Your Immortal Self Exploring the Mindful Way — Tom Butler

Date: Various Type: Book

ITC EVP Consciousness Afterlife Spirit Communication Research Mediumship Parapsychology ATransC Tom Butler

of the Mandelbrot set. The imaginary space of the Mandelbrot Set is used in Discourse 13: Cosmology of Imaginary Space to provide an idea of how it might be to navigate etheric space. The Set is an excellent analog to represent reality because it is created with a very simple mathemacal process based on just a few assumpons. Yet, the resulng imaginary space is inﬁnitely small and contains an inﬁnite number of fractals. This rendion tled Fractal Spheres was produced by Piotr Siedlecki and kindly posted at publicdomainpictures.net. Siedlecki also has an Internet presence at whoami911.deviantart.com. Acknowledgments My name is under the tle because, admiedly, this book is the world according to me. Should you think I am crazy, it is just me. I might not have become involved in transcommunicaon had it not been for Lisa, so if you like the book, thank her. Sarah Estep shined a light on the path which led to this book. Lisa took the ﬁrst step for me, but the path has been paved by hundreds of past AA- EVP and then ATransC members, other ITC organizaons and the pioneers who have been so brave in the light of certain ridicule. Many people provided important contribuons to our understanding of these phenomena. I would especially like to thank Margaret Downey and Cindy Heinen for their experimental support. Of course, members of the Big Circle gave important meaning to communicaon across the veil with loved ones. Some of the more instrumental parcipants in the

Big Circle include Martha Copeland, Karen Mossey, Vicki Talbo, Teri Daner, Chrisne Jenkins, Rashelle Eastman Morrison, Erland Babcock and Debbie Caruso for their help in exploring the possibility of EVP. The paranormalist community provided the background inﬂuence which gave me reason to compose this work in the ﬁrst place. But every me someone made a faith-based comment as if it were fact, I hurried back to my computer and worked on this book. My prayer is that, aer a while, there will be no need for a second edion. Consider these situaons: A Personal Note • A person cuts another oﬀ in traﬃc or cuts in line at an event. • A person sits in stopped traﬃc with music blaring so loud it rales the lungs of nearby drivers. • A neighbor takes oﬀ from his home on a motorcycle with very loud engine noise or lets a dog bark day and night. • Target pracce near homes or the incessant noise of oﬀ-road vehicles near campsites. • A snide remark on a discussion board or cricism one would not dare make in person. • Publicly carrying a gun which is only intended to kill. None of these behaviors are illegal. In some communies, they are not even discouraged, yet individually, people react to being on the receiving end of these behaviors with primal insncts. It is human nature. Loud noise provokes a ﬂight or ﬁght response which is quickly replaced with an aggressive urge to respond in kind. Cung

someone oﬀ in traﬃc is actually stealing me and space in an already crowded and hurried world. The vicm must decide his or her place in the pecking order; a primal reacon follows, based on whether the person submits or responds in kind. It is only human. Just because we can do something does not mean we should. Mindful living is based on the idea of sharing the world. A good cizen is one who considers the implicaons of each act before proceeding. How do your acons aﬀect others? When Lisa and I assumed leadership of the ATransC in 2000, I was very careful to keep my personal assumpons to myself and to remain pragmacally analycal. But as I learned about the implicaons of survival, I came to realize how important it is for people to understand that everything they do maers. We cannot legislate morality or force people into good cizenship. It must come from a desire to cooperate as part of the collecve. How to Use This Book What is wrien here is one thought. In my mind, it is indivisible. If it were otherwise, this would be three books. I talk a lot in this book about the three aspects of a teacher which are acquired understanding, expression of that understanding as a way of living and the results of that way of living as a role model for others. All are aspect of the one thought, which is teacher. This book is wrien as the three

aspects of a teacher. The concepts explained in Secon I represents the ﬁrst aspect as acquired understanding or theory. The community in which those concepts must be developed (the way of living) is discussed in Secon II. Learning to work with the phenomena thought to be the result of the concepts (the role model) are discussed in Secon III. While it is possible to read just the theory of Secon I, I have taken every opportunity to relate how the theory might apply to the complexies of daily living and the many forms of phenomena. It is my hope that you will treat the book as one thought and do the work to integrate it into your daily living. Layout Think of this book as a tool for learning about a relavely complex subject. It is designed to make it as easy as possible for you. Even so, the complexity of some concepts and the way they are interrelated makes it necessary to frequently interrupt discussions to explain related concepts. While confusing at ﬁrst, I think the confusion will be less as you gain a sense of how the book is designed. So take your me, be paent and keep in mind the potenal beneﬁts of understanding your etheric nature. Internal Links All hyperlinks except those provided in References will take you to a locaon within the book. If a word or term has speciﬁc but probably not evident meaning, its ﬁrst use should have a hyperlink to the Glossary

entry or to its best use in the body of the book. My intenon is that you will follow the link if you think you may not understand my meaning, but otherwise ignore it. Always look to the Glossary to clarify confusing usage. If that does not help, use the contact tool at the boom of each ethericstudies.org or ATransC.org web page to ask for further explanaon. Many of the discourses include foundaon concepts that are common to other discourses. The discourse in which the foundaon concept is best explained is usually the target link for reference. I tried to balance ease of reading with avoidance of redundancy, which means a short explanaon will be included for most concepts as they are discussed, but a more complete explanaon may be elsewhere in the book. Diagrams Some of the diagrams are used in just about every discourse related to the Implicit Cosmology. To save space, in the digital edion, they are included only once with the text related to their primary use. Internal links will take you to the appropriate diagram as they are referenced elsewhere. Your book reader should have a Go Back tool. In some readers, Alt-Le Arrow is Go Back. In the hardcopy version, the diagrams are all located at the front of the book, just aer the Contents pages. I recommend that you place a bookmark there for easy access. Comments Indented paragraphs are used to interject comments. In the eBook, these also have blue text. Please

note that, while I aempt to be objecve and source-based, these pseudo-sidebars are usually used to set aside my opinion or personal observaons. Glossary of Terms As an experienced technical writer, I know to be speciﬁc about words I use and consistent in how I use them. Terms are usually used in their common or at least second or third meaning. But the context is novel and you will likely take a while to orient yourself within the context of the Implicit Cosmology. One good way to adjust to this novel context is to take a lile me in the beginning to normalize the terms. For example, you might have a phrase in your mind that means spiritual healing. In this book, that concept is explained as healing intenon. Both terms have essenally the same intent, but the way it is worded here aligns with the cosmology. Always look to the Glossary of Terms to clarify confusing usage. If that does not help, use the contact tool at the boom of each ethericstudies.org or ATransC.org web page to ask for further explanaon. Also check the dedicated pages at ethericstudies.org/immortal_self.htm for updates, correcons and veriﬁcaons. The Implicit Cosmology is connuing to evolve. It is my intenon to maintain notes about its evoluon, and other updates, at ethericstudies.org/immortal_self.htm; however, the website is based on old design technology. Soon aer this book is published, I will begin updang all of the websites I am responsible for to comply with mobile reader technology. That

may mean the dedicated update page for this book will have a new address. Always look to the front page for guidance. References There is not a lot in this book that is my invenon. My only claim is that I have compiled the cosmology, but it is based on evolving thought of the paranormalist community. Most of the references are accessible on the Internet. They may not say exactly what I say, but you will be able to see why I designed the cosmology as it is. As you seek supporng references, keep in mind that serious consideraon of the Survival Hypothesis and transcommunicaon is relegated to the farthest froner of popular thought. To be of use, most of the references must be taken with a great deal of reservaon. It is the larger picture they suggest that I ask you to consider. You are directed to the reference list with the appropriate number in parenthesis such as Rupert Sheldrake (9). Website Ethericstudies.org/immortal_self.htm will include access to informaon about this book. This will include correcons, clariﬁcaons and updates. The ATransC Idea Exchange discussion board is available if you wish to ask quesons, make comments about this book, or discuss concepts. Your Immortal Self Exploring the Mindful Way Content Use License About the Cover Acknowledgments A Personal Note How to Use This Book Layout Website Diagrams List of Diagrams and Examples Introducon to this Book In the Beginning A Word About Arcle Names Secon I: Implicit Cosmology (Theory) Secon II:

Community (Commentaries) Secon III: Transcommunicaon (Studies) Secon I: Implicit Cosmology Introducon to the Implicit Cosmology Introducon Organizaon of this Book My Qualiﬁcaons Brief Introducon to Important Terms Developing this Cosmology Six Pillars Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Introducon About Hypotheses Perspecve Dominant Views of Reality Scope of the Three Hypotheses Characteriscs That Must Be Addressed The Trans-Survival Hypothesis Statement of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Supporng Material in the Form of Direct Evidence Indirect Evidence Discussion Discourse 2: Introducon to the Implicit Cosmology Objecve The Cosmology Basic Assumpons Read On Discourse 3: Organizing Principles Orientaon Principles by Category Source Category 1: Organizing Principles of Reality Category 2: Organizing Principles of Formaon Category 3: Organizing Principles of Personality Discourse 4: Source Introducon Not Proof but Reason to Consider Modeling Source Populang Reality Self-Organizing Reality Discourse 5: The Nature of Reality Introducon The Name of Reality Diﬀerenal in Reality Entanglement Discourse 6: Etheric Fields Introducon Characteriscs Origin of an Etheric Field Persistence of an Etheric Field Mechanics of an Etheric Field Nonlocal and Nontemporal Energy Verses Field Hierarchy of Nested Fields Fields in the Form of ... Terms for Morphic Fields Ideoplasc Structures Liming Associaon via Perceptual Agreement Discourse 7: Life Fields Introducon Funconal Areas of a Life Field Discourse 8: Personality-Centric Perspecve Introducon Perspecve Our Body is a Complete Organism Our body as Avatar Personal Style and Astrology Balance Human Animal Irraonal Behavior Degrading Avatar Relaonship May I Introduce Myself? Discourse 9: Percepon and Expression Introducon The Mind is Etheric Understand the Unconscious Processes

First Sight Theory The Perceptual Process Implicaons of First Sight Theory Percepon Becomes Expression Intenon Field Informed Visualizaon On Being Informed Changing Worldview Worldview and Expression Summary Interesng Speculaon Discourse 10: Perceptual Agreement Introducon Evolving Organizing Principles Discourse 11: Mindfulness Purpose Mindfulness Teachers What We Do Now Maers Worldview Personal Reality, Local Reality and the Greater Reality Suspended Judgment Self-determinaon A Personal Code of Ethics for Developing Mindfulness Lucidity Good and Evil and Other Cultural Arfacts Mindful Living Discourse 12: Progression, Teaching and Community Spirituality Cooperaon Friends as Teachers Selﬂess People A Vision About Collecves First a Student Then a Teacher The Nature of Understanding The Process of Gaining Understanding Collecve The Prime Imperave as a Spiritual Obligaon The Transion Experience Self-Realizaon Discourse 13: The Cosmology of Imaginary Space Introducon Imaginary Model of Reality Fractals as Aractors Comparing the Mandelbrot Set to Reality Navigang Imaginary Space A Useful Model Secon II Community Introducon to Community As it Began Everyone is an Expert Wikipedia Parapsychology Lack of a Workable Theory The Implicit Cosmology PS: Commentary 1: Community A Community Divided Historical Perspecve Paranormalist Community Peripheral Inﬂuences A More Pragmac View of the Community Blind Men and an Elephant Natural Cycles Commentary 2: Point of View Introducon Models for Reality What We Are Born With Worldview Temperament Point of View as Inﬂuenced by Temperament Villager-Explorer Eﬀect Engineering Imperave Point of View of Organizaons Litmus Test Commentary 3: Etheric Studies Introducon Who Studies the Etheric? Commentary 4: Science Introducon Cultural Landscape Names that

Separate Science from Belief Theory of Everything A Close Look at the Science-Layperson Relaonship The Study of Paranormal Concepts Research Grants Verses Contracts Trojan Horse Organizaons Research Ethics Omniscient Science Syndrome Perspecve Commentary 5: Psi Research Keep in Mind the Good First Sight Theory Formave Causaon Global Consciousness Quantum Entanglement Cizen Scienst Research Commentary 6: Skepcs Introducon Skepcs Impact on Research Tells of a Skepc Comparing the View of Science with the View of Skepcs Skepcism is Relave Paranormalist’s Diminishing Inﬂuence A case study: Government Acng on Skepcal Views A Case Study: Skepcal Control of the Media Healthy Skepcism Commentary 7: Wikipedia Introducon Anyone Can Edit Arcles Wikipedia Rules of Behavior Subject Maer Specialists Wikipedia Eding Rules Circular Referencing Foundaon Rules Value of Wikipedia Using Wikipedia Personal Aacks EVP Arcle Passive Paranormalist Alternave to Wikipedia Wiki Aggregator On Being an Editor Conclusion Commentary 8: Perspecve My Reader Realiscally Speaking The Village Model Legacy Secon III Transcommunicaon Introducon The Trans- Preﬁx Study 1: Foundaon Principles Introducon Organizing Principles Important Concepts Stochasc Ampliﬁcaon One Thought Study 2: The Nature of Transcommunicaon Introducon Mechanics of Transcommunicaon Avatar as Trans-channel What We Sense What We Express Expectaon Colors Percepon Accounng for Human Nature Evidence of Transcommunicaon Informaon from the Environment Sensed Informaon as Evidence of Survival Nonlocal Nontemporal Apports Precipitaon Intended Order EVP as a Lab Rat for Psi Research Implicaons of the Implicit Cosmology Study 3: Audio ITC a.k.a. EVP Introducon History Types of EVP Characteriscs of EVP Theories Proposed to Explain Observed

ITC Phenomena Normal Explanaons Psi Explanaons Recording Techniques Recording Equipment Ideal Background Noise Background Sound Preparaon Scheduling Recording Playback Classifying EVP Keeping a Log Digital Voice Recorders Analyzing the Recording for EVP Storage and sharing What You Need to Know Study 4: Techniques: Visual ITC Introducon Apparion Photography Instrumental TransCommunicaon About the Technology Perhaps Not ITC Witness Panels What are the Paranormal Features? What Have We Learned? Light Reﬂected from Moving Water Technique Theory I See It, Why Don’t You? The Future Study 5: Arfacts and Perceptual Error Introducon Photographic Arfacts Audio Arfacts Errors in Percepon Faux Transcommunicaon Unexpected Technique Induced Arfact Retro Familiar Storytelling Educaon Study 6: Mediumship a.k.a. Psi Sensing Mediumship Psi Sensing or Being Psychic Verses Mediumship Lucidity The Collecve Sensing Reality Sensing Potenal Fields Sensing the Physical Mind-to-Mind Sensing Channel Physical Mediumship Why the Old Beliefs Are Suspect A Meditaon to Train Psi Sensing Discussion Study 7: Healing Intenon Introducon My Qualiﬁcaons to Speak About Healing Foundaon Concepts Mapping a Person The Aging Paradox The Expression of Healing Intent Expressing Healing Intenon Who is Doing What? Modes of Healing Prayer Body Image The Way Back from Aging A Well-Documented Example Proxy Siers Mindfulness Tool for Healing Intenon Distant Healing as a Tool for Psi Research Study 8: Introducon to Best Pracces Foundaon of Civilizaon The Collecve A Pragmac View of Best Pracces Standard Pracces Already in Use Scope Examples Study 9: Best Pracce: Classifying Phenomena Abstract Jusﬁcaon/Introducon Pracce Audio ITC Visual ITC Example Applicaon Further Reading

Study 10: Best Pracce: Witness Panel Abstract Jusﬁcaon/Introducon Witness Panel Best Pracce Sound File Consideraons Study 11: Transcommunicaon Research Introducon Parapsychological Research Observaons Closing Comments Catch Phrases Help Describe Reality Ask Quesons! Thank you for reading this book! Glossary of Terms References Index Diagrams Some of the diagrams in this book are referred to many mes. For simplicity, just one instance of those is located aer this list of diagrams. Internal links are provided where the diagrams are referenced in the eBook version. It may be useful if you note their locaons, so that you can easily go to them for addional reference. That locaon will be diﬀerent, depending on your reader conﬁguraon. Pictures, examples and diagrams which are referred to just once are placed with the associated text. The list of diagrams below may be useful for future reference. List of Diagrams and Examples Apparion: Shell1 - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Apparion: Shell2 - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Arfact: Moving Camera - Study 5: Arfacts and Perceptual Error Classiﬁcaon: Distribuon - Study 9: Best Pracces: Classifying Phenomena Classiﬁcaon: Examples - Study 9: Best Pracces: Classifying Phenomena Classiﬁcaon: Perceived Objecvity - Study 9: Best Pracces: Classifying Phenomena Complex Number Space - Discourse 13: Cosmology of Imaginary Space Compare Physical and Etheric Inﬂuences - Discourse 6 Etheric Fields Concerns with Wikipedia - Commentary 7: Wikipedia Cosmology: Physical Only - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Cosmology: Super-Psi Only - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Cosmology: Trans-Survival Hypothesis - Discourse 1:

Trans-Survival Hypothesis Ectoplasm Face of Conan Doyle - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Ectoplasm with Hand - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Ethics - Discourse 11: Mindfulness EVP: Waveform - Study 3: Audio ITC a.k.a. EVP Fractals - Discourse 4: Source Funconal Areas of a Life Field – Diagrams Funconal Areas of a Life Field Complex - Diagrams Funconal Areas for Percepon and Expression - Diagrams Hyperlucidity - Discourse 11: Mindfulness Limits of Understanding - Discourse 12: Progression, Teaching, Community Lucidity - Discourse 11: Mindfulness Mandelbrot Set with Coordinates - Discourse 13: Cosmology of Imaginary Space Mandelbrot Set with Navigaon - Discourse 13: Cosmology of Imaginary Space Mediumship-aka Psi Sensing – Study 6: Mediumship Mind-to-Mind – Study 6: Mediumship Mind-to-Mind Remote Viewing - Study 6: Mediumship Moving Water ITC: Grandfather - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Moving Water ITC: Setup - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Orb Over Gene - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Orb, Black, Universal - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Orb, White with Tail - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Organizaon of Cosmology Series - Discourse 2: Introducon to the Implicit Cosmology Organizing Morphic Field - Discourse 6: Etheric Fields Personality Models Immortal Personality – Commentary 2: Point of View Personality Models Mind is Body - Commentary 2: Point of View Personality Models Mind-Body Duality and Psi – Commentary 2: Point of View Personality Styles with Astrological Signs - Discourse 8: Personality-Centric Perspecve Potenal Future - Discourse 6: Etheric Fields Precipitated Art by

Robinee - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Precipitated Art: Madam Blavatsky - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Progression - Discourse 2: Introducon to the Implicit Cosmology Principle of Aspectaon - Discourse 3: Organizing Principles Range of Interest Relang to Acceptance of Survival Concepts – Commentary 1: Community Research: Visual Percepon Study - Study 11: Research Scope of Etheric Studies - Commentary 3: Etheric Studies Terms: Apports - Glossary Terms: Ectoplasm - Glossary Terms: Hermec Qabalah - Glossary Terms: Sierpinski Triangle - Glossary Terms: SORRAT - Glossary The Hermit – Discourse 11: Mindfulness The Hermit - Commentary 8: Perspecve Trojan Horse - Commentary 4: Science Water Technique: Elves - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Water Technique: Grandfather - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Water Technique: Jug - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Water Technique: King - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Water Technique: King2 - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Water Technique: Soesman Technique - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Video Loop: Alien - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Video Loop: Clayton - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Video Loop: Clown - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Video Loop: Cow - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Video Loop: Dog - Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Video Loop Technique - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Visual ITC: Chaoc Visual Noise in Video Frame - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Visual ITC: Face on Turned Oﬀ TV1 - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Visual ITC:

Face on Turned Oﬀ TV2 - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Visual ITC: Man with Dog - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Visual ITC: Mirrored Image - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Visual ITC: Troll - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Visual ITC: Two Lovers - Study 4: Techniques - Visual ITC Frequently Referenced Diagrams Your Immortal Self Exploring the Mindful Way Introduction to this Book In the Beginning The Associaon TransCommunicaon (ATransC) was founded by Sarah Estep in 1982 as the American Associaon of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) to: “Provide objecve evidence that we survive death in an Individual Conscious state.” By convenon, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is wrien as a plural. Sarah began with the term as plural and we have connued using it in that way. In fact, there are a number of diﬀerent forms of EVP and diﬀerent ways in which they are encountered, and as such, it is a plural expression when considered as a class of phenomena. Lisa and I assumed leadership of the AA-EVP in 2000 and connued to publish the quarterly newsleer unl its last issue, Spring 2014, Number 33-1. That made a total of 129 issues, 57 of which we published. By 2010, we had come to recognize that transcommunicaon phenomena are related by a common set of inﬂuences. To study one, it is necessary to study all of them. We were also becoming aware of how people inﬂuence the message and how understanding the dynamics of

transcommunicaon can facilitate mindful living. To beer support the study of these phenomena, and to make the organizaon more open to people outside of the USA, we changed the name to Associaon TransCommunicaon in 2010. In 2014, we changed the ATransC from a publicly supported membership organizaon to just publicly supported, meaning that we now depend enrely on donaons, income from aﬃliate programs when website visitors use the aﬃliate links to make their purchases, and from the book we wrote, No Death and There Are No Dead. (1) As of 2014, the book has earned $37,000 for the Associaon. Many of the Associaon members were acve EVP experimenters and parcipated in a number of important studies sponsored by the ATransC. Thanks to those members, during that me we had access to a very large amount of informaon about how ITC phenomena were collected, what worked, what did not and the problems associated with working with the phenomena of transcommunicaon. Prior to becoming involved with the Associaon, we had been deeply immersed in many forms of human potenal and the study of phenomena which included training in several healing modalies and various forms of mediumship. This also included emersion into the Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches (2) system of thought leading to ordinaon and cerﬁcaon as healer, medium and teacher. Lisa writes a Media Watch column for the Naonal Spiritualist Summit magazine and as of the end of 2015, she has produced 125 issues. She also prepares a Media Watch column

for the ASPSI Searchlight. (3) I help as I am able, and together we have examined thousands of news arcles about things paranormal. This has given me a sense of the various points of view in our paranormalist community and an idea of how the understanding of paranormal phenomena is developing in mainstream society. The ATransC Collecve (4) is a wiki intended to support collaborave development of Best Pracces. Related reference material is gradually being added to the Collecve, and between the Media Watch archive on ATransC.org and the Collecve, we seek to provide easy access to references which may be of value in literature surveys necessary for research. Since 2006, I have been a Wikipedia editor and have been present for some of the more contenous edit wars between moderate editors and the radical skepc editors who now control the paranormal-oriented arcles in that online encyclopedia. This has given me a sense of how the skepcal community thinks, their talking points and the dynamics of the mainstream-paranormalist interface. (5) In 1994, I wrote the Handbook of Metaphysics (6) in an eﬀort to give suﬃcient background informaon about metaphysical concepts to provide a context in which people could understand new concepts. The book was published, but poorly produced, and of course it is now outdated. A Word About Article Names It is important to me that you maintain a sense of where you are in this book. It is also important that you have a sense of how to compartmentalize

the diﬀerent parts of this book. The arcles in the Implicit Cosmology Secon are called Discourses because they are reasonably formal expository essays about the various aspect of the cosmology. By comparison, the arcles in the Community Secon are called Commentaries because they are clearly my opinion. I want you to at least condionally accept what is said in the discourses, while I would rather you take the commentaries with reservaon. Arcles in the Transcommunicaon Secon are called Studies because they are based on a lot of formal and informal studies of the subjects. I expect you to accept them at face value just as you would any authoritave report. You may disagree with them, but they should be used as references in your study. They are included in an eﬀort to help you avoid starng from scratch in your study. Section I: Implicit Cosmology (Theory) The Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse is a rewrite of the Survival Hypothesis with new emphasis on transcommunicaon. If you accept my contenon that Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) provides important insight into the nature of reality, then you can understand that the Trans-Survival Hypothesis is very diﬀerent from anything you have previously learned. It became evident during the process of developing the hypothesis that many of the concepts needed to be addressed individually. For instance, concepts concerning the relaonship between a person in a lifeme, the aspect of a person that is an immortal personality and the nature of the greater reality are described in more objecve

terms than the usual myscal perspecve found in most paranormalist literature. The Implicit Cosmology Discourse was wrien to explain how all of the concepts ﬁt together. A proper model of reality should hypothesize how reality is arranged, how it works, its purpose for exisng, our nature and how we relate to reality. Our purpose, how we can achieve our purpose and why all of this maers should be the boom line, the so what? of the model. It is important to note that the Implicit Cosmology could not exist in its present form without the understanding that has come from the paranormalist community and especially from ATransC members. It has been through the process of ordering my thoughts to write arcles for the ATransC NewsJournal, and studying to answer quesons from members and the public, that I have evolved my present point of view. Section II: Community (Commentaries) The paranormalist community consists of people who, in one way or another, accept the reality of paranormal phenomena. To understand what is known, believed and theorized about these phenomena, it is necessary to understand the environment in which they are experienced. The Community Commentaries are intended to describe the paranormalist culture. Of course, they are wrien from my perspecve which has evolved from my study of transcommunicaon. The commentaries may seem strident in parts. In actuality, the larger community is fragmented into many subcommunies of interest with lile cross-community collaboraon. The result is that our community is retreang while our detractors are

becoming beer organized. Paranormalists are mild-mannered folk who shy away from contenous discussions. A good example is how hard some of us have tried to get people to help edit paranormal arcles in Wikipedia. I was told once that, “Aer seeing the abuse you have been subjected to, I would never consider becoming an editor.” This reluctance to become involved in debate is understandable. Paranormal subjects are not about religion, but they are about abstract concepts such as human potenal and connectedness. Most of us seek to understand the actual nature of our world and trying to impose our will on some skepc is not consistent with that goal. The Community Commentaries are wrien as a collaborate with you. Part of that eﬀort is to idenfy the problem areas so that we can work together to improve. This is not going to happen unless we look behind the curtain and see how messed up the social dynamics really are. I recently felt compelled to aggressively, publically denounce the treatment one of our physical mediums received from supposed sciensts for whom he agreed to demonstrate for research. As of this wring, I seem to be prey much alone in this. Is your silence implicit approval of the treatment? Our ability to openly study and pracce these phenomena is not guaranteed. If we as a community do not police ourselves, that freedom could go away. It has happened before! (7) Section III: Transcommunication (Studies) Those of you who know me know that

I am always looking for the so what meaning of theory and experiences. The transcommunicaon studies provide the applied theory or so what of the Implicit Cosmology. The secon is based on a physical world, hands-on point of view that is informed by the perspecve of etheric personality. If you ﬁnd the theory too abstract, you may more easily relate to the transcommunicaon studies. I invite you try some of the techniques and go to the ATransC Idea Exchange at ATransC.org/forum/ to ask quesons and share results. Section I: Implicit Cosmology Introduction to the Implicit Cosmology Editor’s note: As you read this cosmology, please keep in mind that it is a theorecal model designed to provide a context for my understanding of observed phenomena and the results of considerable study by many researchers. Metaphysics has been studied for centuries; however, modern views, which consider current psi research and instrumental forms of transcommunicaon, require that contemporary metaphysics be seen in a new light. Cosmologies are designed to be tested and reﬁned, so what you read here should not in any way be considered ﬁnal truth. The Implicit Cosmology is only a model with which to study reality. It is the possible understanding to come from that study that one must consider. Introduction A common complaint from observers of the paranormalist community is that there is no widely accepted unifying theory to explain these phenomena, especially for the presumed survival phenomena. I have to agree, but I am on the wrong side

of the academic-layperson paron to decide if that is true. I try to be well-informed about the phenomena of interest to our paranormalist community. As discussed in the Community Commentary, the major categories of phenomena include psi funconing, physical and mental mediumship, healing intenon, reincarnaon, near-death experiences and out-of-body experiences. My observaon is that these tend to be studied separately in isolated communies of interest within the paranormalist community. Studying these phenomena in such isolaon seems to culvate a false sense of authority which has eﬀecvely sﬂed collaboraon with other communies of interest. As I discuss in the Science Commentary, the ITC community is mostly ignored by parapsychologists. That neglect is unfortunate, because from my perspecve, ITC phenomena provide convincing, replicable examples that decidedly indicate survival. When I aempt to explain those examples to people, I necessarily include informaon about psi phenomena and then explain how it might be possible for a person to psychically funcon in a manner that produces the observed ITC. You see, that is one of my points. I must include psi inﬂuences in order to explain ITC because the most viable explanaon for ITC begins with the most viable explanaon for psi funconing. I look to the work of parapsychologists so that I can beer understand ITC. First Sight Theory is a good example. (8) As I connue to explain ITC, it is necessary to at least aempt an explanaon of why a loved one’s voice or likeness appears in some ITC examples. The best

explanaon I can ﬁnd is the Survival Hypothesis, so I have added it to the explanaon. Somewhere around the twelh year of my explaining these phenomena, I gave up on science and developed the Trans-Survival Hypothesis. Few people concerned with transcommunicaon have the necessary understanding of these complementary subject areas to develop a unifying model. As a director of an internaonal organizaon concerned with these phenomena, it seems a form of derelicon of duty not to at least propose a model. In my experience, having something for others to change is a lot easier than beginning with a blank page. As such, the Implicit Cosmology is my oﬀering for something to change. I invite you to help evolve it into a form more people in our community can accept as a working hypothesis. Be mindful of the cosmology’s narrow scope. While it probably can be applied to all forms of trans-etheric phenomena, including reincarnaon and near-death experiences, it is speciﬁcally designed to address survival from the perspecve of transcommunicaon. Organization of this Book This is the introducon to a set of discourses wrien to explain the major concepts which constute the Implicit Cosmology. The project began as an eﬀort to update the parapsychological version of the Survival Hypothesis while including informaon related to transcommunicaon. While the result of that inial eﬀort is the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse, that hypothesis is really just an argument to support the Implicit Cosmology. Aer the inial dra of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, I realized that too

many of the foundaon concepts were unlikely to be understood without further explanaon. Thus, I wrote a series of discourses to explain those foundaon concepts. Together the discourses in this secon constute the hypothesis, supporng explanaons and a cosmology describing reality based on the hypothesis. When construcng a cosmology, one must take sides. The point of view in this book is that the evidence suﬃciently supports Survival over Super- Psi. Wring from the point of view of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis has resulted in a rather speciﬁc vocabulary, or more correctly, a unique choice of word meanings. I aempt to explain key terms as I ﬁrst use them in each discourse, but remember that the Glossary of Terms is always available. The cosmology should be considered a closed system. By that I mean the point of view represented by the terminology, internal references and way of describing these concepts are all interdependent. This circular reference has made wring a clear and concise explanaon especially challenging. The way I have met the challenge is to repeat porons of explanaons several mes. So if you think I am repeang myself, just remember that pracce is supposed to make perfect. My Qualiications I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics engineering. Also, this book is based on over ﬁy years of study, personal experience and substanal invesgaon of the many aspects of trans-etheric phenomena. While this background is substanal, you have every reason to queson this work and seek alternave explanaons. This is

especially true of subjects concerning human nature. Should you have comments, quesons or simply decide I do not know what I am talking about, you are invited to contact me via the ethericstudies.org or ATransC.org contact tool and let me know what you are thinking. Alternavely, I am keeping the ATransC Idea Exchange discussion board open at ATransC.org/forum/. I enjoy informed discussion and the Idea Exchange is an ideal forum for collaboraon. Brief Introduction to Important Terms Each discourse is intended to explain a set of related concepts. The concepts are oen explained by referring to other concepts, some of which are not explained unl a later discourse. So for context, here are brief explanaons of the major concepts. Energy and Potential You will probably be familiar with cosmologies that describe reality as planes of existence and that use terms such as higher, lower, ﬁner and vibraon. You will also be accustomed to thinking in terms of energy. None of these concepts are useful in this cosmology. Concepts oen spoken of in terms of energy are modeled here in terms of potenal which is characterized as the inﬂuence of intenon. There is no electromagnec equivalent in the model, although to be technical, electromagnec energy would be modeled as an expression of intenon. See the Etheric Fields Discourse. Potenal has special meaning in that it is used in the sense of emergent form, rather than in the physical sense of a diﬀerence of potenal between two electrical terminals. In it quiescent

state, the etheric can be modeled as a nascent form of potenal. More correctly, a nascent process. The idea is that etheric, as the fundamental element of reality, is an undiﬀerenated process which is deﬁned by intenon to produce intended order. This is an etheric or conceptual equivalent of a random physical process such as white noise or the output of a random event generator. This concept may be easier to understand if you think in terms of how much a process is constrained by design. A very constrained process is not easily changed—say trying to roll a marble out of a deep well. An unconstrained process is relavely easy to change— say trying to roll a marble out of a slight depression. For instance, a radio is designed to lock onto a radio staon and eliminate noise while favoring the broadcasted message. Radio recepon is a very constrained process. By comparison, a random event generator is designed to be as free-ranging in frequency as possible. That is a very unconstrained process. In this model, the inial or quiescent state of the etheric is a nascent process which means it is dynamic but undeﬁned. It is in its most responsive state to intenon. One praccal result of this is that random noise is a ferle environment for the formaon of transform EVP or precipitated form. The concepts of higher or lower, as they are used in New Age conversaons to compare an ethereal being with an average physical person, are

modeled as having more or less perceptual agreement and understanding. One is not at the same vibraon as another. Instead, two people’s worldviews are more or less in agreement (perceptual agreement). Reading the Cosmology of Imaginary Space Discourse will give you a sense of the diﬀerence. The mathemacal imaginary space is used as an analog for reality in that movement from point to point is accomplished by changing original assumpons. Those assumpons are an analog for understanding. In more tradional cosmologies, reality is modeled as a layer cake, so you can see that understanding conceptual (imaginary) space requires an enrely diﬀerent perspecve and terminology. Conceptual Versus Objective We are taught to think of the mental processes of our mind as intangible and the physical world we sense with the ﬁve senses of our body as objecve. The point of view taken in this cosmology is that all of reality is intangible, or more correctly, conceptual. We assign the characterisc of objecvity to parts of our personal reality as we have been taught from birth. For that to work, all of our physical senses must deliver informaon about what we call the physical world to our mind in a conceptual form. (Careful here: mind is conceptual, brain is objecve.) In this cosmology, the physical world is seen as an expression of life. To use a technical term, these things we call physical are ideoplasc structures, meaning they are formed as a product of thought. The perspecve I want you to have

while reading this book is that we sense the world in a conceptual way but unconsciously translate percepon of that mental informaon into objecve form. This may be easier to understand aer you read the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse. Read that in order of discourses, though. Otherwise it will make lile sense without the foundaon material. Life ield In this cosmology, Source represents the ﬁrst cause for reality and god for the purpose of this cosmology. It is modeled as a life ﬁeld. Because it is seen as a singularity from which everything has originated, it is also the reality ﬁeld. The Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram shown below illustrates the major funcons associated with a life ﬁeld. All are unconscious processes. The personality funconal area represents our immortal presence. When we have aligned our worldview with the actual nature of reality, our conscious self as our I think I am this and our personality as our I am this come to be in perceptual agreement and are eﬀecvely one (lucidity). The intelligent core represents informaon required to maintain the life ﬁeld. It is like a database that contains what Rupert Sheldrake refers to as Nature’s habit. (9) It is informed by inherited purpose which serves to bias the inﬂuence of Worldview in the Perceptual Loop. See Morphic Fields in the Etheric Fields Discourse. The aenon complex supports percepon and expression. You will encounter the funconal areas of the Aenon Complex many mes in the book. An especially important

funconal area is Worldview which represents our memory, understanding, insncts and beliefs. (Insncts are from Source and from our human avatar.) An important process is the Perceptual Loop which includes the decision to accept or reject informaon. A third state for that is the maybe result which potenally integrates visualized percepon with worldview to form new understanding. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. The external inﬂuences include inﬂuences from other life ﬁelds and the psi signals expressed by ideoplasc structures. When entangled with a human in a lifeme (a person), the human’s ﬁve senses are transformed into etheric signals in the brain and experienced by our perceptual processes in the Aenon Complex. This is an unconscious process, and it is the results of that process we become aware of with our conscious self. An important input to the Aenon Complex is the Intenon Channel. That is the only conscious input to the otherwise unconscious part of our mind. Everything begins with intenon. It is up to us to intend to pay aenon, focus, noce—all of those things that we decide and then expect result from our mind. Avatar Point of View The Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse explains the avatar concept. The Life Field Complex Diagram shows the relaonship between our life ﬁeld and the life ﬁeld that is our human body which is our host in this lifeme. This is referred to as a personality-entangled avatar relaonship. It is important to note that the human life ﬁeld is beer described as

a morphic ﬁeld with a body image represenng Nature’s habit as described in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon. (9) These terms are explained in the Etheric Fields Discourse. The diagram will make more sense if you see that our human body shares perceptual processes with us. The relaonship is modeled in this way because, while the body maintains a self-image, it also inﬂuences our percepon with its earth-evolved insncts. Organizing Principles You may be familiar with the concept of Natural Law in which reality is thought to be governed by never-changing (immutable) laws. Also in that model, natural laws are part of the expression of Inﬁnite Intelligence (God, Source). As such, learning to understand Natural Law and living in accordance with it is expressed as spiritual maturity. (2) (10) In the Implicit Cosmology, Source, as the reality ﬁeld, is modeled as experiencing itself through aspects of itself. All life ﬁelds are direct or indirect aspects of Source. As aspects of Source, we gain understanding so that Source may gain understanding. We have a Prime Imperave to do so. Based on these assumpons, Source is sll learning to know itself and is therefore evolving. As Source evolves, so does its expression. In this cosmology, natural laws are referred to as Organizing Principles. The Organizing Principles Discourse provides what I believe is a comprehensive list of these principles. It is important to understand that the Organizing Principles are diﬀerent from what you may be familiar with as natural laws. Again, consider them

within the context of this cosmology. As a praccal maer, for our moment in me, they are immutable, but the model requires that they are able to evolve as Source evolves. Mindfulness The implicaons of this cosmology are addressed in the Mindfulness Discourse. The idea of mindfulness is not unique to me, but as I have studied these phenomena and spent so much of my life contemplang their implicaons, the idea of mindfulness has become my most important understanding. Our percepon is ﬁltered by our unconscious in the Aenon Complex. As I understand current trends in psychology, the fact that our decision making is based on processes thought to be beyond our conscious control has led to the idea that we cannot have free will. (11) However, mindfulness includes a technique by which it is possible to moderate worldview. So in any moment, we may not have free will (self- determinaon), but if a person has pracced mindful living for some me, then self-determinaon can come from how that way of living has produced a more correct worldview. Let me make that point another way. Think of it: our conscious self, that which we consciously assume is who we really are, is the source of intenon for all of our unconscious processes. As we intend, so will we live. The problem is that there is considerable lag between the me we intend and the me our worldview allows us to change. Worldview, represenng how we have learned to think, is

very slow to change. Mindful living is a way to consciously begin the process of aligning worldview with the true nature of reality. In a nutshell, that is the so what of this book. Developing this Cosmology Before I present this hypothesis, it is important for you to understand how it was developed. As an engineer, I am trained to look for how things work. For instance, it is not enough to say that a sound was made and we heard it. The queson that tells us about who we are, the metaphysical view, is how we heard the sound. The physiological explanaon is that bone and ﬂesh structures in our head converted the mechanical sound into a small bioelectric stream of informaon to be presented to the brain. Of course, the mainstream view for how a bioelectric signal is translated into awareness is that nerve cells and such work together to compare it with another bioelectric signal called memory. The result of that comparison is presented to the conscious mind. All of this is supposed to be biological body funcon. That is, the mainstream view is that mind is a product of brain. In my ﬁy-plus years of seeking understanding about my spiritual nature and the world we live in, I have come to see that mind precedes brain and connues to funcon as a living enty aer brain is dust. I understand current research to also say this, and so, a base assumpon in this study is that

brain is just a transmier/receiver for mind. Any model that results from this study must address the reasons that have led me to that acceptance. Mind is modeled here as a conceptual thing, meaning that it is a ﬁeld of inﬂuence I refer to as personality. Personality is the person’s intelligent core as it acts as the organizing inﬂuence for its life ﬁeld. A person’s conscious self as the I think I am this is the physical expression of personality while personality is the true I am this. In this view, the bioelectric sound signal represenng objecve sound must have an etheric component which can be sensed by the etheric personality. This component must be included in the model. Black Box Analysis Development of the hypothesis was a gradual process as I aempted to integrate each new concept into a uniﬁed model. The technique I used is somemes referred to as black box analysis. The idea is that any process can be reduced to funcons that respond to certain inputs to produce speciﬁc outputs. It is possible to design funconal areas operang in the box that will respond to known inputs to produce known outputs. When this process is used to reverse engineer products, it is important that the resulng funcons produce the desired output, but it is helpful if the new design does not replicate the example design, else there may be patent infringement problems. This is usually not a problem because, unl hardware design begins, black box analysis

is enrely a thought exercise. It must be understood then that black box analysis can produce meaningful models that are only representave of reality but not necessarily the same as reality. I am sasﬁed that this modeling technique is useful to explain the cosmology, but I make no claim to say that it is exactly the same as reality. A person with a diﬀerent background might imagine very diﬀerent soluons to the same problem. The ﬁrst step in the analysis was to locate the physical-etheric interface. (From the metaphysical view, it is the same to say objecve-conceptual interface.) Mainstream sciensts (11) (12) are beginning to agree with parapsychologists such as James Carpenter, author of First Sight Theory (13), in saying that we ﬁrst unconsciously process environmental informaon and that we only become aware of what we unconsciously think of that informaon. Paradoxically, we experience only a version of reality based on our cultural training. The interface, then, is where the conscious self generally stops and the unconscious mind begins. As it turns out, this is at the objecve boundary of the physical body. That is, the biological brain is objecve, mind is conceptual. Signals from the body’s ﬁve senses must pass through the objecve- conceptual interface, but otherwise, all of the inputs to the black box are conceptual and originate in etheric space. Outputs are expressions resulng from the percepon and expression process in the Aenon Complex and Understanding, which is shared with personality. A second factor in black box

analysis is a set of rules and implicit processes which moderate the funcons in the box. This is important when there are condional outputs such as expression. It may help for you to understand that expression means everything that comes from the perceptual process. This is based on the understanding that percepon is an unconscious mental process, while conscious awareness of the results of that process is in the form of an expression. This includes such signals as understanding, decision to speak, and selecon of speciﬁc words, emoons, vision, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasng and inﬂuence which produce an ideoplasc structure. In eﬀect, the physical body is just an input device for the percepon into the Aenon Complex and an output device for expression into physical space. The self only becomes aware of what is to be output from the unconscious as expression and what emerges from the unconscious percepon process about the physical. Consider mental mediumship as an example. Informaon previously consciously unknown to the medium is the input. A second input is intenon to access informaon. The output is also that informaon, but it is colored by the medium’s worldview. The implicit process is that there is a database funcon in the box that contains informaon which is used to color the medium’s expression. This process is described as the Perceptual Loop and Worldview funconal area in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. In pracce, for the complex system represented by reported paranormal phenomena and human nature, many single-threaded design

soluons such as that for mediumship could be proposed for the black box funcons. Fortunately, there are similaries amongst paranormal phenomena, and shared funcons emerge when they are considered together. The emergent characteriscs are idenﬁed in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, and their interacon is illustrated in the Funconal Areas of Percepon and Expression Diagram. Unconscious informaon processing is accomplished in the Aenon Complex, and the output of that is referred to as expression. The world around us which we think of as real is modeled as an expression of intended order. It is important to note that, when black box modeling is used in a metaphysical cosmology, a plausible explanaon may be developed that does not correctly describe reality. While these explanaons are useful to develop the context of this cosmology, it is for you to decide to what degree the model makes sense. Six Pillars It might be helpful as a memory aid to summarize the Implicit Cosmology in terms of foundaon concepts. Because it is about reality, there are many, but these six sum up the cosmology rather well. Pillar 1, Reality: Reality consists of life ﬁelds and expressions of life ﬁelds (Reality Discourse). Pillar 2, Person: A person is an immortal etheric personality entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship (Life Fields Discourse). Pillar 3, Purpose: We inherited the urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality from our source personality (Prime Imperave Organizing Principle). Pillar 4, Mind: Unconscious psi sensing precedes conscious percepon

with unconscious worldview as the arbiter and conscious intenon as the movator (Percepon and Expression Discourse). Pillar 5, Creaon: The creave process is aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order (Percepon and Expression Discourse). Pillar 6, Progression: Integrang acquired understanding of the nature of reality into worldview constutes progression and expands opportunies for greater understanding (Perceptual Agreement Discourse). Implicit Cosmology Discourse 1: Trans-Survival Hypothesis Introduction The Survival Hypothesis you may be accustomed to is lile more than a proposal that some of the phenomena people experience can be beer explained if mind is separate from body. In that view, the brain is only a transducer between the physical and some other aspect of reality in which mind exists before and aer a lifeme. Of the contending hypotheses, the Super-Psi Hypothesis and the Physical Hypothesis are the most important. None of the versions of the Survival Hypotheses I have seen explicitly consider the phenomena of Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC). Being familiar with ITC, and being both unable to account for examples of ITC with known physical principles as well as by applying Super-psi, I have compiled the Trans-Survival Hypothesis as an exercise to model reality as if Survival is literally true. In the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, a person is modeled as a physical body and an etheric personality entangled in a symbioc relaonship, with the physical body funconing as an avatar for personality’s presence in the physical. The core personality is modeled from an etheric or nonphysical personality-centric perspecve, while

the conscious self is modeled from a human avatar-centric perspecve. From the perspecve of the conscious self, personality is modeled as a normally unconscious aspect represenng a person’s mental musing and dream world. The model includes speculaon that the purpose of the avatar- personality relaonship is to permit personality to gain understanding about the operaon of reality given the constraints of physical principles. Speculaon about a purpose is not necessary for the hypothesis but does provide useful context in which mindful living makes more sense. It also oﬀers a possible mechanism by which a person might experience a more self-directed lifeme. The etheric personality is seen as having evolved separately from the physical body, while the human avatar is modeled as an organism that has evolved in the physical. In this view, the conscious self is seen as an aspect of personality which is entangled with the avatar during a lifeme. About Hypotheses The objecve of this hypothesis is to provide a context in which relevant phenomena, both mundane and anomalous, can be considered as a system for crical evaluaon. If properly developed, this should include itemizaon of what is considered to be given as inial consideraons. As a unifying model of reality, inial consideraons would include observed phenomena, the circumstances under which they are experienced, and the scope or limits to which the hypothesis applies. Next, this hypothesis should propose a way in which the givens combine to interact as a system. This includes physical properes such as technology

and human interacon. Known or proposed properes should be substanated with some measure of raonal, and if available, empirical or objecve research. It is important that this hypothesis provides predicve implicaons of the proposed theory. Ideally, these should be testable. Any hypotheses should be able to be proven wrong; however, in a praccal sense, veriﬁcaon might be paral or delayed, awaing new technology or funding for research. Considering that reality, this hypothesis might remain open for discussion for many years. Perspective Most hypotheses are designed from the perspecve of a physical person surrounded by the universe. In the ﬁrst two hypotheses discussed below, the physical perspecve constutes all of reality. Be mindful that the Trans- Survival Hypothesis is designed from the perspecve of a person standing at the hypothesized physical-etheric interface so that both etheric and physical characteriscs are considered as a system. You should also note that perspecve in terms of a physical person and an etheric person might be discussed in the same paragraph. Dominant Views of Reality The Physical and Super-Psi Hypotheses are brieﬂy addressed here to provide perspecve. There is lile sense in spending a lot of me with the Physical Hypothesis but Super-psi will be addressed from me to me throughout the book. Three dominant views of reality considered in this book are described along with their primary features. The Physical Universe Hypothesis • All that exists is the physical universe. • The universe has evolved from a singularity into what it is today. •

Life has evolved on earth into what it is today. • Mind has evolved as a product of brain which is a product of evoluon. • Memory is an arfact of mind. • When the brain dies, mind and memory cease to exist. • People have ﬁve senses: smell, sight, hearing, touch and taste. The Super-Psi Hypothesis • All that exists is the physical universe. • The universe may have evolved from a singularity into what it is today. • An as yet unidenﬁed form of space called psi (psi ﬁeld) permeates all of physical reality. • Life has evolved on earth into what it is today. • Mind exists in the psi ﬁeld and connues beyond death of the brain as diﬀerenated, residual energy. • Brain is a transmier/receiver for mind. • Thought, memory and emoons are retained in the psi ﬁeld. • People experience reality via ﬁve bodily senses that are informed by impressions from the psi ﬁeld. The Survival Hypothesis • There is a greater reality of which the physical universe is an aspect. • An as yet unidenﬁed form of space called psi permeates all of reality. • The psi ﬁeld is an aspect of the greater reality. • Mind, with its thoughts, memories and emoons, has evolved in the greater reality and connues to exist beyond death of the brain. • For a lifeme, mind and brain are entangled to produce a physical- etheric link: a person. • During a lifeme, mind is expressed as

consciousness (I think I am this) and a mostly unconscious etheric personality (I am this). • Unconscious mind is informed by the person’s ﬁve physical senses and psi signatures from the environment. • Unconscious mind expresses to conscious self an understanding of the environment as it is informed by worldview (memory, experience, human and personality insncts). Scope of the Three Hypotheses Of course, the Physical Universe Hypothesis represents the mainstream view. It does not address any of the observed anomalous phenomena and is only listed here for comparison. The Super-Psi Hypothesis is largely supported by the parapsychological community and the Survival Hypothesis is primarily championed by the community studying transcommunicaon. The Super-Psi and Survival Hypotheses will be considered here. The Super-Psi and Survival Hypotheses are described here as sharing the characterisc of psi funconing, but they are shown to diﬀer in how this is accomplished. The contenon of the Survival Hypothesis that anomalously accessed informaon may be from a sll living personality is a contradicon of the Super-Psi Hypothesis which holds that such informaon must be from a subtle energy ﬁeld containing memories of the past. The Survival Hypothesis will be described using many of the Super-Psi assumpons and proofs since the validity of Trans-Survival depends to a large extent on the validity of many aspects of Super-Psi. Note that the above descripon of the Survival Hypothesis is fairly common usage in the paranormalist community. The last item describing how conscious self becomes aware of its environment is a relavely

new concept just now becoming part of parapsychology thanks to First Sight Theory. (13) Characteristics That Must Be Addressed Any theory intended to explain reality should address characteriscs of experienced phenomena. The major categories of these experiences and the communies of interest studying them are listed here. Physical World This is the enre suite of physical-world experiences, including such mundane characteriscs as gravity, heat, light, sound, space and evoluon. Known physical principles should be accounted for so that magic is not required. Physical process might be modeled as characteriscs of ideoplasc structures, but then they need to be related to how a nonphysical intelligence might interact with them. How gravity is related to levitaon is an example. This category is addressed by mainstream science, at least within bounds of the Physical World Hypothesis. Psi Phenomena Informaon accessed by means other than with the ﬁve senses or noncontact inﬂuence is referred to as anomalous informaon access in parapsychology. This includes human abilies referred to as psychic, psi sensing or psi funconing. Examples include remote viewing, healing intenon, psychometry, environmental sensing and psychokinesis. Most theories explaining these experiences are based on the Super-Psi Hypothesis and seldom consider survived personality as a source of informaon. Transcommunication The term Transcommunicaon applies to any form of informaon passing across the physical-etheric interface. Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) is the name we use for the primary forms of inﬂuence in this category. ITC phenomena include the audible subset known as Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and visual forms such

as images found in visual noise. ITC may be spontaneous but is usually studied as an induced form of trans- inﬂuence. Aer-Death Communicaon (ADC) is well known as a spontaneous form of transcommunicaon. A good study of this has been conducted by Bill and Judy Guggenheim who reported their work in Hello from Heaven. (14) Other forms of transcommunicaon include apports, precipitaon, materializaon, transﬁguraon and mediumship. I oen repeat in this book that parapsychologists have lile interest in transcommunicaon if it is not seen as psi funconing. Mediumship is an important excepon. A few researchers are working very hard to establish that informaon acquired via mental mediumship is at least somemes from discarnate personalies. As I will explain in this book, the model I use in the Implicit Cosmology for the funconal areas of a person suggests that all anomalous informaon access is the same and the only disncon is whether it is from a discarnate personality or from one sll entangled with a human avatar. Reincarnation, OBE and NDE Reincarnaon, Out-of-Body Experiences (OBE) and Near-Death Experiences (NDE) provide important insight into the relaonship between mind and body. While they appear to show that mind is separate from body, there remains considerable discussion as to whether or not this separaon means survival of mind. These three experiences, along with mediumship, are oen referred to as the best evidence for Survival. (15) From the perspecve of transcommunicaon and survival, the phenomena of reincarnaon, OBE and NDE are seen as providing very

important evidence (16), but there has been lile support from the parapsychological community to relate that evidence to transcommunicaon. For this hypothesis, these experiences are considered natural consequences of etheric personality-physical body entanglement. The Trans-Survival Hypothesis You might consider reading these cosmology discourses and then refer back to them while examining the references. This hypothesis is oﬀered here with the understanding that it will have lile impact on the community if it is not understood and recommended by community opinion seers. Statement of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis It is useful to remember that this hypothesis is developed and explained from an etheric personality-centric perspecve, rather than a physical body-centric perspecve. Top View As a general statement, reality exists as life and expressions of life. Characteriscs necessary for the operaon of reality are detailed in the Organizing Principles Discourse. Initial Conditions For completeness, the singularity called Source is used as the inial condion for this hypothesis. Since this hypothesis is concerned with the progression of personality, if just personality is considered, the cause and nature of reality may be ignored. Inial Condion include: 1 There is a Source as the top life ﬁeld and the top organizing ﬁeld. As a singularity, Source is the reality ﬁeld. See the Etheric Fields and Life Fields Discourses. 2 For simplicity, Source is assumed to be (at least) self-aware and curious about its nature. This curiosity is expressed as a creave process to explore its nature. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. The Ancipaon Corollary of

First Sight Theory, which essenally states that mind seeks to ancipate events, provides reasonably good support for this idea of a personality having a natural tendency to understand its environment in order to ancipate changes. If this is a valid argument, then all else follows. 3 Seeking to understand itself, Source has imagined aspects of its personal reality and aspects of itself to experience those sub- realies. 4 The process of imagining with the intenon of understanding has produced a hierarchy of personalies (aspects of Source) as a Hierarchy of nested sub-subﬁelds. 5 In response to a prime imperave, aspects of Source express aspects of themselves with the intenon to understand the nature of reality (which is the nature of Source). This translates in an individual as an inherited urge to gain understanding through experience (progression). A Person Personalies, in this hypothesis, are the experienal aspect of reality. One of the reasons for proposing Source as part of the inial condion is to establish a purpose which might explain the nature of the conscious self. According to the model, personalies are directly or indirectly aspects of, and inherit purpose from, Source. As such, inherited purpose is characterized as a prime imperave to gain understanding about the nature of reality (the source ﬁeld or reality ﬁeld). This is comparable to the Spiritualist’s eﬀort to understand and live in accordance with the principles of Natural Law. To facilitate that search for understanding, personality acts as a creator to express an aspect of

itself into an imagined venue for learning. In this model, 1 A person is an etheric personality entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. 2 From a person-centric perspecve, etheric personality is a mostly unconscious inﬂuence on the person’s conscious self. The relaonship is explained in the Life Fields Discourse. 3 When the human’s lifeme ends, personality’s perspecve returns to some other aspect of reality in a process referred to as transion. 4 Trans-etheric inﬂuences, which are the expression of personality’s intenon, are facilitated by the avatar relaonship. 5 Lucidity between conscious self and mostly unconscious personality is regulated by a percepon and expression process represenng worldview. Purpose of a Lifetime As it was shown in the inial condions, individual personalies (aspects of Source) respond to the Prime Imperave by seeking to understand the nature of reality. As it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology (which is based on this hypothesis), many rounds of aspectaon, resulng from individual eﬀorts to understand the nature of reality, will produce a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds. In the same way, it is argued that a local source funcons as an aractor for a collecve of entangled aspect personalies (aspects of that local source personality). In this model, personalies in the same collecve will share the same inherited expression of the Prime Imperave. They will express that urge to learn diﬀerently, depending on such factors as circumstance and ability of the avatar. The phrase in John 14:2, In my Father’s house are many mansions,

can be construed as a reference to the idea that there are many diﬀerent venues for learning. These venues would be the local aspects of reality I am speaking of here. Scope of Survival The queson of survival necessarily addresses that which survives. In this model, a person is a personality entangled with an avatar. Both the etheric personality and the human organism are modeled as ﬁelds. The Life Fields Discourse explains the characteriscs of life ﬁelds and the Life Field Complex Diagram illustrates a person’s funconal relaonship between personality and avatar. With this perspecve, it is clear that survival is really a misnomer. The evidence seems to suggest that personality exists prior to its entanglement with a human for the purpose of a lifeme. As such, the more correct term might be something like cycle of experience. During a lifeme, the aspect of personality, which is actually entangled with the human, is modeled as conscious self. In this view, the self shares the percepon and expression process with the human’s body consciousness. When the human’s lifeme is ﬁnished, the conscious self is free to return its focus of aenon to nonphysical aspects of realty. A process of transion from one venue for experience to another is expected. In this view, it is probably more descripve to refer to the Survival Hypothesis as the Transion Hypothesis. Of course, people are more familiar with the survival issue, and I expect the term will remain for now. This is a brief descripon

of how I see reality and our relaonship with it and our body. Standing back for a while and looking at the above explanaon with fresh eyes, I see that it is complex and very condensed. I have been working with these concepts for years and have learned to compress a lot of informaon into a few concepts. As I suggested earlier, perhaps it would be best if you did not worry about whether or not you understand my point. Read on instead! There are twelve more discourses designed to explain the details. By the me you have read this secon and Secon III on transcommunicaon, you will be an expert on Trans-Survival and the Implicit Cosmology. Supporting Material in the Form of Direct Evidence Transcommunicaon is an umbrella term used for many types of trans- etheric inﬂuences. Visual and audible forms of ITC produce important forms of objecve evidence. The examples shown here are considered anomalous in that they represent areas of apparent intended order that have emerged out of noise. Relected Light Phenomena Moving Water ITC Example: Features formed in chaoc light are considered an induced form of ITC. In this example, you may see a man facing toward your le. The image was found in light reﬂected from moving water. Anomalous features somemes found in neutral-density opcal noise are known as reﬂected light phenomena. An example of this is provided in the arcles “Faces in Reﬂected Light” (17) and “Faces in Light Reﬂected from Crystals.” (18) Moving

water is a useful medium for generang medium-density opcal noise for feature formaon. A good example is in the arcle “ITC Experiments Using Light Reﬂected from Water.” (19) See the Techniques – Visual ITC Study. An important form of induced ITC is the video loop method for generang opcal energy suitable for feature formaon. A study was conducted to determine how well website visitors are able to see features in video loop examples. The study, Percepon of Visual ITC Images (20), indicated an average of 61% of respondents correctly idenﬁed the paranormal feature. A comprehensive discussion of visual ITC is in the Techniques-Visual ITC Study. Video-Loop ITC Feature: Video loop ITC Example 1 of the “Percepon of Visual ITC Images” study. Website visitors correctly described the feature 81% of the me. See Video Loop ITC Example 2 in the Techniques-Visual ITC Study Audible ITC Phenomena Transform EVP are formed out of available audio-frequency noise. A series of studies was conducted to determine how well website visitors were able to correctly understand EVP examples. On average, visitors correctly understood 25% of the examples. Similar studies by other researchers have indicated an average of 20% to 25% correct understanding. (21) A comprehensive discussion of audio ITC is in the Audio ITC a.k.a. EVP Study. Opportunisc EVP (random selecon) are thought to be formed by psi inﬂuence on a random process to select preexisng voice fragments (somemes from a library of words). The computer soware known as EVPmaker (22) is an example. Another

example is randomly processed speech synthesis EVP. (23) As directors of the ATransC, our policy is to discourage use of this form of EVP except for research. A number of studies based on this technique failed to reproduce the expected quality of EVP. (24) Also see the Psi Research Study in the Transcommunicaon secon. Implications of ITC The fact of anomalous voices and images is well established, and mundane explanaons have not accounted for many of their characteriscs. In some instances, ITC images and voices have been idenﬁed as clearly indicang a known discarnate person. (19) Examples of ITC are relavely easy to produce by an experienced praconer, making the phenomena one of the most replicated form of induced transcommunicaon. Because of the objecve nature of the examples, we have recommended that EVP should be used as a kind of lab rat for the study of other forms of psi funconing. The nature of EVP is beer understood than visual forms of ITC, and it provides most of the supporng evidence for Survival. Common characteriscs of EVP that indicate intelligent interacon with an aware personality include direct responses to quesons, comments about local acvity and reference to prior acvity. See Unique Informaon in this discourse. Also see the Audio ITC a.k.a. EVP Study. The implicaon of ITC is that the communicang personality is the same as that of the person while sll in a lifeme, but who is now operang under diﬀerent circumstances. While praconers have learned a lile about

the nature of those diﬀerent circumstances, more has been learned from EVP about the nature of the Aenon Complex. One of the reasons I designed the mostly unconscious percepon and expression funconal areas of the Aenon Complex as I did is to accommodate the apparent inﬂuence of the praconer on the message. We see the same sort of coloring in mental mediumship. (10) See the Percepon and Expression and Life Fields Discourses. The Super-psi perspecve of ITC is that the informaon is accessed from a person sll in the physical or from residual energy in the form of memory. I agree that some examples are clearly from current memory (from a sll physical person). It is common for me to access current memory, which is a point of confusion when I am giving spirit greengs in Spiritualism. Tesng for this possibility is one of the challenges for tesng the Tran-Survival Hypothesis. See the “DoJa, no!” example for a discussion comparing survived memory and living personality as the source of informaon in ITC. Mediumship In mental Mediumship, a person who is sensive to the inﬂuence of discarnate personalies is able to convey informaon from them to people sll in the physical. The study of mental mediumship began in the late 1800s with convincing evidence of anomalous access to informaon. However, whether or not that access has been via psi sensing of residual informaon and telepathy between living agents (Super-Psi), or from discarnate people (Survival), remains an open queson. (25) A comprehensive

discussion of mediumship is in the Mediumship Study. Since there is no known way to shield from psi, the Survival verses Super-Psi queson is not easily answered via mediumship alone. However, taken in the larger context of transcommunicaon, mental mediumship can be seen as one of many forms of transcommunicaon that can be used to study the queson. While there are examples of mental mediumship that arguably support Super-Psi, it is usually the indirect evidence in this discourse that supports survived personality as the source of informaon. On the veracity of Revealed Informaon via trance-channel: Amongst the indirect evidence for survival is the formulaon of informaon received via transcommunicaon. Anyone who has witnessed someone learning how to trance-channel will have noted the diﬀerence between what is said when a person is probably trying but not actually channeling and when a person is possibly channeling a diﬀerent personality. As a general observaon, a person who is behaving as if in contact with another personality typically speaks obvious phrases intended to seem profound, oen hesitates while searching for words and frequently contradicts prior comments. When this as if performance turns into interesngly profound, smoothly delivered and consistent material, it becomes clear that a more lucid person is speaking. An important instance of mental mediumship is the contact between Jane Roberts and an enty known as Seth. Analysis of the Seth Material to determine the likelihood that Roberts was capable of producing the over 21 years of consistent, sophiscated and metaphysically profound material

is discussed in The Content-Source Problem in Modern Mediumship Research. (26) Because of clear diﬀerences in style between the abundant work of Jane Roberts, her husband and the presumed Seth, the conclusion of the study was that there is a high probability that a diﬀerent personality iniated the Seth Material. The Seth Material study cannot be applied to all ostensibly channeled material, and in fact should not be; however, it does establish that at least one instance of channeled informaon appears to originate via psi sensing from an agency outside of Roberts’ physical environment. Physical Mediumship Physical mediumship is represented by a suite of phenomena which includes materializaon of sound (knocks, direct voice) and light (spirit lights), reunions between discarnate and physical people, precipitaon (apports) and ectoplasmic structures which are somemes in the form of a discarnate person. Informaon delivered from discarnate personalies via the physical medium is considered a form of channeled or deep trance mental mediumship. Ectoplasmic Hand: An hand can be seen rising from a pile of ectoplasm at the feet of the Felix Experimental Group’s medium. (184) © Arcles providing ﬁrst-hand accounts of physical mediumship are under the Mediumship tab of ATransC.org. The mediumship of Stewart Alexander (27), Kai Mügge of the Felix Experimental Group (FEG) (28), David Thompson (29), Fay Wright (30) and Hoyt Robinee (31) have been carefully examined by skilled witnesses. Most séance room phenomena provide evidence for the existence of the psi ﬁeld, the inﬂuence of intenonality on the psi ﬁeld (psychokinesis)

and the contact ﬁeld concept. This primarily supports Super-Psi. However, reunions between discarnate and sll physical people provide a most profound form of evidence for survival. Photograph tled Conan Doyle’s Return. An enlargement from the Dr. Thomas Glendenning Hamilton collecon of physical medium, Mary Marshall. (196) © The FEG medium has produced similar cameo-like faces and some have been recognized by siers as the likeness a loved one. (184) In a Class A example, a loved one (discarnate communicator) might materialize as an ethereal form cloaked in ectoplasm to resemble the person’s body in physical life. The materialized form might walk about and feel warm to the touch just as in physical life. The materialized person might speak with an appropriate voice and say things unique to that person, somemes conveying informaon unknown to anyone in the room. This form of demonstraon is typically carried out in total darkness; however, there have been instances of the phenomena in reasonably good light. Class A reunions are not common, but they are documented experiences. During a David Thompson séance (29), which I aended, siers were treated to the physical touch of Timothy, David Thompson’s playful, discarnate child who is said to be responsible for physical phenomena during séances. It was totally dark in the room, but he came to each sier without hesitaon or fumbling and held a ﬁnger with his ny hands. While the appearance of Timothy would be considered a Class B example in terms of ITC because the child

could not be seen, the contact was very evidenal in that all siers were holding hands to account for their whereabouts and Timothy’s hands were warm, so and way too small to have been faked by an adult. It is interesng to note that the ny hands came to us from a posion some few feet oﬀ of the ﬂoor, just as one would expect when being touched by a child. Every sier in the room had this experience. (32) Such phenomena are relavely common amongst the small community of people privileged to sit with a publicly demonstrang, evidenal physical medium. As of this wring, Kai Mügge is probably the most studied contemporary medium. (28) The phenomena produced by him are well documented, oen in good red light. There is lile doubt as to the paranormality of the eﬀects he produces. While it is conceivable that an elaborate explanaon for the phenomena depending solely on psi and residual energy might be concocted, at some level of complexity, such explanaons are no longer tenable. See the Mediumship Study and the Science Commentary. Precipitation Mediumship Precipitaon mediumship is a form of physical mediumship in which a substance is psychokinecally deposited into the physical as intended form. Precipitaon art is thought to be facilitated by the medium but under the direcon of a communicang personality. Precipitated Image 1: Image on cloth thought to be Madam Blavatsky. Hoyt Robinee was the medium. (31) Precipitated Image 2: Image precipitated onto a three-by- ﬁve-inch paper card

by Hoyt Robinee. (31) It is not known who the man is, but he bears a strong resemblance to the Butler family. Hoyt Robinee is oen described as a precipitaon medium because of the precipitated images he produces during some of his public demonstraons. In pracce, pictures of people and/or animals appear on blank paper cards or pieces of cloth. (31) The pictures oen appear to be cut out of a magazine, and oen, are idenﬁed as loved ones or people important to the sier. Two important concepts associated with Robinee's phenomena are intended order and apports. In transcommunicaon, the common factor for both visual and audio ITC is a source of physical energy which is modulated with a chaoc process that can be inﬂuenced by the etheric communicator to produce an intended form. More or less random regions of order naturally emerge in chaoc processes. In ITC, that emergent order is transformed into the voice of EVP or the image of visual ITC, apparently under the inﬂuence of the communicang enty. A common characterisc of visual ITC intended order is the presence of both primary and secondary features (usually faces). Images precipitated onto paper by Hoyt Robinee typically have just one feature; however, at least in the example shown here which was received by me, a secondary feature was visible but faded within a day or so aer formaon. This secondary feature was much as is seen in video loop ITC. The images produced by Robinee oen appear to

have been taken out of exisng media. Of course, this draws accusaons of fraud, which might be diﬃcult to counter were it not for the lack of means for execung the fraud, as witnesses will aest. Also, there are other forms of trans-etheric inﬂuence that appear to be taken out of the media. The most common example of this is the apport, in which physical objects are taken from one part of the world and deposited in another in an apparent process of dematerializaon, movement in the etheric, and materializaon in the new locaon. Some examples of EVP and visual ITC also seem to have been taken from exisng media, seemingly supporng the apport theory. See Apports in the Nature of Transcommunicaon Study. Precipitaon phenomena represent a possible energy-saving approach to transcommunicaon because they typically produce objects (images, thoughts, words, things) that have been previously embodied in the physical. In the Implicit Cosmology, I argue that the physical expression of intended informaon requires the avatar relaonship. This objecve expression of trans-etheric inﬂuence is also apparently constrained by physical principles and appears to have physical energy limitaons. In the transform form of objecve inﬂuence, the physical principle of stochasc ampliﬁcaon is an example. Apports may represent an alternave energy saving technique, but expression of the apported object would appear to depend on the inﬂuence of intended order. Healing Intention Healing Intenon provides an important tool for the study of intenonality. In the context of this discourse, the queson of whether or

not healing occurs is not as important as are the distant, objecve changes thought to be caused by the inﬂuence of intenon on the psi ﬁeld. The veriﬁable existence of noncontact inﬂuence related to intenon is necessary for both the Super-Psi and Survival Hypotheses to be true. In the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, it is proposed that noncontact healing intenon involves a person’s expression of the intenon to beneﬁt the wellbeing of a sier, which is sensed by the sier’s perceptual process. See the Healing Intenon Study. Indirect Evidence The raonale for even considering the possibility of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis is not based on the primary phenomena so much as it is on the implicaons of the oen startling ways and circumstances under which individual instances occur. An excellent example is how a response to the praconer’s queson in EVP will somemes be found in the sound ﬁle before the queson is spoken. Yes, one can resort to quantum theory showing that informaon may exist independent of me and space, but if that were true, then it should be common for all sorts of events to occur out of sequence. In fact, the vast majority of experiences are appropriately sequenal. Trans-Channel Communication The characterisc of some EVP containing answers before quesons are asked supports the model described in the Life Fields Discourse and illustrated in the Percepon and Expression Diagram. The characterisc is predicted by the contenon in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis that transcommunicaon occurs via a mind-to-mind exchange of informaon between etheric

personalies. The hypothesized communicator is an etheric personality with no physical body entanglement. The praconer is an etheric personality entangled with a human body. The communicaon channel between the praconer’s conscious self and its mostly unconscious personality is ﬁltered by the perceptual and expression funcon in the Aenon Complex. It is in the Aenon Complex that the praconer’s queson is formulated. As it is modeled in this cosmology, that funconal area is also monitored by the praconer’s etheric personality. Thus, communicaon between the communicang personality and the praconer is seen as an exchange via the praconer’s unconscious perceptual process. It is known about normal human behavior that a person ﬁrst imagines what will be asked before actually expressing the queson. (13) Based on the Trans-Channel Communicaon circuit described here, our mental processes rounely provide informaon to the etheric community of personalies as a purely mental signal prior to our vocal expression. A second point of support for this hypothesis is that the me interval between answer and queson in EVP is consistent with the me usually required to mentally formulate a queson. Of course, the rest of the story is the intelligent response which indicates a senent enty and not residual energy. Unique Information To establish whether informaon a person senses is from the physical environment or from the psi ﬁeld, it is necessary to somehow blind a person from access to physical informaon. This can be accomplished via various sensory deprivaon techniques such as blindfolds, ﬂotaon chambers and acouscal

suppression. It is also necessary to design a target for psi sensing that is not known to the research subject who is supposed to be funconing as a psychic. Since witnesses are always alert for lucky guesses, cheang and unexpected prior knowledge, computers have been very successfully used by researchers for picking targets. In that pracce, targets are selected by the computer out of a database of possible targets. The researchers only know the target aer the experiment is ﬁnished. Tesng for mediumship poses an even greater challenge. It must be possible to show that the target informaon could not have previously existed in the physical. Since there is no known way to shield from psi inﬂuence or hypothesized residual psi ﬁelds, it is necessary to design an event which can be iniated by the researcher without knowing the exact nature of the event. Finally, me and distance are thought not to exist in psi space (nonlocal and nontemporal). The everywhere is here characterisc of psi space (the etheric) has been demonstrated in EVP, but from my study, the all me is now characterisc is quesonable. I expect presenment is explainable as the trans-channel communicaon. Longer-term futures are probably explainable with the concept of potenal thoughorms. In that, the expression of intenon produces the potenal for many possible futures. These are represented by potenal thoughorms which may be psychically sensed. This might also help explain why some predicons fail to occur. Nonlocality means that having a person in another room

or another country makes no diﬀerence when it comes to psi sensing. The nontemporal characterisc would mean that, if anyone ever becomes aware of the target for psi sensing, that informaon would become available to the psychic during the experiment. This means that, given a nonlocal and nontemporal nature of psi space, it is probably impossible to design a laboratory test that would assure the informaon came from a discarnate personality. A Possible White Crow EVP can be induced in that oen quesons can be asked by the praconer or an interested observer and answered by the possibly discarnate personality. Somemes EVP are clearly a spontaneous response to an unexpected situaon in the physical. An example of intelligent interacon involving previously unknown informaon is the “Doja, no!” EVP recorded by Martha Copeland. (33) Martha Copeland’s daughter, Cathy, transioned as a young woman and Martha assumed care for her dog, Doja. Martha had accidentally le Doja in the house when she le to go shopping. It was her habit at the me to always leave her voice-acvated digital recorder turned on, and so it was le on in the house with the dog. No one was in the house except for the animals. Doja tore up a poed plant and made a great mess. You can hear an EVP from Cathy as she scolds the dog saying, “Doja, no!” Discarnate Cathy scolding her sll physical dog is an example of an EVP in which no physical person was aware of the

dog’s behavior. Even if Martha had been aware of the dog’s acons, she would not have had the technological wherewithal to manufacture Cathy’s voice saying the dog’s name in a scolding tone. It is possible to conceive of other alternave explanaons such as psychic access to informaon. For instance, a person might have snuck into Martha’s home and seen the dog tearing up the plant. Martha could then have psychically sensed what the person witnessed, and thinking how Cathy would have scolded her dog, unconsciously created the EVP. All of this is possible within the Super-Psi Hypothesis. A single instance of the “Doja, no!” type of EVP could be set aside as an anomaly amongst anomalies—an outlier to be discarded. However, it is a good example of a not so uncommon form of EVP. So, while it is tempng to contrive exoc alternave explanaons, at some level of complexity, it becomes simpler to include this example amongst the collecon of experiences indicang survival. The example can be heard in the ATransC.org under the Examples tab. (34) As it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, the etheric communicator is able to witness physical events via the senses of a physical person or animal. In the Doja example, Cathy would have witnessed the acvity via her dog. In a similar way, we have had a number of reported EVP that included a request for the praconer to have a mirror in the room. Thinking the communicators were seeing them from behind the

mirror, praconers have even tried wring a queson and holding the wring against a mirror. It is more likely that the communicators are able to see what we look like when we see ourselves in a mirror. Intended Order A common factor in ITC is the transformaon of broad-spectrum, chaoc energy into apparently intelligently intended features, such as the voice in EVP (21) and faces in visual ITC. (20) Current research is showing that output of random event generators increase in order when in the presence of strongly expressed intenon. (35) (36) There is evidence in precipitaon phenomena, such as spirit art, that the precipitaon material undergoes a transformaon from chaoc noise to intended order as raw material is apparently apported to the scene and organized as the intended image. (31) These examples suggest that the basic element of the expression is the emergence of intended order. If there is a physical mechanism responsive to intenon, and if that interacon can be seen to operate across many forms of trans-etheric inﬂuence, then it can be said that psi funconing is a common experience operang in more than just parapsychological phenomena (psychokinesis, distant healing intenon, anomalous informaon access). If this inﬂuence can be demonstrated to aﬀect formave ﬁelds, then the scope of psi funconing might be extended to include trans-etheric inﬂuences, collecve consciousness and evoluonary inﬂuences. Lucidity In the context of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, lucidity is used to describe how consciously aware a person is of unconscious personality. This is further

discussed in the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse. A form of false lucidity is frequently encountered amongst new ITC praconers. This is referred to here as hyperlucidity. In this, a person claims the ability to produce astounding communicaon as if completely lucid. While there are praconers who do produce impressive examples of transcommunicaon, these exaggerated claims are characterized by a suite of behaviors which indicates a person who is sincere, but generally mistaken about this ability. Hyperlucidity is assumed to resolve itself as the praconer becomes beer informed. The demonstrable diﬀerence between imagined (hyperlucidity) and real ability (lucidity) makes it clear that transcommunicaon is an ability that can be disnguished and developed. As such, it can be quanﬁed. Animal Contact via EVP EVP have been reported containing animal sounds, mostly dog barks or cat meows. A few EVP have been reported containing English-language phrases that appear to be iniated by dogs. Etheric communicators somemes refer to family pets being with them on the other side. A relavely common form of apparion is a small animal, oen thought to be a pet that has transioned. The implicaon is that animals, certainly pets, experience transion in some form and interact with the physical much as discarnate people are thought to interact. The Trans-Survival Hypothesis supports the idea that a discarnate animal’s interacon with the physical would necessarily be via the praconer’s or interested observer’s etheric-to-physical entanglement with an avatar. However, the Super-Psi Hypothesis might explain the impression of animal communicaon as either illusion or

psi access to residual energy—a sort of energec essence of animal. There is also the possibility that a person might remember how the animal sounded and inadvertently inject those expected sounds into the media. In fact, the Implicit Cosmology uses the same life ﬁeld model for all physical life forms. The diﬀerence between a tree and a human, or even a cell of a human and the enre body, is the extent to which funconal areas are implemented, content of worldview and threads of entanglement. There is nothing in the cosmology that prevents animals from being avatars. In this view, the etheric aspect of a pet is virtually the same as that for a person and only percepon of reality disnguished the two. Also in this model, all informaon accessed by a person is sensed via the mostly unconscious perceptual process. In that, the informaon may be sensed as a gestalt thoughorm which must be translated via the perceptual Loop which is informed by worldview. Finally, the cosmology holds that EVP are formed as intended order expressed via the praconer’s or interested observer’s percepon and expression processes. As such, a message from a dog could very easily produce a human-sounding uerance in the recording. As with all of these comparisons, the queson that must be asked is how complex theorecians are willing to make the Super-Psi Hypothesis to avoid considering survival. If the animal contact is unexpected, persistent and complex while retaining the animal’s personality, then it is unreasonable to

say that its presence is illusion created by the witness? Cultural Inluence An important aspect of ITC is the extent to which a person’s upbringing inﬂuences how trans-etheric inﬂuences are experienced. This is evident in mental mediumship in which the medium must always be mindful not to allow personal impressions to color the sensed message. In EVP, there is a clear relaonship between religious upbringing and the nature of EVP recorded. For instance, a very religious person might record demon-like uerances, while under the same circumstance, a more agnosc person might record neutral to friendly messages. Trans-etheric inﬂuences are thought to begin as conceptual informaon. They must be embodied in some way via etheric-physical entanglement. It is the person’s worldview (or that of an interested observer) which is thought to color the message during translaon from conceptual to objecve form. This eﬀect is applicable to both hypotheses, but it especially makes sense if the avatar model is applied. It is also a factor moderang how literally trans-etheric informaon is understood. See Normalize In the Glossary. Personality Type It is proposed in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis that a person’s life ﬁeld is formed by a (creator) personality from which the person inherits an urge to gain speciﬁc understanding, and that a physical lifeme is an opportunity to sasfy that urge. As such, the physical aspect of reality is seen as a venue for learning. In this model, at least for the physical, a person begins at birth with a worldview that is

blank except for the inherited urge to gain speciﬁc understanding and a baseline of comprehension based on the progression of the person’s entangled etheric personality. Possibly by design, this inherited understanding is experienced by a person as a nonspeciﬁc knowing to assure unhindered parcipaon in this lifeme (thus the term comprehension rather than knowledge). A common term for this comprehension is spiritual maturity. People think and behave in diﬀerent ways that seem to be established at birth. People also experience fundamental changes in point of view as they gain understanding about the world they live in. Understanding gained through experience is a funcon of the person’s innate ability to comprehend the nature of experiences. Thus, a person who was born with greater prior comprehension (understanding) may tend to gain more understanding from experience than a person with relavely less comprehension. For instance, in the ancient wisdoms, the Major Arcana of the Tarot are designed to guide the student’s progression. The Hermec relaonship of comprehension with progression in the Tarot is closely related to the personality types described in astrology. In more modern mes, it has been noted that people tend to ﬁt into personal styles. (37) This knowledge has been an important tool for training salespeople. On close examinaon, the Tarot, astrology and modern personal styles, like the concept of intelligence quoent, are generally in agreement, suggesng the concept of increasing comprehension is a real experience for which the hypothesis should account. The comprehension a person is born with and

subsequent ability to learn and understand is not well explained today; however, it can be explained as comprehension gained by a survived personality prior to embodiment in the current lifeme. Intelligence Quoent (IQ) and personal style are two diﬀerent concepts. The commonality I am addressing here is the inherent diﬀerence people exhibit that is not necessarily related to physical ability, body type, educaon or culture. Language and Cultural Conditioning In this cosmology, the natural form of informaon is the conceptual thoughorm, but to be compable with the physical world, it is expressed in objecve terms. Also in this cosmology, the translaon of nonphysical informaon into objecve expression is modeled as occurring in the Aenon Complex, which is an unconscious part of mind dominated by worldview. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. A person is a personality entangled with a human avatar. That entanglement produces a channel, via the shared Aenon Complex, through which conceptual informaon is translated into objecve expression. See the Life Field Complex Diagram. Worldview can be thought of as a database populated with a person’s beliefs, understanding and inclinaons. Because Worldview is the moderator of the percepon and expression process, informaon that emerges into consciousness is colored by the person’s cultural training. One of the more important indicaons that this is true is the way in which informaon is consistently colored by the person. For instance, EVP are virtually always recorded in a language the praconer (or an interested observer) understands. As an example, with the praconer

speaking and understanding only English, and while recording for a Korean television crew, a Korean-language EVP was recorded. Otherwise, the praconer only records English-language EVP. The only apparent constraints on who acts as the channel for the transformaon of informaon from etheric to physical are that the person is in the physical and is aware of the communicaon. For instance, knowing that a praconer in New York is conducng an EVP experiment to contact a loved one on his or her behalf, a person in Sacramento could provide the channel by which the response occurs in the praconer’s recorder in New York. The Implicit Cosmology, which is based on the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, provides a mechanism that predicts the coloring of messages one sees in mental mediumship and the obvious cultural bias of EVP. It also provides a mechanism by which a person may modify worldview and improve lucidity with mindfulness. This mechanism can be applied to Super-Psi as well, but existence of an Aenon Complex which is shared by the human body consciousness makes considerably more sense if the source of informaon is a living intelligence, whether or not it is embodied in a lifeme. Implications of Direct Evidence for Survival The existence of anomalous voices, images and inﬂuences is well established. To be clear, I refer to these phenomena as anomalous because mainstream science does not explain their existence. In fact, these phenomena can be replicated by qualiﬁed praconers on request. The requirement of science that experiments must be

replicable is sasﬁed. A second complaint about hypotheses concerned with survival is that they cannot be proven false (falsiﬁability). I think this complaint is primarily directed toward the god concept. That is, how do we prove God does not exist? Well, in fact, the existence of a Source (god) can be considered a logical inial condion, but it is not crical to the main point that people have a nonphysical aspect which is independent of a lifeme. The idea of an intelligent inﬂuence from outside of the physical is the essence of the god concept. We rounely see such intelligent inﬂuence in ITC and other forms of transcommunicaon, and that is falsiﬁable if ITC can be accounted for by mundane means. People skepcal of paranormal phenomena are mostly arguing from a very out-of-date point of view. The mainstream seems to be sll clinging to the idea that mind is a product of brain, but as emergent understanding becomes widely accepted, mind will be seen as a psi ﬁeld characterisc of consciousness. (11) (38) (39) This is not survival. The mind visualized by this emergent understanding might cease to exist as the body dies. The point is that the falsiﬁability of survival is in the same boat as current understanding about the nature of mind. The anatomy of an entangled personality-avatar relaonship is largely accepted in parapsychology. First Sight Theory (40) is an example of growing understanding that people have an unconscious nature which moderates conscious percepon. Discussion The Super-Psi Hypothesis

depends on the retenon of informaon in the psi ﬁeld and some means to access it with the mind. The following items address anomalous access to informaon. Retention of Information in Psi Space The retenon of informaon in psi space is supported with a number of concepts in quantum theory, but the applicability of those concepts is not clearly established. Psi phenomena seem like some quantum phenomena, but alternave theories may be more appropriate. For instance, research concerning the inﬂuence of intenonality on quantum-level phenomena in split-beam studies (41) clearly shows the inﬂuence of intenonality on photon entanglement, but our understanding of the inﬂuence of intenonality on chaoc systems might also explain the observed eﬀects. The expression of intenon can produce physical eﬀects, but that does not imply that those physical eﬀects explain the inﬂuence of intenon. Retention of Information in Psi Space Conservaon of energy has been proposed as a mechanism for retenon of informaon in the psi ﬁeld. However, it has not been shown that physical principles apply to the psi ﬁeld (etheric). In fact, there has been selecve applicaon of physical principles as needed to explain observed eﬀects in an “It seems like” kind of logic. Based on observed phenomena involving a conceptual-to-physical producon of objecve material, physical principles are arguably derivaves of the expression of intenon as an ideoplasc structure. Just as the inﬂuence of intenon is an etheric equivalent to physical energy, so is aenon an etheric equivalent to conservaon of energy. In this hypothecal

view, without personality’s aenon on informaon, it will undergo what appears to be a form of aenuaon in which it eventually dissipates. Apports are an excellent test for the queson of if and how physical principles apply to psi space. As the concept is understood, an apport such as a stone is a physical object that has been removed from one place in physical space and returned to physical space at a diﬀerent locaon. In eﬀect, the object is dissolved into purely nonphysical informaon, translated from its original perceptual orientaon to a new and intended orientaon, and then precipitated into the intended locaon as its original physical form. Here, perceptual orientaon is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as that of the personality expressing the intenon necessary to cause the apportaon. This is an aspect of perceptual agreement as discussed in the Organizing Principles Discourse. For apportaon to occur, it is necessary that physical principles governing the object’s behavior are suspended and then reinstuted in the new locaon. If the evidence of apports is substanated, the process appears to represent an instance in which physical principles do not apply to psi space. Access of Residual Information There is a need for Super-Psi theorists to beer explain organizaon of informaon in psi space. As I understand First Sight Theory (13), as informaon is composed in a person’s mind, it is even then a thoughorm that is made speciﬁc by a person’ unconscious perceptual process. In my experience, First Sight Theory is an

excellent model for how informaon in psi space is translated into objecve form. I am deﬁning informaon as a gestalt-like thoughorm with speciﬁc characteriscs of subject, relaonship and quality. As a mental process conceptual element of thought, informaon is conceptual in its etheric form, but its expression is objecve. The conceptual-to-objecve translaon is under the inﬂuence of a person’s intenon. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse for further explanaon of this concept. Assuming the informaon does remain in the psi ﬁeld via some as yet unidenﬁed mechanism, the best speculaon I have seen is that the informaon would be a gestalt-like thoughorm of conceptual informaon that requires the source personality’s worldview to correctly translate it into objecve form. To understand this point, go back to First Sight Theory. You may also want to look ahead to the Percepon and Expression Discourse. The informaon only exists as a concept unl it has been processed in a person’s mostly unconscious perceptual mechanism. That mechanism is informed (actually ﬁltered and translated) by the person’s worldview. No two people have the same worldview, and so, any two people will express the same source informaon in slightly diﬀerent ways. The objecve component of informaon retained in psi space as a memory will look diﬀerent to diﬀerent people. The point is that in Super-Psi the informaon is in the form of memory with no intelligent component to help someone accessing it understand the original meaning. In transcommunicaon between a discarnate person and a physical medium, the

informaon is also presumed to come to the medium as a gestalt-like thoughorm. But in a real-me interacve exchange, the source personality is able to modify the message to account for how the medium’s perceptual process might color it. This unconscious reﬁnement of informaon exchange is indirectly supported by First Sight Theory. The conceptual nature of informaon exchange in the psi ﬁeld is generally beer addressed by the Trans-Survival Hypothesis in which a sll living personality is proposed as the source of anomalous informaon accessed by the mental medium. Of course, this perspecve also needs to be tested, but at least the hypothesis provides a context for some of the more astoundingly accurate mediumisc messages. Comment It should be obvious by now that I have decided we survive physical death and then gathered informaon that seems to support that belief. It has been a life-long process involving many conceptual dead-ends and many more aha moments in which concepts complemented other concepts, eventually forming my understanding that we are at least condionally immortal. There is the likelihood that some of my conclusions just sound reasonable but are otherwise poorly conceived. Be mindful of this. The remaining discourses in this secon are designed to explain a model of reality based on survival. It is for you to decide if the cosmology makes sense. I will say that the model has worked very well for me to explain many paranormal experiences. So in keeping with the idea of a black-box analysis, the cosmology

is a prey good simulaon of reality. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 2: Introduction to the Implicit Cosmology Objective The Implicit Cosmology describes the relaonship amongst the various aspects of reality with a focus on our nature, our survival and the reality in which we survive. It is based on the Trans-Survival Hypothesis described in the preceding discourse. This book is designed to help you understand the concept of survival and Organizing Principles described in the Implicit Cosmology. As you can see in the Organizaon of the Cosmology Series Diagram, this discourse introduces the other discourses. It also includes a three-point outline intended to give you an easy guide for talking about the cosmology with others. A note about religion: This is not about religion; however, the subject maer involves concepts and terms that are also involved in religious thought. When I occasionally refer to Spiritualism, I am referring to the science and philosophy aspects of the Spiritualist system of thought and not the religious aspect. Yes, there are a few concepts that must be taken on faith as inial assumpons, but all else is derived from modeling and speculaon based on objecve evidence, sound research and well-considered logic. The Cosmology Our work is to follow a path toward progression, and that progression depends on understanding our nature. It is my intenon that this understanding will come from comprehension of this cosmology. But it will take work, and I cannot do the work for you. It is something you must decide for

yourself. According to an old Zen Buddhist saying, “Before enlightenment chop wood–carry water, aer enlightenment chop wood–carry water.” One must do the work to learn. One must do the work to test. One must do the work to understand. Study the material and do not expect to understand all of it with one reading. Contemplate your worldview. Basic Assumptions This book constutes the full deﬁnion of the Implicit Cosmology; however, with the Trans-Survival Hypothesis as the given, it can be stated in three parts. Part 1 – Source: There is a top life ﬁeld described here as Source. It is a singularity funconing as the reality ﬁeld. Source is intelligent, self-aware and curious about itself. To sasfy that curiosity, Source has expressed aspects of itself to explore the reality ﬁeld, gain understanding about it and return that understanding. Important Elements are: 1 Reality consists of life ﬁelds and expressions of life ﬁelds (aspects and ideoplasc structures). As such, ﬁelds are the building blocks of reality. See the Etheric Fields Discourse. 2 Source can be considered the top life ﬁeld, and as a singularity, the reality ﬁeld. See the Source and Life Fields Discourses. 3 The range of inﬂuence of life ﬁelds is a funcon of aenon on an imagined result with the intenon that it be so (Percepon and Expression Discourse). 4 Source expresses aspects of itself to gain understanding of its nature. See the Perceptual Agreement Discourse, especially the Ancipaon Corollary. 5 Reality is ordered by way of Organizing

