2015 SSE Conference

The 34th annual SSE Conference took place on May 28-30, 2015 at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville hotel. You can purchase 2015 conference DVDs here. You can download the full 2015 SSE Program here.

registration

Conference Registration

Register online for the SSE Conference using EventZilla.

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hotel

Book Hotel

Book your hotel room using SSE's discount code "MEX"

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Join SSE for a discount on conference registration fees.

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Announcement

Dates & Venue

The 34th annual SSE Conference will take place May 28-30, 2015 at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville hotel. An opening reception will take place on the evening of May 27, and a Sunday workshop is planned for May 31. The program will be announced when available.

Conference Registration

You can register for the conference online, at http://sse.eventzilla.net. Payment can be made with credit card or bank check. Online registration is preferred, but you can also register manually using this printable registration form, or at the registration booth during the conference.

Hotel Booking & Discount

There is a special room rate of $125.00/night for the SSE members. This rate is available to conference attendees for the duration of the SSE event (conference and workshop) as well as for 3 days prior and 3 days after the event.

Hotel reservations can be made using this link: http://www.rockvillehotel.com. The Group Code (to get conference discount) is MEX. You can also reserve hotel rooms by phone at 1-800-445-8667, or 1-301-468-1100. Be sure to mention you are with the Society of Scientific Exploration to receive the special rate.

The cut-off date for obtaining the discounted rate is Wednesday, May 8, 2015.

Airports and Transportation

The hotel is approximately equal distance from the three metro airports: DCA (Reagan National Airport); IAD (Dulles International Airport); BWI (Baltimore Washington International Airport). DCA is accessible by the DC Metro (there is a stop right inside the airport) so one could arrive at DCA and take the metro to Twinbrook (changing trains at the Metro Center stop) to reach the hotel. The hotel is across the street from the Twinbrook Metro Station (of the DC metro city rail). The street to be crossed is a small side street so that it would be quite easy to arrive by metro and walk across to the hotel pulling a suitcase. Shuttles are available from the airport to the hotel for a fee. Please check www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/maryland/hilton-washington-dc-rockville-hotel-and-executive-meeting-ctr-IADMRHF/index.html under Maps and Directions for information.

Parking: The SSE has arranged a special rate for overnight self-parking for $5/day or $8/overnight.

Amenities: The hotel offers a fitness center, an indoor pool, a business center and two restaurants.

Area: The hotel is in a very accessible and in a commercial area; there are numerous restaurants and shops in walking distance.

The hotel is minutes from the city's most important attractions. Local corporate employers include US Pharmacopeia, IBM and Lockheed Martin. Adjacent to the Twinbrook Metro Station, the hotel is just a short journey from historic Georgetown. Explore the monuments and museums of the National Mall, or take a step back in time at the Smithsonian Institute. Check out the performing arts at Strathmore, or admire the White House, America's most famous home. Visit the giant pandas at the National Zoo or catch a game at National's Park, the Verizon Center. Take in some history and visit the National Cathedral.

If you will be staying in DC prior to or beyond the conference and want to see the DC tourist sites in a day, one option (a good one, if you like narrated tours) is the Old Town Trolley Tours www.trolleytours.com/washington-dc. You can take the metro from the Twinbrook station, which is on the Red line. Get off at the Union Station stop. If you haven't already bought Old Town Trolley tickets online, you can buy tickets at the Union Station. Then get on the trolley tour and enjoy. (DC metro rail system map www.wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm).

Program

Conference Program

The theme for the 2015 Conference is Making Connections, which contains within it multiple meanings.

The first meaning has to do with networking. The SSE is the premier generalist research society interested in scientific anomalies. That is, under our wide tent our membership looks into anomalies that include psi, healing, alternative energy, states and effects of consciousness, UFOs, remote viewing, human survival, to name only a few! At our conferences, we benefit greatly (and perhaps uniquely) by the range of presentations and exposure to ideas in areas that might be new to us. Our colleagues from other more specialized societies will present to us the best of their current research.

The second meaning of Connections has to do with the intellectual challenge of finding the links among the various types of scientific anomalies. All of us have thought about the meaning and implications of anomalous data. How can we make connections among them? What do we learn from the study of anomalies in multiple fields?

