Belgian UFO wave – 1989-1992 – Part 5

This post is the last of this series on the Belgian UFO wave of 1989-1992. As announced before, the Model of Pragmatic Information (MPI) developed by the parapsychologist Walter von Lucadou will be used again to assess if the general unfolding of the UFO wave occurred in ways similar to a RSPK (Recurrent Spontaneous PsychoKinesis) event (aka poltergeist).

As discussed several times on this blog, a number of UFO researchers, like John Keel, who went beyond the simplistic “nuts-and-bolts” approach to the phenomenon, compared it to some sort of large scale poltergeist, or grand scale haunting of the skies. The case for studying the UFO phenomenon as a paranormal event is substantive, and has also been presented extensively on this blog.

The Model of Pragmatic Information

The MPI is based on the modern physics concept of non-locality, where at the quantum level particles seem to share common information without any observable mechanism to explain how such sharing occur. This is particularly notable through a photon splitter experiment. Out of this general notion of information that can be shared non-locally (i.e. without direct and observable cause and effect), Walter von Lucadou (who is also a physicist) proposed that the central notion of “psi” in parapsychology can be explained by non-locality (von Lucadou, 1995).

This applies not only to the acquisition of information through non-normal means (usually referred to as Extra-Sensorial Perception, or ESP), but also to “mind-over-matter” (usually referred to as Psycho-Kinesis, or PK). For modern physicists, matter is more than mass and energy, it is also information (such as speed, direction, relative position, internal organization, etc.). Seen from this angle, psi is therefore information in the mind of someone that is becoming shared non-locally about knowledge (ESP), or about matter (PK). Yet, this non-local sharing of information can only occur if there is enough indeterminacy in the system at hand for a psi event to occur (von Lucadou & Zahradnik, 2004).

This would explain why most psi events seem to be linked to deep unconscious processes where there is a lot of symbolic flux and possibilities, if compared to the conscious mind. More a system is consciously observe, the less indeterminacy it has, and therefore the less likelihood that a psi effect would occur. This would explain two well-known issues in parapsychology. First, spontaneous psi events tend to be much more ostensible (or big) than the one planned and strictly observed through parapsychology lab testing. The second is the well-known declining effect seen is parapsychology lab testing, where the first few attempts tend to vary more from statistical probabilities (as the experimenter does not know what to expect), but the more testing there is the more it becomes closer to statistical averages because what is expected is know and actively looked for (von Lucadou, Römer, & Walach, 2007).

 

It is in this context that von Lucadou developed a psycho-social model of RSPK, as other people around the event are also influencing it as they observe it. The model to study RSPKs has four phases:

(a)    Surprise. Typically, there is an individual who is living significant emotional turmoil (oftentimes a teenager, but not always), but because of some social dynamics cannot express it. The use psi, by banging walls, moving objects, etc., becomes an alternate way to communicate about their psychological turmoil. That person is called the “focus person” because the psi events are focussed around him or her. Yet, the people surrounding the focus person are also playing a role by their surprise, and by starting to think that the explanation is to be attributed to some sort of malevolent non-human entity (demon, evil spirit, ghost, etc.), rather than to the focus person. In doing so, these people called the “environment” maintain indeterminacy in the system by avoiding to observe the real system at play.

(b)   Displacement. After sometime, the events become known and other people join in. They are typically believers in the existence of non-human entities, such as psychics, self-declared parapsychologists, etc. These newcomers are called the “naive observers,” because of their belief that non-human entities are responsible for the phenomenon. The naïve observers redirect the search for the problem source away from the actual source (the focus person and his/her distress) hence there is a displacement of attention. This allows the indeterminacy to be maintained, so that the psi phenomenon can continue but usually in a different manner, as the message from the focus person seeks to be understood by the environment.

(c)    Decline. After more time elapsing, other people join in, but with a much more critical view of the events. They start to assess more carefully what is going on, asking more thorough questions about what is going on, introduce even measuring instruments, and at times can make a connection between the events (which usually have a symbolic meaning) and the unhappiness of the focus person. These people are called the “critical observers”. Given that they pay a much closer look to the systems at hand, they reduce the indeterminacy and by doing so the intensity of the phenomenon drops sharply.

(d)   Suppression. At the end, society through the authorities (police, social services, municipal works, etc.) get involved because of the disturbances. They usually declare the phenomenon a hoax though the media, often by accusing the focus person and his/her environment of being responsible for all this. By having the authorities focussing intensely on the phenomenon, no indeterminacy is left, and there is no more psi effect occurring.

The Belgian UFO wave as a large scale RSPK

Surprise

Like for most RSPKs studied by von Lucadou, the Belgian UFO wave started gently leading to surprising event. As discussed in the previous post, late September 1989 would probably be a meaningful start date for the wave. The SOBEPS, when the wave became public, were at first a bit worried that the September public announcement of a UFO landing in the USSR would create a climate of ridicule affecting them. What is clear, however, is that the symbolism of triangular objects in the sky of Belgium was slowly rising from September. There is little doubt that the first night of massive observations (29 November 1989) came as a surprise to everyone. The SOPBEPS only realized that something was going after receiving many calls from witnesses. Those calls, however, came a few days after the events, and were sustained in part by the televised interview of the two Eupen police officers, and especially the wide press coverage of 1 December 1989. In other words, many witnesses realized that what they saw was a much bigger “event” than they thought, and it was at that point that they decided to report their experience to the SOBEPS. Hence, the surprise period could be defined as being from late September to about 1 December 1989.

The surprise was not only a matter of witnessing a large event, but also according to SOBEPS, most witnesses of the night of 29 November did not know what to make of all this. Some speculated that it could be extra-terrestrial visitations, but without pursuing this interpretation further. All those witnesses, from the point of view of the MPI, constituted the environment of the event, the ones who were surprised; the ones who started to think about the extra-terrestrial explanation (i.e. non-human entities being responsible for the disturbance). Like in other UFO wave cases analyzed through the lenses of the MPI, who is the focus person remains unclear at this time.

Displacement

Starting on 2 December 1989, the SOBEPS becomes actively involved in the events. From the point of view of the MPI, they collectively constitute the naïve observers because, in spite of their rigor and sober approach, they remained committed to prove the Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis (ETH), i.e. ultimately assigning the origin of the phenomenon to non-human entities. New observations are recorded but at a much lower rate from none to half a dozen per day, until the next large observation day of 11 December 1989 with 24 observations. There are intense discussions in the press, especially during the period of 12 to 18 December 1989 (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 118-122). On 18 December, the SOBEPS gives a first press conference, well attended by journalist (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 123). It is really at this point that the notion of a wave of triangular UFOs is shaped in social representations.

The SOBEPS gave a description of the more common elements emerging from the witnesses report. However, as discussed before the triangular shape was common to just about half of the observations. By doing so, the SOBEPS, consciously or not, gave the impression that there were stronger commonalities between the observations that there actually were. In turn, this creates a notion that a “nuts-and-bolts” ET spaceship visitation could be more plausible. The notion of ET visitations is present also in the public realm but the press remains for the most part relatively objective. That press conference was in many ways a form of displacement as the ET visitation hypothesis becomes more prevalent.

What is particularly interesting with the Belgian UFO wave was that another social dynamics emerged during the displacement phase. Also on 2 December 1989, the Authorities (both the police and the military) started their own investigation, away from the public spotlight (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 73). On 6 December, the police approached the SOBEPS in order to collaborate with them on the UFO sightings (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 79). If one reads carefully the SOBEPS book, however, it became apparent that the main objective of the police was to “get ride” of all the UFO-related work, as they were submerged with calls and reports. This attitude is certainly comprehensible, as the police have limited resources, and dealing with crime remains its institutional priority, not UFOs. On 9 December 1989, the press reports that the Belgian military investigates the UFO wave (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 78). On 15 December, the military gives an interview in the press confirming what was reported about their investigation a week before (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 122). On the 18 December SOBEPS press conference, the Belgian military has representatives in support of the SOBEPS and 21 December, the Minister of Defense confirms that they cannot explain what is going on (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 125-126). Then in January 1990, the SOBEPS is invited to visit the Glons radar station (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 143); by the end of February 1990 an official letter of collaboration the SOBEPS is drafted by the military (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 144-145).

This set the context for the further involvement of both the military and the SOBEPS in the aftermath of the March 30-31 UFO. This led, ultimately to the public release in June 1990 of the report about the chase. By then, however, the military would continue to collaborate with the SOBEPS, but at a much lower level. In many instances, as a personal commitment of DeBrouwer who became a two-star Air Force general. The investigation of the March UFO chase led the Belgian military to come to the same conclusion that all other armed forces who investigated UFO before: there are things in the sky that we cannot explain, but they do not seem to be a threat and we do not have the resources or the mandate to investigate them further (De Brouwer, 1991: 490-491). Interestingly, by June the decline in observations becomes much more marked until the one-day spike of March 1991, and the one of July 1992.

