PHIL2230 |
Joe Lau The University of Hong Kong 1st semester 2005-06 April 25 2024 |
Gary Schwartz, psychology professor and co-founder of the University of Arizona Human Energy Systems Lab speaks about his work at the UA. Schwartz and co- founder Linda Russek are conducting research on the "Russek paradigm" which involves some of the most famous mediums in the world. Arizona Summer WildcatA team of UA scientists and students conducted a unique experiment this weekend, probing the possibility of an afterlife by studying how mediums commune with the dead.
Researchers at the University of Arizona Human Energy Systems Lab invited a panel of mediums to meet with 10 people whose loved ones recently died. The mediums tried to receive information from the deceased without prior knowledge about the deceased and while under observation.
"The first responsibility of a scientist is to ask questions," said Gary Schwartz, psychology professor and co-founder of the lab.
What happens to consciousness after death is one of the most important questions a scientist can ask, he said.
Schwartz invited four mediums to participate in the study, including famous "superstars" of the psychic world such as author John Edwards, and unknowns such as California housewife Laurie Campbell.
The research design, which Schwartz dubbed the "Russek paradigm," was mostly the work of the lab's co-founder Linda Russek.
The medium sat facing a wall while a researcher looked on. A "sitter", who had recently lost a relative or friend, would then enter the room and sit six feet behind the medium.
Schwartz acknowledged that a few of the sitters were acquaintances of the mediums.
For up to 10 minutes, the medium and the sitter would sit in silence. The medium, who could not see the sitter, would concentrate on receiving psychic impressions.
A question and answer session followed, in which the sitter was allowed only to answer "yes" or "no."
Schwartz said that the mediums did not play "20 questions" with the sitter in an attempt to weed out personal information. Instead, they tried to clarify impressions they were receiving.
"They often try to get confirmatory information," he said.
Schwartz said that the study was set up to minimize communication between the medium and the sitter, avoiding conscious or subconscious prompting between the two.
"It's complicated to determine what is psychological and what is spiritual," he said.
While the final results have not been written up, Schwartz said he was impressed with the mediums performance.
On several occasions the mediums were able to pick out the names and personal information of the deceased, he said.
There were also several "jawdroppers" when the mediums revealed highly personal information or facts so obscure that the sitters themselves didn't know them, he said.
In one case, the medium revealed that the sitter had an uncle who had been killed during World War II. The sitter hadn't known about the uncle, but later confirmed the story with relatives, Schwartz said.
In other cases, the mediums were able to pick up facts such as the breed of a long-dead pet, he said.
Gary Mechler, an astronomy instructor at Pima Community College and co- founder of the Tucson Skeptics, is not convinced by such stories.
Mechler is a local representative of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, an organization of scientists he said is "ready to strike out for truth and light at a moments notice."
He said that professional mediums are very skilled at misleading the public.
"I've seen so many stories fall apart," Mechler said. "That's where (my) skepticism comes from."
But Schwartz insisted that such claims need to be investigated scientifically.
"Is it proof? Of course not," Schwartz said. "Is it interesting? Definitely."
The success of the mediums often depended on the sitters and their belief in life after death. All the mediums were able to get good information while working with a woman who had lost six loved ones in the past nine years, Schwartz said.
The best sitter was a UA undergraduate who had lost two relatives but felt connected to them, he said.
The worst sitter was a man who called himself a skeptic, Schwartz said, adding that none of the mediums could connect with his deceased relatives.
The researchers have noticed a link between belief and performance in other tests.
In one experiment, people had to guess whether researchers standing behind them were looking at their heads or backs. The subjects guessed correctly nearly 60 percent of the time on average, as opposed to the 50 percent that would be expected from mere guesswork, Schwartz said.
Those who believed in psychic phenomena guessed correctly more often than those who didn't, he said.
"It isn't really paranormal phenomena," said Patty Harada, one of Schwartz's assistants. "We are really trying to study energy."
"The energy from our bodies is actually going somewhere," she said. "It's actually doing something."
Many of the researchers expressed similar beliefs, and Schwartz added that a person's energy may survive after death.
Schwartz admits that the research into human energy systems is in beginning stages, and that many details remain a mystery.
"Because this is frontier work, as soon as you do one study you ask 20 questions," he said, "That's what makes it fun."
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research JANUARY 2001
When multiple mediums attempt to receive After-Death Communications (ADCs) for a single individual (the sitter/subject) who has experienced multiple losses, will accurate and replicable ADC information be obtained? Five highly skilled mediums were flown to the Human Energy Systems Laboratory for research on ADC. An Arizona woman, unknown to all of the mediums, who had experienced six significant losses over the past ten years, served as the primary subject. She filled out detailed pre-experimental questionnaires about her losses. Each medium met individually with the sitter. There was no communication between the mediums about the sessions. Two chairs were placed side by side, a few feet apart, separated by a screen that eliminated visual cues. Except for an initial greeting, the only communications allowed from the sitter were simple yes or no responses to possible questions from the mediums. Nineteen channels of EEG and the ECG were recorded simultaneously from both the mediums and the sitter. Two video cameras recorded the sessions. Verbatim reports were obtained from complete transcripts of the sessions. A second sitter was tested with two of the mediums. The mediums average accuracy was 83% for sitter one and 77% for sitter two. The average accuracy for 68 control subjects was 36%. In a replication and extension experiment, medium's average accuracy in an initial ten minute period that did not allow yes/no questioning was 77%. The data suggest that highly skilled mediums are able to obtain accurate and replicable information. Since all possible measures were taken to eliminate the factors of fraud, error, and statistical coincidence, other possible mechanisms should be considered in future research. These include telepathy, super psi, and survival of consciousness after-death.
