Hey everyone,

In my latest research into the field of parapsychology, I've come across the idea of super psi. Super psi is the idea that phenomena, such as mediumship, are an incredibly elaborate illusion set up by the subconscious psychic abilities present in both the medium and the person requesting the reading. During a reading, the medium has the capability to piece together an incredibly convincing narrative by reading the minds of not only the person involved, but every living person simultaneously, all the while fooling both the medium and the person involved into thinking contact is being made with a discarnate entity via an almost identical portrayal by the medium's subconscious mind. Some proponents of this hypothesis also claim that the medium's abilities transcend time and space in order to collect even more information for the narrative, all the while convinced he or she is making actual spiritual contact. What are your thoughts on this hypothesis?

Although I believe that people can access the underlying interconnectivity which holds all of our "beingness" together in a way similar to what you describe, that particular viewpoint seems to be an oversimplification of what is happening when mediums are successful. With such a limited argument one cannot explain all that happens with people's near death experiences, nor their other methods of communication with the departed (who are still near us). There are quite a few ways in which people communicate with spirits and mediumship is only one of them.

Those who do deep meditation are quite aware that a "timeless" realm of unification of all being does exist. It can be experienced by ordinary people. It is an ability we all possess, even if we are unaware of doing it.

A really interesting question which the Windbridge Institute tried to address by looking at how mediums experience the information they get. The gist seems to be that many mediums experience the information gleaned from a supposed discarnate differently from passive psychic information (such as from an inanimate object); specifically the important bit seems to be the intention behind the information provided by the deceased usually with a distinct personality/motivation apparent. Often information may be given which is unexpected or needs later confirmation counting against simple mind reading. The problem for me with super-psi is that expands as a theory to become a 'cover-all' explanation almost as an anything but survival bias when it would seem that survival is the more parsimonious explanation. From a strictly scientific perspective however the jury is still out.

Yvvak wrote on Jul 12^th, 2014 at 1:24pm:



Very true. But of course 'super psi' is not an explanation mainstream scientists can give because they don't accept telepathy, precognition etc.! My view is that when those phenomena  are conventionally  accepted an important Rubicon has been crossed - i.e. the acceptance of non-materiality and the possibility of consciousness beyond the physical brain.

Bruce Moen wrote on Jul 16^th, 2014 at 2:11pm:

Hi Bruce!

Some scientists would still say psi is impossible, and the results in favor of it are subject to fraud or misinterpretation, but I feel this is more or less a defense mechanism meant to discredit the findings on something that simply has no place within the current paradigm. In regards to super psi, I share your attitude towards it, but I thought it would be an interesting topic to ponder, considering it is one of only a few hypotheses that most parapsychologists acknowledge in order to explain the data they've collected.

Thomas Campbell seems to be Kathy's favorite astral adept. He is the author of " My Big Toe" and was a NASA scientist and engineering consultant at TMI.  He claims that deceased loved ones who appear in NDEs and provide paranormal verification of their identity are in fact illusory.  The information gathered is in fact gleaned from universal consciousness via Super-Psi.  If his claim is correct, this has profound implications for the question of whether mediums can contact surviving discarnate spirits.

Take the case documented in "Heaven is for Real," now a movie.  At age 4 Colton Burpo has an NDE in conjunction with ruptured appendix.  He tells his Mom that he met his sister in heaven.  Sis hugs him and tells him she died in her Mom's tummy.  Colton's Mom never disclosed that to her young child.  Sis tells Colton that she has no name because her parents never gave her one.

Colton claims to have met his Dad Todd's grandpa in heaven.  Grandpa reveals secrets to Colton about his Dad that his parents had never disclosed.  Colton's parents   show him a photo of the grandpa as an old man with glasses.  Colton can't recognize him and observes that no one wears glasses in heaven and no one is old.  When he is shown a family picture of the grandpa as a young man, Colton at once recognizes him as the man he stayed with in heaven.  Can all of this really be an illusion created by Super-Pai?   

DocM,

Well, the standard philosophical rebuttal to Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is this: There can be thoughts of the thinker without there being the thinker himself."  So if I'm greeted by Uncle Pete in an NDE, the Super-psi theory assumes that Uncle Peter plays no role in our contact.  Instead, I contact a simulation of an absent Uncle Pete--a thought form without the thinker.

Berserk2 wrote on Jul 24^th, 2014 at 11:03pm:


But who is perceiving the simulation of Uncle Peter, doesn't that require a thinker? Sounds like solipsism; the idea that only oneself exists. Also, if as Popper claims, all theories need to be falsifiable to qualify as such and Doc is right that super-psi isn't testable; then it doesn't make it as a theory!

Hi Don,

Actually I'm my favorite astral adept!  Certainly we can learn from other's knowledge and experience, but not much tops having your own experience.

I believe TC indicates there are numerous possibilities.  One is as you mentioned, gleaning information from a "database" of information or super-psi.  Another is actual contact with the deceased or contact with a "helper/guide" that gleans information and essentially "feeds" data to you such as a data stream, which can include visuals.  If this is true, then of course, it's not all super-psi.  To me, the main question is how does one tell the difference?  I think each instance of contact can be examined for the most likely answer, still, I'm not sure we can always discern the difference even with our own experiences, much less from the experiences of others.

A couple of my grandkids like to watch game shows and they are always amazed at how many questions I can get right, so this summer I've been showing them how to access information that you have no previous "conscious" knowledge of.  It's been a fun way to teach the kids how to use their God given abilities to access universal knowledge, which can have some obvious differences from actual contact with another being.

One can access information through super-psi and receive the information in a visual form, such as seeing Uncle Pete.  In this case one would receive information about Uncle Pete's history and/or future probabilities or perhaps even Uncle Pete's actualized present moment, however, Uncle Pete would not possess free will choice if the information were coming from a database of universal knowledge.  The tricky part for discernment is that Uncle Pete could act just like Uncle Pete and unless you knew every detail about Uncle Pete's life, it would difficult to tell if Uncle Pete were acting with free will choice or if you were simply viewing an aspect of Uncle Pete's life.

The non-physical is teaming with life and at least in my experience the majority of contacts where two-way communication has taken place, other beings when visual to me, have appeared as radiant beacons of light that emanate the most beautiful feelings of awe and love. Is this a common way for beings/helpers/guides to appear? I don't know.  That's simply been my experience.  I've also had communication with another that was unseen, but heard and felt just the same.  Someone else may have actual contact and communicate freely with another individual and perceive that being differently.  As Matthew mentioned, we all create our own reality to a certain extent based on our personal knowledge, understanding, beliefs, fears, etc., but I also think other beings, at least in the non-physical can create a reality for us if need be, or we, from a higher level of being can manifest a reality and experience it at the same time.  btw... great posts Matthew!

K

Super-psi seems like a new aspect of humanism--it's very centered on human brain's or mind's abilities.  If someone wants to create a new name for their new perception of psi, fine and good, but we needn't accept it as an ultimate truth or deceit.

A contrasting view of psi is that it is our name for the trails of consciousness each life leaves, trails that are accessible to all who can focus upon them. Unfortunately each of us humans has limited focus. Some names for those limited ranges of information that can be gleaned from psi are spiritism, ESP, NDE, etc. Most perceivers of psi get so caught up in their early experiences of a limited range that they do not go on to explore or study other areas or frequencies of psi.

An Ultimate Source of the infinitely ever-expanding psi-web has to be very glorious. We human individuals are just little blips sometimes following some major strands, sometimes creating our own micro-areas of netting. Or so says my limited Interpreter (-: