Crisis Apparitions in Psychology Today

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Interesting when a psi-friendly article like this appears in the mainstream Psychology Today:

From good ol' Steve Taylor of course...

Encounters at the Time of Death
The puzzle of "crisis apparitions."
April 29, 2022

Can crisis apparitions be explained in terms of mundane factors such as coincidence, wishful thinking, or self-deception? Since they seem so bizarre, it might seem sensible to adopt such explanations. However, I think they are highly dubious. The chances of someone like Billie Holiday inadvertently “guessing” the unexpected moment of her mother’s death would be way beyond any measure of probability.

A skeptic might also argue that people retrospectively deceive themselves into believing they have the experiences as a way of coping with the pain of bereavement. However, this also seems highly unlikely, since the experiences are often reported immediately. It’s also important to note that, as with Billie Holiday, many people who have crisis apparitions don’t believe in psi or the supernatural, so wouldn’t be cognitively primed to deceive themselves in this way.

(...) I’m not entirely sure how to interpret these experiences. However, they are certainly a reminder that—as I have pointed out in my book Spiritual Science—our culture’s standard materialist worldview is inadequate. They are a reminder that, in the words of Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play, “There are more things in heaven and earth…than are dreamt of in [our] philosophy.”

Some academics and scientists believe that we have a fairly complete and reliable understanding of how the world works and that we can deny the existence of anomalous experiences such as crisis apparitions. But it’s inevitable that there are vast ranges of phenomena beyond those which we can understand or explain. We are only animals after all, with a limited awareness and understanding. Reality will always be more mysterious than we can comprehend—which is one of the reasons why life is such an exhilarating experience.

I don't think the article told anyone here anything they did not know already, so I suppose its significance is really that it was allowed to appear in Psychology Today.

I don't think the article told anyone here anything they did not know already, so I suppose its significance is really that it was allowed to appear in Psychology Today.

what's happening here?

Interesting when a psi-friendly article like this appears in the mainstream Psychology Today:

From good ol' Steve Taylor of course...

Encounters at the Time of Death
The puzzle of "crisis apparitions."
April 29, 2022

I'm not sure about this part:

Or is it possible—as some psi researchers have suggested—that the experiences can be explained in some form of telepathy? That is, as a person dies, they make telepathic contact with friends and relatives, who are able to sense their death. It’s true that psi research suggests that telepathy is most likely to occur between people with strong emotional bonds. However, telepathy as it is normally reported is much less specific and direct than these experiences. It is usually limited to sensing information or intentions, rather than visions and conversations.

I do agree that the Super Psi explanation has to contend with the question of why people who have no demonstrable psi-ability seem to acquire only when it comes time to pretend to be an apparition, however I think these claims of psi not having some expected strength are not well founded.

Rather what I think is important is when people speak of utilizing super-psi they themselves talk of subtle bodies, or that sub-personalities themselves seem to have a spirit-like quality (such as vulnerability to exorcism, existing as an entity within a mind-palace of sorts, etc).

I'm not sure about this part:


I do agree that the Super Psi explanation has to contend with the question of why people who have no demonstrable psi-ability seem to acquire only when it comes time to pretend to be an apparition, however I think these claims of psi not having some expected strength are not well founded.

I don't consider super-PSI to be a valid theory. It is contrived to achieve a particular result by people who don't believe in psi anyway! It is just about always possible to contrive theories like this in science. Unfortunately, parapsychology swallowed the bait!

David

I don't consider super-PSI to be a valid theory. It is contrived to achieve a particular result by people who don't believe in psi anyway! It is just about always possible to contrive theories like this in science. Unfortunately, parapsychology swallowed the bait!

David

I don't think Braude is only pretending to believe in Psi?

I do think Super Psi runs into various issues, I don't know if you saw it but I did a long thread about Super Psi vs Survival awhile back.

There are some aspects of the theory of Super Psi / Living Agent Psi that I think do lend it some weight, but when you think about the paranormal as a whole it would be difficult to keep to the idea. It's one of those "you never know" theories, like the possibility both this life and the afterlife are part of a big Simulation.

