Author: Alex Tsakiris

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92. Dr. Rupert Sheldrake’s Telephone Telepathy Project Seeks Intern

Alex Tsakiris
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69
Parapsychology

Biologist, and noted telepathy researcher, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is developing an automated telephone telepathy system and is looking for qualified interns to help. Despite the ever increasing pace of modern life many of us experience brief glimpses of a reality just beyond our grasp.  One such example is the experience of hearing the phone ring and having an unexplainable sense of knowing who is calling.  The phenomenon has been called telephone telepathy by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. Sheldrake, a former Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and current director of the Perrott-Warrick project, has developed a automated system for testing the telephone telepathy phenomenon in the U.K. "The experiments we've run in Britain have yielded impressive results, but the new telephone telepathy system we're developing will allow us to take these tests to the next level and further investigate this interesting phenomenon throughout the U.S. and Canada." Sheldrake continued, "We're in need of talented people with technical and project management experience who can assist in bringing this web-based system to completion.  It's a chance for someone to join a research project that has a chance to fundamentally change long held scientific beliefs about our connection to one and other... it's very exciting." For information on the internship opportunities with Dr. Sheldrake's telephone telepathy project please email intern@telepathyexperiment.com. Play it: Download MP3 (13:15 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and on this episode of Skeptiko I have another brief update for you. If you recall, on the last episode of Skeptiko, we talked a little bit about the Global Consciousness Project and how we've gotten involved with that a little bit. One of the other projects that regular listeners will know that we've been involved with for a long time is some of the research of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. Now as many of you know, Dr. Sheldrake is a long-time friend of the Skeptiko show and was actually one of our first guests on Skeptiko and has been on a couple times since.

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91. Global Consciousness Project Welcomes Collaboration With Skeptics

Alex Tsakiris
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92
Parapsychology
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When it comes to claims of a global consciousness linking us all to tragedies like the earthquake in Haiti, or the terrorist attacks of  9/11, there are many skeptics. While the research results of the 12 year old Global Consciousness Project have withstood serious skeptical examination from researchers who've dug into the millions of test results collected on the publicly available website, skepticism persists. But according to Alex Tsakiris, host of the Skpetiko science podcast, dialog between controversial science researchers and their doubters is a good for science, "it's easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to unconventional science - that's what makes it unconventional - but skeptics need to look deeper... critical thinking demands we're sometimes critical of our own cherished beliefs." Tsakiris continued: "We've helped initiate a collaboration on the Global Consciousness Research Project work of Dr. Roger Nelson, and a skeptical researcher from the University of London named Dr. Chris French.  That's a step in the right direction.  Many skeptics bemoan the lack of interest in science education, but when presented with the chance to explore topics like the Global Consciousness Project, that clearly have great fascination to the public, they shy away.  This is unfortunate. Science is a method, it's not a position.  There are no unscientific topics, just unscientific methods." Play it: Download MP3 (13:15 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and on this episode of Skeptiko I wanted to do a little bit of an update.

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90. EEG Expert Can’t Explain Near Death Experience Data… and, Dr. Penny Sartori Finds More Than Hallucinations in NDE Accounts