Principles emanang from Source and which are based on Source’s worldview. See the Reality and Organizing Principles Discourses. Part 2 – Venues for Learning: At least one way in which understanding about the nature of Source is gained is by experiencing various local realies (venues for learning) as they are maintained in the imaginaon of personalies (local sources). These personalies are, themselves, aspects of Source probably many mes removed. They act as organizing personalies for collecves of personalies they express into the venue they imagine. Important Elements are: 1 Venues for learning such as the physical are imagined with speciﬁc traits intended to enable experiences which will lead to desired understanding. 2 Expression of these venues may be a cooperave eﬀort by many local creator enes. 3 A collecve may be thought of as all of the children aspects of a local source personality. 4 The creave expression produces a thread of entanglement between the source and its expression represenng intenon and inherited purpose. Thus: a As children aspects gain in intended understanding, they are aracted toward their source. See the Perceptual Agreement Discourse. b Children aspects beneﬁt by cooperang with other members of the collecve. Part 3 – Person: An aspect of a local source is expressed into this physical venue for learning to be entangled with a human avatar at the moment of the human’s birth. The resulng person has self-determinaon bounded (informed) by an inherited urge to gain the understanding intended by its source. When the human

is no longer able to sustain the personality’s conscious self in the physical, depending on its percepon as moderated by worldview, personality either returns its understanding to its source personality or enters into a new lifeme in the physical or an alternave venue via a process described as transion. Important Elements are: 1 In the avatar relaonship, human insncts are part of the person’s worldview. 2 The person’s maturity is a funcon of how well the human insncts are managed. 3 Perceptual agreement is the measure of personality’s progression back to Source. The best measure of perceptual agreement is the extent to which worldview is in agreement with the actual nature of reality. 4 The anatomy of a person can be described as three major funconal areas, all of which are nonphysical except for the human body: a The core intelligence organizing the life ﬁeld of the person is the mostly unconscious personality. It is the immortal aspect and monitor of inherited purpose. This is the I am this of the person. b The conscious self of the person is the I think I am this aspect. We are taught from birth that we are our body, and have learned to think of what we sense with the body’s senses as the enre reality. Conscious self is the source of intenon which is the primary modiﬁer of the percepon and expression process. c The mostly unconscious percepon and expression funconal areas are informed by worldview to express the person’s learned

sense of reality to the conscious self. Intenon is capable of modifying worldview. Lucidity is a measure of how aware conscious self is of the percepon and expression process. See the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse. Read On The Implicit Cosmology applies to every aspect of who we are, the relaonship of our mind with the body we inhabit during a lifeme, the relaonship of conscious self as I think I am this with unconscious mind as I am this and the nature of the reality our immortal aspect inhabits. That is a lot to condense into three parts, but they do outline the essence of what you will learn in the rest of this book. An intellectually lazy person will tell you that “We can never know.” As you read on, you will see that believing in this self-defeang phrase simply gives away your personal power and defeats any hope of fulﬁlling your purpose. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 3: Organizing Principles Orientation Before I focus on the mechanics of reality, it is a good idea to describe how reality is modeled in general terms. Source is seen as a singularity in the form of a life ﬁeld. That life ﬁeld is our reality ﬁeld. What that means is that everything is in Source, and the operaon of Source is the operaon of reality. You and I are products of that operaon as is our physical universe. Every instance of life is modeled as a life ﬁeld. As such, life ﬁelds are fractals

based on the Source life ﬁeld. Life ﬁelds have funconal areas which are more or less acve in each instance of life. The Life Fields Discourse explains these funconal areas. The Percepon and Expression Discourse explains the interacons of life ﬁeld funconal areas. As building blocks of the physical, atoms have component parts that are more or less used, depending on the atom’s funcon (oxygen, iron, uranium). In the same way, life ﬁelds are building blocks of the greater reality and their component parts are more or less used depending on the life ﬁeld’s funcon. As with the principles governing the behavior of atoms, an assumpon that follows from the Implicit Cosmology is that the operaon of reality is governed by principles which are the same throughout reality. In a maer of speaking, this is the god assumpon shared by most if not all religions. The diﬀerence is that Source is not modeled as a divine being. It is seen as being impersonal, except that life inherits purpose and funconal characteriscs form Source. The funconal characteriscs are inherited from Source by way of the process of aspectaon. Via that process, there are child versions of Source which are in every way the same as Source. (Life is a fractal and Source is the top fractal.) The only diﬀerence appears to be that Source iniated purpose and its children inherited that purpose with the added urge to return understanding about the nature of reality to Source. The fundamental form in reality

is the ﬁeld. Source is a life ﬁeld which contains funconal areas which are also expressed as ﬁelds. You will see this if you review the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram. Given the assumpon that Source seeks to understand its nature, as Source gains understanding of itself, it is reasonable to expect these Organizing Principles to evolve. However, for our purpose, they may as well be immutable. Considered in a diﬀerent way, if reality is ordered, then there must be inﬂuences that accomplish and maintain that order. This discourse describes the principles that appear to control the organizaon of reality. I have made no aempt to incorporate the usual principles of Natural Law. One reason for this is that this cosmology is designed from a personality-centric perspecve, and the principles of Natural Law are designed more from a person or body-centric perspecve. The systems should be complementary. Principles by Category From Source all else follows. Given that there is a Source, then the following principles logically follow as organizing inﬂuences: Reality Collecve Entanglem ent Field Evolving Inﬂuence Hierarchy Organizing Principles Prime Imperave Time Formaon Personality Aspectaon Aracon Cooperave Communies Connuity Emergent Order Evoluon Life Field Perceptual Agreement Process Rapport Reciprocity Aenon Balance Curiosity Discernment Experience Expression Focus Intenon Local Reality Percepon Personal Reality Point of View Progression Self- Determina on Suspended Judgment Transion Understandi ng Visualizaon Worldview Source As ﬁrst cause, Source is a singularity modeled as a life ﬁeld, the personality of which is both the experiencer

and formave agent of the reality ﬁeld. The expressions of that inial personality are aspect life ﬁelds which inherit purpose and understanding concerning the nature of reality. To provide a boundary for the model, the Implicit Cosmology begins with this source as an agent of creaon that is considered the inial cause from which all else has evolved. Source is not a father god. Alternave names for Source include Inﬁnite Intelligence, God (not an anthropomorphic god) and First Cause. Source is assumed to be the top life ﬁeld, and as such to have at least the fundamental characteriscs shown in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram. How Source came to be is beyond the scope of this cosmology; however, one might speculate that Source is itself part of a collecve or that it began as an undiﬀerenated etheric ﬁeld. In eﬀect, Source is reality, and therefore, the principles governing the operaon of reality are assumed to also govern the behavior of Source. For this reason, it is believed that Source is connuing to evolve by way of its evolving aspects. The basic properes and principles characterizing reality are assumed to be the result of Source’s expression. That is, the rules governing the nature and behavior of the primal etheric ﬁeld (reality ﬁeld or Source’s life ﬁeld) are embedded in the ﬁeld itself. Some principles can be seen as being directly aributable to the properes or other principles; however, the origin of others is less obvious. The model for

Source is the relaonship between personality and its avatar. From this, Source is assumed to have the characteriscs of curiosity and intenon. In the same way that a person creates personal reality, Source is hypothesized to have created aspects of itself to explore its space; its local reality. The new space resulng from this inial aspectaon would be a subset of what Source believes reality to be. This would be based on Source’s worldview. See the Principle of Curiosity. As shown in the Progression Diagram, the inial expression is thought to have been a relavely naive and uncomplicated expression represenng Source’s nature at that me. Personalies resulng from the aspectaon would be relavely immature in their understanding of reality; however, subsequent aspectaons would be based on an increasingly correct understanding of the nature of reality (the actual nature of Source). Category 1: Organizing Principles of Reality Reality is the life ﬁeld of Source. In the Implicit Cosmology, the hierarchy of nested ﬁelds and their expressions compose all of reality. The Implicit Cosmology represents an important departure from the physical references to which you may be accustomed for metaphysical cosmologies. Because it is based on a personality-centric perspecve rather than a body-centric one, terms such as energy and objecve are beer understood as inﬂuence and expression. With that perspecve, at the most fundamental level, reality consists of life and the expressions of life. The perspecve sets the foundaon on which the dynamics of the interacon of life with the environment can

be beer understood. Early eﬀorts to model reality included parallel hierarchies, one as the experienal aspect of Source and the other as the formave aspect. People were in the experienal aspect and it was their imagining that became the matrix around which the formave aspect (nature spirit or Diva) formed components of reality. This approach was parally an eﬀort to explain reports of nature spirits and guardian angels. However, more recent understanding points to the idea that the Life Field Complex adequately explains both the experiencer (people) and subsequent expressions coming from current understanding (worldview). As for the nature spirits, this cosmology does not address the nature of the collecve intelligent core represented by morphic ﬁelds. For instance, do we sense the individual or the species collecve when we turn our aenon to plants and animals? There is much research needed to address that queson. A third characterisc of reality is the set of Organizing Principles that govern the behavior of life ﬁelds and their expression. From a body-centric point of view, the trilogy of body, mind and spirit might be translated from the Implicit Cosmology perspecve as avatar, personality and organizing principles. See The Name of Reality in the Reality Discourse. Collective Personalies related by a shared source tend to cooperate to favor the progression of mutually entangled individuals. As noted in the discussion above about reality, life ﬁelds are aspects of Source, and in turn, are source for other life ﬁelds in a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds. The

assumpon of this model is that Source is curious about itself, and so each aspect (lile me) inherits an urge to gain understanding. Many aspects are thought to be expressed by Source but not via the same instance of expression. Each of the aspect’s inherited urges is expected to be slightly diﬀerent from the others. This is shown in The Principles of Aspectaon Diagram above as the Inial Aspectaon. Fractal theory is used here, so as fractals based on Source, every life ﬁeld has the same qualies (funconal areas as shown in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram). However, they express those qualies diﬀerently, depending on their worldview and inherited urges. Each daughter aspect of Source is expected to explore reality via experience, and that experience is via the expression (imagining) of a venue for experience and a lile me aspect of itself to explore that venue. This is shown in The Principles of Aspectaon drawing above as Subsequent Aspectaon. Because of entanglement, daughter aspects are thought to have a common objecve which they cooperate amongst themselves to achieve. Considering how a person momentarily considers an imagined situaon in an eﬀort to understand the consequences, there is reason to argue that aspectaon occurs, but there is lile to indicate how many rounds there might be between this physical aspect of reality and Source. The important point is that daughter aspects represent a collecve integrated by the local source personality. Each collecve would be related by the common Source

(ﬁrst cause), but would otherwise be held separate depending on perceptual agreement. Also, inially sharp disncons between collecves associated with the same venue would likely be moderated as shared understanding evolves. Foundaon: This is speculaon based on the frequent asseron via transcommunicaon that the communicator is part of a group. In some instances, such as the Imperator Group (42) which has apparently made contact with many diﬀerent mediums, the group presents itself as individual personalies, some of which claim to have had a physical lifeme. In others, such as Jane Roberts’ Seth (26), the communicator discourages use of a name and idenﬁes itself as a collecve. An important, praccal result of this property is that the etheric personality of the avatar relaonship is primarily associated with and concerned with an experience of the person’s lifeme. It is part of a collecve and is able to access experiences and understanding of other personalies in the collecve, depending on perceptual agreement. Such access to potenally wide-ranging experiences could be a potent tool for personal progression. Venues for learning are probably used by more than one aspect/personality to gain understanding, and each aspect/personality is probably simultaneously using many venues to learn. As such, it is likely that other people in the world might be in other collecves. If so, it would be reasonable to think a person might have more rapport with people who are in their collecve. This is very speculave but does help explain why some people are like our soul

brothers and sisters. Also see the Principle of Cooperave Communies. A common message via mediumship is that a discarnate loved one will oen claim to be “always with you.” Hans Bender, speaking through the FELIX Experiment Group’s medium, explained that loved ones are closer to us aer they make their transion. (43) He also said that we project our presence into the physical from our natural place in the etheric. The important message in Han’s words is that, as is described in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis, our personality exists in the etheric. When our loved ones transion out of this lifeme, their aenon is freed from their avatar and they are beer able to focus on their etheric personality. So in that way, their percepon is closer to us as a personality-to-personality relaonship, if only we have taken the me to make our conscious connecon with our personality more lucid. Entanglement Personality remains associated with its expressions via aenon. In generic terms, entanglement is seen as a property inherent in the process of expression. It is hypothesized that the resulng aspect life ﬁeld or ideoplasc structure remain associated with the source personality to the extent the personality intends the expression’s connued existence. This is seen as an ordering property which relates subﬁelds with an organizing ﬁeld. The thread of aenon represented by the property of entanglement is seen to enable a top ﬁeld to organize other ﬁelds to form and remain as intended. For instance, it is hypothesized that a human

body has an organizing ﬁeld which maintains the human body image and the necessary informaon to gather subﬁelds represenng the component parts of a body such as skin, bone, cells and enzymes. (9) It is the property of entanglement that assures the necessary associaon of ﬁelds. In principle, there would be a network of links of entanglement associang Source with all of its sub-aspects, and which carries its intenon. In the same way, entanglement also funcons as the link of inﬂuence between the etheric personality and its physical body, the avatar. Also see the Principle of Evolving Inﬂuence. Fields Fields are the building block of reality. As explained in the Etheric Fields Discourse, reality is modeled as a ﬁeld which is Source’s life ﬁeld. It is in eﬀect, the top ﬁeld in a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds. Fields are the expression of personality and occur in such forms as reality ﬁeld (Source), venue ﬁelds (such as the physical), life ﬁelds, thoughorms, intenon ﬁelds, organizing ﬁelds, morphic ﬁelds (physical organism) and ideoplasc structures. See the Etheric Fields Discourse. In parapsychology, etheric ﬁelds are known as psi ﬁelds. The psi ﬁeld is usually modeled in parapsychology as a physical ﬁeld of as yet undeﬁned properes that is part of but overlays physical reality. In that deﬁnion, there is seldom reference to a greater reality. The name is used here for connuity. Technically, all ﬁelds are ideoplasc structures but the term is usually only applied to expressions of a life ﬁeld. As such,

reality consists of life ﬁelds and their expressions as ideoplasc structures. Conceptually, a ﬁeld represents a set of elements with common characteriscs bound together by a common inﬂuence. Etheric ﬁelds are regions of reality that can be modeled as a node or nexus (aractor) entangled with a set of related elements. It is useful to model reality as a single etheric ﬁeld expressed by a ﬁrst cause or Source. In this view, the reality ﬁeld is the top etheric ﬁeld, from which all other ﬁelds have been derived via aspectaon. In this way, the reality ﬁeld has been diﬀerenated as a hierarchy of nested etheric ﬁelds. Evolving Inluence Span of entanglement increases as aspects gain in understanding. Considering the property of evoluon, below, it should be noted that the human body was probably incapable of being an avatar of any consequence unl recent mes. As a speculaon, Homo sapiens were probably the ﬁrst organism in human evoluon able to funcon as an avatar for an etheric personality. The ﬁrst entanglement was probably rudimentary as compared with today. It is reasonable to expect that future generaons of humans will be able to support even more lucid associaon between conscious self and etheric personality. Clarity of the thread of entanglement is described aslucidity. Based on the comments below about evoluon, it can be seen that people who work to develop awareness of their unconscious mind are increasing lucidity, and it is hypothesized that this will tend to evolve the human’s morphic ﬁeld

so that future generaons will more easily be aware of their etheric nature by way of greater psi funconing. Animals as Avatars: It is not reasonable to assume humans are the only avatar species on earth. An interesng example of an apparent self-aware, raonal animal is the language-using parrot N’kisi. (44) The bird also exhibits apparent psychic ability which suggests greater lucidity than found in the average human avatar relaonship. Just because we do not understand how to communicate with them, and thereby learn about their capabilies, does not give us grounds to assume our superiority. At most, we can only accept that there are diﬀerent degrees of expression of the capabilies inherent in every life form. Hierarchy A hierarchical relaonship exists between Source, aspects of source and subsequent expressions of those aspects. Please refer to the comments associated with the Collecve principle, above. A physical example of a hierarchy is the world, naon, state, city, suburb, home, family, individual. In the Implicit Cosmology, the hierarchy of interest is the relaonship amongst Source, its aspects, its aspect’s aspects, ... and so on for potenally many rounds of aspectaon. There is a many-to-one relaonship in the etheric hierarchy associated with Source and its associated aspects. Some characteriscs of Source are inherited by its aspects, just as some of the characteriscs of those aspects are inherited by their aspects, ... and so on. In the concept of morphic ﬁelds, ﬁelds are also thought to combine as hierarchical collecves, in that an organizing

ﬁeld becomes entangled with sub-ﬁelds to produce organisms such as the human body. Organizing Principles Reality operates according to a body of Organizing Principles which are inherent from Source’s creave expression. As previously stated, Organizing Principles can be compared to Natural Law; however, the perspecve from which Organizing Principles are deﬁned is more etheric personality-centric while Natural Law is clearly physical body-centric. Source is modeled here in the sense of from whence it came rather than as a father god. Since reality is Source’s life ﬁeld, everything in reality is governed by the same rules of behavior governing Source and its expressions. In the same sense, it is accepted in mainstream science that the physical universe is governed by knowable principles without the need to queson why or from whence the principles came. Given the existence of Source and Organizing Principles, a logical argument could be composed to describe how the whole of reality might self-organize. How a very complex local reality can be developed based on a simple equaon and a few simple rules is illustrated in the Mandelbrot Set. See the Cosmology of Imaginary Space Discourse. Prime Imperative Aspect personalies inherit purpose from their source. A foundaon assumpon for the Implicit Cosmology is that Source is curious about its nature. As described in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, it is also assumed that Source responded to its curiosity by imagining itself in various situaons so as to explore their implicaons. This assumpon is based on the mental process

involved in the Aenon Complex which enables a person to consider and respond to environmental signals. See the Principles of Aspectaon and Curiosity. A personality entangled with a human for a lifeme is said to have inherited Source’s urge to understand itself, but with a focus on uniquely diﬀerent aspect of the Prime Imperave. The Prime Imperave is related to the Principle of Perceptual Agreement, in that an aspect of a personality is created with an inherited urge to gain speciﬁc understanding. The inherited urge is expected to be based on an unanswered queson. An unanswered queson is modeled here as a diﬀerence in percepon between the personality with the queson and the aspect of the personality expected to ﬁnd an answer. As the aspect gains in understanding related to the queson, it becomes more in agreement with its source. The aspect is not expected to be able to return unl expected understanding has been acquired. In pracce, an aspect might experience many lifemes in one or more venues as it gains in understanding. As a praccal maer for Mindfulness, the Prime Imperave of a person is to align personal reality with the actual nature of local reality. Time Processes are me dependent while me is relave to perceptual relaonship with Source. Time is addressed here in terms of percepon. The perceived rate of me appears to be relave so that a personality experiences sequenal me in its venue, but otherwise senses its inﬂuence as all me is now. In

the physical region, for instance, me exists for persons perceptually within the physical, but physical me is thought to be irrelevant for personality outside of the physical. Popular wisdom holds that all me is now (nontemporal); however, as I discuss in the Etheric Fields Discourse, there is no apparent way to get around the need for intervals separang concatenated events (streaming). It is enrely possible that I am unable to visualize alternave soluons for sequenal processes. I will maintain the assumpon that me exists as a relave phenomenon in this book, and encourage you to ﬁnd an alternave explanaon that works in the context of the Implicit Cosmology. Category 2: Organizing Principles of Formation Formaon is concerned with the creaon process. The following group of Organizing Principles addresses the nature of that process. Aspectation The inﬂuence of intenon on an imagined result expresses aspects of reality which are a subset of personality’s personal reality. Source’s intenon to understand itself is the queson referred to here as the Prime Imperave Principle. It is both the source of reality and the purpose for everything in reality. In this view, all expression from personality, including the personality entangled with our conscious self, exists to answer the queson. When a person imagines driving a new car, the car, its environment and the lile personality in the car are all aspects of the person’s personal reality (worldview). In praccal terms, the imagined venue is funconally a subset of the person’s understanding of the nature of

its environment. The lile me personality in the car is an aspect of the person as the person imagines him or herself to be. Here, the process of creang an aspect of something is referred to as diﬀerenaon. At one me, diﬀerenaon was treated as a principle, but the concept is beer treated under the concept of aspectaon. The diﬀerence is that an aspect of something is a subset of that something. Diﬀerenaon is a process that produces aspects. As modeled here, the expression of an aspect that inherits a degree of self-determinaon inherits the potenal to express aspects to further explore the queson. The source personality and its child aspects constute a round of aspectaon. The child aspect and its children represent an addional or n+1 round of aspectaon. See the Principle of Aspectaon Diagram. Repeated rounds of aspectaon necessarily result in a hierarchy of aspects with an increasingly smaller subset of inherited characteriscs relave to the source. Because of this, children aspects may not be the same as their parent. A source personality must have a reason or purpose (a queson) for extending an aspect of itself while the resulng aspect must have the purpose of sasfying that reason. Aspects are thought to exist so long as the source personality holds them in its aenon, and unl they have sasﬁed their purpose. A common problem in metaphysics is the tendency to expect the rest of reality to be like the physical. For instance, aempts to apply quantum theory

to etheric concepts may only make sense if reality was like the physical. While such concepts as nonlocality, entanglement and collapsing waveforms do sound a lot like experiences associated with the etheric, the posion argued in Trans-Survival is that the physical is derived from the etheric via intended order. The quantum aspect of the physical may represent the etheric- physical interface, but much more must be learned before it is safe to say that quantum principles eﬀecvely describe the etheric. Instead, it is best to say that they represent a model which illustrates how the etheric might behave. In other words, use the comparisons as learning tools, but do not expect them to accurately represent reality. Attraction The degree of perceptual agreement determines the extent of mutual aracon associang aspects of reality. Personality inherits a subset of its source’s characteriscs. Personality’s percepon evolves with increased understanding. A personality and its aspects is a collecve, the individuals of which are bound, depending on the degree of perceptual agreement. Within the hierarchy of personalies, aspects of diﬀerent collecves are bound, depending on the degree of agreement. The term, like aracts like has been used to describe this principle. It is correct in the sense that the degree of aracon is determined by each person’s worldview, which determines the person’s percepon. Aracon is not the same as entanglement. Aracon represents a mutually aracve inﬂuence based on shared understanding. Entanglement is the inﬂuence associang personality with its expressions. Cooperative Communities An eﬀort to express

understanding is necessary for progression. Collecves are inherently cooperave communies. A person is aracted to communies of like-minded people cooperang to facilitate progression. Note the disncon between collecves and communies. There is evidence that groups of personalies sharing the same source cooperate as a collecve to fulﬁll the intenon of their source. This cooperaon is part of the response to the Prime Imperave. In the physical, we are aracted to communies of like-minded people for mutual cooperaon toward gaining understanding. Cooperave communies likely support people from diﬀerent collecves with rather diﬀerent inherited objecves. The intenon to gain understanding is a common factor. Cooperaon is facilitated by rapport which is established between personalies as they interact in the community. The insnctual urge to cooperate is expected to be very strong in a collecve; however, aracon to and cooperaon in a community is secondary to normal challenges of living. As an old adage goes, “Our lot is to learn, and having learned, our lot is to teach.” Each member of a cooperave community ﬁlls both the role of seeker and that of teacher, simply by interacng with other members of the community. The Golden Rule states that we should “Do unto others as we would have them do unto us.” Virtually every religious organizaon has the Golden Rule somewhere in its literature. Considered from the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, the meaning is that people should cooperate with one another to achieve their true purpose. Teachers come from those who have been

taught. Perhaps a beer way of stang the Golden Rule is: Teach me as I teach you. Also see the Collecve Principle. Continuity There is one reality and it exists everywhere. There is a connuum of existence from here to Source. There are no gaps in this connuum; however, there is change from point to point along the connuum and this change tends to be stepwise. With Source as the origin, every point along the connuum is relave to the preceding point (inheritance, Nature’s habits) and informs the following point (Expression based on worldview). See Hierarchy of Nested Fields in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Emergent Order Elements of a ﬁeld tend to self-organize. Borrowing from the study of chaoc systems, elements tend to be aracted to less uniform regions of a system. (45) The result is regions of order which potenally exhibit characteriscs not found in the individual elements. One result of this principle is the idea that reality is bunchy. That is, elements of reality tend to congregate. This is a lile beyond my training, but I believe the stepwise behavior so oen found in nature is a direct result of this principle. Another important result of this concept is the idea of cycles. We experience stepwise behavior in living systems as birth or regeneraon, living or acvity, maturity, rest and transion to begin a new cycle. Of course, a lifeme is an expression of this. Evolution Everything is subject to change based on history and current challenges. Nothing

remains at rest indeﬁnitely. Everything in reality changes through processes which may be orderly, but evoluon is more likely to be punctuated throughout the process with catastrophic change in response to environmental irregularies. The Implicit Cosmology incorporates the concept of morphic ﬁelds proposed by Rupert Sheldrake in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon. (9) These ﬁelds are also more generically referred to as etheric ﬁelds in the Implicit Cosmology. The formave informaon or blueprint contained in morphic ﬁelds is described by Sheldrake as Nature’s habit. The ﬁelds cause formaon of their associated organisms based on how the organism has always been formed. Without extenuang inﬂuences, a human morphic ﬁeld should always produce idencal bodies. The addional inﬂuences of parental genes and environmental forces results in the variety we see today. Formaon is considered a two-way process in that Nature’s habit are able to record how the organism adapts so that learned behavior modiﬁes habitual behavior. The mechanism enabling new behavior to modify Nature’s habit is not clear, but there is likely a diﬀerence in the lasng inﬂuence of accidental changes such as the loss of a limb and intended changes such as learning to avoid an unpleasant experience. The process of increasing understanding of the nature of reality depends on the Principle of Evoluon. Expression also depends on it as worldview represents the organism’s habit in that lifeme. Parts of the worldview clearly follow conscious self into transion as it recovers from a lifeme. This residual avatar perspecve aﬀects how well

conscious self adapts to the etheric. As is noted above in the Principle of Evolving Inﬂuence, the link between personality and body in the avatar relaonship has probably become possible via evoluon of the human. A primive link was probably established and then evolved as humankind became beer able to comprehend abstract concepts. Punctuated Evolution Evoluon is generally considered in terms of change by way of small increments; however, there is reason to speculate that trans-etheric inﬂuences might produce larger increments of change than expected. Instrumental TransCommunicaon is a well-documented from of trans- etheric inﬂuence in which an intelligent inﬂuence (expression) causes a change in the physical. Morphic ﬁelds are etheric ﬁelds which are entangled with the physical organisms they govern. It is reasonable to argue that the inﬂuence wielded by personalies and morphic ﬁelds on physical processes is able to produce changes that would be seen as being beyond what can be reasonably expected from chance evoluon dependent on mutaon or survival of the ﬁest. The central concept of Darwinian Evoluon is that changes in nature are random and the beneﬁcial changes perpetuate the specie. As has been stated a number of mes in this book, random processes are conducive to trans-etheric inﬂuence (intended order). This is not an issue of belief. The inﬂuence of intenonality on random processes is well-documented. Also, there is nothing in the Implicit Cosmology that makes a disncon between a naturally random process of nature and a random process produced by a random event

generator. Life Field Life consists of Personality, Aenon Complex and Conscious Self organized as an etheric ﬁeld by Core Intelligence associated with Personality. Reality is modeled as a hierarchy of nested life ﬁelds with Source as the top ﬁeld. In reality there are life ﬁelds and expressions of life. Source is the top life ﬁeld. As a general statement, the Prime Imperave of a life ﬁeld is to align personal reality with the percepon of local reality. The funconal areas of a life ﬁeld as modeled in this cosmology are shown in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram. A detailed explanaon is provided in the Life Fields Discourse. Also see the Personality-Centric Perspecve and Percepon and Expression Discourses. Perceptual Agreement Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. This principle provides a mechanism by which order can be imposed on a system without many complex rules liming behavior. Rather than some ethereal being telling us what we can and cannot do, or where we can go in heaven, this principle assures that we will gravitate toward aspects of reality which we are best able to understand. The praccal consequence is that freedom of access to the greater reality is increased by gaining understanding which is in accordance with the operaon of reality. Comprehending the intenon of the principles listed here is a good beginning. The self-liming behavior based on understanding appears to be made praccal by the maybe state of

the Perceptual Loop shown in the Basic Funconal Areas of Percepon and Expression Diagram. New understanding occurs when new input is reasonably close to prior understanding. When it is, the new input may be allowed into worldview, albeit aer it is visualized in the Aenon Complex based on prior understanding. In this model, in response to the inherited urge to gain understanding, personality gravitates toward that which is familiar but with a preference for new experiences. This principle results in the existence of the Veil of Forgeulness which is the praccal consequence of the etheric-physical interface. When a personality creates an aspect of itself to gain experience, the new aspect inherits a subset of its source’s understanding. It is created with the imperave to return to its source and does so by gaining understanding. There is a requirement in Rupert Sheldrake’s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (9) for Nature’s habit to be evolved by creave soluons to environmental problems. The maybe soluon in the Perceptual Loop provides this mechanism. See the Cosmology of Imaginary Space Discourse for discussion of how this might look as an alternave to usual cosmologies. Process Reality is modiﬁed by way of ordered sequences of events. As a fundamental aspect of reality, process has a beginning, which may be the spark of inspiraon to do something and one or more intermediate steps such as comparing an imagined outcome with worldview. The process ends with the expression of intended order. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Rapport Personalies

are interconnected by links of cooperaon (inﬂuence) forming a matrix of relaonships (cooperave community). One personality’s awareness of another personality manifests as a link of inﬂuence between the two life ﬁelds that is related to visualizaon, aenon and intenon. The nature of this link of rapport depends on the clarity (intensity) of awareness and the reason for the awareness. These links are dynamic and are thought to facilitate cooperaon. Perceptual agreement is a moderang factor for rapport. Presumably, the more two people agree on the nature of reality, the stronger the link of rapport. This is something that can wax and wane from moment to moment, as one or the other party is more or less at ease with the moment. This idea is well-characterized by the book, I'm OK–You're OK. (46) See the Principles of Entanglement, Cooperave Communies and Reciprocity. Reciprocity As personality inﬂuences reality, reality reﬂects that inﬂuence back to personality. This reciprocal inﬂuence is similar but not necessarily equal to the inial inﬂuence. Personality develops a personal reality (worldview) based on percepon. When personality expresses a change of some form into the environment, the Aenon Complex introduces the expectaon to experience that change. A praccal example of this may be seen in healing intenon, in which the praconer may sense, even beneﬁt from the inﬂuence of expressed intenon. Another important example of this may be found in the negave inﬂuence that is experienced by a person who expresses negave thoughts toward another. In this case, negave means

disagreement between a worldview which enables a person to imagine the negave inﬂuence in the ﬁrst place and the actual nature of reality. See the Principle of Balance. Category 3: Organizing Principles of Personality Personality is the immortal aspect and the true I am this of the life ﬁeld. It expresses dual characteriscs of experiencer and formave agent. As experiencer, personality expresses inherited purpose to and incorporates acquired understanding from the Aenon Complex. It is oen referred to as a person’s higher self. The formave agent is personality’s intelligent core which represents the organizaon of the life ﬁeld. This is comparable with the autonomic system for a biological organism. From the perspecve of conscious self, Personality and Intelligent Core are typically indisnguishable and are mostly unconscious regions of mind. These are the principles thought to moderate the behavior of personality. Attention Aenon is a fundamental aspect of life necessary for percepon and expression. As is illustrated in the Basic Funconal Areas of Percepon and Expression Diagram, the Aenon Complex enables a number of important funcons of life, of course including percepon and expression, but also the mechanism necessary to evolve worldview. See the Principle of Curiosity below. In First Sight Theory (13), aenon is an unconscious state. As shown in the Basic Funconal Areas of Percepon and Expression Diagram, the Aenon Limiter acts as a ﬁlter which can block environmental informaon if it is tested as having no interest to the organism. Balance The natural order is the middle way

in which acons are in agreement with Organizing Principles. Balance is a way of looking at living in accordance with nature. Personality must expend eﬀort to maintain an extreme state. It is hypothesized to be as diﬃcult to sustain extreme posive as it is to sustain extreme negave. It is likely that true evil in the religious sense is not really possible. In theory, the state would too quickly dissipate as the system is aracted to a balanced or more neutral state. See the Mindfulness Discourse. Curiosity Curiosity is the source of aenon. An important assumpon of the Implicit Cosmology is that a fundamental characterisc or property of the life ﬁeld is curiosity. The movaon for aenon is seen as curiosity about the nature of the environment. It is proposed that speciﬁc curiosity is inherited from Source. See the Principle of Aenon above. The Ancipaon Corollary of First Sight Theory (13), reasonably translates as curiosity. I am modeling curiosity as a basic characterisc of life so that curiosity leads to aenon and purpose. Discernment Believe what you wish but understand the implicaons of what you believe. While worldview informs percepon and expression, the conscious intenon to align percepon and expression with the actual nature of reality is discernment. Suspended judgment allows personality to consider experiences without incorporang them into worldview. Discernment is possibly the most important quality one can intenonally culvate. Those who have consciously stepped on a path toward understanding make lile progress unl they have learned to experience

life without the need to explain or raonalize experience. Understanding is not a list of this is true and that is not. It is the comprehension that this is related to that in some way. Experience Personality inherits the urge to seek experiences which might lead to understanding the nature of reality. It is likely that a person’s enre reason for existence is to gain understanding of a certain aspects of nature which might only be accomplished by direct experience. In a very real sense, experience is the purpose of life, but acquision of experience should be unconsciously or consciously informed by the Prime Imperave. Expression Reality is expressed via personality’s aenon on an imagined outcome with the intenon to make it so. Intended order is the inﬂuence expression has on the environment. It may be in the form of conscious awareness of an output of the perceptual process, speech, order impressed on a chaoc process or an ideoplasc form. Expression is iniated by conscious intenon but the formaon of expression is a mostly unconscious process of the Aenon Complex. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Focus The ability to manage expression is, in part, a funcon of how well conscious self is able to focus the expression of intenon. Intenon is an inﬂuence which has the quality of focus and purpose. If the person is uncertain, distracted by environmental intrusions or harbors an unconscious fear or doubt, intenon may be condional, resulng in a poorly focused inﬂuence on the

Aenon Complex. Intention Intenon is the move inﬂuence of expression. Expression is usually described as aenon on an imagined outcome with the intenon to make it so. The coherence of the expression, and therefore its eﬀecveness, depends on clarity of visualizaon, but also on clearly expressed intenon. A useful way to consider intenon is to think of expression as intended order. In trans-etheric inﬂuences, intended order is a way of describing the inﬂuence of expression on chaoc systems as a transformaon according to intended order. The Visualizaon Funcon in the Aenon Complex is informed by the nature of intenon signaled by conscious self, but the actual form of the expression from the Aenon Complex is moderated by Worldview. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse and the Percepon and Expression Diagram. Local Reality Reality is bound for a person by the limits of experience. Following the idea that we can only comprehend what we are aware of, local reality is that part of the reality ﬁeld of which a person is aware. For a person as an entangled avatar, local reality is always a subset of the physical universe so that home, community, town and maybe country region are relavely clearly visualized by a person while a diﬀerent city and the surface of Mars might be just concepts. Local reality is seen as a true region of the greater reality, so that understanding local reality is the same as understanding a part of the greater reality. It is important to disnguish

between local reality and personal reality. Local reality is a subset of reality, but personal reality is colored by worldview in the perceptual process so that it only represents what the person thinks of local reality. See the Principle of Personal Reality. Perception Experience is a funcon of intent, aenon, external inﬂuence and worldview. Personality is shown in diagrams such as the one for the Percepon and Expression Diagram, as the Intelligent Core which manifests as Aenon. Aenon is a required state for percepon, but the Perceptual Loop process determines what is allowed into worldview, what is consciously experienced and what can be expressed. In this model, personality can only become aware of what is expressed from the perceptual process. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Personal Reality Percepon of reality deﬁnes personal reality. Currently held beliefs inﬂuence percepon of the nature of reality. A place is neutral, but two people might experience the same place in very diﬀerent ways. That diﬀerence in percepon is the diﬀerence in the two people’s worldview. The Prime Imperave of the life ﬁeld is for conscious self to align personal reality with the actual nature of local reality. Point of View Point of View is the underlying assumpons held by personality when determining how to relate to its environment. Conscious self’s point of view is based on its worldview and understanding. While every experience goes to modify worldview, worldview colors percepon of all subsequent experiences. See the Point of View Commentary. Progression Progression is

a measure of personality’s understanding. A fundamental assumpon of the Implicit Cosmology is that personalies produce aspects of themselves to gain understanding about their environment. A measure of understanding is progression from Source’s inial expression of curiosity to realizaon of understanding. From the perspecve of Source, creaon is expression with the intenon to understand personal reality. Understanding is hierarchical; the nested ﬁelds are collapsed toward Source with each advance in understanding. Based on the Prime Imperave, Source is sll learning and doing so through its aspects. Given that understanding is an acquired characterisc of personality, the worldview of an aspect must include a subset of its source’s understanding and the results of an urge to gain further understanding (targeted by its source). The theory holds that, as the aspect personality gains understanding, it becomes more perceptually in agreement with its source. Self-Determination Personality’s behavior is limited only by the Organizing Principles. Self- determinaon can be understood as personal responsibly. Suspended Judgment Increased understanding may come from unexpected or unwanted outcomes. As we mature into adults, worldview—what we unconsciously think is true about the world—is mostly populated with cultural beliefs. These beliefs are too oen local prejudices and baseless lore that, if acted on, may lead us into a less than beneﬁcial way of living. From this perspecve, the purpose of life can be described as a quest to align worldview with the true nature of reality; that is, to replace beliefs with correct understanding. Consciously not making a decision about

what we think of something is a good way to take control of our unconscious mental processes. This is a major part of mindfulness. Suspended judgement involves avoiding good-bad, agree-disagree, believe-disbelieve decisions about experiences so as to allow me— somemes months—for more informaon to develop. It is important to be responsible for our acons, including seeking to accomplish speciﬁc tasks. The idea is that realizing something other than an intended result does not mean failure. Instead, the unexpected result oﬀers an opportunity to reevaluate the assumpons on which the acons were based. Suspended judgment can be considered a more contemporary expression of the Law of Detachment. The idea of the Law of Detachment is that being set on a parcular result of an acon might blind us from seeing the potenal beneﬁts of alternave results. But there is a problem of literal interpretaon, as people insncvely reject the noon that they should be detached when virtually everything in society tells them to become engaged. The principle of suspended judgment supports a more general perspecve. Our unconscious mental processes are hardwired to make decisions. That means there is an accept, reject or narrowly deﬁned condional accept decision for everything we do, sense or visualize. Consciously deciding to replace a reject outcome with a wait and see response teaches the unconscious mind to be more lenient in the condional accept decision. This has the potenal to make the content of worldview more accessible to evoluon toward greater understanding. Transition Experience is gained

in cycles which are delineated by periods of transion. For a personality entangled with an avatar in the physical, when the human is no longer able to sustain the conscious self, there is a process of release and movement out of that relaonship. During this process personality’s perspecve changes from the physical venue for learning to some other venue. From the body-centric perspecve, this is described as dying; however, it is believed to be more correct to think of this as the movement of the conscious self’s focus of aenon to a more natural environment. Transion is a more accurate term for what is currently called death. Also see The Transion Experience in the Progression, Teaching and the Community Discourse. Understanding Understanding is percepon of reality as it is and not as it is believed to be, with emphasis on underlying principles. Experience becomes understanding as personality aligns personal reality with local reality. A fundamental concept in the Implicit Cosmology is that personality exists to experience, gain understanding from that experience and return that understanding to the Collecve. Understanding is seen as being a quality of personality, and is therefore the quality determining perceptual agreement. Understanding is a measure of progression. Also see The Nature of Understanding in the Progression, Teaching and the Community Discourse. Visualization Expression is based on the intenon to express an aspect of reality based on informed visualizaon. The outcome of expression is dependent on a visualized objecve based on current understanding which is held in

worldview. It is necessary to have a clear idea of the desired outcome. More clarity in the visualizaon means a more speciﬁc outcome. The emphasis here is on informed. The more this understanding agrees with reality, the more realisc can be the imagined outcome. Worldview Worldview is a learned response moderated by understanding. As one of the funconal areas of a life ﬁeld, worldview appears as a thoughorm containing the memory, knowledge and point of view of the personality. It is much like a database. When a person is born the worldview database is essenally empty but it has a front-end algorithm which represents personality’s maturity based on prior progression and an inclinaon toward experiences that oﬀer the opportunity for speciﬁc areas of understanding. The worldview database is populated by culture, family, media, religion and schools as these inﬂuences are biased by the front-end algorithm. It is the worldview that acts as a ﬁlter to determine how the person reacts to situaons, prejudices, beliefs, acceptance or rejecon of informaon. Worldview follows a person through transion and inﬂuences postmortem experiences. Worldview resists change, but evoluon of worldview occurs in small increments with ambiguous outcomes of the Perceptual Loop. Creave soluons to environmental challenges, if they do not represent radical changes, are expected to evolve worldview. A person shares the Aenon Complex with its avatar, which means the human’s insncts are an important part of worldview. Human insncts are especially inﬂuenal in the early part of the person’s lifeme, but are expected

to be less inﬂuenal as the person gains in maturity. More about worldview in the Point of View Commentary. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 4: Source Introduction Source is the term used in the Implicit Cosmology as ﬁrst cause for the creaon of reality. Source is not considered a God in the biblical sense. A foundaon assumpon of the cosmology is that reality is knowable. As such, the cosmology is used as a predicve model to propose characteriscs of Source that are consistent with an evolved reality. Source is deﬁned in the Organizing Principles Discourse as: As ﬁrst cause, Source is a singularity modeled as a life ﬁeld, the personality of which is both the experiencer and formave agent of the reality ﬁeld. The expressions of that inial personality are aspect life ﬁelds which inherit purpose and understanding concerning the nature of reality. The important concepts in this deﬁnion that must be developed in the cosmology are: Source is the Reality Field Reality is modeled as a conceptual domain, and a ﬁeld is characterized as a concept’s zone of inﬂuence. Fields are modeled as the building blocks of reality beginning with Source as the top ﬁeld. As such, Source’s life ﬁeld and the reality ﬁeld are the same. The ﬁeld concept is addressed in many parts of this book, but you might begin with the Etheric Fields Discourse. Personality and Intelligent Core Concepts The personality is the experienal part of who we are, while the Intelligent Core is the formave part of

who we are. In our human body ﬁeld (morphic ﬁeld), the body image is the intelligent core while the personality is the expression of purpose. These concepts are explained in the Life Fields Discourse. Expression and Perception A life ﬁeld interacts with its environment by sensing its inﬂuences as percepon and responding to those inﬂuences as expression. The two modes are governed by a funconal area described as the Aenon Complex. The funconing of that complex is informed by personality’s intenon, but it is moderated by worldview. These funconal areas are explained in the Life Fields Discourse. They are applied in this discourse to explain the acons of Source. Aspect, Aspectation and Understanding In a praccal sense, reality is a thought exercise. We sense the world around us as a mental translaon of various psi and physical signals that is expressed to our conscious self via our Aenon Complex. In a sense we create our world. This is explained in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. The mechanism with which personality explores reality is referred to in this cosmology as aspectaon. Aspectaon is the diﬀerenaon of something to produce an aspect of that something. Probably many mes removed, we are an aspect of Source. This is explained in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Also in this cosmology, the purpose of aspectaon is to gain understanding. In that view, we are the imagining of a personality. We have inherited purpose from that personality, and we will sasfy that purpose by gaining understanding

about that purpose which will become part of the personality that imagined us. This is discussed in the Perceptual Agreement Discourse. All of these concepts help to deﬁne Source. I have integrated them into a single view for this discourse, but as I have explained before, understanding these concepts depends on understanding concepts that will be explained in other discourses. For me, it has been a grand learning experience. Almost every day has produced an aha moment as I realized that a concept really means more than I had thought. Please do not be frustrated if you must experience the same sort of discovery. It is worth the journey! Not Proof but Reason to Consider My moo for EthericStudies.org is Believe what you wish but understand the implicaons of what you believe. When I considered the concept of Source with this point of view, it became clear that an objecve explanaon requires that Source be bounded by some outer limit. The inﬁnity concept does not really ﬁt into this cosmology, so it is necessary to simply say that Source is a singularity that may or may not be amongst other singularies. For our purpose, reality begins with Source. While no single concept explains Source, the ones oﬀered here are complementary so that together they provide a reasonably clear model describing the nature of Source, which is, in turn, the nature of reality. As Above, So Below This cosmology includes the assumpon that reality is homogenous, in that knowing the nature

of one part indicates the nature of the rest. Hermes is said to have taught this fundamental concept around 5,000 years ago via the Emerald Tablet. (47) Here are the ﬁrst two lines of the Emerald Tablet: 1 It is true and no lie, certain and to be depended upon, that which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below is as that which is above, for the performance of the one truly great work. 2 And as all things are from only one thing, by will of the one God, so all things have their origin in this one power, by adaptaon to their individual purposes. The Great Work is the process of transmung a faith-based worldview into one that is in accordance with the actual nature of reality. Of course, the one thing is God, but important to note is that, while Hermes has told us that all things are of God, he also said that each individual has been diﬀerenated as a unique aspect of God. This echoes the concept of life as a fractal in which God is the top fractal. As far as I can tell, Hermes relied on a cosmology that is very similar to the Implicit Cosmology. Of course, this is not proof in any way, but it is important in that modern Ancient Wisdom Schools are typically at least parally based on what is considered the Hermec wisdom. There is some indicaon that such revealed informaon can

be reliable: for instance, the evidence of ITC and analysis of some of the more proliﬁc trance channels such as Jane Roberts’ Seth. (26) Fractals Fractals are a useful way to visualize reality as it is modeled in this cosmology. A fractal is a paern that is repeated at every scale. The Sierpinski Triangle plot illustrates how an equilateral triangle is a fractal of an equilateral triangle array. (Draw an equilateral triangle, put a point at the halfway point on each line and connect those; repeat indeﬁnitely.) In the Fractals Diagram below, I refer to the largest triangle in the Sierpinski Triangle as the top fractal. The same can be said of what is somemes referred to as the Apple Man of the Mandelbrot Set. The third frame shows one of the Apple Man fractals which becomes visible as the scale is changed to magnify the set. The black area in the upper-right corner of the last frame is part of the top fractal. Also see the navigaon example In the Cosmology of Imaginary Space Discourse. Relang the Sierpinski Triangle to the hierarchy of nested ﬁelds concept, the top fractal can be compared to Source and the reality ﬁeld for that set. The ﬁrst round of aspectaon produced three triangles comparable to aspects of Source expressed to explore the reality ﬁeld. The next round produced three triangles inside each of the ﬁrst round triangles, and so on. Each set of three can be said to be nested within the previous

triangle. In this way, there is a many-to-one relaonship for each round. Each of the three triangles that result from the next round of aspectaon will be within a source triangle. Compare that to yourself as part of a collecve produced by a personality from a prior round of aspectaon. It is probable that there are many diﬀerent collecves sharing the same aspect of reality—in our case, for the purpose of gaining understanding through experience. Life Fields The model for a life ﬁeld is based on current understanding about the way we think and on observed paranormal phenomena. The foundaon assumpon is that characteriscs of the greater reality can be modeled based on what is known about the local aspect of reality (as above, so below). Informaon about local reality comes from mainstream science, parapsychology and transcommunicaon. The Trans-Survival Hypothesis is used as the beginning point for black box analysis (Secon I Intro.). As explained in the Etheric Fields Discourse, a ﬁeld is a set of elements with related characteriscs which are bound into a system by a common inﬂuence (the aractor). In metaphysics, a ﬁeld is bound by the extent of inﬂuence the aractor is able to exert. The aractor for a ﬁeld is probably best described as a concept. The inﬂuence a concept is able to express on the elements of its ﬁeld can be described as purpose. In a life ﬁeld, personality is the aractor. In the reality ﬁeld, Source is the aractor. In a collecve ﬁeld,

the local source for personalies in that collecve is the aractor. Morphic Fields Rupert Sheldrake (9) deserves much of the credit for how the life ﬁeld is modeled in this cosmology. As is discussed in the Etheric Fields Discourse, he has proposed the idea that living organisms are organized under the inﬂuence of morphic ﬁelds. Paraphrasing with Implicit Cosmology terminology, for an organism, morphic ﬁelds are associated as a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds in which each aspect of the organism is managed by a ﬁeld. For instance, muscle cell morphogenesis is managed by morphic ﬁelds based on how they have always been formed; skin cells are managed by skin cell morphic ﬁelds; and bone cells are managed by bone cell ﬁelds, to name a few. All of these are managed by a human being morphic ﬁeld. In that hypothesis, morphic ﬁelds have a sort of intelligence, memory which Sheldrake calls Nature’s habit, a mechanism to express that informaon on the living process, and a means to modify Nature’s habit as creave soluons for environmental challenges found by the organism. If you review the Life Fields Discourse, you will see equivalents for those characteriscs in the funconal areas of a life ﬁeld. An organism is physical while the organism’s organizing inﬂuence is etheric. This is just like the relaonship between our human brain which is part of a physical organism and our mind which is etheric. To manage the development of an organism, Sheldrake’s model requires morphic ﬁelds to have the

ability to express trans-etheric inﬂuences. My model for expression is largely based on that assumpon. Sheldrake’s model also requires a trans-etheric means of sensing changes in the organism. That is part of the inspiraon for the perceptual process described in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. An important process in both expression and percepon is the means to compare proposed expression or percepon with worldview. I have described that as the Perceptual Loop. First Sight Theory, proposed by James Carpenter (13), provided the inspiraon for the ruleset needed to make the Perceptual Loop work. First Sight Theory is based on meta- analysis of the very large number of psi funconing studies, and the non- psi parts of First Sight Theory are beginning to be recognized by mainstream researchers. (38) (11) (12) (48) Unconscious Perception Who we are is not who we think we are. (49) As the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram shows, the Aenon Complex is an unconscious part of our mind. We only become consciously aware of the results of the processes represented by the Perceptual Loop. What we become consciously aware of is based on our worldview. (11), (39) The importance of unconscious percepon is that we use the same mechanisms that organize cell formaon to develop an objecve image of our physical world. This is an emerging realizaon of mainstream science; about which you can expect to hear a lot more in the future. As I will explain later, our unconscious percepon is complemented by

our unconscious expression. This is expressed in the second assumpon of Carpenter’s First Sight Theory. Source as a Life Field Source is the top life ﬁeld, and as such, it is also the reality ﬁeld. In eﬀect, everything in reality is in Source’s life ﬁeld by way of the link of entanglement between ﬁrst cause and subsequent aspects. This inﬂuence of entanglement is a funcon of intenon, aenon and imagined outcome. A morphic ﬁeld is also modeled to place the organism it inﬂuences in the ﬁeld. This is because a morphic ﬁeld imposes an inﬂuence on the biological process. In the ﬁeld means within the ﬁeld of inﬂuence expressed by the morphic ﬁeld or life ﬁeld. A Contemplation A mental exercise explains the next step in the model. Read this paragraph and then close your eyes and relax for a few minutes. Imagine that you have just purchased a new car. Think of how it might look. See yourself driving the car. Perhaps you are driving it through your neighborhood so that your friends can see you. What does that feel like? Spend a lile me driving your imaginary car and then return to this text. This contemplaon illustrates the process of expression. The car, lile you and where you imagined driving the car are all expressions of the Aenon Complex. All that you visualized was based on your worldview. That is, you are limited in what you can visualize by what you believe is true. The imagined scene was

an ideoplasc construct, meaning that you were forming objects of reality with your mind. The scene will exist as long as you keep aenon on it. It will connue to exist in your memory indeﬁnitely. An important point is that you consciously intended to have the car- driving experience. That intenon iniated a creave process in your unconscious mind which developed the desired experience and expressed it to your conscious self as an imagined experience. Again, the imagined experience was limited by your worldview (personal reality). Except for minor modiﬁcaons logically based on prior experience, everything in the fantasy agreed with your prior experience. Emerging understanding in psychology about how people experience reality indicates that, when you experience something you think of as objecve reality—say actually driving a physical car—that awareness comes to your conscious mind via the same unconscious-to-conscious process as I described here for your car-driving fantasy. If you had not been prepared by prior experience, you would likely not have been able to tell the diﬀerence. An important rule of such imagining is to allow your imagined lile me self-determinaon so that you can gain from it as if it was real experience. It is diﬃcult to sense what an imagined being is feeling, but with pracce, this can be a powerful tool for gaining understanding. Just behave as if you sense what it is thinking and feeling. The only real hindrance is the autonomous percepon/expression process you allow for your imagined self. You know you are

doing it right when your lile me surprises you in some way. Note that the imagined person is an aspect of you. In terms of this cosmology, you are the source personality for lile me. It is likely you have conducted many such exercises, spontaneously imagining what something might be like. You can probably recall such imagining, even from many years ago. All of those lile me aspects connue to exist in your life ﬁeld. You are the top life ﬁeld for a collecve of your lile me Aspects. They exist within the inﬂuence of your life ﬁeld as part of your personal reality. Another characterisc to note is that your imagined experience occurred in your mind. It did not produce an objecve experience as we think of an experience in the physical world. I imagine my life ﬁeld as a kind of etheric balloon in which the product of all of my imagining produces a kind of contemplave reality complete with a venue for learning and aspects of me to explore the venue. Some important realizaons from these imagined aspects have emerged into my awareness. Personal Reality Just as we can develop a mental image of lile me’s world, so do we create our personal reality based on what we believe to be true (worldview). Since we only become consciously aware of what our unconscious perceptual processes present to our conscious self, we literally experience objecve reality as it is expressed by our beliefs. This is becoming established science.

(11), (39) We manage our sense of what is real by learning to change worldview. One way to accomplish this is via mindful living. In eﬀect, that is what we do while learning to understand our world. If life ﬁelds are fractals in Source’s reality, it is arguable that Source also has a personal reality and is seeking to align it with reality’s actual nature. As such, Source and all the rest of us are sll learning. That is what we do. Modeling Source As menoned above, an important assumpon in this cosmology is that life is a universal characterisc of reality. Also, life is modeled as a ﬁeld which has an I am this sense of identy I refer to as Personality. A life ﬁeld also has an Aenon Complex in which percepon and expression are managed. It is in that funconal area that the life ﬁeld’s memory is stored as worldview. This is the equivalent of Sheldrake’s Nature’s habit; however, it also contains understanding and acts as a moderator for percepon and expression. Populating Reality To establish a beginning point in this cosmology, Source is modeled as having somehow begun as a singularity with the characteriscs of a life ﬁeld. This may have evolved from some pre-reality potenal or it may be an aspect of yet a more conceptually remote intelligence. Without more input, it must only be assumed that Source exits. A second assumpon is that Source is curious about itself in much the same way we

might be curious about how it would be to drive a fancy car. The act of learning about itself is modeled as the act of creang reality. In eﬀect, Source is contemplang itself. In doing so, it has imagined itself in what it believes is its world. Such contemplaon would be mul- threaded as Source considers various aspects of what it thinks is real. In the terms of this cosmology, to facilitate its self-contemplaon, Source has created a venue for learning and created aspects of itself to have experiences in the venue and return understanding. Those aspects are life ﬁelds that have inherited from their source a degree of understanding and the urge to gain speciﬁc addional understanding. The aspect’s personal reality would be a subset of Source’s personal reality; however, because of the aspect’s experiences and eventual understanding, its personal reality would become diﬀerent from Source’s. In principle, its understanding about at least its small part of Source’s reality would be more true to its actual nature. The process of imagining venues based on worldview and exploring those venues with an aspect of self is a basic funcon of a life ﬁeld. As was illustrated in the above contemplaon, in pracce, the queson automacally created the venue; the intenon to understand automacally produced the aspect personality. Self-Organizing Reality An interesng aspect of the Implicit Cosmology is the idea that reality is self-organizing. Source discovers itself. It does not create itself. The Intelligent Core of each life ﬁeld establishes and

maintains the structural form and funcon of the ﬁeld. The rules for these are a natural result of purpose. By this I mean that requiring understanding means there must be a mechanism by which understanding may be gained. Understanding needs to be tested so there must also be a mechanism to express that understanding. And for that, there must be a process to visualize that understanding and compare it with prior understanding. These mechanisms would naturally evolve to become Nature’s (current) habit. The Organizing Principles are arguably the direct result of Source’s curiosity. The Formaon Principles naturally evolve from the Reality Principles and the Personality Rules automacally evolve from the Formaon and Reality Principles. In a cooperave community, the exchange of ideas amongst its members requires them to organize their thoughts before speaking or acng. The organizaon is based on worldview; however, expression produces feedback, in eﬀect tesng worldview. It is in this way that worldview can be beer aligned with reality. Based on this worldview tesng mechanism, the rules governing percepon and expression translate into a cooperave community rule of “Teach me as I teach you.” A self-organizing reality does not mean that there are no intelligent, purposeful inﬂuences in that organizaon. It just means that the purposeful inﬂuences are directed toward opmizing understanding through experience. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 5: The Nature of Reality Introduction Popular wisdom has it that there is one reality. By deﬁnion, it is absolute; however, a second view is that reality is relave. The

reality concept is a good example of the diﬀerence between body-centric (absolute reality) thinking and personality-centric (relave reality) thinking. The Implicit Cosmology is designed with the assumpon that percepon of reality must be relave. That is because expression is always informed by percepon. In every way that maers, reality is a funcon of our percepon of the nature of the world in which we live. Psychologists will tell you that our percepon of me, distance, even meaning is a funcon of many factors such as personal stress and enthusiasm. All of these factors go to modify the content of worldview and the Accept, Reject, Maybe decision of the Perceptual Loop. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. The Name of Reality It may be helpful to list the various types of reality discussed in this discourse. As you read this, the key point to consider is that reality is relave to worldview and worldview is relave to experience. The fruit of this dependency is understanding. Baseline Reality Source’s percepon of reality (the Reality Field) converges on a potenal reality represented by organizing Principles. Perceived aspects of reality will converge on the baseline, but are not expected to coincide. Source’s life ﬁeld is the Reality Field and is Source’s personal reality. Since the cosmology describes the educaon of Source about itself, the reality ﬁled is expected to evolve as understanding increases. This should include an evoluon of Organizing Principles. As is illustrated in the Limits of Understanding Diagram, understanding is an evolving

inﬂuence in the Reality Field. Presumably, there is a naturally occurring baseline or end stage in which Source’s increasing understanding of itself converges in an asymptoc manner toward a form of stability in which the inﬂuence of all of the Organizing Principles achieve a stable state of equilibrium. Percepon of the Reality Field, how close it is to baseline reality, will not be uniform. Source will have a less informed percepon of itself, while some aspects, probably many rounds removed, can be expected to have acquired a more sophiscated understanding of reality. There does not seem to be suﬃcient informaon to speculate about what might happen when baseline stability is achieved. My sense is that the lifecycle of a person is something of a standard model for the life ﬁeld fractal. If that is true, the stability means old age. At some point in Source’s evoluon, I would expect to see something that generates a next generaon Source. For those of you who are interested in Zero-Point Energy, the diﬀerence between local and baseline reality would represent potenal future as it is being shaped by increasing understanding of the collecve. It might be interesng to speculate about the nature of that potenal. Local Reality Reality is bounded for a person by the limits of experience. We can only comprehend that which we are aware of. As such, local reality is that part of the reality ﬁeld of which a person is aware. For person as an entangled avatar, local reality

is always a subset of the physical universe. Home, community, town and maybe country and region are relavely clearly visualized while a diﬀerent city and the surface of Mars might be just concepts. Local reality is seen as a true region of the greater reality, so that understanding local reality is the same as understanding a part of the greater reality. Personal Reality Worldview deﬁnes personal reality. Currently held beliefs inﬂuence percepon of the nature of reality. For instance, a place is neutral, but two people might experience the same place in very diﬀerent ways. That diﬀerence in percepon is the diﬀerence in the two people’s worldview. The Prime Imperave of the life ﬁeld is for conscious self to align personal reality with the actual nature of local reality. I am saying that conceptual reality is real and the physical universe is an ideoplasc expression. If that is true, the degree to which a person is aware of the greater, conceptual reality represents a meaningful segment of personal reality. Considering the deﬁnion of local reality, this becomes a fuzzy area of this cosmology since the person experiences, and is therefore, aware of some aspects of conceptual space. Differential in Reality An interesng speculaon concerns Zero Point Energy (50) which is what remains aer all other energy has been removed from a system. A possibly related term is the cosmological constant which is the value of the energy density of the vacuum of space. Both of these concepts suggest that the

physical universe has a baseline of energy which ﬂoats above an absolute zero energy potenal. Is it possible that the diﬀerence between Source’s personal reality and the physical universe is seen in this diﬀerence in potenal? Perhaps each round of aspectaon, with its resulng diﬀerenal from the baseline aspect, added a lile to this diﬀerence. If one were to go to some round of aspectaon between here and Source, would the cosmological constant be less? Entanglement A characterisc of associaon amongst a hierarchy of personalies is entanglement, which is a bond established between personality and its expression. Entanglement is an especially important inﬂuence between personality and its aspect (aspectaon). Conscious self is seen as entangled with its source personality, which in turn is entangled with its source and so on. Parallel to the hierarchy of personalies are nested aspects of reality in which the reality ﬁeld, local reality and personal reality of this scenario can be considered nested sub-realies or venues for learning. Some aspects of sub-realies would be shared venues for learning, providing shared experiences for some personalies or collecves. As such, the physical universe is seen as the physical aspect of reality in which entangled conscious selves (persons) share the general nature of the physical via their avatar but have personal points of view (personal reality) codiﬁed in their worldview. If you think of the concept of entanglement inherent in expression as threads of inﬂuence, it is reasonable to imagine reality as a matrix of purposeful inﬂuences integrang

all of the relave aspects of reality into a single ﬁled of mutual intenon. As a person, we would be a source of inﬂuence as our thoughts are expressed into the etheric, and in turn, we would be subtly inﬂuenced by that expression, perhaps as a reassuring background impression that we are part of a much greater whole. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 6: Etheric Fields Introduction A ﬁeld can be described as a set of elements with related characteriscs which are bound into a system by a common inﬂuence. Reality is modeled as conceptual, and the zone of inﬂuence of a concept is characterized as a ﬁeld. Fields can be within ﬁelds and an element can be in more than one ﬁeld. Etheric is a generic term for the conceptual space of reality, as compared to physical space, which is an aspect of etheric space. It is useful to model reality as a single etheric ﬁeld, which is referred to here as the reality ﬁeld. The reality ﬁeld is the top etheric ﬁeld, from which all other ﬁelds have been derived via aspectaon. In this way, the reality ﬁeld has been diﬀerenated as a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds. The fundamental characterisc of the etheric was once referred to in this cosmology as etheric energy; however, aer further consideraon, etheric ﬁeld is a more appropriate term. As will be shown here, an etheric ﬁeld is very diﬀerent from physical energy and has very diﬀerent characteriscs. See Energy Verses Field in this discourse.

Characteristics Etheric ﬁelds can be characterized as: Nonlocal From the perspecve of a physical observer, etheric ﬁelds are ubiquitous or everywhere at once. It may be correct to say that everywhere is here. See Nonlocal and Nontemporal in this discourse. The concept of nonlocality will make more sense as you read the rest of the discourses in this secon. Etheric Since the etheric is conceptual, terms like wave and frequency have no meaning when discussing etheric ﬁelds. Also, there is no apparent direcon or intensity of propagaon. There are conceptual equivalents to physical terms. For instance, the physical concept of direcon might be thought of in etheric terms as the inﬂuence of aenon on visualized outcome. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Association is Limited by Perceptual Agreement Since etheric space is nonlocal, all concepts coexist with personality, and movement from one to another is accomplished by changing focus of aenon. This, in turn, is limited by the person’s percepon which is moderated by the person’s worldview. Therefore, the ability to associate with any aspect of reality is seen to be limited by a person’s sense of what is real and true. Etheric ﬁelds are always an expression of personality, and are therefore limited by that which limits personality. Inluenced by Intentionality Etheric ﬁelds are responsive to personality’s intenon to express intended order. A Precursor to Objective Reality Physical energy and maer is seen as a result of the inﬂuence of intenon on an etheric ﬁeld. That is, physical energy

and maer are expressions of personalies. As modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, Source, as the top life ﬁeld, has expressed the rest of reality in the form of aspect life ﬁelds and ideoplasc structures. Origin of an Etheric Field Expression is basically the producon of an eﬀect via the intenon to make an imagined outcome real. Here, real is as it is experienced by the creang personality. In eﬀect, it is an intended change in the personality’s personal reality. The concept of etheric ﬁelds is closely associated with the idea of intended order which is a characterisc of expression. That is, when we say something, we have ﬁrst ordered our thoughts, selected the appropriate words, and spoken with a tone and loudness that ﬁt the situaon. Doing so, we impressed order on the circumstance based on what we imagined and intended. Etheric ﬁelds are also closely associated with the concept of aspectaon. In that, a personality creates an aspect of itself to experience a speciﬁc venue for learning. Reality is modeled as being a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds, in that there are many rounds of aspectaon as mostly autonomous aspects seek to further reﬁne the venue for learning. Aspects remain associated with their source by way of a thread of inﬂuence described as entanglement. Persistence of an Etheric Field Expression may be as complex as creaon of our physical universe or a life ﬁeld. Behavior of an expression depends on the source’s intenon. Expression is fundamentally a thoughorm. That is,

it has a subject and one or more related references as purpose. It is a ﬁeld in that the related references are dependent on the subject to have meaning. A thoughorm exists as long as the source has aenon on it. The lifecycle of a life ﬁeld is limited by the achievement of understanding. When the reason for aspectaon has been sasﬁed by the aspect’s acquision of appropriate understanding, the aspect’s worldview and personality is merged with its source. Here, the understanding is that our sense of self does not cease but connues as part of our collecve. Mechanics of an Etheric Field The way concepts associate as a ﬁeld is rather diﬀerent than what you may be familiar with in the more objecve terms of physical space. To understand this diﬀerence, begin by considering how we store memories. Remember a place you recently visited for vacaon. The memory of that place exists in your mind as part of your worldview. Think of it as a set of elements such as name, locaon and quality of experience. All of the elements of your memory are colored with feelings, impressions and associaons that are unique to you. The memory of the locaon exists as a sort of gestalt thought bundle which you can explore by accessing your memory of the vacaon. The thought bundles remain as latent recollecons, potenally forever. As with everything in your worldview, in some small way, they inﬂuence everything you do. The elements of your vacaon thought

bundle are entangled with one another and with you. While all of the elements in the memory exist as you remember them, they could exist in another person’s memory as a diﬀerent set because that person would remember them diﬀerently. The mental representaon of the place in this thought exercise is the top memory and the aractor for the rest of the elements in the memory. This way of thinking is not important to the memory, but it is helpful in modeling the experience. In eﬀect, all of the elements are aracted to the top; let us call it the name memory. Entanglement is an interesng concept because it represents a link of inﬂuence that aﬀects you and the element. The elements of your memory are entangled with you as the creator of their unique character. Another person remembering them diﬀerently will also be entangled with them, but the elements will represent a diﬀerence in character. Here is a characterisc of our connectedness. Many people will have the same elements in their memory of a shared experience called vacaon, but they will color them diﬀerently. In eﬀect, each creates an aspect of that place as a diﬀerent thoughorm. We all share the world, but each of us has a diﬀerent sense of the world. The links of inﬂuence represented by the entanglement are not just one way. They are inﬂuenced by the way we think of the elements of the ﬁeld. A contact ﬁeld represents just such an accumulaon of

inﬂuences which colors the actual nature of the elements. That is, if enough people consider a place holy, then it begins to take on the characterisc psi signal of what people think is holy. Someone who is not aware of the holy nature of the place can be expected to at least unconsciously sense that signal. Nonlocal and Nontemporal Two characteriscs of the etheric that need to be clariﬁed are me and distance. Nonlocal Research into the psi ﬁeld and psi funconing is showing that there appears to be no perceptual separaon or distance between a healer- praconer and sier or remote viewer and target locaon. This everywhere is here characterisc of the psi ﬁeld is referred to as nonlocality. (Actually, nonlocality is usually used in the context of here is everywhere.) A similar eﬀect is reported in quantum mechanics. And so the current model for psi is that it is nonlocal, meaning that one can think of someone in another city, and in principle that someone should be aware of this aenon as it occurs. Characteriscs of Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) also support this nonlocal characterisc, making it reasonable to include the concept in the Implicit Cosmology. And, even though physical sensing is local as our mind perceives it, the actual processing of physical informaon is also in the etheric, and therefore is nonlocal. Nontemporal A concept oen included in the Super-Psi Hypothesis is the nontemporal problem. Like nonlocality, quantum principles seem to indicate that me is not relevant. This

nontemporal characterisc is also seen in the many reported instances of precognion. Researchers have shown that a person will unconsciously respond to a smulus before it is delivered. The terms they use for sensing near-term events is presenment. Also, the Global Consciousness Project (51), which is an array of Random Event Generators (REG), has detected changes in randomness moments before major events such as the 911 aack. These seem to indicate a global sense of dread before disasters occur. This is an indicaon of nonlocality and short-interval nontemporal characteriscs of reality. There are reports of astoundingly accurate precognion about events that came to pass far in the future. Let us call those reports extraordinarily precognive and ignore them for the moment. Research is showing that events produce psi signals and that people normally unconsciously senses psi signals. Current research also seems to indicate that events are accompanied by a probability signature; let us call those potenal ﬁelds. The speculaon is that any single event is likely preceded by many potenal futures, one of which eventually becomes the event, and that these many potenal futures are unconsciously sensed by people as psi signals. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse and Mediumship Study. Potenal ﬁelds would be sensed as more or less probable, depending on how imminent the related event is and the character of the inﬂuences shaping the event. An event may not occur, even though there were many potenal ﬁelds. A person would sense a potenal ﬁeld just as any

other ﬁeld, even if the event itself is aborted. Sensing and reporng the potenal for an event to occur would be seen as precognion. Also, a person would be drawn to the potenal that most agreed with his or her worldview. To emphasize this point, emerging understanding in consciousness research indicates that people normally, unconsciously sense psi signals from the environment. In the Implicit Cosmology, events are modeled as being sensed in the form of growing probabilies. A very substanal event is probably preceded much earlier in me with the emergence of related potenal ﬁelds. Many of the extraordinarily precognive reports did concern momentous moments in our history, such as the 911 aack and commercial airline crashes. It is worth speculang that these extraordinary demonstraons of precognion are actually normal sensing of potenal ﬁelds. If so, then the concept of a nontemporal nature of reality would not be supported. All me is not now; process requires me. Futurists, Long Rang Planners A good, everyday life example of how emergent possibilies can be used to produce predicons of future events is the way long range planners produce strategic plans for business. You may have encountered people who claim psychic ability and market themselves to businesses as futurists. It is arguable that a futurist is just a long range planner who consciously emphasizes intuive ability over corporate knowledge. Part of my career in the communicaons industry was in network planning. I was indirectly part of a team assigned to produce long range

forecasts involving consideraon of currently known inﬂuences such as exisng equipment, environmental hazards and capacity requirements. Those inﬂuences were modeled with a host of inﬂuences thought to be coming such as new right-of-ways, changes in technology and new government regulaons. The output of the planning process was a forecast based on the knowns and possibilies. Rather than a predicon from a psychic based on intuive ability, the forecast was ostensibly based on cooperate and industry knowledge. The results were the same. Even though forecasts were objecvely supported by objecve facts, it would be easy to characterize such a plan as a precognive predicon. It all depends on your perspecve. A good planner is able to synthesize a lot of informaon into a mental image and clearly express that to others as a general picture. From the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, the diﬀerence between a good planner and a mediocre one is lucidity. Just like a psychic predicng the future, a planner’s ability to sense the psi ﬁelds associated with a target forecast is likely a deciding factor in its usefulness. From experience, the common factor for psychic predicon and planner forecast is the ability to sort through all of the environmental signals to focus on those which are most likely meaningful for the predicon of forecast. Neither involves seeing the future as an isolated event. Future events are the product of processes shaped by environmental inﬂuences which can be sensed during the process. Energy Verses Field The concept of

energy as it is applied in the physical does not appear to apply to nonphysical aspects of reality. Instead, what stands for diﬀerences in potenal is the inﬂuence of intenonality on potenal characteriscs of ideoplasc structures. That is, form evolves out of the expression of a visualized order. It is the inﬂuence of intenon to experience a visualized order that provides the template for formaon. This is essenally the same concept as used in quantum theory in which the “quantum wave funcon is collapsed by observaon,” as it was described by Radin, et al. (41) Commonly used terms, such as spirit and spiritual energy, can be considered synonyms of psi as they are intended. Terms such as psi energy (somemes referred to as psychic energy), auric energy, ectoplasm, orgone energy and od refer to forms which are also seen as synonyms for psi. Psi or psi ﬁeld is used here as it is used in parapsychology; however, when the term psi energy is encountered, it should be read as psi inﬂuence. Hierarchy of Nested Fields As stated for the Principle of Aspectaon concerning the expression of an aspect of itself by a personality, the aspect inherits a degree of self- determinaon and is able to express aspects of itself to further explore the queson. The source personality and its child aspects constute a round of aspectaon. The child aspect and its children represents a subsequent or n+1 round of aspectaon. Repeated rounds of aspectaon necessarily result in a hierarchy of

aspects with an increasingly smaller subset of inherited characteriscs relave to the inial source. Using the fractal as a model, ﬁelds are aracted to primary ﬁelds in a hierarchical arrangement of nested ﬁelds. As an example, and using the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon as a model (9), a human body is composed of a top ﬁeld which has the memory of how humans are formed. That ﬁeld acts as an aractor to organize a hierarchy of ﬁelds represenng the formaon of major parts of the body (bones, heart, skin). Those sub-ﬁelds act as aractors and organizers for supporng formaon of cells, enzymes and DNA. Fields in the Form of ... The ﬁeld concept is applied throughout the Implicit Cosmology discourses, but usually as a reference to speciﬁc subcategory of the ﬁelds concept. Here then, is a brief list of subcategories: Etheric Field An etheric ﬁeld is a region of reality that can be modeled as a node or nexus (aractor) associated with a set of related elements, a shared inﬂuence. Reality Field As stated above, reality is the body of Source. As such, Source as the top ﬁeld is considered the reality ﬁeld in this cosmology. While there may be something outside of the reality ﬁeld, the scope of this cosmology is limited to within the ﬁeld. Venue Field In this model, any ﬁeld that becomes a container for experience is considered a venue ﬁeld. It inherits characteriscs of its creator’s life ﬁeld based on habit and diﬀerenated by intended

outcome. A venue ﬁeld may be as simple as that created by a person imaginavely exploring how it might be to drive a new car. See Venue for Learning in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. A venue may also be developed by a collecve. The physical universe is an aspect of the reality ﬁeld. It has been diﬀerenated as a subset of a personal reality held by one personality or a collecve of personalies (life ﬁelds). While we have been taught to think of these things in the physical as objecve, from the etheric perspecve they are ideoplasc structures. See the Percepon Diagram and the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Life Field Life ﬁelds are expressions of Source and inherit their formave image (Nature’s habits) and insncts (urge to gain understanding) from Source. Life ﬁelds are entangled with Source. They are etheric ﬁelds which have a personality as the experiencer, an intelligent core as a formave agent, and a worldview represenng their personal reality. In the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (9), Nature’s habit which guides a morphic ﬁeld would be the worldview. The core intelligence of the morphic ﬁeld would be that which manages percepon and expression. The ﬁelds are nested in that a human organism is formed as a hierarchy of life ﬁelds. See the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram. Thoughtform As a rudimentary etheric ﬁeld, thoughorms contain informaon about a speciﬁc subject. They may be nested so that a transportaon thoughorm, for instance, may contain informaon about

all forms of transportaon, while a red wagon thoughorm would contain informaon speciﬁc to red wagons and would be a subset of the transportaon thoughorm. For perspecve, elements of a thoughorm are not piled into a bundle as we have been taught to visualize physical ﬁelds. As sets of related concepts, they are entangled with a core concept (wagon, red wagon), but might originate from any source in reality. The only rule for associaon appears to be perceptual agreement: although all related concepts would be aracted to the core concept, personality would only be able to access those it is able to perceive (comprehend). The elements of a thoughorm are nonlocal. In a strict sense, all etheric ﬁelds are thoughorms, but in a praccal sense, there appears to be a diﬀerence in coherence between a thoughorm as a life ﬁeld and one that is an ideoplasc expression of a life ﬁeld. As an aspect of Source, a life ﬁeld has a personality as experiencer and an intelligent core as a formave agent. Thoughorms are modeled as an expression of a life ﬁeld but not an aspect. As such, they depend on the connuing intenon of at least one personality to exist. An important disncon between life ﬁelds and thoughorms is how the elements of the ﬁeld are entangled. Elements of a thought form may have many threads of entanglement such as the originang life ﬁeld and many category relaonship associaons. The elements of a life ﬁeld are directly associated with

the Intelligent Core while the life ﬁeld itself will have more deﬁned associaon with parent and child ﬁelds. Contact Field The Principle of Rapport is deﬁned as Personalies are interconnected by links of cooperaon (inﬂuence) forming a matrix of relaonships (cooperang community). Rapport can be considered a special case of entanglement which produces a form of inﬂuence that facilitates trans- etheric inﬂuences. A contact ﬁeld can also be thought of as a type of thoughorm which becomes entangled with a group of people. Such a thoughorm may support similar trans-etheric inﬂuences which otherwise require the entanglement of a personality-avatar relaonship. In one form, this is seen in reportedly haunted places, but more generally, it is seen in churches and places oen considered with reverence. As we learned in the ATransC, a distributed community is capable of building a contact ﬁeld. Transcommunicaon development circles can develop substanal contact ﬁelds by way of rapport amongst member siers, focused intenon and long-me associaon. It is thought that this accumulated ﬁeld facilitates trans-etheric inﬂuences. Intention Field Expression of intenon (intended outcome) is generally thought of as a thoughorm which acts as a formave inﬂuence for physical acon (moon, voice), conscious thought or an ideoplasc structure. Intenon ﬁelds persist as long as the personality maintains aenon on the intended outcome. See Intenon Field in the Percepon and Expression Discourse for more on this. Potential Field Events are accompanied by a probability signature referred to here as a potenal ﬁeld. In this concept, an event might

exist in the etheric as a potenal to occur. Each potenal ﬁeld represents the possible characteriscs of an event, so that an event that has occurred may have been preceded by many potenal ﬁelds represenng diﬀerent outcomes. Events are a product of expression and the potenal ﬁeld is characterized according to quality of aenon, clarity of visualized outcome, and extent of intenon to make it so. The lifecycle model for an event begins with the inclinaon to do something. The actual decision to act may never come and the possible way to act may take many forms. Each possible way to act that emerges into the creave process is thought to produce a potenal ﬁeld. How far into the process the event progresses determines the inﬂuence of the potenal ﬁeld. Psi Field Psi is a placeholder term used in parapsychology for an as yet undeﬁned characterisc of reality which is experienced as a medium for propagaon of intenonality. It is idenﬁed with such extraordinary human abilies as remote viewing and distant inﬂuence of intenonality. While physical energy is local and me dependent, as deﬁned in parapsychology, the psi ﬁeld is experienced as being everywhere at the same me (nonlocal) and also as being independent of me (nontemporal). The term psi is oen used in the Implicit Cosmology as it is intended in parapsychology to facilitate communicaon. It is modeled as interconnected etheric ﬁelds, each instance being associated with a life ﬁeld’s percepon. Organizing Field An organizing ﬁeld is seen as

the top formave ﬁeld of an object of reality. If the object is a physical organism, then the morphic ﬁeld model is used. If it is an ideoplasc structure, then it is seen as the ﬁeld which maintains that structure as it is sustained by intenon from a personality. The morphic ﬁeld concept depends on an interesng characterisc shown in the Organizing Morphic Field Diagram. A morphic ﬁeld for hair, for instance, may produce many diﬀerent versions of hair. In this example, the ﬁve smaller clouds in the diagram represent morphic ﬁelds for single instances of hair. The various shapes represent the types of hair the ﬁelds have the potenal to produce. The larger, overlapping cloud represents an organizing ﬁeld for, let us say, an arm. In the hierarchy of ﬁelds for an organism, the arm-organizing ﬁeld aracts the kind of hair intended for the arm based on the sub-ﬁeld’s potenal and Nature’s habit for that organism. The selecon of form based on higher ﬁelds oﬀers a way of linking of the concept of thoughorms with organizing and morphic ﬁelds. They are conceptually the same because both are etheric in nature and both contain informaon associated with a speciﬁc aspect of reality. It is the hierarchical nature of ﬁelds and eﬀect of intended order that determines which potenal in a ﬁeld is to be realized. Morphic Fields As deﬁned in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (9), and in terms of transcommunicaon, morphic ﬁelds are etheric ﬁelds that directly inﬂuence physical

processes to produce and maintain physical organisms such as plants, insects and people. In more generic terms, morphic ﬁelds are organizing ﬁelds. Terms for Morphic Fields The etheric ﬁeld concept is inﬂuenced by the work of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake who has proposed the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon. (9) Since this is likely a new concept for many readers, it is important that the new terms are understood as Sheldrake intends. The following deﬁnions are from Sheldrake’s Glossary. (52) Field A region of physical inﬂuence. Fields interrelate and interconnect maer and energy within their realm of inﬂuence. Fields are not a form of maer; rather, maer is energy bound within ﬁelds. In current physics, several kinds of fundamental ﬁelds are recognized: the gravitaonal and electro-magnec ﬁelds and the maer ﬁelds of quantum physics. The hypothesis of formave causaon broadens the concept of physical ﬁelds to include morphic ﬁelds as well as the known ﬁelds of physics. Holon A whole that can also be part of a larger whole. Holons are organized in mul-leveled, nested hierarchies or holarchies. This term, due to Arthur Koestler, is equivalent in meaning to morphic unit. Hypothesis of Formative Causation The Hypothesis of Formave Causaon argues that organisms or morphic units at all levels of complexity are organized by morphic ﬁelds, which are themselves inﬂuenced and stabilized by morphic resonance from all previous similar morphic units. Morphic Field A ﬁeld within and around a morphic unit which organizes the unit’s characterisc structure and paern of acvity. Morphic

ﬁelds underlie the form and behavior of holons or morphic units at all levels of complexity. The term morphic ﬁeld includes morphogenec, behavioral, social, cultural and mental ﬁelds. Morphic ﬁelds are shaped and stabilized by morphic resonance from previous similar morphic units, which were under the inﬂuence of ﬁelds of the same kind. They consequently contain a kind of cumulave memory and tend to become increasingly habitual. Morphic Resonance The inﬂuence of previous structures of acvity on subsequent similar structures of acvity organized by morphic ﬁelds. Through morphic resonance, formave causal inﬂuences pass through or across both space and me, and these inﬂuences are assumed not to fall oﬀ with distance in space or me, but they come only from the past. The greater the degree of similarity, the greater the inﬂuence of morphic resonance. In general, morphic units closely resemble themselves in the past and are subject to self-resonance from their own past states. Morphic Unit A unit of form or organizaon, such as an atom, molecule, crystal, cell, plant, animal, paern of insncve behavior, social group, element of culture, ecosystem, planet, planetary system, or galaxy. Morphic units are organized in nested hierarchies of units within units: a crystal, for example, contains molecules, which contain atoms, which contain electrons and nuclei, which contain nuclear parcles, which contain quarks. Ideoplastic Structures The term ideoplasc structure was intended to be used for objects formed during a physical séance. For instance, a séance might begin with spirit lights and raps and then

things might move. In some rare demonstraons, ectoplasm might be seen. These objecve darkroom séance phenomena are thought to be caused by ideoplasc structures produced by the circle’s etheric control personality in cooperaon with the medium and siers. These structures cease to exist when the control removes aenon. In concept, the ideoplasc structures of the séance room and physical objects of our everyday physical universe are the same, the diﬀerence being the degree of intenon applied to their formaon and persistence of aenon on them by their source personality. As the term is used in this cosmology, ideoplasc structures are normally thought structures, but they can become physical via the applicaon of physical eﬀort. For instance, an imagined birdhouse can be made very real in the mind of the person as a thoughorm. If the person expresses the intenon for the birdhouse to be real to the point that it is real in his or her mind, then it would be thought of as part of the person’s worldview or personal reality. It would be an imagined birdhouse that would be called a delusion if the person physically acted as if it were real. If the person applied physical eﬀort to make the imagined birdhouse physically real, that is, if the person built it, then the ideoplasc structure would be thought of as a physical thing. The need for physical eﬀort to embody an ideoplasc structure is a tradional body-centric view. It is praccal to accept this as fact, but

there are forms of trans-etheric inﬂuence that appear to be excepons to this rule. Precipitaon mediums appear to be capable of producing physical objects based on the inﬂuence of intended order on chaoc forms of material. Precipitated art is a physical-to-physical process that appears to involve the same mechanism as apports. One diﬀerence is that, in precipitaon, there appears to be a chaoc phase of the apport in which physical material is disintegrated into a chaoc state and then reintroduced into the physical in a new, intended form. The work of precipitaon medium Hoyt Robinee (31) is a good example of this. Limiting Association via Perceptual Agreement The Perceptual Agreement Discourse describes self-organizing inﬂuences that moderate how life ﬁelds are able to associate. In this concept, there is a natural process that organizes reality based on the degree of understanding represented by the worldview of a life ﬁeld’s personality. That is, life ﬁelds are discrete units deﬁned by their percepon of reality (worldview) and are able to gravitate toward a common nexus with other life ﬁelds represenng a similar percepon of reality. This relates to the Like Aracts Like concept posed in the Hermec Wisdoms. The Cosmology of Imaginary Space Discourse includes a discussion of how the simple equaon used to plot the Mandelbrot Set can produce a very complex object in imaginary space. It also explains how the equaon can be compared to perceptual agreement. Movement within that space is based on how quickly the result of a simple

calculaon approaches inﬁnity, which is a reasonable analog for progression. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 7: Life Fields Introduction The idea of life as the building block of reality is not new. What is new, I think, is that the nature of life is modeled here from a survival of consciousness point of view. Here, I am saying that life is reality, either as life itself or as expressions of life. That is one of the fundamental concepts of this cosmology. Understanding the funconal areas of a life ﬁeld and how they interact will aid every aspect of your pursuit of self-improvement (progression). Current understanding of human nature tells us that we are only condionally conscious; understanding is relave; percepon is based more on habit than on sensed informaon; and much of what is sensed by our unconscious mind never reaches our conscious self. The reasons for these characteriscs are evident in the funconal areas described in this discourse. A good subtle for this Discourse would be The Anatomy of a Life Field. It is necessary to understand the component parts of the life ﬁeld as it is modeled here to understand your nature. The Life ﬁeld and Life Field Complex Diagrams will make lile sense if you do not. At the same me, understanding the Life Field Complex Diagram will give you important tools for managing your progression. Again, I should say that the two funconal diagrams are probably not something a person with an advanced psychology degree would show you.

