Logotherapy is based on an existential analysis[3] focusing on Kierkegaard's will to meaning as opposed to Adler's Nietzschean doctrine of will to power or Freud's will to pleasure. Rather than power or pleasure, logotherapy is founded upon the belief that it is the striving to find a meaning in one's life that is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans.[4] A short introduction to this system is given in Frankl's most famous book, Man's Search for Meaning, in which he outlines how his theories helped him to survive his Holocaust experience and how that experience further developed and reinforced his theories. Presently, there are a number of logotherapy institutes around the world.
The notion of Logotherapy was created with the Greek word logos ("word"). Frankl’s concept is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. The following list of tenets represents basic principles of logotherapy:
Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stance we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.[4]
The human spirit is referred to in several of the assumptions of logotherapy, but the use of the term spirit is not "spiritual" or "religious". In Frankl's view, the spirit is the will of the human being. The emphasis, therefore, is on the search for meaning, which is not necessarily the search for God or any other supernatural being.[4] Frankl also noted the barriers to humanity's quest for meaning in life. He warns against "...affluence, hedonism, [and] materialism..." in the search for meaning.[5]
Purpose in life and meaning in life constructs appeared in Frankl's logotherapy writings with relation to existential vacuum and will to meaning, as well as others who have theorized about and defined positive psychological functioning. Frankl observed that it may be psychologically damaging when a person's search for meaning is blocked. Positive life purpose and meaning was associated with strong religious beliefs, membership in groups, dedication to a cause, life values, and clear goals. Adult development and maturity theories include the purpose in life concept. Maturity emphasizes a clear comprehension of life's purpose, directedness, and intentionality which contributes to the feeling that life is meaningful.[6]
Frankl's ideas were operationalized by Crumbaugh and Maholick's Purpose in Life (PIL) test, which measures an individual's meaning and purpose in life.[6] With the test, investigators found that meaning in life mediated the relationships between religiosity and well-being;[7] uncontrollable stress and substance use; depression and self-derogation.[6][8] Crumbaugh found that the Seeking of Noetic Goals Test (SONG) is a complementary measure of the PIL. While the PIL measures the presence of meaning, the SONG measures orientation towards meaning. A low score in the PIL but a high score in the SONG, would predict a better outcome in the application of Logotherapy.[9]
According to Frankl, "We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering" and that "everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances".[1] On the meaning of suffering, Frankl gives the following example:
"Once, an elderly general practitioner consulted me because of his severe depression. He could not overcome the loss of his wife who had died two years before and whom he had loved above all else. Now how could I help him? What should I tell him? I refrained from telling him anything, but instead confronted him with a question, "What would have happened, Doctor, if you had died first, and your wife would have had to survive without you?:" "Oh," he said, "for her this would have been terrible; how she would have suffered!" Whereupon I replied, "You see, Doctor, such a suffering has been spared her, and it is you who have spared her this suffering; but now, you have to pay for it by surviving and mourning her." He said no word but shook my hand and calmly left the office.[1]:178–179
Frankl emphasized that realizing the value of suffering is meaningful only when the first two creative possibilities are not available (for example, in a concentration camp) and only when such suffering is inevitable – he was not proposing that people suffer unnecessarily.[10]:115
Frankl described the meta-clinical implications of logotherapy in his book The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy. He believed that there is no psychotherapy apart from the theory of man. As an existential psychologist, he inherently disagreed with the “machine model” or “rat model”, as it undermines the human quality of humans. As a neurologist and psychiatrist, Frankl developed a unique view of determinism to coexist with the three basic pillars of logotherapy (the freedom of will). Though Frankl admitted that man can never be free from every condition, such as, biological, sociological, or psychological determinants, based on his experience during his life in the Nazi concentration camps, he believed that man is “capable of resisting and braving even the worst conditions”. In doing such, man can detach from situations, himself, choose an attitude about himself, determine his own determinants, thus shaping his own character and becoming responsible for himself.[11]
By recognizing the purpose of our circumstances, one can master anxiety. Anecdotes about this use of logotherapy are given by New York Times writer Tim Sanders, who explained how he uses its concept to relieve the stress of fellow airline travelers by asking them the purpose of their journey. When he does this, no matter how miserable they are, their whole demeanor changes, and they remain happy throughout the flight.[12] Overall, Frankl believed that the anxious individual does not understand that his anxiety is the result of dealing with a sense of “unfulfilled responsibility” and ultimately a lack of meaning.[13]
Frankl cites two neurotic pathogens: hyper-intention, a forced intention toward some end which makes that end unattainable; and hyper-reflection, an excessive attention to oneself which stifles attempts to avoid the neurosis to which one thinks oneself predisposed. Frankl identified anticipatory anxiety, a fear of a given outcome which makes that outcome more likely. To relieve the anticipatory anxiety and treat the resulting neuroses, logotherapy offers paradoxical intention, wherein the patient intends to do the opposite of their hyper-intended goal.
