The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena

In this well-written book, Dean Radin meticulously defines the scientific terms he is using for describing psychic phenomena. The following definitions are to be found on pages 14 and 15 of the book.—TelepathyInformation exchanged between two or more minds, without the use of the ordinary senses.—ClairvoyanceInformation received from a distance, beyond the reach of the ordinary senses. A French term meaning ‘clear-seeing’. Also called ‘remote-viewing’.—PsychokinesisMental interaction with animate or inanimate matter. Experiments suggest that it is more accurate to think of psychokinesis as information flowing from mind to matter, rather than as the application of mental forces or powers. Also called ‘mind-matter interaction’, ‘PK’, and sometimes ‘telekinesis’.—PrecognitionInformation perceived about future events, where the information could not be inferred by ordinary means. Variations include ‘premonition’, a foreboding of an unfavorable future event, and ‘presentment’, a sensing of a future emotion.—ESPExtrasensory perception, a term popularized by J. B. Rhine in the 1930s. It refers to information perceived by telepathy, clairvoyance, or precognition.—PsiA letter of the Greek alphabet (Ψ) used as a neutral term for all ESP-type and psychokinetic phenomena.—OBEOut-of-body experience; an experience of feeling separated from the body. Usually accompanied by visual perceptions reminiscent of clairvoyance.—NDENear-death experience; an experience sometimes reported by those who are revived from nearly dying. Often refers to a core experience that includes feelings of peace, OBE, seeing lights, and certain other phenomena. Related to psi primarily through the OBE experience.—ReincarnationThe concept of dying and being reborn into a new life. The strongest evidence for this ancient idea comes from children, some of whom recollect verifiable details of previous lives. Related to psi by similarities to clairvoyance and telepathy.—HauntingRecurrent phenomena reported to occur in particular locations, including sightings of apparitions, strange sounds, movement of objects, and other anomalous physical and perceptual effects. Related to psi by similarities to psychokinesis and clairvoyance.—PoltergeistLarge-scale psychokinetic phenomena previously attributed to spirits but now associated with a living person, frequently an adolescent. From the German for ‘noisy spirit’.Before going into the detailed discussion of this book, allow me a personal remark. While this book reads very cool, as it’s written with an intention focused on facts that are experimentally verified and that are coherently aligned into one or several theories, it can be verified or falsified, according to strict scientific logic and practice.Now, reading the Postscript of the book, the reader may get an idea what the author actually went through, as a human being, as a non-conforming and novelty-oriented scientist, one of those we call the leading edge in modern science. When a research project is finalized, people always sit back and look at the immense work, lauding the experimenter. But have they ever felt how it was to go through all that, from the first to the last moment?—Quote—For example, on Monday, I’m accused of blasphemy by fundamentalists, who imagine that psi threatens their faith in revealed religious doctrine. On Tuesday, I’m accused of religious cultism by militant atheists, who imagine that psi threatens their faith in revealed scientific wisdom. On Wednesday, I am stalked by paranoid schizophrenics who insist that I get the FBI to stop controlling their thoughts. On Thursday, I submit research grants that are rejected because the referees are unaware that there is any legitimate evidence for psi. On Friday, I / get a huge pile of correspondence from students requesting copies of everything I’ve ever written. On Saturday, I take calls from scientists who want to collaborate on research as long as I can guarantee that no one will discover their secret interest. On Sunday, I rest, and try to think of ways to get the paranoid schizophrenics to start stalking the fundamentalists instead of me./299-300—End of Quote—To begin with, I would like to stress the energy nature of those various phenomena that we use to call psychic or paranormal. When I speak of bioenergy here I mean the bioplasmatic energy that is also called cosmic energy field, not body electrics or electromagnetism. This is also the energy that is meant and referred to in shamanism, when shamans talk about the spirits of nature. These spirits, to be true, are energy streams that carry transcoded information, and as such they are part of the huge communication network built into living systems. The author says that psi research does not fit in conventional theories and that it’s not correct that researchers, because they face a novelty that scares them, explain what is so far unexplainable, with the theory of electromagnetism.In order to keep this review in reasonable boundaries, I will discuss in more detail here only Chapter 7, entitled Perception Through Time, which is an intriguing research topic that was covered also very well in Michael Talbot’s study 'The Holographic Universe,' which I have equally reviewed.The author explains that the accumulation of conceptual frameworks for explaining how perception and time hang together does not help much. Concepts like retrocognition, real-time clairvoyance or precognition, the author says, rather blur the usual concepts of perception and time. In fact, it is true that they explain nothing.In my view all depends on how we define time, and without doing this, and considering what relativity theory said about it, on one hand, and what quantum physics says, on the other, we cannot make any valid assumptions about precognition, prophecy or past-cognition.The author does not advance any theory, as for example Michael Talbot does by explaining all these phenomena with the holographic nature of the universe. When all is one single hologram, it’s very well conceivable that the timeline of events is a mere projection system that actually is a crutch for our imagination, while in reality there is no such timeline at all in life, as all events occur simultaneously.But while this concept is very elegant, Radin did not venture into any of those larger frameworks, and this is again strategically a smart way of doing. For it’s easier to bring a theory through that is based on hard facts and verifiable evidence, and later expand the theoretical framework.

