Arrogance of Scientific Authority

In this essay, I express my concerns about how one of our own has been treated by supposed scientists. The essay borders on a rant about the arrogance of scientific authority and is certainly a personal opinion that may not be shared by the editors. Please read with discernment.

Related Essays

Open Letter to Survival Researchers
Debunking Survival Under Cover of False Academic Authority
Open Letter to Paranormalists: Limits of science, trust and responsibility
A Visit to the Felix Experimental Group
Sitting with the Felix Experimental Group on the island of Ibiza, Spain

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Background

With an invitation from the Felix Experimental Group (FEG) circle leader, Stephen Braude assembled a team to study the phenomena demonstrated by the FEG medium. The team included Michael Nahm and Peter Mulacz. After the multi-year study, it is my understanding that Braude was about to publish a generally positive report confirming the mediumship phenomena, but then Nahm indicated he would submit his own report detailing his suspicions of fraud. As I understand, Braude rewrote his report to agree with Nahm’s and both were published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, issue 28-2, Summer 2014.^{(2), (3)}

The article, Debunking Survival Under Cover of False Academic Authority, ⁽⁴⁾ includes links and where to find the two articles that began what I think of as an unethical attack on a test subject. Here are the links to the two articles that began what I think of as an unethical attack on a research subject.

• A brief of the two articles can be found on history buff and strong Braude supports, Carlos Alvarado’s blog under Questions about the Physical Phenomena of the Felix Circle.⁽¹⁷⁾
• Braude holds a doctorate in philosophy and apparently specializes in the philosophy of science. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, a Society for Scientific Exploration publication. His article, Investigations of the Felix Experimental Group: 2010–2013, can be read on Academia.edu. (It is free to become a member of Academia.edu) ⁽²⁾
• Nahm holds a doctorate in biology with a specialty of Forest Science. His article is here: The Development and Phenomena of a Circle for Physical Mediumship. ⁽³⁾

The suspicions expressed by Nahm involve his belief that, in the early years of his work, the medium used several tricks to fake phenomena. I stress here that Nahm based his suspicions on a number of sources, which from my experience in sitting with the medium, depend on circumstantial evidence that could as easily be interpreted in other ways. For his part, Braude took the mediums reticence to respond to direct questions about the accusations as an implicit admission of guilt.

It is important to note that, even though the medium speaks pretty good English, it is his second language. We often confused him during conversations with our American references. Braude’s supposed gotcha occurred during a Skype call in which he confronted the medium. I expect the medium hesitated to digest what he was being asked … a sure sign of guilt, according to Braude.

Apparently, there were no indications of trickery in any of the séances on which the research team based their study. The medium did produce phenomena and it was witnessed under at least some level of investigator control (reportedly including an invasive cavity search for cheesecloth).

I asked Braude why he had not included tests for Nahm’s suspicions in the protocol, to which he replied something to the effect that “Things come up.” So, in effect, the team has ignored their findings and focused on Nahm’s suspicions. Very scientific indeed!

Since the publication of the original report, both Braude and Nahm have been repeating their accusations in every speaking forum they can find. For instance, “Fall of the House of Felix” by team member Peter Mulacz (Ph.D. psychology) is the leading article in the Spring 2015 Society for Psychical Research Paranormal Review magazine.^{(1), (13)} The issue also includes articles about Stephen Braude (Ph.D. philosophy) and one by Michael Nahm (Ph.D. biology). The issue is generally negative toward the Felix Experimental Group’s (FEG) medium while celebrating the Myers Memorial Medal the SPR has given Braude for his “contribution to the subject of Psychical Research.”

Here, I will say that I have sat with the medium at least seven times in three venues. We (ATransC) hosted him for demonstrations on two occasions. For the five or so sessions we hosted, I had complete control of the room and inspected it before each session. Sitters were searched and I inspected the medium’s near-naked body before each séance. After those strip inspections and my watching him drink a liter of colored juice, I escorted him to the séance room. There, he was constantly under the control of two experienced sitters. They held his hands and arms, sometimes making contact with one another to assure everyone was doing their job. I inspected the room after each session. In each séance I witnessed, phenomena were displayed which could not be explained in mundane terms; some in pretty good red-light elimination.