A person, then, who fears (i.e. experiences anticipatory anxiety over) not getting a good night's sleep may try too hard (that is, hyper-intend) to fall asleep, and this would hinder their ability to do so. A logotherapist would recommend, then, that the person go to bed and intentionally try not to fall asleep. This would relieve the anticipatory anxiety which kept the person awake in the first place, thus allowing them to fall asleep in an acceptable amount of time.[1]
Viktor Frankl believed depression occurred at the psychological, physiological, and spiritual levels.[13] At the psychological level, he believed that feelings of inadequacy stem from undertaking tasks beyond our abilities. At the physiological level, he recognized a “vital low”, which he defined as a “diminishment of physical energy”.[13] Finally, Frankl believed that at the spiritual level, the depressed man faces tension between who he actually is in relation to what he should be. Frankl refers to this as the gaping abyss.[10]:202[13] Finally Frankl suggests that if goals seem unreachable, an individual loses a sense of future and thus meaning resulting in depression.[13] Thus logotherapy aims “to change the patient’s attitude toward their disease as well as toward their life as a task”.[10]:200
Frankl believed that those suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder lack the sense of completion that most other individuals possess.[13] Instead of fighting the tendencies to repeat thoughts or actions, or focusing on changing the individual symptoms of the disease, the therapist should focus on “transform[ing] the neurotic’s attitude toward their neurosis”.[10]:185 Therefore, it is important to recognize that the patient is “not responsible for his obsessional ideas”, but that “he is certainly responsible for his attitude toward these ideas”.[10]:188 Frankl suggested that it is important for the patient to recognize his inclinations toward perfection as fate, and therefore, must learn to accept some degrees of uncertainty.[13] Ultimately, following the premise of logotherapy, the patient must eventually ignore his obsessional thoughts and find meaning in his life despite such thoughts.[10]
Though logotherapy wasn’t intended to deal with severe disorders, Frankl believed that logotherapy could benefit even those suffering from schizophrenia.[13] He recognized the roots of schizophrenia in physiological dysfunction.[13] In this dysfunction, the person with schizophrenia “experiences himself as an object” rather than as a subject.[10]:208 Frankl suggested that a person with schizophrenia could be helped by logotherapy by first being taught to ignore voices and to end persistent self-observation.[13] Then, during this same period, the person with schizophrenia must be led toward meaningful activity, as “even for the schizophrenic there remains that residue of freedom toward fate and toward the disease which man always possesses, no matter how ill he may be, in all situations and at every moment of life, to the very last”.[10]:216
In 1977, Terry Zuehlke and John Watkins conducted a study analyzing the effectiveness of logotherapy in treating terminally ill patients. The study’s design used 20 male Veterans Administration volunteers who were randomly assigned to one of two possible treatments – (1) group that received 8-45 minute sessions over a 2 week period and (2) group used as control that received delayed treatment. Each group was tested on 5 scales – the MMPI K Scale, MMPI L Scale, Death Anxiety Scale, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, and the Purpose of Life Test. The results showed an overall significant difference between the control and treatment groups. While the univariate analyses showed that there were significant group differences in 3/5 of the dependent measures. These results confirm the idea that terminally ill patients can benefit from logotherapy in coping with death.[14]
Rollo May argued that logotherapy is, in essence, authoritarian. He suggested that Frankl’s therapy presents a plain solution to all of life’s problems, an assertion that would seem to undermine the complexity of human life itself. May contended that if a patient could not find his own meaning, Frankl would provide a goal for his patient. In effect, this would negate the patient’s personal responsibility, thus “diminish[ing] the patient as a person”.[15] Frankl explicitly replied to May’s arguments through a written dialogue, sparked by Rabbi Reuven Bulka’s article “Is Logotherapy Authoritarian?”.[16] Frankl responded that he combined the prescription of medication, if necessary, with logotherapy, to deal with the person's psychological and emotional reaction to the illness, and highlighted areas of freedom and responsibility, where the person is free to search and to find meaning.[17]
Critical views of the life of logotherapy's founder and his work assume that Frankl's religious background and experience of suffering guided his conception of meaning within the boundaries of the person[18]and therefore that logotherapy is founded on Viktor Frankl's worldview.[19]
Frankl openly spoke and wrote on religion and psychiatry, throughout his life, and specifically in his last book, Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning (1997). He asserted that every person has a spiritual unconscious, independently of religious views or beliefs, yet Frankl's conception of the spiritual unconscious does not necessarily entail religiosity. In Frankl's words: “It is true, Logotherapy, deals with the Logos; it deals with Meaning. Specifically, I see Logotherapy in helping others to see meaning in life. But we cannot “give” meaning to the life of others. And if this is true of meaning per se, how much does it hold for Ultimate Meaning?”[20] The American Psychiatric Association awarded Viktor Frankl the 1985 Oskar Pfister Award (for important contributions to religion and psychiatry).[20]
Since the 1990s, logotherapy has evolved into meaning therapy.[21][22]Wong attempted to translate logotherapy into psychological mechanisms in order to make it more relevant to the wider psychology community.[23][24] This extension not only integrates meaning therapy with cognitive behavioral therapy and positive psychotherapy, but also connects meaning therapy with the positive psychology research on meaning. Another new development is the application of logotherapy to palliative care.[25][26] These recent developments introduce Viktor Frankl's logotherapy to a new generation and extend its impact to new areas of research.[27]
Shah Hussain Marwandi or Shah Usman Marwandi[1](1143-44 to1333-34), popularly known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (Sindhi: لعل شھباز قلندر), was a Sufiphilosopher-poet of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was called Lal ("ruby-colored") after his usual red attire and Shahbaz to denote a noble and divine spirit and Qalandar as he was a wandering holy man.
