Review of Tymn: The Articulate Dead

Ever since the early days of psychical research, investigators interested in the possibility of life after death have studied mediums, extraordinary individuals who claim the ability to communicate with Spirits. The study of mediumship has also been historically important in psychology for its influence on the development of concepts such as the subconscious, dissociation and anomalous identity experiences (Cardeña, in press). However, in the 20^th century interest in mediumship declined somewhat as researchers turned their attentions to other areas. Nevertheless, in recent years there has been a conspicuous resurgence of interest within the parapsychological community with notable publications by David Fontana (2004, 2009) and ongoing research from Tricia Robertson and Archie Roy in the UK and from the Windbridge Institute in the USA led by Julie Beischel (to name just a few). The publication of The Articulate Dead by Michael E. Tymn is a further indication of this revival.

A resident of Kailua, Hawaii, Michael E. Tymn is vice-president of the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, a free-lance journalist specialising in paranormal subjects and a regular contributor to the UK Spiritualist newspaper Psychic News.

In The Articulate Dead, he takes a look back through the annals of psychical research and revisits some of the most remarkable cases of mediumship from the glory days of Spiritualism in the period from1850 to 1940. Beginning with a preface written by Donald Morse the book is divided into four parts. The first covers the work of some of the earliest psychical researchers such as Sir William Crookes, Sir William Barrett and F.W.H. Myers and covers the spread of Spiritualism from America into Europe. It outlines the development of Spiritism in France and discusses the work of Victor Hugo and Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail. It even includes samples of messages from The Spirits’ book published under the name of Allan Kardec in 1857 and from Stainton Moses’ Spirit Teachings published in 1883. The second and third sections of the book move on to examine the work of prominent mediums Leonora Piper and Gladys Osborne Leonard and the fourth discusses some other intriguing cases of otherworldly communication including the Poetaster spirit Patience Worth and the delightful band of monks who gave archaeological assistance to the Glastonbury Abbey excavations via the pen of Frederick Bligh Bond. Next, there is a short Epilogue in which Mr Tymn regrets the fact that they don’t make mediums like they used to and places the blame on lack of patience, moral climate and possibly electrical interference. (O tempora! O mores!) Finally, the book wraps up with a useful glossary and a psychical research timeline starting from 31 March 1848 with the onset of the Hydesville rappings and ending in 1940 with the death of Sir Oliver Lodge.

The author is clear from the outset that his purpose in resurrecting these old cases is to provide evidence of a spirit world and with this aim he deliberately avoids controversial cases. As a result he steers away from the escapades of the bold Eusapia Palladino and the controversies of the Mina "Margery" Crandon mediumship. However, I have to confess that I miss them. As the “Margery” case split the American Society for Psychical Research and helped contribute to the career misfortunes of Frederick Bligh Bond, I think it (and other contentious cases) were relevant to some of the stories told. As Oscar Wilde once said “Truth is rarely pure and never simple”! The book is nearly divided up in such as way that each chapter can be read and understood by itself, however this leads to quite a bit of repetition and links between the various chapters are not always made. For example, it might be interesting for the reader to know that the Hester Dowden (Mrs Travers Smith) who appears in a ouija board session in chapter 5 with Sir William Barrett also had a hand in the automatic writing experiments of Frederick Bligh Bond in chapter 19 and that her colleague “Miss C.” (of “Pearl Tie Pin Case” fame) was none other than the Irish automatist, Geraldine Cummins, who ended up suing him.

Mrs. Travers Smith also appears in the book’s last chapter, “Disaster Survivors Communicate”. This gives an account of a famous Dublin séance which began at 8.30 May 7, 1915 when contact was apparently made with the spirit of art aficionado Sir Hugh Lane. Mrs. Travers Smith was sitting at a ouija board with playwright Lennox Robinson (both blindfolded) along with the Rev. Savell Hicks who was taking notes when unexpectedly the board spelled out, “Pray for Hugh Lane” and then the ominous message “I am Hugh Lane, all is dark.” (Travers Smith, 1919: p 33-34)

The story continues in The Articulate Dead:

“After several minutes, Hicks told Travers Smith and Robinson that it was Sir Hugh Lane coming through and that he had communicated that he was aboard the Lusitania and had drowned. On her way home that evening, Travers Smith had heard about the sinking of the passenger ship by a German torpedo, but she had not yet read the details, nor did she or the others know that Sir Hugh Lane was a passenger on the ship sailing from New York to England. In her 1919 book, Voices from the Void, Travers Smith states that she knew Lane and had heard that he had gone to New York, but it never occurred to her when she heard of the sinking that he was on board.” (Tymn, 2008: p.224)

Mrs Travers Smith may not then have suspected that Hugh Lane was on board the Luisitana, however fears about his safety had first reached Ireland around midday on May 5^th. His Aunt, Lady August Gregory, Patron of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, heard a rumour from the postman that the Lusitania had been lost, then a telegram arrived from a New York lawyer to confirm this and inquiring after Hugh Lane’s safety. Lady Gregory was entertaining guests at the time, including playwright George Bernard Shaw, but worried for her nephew she quickly enclosed the telegram in a letter to another Abbey Theatre Director, W.B. Yeats, and began to make further inquiries (Gregory, 1921 p 215-216) By the time Mrs Travers Smith sat down at the Ouija board in Dublin, concerns about Hugh Lane’s safety had been circulating in Ireland for more than two days, particularly in the theatrical circles of which her séance partner Lennox Robinson (former Manager of the Abbey theatre) and her house guest, Geraldine Cummins (recently produced Abbey playwright) were very much a part. As evidence for a spirit world, this case is much less impressive than would appear at first glance. From the point of view of historical accuracy, a sharp-eyed reader will spot other irregularities, as well as some printers’ errors which will hopefully be ironed out in a second edition. Nevertheless, if you are a Spiritualist you will like this book, if you have friends who are Spiritualists they would probably like to receive it as a present, and for hard-core historians and researchers, Alan Gauld’s excellent book Mediumship and Survival can still be tracked down on Ebay and Amazon Marketplace.

