the earth plane for a purpose such as communicating with a loved one who is still living, to help a dying person make the transition to the spirit world, or to act as a spirit guide for a living person. In rare cases they can be seen by ordinary people, but usually only someone who is psychic will see them although some people might be able to sense their presence.

In some cases a "ghost" is just the shell of the astral body without the spirit in it anymore. These ghosts don't really have personalities. They are often seen just repeating the same thing over an over, like walking down the same hallway in a house. They are just a shell after the soul has moved on.

In other cases a "ghost" is just an impression of a person who used to be at a location which someone who is psychic can perceive. Particularly if the person who left the impression had a strong emotional experience at the site, they may leave a strong impression there. If a psychic is not experienced at using their psychic abilities, they may mistake their psychic perception of that impression for a ghost.

Sometimes ghostly phenomena is caused by unintentional psychokinesis from a living person.

Also see: Evidence for the Afterlife.

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Study Suggests More People Willing to Believe in ESP When Told It's Been Scientifically Disproven

An article on alternet.org published in 2010 discusses a scientific study that showed people are more likely to believe in ESP if they are told that it has been disproven by scientists. The experiment was conducted at the University of Maryland by a team led by sociologist Heather Ridolfo:

Study Suggests More People Willing to Believe in ESP When Told It's Been Scientifically Disproven

Newly published research on belief in ESP suggests a public disregard for -- and perhaps even hostility toward -- the scientific consensus.

April 20, 2010 | Scientists wondering just how low faith in their field has fallen will get some uncomfortable answers in a study examining belief in Extrasensory Perception (ESP), recently published in the online journal Current Research in Social Psychology.

The researchers wrote:

“In fact, when participants believed that science rejected a claim, they moved in the direction of being more likely to accept the clam as true. This finding ran counter to our expectations, but is consistent with findings that trust in science is decreasing.”

Why would people be so distrustful of science? There are for them to be:

• Most published scientific research findings are false.
  

• Many of the most important scientific discoveries, including some that eventually were awarded Nobel prizes, were initially ridiculed by scientists.
  

• Many materialist pseudo-skeptics make misleading claims denying ESP and they incorrectly say that their claims are backed by science. This might create suspicion that science is not reliable.
  

Most people believe in ESP and the afterlife. People with more education are more likely to believe in ESP and the afterlife and most doctors believe in the afterlife. They believe this way not because of what science says, but because of their own paranormal experiences and the experiences of others. And they are right to do so. They recognize that ordinary people can know truth that Science denies. There is a vast amount of valid evidence for ESP and the afterlife, including scientific evidence validated by replication and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Whatever the reason, this research shows activist materialist pseudo-skeptics are hurting their cause when they try to spread their beliefs. It would be better for everyone if they stopped, because those beliefs can be harmful to other people.

Copyright © 2013, 2015 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

What to do about Poltergeist

Poltergeist phenomena involve things moving by themselves, sounds such as knocking or rapping, or inexplicable behavior or malfunction of electrical or electronic devices, as well as other types of mysterious phenomena.

When the phenomena happens at various locations but always in the presence of one particular person, it is usually the person causing the phenomenon unconsciously through psychokinesis (unconscious PK). In this case, there may be something causing the person to be emotionally upset that is causing them to produce the phenomenon. If you can figure out what is causing the emotional problem and eliminate it, the phenomenon may stop.

A well known example of unconscious PK producing poltergeist phenomena is the Tropican Arts poltergeist case in Miami, Florida. If you or someone you know is experiencing unconscious PK, this article might be helpful: How to cope with being psychic.

Unconscious PK is sometimes called the Pauli Effect because the Nobel prize winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli was known to wreck lab equipment just by walking through the laboratory door.

When poltergeist phenomenon happens in only one location and does not depend on the presence of any particular individual, it is probably caused by a spirit. If you can encourage the spirit to complete its transition to the spirit world the phenomena may stop.

If you think a spirit is causing poltergeist phenomena, this article might be helpful: How to get rid of spirits

Also see: What are Ghosts?.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Kurt Gödel, greatest philosopher of all time, did not believe in materialism, or that consciousness was produced by the brain, or that the brain was produced by Darwinian Evolution. Gödel believed a human is a spirit connected to a body.