Jhulelal is believed by Sindhi Hindus to be an incarnation of Varuna.[29] They celebrate the festival of Cheti Chand in his honor. The festival marks the arrival of spring and harvest, but in Sindhi community it also marks the mythical birth of Uderolal in year 1007, after they prayed to Hindu god Varuna to save them from the persecution by tyrannical Muslim ruler named Mirkhshah.[30][31][32]Uderolal morphed into a warrior and old man who preached and reprimanded Mirkhshah that Muslims and Hindus deserve the same religious freedoms. He, as Jhulelal,[32] became the champion of the people in Sindh, from both religions. Among his SufiMuslim followers, Jhulelal is known as "Khwaja Khizir" or "Sheikh Tahit". The Hindu Sindhi, according to this legend, celebrate the new year as Uderolal's birthday.
Dama Dam Mast Qalandar | Translation of Sufi Qawwali
16 12:45 PM
O laal meri pat rakhio bala jhoole laalan, Sindri da Sehvan da, sakhi Shabaaz kalandar, Dama dam mast Qalandar, Ali dam dam de andar.
O the red robed, may I always have your benign protection, Jhulelal (as he was affectionately called). O master, friend and Sire of Sindh and Sehwan (or Serwan), The red robed God-intoxicated Qalandar, The Lord in every breath of mine, glory be to you.
Chaar charaag tere baran hamesha, Panjwa mein baaran aayi bala jhoole laalan O panjwa mein baaran, O panjwa mein baaran aayi bala jhoole laalan, Sindri da Sehvan da, sakhi Shabaaz Qalandar, Dama dam mast Qalandar, Ali dam dam de andar.
Your shrine is always lighted with four lamps, And here I come to light a fifth lamp in your honor. Here I come with fifth O master, friend and Sire of Sindh and Sehwan (or Serwan), The red robed God-intoxicated Qalandar, The Lord in every breath of mine, glory be to you.
Hind Sind (some also sing Ghanan ghanan) peera teri naubat vaaje, Naal vaje ghadiyaal bala jhoole laalan, O naal vaje, O naal vaje ghadiyaal bala jhoole laalan.
Let your heroic name ring out in Hind & Sindh (or lets the gongs bell loud), Let the gong ring loud for your glory day and night by the people (ghadiyaal - watchman, symbolism of night).
Har dam peera teri khair hove, Naam-e-ali beda paar laga jhoole laalan, O naam-e-ali, O naam-e-ali beda paar laga jhoole laalan, Sindri da sehvan da sakhi Shabaaz Qalandar, Dama dam mast Qalandar, Ali dam dam de andar.
O Lord, may you prevail everytime, everywhere, I pray of your well being, In the name of Ali, I pray to you to help my boat cross in safety (in the river of life).
This song, one of the most famous qawwali, is written and sung in the honor of Sufi mystic saint 'Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar' (Usman Marvandhi) - may God sanctify his station. Every word of his name used in the qawwali has a meaning - he was known as Hazrat (holiness), Lal (he wore red robes, also mothers fondly call their kids as Lal in Punjab and nearby region), Shahbaz (Shah - King and Baz - Falcon, king of falcons and in Iranian mythology represent godly figure who led them to victory, divine spirit), and finally Qalandar (a qalandari - a sufi saint, poet, mystic, noble man). He settled in Serwan (Sindh, now in Pakistan) and tried bringing peace between Hindus and Muslims. Hindus regard him as divine reincarnate, avatar as well. Still today many Punjabi singers, singing in his praise. He is also fondly called as Jhulelal.
+ Some picture of his holy shrine located in Sindh, Pakistan can be viewed via flickr.
A century ago, we knew virtually nothing about the large
scale structure of the universe, not even the fact that there exist
galaxies beyond our Milky Way. Today, cosmologists have the tools to
image the universe as it is today and as it was in the past, stretching
all the way back to its infancy when the first atoms were forming. These
images reveal that the complex universe we see today, full of galaxies,
black holes, planets and dust, emerged from a remarkably featureless
universe: a uniform hot soup of elemental constituents immersed in a
space that exhibits no curvature.1
Anamorphic is a term often used in art or
film for images that can be interpreted two ways, depending on your
vantage point. Önarckép Albert Einsteinnel/Self portrait with Albert
Einstein, Copyright Istvan Orosz
How did the universe evolve from this featureless soup to the
finely-detailed hierarchy of stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters we see
today? A closer look reveals the primordial soup was not precisely
uniform. Exquisitely sensitive detectors, such as those aboard the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck satellites,
produced a map that shows the soup had a distribution of hot and cold
spots arranged in a pattern with particular statistical properties. For
example, if one only considers spots of a certain size and measures the
distribution of temperatures for those spots only, it turns out the
distribution has two notable properties: it is nearly a bell curve
(“Gaussian”) and it is nearly the same for any size (“scale-invariant”).
