Abstract

This is a theoretical paper; about ‘psi’, as interdisplaniry topic among; psychology, biology, and physics. The paper represents an operational executive definition to psi experience and behavior. The aim of this paper is to suggest a hypothesis about psi as ‘a potential, latent, adaptive ability to sense and affect through distance'. The technique, the methodology of this paper depends on theoretical sampling based on dozens of reliable studies that have proven through years. I tried by this manipulation to introduce more definite, operational concept that may help in further interpretation, measurement, control and predict, then application on human society, by suggesting ‘oneness’ concept.

1. Planning, Mapping this Paper

Unlike the common way of writing scientific papers; (IMRAD): introduction, method, results, and discussion, this paper – as theoretical one- aims to introduce, suggest a hypothesis about psi, with all its aspects, as a whole phenomenon. This hypothesis suggests operational definition for psi phenomenon, which is so-called, and common known as paranormal, anomalous.

The supporting evidence in this paper derived from logical gradual steps: First, I give introduction about psi; I mean by psi all paranormal aspects, as mentioned above, which means: ESP and PK, plus other uncommon aspects; as there are common aspects of all of these experiences and behaviors.

Then, the heart part of this paper discusses, manipulates and analysis if psi is actual or illusion, in the light of reliable studies, and logically divided into subtitles, as I tailed every subtitle with a conclusion.

Finally, I represent the hypothesized vision, operational definition as a conclusion of all above.

The importance of this paper emerged from so prominent writes that claimed:

- Downes: “A new framework for scientific investigation of Psi is needed, the current observations and instruments maybe inadequate to capture and characterize psi phenomena. A much-needed stopgap until Psi researchers have in place a framework in which outcomes of experiments can be reliably and reproducibly predicted. The journey to this framework is not without its challenges; the fragmented specialization has not lent itself to a solid methodology for studying Psi, human psychology, and experiences that transcend disciplinary boundaries”. ¹⁰.

- Rex Stanford advocated strongly that the advancement of parapsychology requires hypothesis development based on information from a wide range of sources. Parapsychologists would do well to make methodological, conceptual and empirical contributions not only to parapsychology, but also to non-psi scientific domains, solving the puzzles posed by psi research will require advancements in more traditional scientific fields, something to which parapsychologists can and should actively contribute. ³⁶.

- Irwin- in his 2014 paper, on 114 PA members, about their views on the major problem that faced parapsychology today, through online survey - found, as participants said, many problems; as lack of a conclusive database, lack of widely endorsed theory, a lack of an accepted theoretical account; "We need a theory that relates psi and survival phenomena to mainstream psychology and biology", a theoretical model that is board ranging, scientifically demonstrated in part, mathematically justified, and philosophically appropriate. ¹⁴.

This paper in final section, suggests a definition that join all shared aspects of psi phenomena and experience in an executive, operational way that may exam and prove interdisplaniry.

2. Psi Experience

Whether we consider ourselves believers in psychical phenomena or not, many of us have had something happen to make us wonder about the subject ²⁹.

Such experiences may not happen often, but they may leave us with strong feelings to explore there mystery.

I will use psi here to refer to these psychical experiences, I mean by it all what is common called paranormal.

Psi, in general refers to: "A means by which information can be gained from a distance without the use of the ordinary senses". ³¹.

The science that studies psi phenomena and experiences is called "parapsychology".

Although parapsychology is relatively new science, the phenomena it studies have been a part of human experience since earliest times ¹³.

People have believed in psychic abilities since the beginning of recorded history.

Certain individuals report more experiences with psychic phenomena than others.

Since these experiences usually only occur spontaneously for most of us, many cultures developed divination aids in order to access psychic information more readily. The Dogon in West Africa toss cowrie shells into a basket and interpret the patterns. The Chinese devised the I Ching. The Egyptian priests slept in special temples in order to have prophetic dreams ²⁹.

Since primeval times, people have spoken of strange and sometimes profoundly meaningful personal experiences. These experiences called psychic or psi; a letter of Greek alphabet, used as neutral term for all types of these experiences; suggesting the presence of deep, invisible interconnections among people, and between objects and people. The most curious aspect of psi experiences is that they seem to transcend the usual boundaries of time and space ³⁰.

The term psi denotes processes of information or energy transfer, that are currently, unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms ⁴. In popular usage, more experimentally proofed, commonly experienced among spontaneous cases around the globe are ESP and PK. beside these, there are many other related phenomena; which are recorded by less common spontaneous cases, as: OBE, out of body experience: an experience of feeling separated from the body. NDE, near death experience: an experience sometimes reported by those who are revived from nearly dying. Others denoted from ancient times, representing their ideas and cultures, as: reincarnation, haunting, poltergeist, dowsing, psychometry, possession, apparition, angel vision, automatism, direct writing, or voice, personal guardian angel, and mental mediums ⁴⁴.

The most psi experiences scientifically studied and proofed are; ESP and PK phenomena maybe defined as follows:

ESP: Extrasensory perception, a term popularized by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s, refers to information perceived by telepathy, clairvoyance, or precognition.

Telepathy: is information exchanged between two or more minds, without the use of ordinary senses.

Clairvoyance: Also, called remote viewing, clear seeing, is a visual perception of events or things beyond the reach of ordinary senses.

Precognition: information perceived about future events, whether the information could not be inferred by ordinary means. Variations include, premonition, and presentiment; foreboding, sensing the future.

Psychokinesis: is a mental interaction with animate or inanimate matter. Also called: mind matter interaction, telekinesis. ^{30, 37}.

