Does the Psychomanteum Technique Encourage a Psi-Conducive State of Consciousness?
Alejandro Parra and Jorge Villanueva
INSTITUTE OF PARANORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Salta 2015 (C1137ACQ) Buenos Aires, Argentina
The mirror-gazing procedure termed the “psychomanteum” was developed by the world-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Raymond Moody. It was designed to facilitate re- union experiences with deceased individuals, as a means of addressing the feelings surrounding bereavement. Although the modern psychomanteum is not normally employed to seek ESP information about the future, it may be that the psychomanteum is psi-conducive. For example, there are many similarities and differences between psychomanteum experiences and accounts of hypnagogic/ hypnopompic imagery, which is conducive to ESP. The aim is of this paper was to explore whether the psychomanteum technique encourages a psi-conducive state of consciousness, which would result in scoring that is significantly above MCE. One hundred and thirty participants (92 females and 38 males; Mean age= 47.44) were recruited by announcements in newspapers and our web site. Seventy-eight percent claimed to have had a variety of ESP experiences. A number of variables, such as vividness of imagery and hallucinatory experience, were examined. Two conditions, psychomanteum and non-psychomanteum, were compared. A CD-pool containing 200 high- quality color pictures, such as animals, icons, foods, people, landscapes, religion, scenic pictures, structures, and humoristic cartoons, was designed using a RNG for randomization. Under psychomanteum condition, psi-hitting was obtained (30.8% above MCE); however, under no-psychomanteum (“control”) condition, 29.2% was obtained (where 25% was expected). The results differ slightly from MCE in the psychomanteum condition (p = .02, one-tailed) in comparison with no-psychomanteum condition, but no significant differences were found. A number of positive correlations were also found, for instance, participants who attained higher scores on auditory and visual hallucinations tended to demonstrate psi-hitting.
Alejandro Parra received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the Universidad Abierta Interamericana (www.vaneduc.edu.ar/uai), where he is now a teacher and associated researcher. He received his PhD in psychology from the Uni- versidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales (www.uces.edu.ar). He is licensed in Buenos Aires, Argentina (Mat. # 32.358), where he serves as a psychotherapist in general clinical psychological practice in the Clinical Area of the Institute of Para- normal Psychology. He conducts therapy groups and uses an historical approach in his continued research into parapsychology, dreamwork, and mediumship. In a counseling setting he also conducts workshops with psychics and mediums on their paranormal/spiritual experiences. His clinical research is based on cognitive-experiential and humanistic/Rogerian-oriented approaches with groups of people who have had paranormal experiences and dreams.