I have updated my web page on Eminent Researchers to include Kurt Gödel. Gödel, possibly the greatest philosopher of all time, did not believe in materialism, or that the mind was produced by the brain, or that the brain evolved through Darwinian evolution. He believed a human is a spirit connected with a physical body and that there were beings higher than humans and other worlds than earth.

The update to my web page includes:

From Wikipedia:

Kurt Friedrich Gödel (April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was an Austrian American logician, mathematician, and philosopher. After World War II, he emigrated to the United States. Considered with Aristotle and Frege one of the most significant logicians in human history, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, A. N. Whitehead, and David Hilbert were pioneering the use of logic and set theory to understand the foundations of mathematics.

Kurt Gödel did not believe in materialism, or that the mind was produced by the brain, or that the brain evolved through Darwinian evolution. He believed a human was a spirit connected with a physical body and that there were beings higher than humans and other worlds than earth.

Kevincarmody.com lists these quotes by Kurt Gödel (among many others) from A Logical Journey by Hao Wang.

Kurt Gödel said:

• Materialism is false.
  

• The world in which we live is not the only one in which we shall live or have lived.
  

• The brain is a computing machine connected with a spirit.
  

• I don’t think the brain came in the Darwinian manner. In fact, it is disprovable. Simple mechanism can’t yield the brain. I think the basic elements of the universe are simple. Life force is a primitive element of the universe and it obeys certain laws of action. These laws are not simple, and they are not mechanical.
  

• In materialism all elements behave the same. It is mysterious to think of them as spread out and automatically united. For something to be a whole, it has to have an additional object, say, a soul or a mind. “Matter” refers to one way of perceiving things, and elementary particles are a lower form of mind. Mind is separate from matter.
  

• There are other worlds and rational beings of a different and higher kind.
  

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications on Psi Research at deanradin.com

Parapsychologist Dean Radin author of The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds has created a list of Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications on Psi Research. He explains why in his latest blog post.

Critics are fond of saying that's there is no scientific evidence for psi. They wave their fist in the air and shout, "Show me the evidence!" Then they turn red and have a coughing fit. In less dramatic cases a student might be genuinely curious and open-minded, but unsure where to begin to find reliable evidence about psi. Google knows all and sees all, but it doesn't know how to interpret or evaluate what it knows (at least not yet).
...

So I've created a SHOW ME page with downloadable articles on psi and psi-related topics, all published in peer-reviewed journals.

The list of journal publications can be found at deanradin.com:

Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications on Psi Research

Subjects include:

• Healing at a Distance
  
• Physiological correlations at a distance
  
• Telepathy & ESP
  
• General Overviews & Critiques
  
• Mediumship & Survival of Consciousness
  
• Precognition & Presentiment
  
• Theory
  
• Mind-Matter Interaction
  
• Potential Applications
  
• Recommended books
  
• Other websites with access to articles
  

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Sir J. J. Thomson, Nobel prize winning physicist, believed in psychic phenomena. He was a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Psychical Research for 34 years.

I have updated my web page on Eminent Researchers to include J. J. Thomson. Thomson was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for discovering the electron. He believed in psychic phenomena and was a member of the Governing Council for the Society for Psychical Research for 34 years.

The update to my web page includes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_J_Thomson

Sir Joseph John "J. J." Thomson, OM, FRS (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist. He is credited with discovering electrons and isotopes, and inventing the mass spectrometer. Thomson was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the electron and for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases.

J. J. Thomson believed in psychic phenomena and was a member of the Governing Council of the Society for Psychical Research for 34 years. (Source: Entangled Minds by Dean Radin)

Thomson is the eleventh Nobelist I know of who believed in paranormal phenomena or that consciousness was non-physical based on their own research, their own experiences, or after studying the research of others. The other Nobelists are:

• Max Planck - Believed consciousness is not physical based on his own research.
  

• Wolfgang Pauli - Believed that his own unconscious PK wrecked experimental equipment.
  

• Erwin Schrödinger - Believed consciousness is not physical based on his own research.
  

• Brian D. Josephson - Believed in the results of ESP research.
  

• Charles Robert Richet - From his own research believed in macro PK, precognition, anomalous cognition, and ectoplasm.
  

• John William Strutt - Believed physical mediumship was a serious field of study based on his personal observations.
  

• Marie Curie - Observed physical mediums hoping the phenomena might lead to an understanding of radioactivity.
  

• Pierre Curie - Same as Marie Curie, attested to genuineness of physical mediumship.
  

• Eugene Wigner - Believed consciousness is fundamental.
  

• John Eccles - Neurophysiologist who believed the brain did not produce consciousness and that promissory materialism is superstition.
  

Other Eminent Researchers:

• Charles Darwin - Believed natural laws were designed, this is a form of intelligent design.
  

• Alan Turing - Believed in the results of ESP research.
  

• Wernher von Braun - Believed consciousness survives death.
  

• David Bohm - Believed in the results of parapsychology.
  

• Karl Popper - Believed in dualism (which falsifies materialism).
  

• Sir William Crookes - Invented cathode-ray tube, believed in survival after death and proved macro PK in 1871.
  

• Sir Robert Boyle - Discoverer of Boyle's law, studied laying on of hands healing healing, attested to the results.
  

More information and references are on my web site at Eminent Researchers.

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Due to the History of Important Scientific Discoveries Initially Rejected and Ridiculed, the Public Should not be Afraid to Demand Public Funds be Spent on Afterlife Research.

Most people would say that Science has been a huge success. We all know the of the successes in medical science, agriculture, transportation, communications, computers, etc. etc. But what about Science's failures? Consider the list (below) of important scientific discoveries, including discoveries that led to Nobel prizes, that were initially rejected and ridiculed by mainstream science. Scientists have a huge problem accepting the truth when it contradicts their preexisting beliefs. Science should be judged based on its failures as well as its successes.

There is extensive evidence to support belief in ESP and the afterlife. But mainstream science refuses to acknowledge the truth of these phenomena calling the evidence "pseudoscience". People don't often think about Science's colossal failure to study psi and the afterlife. What could be more important to humanity than our immortality? What could be more important to science than this huge gap in its understanding of the universe? What would the world be like if everyone knew that in the afterlife, they would experience a life review where they felt how their actions affected other people from the other person's point of view? In this regard, Science has failed humanity and itself. Science has given us medicines and conveniences, as well as weapons and pollution, but it has not given us the whole truth.

Most people believe in ESP and the afterlife. This shows that ordinary people can know things that Science denies. Given the difficulty scientists have recognizing important areas for research, the public and politicians should not be afraid to direct research funds into studies of ESP and the afterlife despite mainstream science's rejection of these subjects.

Nobel Prize Winning Discoveries that were First Ridiculed as "Pseudoscience".

(See Notes below for details and references.)

• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: Black Holes
  
• Binning, Roher, Gimzewski: Scanning-Tunneling Microscope
  
• Barbara McClintlock: Mobile Genetic Elements
  
• Stanley Prusiner: Prions
  
• Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff: Theory of 3D Molecules
  
• Peyton Rous: Viruses Transmit Cancer
  
• Dan Shechtman: Quasicrystals ("There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists." - Linus Pauling, before Shechtman won the Nobel Prize for discovering quasicrystals.)
  
• Hans Krebs: The Krebs Cycle, Metabolic Energy Production
  
• Svante Arrhenius: The Properties of Electrolytes are Caused by Charged Atoms
  
• Hannes Alfvén: Magnetohydrodynamics
  
• F. Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina, and Paul Crutzen: Choloroflurocarbons Destroying the Ozone Layer
  

More Important Discoveries that were First Ridiculed as "Pseudoscience".

Many more important discoveries that were first ridiculed by Science can be found at: amasci.com, megafoundation.org and Crackpots Who Were Right. Here are just a few:

• Alfred Wegener: Contintental Drift
  
• J Harlen Bretz: Catistrophism in Geology
  
• Lynn Margulis: Endosymbiotic Organelles
  
• George Zweig: Quarks
  
• Warren S. Warren: Flaws in MRI theory
  

Notes:

Nobel Prize Winning Discoveries that were First Ridiculed as "Pseudoscience".

• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: Black Holes
  

  From amasci.com:
  

  Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (black holes in 1930, squashed by Eddington)
  

  Chandra originated Black Hole theory and published several papers. He was attacked viciously by his close colleague Sir Arthur Eddington, and his theory was discredited in the eyes of the research community. They were wrong, and Eddington apparently took such strong action based on an incorrect pet theory of his own. In the end Chandra could not even pursue a career in England, and he moved his research to the U. of Chicago in 1937, laboring in relative obscurity for decades. Others rediscovered Black Hole theory thirty years later. He won the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics, major recognition only fifty years. Never underestimate the authority-following tendency of the physics community, or the power of ridicule when used by people of stature such as Eddington.
  

• Binning, Roher, Gimzewski: Scanning-Tunneling Microscope
  

  From amasci.com:
  

  Binning/Roher/Gimzewski (scanning-tunneling microscope)
  

  Invented in 1982, other surface scientists refused to believe that atom-scale resolution was possible, and demonstrations of the STM in 1985 were still met by hostility, shouts, and laughter from the specialists in the microscopy field. Its discoverers won the Nobel prize in 1986, which went far in forcing an unusually rapid change in the attitude of colleagues.
  

• Barbara McClintlock: Mobile Genetic Elements
  

  From amasci.com:
  

  B. McClintlock (mobile genetic elements, "jumping genes", transposons)
  

  Won the Nobel in 1984 after enduring 32 years being ridiculed and ignored
  

• Stanley Prusiner: Prions
  

  From amasci.com:
  

  Prusiner, Stanley (existence of prions, 1982)
  

  Prusiner endured derision from colleagues for his prion theory explaining Mad Cow Disease, but was vidicated by winning the Nobel.
  

• Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff: Theory of 3D Molecules
  

  From amasci.com:
  

  Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff (theory of 3D molecules)
  

  As a relative newcomer and unknown, he was attacked and ridiculed for proposing that a 3D tetrahedral structure would explain many problems in chemistry. His foes rapidly went silent, and finally his ridiculous cardboard models won the first nobel prize in chemistry (1901.)
  

• Peyton Rous: Viruses Transmit Cancer
  

  (Francis) Peyton Rous ForMemRS[1] (October 5, 1879 – February 16, 1970) born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1879 and received his B.A. and M.D. from Johns Hopkins University.[2] He was involved in the discovery of the role of viruses in the transmission of certain types of cancer. In 1966 he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work.
  

  ...
  

  As a pathologist he made his seminal observation, that a malignant tumor (specifically, a sarcoma) growing on a domestic chicken could be transferred to another fowl simply by exposing the healthy bird to a cell-free filtrate, in 1911.[3][4] This finding, that cancer could be transmitted by a virus (now known as the Rous sarcoma virus, a retrovirus), was widely discredited by most of the field's experts at that time. Since he was a relative newcomer, it was several years before anyone even tried to replicate his prescient results. Although clearly some influential researchers were impressed enough to nominate him to the Nobel Committee as early as 1926 (and in many subsequent years, until he finally received the award, 40 years later—this may be a record for the time between a discovery and a Nobel Prize).
  

• Dan Shechtman: Quasicrystals
  

  Dan Shechtman (born January 24, 1941 in Tel Aviv) is the Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, an Associate of the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, and Professor of Materials Science at Iowa State University. On April 8, 1982, while on sabbatical at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., Shechtman discovered the icosahedral phase, which opened the new field of quasiperiodic crystals. He was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "the discovery of quasicrystals". Shechtman is the fourth Israeli to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in under a decade.
  

  ...
  

  From the day Shechtman published his findings on quasicrystals in 1984 to the day Linus Pauling died (1994), Shechtman experienced hostility from him toward the non-periodic interpretation. "For a long time it was me against the world," he said. "I was a subject of ridicule and lectures about the basics of crystallography. The leader of the opposition to my findings was the two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling, the idol of the American Chemical Society and one of the most famous scientists in the world. For years, 'til his last day, he fought against quasi-periodicity in crystals. He was wrong, and after a while, I enjoyed every moment of this scientific battle, knowing that he was wrong."
  

  Linus Pauling is noted saying "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists." Pauling was apparently unaware of a paper in 1981 by H. Kleinert and K. Maki which had pointed out the possibility of a non-periodic Icosahedral Phase in quasicrystals (see the historical notes). The head of Shechtman's research group told him to "go back and read the textbook" and a couple of days later "asked him to leave for 'bringing disgrace' on the team." Shechtman felt rejected. On publication of his paper, other scientists began to confirm and accept empirical findings of the existence of quasicrystals.
  

• Hans Krebs: The Krebs Cycle, Metabolic Energy Production
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Adolf_Krebs
  

  Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981) was a German-born British physician and biochemist. Krebs is best known for his identification of two important metabolic cycles: the urea cycle and the citric acid cycle. The latter, the key sequence of metabolic chemical reactions that produces energy in cells, is also known as the Krebs cycle and earned him a Nobel Prize in 1953, which he shared with Fritz Lipmann.
  

  Krebs, Hans (ATP energy, Krebs cycle, his work was both ignored and ridiculed for the first ten years)
  

• Svante Arrhenius: The Properties of Electrolytes are Caused by Charged Atoms
  

  From megafoundation.org:
  

  Svante Arrhenius - Ion Chemistry
  

  His idea that electrolytes are full of charged atoms was considered crazy. The atomic theory was new at the time, and everyone "knew" that atoms were indivisible (and hence they could not "lose" or "gain" any electric charge.) Because of his heretical idea, he only received his university degree by a very narrow margin. The value of Arrhenius' work was not well understood because the idea of a connection between electricity and chemical affinity, once advocated by Berzelius, had vanished from the general consciousness of scientists in his university at Uppsalla but attention from a couple of established scientists in Stockholm helped him to get recognition for his work. Arrhenius was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903.
  

• Hannes Alfvén: Magnetohydrodynamics
  

  Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (30 May 1908 – 2 April 1995) was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD).
  

  ...
  

  Alfvén's work was disputed for many years by the senior scientist in space physics, the British mathematician and geophysicist Sydney Chapman. Alfvén's disagreements with Chapman stemmed in large part from trouble with the peer review system. Alfvén rarely benefited from the acceptance generally afforded senior scientists in scientific journals. He once submitted a paper on the theory of magnetic storms and auroras to the American journal Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity only to have his paper rejected on the ground that it did not agree with the theoretical calculations of conventional physics of the time. He was regarded as a person with unorthodox opinions in the field by many physicists, R. H. Stuewer noting that "... he remained an embittered outsider, winning little respect from other scientists even after he received the Nobel Prize..." and was often forced to publish his papers in obscure journals. Alfvén recalled:
  

  When I describe the [plasma phenomena] according to this formulism most referees do not understand what I say and turn down my papers. With the referee system which rules US science today, this means that my papers are rarely accepted by the leading US journals.
  

• F. Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina, and Paul Crutzen: Choloroflurocarbons Destroying the Ozone Layer
  

  From megafoundation.org:
  

  They were ridiculed for their work for years before being vindicated by the discovery of a massive hole in the ozone layer over Antarctic. Rowland, along with Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen, won a Nobel Prize in 1995 for their work.
  

Copyright © 2013 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Proof of ESP: 1871 - 1997. Beating the Odds at Ten Million Billion Billion to One.

This post reviews the history of ESP research from 1871 to 1997. It is based on information in The Conscious Universe by Dean Radin unless otherwise noted. (Many prominent pseudoskeptics, including Richard Wiseman, Chris French, Ray Hyman, Donald Hebb, and George Price, admit evidence for ESP meets the scientific standard of proof but they refuse to believe ESP is real because ... they don't want to.)

Clairvoyance

• In 1889, Charles Richet, winner of the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine, conducted experiments where hypnotized subjects were able to identify the contents of sealed envelopes with the odds against chance explaining the result of 25,000 to 1 (Reference: Entangled Minds by Dean Radin).
  

Telepathy

• In 1927 George Estabrooks at Harvard University conducted tests of telepathy between students in adjoining rooms. He obtained positive results that were highly significant. The odds against these results occurring by chance was greater than a million to one.
  

• 1930: Mental Radio was published. In this book, Upton Sinclair described his wife's ability to duplicate a sketch that someone else had drawn without her having to see it. After the book was published, Dr. Walter Franklyn Prince did an independent analysis of the data and concluded the results could not be explained by chance or by any other natural means.
  

• 1920s - 1965: Professor Joseph Banks Rhine and colleagues at Duke University conducted ESP tests using a deck of 25 cards with one of five possible symbols on each card. They found that subjects were able to guess the symbol on a card more frequently than could be explained by chance. One study of all similar card tests from various experimenters from 1882 to 1939 found the odds against chance were more than a billion trillion to one.
  