Founder's Lecture and Invited Speakers

Robert Jahn - Inaugural Founders Lecture
W.J. Ross Dunseath - Division of Perceptual Studies, U. of Virginia - "Physiological Correlates of Psi Phenomena: Pilot Study of EEG and PK"
John Ives - Senior Director - Samueli Institute - "Frontier Science and Negative Findings: What should we do about these?"
John Kruth - Executive Director of the Rhine Research Center - "Healing, Biophotons, and PK at the Rhine Research Center"
Rob Swiatek - board member - MUFON - "The Problem They Pose: UFO Sightings in America"

Conference Sessions

  • Science Issues
  • Psi
  • Health and Healing
  • Consciousness/NDE
  • Physics
  • UFOs
  • Miscellaneous Anomalies

Conference Speakers (Listed in alphabetical order)

Thomas D. Abraham – "From Chakras to Vehicles: Consciousness and the Emergence of Form
John Alexander – "Firsthand Evidence for Interspecies Consciousness Communication"
J.Kenneth Arnette – "Energy is not Conserved: Connections among Consciousness, Thermodynamics, and String Theory"
Henry Bauer – "The Disconnect between Reality and Contemporary Science"
Imants Baruss – "Alterations of Consciousness at a Matrix Energetics Seminar"
Julie Beischel – "Assessing Hematological and Psychophysiological Correlates of Anomalous Information Reception in Mediums"
Bill Bengston – "Can 'anomalous healing' be Captured and Reproduced without the Healer?"
John F Caddy – "Things Our Distant Ancestors Sensed that we have Forgotten"
H.P. Deasy – "Communication Faster than Light"
York Dobyns – "Heart Rate Variability and Earth's Cosmic Environment"
Dennis Eberl – "Antibacterial Clays"
Jerry Gin – "The Science of BioGeometry"
Dale Graff – "Psi Perception: A Range of Connections"
William Kautz – "Extension of Modern Science to Enable Research on Anomalies"
Douglas Kinney – "Similarity of Rich NDEs with Between-Lives Regression Accounts"
Stanley Krippner – "Anomalies Associated with a Brazilian Medium"
Rongwu Liu – "The Volume Field Model about Strong Interaction and Weak Interaction"
John McMichael – "A Novel Medical Treatment for Traumatic Brain Injury"
Garret Moddel – "Dualism in Physics and New Science: Making Connections Between Multiple Descriptions of Reality"
Roger Nelson – "Effects of Interconnection: Group and Mass Consciousness at Work"
Alejandro Parra – "Does a the psychomanteum technique encourage a psi-conducive state of consciousness?"
John Petersen – "Six Slides That Will Change Your Mind About Climate Change"
S. Peter Resta – "Alien Abduction Syndrome: A Critical Analysis"
Samuel Webb Sentell – "Snarks, Boojums, Shamans and Sasquatch: Why Does the Tree Cross the Road?"
Jerry Shifman – "Connections: Speculation Unchained"
Kenneth Smith – "The Bureaucratic Mind"
Nina Sotina – "A Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics"
Roger Taylor – "Studies on 'Life-Energy' Leading to a Proposal for the Enhancement of Global Meditations"
James Clement van Pelt – "Brain Flash: Implications of the Peak Neural Activity Preceding the Moment of Death"
Ron Westrum – "French UFO Abductions: Far Too Few?"
George Williams – "Quantum Mechanics, Metaphysics, and Process"

Young Investigators Program Luncheon

Thursday, 5/28, at 12:00 pm. Are you a student interested in the unusual and unexplained phenomena with which science is grappling? Come join us for lunch. Details at conference registration desk.

SSE Intro/Guest Session

Wednesday 5/27, tentatively 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm. Join us for light refreshments, and a talk from SSE Vice President Garret Moddel, to explain what SSE researchers do, why it's important. A Q&A will follow. Free and open to the public.

Newcomer Welcome and Intro Session

Thursday 5/28, tentatively between 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm. Newcomers are invited for after-dinner dessert, an introduction to SSE from President Bill Bengston, and the opportunity to introduce yourself and meet other attendees. ("Newcomers" are new members as of last year's conference, or first-time attendees of an SSE conference, whether a member or not).

Sunday Workshop

What is Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV)? How does it differ from Remote Viewing (RV)? What is the Military Protocol? What is the basic concept of CRV and what makes this Protocol so powerful? Remote viewing has become a popular topic and is being used in research by many who are not able to answer these questions.

This workshop is the perfect opportunity for those who are planning to research CRV & RV, or who are contemplating to do research using CRV. Participants will learn about the theory, applications, and limitations of the CRV Protocol. The workshop will also discuss a unique pilot research study that was conducted using EEG while viewers were "on target" or accessing nonlocal information using CRV.