The active involvement of the authorities, including providing public support to the SOBEPS by being present at their 18 December press conference, constitutes a change in pattern if compared with “traditional” RSPKs. In the MPI, the authorities usually try to quell any rumors of unexplainable phenomena. But in the case of the Belgian UFO wave, the response was the opposite. This is very much comparable to what was found in the MPI analysis of the Zeitoun Marian apparitions. When the authorities are supporting the naïve observers, then phenomenon does not decline sharply.

Decline (?)

The decline phase could be assessed as starting in June 1990, where there are few observations on average until the spike of March 1991. However, there were “critical observers” involved early on. The first sceptic attack in the Belgian press occurred on 8 December 1989 (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 77), and the next day (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 113).  On 11 December 1989, the hypothesis that a F-117 could be the culprit is discussed in the press, and other sceptical hypotheses about AWACS are presented over the following days (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 114-115).

As a curious coincidence, on 19 December the US invaded Panama, and the F-117 is for the first time publically acknowledged as being part of a real military operation. This will provide a lot of fuel for the F-117 hypothesis, as the plane’s shape and stealth ability became much more present in social representations. The critical observers will use extensively the F-117 in their counter-analysis of the Belgian UFO wave. In January 1990, the French popular science magazine Science & Vie, started what the SOBEPS called a “crusade” against the Belgian UFO wave reports (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 140). In May 1990, there are more sceptic attacks in the press (Bougard & Clerebaut, 1991: 219).

In spite of the somewhat active presence of critical observers, it appears clear that they could not match the legitimacy that the military authorities gave to the SOBEPS by collaborating with them. Hence, the decline phase occurred but not so much because of the action of the critical observers, as much as the loss of interest by the authorities in June.

As noted by von Lucadou in his research on RSPKs, during the Decline phase the phenomenon may try a last ditch effort to get the message across. From that point of view, the two last spikes of observations in March 1991 and possibly July 1992 could constitute such last effort.

Suppression (not)

The wave was “officially” considered finished after the March 1991 spike of observations in the first SOBEPS book (published in 1991). The spike of July 1992 was added as an important event in the second book (published in 1994). Where does it end is a matter of interpretation, but definitely the wave ended. There was no cover-up per say, in the sense that the authorities did not intervene to quell the rumors about UFOs. Once more, a parallel can be established with the Zeitoun case study, where with the support of the authorities, an anomaly tends to die out of a loss of interest rather than by closing the indeterminacy by using the prestige of the authorities to focus on a particular explanation that excludes the possibility of a paranormal event.

As in the case of the 1952 UFO wave over Washington D.C., the focus person that would provide the psi force for the events is not obvious. Yet, by using a similar approach to the study of the 1952 wave, it is possible to propose a group of focus persons that could be at the centre of the wave. In this case, there was a social tension that appeared quite evidently, although it is not often noted by ufologists. The “intense” period of the wave, from November 1989 to late spring of 1990, is also exactly the period of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist dictatorships in most of the Warsaw Pact countries, as noted in a previous post. It was the effective end of the Cold War. Yet, again and again, a more localized look provides some more interesting insights.

Most of the UFO sightings are geographically centered on NATO installations: the Glons radar station (near Liège) that was then one of the nerve centres of the AWACS surveillance system (and visited by the SOBEPS); Mons where the NATO military headquarters are located (SHAPE); the zone between Mons and Brussels (where the NATO political headquarter is situated) was the location of the March 1990 UFO chase.   As well, many of the triangular objects observed in the sky of Belgium are very much reminiscent of the well-known NATO tri-dimensional dark metal sculpture of its logo at the entrance of the Brussels headquarters.  If NATO can be credited for its bloodless victory at the end of the Cold War, it also lost its raison d’être, which is struggling to re-establish ever since. 

 

References

Bougard, Michel and Lucien Clerebaut. (1991). "Chronique d'une vague". In SOBEPS, Vague d'OVNI sur la Belgique: Un dossier exceptionnel. Bruxelles: SOBEPS, pp. 51-296.

Walter von Lucadou. “The Model of Pragmatic Information (MPI)”. European Journal of Parapsychology 11 (1995): 58-75.

Walter von Lucadou, H. Römer, and H. Walach, “Synchronistic phenomena as entanglement correlations in generalized quantum theory”. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 14(4) (2007): 50-74.

Walter von Lucadou and F. Zahradnik. “Predictions of the Model of Pragmatic Information about RSPK”. Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association Convention 2004, available online at http://archived.parapsych.org/papers/09.pdf.

 

 

 

 

Reading Notes on Rogo’s Minds and Motion

This post is reviewing an older book about psychokinesis (PK). In spite of being written in the 1970s, much of its content remains relevant today. Rogo’s book covers mostly macro-level PK effects such as poltergeists, “thoughtography”, the Soviet experiments, the so-called Geller effect, healing, and group PK. This book constitutes a good primer for anyone interested in PK. It should be followed by reading Pamela Heath’s The PK Zone for having an updated perspective on PK. The full notice is:

Rogo, Scott.(1978). Minds and Motion: The riddle of psychokinesis. New York: Taplinger publishing.

PK as an act of creation?

It is interesting to note that Rogo came to conclusions similar to the ones of François Favre, already presented in a previous post. Favre considers that psi effects are fundamentally human acts of creation. Something new has been created, and this can be interpreted as a new information arrangement, a new node of knowledge. ESP, in this sense, is information about a person or an event (past, present, or future) that now is part of a new node (the percipient who now knows about it). As discussed previously, PK can be construed as information as well, by changing the physical information about matter (speed, size, temperature, biological functionality, etc). In this case too, a new node of information is created. For instance, the watch of a witness to an accident is stopped at the time of the accident; this is new information arrangement.

As Rogo wrote in his book, “Psychokinesis might just be the most versatile and powerful force in nature. Its range seems limitless. Just look at the effects it can produce. It can influence the fall of rolling dice and levitate tables. It can interfere with that decay rate of the piece of radioactive material and, apparently, decomposed of physical matter and then reassemble it. It can heal biological tissue yet cause burns on the skin as well. It can start fires, but grant immunity from the flames at the same time. It can knock on wood or tear it apart. It can bend metal or cause rocks to fall from the sky. It can work invisibly or appear as a mist. It can function like a lever or take on the properties of a field. It can manifest as an energy yet appear as a biological plasma. I know of no other force in nature which has so many faces, guises, or manifestations. In the universe, the only comparable phenomenon with this versatility is a man's own imagination. Perhaps this is the reason we think of PK as a mental force. It seems guided by our thoughts and even our un-verbalized desires. PK might be capable of carrying out any task we want or think it can perform. It may not necessarily be only the physical force of our will but the physical manifestation of our very imagination as well.” (p. 216)

The view of PK as an act of creation, or as a physical manifestation of our imagination, also means that PK could be considered as an idiosyncrasy. After all, if it is a physical manifestation of human creativity it is therefore part of the human realm, and the psychological, sociological, and cultural contexts leading to such a creation are key to understand the content of such manifestation. In other words, these creations are not occurring in a void; they are not pure physical effects. They are dependent on our mental constructs, i.e., the culture, historical period and society in which we are living. This view of psi, and PK in particular, is certainly congruent with a number of observations about UFOs. People see machines in the sky when it becomes possible to imagine them (i.e., airships in the late 19th century, ghost planes and ghost rockets up to the middle of the 20th century, and spacecraft just before the beginning of the space age). Similarly, apparitions of the Virgin Mary tend to occur in Roman Catholic communities; the Chuppacabra in Spanish-speaking communities. The notion of prior plausibility structure, already discussed in previous posts, should be an integral part of any study of PK.

The next logical question emerging, then, would be: how imaginable something needs to be to be imagined? Some might argue, like Carl Jung in his book Flying Saucers, that PK effects are an individual affair and can only occur in the immediate vicinity of a medium. Yet, based on our knowledge of PK, Jung`s assumption is simple wrong. If one takes the time to look at the extent of PK research, from the late 19th century to the present, one would conclude that such limitations are artificial, and are in fact only showing a limitation in Jung’s own imagination. Like Rogo wrote in answering the question “what is the range of PK? I am afraid that this question will have to remain unanswered. So far we have found no parameters or substances which can consistently inhibit its power. Nor have we found any object to small or too large to extend its influence.”(p. 233).

