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Published: Jun.11.2011

Premonitions and other PSI in Reliability Engineering

John MacLean

I teach two classes at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah in which we examine in the last week of class several PSI related subjects. These classes, Technology and Human Life, and Understanding Technology, are lower division University courses. In the first we consider the social, ethical and legal issues with developing technology and in the second, just understanding how current technology works. Many of my students are married with families and work full time in technology related vocations. They tend to be very pragmatic.

I only discuss in class, PSI related science that is backed up by good statistics. During one session, a crusty construction fellow inquired, “What’s the Point?” He expressed the feeling of many that things like Premonitions, Remove Viewing, Telekinesis, Telepathy, and others, have no practical value and may not even be real. We have, I think, a responsibility to develop and communicate how these phenomena can be useful to society.

In that regard, this presentation will show how Premonitions and possibly some other phenomena are vital in the Reliability and Safety aspects of Aviation and other safety critical vocations including operating room personnel, ship bridge crews and industrial plant employees. One vital process for these people and indeed, even all of us, is Situational Awareness, or knowing what is going on around us. Early work in this area was done by Dr. Robert Helmreich at the University of Texas Psychology Department (ret) under a NASA contract. Training in this area is required by the FAA for all commercial aviation crews and has been found extremely valuable in many other areas.
We teach how to recognize when Situational Awareness is being lost, using 11 clues to losing it. One of these is the presence of a gut feeling that something is wrong. This is a good definition of a premonition. We will discuss how this relates to the other clues and how there may be some other PSI phenomena operating in conjunction. Some examples of this in actual operations will be given. Some rationales for ignoring such warnings will be explored.

Bio: John MacLean was born in a coal camp ghost town in Utah and grew up in Sheridan, Wyoming. He attended the University of Wyoming, and University of Utah where he received a BS in Chemical Engineering. After a successful career in the Oil Industry, including 20 patents, he received a Masters in Technology at Eastern Michigan University. During a period of consulting engineering, John became connected with the Society for Scientific Exploration at their Santa Fe meeting in the early 90’s. John has been active in the SSE ever since and hosted the 25th annual meeting in Utah and has served on the council for 6 years. John has taught in the Utah Valley University department of Technology Management since 2000. He has included PSI related technologies in his curriculums of two classes for the last two years.