Wendy Cousins

Wendy E.Cousins is an Irish University lecturer/psychologist and an Associate of The Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP), Lund University.

References:

Cardeña, E. (in press). Anomalous identity experiences: Mediumship, spirit possession, and dissociative identity disorder (DID, MPD). In Carlos S. Alvarado, Lisette Coly & Nancy L. Zingrone (Eds.) The Study of Mediumship: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. New York: Parapsychology Foundation.

Fontana D. (2004) Is There an Afterlife: A Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence ? O Books: UK.

Fontana D. (2009) Life Beyond Death: What Should We Expect? Watkins Publishing: London.

Gauld, A. (1982) Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigations. Heinemann: London: UK

Gregory, A. (1921) Hugh Lane’s Life and Achievement. John Murray: London

Travers Smith, H. (1919) Voices from the Void. E. P. Dutton: London.

Review of Outside the Gates of Science

Damien Broderick is an Australian science-fiction author and critic with a PhD in the comparative semiotics of science and literature. A rare and chimeric blend of qualities which make him an engaging and sympathetic commentator on parapsychology- an enterprise which is viewed by establishment science somewhat in the same way that science fiction is viewed by the literary establishment- as a quirky and rather embarrassing enterprise driven by a desire for wish-fulfilment that anyone with respectable academic ambitions ought to have grown out of by the time they hit puberty. However Outside the Gates of Science: Why It's Time for the Paranormal to Come in from the Cold is not a book you’ll feel you have to read surreptitiously under the bedcovers. A fast-moving foray into the fascinating (and sometimes downright bizarre) world of parapsychological research.it’s a good introduction to the controversies of the field for the non-specialist reader.

The first section of the book is a recap of some of the most often cited evidence for ESP and PK starting with the work of Joseph Banks Rhine and his card-guessing experiments at Duke University. Broderick draws a firm line between this and previous research carried out by spiritualists and psychical researchers noting that the key distinction was one of method and perhaps more importantly, cast of mind. He argues that whereas nineteenth century psychical researchers resembled historians or geographical explorers accumulating anecdotes and taking copious notes to construct narratives Rhine’s 20^th century laboratory based approach emphasised scientific standards of rigour and repeatability. In short, there are two basic types of parapsychologist- story-tellers and bean-counters. Broderick apologises for this somewhat glib summing up of the paradigm wars but his whimsical and sometimes sardonic sense of humour adds a lot to the book’s charm although the more worthy and serious minded reader may find this off-putting. (Personally speaking, I shrieked with laughter and mentally assigned appropriately-sloganed t-shirts to every parapsychologist I’ve ever met and several more whom I haven’t). Creationist sensibilities may then be shaken with the declaration of support for Evolutionary Theory phrased as “Ancient Ignorant Guess vs. Darwin, Mendel, Crick and Watson, and the Human Genome Project” (p18-19) and then it is swiftly on to the work of the Princeton Anomalies Research Team (PEAR). Emphasis is placed on Jahn and Dunne’s avoidance of what they termed as “ ‘Gee Whiz’ experiments, flashy psychic bombshells of the Uri Geller spoon-bending variety” (p21) and statistical evidence is soberly and concisely presented before moving onto an absorbing account of Targ and Puthoff’s Remote Viewing experiments and the political intrigues of psychic spies, the Stargate Project and the hunt for Saddam Hussein. There is plenty of Gee Whiz to go round here, and the author is clearly enthralled with the topic, having discussed it in depth with key players such as Ed May and Joe McMoneagle. It would appear if ‘psi’ exists that the best evidence and applications might be found in these shadowy realms, but not all the stories can be told, at least in full, and the reader is left somewhat unsatisfied at unaccredited sources and hints at hidden knowledge while Broderick himself admits that the rules of the inner circles operate “rather like the first and second rules in the movie Fight Club (‘Do not talk about Fight Club’)” (p 88).

The shadows are swiftly dispelled with what I found to be a particularly lucid exposition of quantum theories which managed to convince me that I might actually have some notion about what they might mean. No doubt this illusion will vanish the next time I talk to a real physicist, but nevertheless this is a tribute to Broderick’s calibre as a thinker and clarity as a writer as much as a testament to my own vanity. Giving short-shrift to “ the pseudo-quantum song warbled by smiling new age irrationalists” and singling out Lynne McTaggart’s book The Field (2002) as a particularly flawed example of that genre, he tackles the issue of Quantum weirdness, noting that this “looks to some people suspiciously like psychic weirdness: instantaneous nonlocal connections, reversed-time aspects to causality. The most extraordinary aspect of this discussion, for the hardnosed lay realist, is surely that it is taking place at all." (p. 189). Pointing out the similarities between the role of an observer in both ‘psi’ and quantum experimentation he argues that this "must lie at the heart of the solution to the problem of psi phenomena; and, indeed, an understanding of psi phenomena and consciousness must provide the basis for an improved understanding of Quantum Mechanics" (p. 206).

