In the news (general survival research)

[Laird]

This is a general thread for sharing news articles related to general survival research.

I'm seeding it with this article:

Australian artist Lynette Wallworth travels to the Amazon to explore psychedelics and death

Stephan A Russell
14 November, 2025
ABC News

Watching Ross and Dwyer's minds open in Edge of Life is remarkable, as is the peace the treatment brings to many of their patients, who share their stories in the luminous documentary.

"Justin ends up saying, 'We're like babies'," Wallworth says. 

"And honestly, I really think we could do with more humility in Western culture. We have lost a lot of capacity and are on a trajectory to move even further away from the contemplative state."

Muka speaks beautifully on the subject. 

"There are many different possibilities of us understanding death, between the white man's view and Indigenous peoples," he says. 

"Naturally, I don't want to die either. I would like to live forever and have so many stories. But we must understand and accept it."

Muka encouraged the doctors to embrace acceptance. 

"For me, this connection was like bringing light into shadow," Muka says.

The Yawanawá share this wisdom freely, despite the terrible history of colonialism that has ravaged their lands and forcibly obscured their culture.

"Participating in this film strengthens the work we have done, which is asking that the original people must be respected," Muka says.

"When Lynette opened her heart with Tashka, and when they offered us this opportunity, I told myself, 'I'm going to take my values to the world'.

"I hope that this film may be like seeds planted in everyone's heart."

The trailer for the film:

EDGE OF LIFE | Official Trailer | In Cinemas Soon

IONS Survival of Consciousness After Death

Ten experiments proposed

Experiment 1: Apparition in the lab

This experiment would imply inviting a medium to ask for an apparition in a cloud of steam. The apparition would then be caught on a high-speed camera.

Experiment 2: Deceased person communicating through AI

In this experiment, a successful result would mean that a deceased person managed to influence an RNG to produce a meaningful message. In the first experiment, the process would be initiated by a medium asking the deceased person to send a message. Relatives to the deceased person would be invited to judge the relevance of the messages compared to randomly generated messages. 

Experiment 3: Glossolalia

Glossolalia or xenoglossy refers to the phenomenon where a person suddenly speaks in a language they haven’t learned. In this experiment, trance channelers would be asked to channel a language they didn’t know. Their language skills would be tested, and a linguist would evaluate the channeled results.

Experiment 4: Channeling specialized expertise

This experiment is similar to the above one – but the person would channel a skill instead of a language. 

Experiment 5: Mediumship

The setup of this experiment would be to tell ten people in terminal care in hospice to contact one or more of a pool of five mediums, with the message to have the mediums contact the research team within 30 days of sharing the deceased person’s name. The mediums would not be informed about the project.

Experiment 6: Reincarnation

In this experiment, a person about to transition would be told to put some objects in a sealed box. The objects would only be known to the person passing. A child claiming to be the reincarnation of the deceased person would then be located and asked to describe the objects in the box.

Experiment 7: After-death communication

People who reported after-death communication and synchronicities would be recruited. They would be equipped with a camera filming said synchronicities. Independent judges would then evaluate the likelihood that the synchronicities were not due to chance.

Experiment 8: Physical mediumship in daylight

Seances for physical mediumship would be held in daylight, in a highly controlled environment with multiple cameras. Positive results would imply the deceased person materializing or leaving a message.

Experiment 9: OBEs (Out-of-Body experiences) during NDEs

The participants for this experiment would be recruited among people scheduled for medical intervention, including cardiac arrest. In the operating room, random images would be projected near the ceiling, pointing upwards so that no one on the floor could see them. A successful result would indicate patients accurately described the images. 

Experiment 10: Survival through Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This experiment, inspired by science fiction movies, would imply an AI absorbing an individual’s personality and memories. After the person had passed away, they would live on in the android body of the AI. People close to the deceased person would then be asked to evaluate whether the AI behaved identically to the deceased one.

I find it interesting that, if we use all of the veridical evidence of Psi to determine the possible ways the data in some of these experiments could originate, we would be experimenting to rule them out, or include them, as sources or ways of Psi interaction. I find it interesting that the blinders are on when they design experiments with Psi involvement, but ignore the many ways we know Psi acts and interacts.

Like I have said before, I strongly believe that we need to treat this like a jury in a trial, where if there is more than one way to get information or more than one Psi type that can produce these results, we have to figure out how to rule that out, or then leave these options on the table before just jumping into any conclusions from the data. Jumping in without ruling out all the possible sources and interactions is simply bias used to support what you want, and not fact.