3. Is Psi Actual or Illusion?

Maybe the great dilemma in studying psi is that we cannot put our hands, yet, on the origin in our body that is responsible for receiving and sending the energy or the information through distance.

Some authors, researchers, do not believe that psi has such origin or receptor, as our common senses have, and they prefer to talk instead about 'beyond material world'; as they wish to explore nonmaterial dimension of humanity, and though that parapsychology- which I define as "the science of studying psi experiences"- is the gateway of this spiritual world.

In this paper, I will represent briefly, the background behind this way of thinking, and then conclude my suggested vision- from these theoretical reviews- about the nature of psi.

An analysis of historical trends in science indicates that the study of the paranormal is not only valid from the scientific perspective, but has been an integral and important part of science since the birth of science. ³. The study of parapsychology is the study of unorthodox psychological knowledge. ²¹. Scientists have studied various aspects of psi for more than hundred and fifty years.

Throughout human history, general knowledge about psi reality, our world and environment has continued to grow. Science offers humanity and cultures a winnowing process of differentiation that decides what part of nature can be studied logically, supported by reason, and confirmed by experiment. Science only deals with the knowledge about nature that can be reasonably explained. ³.

Since the first scientific revolution during the middle of the 1600s, Rene Descartes separated the world or nature into two parts: Mind and Matter. Differentiating between mind and matter determines which part of nature is scientific and which part is beyond science and scientific reduction. Later, during the eighteenth century, Newtonian physics became extremely successful in explaining the known natural phenomena, but life was not part of his physics; life considered something beyond physics interpretation, the ultimate meaning and origin of life has always been associated with the occult forces of electricity or magnetism, falling more firmly within the realm of mind. So, science returned to the Descartes dualism of mind and matter. In 1880s, Ernst Mach has introduced an answer to this dualism dilemma; as he reasoned that human mind cannot know the reality directly, he suggested that physics laws could not be part of mind or matter. This view led to the development of positivism, in the last decades of the century. On the other hand, there was a birth of new science "psychology", this birth emerges when the communities realized that the science of mind has become necessary ³.

The second scientific revolutions emerged because of the clash between electromagnetic theory and Newtonian mechanisms, both with the Cartesian realm of matter and having nothing to do with mind, lead to the development of new theories to correct the problems, which are: quantum theory and relativity, by Max Plank and Albert Einstein, in 1900s. Meanwhile, psychology denied its historical roots and developed to a study of behaviorism alone. In the meantime, also, paranormal study changed from its earlier spiritualistic basis, and parapsychology emerged as a laboratory science under the direction of J.B. Rhine in the 1930s. Parapsychology developed as the behaviorists' answer to the paranormal, dealing with human' lab rats' and statistics, in other words, it was indirectly influenced by quantum theory and positivism. For example, in quantum theory the wave function is represented by the Greek letter psi, and often called psi function, in the 1940s, the name psi was adopted to describe the underlying process for all paranormal phenomena and rapidly became popular ³.

William James (1898-1982) investigations on psychic phenomena, in twentieth century, considered also, as an important effort to understand human mind. James embraced Myers' model of mind; who hypothesized that our everyday self, our ordinary waking consciousness, it a small segment of our psyche, whereas a far wider range of psychic functions, including paranormal, is active in subliminal. He conceived a membrane that easily 'allows information' to flow from the supraliminal, but the reverse movement is much more inhibited. James later concluded that the mind could not be reduced to the brain or seen as its epiphenomenon, as it must function as a transmitter or a filter of a large conscious field. By the end of his life, he was speculating on higher dimensions of consciousness, a collective mental net connecting all individuals as islands, which our several minds plunge as into a mother sea or reservoir, this is against the fences of our individuality. ¹⁵.

James suggested a radical science of mind; capable of dealing with subjective, objective psychological experiences, and exceptional states of consciousness. He thought the emergence science as multi- interdisciplinary science, and he defined psychology as a science of mental life; the systematic study of mental action, he added that, to understand the complexity of human nature, we should not ignore the investigation of psychic phenomena, with their mental states, this trance-phenomena is one of the greatest needs of psychology ¹⁵.

Frederick Myers, Henry Sidgwick and Edmund Gurney were prominent and respectable academic figures who attempted to apply scientific method to the study of a wide variety of mental phenomena. For example, they studied the survival of human personality after death, anomalous phenomena associated with mesmerism, and the strange physical manifestations reported to occur during séances with spiritualist mediums. These phenomena are today associated with parapsychology but the earliest researchers considered these topics to have a rightful place in mainstream psychology.

This group of thinkers challenged the reductionist and mechanistic agenda that was taking hold in psychology. Several historians have persuasively demonstrated the influence of psychical researchers on the development of concepts in what would become mainstream psychology. Gurney and Myers’ studies of hypnosis and mediums assisted in establishing the concepts of dissociation and the subconscious mind. Pierre Janet and Alfred Binet were interested in the pathology of mediumship and this led to the development of concepts in abnormal psychology and in psychiatry ⁴¹.

In recent times, there has been an upsurge of interest in consciousness and parapsychology, as Dean Radin showed in his book The Conscious Universe. Radin ³⁰ gave the results of a survey of books published with consciousness in their titles between 1800 and 1990. 50 % of all books published on this subject have appeared since the 1980s. Similarly, interest in parapsychology has grown dramatically in the last few decades. More than 50% of all books with parapsychology in their titles have appeared since the 1970s. there has been a general increase in the number of books published, but the growth in a comparable area such as psychology is much less dramatic. These figures suggest that publishers are happy to commission books on consciousness and parapsychology, and that the public has a great interest in these topics. These should be fertile times for parapsychologists because people want to hear what we have to say. Surveys show that a sizeable percentage of individuals report paranormal experiences and beliefs. This is no fringe area of human experience – it is quite central. It is incumbent on researchers to investigate and understand these experiences and beliefs, and parapsychology has a very important role to play here ⁴¹.