• 1966 - 1972: Montague Ullman and Stanley Krippner conducted dream telepathy experiments at Maimonides Medical Center. In these experiments, one person looked at a picture while another person was dreaming. The dreamer was then awakened and described her dreams. The descriptions were judged and it was found that the picture was included in the dreams often enough so that the odds against chance explaining the results were 75 million to one.
  

• Mid 1970s: Charles Honorton began the Ganzfeld experiments. In these experiments a subject was put into a relaxed state for a period of time while listening to white noise with translucent plastic covering her eyes to help reduce mental "noise". While this was happening, a second person looked at a picture. Afterward, the subject was shown four different pictures, one of which was the picture the second person had looked at. The subject was able to identify which picture had been looked at a frequency greater than could be explained by chance. When the results of several experiments were combined they obtained odds of ten billion to one against chance.
  

Remote Viewing

Remote viewing is a type of experiment where a subject attempts to mentally view a remote location.

• 1973 - 1988: Edwin May reviewed all remote viewing experiments conducted at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). The experiments were successful overall, with combined odds against chance of more than a billion billion to one.
  

• 1989 - 1993: Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) obtained positive results that could not be explained by chance.
  

• 1978 - 1987: Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) remote viewing experiments produced positive results with odds against chance of 100 billion to one.
  

Precognition

• 1989: Charles Honorton and Diane Ferrari analyzed all "forced-choice" precognition experiments conducted by sixty two different investigators that were conducted from 1935 to 1987. In a these experiments, a test subject tried to predict which of a fixed number of objects would be selected at a later time. For these experiments, Honorton and Ferrari calculated odds against getting the same results by chance was 10²⁵ or ten million billion billion to one.
  

• Early 1980s: Holger Klintman conducted experiments where he showed a subject a color patch and asked the subject to name the color. Then the subject was shown a word for a color and asked to read the word. Klintman found that when the patch and the word were the same color, the reaction time for saying the color of the patch was faster even though the word for the color had not yet been displayed. He calculated the odds against chance for these results were 500,000 to 1.
  

• Before the publication of The Conscious Universe was published in 1997, Dean Radin explored a similar phenomenon by measuring the skin conductivity of a person (which is an indicator of sweat gland activity) as a series of images were shown. Sweat gland activity always increased just before an image was shown to the subject as the subject was waiting to see the next image. However, Radin found that if the image was one that would produce an emotional reaction, sweat gland activity increased more than for other images. He called this phenomenon "presentiment". Professor Dick Bierman reported replicating this phenomenon in 1996.
  

Psychokinesis

• William Crookes tested the psychic Daniel Dunglas Home in 1871 and proved telekinesis is real. Crookes tested Home under laboratory conditions that prevented fraud. Crookes described these experiments in his book: Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism.
  

• 1935: J. B. Rhine, Lousia Rhine, and colleagues at Duke University began experiments to see if mental intention could influence dice rolling. In 1989 Dianne Ferrari and Dean Radin analyzed the combined results of fifty two investigators from 1935 to 1987. They found mental intention could influence dice rolling, and they calculated the odds against obtaining the result by chance was more than a billion to one.
  

• 1959 - 1987: In 1987 Roger Nelson and Dean Radin combined the results of experiments in which a test subject tried to alter the results of a random number generator. They considered 832 studies (597 of which were conducted at PEAR) and found a positive result. They calculated the odds against obtaining this result by chance were more than a trillion to one.
  

Psychic Healing

In The End of Materialism Dr. Charles Tart writes:

For many years, when talking about parapsychological findings, I referred to the "big four," the four psi phenomena for which there was so much accumulated evidence that we could take them as the foundational findings of the field: three forms of ESP (telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition), plus PK. Each had hundreds of well-controlled experiments supporting its existence. In the last two decades, though, enough positive studies of psychic healing have been published (see www. stephanaschwartz.com for an extensive, current bibliography, with abstracts) that I now speak of the "big five."

The bibliography Dr. Tart mentions is Therapeutic Intent/Healing Bibliography of Research Compiled by Larry Dossey, M.D., and Stephan A. Schwartz

Copyright © 2013, 2015 by ncu9nc All rights reserved. Texts quoted from other sources are Copyright © by their owners.

Materialism Cannot Explain the Origin of the Genetic Code. Intelligent Design is a More Reasonable Explanation.

