Edited by Charles T. Tart Author of the classic Altered States of Consciousness Body Mind Spirit Body Mind Spirit Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality Edited by Charles T. Tart /TFV HAMPTON ROADS Copyright © 1997 by Charles T. Tart All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review. Cover design by Jonah Tobias Chapters 1, 3,4,7, 8, and 9 originally appeared in a special Summer 1995 issue of ReVisiort, a publication of the Heldref Foundation, devoted to parapsychology and spirituality, and reproduced here by permission of the Heldref Foundation. For information write: Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc. 134 Burgess Lane Charlottesville, VA 22902 Or call: (804)296-2772 FAX: (804)296-5096 e-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.hrpub.com If you are unable to order this book from your local bookseller, you may order directly from the publisher. Quantity discounts for organizations are available. Call 1-800-766-8009, toll-free. ISBN 1-57174-073-2 10 98765432 Printed on acid-free paper in Canada This volume has been made possible by the help of many people, especially my wife Judy and the Heldref Foundation. Contents Contributors 9 Editor's Introduction 21 Charles T. Tart I. World Parliament of Superstition? Scientific Evidence for a Basic Reality to the Spiritual 33 William G. Roll 2. My Search for the Soul 50 K. Ramakrishna Rao 3. Some Reflections on Religion and Anomalies of Consciousness 68 Rhea A. White 4. Exceptional Human Experiences and the Experiential Paradigm 83 Michael Grosso 5. The Parapsychology of God 101 Stephen E. Braude 6. Some Thoughts on Parapsychology and Religion I 18 Jeffrey Mishlove 7. Intuition: A Link Between Psi and Spirituality 128 William Braud 8. Parapsychology and Spirituality: Implications and Intimations 135 Hoyt L. Edge 9. Spirituality in the Natural and Social Worlds 153 Karl is Osis 10. Phenomena Suggestive of Life After Death: A Spiritual Existence 163 Charles T. Tart I I. Who or What Might Survive Death? 171 Arthur C. Hastings 12. Channeling and Spiritual Teachings 198 Charles T. Tart 13. On the Scientific Study of Nonphysical Worlds 214 Glossary 221 References 229 Index 245 Contributors William Braud, Ph.D., absorbed natural science methods and viewpoints as an undergraduate physics major (one of his mentors was a student of the discoverer of cosmic rays). In his doctoral work in experimental psychology at the University of Iowa, he was trained in the behavioral and hypothetico-deductive approaches of learning theory, and studied philosophy of science, epistemol- ogy, and ontology with Gustav Bergmann, a member of the Vienna Circle of logical positivists. With colleagues at the University of Houston, the Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Research Laboratory of the VA Hospital (Houston, Texas), and Baylor University College of Medicine, he supplemented his behavioral approaches to learning, memory, and motivation with clinical, psychophysi- ological, and pharmacological methods. In 1975, he left his tenured university position to pursue studies at a private research laboratory (Mind Science Foundation, San Antonio, Texas), where he devel- oped new methods for exploring topics in biofeedback, physio- logical self-regulation, altered states of consciousness, and parapsychology. With collaborators at the Stehlin Cancer Research Foundation (Houston) and at the University of Texas Health Science Center (San Antonio), he conducted studies in the then-new field of psychoneuroimmunology. These studies demonstrated the power of mental processes of relaxation and quietude, attention, intention, imagery, and self-evoked positive emotions in directly influencing one's mind and body and in influencing remote animate and inanimate systems. Within parapsychology, Braud is known internationally for his experimental work on physiological and psychological conditions favorable to psychic functioning. He presented the first paper on using the ganzfeld (sensory restriction) procedure to facilitate telepathy (at the First International Congress of Parapsychology and Psychotronics, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1973), and his early studies of relaxation, lability, and other psi-conducive states and conditions are well-known and frequently cited. He conducted extensive research programs in direct mental interactions with -9- BODY MIND SPIRIT living systems in which mental processes of intention, attention, and imagery are used to influence activities of distant living organisms such as behaviors, physiological activities, rate of breakdown of human red blood cells, and mental processes in other persons (mental imagery, attention, concentration). He views these latter studies as laboratory analogs of distant healing, and he is especially interested in possible practical applications of psychic functioning and the implication that inner mental "work" on the part of one person may directly facilitate related functioning on the part of someone else in educational, counseling, therapeutic, health-related, and training contexts. The spiritual traditions that speak most strongly to Braud are early Taoism, esoteric Eastern Christianity, and the perennial wisdom found in all mystical traditions. In 1992, Braud joined the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (Palo Alto, California) as Professor, Research Director, and Co- Director of the Institute's William James Center for Consciousness Studies. Here, he teaches research courses, supervises doctoral dissertation work, and conducts his own research in three major areas: studies of time-displaced direct mental influences of remote living systems; the impacts of exceptional human experiences (especially mystical/unitive and psychic) upon physical, psycho- logical, and spiritual health, well-being, development, and trans- formation; and research on innovative and more transpersonally-relevant research approaches. Braud has published his methods and findings in nearly 200 articles in professional journals and book chapters (including papers in Science) and has made nearly 200 presentations of his work at national and international meetings and conferences. He belongs to numerous professional organizations and serves on the editorial advisory boards of several scientific journals. With colleagues at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, he is presently preparing a book describing novel research methods for the social sciences. Stephen E. Braude, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He began his career in philosophy writing in the areas of philosophy of language, temporal logic, and the philosophy of time. After that, he turned his attention to the evidence of parapsychology and the philosophy of science, writing two books and numerous articles on those topics. Since 1986, Braude has also been studying dissociation and multiple personality, and their connection to classic philo- -10- Contributors sophical problems as well as to central problems in parapsychology (such as the relationship between multiple personality and medium- ship or channeling). He is currently writing a book on postmortem survival, and he is also continuing recent research on dissociation and moral responsibility, as well as the so-called false memory debate. Braude is a past president of the Parapsychological Associ- ation and the recipient of several grants and fellowships, in- cluding a Research Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has written three books: ESP and Psychokinesis: A Philosophical Examination (1979), The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science (1996), and First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind (1991). Braude is actively engaged in parapsychological case investi- gations and is particularly interested in observable (and large-scale) psychokinesis and poltergeist cases. He is also interested in tracing the connections between psychopathology and psychic functioning. He suspects that these connections are more important and per- vasive than most parapsychologists have appreciated, and that attention to them may shed light on long-standing puzzles about the evidence for postmortem survival. Braude is also a professional pianist and composer, as well as a prize-winning stereo photographer. Hoyt L. Edge, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, having taught there since 1970, where he offers courses in the areas of philosophy of mind, extended human capabilities, cognitive anthropology, existential- ism, and American pragmatism. In addition to recently publishing a book, A Constructive Postmodern Perspective on Self and Community: From Atomism to Holism (1994), he has co-authored the text Foundations of Parapsychology (1986) and has co-edited Philosophical Dimen- sions of Parapsychology (1976). His numerous articles in parapsychology include both experi- mental studies and essays in the philosophical implications of parapsychology. Edge is particularly interested in what parapsy- chology has to say about human nature and about the natural world. Believing that the modern world, including parapsychology, has been too dualistically oriented, he is especially interested in reconceiving these notions. - 11 - BODY MIND SPIRIT As part of this study, Edge has recently focused on cross-cultural studies and has engaged in concentrated research on the Australian Aborigines and the natives of Bali,