Despite the chuckles this word sometimes brings, I am more convinced than ever that NQ (Interdisciplinary journal of neuroscience and quantum physics) is going to be one of our best allies and hopes for making the connections between the paranormal and the sciences. The March issue of their mag. is a special edition, totally dedicated to stuff that's right up our alley.
To refresh, NQ (as regards the paranormal) suggests that "Paranormal phenomena indicate that our minds can communicate with other minds and affect distant physical systems by nonordinary means. Whether such phenomena can be adequately explained in terms of nonlocality and the quantum vacuum or whether they involve superphysical forces and states of matter as yet unknown to science is still an open question, and one which merits further experimental study."
And study them they are! Some topics in this edition:
BioPhysics at Death: Three Hypotheses with Potential Application
Dreams, Telepathy, and Various States of Consciousness.
Shamanism and the Evolutionary Origins of Spirituality and Healing
Models of the Out of Body Experience: A New Multi-Etiological Phenomenological approach
Ensuring Homogenous Data Collection for Present and Future Research on Possible PSI Phenomena
Detailing Subjective Descriptions Using the Multi-Axial A to Z SEATTLE Classification
Reflections about Parapsychology and the Philosophy of Science
Visions, Hallucinations, and Dreams in the Context of Body Wisdom and Chaos Theory
Intuition, Telepathy, and Interspecies Communications: a Multidisciplinary Perspective
Across Cultural Boundaries: Psychophysiological Responses, Absorption and Dissociation Comparison Between Brazilian Spiritists and Advanced Meditators
The Interpretation of Telepathy-like Effects: A Novel Electromagnetic and Synchronistic Version of the Psychoanalytic Model
Near-Death Experiences and the Possibility of Disembodied Consciousness: Challenges to Prevailing Neurobiological and Psychosocial Theories
http://www.neuroquantology.com/journal/index.php/nq/issue/current/showToc
Glad you guys are interested :)
I'm trying to find a way "in" or locate other resources that might publish some of the articles - Neuroquantology itself has gone from free to a $100 a year subscription fee, so I can only access the abstracts. (Eventually, I'd like to get an iH community subscription so we can all be on the cutting edge of paranormal science :)
Anyway, this one in particular (below) caught my eye - while it departs from a Near Death Experience perspective it seems to suggest that the paper itself may delve into what we consider ghosts via the whole disembodied consciousness - and it proposes a new model for looking at consciousness/mind existing independently from the brain - a total departure from what has been the standard. (I believe the far reaching implications of such a model could be nothing short of profound.)
The abstract in full.
"Claims from those having near-death experiences (NDEs), as well as those sympathetic to such claims, challenge the prevailing assumption that consciousness is dependent on a functioning brain. Extant theories, both neurobiological and psychosocial, that attempt to explain NDEs are examined and found unable to adequately account for the full range of NDE reports, especially electromagnetic after-effects and out-of-body experiences with veridical perception. As a result, many leading NDE researchers have proposed that a new model is needed to explain how consciousness could possibly exist independently of the brain, mainly relying on theories from quantum physics. Our paper critically evaluates a range of extant neurobiological and psychosocial theories of NDEs, as well as examines theories that might offer more promise in fully explaining NDEs, especially those using insights derived from quantum physics. We conclude that the “hard problem” of consciousness is not yet solved, but that NDEs provide an important avenue for exploring the relationship between consciousness and brain, as well as possibly understanding a disembodied concept of consciousness."
http://www.neuroquantology.com/journal/index.php/nq/article/view/389
http://www.neuroquantology.com/journal/index.php/nq/article/view/408/407
The Parapsychological Odyssey of Stanley Krippner An Interview by Rosemary Pilkington Stanley Krippner NeuroQuantology 2011; 2: 322-332 1
Bit long but pretty good stuff - Think we're going to see more and more "paranormal" related research here.
Among topics of interest in the latest issue:
How I Came to Spend My Life Among the Once Nearly Dead: Ken Ring's Story
Abstract: This paper provides an overview of Kenneth Ring’s autobiography, as well as his major scientific contributions to the formation of the now well-known, field of near-death studies. This article is a delightful and personally engaging story written directly by the author, which will both profoundly touch the reader and tickle his/her sense of humor. Ring discusses how he first became interested in near-death experiences (NDEs) following a life-altering experience with LSD. From there, Ring caught the “benign virus”, as he eloquently calls it in his book, Lessons from the Light (1998), and dedicated the next few decades of his life to scientifically establishing the legitimacy of NDE research – establishing him as one of the pioneers in this field, next to Raymond Moody, Bruce Greyson, and a few others. Although his life-long work is much too extensive to overview in this small article, he has written five major books on this topic, has conducted numerous studies, written scores of papers, and travelled the globe lecturing and teaching about NDEs.
Abstract: Michael Bova reviews events that took place in the early 1970s when his cousin Jimmy confidentially reported spontaneous experiences involving unusual sensory awareness and altered states of consciousness which developed into the apparent anomalies of extra sensory perception and out-of-body experiences (OBEs). Bova describes Jimmy’s emotional duress of having spontaneous anomalies and includes Jimmy’s diary notations. In them we see how these events appeared as foreboding or alluding to mental instability as these strong experiences countered his usual ways of knowing himself and his world. Bova describes how serendipitous it was that he was involved with two parapsychology research settings which allowed him to access information that helped Jimmy understand his unusual experiences. However, as important as content (data from compiled reports of spontaneous OBEs, laboratory research and available books on OBEs) was, the context that supported Jimmy’s personal wellbeing and enrichment from these apparent anomalies is also overviewed. The author believes that his early work in parapsychology and exposure to parapsychological phenomena helped him to help Jimmy, as both a research assistant at Maimonides Medical Center’s Dream Laboratory and as a student healer in the Consciousness Research and Training Project, Inc., where Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D.’s examined and tested his theory of the paranormal. Both of these settings were focused on the study of psi but they never let the pursuit of phenomenological interests override humanistic values and transpersonal experience of their subjects. The author also believes that forty years since that time, Jimmy maintains an appreciation of life and self identity that were enhanced by those early OBEs.
And from a previous issue:
Whoa! Could ghosts be a non-living form of consciousness too?
Neuroquantology NEWS: all back issue articles etc. between 03 and 09 are now available to anyone, for free!