The following studies have been completed by Windbridge Research Center investigators.
| Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive Survey of Secular American Mediums |
Status: Complete
Description: The aim of this study was to identify potentially unique demographic, cognitive, psychological, physiological, familial, cultural, and phenomenological characteristics of self-identifying mediums in the US using quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods including computerized text analysis techniques.
Funded by: Bial Foundation
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Publications in progress.
Beischel, J. (2016, June). Development of a comprehensive survey of secular American mediums. 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration and 59th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association Joint Meeting. Boulder, Colorado.
| Anomalous Information Reception (AIR) II |
Status: Complete
Description: This study collects evidence during quintuple-blinded readings regarding Windbridge Certified Research Mediums’ reception and reporting of accurate and specific information about discarnates in the absence of any feedback; without prior knowledge about the discarnates (beyond their first names) or about the living sitters associated with them; and without using deception, fraud, or cold-reading. It is an extension of a previously published study involving claimant mediums and triple-blind readings.
Funded by: The Bial Foundation
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
The following paper describes the research methods used during this study: Beischel, J. (2007). Contemporary methods used in laboratory-based mediumship research. Journal of Parapsychology, 71, 37-68.
Beischel, J., Biuso, M., Boccuzzi, M., & Rock, A. (2011, June). Anomalous information reception by research mediums under quintuple-blind conditions: Can the mind exist without the body? 30th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Boulder, Colorado.
Beischel, J., Boccuzzi, M., Biuso, M., & Rock, A. J. (2015). Anomalous information reception by research mediums under blinded conditions II: Replication and extension. EXPLORE: The Journal of Science & Healing, 11(2), 136-142. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2015.01.001
[Link opens abstract in a new window]
| AIR by Mediums Regarding Non-Human Discarnates |
Status: Complete
Description: This study employs established, published methods from mediumship research to determine if Windbridge Certified Research Mediums can report accurate and specific information (that is, accomplish anomalous information reception or AIR) about the deceased companion animals of living sitters.
Funded by: Survival Research Committee of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR)
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Publication in progress.
Beischel, J. (2012, June). Anomalous information reception by credentialed mediums regarding non-human animal discarnates. Presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Boulder, Colorado.
| Phenomenology I: A Quantitative Investigation of Mediums’ Phenomenology comparing Mediumship Readings and a Control Task |
Status: Complete
Description: During this study, certified research mediums completed the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), a 53-item questionnaire that quantifies 26 dimensions of consciousness, after a mediumship reading and after a control condition in which no discarnates were contacted. Significant differences between the two conditions were demonstrated for several dimensions of consciousness establishing that the mediumship condition is an altered state of consciousness.
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Rock, A. J., & Beischel, J. (2008, March). Quantitative phenomenological analysis of mediums’ purported communication with discarnates. Presented at the 28th Annual Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Spring Conference, New Haven, Connecticut.
Rock, A. J., & Beischel, J. (2008). Quantitative analysis of mediums’ conscious experiences during a discarnate reading versus a control task: A pilot study. Australian Journal of Parapsychology, 8, 157-179.
| Phenomenology II: A Qualitative Investigation of Mediums’ Phenomenology comparing Psychic Readings and Ostensible Communication with the Deceased |
Status: Complete
Description: In this study, certified research mediums were asked to describe their experiences during mediumship readings for the deceased and psychic readings for the living. We found a number of similarities among different mediums’ responses as well as differences between their descriptions of the two types of readings.
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Rock, A. J., Beischel, J., & Cott, C. C. (2009). Psi vs. survival: A qualitative investigation of mediums’ phenomenology comparing psychic readings and ostensible communication with the deceased. Transpersonal Psychology Review, 13, 76-89.
| Phenomenology III: Quantitative Investigation of Possible Relationships between Claimant Mediums’ Phenomenology and Reading Accuracy |
Status: Complete
Description: During the eight-step certification screening procedure, prospective Windbridge Certified Research Mediums (WCRMs) completed the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI; see above) after each of their Step 5 test readings. The study did not identify any phenomenological variables that were correlates of mediums’ abilities.
Funded by: Bial Foundation
Resulting Publication:
Rock, A. J., Beischel, J., Boccuzzi, M., & Biuso, M. (2014). Discarnate readings by claimant mediums: Assessing phenomenology and accuracy under beyond double-blind conditions. Journal of Parapsychology, 78(2), 183-194.
| Phenomenology IV: A Quantitative Investigation of Mediums’ Phenomenology comparing Psychic Readings and Ostensible Communication with the Deceased |
Status: Complete
Description: This study used the PCI to quantitatively assess certified research mediums’ phenomenology under blinded conditions during readings for deceased targets and readings for living targets. In a significant proportion of the readings, the mediums’ impressions accurately reflected the status of the target. An interesting post hoc result involved a significant difference between reading types for the dimension of love.
Funded by: Bial Foundation
Resulting Publication/Presentations:
Beischel, J., Rock, A., & Boccuzzi, M. (2013, June). The source of mediums information: A quantitative phenomenological analysis. Presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Dearborn, Michigan.
Beischel, J., Rock, A. J., & Boccuzzi, M. (under review). Somatic psi and survival psi: Quantitative phenomenological analyses of blinded mediums’ experiences of psychic readings and communication with the deceased.
| Other Publications and Presentations discussing Phenomenology Research |
Beischel, J., & Rock, A. J. (2009). Addressing the survival vs. psi debate through process-focused mediumship research. Journal of Parapsychology, 73, 71-90.
