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| October 2026 |
SSE’s October Babies are in Good Company
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With the conclusion of our recent SSE election, I’m pleased to share that the Society now has a fully constituted Executive Committee and Council—one that is ready, energized, and deeply committed to advancing our mission. Our newly elected and returning members bring a remarkable blend of scientific expertise, curiosity, and dedication that reflects the very best of SSE’s spirit. The Executive Committee now includes:
President: James Houran, Ph.D.
Over the past year, we’ve worked hard to strengthen the Society’s foundations and prepare for this moment. We restored the monthly newsletter as a reliable communication channel, collaborated with the Executive Committee to update membership rolls and support recruitment and donation initiatives, and welcomed our new Community Engagement Manager, Ashlea Perry, whose revitalization of SSE’s social media presence and community outreach has been nothing short of transformative. We launched a quarterly webinar series to broaden access to high‑quality scientific dialogue, and we successfully identified and appointed the next Editor‑in‑Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, beginning in 2027—Everton de Oliveira Maraldi, Ph.D., whose scholarly leadership will serve the journal well.
With the Council now fully in place, we’re poised to build on this momentum. Please stay tuned for more news and updates as initiatives get underway. The coming year will focus on deepening member engagement, strengthening our publications and conferences, expanding interdisciplinary partnerships, and ensuring that SSE continues to serve as a home for thoughtful, evidence‑based inquiry into frontier phenomena.
Thank you for your continued support of the Society and its mission. Together—with a renewed Council and a shared sense of purpose—we’re eager to take SSE to the next level. |
Explorer Book ClubWe are reading Beyond Reason by SSE member Gregg Korbon, MD. Discussion 1 opens on our Substack on October 19, and we invite members and friends of SSE to read along, share their reflections in the comments, and join a thoughtful, curious conversation about ideas that challenge assumptions and explore the unexplained. Mark your calendar: Dr. Korbon will join us for a live Q&A on November 16, allowing readers to ask questions and hear more about his experiences behind the book. The Journal of Scientific ExplorationThe Journal of Scientific Exploration published Vol. 40, No. 3, September 29. One standout paper asks a question millions of puzzlers will appreciate: why do Wordle players get better as the day goes on? The authors found that players solve each day’s puzzle in fewer guesses as the day goes on, and they weigh explanations ranging from time-of-day effects and spoilers to morphic resonance. Read more fascinating research here. Upcoming MAVERICK Talks: Interactive Virtual Chats about Bold IdeasMAVERICK = Monthly Adventures Via Exploration, Revealing Inquiry, Curiosity, and Knowledge. Help us shape the future of scientific exploration—one bold idea at a time! SSE’s monthly virtual forum where members can share works-in-progress, spark fresh inquiry, and receive thoughtful feedback from fellow explorers. Whether you're refining a method, testing a hypothesis, or navigating a controversial topic, this is your space to engage, reflect, and grow. When & Where: Second Sunday of each month (unless a quarterly webinar is scheduled), 1-hour Zoom sessions at: 5 PM ET | 4 PM CT | 3 PM MT | 2 PM PT ● November 8, 2026 (Sky Nelson-Isaacs) Please Renew Your SSE MembershipEnsure that you stay connected, informed, and supported by renewing your SSE membership today. Your continued participation keeps our community thriving and unlocks a host of benefits:
While you’re renewing, please also take a moment to update your SSE profile. Add your newest publications, refine your research interests, and upload a fresh photo so colleagues can find and connect with you more easily. Please don’t let your membership lapse—renew now to keep advancing both your career and our shared mission: https://scientificexploration.org/join-us |
Everton Maraldi, Ph.D., is a psychologist, researcher, and international leader in the scientific study of anomalous experiences and mental health. His work sits at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality, exploring phenomena such as altered states of consciousness, dissociation, mediumship/possession, and other anomalous phenomena reported across cultures. He serves as a Professor at the Post-Graduate Program in Medical Sciences of the D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR) in Brazil and a research associate at the Institute of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (IPq-HCFMUSP). He has previously held research positions at the University of Oxford and Coventry University in the UK. Everton also served as President of the Parapsychological Association (PA, United States). You're stepping into the role of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration. What excites you most about where JSE can go next? I’m excited by the possibility of helping the JSE become more visible and more connected to the wider scientific community, while