They are as if diagrams that sasfy Black Box Analysis. Any proper funconal diagram of your etheric nature should at least account for the funcons I discuss here. Take your me in this secon, contemplate the diagrams, and think of ways they integrate into your way of thinking. I just had a conversaon with another person who made it clear to me that he knew all about metaphysics. Don’t be that person! It is a reasonable wager that your understanding is out of date. Self-organizing Fields Life ﬁelds are modeled as regions of inﬂuence originang with the Intelligent Core aspect of personality. Life ﬁelds are composed of a set of funconal areas which adhere to a set of Organizing Principles. Life ﬁelds occur as elements in a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds emanang from Source. All life ﬁelds have the same funconal areas but might express the characteriscs of those funconal areas more or less than life ﬁeld in other parts of the hierarchy. As the beginning point for reality and top life ﬁeld, Source has all of the characteriscs of a life ﬁeld. The hierarchy of life ﬁelds is modeled as aspects of Source, and therefore, inherit those funconal areas and an urge to understand based on Source’s supposed curiosity about itself. In this way, progression of a life ﬁeld is described as increasing understanding about the nature of reality (nature of Source), resulng in increasing perceptual agreement with Source and the eventual merger of that understanding with Source. As

a general statement, the Prime Imperave of a life ﬁeld is to align personal reality with local reality. Functional Areas of a Life Field The funconal areas of a life ﬁeld are shown in the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram, below, and are explained as follows. Personality Personality is modeled as the intelligent core and source of purpose for a life ﬁeld. It is who a person really is as the I am this and what survives aer transion. You may be more familiar with the idea of mind as conscious and unconscious states. The idea of mind is a body-centric construct. The Implicit Cosmology addresses the mind concept as personality represenng the immortal aspect of its life ﬁeld and the conscious self or the I think I am this of you peering out at the world from the perspecve of your human’s eyes. You will noce in the life ﬁeld diagrams that a funconal region tled Aenon Complex is situated between personality and conscious self. That is a normally unconscious part of a life ﬁeld that supports percepon and expression. I say normally unconscious because during increased lucidity, conscious self is able to sense more of the Aenon Complex funcons. Since the Aenon Complex is the funconal area of a life ﬁeld that supports sensing environmental signals, it is also the link with the collecve represenng all of the personalies associated with a common (local) source. While personality is modeled as being entangled with its source and

related collecve, it also interfaces with unrelated personalies. Entanglement may be involved with these unrelated personalies, but a more useful model is rapport. Note that the percepon of environmental signals, including etheric personality-to-personality exchanges, are ﬁltered by the Aenon Limiter in the Aenon Complex. This limiter is informed by worldview, and it is this ﬁlter funcon that determines the life ﬁeld’s relaonship with the Principle of Perceptual Agreement: Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. As understanding increases for the personality-life ﬁeld complex, lucidity increases for the conscious self-personality channel. The three states we should track are: Lile or no understanding Personality entangled in an avatar relaonship: the personality- conscious self relaonship is dominated by the Aenon Complex which includes lile or no lucidity. Some understanding Personality in transion out of an avatar relaonship: the personality-conscious self relaonship connues to be dominated by worldview in the Aenon Complex. Presumably some understanding has been achieved in the last lifeme and there is some increase in lucidity. (Worldview follows the conscious self into the etheric.) Understanding converging on intended purpose Lucidity verges on a clear and open channel between personality and conscious self. Presumably, the purpose for which personality was expressed as an aspect of its source personality is to gain understanding about speciﬁc aspects of the source’s personal reality. The expectaon is that increasing understanding tends to merge reality ﬁelds as understanding approaches ﬁrst cause Source’s expectaon of understanding about its nature.

As this collapsing of personal reality ﬁelds connues, the child personalies are expected to maintain an I am this sense, but to be otherwise immersed in the accumulang collecve. Intelligent Core The intelligent core of a life ﬁeld is the formave aspect of personality while personality is the experienal aspect. The intelligent core for personality is comparable to the avatar’s Body Image funconal area of the Life Field Complex Diagram. Most, if not all, cosmologies I have studied describe formave and experienal aspects of Source. Each are usually described in terms similar to parallel hierarchies of nested ﬁelds. For instance, one hierarchy is of nature spirits or devas with responsibility for care of the various kingdoms of life (mineral, plant, animal). The other hierarchy is usually of people experiencing lifemes to gain understanding. I repeated that cosmology in the Handbook of Metaphysics (6) , but now I see that both aspects of life are part of the same funconal area with one part emphasizing the mechanics of existence and the other focusing on the purpose of existence. This coexistence of the two inﬂuences is comparable to a corporaon’s Chief Financial Oﬃcer and Chief Operang Oﬃcer. Both share the same goal of a successful business but focus on diﬀerent aspects of that eﬀort. Attention Complex Personality holds the inial imperave to gain experience, and this informs the rest of the life ﬁeld in the form of aenon. As such, aenon is based on the decision to understand or take acon. The

Aenon Complex includes Worldview, Perceptual Loop, Aenon Limiter, and the Intenon Field, which includes Visualizaon and Percepon. The complex of funconal areas is modeled as the focus tool for sensing the environment and personality’s expression into the environment. This is a potenally confusing part of this cosmology. The personality funconal area is senent and presumably capable of expression independent of conscious self, but all of its percepon and expression is by way of the Aenon Complex. This interface with the environment would normally be unconscious. Conscious self uses the same Aenon Complex. For a person, the human avatar also used the complex. To be clear, both the personality and conscious self are isolated from the environment and other personalies by the Aenon Complex. Since worldview is the dominant inﬂuence in percepon and expression, it is this isolang ﬁlter that assures compliance with the Principle of Perceptual Agreement. Attention Limiter Personality’s awareness of the environment is limited to what is of interest to it. If an external input has no interest to personality or the avatar, it will probably be ignored. As such, an external threat perceived by the human would be of interest, as would something pernent to personality’s objecves. All else is likely to be ignored. See First Sight Theory in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Because there is no apparent aenuaon of a psi signal between life ﬁelds, at least in principle, all informaon exchange is detected by each life ﬁeld, but only that which is pernent to

a life ﬁeld is actually processed as an environmental signal. The Aenon Limiter is comparable to the network address funcon in data communicaons. Even though the Aenon Limiter is an unconscious funcon, it is informed by intenon expressed by the conscious self. See the Mindfulness Discourse. Worldview Think of Worldview as the life ﬁeld’s database which contains personality’s percepon of reality. When in an avatar relaonship, it is shared with the human avatar and also contains the avatar’s percepon of reality. As this cosmology is wrien, personality is an aspect of Source, possibly many generaons removed. When personality was diﬀerenated from its local source personality, it inherited a subset of understanding and the urge to gain speciﬁc understanding. When personality is entangled with an avatar, conscious self is associated with its host and its worldview is modeled as being shared with the avatar. This relaonship is shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram. As shown in the Basic Funconal Areas of Percepon and Expression Diagram, informaon that passes the Aenon Limiter is subjected to the Perceptual Loop. If the informaon agrees with Worldview, it will become part of Worldview and be presented to the Percepon Funcon to be expressed as a thought, acon or ideoplasc structure. The visualizaon process may produce a suﬃciently familiar characterizaon of the informaon for it to produce a Maybe result in the Perceptual Loop. Such informaon, as it is characterized in the Visualizaon funcon, can be incorporated into Worldview. It is important to note that

it is by way of the Maybe results from the Perceptual Loop that the Worldview Funcon can evolve. There is more about worldview in the Point of View Commentary. The avatar is an organism that has evolved in the physical, and following the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (9), has a morphic memory database that is not shared by the entangled personality. However, the avatar’s morphic memory does inﬂuence the life ﬁeld worldview, speciﬁcally with the avatar’s insncts. This is shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram. Perceptual Loop An important product of the Aenon Complex is conscious percepon that is developed by the Perceptual Loop. Noce in the Basic Funconal Areas of Percepon and Expression Diagram that visualizaon informed by worldview is part of this process. It is here that the way we experience the world is shaped. Our personal reality is formed as environmental informaon is translated based on worldview and presented to us as conscious percepon. The perceptual loop is probably a connuous cycle. It is likely that it produces a stream of consciousness form of perceptual noise when the Intenon Channel is not impressed with intent. Such perceptual noise sounds a lot like dreaming. The mind aempts to idenfy otherwise indisnguishable smuli by suggesng percepon of something familiar. This is why, for instance, people hear voices or music when there is only noise. As discussed in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, First Sight Theory (13), can be applied here as a rule set for the operaon of

the Perceptual Loop. Intention Channel Intenon is the move force for expression, and based on a clear understanding of true desire (objecve), it can be a very powerful tool for living. As a comparison, an imagined outcome without the intenon to make it so is just a fantasy. Think of this as the inﬂuence which will drive the accumulated potenal toward the desired result. It is also the mechanism by which the Aenon Limiter can be modiﬁed. Intenon is also the inﬂuence that begins the process of expression. Visualization The Visualizaon Funcon is used to help idenfy informaon that is submied to the Aenon Limiter. It also helps to formulate the life ﬁeld’s expression back into the environment or percepon to the conscious self. Here, visualize is used as a conceptual term that, if physically sensed, would be more a gestalt understanding rather than a mental picture or sound. Render might be a beer term. As a frequent out-of-body experiencer, Robert Monroe described this form of informaon exchange as a Rote (53), which is a thought ball or packet of understanding. This includes the thought, associated memory, understanding, experience and history as a complete concept. The Perceptual Loop is seen as an iterave process. As is shown in the Percepon and Expression Diagram, when there is an intenon to express something, it must ﬁrst pass through the Perceptual Loop. This process is imagined as a rapid cycle of repeatedly comparing and modifying a rendering in the Visualizaon Funcon unl it

agrees with worldview. Ideally, the output is a clearly imagined rendering of what is intended. This then becomes perceived by conscious self and is potenally expressed into the environment. If the visualizaon is not accompanied by intenon, then no expression will occur. The visualizaon will be lile more than fantasy. Visualizaon can only be as clear or correct as worldview allows. If the personal reality contained in worldview is very diﬀerent from local reality, the rendering will be equally incorrect and if expressed, may not be possible or will be distorted. Perception Percepon informs the conscious part of an otherwise unconscious process represented by the Aenon Complex. As such, the output of the Percepon Funcon is conscious awareness of the environmental informaon that came through the Aenon Limiter and that agrees with worldview. Expression Expression is a creave process that manifests concept into form. What is typically thought of as energy in the physical is beer modeled as potenal expression in the etheric, which is managed with aenon, visualizaon and intenon. A life ﬁeld’s expression is seen as the precursor to all physical energy, meaning that the imagined future exists as an etheric or conceptual thing that must be transformed into physical, objecve form. During the physical expression of the intended result, physical acon must be involved. The objecve energy may be money, fuel or even labor. See Contact Field for a discussion about an alternave to the avatar relaonship requirement for physical expression. Relevance of Life Field Model Keep

in mind this is a model based on an engineer’s reckoning using black box analysis. The funconal areas are useful for such purposes as mindfulness and the study of transcommunicaon but may not resemble what your neighborhood psychologist might think is right. If you spend a lile me contemplang the funconal areas discussed here and in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, you should begin to see how they might have profound implicaons for the way you study things paranormal. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 8: Personality-Centric Perspective Introduction This discourse is about our nonphysical nature: our conscious mind, memories, and that unconscious part of our mind we somemes meet in our dreams. It is for you to decide, but it has been my experience that our happiness and progression depend on our informed life choices. If the Implicit Cosmology is reasonably correct, it must be understood that what we do in this lifeme will aﬀect the rest of our eternity. This subject is important because understanding the more universal nature of who we are will have an important inﬂuence on how we understand the implicaons of our life experiences. Put a diﬀerent way, we have been taught from birth that the limits of our word are what we can see, smell, taste, feel and hear. In fact, our physical senses only mark the limits of our body’s physical world. Researchers are now telling us that we psychically sense the world before our body’s ﬁve senses check in. Those sciensts who are willing

to at least consider the nonphysical nature of mind tell us that even informaon from our ﬁve senses must be translated into the same psi form before their informaon can be considered. This means that our real sensory funcons are beer related to our core personality than to our physical body. If this is true, then we have spent a good part of our lifeme totally misunderstanding what real actually means. That is a prey shaky foundaon on which to make life-changing decisions. The soluon, of course, is to change our perspecve through educaon. Perspective The perspecve from which a queson is considered has a lot to do with how it is answered. Our normal perspecve is that of being our body. We look at the world through our body’s eyes from the perspecve of within our body’s head. This is natural. We have had that perspecve since birth. However, if we are immortal personalies temporarily hosted by our physical body, the more correct perspecve is to say “This is my body but my true self is not physical. I am not my body.” So we might say that the usual perspecve is body-centric but that the more correct perspecve is personality-centric. Our Body is a Complete Organism As an organism that has evolved on this planet, our physical body is probably fully funconal without our entanglement. It is proposed in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (9) that the morphogenec development of physical organisms, such as our body, is organized

by a morphic ﬁeld which supports the body image and the necessary rules for its development. As described for physical organisms, morphic ﬁelds are life ﬁelds that are explained under a diﬀerent naming system. They include funconal areas for worldview (memory, Nature’s habit), percepon, levels of consciousness and a means of expression. As such, the human body life ﬁeld is essenally the same as our personality life ﬁeld. By that, I mean that our worldview is directly comparable with Nature’s habit. The one major diﬀerence appears to be that our insnct is to gain understanding through experience and our body’s insnct appears primarily to survive in the physical world. The message is that, during our physical lifeme, we share worldview and many of our perceptual and expressive abilies with our physical body. However, as shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram, the morphic ﬁeld for our avatar also has a funconal area represenng Nature’s habit. The Body Image funconal area is comparable to our personality’s intelligent core. Our body as Avatar Based on current understanding, our body has a consciousness which is not completely suppressed during a lifeme. In fact, the relaonship, is at least to some extent, a symbioc one in which our daily choices are oen greatly inﬂuenced by our body. A person gains in maturity by learning to cooperate with the body consciousness while remaining true to the ideals of balance and progression toward greater understanding. It helps to understand how to disnguish between our body’s insncts

and our understanding. To do this, it is necessary for a person to recognize the diﬀerence between the inherited urge to understand and the body’s insnctual urge to survive and perpetuate its kind. It is also a challenge to disnguish between the beliefs that are taught by our local culture and the actual nature of reality as it is understood when those beliefs are superseded by understanding. This can best be accomplished when we are aware that we are not our body. Avatar In Hinduism, an avatar (from Sanskrit for descent) is characterized as a deliberate descent of a deity to Earth. The term can be translated into English as incarnaon. A person is an etheric personality entangled with a human body in an avatar relaonship. In the avatar relaonship the personality remains associated with the etheric aspect of reality but its perspecve is the personality’s conscious self as it thinks it is the physical body. In trying to understand this relaonship, the most important thing to remember is that we do not know much about how humans might behave if they did not have an entangled personality. While it is necessary to make a few assumpons for informed speculaon, the underlying rule should be that humans are life forms which deserve respect and good care as hosts that enable our existence in the physical. The relaonship between etheric personality and the human avatar is shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram. Noce in the diagram that the Aenon Complex

(middle) is shared by the etheric personality (upper-le) and the complex represenng the human body consciousness (upper- right). The actual human body is in the box marked Avatar (lower-right). This relaonship is discussed below. Cooperation Between Personality and Avatar At the me of personality’s entanglement with its human avatar, its worldview is populated with a subset of understanding and the urge to gain further understanding; all inherited from a source personality. As is shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram, the conscious self and its human avatar share worldview. This shared memory is the main point of this discussion, because beginning at birth, the dominant conscious self must learn to manage the human inﬂuence, even as it learns to adapt to its local reality. An example of the human inﬂuence’s persistence is demonstrated by the way we frequently hear in transcommunicaon that newly transioned communicators sll idenfy with their physical bodies. Some communicators even report something like a geng well period as they become accustomed to healthy mind and body. This suggests that people remain under the inﬂuence of the human body image well into transion. Understanding the avatar relaonship can help us live a producve life from the perspecve of following inherited urges from personality while managing our body’s insncts. The challenge is in learning how to disnguish which are our body’s issues and which are real to our personality. The Mindfulness Discourse addresses this. Each avatar relaonship begins with a blend of personality and human body traits. One

way to make an informed guess as to what those traits are is to look for those that we were born with that inﬂuence our behavior today. If the avatar hypothesis is correct, then the human part of our worldview should be memory, beliefs and insncts related to survival. Understanding and inclinaons inherited from our etheric personality should be related to increasing understanding or progression of personality. For instance, responding to peer pressure would support herd or tribal safety but it would also tend to restrict learning. In a similar way, compulsive behavior would seem to suggest insncts while obsessive curiosity would seem to support learning. Survival of Body Mind It is diﬃcult to say that the human exists just as an avatar for etheric personalies, and then to say that all life forms have a personality. The collecve model probably applies for all life forms, but is there a diﬀerence in the character of consciousness? We know that animals exhibit self- conscious behavior, clearly indicang that they are more than simply a collecve mind, but there seems to be a diﬀerence in purpose. The physical organism body consciousness is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as being part of a collecve, as well. The diﬀerence is that it is more of a collecve as described in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon. (9) In that model, a morphic ﬁeld has access to a worldview-like database that is a collecon of Nature’s habits for that family of closely related organisms. For the

human, it represents how the human body has been made since its origin. This is an area that needs much more consideraon. It is important to know that there is nothing in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis that argues it only applies to people. How it might apply to a loving pet is beyond my speculaon at this me; however, there is nothing in the cosmology that says other animals cannot be avatars for personalies. Personal Style and Astrology Just as people are born le or right-handed, people are born with basic personality traits that tend to inﬂuence their behavior. Personality styles are cataloged and studied in psychology as a means of understanding human behavior. They have also been adapted to teach sales people how to relate to customers. In 1981, David Merrill and Roger Reid published a book reporng their study of corporate personnel interacons which became something of an industry standard. (54) They noted four main personality styles: Analycal: thinking, thorough, disciplined. Amiable: supporve, paent, diplomac. Driver: independent, decisive, determined. Expressive: good communicator, enthusiasc, imaginave. Each basic style is typically further divided so that a person might be seen as a Driver-Analycal or a Driver-Expressive. The point of these styles is that people likely begin dealing with a situaon from the perspecve of one of these styles. The queson is whether or not this inclinaon is inherited from personality or from avatar. The idea of astrology is that people’s behavior is inﬂuenced by the astrological condions at the me of

their birth. A year is divided into twelve signs based on the ancient zodiac and each indicates a diﬀerent set of personality traits. The Personality Styles Diagram, below, shows a suggested relaonship between astrological signs and the four personality styles. It is important to note that personality styles and astrology are not being recommended here. They are used to demonstrate that we tend to display personality characteriscs that are evident at a very young age and which tend to shape our lives. There appears to be general agreement between the systems; however, the personality styles are more oen described in terms of informaon acquision or community, while the astrological signs tend to emphasize the same sort of characteriscs usually associated with insncts. For instance, an Aries, who is a person born between March 21 and April 20, is described as (amongst other qualies) impulsive, physical and driven. Aries is related to a Driver in the Personality Styles Diagram, and a Driver is described in terms like independent, decisive and determined. A Capricorn (December 23 to January 20) is described as (amongst other qualies) insncve, over-reacng and moody. A Capricorn compares to an Analycal who is described in terms of thinking, thorough and disciplined. Since there is so lile known about this from the personality-centric view, it must be le for us to take the iniave to study and self-analyze. The interpretaon of astrological signs and personality styles oﬀered here is just an opinion, and your experience may be diﬀerent. Again,

these are examples indicang the kind of cues you would look for if you conduct a self-appraisal. There is more about this in the Temperament poron of the Point of View Commentary.) Balance Noce the center circle in the Personality Styles Diagram labeled Balance. As you come to beer understand yourself and your avatar, and therefore gain in maturity, you will ﬁnd yourself converging on the middle way. One of the most important secret lessons taught by ancient wisdom schools is oen that balance is the middle way toward maturity. This does not mean a balanced person would never express extreme behavior, only that such a person would consciously do so, taccally for a purpose and then return to the center without aachment for the outcome of his or her acons See the Mindfulness Discourse. Human Animal The human brain can be considered in two parts: forebrain and brain stem. According to Brain Structures and Their Funcons, the brain stem: “is responsible for basic vital life funcons such as breathing, heartbeat and blood pressure. Sciensts say that this is the ‘simplest’ part of human brains because animals’ enre brains, such as reples (who appear early on the evoluonary scale) resemble our brain stem.” (55) The forebrain supports raonal thought, so an assumpon in the Implicit Cosmology is that the brain stem has evolved to support survival of the human body and the forebrain has evolved to support the entangled personality. In this view, it is reasonable to expect that, like

other animals, humans would get along prey well without an entangled personality. Irrational Behavior Do you have a pet, perhaps a dog or cat? If so, you may have noced a lot of behavior that seems to be irraonal. For instance, your pet might be fearful of an unexpected object in the backyard, or it might be unreasonably afraid of men, especially strangers. Sure, you would think it is just behaving like an animal. Animals oen seem irraonal. That is one of the disnguishing characteriscs between humans and animals. But what if you have irraonal behaviors? Are you afraid of the dark? Do you go out of your way to avoid strangers? Is it diﬃcult to communicate with people of the opposite sex? Are these behaviors raonal? Do you have reasons for them which are more than just an excuse? Everyone has fears that might be more exaggerated than circumstances would seem to require. The usual way of dealing with them is to talk the person out of the fear, either by appealing to logic or by showing that there is no need for fear, in eﬀect, to wear out the fear response. In the body-centric view, we naturally appeal to the raonal mind: that part of us that is supposed to be logical, thinking and learning. However, in the personality-centric view, it can be seen that the human animal is the source of irraonal fear. Because of the entangled avatar relaonship, the human insncts are part of the shared

worldview, which is in turn, the governing factor of the Perceptual Loop of a life ﬁeld’s Aenon Complex. As such, too oen, the strongest and ﬁrst response to an external inﬂuence is the human animal’s ﬁght or ﬂight reacon. It is natural that a young person will more oen respond to circumstance from the animal’s insncts, but over me, it is expected that the person will more oen have a raonal response. That is the idea of maturity. Even so, people are plagued all of their lives with an unrecognized human inﬂuence. So long as they think with a body-centric point of view, it will be natural for them to seek to suppress the animal response, rather than understand the necessity to more directly manage the Perceptual Loop through mindfulness. A beer model for therapy might be to learn how to appeal to the animal in us, rather than the raonal personality. We need a human whisperer more than we need a psychologist. Degrading Avatar Relationship There would be circumstances in which personality is forced to withdraw from the human avatar. Of course, physical death of the human is the usual reason, but personality might also withdraw if the body is physically healthy but is otherwise no longer able to support the expression of conscious self. The inability of the brain to connue funconing as a physical-to-etheric transducer in cases of senility would be such a situaon. This would not necessarily be a forced withdrawal but there may be lile

reason for conscious self to connue the avatar relaonship if personality’s intenon to gain understanding through experience in the physical can no longer be supported. Personality’s withdrawal from the human may be temporary, as is seen in the case of physical injury to the brain or coma. The reports of a persona with advanced senility who becomes temporarily lucid is another example that might be explained by voluntary but impermanent withdrawal. Keep in mind that this model recognizes that the human is a complete life form. As is illustrated in the Life Field Complex Diagram, the Body Mind funconal area includes human insncts which are ﬁltered in the Aenon Complex before presentaon to conscious percepon. This is the same set of funconal processes experienced by organism when the human is entangled with an etheric personality as a person. Since conscious self is an aspect of etheric personality, the missing inﬂuence for the now independent human is the expression of intenon informed by personality. A human that has experienced a lifeme entangled with an etheric personality would not be well equipped to connue funconing as a person without the raonal inﬂuence of conscious self. At the same me, the worldview funcon shared during entanglement would connue to be part of the human’s percepon and expression processes. The missing inﬂuence would be intenon expressed by conscious self. Extrapolang what I know about human behavior, and relang that to the Implicit Cosmology, I would expect to see the human-minus conscious self to physically

appear the same, but to exhibit changes in behavior which should be predictable from the model. Worldview is memory, and the Perceptual Loop in the Aenon Complex is moderated by intenon. Without raonal intenon informed by personality, the percepon-expression process would tend to present stream-of-consciousness thoughts to the human’s conscious state. This would look like waking expression of the kind of mostly random dream imagery we experience in light sleep. The human’s insncts would no longer have the raonal inﬂuence of conscious self, and would therefore, have greater inﬂuence on the percepon-expression process. This would manifest as more animal-like responses and a tendency to ﬁxate on or obsess about otherwise trivial things in the environment. This would likely include rapid, swings of emoon from passive happiness to aggressive behavior. May I Introduce Myself? With these consideraons, then, how should we think of ourselves? How do we think with a personality-centric perspecve? Each of us will have diﬀerent takes on this but there are general points that should be considered. To begin, try thinking of yourself as two people. For instance, I am Tom Butler. Butler is the family name of my body, and it serves to give you a sense of its lineage. Perhaps we can call my body Mr. Butler. Tom is a good name for my personality in this lifeme, so a proper introducon might be “Hi, I am Tom and this is Mr. Butler.” Mr. Butler was born in May, and according to astrology, should be stubborn,

think habitat is very important, and have a strong dependence on tacle sense. When compared to characteriscs of other signs, this is prey accurate. According to the avatar model, these characteriscs should provide hints about the nature of Mr. Butler. My astrological chart always seemed to indicate more what I need to overcome than what I should be driven by, but I also fall into the Driver- Analycal side of the personality styles chart, which is where I feel comfortable. Again, according to the avatar model, these characteriscs should provide hints about Tom’s nature. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 9: Perception and Expression Introducon to As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, 1902 (56) The objecve of “This lile volume” is “to smulate men and women to the discovery and percepon of the truth that they themselves are makers of themselves by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; that mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.” Introduction Our relaonship with the environment is the product of the two characteriscs of the life ﬁeld described here as percepon and expression. Both involve the same funconal areas of the Aenon Complex. It is only intended purpose that determines the output, be it percepon to conscious self or expression to the environment. Development of content for both percepon and expression is

normally an unconscious process, but it can be inﬂuenced by conscious intenon. As with Mr. Allen’s introducon to As a Man Thinketh, how we think is at the very foundaon of who we are. This discourse addresses ways we might aempt to take control of the way our normally unconscious mind decides our conscious experiences. The Mind is Etheric Everything in the Funconal Areas of Percepon and Expression Diagram is nonphysical. That is, it is not in the physical space occupied by your physical body. Instead, it is in the greater reality of etheric space, of which the physical universe is just an aspect. The physical brain is best viewed as a transmier/receiver for thought and the interface between your etheric personality (I am this) and your conscious self as you experience the physical (I think I am this). How aware your conscious self is of your etheric personality is referred to as lucidity and the objecve of personal development is to become as lucid as possible. That, in turn, is accomplished by aligning worldview with the actual nature of reality. Psi sensing is the normal way in which we sense the world. Being psychic is learning to understand how that unconscious psi sensing is translated by the mind into physical awareness. Suspended judgment is one technique, really a point of view, that will help you do this. Another is mindful living: make a habit of thinking of the consequences of your acons. Understand the Unconscious Processes It is essenal

to understand the thought process if we hope to control it. Parapsychologist James Carpenter has developed a theory based on current understanding about psi phenomena that models how we mentally process informaon. His hypothesis is detailed in the book, First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life. (13) (49) (40) Review the Percepon and Expression Diagram, and as I explain my understanding of First Sight Theory, keep in mind that I am talking about how informaon you sense from the world around you is unconsciously compared to all of your exisng beliefs, emoons and experiences before you even become aware that you have sensed something. First Sight Theory Use discernment here. I am explaining this theory as I understand Carpenter’s rather complex wring. The theory is presented here as a useful rule set for both the perceptual process and expression. For clarity, I have parally paraphrased the assumpons and corollaries from the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology. Be mindful that Carpenter did not necessarily expect this theory to be adopted for support of the Survival Hypothesis. In his book, Carpenter explains that people ﬁrst sense the world psychically. As he puts it, “What if ESP is like subliminal percepon? What if psychokinesis is like unconsciously but psychologically meaningful expressive behaviors?” He answers these quesons by proposing two proposions based on the following assumpon. Assumption Everything and everyone, every acon in the past, now or in the future, perturbs the reality ﬁeld that connects all of us. Carpenter argues that research

indicates people psychically sense these changes in psi space just as they physically sense changes in physical space. “Research indicates” is based on meta-analysis and personal research concerning hundreds of research reports, both mainstream and parapsychological. If that is true, then First, people sense their environment psychically as well as with their physical senses. Second, people process this informaon unconsciously, and it is the conclusion of this processing that they are aware of and react to, not what has been psychically or physically sensed or unconsciously considered. A person might psychically sense someone near or far, a person’s acons, and apparently their thoughts when they are expressed as intenon. Note 1: The Intenon Channel shown in the Percepon and Expression Diagram represents the mechanism by which the conscious self is able to inﬂuence the perceptual process. Note 2: In this theory, the expression of intenon is what produces a change in psi space which can be sensed by others. Simply thinking of something does not appear to produce informaon which is detecble by others. Note 3: The result of the unconscious perceptual process is described by Carpenter as formang of “experience and acon.” This is the Percepon Funconal area in the Percepon and Expression Diagram. In this context, the person does not directly experience informaon from the environment. Instead, the person becomes aware of the informaon aer it is formaed in a way that agrees with worldview. Therefore The following 12 corollaries address the perceptual process. 1. Personalness Corollary The

unconscious processes that constute consciousness are personal and deliberate. (The more important it is to us, the more we unconsciously pay aenon.) 2a. Ubiquity Corollary Part 1 Psi sensing is not limited by me or distance. 2b. Ubiquity Corollary Part 2 Psychokinesis contributes to the formaon of experience by bringing intenon to bear upon the physical processes of the nervous system. (The ﬁrst response to a meaningful smulus is transmission of a telekinec alert signal to the body, and if useful, to the environment.) 3. Integraon Corollary Other preconscious processes are processed together with psi in a rapid, holisc, eﬃcient, unconscious manner to format experience and acon. 4. Ancipaon Corollary The mind seeks to ancipate events. In the Implicit Cosmology, this corollary is used as the basis of the curiosity concept. Source is curious about itself and that curiosity translates as the Ancipaon Corollary in First Sight Theory (this is not necessarily what Carpenter intended). The Ancipaon Corollary provides reasonably good support for this idea of a personality having a natural tendency to want to understand its environment in order to ancipate changes. If this is a valid argument, then all else follows. 5. Weighng and Signing Corollary The importance of sensory and extrasensory informaon is weighted as being more or less important before it is acted upon. (The yardsck for importance is based on the body’s survival insncts and cultural condioning stored in worldview.) 6. Summaon Corollary The content of conscious experience, emoonal states, and behavioral choices are constuted

in a summave way by unconscious thought. 7. Bidireconality Corollary In this summave process, the person may turn toward informaon (signed posively) to include it in the construcon of experience, aﬀect or acon, or turn away from informaon (signed negavely) and exclude it. In the Percepon and Expression Diagram, the Aenon Limiter and the Agree or Disagree decision of the Perceptual Loop funcons would facilitate this Corollary. 8. Intenonality Corollary Including or excluding informaon is a funcon of unconscious intenon in regard to an element of potenal meaning. (While aenon is the result of an “Is this important to me?” decision, informaon that results in acon by the person is given force if there is an intenon to act.) This is the basis for the Aenon Limiter funconal area. 9. Switching Corollary A person will be fairly consistent in how informaon is processed, (but) may switch in how informaon is weighted, the sign aributed to it, and therefore, whether or not it is included in behavior. This switching will occur rapidly or slowly depending on the consistency and purity (focus) of unconscious intenon. This in turn is determined by the relave weight of the informaon over me, situaonal factors that promote or diminish crical analysis, changes of approach in a task, and mood. Switching, which is inﬂuenced by personality style, is not necessarily a good thing. Persons who are disposed to rapid switching include those who tend to approach situaons cognively and analycally; lack consistent purpose and movaon; take a

detached-observer posture toward most situaons; are chronically ambivalent; are cognively disorganized are highly distracble. Persons who tend to switch slowly, conversely, tend to be those who approach situaons globally and holiscally; are strongly and consistently purposive; engage themselves wholeheartedly in situaons; are not overly self-doubng or uncertain; are well-integrated cognively; are prone to hold focus purposively and not become distracted; are dissociave (when in certain states). Note 4: Highly dissociave people oen experience altered ways of being that are more complex and enduring than simple moods. 10. Extremity Corollary The frequency of switching aﬀects the relave density of accumulated addive or subtracve references to the meaning in queson. Rapid switching renders potenal meaning irrelevant to ongoing experience. 11. Inadvertency and Frustraon Corollary Informaon gathered via psi is not available to conscious experience but does contribute to the formaon of conscious experience by the arousal of ancipatory networks of ideas and feelings (assuming that they are heavily weighted, aﬀorded slow switching, and approached with the intenon of assimilaon). Because of this arousal, their acon can be glimpsed consciously only by observing thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are inadvertent, that is, not intenonal and not obviously caused by any current experiences. Someone who has become skillful in interpreng them is thought of as relavely psychic. 12. Liminality Corollary The arousal of ancipatory networks of ideas and feelings resulng from unconscious psi informaon may be considered liminal ones, in terms of the boundary between conscious and unconscious thought. Habitual interest in liminal experiences

facilitates expression of psi processes (openness), leading to unconscious reference to psi material (and other streams of unconscious material). A more posive, open, secure state of mind will tend to facilitate reference to a broader spectrum of contextual, potenally liminal experience. (In other words, habitually paying aenon to subtle informaon emerging from your unconscious can lead to more direct awareness of what has been psychically sensed from psi space.) This Corollary speaks to the idea that conscious intenon can inﬂuence the perceptual process and evolve worldview. Mindful living is, in eﬀect, a way of making the conscious expression of intenon a lifestyle. The Perceptual Process The Percepon and Expression Diagram shows the Aenon Complex which translates external inputs into conscious percepon, potenally resulng in an external expression. The external input is assumed to be either a psi source or a physical source which is preceded by a psi precursor. The funconal areas for development of percepon and expression are discussed in detail in the Life Fields Discourse. Note that in the Implicit Cosmology, informaon from our ﬁve physical senses must be translated into some form of psi signal useful to the nonphysical, unconscious process of the Aenon Complex. Thus, in a praccal sense, all informaon is received as a psi signal. The Worldview Funcon is like a database represenng memory, understanding, and beliefs which deﬁne personal reality. That is, worldview represents the standard a person unconsciously uses to decide what is true and what is real. The perceptual process constutes

an aempt to visualize the meaning of an external input based on a best match of content already present in the worldview database. It is an iterave process conducted in the Perceptual Loop with the following possible results: • Inial No: If the Agree? decision produces a negave result on the ﬁrst cycle, the process may be repeated many mes in quick succession, depending on the percepon of urgency and clarity of informaon being considered. If no soluon is found, the informaon will likely be discarded. In this way, inaenonal and incredulity blindness may cause a person not to see a novel object in an otherwise familiar scene. • Creave Soluon May Modify Worldview: Rupert Sheldrake (9) argues that organisms faced with environmental challenges somemes arrive at a creave soluon for survival which is integrated into Nature’s memory and propagated throughout the species (probably by way of the species collecve). As the perceptual model is deﬁned here, the environmental informaon is responded to in the Visualizaon Funcon where it is integrated with the best ﬁt from worldview. Here, a sort of fuzzy logic is called for. If the visualizaon is able to tell a likely story about the informaon, based on exisng informaon in worldview, the story may pass the Perceptual Loop as a Maybe result and be used to modify worldview. If no acceptable match is found, the iterave cycle will eventually produce a No result causing the process to reject the informaon. • A Yes Soluon: Of the

presumably huge amount of environmental informaon reaching the Aenon Limiter, only a relavely small amount will enter the perceptual process. Much of that will be idenﬁed in the Perceptual Loop and eventually oﬀered up to conscious percepon. But here is a very important point for your consideraon. The storytelling capability of the Visualizaon Funcon can morph informaon into the familiar, even if it is not actually what was inially received or intended. This is probably the source of pareidolia, which is characterized as seeing paerns where there are none. Implications of First Sight Theory External smuli are always psi related. If the input is physical, then it is assumed to be accompanied, or even preceded, by some kind of psi signature perturbing psi space (etheric space). This perturbaon is psychically sensed by the organism as an unconscious smulus which may or may not be consciously sensed, depending on the result of the perceptual process. To illustrate, a person might psychically sense a developing threat before it becomes physically obvious. The perceptual process would give meaning to that threat based on past condioning and the person would react, at ﬁrst unconsciously with a slight tension of muscles and possibly increased adrenaline; however, if the threat manifests to the person’s physical sensing, this unconscious preparaon for the ﬁght or ﬂight response would be followed by conscious acon. However, the selected acon is normally determined unconsciously. The idea of turning toward or turning away from informaon during the perceptual process evokes a good

sense of what happens in our mind. (Refer to the First Sight Bidireconality Corollary) For instance, if you insncvely dislike a person or situaon, it may be that you have unconsciously psychically sensed something and your Perceptual Loop has sent a this is not for you response to your conscious awareness. In that way, we are naturally psychic because we are able to consciously sense the result of the perceptual process—not as a direct sensing of the psi inﬂuence, but as the conclusion the perceptual process has sent to our conscious mind. However, according to First Sight theory, you can train yourself to be more directly aware of that inial psi sensing by learning to encourage your conscious mind to pay aenon to those subtle messages that emerge from your unconscious mind. (Liminality Corollary) Perception Becomes Expression The output of the Aenon Complex is an expression. It may be directed toward another personality as a psychic link of rapport, it may be an ideoplasc structure, or it may be percepon expressed to conscious self. So you can see that expression ulizes the same funconal areas as percepon. The main diﬀerence is purpose. Percepon involves sensing and translang environmental informaon into something useful to the conscious self. Expression involves the translaon of intenon expressed by the conscious self. Intention Field Expression is in the form of an intenon ﬁeld. A way to visualize this is to think of the ﬁeld as a thought ball that is sent out by your mind

to an intended desnaon. It contains the intended concept as a matrix for formaon or inﬂuence, the organizing rules, informaon about the target life ﬁeld or ideoplasc structure and the expected outcome. Consider informaon about the target life ﬁeld as a unique psi ﬁeld address. The factors that determine the eﬀect of an intenon ﬁeld are clarity of the visualized outcome, focus and strength of intenon, and what is intended. For instance, a casual glance toward a person will likely not amount to a very inﬂuenal intenon ﬁeld, but an admiring stare will likely be of suﬃcient inﬂuence that the object of the stare might at least unconsciously noce. This concept is directly related to intended order, in that the product of the intenon ﬁeld is formaon of a part of reality as intended by the personality/conscious self. The intenon ﬁeld can be very inﬂuenal as expressed by an experienced healer-praconer. Informed Visualization Expression begins with the inﬂuence of conscious self’s intenon on the Aenon Complex, but it is informed by the person’s worldview. That means expression is limited by the person’s sense of personal reality. As an example, if the person has learned to fear the dark, then outward acons and expressions would reﬂect that fear, probably without the person’s awareness. The clarity of expression is a funcon of how well the person understands what is to be expressed. In this context, informed means how well the person has come to understand the subject. People create their own reality

but not in isolaon. Society, the environment and even the physical body have an inﬂuence on what is created. Percepon and expression are always based on current understanding (worldview as personal reality). In the concept of morphic ﬁelds, this is Nature’s habit. Our life lessons and future experiences are not so much in what we create as they are in how we react to what is created. On Being Informed Probably the most important thing we can do to further our spiritual progression is to be as informed as possible about our world and especially about what we intend to create. It is important to be aware that being informed about the world can actually retard spiritual progression if it is based on erroneous assumpons. For that reason, informed should be in the context of the enre creave process. Informed is used here to mean based on or inﬂuenced by. For instance, Objecve in the creave process is informed by worldview and by the environment. In fact, the enre creave process is based on the usually subtle inﬂuence of worldview and external forces. By recognizing this inﬂuence, it is possible for a person to learn to manage how inﬂuenal these forces are in the creave process. The more the inﬂuences are in agreement with the nature of reality, the more eﬀecve will be the creave process. Changing Worldview There is much research indicang that people who are open to more directly sensing psi smuli have more psi-related experiences, while people

who are not can be literally blind to the phenomena. In both cases, the people psychically sense the same informaon, but that sensing is not as easily translated into conscious awareness for nonbelievers. See the Point of View Commentary. As such, James Carpenter suggests that a person wishing to be more psychic should maintain an open, non-analycal frame of mind while also maintaining a commitment to the goal of psi expression. Analysis of informaon, self-cricism, and doubt tend to cloud psi awareness. Translate open mind as suspended judgment. Make a habit of not deciding whether or not you believe something. Instead, maintain a wait and see atude. Consciously suspending judgment has at least an indirect eﬀect on the perceptual process, which should in turn, exaggerate the ambiguity of the comparison between what is being visualized based on worldview to produce a beneﬁcial change in worldview. More about worldview in the Point of View Discourse. Suspended judgment is discussed in the Mindfulness Discourse. Worldview and Expression We are born with a degree of inherited understanding about the nature of reality which inially informs worldview. However, culture, parents, teachers, the media, and religion quickly ﬁll our worldview with popular wisdom based on local beliefs, prejudices, and religious/academic dogma. It is for us to come to see reality as it is, rather than how it is taught. We must do this by learning to align our worldview with the nature of reality based on gaining understanding through experiences. In doing so, we progress

by way of increasing understanding and it is understanding which determines our experience in the etheric. In eﬀect, aer transion, we will gravitate toward the heaven with which we are most inperceptual agreement. As such, what we do in this lifeme has a profound and lasng eﬀect on the rest of our existence. Worldview has substanal inﬂuence on percepon; in eﬀect, it causes us to understand experiences as taught by the culture and perhaps not as they actually are. As we align our worldview with the nature of reality, our visualizaon becomes more in agreement with reality, making the resulng expression more consistent with what is supported by Organizing Principles. Natural Law and Organizing Principles The funconal areas of Life Fields naturally occur in response to the inﬂuence of curiosity (intenon and percepon) and the state of understanding (worldview). This assumpon is based on the expectaon that such funconal areas are necessary to produce known response paerns. An Organizing Principle that naturally results from our perceptual processes is Perceptual agreement, which can be stated as Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. The implicaon is that we are not able to experience parts of reality which do not agree with our expectaons (personal reality). There is no need for an ethereal being to say we cannot go to heaven if our worldview will not allow our sensing of heaven to emerge to conscious self via the Aenon Complex. A second organizing

principle is Cooperave Communies, which may be stated as an eﬀort to express understanding is necessary for progression. This is the conscious expression of intenon to compose a statement to be spoken to the listener. If this inial eﬀort to explain a concept is followed by quesons and new aempts to explain the concept, it can aﬀect worldview in the same way as a Maybe outcome of the Perceptual Loop. The Golden Rule likely has at its foundaon a more pragmac Teach me as I teach you. The objecve of a lifeme is to gain understanding. As it is modeled, the collecve may not fulﬁll its purpose unl expected understanding has been gained by every member life ﬁeld. Cooperave communies are a natural response to that imperave. Intended Order Percepon and expression are the outputs of the Aenon Complex. Intended order is the eﬀect expression has on the environment. It is seen in acon in many forms of transcommunicaon. In that, order in the form of recognizable images, objects, or sounds emerge out of chaoc signals. In Instrumental TransCommunicaon, the physical process that enables this emergence of intended order appears to be stochasc ampliﬁcaon acng on chaoc, broad-spectrum energy. A hint for how to idenfy the nature of psi phenomena is to look for the presence of a chaoc inﬂuence somewhere in the process. For instance, even though a magnec ﬁeld detector might indicate the presence of a psi inﬂuence as a change in magnec ﬁeld, it may not have

anything to do with magnesm at all (probably not). The electronic circuit in detectors of about any physical inﬂuence has many components which provide the necessary chaoc resource to respond to the inﬂuence of psi as intended order. In pracce, the psi detecon model used in the design of the Random Event Generator developed by Psyleron for consciousness research is applicable to virtually all forms of electronics that include acve regions such as vacuum tubes and transistors. (57) Credibility and Incredulity The Percepon and Expression Diagram shows the decision-making process that helps determine percepon. It can be seen at work whenever a person is asked to believe something. In this model, the person experiences something such as a paranormal event and aempts to visualize what has been experienced in terms of worldview. If the experience is not supported by existent worldview, and the person has not learned to think beyond that cultural condioning, then it is likely the experience would be rejected as impossible. In that case, the person would not perceive the experience, a response somemes referred to as incredulity blindness. Alternavely, the person might perceive the experience, but as parally modiﬁed by incredulity blindness or as morphed into something that does agree with worldview. For instance, an alien enty might register in the person’s mind as a rabbit because it has big eyes. It is common for a person to witness very convincing evidence but insist that it must be fraudulent. In this case, discounng the experience would

be a way of morphing it into an acceptable form to agree with worldview. An inverse eﬀect of incredulity blindness can be seen when a person tends to ﬁnd paranormal phenomena where (probably) none exists. This might be described as hyperlucidity, as people with this tendency insist they are experiencing phenomena, oen against considerable tesmony to the contrary by peers. See also, the Villager-Explorer Eﬀect in the Point of View Commentary. Venues for Learning The creave process expresses a venue for learning when a person thinks of a possible new experience, for instance, to buy a new car. Typically, the person imagines being in the new car and what it would be like to own one. Perhaps friends would be imagined in the situaon so that the person can have a sense of how having the car would aﬀect self-esteem. An important process is begun when a person imagines a, let us call it, lile me. Lile me is given a degree of self-determinaon. It is also given a direcve to have a speciﬁc experience and an urge to understand certain aspects of the experience. Finally, it is given the direcve to return a degree of understanding about the experience to the person, its local source personality. The created venue for learning will remain a viable space as long as the person holds it in the imaginaon; however, the memory of lile me’s experience will remain part of the person’s worldview. In eﬀect, lile me and the person become a

group enty, and the accumulaon of lile mes produced in the person’s imagining will accumulate to shape the person’s etheric personality. (It is possible the same lile me is resurrected for each experience.) The inﬂuence of each lile me will be a funcon of the importance the person placed on the venue (intenon) and the meaningfulness of what lile me returns. Note also that the accumulated lile mes represent a collecve. The creaon of a venue for learning is exactly what appears to happen for individual lifemes in this venue of learning we call Earth. The queson is whether or not there is a big me holding this venue for learning in its mind with the intenon of learning speciﬁc lessons. Since this venue appears to be a consensus or collecve space, it is possible that the organizing ﬁeld for physical reality is the product of many such individual eﬀorts to learn funconing as a cooperave community. Summary The Great Work of Hermic Wisdom is the transmung of personality as immature lead into the gold of spiritual maturity. This is seen in the opening line of the Emerald Tablet, one of the few documents thought to actually come from Hermes: “It is true and no lie, certain and to be depended upon, that which is above is as that which is below; and that which is below is as that which is above, for the performance of the one truly great work.” (58) The metaphysical Cabala is all about the

path toward spiritual maturity and the Tarot. (59) An example is Key 9 of the Major Arcana from the Rider- Waite deck: His beacon inmates that “Where I am, you also may be.” In John 14 of the Chrisan Bible, Jesus is shown to say to his disciples: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14-6). Here, Jesus is showing himself to his followers not as a deity but as an example of the three aspects of the teacher: follow me that I am the path; follow me as the Spirit of Truth; and follow me as I have lived. (60) Humankind has been told me and again that the path to wisdom, happiness and spiritual maturity is readily available to anyone who is willing to do the work. The creave process for percepon and expression described in this discourse represents a knowable, doable path to agreement with nature. All one need do is realize the need to be informed, understand what informed means, learn to examine what is in worldview and accept responsibility for that which is created. Happiness lies in how the person responds to the world much more than how well the person learns to manage the process. From this can be understood that there is no good or bad, only the degree to which a person is able to align percepon with the true nature of reality. All is potenal progression no maer the

momentary pain or pleasure. Interesting Speculation In the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon, Rupert Sheldrake proposes that the formaon of an organism is organized by nested etheric ﬁelds. The simplest organic chemical process is managed by a ﬁeld, which is in turn organized into more complex organisms by greater ﬁelds, and so on to the top ﬁeld of, say, a human or a tree. There is good reason to believe that an etheric personality is the organizing ﬁeld for the avatar’s physical body, and is in turn part of a collecve of other personalies which eventually brings us, in the hierarchy of life, to a source. In this view, one might think that there is life and there is the product of life. That is, the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram needs only a slight modiﬁcaon to be a depicon of the process of expression, and as such, might be used as a model for life. Each organism, be it a single-cell amoeba or a human, involves this process of expression to one degree or another. Like life fractals, they are qualitavely the same but quantavely diﬀerent. Objects of reality, such as a rock or a cup of water, are expressions of life. We see a primive demonstraon of this during some séances in which the etheric controls work through a physical medium to produce increasingly solid ideoplasc structures such as the ectoplasmic rods employed to suspend a trumpet or point of luminosity. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 10: Perceptual Agreement

Introduction Cosmologies typically describe the greater reality in terms of physical energy. My ﬁrst eﬀort to describe a cosmology, The Handbook of Metaphysics (6), even has a chapter dedicated to energy, and includes an illustraon of an etheric energy spectrum showing possible relaonships of increasingly subtle expression of the psi ﬁeld. New Age and religious literature is full of references to energy as spirit energy, spirit, electromagnesm, and various predecessor names for psi such as od, chi, or orgone energy. Strong points of view are expressed about the nature of this energy with some arguing it is electromagnec and others arguing it is not propagated at all. Parapsychologists have dealt with this naming problem by using psi as a placeholder term unl a more useful term is found. They also solved the propagaon problem by referring to psi as a ﬁeld that is nonlocal and nontemporal. In the study of Instrumental TransCommunicaon, a lot of me has been spent looking for the etheric-physical interface. As the argument goes, if the physical is an aspect of the greater reality, then the physical must be a product of the greater reality. This would logically make physical energy in some way a product of the etheric. In accord with that view, the ATransC website includes arcles that explore the idea that etheric ﬁelds are precursors to electricity. As I developed the Implicit Cosmology, it gradually dawned on me that the problem with the way I have been deﬁning the greater reality is that

I was using an earth-centric model. In fact, the more useful model is personality-centric in which the formaon of reality is in response to intenon acng on percepon. That would be a Source toward the physical evoluon of energy. To say that in another way, the Implicit Cosmology is a foundaon model. Speciﬁcs, such as how thought produces formave ﬁelds which order reality into ideoplasc structures, are le to further research. The cosmology is intended to provide a context from which to design further research. Given that there is some form of source from which reality has evolved, then there is a substance of that source from which reality is formed. This substance is addressed here as a conceptual material which is compliant to the expression of intenon to form an imagined aspect of reality. Just as parapsychologists use psi as a placeholder, this substance from source is referred to here as etheric. Early eﬀorts to discuss this substance usually involved use of the term etheric energy; however, while energy is conceptually the right term, it is more consistent with what is known about the greater reality to think of it as the etheric, etheric space, or etheric ﬁeld. With that said, the etheric is the matrix of reality. It is proposed in the Implicit Cosmology that it is diﬀerenated according to intenon to form various aspects of reality. It is also proposed that the greater reality can be thought of as the top organizing ﬁeld. Further, within reality are

nested ﬁelds produced as various parts of the collecve of life which has sought to experience and understand the nature of reality. The physical universe is modeled as an aspect of reality and one of those nested ﬁelds. While that is a lot to comprehend, the one point that is needed for this discussion is that between the source of reality and a personality which seeks to understand reality, there is a connuum of characteriscs deﬁning etheric space. This connuum ranges from its original state, which is the inial expression of Source, to whatever personality has expressed as personal reality. This change in character adheres to the rule of associaon described in this cosmology as the Principle of Perceptual Agreement: Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. Remember that this is a conceptual model in which the deﬁning characterisc indicang the connuum of etheric from Source to aspect personality is understanding. This Principle holds that a personality is able to experience anything it wishes, so long as it is able to conceive of the experience. As a physical world example, a New Yorker has a very diﬀerent perspecve of the world than a ranch hand in the West. In a conceptual sense, a New Yorker cannot be the ranch hand without changing perspecve. Here, perspecve is synonymous with percepon, and it is correct to say that a New Yorker and a western ranch hand are probably not in perceptual agreement. This

is an important part of the cosmology because percepon acts as a determining factor for how reality is organized. To experience an aspect of reality, it is necessary to be able to visualize that aspect. At the same me, to express an inﬂuence on an aspect of reality, it is ﬁrst necessary to perceive that aspect. Evolving Organizing Principles The existence of Organizing Principles (some call them Natural Law) is a fundamental tenet of many systems of belief. The assumpon is that there are rules which govern the behavior of everything in reality. Further, it is assumed these rules are everywhere the same (universal) and cannot be violated (immutable). An equally long-held assumpon of many belief systems is that personality (usually soul or spirit) experiences a progression in maturity from the relavely naive to the very mature personality. It is also thought that the purpose of progression is a response to an inherited imperave to experience, understand, and return this understanding to Source. The two beliefs are contradictory, in that Natural Law requires that it never changes, and returned understanding requires that the source is sll learning. If it is learning, then the nature of its emanaons will change accordingly. Current research suggests that personalies do experience a progression and that this progression results in a change in personality’s percepon. This concept is supported by the emerging understanding of etheric ﬁelds and the concept of informed visualizaon. In this cosmology, Organizing Principles are thought to evolve with Source’s increased understanding

of itself brought by the progression of its aspects. As such, there should be a gradual change in character of the etheric as personality progresses from local aspects of reality to Source. With these basic Organizing Principles in mind, all else should be considered local organizing rules. For instance, the Natural Law referred to as balance is probably constant and immutable for the physical aspect of reality, but it may have no relevance in the greater reality. In fact, its validity beyond the physical should be considered indeterminate at this me. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 11: Mindfulness The Hermit from the Waite deck of the Tarot: The Hermit symbolizes the seeker who has achieved great understanding and has turned aenon to the world to show the way for other seekers. The Hermit is both the seeker and the teacher. Purpose The phenomena of transcommunicaon appear to have a purpose beyond the reassurance it oﬀers to loved ones. Aer examining mediumisc messages from the other side and revelaons brought by past teachers, it is easy to imagine that our etheric communicators are trying to teach us about the reality of our immortality by showing us they exist. This discourse is wrien as an exploraon of the idea that the EVP messages in our recorders, or the paranormal images we ﬁnd in our photographs, are a new way of telling us that we are part of a larger community. Perhaps it is up to us to understand what that means. Mindfulness The terms

mindfulness and mindful living have become catchphrases for right living, but not in a pretenous way or in an aempt to tell us what to do. People speak of mindfulness almost in a reverent tone, as if the concept relates more to God than to daily living. Always it is used to oﬀer guidance in how to improve our life, how to be all that we can be. Discussions about the phenomena of transcommunicaon are usually about technique and quality of examples. Who is talking may be discussed, especially if the informaon seems to come from a loved one, but the queson of connuous life seldom comes up. But in fact, considered from the perspecve of our immortality, transcommunicaon may actually be all about our immortality. If this is true, then learning to live mindfully may be the most important ability we can learn. Teachers With proper controls, Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) can be a rich source of informaon about the other side. For instance, we have seen that we should expect a life review during our transion. We know they can see us, and we know our communicators somemes get together with friends on the other side. We also know that there are changes in their ability or need to communicate so that some do not report in for years and some make contact right away, but seem to move on aer a while. Channeled material must be considered with reservaon because we know cultural inﬂuences can color messages. Even

so, consistency amongst communicators seems to add credibility to some messages. (26) Perhaps two of the most important teachers of mindfulness have been the fabled Hermes Trismegistus and the biblical Jesus. The only document credited to Hermes that seems reliable is The Emerald Tablet. (47) In it, he speaks of The One Thing, which is the same as The Great Work of the Hermec tradion. (61) The Great Work is all about the path followed by seekers to gain understanding. The lessons involved in this are virtually the same as those brought by many more contemporary teachers. The message is that a person beneﬁts by learning to live in accordance with the true nature of reality. A review of teachings aributed to Jesus, as found in Aramaic-to-English translaons, shows that he taught that our I Am presence exists in the greater reality and that our transion out of this lifeme is toward our I Am presence: “Where that I Am really is, there you already are, and you can be, consciously” (from Luke 24:38-49). He also taught the unity of humankind, that one person’s acons reﬂect on all people. (62) A transcript of Hans Bender’s words as conveyed by Kai Mügge during a séance can be read on the ATransC website. (43) To paraphrase, Bender explained that we are not alone and that how we view the other side has a lot to do with how we experienced it during our transion. He said that what we are doing here

aﬀects the other side and that we can project negavity into the greater reality which can cause problems for others. Jane Roberts’ Seth (63) material appears to be a reliable source of informaon about the other side. (26) Three important instrucons from Seth are people create their own reality; people exist in more than one aspect of reality at once; and the only wrong act is to violate oneself or other life. The common message from all of these sources is that who we really are, our I am this personality, always exists in the greater reality, that we are able to connect with our etheric aspect through right thinking, that how we think now aﬀects us and others now and beyond this lifeme, and that it is for us to learn to live in accordance with the true nature of reality. This understanding is not based on one person or one organizaon teaching religious doctrine. Think of it as the handbook for right living given to us by our friends on the other side. What We Do Now Matters With close examinaon of ITC messages, a paern begins to emerge that tells us much about the person. While the messages appear to be paranormal, it has been noted by many researchers that diﬀerent praconers are apt to record rather diﬀerent kinds of messages from the same situaon. To illustrate, Lisa and another person went into a dark room of a reportedly haunted building and recorded for EVP. Lisa is

a pragmac, levelheaded witness and recorded EVP containing useful informaon. The other person delighted in being scared and expected scary EVP, and in fact, she recorded scary EVP. In both cases, the messages were clearly paranormal, but their character tended to agree with the praconer’s temperament and worldview. As it turns out, it appears the person’s expectaons are projected onto experiences. This has been noted in what has become known as the sheep- goat eﬀect. In that, people who are more psi sensive (psychic) tend to have more paranormal experiences. In his book First Sight (13), Dr. James Carpenter developed a hypothesis for the evidence currently being presented in parapsychology which holds that people are always informed about the world via their natural psychic sensing. Further, he argues that people are constantly psychokinecally inﬂuencing their world. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. What all of this means is that we also see with our inner senses (ﬁrst sight) and always have some inﬂuence on our world with our intenon, which is based on what we think is true. Worldview As was discussed in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, people imagine what they are experiencing, and the informaon for that imagining comes from our worldview database. If the incoming informaon agrees with the database, then it will actually be experienced by the person. If it does not match the database, then it will either be changed to agree with the database and experienced in that changed form or outright rejected. The

way we express ourselves involves the same processes. Something causes us to react and that inial smulus is translated in our mostly unconscious Aenon Complex based on worldview into an imagined reacon. It is that response based on worldview of which we become consciously aware. Using this model, it becomes evident that worldview plays an important part in our lives. By all indicaons, we are born with a more-or-less empty worldview database. It appears reasonable to argue that we do begin with a degree of understanding so that one might say that a child is an old soul if born with more than average understanding about the world. It seems reasonable to say that the average person’s worldview is full of what has been taught by teachers, parents, clergy and the media. Much of that is simply local custom or popular wisdom. Personal Reality, Local Reality and the Greater Reality As was discussed in the Nature of Reality Discourse, each of us experiences reality as our personal reality. Right or wrong, as far as we are concerned, our personal reality is the real reality, and again, that is determined by your worldview. In eﬀect, our worldview deﬁnes our reality ﬁeld. In mindful living, we are taught to examine our worldview to see if what we believe is true makes sense. The idea is to align personal reality with local reality; the true nature of reality and not what we have been taught to think is true. Suspended Judgment Rethinking what

you believe to be true may seem paradoxical. If you believe something to be true, how can you tell if you should change your mind or even examine the belief? In praccal applicaon, mindful living is a life-long process, a path to be followed one-step at a me, so how does one begin in the middle of a lifeme? An eﬀecve way to begin mindful living is to make a conscious decision to have an open mind. Take conscious control of the process your mind uses to consider new informaon. As I have described before, we visualize what we are experiencing in a very fast, mostly unconscious reacon to informaon from our environment. This visualizaon is based on what we have been taught, which is in our worldview. Environmental informaon that does not match what is in our worldview may be outright ignored; however, if it produces a maybe result in the Perceptual Loop, it may be integrated into worldview as it is allowed to emerge into our conscious percepon. While large diﬀerences between environmental informaon and worldview are rejected, ambiguous informaon may evolve worldview in relavely small increments. Conscious intenon provides the move inﬂuence for the unconscious processes controlling percepon. Therefore, an unfamiliar experience that the conscious self ﬁnds interesng (turns toward in First Sight Theory) will produce feedback that modiﬁes worldview. The next me a same or similar environmental informaon is received, it will more easily pass the Perceptual Loop as an Agree decision. People have a tendency

to automacally reject things they do not understand. The idea of suspended judgment is that we seek to just experience and not automacally decide if we accept what is experienced as true. Instead, me is allowed for future experiences to beer inform the perceptual process. This is a conscious decision that can eventually aﬀect the unconscious Perceptual Loop to provide a way of consciously modifying our mostly unconscious memory. Also see the Principle of Suspended Judgment. Self-determination We have to decide … everything. If not what we experience, then we must at least decide how to react. Self-determinaon also means that we create our world. Again, not necessarily the brick and mortar places and things we live in, but for sure how we react to these things. Two people might have essenally the same experience, but each will remember it in a diﬀerent way. A person who is in the habit of thinking things always go wrong will likely remember it as a bad experience; however, a person who is generally opmisc about life is likely to remember it as a good experience or at least as a learning experience. It is all about atude and that is a learned thing. Here too, suspended judgment can help. Whatever we think the world is like, we can learn to consciously intercept that “oh, it’s awful” response with either a “wait and see” or a “it has a good side” response. This may seem idealisc but it works. Once it becomes a

habit to intercept those internal decisions, there is more room for alternave explanaons for what we experience. An awful reacon tends to stop further consideraon of alternave explanaons. We are always psychically interacng with your environment. How we think of incoming informaon also has a lot to do with how that informaon connues to develop. It is likely that a posive or at least neutral response will encourage a more beneﬁcial eﬀect in our environment. A Personal Code of Ethics for Developing Mindfulness A recent talk to our local Spiritualist Society concerned ethics and personal responsibility. It was based on Principle 7 of the NSAC Declaraon of Principles which states that “We aﬃrm the moral responsibility of individuals and that we make our own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey Nature's physical and spiritual laws.” (2) Three important concepts concerned with mindfulness are expressed in Principle 7. First, there is such a thing as ordering principles in nature. In many systems of thought, these are referred to as Natural Laws. In the Implicit Cosmology, I refer to the concept as Organizing Principles. The second concept is that understanding and living in agreement with such ordering principles can be beneﬁcial. This is the foundaon concept for Mindfulness. The third concept is that we have a personal responsibility to do so. It is in this concept that we see a blending of religion and pragmasm. In fact, understanding and living in agreement with the organizing principles of reality is the

purpose proposed in this book as our reason for exisng. As I developed my talk (64), I came to realize that personal responsibility, morality (more correctly, ethics) and Organizing Principles are all part of living mindfully. From that came a possible technique that you might ﬁnd useful for learning to live mindfully. The idea is to develop a personal code of ethics that can help you remember your purpose. Below is one I put together for the talk and which you might use as a starng point for your own code. It is divided into three ers so that Tier 1 sets the tone for the code. Seth’s Do not violate (63) is an excellent foundaon concept. Tier 2 is concerned with reasonably basic principles which complement or further deﬁne Do not violate. These should be intuively obvious in the context of progression. Tier 3 is Expression which includes phrases intended to guide in how to live the principles. Catchy phrases are useful here, as they make it easier to remembering the principles. Lucidity As I explained in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, how we experience reality is largely determined by our worldview. The perceptual process is part of our normally unconscious mind, but it is possible to train our unconscious mind to be more recepve to our conscious control. Through mindful living, it is possible to cull undesired beliefs from our unconscious, and in the process, become more aware of our personality. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Occulsm

& Parapsychology (55), Lucidity is a term that was used in the early 1800s to describe the human abilies to sense subtle energy. This form of sensing has been more recently known as clairvoyance, psychometry and premonions; however, these terms have been replaced by Extra Sensory Percepon or ESP, which itself is now being replaced by psi funconing. In the context of the Implicit Cosmology, lucidity is used to describe the clarity between a person’s conscious self and unconscious personality. The term is used in much the same way to describe the extent to which a person is aware of acvity during a dream. During a very lucid dream, the dreamer would be able to direct acvity as if awake. Hyperlucidity A form of false lucidity is frequently encountered amongst new ITC praconers. This is referred to here as hyperlucidity. In one example of this, a person claims the ability to produce astounding communicaon from the other side as if he or she is completely lucid. On close examinaon, it becomes evident the person is mistaking noise or imaginaon as communicaon. This perceptual disorder is marked by the tendency to ﬁnd phenomena everywhere despite considerable tesmony to the contrary by peers. The concept comes from occasional reports of odd behavior exhibited by some people when they visit an emoonally charged locaon. It is known by such names as Paris Syndrome and Jerusalem Syndrome (65). In regard to paranormal phenomena, the eﬀect is the experiencer’s mistaken belief in experiencing paranormal phenomena,

such as reporng voices in recordings when there are none (66), seeing features in otherwise featureless visual media and misaribung thoughts as transcommunicaon. This is a diﬃcult concept because there may be a tendency to use it as an argument against the existence of transcommunicaon. Instead, hyperlucidity should be looked at as an enthusiasc approach to the study of things paranormal that is not balanced by educaon about the subject and the necessary discernment to see things as they are. The symptoms eventually moderate as the person become beer informed. Inspiraonal writer, William Arthur Ward, told us that, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” That empowering advice prey much sums up the point of view taught to people studying psi phenomena. Imagining something is true gives the mind a kind of permission to look beyond old beliefs ingrained in worldview. This is an eﬀecve tool for personal development; however, a disncon must be made between thinking one can do what is visualized and believing one has done what is visualized even though that is not the case. This is one of the reasons peer monitoring is so important. (67) It is noted in the Percepon and Expression Discourse that informed visualizaon is followed by expression. That is to say the work must be done to embody the imagined outcome. So the key to understanding hyperlucidity is to look for hints of magical thinking. If a person thinks ability

comes upon them as a gi, rather than by way of study and pracce, then an observer should ﬁrst look for the objecve evidence. If that is available, the next queson concerns the validity of that evidence. Can it be independently experienced? Good and Evil and Other Cultural Artifacts Usually, the dichotomy between good and evil is cast in a biblical light. This should forewarn you that the concepts are subjects of belief. Of course, in conversaon, good is understood to mean beneﬁcial while bad is understood to mean not beneﬁcial. Conversaonally, negave means subtracng from the middle in some way, while posive means adding to the middle. These are literal terms that gain special meaning, depending on their context. Evil, however, is a term loaded with negave meaning which comes no maer the context. There is, in fact, a polarity in nature between extremes, but the secret wisdom is that there is always the mean or middle way. For instance, with hot and cold comes warm; there is a seldom-discussed middle way for the four personality traits of driver, analycal, amiable and empathic; the middle way between belief and acceptance is discernment. See Personal Style and Astrology in the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse. The deﬁnion of evil is morally objeconable and doing harm. By itself, that makes it a good word, but say evil to someone and they will predictably hear something more like demonic or a threat to one’s soul. Some words are prey much owned by special connotaon

and evil is one of the most powerful of those. As a personal pracce, I avoid the use of such terms as evil, sin and hate because it has been my experience that people never hear the intended context. We receive thousands of quesons from website visitors and past ATransC members. When someone asks about the danger of aracng an evil enty while recording for EVP, for instance, I always make an eﬀort to explain that we have found no evidence for the existence of the biblical form of evil. Some people, on either side of the veil, behave in ways that might seem evil in the sense of being demon inspired. However, on closer examinaon, they virtually always indicate that they felt their acons were jusﬁed by circumstance. An important point to remember is that people do many possibly ansocial things in an eﬀort to protect their perceived rights or to protect something important to them. Also, we as etheric personalies share a body with our human host during this lifeme. Our body is not just inﬂuenced, but outright driven, by its insncts. Killing to protect or for food is natural, as is procreang to assure survival of the species. Such acts can easily become ansocial, even evil in the sense of being demonically inspired. Demons To be clear, we have found no evidence of demons in our study of things paranormal. I would not even know how to incorporate the biblical evil into the Implicit Cosmology. The Bible

is a faith-based text wrien for readers who were modern two-thousand years ago. Back then, the concepts of demons and evil were likely useful exaggeraons to help the community understand good and bad. We also have considerably more understanding of human nature today. In fact, the sense of being jusﬁed to act and the inﬂuence of human insncts cause behaviors that are expected to be moderated by the inﬂuence of social norms. And yes, that may include religious teaching. Perception of Evil If a person has been taught to believe in evil, then that will be part of their worldview. When confronted by a negave inﬂuence, such as another driver yelling at you, it might be natural to assume the person is angry. If you are very religious, this might translate into evil. If there was an opportunity to sit down with the other driver, it might be learned that the other driver thought you had nearly hit his or her car when you changed lanes. The driver was not evil at all, only reacng to a perceived aﬀront that might have caused a serious accident. An andote to the sense of the presence of evil is understanding the way we think and mindful living. Sins, Suicide and Other Taboos Jane Roberts’ Seth (63), told us that “Thou shalt not violate” is perhaps the only commandment. I will add that all else is social norm. By that I mean choosing to commit suicide, for instance, may violate a social norm,

and certainly it seems on the surface to be a waste of a lifeme. However, an important lesson might only come from suicide for the individual or for the people aﬀected by the unexpected act. If our objecve is to gain understanding through experience, then there should be no disallowed behavior. Aer Seth’s advice, I would add that failing to take an opportunity to learn is contrary to our Prime Imperave. To understand this, ﬁrst consider what you have allowed into your worldview, and then learn to pracce discernment. See the On Being a Good Witness Discourse on EthericStudies.org. (68) Mindful Living This is an abbreviated discussion about mindful living. The main message is that what you do now will follow you for the rest of your existence–here and hereaer. The more your personal reality agrees with the actual nature of reality, the more progress you will make in your evoluon toward a spiritually mature personality; understanding begets understanding. The key is to stop and think before you react. This also applies to things you do. Stop and think about how your acons aﬀect others. You are a cizen of your community, the world and the greater reality. You psychically interact with it so that your feelings about another person in some way aﬀect that person. The only right you have is to decide what you think of your world and how you will react to what you decide. You are the only judge as to how well you are

doing and that is not based on what you have been taught but on the understanding you have gathered during your existence. In an ideal world, people would just naturally be mindful of how they are doing as cizens. Laws to enforce behavior that should be considered common decency would be unnecessary because people would be mindful of how their acons might aﬀect others. Of course, we do not live in an ideal world, but that is the point. We are also a society of people whose personal reality is very diﬀerent than the actual nature of reality. The ideal of mindful living is to evolve a society of people who understand they are part of a community. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 12: Progression, Teaching and Community The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve Spirituality It is in our spirituality that we ﬁnd our true meaning: who we really are and our purpose for existence. One of the best explanaons for the meaning of spirituality I have read is oﬀered by Deepak Chopra in his Huﬃngton Port blog (69): Spirituality is the experience of that domain of awareness where we experience our universality. This domain of awareness is a core consciousness that is beyond our mind, intellect and ego. In religious tradions this core consciousness is referred to as the soul which is part of a collecve soul or collecve consciousness, which in turn is part of a more universal domain of

consciousness referred to in religions as God. Since we are an aspect of Source in the Implicit Cosmology, “our universality” is the fact that our entanglement with Source makes us a cizen of the Source life ﬁeld (reality, reality ﬁeld). “Soul” is described as personality which is who we really are, our immortal I am this. This is the “core consciousness” of Chopra’s deﬁnion. The “collecve Soul” in Chopra’s deﬁnion is referred to as the collecve in the Implicit Cosmology, and it is modeled as the multude of personalies related to this realm of reality. The “universal domain of consciousness” is modeled as the multude of aspect which inherits their existence and purpose from Source. God then is Source, Inﬁnite Intelligence, the One, or whatever name you use for the ﬁrst cause of reality in which we are all one. This is the “domain of awareness.” Spirituality, then, is our sense of this connectedness from the perspecve of our conscious self (I think I am this). In the Implicit Cosmology, life is modeled as the building block of reality, and expressions of life are the venues for experiencing the nature of Source. We express the world around us, usually as a collecve view because we share this venue with others. There are likely many realms such as ours, each with many venues for learning. Together, they could be understood as “universal consciousness.” This may be Jesus’s “many mansions” from John 14:2. Reality is modeled as a nested hierarchy of personalies

so that the ﬁrst round of aspectaon is Source’s eﬀort to understand its nature. Our personality is an aspect of other personalies, probably many rounds removed from Source, which are further exploring Source’s queson, who am I and what is my nature? These assumpons are made to provide a beginning point for the model in much the same way the Big Bang is modeled as the beginning for the physical universe in physical sciences. The importance of the Implicit Cosmology is in the relaonship of our I am this personality which is our unconscious core intelligence with our human avatar and our conscious self as I think I am this. Spirituality, then, is our sense of this connectedness from the perspecve of our conscious self (I think I am this). Cooperation Achieving understanding is not a solitary process. Just as our collecve partners cooperate to help us while we are in this lifeme, so are we expected to help others who are in this lifeme with us. This does not mean we are our brother’s keeper, but it does mean that we are unavoidably part of our brother’s experiences. The part we play is our life experience, and so, we are unavoidably linked in the greater community and especially in our local community. See the Cooperave Communies Principle. Friends as Teachers With few excepons, I have looked to a teacher to show me the way. I don’t mean this in any myscal sense; it is just that I have managed

to have someone I trust show me how to do extraordinary things before venturing out on my own. For instance, Lisa introduced me to Electronic Voice Phenomena; a mutual friend taught us how to mine gold; a work friend introduced me to the Tarot. Another showed me how to navigate the Sacramental Delta waters at night. They did not just say, “Here it is.” They took me through everything I needed to know to get started. It was always a natural sharing. Selless People There is value in contemplang the meaning of the selﬂess concept. Diconary.com deﬁnes selﬂess as “Having lile or no concern for oneself, especially with regard to fame, posion, money, etc.; unselﬁsh.” There are many ways in which selﬂessness is expressed: the family that takes in a foster child, a person who stops to help an animal, individuals who feed the poor and inspire selﬂessness in others, or the acvists who dedicate themselves to a cause which probably should be important to everyone. What causes people to be selﬂess? In some obscure way, there may be an evoluonary beneﬁt. Evoluonists argue that there is a selﬂess gene which induces people to selﬂess acts. If they do not survive, their selﬂessness tends to beneﬁt their family which would by inheritance have some of the selﬂess gene. In that way, they argue, selﬂessness helps survival of the gene by helping the survival of family. (70) While the selﬂess gene theory sounds reasonable, it is based on prey tenuous evidence.

However, when viewed from the perspecve of human as avatar, the concept of cooperaon amongst personalies seeking mutual progression is perhaps a more reasonable concept. The Prime Imperave would seem to invoke an urge in every personality to help one another, because by doing so, they are helping themselves and their collecve. Ulmately, one could argue that selﬂess people are those who respond to the urge to answer Source’s queson. From a religious perspecve, “God desires that I do this.” A Vision About Collectives Just minutes aer a meditaon session at the Monroe Instute (53), I had the waking vision of the face of a clock. It was suspended in the air, face- up, but lted toward me a lile so that I could see that there were many black specks scurrying about on the white surface. My impression was that they were lile sck people like those I would draw in a hurry. The space between three and four o’clock was an open hole and a few sck people had apparently fallen through. The people on the face of the clock were somehow helping the people who had fallen through the hole. As the hour hand made a complete circuit, the ones in the hole came to the surface and a few of the others jumped into the hole. My sense was that the sck people were all part of a collecve of personalies, a soul group if you want, and they were doing all they could to help

their fellows who had entered into a lifeme, symbolized by falling through the hole. I knew that they were helping one another to progress by gaining in understanding, and that none of them would be able to move on unl all had made suﬃcient progress. The hour hand represented a lifeme. Probably not all of them, but many of my helpers, friends, and guides, both on the other side and in the physical, are part of my collecve. I am never very far from them, and just as I am a student, in turn, I am teacher, for we must all move as one. First a Student Then a Teacher You have probably heard the phrase, “Our lot is to learn and having learned, our lot is to teach.” The student becoming the teacher is the natural order of life. Civilizaon survives because lessons learned by elders are passed on to oﬀspring. We cannot be around other people, especially children, without inﬂuencing them in some way as accidental role models. However, in modern society, educaon is le to schools and hired teachers. There is a business of educang our young, leaving lile more than role model duty to elders. Yet there are many examples in which individuals have taken the me to preserve knowledge for others. The Internet has countless websites in which informaon for the sake of informaon is available at no charge. Looking past all of those commercial sites, one can ﬁnd that there are many ordinary people

who have spent me developing a personal website just to share what he or she has learned. An important point to this discourse is that many of these people probably know they will not receive a thank-you. Yes, there is a human compulsion to leave a legacy for the next generaon, but virtually all of these websites will vanish when the server fees are not paid. So discounng legacy, the most probable reason is that people build them out of the desire to help others. Consider the model oﬀered by the ancient wisdom schools. There is typically a path one must follow to gain masterhood. The ﬁrst step on the path is for an individual to seek understanding by deliberately asking for a teacher. What follows is a series of lessons, tests and iniaons as the seeker progresses from neophyte to iniate and ﬁnally to teacher and master. Here, it is important to make a disncon between informaon, knowledge and understanding. The lessons provide the seeker with pernent informaon. Tests are intended to determine whether or not the seeker has assimilated the informaon in a way that can be expressed in novel ways. If so, then the seeker has demonstrated that the informaon has been assimilated as knowledge. But here is the important part. During the iniaon, the seeker is asked quesons which may only indirectly relate to the lessons. If the seeker is able to provide reasonable answers that indicate understanding, then the seeker will be passed to the

next level. A selﬂess response to the urge to teach is diﬃcult to ignore; however, the student is drawn to the lessons with usually only vague reasons for pursing understanding. It is this teacher-seeker relaonship I wish to address here. The Nature of Understanding It may be a good idea to explain how understanding is used here. There is a disncon between informaon, knowledge and understanding: Information Informaon can be compared to raw data. In the context of mind, it is sensory input from the environment brought by the physical senses and countless psi signals. As it is received, informaon is undiﬀerenated and is only sensible when organized into some context. In a praccal sense, much of what you have read in this discourse thus far is just informaon. Think of the bits and pieces of informaon as data points which must eventually be integrate into a sensible concept. Much of what people think they know is just informaon. Knowledge When informaon is considered and the related concepts are understood, the resulng comprehension is considered knowledge. To be knowledgeable about something is to comprehend related concepts so that they can be reasonably well visualized. This is the key to the nature of knowledge. It must be comprehensible enough to be visualized as a concept. Here, visualize is used in the general sense of being imaged in some way in the mind. That might be suﬃcient recognion of an odor to name its source or formulaon of many seemingly unrelated concepts

into a form that can be described to others. For instance, consider the old story of blind men examining an elephant: if each man represents a concept (leg, tail and such) then knowledge would be the ability of the men as a group to be able to describe an elephant. Knowledge is a combinaon of informaon, understanding concepts and comprehension of a global sense of meaning. Understanding In the Implicit Cosmology, percepon is modeled as the outcome of a process that begins with encountering informaon that is external to the mind. We, as etheric mind and physical body, are immersed in an array of environmental signals. Some are physically sensed by the body, but most are psychically sensed. All of these signals are processed in our Aenon Complex where they are ﬁrst ﬁltered according to whether or not we are interested. (13) The degree to which understanding agrees with reality (intended order) is also a funcon of the person’s worldview. For instance, a person who has been taught to be prejudiced about something, and who retains that prejudice, will likely take what emerges from the unconscious percepon process without queson. Here, the exercises of mindfulness as a conscious eﬀort to see things as they are intended become important in helping us see the world as it is, rather than as we are taught to think it is. Understanding is not an absolute. As is shown in the Limits of Understanding Diagram, correct percepon (understanding) is typically limited upon ﬁrst exposure

to a concept. As a mindful person seeks to beer understand the concept, understanding approaches percepon that agrees with reality. This is an obvious eﬀect when, say, a new principle in science is introduced, but it is less obvious is when the process of overcoming prejudices learned in youth and fears foisted upon the avatar relaonship by human insncts are considered. As a person moves through a lifeme from youth to old age, things held to be true populate worldview and tend to reinforce future percepon. A conscious eﬀort is usually required to break this cycle. Perhaps even more distressing, a person carries these truths into transion from this lifeme. The result can be a complex, reportedly emoonally painful period of geng well while worldview is beer aligned with reality. The Process of Gaining Understanding As a person gains in understanding via the accumulated lessons of many lifemes (our own and/or those shared by other personalies in the collecve), the person begins to understand the need for more mindful living and the desirability of having a worldview that is in agreement with reality. A magical thing happens when a person begins to consciously seek understanding. You may have heard the phrase: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” A similar saying was oﬀered by the famous psychologist Carl Jung: “Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.” “For those who have eyes to see” is also a saying used in the Bible and

secret wisdom schools. In fact, the whole idea of the occult or secret wisdom is not so much the secret but the need for the seeker to have suﬃcient understanding to recognize the lessons. An example is the concept of polarity: Everything has an opposite. The seeker is expected to realize that the middle way is the hidden knowledge to be derived from such concepts. In pracce, this realizaon translates as perceptual understanding based on worldview which is in alignment with reality. At least one reason mindfulness works is that consciously seeking understanding eﬀecvely tells the unconscious part of mind to pay aenon to external informaon that might help, rather than ignoring it as irrelevant. In many ways, the unconscious mind is an obedient servant that shields us from a world that does not support what we think is true. Quesoning assumed truths moves the horizon of conscious self deeper into the unconscious process. Worldview eﬀecvely prevents us from experiencing or believing anything that is not in agreement with worldview. That is how it shapes our personal reality, even when it conﬂicts with actual reality. It is also how a person can obsessively believe something even though the facts seem overwhelmingly to the contrary. See the Perceptual Agreement Discourse. Change must come incrementally. That is, if incoming informaon is clearly not acceptable to worldview, it is ignored. However, informaon that is reasonably similar to what is in worldview will somemes be accepted via the Maybe outcome of the Perceptual Loop.