In view of what is known about PK presently, I think it is quite safe to say that there are no theoretical limits to PK, and the notion that UFOs are PK effects cannot be rejected on the simple basis that they are too big an object to be the outcome of PK effects. However, size may still matter.

Social dimension of PK

The most interesting chapter in Rogo’s book, from a parasociological standpoint, is the one about group PK. Rogo describes at length two classical researches involving the use of a group to produce PK: the Philip experiment[1] and the group sitter experiments conducted by Batcheldor in 1960s and 1970s[2]. These experiments are interesting in themselves, however, they also reveal a few things about the nature of collective psi. As Rogo noted, “There is another psychological factor which comes into play during group PK practices which I felt Batcheldor fails to appreciate. As Maxwell and other have argued, group-PK effects are often directed by a collective mind created by the sitters. By joining forces, several people may actually form some sort of semiautonomous will or mind which directs the PK. Now this “entity” is not “owned” by or dependent upon any single group member. It is, on the contrary, semi-independent of all of them. A PK group, therefore, can overcome ownership inhibition because the PK is really being architectured by an ego-alien personality”. (pp. 195-196)

In other words, what Rogo was saying here is that the act of creation is the one of several people, and therefore from an individual perspective, there are elements or portions of the creation that will be foreign to each specific individual. Hence, the commonly described feeling of an “alien” presence when these PK effects occur, be it a ghost, a spirit, the Virgin Mary, or aliens from outer space. The key here is to recognize that there are two levels of reality involved: the individual perception and participation in the PK effect, and the collective output. A failure to recognize that the output is actually a collective effort, a composite creation, leads people to believe that there is a non-human entity involved. In a way, group PK is like any other creative group efforts, and this can be nicely illustrated by the famous joke: “Do you know what a camel is? It is a horse drawn by a committee…”.

The content of a psi effect is not only affected by the collective nature of the creative act, but also by the strength, or numinosity, of the effect. Rogo wrote that “Despite these psychological considerations, there are probably paranormal reasons why groups are better able to develop PK than individuals are. There are two psychic factors which I believe come into play here. First, while an individual may not have any appreciable PK himself, a group of people working together might be able to build up a formidable collective PK force as each person contributes his share of psychic force to the group’s total PK output. In fact, we might expect a group of people to produce stronger PK than a randomly selected individual could.” (p. 197)

It is an extremely common phenomenon in pretty much all aspects of reality, be it physical, biological, sociological or psychological: the more energy one puts in a system, the bigger the effect is likely to be. Why should it be different for psi? Based on our existing knowledge of psi, there are no theoretical reasons to have an exception for psi in this regard. What Rogo did not discuss, however, is what happens if the collective is a large one, a social group, a large segment of a community? The logical extension would be a larger social psi effect, and one that is appearing as even more strange to any given individual, as his or her share of participation in the effect is even smaller in relative terms.

Another point that Rogo brings is that in collective psi effect, a division of labor creates synergistic outputs that are stronger. This notion is, after all, the central principle upon which modern organizations, and modern capitalism, are built on: a given number of organized individuals have more output than the same sum of disorganized individuals. It is what the military describe under the notion of “force multiplication”. As Rogo noted, “Now let’s turn to a second factor which I think contributes to the success of group-PK techniques. […] It could be that PK works best when a group of people are present who can contribute the PK while another person (or persons) is on hand who is able to manipulate it. It might be considerably harder for one single individual to contribute, generate, and channel PK all by himself. In a group setting, a division of these factors may take place. (p 197).

This comment from Rogo brings the issue of experiment-based psi effect versus spontaneous ones. In parapsychology, there is a relatively accepted notion that psi effects produced through experimentation tend to be weaker than spontaneous ones. The reason invoked is that psi, being produced through unconscious mental processes, is maximized when the unconscious is allowed to be in its normal and “natural” environment. During an experiment, people are aware that they are there to “produce”, and this creates unconscious inhibitions. That is problem is described more generally by psychologists as the “third variable” issue. Yet, group PK experiments tend to show much stronger results than individual PK ones. One can only imagine the strength of a social and spontaneous psi effect.

The experimentation problem

Rogo made an important comment that needs to be analyzed further. He wrote that “Group-PK phenomena just may be the most important aspect of psychic phenomena we can explore.” (p. 197). If it is so (and I agree with his statement), then why parapsychologists do not do more of such group PK experimental research? I think there are two reasons for that. The first one is that most people involved in parapsychology are not interested or trained to look beyond the individual. This is the individualistic reporting bias of parapsychology already discussed in a previous post. The second reason is that group PK research, in concrete terms, looks a lot like the séance of the psychical research era. Parapsychology was created by J.B. Rhine with the very intent of staying away from the séance business, as it was perceived as bringing much disrespect to serious research. This state of affair is unfortunate, as group PK research could help informing parasociology.

This difficulty is compounded by the fact that experimentation at the social level experimentation is highly problematic. One could imagine an experiment that would go as follow: find a mid-size community that is somewhat geographically isolated, and somewhat economically depressed (like a mining community in North America). Get a secret arrangement with the local cable and a TV network to insert subliminal images of UFOs (one frame out of the 25 per second) during the most watch shows for several weeks. The image should show UFOs having a liberating and positive effect so they constitute an unconscious “escape” from the economically depressed community. Also ensure that there is an airport nearby with a radar station, and ideally that the town has a UFO club. If there is an increase in quality UFO sighting reports and ideally some inexplicable radar tracings in the following weeks, then the hypothesis could be verified.

Obviously, such experiment would not pass any research ethics committee as it involves deception and there is nothing good for the community involved. As well, no cable and TV network companies would take such risk for their reputation. But it is possible to say that the UFO parasociological hypothesis is falsifiable. But better experiments will have to be found.

[1] For more see Owen, Iris M. and M. Sparrow. (1976). Conjuring up Philip: An Adventure In Psychokinesis. Harper & Row.

[2] For more see Batcheldor, Kenneth. (1966). "Report on a Case of Table-Levitation and Associated Phenomena." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 43; (1984). "Contributions to the Theory of PK Induction from Sitter-Group Work." Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 78; (1994). "Notes on the Elusiveness Problem in Relation to a Radical View of Paranormality." Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 88; Batcheldor, Kenneth, and D. W. Hunt. "Some Experiments in Psychokinesis." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 43 (1966).

Eric Ouellet © 2010

Reading Notes – On the Track of the Poltergeist

This post is reviewing Scott Rogo’s On the Track of the Poltergeist (San Antonio: Anomalist Books, 2005), originally published in 1986. As discussed in a previous post, poltergeist phenomena share many similarities with the UFO experience, and there are a number of reasons to think that they may be different expressions of a common underlying dynamics. In this book, Rogo, explored different aspects of the poltergeist phenomenon. He built on previous research, particularly the work done by William Roll, but provides several cases he investigated himself to expand our understanding of poltergeists. Although it was written over 20 years ago, many of the findings remain relevant for parasociology.

The repressed hostility theory

The main thread along the book is a discussion about the validity of the “repressed hostility theory” to explain poltergeists. This theory states that a poltergeist phenomenon is produced by a human agent, oftentimes a teenager, who has a lot anger and hostility but he/she cannot express it in a normal way. Overtime, the unconscious finds ways to express such anger and hostility through psi means, and this becomes the poltergeist event.

Rogo took into consideration the critiques against the theory and particularly against the psychological tests on poltergeist witnesses proposed by Gauld & Cornell, and Taboas & Alvarado. Although Rogo agreed that those psychological tests are providing only a general sense of who are the people who take the test, he also underlined that in many cases the tests and other observations concord with the theory, and therefore it is still a valid theory. Hence, Rogo did not reject the repressed hostility theory, and he even considered it the main explanatory model (p. 146). However, it does not explain every cases, and therefore it must be used with caution, rather than becoming the blanket explanation for all RSPKs.