continuing to make room for questions that are difficult to accommodate in conventional outlets. It is important to show that we can encourage work that is methodologically rigorous, transparent, and open to independent scrutiny, alongside genuine intellectual curiosity about unusual phenomena and human experience. These goals are not contradictory. Science needs more disruptive research, and it's possible to foster it without losing sight of methodological and conceptual rigorousness. I also hope we can strengthen dialogue across disciplines and research traditions, and make that conversation more international. The journal has an important history, and I see my role as building on the work of previous editors while helping JSE grow in reach and influence. I feel both excited and honored to be the first researcher from Latin America (and the first from Brazil) to serve in this position at JSE. I will do my best to strengthen cross-cultural collaboration and the international development of anomalistics through my editorial work in JSE. Much of your research explores experiences that can be interpreted very differently depending on psychological, cultural, religious, or spiritual context. What first drew you to studying anomalous and nonordinary experiences? I grew up in Brazil, a deeply religious country where reports of anomalous and spiritual experiences are common. Since adolescence, I have been fascinated by accounts of anomalous phenomena and have searched for ways to understand them, first through Spiritism and later through science and philosophy. Over time, especially after becoming a psychologist, I learned to apply scientific methods to these questions. I also became more aware of the many ordinary explanations that may account for such experiences. Still, I have never lost interest in what they might ultimately reveal about the mind, the brain, and physical reality. People may describe an experience in spiritual or paranormal terms, while researchers may approach it through concepts such as memory, dissociation, sleep, expectation, or social context. I wanted to understand both the experience itself and the ways people make sense of it. That interest has remained with me because these experiences can be deeply meaningful, sometimes unsettling, and often difficult to fit into familiar categories. Studying them calls for careful methods, but also for listening closely to people and taking their cultural worlds seriously. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing researchers who study phenomena that fall outside—or at the edges of—mainstream science? One major challenge is working in a climate where the subject can be judged before the evidence is considered. That can make it harder to ask open questions, attract collaborators, or secure a fair hearing for the work. At the same time, researchers in this area have a responsibility to make their questions, methods, and limits especially clear. For me, the central task is to combine openness with disciplined inquiry. We need to distinguish what a person reports experiencing from the explanations that may be offered for it, consider competing accounts, and make sure our conclusions do not go beyond the evidence. That approach can support constructive discussion among researchers who disagree. Beyond academic censorship and the institutional barriers we face, another major challenge is addressing problems within the field itself, including disagreements over theories and terminology, as well as the lack of funding and institutional support. These are complex challenges, and addressing them will require us to work together, coordinate our efforts, and build a stronger future for the field. Is there an anomalous phenomenon or research question that you think deserves far more serious scientific attention than it currently receives? FAST 5 wildcard: What is one idea, mystery, book, experience, or unanswered question that you can't stop thinking about right now? I keep returning to a simple question: how can we study exceptional human experiences in a way that respects what people report while remaining careful about what the evidence allows us to conclude? It connects much of my research and, in a different way, the editorial work I’m preparing to do at JSE. I think the answer depends on curiosity, sound methods, and a willingness to take disagreement seriously. We do not need to settle every question in advance in order to investigate it well. The work also requires us to engage with a range of beliefs and worldviews, both scientific and spiritual. In practice, this is more challenging than is often recognized, which is one reason research in anomalistics and related fields is so important. Ultimately, it asks how science can engage with subjective experience in ways that are meaningful, rigorous, and reproducible. It invites us to respect and listen to other people’s experiences and take them seriously. |
A ghost applied to join the SSE Council. We told it that “You’re welcome to attend, but you can’t vote unless you have a corporeal quorum.” |
If you haven’t yet joined SSE as a Professional, Associate, or Student, Never miss a single issue of JSE: https://journalofscientificexploration.org/index.php/jse/issue/archive The Explorer is produced with the support of: SSE/JSE Social Media Specialist Ashlea Perry |