Beischel, J. & Rock, A. J. (2010, April). A phenomenological pathway to an empirically driven distinction between survival psi and somatic psi by research mediums. Presented at Toward a Science of Consciousness 2010, Tucson, Arizona.
Beischel, J. & Rock, A. J. (August, 2009). Addressing the survival vs. psi debate through process-focused mediumship research. Presented at the 52nd Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, Seattle, WA.
Beischel, J. & Rock, A. J. (August, 2008). Toward a process-focused approach to mediumship research. Presented at the 3rd Annual Alternative Expressions of the Numinous Conference, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland.
| Mediums’ Unique Personality Characteristics |
Status: Complete
Description: During the eight-step certification screening procedure, prospective Windbridge Certified Research Mediums (WCRMs) complete several personality and psychological questionnaires (Step 2). This study compares their results to published norms and looks for relationships between personality/psychological characteristics and mediumistic ability (determined during Step 5 test readings).
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Beischel, J. (2008, March). Distinctive traits of those who ‘speak with spirit’: analysis of claimant mediums’ unique personality characteristics using three standard questionnaires. Presented at the 28th Annual Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Spring Conference, New Haven, Connecticut.
| Hematological and Psychophysiological Correlates of Anomalous Information Reception in Mediums |
Status: Complete
Description: The purpose of this study was to systematically investigate the biological components of anomalous information reception (AIR; the reporting of accurate and specific information about the deceased in the absence of prior knowledge, feedback, or deceptive means) in these mediums. General physiological measures and 28 hematological elements during mediumship readings and a control task were examined. Data collected do not demonstrate any significant changes in these measures when pre- and post-condition comparisons were made for the counter-balanced sessions. These results imply that the mediumship process itself may not responsible for the increased health issues in this population. We propose an alternative model addressing the relationship between childhood trauma and physical illness.
Funded by: Bial Foundation
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Beischel, J., Boccuzzi, M., & Tassone, S. (submitted). Hematological and psychophysiological correlates of anomalous information reception in mediums. EXPLORE: The Journal of Science & Healing.
Beischel, J. (2015, May). Assessing hematological and psychophysiological correlates of anomalous information reception in mediums. 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Rockville, Maryland.
| Cortical and Autonomic Responses associated with Accurate Intuition |
Status: Complete
Funded by: Bial Foundation
Collaborating Organizations: Institute of Noetic Sciences; University of California, San Diego
Description: This study investigated electrocortical (i.e., EEG) activity in six Windbridge Certified Research Mediums to explore two research questions: first, correlations between the accuracy of mediums’ statements and their brain electrical activity were examined; and second, differences in mediums’ brain activity were studied when they intentionally evoked four subjective states: (1) Recollection (thinking about a living person known to the medium), (2) Perception (listening while an experimenter describes details about a person unknown to the medium), (3) Fabrication (thinking about a person imagined by the medium), and (4) Communication (interacting mentally with a deceased person known to the medium). The study’s findings suggest that the experience of communicating with the deceased may be a distinct mental state that is not consistent with brain activity during ordinary thinking or imagination.
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Delorme, A., Beischel. J., Michel, L., Boccuzzi, M., Radin, D., & Mills, P. J. (2013). Electrocortical activity associated with subjective communication with the deceased. Frontiers in Psychology, 4: 834. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00834
| Grief I: Potential Therapeutic Benefit of Mediumship Readings in the Treatment of Grief |
Status: Complete
Description: The absence of effective treatments for grief and the trends from exploratory survey data warrant further study into the potential therapeutic benefits of mediumship readings.
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Beischel, J., Mosher, C. & Boccuzzi, M. (2014-2015). The possible effects on bereavement of assisted after-death communication during readings with psychic mediums: A continuing bonds perspective. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 70(2), 169-194. doi: 10.2190/OM.70.2.b
Mosher, C., Beischel, J., & Boccuzzi, M. (April, 2010). The potential therapeutic benefit of mediumship readings in the treatment of grief. Poster presented at Toward a Science of Consciousness 2010, Tucson, Arizona.
| Objective Analyses of Real-time Audio ITC |
Status: Complete
Description: This study attempted to objectively detect ITC in sessions collected by an experienced operator using EVPMaker software producing a random stream of allophones (short speech elements). Several aspects of Active Sessions were examined: (1) the distribution of the allophones generated; (2) independent, blinded listening panel interpretations of session samples; (3) content analysis of questions posed by the operator and her perceived responses; and (4) automated interpretation of session samples using speech recognition software (SRS). For analyses (1) and (2), ITC-free Control Sessions collected by the investigators were used for comparison, and it was determined that no differences existed between the Active and Control Sessions regarding: (a) the allophones present and (b) the proportions of participants who recognized words in the samples. Analysis (3) revealed that the responses perceived by the operator did not consistently contain information that logically matched her questions, and analysis (4) demonstrated that SRS was unable to detect the phrases perceived by the operator. Future studies may wish to focus on the psychology and motivation of ITC operators; the impact of the perceived communication; and the potentially psi-conducive effects of using EVPMaker to acquire veridical information.
Funded by: Sarah Estep Memorial Research Fund of the Association TransCommunication (ATransC) [formerly the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP)]
Resulting Publications/Presentations:
Boccuzzi, M., & Beischel, J. (2011). Objective analyses of reported real-time audio instrumental transcommunication and matched control sessions: A pilot study. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 25, 215-235.