Liverpool Hope University will be hosting an exciting conference on Health, Mental Health and Exceptional Human Experiences on monday 7th September.Liverpool Hope University is an ecumenical university with a mission statement addressing mind, body and spirit, and the psychology department also has an active parapsychology research group.
The objectives of the conference are as follows:
•To provide a forum for cross disciplinary discussion on the interaction between mind and body
•To provide a forum for cross disciplinary discussion on the overlap between exceptional human experiences and physical health/well being
•To provide a forum for cross disciplinary discussion on the overlap between exceptional human experiences and mental health/well being
•An opportunity for the development of greater insight and understanding of exceptional human experiences in an applied context.
The conference will be a one day event, comprising two main sessions:
One on belief mind and body [including the placebo effect/how the mind might be involved in the healing process; the effects of belief on the efficacy of drugs/healing/mental health; [Religious] faith and health/mental health; Exploring and understanding anomalous healing effects - a review of distant healing effects; Hypnosis and (self) healing; exploring "will or intention" from a mainstream perspective; Altered states of consciousness, mental imagery and healing].
The second will be on mental health and exceptional human experiences [including exploring the overlaps between clinical psychology and paranormal experiences; Clinical parapsychology in practice; Exploring the differences between healthy and unhealthy exceptional human experiences; exploring ways of manipulating/controlling pathological/healthy anomalous experiences; Spiritual and paranormal emergencies; The flow state, mental health and optimal performance; Healthy and unhealthy reactions to extreme events; Meditation and mental health ].
Speakers include the following: John Gruzelier, Isabel Clarke, Stefan Schmidt, Eberhard Bauer, Martina Belz, David Luke, Ian Tierney, Christine Simmonds-Moore, Carl Williams, Diane Dutton, Nicola Holt and Ginette Nachman.
Registration for the event opened on monday 8th June (a registrationform may be downloaded from our website http://hopelive.hope.ac.uk/psychology/para/HealthConference.html),We hope to see you on September 7th,
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Haunted house tale
Duke's parapsychology lab gives author a plot, campus setting
BY SALEM MACKNEE - Correspondent Published: Sun, Jun. 21, 2009
While you're taking your staycation this summer and dining on local foods, you can also enjoy a classic haunted house story with a decidedly local flavor.
Alexandra Sokoloff says the idea for "The Unseen" came to her when she learned that 700 boxes of files from Duke University's Rhine parapsychology lab had been opened to the public.
The same discovery propels Laurel MacDonald, the heroine of "The Unseen," into a field experiment re-creating a (fictional) Rhine poltergeist study.
Laurel and a handsome colleague break out the old ESP cards and sign up students for testing. The two high scorers and the two professors, plus a small fortune in high-tech ghost-hunting equipment, move into the same house where a similar group held a shadowy experiment nearly 45 years earlier.
Laurel discovers after the experiment starts that everyone involved in the earlier one either died or went insane -- including her own uncle, whose lingering psychic attachment to the house becomes clear from his visits to her dreams.
The fictional "Folger House" provides another delightful North Carolina connection: It's based on the mansion in Southern Pines that houses the Weymouth Center , which among its many attractions offers a writer's retreat. Sokoloff spent a week there with several fellow writers to soak up the atmosphere. She faithfully reproduces the floor plan and many furnishings but concocts a lurid family history for the "Folger House" to account for its extreme paranormal activity.
Besides the dreams, there are classic poltergeist manifestations: a rain of rocks, pounding noises in the walls, paintings turned upside down while a room is empty. And what would a haunted house story be without a cracking good séance?
There's also plenty of sexual tension in "The Unseen," as everyone staying in the house is young, good-looking and brimming with hormones.
Anyone familiar with Duke will enjoy the campus backdrop, as when Laurel experiences a ghostly chill in "the arched walkway beside the Chapel." And it's interesting to see our home through the eyes of a West Coast transplant (Sokoloff is a screenwriter who divides her time between California and North Carolina); the unnatural feel of so many trees ("she sometimes felt as if she had been dropped into an enormous hedge labyrinth" and "surreally empty streets") that leave her feeling "as if she'd woken up in some postapocalyptic movie in which all the people on Earth had been vaporized."
