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In the latest episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we speak to Parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach about his experiences as a paranormal investigator. Loyd runs the Office of Paranormal Investigations out in California and has been consulted and featured on many shows dealing with hauntings and the paranormal. Loyd talks to us about being a parapsychologist and ghosts, educational opportunities, investigating, and we even discuss some of the current television shows that depict paranormal investigation.

I share some of my own personal ghost stories, one of which occurred when I was very young and the other when I was much older. My interest in the paranormal started from this very early experience as a child; while the other experience taught me that you never know when you’re being watched and by whom.

We learn about famous escape artist and medium debunker Harry Houdini in A Corner in the Occult. Can you untie knots with your toes? Houdini could! Learn about this famous magician, his battle with the spiritualist movement during the early 20th century and why he is spotlighted in this episode’s edition of A Corner in the Occult.

Also in the episode, I read listener email. We see which listener won a copy of Jeva Singh-Anand’s book Bed Time Stories for the Faint of Heart. And in The Essence of Magick Series we discuss the ideas behind magickal intent and learn about what makes it up and how it applies to greater scope of one’s existence and not exclusively to the practice of magick. This is a real fun episode. I hope enjoy it!

To message the show please go here.

The Infinite and the Beyond — Podcast: Episode #014 — Magick with Dr. Dean Radin

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In the latest episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we learn about the legendary 14th century French alchemist Nicolas Flamel in “A Corner in the Occult.”

Rumors say that Nicholas and his wife were able to turn mercury into gold and as a result of their experiments possibly even created the mystical Elixir of Life providing them both with immortality.

We talk with author and parapsychologist Dr. Dean Radin, senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of Entangled Minds, Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality.

During the course of the interview we talk about the Global Consciousness Project and touch upon what this could mean for the world. We also discuss his experiences as a research scientist and finally how his findings and current understandings relate to the art and practice of magick.

I also read some of the listener messages that I received since the last episode via the show website, podcast alley, and the show network. I even announced a new show contest where one lucky listener will win a copy of Dr. Radin’s most recent book Entangled Minds.

The drawing for this contest will occur in the next episode and if you are interested in participating be sure to enter by going here. All this and more in this great episode, blessed be and 93! Check the show notes for all links mentioned.

To message the show please go here.

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Well, what can we say? Dr. Robert Schoch! How humbling it has been to have the guests we’ve had so far! But, this goes beyond our expectations. We talk with Dr. Schoch about his findings in Bosnia and Japan and of course his discoveries that turned the scientific world on it’s head.

Dr. Robert M. Schoch, a full-time faculty member at the College of General Studies at Boston University since 1984, earned his Ph.D. (1983) in Geology and Geophysics at Yale University. He also holds an M.S. and M.Phil. in Geology and Geophysics from Yale, as well as degrees in Anthropology (B.A.) and Geology (B.S.) from George Washington University.

Dr. Schoch is the author or coauthor of both technical and popular books, including the trilogy with R. A. McNally: Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations (1999), Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids from Lost Egypt to Ancient America (2003), and Pyramid Quest: Secrets of the Great Pyramid and the Dawn of Civilization (2005). A recent book publication by Dr. Schoch is The Parapsychology Revolution: A Concise Anthology of Paranormal and Psychical Research (compilation, and a hundred pages of commentary, by Robert M. Schoch and Logan Yonavjak; 2008). Dr. Schoch’s works have been translated into numerous languages and distributed around the world. He is also the coauthor of an environmental science textbook used in universities across the United States. He has contributed to numerous magazines, journals, and reviews on geology, parapsychology, and ancient civilizations.

Click here to find out more: www.robertschoch.com

When Jim Channon authored the First Earth Battalion manual, he was hoping to bring warfare into a more humane, modern age. In a new series of columns, he talks about the film and why harnessing the paranormal is so important.

Jon Ronson, who wrote the book The Men Who Stare at Goats, has taken over the Guardian’s film section this week, and asked former Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon, one of the inspirations behind The Men Who Stare at Goats, write a few columns about the film and his ideas. Channon authored the First Earth Battalion manual, which proposed that the US Army modernize warfare by looking toward the human potential movement. Channon suggested engaging the enemy with positive vibrations and offerings of peace, but also suggested that soldiers unlock their potential by practicing meditation and yoga, and that work to develop superhuman abilities such as perceiving auras, teleportation, psychokinesis, and precognition. Ronson discusses Channon’s parapsychology in his book, and many of Channon’s ideas found their way into the film.

In his columns, Channon says that he doesn’t mind that his ideas are being presented as comedy (he calls it “the ultimate roast”), and is just happy that they’ve enjoyed such a long shelf life. After all, he still believes that the ideas he lays out in the First Earth Battalion are still important in the modern age. Modern warfare, he notes, is still extremely violent and psychologically scarring. He believes that, by opening up their perceptions, soldiers can avoid situations where they might be in physical danger or risk killing another human being.

More on io9.com and here’s the trailer for the film:

Telepathy and the interbrain. The belief in telepathy is deeply rooted in many of us, and not only science fiction fans. Mothers ring their daughters thousands of miles away, and their daughters say, “How did you know? I was just thinking of you”. We walk into a room and we just get a feeling about someone: it is as if we knew what they were thinking, and what they will say next.

Professors of parapsychology — and there are a few — have been unable to replicate these results in the laboratory. Minds they have to conclude cannot pass thoughts or images to other minds directly. Perhaps this should not be a surprise. After all, we do pass thoughts and images to each other pretty effectively by speaking, drawing, singing, and so on. More to the point, our minds are our own, and we want them to remain so. We fight to keep our original thoughts. So is telepathy just wishful thinking, born out of our wish to be close to our loved ones and not feel that they have minds that will be for ever closed to us? Or is it a more general feeling against the scientists and others who seem to want to reduce everything to atoms without allowing for the connectedness that joins us to the universe?

I don’t think that telepathy is just wishful thinking, and nor do many neuroscientists. Except that they do not think that minds are connected, but brains. You don’t have to be a scientist to know this, of course. We all know that we can be feeling down in the dumps, but if we meet friends we can be cheered up by their obvious cheerfulness even if they don’t say anything: their good cheer can be contagious. This kind of contagion can occur without us even being aware of it–and if we become aware of it, we may back away from it. If, for example, we think: “It’s all very well for them to be happy. They don’t know what it’s like to be me” then we can block the good cheer from changing our mood. It can even make it worse. At a more basic level, if we experience ourselves as not belonging to the group, the contagion effect may not work. We may even deny it. We may say to a friend who says to us, “You soon cheered up”, that we were not really feeling cheerful at all, but just didn’t like to spoil the party.

So between the contagion of emotions like good cheer, and our own conscious perception of our mood, there can be many cut outs. I think that they are there for a reason. These cut outs allow us to have a mind of our own, and not be under the control of our brains. They are, with the development of language and the ability to tell ourselves stories about ourselves — the inner narrative which the psychologist Vygotsky described, precursors to the development of what is nowadays called a ‘theory of mind’.

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