By Robert Matthews (Filed: 08/03/2001)
A UNIQUE scientific experiment has produced startling evidence that some "spirit mediums" may indeed have paranormal talents.Scientists involved in the study at the University of Arizona say that the findings are so extraordinary they raise fundamental questions about the survival of consciousness after death.
Until now, the whole issue of the "afterlife" has been dismissed by most mainstream scientists, with spiritual mediums being regarded as either self- deluded or charlatans. Now the first serious laboratory study of a group of mediums has found that they share an uncanny ability to state facts about the deceased relatives of people who come to them.
The experiments, details of which will be published this week, involved five mediums and two "sitters" unknown to the mediums, whose deceased relatives they were asked to contact.
In the first experiment, each medium spent an hour with one of the sitters in a laboratory, with a screen preventing visual contact. Under constant video surveillance, each began talking about aspects of the sitter's deceased relatives. The sitter was only allowed to respond to specific questions from the medium with the words "yes" or "no". At the end of each session, the information gleaned by the mediums was analysed for its accuracy.
The transcripts of each session showed that the mediums typically produced more than 80 pieces of information about the deceased relatives, ranging from their names and personal idiosyncrasies to the precise circumstances of their death. When analysed for factual accuracy, the mediums achieved a success rate of 83 per cent, with one achieving an accuracy of 93 per cent.
Similar success was achieved in experiments involving the second sitter, and even when the mediums were not allowed to communicate with the sitter in any way. Sceptics have long argued that the success of mediums is due to so-called "cold reading", in which mediums make educated guesses about deceased people - such as asking if a husband died of heart disease, which is a common cause of death.
The team claims to have dealt with this objection after a panel of more than 60 people was asked to supply the same information as the mediums about the sitter. The average score was only 36 per cent, with the most successful guesser achieving just 54 per cent.
Reporting their findings in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, the researchers conclude: "Highly skilled mediums are able to obtain accurate and replicable information." Professor Gary Schwartz, who led the team, told The Telegraph: "The bottom line is that there is a class of highly skilled mediums who are doing something extraordinary."
The secret of their success is unclear: every precaution was taken to rule out unconscious cheating or outright fraud. In one experiment, a medium claimed to have been in communication with the sitter's deceased mother three days before the meeting - and supplied a prayer that the mother used to recite for the sitter as a child.
Prof Schwartz said such evidence is consistent with claims of mediums to deal directly with the dead, rather than merely with the minds of the sitters. He said: "All the data gathered so far is consistently in accord with survival of consciousness after death. Based on our data to date, the most parsimonious explanation is that the mediums are in direct communication with the deceased."
Sceptics said that while the results are intriguing, they leave many questions unanswered. Dr Chris French, a leading expert at Goldsmiths College, London, said: "Parapsychologists have become disillusioned with studies of mediums because the results are usually nothing more than you would expect by cold reading. This study has results that are so out of line that one would want to have a very close look at how it was done."
The implications of the study are to be discussed at an international meeting in Arizona this week. Prof Schwartz admitted that the findings were likely to disturb many people. He said: "Some of our colleagues would like us to do this research elsewhere."
人死後是否有靈魂﹐所謂的靈媒又是否真能和它們溝通等問題﹐主流科學界往往視之為「鬼神力說」而一笑置之。但美國一班科學家最近卻就通靈現象﹐進行了歷來首個嚴謹 的科學實驗﹐證實受測試的靈媒確有超乎常人的通靈能力﹐而更重要是﹐這個研究似乎令人相信﹐人死後確有靈魂。據英國《星期日電訊報》報道﹐有關實驗由美國亞利桑那大學的研究人員進行﹐有關結果將在最新一期《超自然研究學會雜誌》發表﹐亦會在本周於亞利桑那一個國際學術會 議上提出討論。
實驗對象為五名自稱通靈者﹐研究人員安排他們輪流與一名有親人死去的人﹐在實驗室內對話半小時﹐談論有關死者的種種情?G﹐而研究人員則透過攝錄機﹐在場外監察這個 類似「問米」的整個過程。
為防止靈媒利用摸心理的方法﹐從死者家屬口中套取死者的資料﹐又或從對方反應作猜測﹐死者家屬只可以就某幾個特定的問題﹐簡單地回答「是」或者「否」。此外﹐雙方 一直以簾子相隔﹐以避免有眼神接觸。
科學家分析錄下來的談論內容﹐發現這些靈媒平均能說出有關死者的超過八十項資料﹐例如姓名､個性､死時的詳細情形等。若一百分為滿分﹐這些資料的準確度平均達八十 三分﹐其中一名靈媒的準繩度更達九十三分。
研究人員又安排這五名靈媒為另一名死者家屬「問米」﹐這一次更不讓雙方面有任何溝通。但結果出來﹐靈媒能同樣準確地說出死者的資料。
為作比較﹐研究人員又另外找來六十多名普通人﹐嘗試猜猜死者的資料﹐結果平均準確度只得三十六分﹐猜得最準的也只得五十四分。
負責實驗的施瓦茨教授表示﹐那幾名靈媒確能反覆不變地提供準確的資料。他說﹕「實驗得到的所有資料﹐都與死後有靈魂之說一致。最合理的解釋是﹐這些靈媒能與死去的 人直接溝通。」
但質疑者認為﹐雖然實驗的結果十分奇妙﹐但仍然留有不少問題尚待回答。倫敦戈德史密斯學院的弗倫奇博士說﹕「我們必須先研究清楚﹐這個實驗進行時的細節。」