Two of our featured presentations at the upcoming 2024 conference.

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Reports of Non-Physical Beings Assisting in Reiki Sessions

Helane Wahbeh, PhD, Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University.

Across diverse cultures, the belief in non-physical beings plays crucial roles in both illness and healing. In a previous study, participants reported the presence of non-physical beings during energy medicine sessions.  To evaluate the perceived presence and characteristics of non-physical beings, six seers observed 40 Reiki sessions, and quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the seers, participants, and Reiki practitioners. All sessions had reports of apparent non-physical beings, including angels, spirit guides, and possession/spirit attachments. The reported entities mainly aided the healing process, but some were also linked to pathology. The findings highlight the potential importance of ostensible non-physical entities in Reiki, warranting further investigation.

Dr. Wahbeh is best known for her book and research on the Science of Channeling.  As part of that research, she has, “come out of the channeling closet” about her own and her family’s channeling experiences, breaking barriers to the discussion of trance channeling and the science to study these exceptional abilities.  Bravo Helane!

Paranormal Folklore in Western Georgia: A Critical Narrative Analysis of Apparitions

Jacob W. Glazier, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of West Georgia, and Lead Editor of the tri-yearly publication Mindfield: The Bulletin of the Parapsychological Association.

This study employs Critical Narrative Analysis (CNA) to examine local ghost stories through the lens of folklore studies, situating these narratives within a broader cultural and academic context. The methodological approach involves analyzing the interplay between individual narratives and dominant societal discourses. We collected, using an anonymous Qualtrics survey, ten accounts from individuals in the Western Georgia area. The analysis revealed four primary discourses: (1) psychological misperception, (2) scientism, (3) privileged access to subjectivity, and (4) prototypical paranormal explanations. These were countered by the participants in five significant ways: (1) the extension of consciousness across space and time, (2) lucid perceptual experience, (3) the presence of anomalous phenomena, (4) adjudication to story and hearsay, and (5) consensual or repeated verification. These counter-discourses challenge mainstream understandings of reality and push back against normative accounts while highlighting the critical potential of folklore. Our research suggests that many people have exceptional experiences (ExEs), which then become assimilated into their prevailing cultural understanding of the world.

Dr. Glazier is Editor of the recent book, Paranormal Ruptures, which takes a critical approach to exceptional experiences, realizing that if some of these exceptional experiences are true, both experiencers and Society will need to adjust core understanding of our Reality.