Editorial: Media and Messaging

When I (A.W.) was offered to assume the role of Associate Editor for Mindfield, I immediately accepted. I saw this opportunity as one that would forward my personal passion to explore and language new realities. My background is in publishing and media (having spent many years editing scientific material for publication). Yet, I approach this role from the perspective of mental health. The convergence of information and human experience creates new realities, and the process of personal transformation is powerful to observe.

There are as many realities as there are individuals; every person reacts differently to the experiences of inner life, somatic encoding, and external influences. I also believe in science and psychology. I know that realities can be shaped and understood through various ways of being that are based on repeatable processes and patterns. As science seeks to map an understanding of materiality, psychology shows that the bounds of materiality are more blurred as consciousness can move between previously established knowledge of time and space. Anomalous phenomena such as extrasensory perception and discarnate voices captured on electronic media and exceptional experiences, including near death experiences (Greyson, 2006) and past life memories (Haraldsson, 2008), have an underlying consequence. They can have profound effects on the human experience. Those effects can induce fear or awe. When working with individuals and clients as a psychospiritual guide, I often refer to the PA’s resources to see what the current research is so that I can help parlay the person’s fear (or awe) regarding these exceptional experiences.

And yet, one thing that lingers is the fact that parapsychology and frontier science do not get as much attention or are not presented with as much integrity as they should be. Media and messaging are skewed by personal (dis)belief. Parapsychology is often, unfortunately, cast as a pseudoscience and, at best, misunderstood by mainstream media. How could it not be? Even in academic publishing, established, peer-reviewed journals are notoriously hesitant to publish articles related to parapsychology (Irwin, 2014). Inevitably, belief in the paranormal will trigger discussions around cognitive function and mental health (Dean et al., 2022).

One thing that lingers is the fact that parapsychology and frontier science do not get as much attention or are not presented with as much integrity as they should be. Media and messaging are skewed by personal (dis)belief.

Unknown

I worked with a woman several years ago who was suffering from debilitating anxiety and confusion. She also presented physical symptoms of dis-ease. As a person in her seventies, she wasn’t in her best physical or mental health. She was cautiously amenable to receiving reiki, which I could provide, but only after I assured her it was not in direct conflict with her faith as a life-long devout Episcopalian. During the series of sessions, while I focused on the healing touch of reiki, I referred to the work of the Windbridge Research Institute (see website for resources). I told her there were scientists “working with this stuff, too” and brought her to a place of ease. One day, during a particularly deep silence, as she reclined in the gravity chair for her session, she burst into tears. She confessed to me that she “could see the future and hear peoples’ thoughts.” She said sometimes she “just knew things,” and that secret (of her inner experience) was something she had never told anyone, especially the priest at her church (external factor). I assured her that what she was experiencing was normal and that many people were looking into these very things. I turned again to the numerous studies underway across the globe. These seemingly simple pieces of information had a profound effect on her. A few days later, she told me she had the best sleep she’d had in a while (somatic experiencing). She had only one session after that, but I saw her several times around town. She was more peace-filled and happy. Her anxiety had lessened, and her body was more at ease.

Her reality changed, and the new experience for her was one in which she could literally say, “I feel better now that someone else knows what I was hiding.”

Imagine what other people might divulge about their inner life or could be changed in beneficial ways if more of the scientific information from parapsychology was made available? I firmly believe that what our community of professional and citizen scientists are doing is of the highest importance. We are advancing human knowledge.

One of the first books I copy-edited was Bio-Inspired and Nanoscale Integrated Computing (for the Nature-Inspired Computing Series), edited by Mary Eshaghian-Wilner and published by John Wiley. I was in my early twenties. I was thrilled to work with authors across the globe. Nanotechnology was “weird stuff” in the early 2000s, and the fact that I was working on a book that was the first in a series meant that I had little precedent to go on. I believe the disbelief in hard material science is related to the unconscious fear that our lives will change because of it (the science). What would we do if tiny robots and nature-replicative systems were a part of our worldview? More than twenty years later, science has matriculated into our society and collective consciousness. We have become the table-tippers of the Victorian Era who were curious about mediums and ectoplasm. We have built upon that curiosity.