Thanks to high-resolution computer simulations, we can reproduce the
story of how the hot and cold spots evolved into the structure we see
today. But we are still struggling to understand how the universe came
to be flat and uniform and where the tiny but critical hot and cold
spots came from in the first place. Looking Beyond Inflation
One leading idea is that, right after the big bang, a period of rapid
expansion known as inflation set in, smoothing and flattening the
observable universe. However, there are serious flaws with inflation:
inflation requires adding special forms of energy to the simple big bang
picture that must be arranged in a very particular way in order for
inflation to start, so the big bang is very unlikely to trigger a period
of inflation; and, even if inflation were to start, it would amplify
quantum fluctuations into large volumes of space that result in a
wildly-varying “multiverse” consisting of regions that are generally
neither smooth nor flat. Although inflation was originally thought to
give firm predictions about the structure of our universe, the discovery
of the multiverse effect renders the theory unpredictive: literally any
outcome, any kind of universe is possible.
Another leading approach, known as the ekpyrotic picture, proposes
that the smoothing and flattening of the universe occurs during a period
of slow contraction. This may seem counterintuitive at first. To
understand how this could work, imagine a film showing the original big
bang picture. The universe would be slowly expanding and become
increasingly non-uniform and curved over time. Now imagine running this
film backwards. It would show a slowly contracting universe becoming
more uniform and less curved over time. Of course, if the smoothing and
flattening occur during a period of slow contraction, there must be a
bounce followed by slow expansion leading up to the present epoch. In
one version of this picture, the evolution of the universe is cyclic,
with periods of expansion, contraction, and bounce repeating at regular
intervals. In contrast to inflation, smoothing by ekpyrotic contraction
does not require special arrangements of energy and is easy to trigger.
Furthermore, contraction prevents quantum fluctuations from evolving
into large patches that would generate a multiverse. However, making the
scale-invariant spectrum of variations in density requires more
ingredients than in inflation. The best of both worlds?
While experimentalists have been feverishly working to determine
which scenario is responsible for the large-scale properties of the
universe—rapid expansion or slow contraction—a novel third possibility
has been proposed: Why not expand and contract at the same time? This, in essence, is the idea behind anamorphic
cosmology. Anamorphic is a term often used in art or film for images
that can be interpreted two ways, depending on your vantage point. In
anamorphic cosmology, whether you view the universe as contracting or
expanding during the smoothing and flattening phase depends on what
measuring stick you use.
If you are measuring the distance between two points, you can use the
Compton wavelength of a particle, such as an electron or proton, as
your fundamental unit of length. Another possibility is to use the
Planck length, the distance formed by combining three fundamental
physical “constants”: Planck’s constant, the gravitational constant and
the speed of light. In Einstein’s theory of general relativity, both
lengths are fixed for all times, so measuring contraction or expansion
with respect to either the particle Compton wavelength or the Planck
length gives the same result. However, in many theories of quantum
gravity—that is, extensions of Einstein’s theory aimed at combining
quantum mechanics and general relativity—one length varies in time with
respect to the other. In the anamorphic smoothing phase, the Compton
wavelength is fixed in time and, as measured by rulers made of matter,
space is contracting. Simultaneously, the Planck length is shrinking so
rapidly that space is expanding relative to it. And so, surprisingly,
it is really possible to have contraction (with respect to the Compton
wavelength) and expansion (with respect to the Planck length) at the
same time!
The anamorphic smoothing phase is temporary. It ends with a bounce
from contraction to expansion (with respect to the Compton wavelength).
As the universe expands and cools afterwards, both the particle Compton
wavelengths and the Planck mass become fixed, as observed in the present
phase of the universe.
By combining contraction and expansion, anamorphic cosmology
potentially incorporates the advantages of the inflationary and
ekpyrotic scenarios and avoids their disadvantages. Because the universe
is contracting with respect to ordinary rulers, like in ekpyrotic
models, there is no multiverse problem. And because the universe is
expanding with respect to the Planck length, as in inflationary models,
generating a scale-invariant spectrum of density variations is
relatively straightforward. Furthermore, the conditions needed to
produce the bounce are simple to obtain, and, notably, the anamorphic
scenario can generate a detectable spectrum of primordial gravitational
waves, which cannot occur in models with slow ekpyrotic contraction.
International efforts currently underway to detect primordial
gravitational waves from land-based, balloon-borne and space-based
observatories may prove decisive in distinguishing these possibilities. 1According to Einstein’s theory of general relativity,
space can be bent so that parallel light rays converge or diverge, yet
observations indicate that their separation remains fixed, as occurs in
ordinary Euclidean geometry. Cosmologists refer to this special kind of
unbent space as “flat.”
