Havelock Ellis's Involvement in Psychical Research

Few people today are familiar with the name Havelock Ellis, and yet over a hundred years ago were his name to be uttered in public it was well-known in a mixed light. He was considered by many people a bad influence on society by writing so openly and often on the psychology of sexual behaviour, and became arguably the most prolific writer within psychology on the nature of sex and sexuality. He was a qualified medical doctor through St’Thomas Hospital Medical Scholl – now part of King’s College London – and held a small practice at his home in Brixton where his patients would write to him or visit regarding a number of sexual problems for which they required therapy or to understanding more about themselves from the leading expert. Ellis’ most noted works are his six volumes on Studies in the Psychology of Sex (published between 1897 to 1928), in which a variety of topics regarding sexual behaviour were discussed. Included within these infamous volumes was a devoted section to “The Psychic State in Pregnancy”, found within volume five. The majority of Ellis’ books concerned sex, but he also produced various other titles, including an interesting examination of dreams in 1911 entitled The World of Dreams. Within this, Ellis also demonstrates openness to psychical phenomena through the discussion of dreams involving interaction with the dead. This particular aspect of dreams was something that Carl Jung had also given attention to, regarding some instances of dreaming of the dead as genuine interaction with the surviving personalities of deceased friends and loved ones. While Sigmund Freud remained hesitant in involving himself in psychical research, against the keenness of Jung, he nevertheless still dabbled with such ideas and published on aspects of extrasensory perception in relation to psychoanalysis. Ellis shared many letters with Freud, and during the time of Ellis, Jung, and Freud, psychical research was of wide popular interest. Despite professional discouragement from engaging in psychical research, it is no surprise that all of these figures at some point wrote on the topic. It is clear to see in the writings of Ellis that he never appeared to speak of psychical phenomena as anything particularly unnatural. His writings suggest that in our day to day lives psychical phenomena is played out all around us, and yet we are rarely conscious of that fact. Clearly, social stigmas regarding professional status and psychical research did not deter Ellis from freely expressing his thoughts on the anomalous side of human behaviour. His reputation – particularly within the public domain – was already viewed by many as founded on perverted thoughts and writings – rather than original psychological theories on human behaviour

Exceptional experiences in the funeral industry

Since the dawn of ancient civilisation humans have assigned themselves to the preparation of deceased individuals for funerary purposes, including but not limited to, bodily disposal, and related religious ceremonies. In modern day, we recognise this process under terms and job titles such as ‘funeral homes’, ‘funeral directors’ and ‘undertakers’. Such roles carry with them a variety of responsibilities. For example, duty coroners collecting cadavers, morticians, funeral home staff (e.g., receptionists, hearse drivers and pall bearers), and of course, the head funeral director. It has been previously proposed in the pioneering PhD research of Joanne McMahon (1987), that those working in the profession, around dead bodies, may be more prone than most people to psi type experiences, which are non-typical in the literature, given such persons rarely ever knew the deceased. This paper summarises McMahon’s work and relevant key literature, arguing for further professional investigation to be carried out into the exceptional experiences and psychology of those in the funeral profession. Such research is essential as it may help to provide new insights into such experiences, and also because such specific literature, at this stage of awareness and time, is severely limited

Considering Anomalous Events during Bereavement as Evidence for Survival

It has been noted that experiences of perceived interaction with the dead are common for the bereaved. Surveys have reported that around 50 – 60% of individuals will report that they have had such an experience following a significant death. These reports are spontaneous by their very nature and can involve a variety of experiences, from sensing the presence of the dead, to dreaming about them, seeing apparitions in the waking state, witnessing poltergeist type phenomena, and others. Even so, it is acknowledged that instances of alleged reincarnation where a young child may relay information from a deceased individual have been noted, and sought phenomena such as sittings with mediums and therapy induced experiences suggestive of interaction with the dead could produce information pertaining to survival. However, this chapter will focus purely on spontaneous anomalous experiences occurring following loss. The question remains, what are the ontological roots of such experiences? Mainstream opinions have conceptualized such reports as purely pathological and typical bi-products of a grieving mind. However, is there a case for something more at work? To answer this, we not only need to understand the psychology of bereavement, but indeed the parapsychology of bereavement as well. This chapter will consider the place of anomalous bereavement experiences in the debate of ‘consciousness and its survival beyond bodily death’ (aka, the survival hypothesis), and what evidence exists from such events which may add weight to the debate and goes beyond current conventional understanding

