GUEST SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Parapsychology Research and Education

(also known as ParaMOOC2017)

Live Sessions: January 16th through February 24th

Extended Discussion Forums through Sunday August 27th

The Parapsychology Wordle was made by the artist RadiantSkies and licensed through

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DR. EDWARD F. KELLYPRESENTAT ION: FROM PHYS ICALISM TO IDEALISM:

MY ENGAGEMENT WITH THE PARANORMAL2 P M E A S T E R N M O N DAY JA N U A RY 2 3 R D 2 0 1 7

Edward F. Kelly is a research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia, with interests in psychical research and functional neuroimaging. He is lead author of three previous books: Computer Recognition of English Word Senses; Altered States of Consciousness and Psi: An Historical Survey and Research Prospectus; and Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century (with his colleagues Emily Williams Kelly, Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso & Bruce Greyson).

His most recent book, Beyond Physicalism, was edited with Dr. Adam Crabtree and Dr. Paul Marshall and contains chapters by Dr. Harald Atmanspacher, Dr. Loriliai Biernacki, Professor Bernard Carr, Wolfgang Fach, Dr. Michael Grosso, Michael Murphy, Dr. David E. Presti, Dr. Gregory Shaw, Dr. Henry P. Stapp, Dr. Eric M. Weiss, and Dr. Ian Whicher.

Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal, the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University wrote “Beyond Physicalism is much more than a book. It is the intimate expression of a decade and a half of critical but collegial conversations between established scientists and professional humanists around some of the most important but still unsettled questions facing humanity: those involving the nature of mind or consciousness—that is, the nature of us.”

Beyond Physicalism received a Parapsychological Association Book Award from 2015.

DR. GERHARD MAYERPRESENTATION: THE SPECIAL CONDIT IONS OF

PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL / ANOMAL ISTICS RESEARCH AND THE PARADIGM OF REFLEXIVE ANOMALISTICS

2PM EASTERN WEDNESDAY JANUARY 25 T H 2017

Gerhard Mayer studied psychology, sociology, philosophy, and history of art at the University of Freiburg. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Freiburg in 2000. Since 1996 he has been working as a research fellow at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg/Germany (IGPP). His research interests include media research concerning parapsychological issues, neo shamanism, magical practices and beliefs, the biographical integration of extraordinary experiences, and the methodology of parapsychological investigations. He is author of many articles and monographs on these topics, and co-editor of a book series and a scientific journal on Anomalistics, as well as the compendium Handbuch der Anomalistik (2015, Stuttgart: Schattauer). He is executive director of the Gesellschaft für Anomalistik (Society for Anomalistics) and member of the editorial team of the peer-reviewed journal Zeitschrift für Anomalistik.

DR. MASAYUKI OHKADOPRESENTATION:

CHILDREN'S PRENATAL AND PERINATAL MEMORIES2PM EASTERN TUESDAY JANUARY 31 S T 2017

Ohkado is currently Professor of Chubu University in the Graduate School of Global Humanities and Faculty of General Education, and a visiting professor at the University of Virginia in the Division of Perceptual Studies, School of Medicine. Trained in linguistics, especially in the generative grammar, he shifted his focus from how language is represented in the mind to the nature of consciousness, and eventually to parapsychological phenomena suggesting that consciousness is independent of the brain. He has worked on a case of xenoglossy occurring under hypnosis (a case of a Japanese woman recalling a life as chief of a small village in Nepal), near-death experiences, “death” experiences under past-life regression therapy, and children claiming to have past-life and related memories. He is also interested in the practical use of these phenomena: Familiarity with them tends to increase one’s sense of purpose in life.

DR. CHRISTOPHER LAURSENPRESENTATION: PARAPSYCHOLOGY AND THE

POLTEGEIST2PM EASTERN FRIDAY FEBRUARY 3 R D 2017

Dr. Christopher Laursen is a historian of religions, sciences, and the environment. He looks at how people experience and try to explain anomalous events and phenomena in the modern era. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 2016. He is currently working on a book, Mischievous Forces, about the development of the psychokinesis hypothesis of the poltergeist phenomenon. His recent essays and articles have been published in Jeffrey J. Kripal’s edited volume Super Religions (2016), Jack Hunter’s Damned Facts (2016), and the magazine Fortean Times. His website is christopherlaursen.com.