Broderick is indeed persuaded of the reality of at least some ‘psi’ phenomena- but not all, he would rather “keep gods, demons and tricksters at bay as the hypothesis of last resort." (p 272). In what might be read as a rebuke to the novel ambitions of wannabe ‘clinical parapsychologists’, he notes that “we must not allow ourselves to forget that the most powerful paranormal phenomena ever claimed have been reported by schizophrenics and other mentally disordered people” (p 274) and the difference between reports of this sort and the claims of parapsychology research is, he asserts, “the witness of their accumulating evidence and theoretical apparatus, however incomplete, by people who are not mystics or cultists” (p 275). And there’s the rub. I don’t doubt that Broderick is indeed correct in his assertion that “if telepathy, remote viewing, precognition and psychokinesis become repeatably demonstrable, they will enter, at last the realm of regular science...” (p 310). However, given that previous chapters acknowledging the capricious nature of ‘psi effects’ it might be expected that this state of affairs might be difficult, if not impossible to achieve. Furthermore, not all those individuals who have reported miracles can be easily written off as insane and whereas notions of a deity, or an afterlife or esoteric ruminations about consciousness may remain outside the gates of science, they have found well-appointed mansions of their own in departments of theology, philosophy and even anthropology across wide swathes of academia whilst academic parapsychology is still viewed with some suspicion. Perhaps we should not assume that respectability is inextricably wedded to materialism. In 1959 novelist and scientist C.P. Snow famously warned that science and arts were becoming two cultures, more recently Brockman (1995) has promoted the notion of a “third culture” to describe scientists- in particular evolutionary biologists, psychologists and neuroscientists- who may render visible “the deeper meanings in our lives” and supersede literary artists in their ability to “shape the thoughts of their generation.” So does parapsychology really need to be science and if so, why should it want to be seen as a hard, pure science?

In the last section of Outside the Gates of Science entitled “Tomorrow’s Psi” Broderick muses on the potentials of parapsychology’s future. There may well be those that feel that the here and now of psi is puzzling and fascinating enough, but time marches on and although after all that quantum discussion and talk of retro-causation I’m not entirely sure in which direction that march will proceed, I am rather persuaded that those parapsychologists who concern themselves purely with the here-and-now run the risk of finding themselves swiftly relegated to the realms of the been-and-gone. In this final flight of fabulous speculation, Broderick, as a science fiction writer, really comes into his own with some wide-ranging thoughts about how an acknowledged reality of ‘psi’ in the workaday world might reshape human experience.

An entertaining and thought-provoking read.

Wendy E. Cousins

References

Brockman, J. (1995) The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution, Simon & Schuster:

McTaggart L. (2001) The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

Snow, C.P. (1993) The Two Cultures, Cambridge University Press; New edition.

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Wendy E.Cousins is an Irish University lecturer/psychologist.

Review of The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof

The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof: the Enigma of Séance Phenomena, by Dr. Rosemarie Pilkington features the story of a little known episode of physical mediumship that took place among a group of teenage boys in New York City in the 1930’s. Dr. Pilkington is a musician, writer, and educator with a PhD in psychology from Saybrook Institute. She befriended one of the members of this sitter group, Gilbert Roller, later in his life and presents his autobiographical account of the boys’ experimentation with séance phenomena, and their contact with an alleged spirit named Dr. Bindelof.

Gilbert recalled his childhood home life as “monstrous and terrible” (p. 7). Early in the story, we learn that he was the focus of an outbreak of poltergeist activity in his home. Gil’s mother was absent much of the time, and she and her husband (Gil’s stepfather) fought often. When Gil was about 12 or 13, the family heard sounds from his mother’s bedroom and found hairpins that had apparently flown from the dresser and hit the door. Wooden knobs from her shoe tree came off and were flung across the room. As the phenomena progressed, dishes would come crashing off the counters, and the words ‘GO GO’ were found crayoned in huge letters on the wall. These and other events prompted Gil’s father to call in the well known psychical researcher, Howard Carrington, to investigate.

Later, Gil joined his mother in evening séances in which minor events occurred in his presence. Eventually, he started his own sitter group along with some of his teenage friends, including the late Montague Ullman, who later became a psychiatrist and parapsychologist and founder of the Dream Laboratory at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York (whose own account of the sittings can be found here). The boys were dedicated to the task of facilitating paranormal phenomena and met regularly on Saturday nights for several years. Among the phenomena they reported were table levitations, raps, direct voice phenomena, direct writing, and communications with a ‘spirit’ by the name of Dr. Bindelof, who provided healing and medical advice. On the front of the book is a portrait of Dr. Bindelof, taken under the very specific guidance of the communicator.

Gilbert and Pilkington seem to agree that there was no ‘spirit’ of Dr. Bindelof. Rather, the doctor was the unconscious projection of the sitter group and that Gil was the source of major occurrences in and out of the séance room. In the next two sections of the book, Pilkington provides a brief history of physical mediumship, covering well known cases like the Fox Sisters, Daniel Douglas Home, Florence Cook, Eusapia Palladino, and Ted Serios, as well has lesser known cases such as Franek Kluski and Indridi Indridason. Throughout her narrative, Pilkington relates aspects of these cases to the Bindelof case, maintaining that these kinds of unusual events were likely paranormally produced by living beings, “although belief in outside or discarnate forces greatly helps in their production.” And if these phenomena are genuine, “our current knowledge of the mind and body, our whole concept of physical laws, is woefully limited” (p.226).

Despite my involvement in the field of parapsychology, my boggle threshold, the point at which I consider phenomena highly unlikely to be real, is admittedly pretty low. I was attracted to this field because I was impressed by laboratory studies of psi and the evidence for small-scale psi effects in environments where variables can be manipulated and performance measured. Time and time again, in laboratories around the world, well-educated and credible scientists have demonstrated that human consciousness may not be limited to space or time. I am more boggled that the work of parapsychologists doesn't receive more serious mainstream consideration than I am by the implications of their results.