Beyond the individual – the social and cultural dynamics

What is interesting in this book is that Rogo looked beyond the normal realm of psychology, and attempted to include other levels of explanation. Family dynamics as a whole is clearly one step away from individual psychology, and it is an important part of the explanation. For instance, the Dell case was investigated by Rogo in 1978-1979, and it became clear for him that some poltergeist phenomenon can be difficult to distinguish from “regular” hauntings, which he termed “poltergeist hauntings”—a sort of composite mixture of several poltergeist agents which appears in it ostentatious form as a haunting. Hence, for Rogo “poltergeists tend to stem from individual personal problems while poltergeist hauntings sometimes stem from more subtle family problems. In some of the cases I’ve been able to investigate, it seems as though entire families were jointly projecting their poltergeists. For some reason these cases tend naturally to mimic true hauntings.” (p. 116) In this case, the repressed hostility theory appears to hold as “the Dells tended to lash out in the face of frustration by blaming others for his/her own problems. The Dells did not seem to internalize the hostility by blaming themselves, or by attempting to ignore it. [...] the use of repression to handle life stresses was very evident in the test results procured from both Mr. and Mrs. Dell.” (p. 129)

Based on a different case, Rogo even proposed that poltergeists and hauntings are two expressions of the same fundamental dynamics. According to him, “both hauntings and poltergeists result from the activity of a localized and focalized psychic vortex, which may become activated under a variety of different circumstances. [...] Perhaps these people actively served as psychic catalysts to the events they witnessed. Perhaps they somehow possess the ability to activate strange but latent forces already existing in the houses where they lived. If such were the case, we might say that a poltergeist haunting erupts when the psychic powers of the witness(es) interacts with a (usually) dormant force already present in the house ... but beyond the perception and reach of most of us.” (p. 113). Could it be possible that such latent force be emerging from the social realm, and therefore becomes somewhat independent from the witnesses? After all, there are some reasons to believe that hauntings are “nourished” by a community of believers surrounding a particular building, and such community can outlast the individual believer and thus allows a haunting to go on for a century or more. This is certainly an important hypothesis to test about hauntings: is there a community of believers supporting the belief? And when the community cease to exist, is the building still haunted when unaware new comers arrive? If one thinks about UFOs as an expression of some sort of social psi akin to RSPK, then Rogo’s findings about poltergeist hauntings are quite relevant. UFO, therefore, could possibly be construed as composite social constructions with a substratum of materiality. As well, the views and believes of the ufological community of believer must also be added to the equation.

Another case investigated by Rogo shows that family dynamics and belief may have provided the basis for the phenomenon. Rogo investigated a case in Tucson Arizona in 1983, where there was a stone-throwing poltergeist phenomenon. In this case, although there was clearly a teen at the centre, there was no apparent repressed hostility or dysfunctional family dynamics. The only factor the he identified was a possible neurological problem with the teen (p. 82). What is interesting with this case is that it stopped when someone was caught near the house after several weeks of harassment (although the individual was not captured). Rogo was convinced that such individual was a member of the sheriff’s team trying to find a human culprit. The clear effect, however, was that the family as a whole finally got the “confirmation” that it was a human prankster. The collective belief in something appears to be the key element in this case, as the family essentially conjured up the thing out of their own fears (p. 161). It is possible, however, that the very first event might have been caused by a vagrant person, but it took a life of its own afterward. For Rogo, it was a possible example of Batcheldor’s “artefact induction”, where faking PK at first may produce genuine PK afterward. (p. 161). Certainly UFO can be also subject to “artefact induction”, especially if one thinks about the famous 1947 phrase of Kenneth Arnold about the boomerang-shaped object wobbling like a flying saucer, and the saucer epidemic that ensued.

The role of belief once again appears to play a central role in these psi phenomena. Rogo also noted that “it isn’t surprising to find many poltergeist cases erupting within Brazilian families who were recently ‘cursed’ by a neighbour or enemy. It is, however, the fear of the curse that is probably causing the eruptions in these cases, not the curses or magical acts themselves. We are therefore faced with the curious paradox that, at least in some cultures, fear of poltergeist is a common way of conjuring one into existence!” (p. 158). The fact that flying saucers were mostly specific to the United States for several years (1947-1954) can only leave one to wonder about the critical cultural factors linked to the phenomenon. It appears that we are conjuring up what we have in mind.

Poltergeists mimicking UFOs?

Rogo provided a number of examples about the apparent behaviour of objects in poltergeist phenomenon that have many similarities with UFOs. He related some of the effects from the 1968-1969 Nickleheim case investigated by Hans Bender. Many incidents of teleportation occurred, as well as objects moving in an “unusual zigzag movement [...] Objects thrown by the poltergeist often do not follow normal trajectories. They will frequently move unusually slowly as though floating or being deliberately carried, will sometime make right-angle turns in midflight, and have been known to fly at incredible speeds and then just stop in midair and fall on the ground” (p. 12-13).

As well, Rogo investigated a case in 1978 in a factory in California where the RSPK agent was interfering with the electronic equipment of the factory, including the public address system. (pp. 55-64). It is interesting to see, once again that an individual can create the same type of electronic malfunctions that are often reported in UFO incidents. However, as Rogo noted, the factory had a piece of equipment that was emitting an important electromagnetic field, which appeared to be a key enabler in the case. (p. 64). This experience fits quite well the notion of PEMIE (Psi/Electro-Magnetic Induced Experience) discussed in the previous post.

It is clear that the study of poltergeist (or RSPK) is useful for the study of UFOs. It would probably be interesting also to reverse the exercise and look into the UFO experience to better understand poltergeist...

Copyright © 2009 Eric Ouellet

Reading Notes – Budden’s UFOs Psychic Close Encounters

This post is a review of Albert Budden’s book UFOs Psychic Close Encounters. This book was written prior to Electric UFOs, reviewed in a previous post. It is interesting to note that Budden is somewhat less “aggressive” in this older book. Although he puts electromagnetic effects at the center of the UFO phenomenon, he fully recognizes that there is a psi effect involved in many UFO encounters. He even mentions the concept of PK. It is difficult to know why his tone has changed just a few years later. The full notice is:

Budden, Albert. (1995). UFOs Psychic Close Encounters: The electromagnetic indictment. London: Blandford.

Centrality of electromagnetic effects

The central thesis in this book is very similar to the one he uses in his next book. UFOs, and particularly UFO close encounters, are produced by electromagnetic fields (EMF) that affect the brain. There are numerous possible sources such as natural balls of light, earthlights, telecommunication towers, abnormal geomagnetic fluctuations, etc. His argument is based on researches on electromagnetic sensitivity, particularly the work of Michael Persinger and Anne Silk. The effects of being exposed to high levels of EMF on the human brain and physiology are known. They range from hallucinations, blackout, skin rash and burns, joint pain, to dizziness and altered state of consciousness. In essence, Budden’s argument is that EMF are the material cause of close encounters, but the repertoire of images and notions we have in our mind fills the actual content of the experience. In other words, for Budden UFO close encounters are essentially a form of dream caused by an external, but natural, force. There is no non-human entities involved. To support his thesis, he provides a number of examples drawn from various cases, some of which he investigated himself. From that point of view, Budden’s argument remains the same in his next book. What is different, however, is that he tries to explain why more than one people would have the same “hallucination” and why there are physical traces. These two elements cannot be account for if one only takes into accounts the impact of EMF on the human brain.

PK, poltergeists and UFOs

In this book, Budden considers that the UFO experience can also involve, but not always, a degree of psi effects. On p. 15, he clearly states his thesis: “the unconscious – or more descriptively, the unconscious intelligence (UI) – that utilizes its reality-defying abilities (including psychokinesis, or ‘mind over matter’) to produce the effects of an advanced, magical technology in these ‘stage productions’, its motivating purpose being to establish and maintain an external social identity”. It is interesting to note that indeed, the unconscious being built as one learns how to live in society, social identity is at the core of unconscious processes. This is in line with the notion that people who are poltergeist agents are usually going through an identity crisis (like teenagers and young adults), and at the social level, as noted before, UFO waves seem to occur when the collective identity is challenged. Budden, however, does not make the connection with the collective identity, and the collective unconscious.

For Budden, the UFO experience is a just a particular form of poltergeist (or RSPK). The actual content of these events is different from the UFO ones, but they share the same structure. They involve (1) visionary experiences (aliens displaying magic-like technologies and strange apparitions and blood on the walls in the case of the more intense RSPKs); (2) it can have a contagious effect, but can be experienced by more than one person (involve PK effects) (it can also be construed as some sort of telepathically shared vision); (3) already psi sensitive people are more frequently witnessed of these events (it is something that Rogo and others noticed about UFO sightings, but it is less true for RSPKs. However, it is accurate it the case of hauntings, as some people seem to be more “sensitive” to “ghost” – i.e., they are more able to use unconsciously and unknowingly PK to produce ghost effects); (4) various physical side effects can occur; (5) smaller PK effects can be observed for sometime afterward; (6) physical object or entities can materialize and dematerialize, and existing objects can be assembled to create something meaningful almost instantaneously. On this last one, it has been documented that in the case of RSPKs objects can be assembled in a way that is symbolic. Budden quotes the case of Reverend Phelps in Connecticut where bedding sets were moved and assembled to imitate someone in praying position. For a clergyman, this was obviously very symbolic. In the case of UFOs, Budden does not provide any particular example of objects taken from the immediate environment in order to stage an effect through PK. However, he proposes that like in the case of Men in Black, and many other sightings of “aliens,” many usual earthly objects can be found such as helmets, uniforms, and other equipments that appear “low tech” (like the book, and the rolled map in the Barney and Betty Hill case).