Anna
Ijjas is a theoretical cosmologist whose research explores the origin,
evolution, composition and future of the universe. She obtained her
bachelor’s degree at the University of Munich in 2009, a PhD in the
Philosophy of Physics at Munich in 2010, and a PhD in Physics
(cosmology) in 2014 from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational
Physics. She won a Thyssen Research Fellowship, which she spent at the
Center for Astrophysics at Harvard in 2012-3. She is currently a
postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at
Princeton University. Ijjas has pointed out problems with the standard
inflationary picture arising from recent cosmological observations and,
together with Paul Steinhardt, she has proposed the anamorphic picture
described in this blog post.
Paul
J. Steinhardt is the Albert Einstein Professor in Science and on the
faculty of both the Departments of Physics and Astrophysical Sciences at
Princeton University. He is one of the leading theorists responsible
for inflationary theory. He constructed the first workable model of
inflation and the theory of how inflation could produce seeds for galaxy
formation. He was also among the first to show evidence for dark energy
and cosmic acceleration, introducing the term "quintessence" to refer
to dynamical forms of dark energy. He has pioneered mathematical and
computational techniques which decisively disproved rival theories of
structure formation such as cosmic strings. With Neil Turok, he
introduced the ekpyrotic theory of the universe which is currently the
leading competing idea to inflation.
If you consider yourself a paranormalist, then you are probably a seeker in search of spiritual maturity. One of the things that distinguish you from mainstream society is the realization that you have a part to play as a citizen of a greater reality. For all of us, coming to understand what that means and how to integrate that understanding into our life underlines much of what we do.
We are not born with this understanding, only a formless imperative to gain understanding; a spiritual instinct, if you will. It is a huge step in our spiritual evolution when we evolve from formless instinct to the understanding that this urge is so much more than just idle curiosity; when we come to understand that it is, in fact, our purpose.
While realizing the need to gain understanding about our connectedness with the greater reality is important, there remains the task of finding the path of learning which is right for us. Each of us is different and the way of progression we must follow is likely different as well.
A way of learning is not so much a matter of this lesson or that. It is a lifelong process shaped by our individual point of view, but it must permit, even require frequent examination of beliefs and a pragmatic attitude about truth. Our teachers are most often accidental role models; family members or peers we admire or who provide examples of how not to be. Some we seek out, and as is the nature of humanity, some may be described as false teachers.
Opinion Setters
Some of our teachers are the opinion setters of our community such as politicians and scholars. Important teachers are the holy men and women who have gone before us and now seek to show the way for those of us who would come after. We must depend on guidance from the opinion setters, but the task is to understand their message and to select the opinion setters who can show the way without demanding belief in their dogma; however, before you can do that, you need to understand what you want to learn.
The idea of an opinion setter will likely go against the grain for most paranormalists. We are an independent lot and know that we have been pretty much lied to by mainstream society. In fact, many of the opinion setters of mainstream society are the skeptics of our frontier community. They would have us believe that our urge to gain understanding is illusion and that reality stops at the edge of the physical. They would have us believe we will cease to exist when our body dies.
So, we look to the leaders within our community for guidance. But first, it is probably a good idea for you to know why you should listen to me. After all, it seems here that I am posing as an opinion setter talking about opinion setters, which is possibly a conflict of interest.
In mainstream terms, you might think of me as a futurist. In fact, much of my last ten or so years in the corporate world was as a long-rang planner. I polished my crystal ball every morning. J
Today, I consider myself a metaphysician. The fruit of a metaphysician’s study is a cosmology. A good metaphysical cosmology will provide a model to help a person understand their spiritual nature and how they might relate to the greater reality. Naturally, such a cosmology represents the author’s understanding, but it should be based on available science. There are a number of good cosmologies, so to help keep track, and for reasons I will explain later, I refer to my work as the Implicit Cosmology. So, think of me as an aggregator of ideas. And as such, I do not see myself as an opinion setter, only a reporter. My objective is to give you enough information for you to develop your own opinion.
Explaining Experiences
The first foundation of fact is that people have experiences which are not satisfactorily explained by mainstream science. It is these experiences that distinguished the paranormalist community.
An important perspective about experiences is that, if they are able to be explained as something ordinary that has been mistaken as paranormal, the experience is just that. It is not paranormal. For instance, if a suspected Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) turns out to someone talking down the hall, then that example is not EVP. EVP are by definition anomalous voices; voices in recording media not explained by known science.
If a mundane explanation cannot be shown, there must be a hypothesis which at least provides a plausible model for the experience based on current science and known fact, all informed by proposed alternative explanations. What was the experience? Did others share it? Is it common or rare? Can it be replicated under controlled conditions? If known science does not explain it, what is the least extraordinary model that will?
Different Views of Reality
While we share a common interest in things paranormal, we tend to fall into sub-communities of interest characterized by rather different point of view. These can be generalized as those of us who believe that mind only survives as memory and those of us who believe it continues as living personality. These are very profound differences, but it is seldom obvious who is in which camp.
The easiest way to keep track of these two points of view is the Super-psi Hypothesis (survived memory, memories of the past) and the Survival Hypothesis (survived, living personality). For a general description of these:
Super-psi Hypothesis
All that exists is the physical universe.
