Spirituality: The Legacy of Parapsychology

Abstract

SummarySpirituality is a topic of recent interest. Mindfulness, for example, a concept derived from the Buddhist tradition, has captivated the imagination of clinicians who package it in convenient intervention programs for patients. Spirituality and religion have been researched with reference to potential health benefi ts. Spirituality can be conceptualised as the alignment of the individual with the whole, experientially, motivationally and in action. For spirituality to unfold its true potential it is necessary to align this new movement with the mainstream of science, and vice versa. Hence, both a historical review, and a systematic attempt at integration is called for, which we are trying to give here. It is useful to go back to one of the roots: parapsychology. Parapsychology was founded as a counter movement to the rising materialist paradigm in the 19th century. Adopting the methods of the natural sciences, it tried to prove the direct infl uence of consciousness on matter. After 125 years this mission must be declared unaccomplished. Surveying the database of parapsychological research it is obvious that it will not convince sceptics: Although there are enough exceptional fi ndings, it has in general not been possible to reproduce them in replication experiments. Th is is, however, a characteristic signature of a category of eff ects which we call eff ects of generalised entanglement, predicted by a theoretical model analogous to quantum theory. Using this perspective, parapsychological eff ects can be understood, and the original aim of the founding fathers can be recovered, as well as a new, systematic understanding of spirituality be gained. Generalised entanglement is a formal and scientifi c way of explaining spirituality as alignment of an individual with a whole, which, according to the model, inevitably leads to non-local correlations.

Generalised Quantum Theory—Basic Idea and General Intuition: A Background Story and Overview

“…This exactly matches the empirical situation (Walach and Jonas 2007;Walach et al 2009;von Stillfried 2010). This is why we think that the experimental model in parapsychology has utterly failed or is doomed to failure and will be abandoned in the long run (Walach et al 2009). This is also why we think that GQT and the model of generalised entanglement might offer a new purview here.…”

“…Thus, if someone replicates an experiment, say in telepathy, repeatedly and under controlled conditions, one would assume that initial effect sizes might be sizeable, but would either turn negative or dwindle (von Lucadou 1990(von Lucadou , 1991. This exactly matches the empirical situation (Walach and Jonas 2007;Walach et al 2009;von Stillfried 2010). This is why we think that the experimental model in parapsychology has utterly failed or is doomed to failure and will be abandoned in the long run (Walach et al 2009).…”

“…A significant number of authors have meanwhile noted this ''reproducibility-problem'' as a characteristic feature of parapsychological research (Bierman 1980;Braud 1985;Stevenson 1990;von Lucadou 1991;Batcheldor 1994;Beloff 1994;Houtkooper 1994;White 1994;Haraldsson and Houtkooper 1995;Blackmore 1999;Bierman 2001;Kennedy 2001;Atmanspacher and Jahn 2003;Dunne and Jahn 2003;Kennedy 2003;Walach et al 2009). This finding provides indirect evidence for the hypothesis that if these phenomena exist they are likely not of a causal nature in the standard sense.…”

“…More importantly, there is no potential theory within a purely causal worldview that could explain how such influences-from one mind to another, from one mind to a material system, from one mind to its future states and events-might possibly occur. It is probably the lack of a consistent theoretical model that poses the greatest difficulties, together with the fact that there is indeed a problem with experimental replicability (Walach and Schmidt 2005;Walach et al 2009). The model of generalised non-locality might be able to tackle both problems at once (Lucadou et al 2007;von Stillfried 2010).…”

“…This would be a natural reconstruction of what is normally called ''spirituality'': an alignment of the individual with the whole through repeated acts of entrainment, through, for instance, meditation or other ritualistic acts of aligning individual consciousness with the larger whole (Walach et al 2009). …”