However, many large scale psychokinetic effects do exceed my boggle threshold, and I find it difficult to accept the reality of such phenomena unless I can either investigate them myself or have their mechanisms explained to me. Pilkington’s narrative attempts to demonstrate to readers that these events are real, but I still remain unconvinced. However while reading The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof, I was impressed with the reality that credible and well-trained investigators have observed physical effects that seem to defy space or time, and that these observers were willing stake their reputations reporting them. Many of these investigations took place with cooperative subjects who were willing to be thoroughly examined and perform such feats under well-lit conditions. Quality investigations such as these have taken place around the world, decade after decade, yet the phenomena still remain a mystery.

After reading Pilkington's book, I am just a little bit more curious about sitter group phenomena, enough so that I might find the patience to try it myself. For those interested in forming such groups, Pilkington’s appendix, So You Want to Do It Too?, offers advice to novices.

However, for me the larger issue is understanding 'how it works', and unfortunately large scale psychokinetic (macro-PK) events have not yet been subjected to the volume of research that ESP and small scale psychokinetic (micro-PK) events have. A systematic, scientific research program into macroscopic psychokinetic phenomena would be absolutely groundbreaking. But unlike some of the phenomena described in The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof, scientific research programs don't drop out of thin air. Rather, they are supported by the research dollars of individuals and foundations with the vision and courage needed to support science on the cutting edge.

Gilbert Roller passed away on October 20, 2004 at the age of 89. Recently, his widow, Mrs. Marion Roller made a generous contribution to the Parapsychological Association (PA) in her husband's name to establish a new endowment for research. The Gilbert Roller Fund supports scientific field investigations into macroscopic psychokinetic phenomena such as those reported in sitter groups, séances, poltergeist activity, and/or theoretical approaches to help explain the nature of such large scale effects. Right now, the PA is in the midst of a matching funds drive for this endowment until Friday, May 1, 2009. Mrs. Roller is matching, dollar for dollar, donations made to this fund. So your tax-deductible contribution of $50 would not-so-mysteriously become $100 research dollars, and so on. Donations can be made online at the PA website. Your contributions would enable qualified researchers with professional knowledge of past research of this type to continue to explore large-scale psychokinetic phenomena.

Addendum: I just received the following from a representative of Mrs. Roller's estate:

Through May 1st your contribution will be matched TWO FOR ONE, that is for every $50 you donate, the fund will receive $150. If you have not yet contributed, please do so this week to help add to our knowledge and to take advantage of this generous offer.

Annalisa Ventola

www.publicparapsychology.org

Review of Introduction to Parapsychology

Harvey J. Irwin, an Australian psychologist at the University of New England, has written four editions of An Introduction to Parapsychology. Caroline A. Watt, of the University of Edinburgh, has joined him for an updated fifth edition. Written as a textbook, it’s 300 pages include an overview not only of extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK), but relevant aspects of poltergeist, near-death, out-of-body, apparitional, and reincarnation experiences as well as unique chapters on parapsychology’s history, phenomenology, relevance to other disciplines, belief systems, and –possibly most important—parapsychology as a scientific enterprise.

All of this material produces a volume that is thick but authoritative; rigorous but approachable. Though, laypeople beware. With such an extensive volume of data, it’s not for those with short attention. For those who truly feel captivated by parapsychological material though, it is a treasure trove.

One of the most poignant aspects of the book is, perhaps, the perspective in which it is written. The authors are as transparent about the topic of parapsychological phenomena as is possible. They make no great claims to the field but do take a well-grounded and a cautious stance on its potential impact. This perspective is well illustrated by the final statement in the book:

If all of the phenomena do prove to be explicable within conventional principles of mainstream psychology surely that is something worth knowing, especially in relation to counseling practice; and if just one of the phenomena should be found to demand a revision or an expansion of contemporary psychological principles, how enriched behavioral science would be. (p. 261)

The achievement of the level of transparency in this book is not without a well positioned grudge or two regarding the aforementioned ‘mainstream psychology’ and science community. Against a subject I generally refer to as ‘science dogma’ the authors state, “some scientists reject parapsychology as a science simply because they cannot accept its empirical findings” (p. 251). An exemplary quote is then given from the prominent psychologist Donald Hebb, who in a 1951 issue of the Journal of Personality wrote “why do we not accept ESP as a psychological fact? Rhine has offered us enough evidence to have convinced us on almost any other issue…I cannot see what other basis my colleagues have for rejecting it…My own rejection of [Rhine’s] views is – in the literal sense – prejudice.”

More recently the skeptical commentator Ray Hyman admitted he could not find any methodological flaws in a series of psi experiments, yet he still refused to concede their support for the psi hypothesis in part on the ground that “it is impossible in principle to say that any particular experiment or experimental series is completely free from possible flaws” (Hyman, 1996, p.40).

One can observe that in at least a 40 year time span there has been an unfortunate persistence of such “science dogma” which is why An Introduction to Parapsychology stands as beacon to truth and impartiality in the scientific method.

Bottom line is that the 5th edition of Irwin’s, and now Watt’s, work is clearly the most balanced, accurate and current text for anyone interested in a true introduction to parapsychology.

Hebb, D. O. (1951). The role of neurological ideas in psychology. Journal of Personality, 20, 35-55.

Hyman, R. (1996). Evaluation of a program on anomalous mental phenomena. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 10, 31-58

Sidian M.S. Jones

Sidian M.S. Jones is a graphic designer and rock vocalist living in Boise, Idaho who also heads the Redefine God – Religion 2.0 spiritual movement at www.RedefineGod.com.