The universe may have evolved from a singularity into what it is today.
An as yet unidentified form of space called psi (psi field) permeates all of physical reality.
Life has evolved on earth from a primordial soup into what it is today.
Mind exists in the psi field and continues beyond death of the brain as differentiated, residual energy.
Brain is a transmitter/receiver for mind.
Thought, memory and emotions are retained in the psi field.
People have five senses that are informed by impressions from the psi field.
The Super-psi Hypothesis requires the existence of subtle energy which is influenced by intention. Once formed, it is argued that information exists forever in the subtle energy field as memory which is accessible by sensing the psi field (psi functioning, psychic). As such there is no such thing as mediumship, only psi functioning. Super-psi does not require the existence of a greater reality, survived living intelligence or a nonphysical source (creator, Source, Gostrongd). That means mainstream academia need only accept the existence of a psi field and an extraordinary human ability to psychically access information retained in that field.
Parapsychological research tends to support Super-psi without many of the logical exercises needed to make it support survival. As such, it is widely accepted amongst parapsychologists. However, since the existence of psi is not expressly defined by mainstream science, it is rejected by mainstream academia.
Survival Hypothesis
There is a greater reality of which the physical universe is an aspect.
The psi field is an aspect of a greater reality.
An as yet unidentified form of space called psi (psi field) permeates all of reality.
Mind, with its thoughts, memories and emotions, has evolved in the greater reality and continues to exist beyond death of the brain.
For a lifetime, mind and brain are entangled to produce a physical-etheric link.
During a lifetime, mind is expressed as consciousness and an etheric personality (unconscious).
People have five senses that are informed by impressions from the psi field by way of personality to conscious self.
At first glance, the Survival Hypothesis agrees with super-psi in most details, but there are very substantial differences. Survival requires that personality, as a person’s intelligent core, is immortal: existed before birth of the person’s physical body and continues to exist after death of the body. As such, the physical body is an avatar with which etheric personality is entangled and which host conscious self via the brain as transmitter-receiver of consciousness.
With the requirement of immortal personality, the Survival Hypothesis also requires a greater reality which is personality’s natural environment. Since we are attempting to provide a theory to model paranormal experiences, survival must also stipulate that discarnate personalities are able to communicate across the etheric-physical veil (transcommunication).
If super-psi is not accepted by mainstream academia because of a lack of theoretical agreement with mainstream science, survival is seen as religious nonsense. Many in parapsychology also see it as pure superstition. It is not that parapsychologists are ignoring evidence. It is just that almost all of the survival phenomena can be pretty well explained with super-psi.
Litmus Test
Applying a go-no-go test to anything is intellectually risky, but using a litmus test to decide whether or not to agree with a particular point of view is useful. In this case, does the Super-psi Hypothesis or the Survival Hypothesis make the most sense? Do either allow for reported experiences? If you consider yourself a medium, then I would expect you to turn toward survival. If you think you are psychic, then I would expect you to favor Super-psi.
Psi Access to Information
There is no known way to shield from the psi field or the influence of intention. Also, distance does not seem to be a barrier for psi functioning. It is well documented that people are able to sense information from other people no matter where they are. As such, anything that a medium might sense, presumably from a discarnate loved one, might also be sensed from the mind of the sitter, or even of a friend in another part of the world.
The psi field is clearly nonlocal, meaning that there is no apparent distance between points in reality and psi influences seem to be equally present everywhere. The evidence for a nontemporal nature of psi field is not as certain. All of the presentiment studies I have seen seem to be explainable with First Sight Theory 1 and Presentiment (The sense that something is about to happen).
Precognition—the sensing of something before it happens—is usually thought of as a longer-term sensing than presentiment. In a literal sense, it indicates that all time is now; however, there is much support for the idea of potential futures. Call these a thoughtform or etheric field 2 that represents the process of becoming for a thing, idea or event. There is much more support for the idea that a person might sense potential futures, especially ones that are particularly meaningful to the person or that is eminent while carrying a lot of meaning to the person. In that case, time is real, processes take time and the future is … well, it is in the future and only seen as potential futures.
The hardest part of mediumship research is concocting a test that eliminates the possibility of psychic access of information. Because experiments seem to always have a super-psi explanation for results, mediumship comes out as providing the least convincing evidence of survival when compared with the evidence of reincarnation and near-death experiences. Whatever you tell me as a medium, if I can show that someone in the physical knew that information … now or in the past, I can simply argue that the Super-psi Hypothesis explains the message without resorting to survival.
So the litmus test for mediumship is whether or not the information could have been accessed from someone’s mind or as a memory from the psi field. If the answer is yes, then the message can reasonably be thought of as psychic. The idea is that the explanation requiring the least deviation from known science should be favored. That is the position taken by people who accept super-psi.
