Major Points of View
Perhaps the most difficult lesson I have learned about the academic community is that it is necessary to identify the point of view of the person providing information about paranormal concepts. It is a matter of knowing if you can trust your teacher.
Here are the basic points of view we have encountered in our study of ITC:
Physicalism – The belief that there is only physical reality which is thought to have evolved from a rapidly expanding singularity in a process popularly known as “The Big Bang.” Consciousness is assumed by Physicalists to be an emergent quality of the activity of neurons in the brain. In parapsychology, Anomalistic Psychology appears to be an academic effort to prove that Psi phenomena are physical products of the biological brain.
In Physicalism, when we die, we cease to exist except in our loved one’s memory of us.
Physical Dualism – The proposition that reality consists of a nonphysical aspect sometimes referred to as the Psi Field, and a physical aspect as modeled in Physicalism. In parapsychology, adherents of this view are sometimes known as Exceptional Experiences Psychologists. In that view, Physicalism is seen as largely correct but with the addition of Psi as the influence of thought and a Psi Field as an emergent quality of the physical that propagates Psi.
This view is typically referred to as the Super-Psi Hypothesis which holds that we cease to exist when we die but an aspect of our thought expressions continues to exist in the Psi Field. Some people are able to psychically access our life records. In that way there is a false impression of survived consciousness.
Strict Dualism (Sometime known as Idealism) – The metaphysical view that reality exists as the expression of mind. As such, the physical is seen as an expression of nonphysical life forms.
This view is sometimes referred to as the Survival Hypothesis in which, when our human avatar dies, our etheric personality continues in a different aspect of reality as a self-aware, sentient personality.
In Strict Dualism, a person is defined as an immortal self entangled with a human in an avatar relationship. The immortal self (aka personality) existed before the current incarnation and will continue to exist after in a self-aware, sentient form. The human organism ceases but its mind and organizing principles are described as a morphogenetic mind that appears to be an immortal species-specific collective.
Survived personality is thought to be organized as collectives of life fields sharing the same “parent” life field. Collectives of personality and morphogenic mind collectives are modeled as inhabitants of the etheric or greater reality (referred to in parapsychology as the Psi Field).
The main differences to remember are that Physicalism requires distance (locality), time and obedience to physical principles and does not allow for a nonphysical aspect. Physical Dualism recognizes the supremacy of Physicalism but does allow for limited nonphysical functionality expressed by the brain. Strict Dualism requires that all is mind and apparent physicality is a product of a collective expression.
Schools of Thought in Parapsychology
Anomalistic Psychology – This is the school of thought in parapsychology that tends to guide the Physicalist’s assumption that apparent Psi functioning is a fraud, misattribution or illusion.
Exceptional Experiences Psychology – This school of thought holds that Anomalistic Psychology is largely correct, but that Psi (the influence of thought) may be an nonphysical aspect of the physical. It also holds that there is an emergent nonphysical field that propagates Psi. This Psi Field is described as an as yet undefined aspect of the physical. You may recognize this as the Physical-Dualist point or view.
This point of view is sometimes associated with the Super-Psi Hypothesis in which consciousness is seen as a nonphysical, emergent quality of the brain. In this, personality ceases to exist upon death of the biological body.
Survival Hypothesis – Survival after bodily death is treated two different ways in parapsychology. In the Physical Dualist view, Super-Psi holds that survival is in the form of a loved one’s memory of the dead person or as a sort of life record preserved in the Psi Field.
Based on our study of ITC, mediumship and other forms of Psi functioning, the Survival Hypothesis can be best understood as the survival or continuation of the primary personality after the avatar is no longer able to support the symbiotic relationship (aka death of the biological body).
A useful way to characterize this version of survival is that we are spirit having a human experience. By that, it is intended that our primary sense of self existed before this lifetime and will exist after in a self-aware, sentient form.
Consciousness Studies – The study of what consciousness is and how it is able to produce sentience is represented by the usual Physicalist or Dualist points of view. As I follow the study, it is evolving toward the idea that consciousness is a characteristic of mind that precedes the biological brain.
It seems reasonable to expect that Consciousness Studies will eventually replace parapsychology for the academic study of Psi and the Survival Hypothesis.
How We Think
Understanding how we develop perception can help us understand Point of View and its effect on our reasoning. The Creative Process Diagram shown here represents the major functional areas of our mind. (Remember, this is the world according to Tom.)
Our source personality acts as the attractor that binds elements of our functional mind into a life field. When we say “spirit,” we are usually referring to our source personality. It provides our life field’s purpose and previously acquired understanding.
The Attention Complex represents the functions that respond to environmental inputs to produce an expression output. The Worldview functional area represents what we think is true. The Perceptual Loop represents the process by which sensed information is compared to the content of Worldview to produce an “agree,” “reject” or “change” decision moderated by Worldview and producing a mostly unconscious “this is as I see it” expression back to the environment.
Mostly conscious perception comes from examining the expression signal. That signal is tested with “Is this what I intended? If not, what?” The feedback line back to the input of the Attention Complex represents our one conscious input to the formation of our expression and perception.