Review of The Hidden Whisper

The Hidden Whisper is an interesting, fast-paced detective story with a paranormal twist. The author, JJ Lumsden, is a professional parapsychologist and full member of the Parapsychogical Association, giving his story the depth, realism and unique perspective from his own experience in the field. The setting and the characters are well established, with a dash of humor in just the right spots. The story starts off a little uneven, with scenes and characters flashing by as the author sets the stage for all the characters from several different angles and settings, but as the story progresses, the characters and settings take on a cohesive life of their own.

The main character is a parapsychologist, who is asked to investigate an apparent haunting while visiting his grandmother deep in the Arizona desert. This favor is asked of him right as a close relative of his has died. The investigation pulls him from his family, creating friction that adds a depth of character and history to the story beyond a mere detective story.

The investigation itself is a clever detective story, with the parapsychologist scrutinizing every angle and following the branching pathways of a true mystery, from strange haunting sounds in the night to engaging in fisticuffs and frightening encounters in dark parking lots. The overarching feel of the paranormal, combined with an underlying menace that the reader is drawn into, is complimented nicely with the shoe-leather detective style of the parapsychologist investigator.

Beyond an interesting and captivating story, the author also successfully adds an extra dimension that provides his readers with an excellent education in the basics of real life parapsychology. Footnotes during the story lead the reader to a broad and satisfying glossary of relevant information from the field of parapsychology. The glossary is full of interesting information, stories, and details about parapsychology and its critics, as well as supplying a large number of further reading references.

Skeptics and believers in the paranormal alike will enjoy JJ Lumsden’s The Hidden Whisper; it contains elements that will appeal to everyone.

Mark Wilson

*Mark Wilson is an avid reader of fiction and science, and is a writer of short stories. He is an information technology professional with an interest in the paranormal.

Review of Soul Shift: Finding Where the Dead Go

Public Parapsychology welcomes guest reviewer, Rosemarie Pilkington in her first contribution to the site. Below is her review of Soul Shift: Finding Where the Dead Go, by Mark Ireland.

Mark Ireland is the son of the gifted psychic/medium Dr. Richard Ireland, who amazed and entertained thousands in churches, halls and on television with his prodigious gifts in the 1960’s through the 80’s. Although he was an entertainer, Dr. Ireland was also a minister who tried through his psychic demonstrations to spread the message, "there is no death and there are no dead."

Mark, although he learned much from his father, and absorbed I’m sure even more than he knew of his belief, didn’t discover his own inherited abilities until he had a premonition about the death of his son, Brandon. This tragic event led him to try to make contact with his son’s spirit, and in so doing, Mark became immersed in the world of mental mediumship. Soul Shift: Finding Where the Dead Go documents this journey

As with many others who have lost loved ones, Ireland embarked on a quest for the meaning of life and death. The unexpected demise of his son, and perhaps even more his precognitive sensing of the impending tragedy, changed his world view. He became more spiritual and desirous of contributing to the universe by developing his own latent powers.

Those who believe in survival after death will find much in Ireland’s interpretation of the phenomena he has experienced to support their belief. Although he says at one point that he still has doubts and expects readers to form their own conclusions (p. 173), his narrative is designed to convince us that human personality continues after death. In Soul Shift’s 200 pages, he spends merely half of one paragraph in a cursory nod to any other view (p. 147).

Ireland gives short shrift to those who contend that the information provided by psychics/mediums may be attributed to their own psychic abilities rather than communications from the dead. He dismisses this theory by stating, “super psi is a very elaborate concept, which appears nearly impossible to test” (p. 147). One might say the same, and many have, about the spirit hypothesis of course. Neither theory has ever been proven. Serious scholars and experimenters in psychical research have argued both the spirit and psi hypotheses for more than a century and are still no closer to agreement than they were when Charles Richet and Oliver Lodge argued each side in the 1920s.

By the way, I dislike the term “super-psi.” Psi is super. No one knows the range or limits of psychic ability or indeed if there are any limits.

Ireland’s father could read notes while completely blindfolded. He telepathically picked up names and gave accurate clairvoyant and precognitive information to strangers. (Films from some of his TV appearances may be found on You Tube). If he could pick up names of living friends and relatives, tell when babies would be born and what their sex was, or what moves or business ventures would profit the person he was ‘reading’, Ireland’s father could just as easily pick up information about their dead loved ones by using his psychic powers. As Richet would say, “there is no reason to suppose the intervention of the soul of a deceased person.” Because we don’t yet understand the mechanism of psi, how it works, and to what extent, we cannot assume that the information given by psychics/mediums is obtained from beyond.

I can understand Mr. Ireland’s need to believe his son is still with him and it’s also much simpler to accept at face value that the messages we receive are indeed from our loved ones and that we will meet them again some day. I would like to think he is right. I too have lost a child and it is a comforting thought.

Having said that, whether or not one subscribes to the survival theory there is much to ponder in this very readable work. Dr. Ireland’s brother was also psychically gifted, as are the author and his surviving son, which demonstrates that psychic talent may be inherited. There is also evidence that Brandon, whose untimely death prompted his father’s quest, was a spiritual and probably psychically talented person as well. But I found especially interesting the prodigious talent of Dr. Richard Ireland. His story is alone worth the price of the book and should be of interest to anyone learning about psychic ability.