Get the Real Facts on ESPThere's no question about the reality of ESP for anyone who has ever experienced it. Just the other day, for example, as I was driving cross-country to give a seminar, a student came to mind. I hadn't heard from the person in a long time, and I found myself worrying and full of doubt. As these feelings seemed to erupt out of nowhere and had an obsessive quality about them, I suspected a subliminal telepathic influence. I watched as my obsessive worrying revealed certain themes. Acting as if these feelings were a message of distress from that person, I pulled over at a pay phone by the road and gave a call. The person answered the telephone and was surprised at who was calling. "I had just been thinking about you!" was the student's exclamation. I ventured a guess about the content of those thoughts. It was exactly as I suspected. Needless to say, the student was delighted, impressed, and touched.Something is real if it makes a difference in your life, a wise philosopher woman once told me. I agree. ESP sure made a difference to that student and I. The fact that I reached out and touched that person at just the right moment made a difference in the way we experienced our relationship and work together.Coincidence? Well, maybe, maybe not. I've heard many people, for example, tell a story similar to mine, only to exclaim, "It was creepy!" Then they shrug it off as "just a coincidence." When they say the C word, they do so with a sigh of relief. The coincidence defense is often used, I believe, to deny the intimate connection between minds, just like in another context someone might deny intimacy by saying "We're just friends!"To destroy the plausible deniability of ESP, I recommend the book, The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena (HarperSanFrancisco). The author, Dean Radin, Ph.D., is Director of the Consciousness Research Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His name appears often in my Psi Research column because of his wide ranging and innovative research and his book reflects his impressive scope and grasp of the field.The major strength of the book, and what makes it stand out as a unique and important contribution, is his treatment of the technical details defining the evidence for ESP. People are confused by statistics, for example, and in the absence of a dramatic psychic phenomenon, like spoon bending, we can easily dismiss an ESP effect that is largely statistical in nature. Radin gives some good examples of statistical realities that are more familiar in our culture to help the reader better comprehend the nature of the evidence for ESP. To take one example, perhaps you've heard about the studies showing that aspirin can prevent heart attacks. A long term study by Harvard Medical School was in progress when the results were so dramatic, the investigators made the unusual move of going public before the study was completed. They felt that the information was so important, the public had to be informed because of the lives that could be saved. What is less known is that the strength of this effect, the change in your odds of getting a heart attack if you take aspirin, and the strength of the statistics backing up those odds, are weaker than the statistics that underlie the laboratory evidence for ESP! It's more likely, in other words, according to accepted mathematical canons of science, that ESP exists than it is that aspirin reduces heart attacks. Moreover, ESP has a stronger effect on laboratory data than aspirin has on medical data. If I may say so, ESP is stronger than aspirin!If ESP is so strong, why doesn't it work in Las Vegas? Radin, strategically located in the gaming capital of America, is in position to give us some new information on this perennial question. The answer is, it does! He was able to obtain normally top secret information concerning casino payoffs. He presents graphs that show, with the visual vividness we usually associate with scientifically secure phenomena, that casino profits fluctuate with the strength of the earth's geomagnetic field. As other studies show, when geomagnetic field is weak, people show greater psychic ability, and the Las Vegas casinos are not exempt from this influence.We are being affected psychically, and exerting psychic effects, according to the studies Radin presents, on a national, international and global scale. At the moment the verdict in the OJ trial was announced, when more people were glued to the boob tube than in any other moment in history, electronic random number generators in several laboratories registered an unprecedented lack of randomness. When minds are joined, it matters. Over a thirty year period, to give another example, on the afternoon of the outdoor graduation ceremonies at Princeton University, the weather was sunnier than normal, even when it was raining in nearby localities! Just a coincidence? Don't bet on it.Our thoughts, as has been noted before and as Radin now shows undeniably, are powerfully real things! They make a real difference in our lives. henryreed.com/publications/bookreviews

