Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page - here's a new book by Emily Pierini of the Religious Experience Research Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, entitled "Jaguars of the Dawn: Spirit Mediumship in the Brazilian Vale do Amanhecer," about mediumship in a Brazilian Spiritualist Christian order:
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PieriniJaguars
Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page - here's an interesting article from the Church Times by Georgina Byrne about a report on spiritualism produced by a Church of England committee in 1939:
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2...nexplained
To the disappointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a majority (9) of the 12 committee members reached a conclusion favourable to spiritualism:
“When every possible explanation of these [spirit] communications has been given, and all doubtful evidence set aside, it is generally agreed that there remains some element as yet unexplained. We think that it is probable that the hypothesis that they proceed in some cases from discarnate spirits is a true one.”
According to Byrne, the minority of 3 "argued that the alleged communications were valueless and open to fraud. They did not, explicitly, say that they were entirely false ..."
The report was disclosed only to bishops until its publication in the 1980s.
Georgina Byrne has written a book entitled "Modern Spiritualism and the Church of England, 1850-1939," which was published in 2010.
A website called "Punk Rock and UFOs" has an article/interview with the journalist Leslie Kean, discussing her interest in UFOs and psychical research, including physical mediumship:
https://www.punkrockandufos.com/blog/202...tagon-ufos
Jason Colavito comments on this (perhaps it would be more accurate to say ridicules it) in his weekly email bulletin, but is oddly confused about what the article says. He thinks Kean has a new interest in psychical research and is working on a book about it with Jeffrey Kripal. In fact she published a book on it three years ago, and what the article says is that she's now working on a documentary series based on the book, and also that she visited Kripal at Rice University in November and gave a presentation there.
Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, Sharon Rawlette
has reviewed a French book by Laurent Kasprowicz the title of which she translates as "Phone Calls from the BEYOND?". Her review was published in volume 34 of the Journal of Scientific Exploration and is available for free
here.
I don't know whether this will remain available, some personal experiences shared by Mark Ireland on the Skeptiko forum:
Survival-Evidence.pdf
Mark Ireland Wrote:People often don't understand the reasons why I - a person they view as grounded and practical - chose to explore and write about psychic phenomena and mediumship. They wonder about my basis for directing bereaved persons to mediums for readings, or “sittings,” as they are also called. Apparently I don’t exude the sort of vibe expected of someone interested in the “paranormal” or the metaphysical because of my sensible approach to things.
Original post:
http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/tr...ost-146554
Family Caregiver Perspectives on End-of-Life Dreams and Visions during Bereavement: A Mixed Methods Approach
has written in at least two threads about his dying mother seeing dead loved ones. It inspired me to look into the phenomenon and I came across this Journal of Palliative medicine research article. It's a dry, scientific paper but interesting if you are able to read such.
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/jpm.2019.0093
Quote:Conclusions
This study is the first to suggest that comfort from ELDVs experienced by the dying can positively influence grief experiences of the bereaved. The importance of ELDVs extends beyond that of the persons having the experience to their loved ones. For this reason, FCGs, alongside clinicians, should be educated on how to distinguish between delirium and ELDVs. A greater understanding and acknowledgment of ELDVs are necessary within the realms of death, dying, and bereavement to improve patient care and clinical outcomes. Future research should aim to further expand the understanding of the impact of ELDVs beyond the dying individual
Bold text is my own formatting for emphasis.
Unlocking the Brain’s Hidden Signals: A Call to Professional Mediums
By IONS Communications Team for the IONS blog on July 10, 2025.
Quote:We are now launching the largest EEG study on mediumship to date, and we are inviting qualified mediums to be a part of it. We aim to recruit 300 participants, including 150 experienced mediums. All participants will complete the study from home using the Muse EEG headband—a lightweight, user-friendly device that records your brain activity while you perform a mediumship task. If you qualify for the study, we will provide you with a device on loan. Please note that there is no monetary compensation for participation.
The experiment is simple, but powerful: you’ll be shown 201 facial images of deceased individuals and asked to intuitively identify their likely cause of death—heart attack, gunshot, or car accident. Your task is not to guess, but to engage your intuitive faculties in a focused and blinded setting.
(Yesterday, 07:00 PM)Laird Wrote: [ -> ]Unlocking the Brain’s Hidden Signals: A Call to Professional Mediums
By IONS Communications Team for the IONS blog on July 10, 2025.
Quote:We are now launching the largest EEG study on mediumship to date, and we are inviting qualified mediums to be a part of it. We aim to recruit 300 participants, including 150 experienced mediums. All participants will complete the study from home using the Muse EEG headband—a lightweight, user-friendly device that records your brain activity while you perform a mediumship task. If you qualify for the study, we will provide you with a device on loan. Please note that there is no monetary compensation for participation.
The experiment is simple, but powerful: you’ll be shown 201 facial images of deceased individuals and asked to intuitively identify their likely cause of death—heart attack, gunshot, or car accident. Your task is not to guess, but to engage your intuitive faculties in a focused and blinded setting.
I actually have no idea what recording an EEG of physical brain activity of mediums engaging purely spiritual faculties is supposed to achieve.
Will it help them "find" the "source" in the brain? Or some other nonsense?
(8 hours ago)Valmar Wrote: [ -> ]I actually have no idea what recording an EEG of physical brain activity of mediums engaging purely spiritual faculties is supposed to achieve.
According to the blog post, they're simply trying to see whether they can more strongly conclude what their three prior studies with smaller samples provocatively suggested: that "there may be measurable, physiological differences in how mediums process intuitive information".