I don't think Braude is only pretending to believe in Psi?

I do think Super Psi runs into various issues, I don't know if you saw it but I did a long thread about Super Psi vs Survival awhile back.

There are some aspects of the theory of Super Psi / Living Agent Psi that I think do lend it some weight, but when you think about the paranormal as a whole it would be difficult to keep to the idea. It's one of those "you never know" theories, like the possibility both this life and the afterlife are part of a big Simulation.

I wrote this a while back:
Larry Wrote:[url=https://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-does-anyone-take-super-psi-seriously?pid=35783#pid35783][/url]
Regarding Braude, survival and the super psi hypothesisnote I haven't read anything recently so the following is an impression of him from a while back)
In listening to Braude discuss the super psi hypothesis and survival, which he seemed ambivalent about, I was struck by his expression of human exceptionalism, that is human as opposed to any sort of higher intelligence. It seemed very parrallel to how scientists talk in terms of "the royal WE".
My sense was that he felt "WE" would some day understand all of this and will be able to attribute it to how amazing we humans are, that is claim it for the modern enlightened heroic ego.

I wrote this a while back:
Larry Wrote:[url=https://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-does-anyone-take-super-psi-seriously?pid=35783#pid35783][/url]
Regarding Braude, survival and the super psi hypothesisnote I haven't read anything recently so the following is an impression of him from a while back)
In listening to Braude discuss the super psi hypothesis and survival, which he seemed ambivalent about, I was struck by his expression of human exceptionalism, that is human as opposed to any sort of higher intelligence. It seemed very parrallel to how scientists talk in terms of "the royal WE".
My sense was that he felt "WE" would some day understand all of this and will be able to attribute it to how amazing we humans are, that is claim it for the modern enlightened heroic ego.

Interesting. For me reading him and Alan Gauld list all the crazy suppositions of the Super Psi argument, things they themselves admit seem far-fetched to the reader (Braude's invocation of "magic wand" Psi that is akin to a genie's wish)...it seems to me what strikes them is some aesthetic opposition to the afterlife.

This seems somewhat in line with your take on how Braude thinks, that no matter how strange Psi was it would eventually be found to at least be within the confines of the mortal realm and governed by some principles/laws. But a world of spirits and alternate realities was too much like something cooked up from the old Dungeon and Dragons books where they just threw in everything from gods to aliens to unicorns.

Interesting. For me reading him and Alan Gauld list all the crazy suppositions of the Super Psi argument, things they themselves admit seem far-fetched to the reader (Braude's invocation of "magic wand" Psi that is akin to a genie's wish)...it seems to me what strikes them is some aesthetic opposition to the afterlife.

This seems somewhat in line with your take on how Braude thinks, that no matter how strange Psi was it would eventually be found to at least be within the confines of the mortal realm and governed by some principles/laws. But a world of spirits and alternate realities was too much like something cooked up from the old Dungeon and Dragons books where they just threw in everything from gods to aliens to unicorns.

"it seems to me what strikes them is some aesthetic opposition to the afterlife." or perhaps some atheistic predisposition.
It does seem a little odd to me for someone with that predilection to put that much study and research into such fringe topics.

I'm not sure about this part:


I do agree that the Super Psi explanation has to contend with the question of why people who have no demonstrable psi-ability seem to acquire only when it comes time to pretend to be an apparition, however I think these claims of psi not having some expected strength are not well founded.

Rather what I think is important is when people speak of utilizing super-psi they themselves talk of subtle bodies, or that sub-personalities themselves seem to have a spirit-like quality (such as vulnerability to exorcism, existing as an entity within a mind-palace of sorts, etc).

The problem is that PSI is an ill-defined word. If you define it to include spirit like qualities such as those you list, then you have more or less assumed life after death!

Besides, what I can't stand is that Super-psi is an hypothesis being put forward from a materialist perspective, and as such it is basically a joke.