Rosemarie Pilkington, Ph.D.
www.AreSpritisReal.com

Rosemarie is a writer, musician, and educator who holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Saybrook Graduate Institute in San Francisco. She is an associate member of the Parapsychology Association. In addition to writing many articles and book reviews on psychic phenomena, her latest book is The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof: The Enigma of Seance Phenomena, which focuses on one little known episode of physical mediumship. Gilbert Roller's utterly charming and disarming autobiographical account of a group of teenagers who experimented with seance phenomena and contacted an alleged spirit named Dr. Bindelof.

Review of Remote Viewing: A Theoretical Investigation of the State of the Art

I'd like to welcome Fran Theis in her first contribution to Public Parapsychology. Below is her review of Dr. Marilyn Isabelle Schmidt's book, Remote Viewing: A Theoretical Investigation of the State of the Art.

Over the years I've picked up the habit of thumbing through the bibliography of a book to get a sense of where the author may be coming from before giving my attention to the preambles. Dr. Schmidt's bibliography didn't disappoint, and showed her book to be based on scholarly concepts and solid research. I've long thought the academic world needed a book that would present a basic overview of the state of the art, something science-based that could create a foundation for courses of study in the field of Remote Viewing (RV) at the high school as well as university level. Perhaps this is the book.

For the practitioner of RV, Remote Viewing: A Theoretical Investigation of the State of the Art not only provides a succinct history of practices leading up to today's acceptance of RV as a useful tool, but is a good overview of where investigation of the human ability to perceive anomalously stands at the moment. It isn't by any means a ‘how-to’ book, but is more like looking under the hood of an airplane to see how the engine might work than learning how to fly it.

My second pleasant discovery occurred on page three of the Introduction, where Dr. Schmidt placed her Definitions of Technical Terms and Acronyms. What wonderful common sense to start the reader out with an understanding of the author's sense of the meaning of terms right from the get-go. I’m surely not the only one who has read on in a book, too lazy to thumb to the back for clarification, and realized too late the author and I weren't using common meanings for terms.

Unfortunately, I disagree with one of Dr. Schmidt’s term definitions, her definition of remote viewing! Dr. Schmidt defines remote viewing as: “An experimental technique for obtaining information about a site remote to the viewer without ordinary use of the senses...” I object to the word “experimental” because the human capacity for remote viewing has long been shown to exist, starting with Targ and Puthoff's paradigm-changing experiments at the Stanford Research Institute, and as demonstrated in numerous works in her own bibliography, not the least of which is Dean Radin's brilliant meta-analysis, The Conscious Universe. Were I able to rearrange her book, I would have Dr. Schmidt insert her wonderful description of remote viewing in the first paragraph of her concluding remarks, which starts by describing remote viewing as “...an innate ability that all humans have...” (p. 190) into her Definitions section. The dichotomy of her two definitions makes me wonder if she began her research thinking conservatively that remote viewing is unproven, and eventually came to the conclusion that it is a commonly manifested human capability. There is much yet to be discovered about anomalous cognition. In that sense, much experimentation needs to be done in regard to remote viewing, but the capacity for remote viewing itself has been demonstrated to such a thorough extent that anyone who has done her homework, as Dr. Schmidt certainly has, should understand that the capacity has indeed been proven.

Serious investigators of the subject of remote viewing will find Remote Viewing to be consistently well annotated. Dr. Schmidt has done a highly professional job of letting out the string so the reader can backtrack to find further information on subjects of interest. One of my personal pet peeves is to find mention of research on a subject without the author having followed up with attribution. This book is one of the better examples of how to properly present serious support for a very important subject.

I was saddened to find an omission regarding a historically significant remote viewing done by Pat Price with Russell Targ at SRI. Price’s target response showed two pools of water in a park-like setting that at the time seemed like a target miss. Dr. Schmidt seems unaware that several years after that particular remote viewing was done Russell discovered that Price was indeed accurate, because he had viewed how the site looked many years in the past. To Targ's surprise, the viewing had been a retro-cognition! When the RV was originally done, the investigators had not yet learned to specify the exact year, day and time for targets. Today, a properly trained remote viewer would not make such a mistake. If there are reprints of the book, I hope Dr. Schmidt will consider adding an update and a mention of how important proper targeting through time is to remote viewing.

Dr. Schmidt and I are in complete agreement on some of her recommendations for further research. I, too, believe that much can be learned from the subjective process of remote viewing, and envision a day when the study of spontaneous anomalous experience can be given the emphasis that laboratory experimentation has been given to date.

Any student serious about knowing the nuts and bolts of remote viewing and who wants a general overview of the state of the art will be served by investing in Dr. Schmidt's scholarly work. She's done the leg work for those who would like to have a sense of the basics of the field, and her bibliography will point the way to more in-depth study of the aspects of remote viewing that individually inspire. Dr. Schmidt tells us the book was originally presented as her doctoral dissertation. I have no doubt she received the highest praise from her committee, and hope she will go on to sell many hundreds of copies to students and teachers who will utilize this substantial contribution to remote viewing literature. The survey of concepts presented here has the potential of providing starting points for student essays and scholarly updates on issues and experimentation for years to come. I, for one, am grateful to Dr. Schmidt for making the effort to do the work to produce such a fine addition to a field about which I am passionate.

* Fran Theis, MS, APR, is CEO of Theis Communications, Inc., an international public relations consultancy. Her Master of Science is in Broadcasting Communication from Boston University, and her Bachelor of Arts is in English Literature. She is accredited in public relations by the Public Relations Society of America. Fran has been trained in Controlled Remote Viewing through Stage VI by Paul H. Smith, author of the original military CRV Manual, and Gabrielle Pettingell. Fran is a member of the International Remote Viewing Association, Society for Scientific Exploration, and the Parapsychological Association.