Krippner ²⁰ considers that parapsychology is the disciplined study of interactions between organisms and other organisms, and between organisms and their environment, that seem to transcend mainstream science’s understanding of time, space, and energy. He relates parapsychology to transpersonal psychology, indicating that the transpersonal states of mind/body can be understood in terms of chaos and complexity theory as self-organizing and self-creating (autopsies). Parapsychology has favored a typically positivist approach. Positivism involves a scientific focus firmly based on empirical facts. It also includes a belief in the testability of theories ⁸.

If psi genuinely exists, this means psychology understands is far from complete. People may influence and interact with one another in ways that psychologists do not currently recognize. In addition, of course the ramifications go way beyond psychology ⁴¹.

Parapsychology has always been faced with particular problems and challenges; the difficult to replicate observations that can be shared by competent observers, and a good theoretical model by majority of scientists. ⁴⁰. Other scientists debate that psi hypothesis maybe completely wrong ⁷. Continuing the debate, some believe the great difficulty in psi research will not be only in terms of its verification, confirmation, testability, prediction, and falsification, but mainly in terms of the lack of an established set of unified beliefs on which the research can be based; this situation rather resembles the Research Tradition. For the progress of parapsychology, it is proposed that we accept psi as a conceptual problem ⁸ and admit the following propositions: a) That we require, as a hard core, an expanded view of human consciousness, for psi seems to contradict mental functioning based only on the brain structure and its correlate electrochemical activities. b) That we accept psi as an empirical anomaly, based on both phenomenological and laboratory research. c) That we recognize psi raises essential problems about the nature of reality, such as the acquisition of information without the usual limitations of space, time, and energy, and that the accepted views of the nature of perception, memory, cognition, and communication are incomplete. ⁸. In his book ' Entangled Minds', Dean Radin, debunked skeptical myths, about the validity of psi research, as he said that psi research is not engaged in a quest for anomalies, otherwise, it is engaged in investigating puzzling human experiences, as reported by countless people throughout history ³¹.

To conclude, psi challenges, barriers or problems- among skeptics, or who persist studying its phenomena- rise from:

-No totally acceptance- among all academics, researchers, common people about psi existence and nature, as any classic science.

-The inconsistence of some experimental studies, in replication, which is common with humanities sciences, not only restricted to psi.

-The theoretical framework that explain and interpret psi phenomena and factors those cause them.

Nevertheless, psi experiences and interests are so far, as long as written history, affected by old human perception, and current as well, duality; nature and beyond nature, normal and paranormal, then mind and matter. With the development of science as observation and reliable measurement, psi study developed with controlled experiments, but the negotiations continued about fixed, reliable theoretical framework, and availability of replication among researches. Since the whole 1960s, up to now, parapsychologists succeeded in establishing legitimization of parapsychology, by changing attitudes toward it gradually. In parallel with this, David Bohm, introduced his concept about 'hidden variables', then theory of everything, proposed.

Then in response to skeptic words, Dean Radin, once said:" History shows that as the scientific frontiers continue to expand, the supernatural evolves into paranormal, and then into normal. During the transitional periods there is much gnashing of teeth. But with determination and courage, progress is relentless ³¹. At last, progress of science has brought us full circle once again, integral parts of science, continuing progress of science, all facilitate to a next science revolution, by changing our perception and handling to the reality.

Many scientists studied the relationship between personal, environmental factors and psi belief and experience. Some of psi phenomena are experienced spontaneously, while others through experiments. Stokes concluded in Palmer's book, that evidence for psi could be established by thorough investigation of spontaneous cases and by experiments with good research methodology that can be repeated by the vast majority of competent scientists ¹⁹.

Spontaneous Cases, experiences:

Most of psi spontaneous experiences that are seen as “exceptional” by science, appear to be an integral part of the (familiar) everyday world, though perhaps more accurately a ‘special world’. This is positive if one takes into consideration, how many people report such experiences – in Knittel and Schetsche study ¹⁸, alone this is between 50 and 70 percent of the population. Many other studies come to similar results and even find an increase of exceptional experiences over the years; Greeley, 1975, 1978, 1991; Newport & Strausberg, 2001; McClenon, 1994a, 1994b; Yamane & Polzer, 1994. Some authors such as Greeley (1975) think that the high occurrence of such experiences is evidence of the fact that the so-called exceptional is rather something common. ¹⁸

Cases gathered from surveys

In the past 10-15 years, surveys have been conducted in a few countries, used large representative national samples and included items on psychic experiences and beliefs. As example, one of these conducted by Haraldsson and Houtkooper in 1991, on 18,607 person in 13 countries in Europe and US. Telepathy; felt as though you were in though with someone when they were far away from you, was reported more frequently than other experiences, 46% of American sample reported one or more of psi experiences, many more of the whole sample reported by women than men, while education has no effect. Single and married are less likely report psi than whom with broken relationships. Emotional unstable, also, reported more; either very pleasant or very difficult times ¹².