As an engineer, I am trained to look for how things work. Braude is trained in philosophy, Nahm in biology and Mulacz in psychology. Trickery of the kind claimed by Nahm requires devices and sleight of hand. The training best suited for detecting fraud is more in how things work than how people think. As such, I will argue that, skill for skill, my training is more to the point for judging the authenticity of the phenomena.

My objective here is not to say that I am a better observer or more knowledgeable about how the phenomena are formed. As a certified medium and healer, and experienced ITC practitioner, I have produced some of the phenomena myself. After more than fifteen years examining thousands of examples of photographic and audio evidence of the paranormal, I have come to understand how even expert witnesses can be confused by photographs in poor light.

Our mind is not trained to process some of the phenomena of darkroom séances such as impossible lights and unexpected faces in ectoplasm. I have written here before about the perceptual process. For many, the only valid perspective is suspended judgement. Certainly, deciding there is fraud based on very unusual witness conditions and then acting on that decision to ruin a person’s reputation is not the best approach to understanding. Certainly, no rational observer would think of such behavior as scientific.

Science in the Paranormalist Community

It took me a long time to figure out why I have been so indignant about how the three parapsychologists have treated the FEG medium. The common factor of our community is our interest in paranormal phenomena. As is true of society in general, either directly or via our opinion setters, we all look to our scientists for guidance. It is that guidance that is becoming a problem for the paranormalist community.

In Your Immortal Self, ⁽¹²⁾ I begin the section on science by stating: “Hands down the most disruptive influence for the paranormalist community is science.” Consider these points:

• Three professional/academic organizations we have all come to trust are the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), the Parapsychological Association (PA) and the Society for Scientific Investigation (SSE). They are ostensibly seeking to understand all paranormal phenomena … and presumably report their findings to the community so that we might better understand and work with these phenomena. That is how science is supposed to work.
• In fact, all three organizations focus on understanding psi phenomena and/or understanding why people believe in it (aka: delusional). With the exception of mental mediumship, survival-related phenomena are seldom studied. Yes, reincarnation, near-death and out-of-body experiences are studied but those groups are pretty insular and play only a small part in the paranormalist community.
• Parapsychologists are obsessive about proof, and have seemingly turned inward to battle skeptics rather than reaching out to the paranormalist community. Even without bad behavior such as the subject of this essay, we have determined that there is no sense in looking to parapsychology for our science.
• The SSE has been especially hard on transcommunication by publishing failure to replicate types of research reports written by a clearly unqualified doctorate in psychology.⁽⁵⁾ Braude is the chief editor for the peer-reviewed SSE journal. Peer review is in secret, and Braude has been … unfriendly toward comments about articles from the non-doctorate community.
• The slanderous articles about the FEG medium were poorly considered, and in most communities, such treatment of the research subject would be considered unethical.⁽⁶⁾ Nahm’s article is a study in pure what if, could be and might be. There is no way it could be construed as a research report. Neither article should have passed peer review unless Braude abused his authority to demand that they be accepted.
• Now the SPR has allowed Braude and Nahm’s unchallenged comments in their Paranormal Review, which is intended for a more general audience. In fact, the SPR has recently given Braude the Myers Memorial Medal.
• The researchers obtained grants money to conduct the research from the Parapsychological Association (PA). Also, the PA cooperates with the SPR, making all three of our more important organizations solidly on the wrong side of our best interest. As we watch, the parapsychological community has, in effect, circled the wagons in support of Braude and his team.

Human Research Subject

Take a little time to look over the Research Ethics guidelines published by the University of Washington School of Medicine.⁶ It is loosely based on the Belmont Report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.⁽⁷⁾ The Belmont Report appears to be the golden standard for research ethics. Major points from the report that apply to this essay are:

Respect for persons: “To show lack of respect for an autonomous agent is to repudiate that person’s considered judgments, to deny an individual the freedom to act on those considered judgments, or to withhold information necessary to make a considered judgment, when there are no compelling reasons to do so.”