Budden proposes that the main distinction between UFOs and RSPKs is one of interpretation by the witnesses: “one set of witnesses feel that they are encountering spirits of the dead and the other set, alien intelligences. It would seem, then, that when houses or buildings are saturated with ambient electrical fields, poltergeists occur; and when wider areas in the landscape are electromagnetically affected, UFO encounters occur. (p. 76). Once again, Budden offers a number of cases to support his views.

Another key idea is that the phenomenological intensity of RSPKs and UFO encounters is function of three cumulative variables, according to Budden. The first one is the electromagnetic sensitivity of the individuals involved. Some people are more sensitive to EMF, and some are actually extremely sensitive to them. The medical literature actually uses the notion of EMF allergies. The second variable is the intensity of the EMF encountered by the witnesses. The last one could be described as the overall psychic ability, PK in particular, of the individual(s) involved. On this last one, Budden does not provide many details, but certainly the notion that someone who has easier communications between his/her consciousness and unconscious would be an important factor to consider.

Dreams and UFO encounters

Like in the case of RSPKs, there are recurring themes in the UFO encounters that, according to Budden, can be only understood through their symbolic meaning, as they are products of the socialized unconscious mind. For instance, “the tall blond ‘Venusians’; the silver-suited humanoids; the ‘greys’; the robed ‘wise men’; the ‘watchers’; and the hairy dwarf—will be familiar to those in the UFO-study field. Just as we can do the same with dream types: the flying dream; the falling dream; the paranoid or being pursued dream; the wish-fulfilment dream; the erotic dream; the dream where you are being pursued but cannot escape due to paralysis; the anxiety dream; the exposed or nudity-in-public dream and so on. It is clear that entities/encounters and dreams share the same patterns of consistency; both are different but incorporate a range of basic elements in different permutations.“ (p. 70-71).

This is an interesting element, but Budden, however, does not go to the full conclusions of this statement. If UFO encounters are a form of materialized dream, then like dreams they can be interpreted based on the symbolism found in them. If a link can be established between the symbolic content and what’s going on in the interior life of the witnesses, this would certainly reinforce his thesis.

Some comments

This book is in many ways more interesting that his next one, Electric UFOs. Parapsychological research, especially on RSPKs, is integrated in his research. He is not the first one to establish that there are similarities between the two phenomena, but he providers further details as to how they are comparable. As well, his notion of looking at UFO encounters as dream opens the door to a number of interesting and testable hypotheses. But like in Electric UFOs, the role of EMF is given a too prominent role. Although EMF is most likely an important enabler, it is not present in all UFO sightings, and even less in the case of RSPKs. The other problem is that in many cases the witnesses, in spite of extensive psychiatric examination (see Schwartz 1983), do not seem to exhibit any particular psychological signs that are more common in RSPKs (and yet, not always universal in RSPKs).

In the absence of EMF and of particular personality traits, something else needs to introduce in the explanation. In the case of RSPKs, some parapsychologists think that it is the family or work environment dynamics that is problematic, and no individual in particular. Although there might still be a “focus person,” the personality of that individual alone is not sufficient to explain the psychological climate conducive to the production of RSPK effects. Hence, RSPK need to be understood as a collective psi event, and not only an individual one. Then, this brings us to question of UFOs. If RSPK and UFO encounters are just variations of the same dynamics, then there must be UFOs as collective psi event too. Most sightings, however, tend to occur when there is only a few individuals, oftentimes in an isolated area. In such cases, the notion of collective psi (understood as the psi of a small group) does not appear very appropriate. On the other hand, the notion of social psi, especially if there is a UFO wave occurring, appears more interesting. This is especially more interesting knowing that in many UFO waves, there is a symbolic content that can only be understood when the analysis is moved away from the individual level and brought to the sociological one. A clear example of this is the new trend in UFOs in the US and UK where UFO appear to be “organic”.

Copyright © 2009 Eric Ouellet

Reading Notes – Scott Rogo’s The Haunted Universe

In this post I am reviewing Scott Rogo’s The Haunted Universe. This book, originally published in 1977, is essentially about materialization as a psychic phenomenon, with a substantial emphasis on UFOs.

It is interesting to note that Heath (2003) in her book on PK (reviewed a few posts ago) quotes Rogo several time, and yet she does not mention a word about UFOs (as already noted in one of my posts). I think that in spite of Heath’s goal to enlarge the approach in parapsychology (particularly by integrating phenomenology), she still had to stay not too far from “mainstream parapsychology.”

Rogo faced the same issue in 1977, but he decided to go ahead anyway. In the acknowledgements section, he wrote: “Finally, I would like to thank those few ‘respectable’ parapsychologists and colleagues who urged me not to write this book, fearing it would adversely reflect on both me and the field. It was their timidity and reticence that helped me realize how important getting this material out in the open really is!” (p. vii). Hence, Rogo’s book is also an implicit critique of parapsychology. Not that the discipline does not do a job at what it does, but rather that it needs to enlarge its horizons if it wants to remain relevant.

In any event, as one can appreciate, the idea of looking at UFOs as a form of haunting is not a new one, and I think that Rogo’s ideas need to be put back on the front burner. The full notice is:

Rogo, Scott. (2006) [1977]. The Haunted Universe. San Antonio: Anomalist Books.

Rationale to go beyond the traditional boundaries of parapsychology

Rogo provides a number of well documented cases of paranormal phenomena that are for the most part ignored by parapsychology. Although, some like Heath have tried to open the door to some of them, the discipline remains uneasy about them, particularly UFOs. I think Rogo’s is still right today when he wrote that “just mention the Fatima miracles, or UFOs, or weeping madonnas, or mysterious lights in the sky to parapsychologists and they will out-icy-stare any group of academicians!” (p. 3). The key, however, is not to return to the séance business of the psychical research era. I think Rhine was right in staying away from that form of research. Yet, the existence of ostensible paranormal phenomena, or macro psi effects, is the main reason as to why parapsychology still exists today.

The issue, in my opinion, remains one of epistemological and ontological bias, and therefore of lack of methodological imagination. Spontaneous phenomena, which are produced through very subtle unconscious dynamics, are not easy to study, especially if one is taking a positivist perspective. But positivism since the 1960s was all but demolished in social sciences because it is not fit for the study human realities. If psi is a human generated phenomenon, then there is no reason as to why the critique of positivism cannot be integrated into psychology in general and parapsychology in particular. Yet, these disciplines have mostly ignored such criticism because they were seeking the financial and symbolic support of powerful social institutions like commercial enterprises research funding, governmental recognition, and academic reputation. After three intense decades of postmodernist anti-positivism critique that spilled over from academia into mainstream society (including the military!), parapsychology should be able “unstiff” a bit.

I think it is in this spirit that, while reflecting on PK and ESP, Rogo wrote: “if the mind can do this much, it can do much more. Within the power of the mind and body may lie the key with which we might solve all sorts of mysteries that continually haunt our world. We see UFOs in the sky, but no one ever seems able to shoot one down. We have long hunted for Bigfoot and a host of kindred abominable snowmen, but they always seem to vanish, gremlinlike, while we are hot on their trail.” (p. 4). Then he goes further in detailing his thesis that: “The possibility and evidence that we are actually populating our universe with psychic creations and beings will serve as the topic for this book. I have no doubt that such things as UFOs and ‘monster’ are physical realities ... realities totally apart from our minds. But I believe that they are psychic realities as well. The enigmatic creatures and vehicles are haunting our planet, but through the power of our minds, we are imitating them and creating more and more of them. (pp. 4-5).

In other words, Rogo’s book is about documenting and trying to provide some explanations for a particular and neglected form of PK, materialization (and dematerialization), which includes UFOs and alien sightings.

Materialization in general

The author provides some of the most interesting cases of materialization and dematerialization that occurred during poltergeists manifestations (RSPK). They include the apparition and disappearance of everyday objects like utensils and jewellery, but also of balls of light floating around, bloods on the walls, and even unexplainable rains of object or strange substance. Not only objects appear and disappear, but also people (teleportation) and strange entities, some terrifying while others are fairy-like. All these cases of various forms of materialization and dematerialization have been documented all the way to the Middle Ages (in the Western culture). The key argument, hence, is that (1) materialization and dematerialization related to RSPK is well documented; (2) RSPKs are known to be the result of human unconscious mental activities, oftentimes associated to socially dysfunctional settings; and therefore (3) various forms of materialization are likely to be of human origin too.