DR. ALEXANDER SECH JUNIORPRESENTATION: SOME HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF

19TH CENTURY STUDIES OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA2PM EASTERN SATURDAY FEBRUARY 4 T H 2017

Alexandre Sech Junior is currently working on the historical interfaces between psychical research and the psychology of trance states. His research interests are William James, history and philosophy of science, history and philosophy of psychology, history of psychical research and the co-emergence of psychical research and psychology in the late nineteenth century. The topic of his Ph.D. thesis was the relevance of psychic phenomena in the works of William James. He is a member of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES) at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil, whose objective is to develop interdisciplinary research on those subjects. He is also a member, in the same university, of the Research Center in History and Philosophy of Psychology (NUHFIP).

DR. EVERTON MARALDIPRESENTATION:THE CONCEPT OF CREATIVE DISSOCIATION:

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF ARTIST IC MEDIUMSHIP

2PM EASTERN SUNDAY FEBRUARY 5 T H 2017

Everton Maraldi has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of São Paulo (USP, Brazil) and holds a postdoc position at the same University. He is a member of the Inter Psi - Laboratory of Anomalistic Psychology and Psychosocial Processes (USP, Brazil). His research interests include topics such as dissociation, mediumship, anomalous creative experiences, and paranormal beliefs. His Ph.D. dissertation was about the prevalence of dissociative experiences and related variables among religious and non-religious Brazilian respondents (acknowledgements to FAPESP - Foundation for Research Support of São Paulo, Brazil). See some of Maraldi's publications at: https://usp-br.academia.edu/EvertonMaraldi

JACK HUNTERPRESENTATION:BETWEEN REALNESS AND UNREALNESS:

ANTHROPOLOGY, PARAPSYCHOLOGY AND THE ONTOLOGY OF NON- ORDINARY REAL IT IES

2PM EASTERN FR IDAY FEBRUARY 10 T H 2017

Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion and the paranormal. His doctoral research with the University of Bristol examines the experiences of spirit mediums and their influence on the development of self-concepts and models of consciousness. He is the founder and editor of Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal (www.paranthropology.co.uk). He is the author of Why People Believe in Spirits, Gods and Magic (2012), editor of Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Religion, Folklore and the Paranormal (2016), and co-editor with Dr. David Luke of Talking With the Spirits: Ethnographies from Between the Worlds (2014). He teaches A-Level Religious Studies and Sociology at North Shropshire College.

DR. DARYL BEMPRESENTATION:FEELING THE FUTURE:

LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS ON PRECOGNITION2PM EASTERN SATURDAY FEBRUARY 11 T H 2017

Daryl Bem, professor emeritus of psychology at Cornell University, obtained his B.A. degree in physics from Reed College in 1960, and began graduate work in physics at MIT. While there, he became so intrigued by the civil rights movement that he decided to switch fields and pursue a career in social psychology specializing in beliefs, attitudes, and public opinion. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in social psychology from the University of Michigan in 1964, and has since taught at Carnegie-Mellon University, Stanford, Harvard, and Cornell University, where he has been since 1978. He retired in 2007.Professor Bem has published on several topics in psychology, including beliefs, attitudes, and public opinion; group decision making; self-perception; personality theory; sexual orientation; and psi (ESP). He is coauthor of an introductory textbook in psychology and the author of Beliefs, Attitudes, and Human Affairs.

DR. JULIA MOSSBRIDGEPRESENTATION:PREDICTING THE UNPREDICTABLE:

EVIDENCE AND WORKING MODEL2PM EASTERN TUESDAY FEBRUARY 14 T H 2017

Julia Mossbridge, M.A., Ph.D. is a Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), the CEO and Research Director of Mossbridge Institute, LLC, the Science Director at Focus@Will, and a Visiting Scholar in the Psychology Department at Northwestern University. Her research interest is primarily to understand how time is perceived by the conscious and subconscious minds. Mossbridge is also honored to be the 2014 winner of the Charles Honorton Integrative Contributions award. Dr. Mossbridge received her Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University, her M.A. in Neuroscience is from the University of California at San Francisco, and she received her B.A. with highest honors in neuroscience from Oberlin College. Dr. Mossbridge is also the co-author with Dr. Imants Baruss of the new APA book titled Transcendent Mind: Re-thinking the Science of Consciousness.

DR. CHRISTINE SIMMONDS-MOOREPRESENTATION: SYNESTHESIAS AND PSI

2PM EASTERN WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15 T H 2017

Christine Simmonds-Moore earned her Ph.D. on the topic of Schizotypy as an anomaly prone personality type from University of Northampton in the UK. In 2010, she left her native UK for the USA. Christine is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of West Georgia. Her research interests include the study of personality types who are prone to exceptional experiences; synesthesia; transpersonal experiences; mental health and exceptional experiences; cognitive and neurobiological correlates of paranormal experiences (including attention); and how sleep-related and other altered states of consciousness relate to exceptional experiences. Christine has worked on a variety of Bial (and other) funded research projects, including studies on healing, the ganzfeld, implicit ESP, synesthesia and ESP, paranormal belief and disbelief and a study exploring experiences people have when they wear a placebo “God helmet”. She is the editor of Exceptional Experience and Health: Essays on Mind, Body and Human Potential and a co-author of a text book on Anomalistic Psychology.