It is clear from conversations with the medium prior, during and immediately after the study that he had an expectation of fair reporting of the data. The medium was excited! There was no expectation that possible information outside of the protocol would be used. In research, the protocol is all there is. Part of the funding process for research is review of ethics-related portions of the research protocol. This does not appear to be the case for parapsychology.

Beneficence: “Persons are treated in an ethical manner not only by respecting their decisions and protecting them from harm, but also by making efforts to secure their well-being.”

The research team operated under the cloak of scientific authority. This is at least one point psychologist Mulacz should have understood. While the medium is clearly more knowledgeable about the phenomena than the researchers, he and his circle members have been culturally trained to respect perceived scientific authority. The medium and his circle opened their home to the investigators with the expectation of fair treatment. As such, the investigators had a moral obligation to protect their research subject.

Justice: “Who ought to receive the benefits of research and bear its burdens? This is a question of justice, in the sense of ‘fairness in distribution’ or ‘what is deserved.’ An injustice occurs when some benefit to which a person is entitled is denied without good reason or when some burden is imposed unduly.”

To be clear, the medium is not making a fortune by causing himself, his wife and his circle to take their time for the séances the investigators requested. In fact, most people would not give so freely of their time. The medium also risked a lot by agreeing to be the test subject. It took him years of great personal cost to develop his ability. Each session demands that he pay a high penalty in physical effort. There are very few physical mediums able to demonstrate even the basic phenomena. For a scientist seeking to win the approval of his academic community, the FEG medium represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At the same time, the resulting research reports have cast a shadow over the medium’s reputation. The resulting costs to the medium are incalculable.

Libel and Slander

“Collectively known as defamation, libel and slander are civil wrongs that harm a reputation; decrease respect, regard, or confidence; or induce disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against an individual or entity. The injury to one’s good name or reputation is affected through written or spoken words or visual images.” ⁽⁸⁾

From the abstract of Braude’s report: “…Regrettably, recent indications of fraud (explored also by Michael Nahm in this issue) have tarnished the case as a whole. …” ⁽²⁾

From Nahm’s report Abstract: “…and explain why I finally arrived at the conclusion that considerable parts of the phenomena were produced by fraudulent means.” ⁽³⁾

The last statement in of Mulacz’s article: “Where there is conscious and deliberate fraud it is absurd to speculate whether some of the ostensible phenomena might perhaps be genuinely paranormal (although the desire of some disappointed observers ‘to save what can be saved’ is psychologically understandable) and it is a waste of resources—time as well as money—to continue investigations of such pseudo-mediums. From my observations, I conclude that (the medium)’s ‘physical mediumship’ is a deliberate deception from beginning to end.” ⁽¹³⁾

These accusations of fraud are made under cover of academic authority. That gives their word considerably more weight than if they were spoken by a person hiding behind a screen name on a discussion board. So not only are the accusations of fraud hurtful and unnecessarily damaging to our community, they are spoken by people others are culturally conditioned to believe without question. That undue authority makes their words especially harmful.

Opinion About Arrogance of Scientific Authority

Here are my concerns:

• As with many parapsychologists, it seems that the three investigators come to the subject more as a hobby than as qualified observers. Braude is a philosophy major and Nahm is a biologist. Both are clearly unfamiliar with the methodologies of science. In the context of studying mediumship phenomena, they have no more standing than the average, well-educated observer and certainly no standing as doctorates in the field of mediumistic phenomena.
• Some of their comments are naive. Braude has a history of assuming authority that he does not have. For instance, he has written at length about how Rupert Sheldrake, a cellular biologist, is wrong about his theories concerning cellular morphogenesis.⁹ In that, and his comments about séance phenomena, he clearly lacks understanding about the metaphysics.
• One of Nahm’s accusations is that the medium purchased Halloween cobweb with the intention of faking ectoplasm during a séance. This is one of those circumstantial situations that all of us need to be aware of. Having been accused of regurgitating cheesecloth or the fake cobweb, it is natural that the medium experimented to see if those materials made convincing ectoplasm. In fact, they do not; never did! Any even halfway decent observer would see that the medium’s ectoplasm is not so contrived.

