Dr. Sheldrake is the author of  Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Animal Powers, Crown Publishing Group, 1999

Comment: This experiment is being widely discussed on the Internet, probably because the tests so decisively demonstrated that either telepathy or precognition was involved. Proof of the concept of survival of bodily death depends on the existence of subtle energy and an aspect of ourselves that extends beyond the physical body. Thus, decisively proving the existence of any psi effect, such as telepathy, goes a long way toward proving survival.

Experiments Show Pattern Supporting the Existence of Telepathy. Dr Paul Stevens, who has been conducting experiments at Edinburgh University’s world-famous parapsychology unit, reported that: “Our research is not yet complete, but we may have found a significant pattern which we hope will demonstrate psychic ability and the underlying mechanisms responsible for it.”

The experiments involve emotionally close couples who are in soundproof rooms 25 meters apart. One person views a randomly selected video while the other talks, using “stream of consciousness” to describe what he or she senses. Both are connected to lie detector-like devices that indicate the subjects become simultaneously aroused when the receiver’s words are relevant to the video. “It looks as though the sender is sending out some kind of ‘signal’ to the receiver,” said Stevens, who believes electro-magnetic fields are responsible for the signal which he is measuring using a magnetometer. From The Scotsman News, “Science experiment picks up telepathic ‘signals’” by Nicola Pay

Congo African Gray Parrot reads owner’s mind. The N’kisi Project is a series of controlled experiments and ongoing research in interspecies communication and telepathy conducted by Aimee Morgana and her language-using parrot N’kisi. The video document “Initial Interspecies Telepathy Experiments,” is a research project with the collaboration and support of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake.

You may remember that we reported on this psychic bird in the February 2002 DPE Report. Since then, we have found a better report on this research. It is noted in this report that, “N’kisi appears to telepathically “surf” the leading edge of Aimee's consciousness, responding to the spontaneous moment of discovery rather than to any consciously projected thoughts. Aimee found that her state of mind was critical, and if she intentionally tried to “send” the information, it wouldn't work. N’kisi responded best when Aimee's full attention was genuinely immersed in exploring the images, without any thought of the experiments.”

The report indicates that the study was strictly controlled against cues from any normal sensory means, and chance coincidence, and that, “… these experiments provide compelling evidence of interspecies telepathy. This phenomenon is currently unexplained within the dominant scientific model. We are continuing our research and documentation of this astonishing phenomenon. Aimee and N’kisi's ongoing work exploring avian use of language opens a fascinating new window into our understanding of the animal mind. The fact that these experiments statistically prove that N’kisi's use of speech is not random also gives evidence of his sentience and intentional use of language. Though our work is just beginning, N’kisi has already shown aspects of intelligence that animals were thought to be incapable of, particularly a species that shares so little genetic similarity with humans.” From The N’kisi Project, www.sheldrake.org/nkisi/

Telepathy. The January issue of the science magazine Focus carried an article on telepathy by Robert Matthews. Matthews concluded his article by saying, “By the standards of conventional science, the evidence in favor of telepathy is surprisingly strong, and certainly much stronger than many scientists would have the public believe.” From Paranormal Review, July 2002, “Mediawatch” by Guy Lyon Playfair

British TV Program on OBE. BBC2 ran a very positive show in February 2003 called The Day I Died. The statements by patients, surgeons, physicians and neurologists supported near-death experiences and according to an article in The Paranormal Review, “… somewhat outweighed those of psychologist Susan Blackmore, still gallantly fighting for her ‘no such things as psi’ cause. What was needed, she said, was convincing evidence that specific verifiable information had been received by a totally unconscious person. Drs. Peter Fenwick, Bruce Greyson, Sam Parnia, and Michael Sabom, plus a succession of near-death experiencers (one of whom had been totally blind since birth) duly provided lots of it. Oh dear.”

From: The Society for Psychical Research, Paranormal Review, July 2002, “Mediawatch” by Guy Lyon Playfair

Chair in Parapsychology. Sweden’s Lund University, one of the oldest seats of learning in Scandinavia, will take a leap into the unknown by appointing northern Europe’s first professor of parapsychology, hypnology and clairvoyance. Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Scotland’s Edinburgh University also have chairs in parapsychology.

From The Economic Times Sept 21, 2003 “Swedish varsity to appoint ‘ghost professor,’” http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

Negative Bias of the Sitter in Mediumship. You may be familiar with the well publicized series of experiments conducted by Dr. Gary Schwartz and colleagues concerning the validity of mediumship. It has come to light in those experiments that mediums had more difficulty obtaining detailed information from sitters who had not experienced the death of someone close and who were skeptical about mediumship in general. This was reported in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, April 2003 in the article, “Evidence of Anomalous Information Retrieval Between Two mediums: Replication in a Double-Blind Design.”

We have previously reported about the “Experimenter Effect.” In this effect, psi experiments conducted by an experimenter who expects a negative outcome will generally produce a negative outcome. Now it appears there is growing evidence amongst the decisive proof of mediumship, that people who ask mediums for messages, but who do not expect the medium to deliver a meaningful message, will not be disappointed. We remember witnessing a medium approach a member of the congregation with a message during church message service, only to flounder as the sitter indicated a lack of recognition of the discarnate entity who was present and seeking to communicate. This research seems to indicate that the problem is not with the medium, but with the sitter who may not know how to be receptive to such greetings from Spirit.

As we have noted with Electronic Voice Phenomena, Dr. Schwartz notes in his report that the only theory that fully explains his experimental results is the “Continuance of Consciousness Hypothesis.” In at least one of his experimental protocols, a mental medium in one room is given a message from a witness. The medium then conveys the message to a “Hypothesized” cooperating discarnate entity who then relays the message to a second mental medium in a different room. Since the second medium does not know who is giving what message when, telepathy is effectively ruled out as an explanation, leaving only the discarnate entity as a possible means for the message to be relayed.