Alex Tsakiris
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173
Near-Death Experience
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Neurologist and University of Toledo Neuroscience Researcher, Dr. John Greenfield considers the EEG data from patients with near death experience (NDE). For near death experience skeptics, medical evidence of a flat EEG during an out of body experience has always been a stumbling block.  After all, a brain dead patient can't hallucinate.  But, does a flat EEG really mean no brain activity?  NDE  doubters have claimed activity deep inside the brain, beyond the reach of EEG instruments, must account for the complex "realer than real" experiences reported by those who briefly pass into the afterlife.  Now, University of Toledo Neuroscience researcher, and EEG expert, Dr. John Greenfield explains why this claim doesn't hold up. "It's very unlikely that a hypoperfused brain , with no evidence of electrical activity could generate NDEs.  Human studies as well as animal studies have typically shown very little brain perfusion or glucose utilization when the EEG is flat.  There are deep brain areas involved in generating memories that might still operate at some very reduced level during cardiac arrest, but of course any subcortically generated activity can't be brought to consciousness without at least one functioning cerebral hemisphere.  So even if there were some way that NDEs were generated during the hypoxic state , you would not experience them until reperfusion allowed you to dream them or wake up and talk about them", Greenfield stated. NDE Researcher, Dr. Penny Sartori, examines memories of resuscitation by patients suffering cardiac arrest. With near death experience cases making there way into the, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Psychiatry, and other major medical journals, NDE doubters have looked to the timing of patient memories as a way of explaining this unexplainable phenomena.  If memories of out of body travel, and all embracing love occur after ones brush with death, NDEs may still fit within our medical science worldview. The timing of NDE memories is the research question Dr. Penny Sartori sought to answer, "I worked in the intensive care unit and because of the nature of my job, of course, I'd come across a lot of death. And of course makes you wonder what happens when we die.  For five years I gathered data, where I spoke to patients in the intensive care unit and particularly patients who'd had a cardiac arrest. When these patients revived, as soon as they were medically fit, I approached them and asked the simple question, 'Did you have any memory of the time that you were unconscious?'" "For the people who had a near-death experience and out of body experience was really quite accurate and I decided then to ask the control group, the people who'd had a cardiac arrest but had no recollection of anything at all. I asked them if they would reenact their resuscitation scenario and tell me what they thought that we had done to resuscitate them. And what I found is that many of the patients couldn't even guess as to what we'd done. They had no idea at all. And then some of them did make guesses, but these were based on TV hospital dramas that they'd seen. I found that what they reported was widely inaccurate. So there was a stark contrast really in the very accurate out of body experiences reported and then the guesses that the control group had made.", Dr. Sartori reported. While research like this may never be enough to convince dogmatic skeptics, the medical evidence for near death experience continues to challenge us to reexamine our beliefs about what lies beyond death. Play it: Download MP3 (29:04 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and I want to start by thanking those of you who've contacted me directly since the last episode of Skeptiko and have joined me on Facebook or joined me on Twitter. It's been great to get to know you, to dialogue a little bit, and I hope we can keep that going.

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89. “God Helmet” Inventor, Dr. Michael Persinger Discovers Telepathy Link in Lab Experiments

Alex Tsakiris
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371
Parapsychology
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Neuroscience Researcher and Laurentian University professor, Dr. Michael Persinger, demonstrates telepathy under laboratory conditions. Claims of telepathy, ESP and other psi phenomena are a mainstay of popular culture but taboo in neuroscience research circles.  Fortunately, Dr. Michael Persinger of Canada's Laurentian University has never been afraid to venture where other researchers fear to go. In the 1980's Persinger made headlines with his "God Helmet", a device that stimulates temporal lobes with a weak magnetic field in order to produce religious states. Now, Persinger has discovered the same type of brain stimulation can create metal states conducive to human telepathy.  "What we have found is that if you place two different people at a distance and put a circular magnetic field around both, and you make sure they are connected to the same computer so they get the same stimulation, then if you flash a light in one person's eye the person in the other room receiving just the magnetic field will show changes in their brain as if they saw the flash of light. We think that's tremendous because it may be the first macro demonstration of a quantum connection, or so-called quantum entanglement. If true, then there's another way of potential communication that may have physical applications, for example, in space travel." While Persinger's experiments could prove groundbreaking, he remains doubtful about his controversial findings reaching his colleagues, "I think the critical thing about science is to be open-minded. It's really important to realize that the true subject matter of science is the pursuit of the unknown. Sadly scientists have become extraordinarily group-oriented. Our most typical critics are not are mystic believer types.  They are scientists who have a narrow vision of what the world is like." Play it: Download MP3 (35:40 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and before we get started with today's interview, and a very fascinating interview it is with Dr. Michael Persinger, I'm going to take a minute and invite you to connect - connect with this show, Skeptiko, and with me personally.