Following the same logic, Rogo provides also some well documented cases of materialization that do not appear to be related directly to RSPKs. He includes miracles and Marian apparitions, particularly the 1905 lights seen in Wales during religious revival activities, the Fatima events of 1917, the Garabandal miracles of 1961-65, and the Zeitoun apparitions of 1968-71. Although these cases appear different from RSPKs, they nevertheless have a number of commonalities between them, and with the UFO phenomenon in general. Among them are: (1) smaller lights surrounding larger lights; (2) lights disappear suddenly leaving a smoke or vapour trail; (3) lights are blinking; (4) lights have strange movements (zigzag, hover, quiver, high rate of speed); and (5) humming sounds. Rogo is also aware that others have made the connection between UFOs and the Fatima events (as early as 1962, by Paul Thomas in the Flying Saucer Review). But Rogo adds that “it is clear to me that the lights seen in Fatima, Wales, Garabandal, and Zeitoun were psychic projections of almost unbelievable magnitude” (pp. 78-79).

UFOs as human generated materializations

Rogo underlines one of the main problems in ETH ufology, which has been also noted by Basterfield (2001), Favre (1978), Phillips (1993), Schwartz (1983), and Viéroudy (1978b), that “none of these theories takes into account the evidence that UFOs might be intrinsically related and connected to the people who view them, and not independent objects at all. In other words, even though UFOs are physical objects, they might be projections from our own minds” (p. 84).

Cultural nature of UFOs

The first argument put forward by Rogo to support his thesis is that the “evidence which supports my theory that, by and large, UFOs are psychic manifestations comes from the fact that UFOs often mock our own thoughts. This would indicate that during a UFO encounter, the object is not independent of the viewers who see it or the culture in which it materializes” (p. 84). Rogo offers examples from real cases, but this issue of the a bit “too human” UFOs and aliens is now a well-known one.

Yet, Rogo add an important nuance, quite useful in the context of parasociology: “UFOs may not be dependent on any one person’s psychic projection [...] They often mimic a cultural aptitude. In other words, our entire culture may be projecting UFOs psychically” (p. 87). He thinks that miraculous events like in Fatima in 1917 fit this description. As well, he thinks that Jung was right in seeing a “cultural need” in the UFO phenomenon. But he disagrees with Jung, in that UFOs are at least somewhat physical in nature, and that UFOs are not only a modern myth as they were seen before the industrial era. Out of this critique of Jung, Rogo proposes that “UFOs reflect the cultural needs and expectations of the society in which they appear” (p. 88). He provides the now well known facts that during the Airship waves of 1899-1900, 1907, 1909, the ghost planes of the 1930s, and the ghost rockets of 1946, what was seen was a few years ahead of its time in terms of available human technology; something that remains within the realm of the imaginable for humans. Hence, it appears that the cultural element plays on both the individual level, and at the social level.

Rogo, for instance, sees a lot of symbolism in the Barney and Betty Hill story. “They were married during a time when racial equality and acceptance was a dream, not a reality. The psychological frustration and self-questioning they must have gone through are aptly presented in their abduction tale” (p. 123). The issue of reproduction and mixed children was clearly at the center of their story, and this was a big issue for mixed couples in those years (even if Betty was infertile).

UFOs and what is known in parapsychology

The second argument proposed by Rogo is that “if a person sees a UFO once it is highly likely he will see one again at some time during his life” (p. 86). Once again he offers real cases to support his argument. The famous case of Barney and Betty Hill fits this picture as well, as they saw UFOs after their 1961 encounters. It is known in parapsychology that some people have more aptitude to produce psi effects than others, especially when it comes to macro psi effects.

Another argument that Rogo proposes is that many UFO events are accompanied by other psychic events. But we have to be clear about what constitute a psychic event in the first place. One of the interesting examples he provides is about witness accounts of telepathic communications with aliens that are always described as ‘clear’ and direct. Yet, research in parapsychology has shown that “telepathically transferred or assimilated information is usually fragmented, symbolic, or distorted. There is no such thing as ‘perfect’ ESP” (p. 91). Hence, alien encounters like the one in the story of Barney and Betty Hill need to be re-thought seriously, in spite of the sincerity of the Hills couple. There seem to be psychical and dreamlike elements in their story. Rogo identifies three psychic elements of UFO sightings that can be directly related to what is known in parapsychology: (1) having the impression that one should look somewhere in particular before seeing a UFO; (2) poltergeist-like activities surrounding the UFO sighting; (3) miraculous healing or unexplainable diseases. All these three elements have been studied by parapsychology and we know these are of human origin. Rogo adds yet another element: most psychic events occur when people are initially asleep as the unconscious mind is freer to express itself, and this fits well many UFO experiences, particularly the abduction cases.

Rogo provides several example of UFO sightings followed some time later by poltergeist activities. It is interesting to note that, once again, the Barney and Betty Hill case shows the same pattern (particularly, Betty’s earrings that she was wearing during the UFO encounter were inexplicably found on her kitchen table with dead leaves a few weeks later).

The relative materiality of UFOs

Rogo also points out the issue of space-vehicle that are constantly violates the laws of physics. Rogo shows that they behave more like animals travelling in group, “playing hopscotch or leapfrog, and are very sensitive to atmospheric disturbances” (p. 87). As well, they have the ability to change shape, something noticed and documented by Jacques Vallée and many others. Lastly, they are very elusive as none was ever captured one. As Rogo states: “None of these facts is consistent with the theory that UFOs are physical vehicles. But they do fit neatly into the hypothesis that they are psychic materializations—physical objects created psychically by our own minds and molded by our own will” (p. 87).

With respect to sightings and interactions with alien entities, Rogo shows that many reports are about entities that are not fully physical. They go across walls; they do not leave tracks behind; they disappear in thin air; etc. For him, “apparitions represent an interface between mind and matter. They are partly physical, partly mental. UFOs and UFO occupants might fall into a similar pattern—projections from our own minds that take on the characteristics and the ability to manipulate real matter. They might be ‘real’ in every sense of the word, but still be products of our own psychic potential” (p. 112).

Rogo also underline that people can actually create UFO through psychic means. Once more, the Barney and Betty Hill case is a good illustration. In 1966, at the suggestion of a friend, they started what they called ‘psychophysical’ experiments, and they were successful in creating a number of UFO sightings, but also poltergeist-like activities. Betty always believed that she was in contact with her captors during those experiments, but research in parapsychology indicates otherwise; she is more likely to be the source of all this.

It is interesting to note, in passing, that Rogo also make a link with the idea of Tibetan tulpas, first introduced in the West by Alexandra David-Neel at the end of the 1920s.

Concluding Remarks

A very good book on the topic, and I would say it is a classic. Many of the concepts and issues I found elsewhere were probably originating from this book from Rogo. In any event, it is also well-written and entertaining.

Copyright © 2009 Eric Ouellet

Reading Notes – Heath’s phenomenology of PK

This is the last post about reviewing Heath’s book on PK. The focus of the third part of her book remains on individual experience, as she proposes a psychological phenomenology of PK. Phenomenology is understood here as a description of the PK experience by people who are performing PK, from the point of view of the experiencers. As Heath states, “phenomenology is a rigorous method that was developed specifically for this purpose. It allows an investigator to scientifically examine experiences and boil them down to their fundamental essential features.”(p. 207). Phenomenology in psychology is often associated with the Gestalt school of thought.

Another important element of phenomenology is that it does not give the investigator a special observation standpoint that would be “superior” to the one of people experiencing. This constitutes a major difference with other approaches in psychology where it is implicit that the psychologist “knows better” than the subject. To put it in Heath’s words, this means “that the study was not concerned with either the magnitude, or the ultimate reality, of the [PK] event. It only focused upon the experience itself.” (p. 207).

The choice of phenomenology, however, appears to me as more than just out of convenience to document experiences from experiencers. As Heath notices, because PK appears to occur often in an altered state of consciousness (ASC), the description of the experience cannot use “normal” points of reference. Elements like the sense of time, the feeling of knowing something special that cannot be put into words, strange feeling of dissociation and unity with the environment, etc., cannot be adequately describe if ones remains attached narrow materialistic descriptions (which is a common problem in ETH ufology).