Materialism cannot explain the origin of the genetic code. The probability that the necessary chemical reactions could occur through the unguided working of physical laws is too low. No one who has investigated the problem believes there is a satisfactory explanation of how life or the genetic code could arise through natural means.¹

For the genetic code to work, there has to be a semiotic² system to use DNA or RNA to represent the sequence of amino acids in each protein and there has to be a cybernetic³ system to produce the machinery that uses the genetic code to produce proteins. This requires:

• The development of the code whereby each possible triplet of nucleotides represents an amino acid.
  
• The determination of the sequence of amino acids for each protein that is to be produced.
  
• The creation of the specific genes (molecules of DNA or maybe RNA) that use the triplet code to specify the proteins.⁶
  
• The many tRNAs, one for each triplet, and the amino acids and enzymes that combine amino acids and tRNA.
  
• Ribosomes.
  

All of this has to come into existence at the same time because:⁴

• The parts are not useful individually.
  
• But paradoxically, according to materialism these parts are the information and machinery that is needed to produce itself.
  
• Furthermore, the genetic code is finely tuned⁵ to reduce the effects of point mutations and there is no explanation as to how the genetic code could evolve from something simpler, something less finely tuned. Any change in the genetic code would be catastrophic because it would effect every gene. It would be like changing every letter "n" to the letter "p" in an entire book. It would create so many "misspellings" for an organism that it is impossible that it could survive.
  
• Evolving from a double code to a triplet code would require simultaneous changes in every codon in every gene and in all the tRNAs and the mechanism that moves the mRNA with respect to the ribosome during protein synthesis.⁷
  
• All these parts have to be produced in the correct numbers and arranged in a configuration where they will work together.
  

These factors all contribute to the impossibly low probability of the genetic code arising through the unguided action of natural forces, chance, self assembly, and/or evolution.¹

However, we know there is a phenomenon that can create semiotic and cybernetic systems that would otherwise have no chance of arising through natural processes. This phenomenon is intelligence. Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that the genetic code was created by an intelligence. This is not a "god of the gaps" argument. It is the same mode of logic, "like phenomena have like causes"⁸, whereby the measurement of gravity on earth leads to the conclusion that gravity causes the planets to orbit the sun. It is the same mode of logic used by many early naturalists, such as geologist Charles Lyell, to explain phenomena that occurred in the remote past by identifying causes known to be effective in the present time. Additionally, you don't need evidence of who the intelligence was to make this supposition. If a NASA space craft found machinery on Mars, we would not think that the machinery arose naturally just because there were no Martians around who could have made it. The existence of machinery that could not arise naturally is sufficient to conclude the existence of an intelligent maker.

However, the belief that naturalism can explain something that current science says is impossible is a "god of the gaps" argument. Our current understanding of chemistry and the conditions on the early earth says there is no good natural explanation for the origin of life and the genetic code.¹ To disregard science and maintain faith in naturalism is a "god of the gaps" argument. To paraphrase the Nobel prize winning neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles: Promissory materialism is superstition.⁹

Sources

• Chance and necessity do not explain the origin of life Cell Biology International (2004) 28, 729-739 - J.T. Trevors and D.L. Abel
  

• The ‘Cybernetic Cut’: Progressing from Description to Prescription in
  Systems Theory David L. Abel The Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal, 2008, 2, 252-262
  

• The First Gene, Chapter 1, David Abel, Editor, What is ProtoBioCybernetics?
  

• 
  The First Gene, Chapter 4, David Abel, Editor, What Utility Does Order, Pattern or Complexity Prescribe?
  

• The First Gene, Chapter 6, David Abel, Editor, Linear Digital Material Symbol Systems (MSS)
  

• The Finely Tuned Genetic Code Evolution News and Views, Jonathan M. November 19, 2011
  

• Top Five Problems with Current Origin-of-Life Theories Evolution News and Views, Casey Luskin December 12, 2012
  

• What Are the Top Ten Problems with Darwinian Evolution? Evolution News and Views, Casey Luskin July 12, 2012
  

• ID Foundations, 17: Stephen C. Meyer’s summary of the positive inductive logic case for design as best explanation of the FSCO/I* in DNA Uncommon Descent, kairosfocus, April 4, 2013
  