The Maybe outcome is consciously experienced and incrementally changes worldview. In that way, progression in understanding is a gradual thing. Engineers will recognize the curve in the Limits of Understanding Diagram as a naturally occurring rate of change found in many physical processes. Change is usually evoluonary and seldom catastrophic. Collective The collecve concept is not restricted to a personality and its many entangled aspects. It also applies to social communies of like-minded people cooperang to accomplish a common purpose. We Exist to Learn Given the concepts described above, it is arguable that each of us is here to gain understanding. However, there is an old saying that “When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s easy to forget you came to drain the swamp.” While we are in this lifeme and immersed in daily living, it is easy to forget what we came for. In a praccal sense, there are few signs to remind us of our Prime Imperave. Progression may seem to be a solitary path. Perhaps that is why they call such paths personal improvement. In fact, the old saying that we are all connected is more truth than platude, and the path we may seem to be walking alone is more a march of the multude of personalies who await our progression while doing what they can to assist us. We who are seeking understanding are a community, a collecve of like-minded people that exists in the physical as personality entangled avatars and in the

etheric as immortal beings. It is worth repeang the opening Understanding: The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve Spiritualist Society of Reno While it is certainly possible to gain progression in other ways, it is considerably easier to work as a member of a community. Using the Spiritualist Society of Reno as an example, the Sunday talks, oﬀered by a diﬀerent person each week, typically provide insighul messages that help members understand the nature of progression. The speaker may serve as a role model via a personal story and somemes via focused lessons. Such a gathering of like-minded people generates a contact ﬁeld which grows in strength with each meeng. Parcipants can somemes sense the ﬁeld during meengs and even as it extends into their daily lives. The thread of rapport strengthens with each shared memory. It is this ﬁeld that facilitates communion across the veil, making it easier for loved ones on the other side to assist our seeking. In a multude of ways, the community fosters a culture of seeking and mutual assistance. The community oﬀers many ways for individuals to teach others besides giving the Sunday talk. Members have a unique opportunity to ask quesons of others who have similar interests, and to join into conversaons that provide a powerful means of sorng out ideas and bringing clarity to both the one asking and the one answering. It is by teaching that the necessary ordering of thoughts and

clarity of thinking brings understanding. It is very diﬃcult to make progress without a forum in which to explore ideas. The Prime Imperative as a Spiritual Obligation While we all share an urge to gain understanding, in a very real sense, we have a sort of spiritual obligaon to respond to that urge. While it may seem to be a sacriﬁce to teach or help others learn, every such eﬀort is rewarded with new understanding and resulng progression that likely would not be possible otherwise. It is much too complex of a concept to say that each of us needs to serve in some way in the physical. As I have noted above, there are many ways we teach. Perhaps the majority of us are too early on the path to be more than inspiraon to others. However, if we have reached a point in our evoluon at which we are accustomed to self-evaluaon, it is me to begin ﬁnding ways to serve by teaching. In a very real sense, progression can go only so far without teaching and that requires a community. The Transition Experience As I understand it, all of us experience a short period of disorientaon as we begin the process of transion out of this lifeme. The ﬁrst milestone of transion appears to be the oen reported period of geng well. That is thought to be followed by a period of self-assessment and ﬁnally the compleon of transion as we enter into a new venue for

learning. The new venue could be in the physical, but it could as well be in some other aspect of reality. Personal reality is a product of worldview, and we take worldview with us into transion. That is probably why, during the inial shock of transion, it seems to be relavely easy for a personality to remain close to familiar surroundings. It is during this me that most communicaon with people in the physical seems to occur. A common report is the deparng visit to say goodbye to a good friend. The geng well period is needed to allow the personality me to realize that old handicaps no longer apply. This may also be when we undergo a self-evaluaon of our just ﬁnished lifeme. This is that dreaded judgment we are always warned about. However, instead of our being judged by some authority on high, it is a personal process in which we sense how our acons aﬀected others from the perspecve of those whom we aﬀected. Perhaps it is from this self-evaluaon that we determine our future lessons. The period of adjustment apparently begins as the sense that we are in a world very much as we experienced in the physical; again, clinging to the familiar. However, if we expect a heaven from the religious point of view, we will likely ﬁnd ourselves in that heaven. As we understand it, over me, we ﬁnd that these are only constructs of our worldview, which itself is slowly realigned to beer

agree with the greater reality. As we understand the process, we are born into a venue for learning at the end of this transion (a new lifeme), with a point of view, a degree of maturity in our understanding of the nature of reality gained from past experiences and an urge to learn speciﬁc lessons. We are not all-wise when not in a lifeme. Instead, we have an imperave to learn and a degree of perceptual maturity which helps to form our point of view. It is this maturity and resulng point of view which determine what aspect of reality we can be in agreement with. In eﬀect, the greater our understanding, the wider range of venues and opportunies for learning we have available to our personality. To emphasize this point, the relaonship between personality, Aenon Complex and conscious self remains during transion. The only real diﬀerence is that the human inﬂuence is no longer as strong. Part of transion may well be the process of sorng through worldview to ﬂush out that human inﬂuence. Meanwhile, to put it in the vernacular, if a person was an idiot in life, he is likely going to be an idiot in spirit. An important point is that there are no enforcement oﬃcers making sure we do what we should. We are self-governing. Our understanding manifests as percepon and that determines what aspects of reality we can visit (Principle of Agreement). It appears that transcommunicaon is possible during transion, but once a personality

transions into a new venue of learning, it appears that all communicaon into the physical stops unless it is assisted by other, more mature personalies. We have noted in ITC that our etheric communicators behave as if they are living in a world much as they experienced in the physical. This is true even to the extent that they might refer to grandma’s house at which members of the family in the etheric gather for a family dinner. We speculate that this familiar world eventually changes to a more conceptual view as the person’s worldview is aligned with the local reality. We are told that our natural form is as a luminous being exisng in a very luminous landscape. Self-Realization This discourse can be summarized as Understanding Self-Realizaon. The reason for metaphysics is not just to map reality. It is a process of discovery intended to help us learn how to gain personal understanding so as to fulﬁll our purpose. It is okay to ignore the details if you ﬁnd the guidance. Here, I do not mean purpose in a myscal sense. An acorn fulﬁlls its purpose by growing into an oak tree. If the acorn tries to be a willow, it will likely end up being a prey sad-looking oak tree. Metaphysics tells us that our purpose is to align our personal reality with the actual nature of reality. If we ignore that Prime Imperave, we will likely end up being less than we could be. There is no

need for me to explain this point. As you live your life as a person, you must surely see the beneﬁts of living in accordance with ordering principles and the results if you do not. Fulﬁlling your purpose may or may not be the same as what our society considers being successful. Our society is dominated by people trying to be willows. Only a few are suﬃciently self-aware to recognize there is a purpose that underlies the dynamics of our society. It is for you to live in this society as a useful cizen without allowing its less aware point of view to contaminate your worldview. Remember that it is not what happens to you. It is how you react to what happens to you. Implicit Cosmology Discourse 13: The Cosmology of Imaginary Space Introduction Reality is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as conceptual (etheric space) while the physical aspect of reality is modeled as objecve (physical space). The assumpon is that we are taught what is physical and what is not. We are taught to assign physicality to objects of physical space, but intangibility to things of etheric space. This is a convenon. As modeled in this cosmology, a personality is only able to associate with aspects of reality with which it is in perceptual agreement. This agreement is a funcon of worldview. The agreeability factor of worldview is a funcon of how well the individual personality understands the nature of local reality. The degree of understanding is referred

to as a measure of progression. Other Names for Reality Each system of belief has had a cosmology describing the relaonship of what is considered here and where God and Heaven are thought to be. Most have shown reality as a series of layers, with the here on the boom and God on top. The diﬀerence between the various layers is usually described as a diﬀerence in vibraon or coarseness, and travel from one layer to the other is described in terms of going there, being over there or the other side. Lacking a beer set of terms, these words are useful for conversaon so long as it is understood that they are just metaphors. In pracce, these terms are too oen taken literally. Perhaps this is because reality is virtually always considered from a body-centric perspecve. When informaon is revealed to us by our discarnate friends, it is necessarily in terms we understand: up, higher, over there. An interesng evoluon in terminology comes from what one might think of as myscal physics. Rather than many venues for learning, the fad now is to refer to the greater reality in terms of mulverses. As I remember, the concept originally came from speculaon that parcles rapidly vibrate in and out of physical space. If I remember correctly, this idea originates from the wave-parcle states of photons. This certainly is not my area of experse, but the argument for mulverses is based on prey tenuous logic. There is considerably more objecve evidence

for the reality described in this book. It is also prey obvious that most of the people throwing in references to the sexier aspect of physics, including mulverse and quantum mechanics, are appealing to perceived authority more than speaking from actual understanding. When you hear someone refer to mulverse in the context of things paranormal, at least as far as the Implicit Cosmology is concerned, think aspect of reality. Imaginary Model of Reality Given the idea that one gains access to an aspect of reality by gaining understanding rather than by traveling to it, a model of reality is needed that can accommodate conceptual relaonships between its parts. The closest physical analog I could ﬁnd to model the conceptual nature of etheric space is the imaginary space of the Mandelbrot Set. Imaginary Space In mathemacs, a complex number is one that includes an ordinary number and an imaginary number, for instance, X + Yi. Yi is the imaginary number where i is wrien as i equals the square root of minus one, which is a disallowed state in ordinary math since a number mes itself is always a posive number. The complex number space (imaginary space) we are concerned with here is shown in the diagram above. It is a two-dimensional complex plane, extending from -2.0 to +1.0 on the real axis and -1.5 to +1.5 on the imaginary axis. The Mandelbrot Set Equation The equaon for the Mandelbrot Set is: Z n+1 = Zn 2 + C where Z0

= C Values of C that are in the Mandelbrot Set are those for which the value of Zn does not go to inﬁnity. That is, the formula is calculated with an inial value of C, and then calculated again with that ﬁrst result used for the new value of C. The equaon is calculated in this way a predetermined number of mes or unl the result either rapidly approaches inﬁnity or seles in a narrow range of numbers. Each point in the Mandelbrot Set is used as C in a series of calculaons to produce the plot of all points C in the set. For the plot, resulng values of the calculaons may be assigned a color; usually black to represents the stable regions, and the lightest color represents values of C that very quickly take the calculaon to inﬁnity. Although the area of this number set is a few units on a side, it is important to note that this imaginary space is inﬁnitely small. That is, there is no limit to the number of zeros to the right of the decimal point for C. You can see this in some of the ﬁgures below where the coordinates and magniﬁcaon factor (zoom) are shown. How the set is viewed is a funcon of the resoluon of the display technology and colors used to display the plot. Because color values are assigned to number ranges, the color display tends to be stepped. The Top Fractal plot below shows a

step-wise color assignment. Shading in the plot Showing Navigaon Diagram has been blended. Fractals as Attractors An important feature of chaos theory (71) is what mathemacians refer to as an aractor. (72) This is a conceptual region of stability toward which elements of a set gravitate. For our discussion, elements of a set are unstable but gain in stability as they become more closely associated with the core concept (aractor). The top fractal in the Mandelbrot Set is an aractor for all of the subsequent fractals in the set. The black regions are fractals based on the top fractal. They are regions of relave stability and the coordinates outside of the fractals are considered in their orbit and are more or less stable, depending on their relaonship with a fractal. Comparing the Mandelbrot Set to Reality As a person travels through the imaginary space of the Mandelbrot Set into ever smaller scales, an inﬁnite number of Apple Man fractals are encountered. In the plot above, think of the top fractal as Source and the other fractals as aspects of Source. The enre set is comparable to the reality ﬁeld. Point C in the plot is comparable to a person’s percepon of local reality. The result of the calculaon discussed above, Zn, will approach inﬁnity for all coordinates C except for those within the black region of a fractal. Think of Zn as worldview. In this comparison, Zn (worldview) going to inﬁnity means the personality not understanding the nature of reality

(Perceptual agreement). The more worldview is in agreement with reality, the longer it takes Zn to go to inﬁnity. The point on the plot, C, moves toward a stable region (aspect of the reality ﬁeld) as Zn is slower to go to inﬁnity. As a person (point C) gains in understanding, he or she moves closer to a stable place in reality. The stable area represented as Apple Man fractals which are comparable to collecves in the Implicit Cosmology. Every point C is under the inﬂuence of a fractal (in its orbit). Every fractal is associated with the top fractal. The threads of structure made visible in the plot are arfacts of the technology, but they serve to represent lines of entanglement between the top fractal (Source) and the other fractals represenng aspects of Source. Navigating Imaginary Space To complete the analogy, movement in the imaginary space of the Mandelbrot Set is a maer of changing worldview. Reversing the calculaon and solving for C rather than Zn, one navigates imaginary space by developing a stable value for Zn. That is the same as saying that one moves about, not by traveling up or down, but by changing worldview to agree with the aspect of reality with which one wishes to associate. A Useful Model If you are familiar with the more tradional models of reality, the uniqueness of a model based on the Mandelbrot Set should be apparent. In the same way, the Implicit Cosmology is very diﬀerent from tradional

models of reality. One reason for this is the precondion that the model explains currently understood phenomena without resorng to magical thinking and groundless appeal to mainstream science. There is substanal evidence supporng the Implicit Cosmology. Some of this evidence is produced by good science, and a lot of it is produced by replicable techniques for transcommunicaon. By its very nature, the Mandelbrot Set is a conceptual model. It technically does not exist without resorng to the device of imagining a complex number plane based on the normally mathemacally disallowed square root of minus one. Yet it exists. Section II Community Introduction to Community As it Began The ﬁrst book I wrote was the Handbook of Metaphysics in 1994. My objecve was to give people an overview of metaphysical concepts that would provide a context in which to understand new ones as they came along. The book was complex and I suspect the publisher that picked it up did so because it looked like a textbook. This paragraph originally included a long rant about publishers and the general lack of ethics in that industry as I experienced it with four books, three publishers and one agent. I am sparing you the negavity, but I do feel beer having wrien it. It is enough to say that the Handbook was published but never marketed. Now I am reluctant to show it around because it needs proofreading and is out of date. The thing about metaphysics is that one must live with

the concepts for a while to understand their nature. I was ﬁy when I wrote the Handbook. My wife, Lisa, and I have taken many classes since then. And then Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) came along. Lisa began working with EVP around 1987, and in 2000, we assumed leadership of the Associaon TransCommunicaon (ATransC). (It was the American Associaon of Electronic Voice Phenomena or AA-EVP back then.) It was a small organizaon with an average of 250 members represenng around twenty countries. Universal Studios asked us to help them market the 2005 movie White Noise, and for a while, we were “all over the Internet,” as one person explained when we asked how he found us. The White Noise DVD has a couple of very good bonus features that show us doing walkabouts in interesng places while we recorded for EVP and answered quesons. As the producers wanted, EVP became a household term as the movie was released. There are many reports of early eﬀorts to record direct voice, but the discovery of EVP is generally credited to Fredrick Jürgenson in 1959. When Sarah Estep founded the organizaon in 1982, people had known about EVP for only twenty-three years. There was lile access to the Internet, and most of what people knew about it was from the printed media. The ﬁrst year of our leadership, we set up a website to provide background informaon about EVP and discussion board on which we spent a lot of me answering quesons. Everyone

is an Expert This is discussed in some detail in the Community Commentary, but here I will say that, without a culture of recognizable subject maer specialists as the source of authoritave informaon, it is common for people to assume that authority for themselves. A second factor here is the inﬂuence of religion. Of course, religion is all about faith and belief. It is concerned with heaven and people’s relaonship with God and has a lot to say about people going to heaven. EVP has a lot to do with discarnate people, so by associaon, EVP is oen treated as a maer of faith. When it comes to maers of faith, many people—probably paranormalists in parcular—are reluctant to let others tell them what to believe. In the early days of EVP, virtually everyone who came to us came with preconcepons which we had to overcome before the concepts could be taught. Probably 90% of the thousands of quesons we answered right aer White Noise were concerned with fear of demons, fear that loved ones were stuck, and fear of bringing a demon home when they record for EVP. A second idiosyncrasy of human nature became obvious around 2007. People were coming to us with preconcepons about EVP that were based on prey silly assumpons. There was a growing number of ghost hunng clubs, and by then, each had one or two people who recorded for EVP. Individual clubs, and somemes groups of clubs, developed unique theories of what EVP was,

how to record for it and how it worked. The rest of that story is that Lisa and I are not all that charismac. We approach these phenomena with a pragmac point of view which leaves lile room for faith and unfounded belief. Our explanaons were technical, and I am afraid that we did not do a very good job of communicang the concepts. Probably the most damaging change in the community was the introducon of radio-sweep as a technique for recording EVP. It was like a silver bullet because all people had to do was repeatedly move the tuning dial through the radio spectrum in about 2.5 second sweeps. The resulng audio stream of music and voice fragments was thought to contain meaningful messages. It did not help that White Noise used a similar technique as a prop. Our study of radio-sweep (73) (74) has shown that it probably does not produce EVP, even though good stories can be concocted about the sounds to make it seem like there are messages. The silver bullet proved too tempng for most people, and as we began refusing to review radio-sweep examples, the ATransC became less and less popular as people looked for places to share their radio-sweep messages. As the ghost hunng clubs became more popular, and as social media drew people from discussion boards to FaceBook-like outlets to sasfy the need for sharing, membership in the ATransC began to dwindle. At one me, I was able to gather ten or

ﬁeen competent praconers for an experiment. But because we will only use transform EVP for research, we can no longer aract the necessary praconers. Wikipedia In 2007, I registered as a Wikipedia editor. This is discussed in more detail in the Wikipedia Commentary. As that experience applies to this discussion, it became painfully obvious that there are people in the world who have the same kind of faith in science as others do in religion. This faith in the infallibility of science is referred to as sciensm, and from personal experience, I can say that it is as damaging as religion in so far as the exchange of ideas is concerned. The Wikipedia experience gave me a good sense of how people, in what one must think of as mainstream society, deal with metaphysical concepts. This is important because the skepcal editors, who control what is wrien in arcles concerned with things paranormal, learn their point of view from opinion seers in the skepcal community. As witness that the skepc’s message is being heard, virtually every parapsychologist who publishes arcles in the media has at one me or another railed at the injusce of skepcal aacks. Funding for parapsychological research is nearly nonexistent, and the claim that parapsychological phenomena are pseudoscience and therefore a danger to society has turned the U.S. government and others against their study. It is said that a scienst can ruin his or her career by being associated with anything paranormal, making it almost a certainty

that the mainstream status quo will connue for the foreseeable future. Parapsychology The majority of people in the paranormalist community are hobbyists. Some may have an advanced degree, but not necessarily one related to paranormal phenomena, and they do not usually aempt to work with transcommunicaon under the authority of their degree. Some people in the community are cizen sciensts but most are just having fun. Those who are using EVP to help with their grief over losing a loved one tend to be a small minority, and from my experience, they seem to ﬁnd more help from mental mediumship. (75) With a few excepons, parapsychologists are ﬁrst psychologists, and interesngly, some of the most an-survival people hold a degree in psychology. The study of Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC), which includes EVP, is technology intensive. By this, I mean that electronic devices are used and understanding physical principles is essenal to understand transcommunicaon. So the study of ITC requires an understanding of human nature, audio and visual principles, electronics, and metaphysics. Psychologists are trained to understand human nature, and as I said, most are predisposed against the survival concept. See the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study for a discussion about the complexies of transcommunicaon phenomena. Most of the ITC research conducted by parapsychologists that I am aware of has been based on poorly conceived protocols, suggesng the authors had lile or no operaonal understanding of the phenomena. Not surprisingly, the majority of what lile ITC research has been conducted has been

reported as failure to replicate-style arcles. See the Anomalisc Psychology in the Science Commentary. Lack of a Workable Theory The most common complaints I hear from skepcs about EVP are that it is fraud, mistaken noise (pareidolia), or unnoced background conversaons, in that order. I should say that here the skepcs are both mainstream science apologists and parapsychologists. If the conversaon does get past the inial accusaon of fraud, pareidolia or mundane sounds, the next complaint is that there is no workable theory to explain ITC. If this complaint comes from an academic, never mind the ﬁeld of study, the conversaon prey much ends. I am defeated for three reasons: 1. With only a four-year college degree, I am not an academic and have no intellectual standing amongst academics. (academic-layperson paron) 2. The alternave explanaon favored by most parapsychologists for transcommunicaon is the Super-Psi Hypothesis which only allows for survived memory and not connued life. 3. There is lile sense in arguing that there is the Survival Hypothesis because it exists as lile more than a name. In fact, most of the people we look to for such theories are not qualiﬁed to develop one. I know of one parapsychologist who has the academic credenals but he is poorly informed about ITC and predisposed to favor Super-Psi. The most damaging insult to the paranormalist community is the publicaon of failure to replicate-style arcles by supposedly pro- paranormal organizaons in their peer reviewed journals. The identy and qualiﬁcaons of the peer

reviewers are always hidden. At the same me, there has been lile opportunity for nonacademic rebual. This is discussed in the Science Commentary. The Implicit Cosmology The Trans-Survival Hypothesis came ﬁrst as my eﬀort to provide a useful, well-supported argument for survival of personality aer bodily death. It is my answer to the complaint that there is no theory, and is very diﬀerent from other such theories because it includes what is known about transcommunicaon. The Implicit Cosmology came next. It is based on the Trans-Survival Hypothesis and a wide range of metaphysical concepts. Some of these concepts are objecvely supported and some inherit plausibility from other concepts. It is a cosmology because it begins with a ﬁrst cause and extrapolates a model of reality that allows for known phenomena and their current explanaons. The intenon of the Implicit Cosmology is to provide a structure in which to understand transcommunicaon. As it turns out, it also helps me understand my nature. The hypothesis is also very diﬀerent because it is wrien by an engineer rather than an academic. This is a point that needs to be kept front-most in your mind as you read this book. I do not have an advanced degree, and I am only familiar with human nature based on experience and not training. The thing about engineers is that we are trained to account for all known inﬂuences on a system when we develop a design. To miss one might cause a product to fail, perhaps

cosng lives. When I develop a model, I am almost compelled to account for every factor I can imagine. At the risk of seeming snide, academics seem to be able to pick and choose what they are going to pay aenon to in a study, perhaps because they are only working in a theorecal sense. That is a statement of academic policy in the study of anomalisc psychology. Above all, my objecve in wring this book is to foster more informed conversaons about things paranormal that at least include consideraon of survival. PS: Some people have what is considered a good moral compass which guides them toward being a good cizen. However, some people only obey the law to the extent that they think they might be punished for violaons. The Implicit Cosmology was also wrien to provide a reason why people should live mindfully. They should, not because they must, but because they eventually must, and doing so now will make life very much beer in the long view. The Organizing Principles are naturally self-enforcing. I fantasize that, if people come to understand the concepts, they will just naturally become beer cizens. Community Commentary 1: Community A Community Divided It may help you beer understand the Implicit Cosmology if you have a sense of the environment in which it was developed. First, let me clarify a few terms. For lack of a beer term, I refer to people interested in things paranormal as paranormalists and their community as the

paranormalist community. Here, paranormal is used to mean subjects that are concerned with mind-body duality (nonphysical personality), the psi ﬁeld, connuaon of consciousness beyond bodily death (survival), the natural environment of mind in which personality survives (the etheric), and communicaon across the mind-body interface (transcommunicaon). Such subjects as reincarnaon, out-of-body experiences, and near- death experiences are not purposefully excluded. It is just that those communies of interest seldom overlap into what I want to talk about, so there is lile reference to them here. To some extent, the same is true of the many people who experience spontaneous aer-death communicaon. Historical Perspective A good place to begin discussing our community is with the New Age community according to Tom. I grew up in Susanville, which is a small mountain town in Northern California. We had a typical small town radio staon with a lot of country music, but on a good night, I was able to pick up a really cool jazz staon out of Salt Lake City. Becoming the New Age Community I fancied myself as a beatnik, and that self-identy followed me to Eureka, California where I aended high school. As I remember, Eureka bills itself as the Heart of the Redwoods and Rhododendron Capital of the World. That sense of beauty and art fed my beatnik mentality. Yes, I had bongo drums! In fact, I was distracted enough by art and fear of nuclear war that I would not have graduated from high school in 1961 had

it not been for architecture and commercial art classes. Here is an example as to why Wikipedia is so bad for our culture. At the me of this wring (2015), the Wikipedia arcle for Beatnik was wrien by someone who probably detested the whole concept. (76) While I expect the subculture had diﬀerent meaning for others, this lile boy from a logging town saw it as a culture that evolved out of Emerson’s Transcendentalism. Jazz was a conduit to soul and mainstream culture was not to be trusted. The Hippy generaon was in full bloom when I was discharged from the Air Force in 1966. Had I not been sequestered in that military world for four years, it is probable that I would have been seen as a hippy. But as I returned to civilian life sll condioned by military discipline, the beatnik in me was suspicious of the apparent lack of responsibility the hippy subculture exhibited. All of this is important to this account, because I was able to watch the hippy subculture evolve into the New Age culture in the 1970s from the perspecve of a far simpler worldview. By the me people began talking about the New Age, I had already been involved in the study of metaphysics for many years. This gave me a prey good understanding of the fundamental concepts. I like to think of New Agers as a community of like-minded people with a culture of seeking, rather than the more individual-centric culture of

the hippy generaon. As with paranormalists, a New Ager is apt to come across as a naïve idealist, but the New Age community sll culvates important ideas which represent our ﬁnest qualies. The New Age Culture, then, represents the basic ideals that nature is a living organism (Gaia), that we are all connected as cizens of the greater community, that our individual potenal is unrealized, and that it is important to ﬁnd ways to access that potenal. I think of this point of view as human potenal. In comparison, the paranormalist community is a blend of human potenal (psi funconing), survival, and transcommunicaon. Enter Spiritualism Okay, yes I know, spiritualism started way before beatniks or any of these modern subcultures. It is reasonable to say that the spiritualism I am concerned with here began in the last half of the 1800s. Most of the culture, religion and precepts were established prior to 1900, but shortly aer 1900, spiritualism as a religion began to withdraw, and today, it represents a relavely small community. Although organized spiritualism has diminished, well over ﬁy percent of people in our Western culture are spiritualists at heart. (77) Think of spiritualism as the belief in survival aer bodily death and communicaon across the veil and then think of the New Age community as being focused on human potenal. That is similar to the disncon I make in the Science Commentary between parapsychology being mostly focused on extraordinary human ability, and those of us who are focused

more on survival-related phenomena. Organized spiritualism claims quite a long list of phenomena as the phenomena of spiritualism, but from a more contemporary perspecve, many of the phenomena are beer seen as psi funconing or human potenal. As a praccal maer, any form of trans-etheric inﬂuence thought to be iniated by a discarnate personality is a phenomenon of spiritualism. For this discussion, the important point is that the combined inﬂuences of spiritualism and the New Age culture have produced our present paranormalist community. It is characterized by the belief in human potenal and survival, but as I will explain later, communies of interest within the paranormalist community lean more toward one or the other. Paranormalist Community The paranormalist community includes ﬁve main communies of interest. It is important to note that a person might be involved in all ﬁve: 1. Parapsychology: Academically trained, usually with doctorates, concerned with theorizing and conducng research, primarily considering the human nature-based response to phenomena, especially psi ﬁeld-related phenomena. 2. Cizen Sciensts: People who are involved in the study of these phenomena on the layperson side of the academic-layperson paron. 3. Mediumisc Praconers: People who apply techniques to induce transcommunicaon, such as mental and physical mediumship, automac wring and ITC. Healing intenon is included here. 4. Hobbyists: This community of interest is primarily composed of ghost hunters. There are hundreds of ghost hunter clubs which are usually operated as social clubs with haunted house invesgaons as oungs. They usually employ quite a lot of technology

to collect evidence, including recording for EVP. 5. Seekers: People who are interested in understanding these phenomena as it relates to their true nature and relaonship with reality. Such concepts as personal improvement and human potenal apply to this community of interest. Each group represents a very diﬀerent point of view, and while each group is relavely self-suﬃcient, all must be considered for the proper study of these phenomena. Parapsychology A parapsychologist holds a degree from an accredited college or university, usually a doctorate. Accreditaon is an important criterion because there are organizaons that teach classes in parapsychology and even oﬀer degrees or cerﬁcates, but which are not recognized within mainstream academia. Parapsychologists usually hold a degree in psychology; however, some do hold technical degrees. This is an important consideraon which is discussed later in the Science Commentary. While parapsychologists are technically paranormalist and part of the community, there is an academic-layperson paron that eﬀecvely isolates them from the rest of the community. Despite this isolaon, and probably because people are culturally indoctrinated to respect sciensts, it is common for people in the paranormalist community to look to parapsychologists for learned direcon in all things paranormal. At the same me, the focus of parapsychology is typically on extraordinary human ability, speciﬁcally as related to psi funconing. In research, phenomena thought to be related to Trans-Survival are typically studied by parapsychologists as psi funconing or the normal mistaken as paranormal. The two contending explanaons for paranormal phenomena are the Super-Psi and

Survival Hypotheses. As a general rule, parapsychologists can be expected to select the Super-Psi Hypothesis over the Survival Hypothesis if psi funconing or a normal human explanaon cannot be found. Because of its academic roots, the ﬁeld of parapsychology has inherited academic standards of peer review, collaboraon, scienﬁc methodology, and a culture of respect for academic authority. However, as is shown in the Range of Interest Diagram, below, mainstream science does not generally accept the ﬁndings of parapsychology, and in fact, any involvement in paranormal subjects can harm a scienst’s mainstream career. The mainstream academic system generally does not teach about paranormal subjects other than about the evils of pseudoscience and the many ways people can be delusional. As previously noted, most parapsychologists hold a psychology degree. I can only name one who has a second degree in technology, which I consider necessary for the study of ITC. The consequence is that most parapsychology research is restricted to human behavior else the researcher is working outside of his or her training. While possibly not qualiﬁed to study the hard science side of paranormal phenomena, parapsychologists typically do have the necessary training in methodology to conduct research that is generally lacking on the layperson side of the paron. With that said, paranormalists are frequently the best informed people in the community when it comes to working with these phenomena. Even when compared to parapsychologists, people who have studied things paranormal for many years and have parcipated in numerous paranormal related acvies

are oen the most knowledgeable about the speciﬁcs. It should also be noted that a paranormalist may hold an advanced degree in an unrelated ﬁeld and approach the study of things paranormal as an avocaon. Coupling corporate savvy and probably unrelated technical skills with ﬁrst-hand ﬁeld experience oen produces very qualiﬁed invesgators, even if they do not refer to themselves as parapsychologists. Citizen Scientist Ideally, people who study nature are trained to do so by an academically cerﬁed organizaon, but in many cases, the magnitude of a research task may be such that a few academically trained sciensts must depend on volunteer assistants for roune tasks such as data collecon and ﬁeld support. These layperson research supporters are somemes referred to as cizen sciensts. They may be paid, and in some forms of research, it is their computer that is used in a distributed network, or they may provide the necessary eyes for searching photographic data or counng species. For comparison, in the early days of radio, many ham radio operators could have been referred to as cizen sciensts. There are usually few academically trained sciensts in froner ﬁelds, in which case, virtually all of the organized study is conducted by enthusiasts. Haunngs invesgaon groups are a good example, and of course, the study of ITC has historically been shunned by academics, making it necessary for cizen sciensts to ﬁll the resulng void. A characterisc of psi and transcommunicaon phenomena is that they cannot be studied without an able praconer.

As is noted below, this means that most research protocols depend on the use of cizen sciensts as qualiﬁed praconers. A disncon needs to be made between ghost hunters as hobbyists and haunngs invesgators as cizen sciensts. For the hundreds of ghost hunng clubs, an evening looking for evidence in a presumed haunted locaon is a fun oung. While some valuable informaon about the phenomena may come from such oungs, such informaon is seldom reported in a form and venue suitable for collaboraon. Some invesgaons involve a protocol and a well-wrien ﬁnal report. The invesgators would be considered cizen sciensts if the ﬁnal report is made available to parapsychologists and other cizen sciensts in a form which permits crical examinaon and in a forum which permits quesons and answers. Admiedly these are my criteria. Mediumistic Practitioners A person who has translated interest in a subject into some form of commercial or personal pracce is considered a praconer. Praconers in the paranormalist community are mainly concerned with various forms of mediumship and psi funconing, but this group also includes people working with ITC and healing intenon. The main consideraon for inclusion in this community of interest is that the pracce is based on the person’s desire to work with objecve phenomena. These phenomena are considered forms of transcommunicaon in that they suppose the inﬂuence of intenonality on the psi ﬁeld and trans- etheric informaon access. Praconers may begin with a natural talent, but study and work developing a personal methodology is

typically necessary. Without such people, these phenomena cannot be studied under controlled condions. Without a doubt, there is a natural distribuon in nave ability. With the limitaons of current teaching methods, some people are simply beer able to develop into conﬁdent praconers than are others. With that said, with study and a lot of work, most people should be able to achieve some success in working with these phenomena. Hobbyists There is a progression of interest in things paranormal that oen begins with a casual interest in something like ghosts which leads to membership in a local group. In this way, local groups can be a person’s ﬁrst introducon to the reality of things paranormal. For a few, this becomes a life-long study, and it is this progression that the community can potenally nurture. Ghost hunters are like-minded people who gather together in local clubs to invesgate a reportedly haunted place in an eﬀort to collect evidence about the cause of the haunng phenomena. Some groups approach the hunt with formal protocols and produce meaningful reports, while others mainly just seek to have fun. Even though there are substanal diﬀerences between recreaonal ghost hunng and serious invesgaon of supposedly haunted places, both groups are generally discounted by the more academically trained members of our community. This has produced something of a vacuum of leadership which has forced the less well-trained paranormalists to their own devices. The result is less than academic-quality research and reporng, and the isolaon of a very

valuable research capability from researchers who are trained, but lack access to the necessary praconers. In a few rare instances, parapsychologists have embedded themselves with paranormal invesgaon groups to produce important research. Seeker A seeker is deﬁned here as one who consciously endeavors to gain understanding that will opmize wellbeing and that might improve the ability to live in harmony with nature. Concepts such as mindfulness, being a good cizen, we are all connected, and thoughts are things typify the seeker point of view. To be clear, we are all seekers. It is just that most of us do not consciously seek beer understanding, wellbeing, and harmony. The seeker community of interest within the paranormalist community is not normally associated with a relavely large group of casual seekers who are possibly just entering the paranormalist community, but have yet to develop the necessary knowledge base for discernment. Peripheral Inluences There are a number of social groups which are not considered paranormalists but which have an important inﬂuence on the evoluon of Etheric Studies. Surprisingly, the least organized is probably the most inﬂuenal, so I will begin there. People Who Believe A popular survey queson has to do with whether or not a person believes in some aspect of the paranormal. In a 2005 Gallup arcle, “Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal” (77), it is noted that “about three in four Americans profess at least one paranormal belief.” At ﬁrst glance, one would think this implies strong support for Etheric

Studies, but this belief is condional. People are very good at compartmentalizing their worldview so that beliefs that contradict objecve understanding can coexist with a person’s objecve view of reality. For instance, it is common for a usually pragmac person who does not believe in paranormal phenomena to sll be a religious person who believes in God and Divine inﬂuences in life. With this in mind, it is reasonable to think that many survey respondents answered from the religious compartment of their worldview and not from their objecve perspecve. For the purpose of this discussion, consider this casual belief. A second form of casual belief is whether or not respondents have made a conscious associaon between belief in an aspect of the paranormal and the implicaons of that belief. For instance, it may not occur to a person who believes in ghosts that the ghost might be a vising loved one. In a similar way, belief in intuion may not equate with belief in the possibility of psi funconing. As opposed to casual belief, belief as convicon translates into willingness to study the subject or in some way support the study. We are not aware of any surveys designed to diﬀerenate between casual belief and convicon, but from our experience, the number of people who are convinced some aspect of the paranormal is real is considerably smaller than seventy-ﬁve percent. When referring to the paranormalist community, I am including people who are willing to put their beliefs into acon and

not casual believers. Both casual and convicon believers have a substanal inﬂuence on the media because of markeng potenal and on the greater community when opinion is translated into funding of projects. As is noted in the discussion about pseudoscience, it is this group of people which stands between paranormalists and potenal legislaon designed to limit research. See the Psi Research Commentary. Casual Seekers It can be argued that all of us are seekers of understanding, but in this book, I am idenfying seekers as a community of interest in the paranormalist community. They are interested in understanding things paranormal so as to beer understand their nature and relaonship with reality. Such concepts as personal improvement and human potenal apply to this community of interest. A way of generalizing this group is to think of what one must understand and do to be a good cizen in society. A basic understanding for seekers is that we are all connected on both sides of the veil. This oen translates for seekers as being a good cizen in the greater society. Paranormalist seekers tend to focus on a parcular path of learning. For instance, one might be primarily involved in the study of and working with transcommunicaon. To be on a path generally means to be learning to be mindful and to pracce discernment. Seekers that I do not consider part of the paranormalist community are those who, for the lack of a beer word, dabble in the study of things paranormal.

As a longme observer, I speculate that these casual seekers involve themselves in paranormal subjects because of curiosity and/or while seeking personal improvement without regard to their cizenship in the community. In me, many casual seekers do sele on a path of learning and become dedicated seekers. There are no numbers I am aware of for the relave size of this group, but if mainstream society represents 100% and 75% of those who believe in some form of paranormal phenomena, then casual seekers are probably 2-3% and paranormalists are probably less than 0.5%. Religion The most fundamental criterion for a paranormalist community of interest is that it is not intenonally associated with faith or magical thinking. With that said, it is very diﬃcult to completely transform the way tradionally religious concepts are described into new terminology that does not imply the usual religious concepts. The term spirit is probably the most diﬃcult to replace, but others such as death and angels are also concepts carrying substanal religious baggage. Interesngly, the same problem occurs with terms used in science. For instance, the science-based meaning of energy is not applicable in purely conceptual etheric space, yet it is the term one reaches for when trying to talk about potenal. With energy not having the usual meaning in etheric terms, concepts such as electromagnec and frequency also do not apply. One knows what is intended, but using them leads people oﬀ on dead-end ways of thinking. The tradional inﬂuence religion has on paranormal

phenomena has had and connues to have a substanal inﬂuence on paranormalists. For instance, it is common to hear a paranormalist speak in objecve terms about a mediumisc ability, but then in the same sentence, describe it as a gi. Skeptics While many people have healthy skepcism about paranormalist claims, there is a small segment of mainstream society who have taken the name of skepcs and who are aggressively an-paranormal. Aer a few years of aempng to balance paranormal arcles in Wikipedia, and being more or less constantly abused by skepcs, I have come to understand that there is a point of view in mainstream society that has assumed the moral authority to combat the spread of pseudoscience, AKA, belief in all things paranormal. The skepc point of view is that, if science does not speciﬁcally account for a phenomenon, then it cannot be, and therefore it cannot exist. Of course this is sciensm. The nature of the skepc threat to the paranormalist community is illustrated with this quote from the “Health and Educaon Implicaons” secon of the Pseudoscience arcle in Wikipedia: Pseudoscienﬁc beliefs are irraonal and impossible to combat with raonal arguments, and even agreeing to talk about pseudoscience indicates acceptance as a credible discipline. Pseudoscience harbors a connuous and an increasing threat to our society. It is impossible to determine the irreversible harm that will happen in the long term. In a me when the public science literacy has declined and the danger of pseudoscience has increased…. (78)

(current as of January 2016). When this point of view is translated into acon, it could potenally lead to limitaons on paranormalist ability to work with these phenomena. See the Skepcs and Wikipedia commentaries. A More Pragmatic View of the Community The way I have parsed the community is a funconal view which I have learned through experience. Each part of the community is ulmately dependent on the others. Each part has a role to play if the reality of psi funconing, survival, and transcommunicaon are to become part of mainstream thought. While I speak of community support for research, the actual support is coming from a few people who are interested in the science and want to support the work. These are generally successful, well-educated senior cizens who make it their business to be knowledgeable about these phenomena. Yes, of course, there are many more generally successful, well-educated senior cizens who can be found on the non-academic discussion boards, but most have not exhibited the discernment, understanding, or ability and inclinaon to help fund research. Look around the places you frequent on the Internet. Are you seeing pragmac discussion amongst discerning, knowledgeable people? Can you get a sense of informed parcipants? If not, perhaps it is me to reconsider how you spend your me. The point of these comments is that the intellectual minority is supporng research and giving parapsychologists a reason to do their work. The next part of these commentaries is tled Science, and while much of

my commentary there is in the form of complaining about parapsychology and the academic-layperson paron, it is intended to focus on what needs to be improved. Personal Agendas The New Age community was probably at its greatest in the late 1970s. Today, New Ager is something of a condescending term reserved for people who are willing to believe in anything that might unleash their hidden potenal. At the same me, there are many people in the New Age community who will sell anything from blessed rocks to special treatments guaranteed to open chakras. Care must be taken here not to be too general. Certainly some techniques, devices and beliefs are eﬀecve, if only to condion expectaons so that the client can create the desired reality. However, there is much about the New Ager selling to New Ager culture that gives the rest of us a bad name in the eyes of mainstream society. In the ﬁrst dra of this book, I argued in this commentary that the commercial inﬂuence had not yet aﬀected our community; however, it is clear now that I was ignoring the evidence. When Lisa and I assumed leadership of the ATransC, my focus was on EVP, and later on ITC. Sure, there were a few courses oﬀered for a fee, but the devices used for ITC were mostly repurposed commercially available equipment. While most of what was oﬀered for sale was informaon, most of that was freely available on organizaon websites such as atranc.org. Between 2000

and about 2007, it was easy to gather people who were eager to experiment with ITC. Most of the conversaons found on the sll young Internet were about comparing experiences, sharing examples, and helping one another work with techniques. Aer 2007, our ATransC membership began to diminish, as did parcipaon on paranormalist discussion boards around the Internet. Facebook was introduced in 2005 and it was really catching on by 2007. Social media has had a profound inﬂuence on how people share ideas and sasfy their need for community. This has led to diminished quality of communicaon as here now and gone tomorrow posts provide the illusion of community while reducing it to a new kind of inane babble. A strong supporter of the ATransC recently used Kickstarter to help fund a new television series on survival. His target was $500K. While I thought it was a lile high, I also thought it might be possible considering the thousands of paranormalists in our community. As it turned out, 35 people pledged a total of $10,277. (79) Considering the number of paranormalists that I am sure knew about the fund drive, such a poor turnout was unexpected. Was it just that people were lost in social media or was there a more praccal explanaon? Why does ATransC.org have six or seven hundred website visitors every day but ﬁnd it impossible to aract parcipaon on the discussion board or help with research? Why are many other discussion boards virtually abandoned? It is clear

that many people seek informaon about things paranormal. But few of these same people make an eﬀort to further the understanding of others, or even to seek beer understanding by asking quesons. I understand that beer educated science buﬀs tend to stay out of the public eye and that parapsychologists do not fraternize with laypeople, but what about the other ninety-nine percent of paranormalists? If you pay close aenon to who is posng in the paranormal oriented Facebook pages, you will noce that many, probably most, people posng are mediums, authors, or people teaching a paranormal oriented course or selling products. Some are also focused on spreading the word about a favorite theory. In short, much of the parcipaon in online paranormalist circles is by people who have an agenda other than seeking understanding. Here, I need to make it clear that I am one of the people teaching and promong an organizaon. Probably like most other people promong something, I am involved with these things because of a strong interest in all things paranormal and a desire to see the community mature. There is nothing wrong with being acve on the Internet to make a point. I am the last person who wants someone to do something for free. The eﬀort required to serve others warrants a reasonable fee, and certainly me and eﬀort should be compensated. It is also important to note that it is the people seeking to promote something who are building the infrastructure for the

paranormalist community. The problem is that most of what is being built today are islands of informaon that seldom connect with or even relate with the larger community. My point is that, while the Internet looks like a very busy place, many of the acve people are seeking to do or teach and not seeking to learn. The seekers and intellectuals are mostly absent. While many people are fans of my friend’s eﬀorts to produce a television series we would all beneﬁt from, hardly anyone is willing to pitch in a dollar to help out. While everyone is happy to read the four hundred plus pages on ATransC.org, virtually no one is willing to help out or even ask a queson. The only conclusion that seems to answer the evidence is that the paranormalist community is following the way of the New Age community as paranormalists seek to sell to paranormalists, rather than do what it takes to move understanding of these phenomena out of the froner and into mainstream society. In a very real sense, ours is not a cooperave community. Blind Men and an Elephant In the Blind Men and an Elephant parable, blind men were tasked with describing an elephant based on the part near which they stood. As you might expect, the elephant was variously described as a tree, wall, spear, even a snake. The point of the parable is that one cannot know what is being studied by only studying a part. In a very

praccal sense, mainstream science, parapsychologists, praconers and people involved in survival research are as blind men examining the elephant-paranormal. This blind examinaon of the phenomena is exasperated by the academic-layperson paron but it is compounded by a tendency of laypeople to assume understanding they do not have. Natural Cycles An important concept for seekers is the idea that progression tends to be cyclic. The same can be said for communies. It may take a new generaon for meaningful progress to be made, but it is a reasonable certainty that future history will describe today’s paranormalist community as a short- lived transion between superson and mainstream understanding of the greater reality. The Implicit Cosmology will not be the last such aempt to facilitate this evoluon, but for now, it is my vision that you will take what you learn here and help develop the paranormalist community. Progression takes a community. Help others to help yourself. Community Commentary 2: Point of View Introduction Point of view is our I think the world looks like this perspecve. While I talk about the etheric personality perspecve in the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse, this commentary addresses point of view from the physical body or body-centric perspecve: that is, from the perspecve of our conscious self as it is informed by our immortal personality, cultural educaon, and human body insncts. This is the I think I am this identy we are accustomed to thinking of as who we are. In the Implicit Cosmology, the immortal personality is

modeled as our mostly unconscious I am this identy. Our point of view determines the community we gravitate toward and the kind of cizen we become within that community. Point of view is determined by worldview. Worldview represents what we believe to be true, and because it has such a profound impact on our lives, it is important to know what we believe and why. This commentary is intended to provide a sense of how we become who we are in terms of atude about life, how beliefs aﬀect a lifeme and how we might take charge of these very important inﬂuences. The second aspect of this discussion concerns understanding the point of view of other people. Since organizaons and communies tend to develop a collecve personality, understanding point of view will also help you understand how to relate to these enes. Models for Reality There are three well-established models or theories designed to explain who people are and their relaonship to the world. (80) These models are: Personality and body are one: This is the mainstream view in which the mind is believed to be the product of the brain. The mind exists enrely within the brain and all funcons of mind can be aributed to processes within the brain. Personality and body are one and the psi ﬁeld exists: This is the same as mind and body are one with the excepon that it allows for the existence of a psi ﬁeld which permeates the enre physical universe.

Each person is thought to be connected to the whole by this ﬁeld, and through psi funconing, is able to sense it. In this view, personality is a product of brain, but memory of that personality remains in the psi ﬁeld and is accessible via psi funconing. Personality and body are independent: This view requires that there is a nonphysical aspect of reality, referred to here as the etheric. This view suggests that the physical body evolved in the physical and hosts the etheric personality which evolved in the etheric. The personality and body are independent model best answers current evidence and is used throughout the Implicit Cosmology. In general, the physical body is considered an avatar for the etheric personality. In this view, personality requires the physical body in order to directly experience the physical. While the etheric personality is associated with the physical body during a lifeme, its perspecve is as conscious self peering at the world from within the avatar’s head. Here, a person is deﬁned as a personality entangled with an avatar. What We Are Born With According to the Implicit Cosmology, we came into this lifeme with the urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality through life experiences. Our etheric personality has probably experienced many diﬀerent venues for learning, and so we come into this lifeme with a certain amount of acquired understanding which prepares us to beer understand the nature of new experiences. In eﬀect, we are born with a hunger to

learn and a preexisng inclinaon toward what we will learn. This urge guides us in life choices which might lead to beneﬁcial or at least meaningful experiences and helps us make sense of them. The Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse includes a descripon about how the environment, body consciousness, worldview, and experiences inﬂuence percepon. Because point of view is usually physical body-centric, the ability of our etheric personality to inﬂuence behavior is very limited. As is illustrated in the Percepon Diagram, the path of learning for personality is via the Perceptual Loop as it is limited by worldview in the Aenon Complex which supports percepon and expression. Worldview The Aenon Complex in the Percepon Diagram is an unconscious process. It represents how environmental informaon is translated into conscious awareness. Note that the Perceptual Loop is moderated by worldview and funcons as a ﬁlter that stands between a person’s I think I am this perspecve of the conscious self and the I am this perspecve of the person’s etheric personality. What we think of sensed informaon is what emerges into our awareness aer it is moderated by worldview. As such, worldview represents personal reality because it determines how we understand experiences. A person is born into this lifeme with a degree of understanding inherited from its collecve, and perhaps gained through prior experiences in other venues, plus an urge to gain further understanding about the nature of reality. However, at birth, worldview is dominated by the human insncts of its avatar. Worldview is

quickly populated with informaon happily provided by our parents, teachers, religious leaders and community. We are taught what is right according to our culture. We are not born with a moral guide, and therefore, might not have the presence of mind to recognize atudes taught about other people as prejudices. Conscious self’s ability to inﬂuence worldview is also limited by the Perceptual Loop, meaning that cultural norms may be all we know. As the perceptual process is modeled, if someone tells us something like “New York City is a great place to live,” the informaon is unconsciously visualized and compared with worldview in the Aenon Complex. The unconscious process would likely relate the statement with how we currently live and how we would like to live. Because this is an unconscious process, our reacon to the statement might emerge into our conscious awareness with agreement or perhaps an alternave view without our realizing how we arrived at that response. Even more importantly, if the statement is reasonably close to what we previously believed, it will likely go toward modifying our worldview. Perhaps this would be experienced something like “So and so thinks that....” Temperament As is discussed in the Personal Style and Astrology poron of the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse, the concepts of personality styles and astrological inﬂuences may help us understand our temperament. The idea is that we are born with a temperament which stays with us through the lifeme. Personality styles we appear to be born with are typically

describe din terms we would use for raonal thinking such as analycal or amiable. Astrological traits are described in terms more appropriate for animal insncts such as need for shelter or compable with another sign. You may remember that a basic queson in psychology is whether temperament is inherited from a family member (nature) or learned while a child (nurture). Considering Sheldrake’s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon, temperament can be at least parally modeled as Nature’s habit established by preceding generaons. A reﬁnement of Sheldrake’s hypothesis oﬀered in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis is that the entangled personality contributes the urge to gain understanding to a person’s temperament. Point of View as Inluenced by Temperament If we come into a lifeme with an urge to learn and a predisposion to prefer certain experiences, then the temperament models may be an indicator of the nature of that predisposion. Our worldview helps to shape atudes, but that inﬂuence is moderated by our predisposion or the temperament with which we were born. For instance, a community may teach its cizens to be deeply afraid of demons, but if the temperament of a member of that society is to queson authority, it may be natural for that person to turn that fearfulness into a curiosity as to why demons are fearful. Upon discovering there is nothing to fear, temperament might help to modify worldview’s inﬂuence, perming the person to be more accepng of the unknown. So it is temperament or predisposion to select learning opportunies that determines

point of view. In turn, being aware of point of view helps us to beer understand who we are and why we do what we do. This in turn changes automac reacons to situaons into more deliberate responses. We will experience and learn from those experiences without deliberate control, but being truly self-aware means knowing why. In that way, it is possible to align worldview and point of view with nature. Villager-Explorer Effect This is more commonly known as the Sheep-Goat Eﬀect, but I do not much like being called a sheep. In 1942, Professor Gertrude Schmeidler idenﬁed a correlaon between people scoring high on a belief in the paranormal survey with their psi funconing scores. Conversely, a poor belief score correlated with a lower than chance psi funcon score. She referred to this as the Sheep-Goat Eﬀect with believers as the sheep. (81) As noted, for my self-esteem, I am referring to the believers as explorers because of their willingness to explore new ideas. Conversely, I am referring to disbelievers as villagers because of the more conservave atude of people who follow cultural norms and depend on maintaining the status quo. This concept implies that people who allow for the possibility of new ideas are more likely to experience new ideas. The inverse of this can be seen in the concept of incredulity blindness, a term I use to describe how some people are inexplicably unable to see or hear examples of paranormal phenomena. See the Perceptual Agreement Discourse.

Even if a person is skepcal, suspended judgment as an openness to the possibility of the unknown oﬀers far more opportunies to experience phenomena. The Aenon Complex which supports percepon is designed to make decisions about what is real and what is not. It is also designed to characterize what is real in terms familiar to the person. In this same model, intenon expressed by the conscious self is the means by which the perceptual process can be evolved. As such, following the Villager-Explorer Eﬀect, the intenon to withhold judgement about experiences enables more experiences. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Engineering Imperative At least in ﬁelds of study concerned with the physical sciences, there is a hierarchy of skill in which sciensts expand knowledge, engineers apply knowledge and technicians implement plans. This is a generalizaon, but one which is of praccal importance to this discussion. In a parcular subject or skill set, neither a scienst nor an engineer can be expected to have the praccal experse held by a journeyman technician. In froner subjects, technician-level skills might be equivalent to psi, medium and ITC praconers. In froner subjects, praconers are oen the most knowledgeable about the subject even though they may not be prepared to assess the paranormality of their experience. For the most part, an engineer holding a Bachelor’s of Science degree has been trained in the same subjects as a doctorate in a physical science. Doctoral programs are generally more detailed and some include training in many

tasks related to research design, data collecon, analysis and research documentaon. Engineering curriculums are designed to introduce the physical concepts necessary to understand involved principles with emphasis on applicaon. From personal experience, this means that an electronics engineer should be able to idenfy known physical principles that might be involved in research data. Of course there are many life circumstances that help to determine how far a person progresses in college, but experience has shown that there is a substanal diﬀerence in point of view between people who choose to be an engineer with a four-year degree and those who go on to earn a doctorate. In my experience, this diﬀerence becomes a factor when it comes to characterizing phenomena. Doctorates depend on precedence and the guidance of exisng theory, and while engineers do depend on precedence, they are also obliged to account for observed circumstances without regard to their theorecal nature. Put in terms important to the study of froner subjects, mainstream sciensts are taught that everything must be deﬁned or at least predicted by exisng theory. If an observed incident is not covered by known principles, it is likely to be discounted as either an illusion or fraud. For instance, stascal outliers are rounely discarded during data analysis. This dismissive point of view is demonstrated over and over again in the struggle for truth between skepcs and experiencers in froner subjects with skepcs saying, “It is impossible and therefore cannot be.” This is diﬃcult to characterize without over-generalizing.

The point is that people with an engineer’s point of view do not have the luxury of discounng phenomenal events just because they do not comply with known science. In this sense, there is something of an engineering imperave to account for the objecve inﬂuences as well as the human factors constung the circumstances of a design. If people experience it, then it must become a factor in the design. In response to this imperave, the engineer’s approach to the study of froner subjects can be expected to begin with the development of a hypothesis based on the assumpon that the phenomena exist. In a praccal sense, doctorates are not allowed to make that assumpon. It is crical that people working on either side of the discussion remember that this diﬀerence in point of view is a huge hindrance to meaningful communicaon across the academic-layperson paron. (Of course, an engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree is seen as a layperson.) In the spirit of Thomas Harris who told us in his book I’m OK, You’re OK that real communicaon between two people could only occur if both are in an OK place in life, communicaon can only occur if both sides agree that phenomena have occurred. (46) Point of View of Organizations People have a point of view, but organizaons are composed of a community of people. While personality style (temperaments) is a way to model the point of view of people, a similar model might be used for

organizaons based on typical goals, objecves and assumpons. From the perspecve of Etheric Studies, an organizaon might have one of the following points of view: Human Psychology: Usually parapsychology; speciﬁcally, an academic approach with emphasis on a physical-world perspecve; emphasis on research; and collaboraon but guided by community norms. This is the parapsychology community of interest. Emergent Science: Emphasis on an academic approach; deliberate openness to new ideas; and open to concepts of nonphysical and survived personality if they can be explained with mainstream science. This is the parapsychology community of interest. Human Potenal: Usually academic; open to nonphysical explanaons; focus on personal growth and the human condion; supports research; and educaon by opinion seers. This is the parapsychology community of interest. Social Paranormal: Desire for scienﬁc approach; for many, oen ﬁrst experience in paranormal; strong community; emphasis on nonphysical and survived personality; lile formal collaboraon; and, educaon by emergent cultural norm. These are the Trans-Survival and transcommunicaon communies of interest. Metaphysical: Study/research of phenomena related to trans-etheric inﬂuence; desire for scienﬁc approach; community emphasizing educaon and applicaon of organizing principles; and speciﬁcally open to nonphysical and survived personality. These are the trans- survival and transcommunicaon communies of interest. Parapsychology is marginally involved. Naturally, the Metaphysical point of view best suits Etheric Studies; however, it is important to emphasize that this list is conceived from the ATransC perspecve. Other points of view may be appropriate for the representave organizaon’s goals, but it is important that people understand there are signiﬁcant

diﬀerences between organizaons based on mainstream thought and those allowing for possible postmortem survival. Litmus Test As a general observaon, members of the parapsychological community of interest are less than candid about their point of view. As a professional choice, some will do almost anything to avoid adming a preference for Trans-Survival, Super-Psi or mental aberraon, I suppose, so as to avoid seeming unscienﬁc. There is lile doubt this book is wrien from the point of view that the Trans-Survival Hypothesis is valid. So it should not surprise you that I use a litmus test of sorts when I consider the usefulness of organizaons, theories and research reports. If Trans-Survival is not even considered in the discussion, my ﬁrst reacon is that the person will not present an honest assessment of these phenomena. Anomalisc psychology is a good example of this. Community Commentary 3: Etheric Studies Introduction Even a cursory review of the scienﬁc literature will show that survival of the personality aer physical death (Trans-Survival), and an aspect of reality in which personality survives (the etheric), is not well studied by the scienﬁc community. The ﬁeld of parapsychology typically stops short of the study of survival as a possibility, tending instead to study it as probable residual memory or illusion. 1234 The subjects of near-death experiences, reincarnaon, and out-of-body experiences are also studied in parapsychology, but lile from that community of interest reaches those of us interested in survival. There remains a substanal body of experiences and empirical evidence

that is mostly ignored by the academic community. It is this systemacally ignored informaon which is the focus of Etheric Studies. Scope of Etheric Studies The relave range of interest of physical, psi, and Etheric Studies is shown in the Scope of Etheric Studies Diagram below. The physical aspect of reality would be just a subset of all of reality. Anything other than physical reality, or that which is not considered physical, is etheric. There is some form of etheric-to-physical interface which is probably being experienced via the psi ﬁeld. Psi studies is treated as a stand-alone ﬁeld of study, but in this cosmology, it is treated as a subset of Etheric Studies. In fact, the physical is also part of Etheric Studies because, in the Implicit Cosmology, reality is modeled as consisng of life ﬁelds and the expression of life ﬁelds. Reality itself is modeled as a life ﬁeld called Source. As such, Source is the reality ﬁeld and all of the elements in the reality ﬁeld including the physical are either direct or indirect expressions of Source. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. As life ﬁelds entangled in an avatar relaonship with a human, we express reality as we understand it. Here, it is important to note that the physical is seen as a collecve expression in which we are both one of the creator personalies and one of the experiencers. Reality is modeled as conceptual in form and only experienced as objecve because the mind is trained

to experience it as such. Hints via various forms of transcommunicaon indicate that our sense of what is objecve will evolve as we move on to other venues for learning. With these consideraons, physical characteriscs such as evoluon and great planetary age are arfacts of how the physical was conceived. As it is modeled, worldview, which represents our personal reality, resists large changes, but is responsive to small, incremental changes. We create based on habit, so evoluon of the physical is a reasonable arfact of how the collecve learned to experience the physical. Why the Name, Etheric Studies? Most of the people involved in the study of survival from the perspecve of ITC are cizen sciensts. Because of this, the actual study of survival is from a very diﬀerent point of view than typically expressed in parapsychology. This disconnect in points of view is the reason it is always important in report wring and conversaon to clarify which point of view is being expressed. To facilitate conversaon, a name was required to disnguish that part of the paranormalist community which is concerned with the study of Trans-Survival as possibly real from that part which studies it as probably not real. One of the requirements for a name is that it is easy to use, not a new term, and recognized by the average person. For instance, when someone hears the term things etheric, he or she at least understands that the subject has something to do with the nonphysical. Terms,

such as meta science turn out to be too arcane, and anything that is speciﬁc to ITC or any other subject of the paranormal would not accommodate the other aspects of these phenomena. Empirical metaphysics was a good candidate at one me, since the study is primarily based on research and objecve examples, but again, the term sent people scrambling for a diconary. Simplicity is important for a household term. Nonphysical was tried for a while. It works okay, but it is something of a physical-centric term while all of the models are etheric-centric. Surprisingly, fewer people have indicated that they have even an idea of what is intended by nonphysical, while etheric is easily related to the early eﬀorts to deﬁne the greater reality. (82) Most people have been taught about aether in relaonship with Greek philosophy in high school. (83) It is interesng that even Albert Einstein speculated about the existence of a characterisc of space sll best described as ether. (84) Even though the idea was set aside by later sciensts, the need for an etheric characterisc of reality is oen noted in quantum physics, although physicists will probably not refer to it as ether. What Einstein called the Cosmological Constant seems to have been resurrected as Zero Point Energy in quantum physics. This diﬀerenal between absolute zero energy and what is actually measured in a vacuum at absolute zero temperature may represent the etheric-to-physical interface. This is a good illustraon of how important mainstream science is

to Etheric Studies. Surely a beer term for this ﬁeld of study can be found, but by now, Etheric Studies is fast becoming established and changing it would cause much lost me. It seems best to sele on the current term for now and let circumstances lead us to whatever will become common usage as this ﬁeld becomes established. Who Studies the Etheric? Anyone aempng to understand the nature of survival is by deﬁnion, involved in Etheric Studies. A mental medium or a person working with ITC is an Etheric Studies praconer. A person who studies these subjects is an Etheric Studies researcher. A researcher may be a physicist or psychologist specializing in psi studies as a parapsychologist, but when studying the relaonship between the medium and the etheric communicator, the researcher is working in the ﬁeld of Etheric Studies. The demarcaon between physical, psi, and Etheric Studies is dependent on the subject. For instance, a theory proposed by Alexander MacRae (85) to explain the mechanism of etheric to physical inﬂuence is that the physical property ﬁrst inﬂuenced by psi is the relave permeability of physical maer. (86) This hypothesis involves a conceptual inﬂuence organized by a person which produces a physical change. To evaluate this hypothesis, it is necessary to employ researchers with psychology, metaphysics, transcommunicaon, and physics skill sets. In a diﬀerent example, a proposal that there is a psi ﬁeld which connects people is normally the domain of parapsychology (psi studies), yet when the queson of how

an etheric communicator inﬂuences that ﬁeld is studied, Etheric Studies must be considered. The disnguishing assumpons here are the parapsychologist’s preferred point of view that mediumisc messages are psi funconing only and the Etheric Studies point of view that they may be expressed by discarnate personalies. Future As a term, Etheric Studies is a placeholder unl it has more popular acceptance or a more popular/useful name comes along. As a ﬁeld of study, Etheric Studies and parapsychology should eventually merge, just as both will likely eventually merge into the mainstream with an even more appropriate name. In the meanme, as cizen sciensts try and fail to gain cooperaon from parapsychologists, and as more one-sided research reports are published which include statements known to be wrong, naïve, and/or harmful to the community, the academic-layperson paron becomes a “Do it yourself” signpost for cizen sciensts. Community Commentary 4: Science As you read this commentary, please remember that it is wrien from the perspecve of a non-academic person looking over the wall of the academic-layperson paron. My comments are a lile strident because I look for meaningful direcon from the academic community, but instead, daily deal with its absence. Your experience may be diﬀerent—but is it reality? Introduction Hands down the most disrupve inﬂuence for the paranormalist community is science. When Lisa and I assumed leadership of the ATransC in 2000, one of our ﬁrst goals was to engage science in our eﬀort to understand Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). From all of our

eﬀorts since that naïve beginning, praccally the only thing we learned from science has been why we should give up trying to work with the established scienﬁc community. Now to be clear, science as a philosophy is sll king. It is only through disciplined study, codiﬁcaon of observaons, theorizing, and hypothesis tesng that humankind has been able to consolidate progress as civilizaon. The problem has been in how that noble philosophy has been applied on behalf of the paranormalist community. In short, too many people posing as parapsychologists under the cloak of authority of their doctorate degree have treated the paranormalist community as a plaything by ignoring best pracces of science and ethics. Cultural Landscape In this commentary, I aempt to explain the point of view I have developed about science during my aempts to understand transcommunicaon. As a director of an organizaon that is chartered to support people who seek to understand and apply these phenomena, I see it as one of my dues to comment on the community dynamics which inﬂuences the paranormalist community. Dominant Views of Reality There are three primary subject areas which shape the paranormalist science landscape: Psi Field: Mind-body duality and psi ﬁeld theory, as well as extraordinary human abilies such as psi funconing, which includes such abilies as clairsenence, intenonality, psychokinesis, remote viewing and healing intenon. (Super-Psi Hypothesis) Spontaneous Trans-Survival phenomena: Near-death and out-of-body experiences, reincarnaon and spontaneous trans-etheric inﬂuences which are generally referred to as Aer-Death Communicaon (ADC). (Survival Hypothesis) Transcommunicaon: This

includes such induced forms of trans- etheric inﬂuence as induced ADC; mediumship, precipitaon, apports, and both audio and visual forms of Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC). (Trans-Survival Hypothesis) As I discussed in the Etheric Studies Commentary, the study of transcommunicaon is dependent on the study of psi. Conversely, the study of psi has a dependency on the study of transcommunicaon, in that it is unlikely the ﬁeld will progress much further without including concepts associated with Trans-Survival. Point of View The dominant points of view are psychology, emergent or froner science, human potenal, social paranormal and metaphysical. Parapsychology supports all of these areas of interest but is more supporve of psi-related phenomena. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) (87), Society for Scienﬁc Exploraon (SSE) (88), and Parapsychological Society (PA) (89) are the organizaons I look to for support. Organizaons that anchor themselves with the concepts of transcommunicaon and survival include the NSAC Spiritualist (2) Associaon TransCommunicaon (ATransC) (90) and Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies, Inc. (ASCSI). (3) These focus on phenomena that can be construed as the inﬂuence of a discarnate personality. These are represented above as Trans-Survival and Transcommunicaon communies of interest. An encouraging change: Mark Leary, Ph.D. (74) was asked to submit a secon on EVP for the 2015 Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century. (91) Leary invited me to parcipate, which I happily did (thank you, Mark). This is perhaps the beginning of a new me for Etheric Studies which could bring changes negang much of what

I complain about in this commentary. Communities of Interest The paranormalist community is fragmented into ﬁve communies of interest. These are Parapsychology, Cizen Sciensts, Mediumisc Praconers, and Seekers. They are discussed in detail in the Community Commentary. The focus of this commentary is science as it is pracced in parapsychology. Names that Separate Science from Belief It is natural for a person who wishes to be taken seriously by the academic community to rename phenomena so that what is being studied might appear less woo woo, to use a term favored by skepcs. An important example of this is the shi of perspecve from studying spirit, which is a religious term, to studying psi, which is a more analycal term. Such a change is more than cosmec. Parapsychologists maintain that the term psi is a placeholder to be used unl more is known about the apparently nonphysical, subtle ﬁeld it represents. Spirit is a term that is oen used to describe that subtle ﬁeld, but the term’s religious connotaons unnecessarily complicates discussion of related phenomena. For instance, while spirit and psi may be diﬀerent words for the same characteriscs of reality, in a general sense, there is nothing about the way psi is deﬁned to suggest it has any relaonship with God, while spirit is commonly described as the stuﬀ of God. The use of etheric is also an eﬀort to avoid spirit and to signify the greater reality, as opposed to the more local psi ﬁeld. It is used

as a characterisc of Source, but here I intend Source in a conceptual sense and not as a deity. Of course, the diﬀerence is probably nonexistent. It is just that I see support for none of the religious-related behaviors such as worshiping a father god. As deﬁned, Etheric is also a superset of psi, or put another way, psi is just a local occurrence or aspectaon of the more universal and less diﬀerenated etheric space. The etheric verses psi choice of terms is a good example of point of view. As I have stated above, parapsychologists are reluctant to refer to heaven in any way. A religious person might use etheric space as a synonym for heaven. The psi ﬁeld is oen described as a characterisc of the physical. One might think of it as an aura of sorts. If so, then it would be a local aspect of heaven in a religious context. You can see the thin line scholars must walk to maintain an objecve pose. The shi in perspecve from the terms used by experiencers to psi- oriented terms has changed the academic vocabulary so that academics no longer eﬀecvely communicate with experiencers. For instance, I have encountered the phrase anomalous cognion used when medium or clairvoyance was intended. Bioﬁeld therapy is a good one for spiritual healing, but here I am guilty as well because I use healing intenon. Normalizing Terms One of the most important points to consider in the study of these phenomena is

that two people may be discussing the same phenomena, even from the same point of view, yet be using very diﬀerent terminology. On close examinaon, many systems of thought commonly assumed to be more religion than factual actually contain important insights that support modern objecve observaons. For instance, the idea of cyclic progression is expressed as Key 16, The Tower, in the Major Arcana of the Tarot (59), as Dark Night of Soul (92) in biblical text, and as the modern realizaon that people naturally learn in cycles. (93) One reason for suspended judgment is that we understand what we experience based on our worldview. All three points of view menoned above—Tarot, biblical, and modern educaon—are concerned with how we learn. Deciding that one or the other is wrong based on our percepon of word meaning too easily robs us of an opportunity to gain insight. If we do not pause to normalize terms into the perspecve of our point of view, we might well miss the point. In many ways, the path to understanding is by way of suspended judgment. Theory of Everything There are many Theories of Everything (TOE) that are speciﬁcally designed to explain these phenomena in terms of mainstream science. They are usually wrien in a way intended to convey academic rigor, but the result is too oen incomprehensible to the casual reader. Few readers take the me necessary to understand what is intended. The result is that their oen slick, usually persistent presentaon may lead

to wide acceptance of TOEs that contradict the beliefs of those who applaud the theory The litmus test for a TOE is whether or not it allows for survival. Most do not and instead maintain that mind is a product of brain and ceases when the body dies. They may provide for some form of psychic funconing with retenon of memory in some form of subtle energy ﬁeld. These days, the subtle energy ﬁeld will probably be described in terms of quantum theory. This form of survival is a fundamental concept in the Super-Psi Hypothesis and only provides for survival of memory, not living personality. To allow for Trans-Survival, a theory should provide for personality to exist prior to birth of the body and connue aer death in an interacve, sll evolving form. To cut through the confusion, just ask if survived memory existed before the birth of the body. In one TOE, it is necessary to ask if it existed before physical world life began because the author argues that survived memory begins from the primordial soup. A Close Look at the Science-Layperson Relationship The deﬁnion of science is typically stated as the study of the natural world using theorecal models based on experimental data or observaon. Sciensts are people who have studied those theorecal models, methodically conducted experiments, and who have made observaons to further reﬁne those models. In our society, a scienst is understood to hold a doctorate degree from an accredited instuon. Certainly the quality and

subject of educaon is important but immersion into the academic community introduces doctoral candidates to a culture in which crical thinking, careful aenon to detail, literature reviews and collaboraon is the norm. While this diﬀerence in culture is probably the reason for the academic-layperson paron, the discipline is necessary for a maturing community. Some organizaons oﬀer a doctorate degree in exchange for a fee and perhaps a lile academic eﬀort. As I understand it, a degree purchased from an organizaon that does not have mainstream accreditaon is useless. It is also likely that having such a degree means the person has not learned the disciplines needed for careful research. A point of order to keep in mind is that a person holding a doctorate is not necessarily a scienst. A praccing psychologist, for instance, may not be a qualiﬁed researcher. He or she may turn toward that work, but just having a degree and pracce by itself is not enough. Academic-Layperson Partition The academic-layperson paron is the funconal separaon of academia from laypeople. It is probably more cultural arfact than deliberate separaon, but the eﬀect is that people who have a doctorate degree from an accredited instuon tend to shun people who do not. More than once, Lisa and I have found ourselves ignored by doctorates. For instance, during a conference at which we presented, all of the doctorate presenters were on the stage during the queson and answer session while the rest of the presenters were on the ﬂoor

in front of the stage. Not a big deal in itself, but the message was clear. This paron is very pervasive. We gave two parapsychologists free access to a world-class physical mediumship demonstraon. I asked for feedback from them in return. Aerwards, one said that he was in an interesng discussion about physical mediumship in a parapsychologist’s discussion group. Knowing beer than to ask to parcipate, I again asked to be told what came of the discussion. We have never received an answer. By itself, this would not raise a red ﬂag other than perhaps to note the inconsiderate behavior, but when considered in the light of an academic- layperson paron, it is infuriang! Peer Review In the academic view, science journals are not credible unless they follow a policy of peer review and maintain a high scholasc standard for authors. If a publicaon claims to be peer reviewed, it is saying that included arcles have been read by advisors who are knowledgeable in the same or a closely related ﬁeld with the intenon of providing suggesons for improvement. In principle, readers can properly believe peer reviewed arcles meet a high standard of report design, conceptual integrity, and adherence to the best pracces of scienﬁc methodology. The three English-language organizaons with peer review journals I see as having the most inﬂuence in transcommunicaon and survival studies are Society for Scienﬁc Exploraon (SSE) (88), Parapsychological Associaon (PA) (89), and Society for Psychical Research (SPR). (87) Who their peer reviewers are is

kept secret. The reader is expected to assume the editor acts in good faith to team the most qualiﬁed reviewers with authors to assure published arcles meet the highest standards possible. From my perspecve, this is not the case for at least one of the organizaons. The SSE has published a number of failure to replicate-style research reports that appear to me to be based on ill-informed assumpons and poorly designed protocols. At the same me, the organizaon has been unfriendly toward leers to the editor from the lay public. It also has a history of favoring an-survival reports. The result is to isolate the organizaon from much of the supporng community and create the kind of dissension I have expressed here. Scientiic Method Aer truth, the most sacred arcle of faith in the scienﬁc community is the scienﬁc method. The ﬁrst signpost of the scienﬁc method is the understanding that, if something is to be researched, it must be done with the intenon that a ﬁnal report will be submied to formal review leading to publicaon. Otherwise, it is just an informal study. According to the academic community, people holding a doctorate degree conduct research while laypeople can only study. There are a number of fundamental elements that are reasonably expected in any research project: Hypothesis: The underlying assumpons should be clearly stated. Research Queson: A research queson based on the hypothesis should be able to be arculated. Literature Review: There should be a well-understood reason for the queson

which can be arculated in the ﬁnal report. This should at least include reference to applicable exisng theories and prior research. Protocol: A protocol should be prepared which states how the queson will be studied. It should include a step-by-step procedure showing how data will be generated and collected and the form it is expected to take. The protocol must be followed. Analysis: How the resulng data is to be analyzed should be decided as part of protocol design. Analysis should be limited to data collected during execuon of the protocol. That which is collected outside of the protocol is only informaon and should have lile inﬂuence on the ﬁnal report. (Of course, such informaon would be expected to help shape future protocols.) Report: The ﬁnal report should be reviewed by subject maer specialists for both conceptual understanding and sound pracces. It is especially important that the data analysis phase of report development is evaluated by independent reviewers. Modiﬁcaon of Hypothesis: Results of the research should be used to modify the hypothesis, presumably leading to a new research queson. Best Practices In the idea of best pracces is that the basic scienﬁc methodology will be adapted, based on current and most successful methodologies. That is one of the main reasons for the literature review. No one expects a single person to be an expert in all things, so an underlying assumpon of science is that research is supported before, during and aer by collaboraon with subject-maer specialists in the same

and related disciplines. Legitimacy of Research Reports A psychologist is not qualiﬁed to unilaterally conduct research on the nature of ITC. This is true in the same way that, with only a degree in electronics, I cannot credibly conduct research on a mental syndrome or eﬃcacy of a drug. It is something of a cultural norm that someone holding a doctorate can conduct research, but someone without one can only conduct studies. While this is something of a social rule, it is also a praccal consideraon of qualiﬁcaons and a way to set the expectaons of the public. I might say that I researched something, but it is important not to do so under cloak of the kind of authority people look for in people holding a doctorate degree. Researching something is not the same as presenng a research report. By the same social rules, and I expect academic rules, it is not okay for a person to present work as science just because the person has an advanced degree. It is an abuse of academic authority and unethically biases the public’s expectaon of truth. The same can be said for a journal claiming to employ peer reviewers. Without disclosing the reviewer’s qualiﬁcaons, there can be no realisc expectaon of good science. Conversely, good science is not established if the reviewers are not reasonably conversant in the subject. In our too small paranormalist community, it is also unreasonable for a research report to be published without a mechanism for public

comment. Here, I mean comment by the paranormalist community and not just fellow parapsychologists. The alternave is that people like me have no choice but to complain from outside of the system. While it is something of a social obligaon to speak out about perceived problems, doing so only alienates segments of our community and displays internal confusion to our detractors. One of the rules in science is that research must be published. The alternave is accusaon of what some refer to as the ﬁle drawer eﬀect in which data that does not agree with the researcher’s expectaons are discarded. It is also known as selecve reporng. The rule that research must be reported is reasonable, but it cannot apply to people working outside of their discipline. By that, I mean a psychologist studying ITC is not required to publish unless there is reason to think the research complies with best pracces. In praccal terms, most, if not all of the failure to replicate-style reports I have read should not have been published under the cloak of academic authority because the authors were working outside of the ﬁeld in which they were trained. Writing Style Naturally, research report wring requires a good understanding of the subject, but it also requires good communicaon skills. It is reasonable for research to be published in membership supported journals. Having helped to publish the quarterly ATransC NewsJournal for many years, I understand that it takes organizaon, money, and qualiﬁed human resources to support journals.

Consistent with the science-layperson paron, research reports too oen end up behind the paywall of academic libraries. Membership in these tends to be free to alumni and individual university libraries usually extend access to alumni from other universies. It might cost $60 or more to read a single report if the person is not in the library system. With this pay-to-read system, it is virtually impossible for laypeople to conduct a literature review, which is one of the prerequisites of proper research. Public funds are allocated for supports of universies, and by extension their library system. An example of the very substanal infrastructure and public support of academia is the Naonal Science Foundaon Network (NSFNET) which “was iniated in 1985 to support and promote advanced networking among U.S. research and educaon instuons.” (94) The second part of this issue is the apparent need for parapsychologists to appear scienﬁc. I say this because so many of the reports are clearly wrien more to impress than to communicate. Another tell that parapsychologists are trying to look scienﬁc is their inclinaon to frame of every point in stascal parameters. As I discuss in Decisive Determinism in this commentary, most of these phenomena need to be studied with a deﬁnitely there–deﬁnitely not there standard for inclusion. There is a place for stascs, but by now the need to establish for proof is mostly past. It is me to begin establishing theorecal models. Pseudoscience A hypothesis must be able to be proven or disproven, a

principle referred to as falsiﬁability. It is the falsiﬁability problem that leads most people to discount paranormal subjects. For instance, saying “I believe in God” is heard by a scienst as “God is real.” It is not considered possible to prove there is a God. You can present many example based on “How can you doubt that God did this?” but a cute lile animal is not proof of divinity when it can be argued that the animal’s evoluon can be traced from primordial soup to its present form. Modern science does not predict the psi ﬁeld, nonphysical beings, or mind-body duality. As such, hypotheses which depend on concepts that are not predicted by accepted theory are not considered falsiﬁable. A scienst may believe in God, but it is typical for people to compartmentalize their religious beliefs from their percepon of an otherwise objecve world. From my experience, anyone trained in reduconist reasoning will tend to tune out when presumably unfalsiﬁable concepts are menoned. Thanks to the skepc, mainstream society is being taught to think of our eﬀorts to study these phenomena as pseudoscience. The pseud- preﬁx means false. Also review Pseudoscience in the Skepc Commentary. Anomalistic Psychology Later in this commentary, I talk about the concept of Trojan horse paranormalists. Anomalisc psychology is a Trojan horse ﬁeld of study. The author of “What is Anomalisc Psychology?” (95) deﬁnes paranormal as: “Alleged phenomena that cannot be accounted for in terms of convenonal scienﬁc theories.” He explains that “Anomalisc psychology may

be deﬁned as the study of extraordinary phenomena of behavior and experience, including (but not restricted to) those which are oen labeled ‘paranormal.’ It is directed towards understanding bizarre experiences that many people have without assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved. It entails aempng to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.” At least some transcommunicaon phenomena such as ITC occur in an objecve manner that can be experienced by others. ITC depends on psi funconing and an intelligent trans-communicator. Other phenomena have similar characteriscs that can be studied by their eﬀects on the physical. For instance, intenonality can be objecvely studied by the inﬂuence it may have on living organisms. Since these eﬀects are oen studied as non- contact inﬂuences, even far across the world and as real-me exchanges between praconers and siers, nonlocality is also studied. The concept of a psi ﬁeld and intenonality inﬂuencing psi ﬁelds permeates all of these phenomena. This means that psi funconing is part of the study of ITC, mediumship, intenonality and healing intenon. Transcommunicaon, especially induced ITC, and some aspects of mediumship are best explained with the Survival Hypothesis as living personality rather than residual memory. Whichever hypothesis is considered, Super-Psi or Survival Hypothesis, the phenomena are modeled in such a way that they can be studied as a system of related experiences. Research that ignores these facts can only be seen as debunkery. In reference to the above

quote from “What is Anomalisc Psychology?” it is insulng to suggest that I am ignorant enough to be “assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved.” The study of anomalisc psychology typically involves giving subjects a psychological test designed to determine their belief in things paranormal, and then showing them examples that might indicate something paranormal. If the person says the example is of something paranormal, then the response becomes part of the proof that people with a predilecon toward things paranormal tend to idenfy things as paranormal even though everyone knows there is no such thing. From the above quote, the emphasis is on “It entails aempng to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.” While it is apparently wrong to aribute something as paranormal, it is okay to assume a person is delusional while requiring only a good story to explain why. This is a kind of circular referencing because the conclusion of witness bias is based on predisposion, frequently learned from actual experience. See the Villager-Explorer Eﬀect in the Point of View Commentary. The study of anomalisc psychology is treated by the Society for Scienﬁc Exploraon (SSE) (88), Parapsychological Associaon (PA) (89), and Society for Psychical Research (SPR) (87) as a form of parapsychology. This is a problem for many paranormalists because they tend to assume that anything to do with psychology in paranormal research is going to be from the paranormalist’s point of view. The

result is that anomalisc psychology is having much more inﬂuence than it should because of false representaon. The Study of Paranormal Concepts Experience has shown that research of paranormal phenomena may need to be conducted with a diﬀerent scienﬁc method than used for mainstream research. I say this because paranormal phenomena are all about conceptual inﬂuences causing apparently objecve eﬀects. In a very real sense, the meaning of percepon is assigned by convenon so that we are taught from birth to experience informaon associated with the physical as objecve and informaon associated with the etheric as imaginary. Probably because of this, reduconist methodologies oen fail to consider the conceptual inﬂuences and treat what we assign as objecve as the only things that are real. The Paradox of Objectivity From a body-centric point of view, conceptual means all in the mind and objecve means physically solid; however, the inﬂuence of intenonality is from outside of the physical system, so that paradoxically, intended expression is perceived by the conscious self as objecve. It is assigned that characterisc by convenon. As it is used for mainstream research, the scienﬁc method is designed to study such characteriscs as acon-reacon, mass, momentum, velocity and propagaon. In this cosmology, these characteriscs are results of intended expression, actually mental arfacts that are ideoplasc structures. In mainstream science, the conceptual-objecve interface is not considered. Instead, theories are designed to explain a purely objecve nature of reality. Parapsychologists have aempted to adapt this point of view for psi research

with mixed results. However, there has been lile success in adapng mainstream methodology to survival-related research. Departures from the Science Methodology The fundamentals of the scienﬁc method are probably universal. However, the following are important points of departure in Etheric Studies from the mainstream approach to science: • Brain as transceiver: It is assumed by mainstream academia that the brain’s processing of sensed informaon can be monitored by monitoring biological acvity. From that, it is assumed that disabling the part of the brain that is processing sensed informaon also destroys that informaon In Etheric Studies, the brain’s processing of sensed informaon might be able to be monitored, but the informaon is modeled as exisng outside of the brain. The mind-body duality model followed in Etheric Studies holds that disabling the brain only disables its ability to express associated informaon into the physical. The informaon itself is assumed to remain in the psi ﬁeld. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. • Modeling percepon: A host of issues are involved with the idea of how people perceive reality. Agnosia, incredulity blindness, inaenonal blindness, villager-explorer eﬀect (sheep-goat), pareidolia, and gestalt associaon are just a few of the terms oen used to describe perceptual error. The best model I have found to describe percepon is First Sight Theory (13), which is used in the Implicit Cosmology as the rule set for the Perceptual Loop. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Any research concerning percepon is incomplete if it does not consider these inﬂuences in

protocol design and data reducon. • Body-centric and personality-centric: There are a number of ways in which the body inﬂuences percepon that can bias research results. The Life Field Complex Diagram illustrates the relaonship between personality and body mind as it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology. The diagram is useful for visualizing the diﬀerences between body-centric and personality-centric percepon. To indicate this diﬀerence, a general statement can be made that the body reacts while the mind examines. For instance, the body fears while personality is cauous. Protocols should consider this diﬀerence between the inﬂuence of human insncts and the presumably more raonal percepon of the entangled personality. See the Point of View Commentary. • Inability to shield intenon: A common praconer error is the assumpon that, if the praconer is not touching the equipment, then he or she is not involved. In fact, one must think in terms of inﬂuence from the praconer or an interested observer. The praconer and observer may be anywhere. • The inﬂuence of intenonality: Electronic measuring devices are designed to display inﬂuences they are intended to detect. Properly designed, they suppress spurious physical inﬂuences. However, psi inﬂuence can cause changes in transistor circuitry that may produce a false posive reading. For instance, a magnec ﬁeld detector might signal the presence of a magnec ﬁeld, when in fact it is detecng a psi inﬂuence on the noise within its circuitry. The device is, by design, only able to indicate this inﬂuence as a change in

magnesm. Evaluaon of protocols and data should be a collaborave eﬀort that includes people qualiﬁed to idenfy sources of false posives. See the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study. • Peer review: The qualiﬁcaons of peer reviewers are probably as important as the qualiﬁcaons of the researchers. Their qualiﬁcaons should be known to the reader and they should represent mulple disciplines. If this is not reasonable, then the reader should be advised as to the limits of review. In our sparsely populated community, it is reasonable to publish a research report in a normally peer reviewed journal even if suitable peers are not available. It is more important that good studies are made available for collaboraon. If such a report is published, it is the ﬁrst duty of the editor to assure the lack of peer review is explained. • Stascal analysis: Current best pracces for stascal analysis apparently require that outliers be discarded. A Class A EVP, for instance, is by deﬁnion, an outlier. As such, stascal analysis may not be appropriate for EVP. The same can be said for most ITC and mediumship. Mediums who are able to reliably deliver veriﬁable informaon are outliers themselves. The average person is able to funcon as a medium, but the rare veriﬁable message would have to be considered a stascal outlier. Decisive Determinism The inﬂuence of intenonality as it is detected in controlled condions is typically very small so that a study of psychokinesis involves detecon of small deviaons from the norm.

It is also well established that experimenters are able to inﬂuence the outcome of experiments. This can be due to unconscious bias in procedural decisions and analysis of data, but there are indicaons experimenters might contaminate data collecon by introducing a small psi inﬂuence during experiments. There is no known way to shield the psi ﬁeld from the inﬂuence of intenonality. That simple fact might turn out to be one of the best proofs of the existence of the inﬂuence of intenonality, but for now, it is a reason why protocols intended to detect small deviaon should be avoided. In transcommunicaon, the communicaon is either there or it is not. For instance, it is ATransC policy to not use Class C and Class B EVP for demonstraon unless there is some compelling reason. Requiring Class A examples can be construed an all or nothing approach to research. In controlled studies of mental mediumship, the medium produces veriﬁable informaon or not. Stascal analysis of whether or not a message is veriﬁable ignores the reality of the phenomena and how people translate psi informaon into messages. On the other hand, stascal analysis of the frequency of veriﬁable messages is useful for determining the conﬁdence of the praconer, but that is an operaonal issue and should not be a measure of proof. Decisive determinism also helps with the issue of experimenter bias. Such bias usually has a very small eﬀect, and the saturaon state of all or nothing at all means ignoring small

signal inﬂuences. Qualiied Practitioner Another deviaon from common pracces in science is how data is acquired. A common pracce is to hire college students to do the roune work required by research protocols. In a study of EVP reported in the Society for Scienﬁc Exploraon (96), recording EVP was considered roune work and was conducted by college students. As should be expected, other important aspects of this protocol designed and executed by a psychologist were fatally ﬂawed, but the assumpon that would usually doom the study was that any inexperienced person can reliably record and hear EVP. This is an example of how wrong assumpons produced a useless protocol: the would-be researcher recorded around sixty hours of sound ﬁles and then listened to the results for EVP. Our pracce is to record for about three minutes in a single session. It takes us an average of thirty minutes to examine the three-minute recording. Based on ten minutes of analysis per minute of recording, it would have taken us some 600 hours to properly analyze the recordings for EVP. I am assuming he did not spend that amount of me, and in fact, used a procedure that assured he would overlook possible EVP. (96) The best pracce for such studies is to standardize recording sessions to about three minutes and then to consider the number of uerances and quality per session using mulple blind listeners. The average person should be able to learn how to record EVP, but it takes a

lile focus and pracce. Probably the biggest problem is learning how to ﬁnd, and then understand, the recorded uerances. People have described it as learning a second language because the paranormally formed voices usually lack the usual audio cues people need to recognize words from noise. (21) I am a good example. Try as I do, I can only occasionally record a useful EVP. Lisa can reliably record one almost every session. Most of mine are Class C and B, while many of hers are very exceponal Class A. Probably one in a hundred people who try will become a competent praconer. Anyone can master the mechanics, but it appears to be more a queson of lucidity than one of determinaon. So here is the boom line. As a best pracce, transcommunicaon research protocols must require proven praconers and the use of qualiﬁed witness panels. This applies to all forms of transcommunicaon including mediumship. Research Grants Verses Contracts Parapsychologists depend a great deal on research grants; however, as might be expected, there are very few granng organizaons that support the study of anything having to do with things paranormal. One important reason for so few granng organizaons is that they are virtually enrely supported by our relavely small paranormalist community. As directors, Lisa and I have always considered the ATransC a research organizaon. (Here, I use research in the generic sense as formal study.) We have iniated a number of studies with both member and website visitor parcipaon. Our expectaon

has always been that informaon would be shared throughout the project and that a ﬁnal report would be issued. Lacking realisc access to peer reviewed journals, we depended on publicaon in the quarterly ATransC NewsJournal and the online Journal secon of ATransC.org. We have also issued two research grants that were targeted toward speciﬁc research quesons. It is the experience of these two projects that has produced much of what I have included in this Science Commentary. In the ﬁrst project, our ﬁrst shock was the researcher’s demand for secrecy during the several years of the project. We also feel that the contracng organizaon’s refusal to consider our input, inappropriate applicaon of the scienﬁc method, and failure to comprehend the concept of a pilot study contributed to the disaster that was delivered to us. The second project was with a more mature organizaon, but it was abandoned by that organizaon before it was begun. My guess is that soberer minds prevailed when they realized the subject was EVP and that the ATransC is not an academic organizaon. An ATransC member and parapsychologist salvaged the project, and even completed it using some of his own funds. I am not menoning the name of the organizaon because there remains hope for future professionalism. The ATransC is sll a publicly funded research organizaon, but thanks to our experience with supposed real science, and aer witnessing the almost religious applicaon of the scienﬁc method in our ﬁrst eﬀort, our policy now is to keep

research under a strict contract model. In eﬀect, when we have a queson, we pay to get it answered. There is no secrecy and the results are publicly accessible. The administrator of one granng organizaon I am familiar with admits that all they can do is screen the candidate before issuing a grant, but aer it is issued, they are not able to impose restricons or even assure a report is published. This is a problem because, as enablers, granng organizaons have a responsibility to assure they have not funded work that is contrary to their stated objecves. Stated another way, the granng organizaon has a degree of ethical responsibility for the contents of the resulng research report. As an example, see One Bad Apple: A case Study below. I recognize it is idealisc to expect granng organizaons to manage work they have funded, but the alternave appears to be too many of the kind of debunking failure to replicate kind of reports that I am complaining about in this commentary. Litmus Test Having a yes-no test for something is intellectually risky, but there are tells. If I can know from the abstract that the author assumed mental aberraon over the possibility of genuine phenomena, the journal editor should be able to know not to include it without appropriate warning to the reader. This is really a simple point. Trojan horse arcles typically ignore current understanding. As such, the research is incomplete and the report should not pass peer review.

Most sciensts know that the discussion secon should at least consider alternave hypotheses. Trojan Horse Organizations I am of two minds concerning naming names in this commentary. As an ATransC director, I have always assumed the responsibility to warn members about problems in the larger community. If we did not, then who would? The other side of the argument is that naming names is divisive for the community and skepcs too oen use the tension as proof of our confusion. For the most part, I have tried to generalize my comments here, but in some cases, the problem is just too acute to ignore and I feel compelled to accept a leadership responsibility to shine light where it is needed. As you read this book, please consider the need for awareness by other praconers who might become the object of some armature scienst’s aenon. My comments are limited here, but I am a lile more aggressive on EthericStudies.org, should you wish to explore. Especially look under the Essays Tab. Poorly Managed Expectations Some organizaons claim to represent the full range of paranormal phenomena, yet their acons suggest they are covertly skepcal about Trans-Survival. Since the rest of us want to take them at face value, the result is a form of entrapment as our expectaons are not matched by their acons. The same can be said for psi phenomena when a parapsychological organizaon publishes reports that are ostensibly honest studies of extraordinary human potenal, but are in fact intended to

debunk the paranormality of the experiences. Here, I am speaking of the growing number of anomalous psychology reports in the leading parapsychological journals. The fault is really not with the organizaons. The problem is more likely that we are culturally condioned to respect academic organizaons. I know that I began thinking parapsychologists are our sciensts. It took a closer look and a few bad experiences to teach me that at least some people in the parapsychological community of interest are not actually sciensts and that some are aggressively an-survival. It is in the failure to meet expectaons that invokes the idea of a Trojan horse. We invite people posing as sciensts to join our work and help us understand experiences we know are real. Our only recourse when that trust is betrayed is to complain and feel confused by those mixed signals. I have seen this interacon too many mes to think it is accidental. At the risk of overgeneralizing, it is the culture in the parapsychological community which fosters this decepon. Take a close look. Most members of that community are rered academics, oen professors who take on this study as a late-life hobby. They are playing at science and can do so with lile or no peer oversight. The community s too professional for self- policing of member behavior, even though it hurts all of us. One Bad Apple: A case Study An example of a Trojan horse is seen in the treatment given the medium for the

Felix Experimental Group (28). The short version is that the medium submied to a study that involved a long series of séances during which the researchers had prey much total control over the medium and the circumstances. This even included body and cavity searches. Even though the medium succeeded in producing astounding phenomena under those controlled condions, three members of the research teams focused on accusaons of fraud that supposedly occurred prior to the study. The accusaons are based on assumpons and innuendoes about the medium’s behavior while ignoring alternave explanaons. Stephen Braude (PhD philosophy) was the lead researcher and is chief editor of the supposedly peer reviewed Journal of Scienﬁc Exploraon in which two of the arcles were published (97) (98). A grant to fund the research was issued by the Parapsychological Associaon. The Society for Psychical Research gave Braude their Myers Memorial Medal for “signiﬁcant contribuons to psychical research.” This was at the same event in which he gave a talk on the Felix medium. (99) The following Paranormal Review published by the SPR included an interview with Braude; an arcle by another of the research team, Michael Nahm (PhD biology); and an arcle tled “Fall of the House of Felix” by Peter Mulacz (PhD psychology), a third member of the research team. I discuss this in some detail in the Essay secon of EthericStudies.org (100) and will not go into more detail here. The enre incident is distasteful and diminishes all who idenfy with the paranormalist community.

My point should be obvious: researchers with mostly unrelated training are doing everything they can to discredit physical mediumship, and by extension trans-survival, at the expense of a test subject who gave them his trust. Braude’s arcle in the journal he edits amounts to self-publishing an arcle that should never have passed peer review if only because the study ignored minimal requirements of ethical treatment of a test subject. (101) The takeaway message from all of this is that the three parapsychological organizaons I look to for intellectual guidance in this ﬁeld have turned out to be Trojan horse organizaons. Members of the research team, especially Braude, have been taking every opportunity to further their aack on the FEG medium. Yet it seems that no one is bothered by this treatment of perhaps one of our most important praconers demonstrang survival. For the record, in 2010, Lisa and I aended a séance in the FEG medium’s home (28), during which substanal phenomena were demonstrated under condions that made fraud virtually impossible. I believe this was well before the supposed trickery Nahm complains about. The ATransC sponsored two visits to Reno for ﬁve séances by the medium, and again, astounding phenomena were demonstrated under circumstances over which I had complete control. We are not privy to all of the circumstances leading to the complaints by the doctorates, and as such, our complaints must focus on the good of the community. In simple terms, my complaint is that academics have unethically aacked

a layperson praconer in a way that will diminish our community. They do so with impunity because their professional organizaons applaud their work. Finally, this whole sordid aﬀair will contribute to contracon of the paranormalist community and gives new condemning talking point to the skepcs. Research Ethics Ethical treatment of research subjects has become a regulatory policy imposed by organizaons and governments to help assure humane treatment of test subjects. The Belmont Report published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (101) idenﬁes three foundaon consideraons recommended to university research ethics review boards. Respect for persons: To show lack of respect for an autonomous agent is to repudiate that person’s considered judgments, to deny an individual the freedom to act on those considered judgments, or to withhold informaon necessary to make a considered judgment, when there are no compelling reasons to do so. Beneﬁcence: Persons are treated in an ethical manner not only by respecng their decisions and protecng them from harm, but also by making eﬀorts to secure their well-being. Beneﬁcence can be understood as do no harm. Jusce: Who ought to receive the beneﬁts of research and bear its burdens? This is a queson of jusce, in the sense of fairness in distribuon or what is deserved. An injusce occurs when some beneﬁt to which a person is entled is denied without good reason or when some burden is imposed unduly. To my knowledge, there is no code of ethics for parapsychological research, and certainly no

review panel. The parapsychological community is guided by the mainstream academic culture, so I will guess this lack of concern for ethics is because many of our academics rered from the mainstream before the new policies were enacted and have not learned the need for ethical codes. For whatever reason, an ethical standard is currently missing, but clearly needed in the paranormalist community. Also see A Personal Code of Ethics for Developing Mindfulness in the Mindfulness Discourse. Omniscient Science Syndrome This tle was chosen with much deliberaon. Omniscient means inﬁnitely wise. Science is used here in the sense of the body of knowledge, community of sciensts, and the act of conducng science. Syndrome usually refers to human nature as a complex of behaviors related to a common factor. So Omniscient Science Syndrome is used here to mean a complex of beliefs that science is inﬁnitely wise. By extension, sciensts are believed to be inﬁnitely wise. This point of view is too oen expressed in behavior and acons by laypeople and sciensts, themselves. Yes, the academic-layperson paron again. It is diﬃcult to resist a lile sarcasm. The third expression of Omniscient Science Syndrome is the apparent belief of the academics that they are inﬁnitely wise. In reality though, it is more like the Wizard of Oz Syndrome in which the wizard expresses himself as this larger-than-life, fearsome-in-his-intelligence praconer of the magical arts while the cizenry fears his awesomeness. To complete the picture, too many of our academics have a wizard complex!