Phenomenology is also a well known approach in the social sciences. Hence, it is an interesting approach because both psychology and social sciences can work together using the same epistemological framework. Something to keep in mind for parasociology when reaching out to parapsychology.

For the purpose of “extracting” interesting findings and concepts for parasociology, the review will focus on those elements that could be replicated at the social level, assuming that the fractal arrangement between the individual and social level identified before is valid, and those who can apply more generally to UFOs (particularly to those elements involved in spontaneous PK).

Altered state of consciousness (ASC)

ASC is a common feature of PK. Heath found that the key elements of ASC and PK are (1) a feeling of being in another dimension or alternate reality; (2) awareness of discarnate entities, by accessing our spirit; (3) altered sense of time or of being “out” of the time; (4) a sense of vast complexity, difficult for the ordinary mind to understand; (5) a sense of flow, or being in the “zone”; (6) fusion between the conscious and the unconscious; (7) sense of meditation; and (8) subtle shift in the quality of the experience (pp. 220-222). These elements, of course, cover a wide variety of PK experiences from lab tests on random number generators to RSPK. But I would like to emphasize that the elements (1) to (6) describe very well many UFO close encounters, especially those described by the ufologist Jenny Randles (1983) known under the concept of the “Oz factor”.

When one keeps in mind the factors identified above and links them to Randles’ description of the Oz factor, one can only be struck by the similarities. For instance, she states that "the Oz factor certainly points to consciousness as the focal point of the UFO encounter...Subjective data that override objective reality could be internal [from our subconscious], external [e.g., from some other intelligent agency], or both...The encounter has a visionary component. You might interpret that as meaning it is all in the imagination. But it really means that there is a direct feed, if you like, from the source of the encounter to the consciousness of the witness...Some witnesses report a strange sensation prior to the encounter -- a sort of mental tingling as if they are aware that something is about to happen. They just have to look up and see what is there, as if it had called to them silently...Then time seems to disappear and lose all meaning." (Randles 2004).

This points strongly towards a common dynamics behind PK and UFO close encounters.

It is also interesting to note, however, that “ASC may enhance a sense of connecting to the universe or the transcendent realm, and allow us to let go of the belief systems that are of our individual identities. It is possible that this would explain [...] why a person’s belief and level of confidence did not appear to be important to PK performance. They may simply become irrelevant in a deeply altered state. Thus, it may be that they only become important factors when the state of consciousness is normal or only mildly altered.” (Heath 2003, 230). This statement from Heath is of course speculative, but this relates to a number of hypotheses put forward in previous posts.

For instance, could it be possible that the connection with the transcendent realm is a connection with the collective unconscious, as Carl Jung proposed? In such a case, and assuming that the actual content of the collective unconscious is filled with what is going on in a community, then it is possible to explain that UFO close encounters are an individual experience of the collective unconscious. And hence, the individual belief and inner state of being of the witnesses may not be a critical factor at that moment of the UFO experience. The beliefs and state of being, however, may play a significant role in the early stage of the experience when a night light or a day disc is perceived in a normal or lightly altered state of consciousness. From that point of view, the UFO experience would be a composite psi experience both “fuelled” by the individual and the collective unconscious. In turn, this would explain that the structure of UFO events tend to be quite similar from one account to the other, but their actual phenomenological content can vary considerably.

Emotions

Other factors that are more commonly found in spontaneous PK are strong emotions and a strong sense of playfulness. Heath notes that “peak levels of emotion can trigger PK, especially for spontaneous events. This seemed to be true for a wide variety of strong emotions, including anger, frustration with others, sadness, excitement, and love.” (p. 256). Heath also quotes an experiencer to illustrate the role of playfulness, “’play is very important in these sorts of things...it’s entertainment at a certain level...it has a thrilling quality”. (p. 258). Although it is a bit generic, there are clear links with the UFO experience where emotions can run high, including fear mixed with curiosity, which in a way connects both aspects of emotions in PK, i.e., the strong emotions and the thrilling aspect. The famous story of Barney and Betty Hill certainly fits quite well these elements found in spontaneous PK. However, Heath does not identify fear as a key emotion. Given the type of experience selected for her study, this is not surprising.

Heath also underlines that “spontaneous PK tended to be associated with high levels of emotion, physical activation, and a relative lack of awareness of an ASC compared to intentional PK experiences. Also, in spontaneous PK awareness was often focussed on something other than the target, such a thought, memory, emotion, or another person.” (p.264). Clearly, the lack of awareness that people are in ASC during an event is a common issue in the UFO experience. It is only in the 1980s with more astute UFO investigators, like Randles and Schwartz, that this aspect was brought to light. The lack of focus on the target is more problematic in the case of UFO close encounters as it is a very comprehensive event. It can be noted, however, that in the case of Barney and Betty Hill the thought and fear of being stopped by a group of men was the main focus of Barney’s consciousness (which in the context of the racial tensions of the early 1960s in the United States, this was not an unfounded fear), while for Betty it was the willingness to remember the event to prove the ET reality of UFOs (as she was a strong believer in the ETH before the events of September 1961).

Openness to the experience

Heath describes openness as “both something of a personality style and a lack of rigid beliefs that might prohibit PK. It seems to indicate a flexible worldview, which might allow the performer not only to do PK, but also to recognize and accept their experiences. [But...] belief systems seemed to play far less of a role than the literature would suggest.” (p. 307). This is an interesting distinction, but it can also cause quite a bit of confusion. For instance, studies that identified the belief in the paranormal as an important element of the UFO experience (Philips 1993; Spanos et al. 1993; Basterfield and Thalbourne 2001) used the concept of belief not meant to mean necessarily “belief system” but rather a positive attitude towards the paranormal in general. The word belief can therefore mean either “belief system” or “openness”.

In her summary, Heath reassesses somewhat her findings in stating that “in a way, openness to an experience is also a willingness to suspend disbelief, and to see what can happen without the interference of the intellect. It also suggests a lack of attachment to a rigid world view. Hence, it is possible that beliefs could act to modify PK performance either through encouraging the performer to be open to the possibility of PK, and/or willingness to open up to that state[...]”(p. 314). The relationship between belief systems and openness can be therefore more subtle than previously understood by parapsychologists. Here, I can think again of the different experiences of Barney and Betty Hill. Barney had a more rigid belief in “rationality” while Betty was quite open to have an extraordinary experience. Barney had no visual memories of being on “the ship”. It was Betty who provided the bulk of the story about the “Greys”, the medical experiment, the stellar map, etc. The Hill story fits well Heath’s findings about openness.

Sense of Knowing and Impact

Heath found that there is a general sense of knowing among experiencers. Knowing that the event will occur; knowing that the healing is working or not. The sense of knowing also manifests itself through ESP-like experiences. It is a well documented characteristic of UFO close encounters that the witnesses “know” that the light in the sky is “interested” in them, and they know what the alien entities are saying even when there are no sounds or spoken word uttered.

Heath also underlines that “impact appears to be a frequent consequence of the PK experience (Heath 1999). This may not be surprising, considering that the events often have intense personal meaningfulness. PK can bring up strong emotions and cause major shifts in world view—sometimes acting as a pivotal life event.” (p. 325). This issue of impact has been identified by Jacques Vallée about the UFO experience early on. However, I think Vallée is wrong in seeing the UFO experience as a control system by creating life changing events for people (for better or for worst). PK is a natural human ability (both individual and collective) and life changing events associated with PK are just a possible outcome of PK. There is no control system behind it. I think Vallée confused two different dynamics. The first one is the life changing capacity of PK/UFO events on one hand, and on the other hand the UFO belief system found in societies that may have been nurtured by intelligence agencies, as described by Bishop (2005). But the linkages between the two dynamics are unintended consequences. Unintended consequences are very common outcomes of complex societies and occur in a large array of issues and topics (bureaucratic miscommunications being the most common and obvious one).

Final comments

I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the paranormal in general. Although the author does not touch upon UFO events or hauntings, the link between these phenomena and PK are very strong. It does not provide the proof that UFOs and UFO waves are essentially PK events, but the intense similarity in their dynamics offers a powerful indication that indeed we are dealing with some sort of PK phenomena.

Copyright © 2009 Eric Ouellet

Reading Notes – Heath’s on PK Research and Theories

This post is reviewing the second part of Heath’s book about PK Research and Theories. The emphasis is placed here on issues that might be of relevance to the study of UFOs, UFO waves, and for parasociology in general.