Factors behind spontaneous experiences: Belief in supernatural among cultures,

- Barrett 2004 proposed that belief in supernatural agents is cross-culturally ubiquitous because of a cognitive Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device with the propensity to find agents in the environment. Within the theoretical framework, human minds contain a putative cognitive tool, the Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device (HADD) that is sensitive to signs of potential agency present within the sensory environment. Humans’ tendency to attribute psychological and social properties to inanimate objects, such as two-dimensional geometric shapes appearing to move in a self-propelled and goal-directed manner, is well established. The adaptive advantage of the HADD is thought to be its hyper vigilance to the detection of other agents, presumed to aid the avoidance of potential predators, for example. A hypothesized by product, however, is a susceptibility to infer the existence of supernatural agents ¹.

Barrett suggested two environmental factors that may moderate sensitivity of HADD. First, when the physical well-being is in jeopardy; Individuals living in an environment where they are under threat would need to be more vigilant in their detection of agency. Barrett suggested that anxiety state caused by environmental stressors are likely to moderate the frequency with which the HADD detects agency. Second, the ambiguous sensory input; such as dark and unfamiliar environments, are hypothesized to increase the sensitivity of the HADD. Barrett has suggested that when perceptual input is ambiguous, and the existence of a living organism or a nonliving object cannot be unequivocally determined, the HADD is likely to detect agency over non-agency, attributing agentic properties to something that in reality may be an object or merely an illusion ¹.

Attitudes towards parapsychology,

- Knittel and Schetsche conducted a study in 2005, on a sample Over 1500 persons of the Federal Republic of Germany, whom were questioned in a telephone interview about their attitude towards paranormal phenomena and about personal experiences in this field. Their results showed that: Germans are quite open-minded about paranormal phenomena, and more than half of the people even give an account of personal exceptional experiences. Interestingly, it is primarily young people who believe in the existence of psi phenomena and who are increasingly having personal experiences in this field. Presented are qualitative results, as well as descriptive statistics. In a second telephone interview, more than 200 persons were questioned once again, this time in detail, about their personal experiences. It was found that dealing with the paranormal is not seen as problematic at all ¹⁸.

Other personality characteristics,

- Lindeman and Aarnio, ²², in their study on paranormal beliefs and their potential correlations, (on Three thousand two hundred and sixty-one, their mean age was 24 years (SD¼4.67, range 15–60). Seventy-four per cent were females. Eighty-five per cent of all participants reported being full-time students. Of those studying, 77% were university students and 23% attended vocational school. Together, they represented a wide variety of disciplines including medical, natural and social sciences, technology, psychology, law, arts, humanities, education, business and service-(21 were excluded because of missing data)- suggested two modes of processing information; analytic thinking, and intuition. Analytic thinking refers to explicit, verbalizable and conscious reasoning that based on conceptual thinking, logic and evidence. In turn, intuitive processing is implicit, non-verbalizable, associative and automatic and regards personal experience as the main tool by which information assessed. According to dual-process theories, analytical processes and rational knowledge do not replace intuitive processes and contents as children mature. Rather, both types of processes and knowledge exist and develop during an individual’s life. For example, magical beliefs that are typical to preschool children may be implicitly preserved and activated in adults even though the representations have been devaluated in the face of knowledge that is more rational. Further support for the role of intuitive thinking in superstitious beliefs found in studies, shown that adults who prefer to rely on intuitive thinking are more superstitious than others are, therefore, their findings indicated that paranormal beliefs are associated with low analytic thinking. Their findings also, supported that, humanistic worldview, emotional instability, individual helplessness, and high desire for self-control, all has correlations with paranormal beliefs ²².

- Wiseman and Watt, in their study in 2006, about belief in psychic ability, represented that belief in psychic ability and intelligence test, academic performance are inconsistent and mixed findings, while relationship between belief in psychic ability and performance on syllogistic reasoning tasks, the existing literature does not support the notion that believers and disbelieves in psychic ability differ in their levels of general cognitive functioning. In addition, the probabilistic judgment tasks that have tended to show a significant relationship with belief in psychic ability appear somewhat artificial. They presented also that people who are deeply absorbed in a fantasy that it is difficult to know whether the experience is purely imaginary or caused by an external source, believe more in psi. Finally, they suggested a reliable relationship between belief in psychic ability and the finding of connections between distantly related visual and verbal material; the ability to find correspondences between events and experiences, and therefore to attribute psychic causation to such experiences. Various studies have reported evidence to support this notion ⁴³.

Some scientists studied also, the relationship between psi experiences, as presented in psi dreams, and personality.

- Para, in his book 'Sueños', presented that, research in such fields on many spontaneous cases showed the important role of psi dreams as an alert tool, for further events and changes, as precognitive dreams. (Parra, 2008).

- On the other hand, Schredl presented in his study, in 2009, about precognitive dreams between: 1898-1999, found statistical significance results, indicated that persons with thin boundaries reported precognitive dreams more often than persons with thick boundaries, even when dream recall frequency is statistically controlled. This findings, supports and expands this notion abut precognitive dreams and personality, because the boundary construct is a broad concept that characterizes persons with thin boundaries as creative and empathy, also vulnerable and tending to have intense , stressful relationships. He hypothesized in his current study in 2009 that, from a theoretical point of view, persons who are very sensitive (thin boundaries) and open to unusual experiences pay more attention to the precognitive aspects of their dreams.

Another aspect of importance is self-monitoring (carefully comparing ongoing waking life experiences with previous dream experiences to identify matches) ³⁵.

- Zahran, in her research in 2011, on 50 Egyptian people aged from 19-45, found significance relationship between ESP aspects and sample's variables: age, geographical place, education status, personality type, psi experience frequency ⁴⁵.