DR.PETER BANCELPRESENTATION: WHY THE GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

PROJECT DOES NOT MEASURE GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS2PM EASTERN WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 16 T H 2017

Peter Bancel received a Ph.D. in experimental physics from the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in France and has worked for the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique and at the Institut des Matériaux de Nantes. His research interests have included order and structural defects in quasi-crystalline materials, two-dimensional phase transitions, and protein crystallisation. His current research involves analysis of data correlations in data from the Global Consciousness Project, immersive approaches to mental state preparation for psi experimentation, and learning how insights from foundational work of quantum theory might be applied to psi. He has obtained grants from the Parapsychology Foundation, the Bial Foundation and the Society for Psychical Research, among others. He is currently affiliated with the Institut Métapsychique International in Paris.

DR. ALEJANDRO PARRAPRESENTATION:LEARNING TO READ THE “SOUL OF THINGS”:

AN UP-TO -DATE STATE OF THE ART REV IEW OF THE TOKEN- OBJECT EFFECT AND PSI .

2PM EASTERN SATURDAY FEBRUARY 18 T H 2017

Alejandro Parra is President of the Instituto de Psicología Paranormal at Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he serves as a psychotherapist in general clinical psychological practice in the Clinical Area of the Institute of Paranormal Psychology. He conducts therapy groups and uses an historical approach in his continued research into parapsychology, dreamwork, and mediumship. In a counseling setting he also conducts workshops with psychics and mediums on their paranormal/spiritual experiences. Parra has taught an accredited course in Transpersonal Psychology at the Universidad Abierta Interamericana in Buenos Aires. He is a full member and International Liaison of the Parapsychological Association, a past President of the Association (period 2011-2013); and an International Affiliate and International Liaison of the Parapsychology Foundation. Parra has authored a number of books, among them Sensibilidad psíquica? [Psychic Sensibility] (Deva´s, 2010), dealing with research and experimental design on psychic readings, token-object effect and psychometry.

CHARMAINE SONNEXPRESENTATION:A REVIEW OF NON-CONTACT

HEALING: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS2PM EASTERN TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21 S T 2017

Charmaine Sonnex is an Associate Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Northampton and is in the final stages of her PhD. Her research interests include Transpersonal Psychology, non-contact healing, Paganism, religion and spirituality. Charmaine’s thesis includes a comprehensive meta-analysis of the current empirical research into various form of non-contact healing, explores Pagan ritual workings through a psychological lens, and seeks to establish the efficacy of Pagan healing practices through a randomised controlled trial (RCT).

DR. FABIO DA SILVAPRESENTATION:COULD THE PRESENTIMENT STUDIES BE USEFUL FOR PSI TRAINING GROUPS RESEARCH?

2PM EASTERN WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 22 N D 2017

Psychologist and specialist in Neuropsychology. Master and Ph.D. in Social Psychology by University of São Paulo (USP), with internship research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Professor in postgraduate courses related to neurosciences, education, mental health and organizations. Member of the Inter Psi - Laboratório de Psicologia Anomalística e Processos Psicossociais from USP. Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Group of studies in Anomalistic Psychology in Paraná Regional Psychology Board. Director of the Neuropsi Institute: innovative research and action in integral human development.

DR. ETZEL CARDEÑAPRESENTATION:THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ABOUT PARAPSYCHOLOGY

2PM EASTERN WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 23 R D 2017

Etzel Cardeña holds the endowed Thorsen Chair in Psychology (with a remit in parapsychology and hypnosis) at Lund University in Sweden. He has graduate degrees from York University and the University of California, Davis, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, he has been president of Division 30 of APA, the Society for Clinical and Experimental Psychology, and the Parapsychological Association; his work has received awards from these and other organizations. His more than 300 publications, in more than 10 languages, include the two editions of Varieties of Anomalous Experience, Altering Consciousness (in two volumes), the e-book Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions for Frontiers in Human Neuroscience and Parapsychology: Handbook for the 21st Century which he edited with his Dr. John Palmer and David Marcusson-Clavertz. He has also worked professionally in theatre and is the Artistic Director of the International Theatre of Malmö.