They Know the Unknown:Celebrity Accounts of Exceptional Experiences

In some of my early writing on telephone anomalies, I stumbled across the book They Knew The Unknown by Martin Ebon, [1] who produced many popular books on psychic phenomena. This particular work, however, focused on popular figures – typically scientists – and their links to psychical research. My own interested in this book was for Thomas Edinson and his interests in spiritualism and contact with the dead. But I enjoy the book for the insight of many other figures and their links to the field, including Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, to name a few

Exceptional experiences in the funeral industry

Since the dawn of ancient civilisation humans have assigned themselves to the preparation of deceased individuals for funerary purposes, including but not limited to, bodily disposal, and related religious ceremonies. In modern day, we recognise this process under terms and job titles such as ‘funeral homes’, ‘funeral directors’ and ‘undertakers’. Such roles carry with them a variety of responsibilities. For example, duty coroners collecting cadavers, morticians, funeral home staff (e.g., receptionists, hearse drivers and pall bearers), and of course, the head funeral director. It has been previously proposed in the pioneering PhD research of Joanne McMahon (1987), that those working in the profession, around dead bodies, may be more prone than most people to psi type experiences, which are non-typical in the literature, given such persons rarely ever knew the deceased. This paper summarises McMahon’s work and relevant key literature, arguing for further professional investigation to be carried out into the exceptional experiences and psychology of those in the funeral profession. Such research is essential as it may help to provide new insights into such experiences, and also because such specific literature, at this stage of awareness and time, is severely limited

The therapeutic nature of anomalous events: a union of positive psychology and parapsychology

Aside from exploring the ontology of anomalous abilities and experiences through the study of parapsychology, the recent re-emergence of clinical parapsychology has allowed researchers to explore the impact of anomalous events on those who encounter them, through spontaneous cases investigation methods, or via the counselling and therapy setting. From this new avenue of research outlook, and reflecting on laboratory experiments of psychic phenomena, links can clearly be made to positive psychology with how people face and perceive anomalous events. Various positive gains have been identified as being fostered as a result of anomalous experiences, which help with personal growth, resilience and coping, especially in the case of bereavement and related phenomena encountered in such stages of life. This paper will briefly consider the findings of such studies and the increasing relationship between parapsychology and positive psychology

Parapsychology and Cyberpsychology

Parapsychology’s relationship with cyberpsychology is currently seldom explored. The Internet has served as a powerful vehicle for parapsychological research design and execution (e.g., surveys, dissemination of research findings on web sites and social media), notwithstanding the pitfalls of online polarisation, censorship, and the continuing pseudoscience demarcation problem. Cyberpsychology provides a range of theoretical frameworks in helping to examine the mechanisms behind such interactions (e.g., networked publics—i.e., communities that are shaped or reconfigured by networked technologies). Parapsychology in turn has a track record of engaging with novel technologies in past and present research (e.g., lab-based studies and technology brought in to explore altered-states of consciousness), and in examining how technology can mediate anomalous experiences such as in survival themed spontaneous case research. Utilising Kirwan’s three main aspects of cyberpsychology (i.e., how we interact with others; how we use technology to fit our requirements; how our behaviours are affected by technological developments) this paper examines how the application of existing theoretical frameworks which serve cyberpsychologists are arguably of equal and ever-increasing importance to parapsychologists in understanding how their work is disseminated and discussed. Future online technologies may also present opportunities to explore shared interests, including exploration of self through both real and imagined environments, transpersonal or anomalous experiences, and how rapidly evolving Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies may mediate changes in perceptions of post-mortem survival through digitisation of death and the afterlife and perceived continuing bonds with the deceased (e.g., AI, virtual realities, etc.)