- Breen, conducted paranormal survey in 2011, on 3000 participants in Europe, US, and Canada; her study results represented that psi is experienced among women more than men. In addition, psi experienced early in life and still at an older age. 90% of her participants experienced at least one type of psi experiences. The most commonly reported is déjà vu by 85%, then premonitions 75%, apparitions 64%, telepathy 63%, out of body experience 53%, reincarnations 41%, PK 35%, auras 32%, and mediumship 24% ⁶.

- Zahran‘s study in 2012- about Role of The Sixth Sense in Diction Making and Interpersonal Relationships, on (50) female university student whom she asked to respond to a questionnaire about six sense variables, which are: six sense types, six sense as one perceived, the first time that one perceive their experiences and their frequency, with their relation to decision making and interpersonal relationships found significant effect among the previous variables ⁴⁶.

- Barnes & Gibson, 2013- in their online survey on 583 participants; (423 women; M age D 29.2 years, SD D 11.0 years; range D 18–75), which was constituted largely of Western participants, from United Kingdom (64.5%), Australia (17.0%), and Canada (9.6%)- showed in its results significance relationships between individual difference variables and SRSP; (spiritual, religious, supernatural, or paranormal.). High scores on personality factors (unusual experiences, trust and empathy) were associated with SRSP experiences of all kinds. ¹.

- Parra introduced in his study in 2016, the relationship between Personality and Perceptual Variables Associated with Mediumistic Experiences, his sample consisted of paranormal believers (N = 239, 74% females and 26% males) and undergraduate students (N = 554, 77% females and 22% males). The results showed that a sense of presence is the most frequent experience (75%), followed by an apparitional experience (24%) and spirit possession (19%). Only 41% had a type of mediumistic experience, of which 31% had two and 6% had at least three types of experience.

- Another study presented by Parra and Argibay in 2016 an exploratory manipulation of the temperament theory and paranormal experiences. 403 undergraduate students, using the standardized Spanish version of the Eysenck Personality Inventory, found that Choleric scored higher on frequency of out-of-body experiences (OBE), ESP dreams, aura, déjà-vu, and count of experiences, while Sanguines scored higher on telepathy, and Melancholics scored higher on frequency of sense of presence. Certain anomalous experiences, as OBE, dream recall and seeing auras, could be facilitated using extravert subjects characterized for being touchy, restless, excitable, changeable, and impulsive. ^{27, 28}.

To conclude, some people showed more sensitivity to psi experiences than others did, spontaneously and/or during controlled experiments. Such sensitivity, derived from, as shown above, both personal characteristics, with, some stirring surrounding circumstances and events; like, fantasy emotional people, with intuition thinking, more than rational, analytic one, in ambiguous crises times, and changing periods. Such combination between context and personality, aroused skeptics' questions; are these experiences alleged, as the output of such combination, restricted to exact people in exact circumstances? Alternatively, is it genuine as a part of nature, which is showing in psi human experiences? As science relies mainly on observation then controlled measurement to test phenomena, and then to establish theories, psi researches had been developed from observing spontaneous cases, to highly controlled experiments, with very high significance results, which helped to establish theoretical framework, with more reliable satisfied status about scientific study to psi experiences, and introduced answers to such above previous questions. I will represent these details in the following.

From the 1930s, controlled experimental research on psi experiences became the mainstream in parapsychological research, after the withering of spiritualism that has been predominated from the middle of the 19th century up to the 1920s; with the begging of 1930s. Rhine's name always connected with parapsychological experimental research; (1930s-1960s) his book about ESP, his experiments about precognition and PK, his proposal in 1957 led to establishment of parapsychological association (PA).

- The quality second leap after Rhine's contributions was the time from 1960s and above, as shown in the following:

On experimenters:

- Free responses test is in contrast with the fixed and limited card-guessing test. In free response tests pictures, simple words, objects or real sceneries are used as testing targets, there are two results; hit or fail. Remote viewing experiments are common applied in such tests. ⁴⁴.

- Ganzfeld technique experiments, was a next technique after free responses test. In Ganzfeld designs- as derived from German word 'whole field', and gestalt psychologists, as a mild form of sensory stimulation to study the nature of visual imaginary- the sender in one room sends a picture to a receiver in another room, who is at a distance and imaging what a sender is viewing. After the sending period, the receiver attempts to match h/her mental impressions with one of four pictures, one of which was the real target image ³¹.

- RNG: In the early 1970s, another step by a German-American Helmut Schmidt made his pioneered researches on the effects of human consciousness on machines called random number generator (RNG), random event generator (REG) ⁴⁴. A subsequent development of this new technique was the global consciousness project(GCP). Dubbed and directed by Roger Nelson, in late 1997, the GCP allows us to infer periods of global mental coherence, because of major news events that attract widespread attention ³¹.

-On subjects:

Some researchers advanced a proposal to use some methods in general psychology to train subjects, in order to increase their productivity. For subjects with no psi talent, there was no psi to reinforce, and feedback should have no effect on performance. For subjects with moderate talent, the feedback should prevent declines but not actually improve scoring. Only with highly talented subjects would the ratio of real to chance hits be high enough to allow learning to take place ⁴⁴.

-On the contents of the experiment:

There are some remarks to mention, as; experiments and researches on animals’ and plants’ parapsychological phenomena. Experiments and researches on telepathy in dreams, on remote viewing, on paranormal healing, on altered states of consciousness, the field consciousness experiments, some researches on spontaneous phenomena; as near to death, out of body experiences, and meta-analysis on experiment results ⁴⁴.