Review of The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations

Spending a quiet winter afternoon with the written memoirs of an investigator of parapsychological phenomena can be a real treat. Over the past few years, I've read and reviewed several books in this genre, which when written well, can provide the public with a behind-the-scenes look at the real work of parapsychologists. Stephen E. Braude's The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations[Photo] is a recent release that I eagerly awaited, not just because it was the latest addition to the genre of memoirs in this field, but because throughout his career Braude has provided much scholarship on the nonexperimental evidence for psi. This latest book, which recounts five cases he has investigated over the last 30 years, was written with the goal of presenting "the appearance - and sometimes only the appearance - of psychic or paranormal events in everyday life" (p. xii). Simultaneously, The Gold Leaf Lady presents the everyday challenges of a scholar who dares to take seriously areas of research that are scorned by much of academia.

Stephen E. Braude is a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and past president of the Parapsychological Association. I had the pleasure of meeting him while a student at the Rhine Research Center in the summer of 2001, where he gave several guest lectures and a luncheon presentation during his brief stay in Durham. I remember Professor Braude as one of the most dynamic lecturers of that summer. During one of his presentations at the Rhine, he shared a video from his own case material containing some rather bizarre footage. I can still visualize it: a melancholy woman, stiff, uncomfortable and seated quietly with a camera trained on her. She keeps rubbing her eye and looking at her finger. A tiny speck of gold foil becomes visible near her eye. She rubs it again and the golden speck grows to the size of about a quarter inch square.

As parapsychology students at the Rhine Research Center, we were learning a variety of methods to investigate extra-sensory perception, psychokinesis on a microcosmic scale, and even a thing or two about haunting investigations. But a woman who spontaneously breaks out in gold (actually brass) foil? How does one even begin to study such a thing?

The first chapter of The Gold Leaf Lady is devoted to the successes and failures of studying Katie, who appeared to have other strange abilities in addition to her rather burdensome affliction. Following a chapter outlining a history of physical mediumship, Braude recounts his exasperating attempts to study the alleged psychokinetic superstar Joe Nuzum. Later, readers are introduced to Dennis Lee, a subject in California who seemed to produce observable psychokinetic effects in more informal settings, but whose formal testing was difficult to complete. Next Braude discusses K.R., a police officer in Annapolis, who believed he could transfer images from photographs onto other objects, a case that become a cautionary tale about how even presumably trained observers can be the victim of self-deception. Then Braude devotes another chapter to his own investigation of the paranormal photography of Ted Serios. The final two chapters of the book describe Braude's own apparent encounters with the paranormal. Here he takes a look at Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity and explains in terms of a refined and dramatic form of psychokinesis. Then he discusses the activities of his wife Gina, an academic and clinical psychologist who is also a successful astrologer.

Those who have read Braude's previous books, The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science or Immortal Remains: The Evidence for Life After Death will not be surprised at his conclusion that after examining the best evidence "we're left with the reality of at least some of the phenomena reported throughout the history of parapsychology" (p.177). However, The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations differs from his previous works by demonstrating just how difficult it is to obtain the best evidence. Those who research parapsychological topics face a variety of challenges - personally, professionally, politically, and financially. How Braude navigates these challenges becomes part of the case material, providing the public and would-be researchers with a closer look at how a university professor goes about investigating the most extraordinary of claims.

Annalisa Ventola

Review of Unleashed

Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch is a captivating narrative of the highly publicized events surrounding Tina Resch, from the bizarre occurrences of apparent poltergeist activity in her Columbus, Ohio home, to the mysterious murder of her daughter less than six years later. These events had been previously documented in the form of newspaper articles and conference proceedings, as well as in a segment of Unsolved Mysteries. However, in this book, readers get a behind the scenes look at the case through the eyes of William Roll, an Oxford-educated parapsychologist who acted as an investigator during the events of 1984 and as a friend during the tragedies that followed. With the assistance of creative writing teacher Valerie Storey, Roll's story takes on the tone of a novel, which readers will find easy to finish in just a few sittings and probably leave them agreeing with the adage that truth is stranger than fiction.

The first half of the book is largely devoted to the flurry of unusual activity that took place over two weeks in the Resch home. It began after Tina had an argument with her adoptive father, and ended when Roll and his assistant Kelly Powers left the home, taking Tina with them for further testing. There was a wide range of phenomena that took place in the home. Radios and TV's operated erratically (even while unplugged), the telephone lines became noisy, heavy furniture scooted to greet people, light switches flipped up and down without known human contact, and household objects flew about the house. During that brief period in the Resch home, flying objects had become mundane occurrences, while objects that stayed at rest became oddities. The events garnered the attention of many people in the community, including local religious leaders, journalists and photographers, as well as the famous magician James Randi.

Roll and Powers arrived on the scene ten days after the events began, and immediately witnessed phenomena that could easily be attributed to trickery. It did not help matters that Tina was caught pulling over a lamp on camera during a press conference at the Resch home. However, after some time, Roll witnessed phenomena for himself that he took to be genuine, thus lending credence to some of the accounts of other observers. By the end of his investigation, he counted 87 incidents that were vouched for by observers outside of the home, where he or other witnesses knew Tina's position and the location of the objects before they moved (p.222).

Because of the frequency of the object movements, the book tends to become monotonous as the authors must constantly describe the 'who, what, when, where, and why' of a multitude of similar incidents. Fortunately, the story does not end with those two weeks in the Resch home. Just as the narrative threatens to become tedious, the scene changes as Roll gains permission from Tina's parents to take her to North Carolina and later Florida for further study.