Point of View is developed and maintained in the Attention Complex. Our temperament appears to be inherited from Personality. It tends to bias how memory, instincts and cultural training are integrated into our worldview. Point of view tends to be reinforced and more entrenched if the Mental Review function sends a “yes” feedback signal. It is only by way of a Modified intention signal that point of view can be changed.
Seekers use this feedback function to gradually align their worldview with the actual nature of reality.
Strict Dualism is the “Spirit having a human experience” point of view held by many Spiritualists.
Point of View Red Flags
The following red flags are the ones I look for when I read a research report or a paper explaining theories and concepts. While I recommend that you use them to test what you read, be sure to consider them based on your experience.
- What qualifies the author to address the subject?
The Author has a point of view. In my mind, the ethical approach to expository writing is to begin by revealing the author’s point of view. People seldom say they are a Physicalist or Dualist. The only point of view I see bragged about is the Denial Skeptic point of view.
It is routine for me to read an article and then look for the qualifications of the author. I can name several Ph.Ds. who think they are experts but actually have only a shallow and narrow understanding of Psi phenomena.
Being peer reviewed only means a pretense of academic rigor. When reviewer credentials are available, it has been my experience that reviewers are seldom qualified to judge what they are reviewing.
Red Flag: An exaggerated effort to seem academic or scientific is a red flag.
- Are the author’s assumptions reasonable?
A well-written abstract will usually detail the author’s assumptions. However, if the author is not inclined to reveal his or her point of view, it may be necessary to look in the introductory text.
Terminology usually betrays point of view. If the author talks about using psychological tests and focuses on test subject predisposition to believe in paranormal phenomena, it is likely the author is a closet Physicist.
Examine the implications of descriptive words such as “emergent” and “claims.” If they imply a physical nature such as “emerging out of something physical.” Saying “experiencers claim to have …” suggests that the author has assumed a psychological explanation for the study.
Red Flag: The author’s evasiveness about revealing his or her point of view is a red flag.
Theory
The usefulness of an article is usually decided in the part where the author tries to identify involved principles. I have found that the old saying “If you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your nonsense” applies here. Sometimes it is clear the author has only a shallow understanding of the involved principles. Always examine the implications of offered theories.
Here are some of the theories often offered to explain Psi phenomena that I consider red flags:
- Ambiguous reporting? – Even under the cloak of parapsychology, denial skeptics are reluctant to say what they mean. Instead, they propose all sorts of theories that allude to their belief that Psi experiencers are in some way mistaken. Innuendo is a powerful tool for anti-paranormal propaganda.
Very complex reports too often seem to offer the author a way to avoid too close examination. The more technically complicated, the smaller the number of people who will understand. In my opinion, readability for the average reader is both the objective and the test for how useful the report will be.
An example of ambiguous reporting is the overbearing use of statistical notation. It is fine in an appendix, but my guess is that even a reader who is well informed and highly educated in the subject will not fully comprehend the point. There is much to be said about plain English writing.
Red Flag: While plain English writing is not a requirement for science, very complex writing may betray a failure to consider lay practitioner input.
- Personal accounts – Psychic access to information is a well-established human capability. But there are limits to its reliability. Our mental storyteller is predisposed to confirm our worldview, this coloring our perception of reality to agree with our expectations.
Lucidity is a term often used to describe how clearly a person consciously experience actual reality. In principle, greater lucidity means less coloring perception of sensed information.
Based on what we know about ITC and mediumship, experiencers are poor witnesses. That is why we recommend a witness panel for ITC. If the majority of listeners do not agree with the claimed ITC example, it probably should be discarded.
In the Creative Process Diagram above, the Worldview function (yellow box) of the Attention Complex represents where our point of view biases sensed information to better agree with expectations. Along with instincts and memory, the worldview “database” is populated with culturally specific biases. The Expression output will tend to confirm those biases. Depending on the person’s lucidity, feedback from the Mental Review function will confirm acceptance and possibly reinforce those biases.
Dreams, Near-Death Experiences (NDE), Out of Body Experiences (OBE), much of the haunt and UFO experiences and clairvoyantly accessed information (mediumship, psychic, remote viewing) are all studied as personal accounts. If we think of sensed information as raw input to the Attention Complex, a person’s accounting of that information is not the raw input but a version of it that better agrees with the person’s point of view.
Red Flag: Basing a study on personal accounts may be informative but their use as evidence may not be science that produces actionable results.
It needs to be noted that ITC has a similar problem. The practitioner and/or an interested observer acts as the channel or conduit enabling the change in intended order of the technology to produce ITC phenomena. We have seen many instances in which fearful practitioners tended to record fearful-sounding EVP.
- Clairvoyantly accessed information – Our studies in the ATransC have indicated that EVP and clairvoyance (psychic, mediumship, remote viewing) can accurately access information some of the time. But if the information is not already known by other means, it is difficult if not impossible to know when the message is just a likely story told to practitioners by their storytelling Worldview.
The problem is that the accuracy of psychically accessed information can only be known if the same information can be accessed by other means.
