Methodological Advances in Laboratory-Based Mediumship Research

As with the study of any natural phenomenon, bringing mediumship into the

regulated environment of the laboratory allows for the controlled and repeated examination of anomalous information reception by mediums. It also lends statistically analyzed support to the survival of consciousness hypothesis and addresses the relationship between consciousness and brain. Optimally, laboratory-based mediumship research includes two equally important factors: a) a research environment that optimizes the mediumship process for both the medium and the hypothesized discarnate and b) research methods that maximize the experimental blinding of the medium, the rater, and the experimenter, in order to eliminate all conventional explanations for the information and its accuracy and specificity[...].

We provided above an excerpt of the article from Julie Beischel, PhD and Gary E. Schwartz, PhD, from the VERITAS Research Program Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health, Department of Psychology at The University of Arizona.

Their study entitled: “Methodological Advances in Laboratory-Based Mediumship Research”, is an attempt to use empirical methods to provide evidence of life after death. You can download and read the entire article here.

Filed under: Articles, Mediumship, Science , Mediumship, Research

Lessons on Life

Source: Masaru Emoto’s Website

There was an Indian Chief who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the Winter, the second in the Spring, the third in Summer, and the youngest son in the Fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no, it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The Chief then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life.
He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it’s Winter, you will miss the promise of Spring, the beauty of Summer, and the fulfillment of Fall.

Moral of the story:
Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don’t judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time.

Live Simply
Love Generously
Care Deeply
Speak Kindly, &
Leave the Rest to God
Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Failures keep You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
But Only God keeps You Going!

Filed under: Articles

The Window

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, ‘Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.’

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy. ‘Today is a gift, that’s why it is called the present.’

The origin of this letter is unknown.

Filed under: Articles

Strategies for Spiritist Groups

Dissemination of our philosophy is important. More important though, is to make sure the work is done right. That is why the United States Spiritist Council has developed a document to guide those who are devoted to the mission of spreading the teachings of our philosophy in the United States.

Please click here to download the document.

Filed under: Articles

Practical Guide For Magnetic and Spiritual Healing

Organized by Jussara Korngold, this book is an excellent source for those seeking information about magnetic and spiritual healing.

The book is provided for FREE at the Spiritist Group of NY’s website. Or click here for a direct link to the pdf format of the book.

Filed under: Healing, Mediumship

150 of Spiritism – Video

Elaborated by the Spiritist Society of Baltimore, this video is an excellent overview of the Spiritist Philosophy.

Filed under: Videos

The spirit world and the material world

Source: Spiritist Group of NY

Spirits, because their envelope (perispirit) is only semi-material, exist in a series of dimensions different from the physical world we interact with in our daily lives. In Spiritism our world is commonly called the ‘material world’ and the dimensions inhabited by Spirits are collectively called ‘the spiritual world’. It is important to understand that the spiritual and material worlds do not exist separately, like different planets in a solar system. Instead, they exist simultaneously occupying the same space in the universe.

Filed under: Mediumship

What Are Spirits?

“Spirits are not, as many think, abstract, vague, indefinite beings, nor are they anything like a luminosity or a spark. Quite to the contrary, they are very real beings, with clear identities and shapes.” – Kardec (“Spiritism Easily Explained”)

Filed under: Fundamentals

Metaphysics for your mind

SOURCE: http://www.mythoughtcoach.com/science.asp

Scientists are beginning to prove more and more convincingly that thoughts are POWERFUL things.

In November 2006, on a special edition of CNN’s Larry King Live, Mr. King interviewed a panel of “mind experts” about how our thoughts literally create the events we experience, the material things we possess, and even the health of our bodies. On the show, panel experts Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and others who were featured in the movie ‘The Secret’ explained that recent breakthroughs in neuroscience along with understanding mental laws, reveals why goal setting, the “law of attraction” and “positive thinking” all work, regardless of whether you look at them from a metaphysical or a scientific perspective.

Filed under: Mediumship, Science

Brief refletions about the effectiveness of the prayer

Translation of Vania Borges Camargo
vaniabc@brturbo.com.br

The healing mediunity does not come to supplant medicine and doctors; it simply comes to prove that there are things that they don’t know and invite to study them; that nature has resources that they ignore; that the spiritual element that they ignore is not a chimera, and that, when they take it into account they will open new horizons to science and will be more successful than now”. ( 1)

There are researches about the effects of the prayer in the health of people. One of them was performed by the Laboratory of Cellular Immunology of the University of Medicine of the University of Brasília, with the active participation of more than fifty-two students of medicine, from 2000 to 2003. The research, as its results published in the major newspapers of the Country, showed positive results which were materialized in the increase of cellular stability in individuals who received prayers.

According to the study under discussion, one of the main defense mechanisms of the organism – the phagocytosis (*) – may have its function stabilized with prayers made at a distance. “In the analysis of the fifty-two volunteers, each week a pair provided blood samples and answered a questionnaire about stress. A picture of the volunteer would be forwarded, identified only by the name, to a group of ten religious people from different creeds, who, for one week, would make prayers for that person. Coordinated by the immunology professor Carlos Eduardo Tosta, the research lasted three years. ( 2)

Filed under: Prayer