The output of the previous advanced scientific studying for psi experiences was lot of findings about psi existence, as mentioned below:

Lab studies about biology and psi,

- In Comings’ research, 2010, he found that twin studies showed significant genetic component to spirituality. It is likely that the genes for spirituality selected because the social cohesiveness that spiritually fosters has a strong survival value. The neurobiology of spirituality suggests that our rational brain occasionally needs to step back and give the spiritual brain some space to have beliefs and feelings that do not always make rational sense. He defined spirituality as a sense of belonging to something greater than one’s self did. Brain mapping studies clearly placed areas that are involved in spiritual sensation-(psi experience) - temporal lobes front, centre, right and left. He pointed also to, the personality structure that is included in psi experiences, as have increased concern with philosophical themes, religious issues, and intensive writings in these fields and poetry. He pointed also that serotonin plays an important role in psi experiences, as shown in 1998, and 2003, by Forsgren, Borg, and others. There was an inverse association between the serotonin amount and self transcendence scale. He defined self-transcendence as a capacity to reach out and find meaning in life in dimensions beyond oneself. Self-transcendence consists of three subscales: self-forgetfulness, transpersonal identification and spiritual acceptance. Creativity and originality maybe enhanced in this state, feeling connected to others, nature, and universe, he suggested this as “social cohesiveness” ⁹.

- In PA 2016 annual convection, Bartholomew talked about the ability of “healers” to affect the conformation of the DNA molecule simply by concentrating their mental and emotional powers of the brain and heart. ².

- Richard – in Palmer’s book, 2016- discussed biological aspects of psi research, including evolution. He first briefly reviews research pertaining to possible psi by animals and various studies involving psi and physiological and brain measures. He then proposes an evolutionary framework for psi. His idea is that receptive psi (ESP) is linked to the human ability to imagine the future ¹⁹.

- In 2012, Keen, talked about “psi-lines” and the entangled structure of the universe; Psi-lines are a well-established phenomenon. They are easily created, and/or destroyed by the mind. Not only can their creator detect them, but also more importantly others can readily detect them. This property enables their use for tracking. Evidence exists for this use over 1,000 years’ ago, and there is a strong probability that they were used by Neolithic man. In ancient times, they presumably created as part of daily life, to assist in navigation. Detailed research shows that psilines are not 1-dimensional lines, but complex 3-dimensional cosmic and subtle energy fields comprising coaxial cylindrical lines. A conical helix terminates these lines, which are also associated with nodes, electric and magnetic fields, and audio frequencies, they can also have beneficial or detrimental effects on health, and are perceived slightly differently by males and females, the properties and structure of psi-lines are affected by local and astronomical forces including gravity and the earth’s spin. Experimental data has produced formulae such as W = φ/3*Ln(L) + √3/2 which is the relationship between the length and width of psi-lines, where φ is the golden ratio 1.61803. As this and similar formulae involve no arbitrary constants and only universal constants, this is good evidence that the mind can interact with the cosmos. Although knowledge and sensation about psi-lines existed since thousands of years, serious scientific research on this subject only started few years ago. Swedish and German researches since 1994 had independently confirmed the existence of psilines, recent psi-lines researches including animal navigation, as birds’ migrations. Psi-lines are mind generated subtle energy lines that terminated by spirals. Psi-lines rang from less than a meter to many tens of thousands of kilometers. Dowsing these audio frequencies gives the suggestion that they are modulation waves, which carry information. The carrier wave has higher indeterminate frequencies. Interpretation of this requires further research. Dowsing suggests that the three lines are associated with electromagnetism in the respective form Electric: Magnetic: Electric. As the pineal gland is also involved in melatonin and sleep, it postulated that during sleep, the brain interfaces with the information field, and uses it as an “external hard drive” ^{16, 17}.

In his second research Keen, 2012, added new discoveries about psi-lines; regarding the effect on psi-lines of the earth’s gravity, spin and magnetism. In particular, magnetism has an important effect both on the brain and on the entry point of terminal psi-line spirals. The latter has led to a convincing example of remote macro entanglement ^{16, 17}.

Studies about consciousness

- Some parapsychologists had pointed at the relationship between consciousness and parapsychological studies; they hypothesized that parapsychology will rediscover consciousness, as a ‘cognitive revolution’. ²⁰ Out of body experience (OBE), as example, which is the experience of feeling separated from body, unusually accompanied by visual perceptions of clairvoyance, ³⁰, could be evidence that the mind or our consciousness can function independently of the nervous system, which would simultaneously most revolutionary and important in scientific terms ²⁶.

- While others, examined the hypothesis that consciousness may understand as a state of matter, "perceptronium", with distinctive information processing abilities. They found that tensor factorization of matrices is found to play a central role, and technical results include a theorem about Hamiltonian separability (defined using Hilbert-Schmidt super operators) being maximized in the energy eigenbasis. Study’s approach generalized Giulio Tononi's integrated information framework for neural-network based consciousness to arbitrary quantum systems, and found interesting links to error-correcting codes, condensed matter criticality, and the Quantum Darwinism program, as well as an interesting connection between the emergence of consciousness and the emergence of time ³⁹.

- In PA 2016 annual convention, Radin introduced multi-papers examining the relationship between consciousness and the field; suggested ‘conscious field’, also energy medical technology, by capturing energetic signals associated with the act of energy healing. In addition, he and his colleges examined important hypothesis about a blue light receptor found in all plants and animals (including humans). There is evidence that crypto chrome – (a blue light receptor) -has quantum biological properties, used for example in avian magneto navigation. Crypto chrome may be a candidate biological receptor for quantum phenomena such as entanglement and observational effects. Their results strongly support the hypothesis that crypto chrome may be a component of living systems which is particularly sensitive to intentional influence; it also provides a clue about potential links between qualia (subjective intention) and quanta (behavior of the elementary physical world) ³⁴.