Something like Omniscient Science Syndrome is intended by under the cloak of academic authority. We have been culturally taught to trust and respect science, sciensts, and what sciensts tell us. Because we have been taught to expect sciensts to have a doctorate, virtually anyone with a doctorate degree inherits that respect. As I think I have made prey clear above, this unthinking trust is seldom deserved and is too oen abused. As a point of order, sciensts acquire new knowledge, but it is engineers who transform that knowledge into applicaons that serve society. In pracce, a few sciensts tend to be supported by many engineers, and those are supported by many more technicians as knowledge is transformed into products. The point is that the people who understand the praccal sense of what sciensts present are the engineers, and they typically have just a four-year bachelor’s degree. We need to respect doctorates but it is important that we understand why, and that should be on a case-by-case basis. If the subject is transistor radios, a medical doctor is just a cizen. If the subject is opcal illusion, a psychologist with a doctorate has no more standing than an opcal engineer with a bachelor’s degree. With that said, if the subject is how to research opcal phenomena, then anyone with an advanced degree, the curriculum for which included classes in research techniques, probably has important insight for protocol design of any subject. Again, qualiﬁcaons should be considered on a case- by-case basis.

The objecve of my comments on this is to say that we should not blindly assume intellectual authority if a person has an advanced degree. A person with an advanced degree should not expect or encourage belief that he or she has that authority. At the same me, all of us should respect the training and experience some people with an advanced degree have gained in such subjects as applicaon of the scienﬁc method and crical thinking. Perhaps that respect can be extended to the layperson with a lifeme of study in the subject at hand. The Syndrome The assumpons about science and sciensts are rather diﬀerent, depending on the point of view of the people making them. The general assumpons are that sciensts: • Are well educated in appropriate subjects. • Are knowledgeable about the subjects about which they comment. • With integrity, strive to serve the public’s interest. • Search for understanding no maer where it leads. • Are infallible: If science does not support the concept, then it cannot be (the skepc’s mantra). Mainstream society seems to be most guilty of blind acceptance of culturally taught truths. The skepc community aggressively aacks all things paranormal and anyone involved in paranormal study or applicaon. As a reacon, people in the paranormalist community tend to be a lile more suspicious of mainstream sciensts. Interesngly, as parapsychologists protest the intellectual injusce of skepcs, they also teach us to distrust people claiming intellectual authority. It is fair to say that the

study of ITC has been harmed more by parapsychologists than by mainstream sciensts. Mainstream sciensts usually ignore ITC, while many parapsychologists have made uninformed (simply wrong) pronouncements about ITC under the cloak of their academic authority. More than one skepc has referred me to a statement by a respected parapsychologist that contradicted a point I was trying to make in favor of paranormal phenomena. Lay-Paranormalist Assumptions In addion to the above list, we in the paranormalist community tend to assume that sciensts: • Are working on our behalf to understand these phenomena. • Listen to our input and organize their theories accordingly. • Are candidly honest when they engage us in discussion about the phenomena with which we are experienced. • Tell us what they are concluding in a collaborave manner when they are studying our examples. These assumpons are mostly unsupported by acon. An academic policy of secrecy unl publicaon usually extends to the person being studied and related phenomena. As such, the academic-layperson paron clearly turns conversaons into a decepon. From my experience, the thoughts of “I’ll listen but I know the person does not really understand the implicaons of what is said” on the parapsychologist’s part and “I am so happy the scienst is considering what I have to say” on the part of the layperson assures that no real communicaon occurs. Academic-Layperson Partition as a Syndrome It is likely that the academic-layperson paron is just one manifestaon of a self-organizing behavior. Based on how I acted

when I came out of engineering school, it is my guess that the universies inadvertently teach this behavior. It is also probably diﬃcult to maintain a lile humility when the general public so easily believes what sciensts say and is so willing to fund research for almost anything a scienst claims is important—anything seen as mainstream, that is. (Think Large Hadron Collider.) Again, I will say that this is a general assessment based on personal experience. There are many important excepons, so please do not assume the worst of your academic/scienst friends. This discussion is intended to make our community aware of these issues but not to indict the enre community. Of course, sciensts are not going to easily admit fallibility. It is human nature to develop a point of view that is based on educaon. The problem is that it is necessary to evaluate those assumpons. That is a foundaon concept for mindfulness. So here I will say that these are apparent assumpons demonstrated by John Q. Scienst: • The public will trust what I say without requiring supporng informaon. • The public will not understand how I arrive at my conclusions even if I explain. • The public should not see processes such as peer review and data analysis. It will only confuse them. • I know best what is important to the public. • Sciensts who study theories that are not supported by accepted evidence are bad players. • People who aack me do so because my

research did not support their beliefs. • If it is not speciﬁcally supported by the evidence I accept, then it must not be real. In defense of parapsychologists, I am adding one more assumpon that seems to underlie much of what parapsychologists publish: • It is important that I protect the academic integrity of my work. There is not much that parapsychologists say and do that is not scrunized by people like me (friendly ﬁre) and the mainstream academic community. For instance, my guess is that the overreliance on stascal analysis is a response to mainstream cricism. But here is an example of obsessive use of stascal notaon, from a survey of parapsychologists’ view of their ﬁeld: These changes in belief (belief verses skepcism) did not correlate with age (Spearman’s rho=-0.08, df=112, p=0.42). (102) There is much intellectual/academic verbiage like this in some reports that eﬀecvely overshadows intended communicaon. Reason to Expect Leadership Quite a lot of college and university operang costs are funded by the public. Yes, a college degree is expensive for the student, but it is subsidized by the public with the assumpon that the people with advanced degrees further the greater good of the community. The following is from a 2009 arcle, “Higher Educaon Subsidies” on the CATO website: The Department of Educaon spends about $30 billion a year on subsidies for higher educaon. The bulk of that funding goes toward student aid programs, with the balance going toward grants to educaonal instuons. In 2008, grants

to instuons cost $2.3 billion and aid programs cost $27.6 billion, which included $17.4 billion for student grants, $9.6 billion for student loans, and $0.6 billion for administraon. (103) Perspective Science as a disciplined search for understanding is an essenal component of the paranormalist community. Realiscally, it is the academic community that provides that science. However, it is the lay community that hosts it. This must be clear: parapsychology alone would have nothing to study without praconers, experiencers and witnesses. Test subjects in parapsychology are praconers in the larger paranormalist community. The two are partners in the search for understanding. When I say that the parapsychology community of interest has abdicated its authority to explain the paranormal, I do so from the perspecve of transcommunicaon. Psi has been idenﬁed and is being mapped, but by now that search for proof is reaching the point of diminishing returns. This will not change unl transcommunicaon is added to the equaon. As a ﬁnal note, I accept that it can be diﬃcult to have an intelligent conversaon with people who do not hold an advanced degree. But I experience a similar problem talking with people who are not well informed about transcommunicaon, and this includes many people with an advanced degree. The soluon for me is educaon of the general public. An important concept in mindfulness is that our lot is to learn, and having learned, our lot is to teach. Shunning the unwashed is self-defeang! Community Commentary 5: Psi Research Also see

the Transcommunicaon Research Study Keep in Mind the Good The preceding commentary was a long list of complaints about science. For balance, it is important to point out some of the ways our community is supported by parapsychologists. Many of the characteriscs I complain about have also given us foundaon science which has helped us evolve from faith-based to research-based understanding of these phenomena. Some seekers sll proceed with the belief that the lessons they learn from metaphysical teachers and ancient wisdom schools represent state of the art understanding about human nature and reality. In fact, parapsychologists are changing our long-standing assumpons about fundamental concepts such as mediumship and intenonality. As a long- me paranormalist, I can say with conﬁdence that most of our fondly held assumpons about our nature and the nature of reality are simply out of date. It is the science community of interest that will shine a light on more contemporary understanding, and therefore on a beer way to progression. First Sight Theory Dr. James Carpenter’s First Sight Theory makes a clear case for the separaon between our conscious self and our unconscious mind. (13) The theory includes a set of characteriscs describing how the unconscious mind processes informaon. Three important points that come from this theory should cause us to reconsider what we know and what we believe to be true. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. The ﬁrst point is that everything appears to produce a psi signature which we unconsciously sense. In turn,

part of our unconscious expression is a psi signal sent into the environment represenng our expression. The second point is that informaon we psychically and physically sense from the environment is unconsciously processed, and this processing is very much inﬂuenced by our personality type and worldview. The third point is that we only become consciously aware of the results of that mostly unconscious processing. In fact, we only become aware of what our worldview thinks of the informaon. Some of the consequences of First Sight Theory are that we begin to physically react to informaon before becoming conscious of it. This seems to explain presenment, in which people seem to sense near-future events. What is sensed from the other side is necessarily ﬁltered in our unconscious process, what I refer to as the Perceptual Loop. This means that mental mediumship, even much of the informaon coming to us via deep-trance mediumship, is unavoidably colored by what the medium unconsciously thinks; that is, what is in the medium’s worldview. First Sight Theory is based on meta-analysis of a very large number of clinical studies, including those related to psi funconing, and current thought in psychology. Interesngly, a brief survey of the Internet will show that mainstream sciensts are beginning to report that much of our decision-making occurs in the unconscious. (11) This seems to be a convergence of mainstream and parapsychological thought in support of psi phenomena. Formative Causation Darwinian Evoluon requires accidental soluons to environmental challenges. That is, organisms mutate

and some mutaons allow the organism to survive beer than others without the mutaon. Before Darwin, Jean Lamarck (Lamarckian Evoluon) (104) proposed that organisms learn how to cope with the environment, and that the learned behavior is inherited by oﬀspring. Of course, Darwinian Evoluon prevailed to become mainstream gospel in science. The problem is that Darwinism does not explain morphogenesis, speciﬁcally, how does a single cell at concepon know to divide into cells which are diﬀerenated for speciﬁc parts of the body such as skin and hair cells? Dr. Rupert Sheldrake has proposed the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon, in which he argues that a subtle ﬁeld, referred to as a morphic ﬁeld, organizes cell formaon according to how that cell has always formed. (9) He refers to this memory as Nature’s habit, and the process as morphic resonance. The top ﬁeld of an organism is represented by a morphic ﬁeld which organizes a hierarchy of nested ﬁelds right down to cell ﬁelds. Each ﬁeld consists of a nonphysical (etheric) set of funcons which support memory (Nature’s habit or worldview) and decision making. An important funcon in this hypothesis is the ability to consider changes for possible modiﬁcaon of Nature’s habit. It is this funconal area that is interpreted by me as the Perceptual Loop described in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. While this model sll allows for evoluon by survival of the ﬁest, it also considers the existence of a psi ﬁeld and provides a way to change the momentum

of Nature’s habit with creave soluons to environmental challenges. Visualize a morphic ﬁeld as a thoughorm that contains all of the informaon necessary to form an organism. This would be organized into funconal areas such as memory, test of external inﬂuences for agreement with memory and a means of modeling and then expressing change. Global Consciousness The following is from the Global Consciousness Project website: The Global Consciousness Project is an internaonal, muldisciplinary collaboraon of sciensts and engineers. We collect data connuously from a global network of physical random number generators located in up to 70 host sites around the world at any given me. The data are transmied to a central archive which now contains more than 15 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials generated every second. (51) The Random Number Generators (RNG) are based on tunneling diode technology to generate a highly random string of zeros and ones. The array has consistently shown changes in average randomness moments before major events such as the 911 aack. These seem to indicate a global sense of dread before disasters occur. This is also an indicaon of nonlocal characteriscs of reality. The importance of this research for paranormalists is that the project produces repeatable indicaons of a collecve consciousness, the inﬂuence of this consciousness on random processes and an indicaon of at least short-term nontemporal behavior of consciousness. An RNG based on lessons learned from the Global Consciousness Project is available from Psyleron. (57) The device

and soware make it possible for individuals to study the eﬀect of intenonality on the device. One such study approach involves looking for changes in the output of the REG as a group of people meditate. Quantum Entanglement Amongst his many contribuons to our understanding of consciousness, Dean Radin, Chief Scienst for the Instute of Noec Sciences (IONS) (105) , has conducted experiments to determine the eﬀect of aenon on the behavior of entangled photons. The following is from the Abstract: A double-slit opcal system was used to test the possible role of consciousness in the collapse of the quantum wavefuncon. The rao of the interference paern’s double-slit spectral power to its single-slit spectral power was predicted to decrease when aenon was focused toward the double slit as compared to away from it.… factors associated with consciousness, such as meditaon experience, electrocorcal markers of focused aenon, and psychological factors including openness and absorpon, signiﬁcantly correlated in predicted ways with perturbaons in the double-slit interference paern. The results appear to be consistent with a consciousness-related interpretaon of the quantum measurement problem. (41) There are two points I would like to make here. One is that Radin holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in psychology. It has always been my contenon that transcommunicaon research requires a mul-disciplinary approach. As I understand it, Radin works with a team at IONS and is himself qualiﬁed to understand the behavior of technology by understanding the capabilies designed into experimental devices. The

combinaon of his awareness of technological idiosyncrasies and human behavior and the fact that he has access to team collaboraon makes his work an important model for parapsychology. Of course my second point is that the double-slit experiments provide an important benchmark for consciousness and intenonality research. Citizen Scientist Research From the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, transcommunicaon is, by deﬁnion, communicaon between (etheric) personalies with an objecve expression in the physical. As such, the study of transcommunicaon is primarily conducted with emphasis on the Survival Hypothesis. Of course, most parapsychological study of transcommunicaon is more focused on human nature and why people think there is such a thing as the paranormal. Please review the Transcommunicaon Research Study for a discussion of that work. Community Commentary 6: Skeptics Introduction Anyone who does not share our truth is apt to be a skepc. Truth is maintained in worldview which is the arbiter of percepon and the template of personal reality. Assuming two people do not share exactly the same worldview, it is reasonable to expect one will be skepcal about some aspect of the other’s truth. Years ago, I was told that older people’s ﬁrst reacon to a new idea is rejecon. The argument was that older people are more set in their ways and take me to come around to new ideas. As I aged, I watched for that negave ﬁrst reacon to new ideas, and sure enough, that has become something that I must now consciously moderate. There are

two reasons for this I can think of and both involve the same underlying process. The less familiar we are with a concept, the less likely our mostly unconscious perceptual processes will ﬁnd a match in our worldview, and therefore, the more likely it will be rejected in the Perceptual Loop. The other side is the more we know about something, the more conﬁdence we have in our understanding. A new idea that challenges a dominant paradigm will almost certainly be rejected by our perceptual processes. For our discussion, skepcism is in three forms: Spontaneous Skepcism: Probably the most common source of a skepcal response to an idea is the mostly spontaneous rejecon of an idea because it is unfamiliar or because it challenges what is familiar. This response is generated in the Perceptual Loop based on worldview. If this response is not balanced with suspended judgement, it may produce a skepc’s response. Emoonal Skepcism (a.k.a. skepc): This is typically a determined aack on an idea that challenges a belief. This form deﬁnes what I am referring to as a skepc, and in my experience, the system of belief is best described as sciensm. Objecve Skepcism: When people speak of healthy skepcism, it is this form they intend. It is typically a reluctance to accept an idea based on an informed opinion which produces well-reasoned quesons. If the person is able to recognize and accept well-reasoned responses, it remains healthy skepcism. If it becomes apparent that only an answer that

agrees with the person’s preconcepons is acceptable, it becomes a skepc response. Make a disncon between skepcism, which is usually expressed as reasoned quesons that may, with further understanding, lead to acceptance of an idea, and skepc, which is the name claimed by people who aack ideas that do not agree with their sense of proper science. It is worth nong that a number of friends have urged me to use pseudoskepc (false skepc) as a name for the people I describe as skepcs; however, the people causing all of the trouble are found with Internet searches for skepc, and for the most part, remain invisible if pseudoskepc is used. Also note my comment about Objecve Skepcism. An insidious form of skepc is the person who asks informed, reasonable quesons but rejects all answers supporng the new idea. On close examinaon, it usually becomes evident that the person is an emoonal skepc and will only accept answers that disprove the idea. Discernment as an Alternative Name for Skepticism In our community, skepcs are prey much the enemy of free enquiry. For those who wish to respect healthy skepcism, I suggest they adopt discernment as a beer term. To be discerning means to express informed judgment. One of the more important traits for a paranormalist is discernment, but as it happens, it is also a trait many do not exhibit. From my experience, this lack of informed judgment is more a problem of educaon than lazy thinking. One of the objecves

of this book is to recfy that by providing a useful model on which informed judgment can be based. Scientism and Uninformed Skepticism Another way of looking at skepcs is in terms of the source of their objecon. Sciensm is the belief that science, the scienﬁc method and research are the only way to validate reality. In praccal terms, sciensm holds that, if something is not recognized by mainstream science, then it is not real and is, therefore, impossible. When people under the cloak of authority of science advise the public about any subject without analysis of available informaon about that subject, they are eﬀecvely praccing sciensm. (106) Pseudoscience I invite you to take a look at the Pseudoscience arcle in Wikipedia. (107) As I will discuss in the next commentary, the paranormal arcles in that online encyclopedia are controlled by a cadre of skepcs. One of the cornerstone arcles in their organized aack on all things paranormal is the Pseudoscience arcle. As far as I can tell, the term pseudoscience was coined by a skepc as a way of branding concepts that are not speciﬁcally supported by mainstream science. Pseudoscience is used as a derogatory term to brand virtually all paranormal subjects. The people paranormalists see as skepcs are seldom mainstream sciensts. They are more like science apologists who behave as if it is their sacred duty to see to it that everyone adheres to pronounced truths of science as they see them. The skepcs paranormalists are concerned with

are the ones that seek to prevent funding for research and who would make our study illegal as a maer of the public good. They are all about science verses what they perceive as pseudoscience. Also see Pseudoscience in the Science Commentary. Skeptics Impact on Research It is reasonable to speculate that a large percentage of our populaon is open to the possibility of these phenomena. Yet the Naonal Science Foundaon (NSF), the department of the U.S. Government chartered to advance the naonal health, prosperity and welfare, considers these phenomena pseudoscience. The NSF in the 2006 annual Science and Technology report includes: A recent study of 20 years of survey data collected by NSF concluded that ‘many Americans accept pseudoscienﬁc beliefs,’ such as astrology, lucky numbers, the existence of unidenﬁed ﬂying objects (UFOs), extrasensory percepon (ESP) and magnec therapy (Losh et al. 2003). Such beliefs indicate a lack of understanding of how science works and how evidence is invesgated and subsequently determined to be either valid or not. (108) Losh et al. is a reference to an arcle in the Skepcal Inquirer magazine. A further comment about pseudoscienﬁc beliefs is based on a reference from the Commiee for Skepcal Inquiry (CSI) which states: According to one group studying such phenomena, pseudoscienﬁc topics include yogi ﬂying, therapeuc touch, astrology, ﬁre walking, voodoo, magical thinking, alternave medicine, channeling, psychic hotlines and detecves, near-death experiences, unidenﬁed ﬂying objects and alien abducons, the Bermuda Triangle, homeopathy, faith healing, and reincarnaon. Note that the celebrity

skepc, James Randi, is one of the founders and the publisher of the Skepcal Inquirer Magazine. The skepcal community is well organized and dedicated to eliminang pseudoscience in our culture. They have had an impact on government funding for research and have likely been successful in aligning many school systems with their beliefs. Consequently, being associated with the study of paranormal subjects can be damaging to a science career. We have also had many members in the ATransC who insisted that their involvement not be made public out of fear of harming their career in a conservave ﬁeld such as law and medicine. Tells of a Skeptic Skepcs aempt to show the unacceptability of an idea by beliling it and associang it with obviously silly ideas, rather than with facts, evidence and sound logic. They describe ideas they disagree with, and people associated with them, in terms that would usually cause a ﬁght if spoken face-to-face. They seem to assume believers are seen as second-class cizens by the mainstream public and thus do not enjoy the protecon of social norms aﬀorded mainstream cizens. So if you read something that calls someone a whacko or fraud, or describes a pracce as fraudulent or woo-woo, then you know that the material was wrien by a skepc and is probably based on belief rather than fact. Name-calling is especially true of skepcs who focus their aacks on alternave or complementary health pracces. They commonly refer to these with the derogatory term of quackery

and praconers as quacks. Of course any such pracce that is not speciﬁcally approved by the government is considered pseudoscience, and even some that are approved, such as chiropracc, feel the wrath of those who think complementary is just another word for fraud. Without research to support their accusaons, skepcs seldom add knowledge to the subjects they aack but are only able to destroy knowledge. Here the Lan term a priori has special meaning. Skepcs rounely make statements about subjects for which they have no knowledge other than that their peer group is against them. In this context, a priori means without prior knowledge and is used to say that the person is judging without having become informed about the subject. The praccal result of this book-burning mentality is that new ideas are suppressed and examinaon of new ideas by academically trained researchers has become probable professional suicide. Comparing the View of Science with the View of Skeptics Wikipedia editor Ludwigs2 expressed one of the beer descripons of the skepc view: Science and skepcism are enrely diﬀerent projects; they share the word skepcism, but it has diﬀerent meanings for each group. For a scienst, skepcism means (roughly) “I choose not to have any beliefs about a subject in the absence of evidence.” It’s a philosophically conservave posion designed to keep people from making a priori asserons about the world (except those dictated by logic or math). For skepcs, by contrast, skepcism means (roughly) “I choose to believe that non-convenonal ideas

are wrong unl they have met some burden of evidence.” This is an ideological posion designed to advocate against certain kinds of viewpoints. See how these diﬀer on (for example) acupuncture: Looking at something like acupuncture scienﬁcally one would be forced to admit that there really isn’t much evidence either way— there is no scienﬁc reason to recommend its use, but no obvious reason to say that it’s wrong, either. That is, acupuncture is morally neutral, like drinking tea with honey and lemon when you have a cold. Looking at something like acupuncture as a skepc one would ﬁnd oneself saying that acupuncture hasn’t met the needed burden of evidence, and so acupuncture is wrong—and this will lead to ideological claims that people who take acupuncture are stupid, that people who do acupuncture are charlatans, and etc. That is acupuncture is morally bere, like selling sugar pills as cure for cancer. Sciensts and skepcs overlap in the asseron that one should use pracces that have been borne out by systemac experience. But that’s where the similarity ends: skepcs go on to make moral judgments about pracces that science can never make, and to engage in advocacy with respect to those moral claims. Consider the vast range of skepcal literature, almost none of which contains any actual research (aside from literature reviews of other people’s published work), and which is almost enrely dedicated to crical declamaons against one or another quesonable acvity. Skepcism is (frankly) scienﬁc punditry, and while I won’t

deny its value in that consumer advocate sort of way, one needs to be cauous with it as an intellectual enterprise. Skepticism is Relative Unless praccing suspended judgement, anyone is likely a skepc about something. In our study of transcommunicaon, we rounely have parapsychologists a priori say that something like EVP is probably stray radio waves or pareidolia. Ironically, these are the same people who rail against the injusce of skepc aacks. I had a friend who was a longme Spiritualist and familiar with many of the related phenomena such as healing intenon and mental mediumship. Yet he came out of a very impressive demonstraon of physical mediumship completely doubng its authencity. Granted the séance was held in a completely dark room, but every precauon was taken to assure no trickery. The medium was bound in a way from which it would be simply impossible to escape without much noise and shuﬄing about. Certainly he would never have been able to get back into the bindings before the lights were turned on. The room was new to the medium, and I had personally inspected every inch of it and assured that the medium and siers had all been searched. A number of evidenal things occurred during the séance. If a sier accepted that the medium was not able to physically cause movement or voice far from his body, then the experience should have at least been given condional acceptance that something important occurred. There is also the precedence that other

research has shown phenomena does occur, which is why the séance was called a demonstraon and not a proof. My friend insisted that the séance was completely unconvincing. At least concerning that séance, he was a skepc and was not expressing healthy skepcism, but outright rejecon. The task for paranormalists is to understand why people react in this way and how to beer manage percepon. As a general rule, if a person does not have personal experience with a concept, he or she will likely reject it on ﬁrst exposure. As it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, we learn incrementally, as opposed to readily accepng enrely new ideas. My friend was a veteran Spiritualist, but I suspect he had lile experience with darkroom séances. Further exposure to such phenomena would likely have incrementally changed his mind. The researchers involved in the case study I described in the Science Commentary are applauded by other parapsychologists because they are dedicated works in the ﬁeld. In fact, it is my opinion that people do the best they can, and that it is the limits of their physical capabilies and understanding that determines how they relate to concepts. Accepng the Super-Psi concept simply requires a smaller change in worldview than does Survival. Paranormalist’s Diminishing Inluence Paranormalists represent a small and mostly unorganized community. The skepcal community, on the other hand, is relavely well organized and fast growing. In Skepcism: The New Religion, Roy Stemman notes that Spiritualism’s public outreach is contracng while the

skepcal community is becoming more organized and much more eﬀecve in inﬂuencing the media. (109) In fact, the paranormalist community in general is contracng. Yes, those who hunt for ghosts are increasing in number, and there seems to be more parapsychologists. The problem is in the cohesiveness of our community. We remain like the blind men and the elephant. Parapsychologists seem ﬁxated on more proof, ghost hunters tend to prefer silver bullets tools for detecng ghosts, and serious ITC praconers interested in research have become almost nonexistent. While many people accept the need for self-regulaon, their soluons are almost always to develop their own, rather than seeking collaboraon with like- minded people. Skepcs, on the other hand, are thriving as a coherent community. A search of the Internet for skepc will produce dozens of pages full of well- designed and oen-visited skepc websites. They have absolute control over Wikipedia and appear to be blessed by the mainstream science community. They have a shared objecve to protect humankind from the degenerate inﬂuence of pseudoscience and those who would pracce pseudoscience concepts. A case study: Government Acting on Skeptical Views I am not well informed about how governments have acted against people who have been accused of acvity deemed by skepcs to be pseudoscience. Please be sure to examine this for yourself. The ﬁrst point I would make is that the study of froner subjects is not protected by law and can go away with the right social pressure. The paern is

simple: • Establish that anything not speciﬁcally supported by mainstream science is pseudoscience (false science). A model for how to do this has been established in Wikipedia* (107) (110) See the Wikipedia Commentary. • Deﬁne pseudoscience as a danger to the public welfare. This is usually accomplished concerning health dangers, but it is also a major focus of the Naonal Science Federaon’s eﬀorts to educate the public about what is real and not real science. (111) (108) • Establish that paranormal subjects (psi studies, healing intenon, mediumship) are pseudoscience. Again, the skepc Wikipedia editors have established this as policy for the online encyclopedia. (107) (110) (112) • Once it is socially okay to say that what paranormalists study contradicts science and may be harmful to the public, it becomes possible for governments and organizaons to make examples of paranormalists for the greater good of society. We have seen this reenacted many mes in our history with everything from witch hunts to internment during the Second World War. Wilhelm Reich is a good example of such branding. (7) The short story is that he was put in jail for making claims about subtle energy which were deemed by the skepcs to be unsupportable and therefore pseudoscience. He also developed devices that might put the energy to work and claimed he could heal people of some diseases with the energy. In fact, the actual jail me was because he ignored the charges, and apparently his partner transported some of their material across

state lines, which was seen as criminal contempt of court. The following is from the Wilhelm Reich Museum website: While Reich appealed his sentence, the government carried out the destrucon of orgone accumulators and literature. In Maine, several boxes of literature were burned, and accumulators and accumulator materials either destroyed or dismantled. In New York City, on August 23, 1956, the FDA supervised the burning of several tons of Reich’s publicaons in one of the city’s garbage incinerators.... This destrucon of literature constutes one of the most heinous examples of censorship in United States history. (7) Reich died of heart failure while in prison, and I understand his research partner commied suicide shortly thereaer. Reviewing “What is Orgone Energy?” by Charles R. Kelley, Ph.D. (113) will give you a sense of the nature of this subtle energy which Reich called Orgone. You will also see that Reich’s discovery is really just one of many rediscoveries of the same inﬂuence ﬁeld which is today studied as psi funconing and the psi ﬁeld. Because of its apparent eﬀect on living ssue, the inﬂuence intenonality has on this ﬁeld to heal a person is a primary means of its study. See “An Unusual Form of Radiaon has a Reproducible Eﬀect in the Laboratory” by Robert A. Charman (114). The U.S. Food and Drug Administraon took its direcon from public pressure brought by the skepc community. Otherwise, Reich would probably have been seen as just one of many crackpots. A Case Study: Skeptical Control

of the Media It is obvious from a simple search of the Internet that the skepcs dominate the media when it comes to public outreach about froner subjects. Yes, there are thousands of ghost hunter websites and websites promong the many forms of complementary medicine, but if you look for substanve support for the concepts, you run into a wall of skepcal websites supported by skepc clubs, universies and mainstream science organizaons. An example of how skepcs have had a substanal inﬂuence on the media is the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) group which produces conferences. TED was formed to disseminate “Ideas worth spreading.” According to some reports, videos of the talks are widely distributed via the Internet, and collecvely have been viewed by more than a billion people. TED grants licenses to third pares to organize independent TED-like events known as TEDx conferences. At a TEDx WestHollywood conference, Rupert Sheldrake gave a talk in which he suggested that modern science is based on ten dogmas, and then made the case that none of them hold up to scruny. The videos of his talk and that of co-presenter Graham Hancock were removed from the TED website when two TED science advisors complained that the talks were unscienﬁc. The videos were later returned to the website, albeit in a hard to ﬁnd secon, aer a strong response from the paranormalist community. The struggle between skepcs and supporters over the Sheldrake and Hancock videos is documented in the well-researched book by Craig

Weiler: PSI WARS: TED, Wikipedia and the Bale for the Internet. (115) The TED altercaon between mainstream defenders and paranormalists spilled over to the Rupert Sheldrake biography in Wikipedia. (116) There, a long and bier bale was conducted between skepc editors trying to use the arcle to discredit Sheldrake and more balanced editors who were trying to keep the biography of a living person from being used as a tool for skepc propaganda. Several editors were banned from Wikipedia because of the bale. I was banned from eding that arcle for life. See the Wikipedia Commentary and Craig Weiler’s blog, The Weiler Psi. (117) The skepcs have complete control of the Sheldrake arcle, but it is much less biased than when the bale was on. Today, the View History and Talk tabs provide an important lesson in how skepcs defeat opposing views in all froner subject arcles. Be sure to read the archived talk pages, as the skepcs have been using a bot tool to quickly archive material in an eﬀort to remove discussions from the public view. Healthy Skepticism There is a balance between a priori skepcism and open-minded gullibility. Some claims are not even reasonable judging by the more lenient standards necessary for froner subjects. Many reported experiences are clearly some form of mispercepon or the ordinary mistaken as unusual. Every bump in the night is not a ghost and not every instance of improved health is because of healing intenon. On the other hand, some of these

reported experiences are not explained by current principles of science and may point to new understanding of nature. It is not reasonable to accept some of the extreme explanaons without substanang research but it is also not reasonable to discount the reports because they are not currently part of known science. My moo Believe what you wish but understand the implicaons of what you believe is based on the idea that we should pracce crical thinking leading to discernment. That means taking me to examine the evidence before adopng a condional opinion. I say condional opinion because the rest of the story is that whatever is decided should be rounely reexamined to see if it sll makes sense. If possible, the opinion should be tested. If there is not suﬃcient informaon to arrive at an informed opinion, then no opinion is the only appropriate response. To respond otherwise is to base opinion on faith derived from popular wisdom, superson and/or the opinion of others who may be even less knowledgeable about the subject. A fair poron of academia believes all major principles in nature have been discovered and that all we are doing now is ﬁlling in the details. Basically that is to say that there is only the physical universe, period! Anything outside of that, such as a psi ﬁeld, etheric personality and survival of personality aer bodily death, is not included in these major principles of nature and therefore cannot be. As I have said, such an a

priori assumpon is Sciensm at its worst. Each of us has a responsibility to pracce discernment about what we believe. At the same me, anyone who makes a claim about these phenomena has the responsibility to clearly disnguish between what can be objecvely proven and what is believed as a maer of faith. If a claimed study is not based on the applicable scienﬁc methodology with the intenon of publishing a report, it cannot be claimed as experimentally proven. Fruits of the study can be described as ongoing study, but be careful not to claim science unless reasonably well-considered methodologies have been applied. See A Personal Code of Ethics for Developing Mindfulness. A second, equally important consideraon when someone makes a claim of truth under the cloak of science is the qualiﬁcaons of the people who conducted the research. Even a person with a doctorate in parapsychology must establish credibility to study the parcular subject. As an example, a person claiming to be a parapsychologist and who is academically trained as a philosopher is not qualiﬁed to conduct research concerning transcommunicaon under the cloak of academic authority. In the same way, a biologist who parcipates in a study of physical mediumship has no direct academic standing. Yes, the training in research methodology learned for the doctorate may be applicable, but claiming authority as a biologist is a far reach in the study of phenomena which appear to involve small signal processing and percepon. Our ﬁeld is especially vulnerable to skepcal

aacks based on the qualiﬁcaons of our specialists. Such terms as experience, study and research have speciﬁc meaning in the eyes of mainstream academia. Anyone can claim experience with some credibility. Anyone can study phenomena and comment with some degree of credibility. But research reports have lile or no credibility unless the work was conducted by an academically trained researcher in an applicable ﬁeld, and has been reviewed by qualiﬁed, informed subject maer specialists. Of course, cizen sciensts are usually capable of conducng very good research, but it is important to be mindful of how mainstream society views this. Each of us is a representave of our ﬁeld. Skepcs have inﬂuence because they are zealous, not because they are right. Yes, there is sll the problem that things paranormal are outside of known and therefore acceptable science, but that can never be addressed so long as skepcs are able to make their ridicule of us believable by using our own words and acons. It is for us to show the world they are wrong. Community Commentary 7: Wikipedia Introduction Wikipedia is a wonderful idea and it includes a huge amount of informaon, but the fastest way to turn a scholarly dissertaon into meaningless blog is to use Wikipedia as a reference. Because of the way the arcles are developed, this condemnaon is generally true of the enre online encyclopedia. It is especially true of arcles concerned with paranormal subjects. If you search the Internet for substanve support for paranormalist concepts,

you run into a wall of skepcal websites supported by skepc clubs, universies and mainstream science organizaons. One of the most dominant of the skepc’s media is Wikipedia. In nearly every search subject, Wikipedia is the ﬁrst or nearly the ﬁrst website to come up. Perhaps even more confusing is the circular referencing that is common amongst skepc websites and Wikipedia. To see this for yourself, search for your favorite froner subject using one of the main search tools, such as Google.com. It is probable that an arcle in Wikipedia will come up ﬁrst or nearly ﬁrst. For instance, in a February 6, 2015 Google search for pseudoscience and mediumship, the Wikipedia arcle was number one. For healing and EVP, it was one and two, while for ghost, it was three and four. Stascs for how many mes a Wikipedia arcle is visited are available for February 4, 2015 and they are Pseudoscience = 1085, mediumship = 404, healing = 182 and EVP = 191 visits. The ATransC website has over four hundred pages and for the same day, the enre site only had 673 unique website visitors. Without a doubt, Wikipedia has much more public reach than ATransC, and likely any website with a posive paranormalist message. Anyone Can Edit Articles Anyone can register to be an editor. It is reported that even school-age children are somemes given an assignment to make changes in Wikipedia. New editors are advised to use a pseudonym instead of their real name and

to keep their personal informaon private. The problem is that people might personally aack an editor for an entry. One of the fastest ways to be permanently banned is to deliberately out an editor by revealing the person’s name. The downside of using screen names is that editors can say prey much whatever they want without fear of reprisal. Naturally, this means immunity to real-world social norms. There are Wiki norms which amount to whatever the dominant group of editors wants them to be. This is an important reason why I have come to the conclusion that screen names are a hindrance to the exchange of meaningful informaon and a corrupng factor for all aspects of Internet society. Wikipedia Rules of Behavior Wikipedia has rules governing the interacon of editors such as the need to assume good faith and be civil toward other editors. There are also procedural rules, such as how oen and why an editor might change another person’s edits. It is considered edit warring when an editor reverts another editor’s entry more than three mes. This is an oﬀense that can result in the oﬀending editor being blocked from eding for a me. Civility is policy, but the dominang skepcs found civility just got in the way, and so today it is okay to aack people outside of the skepc group, but hell to pay for outsiders to aack skepcs. This is best seen by reading arcle talk pages recorded during more contenous periods. An editor’s failure

to follow the rules is usually addressed by other editors, but if that does not work, then it is possible to bring an editor before a tribunal that has the power to ban an editor from making further contribuons. I was banned from ever eding the Rupert Sheldrake arcle because several skepcal editors took me to the administrators claiming I was a one subject editor. That one subject was anything paranormal so that now I am one complaint away from being banned from ever eding any Wikipedia arcle in my ﬁeld. In this way, the now dominant skepcs are able to drive away contending editors. Subject Matter Specialists The policy of Wikipedia, or at least the dominant editor’s policy, is that subject maer specialists are discouraged from eding arcles within their area of experse. (118) (119) In fact, it is common for subject maer specialists to be so abused that they soon stop aempng to contribute content. One of the Wikipedia founders, Larry Sanger, has even wrien the arcle, “Why Wikipedia Must Jeson Its An-Elism,” explaining the pialls of editors not using their real names (no accountability) and not being knowledgeable about the subjects they edit. His response was to begin Cizendium.org, which is supposed to be a kinder and more dependable online encyclopedia. I did aempt to organize paranormalists to work on paranormal arcles in Cizendium. There is now a paranormal subgroup at en.cizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Paranormal_Subgroup. Included there is the structure for arcles and indexes, but no eding contribuons from others

beyond what I put together. The two contribuons that came from exisng Cizendium editors were deleons of some of the material I had added. Had there been other paranormalist editors, I could have reversed those, but instead, I have copied the material to the Collecve (ATransC.org/bp/Collecve) and given up on the publicly edited online encyclopedia. Wikipedia Editing Rules Perhaps most important are the rules governing what may be included in arcles. For instance, arcles are required to be wrien from a neutral point of view and everything in arcles must be based on veriﬁable references. The references themselves must be from mainstream publicaons and must not be self-serving. All of the parapsychological journals are considered fringe and their content is not acceptable as a reference. (112) This eﬀecvely assures that only the less informed, usually more an-paranormal publicaons are acceptable. Of course, this means the skepcal publicaons are acceptable. An interesng consequence of not allowing subject-maer specialists or froner subject publicaons is that Wikipedia arcles about paranormal subjects are usually out of date. For instance, the arcle on Spiritualism is virtually all historical, so that one would get the impression that Spiritualists are sll living in the early 1900s. Virtually the enre EVP arcle is out of date, and there are no arcles for Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) or physical mediumship. This past tense bias in arcles also has the eﬀect of slowing progress. A person seeking informaon about a paranormal subject likely ends up at an authoritave sounding Wikipedia arcle

that provides an erroneous sense of the state of the art. It is reasonable to expect that young people’s understanding is likely based on what is in Wikipedia. In fact, my guess is that most people depend on Wikipedia, ghost hunng television programs and ghost hunng club websites for their understanding of the paranormalist community. As a note to the paranormalist community, this array of misleading media must certainly serve the skepc’s objecve of marginalizing our study of these phenomena. Circular Referencing One of the more blatant ways to bias an arcle is to ﬁrst have someone say what you want in an arcle published in an acceptable publicaon. Somemes a skepc blog will do. The arcle is then used as a reference to make the editor’s point. An example of how this works can be found on the Pseudoscience talk page (107) in the secon tled “Learning styles as pseudoscience.” The secon will probably be archived by the me this book is published, so look in the Talk Page archive for the secon tle and/or date. I have only included the ﬁnal, January 15, 2015 comment here. Wikipedia editor User:Puedo82 wanted to have learning styles (120) added to the subjects listed in the pseudoscience arcle. User:Jytdog has a problem with User:Puedo82’s references because none of them speciﬁcally name learning styles as pseudoscience. In the end, User:Jytdog advises: Here is what I suggest. See if you can succeed in having the word “pseudoscience” included in the lead of the learning

style arcle. [on Wikipedia] The word does not appear in that arcle, as of today. To have the word “pseudoscience” in the lead, you will need support for it in the body, per WP:LEAD*. If you can do that, I think you will have no problem geng that listed here. But this is not the place to make the determinaon. Jytdog 15 January 2015 *brieﬂy, WP:LEAD says that the lead is just a summary of the body; nothing should be in the lead that is not in the body. Pseudoscience is now in the Learning Styles arcle. The pracce of tailoring arcles in acceptable publicaons to speciﬁcally support the dominant group of editor’s view is common and eﬀecvely defeats the rule requiring authoritave references to support statements. Foundation Rules The fundamental principles of Wikipedia are described as the Five Pillars: (121) 1. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. 2. Wikipedia is wrien from a neutral point of view. 3. Wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit and distribute. 4. Editors should treat each other with respect and civility. 5. Wikipedia has no ﬁrm rules. I say that skepcs control the paranormal arcles in Wikipedia, but the cultural norm for the enre encyclopedia appears to be based on sciensm. Three major arbitraon cases, which I believe were moderated by arbitrators from all around Wikipedia, speciﬁcally concern paranormal subjects but likely have far-reaching implicaons for the enre wiki. Informaon about these is accessible via the Viewpoint secon of ethericstudies.org. Also note that

arbitrators are senior editors elected by the dominant group of editors. Collecvely, these arbitraon cases establish oﬃcial Wikipedia approval for what is considered acceptable treatment of paranormal subjects: Requests for arbitration/Fringe science (2009) The arbitrators generally found in favor of the skepcs with a series of decisions. (112) The most important ones include: Principle 9) Relevant comparisons: The prominence of fringe views need to be put in perspecve relave to the views of the enre encompassing ﬁeld; liming that relave perspecve to a restricted subset of specialists or only amongst the proponents of that view is, necessarily, biased and unrepresentave. Principle 10) Advocacy: Wikipedia is not for advocacy. The purpose of an encyclopedia is to state neutrally the current knowledge in a ﬁeld, not to put forward arguments to promote or deride any parcular view. In parcular, conjectures that hold signiﬁcant prominence must no more be suppressed than be promoted as factual. Principle 11) Citaons: Citaons should not be used disproporonately to the prominence of the view they are cing or in a manner that conveys undue weight. Exceponal claims in Wikipedia require high-quality sources; if such sources are not available, the material should not be included. Principle 13) Scienﬁc focus: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and its content on scienﬁc and quasi-scienﬁc topics will primarily reﬂect current mainstream scienﬁc consensus. This is my whole point. Skepcs know the power of Wikipedia to inﬂuence the public. For every word they ﬁght to keep in an arcles, such as is it pseudoscience

or not, or is Rupert Sheldrake to be called a scienst or not, they are clearly eding to sway public opinion. Requests for arbitration/ Paranormal (2007): (122) Principle 3) Basis for inclusion: In addion to ﬁrmly established scienﬁc truth, Wikipedia contains many other types of informaon. “The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is veriﬁability, not truth” (from Wikipedia:Veriﬁability). Here, scienﬁc truth translates as “only what mainstream science says is true.” Veriﬁability is based on mainstream media, since the Fringe arbitraon gave skepcs permission to reject virtually all of the froner subject media unless it supports their point of view. Principle 6.1) Appropriate handling of epistemological status: It is the responsibility of editors to appropriately handle any queson regarding the epistemological status of a subject, that is, quesons of whether something exists, is hypothesized to exist, general scienﬁc consensus, etc. The goal is not arrival at the correct conclusion, but adequate treatment of any controversy. Principle 9.1) Editorial judgment regarding reliability: Determining the reliability of sources is a maer of sound editorial judgment informed by experse. Exceponal claims should be supported by strong sources. Sensaonalist sources, when used at all, should not be the sole sources for an arcle. Topics for which no reliable source can be found are not suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia. Principle 10.1) Conﬂict of interest: Wikipedia: Conﬂict of interest, strongly cauons but does not forbid an editor from working in subject areas where the editor is strongly invested. Such eding must be done responsibly. Other editors

are expected to respond diplomacally even when they believe a conﬂict of interest may exist. This is a restatement of prior policy, but including it in the Pseudoscience arbitraon gives it special meaning. I have been admonished a number of mes with the strongly cauons of this principle being read as deﬁnitely not allowed. Principle 11) Generally considered pseudoscience: Theories which have a following, such as various manifestaons of the paranormal, but which are generally considered pseudoscience by the scienﬁc community may, with adequate sourcing, properly contain that informaon and may be categorized as pseudoscience. Finding of Fact 3) Status of parapsychology: Parapsychology has an ambiguous status, engaging in scienﬁc research, but strongly cricized for lack of rigor. Finding of Fact 7) External campaigning: Acvists, including a Tom Butler, have put up pages which campaign regarding the content of Wikipedia arcles… This is a good illustraon of the embaled Wikipedia mentality. The complaint concerns an arcle I wrote for the ATransC NewsJournal about how paranormal subjects are treated. Of course I would write about the subject, but Wikipedia editors seem to believe they are above public cricism. Value of Wikipedia Because of the requirement that all substanve statements have a reliable source, virtually all material in Wikipedia arcles is at least secondhand and oen based on very outdated material. Because books are preferred over websites as being more academic, and it oen takes years to publish a book, it is common to ﬁnd book references that have long-since been outdated

by new research published in journals and on websites. More importantly, references are oen used that are unavailable to the reader, making it nearly impossible to verify that the included informaon is actually supported. Too oen, it is not. An arcle published in a science journal, which is wrien by a researcher about his or her research, is considered original research. This means that informaon about research must be wrien by someone else, which usually means secondhand and potenally inaccurate reports are preferred. Small and/or non-mainstream publicaons are considered fringe, and are therefore easily discounted by an editor determined not to allow their use. In most froner subjects, there are only small publicaons because of the immaturity of the ﬁeld and small readership. At the same me, mainstream publicaons will not venture to publish a posive report about a froner subject. Also, major book publishers will not invest the resources to publish a book intended as a serious research report unless there is a large audience. All of this means that collaboraon in froner subjects is accomplished via newsleers, self-published books and websites. The most current research informaon is too oen on the same search engine page as hobbyists speculang about the subject from a point of view of “how it helped me today,” rather than whether or not it has any validity in fact. Using Wikipedia First and foremost, Wikipedia should never be used as a reference. There really are no excepons. Since anyone can edit, there is no

way of knowing if comments are reasonably correct or if the references supporng an arcle actually say what is needed to support the informaon. The arcles are changed as new people come along with diﬀerent opinions so that what is in the arcle one day may not be there the next. It is possible that a useful comment in an arcle will be changed so that your reader might visit your reference and ﬁnd a contradictory statement. Since every substanve comment is supposed to be supported with a reliable reference, Wikipedia arcles should be excellent research tools and study guides. If you want to know about a subject, read the Wikipedia arcle, but then use the references to see what the subject-maer specialists have to say. Be mindful though, that references from froner subject journals will probably be unrepresented if there are any at all. In the Rupert Sheldrake arcle, references are something like ten to one in support of pro skepc points of view. (116) It is informave to follow the View History tab to see if there is an edit war underway. Also follow the Talk tab to see if there are any current controversies that might make the arcle unstable. A new trick of the skepcs is to hide comments on the talk page with a very quick archive bot. Comments on the talk page of the Rupert Sheldrake arcle, for instance, are almost all in the archive. Look for the Archive box. Personal Attacks It is

common for skepcal editors to denounce anyone who studies froner subjects as morons, idiots, deluded, charlatans and frauds. There are administrave-level editors and procedures to request help with such abuse, but in many instances, complaints are answered by a barrage of comments agreeing with the original insult and adding many more disparaging words to the list. In the end, it is an inescapable conclusion that Wikipedia intends to maintain a civil work environment, but is unable to apply exisng rules to protect editors from other editors. The common term is poisoned atmosphere. I was an acve editor for a couple of years and suﬀered considerable abuse from the skepc editors both in Wikipedia and elsewhere on the Internet. All were childish aacks on me and any point I might have been trying to make. The aacks were not the problem so much as the poisoned atmosphere that allowed them to seem to be okay and the arrogant atude of the aackers. Occasionally, there were individuals who stood with me. These editors did not necessarily understand paranormal phenomena, but did have a keen sense of fairness and saw the need for balance in arcles. For instance, some did not like Rupert Sheldrake’s ideas, but felt a proper encyclopedia needed to explain Sheldrake’s hypotheses in a neutral way that would not endorse or condemn while leng the reader know what they included. Each balanced editor working on that arcle was eventually driven out of Wikipedia with lifelong bans or such severe personal

aacks that they could not stay. As an indicator of how diﬃcult it can be for a froner subject editor, Wikipedia at least did have a civility board on which I once posted a complaint about verbal abuse. Ironically, I was aacked more aggressively there than in any other part of Wikipedia. EVP Article It occurs to me that some readers might wonder why, if I am an editor and knowledgeable about EVP, the Electronic Voice Phenomena arcle is in such bad shape. Your ﬁrst hint is the tle. It was phenomena (plural as it is used in the community) but now it is phenomenon even though the opening sentence begins with phenomena. That was just one of the bales I lost. My original reason for becoming an editor was to update a very poorly wrien EVP arcle. I began by suggesng a paper that has since evolved into the Transcommunicaon White Paper (123) which is available for download from ATransC.org. The other editors threw a ﬁt because it is not done that way, and so, I learned my ﬁrst lesson about Wikipedia culture. One or two neutral editors and several hardcore skepcs joined the discussion. What followed was a long edit war in which I was oﬃcially charged with various wiki crimes such as conﬂict of interest, pushing original research and bias. In the end, the very fact that I was a director of the ATransC (then it was the AA-EVP) proved that I had a conﬂict of interest.

Because of my scope of study, I can probably be banned from eding any paranormal arcle for potenal conﬂict of interest. It is because of the nature of our community and how Wikipedia rules are enforced that virtually any acve member of our community can be banned for one such Wiki rule or another. Again, it is at the convenience of the controlling skepcs. All of the publicaons I cited to support EVP theory were classiﬁed as fringe, and therefore unreliable, as the result of the Fringe Science arbitraon. (112) They were not allowed while blogs, columns and hearsay arcles wrien by skepcs were allowed as reliable. On the other hand, any of our fringe arcles are allowed if it proves the skepc’s point. Some of our best researchers were aacked as crackpots and I was rounely insulted oﬀ-wiki in skepcal forums. Again, the qualiﬁcaons of a psychologist or magician skepc to pronounce with authority about EVP was given respect while parapsychologists were deemed unqualiﬁed. Many of the explanaons for EVP in the arcle are a priori pronouncements that sound good but have no empirical foundaon. Even meteor showers are given credence, for instance: “there is a possibility of meteor reﬂecon of the radio signal.” None of the more reasonable speculaon is included because it depends on parapsychological research which is not allowed. Also, original research is not allowed, while reports from a wiki-reliable second sources are. Virtually all work in our lile community is original research. One of the

more irritang surprises was that negave comments made by people in the paranormalist community were found and used as proof these phenomena are not real. It is especially damaging when one of our own denounces our work. Amongst the most damaging are these quotes from the Wikipedia arcle: • Rorschach Audio: “And a broad class of phenomena referred to by author Joe Banks as Rorschach Audio has been described as a global explanaon for all manifestaons of EVP.” Banks used old, usually Class B and C examples from the beginning of EVP and did not seem to think the more contemporary and beer authencated Class A material worth using to balance his work. • Rosemary Guiley has wrien, “Within the parapsychology establishment, Rogo was oen faulted for poor scholarship, which, crics said, led to erroneous conclusions.” In fact, anything to do with EVP in Rogo’s day was as taboo as it is today amongst parapsychologists. A common skepc tacc is to deﬂect the reader from the facts by aacking procedures that produced the facts. By including that kind of aspersion in her wring, Guiley just gave the skepcs another talking point. • Imants Barušs: “While we did replicate EVP in the weak sense of ﬁnding voices on audio tapes, none of the phenomena found in our study was clearly anomalous, let alone aributable to discarnate beings. Hence we have failed to replicate EVP in the strong sense.” I have discussed Barušs’ “Failure to Replicate” arcle on my website. (96) In

fact, his protocol was fatally ﬂawed, yet his work is happily published by one of our parapsychological journals and widely quoted by the skepcs. In the EVP arcle, if you click on the reference number associated with a statement, the system will take you to the reference at the boom of the arcle. At that reference, you can click on the up symbol at the beginning of the arcle to see where it is used. If there are also lowercase leers, they will take you to addional uses of the reference. Note that many of the references are only allowed because they are negave and not because they are authoritave. I am basically not allowed to edit the arcle because of potenal conﬂict of interest. As such, I have abandoned interest in it. My failed aempt to support the development of an informave arcle within the bounds of Wikipedia policy has taught me a lot about the skepcal world. It has also caused me to go it alone in terms of trying to inform the public. My loss of paence for long, drawn out arguments over what is truth is collateral damage from that experience. As you probably see by now, the paranormalist community has not stepped up to the task of reasonable public educaon. Unthinking comments as I excerpted above are quickly used to prove we are delusional. We are our worst enemy in this bale for respectability. Passive Paranormalist As I have previously stated, the reason paranormal arcles

in Wikipedia are controlled by skepcs is because they outnumber moderate editors so completely that they are able to decide how the Five Pillars are applied as pracce. This has not always been the case. When I ﬁrst began eding Wikipedia, the arbitraon cases had not been translated into pracce and there was sll an ongoing discussion about what was acceptable for inclusion in arcles. I tried very hard to ence other paranormalists to join into the discussion. I know others in our community also tried. Hardly anyone joined in and virtually none stayed to help. The Wikipedia we have today is arguably the result of paranormalist complacency. You will ﬁnd many places in my wring in which I say that paranormalists are a gentle folk who prefer not to get involved in disagreements such as those that are all too common on Wikipedia. In fact, I have had a number of paranormalists privately tell me that they would never subject themselves to what I have experienced. The problem, I think, is that we are sll developing a sense of community and cooperave eﬀorts, such as establishing a strong group of editors in Wikipedia, are simply not yet part of our cultural norm. It is my hope that these commentaries might help to change that. Alternative to Wikipedia Wikipedia is an open source WikiMedia project: “The Wikimedia Foundaon, Inc. is a nonproﬁt charitable organizaon dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribuon of free, mullingual, educaonal content, and to providing

the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.” (124) All of the websites I manage use the Creave Commons “Aribuon-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license: Share—copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; Adapt—remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.” (125) The WikiMedia plaorm is probably the most eﬀecve tool I have found on the Internet for collaborave arcle development. It connues to be maintained with frequent updates, improvements and security ﬁxes. It also provides a means by which the public is able to see the interacon of editors and evoluon of arcles. Assuming editors use their real names and take the me to include a brief descripon of their qualiﬁcaons on their user page, this extraordinary visibility would amount to an eﬀecve alternave to peer review for observant readers. Because the arbitraon cases noted above are now part of Wikipedia rule, it is unlikely that Wikipedia can be changed toward a more neutral encyclopedia; however, it is possible that an alternave wiki could be developed. With proper aribuon, the enrety of Wikipedia could be ported to a new wiki under new management that is more agreeable to balanced reporng. In principle, Cizendium (126) is such an alternave wiki, but again, it would require a group of editors working together, as right now it is sll prey much dominated by editors leaning toward sciensm. The Collecve (67) is a WikiMidia wiki dedicated to developing best pracces. It is sponsored by

the nonproﬁt ATransC. We are always seeking qualiﬁed volunteers to help develop arcles. Wiki Aggregator A number of discussion boards and alternave wikis are showing up on paranormalist sites. Of course, there is the ATransC Idea Exchange and Collecve, but some other organizaons also have their version. All are probably doomed to obscurity, though. The problem is that, rather than cooperang with other groups, each group, including the ones I manage, has preferred to develop its own, presumably because of special needs. A natural result of these islands of informaon is that it is diﬃcult for them to rise very high in search results, meaning that they are mostly lost to those who are not part of that community of interest. One alternave would be to encourage the development of such specialty knowledge bases, and then as a community, to develop an aggregator tool which allows people to conduct informaon searches speciﬁcally in those sites. I have set up a Google search tool at ATransC.org/links_community.htm that does this for some sites, but the need is for a much more sophiscated tool. (127) Such a tool would amount to a virtual alternave wiki. On Being an Editor Unl recently, it had been my policy to encourage people to become a Wikipedia editor and help in the eﬀort to balance arcles. However, now it is clearly a lost cause. The only soluon is a policy change and the managers have stated that they are happy with the current environment. While I think

Wikipedia serves an important service in the mainstream arcles, the online encyclopedia is just a propaganda tool for skepcs. As such, it is taking up a niche on the Internet that would be beer ﬁlled by a new eﬀort. Here are a few things to consider, should you wish to parcipate in community informaon sharing: • Blogs and personal websites are a good place to develop your ideas because they tend to be stable for public assess. • Public forums are too freeform for eﬀecve long-term idea development. They are also very transient as new comments quickly push old ones out of sight. • Unless a wiki is managed by paranormalists, it will be taken over by skepcs. Forums such as the ATransC Collecve wiki at ATransC.org/bp/Collecve (4) are a safe place to help develop community pracces and useful informaonal arcles. • Aggregator tools such as the dedicated search tool at ATransC.org/links_community.htm enable a person to access informaon from many included sites. Please let me know if you wish to have your website added to the ATransC search tool. You have a unique perspecve about paranormal subjects. It is by sharing your perspecve with others that we all gain understanding and by which we develop a cohesive cooperave community. Personal blogs and websites allow you to state your point without needing to consider other people’s input, but you can probably expect the number of people reading your material to be very small. Cooperave websites develop much greater audiences, but you

will probably need to work with others to develop a shared view. We have seen with Wikipedia that such communal eﬀorts are very eﬀecve. In most cases, I consider reaching a consensus view for an arcle worth sacriﬁcing my opinion in favor of a shared opinion. In turn, I almost always learn. Conclusion Wikipedia is a very important tool for accessing informaon about noncontroversial subjects and as a study guide. However, be mindful that it has become a plaorm for social engineering. Because of its eding rules, arcles are almost always out of date. This means that even the references are probably lile beer than suggesons for what you should be looking for to beer understand the subject. Whenever I see someone using Wikipedia as a reference in an arcle intended to be taken seriously, my ﬁrst impression is that the person has not done the necessary work to understand the references, and therefore, the subject. If you want to be taken seriously as a subject-maer specialist, it is in your best interest not to use Wikipedia as a reference. Community Commentary 8: Perspective My Reader Being mindful means pausing to consider personal acons as we act. It also means taking me to see ourselves as others see us. We do this so that we can be aware of how our acons aﬀect others, and whether we are communicang as we intend. In the essay “Clarity of Communicaons,” (128) I discussed how important it is to understand that there are

diﬀerent ways people relate to informaon, and therefore, how they unconsciously process our words and acons into conscious awareness. Of course, this is based on the model used in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. In that, I explain that First Sight Theory (13) argues there is a diﬀerence between unconscious processing of informaon and conscious awareness of the results of that processing. Since mainstream science is beginning to support that model, it is reasonable to argue that a person (conscious self as “I think I am this”) is the product of unconscious mental processes which are based on prior condioning of which we are hardly aware. The inﬂuence of this wizard behind the curtain manifests as a person’s point of view. Because our communicaon with others is really addressing this wizard in their unconscious mind, it is necessary for us to carefully select our tone. The model I use is discussed in the Point of View Commentary under Temperament. As illustrated in the Personality Styles Diagram, it uses a simple four-sided model: Driver, Analycal, Expressive and Amiable. The model helps me to be mindful of reader diversity. Much of my wring is technical—not just technology technical, but also conceptually complex. As I write, I try to imagine some of my less analycal friends reading my material. Will it make sense to them? Perhaps not, no maer how many ways I make the point, but at least more will understand than if I only wrote for my way of learning. Learning

styles hints at a person’s point of view. That is the Idea I tried to convey in the Science Commentary as I described the various communies of interest and their focus. You may remember in that commentary that I had three ways in which the community is categorized: • The Dominant Views of Reality in the paranormalist community are psi ﬁeld, Trans-Survival and transcommunicaon. • These are considered from the human psychology, emergent science, human potenal, social paranormal and metaphysical points of view. • The communies of interest that consider them are parapsychology, cizen sciensts, mediumisc praconers, hobbyists and seekers. It is the point of view that must be given the most consideraon, but each community of interest presumably aracts people with a speciﬁc point of view. Key 9: The Hermit: From the Major Arcana of the Tarot in the Waite deck. (Colors are not true) Realistically Speaking A key concept from ancient wisdom schools is that our lot is to learn, and having learned, our lot is to teach. In the Progression, Teaching and the Community Discourse, I begin with: The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve From the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, we are born with an imperave to gain understanding which is expressed as progression. It is through the act of teaching that we compile the disparate bits of informaon we collect in our lifeme into a kind of gestalt understanding. It is this understanding that we

take with us to the other side beyond transion. Teaching is one of the best ways to integrate that understanding because it requires us to organize our thoughts via conscious consideraon of worldview. As an idealist, it is natural for me to occasionally dramaze a concept with imagery intended to appeal to our inner wizard. You may recognize the Hermit, key 9 of the Tarot’s Major Arcane (59) from the ethericstudies.org banner. (If you are studying the Tarot, you will know the robe is supposed to be gray and the background is supposed to be black or deep blue.) No, it does not symbolize my ideal me. It is intended to represent The Way of Progression noted above. In the Tarot, the Hermit represents the consciousness of a person who has aained some notable amount of understanding. Having been a seeker, the Hermit is now the wayshower or teacher. He holds the light high above the path so that others may know the way. In eﬀect, “As I am, so may you be.” An example of a wayshower is found in John 14-5 and 14-6 of the Chrisan Bible. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his arrest and certain death. Here, he is explaining that they too would be able to go where he was going (to heaven) and that they would know the way. John 14-5: Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? John 14-6: Jesus saith unto

him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Jesus is saying that he represents the three aspects of a teacher. The Hermit also represents those three aspects: a seeker who has achieved a degree of understanding, has integrated that understanding into his or her life and has paused to show the way to those who would come aer. So the Hermit is symbolic of what I believe all of us who count ourselves as seekers will become. He is also symbolic of the path we will eventually ﬁnd as we become the Hermit. The Village Model In the Point of View Commentary, I described the Sheep-Goat Model in terms of Villager-Explorer. You will remember that the sheep in Gertrude Schmeidler’s model were the believers in paranormal phenomena and the goats were the nonbelievers. I prefer a more ﬂaering model of explorers for people who believe in paranormal phenomena and villagers for those who do not. A second concept to consider here is the blind men and an elephant parable. In that, a number of blind men examined an elephant by touch with the expectaon of describing what it looked like. As the story goes, each individual perspecve produced a diﬀerent descripon of the elephant. I used this parable in the Community Commentary to make the point that our community’s acng as many isolated communies of interest cannot possibly see enough of the paranormal phenomena to properly understand the whole.

If the villager-explorer model is expanded to also consider their perspecves, then it might be useful as an updated version of the blind men and elephant parable. Think in terms of the village center as mainstream society, the village outskirts as our paranormalist community and the wilderness as reality. The idea is that the village is surrounded by and profoundly inﬂuenced by the wilderness. And in actuality, the village is a human construct, a human expression of reality. The people living on the outskirts of the village are more directly inﬂuenced by the wilderness, and as explorers come and go, they hear tales of wonders that the mainstream cizens cannot comprehend. Here, the explorers are the conscious seekers who hold the light for others to see. Legacy While I do not see myself as any kind of wayshower, I do understand that some of what I have learned may be of value to others. The tools I came into this lifeme with are well suited for comprehending complex concepts. If you are familiar with the story of the Tent Maker, then you will understand when I say that the life path I stumbled upon has given me objecve tools, such as technical wring and training in technology, which serve to facilitate the preservaon of what I have learned for others to study. Personal ability and life experiences maer lile if they are not directed into useful ﬁelds of study. Lisa has been an important navigator for me by involving me

in interests that I would not have considered on my own. Spiritualism, Electronic Voice Phenomena and mediumship are good examples. More likely, I would have focused my life on technology. While I like ancient wisdom and complex theories, it is the hands-on applicaon of technology that called me. So if you ﬁnd value in this book, thank Lisa, as it would not exist without her. If I did not wish to put some of my more controversial words in her mouth, her name would be on this book as co-author. You are the rest of the story. It is for you to step onto the path. Perhaps the Implicit Cosmology is not your way, but surely you will recognize the power it suggests you have in shaping your desny. You came into this lifeme with an urge to gain understanding. In my mind, it is impossible to fulﬁll that goal without eventually teaching others. Your personality understands this, as it is expressed in everything you do. These twin urges do not dominate you, perhaps they only make you restless. Probably, they are lost in the noise of your body’s insnctual urges and its natural inclinaon to play. Thus, your ﬁrst iniaon is to recognize that there is a path and that consciously deciding that entering into the mindful way is the only way to sasfy those urges. While we say “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” perhaps we should be saying, “Teach me as I

teach you.” Section III Transcommunication Introduction The Trans- Preix In the Implicit Cosmology, the trans- preﬁx signiﬁes from the etheric aspect of reality to the physical aspect. This can be considered in the same sense as across the veil of forgeulness. Transcommunicaon then, is two-way communicaon between the etheric and physical. This might also be phrased as a trans-etheric inﬂuence. Technically, all trans-etheric inﬂuences are considered intenonal expressions of a personality; however, transcommunicaon is a term generally reserved for inﬂuences that result in some form of objecve informaon. This includes mediumship, Aer-Death Communicaon (ADC) and Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC). Psychokinec acvity such as levitaon and apports are considered indirect form of transcommunicaon because they are assumed to occur under intelligent control for a speciﬁc purpose. Out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences and dreams are not usually included; however, there might be circumstances in which such experiences result in objecve informaon, and as such, those instances would be considered transcommunicaon. As a historical note, Ernst Senkowski (129) coined the term, Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC) to describe “meaningful anomalies including extraordinary voices, computer text, recorded images and images found on video displays suggesve of a connuance of life aer death.” Note that aer-death communicaon and mediumship should be considered forms of transcommunicaon but are not necessarily ITC. (Because of common usage in this ﬁeld, terms with a trans- preﬁx can be used without the hyphen.) Transcommunication Study 1: Foundation Principles Introduction Transcommunicaon is explained here as it relates to the Implicit Cosmology. To understand the nature

of transcommunicaon then, it is necessary to be familiar with a few important concepts. These are explained in detail in the body of this work and are brieﬂy covered here. Please refer to the referenced arcles for more complete explanaons and please do use the Glossary of Terms. Once again, you are invited to register on the ATransC Idea Exchange discussion board at ATransC.org/forum/ to ask quesons, discuss concepts and share results. Organizing Principles All of the principles listed in the Organizing Principles Discourse apply to transcommunicaon. The principles listed here are the most inﬂuenal. Expression: Reality is expressed via personality’s aenon on an imagined outcome with the intenon to make it so. Intended order is the inﬂuence expression has on the environment. It may be in the form of conscious awareness of an output of the perceptual process, speech, order impressed on a chaoc process or an ideoplasc form. Expression is iniated by conscious intenon but the formaon of expression is a mostly unconscious process of the Aenon Complex. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. In transcommunicaon, order in the form of recognizable images, objects or sounds is known to emerge out of chaoc signals. In Instrumental TransCommunicaon, the physical process that enables this emergence of intended order appears to be stochasc ampliﬁcaon acng on chaoc, broad-spectrum energy. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Perceptual Agreement: Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. This organizing principle provides a mechanism by

which order can be imposed on a system without many complex rules liming the behavior of individual life ﬁelds (personalies). It results in the existence of the Veil of Forgeulness (130), which is the praccal consequence of the etheric-physical interface. The link between conscious self (I think I am this) and personality (I am this), as it is associated with a human avatar, is ﬁltered by worldview in the Aenon Complex. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. The praccal consequence of this principle is that the etheric personality is not able to directly inﬂuence the physical, but must rely on its conscious self, which is entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. Entanglement: Personality remains associated with its expressions via aenon. The Principle of Entanglement is seen as a property inherent in the process of expression. In this model, expression is in the form of an aspect of a personality (Lile Me) or an ideoplasc structure. These remain associated with the creang personality by way of aenon and the extent to which personality intends that the expressions connue to exist. Personal Reality: Percepon of reality deﬁnes personal reality. The database deﬁning percepon is contained in worldview as part of the Aenon Complex. At birth, worldview is populated with insncts from the human body, with some level of understanding about reality and an urge to gain further understanding inherited from etheric personality. The body’s insncts are dominant in the person’s early years, but personality, by way of conscious self, is

expected to eventually gain control of worldview as the person matures. Even so, the insncts and beliefs taught to the person by family, school and media tend to dominate the person’s sense of reality, right and wrong (cultural norms). Important Concepts The relaonship between our etheric personality and our human body is modeled as an avatar relaonship. Understanding the following concepts will help you understand this relaonship: Avatar: In Hinduism, an avatar (from Sanskrit for descent) is a deliberate descent of a deity to Earth. The term can be translated into English as incarnaon. A person is an etheric personality entangled with a human body in an avatar relaonship. See the Life Field Complex Diagram. Life Field: The ﬁeld concept dominates this cosmology. Fields are generally referred to as etheric ﬁelds of which there are many forms. In this concept, reality consists of life ﬁelds and expressions of life ﬁelds. See the Life Fields Discourse. The Life Field Complex Diagram shows the entangled relaonship between personality, body mind and physical body. All of the funconal areas are in the etheric except for the physical body itself. This includes mind, memory, intenon, insncts and body image. Praccal consequences of this avatar relaonship include: • Unconscious expression: As described in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, expression is the output of the Aenon Complex. It is informed by worldview, so that expressions are colored by cultural beliefs and human insncts. Expression can be outward from the life ﬁeld into the environment, but it

is also inward as thought, memory, dreams and imaginings. Expression is bounded by perceptual agreement. • Unconscious worldview deﬁnes personal reality: How a person consciously experiences the world is based on worldview. In childhood, human insncts tend to dominate worldview, and as such, a young person must be taught to be a cizen. Maturing is the process of learning how to manage insncts with understanding gained through experience. Right and wrong are cultural arfacts which the person must be taught by the community. Insncts of the body must also be managed by the entangled personality. From a cosmological perspecve, the Organizing Principles represent enduring understanding leading to perceptual agreement. • Body Mind is not the same as worldview: The body is governed by body image which is managed by body mind. Via the Perceptual Loop, gradual changes in the body are capable of modifying the body image. Aging is a gradual change. Also, there are culturally developed expectaons that age equals old. In fact, this gradual decline may not be necessary but is driven by that culturally developed expectaon. • All percepon is psi; objecvity is assigned: All of the funconal areas are in etheric space except the physical structure of the human body and the ideoplasc structures that result in physical objects as the person’s expression. That which we consider physically objecve is a convenon used to color percepon. In the Implicit Cosmology, the only diﬀerence between percepon of a distant object sensed via clairvoyance and percepon of a

nearby object sensed via the body’s sight and touch is how we have been taught to assign meaning. Percepon and Expression: The Percepon and Expression Diagram illustrates the informaon ﬂow for how we think based on the most current science I can ﬁnd. (See the Percepon and Expression Discourse for more details.) All of the funconal areas are in the etheric and are beer thought of as nonphysical ﬁelds which are bound into a system by the inﬂuence of aenon. As such the Aenon Complex represents our unconscious mind. Important features to note in the diagram include: • Transcommunicaon: Personality interfaces with other personalies via the Aenon Complex. Interacon is limited by perceptual agreement as deﬁned in worldview. • Mind is like an Internet IP Address: Only external signals (psi inﬂuences, physical signals) of interest to the person are passed by the Aenon Limiter. • Worldview limits percepon: In eﬀect, the Perceptual Loop asks the queson, “Is this real?” of the informaon passed by the Aenon Limiter. The answer is based on worldview which funcons as the moderator for what is real. • Worldview can be incrementally changed: Worldview represents habit, and as such, experiencing what is familiar requires much less eﬀort than that required to experience something new. A slight or ambiguous diﬀerence between worldview and sensed informaon is most apt to change worldview while a great diﬀerence will likely be rejected (ignored by the conscious self). • Percepon develops moment-by-moment: The Perceptual Loop is a streaming process so

that environmental informaon is connuously sampled. The eﬀect is an evolving percepon as more informaon becomes available. This may explain stream-of-thought dreams in which one moment suggests the next but not always to produce a logical experience. Stochastic Ampliication The most common form of EVP is known as transform EVP because they are known to depend on the presence of broad-spectrum audio energy for formaon. Also, most visual forms of ITC are induced by causing the presence of chaoc visible light which is transformed into features, apparently, according to intended order. Precipitaon phenomena are somemes associated with the availability of raw material in the physical which is thought to be apported to and then deposited in its new locaon according intended order expressed by the communicang personality. An apport is modeled as decomposion of objects at their original physical locaon and precipitaon of them in a new locaon. The common factors appear to be chaoc energy and intended order. As such, our working hypothesis is that the creave process involves aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order in a chaoc system. Here, a chaoc system is any physical system, ﬁeld or material that is not conﬁned by design or funcon to a parcular order. Audio-frequency noise with many irregularies, including short spikes of noise, is useful for transform EVP formaon. Medium-density light is considered an ideal chaoc source for feature formaon in visual ITC. An electronic device that is engineered so as not to allow processing of

unexpected signals is not a chaoc system. An example is a shortwave radio with squelch control. Within the constraints of the energy barriers of the material, semiconductor juncons may produce chaoc signals. Stochasc resonance is an eﬀect that results in a weak signal being ampliﬁed in a nonlinear system when a large noise background is applied. (131) It is speculated that a weak psychokinec psi inﬂuence (signal) is made stronger via stochasc ampliﬁcaon. In electronic circuits, the acve regions of tubes and transistors provide the necessary nonlinear condion for ampliﬁcaon. It is the combinaon of the electronic environment and the presence of a chaoc signal that we think makes psi inﬂuence of electronic equipment so common. By comparison, a physical object such as a cupboard door does not provide the necessary leverage to amplify psi inﬂuences. One Thought In the front material of this book, I said that the theory, community and transcommunicaon secons were three parts of one thought. I understand this is a long book. As my proofreader pointed out, the EVP secon alone seems like a book. But this is the me for paence, as many of my comments about these phenomena make most sense if you understand the theory and the environment in which it has developed. The Discourses are the teaching, the Commentaries are the living experience and the Studies are the applicaon. These are the three parts of a whole that can lead to understanding. Transcommunication Study 2: The Nature of Transcommunication Introduction Because

there are so many pernent concepts, the following comments are oﬀered in a shorthand version. Please take advantage of the links, other studies and Glossary of Terms for supporng material. Mechanics of Transcommunication From the physical perspecve and with the excepon of our human organism, everything about us is nonphysical, made real by way of the Aenon Complex and by convenon taught to us since physical birth. Even mainstream sciensts are beginning to think the physical world we live in might be a product of our imaginaon, not in a sense that it is not objecve, but in the sense that everything objecve must ﬁrst be visualized in our unconscious mind before some version of the world is expressed to our conscious self. Quantum theory is beyond the scope of this cosmology, but you can ﬁnd ample support for this statement via an Internet search for Collapse of the quantum wave funcon and Wave funcon represents reality. Avatar as Trans-channel In this model, a personality in the etheric is only able to express intended order in the physical by way of an entangled avatar. In simpler terms, this means that long dead Uncle John must speak through a physical person, which is someone who is an etheric personality entangled with a human body (avatar). In praccal terms, this means that the message in EVP, mediumisc messages, automac wring, the images of visual ITC, apported objects and precipitated images must be formed by an entangled avatar. That is, by way of

a physical person. It apparently does not maer who is providing the channel. For instance, in EVP, the channel could be an interested observer. The observer could be in New York City talking to the praconer in San Francisco. In the same way, a mental medium could be accessing informaon via any etheric personality, entangled with an avatar or not. Apparently, the only liming factor for this informaon access is the Principle of Perceptual Agreement. In that, if the person’s Aenon Complex cannot develop a visualizaon of the informaon based on worldview, it cannot be expressed as awareness to the conscious self. In a praccal sense, this means that if the channel (person providing the entangled avatar) believes all ﬂowers are red, then the message from a discarnate loved one that said “These blue ﬂowers are for you” will likely be expressed as “These red ﬂowers are for you.” In other words, for the channel, communicaon from a discarnate loved one is just another environmental input. It must pass through the Perceptual Loop, and therefore is subject to interpretaon by the channel’s worldview. If the person providing the channel understands a second language, the message could be in that language or a mix of ﬁrst and second languages. This is one of the reasons EVP are thought to be mostly in a language the praconer or an interested observer understands. A possible excepon to the need for an avatar relaonship for trans- etheric inﬂuences is the Contact Field. In that,

links of rapport connecng a cooperang community are thought to produce an intenonality ﬁeld. If the intenon is to facilitate trans-etheric inﬂuences, then it may be possible that the intenon ﬁeld ﬁlls the same funcon as the channel provided by an etheric personality entangled avatar. This may be the underlying mechanism of séances and development circles. We are prey sure we experienced this amongst ATransC members during the me of the Big Circle. What We Sense That which we sense begins as that which enters into our Aenon Complex by way of our Aenon Limiter. The informaon is ﬁrst limited by the extent to which we are paying aenon: are we interested, does it maer to us, does it involve survival, is it a threat? The Aenon Limiter ﬁlters uninteresng informaon from the environment. Human insncts have a lot to do with what is deemed important and anything seeming to threaten or help survival (procreaon, food, and protecon of oﬀspring) will readily pass the limiter. Personal interests such as considering the purchase of a new car will tend to alert the conscious self every me that model of car is near. The two assumpons of First Sight Theory proposed by James Carpenter (13) can be paraphrased as: First, everything and everyone produces a psi signal that perturbs the psi ﬁeld that connects all of us. People psychically sense these changes in psi space just as they physically sense changes in physical space. Second, every expression from the Aenon Complex includes

a related psychokinec inﬂuence. Carpenter proposes thirteen corollaries describing the implicaons of these assumpons for how people process informaon. The Percepon and Expression Discourse includes a descripon of how they apply to the Perceptual Loop. Factors such as how well a person focuses on informaon, what a person is interested in and how well a person is able to sense into the unconscious acvity of the Aenon Complex determine the clarity with which a person is able to experience the world. The extent of this clarity is referred to as lucidity. What We Express What we express is based on our personal reality as it has developed in our worldview. This is an important point because as you think, so do you experience and so do you express. An example is how we react to a stranger. First will come an alert of something unfamiliar, then an unconscious aempt to remember something familiar about the person (in worldview). If we are culturally taught to be suspicious of strangers, and if we tend to be fearful of the unknown, then it is more likely that we will describe the person in a prejudicial way. We will ﬁnd terms like outsider or intruder in our memory to describe the person. If we are open to new experiences, the descripon might be more like someone new. An interesng aspect of the Perceptual Loop is that we unconsciously aempt to visualize or create a mental model of incoming environmental informaon based on what is

already in worldview. This is accomplished in the iterave process of the Perceptual Loop. Your mind almost instantaneously tries a series of possible soluons that either produces conscious percepon or rejecon of the informaon. You may have detected this process, most likely as you try to remember something. Be mindful that what you ﬁnally remember is determined by that modeling process and may not accurately represent the original input. The diﬀerence is message coloring. Message coloring is easy to detect if acons and speech are considered in the context of the situaon. Transcommunicaon begins as a concept, and it is clothed in familiar meaning as it is made physical. As such, it is natural for a communicated concept to be expressed in a way that is characterisc of the praconer (or an interested observer). As is discussed in the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse, we share worldview with our human host. That means our responses to environmental inﬂuences are colored by our human insncts. When confronted with a threatening situaon, our human will probably respond with something like a ﬁght or ﬂight reacon, but depending on our degree of lucidity, our conscious self will more likely respond with curiosity and desire to understand. One way for us to know why we respond as we do to a situaon is to consider how much raonal reasoning is involved. This is true of the way we relate to food and our relaonship with others, especially people of the other sex. Expectation Colors Perception Amongst