We have never found residue of the ectoplasm in the room after seances. The large quantity of colored liquid the medium drinks just before going into the séance room cabinet would stain cheesecloth or Halloween cobweb. The body juices should also make the regurgitated material smell of bile. I have had the ectoplasm touch my face, yet there was no odor.

• The parapsychological community is standing behind the three researchers by enabling the widest possible distribution of the articles. The academic-layperson partition problem is encountered in a lot of ways, but the most damning is the attitude doctorates—qualified parapsychologists and academic hobbyists alike—have toward the layperson practitioner. This is further illustrated in the next point.

In the “They eat their own, don’t they” department, the negative effect of the criticism is pretty well summed up by one post on the Spiritualismlink.com concerning the original articles: “Another one bites the dust…”

• Mulacz conveys a sense of disdain for the medium, FEG and Braude in his comments ending with: “Attending such séances at home circles has but little value; scientific séances must occur under laboratory conditions where the investigators are in control.” ^{(1), (13)} This is an expression of academic arrogance, as he clearly thinks the medium should submit to every demand made by the investigators.

In the model I have been working with, collecting examples of trans-etheric phenomena involves a particular and extraordinary mindset and/or the presence of a contact field which can enable trans-etheric influences. Much of the activity in a physical séance is a process of developing such a contact field to which the sitters must contribute. Too sharp focus on the process or the distraction of external controls are known to defeat this process. ⁽¹⁰⁾ The medium expressed too me great relief that he was able to produce any phenomena at all for the researchers.

• Like it or not, parapsychologists are related to layperson practitioners by virtue of what they study. But they seldom behave as if they are, choosing instead to treat those they depend on for practitioners as inconvenient lab rats. In fact, most parapsychologists, and specifically the three researchers discussed here, behave as if they are not at all part of our community.
• Having spent time as an editor in Wikipedia, I know it will be just a matter of time before these articles are used to justify negative comments in paranormal articles. Even as parapsychologists rail against skeptics, they give the skeptics ammunition to demonstrate the social danger of belief in the paranormal.

Again, I need to stress that this is all my opinion. Obviously, the doctorates who govern the parapsychological organizations think the articles they publish represent good science. If you agree with my assessment that the researchers effectively threw the FEG medium under the bus, then you should also be very cautious about possible dealings with the supposed scientists who might wish to study your work.

Establishing a research capability as part of an organization dedicated to supporting mediums, such as the Forever Family Foundation ⁽¹⁸⁾ is probably the only way to assure that our phenomena are studied by people who actually understand the metaphysics. As it stands now, the academic-layperson partition assures that cooperation is a one-way street.

While I trust the FEG medium, I have not personally witnessed some of the séances Nahm referred to as instances of possible cheating. The concern I have is that the three investigators had the moral obligation in the researcher-test subject relationship and in the parapsychologist-paranormal community relationship, to stick to their protocol. As far as I can tell, every instance of possible fraud they have complained about falls into the category of maybe so, but no hard evidence … certainly no evidence during execution of the protocol.

From My Experience

2010, my wife Lisa and I attended a séance in the FEG medium’s home,11 I believe well before the supposed trickery Nahm complains about. There were a number of phenomena demonstrated that were beyond the reasonable scope of trickery. For instance, raps on the wall directly behind my head, almost instantly followed by others on the ceiling, all well away from the medium. In the dark, with no one aware of my intention, I dared the communicators to place the rapidly moving spirit light in the palm of my hand. A moment later, the light hit the palm of my hand. At another time, I dared the communicators to make an OK sign with the spirit hand that was occluding a luminous plate on the floor. Moments later, I saw the hand momentarily form the universal OK sign.