Spontaneous PK and symbolism

Spontaneous PK tend to have an inherent symbolic component. Louisa Rhine, co-founder with her husband of modern parapsychology, “made the vital observation that spontaneous nonrecurrent PK events are frequently linked with a crisis of some kind, and many of the involved objects were personally meaningful (Roll 1983). She also recognized that there were two people involved—one person who observed the effect, and another undergoing a crisis, often at a distance (Rao 1983). In addition, the process appeared to be unconscious, with neither of the involved individuals knowingly ‘willing’ the experience to happen.” (p.111). This idea of symbolism has been noted also in the particular case of RSPK, “one the more curious kinds of phenomena is when objects seems to arrange themselves into patterns or tableaus inside empty rooms or houses (Gauld and Cornell 1979).” (p. 116). This is a key finding about the general pattern of spontaneous PK, which has a lot of potential for the study of UFO waves. As discussed in the mini case studies, UFOs waves seem to occur when there is a crisis of some kind, oftentimes on matters related to war or national security. The people who are worried about these issues are not the same ones who are witnessing the events. Lastly, as Jacques Vallée found, UFO observations tend to carry a social and symbolic meaning. At the most general level, the patterns seem to be duplicated from the individual psi level to the social psi level, and this would be consistent with the idea that the individual unconscious and the collective unconscious are structured in a fractal arrangement.

Heath also underlines that “personal significance is a key factor that, although often overlooked by experimentalists, appears to be key to the manifestation of spontaneous PK. This is true whether it occurs as an isolated episode, or, [...] as recurrent event.” (p.111). The same can be said about ETH ufology, as ufological events are almost always presented in a complete social and phenomenological void; the individual witnesses, and what is happening in their life at the time is completely ignored (same attitude is found about social events surrounding the sightings).

One of the challenges for parasociology, however, is that there might be UFO sightings that are only meaningful to the witness (particularly when there is only one witness), and from that point of view it is possible that there is no social psi involved, but only individual psi as the symbolism seems individualistic in nature. Massive UFO waves, on the other hand, can carry symbolism at a social level (e.g., the Belgian UFO wave of 1989-1990 occurred at the end of the Cold War in the country that was the seat of NATO, and where strange flying objects in the sky got the attention of NATO radar stations and of the Belgian Air Force – the social symbolism is pretty clear here). Yet, it is also possible that the phenomenon is composite. Social psi is behind the UFOs, but the witness had their own individual psi projected into an actual sighting (or even no individual psi involvement at all – they would be pure witnesses of events entirely external to them). Thus, UFO sightings could be meaningful on both levels at same time (individual and social) without having a direct relationship between the meanings found at each level. This a common issue in history (the academic discipline). For instance, Barack Obama’s inauguration is certainly an historic event that carries a lot of strong social symbolism linked to slavery, racial discrimination, the American Dream, and democracy in the United States, but its collective meaning could quite different than the meaning attached to the event by someone in the crowd (for instance, a resident of D.C. could see it as a bit too much, and looking forward to normal life to resume in the city when all those visitors are gone).

Heath also mentioned that research on miracles in the 18th century came to very similar conclusions to that of Louisa Rhine (200 years later). Heath underlines the research by Prospero Lambertini (who became Popo Benedict XIV) published in the 1730s. His findings are: “1) psychic experiences can occur to anyone and need not be divine miracles; 2) apparitions have little to do with sanctity or demonic beings; 3) prophecy occurs more often in sleep than in awake state; 4) it is difficult for prophets to distinguish between their own thought and ESP messages; and 5) that predictions often take symbolic forms.” (p. 113).

Many links between psi and his findings can be made. However, if we focus on UFO sightings, especially the ones that involve “aliens” entities, it is clear that altered state of consciousness remains a central feature in apparitions; that perception is almost always mixed with the witness’ thought and psi effect; and symbolism is an important part of the event. More on this in a future post on revisiting the famous story of Barney and Betty Hill.

RSPK and the expression of aggression

One important difference between spontaneous PK and UFO events, however, is that children and teenagers are not over-represented in the case of UFO sightings. One of the first researchers to notice the over-representation of children and teenagers in spontaneous PK is Frank Podmore in Modern Spiritualism published in 1902. Some, like A.R.G. Owen in Can We Explain Poltergeist (1964), have speculated that RSPKs could be linked to the sexual hormonal changes of puberty. But there is no agreement on this hormonal thesis.

Indeed, I would suggest that a psychological thesis can also be put forward: puberty is also a time of deep changes in an individual’s identity (from childhood to adulthood), and such changes occur mostly in the unconscious mind, where psi –related phenomena seem to originate. This alternate explanation would fit what is commonly accepted about RSPKs: “first, that the RSPK agents have strong internalized inhibitions against expressing aggression. Second, that they do not have outlets for the expression of hostility. Third, that there is psychological conflict between the expression and inhibition of aggression. [...] sometimes better approached as a case of total family dysfunction, and need not always concentrate around a central agent” (p. 123). Lastly, Heath underlines that “we are left with the possibility that in times of stress, or where more normal channels of communication seem barred, that the human being may seek nonordinary methods, such as PK, to achieve their goals.” (p. 124).

These findings can be “translated” at the sociological level. One can imagine the case of a community that cannot express some of its deep tensions, which would normally lead to some sort of serious protest or even political violence. Here, I can think of John Keel’s The Mothman Prophecy. The events occurred in West Virginia, which has a long history of repression, in particular from large coal mining companies who used all kinds of means, including violence, to prevent ordinary people to organise themselves to defend their labour and environmental rights. Yet, West Virginia is also deeply religious (part of the so-called “Bible Belt”), where inhibitions against violence and the expression of dissent are strong. At the sociological level, this creates conditions similar to the ones found in RSPKs. West Virginia has a long history of sightings of winged men, big foot, and UFOs. The case investigated by Keel was about a major stress to come, as if the community knew through unconscious premonition of a major tragedy to unfold. If the analogy is applicable, then one indicator would be communities with serious ongoing social tensions, but that does not show organized dissent, nor does it get involved in political violence.

Group PK research

Some authors, particularly Kenneth Batcheldor, conducted group experiments in PK. Although this was done at the level of small groups (i.e., social psychology), there are a number of interesting elements for parasociology. The key findings according to Heath (p. 157) are three important enablers: (1) belief shared by everyone that the paranormal exists; (2) belief that something else is responsible for the paranormal events; and (3) the “normalization” of the paranormal within the group. Based on these goal-oriented experiments, one of the findings suggests that: “the unconscious knows how to do psi—it just needs to have an idea of the goal state to be achieved, and find some way to keep the conscious mind from interfering with PK production (Reinhart 1994).” (p. 157). Once again, if I think about The Mothman Prophecy, people in West Virginia have the reputation of being superstitious, and if true, then this can be translated into a strong belief in the paranormal but assigned to the agency of non-human entities, and it is essentially normalized in the private sphere of people’s life as people take the paranormal for granted. The expression of the premonition about the bridge falling and killing many people became the unconscious goal that remained misunderstood until the event arrived, and thus kept the collective consciousness at bay. As soon as the bridge fell, the paranormal events quickly disappeared.

Other enablers

As Heath mentions, “the naturally occurring (and fluctuating) electromagnetic fields of the earth are another factor that seems to be important. Geomagnetic activity appears to be associated with the magnitude of anomalous cognition and the start of RSPK (May 2001; Puhle 2001).” (p. 167). Another factor that appears to be significant in ESP (and therefore potentially for PK) is the exposure radio wave interferences from the galaxy which occur at its peak around 1900 hours in local sidereal time (i.e. standard time), and the least interference and highest success rate of ESP occurs when there is the least amount of interference from the galaxy at around 1300 local sidereal time. Most UFO sightings occur at night around 21:00 and with a second peak around 3:00 (irrespective of sidereal time). This is a well established fact, but it can probably be explain by life habits of people, rather than through a PK analogy. Once again, this can be linked to many observations and research about the electromagnetic dimension of UFOs.

Theories about PK

Heath (pp. 199-200) confirms that there is no consensus as to whether PK should be construed as a field or as something else. The evidence points towards both directions. Other theories imply that the human mind can modify matter, and PK will perform in various ways to achieve the goal (consciously or unconsciously). Other theories are acausal, like Jung’s synchronicity, which implies that “the unconscious is capable of absolute knowledge, and that the archetypes are able to exert their influence on, and create, events extending beyond the percipient.” (p. 204). Although there are a number of problems with acausal theories, among others it is not amenable to research based on positivist epistemological assumptions (a big problem for more traditional parapsychology), it is more amenable to psi research located at the social level (i.e., to parasociological approach. Social psi can have a dynamic of its own, which implies that it can only be understood if individual percipients are not the central focus of research at that level.

Copyright © 2009 Eric Ouellet