To conclude, the mentioned advanced controlled designs may lead to a quality leap in our knowledge that may prepare to next scientific revolution, which will shift our perception about the nature and human frontiers.

4. How do Parapsychologists Interpret Psi Phenomena?

As any science depends on some theories that explain their phenomena and allow to predict and control for further development.

- Some parapsychologists explain psi abilities in the light of physiological interpretations, as; hypotheses of: Myers’ subliminal self, Bergson’s filter theory, William James’ cosmic consciousness, Eccles’ self-conscious mind. Then, Alfa rhythm of brain, relaxation syndrome, findings about psi parts in the brain. Others introduced explanations about psi experiences in the light of physics. Physics, maybe divided into old physics, as electromagnetic radiation, force and field theories, synchronicity and resonance, then, new physics, as neutrinos, multiple dimensional spaces, theories about time, wormhole, then quantum physics; nonlocality and holographic universe by David Bohm ⁴⁴.

In the light of these previous theories, some hypothesized explanations emerged, and I will mention some since the beginning of the current century, as:

- Benford suggestion in 2001, about psi experiences in the light of “radiogenic metabolism theory”, as cells could be acting as organic scintillators capable of producing both heat and light depending on cells’ level of efficiency. If this hypothesis is correct, the body could be acting as collecting and/or processing points of gamma radiation, which in turn, produces some proportion of light versus heat. When the subject’s system stressed by any kind of disease, for example, there could be an additional gamma ‘hunger’ to absorb the needed energy source, the body may act as antenna, receiving or emitting electromagnetic radiation ⁵.

- Castro discussed in 2011 ⁸ paper that, the great difficulty in psi research, which would not be only in terms of its verification, confirmation, testability, prediction, and falsification, but mainly in terms of the lack of an established set of unified beliefs on which the research bases. If we consider science as a problem solving activity, we may understand psi through an integrated approach based on several different sciences; the 21st century has been physically oriented, as in the “brick” of reality, called “upward causation,” it means that chemistry is nothing but physics, biology is nothing but chemistry, psychology is nothing but biology, and so on. If biology includes the existence of a seventh, sense in the mode proposed by Sheldrake, it may begin to explain the interaction at a distance among members of the same species and other species and the environment, especially the aspects concerning the survival of individuals and the species themselves. Transpersonal studies and psi are closer to a world where the dominant metaphysics is biological, with ontology that allow for the entangled minds of living beings, and the human psyche is admitted to be, by its nature, a mind where the telepathic, the clairvoyant, and the precognitive are present ⁸.

- Frecska in 2012, suggested two-input model of human information processing, human make representation of the environment using two distinct forms of visual perception, ‘bicameral mind’; local-nonlocal division of the physical world, basically two different but complementary foundations of knowledge. Non-local interaction, the paper talked about, is independent from the state of consciousness. It is primarily during the integrative forms of altered states of consciousness, or in the trance-like state of a Ganzfeld experiment when a minimal and uncertain information transfer may occur emerging into awareness from the sub cellular matrix to the neuroaxonal system. The nature of the latter, very important coupling mechanism is unclear; perhaps it occurs at the synaptic membranes. Frecska vision about dualism of human knowledge is different from Julian Jaynes’ (2000) ‘bicameral mind’, as Frecska concern was not as much a left-right hemispheric distribution of work, but rather an up-down division between neural and sub neural functions. ‘Perceptual cognitive’ processing has a strong ego that suppresses the ‘direct intuitive’ way. The ‘perceptual cognitive’ foundation of knowledge is a result of the brain’s interactions with the local aspects of the physical world, while the ‘direct-intuitive’ perception of the world derives from the nonlocal features of the Cosmos. There are two realms of reality; physical and non-physical, they are two exists ¹¹.

- Continuing the idea of dualism, Tarlaci discussed in (2013), talked about the duality of soul-body, mind-body, and mind-brain. The dualist approach actually comes from before Descartes. Everything we can think of can be classified as non-living (stones, houses, planets) or living. Dualism arose from this view. Portman introduced in his suggestion (1978) six different worldview, between dualism and monism; like Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and zeta. Then he introduced objection to dualism; the difference between the two changes depending on your viewpoint. Looking from outside, the brain/bodily state can be seen. Looking from inside, the mental state can be seen. However, a good dualist approach “must be able to explain in a detailed way these characteristics of matter which cause the interaction of these two completely different aspects of the world and the qualities of the soul in whatever combination they might be. In spite of the success of modern molecular biology, the biggest puzzle in biology is how living things are organized or coordinated. Nerve cells by themselves can neither smell nor think nor remember. These nerve cells work together, form groups, and perform conscious functions. The basic question here is where and in what form this intercellular interaction is produced. ³⁸.

- Walach’s et al. paper in 2014 ⁴⁰, talked about psi experiences in the light of nonlocal correlations, adopted Schrodinger theory about quantum, who named it “entanglement” in 1935. The elements of a quantum system remain correlated no matter how separated they are in space or in time. These correlations are nonlocal: No classical signal mediates this corresponding behavior. Rather, it is a consequence of the systemic setup. It has been shown meanwhile that photons, electrons, or multiparticle systems can be entangled, and entanglement has been experimentally shown to hold over many kilometers ⁴⁰.