Participants will also have the opportunity to experience accessing nonlocal information using the original military protocol.

The full day workshop, May 31, 2015 will begin at 9:30 and end around 4:30, with two breaks.

Dominique Surel has been trained to the Advanced CRV level by one of the best original military remote viewers, Lyn Buchanan. Dominique has been teaching CRV internationally for over ten years. She is Dean of Faculty at Energy Medicine University where she teaches CRV and Radiesthesia.

Registration will be included with the conference registration or you will be able to do register separately. Space is limited so register early.

Call For Papers

This year's theme is "Making Connections," which contains within it multiple meanings.

The first meaning has to do with networking. The SSE is the premier generalist research society interested in scientific anomalies. That is, under our wide tent our membership looks into anomalies that include psi, healing, alternative energy, states and effects of consciousness, UFOs, remote viewing, human survival, to name only a few! At our conferences, we benefit greatly (and perhaps uniquely) by the range of presentations and exposure to ideas in areas that might be new to us.

And so the first part of the "Making Connections" theme will involve the program committee (myself, Garret Moddel, Patrick Huyghe) inviting our colleagues from other more specialized societies to come and present to us the best of their current research. In short, the SSE as an organization will be making connections with like-minded organizations and inviting them to join us.

The second meaning of Connections has to do with the intellectual challenge of finding the links among the various types of scientific anomalies. All of us have thought about the meaning and implications of anomalous data. How can we make connections among them? What do we learn from the study of anomalies in multiple fields?

Finally, and continuing in the spirit of connection, at this year's conference we are going to try to make room for more "downtime," where attendees can have increased opportunities to network with speakers and colleagues. After all, the purpose of the conference isn't solely to hear great talks; it is also to make connections, exchange ideas, and to have personal interaction.

There will be many exciting features of this conference discussed in a separate announcement, including our inaugural "Founders Lecture" to be given by one of our eminent founders, Robert Jahn; our invited like-minded organizations; panels; the field trip; etc.

Full members who are interested in presenting a talk at the conference can send an abstract and bio to me, at [email protected]. Associate members must have their presentation sponsored by a full member. Please limit your abstract to about 300 words, accompanied by a short bio. No submission should be longer than 1 page, including abstract and bio. The deadline for submission is April 3rd.

Looking forward to seeing you,
Bill Bengston
President, SSE

Friday Outing

The National Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum maintains the world's largest and most significant collection of aviation and space artifacts. The museum has two locations; we will be visiting the D.C. location. We will arrange a (free) guided tour of the museum; participation is optional – you may choose to explore the museum on your own.

The museum's D.C. site has thousands of objects on display, including the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, and a lunar rock you can touch. In addition to the exhibition galleries, you may want to visit the Albert Einstein Planetarium, Lockheed Martin IMAX® Theater, and the Public Observatory on the east terrace.

In January 2015, the Museum, at its D.C. site, lowered Charles Lindbergh's Ryan NYP "Spirit of St. Louis" to the floor -- for the first time in more than 20 years. The famous aircraft will remain on the floor at eye level for visitors to see for approximately five months.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalks and the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, the museum is showcasing the art and artifacts of spacefaring from Jan. 8 through June 8.

Cost

$35/person (This covers a boxed lunch and transportation; the museum visit is free. The boxed lunch will include: sandwich, with meat and vegetarian choices available; chips; cookie; soda/water.)

Trip Schedule (Approximate / Tentative)

Boxed lunches will be handed out at 12:30 pm. We will depart the hotel at 1:00pm and expect to reach the museum by 1:45pm. The guided tour will probably start at 2:15 pm. For the return trip, we will depart the museum at 5:00pm and expect to reach the hotel by 6:00pm.

Trip Options

If you are not interested in spending all the time (or any time) at the Air & Space Museum, you could visit some of the other nearby tourist attractions, such as the Museum of Natural History, or the National Gallery of Art, both of which are within walking distance. (See map below.)

If you want to stay longer at the museum or in D.C. - after 5:00pm, when the bus will depart, you could take the Metro Rail back, from any of the nearby metro stations, to the Twinbrook station, and return to the hotel on your own.

We look forward to seeing you in Washington, D.C.!

Key Dates

  • Submissions Deadline: April 3
  • Hotel Discount Deadline May 4
  • Welcoming Reception: May 27 (evening)
  • Conference Program: May 28 - May 30
  • Sunday Workshop: May 31 (9:30 AM - 4:30 PM)

Key Contacts