The Society for Psychical Research

Anyone reading this blog who considers themselves to be a student of the paranormal will find that the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a very important resource. The organization was founded in 1882 and has a long history of scholarly investigations to its credit.

You can read a brief overview of the SPR in my online edition of my book, The Roots of Consciousness. And, I would also encourage you to visit the Society's webpage. Should you decide to join the Society, you will have access to their considerable online archive.

The graphic shown above is taken from the cover of the most recent issue of the Journal published by the Society. And, there are two articles in particular to which I would like to call attention.

The first of these was written by Seattle psychiatrist Vernon M. Neppe -- who was also a former chess champion in South Africa. Neppe provides a detailed -- and very insightful -- analysis of a chess match between grandmaster Victor Korchnoi and an ostensibly deceased, Hungarian chess master named Geza Maroczy. (Maroczy's chess moves were obtained through the auspices of a spiritualist medium.) I have reported on this case in a previous blog. Now, Neppe's analysis adds further detail and greatly increases the credibility of this case.

I regard this particular case to be of great importance for our understanding of the possible survival of human personality after death. It involves more than the mere communication of information from a paranormal source -- but the demonstration of a rare talent that, apparently, has survived the grave. The case is particularly interesting to me because of my own theory of Archetypal Synchronistic Resonance (ASR) that can be viewed as a potential alternative to the survival hypothesis. However, to be honest, I am hard pressed to explain this chess match as an example of ASR.

The other article that I found significant is the book review by John Poynton of a very obscure volume written by the South African physicist and mathematician J. H. M. Whiteman called Old and New Evidence on the Meaning of Life: The Mystical World-View and Inner Contest. Vol. 3. Universal Theology and Life in Other Worlds. I have referred to Whiteman, and a synchronicity involving his death earlier this year, in a previous blog. His work, in my estimation, is very important. He is one of the rare individuals gifted both with unusual mystical powers of insight and a contemporary education in science. Nevertheless, because of these highly refined talents, his work is hard to follow. John Poynton, to his credit, provides a very elegant, concise and insightful analysis of Whiteman's last book.

I would be remiss if I did not also mention that this issue of the Journal also includes a replication of an important parapsychological experimental study on the phenomenon known as presentiment. It involves brain measurements showing a sensitivity to emotionally charged stimuli -- before they are presented.

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