Text Resources Thread

Please post links to text files (journal papers, Web articles, etc.) here.

First post here - hello everybody!
https://thesearchforlifeafterdeath.com/2017/08/13/spiritual-and-religious-apathy-consequences-for-life-and-the-afterlife/
 
Being pretty anti-religion - but pro spirituality - I found this piece interesting.
I know the author personally who, as you will see, is well into the Seth material.

Courtesy of the Daily Grail, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry website has a new article on William James by Stuart Vyse, described as "an expert on irrational behavior":
https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/s...e_psychics

Based on a quick look, it doesn't appear very objective to me, and I don't think I can spare the time to read it, but I'm posting the link in case anyone is interested.

The Magonia Review has a positive review by Robin Carlile of a recent book by James McClenon entitled "The Entity Letters: A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery", about his experience of the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT) in the 1980s. This group was associated with Duke University, but was terminated after suspicions of fraud arose:
http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2018/06/e...ities.html

Near death, seeing dead people may be neither rare nor eerie

Though his eyes were closed while terminally ill from lung disease on that day four years ago, laughter unexpectedly emerged from Albin Langus.

“I said ‘Dad, what are you laughing at?’ He said, ‘Oh, we’re all together.’ ”

The bewildered Ms. Roncevich and her mother wondered who and what he was seeing. He was even giggling.

“He said, ‘Everybody’s together and we’re all just having a wonderful time. We’re having so much fun’ ... and those were the last words he spoke,”

Edit: I've had some difficulties getting the linked page to load. The same information is I think replicated on other sites.

Feb. 2, 2016, NY Times
A New Vision for Dreams of the Dying

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/healt....html?_r=0

[Ninshub]

The Magonia Review has a positive review by Robin Carlile of a recent book by James McClenon entitled "The Entity Letters: A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery", about his experience of the Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT) in the 1980s. This group was associated with Duke University, but was terminated after suspicions of fraud arose:
http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2018/06/e...ities.html

McClenon is interviewed on this podcast:

https://shatteredrealitypodcast.wordpres...nd-sorrat/

Kate Valentine and Fahrusha welcomed Dr. James McClenon to Shattered Reality Podcast.  He has written a book called The Entity Letters, A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery. It is the story of a group of individuals, the SORRAT sitter group (Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis) who engaged in 50 years telekinetic experimentation. The witnessed effects included table tipping and levitation, poltergeist phenomena, earthquake effects and rapping. Most amazingly then entities purportedly communicated with the members of the SORRAT group by mail! Interestingly just about everyone who actually sat in with the SORRAT group over the course of time came to accept the phenomena as real, whereas everyone who did not experience the phenomena in person, tended to believe that it was impossible and therefore, falsified.

Dr. James McClenon faithfully documents his experiences with the group from the viewpoint of a sociologist. He was unable to discover any plausible method by which all of the phenomena could have been falsified. Though any individual phenomenon could have been rigged, all of the phenomena together would have taken enormous skill and the co-operation of a number of individuals over there course of many years to falsify. He did not find any collusion between the participants, nor any sustained motivation to collude. Some of the phenomena happened at various locations, specifically occasions of the “rapping” which even occurred at McClenon’s home.

Cal Cooper at the University of Northampton is conducting a survey of after-death communications during bereavement. 

https://northampton.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/...stionnaire

The objective of this international 2-year research project is to gain a better understanding of the phenomenology and the impact of perceived spontaneous After-Death Communications. The data collected on the basis of the present questionnaire are expected to provide insights into the profile of the experients; the profile of the deceased person allegedly initiating the contact; the circumstances of occurrence; the type, unfolding and message of ADCs; and their impact on experients. The outcome should permit disclosure of this hidden social phenomenon to the scientific community and the public by means of publications, conferences, and media events.

(Thanks to K9! for originally posting this information.)

By an odd coincidence the SPR Facebook page has a link to a paper by Karina Stengaard Kamp and Helena Due entitled "How many bereaved people hallucinate about their loved one? A systematic review and meta-analysis of bereavement hallucinations", in press in the Journal of Affective Disorders:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...2718301551

It's an interesting topic. However, I wasn't sure whether the clause "during bereavement" was specified simply to narrow the scope of the survey, or because it was considered fundamental. The opening sentence reads, quote:

A perceived spontaneous and direct After-Death Communication (ADC) occurs when a mourner unexpectedly perceives a deceased person through the senses of sight, hearing, smell, or touch.

Now the term 'mourner' carries with it the implied meaning that a person is going through what can be a difficult and distressing period following a loss, and perhaps might carry a suggestion that a person's state of mind is in some way 'unbalanced'.

Certainly I'd have to disagree with that statement as a definition, since After-Death Communication (ADC) can occur long after the mourning process has played out - even accepting that the duration is unspecified. I'd say it isn't a necessary condition - though it may be one of increased probability. The only real condition I'd say is the simple fact that the communication originates from someone at any time after their death. My point here is that sceptics may point to the distress of mourning as contributing to a kind of 'wishful thinking', however spontaneous ADCs can occur during times of ordinary happy existence, in complete absence of any particular stress or loss.