The séance was amongst friends and there was little done to assure no trickery, but there was also good light from time to time that enabled reasonably careful observation. As an engineer, I was almost manically looking for alternative explanations for the astounding phenomena demonstrated that day. I cannot speak to all of his demonstrations, but then and in many subsequent séances in which I did have complete access for inspections, I have no rational reason to think the medium is other than genuine.

By the way, the spirit light, hand and raps were moving about far out of reach of the medium or any likely tricky device postulated by Nahm. There was a lot of ectoplasm and a hand did form which rose up a little and seemed to wave about. Good red light, two observers holding the cabinet curtain open, sat very close to him and the rest of us were trying to see … everything. As always, the ectoplasm came and went without residue, smell or even a hint of trickery, save the cloth-like appearance.

In later séances, the cameo-like faces that formed in the ectoplasm were much like historical examples I have seen in the literature. In one of those seances, I clearly recognized Hans Bender as one face. A member of our local Spiritualist Society recognized a loved one. The faces appeared to be formed more as a precipitated simulation than as a photograph. There is quite a lot of precedence in Instrumental TransCommunication for such features.

When the medium stood and circled the room in red light with a handful of ectoplasm, I could see that the substance was dripping water. When he came to me, he unceremoniously flopped the ectoplasm against my forehead. It made my head very wet. Yet, when I inspected the unpainted plywood panel we had placed under his chair to cover the rough brick floor, there was no hint of moisture residue from where the ectoplasm had been. By the way, at another time, the substance glowed bioluminescent green as it came out of his mouth!

I do not know if the medium has tried ways of cheating. He is constantly looking for ways to assure sitters that there is no fraud, so it is possible he has tried to cheat to learn how to guard against it. The glaring double standard here is that parapsychologists discount many examples of our phenomena because there were no scientific controls when the examples were collected. At the same time, I am sure no one actually trained in the use of the scientific method would propose a finding in science based on the level of evidence being used to smear the FEG medium. How was an article smearing the medium’s good name, based on lame theories, innuendo and magical thinking, published in what is supposed to be a peer-reviewed science journal? Perhaps the answer is that that part of our community is just a toy for retired professors.

From the perspective of a director of an organization “Founded in 1982 by Sarah Estep to Provide Objective Evidence That We Survive Death in an Individual Conscious State.” The treatment received at the hand of these supposed scientists has set our work back in ways we are still learning.

Beyond the grief imposed on the medium, the most damning of all of this is that there are so few people speaking out to make sure this will not happen again. Certainly, the parapsychological community seems just fine with the treatment.

Update

Instances in which the parapsychological team has publicly attacked the FEG medium:

Coast-To-Coast: February 22, 2016 – From the Coast-To-Coast AM website (coasttocoastam.com/show/2016/02/22) An example of continuing public accusation well beyond any research or scientific value:

Braude was able to investigate the German physical medium Kai Muegge of the Felix Circle under somewhat controlled conditions, and searched his body before the videotaped experiment. During the séance, there were some table levitations, and Kai produced large quantities of ectoplasm from his mouth, in a seemingly unexplained manner. Yet, Braude learned later that there was conclusive evidence that Kai had cheated at some other seances he hadn’t supervised. Even so, just because a medium uses deception on occasion, it doesn’t mean they don’t have genuine abilities, Braude pointed out, adding that these so-called “mixed mediums” sometime use trickery out of convenience or necessity when they make their living from producing spirit contacts.

Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 5–9, 2016:¹⁴

Follow-Up Investigation of the Felix Circle by Stephen Braude in which he essentially rehashes previous reports. Remembering that Braude is Chief Editor of the Journal, I note with much dismay, the arrogant conclusion of his editorial in the same issue “For reasons I discuss, it seems unlikely that Kai will again submit himself to examination by me or any other careful researcher. It appears, instead, that he would prefer to continue shooting himself in the foot.”