Just what I was expecting

As a scientist, I found Dean Radin's descriptions of his extensive experiments quite interesting, but some chapters I needed to skip through, as it seemed a continuous diatribe of the reasons why so many skeptics failed to be excited by his discoveries.In fact, it is pathetic that this author didn't see that he was falling into the possession of the same outlook of which he was complaining.But the real tragedy is that he completely disregards the evidence of the true proof of psi effects when he belittles the well-supported reports of what he scathingly calls the Bible stories. The demonstrations of telepathy, clairvoyance, pre-cognition, and healing are so reliably witnessed, even when not effective at the first attempt. And the method used is described, fundamentally difficult as it may be to follow in practise. He spends two whole pages on what he calls religion, getting it confused with the sittings of a medium."The Conscious Universe" is a description of a wasted life.

What a marvellous and very erudite, comprehensive book Dean Radin has written in language that the layman can fully understandHe picks apart all the results of the many, many studies carried out by researchers (good and bad) over the past one hundred odd years and he has concluded that there is definite evidence for psi, no matter what most scientists categorically believe or state that they do!.This book is so informative and Radin, although he concludes that many scientists are downright adamant over the non-existence of psi, in no way insults them but writes in such an subtle way that you immediately understand his thoughts.I, personally, am a great believer in psi, having had many experiences of such and have a most definite feeling that, eventually, it will be found that this is what underpins the whole of the universe; in fact, some scientists in the field of quantum pyhsics are coming round to the idea that there may be something here that is not fully understood and does have a bearing on the whole psi subject.In any event, this book is most definitely worth the read and I highly recommend it.

The Conscious Universe: The scientific truth of psychic phenomena, by Dean Radin, HarperCollins, 1997, 432 ff.The scientific exploration of psiBy Howard A. JonesDean Radin's scientific background is in electrical engineering and psychology, but he has focussed his attention for more than a decade now on parapsychology or psi. This excellent book gives some of the scientific methodology that has confirmed that psi is a real phenomenon of the world and not the `superstitious nonsense' that some critics would have us believe. The title of the book derives from this world-view of the universality of psychic phenomena: `both modern physics and ancient Buddhist doctrine suggest [that] `deep' interconnectedness embraces everything, unbound by the limitations of time and space.' Radin agrees with the idea of Sir Arthur Eddington that `the stuff of the world is mind-stuff'.The book is divided into four parts: 1. Motivation, with a definition of psi and some of the statistical techniques used for validation of experimental results; 2. Evidence. This section, representing nearly half of the book, gives us some of the evidence for telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis - the most studied and best authenticated forms of psi; 3. Understanding. This section deals with the interpretation of the data and how the world-views of physics and philosophy (metaphysics) have been changed by discoveries in the 20th century; 4. Implications - what these empirical data tell us about the nature of the universe in terms of biology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, religion and medicine.This may sound like a scientific treatise - well, I suppose it is really - but it is presented in a very accessible style for readers without a scientific or mathematical background, though there is some gentle statistical theory in Section 1, Chapter 3, on Replication. There are 20 pages of Notes that tell us where these experiments and ideas were published. There are a further 30 pages of References and Further Reading, so anyone can follow up on any topic to various levels of scientific sophistication. Finally there is a comprehensive Index.One could scarcely ask for a more lucid introduction to the scientific techniques used to investigate parapsychology with the supporting evidence that these have produced: this should be enough to convince many of the sceptics.Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK. States of Consciousness The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together (Ions / Nhp) Mind Before Matter: Visions of a New Science of ConsciousnessPsi: Scientific Studies of the Psychic RealmStates of ConsciousnessThe End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together (Ions / Nhp)Mind Before Matter: Visions of a New Science of ConsciousnessPsi: Scientific Studies of the Psychic Realm

A book a PSI isn't something I would normally buy. However Dean Radin is a very intelligent , diligent scientist and an engaging writer. Science has brought him to the analysis PSI and such is the evidence that he presents that I can not doubt it's veracity.