Previous to this development, readers might question Roll's motives. In the first half of Unleashed, it seems as if Tina is a mere subject in the investigator's eyes, but his later actions quickly demonstrate that this was not the case. Tina was invited to participate in several parapsychological studies. Roll and his family opened their own home to the girl at the risk of having their own belongings destroyed. He also solicited the help of volunteer clinical psychologists to counsel Tina and get at the root of her apparent abilities, as well as the help of a medium who sought to help Tina bring her powers under conscious control. Overall, this was a well-rounded approach to the dual goal of helping a troubled teen and gathering information about her abilities.

It is not until the reader is over two-thirds through the book that Roll shares his ideas about the phenomena in a single, dizzying chapter. He attributes the phenomena to several overlapping triggers and causes; a stressful domestic environment, a geomagnetic storm, and the suggestion that Tina had a brain stem anomaly as well as a mild form of Tourette's Syndrome. In the end, Roll suspects that "Tina's RSPK (recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis) may have been a form of Tourette's where the tics and explosive behavior occurred outside of her body in the form of object movements and banging sounds" (p. 216). Due to the narrative tone of the book, Roll also enjoys the freedom to speculate on the mechanisms of psychokinesis and provides a short treatment on the possible physics behind the phenomena. Professionals and educated lay readers might find this chapter to be lacking the depth needed for such discussion, yet for the general reader, it might be too much. Attempting a chapter like this in a narrative is difficult task, however, and the authors still manage to do it with grace.

The story picks up five years later when Tina, a wife and mother, calls Roll complaining of balls bouncing on their own, pieces of silverware bending in their drawer, and unexpected fires starting up in the bedroom, bathroom, and in her daughter Amber's crib. Afraid for her daughter and wanting to separate from her abusive husband, Tina moved to the same town as Roll in hopes of improving her life and giving her daughter a more promising future. Yet once again, she fell for the wrong man, and her daughter mysteriously died while under his supervision. In the end, Tina (now under the name Christina Boyer) was charged for her daughter's murder and agreed to a plea bargain. Despite Roll's many efforts to help her, she is now serving a life sentence.

Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch is a unique contribution to the literature on anomalous phenomena. Whereas many reports of case studies end when the investigators pack their bags, a much larger story is presented here. This book is not just about poltergeists and murder; it is also about the cooperation of professionals, the dynamics between witnesses and skeptics, and the friendship between a parapsychologist and his charge. Roll has investigated many landmark cases over the years, and while most professionals in the field of parapsychology are familiar with the details of these cases, the intricacies have been less accessible to the general public, simply by virtue of the extensive vocabulary required to understand them. It is my hope that Roll will be able to publish more books of this nature about his experiences in the field. Such writings are good for the science of parapsychology in terms of public scholarship, and likely to inspire the next generation of young scientists.

This review previously appeared in:

Ventola, A. (2004). [Review of the book Unleashed: Of poltergeists and murder: The curious story of Tina Resch]. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 18, 703-705.

Review of The Gift

Research in parapsychology has tended to follow at least two different avenues of exploration. Many researchers have continued the work of J.B. Rhine by using applied statistics and experimental controls to study ESP in the lab. Others have followed in the tradition of Louisa Rhine, collecting and analyzing the reported spontaneous ESP experiences of people in everyday life. Through decades of research, both methods have yielded clues to solve the mystery of ESP and how it works. Yet as much as the Rhines had hoped that these differing methods would compliment one another, it is sometimes difficult for researchers of these different methods to enter into dialogue with one another.

Dr. Sally Rhine Feather wears many hats. She is an experimental and clinical psychologist, a director of the Rhine Research Center, a wife, a friend, a mother, and the daughter of the late J.B. and Louisa Rhine. If we could expect anyone to create a constructive dialogue between the experimental and case research methods, it would be her. With the assistance of Michael Schmicker, author of Best Evidence, Feather has created a personal and provocative book that rises to this challenge.

At first glance, it looks like The Gift: ESP, the Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People might be concerned only with case research. Indeed the majority of these pages contain accounts of people’s spontaneous ESP experiences in their own words. These experiences are clustered around several different themes, such as premonitions about death and disasters, ESP between people who are romantically involved, the ESP of mothers and children, and so on. There is also a unique chapter on the premonitions surrounding the terrorist attacks on September 11^th, as well as a chapter discussing the inevitability (or not) of fate. Feather does not rely entirely on the Rhine Research Center’s extensive collection of self-reported experiences for the material in The Gift. Sometimes she provides experiences as related to her colleagues or excerpts from her mother’s journal. Sometimes pseudonymous characters are introduced, and the variety of their experiences emerges at different points throughout the book.

Feather is not concerned with arguing about the reality of ESP. Within the first chapter, she states “there is ample evidence that it exists” (p. 17). Rather, she frames the case material with discussions of what parapsychologists have learned about the relationship between ESP performance and variables such as IQ, gender, age, personality, states of consciousness, and personal belief. When Feather is not discussing laboratory research, she contributes her own perspective while speaking from under one of her many hats. This creates a cohesive whole out of the personal, the anecdotal, and the empirical facets of the phenomena under study.

The result is an excellent introduction for general audiences to ESP phenomena as well as the field that studies it. At the end of the book, there are additional resources for individuals who might wish to learn more. The Gift: ESP, the Extraordinary Experiences of Ordinary People could serve as a prequel to any of the excellent introductory texts that are recommended in its final pages. However, parapsychologists and lay readers will still enjoy reading about these extraordinary experiences as well as reviewing the history of the field from an insider’s point of view.

This review previously appeared in:
Ventola, A. (2006). [Review of the book The gift: ESP, the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people]. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 20, 134-135.