This is part of the Implicit Cosmology, which is a hypothesis developed to help explain the phenomena of transcommunication, especially Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC). The functional areas are explained in the Creative Process essay. [11]
Trans-survival Hypothesis
Take a look at the Life Field Complex diagram, above. It is part of an effort to model the Survival Hypothesis based on current parapsychological research and what is known about Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC). (You may be more familiar with the audio form of ITC which is better known as EVP.) I generalize the model as the Implicit Cosmology. 3
The Survival Hypothesis is referred to but seldom explained as more than “we survive death.” The version I work with is rather more comprehensive because of transcommunication, so I refer to it as “Trans-survival” with the “trans-“ prefix intended to indicate the added influence of transcommunication concepts. The implications of survival are far-reaching and complex, so they are modeled as the Implicit Cosmology.
The only physical part of the diagram is the human body. The only conscious part is the personality’s perception that it is the human body. I refer to this perspective as the human-centric one as “I think I am this.” Everything else is unconscious function.
This model is loosely based on the concept of morphic fields described by Rupert Sheldrake in his Hypothesis of Formative Causation. 4 In that, he describes morphogenetic (morphic) fields for organisms which are guided by “Nature’s habit” for how that organism has always been formed. In the diagram above, the morphic field is the life field, shown here as it is entangled in a physical lifetime. “Nature’s habit” is maintained in the Worldview functional area. The human body has a morphic field but shares the Attention Complex with its entangled etheric personality.
A person is an etheric personality (I am this) entangled with a human body in an avatar relationship (I think I am this). As such, a person shares its worldview with the body and is strongly influenced by the human’s instincts. It is for the person to moderate these physical instincts with spiritual ones.
Morphic fields have a zone of influence engulfing the organism. (It is likely that the influence of this field extends beyond the physical organism and may represent the “personal bubble” many of us claim as personal space around us.) Think of the field as an organizing influence on life processes. A person has a “top” field which organizes many subfields responsible for morphogenesis of chemical production, cells and organs. These life fields also have memory, a means of sensing and expression, a purpose and a means of modifying behavior.
Of course, I am explaining Sheldrake’s model in terms that helps to explain my model. The point is that we think of life from the perspective of the organism’s physical presence, while in fact, there is a rather complex and extensive subtle field associated with every instance of life. We are no exception. If you think in terms of fractals, life would be the universal fractal with Source as the top fractal. Source’s morphic field would be the reality field.
The immortal part of us, our personality, represents the mind of our morphic (life) field. In the Implicit Cosmology, both physically sensed and psi sensed information is processed in our life field. In this model, our personality, as our immortal intelligent core, is actually part of a collective of personalities. As such, our psi interaction with another person is not some unseen ray between our head and the other person’s head. It is modeled as a link of attention between our etheric personality and that of the other person’s personality in the collective.
In this model, when it comes to the exchange of information, there is little difference between a discarnate personality and one still entangled with its avatar human. As such, there is no difference between a psychic and a medium. Both must communicate via their etheric personality.
To emphasize this point, the functions of psi sensing and mediumship are modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as just another form of perception. That is, environmental information (psi signature and output of physical senses to mind) is unconsciously sensed by a person, but a decision is made in the Attention Limiter to ignore or consider the information. If the information is considered, then it is unconsciously related to worldview for recognition. If it is not recognized in some way, it is ignored anyway. Recognition may result in modification of the information to agree with worldview. It is that modified form which enters into conscious awareness. 5
In this model, the litmus test for mediumship is not whether or not it could have been accessed from someone’s mind or from residual memory in the psi field. It must be the content of the information and its sensibility. Does the information source in the etheric interact with the medium in unexpected ways?
The problem of accessing memory is that someone knows what a person might have said, based on remembered mannerisms and attitudes. The only way I know of to address this is to ask whether or not the information seems surprising. Our society is constantly evolving and how we interact with our environment today is at least a little different from how we interacted yesterday. Memory does not evolve unless it is impressed by a living process. People have a good sense of humanness and what seems contemporary, but it probably requires a peer panel to decide. Although it will not likely be a scientific test, perhaps that sense or “newness” is all we have for testing authenticity of mediumistic communication.
In this model, information from other personalities is translated in the Attention Complex based on the medium’s worldview. That is, it comes from the communicating entity as a gestalt thoughtform and is “embodied” in best-fit words, images and feeling from the medium’s worldview. As such, the message may be from an ancient personality even though it is expressed to the sitter in modern terms. As far as I can tell, only deep-trance mediumship is able to bypass the medium’s perceptual process. (Lucidity)
A White Crow
To be valid, survival models need objective evidence that cannot be explained with super-psi. The one example I can think of was produced by ATransC member, Martha Copeland. Martha’s daughter Cathy made her transition while still in her teens. The story of how it began is told in Martha’s book, “I’m still Here,” 6 but to keep this short, she recorded many EVP from Cathy in which she is saying things she would have said during her lifetime.
Martha was of the habit of leaving her voice-activated audio recorder on while she did routine chores, just in case someone on the other side wanted to say hello. One day, her chores were interrupted by a friend’s invitation to go shopping. She left in a hurry, forgetting to put Cathy’s dog, Doja, outside. While she was away, the dog made a huge mess of the house. In an EVP, you can hear the dog making a mess and Cathy’s voice clearly scolding the dog “Doja … no!” 7
The value of this EVP is that it records an event that no one was aware of at the time of the recording and it is clearly Cathy’s voice saying what she could be expected to say. So I will argue that, if there is one instance that supports survival over super-psi, then it is reasonable to seriously consider the hypothesis as an alternative. As such, I will argue that mediumship is a plausible explanation for some anomalous information access.