Spiritualists, it is called coloring when a medium’s thoughts seem to change the message that is supposed to be from the sier’s loved one. Typical coloring might be as simple as changing the intended “These ﬂowers are for you” message to “This gi is for you.” Such a change preserves the intent but is probably expressed as well as the medium’s lucidity will allow. It is when the medium delivers the intended “I love you” spirit greeng to “I worry about you” for a sier the medium thinks looks unhealthy that coloring turns mediumship into probably unconscious social engineering. This is especially evident in EVP. An observer of a group of people who are recording for EVP on a walkabout will likely noce how captured EVP tend to reﬂect the praconer’s worldview. For example, a person who thinks the world is more than a lile fearful will more oen record conﬁrming uerances such as “Help” or “I hate you.” A person who thinks discarnate people are earthbound and hang around cemeteries will oen record “Help me” messages around cemeteries. This point is one of the foundaon concepts for the Implicit Cosmology because it clearly demonstrates that the messages in EVP are colored by beliefs as they are transformed in the Aenon Complex. The remedy for the coloring of messages with belief is mindful living. This is more speciﬁcally discussed in the Being a Good Witness Discourse on EthericStudies.org. (68) Coloring is also a problem for the witness (sier). If the

witness is not open to new concepts and aempts instead to explain everything in familiar terms, what the witness consciously experiences will oen be diﬀerent from the actual nature of the event. There are a number of terms for diﬀerent aspects of this idiosyncrasy of human nature, such as incredulity blindness and agnosia. Hyperlucidity is a human behavior that is just the opposite of incredulity blindness. Paranormal phenomena are poorly understood and explanaons for them are usually not well considered. Add to that the tendency for people to reject the authority of more experienced people in favor of their own beliefs and the result is somemes a tendency to see phenomena where there are none. Misaribuon of mundane phenomena as paranormal is usually just a maer of a witness not understanding the situaon or what to expect; however, the reason for this behavior can be more complex. The person might genuinely believe phenomena are present despite explanaons to the contrary. This is not just a maer of persistence. In Hyperlucidity, a person is described as being convinced to the point of irraonal insistence. Be careful not to think that the possibility of hyperlucidity supports accusaons of fraud. The existence of paranormal phenomena is well established. It is just that poor discernment can lead a person to wrong conclusions. Objecve phenomena can be witnessed by many people. In EVP, for instance, hyperlucidity shows up when a person reports hearing speciﬁc messages while no one else agrees. As one person complained, “She

hears the enre Geysburg Address in a ten second sound ﬁle.” Accounting for Human Nature As we became more aware of the characteriscs of ITC, the mostly unconscious inﬂuences on the perceptual process are increasingly recognized as the dominant factor for how phenomena are experienced and reported. The phenomena have been substanated as being real. The problem is that witnesses and praconers alike too oen lack the necessary theorecal understanding to reasonably characterize their experiences. This is addressed in the Commentaries of Secon 2. Here, I will say that informaon received via transcommunicaon must be processed in the mostly unconscious Aenon Complex before becoming available to the conscious self. What does become available is a version of the intended informaon as it is translated in the Perceptual Loop. That is, it is almost inevitably colored by worldview. As far as we can tell, this applies to informaon found in all forms of mediumship including ITC. Evidence of Transcommunication Of the dominant proofs of survival—reincarnaon, near-death experience and mediumship—mediumship is considered the least convincing by mainstream science as well as many parapsychologists. The main concern is that psychic access to informaon as an explanaon for the many veriﬁable messages in mediumship cannot be completely ruled out. Of the three, mediumship is the one counted as a form of transcommunicaon. Instrumental TransCommunicaon is studied by cizen sciensts with more of a decisive determinism approach than by calculang deviaons from chance so commonly preferred in parapsychology. By that standard, both audio and visible

forms of ITC have been shown to be objecvely real and reproducible by competent praconers using accepted pracces. In my opinion, the missing element required to substanate these phenomena for the scienﬁc community has been a workable theorecal model. Of course, that is the purpose of the Implicit Cosmology, so once it is published, what will remain in an ideal world is the need to educate the community. (And evolve the cosmology with thoughul collaboraon.) So the perspecve I take in my study is that the objecvity of these phenomena is based on shared experience as measured by witness panels. And that the theory can be reasonably applied to enhance people’s understanding about the nature of reality and their relaon with it—not as a maer of faith, but as objecve, aconable understanding. Information from the Environment All forms of trans-etheric inﬂuence are modeled in the Implicit Cosmology as expressions from personality into the physical via an avatar relaonship with a human body. The entangled personality-human complex is referred to as a person, but as is shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram, the person’s personality is held separate from the person’s conscious self by the Aenon Complex and worldview. Informaon exchange amongst personalies is also moderated by the Principle of Perceptual Agreement. In that, the exchange of informaon is limited by how well one personality can perceive informaon from another as it passes through the Perceptual Loop in the Aenon Complex. If this model is reasonably correct, then informaon communicated

to a physical person (the sier) from a discarnate loved one would necessarily be by way of an exchange between the loved one’s personality (in the etheric) and a personality (in the etheric) that is entangled in a physical avatar relaonship (the medium). This means that a mental medium psychically brings a message from a loved one by way of his or her Aenon Complex in the same way ordinary informaon is sensed. In parapsychological terms, this communicaon looks like a psi inﬂuence. That is, the medium senses the psi ﬁeld for informaon about the sier in the same way that it is sensed for every other unconscious funcon. Presumably, psi signatures from other people’s thoughts and acons are always presented to a person’s Aenon Complex. The diﬀerence between an average person and a medium is that a medium has learned to pay aenon. Sensed Information as Evidence of Survival Evidence is not always evidenal. That lile gem of a saying represents the dividing line between the academically trained researcher and the lay praconer. To be evidenal, an example must have a very well controlled and documented chain of custody, and the protocol by which it was collected must be known, repeatable and observable. And of course, meaning of evidence must be based on understanding. For instance, from an online listening study, the words in the EVP example “It’s Frank,” recorded by Karen Mossey, were correctly reported an average of 48.6% of the me. (21) This establishes that the voice

is objecve in the sense that people can hear the words and that 48% of them correctly understand the words. However, the objecvity of the example only means it exists. Who spoke the words, and when, are enrely diﬀerent quesons. Ignoring the usual explanaons oﬀered by the skepc community that the example is a fake or that people are delusional to think there are words in the recoding, reasonable arguments are that there were unnoced speakers or that the praconer is confused as to when and where the recording was made. Here, the experienced praconer has cross-corresponding evidence because Frank was a cat owned by the family for which Mossey’s group was conducng an invesgaon concerning a reported ghost child in the house. A mental medium had just stated that there was a child in the closet about the me that Frank wandered into the closet and the recording was made. A mental medium can say anything. Even a well- meaning medium can mistakenly think there is an enty nearby. Who would know? Having eyewitnesses hear the medium’s statement, and then see the cat named Frank walk into a closet, is not very good evidence by itself. The fact that the group was looking for a ghost child may have simply predisposed the medium’s interpretaon of what she sensed. Also, the EVP was heard later during the analysis of the data. The EVP containing a child’s voice commenng on the cat as it walked into the closet in which the

medium had just said a child was present amounts to corresponding evidence that is, indeed, evidenal. It should be noted that the cross-correspondence of the medium’s report and the child’s voice in the EVP provides strong evidence for the existence of psi funconing, but it does not assure there was a survived child in the closet. Collecvely, the invesgators had full awareness of the story about the ghost. A contact ﬁeld had likely formed, which theorecally would enable the common awareness to produce expected phenomena. Nonlocal The everywhere is here characterisc of the psi ﬁeld is referred to as nonlocality. The argument made by parapsychologists that EVP is only proof of psi funconing is properly based on nonlocality. The importance of the “Doja, no!” (33) example is that, when the recording was made, there was no pre-exisng memory of the event. Nonlocality is not an explanaon for that example. See Nonlocal and Nontemporal in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Nontemporal It is somemes argued that informaon in ITC could have come from a person’s future knowledge of an event. When Martha returned home and saw the mess, she could have thought, Cathy would never have let this happen if she was sll here. And based on the theorecal nontemporal nature of reality, she could have psychokinecally injected the EVP onto the recorder as the recording was being made before she got home. There is some indicaon that presenment, the physiological reacon to an event before it actually occurs, is best explained

with First Sight Theory. Presenment is a short-term phenomenon while most reports of precognion indicate a long-term eﬀect. In that, the concept of emerging thoughorms represenng potenal futures might beer explain the eﬀect. Rather than precognion as sensing the future, there is beer support for the idea of sensing the potenal of a parcular future. As such, a nontemporal characterisc of etheric space is probably incorrect. See the Nonlocal and Nontemporal in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Apports EVP are somemes formed by more than one voice, as if one person begins a phrase and a second ﬁnishes it. Especially in telephone recorder EVP, there is the occasional sound of what a telephone technician might describe as a break-in, as if the transmission signal carrying the message has to override the ﬁrst signal. For instance, the recording might begin with a lile noise abruptly interrupted by a burst of louder noise which trails oﬀ as the voice of the EVP begins. This is demonstrated in the Transcommunicaon Via Telephone Calls arcle on ATransC.org. (132) In some form of EVP apparently produced by more than one person, the ﬁrst speaker might begin with “John …” followed by a second speaker saying “…is okay.” The eﬀect is very much as one would hear if a sound engineer had spliced two statements spoken by diﬀerent people together to produce one phrase. This is the kind of sound track one might expect if parts of the EVP are apported from existent recordings in other parts

of the world. This possible spirit plagiarism is seen in visual forms of ITC as well. For instance, the precipitaon art Hoyt Robinee produced for me has the likeness of a man dressed in Civil War era military clothing. (See the example here.) The feature looks as if it was taken from exisng media. The features produced by Robinee on squares of cloth are prey clearly from exisng media. (See an example here.) Yet aer much examinaon of the materials and physical environment before, during and aer they were formed, there is no evidence indicang anything other than paranormally produced art. Apport is a term used to describe the movement of a physical object from one locaon to another. Usually, it is experienced as an object suddenly appearing, perhaps in the air and then falling to the ﬂoor. Flower petals, stones, even ﬁgurines have been reported. Apported objects are described as apports. The apport process is thought to be the dissoluon of an object in one locaon, movement of the object’s formave informaon through the etheric, and precipitaon of the object back into its original form in the new locaon. Remembering the nonlocality of the etheric, through the etheric is conceptual. Yes, this sounds a lot like teleportaon, and that is a good model for visualizaon of the process. Physical objects are described in the Implicit Cosmology as ideoplasc structures. This means that they are formed as expressions from the Aenon Complex. In this model, our sense of the physical

world is expressed in our mind as being objecvely real, when in fact, reality is a mental construct based on a collecve intenon to make an imagined object of reality real. See The Nature of Reality Discourse. In physical terms, transcommunicaon is an energy-intensive process. The etheric equivalence of physical energy is intenon, and so in etheric terms, the creave process is likely demanding and its expression is seen to be limited by a personality’s ability to maintain the necessary focus of aenon, clarity of imaginaon and intenon to express a desired outcome. So in physical terms, trans-etheric inﬂuences in general are probably very energy intensive. Using available ideoplasc structures already exisng in the physical that sasfy an intended expression may well be more eﬃcient than producing a new ideoplasc structure. While some EVP are clearly in the voice of the known speaker, some can be more sensibly explained as existent bits of speech opportuniscally apported to the sound ﬁle. A planned study is the analysis of a collecon of synchronized sound ﬁle pairs: one containing an EVP and one recorded at the same me but without the EVP. The objecve is to determine if there is a net increase in energy in the ﬁle containing EVP. See the call for examples of transform EVP on ATransC.org. (133) Apportaon may well be one of the most common forms of transcommunicaon. With this in mind, researchers and praconers alike should be cauous about too quickly deciding the authencity of examples just

because they are based on exisng material. Precipitation Another form of trans-etheric inﬂuence is known as precipitaon. In that, physical material in a chaoc form is deposited into the physical under the inﬂuence of intended order. Probably the most common form of this is precipitated art. Precipitaon is also seen as the end-phase of apportaon. Precipitaon medium Hoyt Robinee produces very impressive examples of precipitated art. In the one shown here, Robine placed crayons, felt-p pins and pencils in a basket with a package of newly opened three-by-ﬁve white paper cards. The basket was covered while he conducted billet readings for about an hour, and then the basket was opened and the cards removed. For each of the twenty-some siers, there was a card with their name and one or more drawings on it. Robine performed a similar feat using squares of cloth and many opened colored inkboles as raw material. (See an example from a cloth here.) Intended Order Intended order is one of the common denominators for trans-inﬂuence phenomena. If reality consists of life ﬁelds and the expressions of life ﬁelds, then reality is an example of intended order. It is a characterisc we should expect to see in all of our phenomena. The Global Consciousness Project involves the apparent inﬂuence of some form of collecve consciousness on random event generators. The inﬂuence is seen as increasing order in a process very carefully designed to be random. Virtually all forms of EVP involve the impression of intended order

on noise. The ideal noise is currently understood to be broad-spectrum chaoc noise, heavily weighted in voice frequencies and frequently perturbed by noise spikes. It is thought that the spikes facilitate the impression of the intelligence signal on the stochasc process, as if a kernel around which the voice can form. Most if not all visual forms of ITC are formed in opcal noise. Video loop ITC, for instance, involves the producon of very chaoc opcal noise by poinng a video camera at a television screen on which the output of the camera is being displayed. This camera recording what it has just recorded produces wide-spectrum, chaoc opcal noise in which recognizable features such as human faces and animals. Some specialty devices and computer programs involve white noise or other chaoc sources as the core process. In some techniques, memory addresses containing bits of speech are selected, based on changes in this chaoc input. The streaming output of that process is expected to produce meaningful messages. The common factor in all of these is the impression of intended order on a chaoc process. As a common factor in many forms of transcommunicaon, the evidence of intended order is both a way to evaluate techniques for producing the phenomena of transcommunicaon and a way to model the nature of those phenomena. EVP as a Lab Rat for Psi Research An important aspect of EVP is that an experienced, conﬁdent praconer can be expected to produce examples on demand. In this way,

recording for EVP provides a means by which other forms of phenomena can be studied. It appears possible for an EVP to be produced by a physical person if the informaon is currently known by someone or if it exists in the etheric. As such, locality does seem to be a factor. It does appear that me is a factor. The potenal ﬁeld for something to occur might produce an EVP as it is sensed by a person, but it is very diﬃcult to argue that a speciﬁc EVP such as “Doja, no!” might be the product of presenment. In fact, we are aware of no examples in which an EVP example foretold an event that could not have been explained as a praconer or interested observer sensing the potenal for that event to occur. (There is more on the “Doja, no!” example here.) There is currently no known way to shield from psi. This means that any psi experiment has the potenal of contaminaon by the experimenter and interested observers. This is certainly true of EVP sessions. However, if a protocol for EVP can be designed in which no physical person is aware of an event, its form or when it will occur, then it may be possible to enlist discarnate helpers to observe and report via EVP. Such a protocol would be useful for studying psi shielding techniques and validaon of survival evidence. It would be necessary to ignore other evidence, but for the sake of research, it

is reasonable to argue that the praconer is the source of the uerance if researchers insist on the Super-Psi Hypothesis. Implications of the Implicit Cosmology The phenomena of transcommunicaon are usually considered from the perspecve of known physics, human nature and psi research. The Survival Hypothesis is typically dismissively considered as a preamble to the eﬀorts to explain proposed evidence of survival as mental aberraon. If that fails, then the Super-Psi Hypothesis is turned to as the last word. While the evidence oﬀered by mediumship is usually dismissed as insuﬃciently convincing or easily explained with Super-Psi, there is virtually no consideraon within academic circles of evidence oﬀered by ITC. However, when ITC is considered, it is seen to be consistent with the evidence of mediumship. (We consider ITC a form of physical mediumship.) From my perspecve, it is easy to develop a consistent model that makes sense of both psi and transcommunicaon phenomena. If the Implicit Cosmology is correct, then all forms of transcommunicaon should depend on essenally the same concepts and their behavior should be reasonably well predicted by including those concepts. In the same way, examples of phenomena that seem to contradict the cosmology should be considered with some hesitaon. They are either not what they seem or they present new concepts that should be, but may not have been considered. It is important that phenomena that agree with predicons of the Implicit Cosmology inherit credibility from one another. As proof of survival, mental mediumship should be seen

as more plausible if EVP is seen as evidence of survival. EVP should be seen as more plausible if precipitaon can be established as real process. In the same way, apportaon as a means of producing some EVP should make sense if there is seen to be a net increase in audio energy in an audio signal containing an EVP. It all depends on understanding the model and understanding the phenomena. Transcommunication Study 3: Audio ITC a.k.a. EVP Introduction Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is the audio form of Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC). There are anomalous, intelligible speech produced in electronic devices. They may be heard as a real-me output, but because the voice is usually diﬃcult to understand, they are more generally heard on review of a subsequent recording. No currently understood physical processes account for the existence of EVP. Most praconers use a three-er scale for classifying how well an EVP example is expected to be heard and understood by a listener. These are Class A for easily heard, Class B for marginal and Class C for very diﬃcult to hear and understand. See Classifying EVP in this Study. There are two very diﬀerent schools of thought about how these phenomena are experienced. One is that these phenomena just spontaneously happen and the receiver must be lucky enough to have someone on the other side make contact. The second is that many forms of these phenomena are able to be induced. Given the evidence, it is reasonable to think that

the second point of view is held by the more recently informed. History Speculaon about EVP can be traced back to the 1920s. In a Scienﬁc American interview, Thomas Edison was quizzed on his views regarding contacng the dead. Edison said that it might be “possible to construct an apparatus which will be so delicate that, if there are personalies in another existence or sphere who wish to get in touch with us in this existence or sphere, this apparatus will at least give them a beer opportunity to express themselves than the lng tables and raps and Ouija boards and mediums and the other crude methods now purported to be the only means of communicaon.” There is no indicaon that Edison designed or tried to construct such a device. (134) The Edison Naonal Historic Site at home.nps.gov/edis/faqs.htm. Had a Queson and Answer item concerning a possible Edison’s machine for transcommunicaon (the item has been removed): Did Edison make a machine that could talk to the dead? This seems to be another tall tale that Edison pulled on a reporter. In 1920 Edison told the reporter, B.F. Forbes, that he was working on a machine that could make contact with the spirits of the dead. Newspapers all over the world picked up this story. Aer a few years, Edison admied that he had made the whole thing up. Today at Edison Naonal Historic Site, we take care of over ﬁve million pages of documents. None of them menon such an

experiment. In 1936, Ala von Szalay began capturing paranormal voices on phonograph records and then in the mid-1950s he was joined by Raymond Bayless. Together they acquired many evidenal EVP on their new tape recorders and they published their ﬁndings in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. (135) The person credited with bringing EVP to the public is Friedrich Jürgenson, a Russian-born Swedish ﬁlm producer. In 1959, aer recording birdsong on his tape recorder, Jürgenson heard on playback what appeared to be a human voice. Subsequent recordings contained a message which seemed to be coming from his dead mother. (136) Konstann Raudive is credited for learning about EVP as a student of Jürgenson and introducing EVP to the English-speaking world with the Colin Smythe publicaon of the English-language book, Breakthrough. (137) Colin Smythe is credited with coining the term, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) as a more inclusive alternave to Raudive Voices, as the voices recorded by Raudive were referred to at the me. Sarah Estep founded the American Associaon of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP) in 1982. In 2000, she sent us an email tled, “Would you” in which she asked us to assume leadership of the Associaon. We agreed and our lives became regulated with the quarterly cycle of research, wring and publicaon of the ATransC NewsJournal. In 2003, we wrote and published There Is No Death and There Are No Dead (1) as a sort of textbook for members and people who wished to have an

understanding of EVP. All of the proceeds of the book have gone to the Associaon for operaons, outreach and research. To date, it has earned $37,100. In 2014, aer uninterrupted publicaon of 129 issues of the Associaon newsleer, 57 of which we published, we changed the model for the Associaon from membership supported nonproﬁt to a general public supported one. That is the essenal history, but there are numerous other historically important events, such as the development of video loop ITC and the many blind alleys such as Spiricom and radio-sweep. We have never had much interest in history, preferring instead to focus on the present and potenal futures. It is important in this study to remember that any informaon older than ten or twelve years is probably out of date. In fact, the history only contaminates present understanding, making it diﬃcult for contemporary observers to see past the false noons it has brought. Types of EVP EVP are spoken of in the plural because they are formed in at least three very diﬀerent ways, all of which are dependent on the availability of a relavely chaoc signal which has been shown in research to be more readily inﬂuenced with psychokinesis than more ordered signals. Transform EVP Tradionally EVP formaon has involved the transformaon of available audio-frequency energy into voice. This transformaon is thought to occur in the electronic equipment, speciﬁcally in an analog stage before or aer the signal is digized for storage. The resulng signal is seen as

a simulaon of human voice which may closely mimic the physical voice of the person thought to be speaking. This includes nuances of voice indicang accent, age, sex and atude. Analysis of the resulng voice oen shows novel arrangement of formants (clusters of frequency groups occurring characterized as octaves of the voice box frequency produced during passage through the mouth). Fragmented voice box frequencies (Formant 0) are also characterisc of EVP. (138) Prior to wide availability of personal computers, the stac between radio staons was oen used as background sound for transform EVP since radios were a readily available source of sound. Current best pracces involve the use of noise, such as that produced by a fan. The use of any form of live voice, such as a possible voice from a radio broadcast, is strongly discouraged. Random Selection This is also known as opportunisc EVP because it is thought to require the availability of already formed voice fragments. It depends on a random process which is thought to be inﬂuenced by the communicang enty. In the applicaon known as EVPmaker (22), a pre-recorded sound ﬁle containing voice is stored in a buﬀer with each buﬀer address containing a small segment of the original sound ﬁle. A random process is then presumed to be intelligently inﬂuenced by the trans-communicator to select buﬀer memory locaons presumably containing the necessary bit of sound for message formaon. The resulng sound fragments are combined in a streaming output sound ﬁle. Meaningful messages are somemes

found in that output stream. EVPmaker developer, Stefan Bion (22), has provided an input sound ﬁle on his website which contains speech fragments known as allophones which are generated by a speech synthesis program. In this applicaon, it is argued that, if a word is present in the output, it must be formed by a chance arrangement of allophones or it must be the product of intended manipulaon of the random process. The deciding factor is whether or not the uerance is meaningful for the circumstance. Environmental Control of Speech Synthesis Some applicaons employ environmental energy sensors to control the operaon of a speech synthesis process or to select addresses in a word or voice fragment buﬀer. It is believed that the communicang personality’s intenon to communicate might cause meaningful perturbaons in the environmental energy, thus selecng intended buﬀer addresses to form a voice message. Depending on the design, the environmental energy sensing mechanism may also be directly inﬂuenced by the communicator. This goes back to the problem that the mechanism can only report changes as it is designed. What is Probably Not EVP Review the characteriscs for EVP discussed in this Study. Based on those common characteriscs, and the results of other studies, it is becoming evident that certain technologies probably do not produce EVP. The most commonly used of these quesonable technologies is radio- sweep, which uses modiﬁed radios popularly known as ghost boxes or spirit boxes. The concept is that repeatedly tuning a radio by sweeping through

the local radio staons will produce an output of meaningful sounds. It is thought that the communicang personality will arrange for the right sounds to be present in ambient radio transmissions to produce the desired message. Radio-Sweep: A Case Study, which I conducted in 2009 (73), is typical of the kind of study indicang radio-sweep technology probably does not produce EVP. A Research Study into the Interpretaon of EVP (74), which is a 2013 study conducted by parapsychologist Dr. Mark Leary, indicates that radio-sweep examples thought to be EVP are typically not correctly understood by a listening panel. See Errors in Percepon in the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study. Characteristics of EVP These characteriscs will provide a sense of how EVP sound and the nature of the phenomenal voices. Transform EVP The ﬁrst group of characteriscs is speciﬁcally for transform EVP. 1 EVP are disncve: EVP have a disncve character of cadence, pitch, frequency, volume and use of background sound. The voices have a disncve sound to them that is diﬃcult to describe. For instance, EVP messages oen have an unusual speed of enunciaon; the words seem to be spoken more quickly than normal human speech. 2 A need for background sound sources: Research has shown that the voice in EVP is formed out of ambient sound. (138) Because of these characteriscs, it is standard pracce to assure the availability of ambient sound for voice formaon, even while isolang the recording device or process from uncontrolled ambient sounds, such as

crowd noise, so as to avoid mistaking unnoced normal voices as EVP. 3 Frequency range: EVP are formed in available background sound. As such, if there is a high frequency component in the background sound, say caused by whistling wind, it is possible that the EVP will be of similar frequency range. If there are both higher and lower frequency components in the background sound, it is possible to ﬁnd EVP formed in both regions of the sound. In some instances, two diﬀerent voices might overlap. 4 Missing frequencies: Spectral analysis of EVP samples has shown that the fundamental frequencies of voice associated with the human voice box are somemes missing. One researcher describes the typical EVP as a thickening of the background noise to form the voice. (138) 5 Precursor sounds: Sounds are oen heard prior to an occurrence of EVP. Although these vary in nature, they tend to be within tenths of a second of a phrase and are a popping or clicking noise reminiscent of the squelch sound caused when the automac gain control engages as the push to talk buon is depressed on a Cizens Band radio. (139) 6 EVP show evidence of being limited by available energy: Uerances tend to have about the same amount of audio power in their associated sound wave from one EVP sample to another. That is, a short EVP will tend to be louder than a long EVP. A very long phrase might be composed of two or more average-length

phrases separated by brief pauses. Also, an uerance may trail oﬀ at the end, as if the energy is being depleted before the message is ﬁnished. It is as if the communicator is aempng to manage available power as packets of energy. (85) 7 EVP are complete words or phrases: Message are typically one to two seconds in duraon and are not truncated at the beginning or end. If EVP were radio interference, they would oen begin in the middle of a word. EVP messages are usually complete thoughts, as well. (85) 8 The voices in EVP are oen recognizable: It is common for an EVP to contain the recognizable voice of the discarnate person thought to be speaking. It is also common for that enty to say something that was typical of what he or she would have said while in the physical. Personality clearly remains intact even though the person no longer has a physical body. (33) 9 EVP is found wherever the praconer listens: This suggests that the source of audio noise is not a factor for EVP, so long as the audio energy is suitable for voice formaon. In pracce, the majority of techniques for recording EVP involve sound condioning, rather than unique forms of psi detecon. For instance, upscaling infrasound so that it can be heard by human ears or downscaling ultrasound really constute techniques of sound condioning. The resulng EVP is not evidence that the uerance was formed beyond human hearing, but that it

was formed when the audio frequency energy was made available to the recording process. All Forms of EVP These characteriscs are common to all forms of EVP: 1 EVP are in a language the praconer understands: Alexander MacRae has conducted experiments in a place that has no English language radio or television staons, yet resulng EVP were in English, which is his primary language. It is typical for the EVP, no maer where they are recorded, to be in a language that the praconer understands. There have been excepons to this which were apparently intended as a demonstraon, but as a rule, EVP will be spoken in a language understood by the praconer or an interested observer. (140) This brings up an interesng point of speculaon about psi- based communicaon. Mental mediums oen report that they receive communicaon from nonphysical enes as images which they must interpret. These images are not just mental pictures. They are packets of informaon that are suﬃciently complete for the receiver to fully understand their meaning. Robert Monroe (53) referred to this form of informaon as thought balls. 2 EVP are not ambient sound or broadcast programming: Studies have been conducted to determine if EVP are stray radio signals, ambient but unnoced voices or other sounds. EVP have been collected in an electrical, audio and radio frequency shielded room. (140) In one study, a radio and a recorder were placed in a padded chamber which was then buried under ground. The recorder did not record

radio programming but did record EVP, which were transformed from the noise produced by the radio. (141) 3 Party line: Some EVP sound as if they are comments intended for someone other than the praconer. This is much like momentarily listening in on a party line telephone call. It is not uncommon in both ﬁeld and controlled recording situaons to record comments that seem as if unseen people are discussing the praconer’s acons in much the same way that you might discuss the acvity of someone that you were watching. 4 EVP are appropriate to the circumstances: There are numerous examples of EVP that are clearly direct responses to quesons recorded just prior to the EVP phrase or to the circumstances. An example of an EVP being appropriate to a circumstance is an EVP recorded by Lisa. We were asking a woman about the upstairs lighng and sound room for the Frank Sinatra Theater at the Cal- Neva Casino at Lake Tahoe, California. They had heard that the heavy door to the room oen shut for no apparent reason, scaring the crews seng up lights and sound systems for shows. The woman told them that she never, ever went to the control room. Lisa’s recorder was on while she thanked the woman for her assistance. On the recording, Lisa can be heard saying, “Thank you very much.” Underneath her voice, is a clearly heard paranormal voice saying, “Please don’t come.” However politely said, it seems obvious someone did not want

to be disturbed. (142) 5 Precognive responses: Answers to quesons may be recorded prior to a queson being asked, so that the answer, as a phenomenal message, is on the sound track followed by the praconer asking the queson. More research is required before making informed speculaon about this observed characterisc, but the indicaon is that the enty may be sensing what the praconer is about to ask as a mind-to-mind exchange following the avatar model. See Nonlocal and Nontemporal in the Etheric Fields Discourse 6 Vocalized quesons elicit more EVP: There is evidence that the communicang enes are able to read our thoughts, as illustrated by the occasional EVP which clearly responds to a comment just seconds before the comment is expressed. However, analysis by MacRae suggests vocalizing our comments and quesons produces more frequent EVP. (85) 7 The newness eﬀect: The praconer’s excitement in trying a new detecon device or recording technique may be the cause of improved EVP collecon. As the new approach becomes normal operang procedure, the improvements generally fade back to a more normal Quality and Quanty (QQ) of EVP collecon. This suggests that it is important for the praconer to maintain piqued interest during experiments. This is also one of the reasons it is speculated that the praconer is an integral part of the recording circuit. The praconer is apparently supplying the necessary psi inﬂuence to produce a useful contact ﬁeld to enable a nonphysical to physical transfer of informaon. 8 Eﬀecve devices unique

to the praconer: Exceponally eﬀecve EVP and ITC collecng systems have been developed; however, these typically work well for the developer, but do not necessarily work as well for other praconers. This paradox supports the belief that the praconer is part of the recording circuit. It has also reinforced the concept that the communicang enty may be speciﬁc to the praconer. 9 EVP can be thoughts of living people: Two experiments appear to show that at least some EVP might be iniated by living people who were sleeping or distracted at the me. In these prearranged experiments between a praconer and a sleeping person, quesons were clearly answered by a communicang enty, and the answers were appropriate for the sleeping person. This fact of EVP suggests the possibility that EVP can become an important tool for consciousness research. For instance, is it possible that a paent in a coma might iniate an EVP? (143) 10 Understanding EVP may be like learning a new language: As discussed in the EVP Online Listening trials report, people with lile or no experience listening to EVP will typically correctly report words in Class A transform EVP on average of 20% to 25% of the me. In contrast, an experienced praconer should correctly understand close to 100% of Class A uerances. (21) This number drops to 0% to 5% for studies of radio-sweep (Spirit Box, Frank Box, Ghost Box) and 0% if single-syllable uerances are omied. (73), (74) Theories Proposed to Explain Observed ITC Phenomena

The existence of EVP is not realiscally contested. Any reasonably capable person with a device capable of recording audio can expect to eventually record an understandable uerance that cannot be explained with known science. The same can be said for some forms of visual ITC. A workable protocol for recording EVP is provided in this Study. The real quesons are what or who is causing them and how they are caused. It will be helpful if you understand the three dominant models used to explain the nature of reality: Physical Universe Hypothesis, Super-Psi Hypothesis and Survival Hypothesis. There is a detailed discussion of these in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse. Normal Explanations Alternave explanaons for EVP that do not require paranormal phenomena are typically sounds good ones that ignore current understanding about transcommunicaon. With that said, the following sounds can be mistaken as paranormal. It is for the praconer to gain the necessary experience and understanding to tell the diﬀerence. Radio Signals and Unnoticed Conversations Probably the most obvious explanaon is that the voices of EVP are recordings of stray radio signals. Inexpensive portable electronic equipment designed to process audio signals is, under certain condions, able to detect and record stray radio signals. This is not normally a problem, but it is possible and should be considered when evaluang possible EVP. The proliferaon of digital technology is making it less likely that radio signals might be mistaken as EVP. Analog radio is about the last signal source that a voice recorder

can detect so that the broadcast informaon can be understood. If the signal is in a digital format, it must be converted to analog to be understood and audio recorders are not designed to do this. If you wish to assure yourself that EVP are not radio signals, consider the arcle “Eliminang Radio Frequency Contaminaon for EVP.” (141) It is usually the near zero level of the recorded signal that becomes contaminated by stray radio signals and that can become audible with ampliﬁcaon. This is one of the reasons that very much signal processing to bring out the voice is discouraged, especially the use of more than ten or so decibels of ampliﬁcaon. Simple content analysis of EVP is usually suﬃcient to establish that the uerance in queson is unlikely to be crosstalk or unnoced voices from people in the room. Assuming the praconer is not aempng to provide scienﬁc evidence, it is usually adequate to note whether or not the uerances are complete statements, if they are appropriate to the circumstances and if they are understandable. If they were stray radio or television signals, they would contain the telltale signs of commercial broadcast; they would oen be paral statements and they would usually be nonsensical, considering the circumstance. Unl you have gained conﬁdence in the validity of EVP you record, it is important to ask friends to be your listening panel. The Best Pracce: Witness Panel Study will help. (67) It is also a best pracce to use a

second audio recording process as a control for situaons that might have unnoced voices in the room or stray radio. (144) The need for background sound in transform EVP makes it less likely that a higher quality recorder will pick up an EVP. This makes the use of a video recorder to make a visual record of ﬁeldwork an excellent technique for making a control audio recording of the session. Practitioner Imagination This is an important possible explanaon for any form of phenomena involving unexpected sounds, images or events. As is discussed in the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study, modern technology is capable of producing a wide variety of unexpected results. A person can easily mistake an arfact for phenomenal unless the person is an expert in the use of that technology. Example of Background Noise: Figure illustrang a sound track with the uerance, “Bey’s in there.” A workable level for background sound used in voice formaon is shown. The increase in amplitude of the voice is believed to be due to the accumulaon of energy prior to formaon of the uerance. This is transform EVP. (210) Sounds in an audio recording can be made by very mundane inﬂuences yet sound very phenomenal. For instance, it is common for a person to take a breath of air just before speaking. The sound of an intake of breath can be mistaken for something phenomenal when a person is examining every lile sound in the recording. All aspects of Etheric Studies are

plagued by a general lack of crical thinking amongst people seeking to experience these phenomena. In view of the complexity of the involved technologies, this is natural but there are precauons one can take to moderate problem. The recorded sound of a sigh can be eliminated as being paranormal by making it a pracce to discard all single-syllable, standalone sounds. While most people resist discarding any possible EVP, it is beer to err on the side of the mundane. Recent study is indicang that the expectaons of the praconer or witnesses can have an inﬂuence on how sound is experienced. In the Phantom Voices study (66), nearly half of the parcipants reported hearing some form of voice in two audio ﬁles that were clearly marked as only containing noise and no voice. A clever praconer might describe simple noise as voices and provide an explanaon as to how those voices are meaningful. This is referred to as storytelling. Distressingly, witnesses will too oen agree with the story as evidence, especially if they trust the experience of the praconer. Hyperlucidity [154] can apparently be a shared experience. This characterisc of EVP is sll being studied, but is clear that all of us must be very careful to manage expectaons and cultural inﬂuences. EVP is objecve evidence and that means that other people can hear the same thing without coaching. The inverse of this is also true. Concepts such as inaenonal blindness and incredulity blindness suggest that people who have a strong

disbelief in things paranormal are less likely to be able to experience EVP. Psi Explanations EVP are not necessarily iniated by a discarnate personality. As shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram discussed in the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse, a person (etheric personality entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship) is thought to be required for trans-etheric inﬂuences. As such, it is necessary to idenfy which personality expressed the inial intenon to communicate. Thoughts of the Practitioner Once the normal explanaons have been asked and answered, there remains the possibility that the voices are paranormal but that they are caused by a physical person. It is here that the argument changes from “Is EVP real” to “Who is talking?” A number of experiments have been conducted that indicated it is possible to record the thoughts of people known to be sll in the physical. (143) Current thinking is that the conscious aspect of a person is what survives physical death, and when a sll living person is in some way disassociated from the physical body, his or her conscious self is much the same as the etheric communicator. In other words, it is predicted that the thoughts of a living person should be able to be recorded as EVP. While many of the observed characteriscs of EVP could be explained as thoughts of the living, there is evidence that some are not. On occasion, the voice of a person will be recorded, say “John,” who is later shown to be

the discarnate son of a person who, at that me was unknown to the praconer or interested observers. However, subsequently, the person joins the group and recognizes John’s voice saying the sort of things his son would have said while in the ﬂesh. EVP are Echoes of the Past or Residual Energy The Super-Psi Hypothesis (145) proposes that the mind is a product of the brain and the informaon being accessed via EVP the other forms of apparent etheric-to-physical inﬂuences are either caused by the praconer, some other physical agent or a form of residual energy. Physicist David Bohm and neurophysiologist Karl Pribram described this residual energy as a ﬁeld of energy that underlies all of reality. (146) This ﬁeld of energy is thought to have three characteriscs that might account for the observed etheric-to-physical phenomena: 1. It is thought to behave according to quantum principles, especially that of entanglement, which shows that once objects have become associated at a quantum level, inﬂuencing one object will have a similar inﬂuence on the other, even though it may be very far away in distance and me. 2. This ﬁeld exhibits the character of nonlocality, meaning that informaon in it is equally available from any place in the ﬁeld. This characterisc is required to explain such phenomena as a remote viewer accessing informaon that is miles away and a medium supposedly geng informaon from discarnate enes. 3. This ﬁeld is formed of the residual energy of consciousness, and therefore contains all that

was ever known, thought and experienced. It is this residual energy that provides the psychically gathered informaon. An alternave version of this is that, if the informaon is in someone’s memory, then it is accessible to others, at least subconsciously. Recording Techniques The following informaon is intended to provide a technique which is most likely to produce results. This is for transform EVP based on the material provided by ATransC in the Techniques secon of ATransC.org. Please also consider the best pracces which are draed in the ATransC Collecve at atransc.org/bp/Collecve. Contact Field A contact ﬁeld is modeled as a special instance of a thoughorm which is entangled with a group of people or locaon. The concept is dependent on the concepts of rapport and cooperang communies. Contact ﬁelds are thought to develop from rapport amongst people sharing a common point of view, focused aenon (usually long term) and the expression of relavely intense emoons such as pain, anger or love. A person can intenonally develop a contact ﬁeld by seng aside a quiet place for meditaon and transcommunicaon. The idea of a dedicated place in which focused intenon and aenon are oen expressed is thought to be the basis for Sarah Estep’s instrucon to ﬁnd a quiet place and try to make contact via EVP every day for at least a week. (147) In ﬁeld recording, a contact ﬁeld may already be present in known haunted locaons. As a general rule, look for a place with longme human occupancy,

and/or places in which there has been the expression of intense emoons such as a church or hospital. Theaters are oen associated with haunng phenomena, possibly because of the somemes intense emoons expressed by the actors. Types of Recording Sessions We recommend people begin working with EVP in controlled condions in which ambient sounds can be controlled. This also helps develop a personal contact ﬁeld. Controlled condions also make it easier to use a second recorder for experimentaon and to help eliminate false posives. Experience has shown that once a person becomes proﬁcient recording for EVP under controlled condions, it is probable that the person will be able to be successful wherever he or she records. The implicaon is that the person develops a personal contact ﬁeld which is anchored with his or her aenon, rather than a locaon. Field condions are especially challenging for EVP. For instance, when recording with a group in a haunted locaon, always use a second recorder to help eliminate false posives. Using a video camera to record the invesgaon is useful because the audio track acts as a second recorder. As a reliable rule, if the suspected EVP is on both recorders, it is more likely not EVP and should be discarded. An excepon to this rule might be if the voice is thought to be direct voice. When on a walkabout while recording for EVP, it is a good pracce to announce for the recording where you are and to acknowledge ambient sounds

so they will not be mistaken for EVP. Recording Equipment Any device capable of recording voice frequency sound will work for EVP. A computer is recommended for storing sound ﬁles and a way to transfer audio from the recording device to a computer will be needed. The computer should be equipped with an audio management program, such as the open source program, Audacity. (148) Digital voice recorders are recommended for transform EVP. Less expensive models produce more internal noise which is useful for voice formaon. High quality units will probably require added background noise. A computer can also be used but will probably require added noise. As has previously been explained, noise with many perturbaons is more useful than steady-state noise. As such, an inexpensive recorder that produces a lot of internal noise that is steady-state may not be as useful for EVP. Ideal Background Noise Early aempts to produce EVP were based on recording in silence; however, it was quickly discovered that the voices tended to occur near or in noise. Radio stac was used for background noise in the days when radios were about the only dependable source for noise. Over the years, just about every praconer joined the quest to ﬁnd the ideal background noise. The ﬁrst hint of what makes useful background sound came with the Panasonic RR-DR60 digital note taker. It was one of the ﬁrst baery-powered, hand-held digital audio recorders on the market. It tended to have a lot of internal noise in the

sound track, and one of the characteriscs of that noise was what sounded like the noise one gets while adjusng the squelch level on a Cizen’s Band radio. I characterized it as intermient noise spikes. The DR60 produced a lot of EVP, but because of the noise, the quality of EVP was usually very low. Even so, all of our examples on the ATransC.org were made with a DR60. The “Doja, no!” (34) EVP was also made with one. Newer recorders tend to be a lot quieter internally, so a general rule is the quieter the recorder, the more noise needs to be supplied. Also, steady-state noise, such as white noise, or the rushing sound heard as background in recording made with inexpensive recorders, is not useful for EVP. Radio-Sweep as a Noise Source There is confusion about when an EVP is the direct result of radio-sweep or transformaon of the noise produced by radio-sweep. Most radio-sweep devices use a two- to three-second sweep. Too oen, enre syllables can be heard in such a slow sweep; however, a sweep of less than a second, or fast enough so that no understandable voice can be heard, oen produces an output sound that has all of the characteriscs needed for transform EVP. The result is that some transform EVP are formed during radio-sweep sessions. It is for the praconer to learn to tell the diﬀerence. Background Sound Most recording situaons have some background sounds, but it may be necessary to add noise

with something like a fan or running water. Always consider how sounds in the environment might seem like EVP in a recording. Be invenve. In controlled condions, it is also possible to use high- quality recorders, because you can supply sound. Experience is showing that a microphone is only important to introduce addional noise if the noise generated internally by the recorder is not useful for voice formaon. Of course, microphones are also important for maintaining a record of the recording process. Live Voice Some people use foreign language radio, crowd babble or prerecorded allophones as background sound, but research has repeatedly shown these techniques also have far too many false posives to be useful. In one informal study, we used the same foreign-language input ﬁle for Big Circle recording sessions over a period of six months. While the input ﬁle was played on one recorder, Lisa and I recorded using individual recorders. Nearly every uerance one of us idenﬁed as an EVP could be found on the other person’s recording and the original sound ﬁle, clearly indicang that we had not recorded EVP The current best pracce for ﬁeld recording is to use two recorders and discard anything found in both recording processes. (144) This is considered a best pracce because it is well established that EVP occurs in one analog segment so that two recorders will not normally record the same EVP. Using live voice, EVP are expected to be formed as a transformaon of the live voice

into a language understood by the praconer or interested observer, but based on our study, naturally occurring sounds in a foreign language are too oen mistaken as diﬀerent words in other languages. This is enough of a problem to warrant recommending that, when using live voice, two recorders should be used and both output ﬁles examined to assure suspected EVP are only in one of the ﬁles. (Be sure to account for diﬀerences in atmospheric aenuaon and recording process frequency response.) Beer yet, don’t use live voice for EVP, including radio-sweep technology which access local broadcast signals. There are just too many false posives. Preparation Begin with meditaon and a short prayer to ask for only those intending the highest good and an invitaon to friends on the other side to parcipate. This is not a religious funcon. The conscious expression of intent helps to set your expectaons and sets bounds for your communicators. Even if you do not accept the hypothesis that EVP are iniated by discarnate beings, whoever or whatever is iniang the messages, seng intenon helps the process. Also, it is best to record when personal energy is the highest. Scheduling Enes will speak at any me, day or night. In the beginning, however, it is advisable to record at a regular me and place. By doing this, the enes learn when there will be an opportunity for contact and your expectaon of the upcoming session helps focus your aenon on the process. Try to ﬁnd a

place that will be quiet and free of interrupons. Background sounds are okay, but it is important to be aware of them so that they can be disnguished from EVP during analysis. Recording Begin by stang your intenon for communicaon and then say that you are turning on the recorder. The communicators will oen come through as soon as the recorder is turned on and these beginning messages may be the loudest, so it is a good idea to turn on the recorder and wait a few seconds before speaking. Vocalize your comments during an EVP session. Quesons should be recorded, and about ten seconds should be le between each comment for the communicators to respond. At the end, ask if they have something to say and leave me for them to respond. Playback Some audio recorders allow you to monitor what is being recorded, but in most situaons, EVP are not suﬃciently clear to be understood in real me. So as a general rule, EVP are not heard unl playback. Praconers report that the voices tend to become stronger and clearer as the communicators and the praconer gains in experience, but at ﬁrst the voices may be whispers. Voices may not be recorded in every session and it may take several sessions to discover the ﬁrst voice. Learning where to look for the voice amongst the noise and your voice takes a lile pracce. Many praconers describe it as a learned ability because the uerances are oen spoken with

odd cadences and emphases on syllables. It might take thirty minutes to examine a three- or four-minute recording, as each part is oen listened to several mes. Experienced praconers learn to use the waveform as a clue as to where an uerance might be. The Bey’s in there waveform will give you an idea of what to look for. Think of EVP as a form of communicaon. The atude held by experienced praconers is that the communicators will leave their message wherever they think someone will listen. It is a good pracce to expect to ﬁnd the voices where normal human voice would be found. It is not a good pracce to amplify a nearly ﬂat-line waveform to see if speech is present because enough ampliﬁcaon to make it clearly audible may amplify radio-frequency contaminaon. Classifying EVP Most EVP are diﬃcult to understand. Using a classiﬁcaon system helps you have a sense of the quality of your examples and helps to set the expectaons of your listeners when you share examples. The three-er system is most commonly used; however, the ATransC is tesng a slightly expanded system intended to also include visual forms of ITC. It is explained in the Best Pracce: Classifying Phenomena Study. Keeping a Log Keeping a recording log is helpful for tracking your progress. If you do keep a wrien log, it is a good pracce to include the date, me and circumstances of the recording. If there are mulple recordings in the recorder, then it

is always important to speak your locaon and to note ambient voices and such at the beginning of each recording. When you ﬁnd an EVP that is clear enough to keep, note the date and me and seconds into the recording in your log. Also note the words thought to be spoken and if you were doing something the enty commented on. Be sure to label and save the audio ﬁle so that it can be found at a later me. Keeping a well-organized storage system and notes will be very helpful to you when you have many recordings, or want to revisit an old one and need to know when and where it was recorded. Experience has shown that keeping everything is just unreasonable. Unless the message has special signiﬁcance, it is a good pracce to discard all but the clearest examples. Depend on the help of friends acng as your listening panel. If they do not hear what you hear, discard the recording. It is just too easy to fool yourself. Digital Voice Recorders Digital voice recorders are recommended for EVP experiments. Today, all sound tracks—digital or analog—should be listened to in a computer and with a headset. Unlike tape recorders, the built-in microphone in digital recorders is usually sasfactory for EVP. Analog Technology The requirement of a nonlinear process in electronic circuity is an important characterisc. For instance, in digital voice recorders, EVP are thought to be formed in the analog ﬁrst stage where the analog voice

is transformed to an electrical signal ready for digizaon. Once the signal is digized, it is known to be very stable. However, it is possible that a new EVP might be formed in the output of the digital memory, since it is necessary to pass that through at least one analog stage to be heard. The diﬀerence would be that the secondary uerance would not be present when the ﬁle is played a second me. Analyzing the Recording for EVP Always use headphones when listening to the recording. The earmuﬀ style that completely covers the ear is best, but also good are the so rubber ear buds that are inserted into the channel of the ear. It will be necessary to use an audio cable for computer analysis of a sound ﬁle from a recorder with only an earphone output. In that case, the signal must pass from digital to analog in the recorder and then analog to digital in the computer. There is lile or no evidence that an EVP will be changed while in a digital format, but it is possible for change or even new uerance to be injected while transferring in the analog phase. There is no digital-analog conversion in the newer recorders using a USB interface It is possible to reasonably reproduce the average human voice with a sample rate of 8,000 KHz, so it is recommended that the audio ﬁle be saved in the computer at typically the next higher sample rate of 11025

KHz, 16-bit text ﬁle. Mono or stereo is a personal choice. Once the audio ﬁle is in the computer, it should be saved as a *.wav ﬁle for storage and eding. Current best pracce for sharing an EVP example on the Internet is to convert the ﬁle to mono, *.mp3 format, but using eding tools on mp3 is discouraged if it is for research. A 200 kb audio ﬁle can be reduced to around 15 Kb when converted from a *.wav ﬁle to an *.mp3 ﬁle. This makes it easy for sharing ﬁles via the Internet. Under no circumstances should an audio example be shared in video format. These days, I receive a lot of requests to examine examples on YouTube. In that format, it is very diﬃcult for me to break down the sound ﬁle to examine the possible uerance. I just don’t have me to work with such examples, and I know many of my more qualiﬁed friends feel the same. It is also best pracce to provide a raw clip of the EVP, along with a bit of your voice for reference, if possible, followed by a short silence and then the whole clip again with any eding you may have done. Explain what you have done so that your listener will know what to expect. Finally, ten decibels or so of ampliﬁcaon, perhaps a lile noise reducon and high-end ﬁltering are about all that should be done to a soundtrack to make the uerance more easily

understood. It is possible to change the meaning of an EVP with very much processing. The general rule is to discard the EVP if it cannot be understood with only slight enhancement. Certainly discard nonsensical and single syllable uerances! A listening technique is to select a few syllables of a possible uerance and then play it over and over to allow your mind to look for familiar sounds. People are trained to recognize common arrangements of sound as words, but EVP are oen formed from odd arrangements of sound, depending on what is supplied. Also, the usual cues are oen missing. A very loud, well-spoken phrase could sll be diﬃcult to make out for a person not accustomed to hearing EVP. In every case, try to use a listening panel. Storage and sharing Be sure to set up a method of saving your recordings in your computer that will allow you to easily locate examples. A good pracce is to save the raw recording session in a dated folder and then save clips containing the EVP in the same folder. We save ﬁeld recordings under the name of the locaon and the date. It is helpful to keep a separate folder for your Class A examples for easy retrieval for demonstraon to friends. Unless you are conducng EVP sessions for research, consider it a kindness to only send the poron of the sound ﬁle containing the EVP. We too oen receive examples that are embedded somewhere in a ten or

ﬁeen-minute-long ﬁle. It is just too demanding for your witnesses to search for the intended uerance in a long ﬁle. As a ﬁnal note on this, aer recording for over ﬁeen years, we ﬁnally learned that it is senseless to keep all of our recordings and logs. It is a good pracce to cull the best from the ﬁles as you go and discard all but the most meaningful. EVP are actually very common amongst praconers, and there is lile special about Class C and B examples. What You Need to Know The following observaons will help you gain a perspecve on the scope of this study. Lucidity The degree of clarity between conscious self and etheric personality is referred to as lucidity. Thinking there is a clear connecon, when in fact, there is hardly any at all is referred to as hyperlucidity. Hyperlucidity seems to most oen occur when a person works alone or does not accept input from others. It is usually seen as a complex of behaviors including delusion, argumentave interacon with those who do not support the delusion and rejecon of the opinion of subject-maer specialists. See the Mindfulness Discourse. Hearing the Voices A series of online listening studies showed that the average ATransC website visitor parcipang in the study could correctly idenfy only 25% of the words in the Class A examples. (21) Most experienced praconers have learned not to expect a person who is unaccustomed to hearing EVP to correctly understand examples. This is

especially true if the person is skepcal to begin with. The message to all of us is that, even though the example may be very clear and obvious to us, it is unrealisc to aempt to show an example to the police or a grieving person if there is not an opportunity to prepare the listener. Before aempng to share an example with untrained witnesses, we recommend that the example be passed by a listening panel without prompng. Only if the majority of a listening panel is able to hear what is believed to be in the example is it ready for untrained ears. Doing this helps to protect the praconer from accusaons of taking advantage of people. An important note to remember is that, if you are aempng to use radio-sweep technology for evidenal EVP, most experienced praconers I know will refuse to conﬁrm your work. We are publically on record stang doubts that such technology produces EVP. Safety A common concern is whether or not it is possible to aract a discarnate personality (ghost) and later be bothered by it. People are realiscally concerned that they might bring one home. In fact, we have no veriﬁed record of anyone being harmed by their communicators. Any harm that has been reported has been due to the praconer’s overreacon to imagined danger. There is a potenal problem for people who are fearful of the unknown, as their imaginaon can create circumstances which might be dangerous for them. If you are

very fearful of the unknown, if you are inclined to do what you imagine you have been instructed to do or if you have a history of mental illness, it is advisable that you avoid working with any form of transcommunicaon. Transcommunication Study 4: Techniques: Visual ITC Introduction Just as voice phenomena are somemes found in audio recording processes, visual phenomena are somemes found in opcal recording processes. When we think of visual Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC), we are thinking of the presence of anomalous features in the media, such as faces and recognizable shapes. To be ITC, phenomena need to be objecvely experienced, meaning that they are suﬃciently substanal to be recorded in physical media that can be witnessed by others. Also, technology of some form must be employed to enable the phenomena. Paranormal experiences that are witnessed by one or more people as mental percepon, such as a shared deathbed vision, are not considered ITC because they cannot be recorded. While probably real, in a pragmac sense, they are not considered objecve. Poltergeist and other psychokinec acvity, direct voice and materializaons that are able to be recorded are considered transcommunicaon, but unless they involve technology to manifest, they would not be considered ITC. There are two primary categories of visual ITC. The most common form is oen referred to as spirit or apparion photography. As a general statement, spirit photography involves the unexpected presence in recording media of paranormal features that are considered indicave of discarnate personalies or their

inﬂuence. Chaoc Visual Noise in Video Frame: This is a video frame taken from a video-loop ITC session. Contrast in a region of the frame has been changed to make the feature more visible. The same region has been copied to a second ﬁle and contrast has been further enhanced. The feature appears to be a woman or girl wearing a bonnet and looking to your right shoulder. The second primary category is induced visual ITC in which a technique is used with the expectaon that the resulng media will contain paranormal features. Current speculaon is that all induced phenomena are via the transformaon of noise which is produced by the technique. A typical technique produces visual chaoc noise with many regions of diﬀerent brightness. See the Chaoc Visual Noise example shown here. Apparition Photography Before beginning this subject, look ahead to the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study. I will address the main forms of apparion photography here, but it is important to be aware of the many ways that ordinary phenomena can be mistaken as paranormal. It is diﬃcult to establish a conﬁdence level for the authencity of apparion photography because the examples are usually spontaneous, as opposed to induced ITC which is usually collected under controlled condions. A second reason for diﬃcules in authencaon is that there is no well- established set of characteriscs. Unlike the usual transform phenomena of induced ITC, spontaneous phenomena tend to be unique with few obvious similaries in how they are formed. With

these consideraons in mind, the small number of examples presented here does not represent all of the ways spontaneous phenomena may form. Faces on Turned Off Television Sets A turned-oﬀ television screen provides an excellent surface for the producon of neutral-density chaoc light as ambient light is reﬂected from the surface. However, in the typical face on a turned-oﬀ television screen example, reﬂected light does not appear to be a factor. The ﬁrst example was taken by a Las Vegas family when the baby boy had pulled himself up with a chair to stand for the ﬁrst me. The woman, who can be seen on the television screen, was recognized as the photographer’s sister-in-law, who had transioned a year and a half earlier. The television was turned oﬀ. And by the way, this is not a picture of a well- known actor. Face on turned oﬀ TV 1: In this case, the mother’s discarnate sister is watching baby’s ﬁrst step. © The second picture was sent to us in 2005 by Laurel Kenton. In it, you can see him sing with his grandson. The turned-oﬀ television set behind him displays the parally formed face of his mother who transioned in 1992. Face on turned oﬀ TV 2: Photographer’s transioned mother on turned oﬀ TV screen, as if peering in to see him and his grandson. Insert is enlargement of TV screen. © We have collected a number of these faces on turned oﬀ TVs photographs. Some of the faces are

full-color while some are black and white, and some even appear to be line drawings. A common factor is the presence of a child in the scene, as if the person on the screen is peering into the room to see the child. Like the two oﬀered here, some faces are recognized, but many are not. A characterisc of this phenomenon that agrees with other forms of visual ITC is the missing lower part of the face as if to emphasize the eyes. An arfact of taking sll pictures of a turned-on TV is the presence of frame lines, and parally formed images. This has been considered and rejected as an explanaon here. Orbs As discussed in the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study, most orbs are mundane arfacts; however, the opcal noise found in orbs is oen useful for the formaon of paranormal features. As such, a naturally occurring orb in a photograph might contain an instance of visual ITC as transform phenomena. The Orb 1 example was taken by Peter Berg. It shows an orb arfact obscuring part of the Reverend Gene Pfortmiller’s face. There is no reason to think the face-like feature in the orb has anything to do with the circumstances of the photograph. It may, but without other, more deﬁnive reasons to think it does, the prudent thing to do is to set the example oﬀ as interesng, but indeterminate. Orb 1: Probably mundane photographic arfact that has a possible paranormal face formed in the opcal

noise. The orb is enlarged on the le and background is erased around feature on right. It appears to be a woman facing to your le. © There possibly are paranormal orbs. Lisa and I helped Universal Studios market the movie White Noise. For the DVD bonus features, they had us doing walkabouts in reportedly haunted locaons while being interviewed for the DVD. We were climbing a staircase in the Los Angeles Hollymont Castle when a fuzzy black ball a lile larger than a soball moved past the top of the staircase. In the Orb 2 video frame from that scene, Lisa can be seen walking ahead of me. We did not see the orb at the me and only learned of it from website visitors. The camera operator used available light video, which means the orb is probably not a camera arfact. It moved a lile faster than a person walks, and seemed to be geng out of our way. Orb 2: Orb (white arrow) moved from center frame to le exit in White Noise DVD, Hearing is Believing. ©Universal Films Mr. D. contacted us concerning a series of experiences he had in his apartment. One aspect of these was the occasional presence of two teardrop-shaped orbs which could pass through walls and apparently delighted in tormenng his dog. In one video Mr. D. sent us, his dog can be seen suddenly jumping oﬀ of the couch, closely followed by a white orb. As can be seen in Orb

3, the orb appears to be self-luminous. Mr. D. reports that the orb somemes hovered in the air, which is why he was able to take this picture. He reported that it seemed to wiggle its tail before taking oﬀ. Orb 3: This orb was photographed standing sll (here) and recorded in moon. © As a best pracce, orbs found in bright light situaons, or when the camera ﬂash is used, should probably be discarded as arfacts. Faces found in orbs are not necessarily caused by loved ones or the local ghost, and are virtually always so poorly formed that they should be discarded as Class C examples. Self-luminous orbs and black orbs may deserve more study. Apparitions Certainly this survey of visual phenomena would not be complete without an example of apparently human apparions. Both examples presented here were recorded by Rashelle Eastman Morrison. In the ﬁrst, a nighme photograph of her grandmother’s backyard produced this image of a woman apparently dressed in a 1800s dress. Shell thought she was hovering above the ground, but that is diﬃcult to tell for sure. She also thought it might be her great-great grandmother. Apparion 1: Taken in Rashelle’s grandmother’s yard. Woman apparion hovering a few feet oﬀ the ground is thought to be Rashelle’s great-grandmother. © In Apparion 2, Shell was aempng to capture orbs outside of her window. The window is a tall, narrow shape and was opened a lile. The ﬂash washed out the window frame but chimes are

visible. A lile girl appears to be looking in from the dark. Shell said that no one was there when she took the picture. Instrumental TransCommunication The two main diﬀerences between Apparion photography (spontaneous phenomena) and Instrumental TransCommunicaon or ITC (induced phenomena) is that, in induced ITC, the communicang personality is thought to be aracted by the praconer’s intenon to make contact via technology. The features appear to be made possible by the ability of the communicang personality to impress intended order on a chaoc process. As such, it is funconally the same as transform EVP. Apparion 2: Rashelle was aempng to photograph orbs and found this lile girl looking in when she examined the photographs. © The physical process known as stochasc resonance is a means by which a small signal is ampliﬁed when combined with a chaoc signal in a nonlinear electrical circuit. This process is hypothesized as the mechanism by which a weak psi inﬂuence is able to impress an intended order on the chaoc signal, thereby producing a visual ITC feature. Video Loop ITC In the video loop technique, a video camera is connected to the Aux In of a television set. The camera is pointed at the screen so that it is able to record the camera output as it is displayed on the screen. The circuit shown in the Video Loop ITC Diagram is typical for producing chaoc opcal noise suitable for visual ITC. We have been using a Cannon 8mm ES2000 analog camcorder

placed about three feet from a Sony KV20TS32, 20 inch Trinitron color TV. The camera is used in Portrait Mode and is focused just beyond the screen surface. The camera lens is zoomed so that only about 75% of the screen is visible to the camera. We usually have the camera at about a 45-degree angle from the screen and pointed just to the side of the center where the rolling image seems to begin. It is roune for us to try diﬀerent angles, and camera distances from the screen in an eﬀort to ﬁnd the best conﬁguraon. It is interesng that, some days, we are hardly able to develop the desired rolling scene. We have made no eﬀort to track environmental condions except that we noted a diﬀerence, apparently due to locaon. We were able to develop a good rolling scene in the corner bedroom but the best producon of the phenomenal features was in the middle bedroom. The only diﬀerence between the two adjacent rooms is that, in the corner room, the equipment was about ten feet closer to an outside wall supporng the house power distribuon box. The Chaoc Noise Example screen print will give you an idea of what has been an opmum display to produce the features. Clarity is a Function of Equipment Each conﬁguraon of equipment used in video loop ITC will produce a diﬀerent visual eﬀect, probably even amongst units of the same brand. The rolling eﬀect on the screen is a cycle

that is about a second in duraon. An average of thirty frames per second of full video quality only produces ﬁve or six frames per cycle that contain noise suitable for phenomena. A session is usually about ﬁeen seconds so that there may be ninety or so frames that may contain features. To save me, we only save the ones that appear interesng as we step, frame-by-frame through the saved video ﬁle. A typical ﬁeen second session will produce thirty or so frames interesng enough to carefully examine. If we have the equipment set right, and if a number of as yet undetermined environmental factors are okay, we may save ten or so useful features from the session. There have been many sessions in which we saved none. Also, the texture of the noise may be more or less grainy, depending on where we had the focus plane. Software for Frame Analysis Finding suitable video capture and frame examining soware has been a challenge. Adobe’s Premier 10 was not very expensive and came bundled with Photoshop Elements 10. Currently, we are trying CyberLink Power Director with some success. Each likely frame should be rotated in 90 degree increments while being examined. Frames are numbered something like 1-2-14-2007, 2-2-14-2007, 3-2-14-2007 and so on. Individual features are each copied into a new ﬁle, and those worth saving are labeled 3-2-14-2007a, 3-2-14-2007b 3-2-14- 2007c and so on. The idea is to be able to associate a feature with the video frame from which

it was captured. Sharing Examples The video loop examples shown here were made with an analog TV and a digital video camera that uses magnec tape to store the video signal. The grabbed frames are saved as JPG ﬁles which is a ﬁle compression format that loses detail and introduces noise. Your computer monitor may have a number of diﬀerent resoluons, but it is reasonable to assume there will be a resoluon mismatch between the original TV display and a viewer’s monitor. If an example ﬁle is stored on the Internet for sharing, it will potenally be further compressed and then a person viewing the example has a monitor of unknown resoluon, and it is unknown how well a viewer will be able to see/resolve the feature. We conducted an online viewer test with a number of prey good examples. (20) Each example was displayed in raw format as it was in the video frame stored in my computer before any processing. Also, as shades of gray, and a third, enhanced to increase contrast and brightness. 61% did not see the features we thought were in the examples. Video-loop ITC Example 2 of the Percepon of Visual ITC Images study: Website visitors correctly described the feature 28% of the respondents. The dog shown in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse was correctly described by 81% of the respondents. Detail of a saved video frame is a funcon of the resoluon of each device beginning with the relavely low resoluon of the television

set. As such, you can add all of the pixels you want in your photo manager, but the actual informaon in the example will never be beer than the lowest resoluon component of the capture equipment. As with EVP, sharing visual ITC examples with others can be a lile tricky. The usual approach is to send an example via the Internet as a JPG ﬁle, but you should ancipate needing to help your viewer. A long as it is not for research, one of the best ways to help your viewer is to describe what you think they should see. For instance, in Video Loop ITC Example 2 above, I would include that “I see a face looking to your le and slightly lted as if the person is slouching. The person, probably a man, appears to be in oriental, ancient clothing with either a black hat or black hair done up like a crown. The face is skin tone and he appears to be wearing a light colored vest of some kind.” The only enhancement is to change contrast. As you can see in Video Loop ITC Example 2, the master frame (le) was le unchanged to provide a control. Your good judgment is required as to how much enhancement is done (middle). Somemes changing to grayscale helps (right). I will somemes erase or smudge out the background of a feature to make it more evident to witnesses. As such, in the Troll example, the contrast was changed ﬁrst,

and then the background was smudged. Example of Enhanced Example: The troll from the alien composite: unaltered clip from the original video frame (le) and aer the background was deemphasized (right). Any enhancement should be noted if the original is not provided for comparison. I am guilty of rounely adjusng color density and contrast, because at mes, that is the only way to make a feature stand out from the shadows for examinaon. Use discernment in such processing and always be prepared to provide the raw original. Another way I somemes enhance a picture to highlight a feature is by changing the contrast, and then using the smudge tool to further lighten the color density to highlight a feature. In the Cow example, the original (le) is not much diﬀerent than the version in which the contrast has been increased and lightened (center). The real change is in the small areas indicated by A and B, which are shown heavily enhanced on the right. I discuss the small features in Face Fractals, below. About the Technology From our experience, every hardware setup is diﬀerent. We use color analog equipment and many of our features seem to have true skin colors. When we began in 2000, it was generally understood that, if there is any color in the ﬁnal example, it should be removed for proper display. It is diﬃcult to know if we are simply doing it wrong or if our technique is an improvement. Most of our eﬀorts to

use all digital equipment lack color as well. Analog Verses Digital In EVP, it is prey clear that the voice is formed in the electronics, probably in a single transistor juncon. Stochasc ampliﬁcaon requires an analog, nonlinear process which is available in the acve region of semiconductor devices. There is no apparent requirement for which transistor juncon is used, except that it should be in a part of the circuit that permits recording of the results. Because of the nature of the video loop, it is not clear which device is actually used. An all-digital circuit would not seem to provide the necessary environment for stochasc ampliﬁcaon. For instance, when a webcam is used that has a digital image sensor, and that connects to the computer via USB cable, the only analog stage before display on the computer monitor is the image sensor. While we are prey sure transform occurs in a single acve region, there is no reason to think that images can be impressed across an array of charge coupled devices as is usually used for image sensors. So to make this simple, our speculaon is that video loop ITC will be most successful if an analog stage is intenonally supplied. For instance, an analog camera might be used. We have not explored all of the alternave techniques. It is an important area for further study, because analog is less available to the average person. Some of the most astounding visual ITC has been captured by the early

experimenters using older, modular, analog technology such as a video recorder, video camera frame synchronizer and video ampliﬁer. A modern equivalent is needed. Much more experience is needed to understand how the technology aﬀects formaon of the features. For instance, how does high deﬁnion video change the dynamics? One thing that needs to be understood by modern praconers is that simply replicang the funcon with modern equipment (combined video camera, recorder and playback) will not replicate the early experiments. On the other hand, the only way to increase the quality of the examples is to use much higher resoluon capture and reproducon. Perhaps Not ITC We have been seeing a lot of mirrored examples in which one half of the feature was captured, copied, ﬂipped horizontally and joined with the original so that the original is mirrored by the copy. This is beginning to look like a visual equivalent of radio-sweep because one of the characteriscs our mind uses to idenfy a face is symmetry. As is shown in the Mirrored Image picture, the typical mirrored shape looks like an alien— almost every me. While this is an interesng characterisc, I think further study of how we see things will show that the mirror-formed faces are mundane arfacts of percepon. Mirrored Image: The photograph at the le is modiﬁed in the middle with a kaleidoscope tool using three mirrors. The arrows are poinng to two face-like features on the right. Any combinaon of eye-like shapes and symmetry will potenally produce

a face-like feature. (215) A second trend we have noced is the technique of erasing all of the picture but the presumed paranormal feature. That is what I did with the Orb 1 Example. I see the vague shape of a woman’s head. To help you see it, I have erased all but the feature. Fortunately, I preserved the original so that you can see what I changed. The Orb 1 Example is useful to illustrate a diﬃcult to see concept, but it is a risky pracce. In a way, selecvely erasing parts of a picture to show a parcular feature is a lot like storytelling in EVP. If it is done, the original should be displayed alongside the enhanced version. Excepons to this might be instances in which the feature is well-outlined as is the Troll in the alien composite. Witness Panels Complying with the Witness Panel Best Pracce is perhaps the most important tool available to the inexperienced praconer. As has been stated many mes in this book, we too easily fool ourselves. By deﬁnion fool means we don’t know we are being fooled. The way to guard against being fooled is to ask others to review our examples and give us a candid descripon of what they see or hear. In some of the examples I have seen on the Internet, I doubt an uncoached witness would see in the raw example what the praconer highlighted. Even for a Class A example, probably not all of your

friends will see what you see. To validate the feature, at least a few should independently describe what you think is in the example. The Percepon of Visual ITC Images (20) study will give you a sense of how people see visual ITC examples. It is online in the Journal secon of ATransC.org. What are the Paranormal Features? Just about any way you can imagine to produce chaoc opcal noise is suitable for the spontaneous formaon of anomalous features. That is why face-like features are oen found in photographic orbs. I say spontaneous because they usually have none of the characteriscs of communicaon. However, with that said, there is evidence that some such features are impressed into the noise as communicaon with the praconer or an interested observer. Our working hypothesis is that the patches of brightness in the looped video are areas of relave order that naturally form in chaoc noise because of stochasc ampliﬁcaon. In that process, small irregularies in the uniformity of baseline energy are ampliﬁed, and in video loop ITC, those emergent areas of increased order appear to be intelligently controlled. What Have We Learned? We use color video equipment and we have found that resulng features are oen displayed in true colors such as skin tones and color of lips or hair. We also note that, in all forms of visual ITC, it is common for the boom poron of the face to be obscured. In some examples, there is apparent interacon between features. More

rarely, a feature may be in a scene. In a Class C example, I found a man apparently dressed as a medieval lord, his foot on a low wall as if he was posing for the camera. In another example, the man is clearly posing for the camera in the Man with a Dog example. Cow: Video-loop ITC: Unenhanced on le, enhanced with Photoshop Smart Fix in middle and regions A and B isolated and enhanced with contrast tools. I see a number of face- like features. As is found in many EVP, the features are approximaons of what they appear to represent, as if the transform process was not completely controlled. EVP will oen decrease in volume and/or become garbled near the end of a phrase. In a similar way, faces might be distorted, or as noted, not completely formed. Face Fractal In the Implicit Cosmology, life ﬁelds are described as the fundamental building block of reality. In eﬀect, reality consists of life ﬁelds and their expressions as ideoplasc structures. Using fractals as the model, Source would be the top fractal and aspects of Source would be Source-like fractals. The Cosmology of Imaginary Space Discourse will give you a sense of how you can imagine this cosmological model. Also in the Implicit Cosmology, the etheric personality of a person is able to interact with other personalies within the bounds of perceptual agreement. Conscious awareness of this interacon is ﬁltered in the Aenon Complex so that a person is normally

unaware of the resulng informaon. That is, how much we become aware of things etheric depends on our lucidity. All of this informaon is provided here to help explain the apparent fractal eﬀect of visual ITC. Probably the most disconcerng aspect of visual ITC is that faces seem to compete for space in the display. Faces seem to be a most common fractal as if they are some etheric background noise. For instance, if the naturally occurring physical noise is suitably chaoc, there might be faces formed of faces. That is, a primary face will be present, but on closer inspecon, usually aer the viewer resets aenon or steps back from the display for a fresh perspecve, many less well formed faces will become evident. The right frame of the Cow example above shows the two darker regions around the cow as they have been enhanced to make the smaller features more obvious. Again, it is important when viewing these examples to remember that the actual nature of the anomalous features is obscured by the limitaons of our equipment. With that said, it may be possible that the cow is also formed mosaic-like by many face-like features. Two Lovers: The pale colored area in the middle-le of the frame appears to be a man’s head facing your right. The yellow-orange area right of center appears to be a woman’s face parally obscured by the man. Her le eye is showing. They are together as if caught in an inmate pose.

Lesser face features are in the light areas behind them. The Lovers example shows the face-like secondary features and also two primary features apparently interacng. Focus on the white area at the middle of the frame. Let your eyes ﬁnd a man’s face looking slightly down and toward your right. His skin is white. Once you ﬁnd him, look at the yellow-orange area behind his head. I see a woman’s face as she is looking at him, maybe whispering in his le ear. He is obscuring the right side of her face. All of the yellow-orange area represents her face and neck. Close examinaon of the lighter colored areas in the background will show that there are numerous faces in the picture as well. Animals and Aliens It is common to ﬁnd a person apparently proudly displaying a favored pet. In the Man with Dog example, the man’s skin color appears to be correct. If by this, we can guess other colors are correct, he is wearing a white jacket that looks like a dress uniform. The dog appears to be white. Man with Dog: This appears to be the portrait of a uniformed man proudly holding his lile white dog. The head of the man is badly distorted but the skin colors appear to be true. He appears to be wearing a white jacket. The white dog is looking directly at you. According to the Implicit Cosmology, and considering the nonlocal character of reality, it is logically consistent to

expect people from other lines of evoluon (extraterrestrials) to appear in visual ITC. In fact, a number of convincingly alien features have been collected. The Aliens example here is representave of this. As I noted before, the colors oen seem to be true, so that appropriate skin, lip and hair colors are somemes seen. With this in mind, I refer to the ﬁrst feature on the le in the Alien example as the Blue-faced Man. He appears to be wearing a chest-plate with a dark fur collar. We have collected a lile, spindly-armed creature with a pointed head and ears which point right and le directly away from the skull. This is a poor Class C example and cannot be displayed here. However, it is very much like the gremlin captured by Jose Garrido and Alfonso Galeano, and the one captured by Erland Babcock. Possible Aliens: Video-loop examples that seem to be of alien people. From the le, blue-faced man (recorded by Butler), Gremlin (Jose Garrido and Alfonso Galeano) ©, possibly same gremlin species (Erland Babcock) ©, apparent grasshopper-like being (Butler), possible troll (Butler). The background has been suppressed to make the troll more apparent. Some contrast and color intensity adjustments have probably been made on these. Ask if you need to know for sure. It is important to note that Babcock used much older technology than we have and produced what I think are considerably beer examples. If you experiment with visual ITC, be aware that success is as

much inﬂuenced by the technology you use as the human factors contributed by you, interested observers and the trans-communicang personality. Induced Visual ITC In one visual ITC example, we had asked my father to show himself in our visual ITC session. The example below is what we found. Again, it is common for the lower part of the face to be obscured. It is also interesng to note that I had the photograph of my father on my desk, as it was being moved from one storage area to another. Possibly My Father, Clayton: We asked my father to show himself in a session. We later found this feature. It has a similar pose to a photograph of him on my desk. Of course, I will not say the Clayton example is deﬁnitely the product of my father’s intenon to respond to our request. I feel that it is. Because aer carefully examining hundreds of video frames without seeing anything even remotely like my father’s face, it is unreasonable to expect his face to be found in a video frame from the session in which we asked him to appear. Another reason I am inclined to say the feature is my father is that his pose in the video frame is the same as in the photograph I had on my desk. We have also noted that the appearance of an anomalous face does somemes closely match available photographs. While this characterisc may be explained by the communicang personality’s access

to the praconer’s memory, it might also be explained as an apport. Apported Material for Feature Formation A characterisc of apports is that they are physical-world objects such as stones, trinkets and ﬂowers. In ﬁeld condions, they either mysteriously appear, such as one that Lisa found in her shoe, or they fall from the air as if they have emerged from an alternave reality. Apports come to us as physical objects because that is the way we are able to experience them; however, one of the characteriscs of ITC is that the features somemes seem to be at least parally formed with preexisng physical world objects. It may be more eﬃcient to adapt something already embodied in the physical than to create it from pure thought. If so, then it makes sense that the pose of the Clayton feature is similar to what was on my desk at the me. Again, remember that these features are representave of the actual thing, and are oen very distorted. Light Relected from Moving Water Technique Short of simply taking a picture of medium-density texture and brightness surfaces, probably the simplest method to produce ITC features is photographing light reﬂected from moving water. All you need is a camera and a container for water as shown in the Water-ITC photograph. Any camera will do but if you use a video camera, you will need a computer program for examining the individual frames. Otherwise, handling of the individual pictures is the same as for video

loop ITC. Water Technique: Arthur Soesman of the Netherlands introduced us to this technique in 2004 with this illustraon. Most praconers have substuted the jug with a sauce pan. © Sauce Pan for Water ITC: Glass sauce pan in a black pot with about three inches of water. Black pot is just for contrast. Any overhead light source will do to reﬂect from water. Take pictures of water as it is disturbed with ﬁnger or spoon. The objecve is for the moving water to produce many areas of medium-intensity reﬂected light. As shown in the Water Technique Diagram, this technique began for us with Arthur Soesman’s report of using moving water in a bole but quickly evolved into the use of any container. Since the features are found in color photographs or videos, a colored container or added colored lighng has been popular. As previously noted, clarity of video loop ITC features is limited by the video equipment and method of their display. Since a very high resoluon camera can be used, the actual liming factor is the resoluon of the display technology. However, the reﬂected light tends to be very high contrast, which limits the amount of usable neutral-density regions of reﬂected light necessary for feature formaon. From Erland: A one-gallon brown glass jug (le). Erland situated his camera at about 1/3 the way up the side of the jug with the camera very close to the jug. The jug was wrapped in black paper with an opening for

the camera. Light was applied from above. © Before his transion, associaon member Erland Babcok was very good with photographic phenomena. As shown in the From Erland Picture, he found a large amber glass jug for his experiments and oen added a violet light source. It was common to add high-frequency light to experiments because of the persistent belief that The Other Side is only separate from the physical because it is of a higher frequency. The light was intended to help bridge the gap. While it is sll uncertain if it helped, the colored light did produce interesng anomalous features with oen beauful accents. Erland produced many excellent ITC examples with the moving water technique, and some were of such beauty that he even had a showing in his local library. The one oﬀered here in the Elves example is especially interesng. You may need to look for a while to see what I describe, but please do. It seemingly provides a mysterious glimpse into an unknown world. Elves: An example of Erland Babcock’s moving water technique. © In the Elves example, it appears as if a strong wind blows from your le toward your right. Look for a tall man-like creature in the background with long hair blowing in the wind. His right ear scks out from his hair more like a mule’s ear. He is looking toward you but down at the girl. Directly under his chin is a translucent dome hat (think mushroom cap), in which

you can see the head and hair of a lile girl facing your right. Hair on the le side of her head is blowing past her right cheek. It looks like her bare shoulders are pulled up, as if resisng the wind that is at her back. Just in front of her is possibly a boy wearing the same type of hat. His chin is sloped into his neck and you can see his open mouth just under his nose that is facing up. There may be a dog in front of and facing him. King: Except for the face, the le picture is typical for light reﬂected from moving water. The violet comes from the glass sauce pan. The paranormal face at the right of the le frame has been enlarged in the right picture. Most of our light reﬂected from moving water features are what we would refer to as Class C, meaning that recognizable facial features are present but are so distorted that they probably would not be recognized by witnesses. The King example is an excepon. You should see a human face looking toward your le. The Class A face is very close to a second feature I would consider a Class C. Margaret Downey is a very capable ITC praconer. In the Grandfather example, she found a face in her video that looked like her great-great- grandfather. Daniele Gullà, with the Italian Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Biopsychocybernecs Research (Il Laboratorio) (122), used forensic-quality face recognion soware

to compare Margaret’s ITC image with a photograph of her great-great-grandfather while he was in the physical. Gullà wrote that “I have processed the human face as a 3D model and rotated it to superimpose over the ITC face. I have compared the repere [reference] points (only 5: eyes, lips, nasal and subnasal) in the human face and ITC face. The ﬁnal result is that the diﬀerence in the two images is inferior to [less than] 5%. They are very similar!” Grandfather: Margaret’s great-great-grandfather Benjamin Franklin Main Sr. (upper-le), ITC image recorded by Margaret (lower-le) and the two images superimposed by Gullà (right). © Composite prepared by Gullà. Theory Eﬀort has been made to eliminate mundane explanaons for the examples of visual ITC presented in this study. This is not to say that one will be found, but based on current understanding, it is reasonable to consider the possibility they represent an etheric-to-physical inﬂuence. Not all examples are communicaon in the sense of a two-way exchange of informaon. However, it might be argued that all are caused by an intelligence that has expressed an interest in the situaon in which the phenomena were experienced. Many examples indicate a person looking into the scene, perhaps out of curiosity but more likely with a purpose. For instance, the presence of a child in the room is a common characterisc of faces on turned oﬀ television sets. This seems to indicate a degree of family aachment. A common belief amongst paranormalists is that

people have personalies in the etheric who aempt to provide guidance for them without interfering with self-determinaon. Perhaps the people looking in are guides observing the progress of a physical charge. Certainly, the presence of these people looking into our world serves as a catalyst, causing us to reconsider what we know about the world. The Implicit Cosmology remains the overriding theory in this book for how these phenomena are formed. As such, the worldview of the praconer or an interested observer likely plays a part in how the features are actually formed. For instance, in the Apparion 1 example from Rochelle, the great-grandmother apparion may have been presented to her unconscious awareness as an intenon ﬁeld which was translated by her into familiar terms. So Many Faces It appears likely that stochasc ampliﬁcaon is the physical process by which the inﬂuence of intenon acts on opcal noise to produce an intended feature. This follows the concept of intended order. The real challenge is in modeling the presence of so many face features found in noise. How we raon our aenon seems to oﬀer a possible model. A person entering a crowded room is aware of most or all of the people in the room. Some will be more familiar than others, but the person will become more aware of one person at a me. The presence of paranormal faces is modeled as having been formed via the personality-avatar entanglement of the praconer or interested observer. A video frame that

has a face feature in it typically has one well- formed, primary face feature and numerous more or less well-formed secondary face features. Based on this, anomalous features found in a video frame are a reasonably fair expression of the personality’s personal reality. That is, my personality is aware of many others, probably in my collecve. All of those personalies are liable to be represented in the transformaon of noise into features, but more likely, the one to show up the most is the one with which I am aempng to communicate or that is trying to communicate with me. Inherited Credibility Examples in this book which we think represent trans-etheric inﬂuences may not provide conclusive proof of our etheric nature; however, when considered as a set, each inherits validity from the others. For instance, physical mediumship brings credibility to the idea that ideoplasc structures are possible. If they are shown to be possible, then inﬂuencing an electronic device should be considered a logical extension of those phenomena. The well-documented eﬀect of intenon on random event generators (51) establishes a sort of behavior that must be applied to ITC involving random audible or visible noise. I say this because both involve the apparent eﬀect of intenon on the behavior of noise in a nonlinear system. The common factor is stochasc ampliﬁcaon. One of the themes of this book is that Etheric Studies inherits some validity from psi studies and also that psi studies inherits some validity from Etheric Studies. However,

this inheritance should not be construed as proof of survival. Much more study is needed before such a conclusion can be made. Because in the foreseeable future it is unlikely psi researchers will take up Etheric Studies, the task for metaphysicians is to ﬁnd a way to model trans-etheric phenomena so that psi researchers will see the compability of the two studies. I See It, Why Don’t You? It is part of paranormalist lore that the ability to hear and understand the voices of EVP is an acquired skill. EVP usually only approximate live speech so that the usual structural cues found in live speech, and on which we depend to understand meaning, are oen formed in novel ways, making it diﬃcult to decode meaning. The context of what is said may also be obscure so that the important circumstanal hints which help us assign meaning to the words of EVP may be missing. The anomalous features in visual ITC suﬀer from an equivalent problem. Consider this, if an inkblot used in psychological tests is consistently idenﬁed by testees as a buerﬂy landing on a ﬂower, is it reasonable to argue that the inkblot appears to be a simulaon of a buerﬂy landing on a ﬂower? Just because the feature was formed by a randomly bloed ink spot does not mean it cannot reasonably represent something real. This is a common problem in visual ITC. The context in which a feature is formed can be used to assign intended meaning.

If an inkblot on white paper is intended to be random and without meaning, but is consistently reported as a buerﬂy, should it be required to contain no meaning? What if Vincent van Gogh had splashed black ink on a piece of paper that looked just like the ink blot and tled it Buerﬂy on Flower? Would that give us reason to accept that the ink blot was a reasonable simulaon of a buerﬂy? One of my jobs in the corporate world was long-range planning. You may know it as strategic planning. The core ability for long range-planning is the ability to conceptualize trends as a possible future. In many ways, arsts are long-range planners because it is necessary to visualize the consequence of every step as it will relate to a conceptualized system called the work of art. When I search video frames for anomalous features, I try to see each part as a component of a system of related shapes and colors. Very oen, once I see a face-like shape, it becomes diﬃcult not to see the face. I will somemes reset my mind by walking away and later taking a second look. In poorly formed features, it takes me a while to ﬁnd the face. The important thing is that I do ﬁnd the face. All of this is to say that I have a nave aptude to see the features in visual ITC that not all viewers share. It is a fact of corporate experience and

it is apparently an explanaon as to why not everyone viewing my examples sees what I expect them to see. As with EVP, there is something of a learning curve one must traverse to work with visual ITC. The only way I know to develop the ability is to work with the examples with the intenon to see meaningful relaonships amongst the otherwise random shapes. If someone tells you they see a buerﬂy, take a lile me to see the same. Of course, we must be mindful of the hyperlucidity trap and not force meaning where there is none. There is a balance which can be found with experience and by cooperang with a witness panel. A second diﬃculty people have in seeing the anomalous features is looking in the right place. Oen, the video frame will not have a primary feature, so just looking at the frame as one image is not enough. Look at the lile parts where there is a spot of brightness amongst the darker, random shapes. A good example of this is the Cow feature. The Future Visual ITC is potenally one of the most promising forms of paranormal phenomena. The anomalous features seem to represent a moment in the life of a probably long-transioned person. Somemes they represent meaning for us or an interested observer. Most likely, they review an otherwise invisible characterisc of reality. Visual ITC is one of the least understood forms of paranormal phenomena. Virtually every parapsychologist with whom I have

discussed the features have advised me to sck to EVP because the features are simply too unlikely. So if you decide to study them, be aware that seeing the faces is not enough. At some point in your study, it will become necessary to stop just collecng examples and begin developing a conceptual context for what they are and why they exist. ITC is clearly a metaphysical study, but there is an important physiological link, as the appearance of the features is biased by praconer and/or interested observer expectaons. Transcommunication Study 5: Artifacts and Perceptual Error Introduction Perhaps the single biggest problem aﬀecng how people perceive their world is that they do not understand how it operates. Of course, this is the root of superson in primive tribes, but we moderns have our own supersons. For instance, I grew up with the idea of earthquake weather. That came about because the adults in my life as a child had experienced a strong, mid-summer earthquake. It was hot and muggy with virtually no breeze when the earthquake occurred. Thereaer, every hot and muggy day had the older folk around me on edge, if not consciously, at least unconsciously fearful of another earthquake. I am not a geologist, but as far as I know, the weather has lile to do with earthquakes. But then, that is the point. I have only a tourist-level understanding of geology and do not know how to argue that hot days are not a sign of coming

earthquakes, other than it makes no sense based on my worldview. And that is the second point. Mindful living can be described as habitually asking yourself if what you think and do makes sense. Considering your intenon, are your thoughts and acons reasonable. If you do not know the consequences of your acons, then it is incumbent on you to move with cauon. Instead of “It is this,” at least say, “It might be this,” or even beer, “Is it this?” As an electronic engineer, I have a relavely good sense of how technology might bias the expected output of devices. For instance, there is a design ﬂaw in Panasonic RR-DR60 digital voice recorders that causes an occasional, loud noise that was at one me called Angry Man EVP. Of course, it is just an angry sounding arfact of the device, but it took some me before we listened carefully to the noise and found that the trans- communicators were using the noise, perhaps even iniang it, to produce the audio energy needed to say such things as “I love you.” Reality is complex. Chaos theory is probably the best way to study reality. To be realisc, every experience we have is apt to have unexpected elements. If you consider this point, it is a profound statement. The stascal norm probably applies, meaning that the weather will be about as it was predicted and work will be more or less as expected. Yet meteors occasionally fall out of the sky,

the ground under our feet somemes moves and a storm occasionally brings catastrophic ﬂooding. Technology and the environment combine to inﬂuence our experiences. A picture taken of a bird in a tree is apt to be ruined by a ghostly light caused by over-exposure from the sun which was just out of camera range. A magnetometer might register a psi inﬂuence as a change in magnesm when there is no such change. Apparent paranormal words might be formed by recording foreign-language speech, when in fact, the sound was only muﬄed by aenuaon in the air and poor quality of the player and recorder. The rest is all listener expectaons. Photographic Artifacts The list of potenal environmental and technology photographic arfacts is much longer than the ones oﬀered here, but these are the ones I most commonly encounter. By becoming familiar with these, you should know to look for others. This too is part of mindful living. Low Light Latency If you are an experienced ﬁlm photographer, you will know about image latency. It is a term used to describe the presence of an image in exposed ﬁlm which has not been developed. That concept does not apply here. The latency we are interested in here is the delay between the beginning and end of a process. In imaging devices such as moon and sll cameras, the concept is usually applied to command latency. This is the delay between pressing the buon to take a picture (command) and the me it

takes the camera to ﬁnish taking the picture (response). When the process to take a picture begins, the light coming into the detector increases the electrical potenal of each pixel in the detector, and it is the size of that charge that is entered into the electronic process to create image data. A brighter object in the scene will produce more charge in a cell than a dim one. Latency: Example of latency in low light photography. The eﬀect of latency is easily seen in many of the nighme photographs collected by ghost hunters. One example I spent a long me trying to explain to a website visitor was a twilight picture of a supposedly haunted house. A nearby house had a porch light on, and while the haunted house was dimly but well imaged in the scene, there was a bright yellow trace that wiggled around to its le. Even though the camera was on a tripod, when the person pressed the buon to take the picture, he slightly moved the camera. The camera returned to a stable posion for most of the exposure and produced a good image of the house. However, the porch light was much brighter than the haunted house and it saturated aﬀected pixels for every slight movement of the camera to produce a wiggly yellow trace. The picture here is of a large ferry at sea. I took the picture with the camera set to automac. You can see that the dimmer parts of

the ship are well imaged (see the name), but all of the bright lights produced the same trace paern as I moved the camera to take the picture. Daytime Latency A common example of dayme latency is a photograph that has something in the scene missing a part. For instance, people walking in a museum without legs or a dog that is missing its head because it moved during the exposure. Again, the camera is usually automacally seng the exposure for the average light it detects. A walking person’s legs move faster than the rest of the body. If automac camera exposure is perfect for the relavely large area of the torso, it may be too short to image rapidly moving legs. The result is a ruined photograph which is too easily mistaken as paranormal by a person with a predisposion to seek evidence of the paranormal. Sun Flares If the sun or a bright light is just out of range of the camera lens, it is apt to register in the resulng photograph as an oen very prey rainbow or series of colorful orbs. Most camera lenses are compound, meaning they are formed of more than one lens shaped element. The front surface of each element may image the bright light as an orb. It is usually possible to imagine a single straight line passing through the orbs and the sun. Sun Fade Bright light will somemes cause a photograph to have what appears to be a fog in

the scene. This is usually just saturated image detector or ﬁlm, but somemes the ruined photograph will have a ghostly quality. Orbs Photographic orbs are usually round, oen translucent objects found in opcal media. Because they generally appear as chaoc opcal energy, they are prone to have recognizable facial features in the manner of visual ITC. Being mostly white with lile texture, features they may contain are seldom more than outlines suggesve of recognizable forms. Popular wisdom amongst some paranormalist holds that orbs are evidence of discarnate personalies or that they contain the face of a local ghost. It is clear, however, that most orbs are arfacts caused by light reﬂected from shiny surfaces or parculates in the air. Others are easily shown to be caused by bright light sources such as the sun. With that said, there are circumstances in which some orb-like photographic objects may be paranormal. These are discussed in the Visual ITC Study. Audio Artifacts Audio technology can produce arfacts as well. The technology introduces the arfacts, but it tends to be the way praconers process sound ﬁles that makes the arfacts audible. Over Ampliication Inexpensive audio eding programs make very sophiscated capabilies available to EVP praconers. Of course, all of us have tried everything available to make that hint of a voice clear enough to share with others. Aer working with thousands of audio ﬁles since the mid-1980s, Lisa and I have come to the realizaon that the only safe processing is around ten or

ﬁeen decibels of ampliﬁcaon and maybe a lile noise reducon. Anything more tends to produce processing arfacts that can make the possible uerance say what was not intended. Electricity at the power outlet is very noisy. This becomes obvious when it is examined with a device that will show small signal noise. The problem is that the many miles of wire tends to act as an antenna, allowing energy from radio broadcasts to produce a small signal in the wire. This can somemes be ampliﬁed so as to be heard with the unaided ear. Hand-held devices are also excellent antennas for radio-frequency contaminaon. The result is that ampliﬁcaon of any recorded sound track of more than twenty or so decibels will begin to make the contaminaon audible. We have had many sound ﬁles brought to us for examinaon that had been ampliﬁed and the resulng audible radio contaminaon mistaken as EVP. Single Syllable Error One of the more common mistakes EVP praconers make is thinking naturally occurring single syllable-like sounds are paranormal voices. This is especially a problem for people using silver bullet technologies such as radio-sweep. For instance, if the queson is “Who lived here?” a “Bo” sound that was a fragment of a phrase spoken by the radio announcer as “Boy did we win!” might be idenﬁed as a paranormal voice saying “Bob.” Since the praconer does not know the name of the person who lived there, Bob is as good a name as any. The majority of

EVP examples we have seen posted around the Internet are mundane, single syllable-like sounds aributed as EVP. In some cases, a single syllable sound might have other, probably mundane sounds nearby in the sound stream, enabling the praconer to claim they are part of a mul-syllable uerance. As representaves of the ATransC, our recommendaon is that possible single syllable uerances be either disregarded or reserved for personal use. Certainly, they should not be used for research. Selective Reporting The technology used in radio-sweep and EVPmaker is designed to produce a stream of random sounds. Presumably, the output sound stream is inﬂuenced by a communicang personality to produce meaningful messages. One problem with these technologies is that they always produce a streaming output of oen voice or voice-like bits of sound. If a meaningful word or phrase is detected in the output sound stream, the sounds before and aer in the sound stream may be included in the interpretaon of the possible paranormal uerance. This is a reasonable approach, but it is usually a judgment call as to how much of the sound stream applies to the suspected EVP. As such, the praconer must be mindful not to inappropriately include trailing or leading sounds in the reported EVP. This ﬂexibility too oen leads to storytelling or selecve reporng as the praconer aempts to show meaning where none is intended. In transform EVP, the uerance may come aer it has been unconsciously composed by the praconer but before it is consciously spoken.