Further Comments about Kai Mügge’s Alleged Mediumship and Recent Developments by Michael Nahm in which he endlessly elaborates on his accusations. These are still based mostly  on an “it seems to be” kind of attack.¹⁵

Psi Encyclopedia owned by the Society for Psychical Research

This new online encyclopedia is supposed to provide true information to the public to counter Wikipedia. However, they asked Stephen Braude to write the mediumship article. He simply wrote more of the same to continue his efforts to defame the FEG medium. Not only must we contend with the very biased article about paranormal subjects in Wikipedia, but we must also deal with attacks from the SPR.¹⁶

References

1. “Paranormal Review.” Society for Psychical Research. Spring 2015. spr.ac.uk.
2. Braude, Stephen.“Investigations of the Felix Experimental Group: 2010–2013,” Journal of Scientific Exploration. 2014, 28, 285–343. academia.edu/7593753/Investigations_of_the_Felix_Experimental_Group_2010-2013.
3. Nahm, Michael. “The Development and Phenomena of a Circle for Physical Mediumship.” Journal of Scientific Exploration. 2014, 28, 229-283. anomalistik.de/images/stories/pdf/sdm/sdm-2014-08-nahm.pdf.
4. Butler, Tom. “Debunking Survival Under Cover of False Academic Authority. Etheric Studies. 2014. ethericstudies.org/scientist-attack-medium/.
5. Butler, Tom. “Critiquing ITC Articles written by Imants Barušs.” Etheric Studies. 2010. ethericstudies.org/failure-to-replicate-itc/.
6. Lizbeth A. Adams, Ph.D. CIP. with contributions by Timothy Callahan, Ph.D. “Research Ethics,” University of Washington School of Medicine. 2014. depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/resrch.html.
7. “The Belmont Report: Office of the Secretary, Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research.” The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. 1979. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.html.
8. “Libel and Slander.” The Free Dictionary by Farlex. legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Libel+and+Slander.
9. Braude, Stephen. “Provincialism in the Life Sciences: A Review of Rupert Sheldrake’s A New Science of Life.” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 77. January 1983. academia.edu/2643570/_Radical_Provincialism_in_the_Life_Sciences_A_Review_of_Rupert_Sheldrakes_A_New_Science_of_Life.
10. Lucadou, Walter von;  Zahradnik, Frauke. “Predictions of The Model of Pragmatic Information About RSPK.” Parapsychological Association. 2004. archived.parapsych.org/papers/09.pdf.
11. Butler, Tom and Lisa. “A Visit to the Felix Experimental Group.” Association TransCommunication. 2010. atransc.org/circle/felix_circle.htm.
12. Butler, Tom. Your Immortal Self: Exploring the Mindful Way. AA-EVP Publishing, 2016. ISBN 978-0-9727493-8-1. ethericstudies.org/immortal_self/.
13. Mulacz, Peter. “Fall of the House of Felix?” Paranormal Review. Spring 2015. doczz.com.br/doc/1053347/fall-of-the-house-of-felix%3F.
14. Braude, Stephen. “Editorial.” Journal of Scientifi Exploration. Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 5–9, 2016. scientificexploration.org/docs/30/jse_30_1_Editorial.pdf.
15. Nahm, Michael. “Further comments about Kai Mügge’s alleged mediumship and recent developments.” Journal of Scientific Exploration. 30, 56-62, 2016. scientificexploration.org/docs/30/jse_30_1_Nahm.pdf.
16. Braude, Stephen. “Felix Experimental Group.” Psi Encyclopedia. Society for Psychical Research. 2016. psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/felix-experimental-group.
17. Alvarado, Carlos S. “Questions about the Physical Phenomena of the Felix Circle.” Parapsychology. 2014. carlossalvarado.wordpress.com/tag/felix-circle-felix-experimental-circle-kai-muegge-physical-mediumship-stephen-braude-michael-nahm/.
18. Forever Family Foundation. foreverfamilyfoundation.org/.