Survival Physics
Another example of how a litmus test can be applied is seen in the work of Ron Pearson. He is widely acclaimed as a champion of survival. Taking a close look at his point of view shows that he proposes survival of memory and not of living personality. He has stated: “Although the brain must die its exact copy lives on to be connected with another parallel universe.” 8 As I see it, Pearson set out to reimagine current science to show how, with a few corrections, it supports survival of mind. His focus is on how information never ceases to exist and remains psychically accessible. All of the right words are there for Spiritualist except for how he describes the actual nature of survived information. In actuality, his theory is just a version of Super-psi.
The litmus test here can be described as “the arrow of creation.” By that, I mean that in Super-psi, the arrow of creation flies from that hypothetical primordial soup of our body’s origin. In the Survival Hypothesis, the arrow flies from a Source of reality, of which the physical is just an aspect. So does the theory argue that our personality evolved from the physical body or does it allow for the personality to exist prior to this lifetime?
In the phenomenon of mediumship, our communicators very often tell us that we are part of a collective; that we have begun from that collective and that we remain connected with it via consciousness. We strengthen that connectedness with our attention on it via our mediumship. 9
Anomalistic Psychology
Anomalistic psychology is another field of study ostensibly supporting what we know to be true. As a general rule, psychologists are paranormalist’s most insidious skeptics. A close look at the anomalistic psychology literature will show that studies are mostly concerned with perception of things paranormal with the intention to show that things paranormal are not real … only illusion.
In the article, “What is Anomalistic Psychology” 10 paranormal is defined as “Alleged phenomena that cannot be accounted for in terms of conventional scientific theories.” The author explains that “Anomalistic psychology may be defined as the study of extraordinary phenomena of behavior and experience, including (but not restricted to) those which are often labeled ‘paranormal.’ It is directed towards understanding bizarre experiences that many people have without assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved. It entails attempting to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.”
The emphasis is on “It entails attempting to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.” “…without assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved” can be understood as “without becoming informed about the phenomena thought to be involved.
In a very real sense, anomalistic psychologists set out to prove that whatever the paranormal is claimed to be, it is actually all in the beholder’s mind. This is well-understood by parapsychologists, which forces us to question why that kind of literature is published in a respected paranormal-oriented journal without at least some kind of warning to the reader.
The litmus test for any research report concerning things paranormal is whether or not the authors include consideration of the Super-psi and Survival Hypotheses in a way that leaves the possibility open that they may be real. The second part of this test is whether super-psi or survival is part of the working hypothesis, and if so, which one.
If you consider yourself a psychic, then the second part of this does not matter. All you are interested in is acknowledgement that psi functioning may be real and not imagination. If you consider yourself a medium, then I assume you think you are talking to discarnate loved ones who are still very much alive, just in “different atmospheres and awarenesses.”
Discussion
Something every paranormalist needs to decide is whether or not the information they access with their inner senses is psychically accessed from memory or mediumistically accessed from a living personality. Is it communication (mediumship) or data mining (psychic)? Technically, there is a huge difference in how psychic and medium are defined. Three models have been discussed in this essay:
The Super-psi Hypothesis claims that the anomalously accessed information is psychically accessed from memory of living people or residual memory in the psi field. It is modeled on psi research, for which First Sight Theory 1 is an aggregator model. (Psychic)
The Survival Hypothesis proposes that information is mediumistically accessed via communication with discarnate personalities. It is based on Super-psi with the stipulation that information is from living personality. (Mediumship)
The Trans-survival Hypothesis proposes the idea that all information is accessed via the person’s etheric personality as a personality-to-personality exchange. (Using old terms, the psychic or mediumship question is decided by message content)
Super-psi allows for survived mind as it evolved with the evolving brain. Survival requires that mind precedes brain, and exists after brain dies. Super-psi and survival ignore the evidence of ITC. All three provide for the unconscious processing of information, the results of which emerge into consciousness but biased by worldview.
It is for you to decide which model makes the most sense. But be aware that what you decide will affect how sensed information emerges into your conscious awareness because your beliefs train your Attention Complex to filter sensed information to agree with your beliefs. For practicing mediums, this also has a lot to do with how messages should be explained to sitters.
As a certified NSAC medium, I serve our local Spiritualist Society with “spirit greetings.” It has always been a source of consternation to me whether or not what I deliver is psychic or mediumistic. Of course, I understand the difference, but after spending so many decades poking around in my mind, the only sense of certainty that the message comes from a loved one is the unexpected nature of what comes to my conscious awareness.
The best solution for me would be if our community changed its point of view away from psychic and/or medium to trans-communicator. The measure of my ability would be the lucidity of my access to my unconscious mind.
Perhaps “transcommunicator” is a better term.
References
Carpenter, James C, Ph.D. First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4422-1392-0 (ebook)