With this in mind, an acceptable interval between queson and answer in transform EVP is just a second or two, but certainly aer the preceding queson and before the next queson. Selective Reporting by Deletion A second and more damning form of selecve reporng is modiﬁcaon of a sound ﬁle to eliminate irrelevant sounds and only present the queson and answer as if one was directly associated with the other. While it may be a technique to show the listener what the praconer believes is present in the recording, selecve reporng of this kind is more an ethical violaon than a mistake. If such eding pracces are to be used, unedited sound ﬁle should be presented with the display version for comparison. What a person is guided to believe as real has the potenal of changing that person’s worldview. The praconer presents examples under the cloak of assumed experse, and therefore, has an obligaon to be clear about what is thought to be paranormal and what is known to be mundane. Storytelling A common pracce amongst praconers is to record a likely sound and then concoct a story designed to make it sound like a meaningful EVP. Without nocing, a praconer might have recorded the intake of breath from one of the ghost hunng team. Upon review of the recording, the breath sound is in the recording just before that person said, “Is there anyone here?” The praconer then explains that the one syllable breath sound is really an EVP

answering “Yes” just before the queson. An important pracce in ﬁeld recording is to use a second recorder, and then to compare recordings to see if the suspected EVP is on both. As a general and very reliable rule, EVP only occur in one recording process, so if the sound is on two, simultaneous recordings, then it is either direct voice (paranormal voice in the air) or it is an arfact. (144) Mistaken Low Volume Sounds Especially in ﬁeld recording, there may be people speaking in other parts of the building. Such normal sounds oen do not register in the praconer’s mind. The voices might be picked up on one recorder, but depending on the quality of microphone, a second recorder might not register them. While such distant sounds are oen reported as EVP, the best pracce is to discard them as, at best, poor Class C examples. Errors in Perception Here, I am not talking about the need for a person to learn how to hear EVP. Not being a psychologist, the best way I can explain this concept is to say that people tend to mentally ﬁll in what their unconscious mind assumes is missing. This closure, as I have heard it described, is mostly a problem with live voice techniques, such as radio-sweep and EVPmaker, in which a fragment of speech is heard as a whole word. A good listener is one who has learned to resist closure and to hear sounds more as they are rather

than as they seem. However, it is common for a person to say “I don’t hear anything but noise.” But when told what is thought to be said in the EVP, the listener will be beer able to make out the words—even if the example is only noise. Research by Dr. Mark Leary has clearly shown this listener suggeson bias. (74) The following is from Item 2 in Part 3 of the cited report: All EVP enthusiasts know that people’s interpretaons of EVP are somemes aﬀected by what they think other people hear. In fact, it is oen diﬃcult not to hear what someone else said they heard. In our second study, we found that agreement with the individual words in an EVP jumped from 6% to 23% when listeners were told what the recording invesgator thought the EVP said. The following is from Leary’s Part 2 Conclusions and Recommendaons: The results of this study suggest that invesgators should be less conﬁdent in their interpretaons of EVP than they typically are. On average, the most common interpretaon of each EVP was shared by only 22% of other people. And, of course, all interpretaons other than the most common, consensual one had even less agreement. In fact, most of the raters’ interpretaons were not given by any other listener! Furthermore, raters were not parcularly good at judging the correctness of their interpretaons. Thus, having the sense that ‘I’m sure this is what it says’ does not indicate that other people will

agree with one’s interpretaon (or that it is actually correct). These results lead me to oﬀer four recommendaons for the responsible interpretaon of EVP: 1. In light of the fact that any parcular invesgator’s interpretaon of an EVP is not likely to be shared by other people and that people’s interpretaons are biased by what they expect to hear, invesgators should never interpret an EVP for other people without playing it for them several mes and solicing their independent interpretaons. 2. If the interpretaon of a speciﬁc EVP is parcularly important (such as when it is being interpreted for grieving family members), invesgators should use a scaled-down version of the procedure used in this study. Have at least 10 people independently listen to the EVP and determine the consensus interpretaon, if any. Then report an interpretaon of the EVP to others only if a majority of listeners agrees on that interpretaon. In some cases, it may be helpful to report more than one potenal interpretaon, along with the percentage of people who agreed with each one. Providing listeners with such data is a more honest and responsible way to share EVP than to oﬀer a parcular interpretaon that might, in fact, be idiosyncrac. 3. Invesgators should be willing to refrain from interpreng ambiguous EVP. Providing a quesonable interpretaon as if it is certain is misleading, if not somemes dishonest. Just because an EVP cannot be interpreted does not mean it is not a useful piece of evidence, so invesgators should

not interpret EVP that are unclear. 4. Paranormal invesgaon groups and EVP praconers should have formal guidelines for the interpretaon of EVP that minimize the likelihood that they will oﬀer interpretaons of EVP —whether to other group members, clients, or outsiders—that are expressed with greater conﬁdence than the objecve evidence warrants. Invesgators should exercise greater care in sharing their interpretaons of EVP, and procedures should be in place to ensure that clients, other invesgators and the public are not inadvertently misled regarding interpretaons of an EVP. Faux Transcommunication Aer years of abuse from the skepcs of Wikipedia, I have come to understand that some people do not understand the logical disncon between a phenomenon and something that only looks like that phenomenon. EVP, for instance, is deﬁned as a form of transcommunicaon. It is experienced as instrumentally aided anomalous access to informaon. By that, it is intended that no mundane explanaon has been found for the presence of apparently paranormal voices in recording media. If an example can be shown to be fraudulently produced, that it is actually produced by an unnoced person speaking in the room, or it can be demonstrated as an arfact of the technology, it is not EVP. Two things must be true to properly debunk EVP. First, the praconer must have followed best pracces to record an example, including use of two recorders and a listening panel. Then the debunker must show a physical explanaon for the presence of the reported EVP. The idea is

that there ﬁrst must be an actual uerance honestly thought to be EVP. There are hundreds of examples on the Internet that are reported as EVP but for which there is no chain of custody, so to speak. Also, praconer experience is generally not known, nor is the recording technique and whether or not the example has been altered or if me has been cut out. It is illogical to think a proper evaluaon of EVP can be made with such examples. Unexpected Technique Induced Artifact Praconers try just about everything they can imagine to improve transcommunicaon. Oen, the technology they us is new and the community has lile experience as to what causes what problem, what works and how best to apply the technology. Of course, radio-sweep is a good example of this, but in visual ITC, technology is making it possible to mirror pictures, causing some very strange, face-like features to emerge out of an otherwise mundane frame. Both mirrored pictures and radio-sweep involve eﬀects which are not well understood by praconers and witnesses. The naturally occurring angry sounding noise arfacts originally idenﬁed as Angry Man EVP menoned at the beginning of this study is also a good example. When a technique is used to produce phenomenal results, praconers and witnesses alike are expecng the next output of the device to be transcommunicaon. This predisposes them to mistake mundane output as paranormal. Retro Familiar Storytelling In mental mediumship, informaon tends to come to the medium as a vague

impression which must be clariﬁed before it can be expressed as a message to the sier. To be clear, it has been experimentally shown that the original informaon is oen correct and veriﬁable. It is the human factor which causes confusion. The more lucid the medium, the clearer percepon of the intended message. The task of the medium is to express that informaon to the sier as it was received. It is called coloring when the medium changes the message to agree with his or her worldview. A good medium will resist translang the inial sense of the informaon and express the message to the sier in a give what you get format. An example might be the original sense of a puppy and the accompanying understanding that it relates to the sier. As such, the medium might say, “I see a puppy near you.” The sier’s response to such a general statement determines the veracity of the message. If the sier replies that he or she just brought a puppy home, then the message is complete and the medium should move on. However, this is when a form of storytelling oen begins. If the medium elaborates by saying something like “Yes, I see it exploring your home” it is likely the medium is mentally ﬁlling in detail of the original impression based on what the sier is saying. This new detail would seem like it was part of the original impression, but in fact is what I refer to

as retro familiar storytelling. If the medium elaborates by saying something like “Yes, I see it exploring your home,” it is likely that the medium is mentally ﬁlling in detail of the original impression based on what the sier is saying. This feedback can produce changes in percepon that can seem to be part of the original impression. But, in fact, feedback is from the sier rather than the original source and is not paranormal. Allowing the sense of the inial informaon to be modiﬁed by feedback from the sier is what I refer to as retro familiar storytelling. In eﬀect, it is the development of a false memory based on guidance from a witness, and then accepng that false memory as if it is the inial memory. This is probably a natural problem and a medium who allows this to occur should not be considered fraudulent. More properly, it should be considered a bad habit which needs to be managed. From the Spiritualist perspecve, the message in this example would be considered a psychic message because it relates to something that is probably in the mind of the sier, rather than a mediumisc message iniated by a discarnate personality. From the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, both sources come to the medium in the same way, and as such, there is no funconal diﬀerence. One must consider the message, rather than the source. It is also possible that a discarnate personality might iniate the message because the puppy is

important to the sier. It is very diﬃcult to know what has occurred upstream of the message before it emerges into the medium’s conscious awareness. Education People seldom have the necessary technical or cultural references to be reliable witnesses; however, perceptual errors are avoidable with a lile discernment and willingness to learn from subject-maer specialists. Perhaps the most eﬀecve way to avoid perceptual errors is the pracce of suspended judgment. (68) As a person who is dedicated to the study of survival and trans-etheric inﬂuences, it is important to me that people make an eﬀort to learn about the nature of their possibly paranormal experiences. The alternave is fueling the public percepon that we are delusional. Perhaps more important is the negave inﬂuence such faith-based comments have on our eﬀorts to understand these phenomena. Transcommunication Study 6: Mediumship a.k.a. Psi Sensing Mediumship A useful deﬁnion of mediumship as the term is intended here comes from the Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches: A medium is one whose organism is sensive to vibraons from the spirit world and through whose instrumentality intelligences in that world are able to convey messages and produce the phenomena of Spiritualism. (2) To paraphrase, a medium is a person who is able to sense the expression of etheric personalies (discarnate people) and convey the intenon of that expression to people sll in the physical. The phenomena of Spiritualism are the forms of trans-etheric inﬂuences thought to be iniated by etheric communicators. Usually, these are various forms of

mental and physical mediumship and healing intenon. It is important to note the emphasis on who is supplying the informaon in mediumship. In the tradional view, mediumship is characterized as an exchange of informaon from a friend or loved one in the etheric to a person in the physical (the sier) by way of a medium. The tradional Spiritualist point of view is body-centric. From the personality-centric perspecve, which is the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, a person is a personality entangled with a human body in an avatar relaonship during a lifeme. A person who has translated out of a lifeme (died) is usually referred to here as an etheric or discarnate personality. Both living and dead people have an immortal personality as their core intelligence. See the Life Fields Discourse and Life Field Complex Diagram. There is also more on Spiritualism in the Contemporary Spiritualism subsecon of this Study. Psi Sensing or Being Psychic Verses Mediumship A person is said to be psychic if he or she is able to access informaon by sensing the psi ﬁeld. In the past, this ability has been referred to as Extra Sensory Percepon or ESP, but more recently it is known in parapsychology as psi funconing. It is correct to say that a person is psychic or to refer to a psychic ability. In the tradional point of view, a psychic is not necessarily a medium but a medium is always a psychic. This can be understood to say that a

psychic only access informaon from a person’s mind, presumed residual informaon in psi space (Super-Psi Hypothesis) or from objects. A medium is able to access that same informaon, but primarily accesses informaon by way of a discarnate helper or a sier’s loved one. In the tradional view, the diﬀerence is profound. From the personality-centric point of view, a person is always psychic in that the Aenon Complex interfaces with reality via the Aenon Limiter. This interface includes psi signals from other personalies (loved ones) and a signature signal from objects in the environment (Ideoplasc structures). See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. In the sense of psi funconing, psychic and medium are funconally the same and any disncon between the two is in the origin of the informaon that is being accessed. That is, if the message is thought to come from a person in the etheric it is referred to as mediumship. If it is thought to come from some physical source or residual informaon in psi space, it is considered psychic. This is a major deviaon from tradional Spiritualism. It is also based on current science. All I have done is translate that new science as part of this cosmology. If you have been trained to disnguish between psychic and medium, it is good to recognize that science is an ever-evolving understanding of Nature. Being open to new ideas also means allowing old ideas to be replaced with new ones if appropriate. Psi Sensing Psi sensing is a more

contemporary term for psychic or being psychic, and as noted above, it may as well be a new term for mediumship. The term accommodates the parapsychological term of psi and sensing describes the process by which psychic and mediumisc communicaon is accomplished. Lucidity As discussed in the Mindfulness Discourse, lucidity is used to describe the clarity of awareness between a person’s conscious self and mostly unconscious personality. Take a moment to examine the Life Field Complex Diagram. Note in the Life Fields Discourse that personality represents the core intelligence of the life ﬁeld. It is also important to note that the conscious self (I think I am this) is isolated from the (mostly) unconscious personality (I am this) aspect of our life ﬁeld by the Aenon Complex. In the tradional view, one of the objecves of training in mediumship is to teach the student to beer sense inner guides and to get out of the way by not coloring the message. In more contemporary terms, this objecve can be paraphrased as making the personality-to-conscious self connecon more lucid (clearer). In the Aenon Complex, the Aenon Limiter ﬁlters out all uninteresng informaon from the environment and the Perceptual Loop makes a decision about what is passed by that ﬁlter. Since it is the outcome of these process that emerges into conscious awareness, the ﬁrst step in gaining lucidity is to gain control by expressing intenon to do so. The lack of aenon about environmental informaon can be overcome by learning to

be open to new ideas. It is very hard to undo a decision, but the conscious decision to suspend judgement provides a means of telling your unconscious processes to more oen arrive at a Maybe outcome of the Perceptual Loop. Remembering that worldview can be changed in small increment, it is the Maybe outcome of percepon that provides that incremental inﬂuence. The Collective An important concept for the study of transcommunicaon is the idea of a group consciousness or collecve of personalies sharing the same local source. For instance, it is common for a communicang personality to indicate that it is part of a group or that it is only the speaker for a group. Jane Roberts’ Seth (63) and the SORRAT’s (149) Imperator group are examples. As it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, a personality expresses aspects of itself to gain understanding through experiences in an imagined venue for learning. Once expressed, the life ﬁeld represenng an aspect is persistent and remains entangled with its source personality as part of a collecve of similarly expressed aspects related to the same source personality. The Principle of Perceptual Agreement is deﬁned as Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality with which it will associate. Based on this, a person will be most in agreement with other members of its collecve and in agreement to a lesser degree with people from other collecves. In praccal terms, in a room full of people, a person might feel that

one or two people are soul mates (collecve mates) and while there will probably be a few that rub the person the wrong way, the person’s response to most in the room will be neutral. Collecves can be described as cooperave communies. That is, as it is modeled, members of a collecve tend to help one another gain understanding. Each member of a collecve contributes acquired understanding to the source personality, and therefore to each other. The objecve is to bring their source personality’s percepon into agreement with its source personality. As it is modeled, this agreement includes acquired understanding which is sought by the source personality. You can see that cooperaon amongst members of a collecve furthers their progression, and thereby, their source personality’s progression. The same sort of mutual support can be seen in cooperave communies within our physical, social networks. Two understandings illustrate this: The Golden Rule Redo: Teach me as I teach you. and The Way of Progression Through community comes knowledge Through teaching comes understanding It takes a collecve Sensing Reality Sensing reality is a way of describing psi sensing and mediumship. While some people naturally come by mediumisc/psychic ability, most of us must develop the ability. In most cases, that means unlearning bad perceptual habits. As explained above, a person senses reality by way of the Aenon Complex. That is a mostly unconscious part of our mind which translates informaon from our psi and physical environment, according to our worldview, into conscious awareness. The

expression of intenon is how we indicate to our unconscious mind our interests and preferences. Managing the perceptual process is an acquired discipline that can begin with understanding the Implicit Cosmology. Most of the thirteen Discourses describing the cosmology are focused on theory; however, the last four discourses, beginning with Discourse 9: Percepon and Expression, include explanaons for how the cosmology might be integrated into daily living. Test Beliefs From my experience, I have learned that if you have studied psychic or mediumisc phenomena, it is likely you accept a parcular person’s teaching. For instance, you may consider informaon from across the veil to be from a parcular level of reality or you may assume that a parcular group enty is the only source of truth. The Implicit Cosmology is just a blueprint for our spiritual anatomy and our relaonship with others. It is not a thing of belief, as most of it is based on current science and lessons learned from transcommunicaon. Anyone should be able to arrive at essenally the same cosmology aer examining the evidence. If it is reasonably correct, then it is important that you use it as a test for what you believe to be true. That is, learning to deﬁne what you believe to be truth, based the structure of the Implicit Cosmology, will help you align your worldview with what I will call contemporary spiritualism. Sensing Potential Fields Every event has a psi signature and every event is preceded by a ﬁeld represenng

the nature of the event and the gathering potenal for it to occur. As it is modeled, a potenal ﬁeld is the output expression of the Aenon Complex and is created when a person ﬁrst imagines the possibility of doing something. This expression might be a thought, an acon such as speaking or walking, an aspect of the personality or an ideoplasc structure. As a product of the creave process, potenal ﬁelds represenng events are shaped by the creang person’s quality of aenon, clarity of visualized outcome and extent of intenon to make it so. When ﬁrst conceived, the event might have oponal outcomes. In this model, each potenal outcome would be represented by a potenal ﬁeld. Each of these ﬁelds would gain or decrease in potenal as the expression of the event approaches, with the one represenng the actual outcome becoming dominant as the others dissipate. Following the concepts associated with percepon, and as shown in the Percepon and Expression Diagram, a person unconsciously senses psi signals from the environment. If a potenal event is of interest to a personality and passes the Aenon Limiter, then it will be introduced to the Perceptual Loop. Working with worldview, that process will aempt to characterize the potenal in familiar terms, and if that is possible, present it to conscious percepon. This process occurs for everyone but most of the usually unrelated events remain in the unconscious. They become more evident for those who are trained to listen to subtle cues from

their unconscious. Potenal ﬁelds may precede their related event by considerable me. If for instance the event is an act of war or a crippling fault in a commercial aircra’s baery, the potenal ﬁeld might be sensed very early. Even a minor potenal might be sensed if it involved safety of the person or a loved one. Remember the idea of the Buerﬂy Eﬀect in Chaos Theory: it is said that the ﬂapping of a buerﬂy’s wings in one part of the world might produce a storm in another part. Thus is the nature of a chaoc system. The potenal of that storm would begin with the buerﬂy. The potenal would have many possible forms, depending on the climac condions. Only one potenal would be realized. (150) A person might sense all potenal ﬁelds, or perhaps only those that make sense according to worldview. Since the moment for expression of an event might grow near only to be aborted by the creator personality, a medium might sense a future that had been possible, but never occurred. Sensing the Physical The Life Field Complex Diagram will help clarify the way informaon is thought to be processed via the etheric personality-avatar relaonship. Early versions of the Implicit Cosmology included the idea that the human senses made physical informaon directly available to the conscious self, but it appears more correct with current understanding to say that all environmental informaon is ﬁltered before coming to the conscious self. As modeled, if the informaon does

not make it into the worldview, it cannot be directly sensed by personality. In eﬀect, a person is blind to anything that falls too far outside of personal reality as it is held in worldview. Ambiguous informaon, the Maybe soluon to the Perceptual Loop, will likely be sensed, but its true nature may be masked by a substute version as mind seeks to ﬁnd a familiar interpretaon of unexpected informaon. Once again, the importance of purging worldview of beliefs in favor of more objecve understanding cannot be stressed enough. So very much of who you are is determined by your worldview and that is enrely under your control. See the Mindfulness Discourse. Mind-to-Mind Sensing An important factor in psi research is the current inability to shield from psi inﬂuence. For instance, if an experiment calls for a sier to idenfy what is in an envelope, it is possible that the sier may determine the contents by psychically sensing the informaon from the memory of the person who put the object in the envelope. In a telepathic mind-to-mind exchange of informaon, the receiver becomes aware of informaon via the contact its etheric personality makes with the personality of the sender. Awareness of that exchange must be translated into physical consciousness via the person’s perceptual process and is limited by perceptual agreement. In remote viewing, the viewer likely views the target locaon by way of a mind-to-mind exchange of informaon between the viewer and someone who is either physically viewing the target

or has memory of the target. See the Personality-Centric Perspecve and Percepon and Expression Discourses for clariﬁcaon of how a person might be aware of telepathic exchanges. Channel A channel is said to be a person who is able to mentally step aside while in deep trance to allow an etheric communicator to speak through its physical body. The disncon between a medium and a channel is usually based on who is communicang and for what purpose. Generally, a medium is said to be a person who senses messages from discarnate people. It is usually thought that a channel brings through more profound informaon from higher beings. This may include enes who have not experienced a physical lifeme. A personality represenng a group of personalies is frequently a contact. Physical Mediumship Physical mediumship is discussed in a number of other locaons in this book, especially in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse. A mental medium typically funcons in a state of awareness ranging from fully conscious to medium trance. A physical medium is expected to enter into a very deep trance. As a deep-trance medium, a physical medium is thought to be able to allow the conscious mind to step aside so that a second personality may assume control of the body. In the Implicit Cosmology, the actual process is seen as a combinaon of increasing lucidity and a conscious decision to accept the direct inﬂuence of the communicang personality. In most examples I have witnessed, the physical medium has been as

if in a stupor, able to walk and talk, but when doing so, acng as if trying to hold on to a tenuous sense of lucidity. In all of the cases I have witnessed, this has been a trained mental state, making it diﬃcult to disnguish between aﬀectaon and actual disassociaon. Perhaps it is this behaving as if that is necessary to maintain an open channel. There is lile doubt that the resulng phenomena are real. Spirit lights, levitaon, ectoplasm, reunions and apports during darkroom séances argue the presence of very sophiscated control one would not expect from a conscious person. Another factor that is clear is the ability of the communicang personality to orchestrate the intenonality of the siers. Virtually everything I have learned indicates that parcipaon of a second personality is essenal for the producon of phenomena. (28) Why the Old Beliefs Are Suspect Let me ﬁrst explain why the usual source for informaon about the other side is not widely accepted by researchers who seek an objecve view. Most of what we are told about the other side is conveyed to us via a medium. That is, a physical person has made contact with an etheric personality, and in some way, has conveyed informaon to us from that personality. Having a physical person in the circuit is seen as a problem because research is showing that the person acng as the medium is more involved in the message than popular wisdom would have us believe. In mediumship,

what they call “coloring” is seen when the medium’s own worldview contaminates the informaon coming from the etheric communicator. This is a known problem and mediumisc or trance messages are almost always taken with considerable reservaon by researchers seeking objecve evidence. (26) A test of how clear the channel is would be if channeled messages have a cultural bias. In fact, they do. For instance, how heaven was described to us in the late 1800s and how the Other Side is described to us today has changed in much the same way that our sociees have changed. The same can be said about the diﬀerence in informaon channeled by a USA medium, and, say, an Australian aborigine. Transcommunicaon involves the movement of informaon across the veil from the very conceptual environment of the etheric to the mostly objecve environment of the physical. A message exchanged between a medium and an etheric communicator appears to occur as the mind-to- mind exchange of a gestalt thoughorm containing everything one would want to know about the subject. It is then translated by the medium via familiar paerns and embodied into the physical as a spoken message. Misunderstood Messages Considering how trans-etheric inﬂuences are thought to be propagated, it is important to pay aenon to how the Principle of Perceptual Agreement applies to cultural diﬀerences. For instance, a holy man of ancient mes would have had a relavely simple worldview. Many of our strongly held beliefs of today were revealed in the early days

of civilizaon and passed forward to us as systems of belief. Belief such as the existence of karma and a silver chord connecng soul with our body are frequently accepted today in a literal sense when current understanding suggests a more objecve alternave view. If old beliefs are understood in the light of the Organizing Principles, it should be clear that self-determinaon and the Prime Imperave to gain understanding make the karma concept obsolete. In the same way, the concept of entanglement helps us understand how the link of inﬂuence between personality and conscious self could easily have been understood as a silver cord by an ancient holy man. The same kind of misunderstanding can be seen today. For instance, if the medium is very religious, then something like “I am part of your collecve” might translate as “I am God.” In this cosmology, each of us is a point of view of a group consciousness modeled as a collecve. We have found in EVP that a person will tend to record messages conﬁrming expectaons. We are reasonably sure the communicaon is real. It is just that the message must be processed in the praconer’s or an interested observer’s Aenon Complex. In fact, the colored messages represent an important part of our foundaon evidence for the Life Field model we use here. You can see that we think of informaon given to us via mediums and holy books as historically interesng but not very useful. Of course, it does have

value as a reference point, and we have spent a lot of me normalizing such informaon in an eﬀort to ﬁnd the root message. (47) The messages of ITC oen have an objecve component which gives us reason to have more trust in the informaon. This has given us a unique perspecve not shared by those who study survival but who do not understand or accept the evidence of ITC. The Trans-Survival Hypothesis is the result of this normalizaon and consensus building based on psi research, mediumisc and ITC sources. A Meditation to Train Psi Sensing One of the beer meditaons I have found for developing your psi funconing, and by extension, mediumship, is to visualize your unconscious mind as a vast, deep cave. You as conscious self are standing at the entrance of the cave, your back to it, as you look at the bright, sunlit world before you. The sunlit world represents your conscious self. Normally, people learning to meditate are taught to suppress their mental chaer by clearing their mind. So let us call this a contemplaon because, while I want you to enter into the body asleep-mind awake meditave state, I also want you to think of that chaer as bubbles ﬂoang toward you from the back of the cave. Imagine the bubbles of colored oil that rise up toward the light in a lava lamp. Each thought emerges from the darkness of your unconscious, and you only become aware of them as they enter into

the dim light of the cave entrance. Each bubble is a fragment of thought beckoning you to pursue it to examine the story it can tell. Consider each thought as it comes into your awareness. If it is familiar, if you know what it is about, then mentally send it back into the cave or ignore it. Familiar thoughts need no further acon, other than to acknowledge them and then let them go. You are looking for the unexpected thoughts, the ones that are a lile surprising. Allow yourself me to get comfortable with this visualizaon. The cave is a safe place, but it is very large and very dark. While it represents your unconscious mind, it also represents a doorway to the rest of reality. Hidden at the back of the cave is a threshold through which you are connected to everything. The daylight at your face represents your waking reality. It is what the world looks like from your body’s eyes. When you turn to look into the cave, you are trying to see reality as that etheric part of you which is the intelligent core of who you are, your I am this. To do so, you must extend your senses deep into the cave and the way you do that is to disnguish the occasional, unexpected scrap of memory as it ﬂoats into your awareness. Assume that, if you do not recognize the thought bubble or if it surprises you, then it does not come from

you; it is from beyond your I am this. It will take me to learn how to get to the point in your contemplaon to consciously examine the scraps of thought to know if they are from your etheric personality or from beyond your life ﬁeld. When you do ﬁnd a new thought, consciously see your mind’s eye follow the thought bubble as it dris back into the cave. Do not see your body follow the thought, only follow with your aenon. You are now a free-ﬂoang observer who is able to enter the deepest reaches of your subconscious. Work with this exercise over many sessions. The back of the cave is your Perceptual Loop, and it is possible to teach your mind to reach far into that loop to sense the informaon as it comes from the etheric environment. As you learn to do so, you will be able to direct your aenon beyond the back of the cave, through that threshold and on to sense other personalies that are perceptually in agreement with yours. In eﬀect, you can develop your natural psi sensing ability. Contemporary Spiritualism There are six foundaon concepts I will refer to as Six Pillars of the Implicit Cosmology. Understanding them will help you understand what I intend by Contemporary Spiritualism: Pillar 1, Reality: Reality consists of life ﬁelds and expressions of life ﬁelds. (Reality Discourse) Pillar 2, Person: A person is an immortal etheric personality entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. (Life

Fields Discourse) Pillar 3, Purpose: We inherited the urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality from our source personality. (Prime Imperave in the Organizing Principle Discourse) Pillar 4, Mind: Unconscious psi sensing precedes conscious percepon with unconscious worldview as the arbiter and conscious intenon as the movator. (Percepon and Expression Discourse) Pillar 5, Creaon: The creave process is aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. (Percepon and Expression Discourse) Pillar 6, Progression: Integrang acquired understanding of the nature of reality into worldview constutes progression and expands opportunies for greater understanding. (Perceptual Agreement Discourse) What is usually thought of as Modern Spiritualism is based on 19th century understanding. Many of the pioneers are of that me as well. It is from that understanding that many of us have learned about mediumship. In fact, many of those early concepts have been shown to be correct within the context of a body-centric cosmology: however, much has been learned since the beginning of modern spiritualism that suggests a more contemporary view is needed. I make a point of this modern verses contemporary nature of belief because the diﬀerence also applies to a large part of New Age thought. When compared to the implicaons of current understanding—pragmac, objecve understanding rather than magical thinking—concepts such as karma, vibraon, ascended masters and planes of existence begin to seem more fairytale than beliefs worth shaping worldview. Discussion There are three common ways of considering the phenomena of mediumship: Organized Spiritualism sees mediumship as

the exchange of informaon from a discarnate personality to a person in the physical (the sier). A medium is one who provides the conduit for this exchange. Psychic funconing (informaon from the physical) is discouraged if it is disguised as mediumship. As such, in Spiritualism it is poor form to call oneself a psychic-medium. Paranormalist culture sees mediumship as psychic-medium, since the medium may access informaon from the environment, other people or the sier and possibly discarnate personalies. In the Implicit Cosmology, all anomalous access to informaon is via the unconscious perceptual process. This means that mediumship and telepathy are seen as a mind-to-mind exchange of informaon between etheric personalies. This informaon must pass through the perceptual process, as does psi informaon from the environment and mental translaons from physical senses. As such, there is really no diﬀerence between psychic and mediumisc funconing. To tell the diﬀerence, one must consider the message content. This is also why I prefer to think of transcommunicaon and psychic funconing as psi sensing. Ethics A point that needs to be emphasized here is that, to people who are unfamiliar with the actual nature of transcommunicaon, a medium is seen as a spokesperson for discarnate loved ones. The ethical consideraons of this are profound and potenally have legal implicaons. As a general statement, mediums are unaware of current thought on the relaonship between worldview and percepon. In actuality, the average medium is not prepared to manage sier expectaons in an ethical or legal manner. In

my mind, this is a measure of how important general awareness of a good cosmology is to our community. A Personal Code of Ethics for Developing Mindfulness in the Mindfulness Discourse addresses ethics and oﬀers a means by which developing a personal code of ethics can be beneﬁcial as a tool for personal development. Ethics is not just about right living. Awareness of right living advances progression. Transcommunication Study 7: Healing Intention Introduction You may know this subject as spiritual healing. Perhaps a more progressive term is energy healing, but if you really want to be technically correct, I believe bioﬁeld therapy is the term becoming popular in parapsychology. In their essence, the various modalies of healing involve the expression of a praconer’s (the healer’s) intenon to help a sier (the person being healed). The healing inﬂuence is typically expressed with the intenon to directly improving the sier’s health, or at least to improve the sier’s general sense of wellbeing. This study focuses on the nature of healing intenon in the context of the Implicit Cosmology. However, as is discussed in the Etheric Fields Discourse, it is the combinaon of what is intended, how it is visualized and the focus of aenon that determines whether or not the expression is sensed as healing, or perhaps, only as friendship. Spiritualism According to the Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches (NSAC), a “Spiritualist Healer is one who, either through their own inherent powers or through his or her mediumship is able to impart

vital, curave force to pathologic condions.” The healer’s objecve is to access help from a discarnate loved one to heal the sier. “Imparng vital, curave force” should be understood as the medium’s personal energy being used for healing the sier. This appears to happen, but Spiritualism is all about pung the discarnate helper or loved one to work. Implicit Cosmology As it is modeled in the Implicit Cosmology, the healing expression may be given purpose from ether the praconer’s etheric personality or another personality, perhaps the sier’s personality. It is the conscious self of the praconer that iniates the intenon to help signal to his or her Aenon Complex. My Qualiications to Speak About Healing Especially when it comes to discussing healing, it is good that you understand my qualiﬁcaons. Developing a model such as the Implicit Cosmology is a logical process which requires me to be knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects. To speak about these subjects with a degree of authority also requires the kind of understanding that usually comes from personal experience and considerable contemplaon. I feel qualiﬁed to speak on many metaphysical subjects, but there are areas in which I have not gained suﬃcient knowledge to speak with any authority. Healing intenon is one of those subjects. Much of my personal experience in metaphysics is with ITC, but over the years, I have been trained in and have pracced a wide range of healing modalies. I am a cerﬁed Reiki Master and an NSAC Commissioned

Spiritualist Healer (2), and I am trained in a number of other healing modalies from various metaphysical schools. Even with this experience, I do not consider myself qualiﬁed to make blanket statements about healing. With that in mind, what I say here about healing is in the context of the Implicit Cosmology. In other words, I am stang what makes sense if all or most of that model is correct. It is for you to decide whether or not this makes sense to you. Please take advantage of the references I provide along the way, especially the bibliography provided by Dean Radin on his personal website. (151) Foundation Concepts As is my custom, we will begin with some of the foundaon concepts you will need to understand. Intention Intenonality is the move inﬂuence which is necessary to realize a visualized outcome. The creave process entails aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. In a praccal sense, that process without intenon is just fantasy. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Perception and Expression The output of the Aenon Complex is an expression of awareness to the conscious self (percepon) or expression of intenon to the environment (intended order). The creave process itself is a mostly unconscious one of which the conscious self only becomes aware when the process results in some form of outward expression. This may be movement of a hand, speaking, walking, a conscious thought or the awareness of something in the environment. Expression can also

be unconscious, for instance, as the unconscious expression of doubt when consciously trying to achieve some goal. Rapport The outcome of the creave process which includes the intenon to heal might be imagined as a thread of aenon between the praconer and the sier. This thread is characterized as rapport, the nature of which is a factor of aenon, visualizaon and intenon. Intention Field Expression of intenon manifests as an intenon ﬁeld which represents all of the imagery, thoughts, understanding and beliefs associated with the expression, as well as the organizing rules necessary to establish intended order. Intenon ﬁelds persist as long as the personality maintains aenon on the intended outcome. This is a form of etheric ﬁeld. Bioield As a biological organism, the human body has an electromagnec ﬁeld produced as a byproduct of biological processes. This ﬁeld is detecble with instruments, but some people also maintain that they are able to see, or at least sense this ﬁeld. This ﬁeld is physical and is studied in the mainstream sciences. The body also has an etheric ﬁeld (psi ﬁeld or morphic ﬁeld) which is associated with the conscious mind, body consciousness, and if applicable, the entangled etheric personality. These ﬁelds are not currently recognized by mainstream science, but are studied in parapsychology and are an integral part of many systems of belief. Mapping a Person In the context of the Implicit Cosmology, and as shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram, there are three ﬁelds associated with a human

body which must be considered to understand healing intenon. 1. The life ﬁeld is the primary ﬁeld from the personality-centric perspecve. The immortal intelligent core of a life ﬁeld is an etheric personality which is our I am this. As an entangled aspect of its source, it represents inherited purpose and prior understanding. It is also part of a collecve of personalies so that, although it funcons as an individual, it is able to solicit cooperaon from fellow personalies in its collecve. See the Perceptual Agreement Discourse. 2. The life ﬁeld represented by the human organism is described as a morphic ﬁeld in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon. (9) It holds the body’s formave body image and includes the body consciousness. The formave inﬂuence for the body image is derived from a prior form of the organism (Nature’s habit). The organism’s autonomic controls are represented in the morphic ﬁeld. The body consciousness brings insncts which are based on the intended survival of the species. 3. The funconal areas represenng percepon, known here as the Aenon Complex, are shared by both physical organism and etheric personality ﬁelds. This complex includes a worldview memory database which represents the person’s worldview and personal reality (a person is a personality entangled with a human body). Worldview is similar to the body image memory ﬁeld associated with the morphic ﬁeld, but is more concerned with expression and understanding. This complex includes an Aenon Limiter which ﬁlters out uninteresng external smuli and a Perceptual Loop which,

working with worldview, determines what a person becomes conscious of and how it is perceived and/or expressed. The personality is entangled with the human body in an avatar relaonship; however, in praccal terms, the human body consciousness is dominant unl personality has become suﬃciently self-aware to moderate the otherwise insnctual behavior of the organism. Worldview Worldview represents the person’s personal reality, and the educaon of the person eﬀecvely ﬁlls the database with beliefs that shapes the point of view and behavior of the person as a cizen of its community. Worldview also supports inherited and acquired understanding. It is important to note that understanding is relave and gaining understanding is an iterave process. Inherited understanding predisposes a person to styles of learning, but during a person’s youth, the avatar’s inﬂuence should be expected to bias acquired understanding toward human insncts. Attention Complex and Attention Limiter Everything in the environment produces a psi signal which, if it passes the Aenon Limiter, is sensed in the Aenon Complex. Likewise, the physical body senses numerous physical signals. The Aenon Limiter serves as a ﬁlter to ignore or process these environmental signals, depending on the person’s interests and whether or not there are potenal survival implicaons. Perceptual Loop The Perceptual Loop aempts to image each external inﬂuence based on worldview. The resulng image is then oﬀered to worldview, and if it agrees with current personal reality, it will be perceived (consciously sensed), but as it is colored by worldview. For instance, a farmer might

ignore a plane ﬂying overhead but quickly noce a hawk. The mayor of a town might see a new subdivision as a good thing, while a farmer might see it as more compeon for water. A person not governing its avatar’s insncts might overeat, while one who has learned to moderate such insncts might know to limit porons. A person taught to believe in evil is more likely to translate experiences as evil inﬂuences than a person who sees such behavior as just errant human nature. All of these funconal areas are etheric (nonphysical) in the sense that mind is separate from the brain. All but some aspects of percepon are unconscious, so that what is consciously sensed is a representaon of what was unconsciously sensed based on worldview (personal reality). The Aging Paradox As proposed in the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (9), the component parts of a biological organism are organized by morphic ﬁelds based on body image informed by Nature’s habit. Body image is for the physical body as worldview is for personality. The human body is formed as humans have always been formed, but evolved by the creave soluons to environmental problems inherited from previous generaons via morphic resonance. Also, cells in the body have a much shorter life span than the body itself, and new ones are frequently formed according to the memory of morphic ﬁelds. See Organizing Fields in the Etheric Fields Discourse. There is clearly a mechanism built into the human body morphic ﬁeld

that causes aging. At ﬁrst, it is the process of maturing to adulthood with ever-increasing vitality, but at some point, the growth stops and aging sets in, leading to eventual death of the body. Things do go wrong during the growing up and aging process. Beyond mechanical problems, there are a host of potenal malfuncons that plague the body. Aging, though, appears to occur independent of the normal wear and tear on the body. One of the aging mechanisms built into the body is the telomere. (152) It is a component of the cell that, in eﬀect, seals the end of a DNA string and keeps it from binding with other strings. Biologists say a cell starts out with some 15,000 base pairs but loses 25-200 base pairs each me it divides. When the cell runs out of telomeres, it dies. In eﬀect, the cell is scheduled to die, and that seems to be echoed in the enre organism. Based on depleon of telomeres, the human body is apparently not intended to be immortal. At the same me, a cancer cell is a problem because it is immortal. Somehow, the telomeres are not depleted in cancer cells and the cell can divide indeﬁnitely. So to me, the paradox is how the body image, which determines the formaon of the body, fails to form the cells according to Nature’s habit— unless it is Nature’s habit for the organism to get old and die. Of course, I am not a biologist. What

I have described here is based on how I understand relevant arcles. So please don’t go up to a biologist and tell him “Tom said ….” No Magic One of the assumpons of the Implicit Cosmology is that there is no magic in the sense that something might magically violate Nature’s principles. Processes always proceed according to knowable inﬂuences and outcomes are always natural. There are no magical shortcuts, just an ordered reality. Be mindful that Nature’s principles and knowable are relave terms. In reduconist physics there is no such thing as the etheric and related principles. Everything paranormal is magical thinking to a reduconist. Magical to one may be science to another. The assumpon is that everything in reality is ordered by knowable processes that naturally follow from intenon. The formaon of our human body is also predictable, as are its internal processes. No magic! For this to be true, then the body image must have a mechanism as part of Nature’s habit that is causing the organism to age. Sciensts are working on techniques to stop aging. For instance, telomerase is an enzyme that restores telomeres. It is acve in young bodies, but not very acve in aging bodies. The idea is to ﬁnd a way to increase the producon of telomerase to keep cells young without promong growth of cancer cells. It appears to be at least feasible that cells can be enabled to divide indeﬁnitely, presumably bringing longer life for the body. Given that body aging

can be at least postponed, then the body image (Nature’s habit) should be equally pliable. As such, a reasonable objecve of healing intenon is to inﬂuence the body image to remember its youth. Incremental Change in Worldview Studies indicate that worldview resists dramac change, but is responsive to small incremental changes. This is the Maybe outcome of the Perceptual Loop. The human body image is the morphogenec equivalent of worldview, and according to the models, changes in the body are preceded by changes in the body image. The incremental change in worldview comes from changes in behavior in response to external inﬂuences. As the model goes, these adaptaons do not normally occur unless they are small changes while proposals for dramac changes in behavior are simply ignored, rejected or negoated into a series of increments within the Aenon Complex. Rupert Sheldrake described this evoluon of the body image in terms of creave responses to environmental inﬂuences. In some ways, this hypothesis is a modern variaon on Lamarckism’s 1809 Inherited Adaptaon Hypothesis. (104) Lamarckism held that changes in a species were caused by adaptaon to environmental inﬂuences and that these were inherited. That theory was set aside in favor of Darwin’s 1859 Natural Selecon Hypothesis (153), which proposed that random mutaons were selected based on their contribuon to survival and that stronger individuals were able to perpetuate beneﬁcial mutaons. Darwinism does not allow for the existence of an etheric mind, and without the etheric body image concept, there is no apparent

mechanism for creave responses to change the body. Sheldrake’s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon does include the possibility of an etheric body image (Nature’s habit), and thus, a way for environmental inﬂuences to cause a change in the body via the body image. Conversely, the relaonship of the morphic ﬁeld with a collecve provides a mechanism for propagaon of a change throughout ﬁelds sharing the same characteriscs. Based on the Implicit Cosmology, it is possible that aging came about as an accidental response to environmental inﬂuences. There is nothing in the model that restricts evoluonary changes to be only beneﬁcial ones. A series of incremental responses to environmental inﬂuences such as skin damaged by the sun or too much mineral in available water might have produced creave survival response changes to the body image as the species aempted to adapt. Aging may be nothing more than an evoluonary response to environmental inﬂuences. Assuming aging is not predesned, then it should be possible to address the eﬀects of aging by addressing the creave process associated with the body image. I leave it to people more qualiﬁed to design self-help regimes to explore this possibility. Mind is Impressionable An alternave explanaon of aging is that body image is easily inﬂuenced by expectaon. Looking again at hyperlucidity, it is clear that raonal thinking can be overridden by imaginaon. This impressionable nature of morphic memory is possibly a factor in aging, as in modern mes, aging is something we are all expected to do. There

is clearly a purpose for the aging process associated with the growth of a newborn baby into an adult. That aging process basically completes the development of the organism, as can be seen with the many provisions in the formaon of bones and glandular secreons for growth. As is too oen demonstrated in modern culture, a young person typically views a physically prime person as old. Is it possible that this concept of age diﬀerenal has become so much a part of our culture that aging is considered an inevitable fate? The Expression of Healing Intent When a person thinks of another person, a link of inﬂuence is established between the two. In the context of the Implicit Cosmology, this is referred to as rapport. The nature of this rapport (the link) is determined by the person’s aenon, visualizaon and intenon. For instance: • A thought may be in the form of a casual glance devoid of intenon. The object of the glance will become unconsciously aware of the aenon, depending on how open the person is to uninvited aenon and how recepve the person is to the intenon signal accompanying the aenon. • The thought might be a stare inadvertently expressing admiraon. In this case, the other might sense the admiraon, but since it is not speciﬁc, it might never emerge into the person’s conscious mind. • The thought might be an expression of love, complete with a recalled mental image of the loved one and desire that the

loved one know. In this case, aenon on the image of the loved one, with the intenon that the loved one is aware of the love, will likely be sensed by the other. However, not being accustomed to translang psi-received informaon, the other person might never become consciously aware of the thought. Even so, it would likely have an inﬂuence on the person’s sense of wellbeing. • The thought might be in the form of the intenon to send healing to another. As with the thought of the loved one, if the thought is accompanied by focused aenon, a clear image and speciﬁc intenon, then the receiver can be expected to at least unconsciously sense the inﬂuence. It will likely not be consciously sensed unless that was the intenon. Once again, if the person is not accustomed to consciously experiencing such psi inﬂuences, the person’s worldview might not have the necessary data to translate the inﬂuence into recognizable form. There is lile systemac diﬀerence between expression in the form of telling a story, seeking informaon from the Internet and expression in the form of a desire to beneﬁt the health and wellbeing of another. The creave process applies the same. A diﬀerence in quality of rapport based on clarity of expressed intenon, visualizaon and focused aenon is predicted by the Implicit Cosmology. However, there seems to be a not so evident diﬀerence in quality between the expression of healing intenon and a mundane act. The expression of reverence, love and

intenon to help another seems to have, as yet unidenﬁed qualies. An interesng exploraon of this other quality is Robert Monroe’s story of loosh he told in Far Journeys. (154) (155) The short version is that earth was developed to culvate loosh, which is the thoughorm associated with an expression of emoon that (in the story) has great value in the greater reality. A mother expresses a form of low-quality loosh when she cares for her child, but she expresses very high quality loosh when she risks all to save her child. We insncvely respond to strongly felt/expressed feelings (their thoughorm). It appears that we are more moved by love than by anger, probably because our human responds to anger in a primal way while love likely appeals to our etheric insncts. Perhaps this is a subject beer addressed by philosophers than by metaphysicians. Expressing Healing Intention There are many diﬀerent healing modalies, and each is supported by a system of thought that is oen based on centuries of tradion. Most are based on assumpons that include considerable arcles of belief, but because healing intenon is so inﬂuenal, probably all of these modalies are eﬀecve. What might be quesoned is whether or not they are eﬀecve because of the associated beliefs or because simply wishing someone good health helps. The process of expressing healing intenon involves important ethical consideraons that are shared by all modalies I am aware of. As a general pracce, a healer-praconer expresses the intent to improve

the sier’s wellbeing no maer how that might look. It is le to the sier’s etheric personality and body image to respond in a way that is best for the sier. While healing is the intenon, it is up to the sier to accept healing, or how to apply the good intenon. (This is generally an unconscious process for the sier.) Examine the Life Field Complex Diagram. The physical body is really the outward expression of a very complex unconscious process which includes both the human body consciousness and the personality. In this model, all of the external inﬂuences must pass through the Aenon Complex, and with healing intenon, the expression of that complex is the sier’s response. Basically, the healing intenon is just another external inﬂuence. If the sier’s worldview includes acceptance of the concept of a healer- praconer/sier relaonship, inﬂuence of the healing intenon will be more readily accepted by the sier. The same is true if the sier thinks something might happen. If the sier believes in healing but doubts it will ever personally happen (I am not good enough, I am too sick, the healer is just an amateur), then that aspect of the sier’s worldview will tend to defeat the process. One of the techniques in healing is to ﬁnd a way to make the sier believe something might happen. A healer-praconer’s good reputaon helps. A dramac environment can evoke a strong this might happen response in the sier, which in turn, opens the Aenon

Matrix to express beneﬁcial informaon to the body. The idea of fooling the sier’s Perceptual Loop into accepng the healing is just acknowledgment of human nature. For the praconer, the sier is a human, and when it comes to health, the human insncts are usually dominant. This means the body image is the target of the praconer’s intenon. If the sier accepts poor health (I am just geng old, I am always sickly), worldview will tend to defeat posive input. Fear is another powerful block to well-being. From my studies, counseling related to alternave health pracces involves a great deal of fooling the fear response. The very idea of cancer is so loaded with fear that it is diﬃcult for the sier to keep from incorporang acceptance of eminent death into worldview. Such pracces as meditang to imagine ny creatures running around in the body to eat cancer cells is really a way of cajoling worldview into accepng hope, and thereby oﬀering the body image a more posive perspecve. Hyperlucidity Remembering the hyperlucidity concept, inspiraonal writer William Arthur Ward told us that, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” Imagining something is true gives the mind a kind of permission to look beyond old beliefs ingrained in worldview. In hyperlucidity, this can become a problem if the person is unable to make a disncon between thinking one can do what is visualized and believing one has done what is

visualized, even though that is not the case. Hyperlucidity can be a delusional state, but this same mechanism is potenally a powerful tool for changing body image. The healer- praconer is addressing the oen irraonal hindbrain and not the more raonal etheric personality. As such, the praconer can be instrumental in fooling the sier’s avatar’s hindbrain into accepng the possibility healing can happen. Who is Doing What? In Spiritualist tradions, the healer is assumed to be a conduit for healing energy provided by discarnate loved ones and helpers. However, in most healing modalies the healer-praconer is thought to provide the healing inﬂuence. In some, it is understood that the praconer is more of a counselor and that the sier is self-healing. Considering the Implicit Cosmology, the praconer is always a source of the expression of healing intenon. Other personalies are probably involved in any such exchange between praconer and sier, and the more appropriate model is that the intenon of the praconer, the acceptance of the sier and the circumstances of the session all come together to facilitate modiﬁcaon of the sier’s self/body image. All of us are part of a personal and universal community integrated as a whole by aenon, intenon and the entanglement of rapport. The praconer usually consciously expresses the intenon to access assistance from this community, thus opening a channel for the expression of healing intenon from the community. For an experienced praconer, the act of approaching a sier likely triggers an unconscious healing response which

also opens this channel. In the same way, the sier opens a similar channel by the act of being a sier and the expression of the desire to gain help. Given the fact of self-determinaon, it is this opening of the channel that is necessary for others to help. In the end, though, the sier is the source and the means by which healing occurs. Modes of Healing It is possible to learn how to sense the bioﬁeld. Healer-praconers are oen taught to move a hand over the sier’s body, usually not touching but inches above the body, and imagine feeling a diﬀerence in the auric ﬁeld. Depending on the modality, the praconer might be taught to feel sﬀening in the ﬁeld near a problem area. Alternavely, the area might be expected to feel warmer or colder. It depends on the system of thought. From my experience, it is possible to learn to feel a change, and this can be veriﬁed by blind tests. Of course, problem areas in the body might actually be warmer because of increased biological acvity, but the sﬀening is unexpected. In one modality, in which the thickening is related to an item in the sier’s memory, having the praconer physically break up the thickening to make it smoother, might evoke related memories in the sier’s mind. This is related to a counselor-sier role more than a praconer-sier one. When dealing with people and human nature, it is diﬃcult to argue that the eﬀect is real

and not just psychosomac, but the results can be therapeuc. The point is that the interacon between praconer and sier can be tangible. In some systems, a disncon is made between spiritual healing and magnec healing. Here, magnec is an old term that might be beer thought of as vitality. The idea is that some of the praconer’s own vitality goes to the wellbeing of the sier. In this case, it is common for the praconer to report being depleted aer a session. Probably the more desirable approach to healing is what is commonly referred to as spiritual healing: the praconer imagines him or herself as a channel for healing energy from loved ones on the other side. In the Implicit Cosmology, vitality from the praconer or spiritual healing form the other side are modeled in the same way. In fact, I do not know if there is an actual physiological diﬀerence, as I treat both the same. For me, it is all intenon and clarity of imagined outcome. I do focus more on mentally addressing the sier’s body image than I do the personality. As a historical note, in the 1700s, Franz Anton Mesmer (156) introduced the world to animal magnesm and mesmerism. Like a shaman, he used suggeson to entrain people’s aenon. Mesmerism was probably a precursor to psychotherapy and hypnosm, and the concept of animal magnesm certainly relates to the concept of bioﬁeld healing as opposed to body image healing. What I refer to here as vitality

is probably just a more acceptable name for what Mesmer referred to as magnec ﬂuids in the body. Again, diﬀerent systems have diﬀerent ways of looking at essenally the same concepts. Prayer Prayer as a means of communicang intenon with an unseen god has been fundamental to religions throughout the world and throughout history. Other than giving thanks, probably the most common purpose of prayer is to ask for divine help. Prayer in behalf of others has also been a common pracce. In the Implicit Cosmology, prayer is seen as the expression of the intenon to realize an intended outcome. When thought of as prayer, the person’s worldview likely includes the assumpon that some intermediary personality will sense this expression and cause the intended result. For instance, asking a saint for protecon or God for healing. This desire to help another by way of what parapsychologists refer to as intercessory prayer is translated as spiritual healing when a person’s health is concerned. Intercessory prayer is funconally the same as noncontact healing or distant healing, both of which have been shown to be eﬀecve. In the Implicit Cosmology, the act of praying expresses an intenon ﬁeld which includes the purpose and visualized outcome. In principle, the quality of focused aenon, how clearly the desired outcome is visualized and the degree to which the desire is intended to be true are important factors determining if the intended outcome will be realized. These factors apply to both the praconer and sier; however, research

shows that beneﬁt can come even if the sier is unaware of the praconer’s eﬀort. This is likely because, in the etheric, the sier and praconer can be expected to be mutually aware of the eﬀort and intenon. The etheric personality of the person who is praying (healer- praconer) is modeled as always being in contact with its collecve of related personalies. By extension, this contact includes the collecve of all other personalies, so it is correct to say in this model that the praconer is not alone in this expression. The ability of one person to inﬂuence another person’s wellbeing appears to be limited to the praconer’s ability to manage the creave process and the extent to which the sier is able to accept the inﬂuence. Given self-determinaon (free choice), there is no reason in this model to expect anything like divine intervenon. But then this is just a model, the validity of which you must decide. Body Image In Rupert Sheldrake’s Hypothesis of Formave Causaon (9), physical organisms are modeled as a hierarchy of nested organizing ﬁelds which he describes as morphic ﬁelds. Morphic ﬁelds determine how the body will be formed. I am not sure if this is in Sheldrake’s model, but as I translate his work for the Implicit Cosmology, the etheric body mind is necessarily the regulang inﬂuence that determines how the body will change over me. As shown in the Life Field Complex Diagram, the body mind can be seen as the physical organism’s

equivalent of the Aenon Complex. Morphic memory translates as worldview, and body image translates as personal reality. Cells in the body are frequently replaced and the new ones must be organized according to the body image. Yet, as the cells are replaced, they reﬂect recent changes that may not be represented in the body image. For instance, the aging process may reﬂect environmental inﬂuences such as cell damage from the sun and physical injuries, but it aﬀects protected parts of the body as well. These aging and environmentally induced changes are passed on to the new cells, which means they must somehow change the body image despite morphic memory. Also, based on First Sight Theory (13), as it is described in the Percepon and Expression Discourse, worldview resists change, but is more responsive to incremental changes produced by ambiguous results of the Perceptual Loop. This momentum is also present in morphic ﬁelds. So, in a similar way, it is reasonable to expect that the body image, as it is informed by morphic memory, should dominate the connuous regeneraon of body cells. So the queson to consider is how the aging process seemingly drives changes in the body image independent of the inﬂuence of morphic memory. I do not have an answer to this queson, but it is clear that the mechanism is in some way part of the etheric body mind. The body is an ideoplasc structure expressed by the body mind, and as such, gradual aging of the body

and perpetuaon of injuries must be in agreement with body image. The Way Back from Aging To make a bold statement, aging is a response to expectaon and not a response to me. Like worldview, morphic memory evolves incrementally, and as such, that evoluon should be able to be reversed incrementally. I would not expect to see an old person suddenly become young in body, say under the direcon of hypnosis. However, I would expect a bodily response to a life-long rejecon of tradional expectaons. As the praconer addresses the sier for a session, the visualized outcome probably should be directed toward the body and not the personality. This may sound like nitpicking, but there is a diﬀerence in expressed intenon and visualized outcome. The praconer can be expected to be stuck with the expectaon that the person seems sick, old or in some way malfunconing. That accepted impression in the praconer’s worldview limits the praconer’s ability to visualize the sier in good health. The roune pracce of visualizing the body in its prime might side step this presumpon. Such mental devices are important when dealing with human nature. As many systems of thought tell us, sickness comes ﬁrst in the emoonal body. In the same way, illnesses should also be considered an expectaon arfact. It is that physiological response to expectaon (in this case, fear) that makes a cancer diagnoses so dangerous. A Well-Documented Example There is a lot of material on the Internet concerning healing, and it is

not my intenon here to say one system is beer than another. There are also a lot of quesonable claims which confuse any casual research on the subject. If the basic assumpons of the Implicit Cosmology can be accepted, then it can provide guidance as to what to believe and what to ignore. In any case, I recommend that you err on the side of cauon, as some simply silly claims can be very convincing. One example I am willing to recommend for study is the work of William Bengston. (157) As he explained in his book, The Energy Cure, Bengston met and became a student of a man who was an able healer- praconer. As an academic, he was naturally oriented toward research and clinically veriﬁed his healing ability via numerous studies in which he reportedly (literally) cured lab mice that had been injected with virtually always fatal cancer. An interesng aspect of Bengston’s technique is what he refers to as cycling. In that, he teaches the praconer to visualize a list of life goals or things the praconer wants to achieve. At the beginning of a session, the praconer should set the intenon to heal the sier, but rather than trying to push or will the healing energy into the sier, the praconer should begin remembering the list of goals, visualizing each one in succession, rapidly cycling through them for the remainder of the session. Bengston emphasizes the idea that this should be very rapid cycling from visualized

want to visualized want, over and over again. Following the Implicit Cosmology, cycling would be eﬀecve in helping the praconer sidestep self-doubt. In eﬀect, it takes the Perceptual Loop out of the equaon and allows the etheric personality to more directly inﬂuence the expression output of the Aenon Complex. Proxy Sitters An interesng approach to healing intenon, and one that helps sidestep praconer’s preconceived noon about the sier’s wellbeing, is the use of a proxy sier. In this, the intended receiver of healing intenon is not present. Instead, a healthy person who knows the intended receiver acts as the sier, and while the healer-praconer focuses aenon on the sier, the sier focuses aenon on the intended receiver. A second version of this is use of a cuddly stuﬀed animal as a carrier of healing intenon. In this, the healer-praconer treats the stuﬀed animal as the sier. This approach is useful for a development circle to send healing to a friend. Tradion holds that physical objects are able to absorb and retain the characterisc signature of thought energy. Psychometry is based on this understanding, as is the concept of an intenon ﬁeld. In healing intenon, the intenon of the healer-praconer establishes a thoughorm which represents that intenon. The intenon ﬁeld-thoughorm is entangled with the physical object and remains with it as long as the intenon remains. As I understand this concept, when the healing intenon is expressed for the sier, the entanglement links the praconer, the stuﬀed animal and the intended

receiver. In this way, the receiver is thought to beneﬁt from the healing intenon when in contact with the stuﬀed animal. A beneﬁt of this technique is the sense of objecve possibility, as opposed to the usual need to visualize help. William Bengston talked about using natural coon balls as a carrier for healing intenon in The Energy Cure. (157) Mindfulness Tool for Healing Intention As I noted in the Mediumship Study, there are ethical issues that must be considered for praconer-sier relaonships. That is one of the reason why I prefer healing intenon instead of healer. The term beer describes the healer-praconer’s probable ability and does not remove personal responsibility for self-healing by the sier. Here are a few issues to remember: • Because of perceived authority, comments by the praconer about the siers wellbeing may develop into a self-fulﬁlling prophesy. • A promise of healing could cause the sier to suspend medical care. • Always, there is a concern about inappropriate touching. • There may be legal issues about praccing without a license. Praconers have some protecon if working in religious service, but not so much if the sier brings legal acon. See A Personal Code of Ethics for Developing Mindfulness. Distant Healing as a Tool for Psi Research The psi ﬁeld and psi funconing are diﬃcult to study. First, no physical substance is known to shield a person from psi. As such, a person funconing as a mental medium is always suspected of reading someone’s mind to

access desired informaon. Pung them in a diﬀerent room or even in a diﬀerent country is not believed to stop this possibility. Most psi funconing eﬀects are small, so that the best way to study, say, the psychokinec inﬂuence on coin tosses, is to look for deviaon from chance over many trials. That is one of the reasons stascal analysis has become so prevalent in parapsychological research reporng. Bioﬁeld therapy typically involves very small eﬀects, as well. Then there is the problem of subjecve responses to suggeson. Research is usually complicated when human nature is involved. This is especially true when the subject is supposed to be impossible in the ﬁrst place. As it turns out, distant healing research provides a way to study the eﬀecveness of the healing concept as well as the nature of psi. If a beneﬁt from distant healing intenon can be shown to be real, then the psi inﬂuence for delivering that means should also be real. There is a substanal body of research concerning healing intenon, nonlocal healing and psychokinec inﬂuence. I see that parapsychologist Dean Radin is maintaining “Selected Peer Reviewed Publicaons on Psi Research,” (151) so rather than aempng to develop a list of references here, I will refer you to the list on his personal website. From Radin’s comments on that page: Commonly repeated criques about psi, such as “these phenomena are impossible,”’ or “there’s no valid scienﬁc evidence,” or “the results are all due to fraud,” have been soundly rejected

for many decades. Such criques persist due to ignorance of the relevant literature and to entrenched, incorrect beliefs. Legimate debates today no longer focus on existenal quesons but on development of adequate theorecal explanaons, advancements in methodology, the ‘source’ of psi, and issues about eﬀect size heterogeneity and robustness of replicaon. Transcommunication Study 8: Introduction to Best Practices Foundation of Civilization Of the thousands of quesons from website visitors I have answered about ITC, most could have been answered with a few form leers. That is because there really are not that many variables. For instance, the main themes for EVP are how to record, does it aract evil spirits, who is communicang and how to share examples. If you consider these phenomena in general term, all of the phenomena are like that. That is why best pracces are such a great idea. A second beneﬁt of best pracces is that, properly executed, they are composed as a community project and represent a consensus from experienced paranormalists. They are also seen as living documents which evolve as new understanding emerges. Contrast that with The World According to Tom. While I accept the responsibility to teach, I am probably the ﬁrst person to complain that everyone is an expert. By that I mean that a quick survey of the Internet will show that much of what I have taught has been ignored or superseded with new, usually baseless ideas. Happiness for me is poinng to a best pracce, rather than one

of my FAQs. A community can be described as a group of people cooperang to achieve a common goal. One of the most important ways in which this occurs is when the elders take me to teach what they have learned during their lifeme to younger members of the community. The ability to convey lessons learned to the next generaon permits the community to move forward with new discoveries without the burden of needing to rediscover foundaon concepts. A business accomplishes the same perpetuaon of experience by maintaining best pracces. These may be in many diﬀerent forms, but the basic idea is to preserve what has been found to work best for the company, instrucons for operaonal standards and maintenance procedures, in a form that is easily accessible to new employees. Living Document Best pracces are important contributors to the community’s cultural norms. In the short term, this is a good thing, as the uniformity in pracces across the community allows for a kind of plug and play environment in which members may reasonably expect certain behaviors everywhere in the community. In the long term, however, pracces tend to discourage innovaon if they do not evolve with changing circumstances. For instance, the educaon system represents most of our civilizaon’s best pracces. However, as we can see with the cultural tension between mainstream science and the paranormalist community, currently accepted pracces are eﬀecvely sﬂing possible progress oﬀered by the paranormalist community. To be eﬀecve, best pracces require a few important characteriscs.

First, there is a need for a mechanism to evolve them as circumstances and understanding evolve. In a business, this is usually accomplished by assignment of a dedicated pracces manager charged with periodic review. Of course, the pracces manager also needs to maintain a revision management system so that employees may know that they have the latest version. The second need is a way of veng pracces. The people who do the work, who are usually subject-maer specialists, may not be directly involved in the mechanics of pracce development and maintenance. A best pracces manager will periodically convene a subject-maer specialist review of the applicable pracces. An important version of this in which I parcipated for a few years is somemes known as strategic planning. In that, a few subject-maer specialists are given secondary assignments to consider current trends with the objecve of understanding how pracces might need to evolve to intersect with future requirements. An example of that today is how I have aempted to evolve the Survival Hypothesis to accommodate First Sight Theory. Enforcement At least in the paranormalist community, use of best pracces is voluntary. They only become important when members of our community are willing to ask “Did you follow best pracces?” A no answer should detract from the credibility of the work. In this way, pracces are like a cultural norm in which there is a reasonable expectaon of behavior. The Collective The Collecve at ATransC.org/bp/Collecve is a WikiMedia wiki sponsored by the ATransC. Its

purpose is to enable members of the paranormalist community to develop best pracces and related standards to further understanding within the larger community. As of this wring, it is very much in a development stage and has not been supported by others. I maintain it with the understanding that it will eventually gain support. The Collecve wiki is essenally the same document development and management program used by Wikipedia. Eding is easy but does require learning a few simple eding rules. Eding an arcle is intended to be a community eﬀort with subject-maer specialist review. Eding rules are designed to avoid the kind of tyranny of the majority seen in Wikipedia. Wiki arcles wrien as a community eﬀort can converge on useful standards as long as basic rules of collaboraon are followed. They are excellent for living documents because editors are encouraged to update them as understanding changes. Being on the Internet, anyone can access them as a free and open library. Another beneﬁt of an online, publically viewable wiki is that version control is always built in. The history of changes can be easily reviewed, as well as possible discussions amongst the contribung editors. A major failure of Wikipedia is that a few editors working together can dominate the process to foist their view of truth on the world. As such, it is important for readers to review the History and Talk pages, especially the archived Talk pages, to see how the editors arrived at the current version of

the arcle. While it is intellectually lazy to use Wikipedia arcles as references, the Collecve is intended to be cited as a potenal community standard. If readers see something they disagree with, it is expected that they will either make a change to the arcle or propose a change on the Talk page. If anyone feels their input is being ignored or ridiculed, contacng the staﬀ editors should bring a fair referee to help. Such oﬀered changes may not be accepted, but they must be fairly considered. Please consider becoming an editor. You need not be an expert, as many of the more important aspects of the arcles involve grammar, research and common sense. For instance, the one Wikipedia editor I trusted, and who provided the most construcve guidance for me, seemed not to accept many of the paranormal concepts. His approach to eding was that all arcles should be balanced to give the reader a candid but imparal understanding of the subject. As I remember, he was banned when mulple skepcal editors ganged up on him. Please use the contact form at ethericstudies.org/contact.htm to request access, make suggesons or ask quesons. A Pragmatic View of Best Practices Many of the concepts in Etheric Studies resemble religious tradion. There are also many aspects of the etheric that are held to be true in paranormalist tradion but that have not been experimentally demonstrated. To add to the confusion, the metaphysical meanings of many paranormalist terms are not well known. This poses

the diﬃculty of knowing what is based on religious belief and/or tradion and what is supported by experimental evidence or well-established, eﬀecve methodology. The use of best pracces is an aempt to idenfy what works and what is problemac, what is substanated by evidence and what is merely supposed. If a person studying trans-etheric inﬂuences follows applicable best pracces, the results can be described as being standardized by those pracces. This means that anyone studying the results of such work will know what measures have been taken to avoid known pialls, and therefore will have a beer understanding of the results. This also means that the praconer will more likely avoid operaonal errors that might not be obvious without extensive trial and error. As an example of how best pracces can help, a person might report the recording of an EVP that, when measured against applicable pracces, would indicate the possibility of unnoced voices in other parts of the recording environment. The simple recommendaon that a person recording for EVP in the ﬁeld should idenfy in the recording each change in locaon is considered a best pracce. An ATransC website visitor used the contact form to inform us about the many EVP he had recorded. Because what he described was very far outside of the norm for EVP, we asked him if he had used a listening panel to see if others agreed with what he heard. He ignored the queson the ﬁrst me we asked, but days later, when

he described in a second contact that many of the messages called him by name and others were very evil, we asked again if he used a listening panel. He responded, “Oh yes, my wife heard them and so did a few friends.” The protocol for a listening panel is very speciﬁc about uncoached and independent listeners. Knowing the tendency for people to feel like they need to please the praconer, a wife and friends are probably not the best test for the validity of phenomena. If he had indicated that he actually read the pracce I referred him to, and then told me that, using that protocol, independent listeners agreed with his assessment of what was said in his examples, then I would have reason to think he had new and novel examples. As it stands now, I am inclined to think the explanaon of his unusual examples is hyperlucidity. Standard Practices Already in Use Some organizaons have included in their charter the requirement to teach members the techniques for working in that ﬁeld of study. For instance, the ATransC aempts to teach about EVP, its nature and the best ways to record for voices. Other organizaons include dependable methodologies for organizing a ﬁeld invesgaon, as well as how to use the associated invesgave tools and how to report the results. Also, experienced circle leaders have documented techniques for sing for phenomena. A well wrien best pracces should not presuppose that a parcular method of teaching is wrong. Instead,

editors should ﬁrst solicit input from the community and incorporate exisng pracces as part of a consensus of what is known to work. Ideally, instructors within the community would base their lesson plans on the applicable best pracce. In this way, it is felt that instructors can move the burden of being right to the community. One might say, “Do it this way because it is a well-documented technique not because it is the way I do it.” Scope Best pracces are concerned with methods and procedures only. They are not rules, but may be referred to as community norms or any similar phrase indicang common pracce; they should never be required, as informed innovaon is always encouraged. A person reporng the results of an acvity concerned with the study of trans-etheric phenomena can be expected to idenfy whether or not best pracces have been followed. A person claiming to be qualiﬁed in some aspect of Etheric Studies, such as recording for EVP, should be aware of the applicable best pracces. Anyone conducng research into some aspect of Etheric Studies and intending to submit a report for publicaon in the online ATransC Journal should be aware of the applicable best pracces and should apply them except in the area of the research objecve. For instance, for a study of the eﬀecveness of an audio ﬁltering technique, best pracces should be followed for the recording sessions and the determinaon of what was said, but may not be appropriate for the analysis

phase. One Must Do the Work Probably the single most important factor separang hobbyists from serious researchers and praconers is a willingness to do the work necessary to become informed about paranormal concepts. It is not necessary to become a paranormalist scholar, but the unfounded assumpon of knowledge many members of our community have sﬂes progress toward a mature community. It also gives the general public reason to think all of us are just hobbyists and tends to conﬁrm the skepc’s idea that we are deluded. Many best pracces will also serve as educaonal text. This is especially true of an arcle development and maintenance process that is well supported by the community. Examples Two dra best pracces are oﬀered here as examples. I say they are dra because I am the only author. In best pracces, a one-author document has limited authority. You are invited to register as an editor (contact me) and make changes to these as you see ﬁt. Of course, you will need to parcipate in a consensus building process for the changes, but your work will become a valuable contribuon to the community. Transcommunication Study 9: Best Practice: Classifying Phenomena Draft Abstract The classiﬁcaon of paranormal phenomena is important for seng the expectaon of an observer and to help the praconer gauge how well he or she is doing based on community norms. A three-class system has previously been used, and only for audio ITC (EVP). This pracce is designed to accommodate stac and transient

forms of audio and visual ITC. The two-type, three-er classiﬁcaon includes Type 1 for noise transform phenomena (transient) and Type 2 for more persistent (stac) features opportuniscally formed from mundane sources. The Class A (easy to experience), B (more diﬃcult to experience) and C (mostly experienced by the praconer) remains so that there are Type 1, A, B or C and Type 2 A, B or C. Justiication/Introduction A common dilemma for praconers is how to classify examples. The phenomena of interest to the paranormalist community may take many diﬀerent forms. Two primary categories are spontaneous and induced. For instance, near-death experiences are usually considered spontaneous while EVP are usually considered induced. Aer Death Communicaon (ADC) was considered a spontaneous phenomenon unl EVP came along, so now we have spontaneous and induced ADC. In most instances, classiﬁcaon is embedded in the introductory dialogue of an example. The praconer or witness is expected to realize that excepons to the general rule should be explained. For instance, an EVP that was stumbled upon during a video-take for a television commercial is an unusual spontaneous EVP and should be explained as such. Psi sensing as human potenal is considered very diﬀerent from psi ﬁeld phenomena related to survival. This is a diﬀerenaon seldom made by paranormalists who assume there is no such thing as survival. There is a need to disnguish research intended to prove phenomena is mundane and research intended to understand phenomena. Anomalisc psychology verses psi sensing studies is a good

example. How phenomena are described in the two diﬀerent contexts determines how examples are introduced. In this case, it is important to make sure the audience knows which view the praconer or witness is taking. Trans-etheric Inluences This is a young ﬁeld of study, and there are many forms of phenomena about which too lile is known to classify. This leaves the praconer or witness lile alternave but to be conservave by describing such phenomena as probably not paranormal. For instance, the paranormal faces somemes found in video loop ITC are typically present for just a moment (transient). That is why they are usually only seen in photographs or video frames. There is lile doubt amongst people who have studied the technique that video loop ITC produces paranormal phenomena. Classiﬁcaon for the examples are discussed below. As a comparison, a face seen in calcium buildup on a subway wall (persistent) may be paranormal, but it is tempng to ignore it as happenstance. Ignoring such examples may be intellectually lazy in that we really do not know the bounds of our etheric friends’ capabilies or their movaon. Our reacon might be very diﬀerent if we knew that a person looking a lot like the calcium paern had been killed on that very spot. Current Classiication System EVP can be classiﬁed as transform and opportunisc. A three-er system for classifying EVP has been successfully used for many years for transform EVP but has been proven inadequate for other forms. For the purpose

of classiﬁcaon, the main diﬀerence is that transform phenomena is transient and opportunisc EVP are persistent. A similar problem has been encountered with visual forms of ITC, for which there has been no classiﬁcaon system. The three-class system for rang EVP is: Class A: Can be heard and understood over a speaker by most people. Class B: Can be heard over a speaker, but not everyone will agree as to what is said. Class C: Can only be heard with headphones and is diﬃcult to understand. Class B or C voices may have one or two clearly understood words but it is how well the overall meaning can be understood that determines the class. Also, loud does not equal Class A. Practice As illustrated in Figure 1, in the exisng classiﬁcaon system, the majority of examples are rated as Class C while a small percentage of examples are rated Class B and even fewer are rated Class A. It is esmated that there are a thousand or more Class C examples for every Class A. Distinguishing Characteristics The proposed system is based on two major types of phenomena. Phenomena that are typically only momentarily present in the physical are classiﬁed in this pracce as Type 1 or transient. Phenomena that typically exist in the physical for a relavely long me are classiﬁed as Type 2 or persistent. In Type 2, persistence can be quanﬁed as suﬃcient me for a person to observe the feature. As a general rule, persistent phenomena

appear to be formed by opportuniscally adapng naturally occurring processes to express the message, assuming one is intended—a cloud formaon that resembles a face, for instance. Each type is divided into three-subclasses as Class A, B and C. As before, the classes are deﬁned so that there are many Class C examples for a few Class B and even fewer Class A examples. As indicated in Figure 2, Class C examples (less objecve) are considered much less evidenal than Class B or Class A examples (more objecve) because they are not easily shared. For examples that are perceived as less objecve it is much more diﬃcult to establish their paranormality. Both audible and visible phenomena are classiﬁed as: Type 1: Transformed physical media; not always present, a transient feature. Type 2: Long-lasng presence; oen as a persistent arfact. Both Type 1 and Type 2 are divided into three classes. They are described as before, but in more generic terms to accommodate diﬀerent types of phenomena. Class A: Evident without explanaon. Class B: May require direcons to witness. Class C: May be vaguely experienced; mostly obscured. Audio ITC The input sound used in EVP helps determine the type. There will be excepons, but as a general rule, the following holds. Type 1 Audible: Input is audio-frequency noise, either ambient room noise or supplied, perhaps from a fan or a noise generator. The formaon of voice is thought to be via transformaon as the communicator imposes intended order on the otherwise chaoc

noise. This appears to involve a stochasc ampliﬁcaon-like process. Type 2 Audible: Input sound is typically live voice. This includes someone talking on the radio, in the room or pre-recorded, perhaps in a foreign language. The easily heard voice is supplied, but formaon of the message is seen as the opportunisc selecon of parts of the exisng voice. Oen, paranormal status comes from the context of the voice-like sound. It is important to note that a Type 1 EVP can be formed in any sound, including noise or voice. As such, foreign-language voice can be transformed into new words. With that said, the praconer can be expected to provide both input and output ﬁles for comparison. Also, since it is known that EVP occur in one process, two recorders recording the same input ﬁle should not produce the same EVP. (144) Visual ITC Features found in photographs and video frames of medium-density opcal noise are considered transform features. They are transient, in that an observer does not see them at the me of recording, only upon review of the media. By comparison, a paern on a piece of toast that resembles a face is long lasng and visible without the need to examine a photograph. With these consideraons in mind, the following holds. Type 1 Visual: Input is opcal noise, usually medium density which is not very light or very dark. Textured surfaces facilitate image formaon, as do image compression techniques. Oen, visibility of the resulng paranormal feature is limited

by the resoluon of the media. Type 2 Visual: Naturally occurring surface characteriscs which are more or less stac can somemes be arranged to form faces. Whether or not the faces are intenonally formed is not clear. The feature may be mundane background shapes seen in a distorted reﬂecon, unfamiliar combinaons of shapes or naturally occurring processes such as the buildup of calcium on a wet wall that seems to resemble something familiar. In many cases, Type 2 visual examples may be mundane, but become paranormal based on when or where they are detected. Example Application The ITC images shown in this montage would be classiﬁed as: 1. Type 1, Class B: Original breath-vapor photograph. (158) © 2. Not classed; Image 1 enhanced by the arst. 3. Type 2, Class B: The crystal Chris used to make his point. The arrow points to an enlarged, enhanced version of a face more or less on the surface. We argued that it is a fortuitously arranged arfact. (159) © 4. Type 1, Class A: A face in a crystal photographed by the Scole Mediums. © 5. Type 1, Class A: A face found in light reﬂected from moving water. 6. Type 2, Class C: Original photograph of a face on a wall of a Spiritualist church. You will barely see it. The congregaon swears that it was not there when they painted the wall white. 7. Not classed; The same face as in 6 only enhanced. The camera used to take the

picture did not have a good UV ﬁlter and detected the mostly blue image beer than the naked eye. It could be argued that the feature in example 7 is now a Type 2- A, but since it is enhanced, the example probably should only be used to help witnesses make out the feature in the original, unenhanced version. 8. Type 1, Class A: The video loop image I use for my avatar. Further Reading 1 Locang EVP Formaon and Detecng False Posives, ATransC.org/journal/false_posives.htm (160) 2 The Formaon of EVP, ATransC.org/journal/evp_formaon.htm (161) 3 A Research Study into the Interpretaon of EVP, ATransC.org/journal/radio-sweep_study2.htm (74) Transcommunication Study 10: Best Practice: Witness Panel Draft Abstract One of the biggest problems in ITC is the diﬃculty praconers have in assessing the quality of examples. Even examples that are considered Class A, which should be correctly seen or heard without prompng, are shown to be correctly understood only on average 25% of the me by online listeners (21) and 61% for video loop ITC. (20) An important aid for praconers is the use of witness panels, people with at least average hearing, vision and comprehension who will examine examples, and without prompng, tell the praconer what is seen or heard. The rest of the task is for the praconer to accept the results. This pracce details a methodology for establishing and using a witness panel to assess the quality of examples. Justiication/Introduction People asked to examine examples of reportedly paranormal phenomena oen complain that the

examples are not convincing. For EVP, the ﬁrst response from witnesses tends to be that the examples are just noise. If voices are heard, it is diﬃcult for witnesses to mentally orient themselves so as to place the voices in a context that will give the words meaning if all that is oﬀered is just the presumed phenomenal voice. Examples of visual ITC can be even more confusing. For instance, reﬂected light phenomena are too easily discounted as mundane if the part of the scene that is being reﬂected is not known. In another example, it is diﬃcult to convince the witness that a face-like feature in any medium is paranormal if the witness can associate the oﬀered example with the faces-in-clouds eﬀect. A lile me spent on the Internet examining examples posted on various websites will show that this complaint is oen deserved. Each me a website visitor responds to an example with “That is just noise” or “All I see is odd paerns that look more like a Rorschach test than something paranormal,” the credibility of anyone in the paranormalist community becomes easier to discount. The result is increased credibility for the scepcs and progressively less funding for research. Examples of ITC are frequently composed in novel ways the average witness will have diﬃculty comprehending. EVP are oen very diﬃcult to understand. Even Class A examples are likely formed with a novel arrangement of formants, distorng audio cues and making it diﬃcult for the witness to understand. It

is correctly noted that hearing EVP is oen like learning a new language. To complicate this is the fact that each praconer tends to record in what amounts to a diﬀerent dialect of this novel language. Visual examples of ITC range from something normal that is out of place to faces formed in noise. The paranormality of something normal but out of place is diﬃcult to argue as paranormal because it is so normal. The paranormal features formed in noise are diﬃcult to comprehend because the witness must learn to look at paerns rather than hard-edge features. It is common for a witness to say, “Oh, I was looking for a photograph.” There is no realisc way to police the quality of paranormal phenomena examples being presented to the public. Instead, individual praconers must learn to self-edit and take special care to help witnesses understand what they are being shown, preferably while leng the witness independently discover the feature. Unreliable Sensing A single person’s senses are unreliable. Anomalisc psychology is based on the assumpon that people too easily fool themselves into believing the mundane is paranormal. A second way of looking at this is that people’s natural mental processes can produce erroneous comprehension from confusing environmental informaon. One study clearly demonstrated that people tend to hear what they are told to expect (74), even if it is not present in the example. In visual ITC, people are more likely to see what the praconer expects them to see aer being

told what to look for. Experience has shown that one reliable way to assure an example represents what the praconer thinks is to ask a number of people to examine the example and tell the praconer what they see or hear. The most common approach to this review is the use of a witness panel. Witness Panel Best Practice The objecve of a witness panel is not to ﬁnd people who will agree with the praconer, but to establish how the average member of the public will experience an example. If at least a majority of the panel does not report experiencing an example as the praconer expects, then the example should be set aside and not be shared with the public. The one consideraon that the praconer should always be aware of is that witnesses will eventually become expert for the praconer’s unique EVP dialect or ITC visual characterisc. This is unavoidable, but a periodical test that asks a new person to grade the example will help maintain the usefulness of the panel. It is up to the praconer to make this work. 1 It is recommended that an uneven number of people parcipate in a witness panel to avoid es and simplify grading of examples. Five people are recommended as a manageable number and should provide a suﬃciently large review. 2 While there are no studies of this, observaons indicate that individual ability to hear follows a natural distribuon determined by comprehension, hearing ability (both frequency and volume),

vision and span of aenon. Even aer ﬁnding enough volunteers, it may be necessary to screen witnesses with known examples of known quality to ﬁnd people who can be depended on to represent the average listener. 3 Examples should be saved in a ﬁle only marked as Example (number). The praconer will need to track the true tle. Please refer to the subsecon below on Sound File Consideraons. 4 Members of the panel should be asked to examine or listen to the example and write down what is seen or heard. It is reasonable to include alternave interpretaons, but this should be limited to avoid guessing bias. Witnesses should work alone to avoid expectaon bias. 5 The praconer should compile the responses and compare them to what is thought to be in the example. 6 At this point, the praconer must decide whether or not the example is suitable for public demonstraon. It is possible that the example should be discarded. Certainly, if it is being considered for a client, then the results of the panel may lead the praconer not to display the example to the client. Sound File Considerations The Sharing EVP (162) pracce should be reviewed before any example is sent to the listening panel. It is always a good idea to include a lile natural voice in sound ﬁles, such as the praconer’s voice asking a queson. This provides context to help witnesses orient themselves in the recording. Very long examples are oen diﬃcult to understand,

so it may be necessary to segment the uerance into several ﬁles. One or two syllable uerances are very oen arfacts. Especially in opportunisc EVP, very brief uerances may appear to be phenomenal, but in fact be naturally occurring. It is strongly recommended that the praconer consider context of the uerance and be prepared to discard any example that might possibly be a naturally occurring sound. Certainly, one-word EVP are not acceptable for public demonstraon unless clearly relevant. For instance, a “Bob” uerance is suspect when asking for why a person might be in the house while “Stuck” might be a meaningful response. Be leery of examples which are supposedly an answer to a queson for which any response can be construed as the correct answer. Visual Example Considerations Transform EVP examples ulmately come down to whether or not the uerance is present and states what is reported; however, some forms of visual ITC are plagued with diﬃcules in disnguishing real phenomena from arfacts. Before sharing examples of visual phenomena, it is a good idea for the praconer to become familiar with the kinds of mundane phenomena that might seem paranormal. It is important to explain to the witness how the example was collected and the environment in which it occurred. This requires good record keeping by the praconer. In ﬁeld studies, environmental snapshots are useful for later reconstrucon of the scene. Captive Syndrome Capve syndrome, more correctly known as Stockholm Syndrome, is roughly described as a psychological condion in

which hostages develop a sympathec point of view about their captors. As it applies to witness panels, people, especially family members, tend to want to please praconers. It translates as a willingness to fudge a lile in how they describe examples if they perceive it will make the praconer happy. Consideraon of this tendency to error in favor of the praconer is the reason it is very important that the praconer does not reveal what is thought to be in the example unl aer the witness independently arrives at a conclusion. Above all, the praconer should never argue with a witness as to what is in the example. This may seem obvious, but it is very common for the praconer to become angry when witnesses do not see what is thought to be obvious. Transcommunication Study 11: Transcommunication Research Also see the Psi Research Commentary. Introduction The study of transcommunicaon phenomena is primarily conducted by cizen sciensts. This automacally means that it is mostly self-funded and conducted without support from a community infrastructure. Studies conducted by cizen sciensts oen lack peer reviewed reporng. In fact, there are a lot of good, well, let us call them important studies that I am unaware of and that should be included here. Part of the reason this list of studies is limited is the lack of infrastructure and consequenal lack of collaboraon means I do not have the necessary resources to properly report much of the good work being done in this part

of the community. Parapsychological Research Because I was mostly talking (complaining really) about parapsychologists in the Science Commentary, I followed it with a brief discussion of the important work some parapsychologists have done which indirectly contributes to the study of transcommunicaon. That is in the Psi Research Commentary. Here, I will focus on research and studies speciﬁcally applicable to the study of survival. Authenticity of Channeled Material We know people somemes unconsciously color messages they think are coming from people on the other side. Most of the me, we depend on the reasonableness of the message as a measure of credibility. Some informaon can be veriﬁed, but we also know that informaon from other people in the physical can be unconsciously, psychically accessed. Keeping these factors in mind, it is clear that some people are able to provide a clear channel between a communicang personality and the medium’s outward expression. What we require is a science/study-based reference that supports this belief. Professor Paul Cunningham conducted a study intended to determine whether or not the channeled, Jane Roberts’ Seth material has characteriscs that might indicate a source outside of Roberts’ imaginaon. His study of Roberts’ personal wring and her channeled work, as well as her husband’s wring, strongly suggests that the words aributed to Seth originated from an independent personality. (26) This study is important because, for me, it is the only study I am aware of that provides an objecve reason to think at least some channeled material may be

from a second personality and not just from the author’s imaginaon. 4Cell EVP Demonstration In and around 2005, ATransC members parcipated in a series of experiments intended to assess the informaon gathering capability of Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). The studies are collecvely known as the 4Cell EVP Demonstraon. From the Abstract: Can the etheric communicator communicate with people in diﬀerent parts of the world? Can the communicator in EVP hear a queson from one person, ascertain the correct answer and deliver that answer to someone else in a diﬀerent part of the world? A series of experiments employing a speciﬁc protocol were conducted by diﬀerent four-person teams. Coordinaon with team members who were in diﬀerent parts of the USA was via email and the Idea Exchange discussion board (ATransC.org/forum/). One person thought of a queson and told the Sender the queson but not the answer. The Sender communed in some way with his or her EVP communicators, asking them to tell the Receiver the correct answer. Once noﬁed that a queson had been sent, but not the queson or answer, the Receiver conducted an EVP session to ask for the answer. A fourth person (Scribe) evaluated the resulng recordings for possible EVP and made ﬁrst determinaon of what was said, if anything. The study indicated that it is possible to use EVP to gather informaon, but that there are limits to the kind of informaon that may be accessed. (163) The study produced an average of 61% reasonably correct responses.

An example is “What can we, as receivers on the physical level, do to help facilitate communicaon from you, the transmiers in the spiritual?” Class B+ answer: “Just open up the portal.” In another session, “Who is the arst and what is the name of the painng hanging at the end of the entrance hallway in Vicki and Pete’s home?” Correct Answer: “Marc Chagall” and “The Lovers.” Class B answer: “Who painted it? … Chagall did.” The value of these experiments is ﬁrst, an eﬀecve protocol can be designed to use EVP as a research tool, and second, the demonstraon that there is some kind of interacve intelligence iniang EVP. EVP Online Listening Trials A major queson has been whether or not EVP are objecve in the sense that, without prompng, a listener will hear what the praconer thinks is said in an EVP. A series of three online listening studies were conducted by the ATransC. From the report Abstract: A common explanaon for Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is that the reported uerances are mundane sounds mistaken as voice forming words. This report describes three online listening trials which were conducted to determine whether or not website visitors can correctly idenfy words that are thought to be present in EVP examples by listening to unmarked sound ﬁles. A second consideraon is that it is popular wisdom amongst EVP praconers that one must learn to correctly understand EVP. A variety of approaches were tried to test this theory, including polling experienced

listeners, using quesons in an aempt to assess interest and predisposion to believe in EVP and asking parcipants to indicate experience in hearing examples. Analysis of the trials is included, along with an assessment of the reliability of the results. When the total number of words correctly recognized for the three trials is compared to the possible number, the overall percent of Recognized words (%Rw) is 25.2%, indicang that at least some EVP do constute recognizable words. (21) A similar study conducted by Mark Leary,Ph.D. reported that “on average, only 21% of the invesgators’ interpretaon of parcular words agreed with the consensus interpretaon.” (74) Considering a few less well- organized studies, it appears that 20 to 25% agreement is about what a praconer should expect for listeners. Phantom Voices It is startling how completely we can be fooled by our senses. As we learned more about transcommunicaon, we became increasingly alert to the problem of comprehension error. Somemes, intelligent people with at least normal reasoning ability, and presumably normal hearing, reported hearing uerances in sound ﬁles that others could not. We have begun referring to this phenomenon as Phantom Voices. There is a listener cueing eﬀect in which a person will not be able to make out what is said in an EVP example, but will be able to once they are told what to expect. This eﬀect can defeat the beneﬁts of a witness panel and lead many, otherwise reasonable people to report hearing informaon that simply is not

present. To test this theory, we (ATransC) conducted an online listening test using two sound ﬁles. One contained simple brown noise (broad-spectrum noise with emphasis on voice-frequencies) and the other contained broad- spectrum noise modulated with audio pulses that simulate the cadence of speech. It was clearly stated that neither example contained voice. Possible explanaons about what might cause a person to hear phantom voices were included above the hearing test and what was in the ﬁles was clearly stated. From the Abstract: A frequent source of consternaon for people who are asked to listen to EVP examples is their failure to hear what is reported. It is expected there will be some disagreement between listeners and praconers. That is the nature of EVP (see Online Listening Study). However, a problem develops when listeners report hearing only noise, and doing so with example aer example from the same praconer when the praconer insists there are paranormal voices in the examples. The queson necessarily must turn to why the praconer is hearing what others do not. For this study, sound ﬁles containing only noise were presented to ATransC.org online listeners who were told there was only noise and were then asked to report what they heard. The study conﬁrmed the prevalence of people who report hearing phantom voices. The study includes a discussion as to why this may be. Information Gathering Using EVPmaker with Allophone Using EVP for informaon gathering is something of the ulmate goal for EVP praconers. One of

the most common quesons put to the unseen communicators is whether or not they can help us improve our equipment. (From my experience such help has come but has just been distracng. It appears to be true that transion does not make a person brilliant.) The ATransC conducted a study using a computer program developed by Stefan Bion (22) which insets bits of a supplied sound ﬁle into a buﬀer, and then uses a relavely random process to select buﬀer addresses, which are concatenated into a new output sound ﬁle. EVP are thought to occur from a psi inﬂuence on the random process. Bion also provided an audio ﬁle containing allophones generated with a speech synthesis program. This experiment required that every parcipant use the EVPmaker program and supplied input ﬁle containing allophones. From the Abstract: This twelve-month trial was designed to determine whether or not informaon not known to a parcipant could be requested and received via Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) using EVPmaker with allophones. A target object was le undisturbed in the same locaon at the beginning of each month for twelve months. Parcipants were asked to use only EVPmaker with allophones to produce a sound ﬁle containing the informaon idenfying the target. The project manager did not know the target, so to qualify submissions, she screened them for reasonableness. Those possibly containing usable informaon were submied to a listening panel of people who were familiar with EVP but who did not know the identy of the target.