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82. Mark Edward… The Lost Interview

Alex Tsakiris
0
72
Skepticism

Update on the Skeptiko's Summer Vacation and my non-interview with mentalist Mark Edward. Play it: Download MP3 (9:11 min.) Read it: Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I’m your host, Alex Tsakiris. I hadn’t really planned on doing this little update here, but I was visiting the Skeptiko Forum which I haven’t been visiting quite as often lately, and I read some posts that I just thought I really need to give some attention to and update folks on a couple of things. First thing I guess I have to explain is why I haven’t been quite as active with Skeptiko over the summer and it’s certainly not been because I’ve lost interest, but a couple things are going on and very exciting things. First, there was just the issue of summer. Summer for folks like us who have four kids and two kids visiting from Latvia can be a little bit busy, and it was for us. I just didn’t have time to do a whole lot of Skeptiko stuff.

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73. Skeptoid’s Brian Dunning Finds Global Consciousness Project Lacking

Alex Tsakiris
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136
Skepticism
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Guest: Brain Dunning, host of the popular Skeptoid Podcast, joins Alex Tsakiris to discuss how skeptics view the Global Consciousness Project. Play it: Download MP3 (33 min.) Read it: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED Alex Tsakiris:    Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and on today's show, the Global Consciousness Project. We're going to come at this from a number of different angles. The way I got here is really I think the biggest part of this story, but more of that will come later. First let me tell you a little bit about what the Global Consciousness Project is.

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71. Michael Schmicker, Best Evidence of PSI

Alex Tsakiris
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118
Parapsychology
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download skeptiko-2009-05-12-87881.mp3 Guest: Michael Schmicker, Author of, Best Evidence: An Investigative Reporter’s Three-Year Quest to Uncover the Best Scientific Evidence for ESP, Psychokinesis, Mental Healing, Ghosts and Poltergeists, Dowsing, Mediums, Near Death Experiences, Reincarnation, and Other Impossible Phenomena That Refuse to Disappear Read it: Alex:    Welcome to Skeptiko where we explore controversial science with leading researchers and critics, I am your host Alex Tsakiris and today we have a great, delightful interview for me with Michael Schmicker the author of a couple of books that I am going to tell you about as we get into the interview - it´s pretty long, I am going to jump right in to it, here it goes. We are joined today by the author of a couple of very interesting books that we are going to talk about, the first Best Evidence, an investigative reporter´s three year quest to uncover the best scientific evidence for ESP, pyschokinesis, ghosts, poltergeists, dousing, mediums, near death experience, reincarnations and other impossible phenomena that refuse to disappear. Quite a long title but one that really tells what the book is about, the other book we are going to talk about is The Gift, ESP, the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people - a book he co-authored with Doctor Sally Rhine Feather who is the daughter of J.B Rhine the founder of the famous Rhine Research Center at Duke. So if all that is a way of introduction Mike Schmicker welcome to Skeptiko.

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69: Psychic Detective Smackdown, Ben Radford

Alex Tsakiris
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102
Skepticism
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Guests: Ben Radford of The Skeptical Inquirer, psychic detective Nancy Weber, police Captain Jim Moore, and NJ State Police Lieutenant Bill Hughes wrap up their discussion of the Amy Hoffman murder investigation. download skeptiko-2009-04-16-58402.mp3 Listen Now: Read the Transcript: THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED On this episode of Skeptiko, psychic detective investigations with Ben Radford of the Skeptical Inquirer. Ben: How do you explain the fact that in at least, you know, if you want to take five, six criteria, how do you explain the fact that in several occasions, at least four instances, the two police detectives remember Nancy Weber saying something different than what she says? How do you explain that? Alex: I do not have to explain that because Bill Hughes and Jim Moore did a great job of explaining it. We will play that, we will play these interviews, they were good interviews, and we will let everyone else decide. Stay with us for Skeptiko.

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