Researchers often claim that common characteristics of many experiencer reports can be used as data points for their study. That is to say that many people reporting similar OBEs tend to support the reality of OBEs. However, considering the influence our worldview has on our perception, and the influence our culture has on our worldview, it is probable that groups of people will be influenced by the same or similar beliefs. And therefore, report having similar experiences.
An example of this is the wide variety of the way aliens were described prior to publication of Whitley Strieber’s Communion. The alien illustrated on the book’s cover became pretty much the standard for appearance of aliens today.
The bottom line is that personal accounts can be a useful indicator but should not be used as proof. Theories based on personal accounts should be considered with considerable reservation. At least today, psychically accessed information is a poor tool for consciousness research.
Red Flag: Basing a study on clairvoyantly accessed information may be informative but their use as evidence may not be science that produces actionable results.
- Information access using ITC –ITC is an important example of Psi induced etheric-to-physical phenomena. ITC is evidence of apparently nonlocal mind. Because we have found no way to shield from this influence, it may also be evidence of the nonphysical nature of thought.
ITC exhibits important characteristics of Psi functioning that can contribute to our understanding of clairvoyance and healing intention. Reports should be considered incomplete if the author does not indicate that ITC was at least considered.
Red Flag: Not considering such characteristics of ITC the influence of worldview casts doubts on the thoroughness of the research.
- Using Physical theories to explain nonphysical phenomena – It seems that many authors have a pet theory which guides their reasoning. Here are some of the more common ones:
Electromagnetism – It has been popular to argue that thought is an electromagnetic phenomenon. That would make sense if the mind was produced by the electromagnetic activity of brain cells. As we learned with EVP, we can shield an audio recorder from electromagnetic signals and still record EVP. The Psi signal is not electromagnetic, nor have we found a way to shield a recorder from Psi.
Thermodynamics – The First Law of Thermodynamics holds that energy in a closed system is neither lost nor gained. It is only transformed. Researchers sometimes argue that the First Law of Thermodynamics explains how a mental medium is able to access information about deceased people. That is reminiscent of the Akashic Records (aka life records) argument.
The Super Psi Hypothesis holds that some people are able to psychically access information that is apparently from a “dead” person because information about everything they did in life continues to exist in the Psi Field because of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Super-Psi has been a popular alternative to the Survival Hypothesis.
If we are spirit having a human experience, then our actual nature is native to the etheric. Much of our ITC seems evidence of communication with a sentient consciousness and not with a memory.
Also, if we create reality, then it is arguable that we do not live in a closed system.
Quantum Mechanics – It is currently stylish to argue that consciousness is a quantum effect. Quantum entanglement is used to explain time and nonlocality. Quantum-based theories that allow for many possible futures are used to explain precognition. The possible quantum properties of microtubules in the brain are used to explain the emergence of consciousness as a biological property.
Part of my education as an electronics engineer included instruction in physics. And then I have studied ITC since 2000. Yet, I have never been able to figure out how to use quantum mechanics to help explain ITC.
The problem comes with the nonlocal nature of consciousness. Nonlocality is treated in two forms in parapsychology:
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- Our mind is nonlocal in the sense that its influence extends outside of our head. In that sense, mind is modeled as a field.
- Information in the Psi Field is nonlocal in the sense that it is accessible everywhere. The Physicalist and Physical-Dualist points of view is that the Psi Field, which is modeled as an emergent quality of the physical, is holographic in nature. In that view, information is accessible from any small part of the field. For instance, this is supposed to explain remote viewing.
I refer to the parapsychological idea of nonlocality as the “Here is everywhere” model. This ubiquity of information theory is justified by arguing that quantum entanglement can be extended to information in general and at any scale.
From what we have learned from ITC, nonlocality is better described as “everywhere is here.” Reality looks like a singularity in which concepts about things precede the objective nature of things. In practice, we assign the quality of physicality to concepts that are intended to be physical.
The physical is an idea shared by many personalities, possibly as a venue for specific experiences. Distance in the etheric makes more sense as rapport. In rapport, rather than separation by distance, two personalities or a personality and a concept (thoughtform) are more or less “close” depending on a combination of familiarity, attention and intention.
Quantum effects are a characteristic of the physical. Some nonphysical characteristics such as nonlocality are quantum-like, but the science simply is not there to argue that consciousness is a quantum effect.
The Conclusions
The Conclusion is the author’s last opportunity to communicate the point of the paper. I usually read the Introduction or Abstract and then the Concluding Remarks. If I am still interested, I read the Findings and Theory sections.
Reading the Conclusion should show what the author wants you to remember. Reading it, you should understand the point of the report and the author’s point of view.
My Point
There are many ways that belief can contaminate understanding. We have no thought police. The academic community is not inclined to police its own. Learning about Psi phenomena and possible survival of consciousness beyond bodily death is a “Seeker beware” environment. It is for you to bring the intellectual discipline to distinguish between useful information and point of view propaganda.
It would be good if you let the rest of us know what you are discovering. Perhaps a blog or a discussion board. This critical thinking should apply to my writing as well. Please feel free to use the contact tool at https://ethericstudies.org/contact-tom-butler/.