This is Sokoloff's third book. Her first, "The Harrowing," set in a college dorm where several students are staying over Thanksgiving break, showed her cinematic influences with a very visual storytelling style and a brisk pace. The second, "the Price," involved a deal with the devil to save a child's life.
It's a solid formula: classic scary-story plots, updated and kept moving with strong visuals and more dialogue than exposition. Sokoloff has found a groove and has quickly become one of the names I'm glad to see among the new arrivals.
Alexandra Sokoloff says the idea for "The Unseen" came to her when she learned that 700 boxes of files from Duke University's Rhine parapsychology lab had been opened to the public.
The same discovery propels Laurel MacDonald, the heroine of "The Unseen," into a field experiment re-creating a (fictional) Rhine poltergeist study.
Laurel and a handsome colleague break out the old ESP cards and sign up students for testing. The two high scorers and the two professors, plus a small fortune in high-tech ghost-hunting equipment, move into the same house where a similar group held a shadowy experiment nearly 45 years earlier.
Laurel discovers after the experiment starts that everyone involved in the earlier one either died or went insane -- including her own uncle, whose lingering psychic attachment to the house becomes clear from his visits to her dreams.
The fictional "Folger House" provides another delightful North Carolina connection: It's based on the mansion in Southern Pines that houses the Weymouth Center , which among its many attractions offers a writer's retreat. Sokoloff spent a week there with several fellow writers to soak up the atmosphere. She faithfully reproduces the floor plan and many furnishings but concocts a lurid family history for the "Folger House" to account for its extreme paranormal activity.
Besides the dreams, there are classic poltergeist manifestations: a rain of rocks, pounding noises in the walls, paintings turned upside down while a room is empty. And what would a haunted house story be without a cracking good séance?
There's also plenty of sexual tension in "The Unseen," as everyone staying in the house is young, good-looking and brimming with hormones.
Anyone familiar with Duke will enjoy the campus backdrop, as when Laurel experiences a ghostly chill in "the arched walkway beside the Chapel." And it's interesting to see our home through the eyes of a West Coast transplant (Sokoloff is a screenwriter who divides her time between California and North Carolina); the unnatural feel of so many trees ("she sometimes felt as if she had been dropped into an enormous hedge labyrinth" and "surreally empty streets") that leave her feeling "as if she'd woken up in some postapocalyptic movie in which all the people on Earth had been vaporized."
This is Sokoloff's third book. Her first, "The Harrowing," set in a college dorm where several students are staying over Thanksgiving break, showed her cinematic influences with a very visual storytelling style and a brisk pace. The second, "the Price," involved a deal with the devil to save a child's life.
It's a solid formula: classic scary-story plots, updated and kept moving with strong visuals and more dialogue than exposition. Sokoloff has found a groove and has quickly become one of the names I'm glad to see among the new arrivals.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
"Do Ghosts Have ESP? Why Psi Is Necessary to Models of Apparitions, Hauntings & Poltergeists"
Loyd Auerbach, MS
90 minute telephone seminar
($20)
June 22nd, 2009,
at 7:30 Eastern and at 7:30 Pacific
90 minute telephone seminar
($20)
June 22nd, 2009,
at 7:30 Eastern and at 7:30 Pacific
Psychic abilities are part of all models of apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists, whether one puts those abilities with the witnesses or with the ghosts. How do ESP and PK (psychokinesis, or mind over matter) actually figure in to ghost encounters, haunted houses and poltergeist cases? How did such models come about and why do so many parapsychologists stick to them so strongly?
Psychic abilities are part of all models of apparitions, hauntings and poltergeists, whether one puts those abilities with the witnesses or with the ghosts. How does ESP and PK (psychokinesis, or mind over matter) actually figure in to ghost encounters, haunted houses and poltergeist cases? How did such models come about and why do parapsychologists stick to them so strongly?
These and other questions will be addressed as Loyd Auerbach discusses the relationship between psi experiences and abilities to the more ghostly phenomena, and why the connection is so important to the phenomena. These models should be understood and considered by any who have such experiences or who investigate them, whether one accepts them or not.
If time permits, there will also be some discussion of the parapsychological view of demons, angels and other similar non-human entities.
For more information: http://www.mindreader.com/events.htm
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