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Media Watch for May 2006 (Issue 54)
Healing Prayers: A survey of 31,000 adults released by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that forty-three percent of patients surveyed prayed for their own health while twenty-four Percent had others pray for their health. Blind Woman Knows Colors by Touch: In Germany, a blind woman has confounded scientists after proving on television that she can distinguish between colors by touch. Gabriele Simon revealed her ability on her country’s most popular TV show, Wetten dass, by using her fingertips to recognize the different colors of various blouses and t-shirts while blindfolded. Gabriele says that it took her twenty years to master this skill and that it was a combination of pure learning and concentration. From: Ananova “Blind woman recognises colour by touch” www.ananova.com
Ability to Control Pain: For the first time anywhere in the world, psychologists at the California-based company, Omneuron, and Stanford University, have demonstrated that people can be taught how to reduce their experience of pain with the aid of real-time images of their brain activity. Healthy participants had a painful stimulus applied to the back of their hand. At the same time they learned to use mental strategies, such as concentrating on another part of their body or viewing the pain as a neutral experience, to control levels of activity in their anterior cingulate gyrus (a brain area known to be involved in pain perception). Their brain activity was displayed to them live using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging. All the while, they provided a continuous rating of how painful the stimulus was.
The researchers found that the pain was perceived as being significantly less intense when the participants reduced the activity in their anterior cingulate gyrus compared with when they increased activity in that region. A similar effect was observed when the experiment was repeated with patients suffering from chronic pain. They were able to reduce their pain by lowering activity in their anterior cingulate. From: “Control over brain activation and pain learned by using real-time functional MRI,” by deCharms, R.C., Fumiko, M., Glover, G.H., Ludlow, D., Pauly, J.M., Soneji, D., Gabrieli, J.D.E. & Mackey, S.C. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. In Press, DOI:10.1073/pnas.0505210102.
Religion Losing Out to the Paranormal: People are more likely to believe in ghosts and the paranormal than they are to have faith in an organized religion, according to a survey conducted by a Scottish Paranormal organization. Two thirds of those surveyed said that they believed in the existence of ghosts and supernatural spirits. While only fifty-five percent of the 2000 people questioned said they had faith in a religion and believed in a god. From: Scotsman.com News, “Religion loses our to belief in paranormal,” http://news.scotsman.com
Student Exorcists: The Vatican’s Rome university has a ten-week course that includes sessions in exorcism rites, how to talk to the Devil, the tricks he uses to fight back and signs of the occult hidden in rock music and video games. The course has been created to combat what the Vatican sees as a rise in satanic practices and fetishism. Students receive a paper detailing a ten-point guide to recognize and prevent interest in the occult. They also attend classes in psychology so that priests can distinguish between “real cases” of satanic possession and illnesses such as schizophrenia. Last year, Pope Benedict XVI praised the 180 students attending the class who were gathered at a secret location outside Rome. From: the The Washington Post, “University teaches course in exorcism” Oct 28, 2005
Church Condemns Paranormal Course: Church leaders condemned a course in paranormal studies at Cirencester College as “potentially dangerous.” The five, two-hour classes were conducted by medium, Sharon Gound. The Arch Deacon of Cheltenham, the Venerable Hedley Ringrose, said he feared “vulnerable” students would not be able to cope with the experience. The course involves Ms. Gound contacting her “spirit guides” to whom students can pose questions. But the Venerable Rignrose said, “My message to the college would be to be aware that the Christian churches offer ministry to those who are bereaved, not through contact with those they have lost, but pastorally.” The college said its role was to open up educational opportunities From: BBC New http://news.bbc.co.uk
Call for Proactive Research: In a response to an article in the Society for Psychical Researche’s magazine, Paranormal Review, regarding the future of the SPR, Donald J. West wrote, “One way in which the SPR could return to a proactive research role would be by funding and providing facilities for independent researchers who could tackle areas of work (notably phenomena occurring in spiritualistic settings) that are considered by university departments too way out, too sensitive, or too difficult to bring under laboratory control. From: Paranormal Review, October 2005, Issue 3
Scientists are Spiritual: Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston, polled 1,646 scientists at twenty-one research universities and received some surprising results. Seventy percent agreed with the statement, “There are basic truths in religion” and Sixty-eight percent said that they were a “spiritual person.” One third said that they did “not believe in God.” From: The Washington Times, “Scientists’ Spirituality Surprises,” by Jennifer Harper, August 15, 2005.
Nine Lives: Steven Spielberg will be making a twelve-hour miniseries titled, “Nine Lives,” for the Sci Fi Channel. “Nine Lives” will focus on characters who are each grieving over the loss of a loved one and somehow discover how to reunite with them in the afterlife through near-death experiences.
Carrington’s “Spirit Box” Sold: A box made and used by Hereward Carrington to test physical mediumship sold last year on Ebay, the Internet auction website, for almost $750. The small wooden box designed by Carrington was said to have the original bell wires and battery. Author Simon Forsyth wrote, “When pressure was exerted upon the lid of the box it pressed down upon two metal contacts which completed an electrical circuit. This caused a bell inside the box to ring.” Over 350 of Carrington’s private letters from notable psychical researchers were also sold. From: The PsychicTimes.com, “Carrington’s spirit box sold on Ebay,” by Simon Forsyth http://thepsychictimes.com/news/spiritbox.htm
SPR Looking for Paranormal Experiences: The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) shares reader’s experiences in their magazine, The Paranormal Review. They are looking for people to send in accounts of paranormal experiences to John Crabbe, Experiences Editor. The address to use is Paranormal Review, C/O SPR, 49 Marloes Road, London W8 6LA, UK The editor welcomes supporting evidence with the account but it is not necessary. Historical Spirit Drawings and Photography: The archives of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) contain many special collections of spirit drawings and photographs. In recent years the ASPR has loaned pieces from its Shaker collection for exhibit at the Drawing Center in New York City and the Hammer Gallery in Los Angeles. They also provided photos for the exhibit of spirit photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in late 2005.
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