Upcoming Events
IF YOU WISH TO ATTEND THIS EVENT (either in person or via Zoom), please send an email to [email protected]
This will be a physical meeting, also available as a Zoom event and both SPR members & non-members are most welcome. Members are urged to publicise this event in their own locality and through social media. Please pay online through the SPR website. You may also telephone the SPR office to pay with a credit card - +44 (0)20 7937 8984. Advance booking is the only way to join this meeting. This meeting will be followed at 5:15 p.m. by the SPR AGM 2025.
This will be a physical meeting, also available as a Zoom event and both SPR members & non-members are most welcome. Members are urged to publicise this event in their own locality and through social media. Please pay online through the SPR website. You may also telephone the SPR office to pay with a credit card - +44 (0)20 7937 8984. Advance booking is the only way to join this meeting. This meeting will be followed at 5:15 p.m. by the SPR AGM 2025.
REGISTRATIONS FOR THIS EVENT WILL CLOSE TWO HOURS BEFORE THE TALK IS DUE TO START.
ALL SPR WEB EVENTS ARE RECORDED AND A LINK TO THE RECORDING WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SENT TO THOSE WHO REGISTER TO ATTEND WHEN THE RECORDING IS READY.
Join us for an enlightening talk on Differentiating the psychiatric from the psychic
From the speaker:
Experiences that are reported to the SPR often, if not always, feature unusual perceptions that may be interpreted as hallucinations. These, together with strange ideas and intense mood states, are of course the stuff of psychiatric disorder. How to distinguish a psychiatric disorder from a valid paranormal experience is sometimes not easy, and there may indeed be a genuine overlap. I will attempt to elucidate by describing a simple model of the mind so as to properly define and describe illness with its common presentations, as opposed to vulnerability to illness, and indeed what may be considered genuine paranormal phenomena. I will also suggest what action should be taken should illness be suspected.
ALL SPR WEB EVENTS ARE RECORDED AND A LINK TO THE RECORDING WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SENT TO THOSE WHO REGISTER TO ATTEND WHEN THE RECORDING IS READY.
Join us for an enlightening talk on Differentiating the psychiatric from the psychic
From the speaker:
Experiences that are reported to the SPR often, if not always, feature unusual perceptions that may be interpreted as hallucinations. These, together with strange ideas and intense mood states, are of course the stuff of psychiatric disorder. How to distinguish a psychiatric disorder from a valid paranormal experience is sometimes not easy, and there may indeed be a genuine overlap. I will attempt to elucidate by describing a simple model of the mind so as to properly define and describe illness with its common presentations, as opposed to vulnerability to illness, and indeed what may be considered genuine paranormal phenomena. I will also suggest what action should be taken should illness be suspected.
REGISTRATIONS FOR THIS EVENT WILL CLOSE TWO HOURS BEFORE THE TALK IS DUE TO START.
ALL SPR WEB EVENTS ARE RECORDED AND A LINK TO THE RECORDING WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SENT TO THOSE WHO REGISTER TO ATTEND WHEN THE RECORDING IS READY.
Join us for an enlightening talk on The healing project with the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre.
From the speaker:
There is a growing interest in complementary and alternative approaches to fostering health and well-being. These often draw on holistic, psycho-socio-spiritual models of health. Evidence from clinical trials suggests that some of these healing approaches can be effective, and there is growing interest in biofield understandings of wellness. However, this work does not yet reflect the central role of healing in Spiritualism; indeed, it tends to give a distorted view of what Spiritualism entails. Much of the work conducted to date is qualitative and observational, and there have been only a small number of formal experiments. The project described in this presentation is intended to address this omission and involves a randomised controlled trial that tests for noncontact healing effects. Healers who have completed the rigorous training offered by the Healing Trust have been recruited. Participants are in general good health and are required to continue with traditional medical treatments where appropriate. Participants have been recruited in collaboration with the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, Edinburgh. Two iterations are complete (N = 63) and a third will be completed in February 2025. In this presentation, I will reflect on the approaches taken by parapsychology to the scientific study of ‘paranormal’ claims, and speculate on how best to account for the observed findings in terms of an expanded worldview.
ALL SPR WEB EVENTS ARE RECORDED AND A LINK TO THE RECORDING WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SENT TO THOSE WHO REGISTER TO ATTEND WHEN THE RECORDING IS READY.
Join us for an enlightening talk on The healing project with the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre.
From the speaker:
There is a growing interest in complementary and alternative approaches to fostering health and well-being. These often draw on holistic, psycho-socio-spiritual models of health. Evidence from clinical trials suggests that some of these healing approaches can be effective, and there is growing interest in biofield understandings of wellness. However, this work does not yet reflect the central role of healing in Spiritualism; indeed, it tends to give a distorted view of what Spiritualism entails. Much of the work conducted to date is qualitative and observational, and there have been only a small number of formal experiments. The project described in this presentation is intended to address this omission and involves a randomised controlled trial that tests for noncontact healing effects. Healers who have completed the rigorous training offered by the Healing Trust have been recruited. Participants are in general good health and are required to continue with traditional medical treatments where appropriate. Participants have been recruited in collaboration with the Arthur Conan Doyle Centre, Edinburgh. Two iterations are complete (N = 63) and a third will be completed in February 2025. In this presentation, I will reflect on the approaches taken by parapsychology to the scientific study of ‘paranormal’ claims, and speculate on how best to account for the observed findings in terms of an expanded worldview.
REGISTRATIONS FOR THIS EVENT WILL CLOSE TWO HOURS BEFORE THE TALK IS DUE TO START.
ALL SPR WEB EVENTS ARE RECORDED AND A LINK TO THE RECORDING WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SENT TO THOSE WHO REGISTER TO ATTEND WHEN THE RECORDING IS READY.
Join us for an enlightening talk: Embodied Liminality: Sensory isolation in floatation tanks as a method of promoting psi phenomena.
From the speaker:
Inspired by the insights and recommendation of John Lilly (1969), inventor and pioneer of the floatation tank as a means of inducing altered states of consciousness (by vastly reducing environmental stimuli), and more recently by the work of Cooper, Saunders and Hitchman (2020) who conducted a pilot study exploring the utility of floatation in a psi task. This presentation will report on the results on a subsequent, extended experiment, undertaken at the University of Northampton. During this study we explored participant performance on a precognition task, and the significance of both the experiential qualities and contents of consciousness e.g., visual imagery, sense of time and some intriguing transpersonal experiences - also, any correlations with individual differences of participants i.e., transliminality creativity and sensory processing sensitivity (see e.g., Hitchman, Rock & Roe, 2023).
ALL SPR WEB EVENTS ARE RECORDED AND A LINK TO THE RECORDING WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY SENT TO THOSE WHO REGISTER TO ATTEND WHEN THE RECORDING IS READY.
Join us for an enlightening talk: Embodied Liminality: Sensory isolation in floatation tanks as a method of promoting psi phenomena.
From the speaker:
Inspired by the insights and recommendation of John Lilly (1969), inventor and pioneer of the floatation tank as a means of inducing altered states of consciousness (by vastly reducing environmental stimuli), and more recently by the work of Cooper, Saunders and Hitchman (2020) who conducted a pilot study exploring the utility of floatation in a psi task. This presentation will report on the results on a subsequent, extended experiment, undertaken at the University of Northampton. During this study we explored participant performance on a precognition task, and the significance of both the experiential qualities and contents of consciousness e.g., visual imagery, sense of time and some intriguing transpersonal experiences - also, any correlations with individual differences of participants i.e., transliminality creativity and sensory processing sensitivity (see e.g., Hitchman, Rock & Roe, 2023).