I see parallels here with the goals of Mindfield. It is daring to stand with integrity behind the data – the science – and the work that creates it. Essentially, the questions we asked were led by the intention to connect with more people and get information out about what we’re doing as an organization of researchers. The overwhelming consensus was that publishing around parapsychology in the mainstream media is sensationalized and that “sensation sells.” The more outlandish, spooky, extreme stories tend to get the reader’s attention.

Another salient point that has emerged in my work as an editor and writer is the importance of the medium. Digital media is a different machine than hardcopy books. The internet landscape is flooded with good, bad, and ugly information related to science and parapsychology. But, importantly, it’s not all bad. Some information is actually quite good, even though it did not come from scientists and was written for more discoverability. Some people can navigate the wayward publishing landscape on the internet because some information is written with the purpose of being easily found. Mindfield is a bit different. There are historical pieces (reprints, translations, and older material that’s being digitized); original material (solicited through calls for submissions); and other types of submissions (including proceedings from events, bibliographies, organization news, and the like). It’s a fact that we need to “learn how to speak with the algorithms” just to get in front of readers.

It’s a fact that we need to “learn how to speak with the algorithms” just to get in front of readers.

Unknown

And, to further compound this challenge, publishing has always been a sort of gatekeeping industry. What information is made public or produced for consumption is the information that feeds our ideas about what we think we know about the world. Science isn’t sensational – I find it to be downright sobering. It’s one of the reasons I like it. Take the example of my previous client. I think anything but a grounded delivery of information (and reiki treatment) would have fed into her anxiety or held her back from her disclosure. So getting in front of the algorithm, trending, and creating a wave so that more traffic reaches this newly created digital platform for Mindfield is something I’ve been thinking about.

Mindfield is an accessible and high-quality source of information for those who are interested in parapsychology. Whether it’s for pure curiosity or professional application, we hope readers find Mindfield to be an outstanding source of information. In this second installment on the theme “Psi & Fiction,” Everton Maraldi contributes the Presidential Column highlighting the importance of indigenous epistemologies and the increasing influence of Latin America on the evolution of parapsychology. Annalisa Ventola, in her Executive Director Column, reflects on the 2024 AAAS Annual Meeting. We are honored to include Stanley Krippner and Álex Escolà-Gascón’s overview of the 66th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association. In addition, Joanna Ebenstein also provides a review of the convention highlighting the diverse nature of talks and researchers as well as their careful approach to science. Sydney Chesley’s essay highlights inner life (NDEs) and how this is reflected in a meaningful way in the external world (popular entertainment). David Mitchell discusses the Netflix show Paranormal in relation to parapsychology, including the similarities and differences in framing the paranormal from a Western or Egyptian perspective, stressing the need to better include the latter. Jorge Villanueva overviews the images of ghosts and mediums in cinema from the perspective of Argentina. Renaud Evrard offers a translation of Bertrand Méheust’s “The Limits of a Phenomenon, or Reflection by the Absurd Applied to Ufology,” an historical article that shows the persistence across time of UFO phenomena and the inquisition around its nature. Finally, Maurice van Luijtelaar and Renaud Evrard present their expansive and invaluable forty-third installment of “Articles Relevant to Parapsychology in Journals of Various Fields,” which includes 406 articles relevant to parapsychologists and scholars of related fields taken from 333 different journals and four conference proceedings.

All of these pieces have the potential to bring the “Eureeka!” moment to the reader – that missing piece of information that brings a shift in personal experience or belief. And with that, we hope this issue of Mindfield helps your reality change in a meaningful way.

References

Dean, C. E., Akhtar, S., Gale, T. M., Irvine, K., Grohmann, D., & Laws, K. R. (2022). Paranormal beliefs and cognitive function: A systematic review and assessment of study quality across four decades of research. PLoS ONE, 17(5), e0267360. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267360

Eshaghian-Wilner, M. M. (Ed.) (2009). Bio-inspired and nanoscale integrated computing. John Wiley and Sons.

Greyson, B. (2006). Near-death experiences and spirituality. Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science, 41(2), 393-414. https://doi.org./10.1111/j.1467-9744.2005.00745.x

Haraldsson, E. (2008). Persistence of past-life memories: Study of adults who claimed in their childhood to remember a past life. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 22(3), 385-393. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmd.0b013e3182718c51

Irwin, H. J. (2014). The major problems faced by parapsychology today: A survey of members of the parapsychological association. Australian Journal of Parapsychology, 14(2), 143-162.