If a majority of the listening panel heard informaon as reported by the parcipant, the submission was considered a valid submission. Submissions were rejected if a majority did not hear what the parcipant heard. Valid submissions were screened for a posive response by the project manager for inclusion in the study. This trial did not produce posive responses based on the study’s protocol. However, the abundance of non-protocol EVP captured in the study might suggest EVPmaker is not suited for the type of communicaon this study was designed to capture. Also, parcipant knowledge of the target might have to be reexamined as several targets were idenﬁed either before the target was placed or aer when the parcipant knew what the target was. Future studies may wish to look at these non-protocol results when designing a follow up study. Perception of Visual ITC Images This was a study to determine whether or not paranormal images recorded in opcal-frequency noise could be consistently described by website visitors without coaching. The video-feedback technique was used for all of these examples. From the Abstract: In visual Instrumental TransCommunicaon (Visual ITC), recognizable features are found in what should be only random opcal noise. No known physical principles account for the phenomenal features and they may be found in virtually any suﬃciently noisy media. The Examples and Techniques secons of this website include several such techniques for capturing the features. This report includes results of an online viewing study in which website visitors were asked to

describe what they saw in unmarked visual ITC images. Of the seven examples, an average of 61% of respondents correctly idenﬁed the feature. Each example was presented with original, grayscale and increased contrast versions. The increased contrast version was most oen correctly idenﬁed. Victual Percepon Study: Image 1 of the Visual Percepon Study: Le is original, Center is grayscale and right is enhanced. Witnesses reported 81% correct recognion for this example. EVPmaker with Allophones: Where Are We Now? This was a study that was funded by the ATransC to determine if real-me, two-way transcommunicaon could be conducted under controlled condions. The study came out as a failure to replicate-style report published in the Journal of Scienﬁc Exploraon. (88) Because we did not manage the researchers well, the study has become more a lesson in what not to do to manage projects and how not to conduct research. For that reason, I have focused more on the lessons learned than on the organizaon. The full report is accessible via the Journal secon of ATransC.org. (24) Some of the lessons learned are part of the Science Commentary. Abstract Based on a number of recent demonstraons by mulple praconers, ATransC commissioned a study to determine the suitability of that technology for real-me, two-way communicaon. Aer three years, a failure to replicate-style report was published. This arcle is a discussion of procedural concerns with the study and a discussion of lessons learned which may guide future studies. “Singe” Project: Instrumental Analysis of EVP Collected

via a Sound-Psi Interaction The Sﬁnge Project was a study conducted by members of the Italian research group, Il Laboratorio. (164) From its conclusion: From the electroacousc analyses performed on the audio samples recorded under controlled condions, we extracted the acousc parameters disnguishing a vocal signal. These elements allowed us to idenfy the phonemes constung the words we decoded linguiscally. By examining their structures and their anomalies, we were able to assert with documented evidence, that these events exhibit phonec features associated with the voices. These voices have evident and absolutely original features and are structured and characterized by parameters which deviate from the typical human standards. The presence of formanc bands, with localized noise strengthening, confers to the voice an acousc structure close, but not idencal, to the human one. The anomalies found where the voices were recorded allow us to aﬃrm the existence of an atypical process of formaon which is sll today scienﬁcally unknown despite their objecve nature. Abstract The research team of Il Laboratorio from Bologna, Italy conducted a two-year long study of well-known Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) operator, Mrs. Lida Russo of Livorno, Italy. The microphone recording method with a commercial recorder with built-in microphone was used by the operator and professional digital devices were used to monitor the sessions. However, only a few anomalous voices of poor acousc quality were found upon review of Mrs. Russo’s audio tape. Contrary to the expected, the most interesng voices in terms of quanty and quality were recorded

on the digital devices operated by Daniele Gullà. State-of-the art soware commonly used for forensic analysis was used for analyses of the resulng voices. This new approach to EVP research was introduced to the world by the researchers of Il Laboratorio and has revealed many structural electroacouscal features that prove the authencity of these acousc events, which now can legimately be classiﬁed as linguisc events. Relationship Between Physical Phenomena and Electronic Voice Phenomena in Séances with a Physical Circle Rachel Browning conducted a mul-year study of recorded EVP in an experimental physical séance circle. (165) This is the kind of research cizen sciensts are best suited to conduct. She was part of a dedicated circle and had the organizaonal skills to maintain a prolonged study with adequate recordkeeping to develop reasonable conclusions. From the conclusion: The ability to capture a voice on more than one device at the same me may indicate that the EVP is a recorded transmission of a physical sound wave and not a mechanical or electrical fault inherent to a recording device. This does not in itself provide evidence of an incorporeal source but it does suppose a source of physical generaon. It also leads to the unanswerable queson; how would an etherical intelligence commute thought to a sound wave that is able to be recorded at the same pitch and volume as human speech but that is not heard in the environment at the me of recording? It would be logical having only read the

study results to conclude that EVP does not provide evidence of post mortem communicaon. However, had you taken part in a sing, witnessed the recording and were sasﬁed that no decepon took place, then on playback were able to hear an anomalous voice in reply to yours, it would be logical to explore all alternave explanaons, regardless of how unlikely they were. We are fortunate in connuing to experience and report physical phenomena and EVP in our sings; the study and recordings will connue. A Two-Year Investigation of the Allegedly Anomalous Electronic Voices or EVP This study concerned the ability to collect EVP under controlled condions. It is important because it constutes a replicaon of other work under very controlled condions. Anabela Cardoso has published the ITC Journal (166) since March, 2000. This is one of the few remaining publicaons dedicated to the study of ITC. Abstract A relavely novel acousc phenomenon has inundated the Internet and specialized literature. Several Associaons, some of them with an important number of members, have formed around it in many countries. In the Anglo-Saxon world the phenomenon is called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) and is usually assumed as electronically mediated communicaon from or with the deceased. The ﬁrst tests aimed at verifying the reality of these claims were carried out in Sweden and in Germany, in 1964 and 1970, under the direcon of Professor Hans Bender from Freiburg University (Bender, 1970; 1972; 2011). The present report describes in detail the tests designed to record

the allegedly anomalous electronic voices, or EVP, under controlled acousc condions. Series of experiments were carried out in Vigo, Spain throughout a period of two years under condions controlled to the highest degree achievable. Several operators were involved in the many tests conducted in Acousc Laboratories and professional recording studios equipped with very high levels of acousc shielding. The protocols and procedures followed in the experiments, as well as the results obtained, are herewith described. During the many experiments performed, several extra voices were recorded for which no normal explanaon was found. Observations There have been other studies, but these are the more informave ones for this discussion. A few studies have been conducted outside of the ATransC for which we are awaing a report. Too few people are able to devote the me and eﬀort to conduct studies, and a natural result is that there are usually just one or two studies for a parcular queson. This means that anything resembling meta- analysis is in the form of an individual’s eﬀort to make sense of what is known based on just a few empirical data points. That is one of the reasons I place so much emphasis on subject-maer specialists. An important point for future researchers to consider is that one does not usually just decide to set up a development circle to conduct a weeklong study. From personal experience and tesmony from others, it is clear that a circle may not produce meaningful phenomena at all, especially not

in a short study period. With this in mind, the only realisc way to study circle phenomena is to study a willing group of siers who are already reporng phenomena. It must be remembered that praconers and siers are live subjects to whom ethical consideraons must be applied. As it stands now, having seen the shabby treatment some researchers have given their subjects, the atmosphere is poisoned for many praconers when it comes to working with a would-be researcher. This is one of the issues that must be addressed for future research. (167) So few studies and so few people conducng studies also means that what work is done needs to be directed where it will do the most good. That is one of the reasons why I maintain that research grants need to be treated like contracts. The queson of whether or not these phenomena are real has been answered. That is an important message to future researchers. The focus now should be on the nature of these phenomena. The Implicit Cosmology was modeled to provide a working hypothesis which can be tested. As such, we are very interested in supporng research that is focused on that kind of study. A study to Test the Implicit Cosmology The ATransC has had a study in the cue for over a year. Here is the abstract for The Energy Proﬁle of Transform EVP study (133): The propose of the arcle is to issue a call for transform Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)

examples in the form of audio output ﬁles containing EVP and a ﬁle containing the environmental sound and/or sound used as input for voice formaon. Both ﬁles must be so conﬁgured as to allow side-by- side comparison from a sound marker. The examples will be analyzed in an eﬀort to ﬁnd a relaonship between EVP formaon and the energy proﬁle of the sound ﬁle which contains the example. An overview of the various forms of EVP and current theories for transform EVP formaon are provided. A hypothesis is proposed that transform EVP are formed via stochasc ampliﬁcaon and that the source energy in the form of the message (that which is ampliﬁed) is made available by strategically apporng sounds already present in the physical. The study is expected to show a net increase in energy associated with EVP. Thus far, there have been no example entries. This is a tesmony to how few experienced EVP praconers the ATransC is able to access for research. A few years ago, we would likely have had half a dozen people helping. It is not that there are no people able to produce examples. The Associaon no longer has the level of parcipaon it once had. The importance of the study is that a net increase in energy in a sound ﬁle coincident with the supposed uerance would indicate that something has been added. It may indicate support for the apport theory, but certainly would be another indicator of the objecve nature of EVP.

Closing Comments And so, that is the Implicit Cosmology. On the back cover, I wrote, “Having learned, it is our lot to teach. As Hermes taught us, the three phases of a teacher are the lessons, how we live the lessons and the product of that living.” The book is formaed as those three phases, but it is important for you to understand that you are that teacher. Everything wrien here is intended to help you be the best teacher possible. I have tried to convey the understanding that what I have wrien is probably like what will be seen as correct by future generaons, but not necessarily exactly the same. Again, you are the teacher and will probably contribute in some way as our community reﬁnes this cosmology. Acknowledging this urge to teach will help you fulﬁll that role with excellence. Catch Phrases Help Describe Reality A number of interesng phrases came to mind during the over three years required to write this book. Some are silly, all are simplisc, but they serve as a sort of short name for a much more complex thoughorm. Having learned, it is our lot to teach. The three phases of a student: study, comprehend and apply. The three aspects of a teacher: study, comprehend and teach. The Golden Rule Redo: Teach me as I teach you. The Way of Progression: Through community comes knowledge; through teaching comes understanding; it takes a collecve. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. You are

part of a collecve: You are never alone. Worldview represents personal reality: You create worldview with your intenon and creave process. Worldview determines your happiness and unhappiness here and hereaer. The Six Pillars of the Implicit Cosmology Pillar 1, Reality: Reality consists of life ﬁelds and expressions of life ﬁelds. (Reality Discourse) Pillar 2, Person: A person is an immortal etheric personality entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. (Life Fields Discourse) Pillar 3, Purpose: We inherited the urge to gain understanding about the nature of reality from our source personality. (Prime Imperave in the Organizing Principle Discourse) Pillar 4, Mind: Unconscious psi sensing precedes conscious percepon with unconscious worldview as the arbiter and conscious intenon as the movator. (Percepon and Expression Discourse) Pillar 5, Creaon: The creave process is aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. (Percepon and Expression Discourse) Pillar 6, Progression: Integrang acquired understanding of the nature of reality into worldview constutes progression and expands opportunies for greater understanding. (Perceptual Agreement Discourse) Wizard of Oz Syndrome: The misconcepon that people with doctorate degrees are inﬁnitely knowledgeable and wise, that they work to help us beer understand reality. Evidence is not always evidenal: To be evidenal, an example must have a very well-controlled and documented chain of custody, and the protocol by which it was collected must be known, repeatable and observable. And of course, meaning of evidence must be based on understanding. Wizard Complex: People with doctorates believe they are inﬁnitely knowledgeable and

wise. Omniscient Science: Prey much Wizard Syndrome/Complex. Hyperlucidity: Self-delusion. Assumed Knowledge: Oen stems from hyperlucidity, but is usually a product of religious training and/or Wizard Complex. Both laypeople and academics potenally suﬀer from this social malady. Academic-Layperson Paron: Separaon between people without an advanced degree imposed by people with an advanced degree—an aspect of Wizard Complex. Shit Happens: Our life lessons and future experiences are not so much in what we create as they are in how we react to what is created. There are a few more, but you probably get my point. The message I would like you to take away is that you are immortal, your purpose is to understand your world. You are in a community with people involved in some way with things paranormal, that community is dysfunconal and that dysfuncon jeopardizes your progression. Most important, you are able to manage your potenal with the expression of intenon based on understanding. As such, the most important point you must understand to progress is Pillar 5, Creaon: The creave process is aenon on an imagined outcome to produce an intended order. For beer or worse, you are a creator and thereby make your world. Ask Questions! The Implicit Cosmology is complex. It is likely a very diﬀerent way for you to look at yourself and your world. It is important that you understand and have the opportunity to integrate at least parts of it into your life. Having spent so much me developing the Implicit Cosmology

and wring this book, I have no intenon of ignoring your need to ask quesons. Here are a few of the ways available to you to ask quesons and parcipate in discussion: • Ethericstudies.org and ATransC.org websites have a contact tool at the boom of each page. • The Occasional Update Email List is a good way to stay current about what seems important at the me. There is a link to sign up for it on the Contact page of ATransC.org. • The ATransC Idea Exchange at ATransC.org/forum/ is maintained expressly for you to ask quesons and parcipate in discussions about things paranormal. • The Collecve at ATransC.org/bp/Collecve is a wiki intended to support the development of best pracces by members of the community. By becoming an editor, you can help build consensus arcles about paranormal subjects. • Keep an eye on ethericstudies.org, especially the Concepts secon. I will be updang the discourses that support the Implicit Cosmology. It is up to you. Thank you for reading this book! Glossary of Terms AB CDEFGHI J KLM NOPQRST UVWXYZ Please click on a leer to access a term A good cizen of any froner subject is one who is informed about the important concepts involved in that ﬁeld of study. One of the most eﬀecve ways of becoming informed about the study of trans-etheric phenomena is to learn how to speak about them with others. Doing so requires an ordered understanding of the subject which begins with understanding the terminology.

A Academic Paywall: The Academic-layperson paron is ampliﬁed by the professional and university library systems in which paid membership is necessary to access scholarly papers, eﬀecvely assuring that most froner subject cizen sciensts (laypersons) do not have access to the results of applicable research even though it is oen publicly funded. Academic-Layperson Paron: A phrase used here to describe the funconal separaon of academia from laypeople. The eﬀect is that people who have a doctorate degree from an accredited instuon tend to shun people who do not. For ﬁelds of study in which praccal experience, ability and understanding rests with lay people or cizen sciensts, this paron oen produces peer reviewed studies which portray a false image of the subject. See the Science Commentary. Aer-Death Communicaon: Aer-Death Communicaon or ADC is a concept popularized by Bill and Judy Guggenheim in their book, Hello from Heaven. (14) From their website: ADC is deﬁned as “a spiritual experience, which occurs when you are contacted directly and spontaneously by a deceased family member or friend, without the use of psychics, mediums, rituals or devices of any kind.” The important points in this explanaon are that ADCs are spontaneous and instruments are not required. They do include phone calls as a type, but they have been very deﬁnite that EVP is not included in the list. See Induced Aer-Death Communicaon. From the ADC website, here are the twelve most frequent types of ADC people report having with their deceased loved ones: Sensing A Presence;

Hearing A Voice; Feeling A Touch; Smelling A Fragrance; Visual Experiences; Visions; Twilight Experiences; ADC Experiences While Asleep; Out-Of-Body ADCs; Telephone Calls; Physical Phenomena; and Symbolic ADCs Agnosia: Loss of the ability to interpret sensory smuli, such as sounds or images. Agnosia was once considered a rare condion, but since the work with inaenonal blindness, it has become clear that it is much more common than previously thought. Anomalisc Psychology: The study of human behavior and ostensibly paranormal phenomena with the assumpon that no paranormal phenomena are involved. Research in this area is oen reported as an academic study, but fails to even consider a paranormal hypothesis. Essenally, a ﬁeld of study intended to debunk things paranormal. See Anomalisc Psychology in the Science Commentary. Apologists: A person who speaks in defense of someone or something. This is an important form of public educaon if the apologist is knowledgeable about the subject and has the objecve of informing and not indoctrinang. In some cases, such as in the case of skepcs who brand ideas they think mainstream science does not support as pseudoscience, the science apologist is more frequently uninformed and speaking as an ideologue. See Sciensm. Apophenia: The percepon of paerns or connecons where none exist. It may be the underlying natural response that leads a person to hear distant voices or music in noise that can almost be understood, but that on closer examinaon, do not exist and cannot be objecvely recorded. It appears to be natural for our

minds to seek to ﬁnd order in chaoc informaon and that order comes from our worldview; making the unexplained familiar. See Pareidolia and Gestalt. Apparion: The anomalous appearance of a discarnate person; usually a spontaneous visual phenomenon. Apparions seem more likely to manifest in moments of crisis and the message given by them is usually brief as if the contact ﬁeld is unfocused. Apparions may appear quite solid and yet objects may be seen beyond them. They also may be accompanied by bright light. Apport: The apparent physical-to-etheric-to-physical transport of an object under the control of an etheric personality. Usually in the context of a Séance, but may occur any me. The object that is thus transported is referred to as an apport. Objects diﬀer in size, may be organic or inanimate and appear not to be harmed by their movement. In the case of living objects, it is speculated that the obstrucons are dematerialized to allow the life form to pass unharmed. Apport: An apport received by the Felix Experimental Group (compared to a 2.5-inch candle). © FEG In recent theory, it is speculated that other forms of phenomena might be explained as an apport. For instance, credible praconers have reported examples of transform EVP which include sound known to previously exist in other media. Others have reported examples which are expressed by mulple speakers so that the phrase begins with one voice and ends with another. It is common for an uerance to clearly be a response to

a queson but with an unusual choice of phrasing. It might be more eﬃcient to ﬁnd the required words in the physical and apport them to the sound track, rather than introducing the necessary inﬂuence to aﬀect a physical process such as stochasc Ampliﬁcaon. See Stochasc Ampliﬁcaon in the Foundaon Principles Study and Apport in the Transcommunicaon Study. Appropriate Science: The populaon of parcipants in a froner subject and the history of the subject area determine the ability of the community to document the subject. Every discipline of science has undergone an evoluon as it is developed into a system of understanding or an eﬀecve tool for learning. In the beginning phase of the evoluon of the community, people studying the subject are untrained and oen not supported by academic instuons and literature. With this consideraon, the measure of how well the discipline of science is applied to the understanding of a subject must necessarily be judged by its evoluonary progress. A priori: A conclusion made without examinaon or factual study. The viewpoint that something is impossible, therefore it cannot be, is an a priori conclusion if the person has made an assumpon based on faith or popular wisdom and not on evidence or actual study of the subject. The skepc community is especially guilty of following an a priori assumpon about anything they think is not explicitly supported by mainstream science. Aspectaon: The creave process of intenon acng on an imagined result produces aspects of reality which are a

subset of personality’s personal reality. For instance, when a person imagines driving a new car, the car and its environment are formed out of a subset of how the person imagines reality (personal reality). The lile me personality in the car is an aspect of the person as the person imagines him or herself to be. See the Principles of Aspectaon in the Organizing Principles Discourse. Assumed Knowledge: Everyone is an expert! is a common complaint of people who have studied transcommunicaon for many years. As people come into this ﬁeld and learn a lile from fellow enthusiasts, some too quickly decide they are more knowledgeable about things paranormal than others. Even without doing the work of studying exisng material, they assume their experse is greater than anyone who has been in the ﬁeld for many years. Assumed knowledge is also prevalent amongst academically trained researchers. Many holding doctorates tend to automacally disregard anything said by people who do not hold doctorates even though they may have considerably more praccal experience in the subject. In the academic-layperson paron, the person appears to assume that college training, and in most cases for transcommunicaon, a degree in psychology suﬃciently prepares the person to study any subject without input from subject maer specialists. Aenon Matrix: In the Implicit Cosmology the Funconal Areas of a Life Field Diagram illustrates the funconal areas of a life ﬁeld. Aenon funcons as an aractor matrix in which intenon, emoon and curiosity are inﬂuences and represent the etheric

equivalent of physical energy. Visualizaon and expression are fundamental processes which operate with these inﬂuences. Throughout the Implicit Cosmology, funconal areas exist only so long as, and to the extent that aenon is on them. For instance, a visualized aspect of reality is created within the matrix of the personality’s aenon and ceases to exist, other than as memory, when aenon is withdrawn. Aractor: This is a term associated with chaos theory. (72) An aractor is an element of a set that acts as a locus of inﬂuence for the other elements in the set. In eﬀect, they tend to favor the aractor element in some way. An aractor for an etheric ﬁeld is probably best described as purpose. In a life ﬁeld, personality is the aractor. In the reality ﬁeld, Source is the aractor. In a collecve ﬁeld, the local source for that collecve is the aractor. See Field. Aura: An energy ﬁeld or ﬁeld of radiaon thought to surround a physical, living organism. Those who can see an auric ﬁeld (clairvoyance), say it consist of bands of color. The auric ﬁeld may be a combinaon of an electromagnec byproduct of biological processes and the psi inﬂuence associated with the morphic ﬁeld. See Bioﬁeld. Automac Wring: Text produced while in a disassociated state, presumably originang from a discarnate personality. Also known as autoscript, this is probably best thought of as a means of more directly accessing the person’s etheric personality or as a more lucid awareness of the Perceptual

Loop. Similar abilies are automac drawing, painng and psychic art. These are arsc expression without the control of the conscious self. Somemes this is done in complete darkness and at great speed. See Trance. Avatar: In Hinduism, an avatar (from Sanskrit for descent) is a deliberate descent of a deity to Earth. The term can be translated into English as incarnaon. A person is an etheric personality entangled with a human body in an avatar relaonship. There is a discussion of the avatar concept in the Personality-Centric Perspecve Discourse. B Best Pracces: Methods and procedures found to be most eﬀecve. Best pracces are not rules, laws or standards which people are expected to follow. In principle, best pracces are to be used as a guide to help a person be aware of that which is known to work and that which has inherent pialls. Best pracces are an excellent means of maintaining aconable aspects of the public memory. It is reasonable to ask someone if they followed best pracces as a means of gaging their work. See the Witness Panel and Classiﬁcaon Studies. Big Circle: The Big Circle consists of our loved ones in the etheric along with their loved ones in the physical. The realizaon that this group existed in the etheric, and was trying to connect to their loved ones here in the physical world, prompted members of the Associaon TransCommunicaon to form a special group called Big Circle – Bridge to the Aerlife, which is now referred

to simply as the Big Circle. This group is composed of bereaved parents, spouses, siblings and friends whose mission is to build a channel between the physical and etheric aspects of reality—a Bridge to the Aerlife. The people who formed the circle have mostly moved on to other interests, but it is thought to remain a viable way of forming a contact ﬁeld as a cooperave community. The ATransC remains available to assist in this endeavor by way of the Idea Exchange at ATransC.org/forum/. Billet Reading: Billet reading involves reading and commenng on quesons wrien on folded and sealed paper—without breaking the seal. Bioﬁeld: Life-based emanaon somemes referred to as a human energy ﬁeld. From the physical person perspecve (clairvoyance), the bioﬁeld may be a combinaon of bioelectric byproduct and psi ﬁeld inﬂuence perceived as a visible ﬁeld of energy. The net eﬀect is that the bioﬁeld presents useful informaon about the living organism. See Aura. Black Box Analysis: Engineers design models for systems they are trying to understand. One way to develop a model is to ﬁguravely put the subject in a black box with the known input and output clearly deﬁned. Not knowing for sure what is inside the box, engineers must design a set of funconal areas within the box that will produce the observed outputs. This is an eﬀecve technique for organizaons to reverse engineer copyrighted or patented technology in an eﬀort to develop alternave designs. It is important to note that, when black box modeling

is used for a metaphysical cosmology, a plausible explanaon may be developed that does not correctly describe reality. Even so, the resulng model may be useful as a guide for further development. Also see Black Box Analysis in the Theory Introducon Discourse. C Cabinet: An enclosed space in which mediums are thought to condense the psi ﬁeld that is necessary for physical phenomena. A cabinet may be as simple as a curtain hung across the corner of a room. Some mediums sit in the cabinet while others sit outside of it. Many great mediums who produced physical phenomena found a cabinet unnecessary. See Contact Field in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Chakras: Also known as energy centers or spiritual centers. According to Hindu and occult teaching, there are usually seven major centers associated with ductless glands in the physical body. As with the aura, these centers, which are a mixture of colors of varying brightness, are seen clairvoyantly. Some praconers say that they work on the chakras to smulate a healing of the physical body. See Bioﬁeld and Aura. Channel: A person who is able to mentally step aside with deep trance to allow an etheric communicator to speak through his or her physical body. The disncon between a medium and a channel is usually made by who is communicang and for what purpose. Generally, a medium communicates messages from discarnate people. A channel is usually thought to be bringing through more profound informaon from higher beings, usually an enty who

has probably not experienced a physical lifeme, and frequently, a personality represenng a group of personalies. See the Mediumship Study. Cizen Scienst: Ideally, people who study nature are trained to do so by an academically cerﬁed organizaon, but in many cases, the magnitude of a research task may be such that a few academically trained sciensts must depend on volunteer assistants for roune tasks such as data collecon and ﬁeld support. These layperson research supporters are somemes referred to as cizen sciensts. In the early days of radio, many ham radio operators could have been referred to as cizen sciensts. There are relavely few academically trained sciensts acvely conducng research in froner ﬁelds, in which case, most of the organized study is conducted by enthusiasts. Haunngs invesgaon groups are a good example, and of course, the study of ITC has historically been shunned by academics, making it necessary for cizen sciensts to ﬁll the resulng void. See Appropriate Science and the Science Commentary. Clairaudience: This is a French word that means clear hearing. It is the ability to sense presumably psi informaon as sounds rather than impressions or images. To the person who experiences this, it is as if hearing someone speak; however, not with the physical ear because it is not an acouscal phenomenon. See Clairvoyance for more detail. Claircognizance: This is a French word that means clear knowing. It is the ability to sense presumably psi informaon as a knowing, somemes described as a gestalt understanding. See Clairvoyance

for more detail. Clairsenence: This is a French word that means clear sensing. A person senses characteriscs of the etheric communicator or circumstance but does not hear or see the informaon. See Clairvoyance for more detail. Clairvoyance: This is a French word that means clear seeing. It is the ability to sense presumably psi informaon as mental images. The percepon may be of objects, people and/or scenes, and can be from the present, past or future. The clairvoyant experience may be spontaneous or induced as through meditaon, scrying or other methods of divinaon. The term clairvoyance has become a catchall term which includes all forms of sensing informaon in the psi ﬁeld. Since this term is so commonly used in Spiritualism and by the New Age culture, parapsychologists coined Extra Sensory Percepon or ESP, which is apparently being replaced with psi funconing. In mediumship, anomalous informaon recepon is a currently popular term. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Collecve: In the Implicit Cosmology, reality is seen as being hierarchical with Source as the top life ﬁeld and the reality ﬁeld. Aspects of Source inhabing sub-realies as imagined by those aspects. Altogether, the life ﬁelds represent a collecve that might be called the Source Collecve. Each aspect is seen as the source of many sub-aspects so that each aspect would represent a collecve. The Principle of Aspectaon Diagram illustrates the relaonship amongst rounds of aspectaon. See the Organizing Principles Discourse. Coloring: A message purported to come from the etheric that has

been inﬂuenced by the medium’s own thoughts and ideas. Mediums are trained to give what they receive even if they do not understand the message. They are trained to guard against trying to interpret or translate a message to assure that their own thoughts and views are not placed into the message. Nevertheless, it is arguable that all forms of transcommunicaon are colored in some way because they must traverse the medium’s perceptual processes. An excepon to this may be trans-inﬂuences that involve a contact ﬁeld without the need for an entangled avatar. Concept: A fundamental idea; a root thoughorm from which systems of thought can be derived. For instance, the concept of something to protect a foot is the fundamental concept for shoes, sandals and such. In Etheric Studies, the intenon of concept is to refer to the underlying thoughorms from which reality is formed. Conceptual: Reality is experienced in a conceptual form, as opposed to an objecve one. Informaon can only be treated in an etheric form. As the expression of the informaon emerges into consciousness, it is assigned objecvity so that the physical world is conceptual, but experienced based on habit as objecve. See the Percepon and Expression Discourses. Consciousness: The I think I am this aspect of the I am this personality. Conscious self is the experienal aspect of a life ﬁeld. By comparison, the personality, as the core intelligence of a life ﬁeld, is the purposeful aspect. Personality and all of the percepon and expression

processes are mostly unconscious, as compared to the conscious self. Contact Field: The concept is that the rapport amongst mutual cooperang personalies and persons results in an intenonality ﬁeld useful for trans- etheric inﬂuences. See the Contact Field in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Contact Healing: Physical contact is made between the sier and the healer-praconer. Also called laying on of hands or spiritual healing. Absent, distant and non-contact healing is healing done without contact and/or at a distance. As a means of managing expectaons, healing intenon may be a more appropriate term for healing. See the Healing Intenon Study. Control: The etheric personality thought to be controlling the entranced medium and the ﬂow of a séance. Cooperave Community: An eﬀort to express understanding is necessary for progression. Collecves are inherently cooperave communies. A person is aracted to communies of like-minded people cooperang to facilitate progression. This is an Organizing Principle. Corollary: A proposion that follows with lile or no proof required from a previously proven statement. Hermec Qabalah: The hierarchical cosmology as described in the Hermec Qabalah (as if a layer cake) is useful in conversaon as a means of indicang here and relavely not here as one moves into other aspects of reality. Cosmology: In metaphysics, a conceptual model represenng the relaonship of the component parts of reality. In Etheric Studies, the cosmology relang such concepts as personality, the physical verses the greater aspects of reality, transion and transcommunicaon are modeled as the Implicit Cosmology. Not to be mistaken

for an astronomical cosmology addressing only the physical universe. Tradional metaphysical cosmologies portray reality as what might be thought of as a layer cake arrangements of component parts. See the Hermec Qabalah Cosmology Diagram above The Implicit Cosmology is modeled as a distributed array of ﬁelds related to the inﬂuence of a single source. See The Cosmology of Imaginary Space Discourse. Cross-Correspondence: One or more forms of phenomena are experienced as separate events and found to produce informaon that agrees. For instance, a medium might say that the loved one is standing behind a person, and at the same me, a photograph of the person contains a disturbance that seems to be the shape of a person. Cross-Reference: Diﬀerent mediums simultaneously receive the same message with a request to forward the message to the same person. Crystal Gazing or Scrying: A form of divinaon done by gazing at a surface that appears to have great depth such as a crystal ball, pool of water or lted mirror in a featureless enclosure. Aer a me of apparent cloudiness in the depth of the material, pictures and scenes are said to appear. This is the form of divinaon said to have been used at the me of the Greek Oracles and also by Nostradamus. See Divinaon. Cultural Contaminaon: Worldview is populated with cultural inﬂuences. Worldview is also the funconal area of mind represenng memory, beliefs and understanding that produces personal reality for conscious self. If a concept is in the cultural domain,

it should be expected to be an inﬂuence in worldview. For instance, there was lile agreement in the cultural view of what an extraterrestrial looks like unl publicaon of the cover of Whitley Strieber's 1987 book Communion, which portrayed a typical gray extraterrestrial. Today, close encounters with aliens, can be expected to include the now standard alien descripon which agrees with the Communion book cover. That kind of cultural contaminaon must be considered when evaluang the usefulness of any report based on percepon. D Death-Bed Visions: In typical death-bed visions, a person near the moment of transion reports seeing the appearance of deceased loved ones and relaves. The dying brain explanaon does not explain why the person reports seeing only people on the other side and not just anyone from memory. There have been instances in which the person reported seeing a friend who had recently transioned without the person or person’s family knowing of the transion. Dematerializaon: The disappearance of maer or a materialized form. Parts of the medium’s body have been recorded as temporarily disappearing during séances in which physical phenomena has taken place. Development Circle: A group of people working together over an extended period of me to develop their individual mediumisc abilies and/or to establish objecve contact with cooperang personalies. The circle may be formaed as a class which includes meditaon and learning how to work with psi and communicate across the veil. This is an excellent format for developing mediumship and healing intenon, as many

techniques can be used to familiarize the student with psi funconing. In some cases, the circle works in total darkness with the intenon of using ectoplasm or psi for materializaon (ideoplasc structures). A classroom circle may meet for only a few months, but one seeking trans- etheric phenomena in the séance room may sit for many years before establishing contact. This is one reason why there are so few materializaon mediums sll praccing today. Diﬀerenaon: The mechanism by which aspects of reality are formed. See the Principle of Aspectaon in the Organizing Principles Discourse. Direct Drawing, Painng and Wring: This is accomplished without human contact with the materials used. The materials combine directly to produce the arsc result. The process is believed to be under the control of a discarnate personality. It is probable that the eﬀect is accomplished via the person acng as a praconer. See Physical Mediumship in the Trans- Survival Hypothesis Discourse. Direct Voice: A voice heard in the air without any visible source. The voice oen emanates from a trumpet, which serves as a condenser and ampliﬁer for the voice. But with a suﬃciently strong contact ﬁeld, the voice can be heard from any part of the room. The theory of how this is done is that ectoplasm is withdrawn from the medium’s or sier’s body to produce a larynx or ectoplasmic voice box. The voices may be human sounding or the sounds of animals. Direct voice phenomena have been reported outside of the séance room

as well. It is one of the possible explanaons for EVP occurring on more than one recorder even though it was known that no one was speaking at the me. In such a case, the voice should be heard in real me by observers. See Physical Mediumship in the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse. Discarnate: A person who has transioned out of a physical lifeme. A personality that is not associated with a physical body. Divinaon: Discovery of things that are hidden using various pracces such as dowsing, astrology, numerology, palmistry, crystal gazing and various cards used for divinaon such as the Tarot. This is a form of psi funconing as informaon acquision using a device or object for aenon entrainment. Doorkeeper: See Control. Dowsing: Using a rod, twig or pendulum to discover informaon such as locang water for a well or ﬁnding a lost object. Dowsing is oen used as a means to help focus the mind for clairvoyance. E Earthbound Enty: A term oen used to describe enes believed to have remained perceptually close to the physical aspect of reality because of habits, aachments or ignorance of their true state. Earthbound spirits are oen thought to be responsible for haunng acvity. Rescue circles seek to assist such personalies to complete their transion. As directors of the ATransC, we have found no support for this concept and advise that it is inappropriate to think discarnate personalies require rescue. The concept of perceptual agreement appears to assure that a personality will be

aracted to the aspect of reality with which it is in most agreement. A personality might perceptually associate with the physical aspect of reality, but as a purposeful act and not as an involuntarily stuck personality. We wonder how many loved ones come to say hello but have been rejected by a supposed clearing of the house. Ectoplasm: A column of ectoplasm in front of the medium in the Felix Experimental Group circle. (184) © Ectoplasm: Typically, a white substance that is somemes produced by the medium during séances. It is usually produced via the mouth but reportedly might come from any oriﬁce. In red light, we have witnessed the FEG medium produce it in copious amounts, oen pulling the white substance from his mouth with both hands. Skepcs typically claim that ectoplasm is just cloth the medium put in his mouth before the séance. The material does tend to hold shape as cloth does, but it never smells of bile or any other bodily odor. The mes I witnessed the FEG medium’s preparaon for a séance, he drank nearly a liter of orange-colored juice. Doing so guaranteed that any cloth he regurgitated to fake ectoplasm would have come out orange. It did not. Once in good red light, the medium walked about the séance room leng each sier feel a handful of ectoplasm by way of the medium touching the person’s head with it. It was very wet, and water could be seen dripping from it, even though other

mes it only had a slight white, self-luminous quality and le no water mark where it was on the unpainted plywood ﬂoor. The ectoplasm is produced as a tool. It can become semi-rigid and move on its own so as to li a spirit light or trumpet to swing about the room. That is usually in darkness, but we have seen a hand rise from a pile of the substance as if it was a white glove with no hand in it. We could see it wave about as if greeng the siers; this, without the aenon or aendant movement of the medium. Inspecon of the cabinet before and aer each séance revealed no mechanism to make the ectoplasm move. Certainly, he carried nothing with him. Ectoplasm is able to assume the shape of a person, even to the extent of ﬂesh tones. We have seen cameo-like faces embedded in it, and somemes those have been recognized as loved ones. I have seen the face of Hans Bender, the medium’s etheric control. Electronic Voice Phenomena or EVP: EVP are anomalous, intelligible speech produced in electronic devices. They may be heard as a real-me output from the recording device but are more generally heard on review of a subsequent recording. The voices are not acouscal so that they cannot be heard in the air. No currently understood physical processes account for the existence of EVP. They are considered a subset of Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC). Also see the Best Pracces: Classiﬁcaon Study.

Energy Healing: See Healing Intenon. Entanglement: The concept of entanglement is used to indicate the binding rapport between aspects of reality which are linked by aenon. The aenon of the Core Intelligence of a life ﬁeld on the life ﬁeld’s component parts established a link of integrang inﬂuence or entanglement. In the same way, the aenon of an etheric personality on its avatar (physical body) during a lifeme creates a link of entanglement. An important example of entanglement is the link of inﬂuence binding aspect of a shared personalies into a collecve as a cooperave community. The nature of this connecon is not clear but the most obvious indicaon of its nature is the diﬃculty a person has in disassociang from the body. Entanglement is binding, because once established, the resulng rapport is a living link of aenon that is maintained by personality’s intenon to gain understanding. Entanglement is thought to be a common characterisc of nested formave ﬁelds. In this concept, the top organizing ﬁeld of an organism is entangled with the related subﬁelds composing the organism. Etheric: Etheric is an old term referring to heaven. From the body-centric perspecve, the etheric is that aspect of the reality ﬁeld that is not physical. From the personality-centric perspecve, the physical is an aspect of the etheric. The term has been tradionally used to describe the subtle, underlying media supporng reality. As a generic term for the conceptual space of reality, the Etheric concept will probably be subdivided as more is

understood about the greater reality. For instance, today, the parapsychologist’s psi ﬁeld is considered in the implicit Cosmology a subset of the etheric. See the Etheric Fields and Reality Discourses. Etheric Communicator: All trans-etheric inﬂuences are thought to be under the intelligent and mindful direcon of a personality. In the Trans- Survival Hypothesis, personality is nave to the etheric, and is seen as a communicator. The personality iniang the inﬂuence may be that of a physical person or that of a discarnate person. Etheric Field: Conceptually, a ﬁeld represents a set of elements with common characteriscs and bound together by a common inﬂuence. Etheric ﬁelds are regions of reality that can be modeled as a node or nexus (aractor) associated with a set of related elements. It is useful to model reality as a single etheric ﬁeld (reality ﬁeld) expressed by a ﬁrst cause or Source. In this view, the reality ﬁeld is the top etheric ﬁeld, from which all other ﬁelds have been derived via aspectaon. In this way, the reality ﬁeld has been diﬀerenated as a hierarchy of nested etheric ﬁelds. See the Etheric Fields Discourse for more on etheric ﬁelds. Etheric Studies: The study of all things etheric. This is not an individual science, such as biology or physics. It is a ﬁeld of study concerned with the nature of the etheric aspects of reality. By comparison, physics and biology are sciences concerned with the physical aspect of reality and would be part of Physical Studies. The

ﬁeld of Etheric Studies is intended to complement physical science, as it is thought that discoveries in Etheric Studies will oen extend the deﬁnion of physical principles while occasionally requiring the deﬁnion of new principles. Cauon here, this is a term I have adopted. It is not widely accepted. See the Etheric Studies Commentary. Experiencer: A person who witnesses or experiences phenomena. F Field: A set of elements with related characteriscs which are bound into a system by a common inﬂuence (the aractor). In metaphysics, a ﬁeld is bound by the extent of inﬂuence the aractor is able to exert. Also in metaphysics, a ﬁeld is not located by coordinates. Instead, they are located by associaon with other ﬁelds. See the Etheric Fields Discourse. First Sight Theory: First Sight theory is a term used by James Carpenter. (13) Fractals: See Life Field. Froner Subject: Any ﬁeld of study that has not been embraced by mainstream society, especially mainstream science. A froner subject may appear to be pure fantasy or it may have some supporng evidence. A froner subject is one that has not beneﬁted from having a well-trained and well-funded community vet the subject for reasonableness and supporng evidence. It is assumed that froner subjects will eventually merge with mainstream understanding or be shown as unsupported belief. A similar concept is emergent science. G Gestalt: A system or set of elements that can be experienced as a whole; something that is understood as a whole, such as a gestalt realizaon

resulng in sudden overall comprehension. The idea is that informaon in the etheric is managed as concepts which are apparently conveyed by gestalt bundles of related concepts. Our minds, which are oriented toward a building-block perspecve of reality, then converts this thought ball into understanding based on our worldview. See Thoughorm in the Etheric Fields Discourse. An interesng explanaon for how praconers and listeners might ﬁnd EVP where there are none is seen in the Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organizaon, which includes (168): The Law of Proximity: Smulus elements that are closed together tend to be perceived as a group. The Law of Similarity: Similar smuli tend to be grouped, this tendency can even dominate grouping due to proximity. The Law of Closure: Smuli tend to be grouped into complete ﬁgures. The Law of Good Connuaon: Smuli tend to be grouped as to minimize change or disconnuity. The Law of Symmetry: Regions bound by symmetrical boarders tend to be perceived as coherent ﬁgures. The Law Simplicity: Ambiguous smuli tend to be resolved in favor of the simplest. Ghost: Any visitaon from a discarnate personality. The presence of the personality might be sensed as a feeling or as the result of some psychokinec inﬂuence such as lights turning on and oﬀ. In extreme cases, the personality manifests as an apparion which may be seen by more than one person and even photographed. It is the apparion one usually thinks of as a ghost. In ghost hunng lore, a personality is said

to be earthbound or stuck because it has unﬁnished business, does not know it is dead or has some emoonal e to a place or person. Ghost recue is a common pracce in which a person aempts to convince the personality to move on. There is speculaon that some apparions are really just the residual body consciousness or body image behaving as a recorder ghost by repeang more or less the same habitual acons. See the Life Fields Discourse. Glossolalia: Speaking in a language unknown to the medium or person doing the speaking. God: God, Source, First Cause, Inﬁnite Intelligence and Prime Creator are terms referring to an intelligence which is considered the source of all of reality. God is a term most commonly thought of in the religious sense as a divine being. In the Implicit Cosmology, Source is used in lieu of God to avoid religious implicaons. See the Source Discourse. Guide: A connual, benevolent, protecve inﬂuence thought of as an advanced enty that voluntarily returns to the physical locale with a purpose in mind. Some guides say that they are only the mediums for even higher or more advanced enes. They may also be loved ones who remain perceptually close to help loved ones sll in the physical. H Haunng: Paranormal disturbances usually aributed to the personality of a discarnate person. Various phenomena are reported as haunng events including moving objects, strange noises, lights, cold spots, unpleasant smells and the appearance of ghostly ﬁgures. See Trans-Etheric Inﬂuence.

Haunngs Invesgaon: An organized study of a reportedly haunted locaon following a protocol to use instruments and sensives to sense the local psi ﬁeld. Tests may include measurements of temperature, magnesm, broadcast electromagnec radiaon, light and sound. Oen a mental medium or psychic will parcipate. Gathered data is compared with historical records and a report is made intended to show whether or not trans-etheric inﬂuences have been detected, and if so, how they relate to the known history of the locaon. This is known as ghost hunng when such invesgaons are more in the form of a club oung with no intenon of publishing a paper. Healing Intenon: When a person thinks of another person, a link of inﬂuence is established between the two. In the context of the Implicit Cosmology, this is referred to as rapport. The nature of this rapport (the link) is determined by the person’s aenon, visualizaon and intenon. When intenon is focused on the wellbeing of the other person, the resulng expression of intended order is seen as a healing inﬂuence. The various healing modalies are modeled as healing intenon, but with unique points of view as to how healing is expected to occur. Some modalies are more about seng expectaons and condioning the sier’s worldview to accept healing. Others depend on a condioned expectaon that there will be some tacle/sensed eﬀect such as a diﬀerence in heat, sﬀness or vitality near the surface of the body, depending on the system. Healing intenon is thought

to apply more to the avatar body mind (body image) but certainly has the potenal of inﬂuencing the etheric personality. See the Healing Intenon Study. Home Circle: A group of friends who meet on a regular basis, usually in a person’s home, to develop their mediumisc abilies. Some circles sit for speciﬁc purposes such as absent healing, meditaon, psychic development, mediumship and physical phenomena. See Séance. Hyperlucidity: A short-term change in behavior marked by the tendency to ﬁnd phenomena everywhere despite considerable tesmony to the contrary by peers. The concept comes from occasional reports of odd behavior exhibited by some people when they visit an emoonally charged place. This condion is known by such names as Paris syndrome and Jerusalem syndrome (65). In regard to paranormal phenomena, the eﬀect is the experiencer’s mistaken belief in experiencing paranormal phenomena such as reporng voices in recordings when there are none, seeing features in otherwise featureless visual media and misaribung thoughts as transcommunicaon. See Lucidity and hyperlucidity in the Mindfulness Discourse. Hypothesis: A hypothesis is a statement that is assumed to be true for the sake of discussion. Validity of a hypothesis is dependent on veriﬁcaon of predicons derived from the hypothecal statement. A hypothesis is typically based on one or more assumpons that imply a number of supporng concepts. The Trans-Survival Hypothesis is designed to unify current understanding of personality, survival of personality aer transion and the nature of reality in which personality connues aer transion. It is not proposed as a

truth, but is a speculaon presented as a uniﬁed view of current understanding (speciﬁcally Tom Butler’s understanding). Testable predicons should be able to be derived from the hypothecal statement which, if shown to be true, should be used to evolve the hypothecal statement toward a reasonably well tested representaon of reality. I Ideoplasc Structure: The Ideo- preﬁx means idea or image. Ideoplasc is used here to mean the nature of objects formed in the creave process as mind-to-object expression. Ideoplasy means the process of formaon. The term was coined by Max Vorworm, but is used here in the sense intended by the German parapsychology icon Dr. Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing as “Everything that can be remembered, also things the person has read or observed or is interested in, all these memories can ﬁnd a materializing reﬂecon in the inﬂuence ﬁeld” [of the séance room]. (169) See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Imagined Reality: A special case of personal reality is involved in the creave process. The perceptual process involves comparing environmental informaon with worldview. As it is modeled here, part of the comparison process involves forming an imagined version of how the informaon may be understood and then comparing that with worldview. If it agrees, then the imagined version becomes the expression of the understanding to conscious self or as a psychokinec inﬂuence to the environment. The person’s personal reality (worldview) is changed to accommodate the expression. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Inaenonal Blindness: The failure to noce a fully

visible, but unexpected object because aenon was engaged on another task, event or object. (170) Incredulity Blindness: A category of agnosia, in which an audio or visual example of a phenomenon is not experienced because it is foreign to a person’s worldview. There are at least two forms of the experimenter eﬀect. One is the diﬀerence in experimental results collected by believers and skepcs. The second is due to the diﬀerence in reported results between a believer and a skepc. Induced Aer-Death Communicaon: The Guggenheims maintain Aer- Death Communicaons (ADC) are spontaneous, which is why Allan Botkin (171) refers to his EMDR (172) induced ADCs as induced or IADCTM. Eye Movement Desensizaon and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapeuc technique in which the praconer guides a client to move his or her eyes back and forth while dwelling on an emoonal memory. This is over simpliﬁcaon. In pracce, the technique helps remove the emoonal charge of a memory. Based on his work with war veterans, Botkin developed a technique in which clients have impressively vivid communicaon with transioned loved ones, thus the Induced part of ADC. Inﬁnite Intelligence: In Spiritualism, Source, Prime Creator, First Cause, God, whatever you think of when you think of the inﬂuence that started reality in the ﬁrst place, is known as Inﬁnite Intelligence. Yes, it is correct to say that Inﬁnite Intelligence is God. Spiritualists do believe in God. But there are a few important diﬀerences in the way Spiritualists understand God. Most importantly, Inﬁnite Intelligence

is not a father ﬁgure that oﬀers rewards and punishment to his children. See the Source Discourse. Informed: Informed is used here to mean based on or inﬂuenced by. Percepon is informed by worldview. Informed visualizaon is visualizaon based on what is known about the objecve. In fact, all visualizaon is informed by the past and current understanding by way of worldview. See the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Instrumental TransCommunicaon (ITC): Communicaon across the veil with the aid of technology. Trans-etheric inﬂuence is a more global term meaning communicaon between the physical and the greater reality with or without devices. ITC occurs via technology as images, voices and text messages iniated by communicang etheric personalies. To be ITC, phenomena needs to be objecvely experienced, meaning that they are suﬃciently substanal to be recorded in physical media that can be witnessed by others. And, technology of some form is employed to enable the phenomena. Paranormal experiences that are witnessed by one or more people as mental percepon, such as a shared deathbed vision, are not considered ITC because they cannot be recorded. While probably real, in a pragmac sense, they are not considered objecve. Poltergeist and other psychokinec acvity, direct voice and materializaons that are able to be recorded sasfy the ITC requirement, but unless they involve technology to manifest, they would not be considered ITC. See the Audio ITC and Video ITC Studies. Intended Order: This is one of the foundaon concepts of the Implicit

Cosmology. A common factor in ITC is the transformaon of broad- spectrum, chaoc energy into intelligently intended features such as the voice in EVP and faces in visual ITC. Current research is showing that output of random event generators increase in order when in the presence of strongly expressed intenon. There is evidence in precipitaon phenomena, such as spirit art, that the precipitaon material undergoes a transformaon from chaoc energy to intended order as raw material is brought via the etheric (apported) and organized as informed by the imagined outcome. This research suggests that the basic element of the creave process is the emergence of intended order. See Intended Order in the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Intenon Field: Expression of intenon accumulates as an intenon ﬁeld which represents all of the imagery, thoughts, understanding and beliefs associated with the expression. Intenon ﬁelds persist as long as the personality maintains aenon on the intended outcome. This is a form of etheric ﬁeld. See Intenon Field in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Interested Observer: A person is considered an interested observer or witness if the person is present for an experimental session, knows about it or in some way has aenon on the session. In the study of trans-etheric inﬂuences, it is not necessary for the person to be physically involved to have an inﬂuence on the process. At this me, there is no way to shield from aenon, even if it is only subconscious. (Empty) J K Karma: A principle in Theosophy,

Buddhism and Hinduism maintaining that we are the cause of our present condions. These condions are said to be governed by the Law of Acon which holds that for every acon there is a reacon with our deeds, acts and atudes creang our future and making us ulmately responsible for ourselves. From the perspecve of the Implicit Cosmology, karma is probably more correctly thought of as understanding of the operaon of reality, with bad karma being imperfect understanding. Knowing: The current best pracce for measuring accuracy of understanding is an iterave test. That is, if something is presumably understood, but that understanding changes with the next relevant experience, then it must be only belief. If, however, understanding stands up to repeated tests, then a degree of conﬁdence about its correctness can be assumed. Here, that is referred to as knowing. Knowing must always be tempered with the certainty that the nature of reality is evolving and what is known today may be diﬀerent tomorrow. Thus is the nature of living systems. L Levitaon: The movement of a person or object, usually up or down. Not always paranormal, but as paranormal phenomena, levitaon is presumably caused by the expression of intenon as psychokinesis (or the older term, telekinesis). Levitaon is a commonly observed phenomenon in physical mediumship, especially during séances. See Psychokinesis. Life: In the Implicit Cosmology, reality is modeled as life ﬁelds and expressions of life ﬁelds. Life is modeled with the characteriscs shown in the Funconal Areas of a

Life Field Diagram. See the Life Field Discourse. Life Field: In the Implicit Cosmology, life is considered the fundamental component of reality. If modeled as a fractal, then Source is the top fractal. Fractals occur as a top fractal, subsequent to which is a hierarchy of fractals of diminishing scale. A fractal is structure, shape or form that is expressed in a similar way at all scales. The Sierpinski Triangle for instance, below, is formed by connecng the midpoints of each side of a triangle to form three triangles inside the ﬁrst, and repeang that as scale allows. The triangle is a fractal which is repeated at many diﬀerent scales. The veining of a river drainage system or branching of plants can also be seen as fractal paerns. See the Life Fields Discourse. Fractal: The Sierpinski Triangle is formed as nested equilateral triangles. The triangle is a fractal. Lucidity: The concept of consciousness has lile meaning if talking about the person as an etheric personality. A more appropriate term is lucidity in the sense of a clear and open channel of awareness between the I think I am this (conscious self) and the true I am this intelligent core (personality). It is becoming increasingly evident that a clear channel of communicaon between physical consciousness and the etheric personality is a factor for management of psi informaon. For instance, if people are informed about their environment on an unconscious level by way of psi sensing, then lucidity would be a measure

of how aware the person is of that connecon. More about lucidity in the Mindfulness Discourse. Luminous Phenomena: These frequently occur in associaon with physical mediumship; however, luminous discharges have been reported during healing intenon sessions, as well. A technique for detecng the inﬂuence of intenonality at a distance is to monitor luminosity of cucumbers. (173) M Materializaon: In metaphysics, materializaon is generally the appearance of any formaon of physical material, apparently out of thin air. It is considered one of the phenomena of physical mediumship, and the objects are tradionally thought to originate ﬁrst as ectoplasm which then takes the shape of the materialized object. Such objects usually retain their physical shape for a short period of me, depending on intenon. There might be many diﬀerent objects or discarnate people materialized during a physical séance but aerwards, there will be no remaining evidence that they were present. Materializaon might be in the form of precipitaon, in which physical material acts as the raw stuﬀ acted on by intenon to produce an image or object. In this case, the object may be relavely permanent. Lore has it that such precipitated forms somemes require a period of me; say twenty-four hours, to stabilize before becoming permanent. An object might be apported to the present locaon, in which case, it would presumably have existed elsewhere in the physical, but then dematerialized, moved in some way in the etheric and then materialized in the present locaon. An apported object is thought to be

a permanent form. In the Implicit Cosmology, ectoplasm is considered just another form of materializaon. The mechanism for this expression is the Aenon Complex producing intended order. In this cosmology, all objects of reality are modeled as ideoplasc structures. Matrixing: This is a term that has apparently been coined by one of the ghost hunng TV programs. It is used instead of the more commonly accepted term, pareidolia, to indicate that a person is mistaking an ordinary object or smulus as paranormal because the person is not seeing it as it really is. In the interest of maintaining communicaon with people outside of the haunngs invesgaon community, pareidolia is the recommended term. See Pareidolia. Maer-Through-Maer: In the work of the Society for Research in Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT) (174), this phenomenon has been produced on many occasions with a variety of items being removed or introduced into sealed jars and locked containers. In physical séances, clothing that has been stched on has been removed from mediums. Rings of wood, leather, iron and other maer have been linked together. Items have been reported passing through tables and in and out of closed séance rooms. See Apports in the Nature of Transcommunicaon Study. SORRAT: Film canister passing through the glass wall of an aquarium used as a mini-lab used by the Society for Research in Rapport and Telekinesis. (149) Medium: A person who is able to sense etheric personalies and convey informaon from them to people in the physical. The task of

a medium is to be as clear and open a channel as possible to avoid coloring the message. This is usually accomplished by the medium entering into trance. Inspiraonal speaking, for instance, is usually accomplished while the person is in a light trance. Mediums giving spirit greengs in a Spiritualist meeng and mental mediums giving full readings also typically work in a light trance. A physical medium producing materializaon phenomena is thought to be in a more or less complete or deep trance in which the medium’s personality has stepped aside so that the personality of the communicang personality may directly communicate using the medium’s physical body. See the Mediumship Study. Mediumship: Funconing as a medium. See the Mediumship Study. Metaphysics: In philosophy, the examinaon of the nature of reality, including the relaonship between personality and the greater reality. Models used to describe a set of metaphysical concepts are referred to as a cosmology. In Etheric Studies, metaphysics is the study of an ordered set of concepts which are described in a cosmology. Mind: The Implicit Cosmology is a model that has been developed around funconal areas of a person as a nonphysical personality entangled with a human in an avatar relaonship. In this context, mind is the collecon of funconal areas described in the Life Field Complex Diagram. The term, consciousness is used as a connuum from fully consciousness awareness to unconscious so that conscious self represents the physical point of view of a personality that is entangled with

a human in an avatar relaonship (body-centric). The mental processes associated with percepon and expression are modeled in the Percepon and Expression Diagram. In that, the rules of percepon are thought to agree with the proposed corollaries in First Sight Theory. (13) A person in a light trance might be fully aware but a person in a deep trance would be unconscious. Trance-like states presumably allow the person greater awareness along the connuum between conscious and unconscious. A sleeping person is considered unconscious; however, if the person has achieved some degree of lucidity, he or she may have greater access to normally unconscious processes. Mind Tensor: In the context of etheric space, the term can be used to signify how a life-ﬁeld navigates amongst etheric ﬁelds. The Perceptual Loop is thought to be incapable of processing informaon that is very diﬀerent from that which is in worldview. This is the foundaon of the Principle of Perceptual Agreement. According to the Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Diconary. (2010), a tensor is a mathemacal enty with components that change in a parcular way in a transformaon from one coordinate system to another. Tensors are becoming an important tool in the study of large- scale quantum ﬁelds. The term is not used in this book because it overly complicates the descripon of this model. Modes of Transcommunicaon: There are two fundamental forms of transcommunicaon. A person can iniate communicaon across the veil via an expression of intenon or instrumentally as in EVP. This

form of transcommunicaon is considered induced. When communicaon is induced via the expression of intenon and without the use of devices, it is considered direct. When instruments are used such as for EVP, the communicaon is considered to be instrumental. For most people, communicaon across the veil is spontaneous, in that the etheric communicator might approach the person or there might be contact with a thoughorm as a result of an environmental inﬂuence that smulates the creave process. Spontaneous transcommunicaon can be either direct as in mental impressions or instrumental as in unexpected voices in recording media. Morphic Field: According to Rupert Sheldrake (9), this is “a ﬁeld within and around a morphic unit which organizes its characterisc structure and paern of acvity. Morphic ﬁelds underlie the form and behavior of holons or morphic units at all levels of complexity. The term morphic ﬁeld includes morphogenec, behavioral, social, cultural, and mental ﬁelds. Morphic ﬁelds are shaped and stabilized by morphic resonance from previous similar morphic units, which were under the inﬂuence of ﬁelds of the same kind. They consequently contain a kind of cumulave memory and tend to become increasingly habitual.” See the Etheric Fields Discourse. Morphic Resonance: According to Rupert Sheldrake (9), this refers to “the inﬂuence of previous structures of acvity on subsequent similar structures of acvity organized by morphic ﬁelds. Through morphic resonance, formave causal inﬂuences pass through or across both space and me, and these inﬂuences are assumed not to fall oﬀ with distance in space

or me, but they come only from the past. The greater the degree of similarity, the greater is the inﬂuence of morphic resonance. In general, morphic units closely resemble themselves in the past and are subject to self-resonance from their own past states.” See the Etheric Fields Discourse. Morphogenec Field: See Morphic Fields, above. N Natural Law: Natural Law is deﬁned as an “ascertained working sequence or constant order among the phenomena of nature” (NSAC Spiritualism (2)) In concept, Natural Laws include all of the principles governing the operaon of reality. They are thought to be the same everywhere. Understanding the principles of Natural Law permits the person to live in accordance with the operaon of reality, which is thought to be the objecve of living. The degree to which a person understands and is able to live in accordance with the principles is a measure of the person’s progression which is the degree to which a person understands the true nature of reality. There is lile agreement about the principles of Natural Law. For instance, from a metaphysical view, Organizing Principles are described in fundamental concepts such as aspectaon and perceptual agreement. In sociological views, the Golden Rule Do unto others as you would have them do unto you and like aracts like are usually included in lists of Natural Law. There is also considerable confusion about the scale or context to which principles apply. So to be speciﬁc, in Etheric Studies, Organizing Principles are described in terms of

fundamental concepts within the context of Reality, Formaon and Personality. Some principles such as the Principles of Aspectaon, Life Field and Perceptual Agreement appear to be universal. However, it is important to note that the Implicit Cosmology assumes Source is learning about itself via aspect personalies. As such, Source’s nature is expected to evolve as understanding is gained, meaning that the Organizing Principles also evolve. This is also a fundamental concept of the Hypothesis of Formave Causaon. (9) New Ager: The idea of a new age begins with the idea that, in terms of astrology, we are entering into the utopian Age of Aquarius. There is no single organizaon that can be idenﬁed as The New Age Movement. It has become a worldwide community idenﬁed by a common point of view. New Agers are typically interested in developing personal potenal, understanding nature and living as a good cizen of the universe. Beliefs include a universal god of which everyone and everything is part, personal responsibility, respect for the life in all things and the connectedness of all things. Being seen as a New Ager is perhaps a badge of honor because it signiﬁes a personal desire to be the best cizen possible in Mother Nature’s creaon. A person who is seen as a New Ager is not necessarily a person who believes in transcommunicaon, survival of personality or a greater reality. Nonlocal: Ubiquitous or everywhere at once. It may be correct to say that everywhere is here. This is a

physical space perspecve. In the etheric, movement is accomplished by changing one’s mind. See NonLocal and Nontemporal in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Nonphysical: See Etheric. Nontemporal: The concept that all me is now in etheric space. There is some indicaon that presenment, the physiological reacon to an event before it actually occurs, is best explained with First Sight Theory. Presenment is a short-term phenomenon while most reports of precognion indicate a long-term eﬀect. In that, the concept of emerging thoughorms represenng potenal futures might beer explain the eﬀect. A second factor is the concept of potenal. Rather than precognion as sensing the future, there is beer support for the idea of sensing the potenal of a parcular future. As such, a nontemporal characterisc of etheric space is probably incorrect. See the NonLocal and Nontemporal in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Normalize: Normalizaon is the process of reducing two or more diﬀerent sets of informaon to a common denominator that can be considered the root for both sets. For instance, conversaon about car races and a diﬀerent conversaon about a Sunday drive. The common denominator is car. We automacally ﬁnd car in our memory and use it as a reference to make sense of the conversaons. O Object of Reality: In the Implicit Cosmology, reality exists in two forms: life ﬁelds which are morphic ﬁelds for physical organisms, and expressions of life which are ideoplasc structures. Expressions are described in terms of thoughorms that have been given substance in the creave process,

where substance only has meaning in the venue in which it is imagined. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Objecve Phenomena: Phenomena that have external reality and that can be perceived and observed by others. Objecve phenomena are considered the physical manifestaon of a subjecve inﬂuence. Ouija Board: A board with leers of the alphabet used as an aid for transcommunicaon. A pointer aached to a small, easily moved plaorm is placed on the board. One or more people acng as siers in the circle lightly place their ﬁngers on the plaorm. The plaorm is expected to move, presumably under the control of discarnate enes, to spell out messages one leer at a me. See Planchee. Outlier: In stascs, an outlier is a data point that falls very far outside of the norm. The logic is that an outlier may be due to faulty measurement or some otherwise unidenﬁed experimental error. Alternavely, one extreme measurement might give a false impression of what is average. As a general rule, outliers are discarded to avoid inappropriately biasing a dataset. It is noteworthy that Class A EVP are, by deﬁnion, outliers. P Paranormal: Subjects that are concerned with mind-body duality (nonphysical personality), the psi ﬁeld, connuaon of consciousness beyond bodily death (survival), the natural environment of mind in which personality survives (the etheric) and communicaon across the mind- body interface (transcommunicaon) are considered paranormal. Such subjects as reincarnaon, out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences are not addressed in this book. They are indirectly related

to trans-etheric inﬂuences, but probably because of their subjecve nature, they have lile bearing on the study of things paranormal. The same is true of the many people who experience spontaneous Aer-Death Communicaon if the experience is not objecvely shared by others. Phenomena thought to be physical but not ordinary, such as UFOs, cryptozoological creatures and parallel realies would likely be considered paranormal, but they are not usually included in Etheric Studies, unless a psi ﬁeld explanaon is involved. Paranormalist: This term has become useful for idenfying people who are more than a lile interested in paranormal phenomena, or who are studying or praccing some technique related to the paranormal. Examples of paranormalist interests include the study of psi phenomena (telepathy, remote viewing, telekinesis), healing intenon (bioﬁeld healing, distant healing, healing prayer), haunngs invesgaon, transcommunicaon (mediumship, ITC, channeling) and survival (the etheric, personality, cosmology). Paranormalist Community: The paranormalist community consists of anyone in some way interested in paranormal phenomena. The community is not homogenous, in that it is composed of a number of sub-communies of interest related only by shared interest in the phenomena. See the Community Commentary. Parapsychologist: Speciﬁcally, a person who is academically trained in the subject of parapsychology. Anyone with an advanced degree can be accepted into the parapsychological organizaons as a full member. However, there is a problem with this, in that too many people claiming to be parapsychologists do not have the necessary training. It is common for academically trained people to cross over from

a diﬀerent specialty, usually psychology, to conduct parapsychological studies. These crossover sciensts should be considered cizen sciensts, depending on the extent to which they inform themselves in the subject. See the Science Commentary. Parapsychology: A froner subject; a ﬁeld of study about the evidence for psi phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance and psychokinesis, which are not explained by mainstream science. These phenomena are forms of human potenal described as psi funconing. In the Implicit Cosmology, the study of trans-etheric phenomena is referred to as Etheric Studies, while it can be said that parapsychology is Psi Studies. See the Etheric Studies Commentary. Pareidolia: A form of apophenia (seeing paerns where there are none) in which the person ﬁnds meaning in images and sounds when there in none. Pareidolia and apophenia are terms used to describe a very real human tendency to mistake the mundane as paranormal. An example might be the deer hunter who mistakes tree limbs for antlers (buck fever) or seeing faces in clouds (Rorschach test). See Gestalt. Peer: Froner subjects seldom have a large community of subject maer specialists who are academically trained. In many cases, it is praconers who have come to the subject from another ﬁeld who may be the only qualiﬁed people. Yet mainstream culture demands that an academically trained person, even if the qualiﬁcaons are in an unrelated ﬁeld, should be given authority over the possibly more qualiﬁed praconers who may not hold a degree. Of course, this is an untenable approach to understanding

the ﬁeld of study, so in order to disnguish between diﬀerent kinds of experience and experse in Etheric Studies, a peer is idenﬁed as either an academic peer (trained in an accredited educaonal instuon) or a praccal peer (may be academically trained outside of the ﬁeld, but in any case is self-trained in the ﬁeld). Peer Review: The examinaon of a research report by others who are trained in the same ﬁeld. There are no, or very few people working in Etheric Studies who are academically trained in a related subject. Consequently, review of arcles for reasonableness of hypothesis, protocol and conclusions is necessarily accomplished with probably not academically trained subject maer specialists (praccal peers). Because of this necessary departure from academic standards, the process of judging arcles is beer described as veng rather than peer review. See Veed. Percepon: In the Implicit Cosmology, percepon is the result of the decision made in the Perceptual Loop as illustrated in the Percepon and Expression Diagram. If the Agree? decision produces a Yes, the person will experience (perceive) the smulus, probably more or less as it is. If the decision is Maybe, the person more likely experiences a version of what is intended based on worldview. A No decision will likely stop conscious percepon of the informaon. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Perceptual Agreement: This is an oen-used term in the Implicit Cosmology. The Principle of Perceptual Agreement holds that Personality must be in perceptual agreement with the aspect of reality

with which it will associate. The objecve of progression toward greater understanding is to bring worldview (personal reality) into agreement with nature as it is and not as the person is taught. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Personality: Personality is deﬁned here as the etheric essence of a person. From the perspecve that a person is a physical body that has evolved in the physical and mind which has evolved in the etheric, personality is that part of a person that has evolved in the etheric. Personality existed before this lifeme and will connue aer this lifeme. It can be thought of as an etheric ﬁeld containing the essence of who the person is including a measure of the person’s understanding which is realized as progression and an inherited urge to acquire understanding by way of experience. See the Life Fields Discourse. Phenomena: In the context of Etheric Studies, any expression of intenon into physical form; a trans-etheric inﬂuence. Examples include mediumship, clairvoyance, healing intenon, ITC and psychokinesis. Planchee: A small, table-like device that can be easily moved over a surface containing leers, words or other informaon. In applicaon, one or more parcipants lightly place ﬁngers on the device. It is thought to move under the control of an etheric personality. A planchee might also have a pencil aached so as to mark a paper when it is moved. See Ouija Board. Point of view: Used to describe the perspecve or viewpoint in literature and art. In terms of

living a life, people also have a point of view, and just as the author intends the reader to come away with a speciﬁc perspecve of the story, so does a person’s point of view direct us toward understanding a speciﬁc perspecve of experiences. See the Point of View Commentary. Potenal Field: Events are accompanied by a probability signature referred to here as a potenal ﬁeld. In this concept, an event might exist in the etheric as a potenal to occur. Each potenal ﬁeld represents the possible characteriscs of an event, so that an event that has occurred may have been preceded by many potenal ﬁelds represenng diﬀerent or oponal potenal outcomes. Praconer: In Etheric Studies, a person conducng a recording session for EVP or ITC; a person who applies principles intended to cause phenomena; may be instrumental or it may be direct as in mental mediumship. See Modes of Transcommunicaon. Precipitaon: By deﬁnion, a precipitate is something that condenses out of a soluon and falls as a deposit. Rain or snow is one example. A precipitaon medium is one who is able to work with etheric helpers to produce physical objects, via precipitaon. A good example of this is the Reverend Hoyt Z. Robinee as described in the arcle, “Sing with Hoyt Robinee.” (31) Currently available evidence indicates that the precipitate originates in the physical and is in eﬀect, dematerialized, transported via the etheric and rematerialized according to the intended order expressed by the medium (may be under the

direcon of communicang enes). In eﬀect, this is the same process thought to be involved with apportaon of object, except that the precipitate becomes objecve in a new form. See Materializaon. Precognion: Knowledge of something in advance of its occurrence, especially by extrasensory percepon; clairvoyance. Presenment: The sense that something is about to happen. In parapsychology, studies indicate that a person will unconsciously react to a smulus just before it is delivered. When the response is in reference to an event that occurs in the near future (seconds, minutes), it is referred to as presenment; however, if the event is relavely more in the future (hours, years), this is usually referred to as precognion. There is growing understanding that every event has a psi signature, and that the body unconsciously senses this signature. Research now suggests that this signature may also relate to a growing potenal for the event to occur. Presenment and precognion seem to support the concept of a nontemporal nature of reality, meaning that all me is now. However, sensing that something is about to happen may be sensing the potenal for the event to occur, rather than clairvoyantly seeing into the future to experience the event. There seems to be more support for the idea that me exists and is not nontemporal. Prime Imperave: This is a rather ﬂamboyant way of saying that the one purpose everyone seems to share is to gain understanding from experience. This concept is fundamental to the Implicit Cosmology. That is,

Source exists and reality is an expression of Source. Curious to understand the nature of its own expression (implicaons, the so what), it is speculated that Source expressed aspects of itself to explore reality and eventually return understanding of its nature. As aspects of Source, we share this curiosity and the urge to understand...everything. In eﬀect, this understanding gained during a lifeme is our payload as we transion out of this lifeme and become more in agreement with Source. See Prime Imperave and Progression in the Ordering Principles Discourse. Process: A process is an ordered sequence of events. In metaphysics, creaon through process is an important alternave to the idea that a fully mature reality might spring into existence. The creave process is described as aenon on the expression of an imagined outcome with the intenon of making it so. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Progression: Progression represent the degree to which a personality sasﬁes its inherited urge to gain understanding. Progression can be described as spiritual maturity from a body-centric perspecve. See Prime Imperave and Progression in the Ordering Principles Discourse. Pseudoscience: Pseudoscience means false science. It is a derogatory term coined by skepcs (175) to label subjects with which they disagree. This disagreement is seldom based on known instances of bad science, but rather because, in the Skepcal view, the subject is not supported by orthodox science. This term is virtually always used in conjuncon with eﬀorts to convince an audience to dislike, mistrust or even fear

the subject. See Froner Subject. Pseudoskepc: Pseudoskepcs or false skepc is a term that refers to people who reject ideas without examinaon if they do not seem to be supported by mainstream science. Since pseudoskepcs proudly refer to themselves as skepcs and it is under that tle that they are found on the Internet, the ATransC refers to them as skepcs. See the Skepcs Commentary Psi: Term coined by J. B. Rhine to represent the unknown force involved in Extrasensory Percepon (ESP) and psychokinesis. It is popularly used today to mean psychic. Psi represents processes and elements in nature or in the human personality, which appear to transcend the accepted liming principles of science. Psi Field: Etheric ﬁelds are described in parapsychology as a psi ﬁeld. While physical energy is local and me dependent, the psi ﬁeld is experienced as being everywhere at the same me (nonlocal). The term is used in the Implicit Cosmology as it is intended in parapsychology, but here, psi ﬁelds are modeled as interconnected etheric ﬁelds, each instance being associated with a life ﬁeld’s percepon. See the Etheric Fields Discourse. Psi Funconing: The expression of intenon on the subtle energy referred to as psi. See psi funconing in the Mediumship Study. Psych-: This preﬁx is generally seen in psychology for mind or mental, which in paranormal phenomena, assumes the person is the direct causave agent when it has not been determined that such inﬂuence is not accomplished in cooperaon with or by an etheric personality.

Psychic: Ability to access informaon by sensing the nature of the psi ﬁeld. In the past, this ability has been referred to as Extra Sensory Percepon or ESP, but more recently it is known as psi funconing. It is correct to say that a person is psychic or to refer to a psychic ability. A psychic may not necessarily funcon as a medium, meaning the person may not be intending to access informaon from a discarnate personality. A psychic may be able to foretell the future, excel in psychometry and be clairvoyant but would not say that this informaon was coming from an etheric personality. See the Mediumship Study for a discussion about the disncon between psychic and medium. Psychokinesis (P.K.): Movement of an object via psi funconing. This is a term used in parapsychology. Telekinesis is an alternave term meaning to have an inﬂuence from a distance. See Telekinesis. Psychometry: In psychometry, informaon about a place, object or the owner of the object is accessed by touching an object, an auric ﬁeld or the local environment such as near a person or in a building. This is a form of psi funconing in which the praconer senses informaon carried by objects or places in which their history is thought to be imprinted. (Blank) Q R Raps: A common feature of physical séances. Noises are heard as knocks, pops, cracks and bangs. Coded communicaon is possible. Current research indicates that the raps originate within the material, suggesng they are psychokinecally

induced. Rapport: Relaonship, especially one of mutual trust or emoonal aﬃnity. Transcommunicaon messages have emphasized the importance of rapport within a circle wishing to develop physical phenomena. The aenon/intenon relaonship amongst life ﬁelds can be characterized as rapport. Likewise, the link of entanglement between etheric personality and its avatar and between a top organizing ﬁeld and its subﬁelds might be characterized in terms of rapport. See the Rapport in the Ordering Principles Discourse and the SORRAT (174) and (149) references. Reality: Reality is seen in the Implicit Cosmology as a fundamental characterisc of all there is. And here, all there is is deﬁned as the life ﬁeld referred to in this cosmology as Source. That would make Source’s life ﬁeld the reality ﬁeld. While there is one reality, experienced reality is relave because it is perceived by individuals as personal reality. If Source is just an aspect of an even greater reality, then that greater reality is well beyond the scope of this cosmology. Here, all things begin with Source as a basic assumpon. See the The Nature of Reality Discourse. Reincarnaon: The rebirth of the personality in another physical body. Based on the Implicit Cosmology, it appears that some people may choose to reincarnate into this physical venue for learning; however, it is as likely that a person will decide to move on to a diﬀerent venue for learning, depending on the need for experience. It should be noted that a past life regression is capable of calling up

a thoughorm represenng someone’s lifeme that might help answer the sier’s needs to learn, even though it is not necessarily that person’s past lifeme. This is a common explanaon for why so many people have been important historical ﬁgure in their past. Researcher: While an EVP praconer conducts roune recordings for the collecon of informaon, a researcher conducts experiments following a protocol designed to provide veriﬁable data. In froner subjects, it is more oen the praconers who must conduct research. Residual Energy: Living organisms are thought to emanate a form of energy somemes referred to as the bioﬁeld. This is usually the heat, light and electromagnec signature of biological processes. Life forms are also thought to have a psi ﬁeld which is associated with their organizing ﬁeld and mental expressions. From the body-centric perspecve, some characteriscs of these ﬁelds are believed to accumulate in a locaon or in associaon with an object such as a ring. This residual signature is thought to be expressed in greater abundance when the person expresses extreme emoons. Thus, locaons with long-me human occupancy, especially hospitals and theaters, are thought to have a strong presence of this residual ﬁeld. From the personality-centric perspecve, a contact ﬁeld is developed in relaonship with a point of aenon. This is not an energy-based explanaon, but a focus of aenon and rapport-based model. See Contact Field in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Retrocognion: Awareness or knowledge of facts of past events or persons acquired by means of psychic ability. Retro

Familiar Storytelling: Modiﬁcaon of an inial memory or sense based on feedback from the environment. In mediumship, this is seen when the medium elaborates on the message based on the sier’s feedback. For instance, the Medium might say “I see a big tree.” The sier might respond with “I like to read under a big tree.” In Retro Familiar Storytelling, the feedback from the sier might produce a response from the medium as “Yes, I see that. You like the warmth from the sun.” This is coloring based on informaon that was not in the originally sensed message. Any modiﬁcaon of how a person senses memory, a psi signal or visualizaon based on feedback from the environment should be considered a form of storytelling that possibly colors the original sense beyond its inial meaning. This eﬀect is probably best seen as a sloppy mental habit that can be managed through mindfulness. See Retro Familiar Storytelling in the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study. Revelaon: Something revealed especially a dramac disclosure of something not previously known or realized. S Science: Science is based on the point of view that reality is knowable. It is pracced as the scienﬁc method. The objecve is to produce understanding in a form that can be tested and applied as engineering soluons. See the Science Commentary. Sciensm: The belief that science, the scienﬁc method and work product is the only way to validate reality. In praccal terms, sciensm holds that, if something is not recognized by mainstream

science, then it is not real and is, therefore, impossible. When people under the cloak of authority of science advise the public about any subject without analysis of available informaon about that subject, they are eﬀecvely praccing sciensm. (106) Skepcs are, by deﬁnion, believers in sciensm. Scienﬁc Method: A systemac approach to gaining understanding about a subject. There are a number of techniques commonly used for research. Stascal analysis, for instance, is used as a means of determining whether or not there is a signiﬁcant diﬀerence between control and experimental results. Also common is meta-analysis which involves reviewing many research reports to idenfy trends. It is becoming evident that techniques which are useful for physical phenomena may not be appropriate for the study of trans-etheric inﬂuences. As such, it should be cauoned that one size does not ﬁt all. (176) See the Science Commentary. Séance: A group of people sing for the purpose of obtaining psychic manifestaons or for establishing transcommunicaon. The presence of an established physical medium is helpful, but in development circles, the group may seek to have one of their members emerge as a new physical medium. Séances are typically conducted in a completely dark room; however, some choose to work in dim light or red light. See Home Circle. Sier: The aendees of a séance or sing; a person who is the point of aenon for a medium, healing intenon or for psi funconing. Skepc: Perhaps the most important trait for anyone involved in the study

of froner subjects is the ability to maintain an open mind while praccing discernment. This atude is somemes referred to as skepcism; however, when a person is skepcal of something without reason or to favor a belief over objecvity, that person is popularly known as a skepc. Rather than praccing discernment, skepcs acvely campaign to teach the public to see new thought as a hazard to society. As is already occurring in some governments, including the USA, this viliﬁcaon of froner subjects has the potenal to cause social and governmental reacon that could at the least prevent further study and possibly provoke acon harmful to people studying these subjects. (7) Because of this, it is no longer realisc to ignore skepcs or their eﬀorts. A potenally useful alternave term for the kind of skepcism pracced by skepcs is sciensm which means the ideological belief that science (mainstream science) is the only authority on the nature of reality. This is where the idea comes from that “If it is impossible according to (main- stream) science, then it cannot be.” The rest of this ideology is that anything not accepted by mainstream science must be pseudoscience. Skepcism in itself is a healthy atude so long as it is accompanied by open-minded invesgaon. Perhaps a beer term for open-minded skepcism is discernment. See the Skepcs Commentary. Skepc’s Syndrome: Assumed knowledge which is usually based on faith, belief or popular wisdom but seldom based on empirical evidence. The syndrome manifests as the assumpon that

one’s own understanding of a subject is more correct than that held by others without regard to evidence to the contrary. This atude is maintained in the face of empirical evidence by making unsupported assumpons, beliling those who do not agree and aempng to associate the opposing view with previously discredited concepts. See Assumed Knowledge. Source: Source is used in the Implicit Cosmology as the name for the inial cause of reality. This is the same concept as God, First Cause, Inﬁnite Intelligence and Creator Personality. In this hypothesis, Source is credited with the same aributes idenﬁed with life ﬁelds including self- determinaon, point of view, purpose and an urge to understand local reality. In fractals, Source is the top fractal. See the Source Discourse. Spirit: As common usage, spirit refers to the vital principle or animang force of life; the indestrucble essence of self-conscious life. The word spirit is oen used to describe a discarnate person. The more correct term for a person who has transioned from a physical lifeme is a person in spirit or a discarnate person. The term, spirit, is closely related to religious belief, and so is somemes avoided when discussing metaphysics. When the healing inﬂuence is said to be derived directly from Source (God) and undiﬀerenated by any other personality, it is said to be coming from Spirit. Here Spirit is wrien with a capital S. In common usage, spirit, wrien with a lower case s is a reference to the psi ﬁeld as

it is inﬂuenced by intenonality. See Etheric. Spiritual: Anything relang to Source (Inﬁnite Intelligence, God, Prime Creator or First Cause). It is reasonable and proper to refer to the purpose and originaon of reality as spiritual. A person expressing the high ideals of cizenship in the greater reality might be referred to as spiritual or being spiritual. (Yes, the ideals themselves are an abstracon, but the point should be clear that a conscious eﬀort to be a good cizen is paramount.) Spiritual Healing: See the Healing Intenon Study. Spiritualism: A system of belief based on the acceptance of the survival hypothesis, transcommunicaon and healing intenon. It assumes that all trans-etheric inﬂuences including acquision of informaon via mediumship and healing intenon exists as the cooperaon between a Medium and a discarnate helper. The Naonal Spiritualist Associaon of Churches (NSAC) (2) deﬁnes Spiritualism as the “Science, Philosophy and Religion of connuous life, based upon the demonstrated fact of communicaon, by means of mediumship, with those who live in the Spirit World.” Spiritualism, especially NSAC Spiritualism, is listed here because it does not require members of the community to believe anything beyond the Declaraon of Principles (10), and does oﬀer a community of likeminded seekers. It maintains nine principles of the Declaraon of Principles constute the NSAC tenet, which are consistent with the Implicit Cosmology. The only belief is the existence of Inﬁnite Intelligence. The rest is acceptance of survival, an assumpon of personal responsibility and the expectaon that a person will seek

to understand the nature of reality and live in accordance with that understanding. Stochasc Resonance: Stochasc resonance (131) is an eﬀect that results in a weak signal being ampliﬁed in a nonlinear system when a large noise background is applied. A common factor in many forms of trans-etheric inﬂuence is the presence of noise. It is speculated that a weak telekinec inﬂuence (signal) is made stronger via stochasc ampliﬁcaon. In electronic circuits, the acve regions of tubes and transistors provide the necessary nonlinear condion for ampliﬁcaon. See Apports and Intended Order. Storytelling: Claiming what was experienced is phenomenal by telling a reasonable story that seems to make the claim sensible. This is a way of leading a witness into believing an event or example is paranormal even though it is mundane. In EVP, something to the eﬀect of “I asked where my book was and recorded, ‘ten ... other ...yes.’ The enty was telling me I was only ten feet from it and that it was somewhere other than where I was looking and that ‘yes,’ I will ﬁnd it.” In fact, the possible EVP had nothing to do with the queson, but the story seemed to make it sound like a good answer. See the Arfacts and Perceptual Error Study. Subjecve Phenomena: See Conceptual. Subject Maer Specialist: A person who has more than average experience as a praconer; may or may not be a researcher, experience consistent with appropriate science; parcipates in peer review; somemes a cizen scienst. (177)

Subliminal: Below the threshold of conscious percepon; not suﬃcient to produce conscious awareness but able to cause a response by way of the Aenon Complex. See the Percepon and Expression Discourse. Subtle Energy: See Etheric, Etheric Field and Psi Field. Super-Psi Hypothesis: A theory designed to explain observed psychic abilies, but from the perspecve of psychology. Rather than allowing for survived personality, it depends on the belief that, once created, informaon exists forever. The hypothesis proposes a vast reservoir of residual conscious energy (fossil memory) which is accessible by people who exhibit the ability to psychically access informaon. This hypothesis depends on mind as a product of brain, but which is then independent of brain and connues aer the brain dies as a survived memory. It also depends on the existence of a psi ﬁeld. See the Trans- Survival Hypothesis Discourse. Survival: In the context of metaphysics, the connuance of the personality aer the change called death. It is the fundamental doctrine of Spiritualism. See the Transion Experience in the Progression, Teaching and the Community Discourse. Survival Hypothesis: See the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse. T Telekinesis: The movement of objects with the inﬂuence of intenon; have an inﬂuence from a distance; psi funconing. Also known as Psychokinesis. Thought Ball: Robert Monroe (53) described the method of communicaon between people he encountered during his out-of-body travels as an exchange of thought balls he called rotes. Thought balls may be thought of as thoughorms, or more speciﬁcally, intenon ﬁelds. The term is useful

in describing an exchange of informaon that is sensed as a gestalt impression that includes intenon, feelings and imagery as an instantaneous experience. See Intenon Fields in the Etheric Fields Discourse. Thoughorm: Thoughorms are treated as etheric ﬁelds that funcon as a container for informaon. In their simplest form, they are a collecon of related informaon bound by or aracted to a central theme. The intended outcome (expression) of the creave process is generally thought of as a thoughorm which acts as a formave inﬂuence for physical acon (moon, voice), conscious thought or an ideoplasc structure. See the Etheric Fields Discourse. Trance: A spontaneous or induced sleep-like condion or altered state of consciousness that permits the subject’s body to be used by a discarnate personality for communicaon. Trance may be very light with lile diﬀerence than consciousness, either outward or inward. It may be very deep with the medium totally unaware of the surroundings or the messages being spoken via the body. Upon coming back to consciousness, the person so entranced may remember nothing of what has happened while in the trance state. To all intents and purposes the personality speaking and the person in trance are enrely diﬀerent. Trans-: Across, from there to here. Used here as across the interface from the greater reality to the physical aspect of reality. Etheric is used as shorthand to indicate the greater reality. Transcommunicaon: A trans-etheric inﬂuence that is intended to be communicaon; trans-etheric communicaon. Not all trans-etheric inﬂuences are considered communicaon.

Some, such as residual inﬂuence phenomena may simply happen without regard to who is experiencing the event. Ernst Senkowski (129) coined the term Instrumental TransCommunicaon or ITC to describe meaningful anomalies including extraordinary voices, computer text, recorded images and images found on video displays which are suggesve of a connuance of life aer death. (Because of common usage in this ﬁeld, terms with a trans- preﬁx can be used without the hyphen.) Note that aer-death communicaon, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and mediumship should be considered forms of transcommunicaon. Trans-etheric: From the etheric aspect of reality to the physical aspect of reality. The trans- preﬁx is always used here to mean across the veil. Trans-etheric Communicaon: See Transcommunicaon above. Trans-etheric Inﬂuence: The expression of intended order from the etheric to the physical when an etheric personality communicates with a physical person or when a haunngs event occurs. All trans-etheric inﬂuences are considered conceptual inﬂuences producing objecve eﬀects. See Transcommunicaon above. Transﬁguraon: Recognizable portrayals of discarnate persons are formed over the medium’s features. This phenomenon usually takes place in dim light as ectoplasm is thought to be used to produce the transformaon. In good subjects, the ectoplasmic material can be seen during the forming process. Transform EVP: In ITC, available physical energy is transformed into words or images. That is, the resulng voice in EVP has much the same frequency proﬁle as the background noise. The physical process thought to be involved is stochasc ampliﬁcaon of a weak signal imposed via the

psychokinec expression of intenon; acve component such as a transistor. See Audio ITC in the Transcommunicaon Study. Transion: A term used to describe the process of dying out of this physical aspect of reality (this lifeme) and the return of the conscious focus of aenon to the more natural nonphysical environment. Transion is a more accurate term for what is currently called death. Trans-Survival Hypothesis: A theorecal model designed to put current understanding about the connuaon of personality aer transion (physical death) into a form that can be used to predict outcomes of future research. This is the ATransC version of the survival hypothesis used in parapsychology. It is rather diﬀerent from the parapsychological version because it incorporates what has been learned in the study of transcommunicaon. This hypothesis is an aempt to idenfy objecve studies which support the Survival Hypothesis over the Super-Psi Hypothesis, and, of course, the Physical Universe Hypothesis. The Implicit Cosmology is designed to provide a model of reality that is based on the implicaons of the Trans-Survival Hypothesis. See the Trans-Survival Hypothesis Discourse for a full explanaon U Understanding: The presumed objecve of progression is returning to Source an understanding of its true nature. Understanding is resident in worldview. It informs percepon by way of the Perceptual Loop, and is therefore a controlling factor for a person’s personal reality. In pracce, understanding decides what of reality a person is able to experience (Perceptual Agreement). See the Progression, Teaching and the Community Discourse. V Veed: In

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