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Media Watch for June 2006 (Issue 55)
Should Christianity Embrace Mediumship, Healing and Reincarnation? This is the question asked by Milan Ryzl, Ph.D., in the April 2005 The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research (Now the Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, Inc. (ASPSI)). Ryzl explores the usual questions of validity asked about these phenomena by scientists, but does conclude that it is important for Christianity to study them and seriously consider including them as part of the Christian faith. What is interesting in the article, is the view of Spiritism taken by Ryzl. From the article: “… Spiritism must be credited with being the first (religious-and-almost-scientific) movement in modern times which attracted attention to the possibility of obtaining valid information about the spiritual sphere—not merely by following some religious creed, but by serious investigation. This is by directly observing the spiritual realities with the use of ESP while the person is in trance. Of course Spiritists did not use this terminology. What we today call ESP, was for them, ‘communication by spirits.’”
If he had been presented with a good description of Spiritism and Spiritualism, we suspect Ryzl would have used “Spiritualism.” Also, the term, “ESP,” is itself in dispute amongst scientists, but can nevertheless, be conditionally applied to mediumship to describe the mechanism of communication between the medium and the etheric communicator, as mind-to-mind communication. Ryzl’s conclusion that mediumship, spiritual healing and the concept of reincarnation should be included in the Christian belief system is an important point for Spiritualist.
Gender-Specific Inclination to Accept the Evidence of Psi Research: The research of J. E. Kennedy indicates that males tend to be more reluctant to accept the evidence of psychical research supporting the reality of such abilities as telepathy and psychokinesis. In a report to the American Society for Psychical Research, he concluded, “The emerging evidence indicates that the polarization of attitudes towards psi may result from deep-seated personality factors with substantial genetic components. For extreme believers, psi is associated with spirituality. Like many matters involving spirituality, psi effects may be largely outside the domain of science. This is particular true for paranormal effects that are believed to be manifestations of divine intervention. Rather than expecting that one side can prevail through science or force of argument, it may be more realistic to view the polarization of psi beliefs like other fundamental personality and sex differences. A reasonably enlightened society comes to recognize, tolerate, accept and often see value in these basic differences among people.” From: The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, “The Polarization of Psi Beliefs: Rational, Controlling, Masculine Skepticism Versus Interconnected, Spiritual, Feminine Belief.” By J. E. Kennedy, January-April 2003
Comment: The Spiritualist view is that the existence of subtle energy of psi functioning and spiritual healing has been substantially proven, and that the principles governing its behavior are knowable. With that said, the above articles highlights the importance of recognizing that what is by now so obvious, may be seen by some as articles of faith and therefore not able to be proven. Happiness Brings Success: There is a lot of research that shows an association between happiness and success. One might think that success brings happiness but a study conducted by Sonja Lyubomirsky and colleagues at the University of California reviewed 225 studies involving more than 275,000 participants and found that happiness doesn’t just flow from success but instead actually causes it.
There were three kinds of study: cross-sectional research, longitudinal research, and lab-based experimental research. The cross-sectional studies showed that happy people tend to have more successful relationships, careers and better health. The longitudinal studies showed that happiness tended to precede fulfilling work, satisfying relationships and a long life. The experimental studies showed that short-term positive feelings increased people’s sociability, altruism, how much they liked themselves and others, improved their ability to resolve conflicts and boosted their immune systems. From: S. Lyubomirsky, L. King and E. Diener. (2005). “The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success?” Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855.
How Being Ill can be Good for You: The characters of people who recover from physical or psychological illness are strengthened by the experience. That’s the suggestion of an internet-based study by positive psychologists Christopher Peterson and colleagues. Over two thousand participants completed a 240 item questionnaire about their character strengths. The researchers point out that participants were not explicitly primed to respond in terms of a survivor identity because they were not asked about any previous physical or psychological illness that they had suffered until the end of the survey.
Peterson’s team found that, compared to participants who had always been well, those who had recovered from a physical illness scored slightly higher on bravery, curiosity, fairness, forgiveness, gratitude, humor, kindness, love of learning, spirituality and appreciation of beauty. Those who had recovered from psychological illness showed a slight increased in appreciation of beauty, creativity, curiosity, gratitude and love of learning From: C. Peterson, N. Park and Seligman, M.E.P. (2006). “Greater strengths of character and recovery from illness.” The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 17-26.
Homeopathy Tests: Madeleine Ennis, a pharmacologist at Queen’s University in Belfast, was outraged by claims that a chemical remedy could be diluted to the point where it did not contain a single molecule of anything but water and yet somehow have the ability to heal. So, she set out to prove that Homeopathic remedies were nothing more then a bunch of nonsense.
Her team looked at the effects of ultra-diluted solutions of histamine on human white blood cells involved in inflammation. The study found that homeopathic solutions diluted to the point that they probably didn’t even contain a single histamine molecule still worked just like histamine. The study was replicated in four different labs. From: New Scientist, “Thirteen Things That Do Not Make Sense,” by Michael Brooks March 19, 2005.
Scary Television: In his December 2005 Psychic World column, “Most Haunted Revisited,” Billy Roberts pointed out that English television psychic, Derek Acorah, has a penchant for using nonsensical terms to describe hauntings situations. He notes that such terms as, “It’s residual” or “He’s in visitation,” are being adopted by people whose only knowledge of the paranormal is learned from such television programs.
Roberts also said that his Paranormal Study Center has received numerous requests for help with “malevolent spirits.” He reports that many of the problems are the result of fear learned through the media. For instance, a mother requested help because her daughter repeatedly fell into a trance. Roberts found that the girl was an Acorah fan and had learned to “go into trance” by watching him.
Robert ended by expressing concern that the media was teaching people to fear spirit communication. We have also made that connection from the thousands of contacts we have had since the fearful movie, White Noise, was released. Most people contacting us apparently thought the movie had faithfully portrayed spirit communication (which it definitely had not) and many expressed fear that trying any form of spirit communication might attract a demon to harm their family. It is clear that the media is fast educating an entire generation of people to believe that anything etheric is fearful. This is proving to be a disservice to the public that is causing real harm for many people.
Sequel to What the Bleep: Although the movie, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, was turned down by traditional movie producers and mainstream movie houses, it became a hit through word of mouth at independent film venues. The movie won five independent film awards. The sequel, What the Bleep Do We Know!?: Discovering the Endless Possibilities for Altering Your Everyday Reality, is due out spring 2006. There will be interviews with a new cast of scientists including Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
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