• The “Wow! signal” of the terrestrial genetic code Vladimir I. shCherbak and Maxim A. Makukov,
  

Notes

1) Top Five Problems with Current Origin-of-Life Theories, Chance and necessity do not explain the origin of life

2) The First Gene, Chapter 1,

3) The First Gene, Chapter 1,

4) The Finely Tuned Genetic Code

5) The Finely Tuned Genetic Code

6 What Are the Top Ten Problems with Darwinian Evolution? (See item number one at the link.)

7) The “Wow! signal” of the terrestrial genetic code

8) ID Foundations, 17: Stephen C. Meyer’s summary of the positive inductive logic case for design as best explanation of the FSCO/I* in DNA

9) Eminent Researchers

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Sir John Eccles, Nobel Prize Winning Neurophysiologist: The Brain Does Not Produce Consciousness

I have updated my web page on Eminent Researchers to include Nobel prize winning neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles. Eccles is the tenth Nobel prize winning scientists I have added to that page who believed in the soul or in some paranormal phenomenon based on their own research, experiences, or studies. The other Nobel prize winning scientists are:

• Max Planck
  
• Wolfgang Pauli
  
• Erwin Schrödinger
  
• Brian D. Josephson
  
• Charles Robert Richet
  
• John William Strutt
  
• Marie Curie
  
• Pierre Curie
  
• Eugene Wigner
  

Other eminent researches discussed on the same web page who held such beliefs include:

• Charles Darwin
  
• Alan Turing
  
• Wernher von Braun
  
• David Bohm
  
• Karl Popper
  
• Sir Robert Boyle
  

You can learn more about these scientists and their beliefs at the link above.

The section on Sir John Eccles is this:

Sir John Eccles

Sir John Eccles was a neurophysiologist who won the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1963 for his work on the synapse. He did not believe that the brain produces consciousness. In Evolution of the Brain: Creation of the Self (1989) he wrote:

I maintain that the human mystery is incredibly demeaned by scientific reductionism, with its claim in promissory materialism to account eventually for all of the spiritual world in terms of patterns of neuronal activity. This belief must be classed as a superstition ... we have to recognize that we are spiritual beings with souls existing in a spiritual world as well as material beings with bodies and brains existing in a material world.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Carew_Eccles

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Astronauts Say UFO's are Real

This excerpt from The Enduring Enigma of the UFO by Dean Radin quotes astronauts saying UFOs are real:

Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell repeatedly has said that high-ranking military officers have privately admitted that for many decades factions of the U.S. government have been aware that UFOs and alien technology are real. Many other astronauts have provided corroborating statements. Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter photographed a UFO while in orbit on May 24, 1962, later saying, “At no time when the astronauts were in space were they alone. There was a constant surveillance by UFOs.” In 1985, Mercury and Gemini astronaut Gordon Cooper, in an address to the United Nations, said: “I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets . . . For many years, I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the United States, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public.” Such statements are not limited to U.S. astronauts. In 1979, Russian cosmonaut Victor Afanasyev commented on a UFO he saw while en route to the Solyut 6 space station: “It followed us during half of our orbit . . . It was an engineered structure, made from some type of metal, approximately 40 meters long with inner hulls.” —DR

Astronaut Deke Slaton described an encounter with a UFO while he was flying a military plane.

As I closed on this thing, it looked like a weather balloon and that's what I presumed it was. I had plenty of gas and time so I decided I'd just come back around and make make a pass on it. I got around where I should have been coming back on this thing all of a sudden it didn't look like a balloon anymore. It looked like a saucer sitting on edge about a 45 degree angle. I didn't have any gun camera film on board unfortunately or I'd a shot some pictures of it. About that time I guess, whatever it was, for whatever reason, it took off climbing at about a 45 degree angle and and just accelerated and disappeared. I obviously couldn't follow it with an old piston engine fighter so I turned around went home.

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Memories of near death experiences: More real than reality?

An article in sciencedaly.com, Memories of near death experiences: More real than reality?, explains that memories of near death experience are more like the memories of actual experiences than they are like imagined experiences. However the memories of near-death experiences are more detailed than ordinary memories. This supports what most near-death experiencers say: that their near-death experiences seemed more real than ordinary reality. None of the "scientific" explanations offered by materialists to explain NDE's can account for all aspects of the phenomenon.