- Marwaha and May introduced in 2015, ‘multiple model of precognition’. In their model, they identified two distinct phases; physical and neuroscience domains, for psi experiences acquisition, they addressed this acquisition in three stages: perception of signals from information carrier based on psychophysical variability, mediated cortical processing of the signals, and cognition mediated by normal cognitive process. They hypothesized that precognition is the only form of ESP, defining it as ‘a typical perceptual ability that allows the acquisition of non-infernal information arising from a future point in space and time ²³.

- Pandarakalam explained psi and consciousness in the light of the physicist Gerhard D. Wassermann’s shadow matter body and brain theory, the assumption that the shadow matter universe co-exists with our material universe leads to the conjecture that our material body may co-exist with shadow matter. Wassermann applied the concept of shadow matter to the neurosciences, and brought psychic phenomena within the mechanistic framework. The concept of lighter shadow matter body (LSMBO) and lighter shadow matter brain (LSM-BR) compensates for discontinuities in the traditional anatomical design of human beings. Wassermann’s LSM-BO theory has brought the elusive body of psychical research into the realm of the physicist. The concepts of LSM-BO direct us towards a multi-energy-system model of human consciousness. Explanations like dark plasma theory and multi-energy system model, all support the idea of etheric double and astral bodies. The researcher also discussed ‘super psi hypothesis’, which is theoretical extension of ESP and PK, the shadow matter brain alone cannot explain individuality, but the spiritual body combined with the shadow matter, body could offer a better explication of individuality. The spiritual body renders the shadow matter body and the physical body unique; we might term it the ‘individualizing principle’. Subjective human attributes such as ethics, morality, feelings of respect for others, feelings of self-dignity, ability to trust each other, poetic sense, creativity and goal-oriented behavior cannot attribute to the shadow matter brain in isolation. Unconditional love, empathy and compassion are part of the spiritual dimension and cognitive scientists have a tendency to soft pedal if not bypass these subjective qualities entirely. The concept of lighter shadow matter can at least be regarded as a scientific idea in the sense that we may be able to demonstrate its presence through sophisticated scanning techniques that will develop in the future, along with the growth in astrophysics ²⁴.

- Williams in his 2016 paper discussed psi and consciousness in the light of quantum mechanics. He introduced these mechanisms in three classes of explanation: the quantum waveform collapsed somehow as the consciousness of the observer participates in measurement, the objective reduction model by Hameroff and Penrose; and hidden variables or hidden order type models. The researcher adopted the hidden model, firstly initiated by David Bohm; he speculated that our thoughts or moments of experience are part of a whole rooted in a deeper ground of reality. Boehm’s implicate order, as well as the available psi data, suggests a nonlocal feature to this ground that connects with each of our individual conscious experiences as well as our environment. While one’s ability to ascertain information from particular subjects or locations may be limited, the holistic nature of Boehm’s theory suggests we are likely accessing (albeit subconsciously) information from a wide variety of sources around us. The possibility that some of our feelings are part of a larger, nonlocal reality suggests an interesting interpretation of other psi data, such as the emotional resonance, mind–matter interaction experiments of the GCP ⁴².

To conclude, many theories discussed psi, from ancient to nowadays in the light of philosophical manipulation, then biological and physical interpretations, all interpret the phenomena in general, without specifying each aspect with exact factors that cause or accompanying each type of psi experience; to help application, prediction and control in the future.

5. The Hypothesized Vision

In the light of the previous theoretical framework reviews, I hypothesized psi definition as, “a potential, latent, adaptive ability to sense and affect through distance”.

I will explain my hypothesized definition – about psi nature, as phenomena; experiences and behavior- word by word in the following:

- I mean by ‘potential’, hidden or latent, unconscious, which moved, or rose by exact factors that enhance it. By reviewing the previous framework, we will find that times of changes, problems or crises, problems, some altered status of consciousness, all and more- as shown above- represented psi behavior.

- I mean by ‘ability’, normal curve distribution. Although it seems unreasonable idea; because psi always classified as anomalous, paranormal, and some samples do not show psi behavior even after training, but its significance ratio much more than chance ratios, then psi behavior after training, permits somewhat to hypothesize that it is hidden ability inside all, represented, motivated when exact context and exact characteristics, are crossed together.

This suggested vision maybe supported strongly by Rex Stanford’s work, as mentioned in Palmers’ book; “psi seems to function as a normal, healthy ability, responsive to motivational drives, and as part of the general unconscious system of the individual” (page 109). The key points were that everyone can be assumed to have potential psi ability that is guided by motivation and that operates unconsciously and can occur without conscious intention and usually without awareness that psi is occurring. It was noted that physiological measures such as blood volume, EEG, galvanic skin response, or other physiological conditions that do not depend on a conscious response may be the best way to detect the occurrence of the unconscious psi process.” ¹⁹.

Those who are in contradict; do not believe, or react even by training; might be affected by their self-full filling prophecy, which affects always our attention, then our perception and our behavior, we are affected by our type of personality, that shows or not this potential ability. (I mean show not creates, as I hypothesize psi as potential for all, evolved, latent ability, which is not invested, utilized yet).

By describing psi as ‘ability’, I hypothesize also individual differences among people, with psi aspects and amounts, degrees of distribution. At least, we all experience telepathy, or gut feelings, or intuition. Even the scientists use their insight, intuitive thinking in the creation moment. To give your attention to such passing, fleeting experiences is a matter of your type of personality, plus, your social, context, and circumstances.

- I mean by ‘adaptive’, its function in human life, as it postulated that any human behavior is purposive, has a purpose, psi behavior always appears to control over one’s circumstances, but in uncommon, unusual way among people. Those people who are very sensitive to any changes, at the same time feel self-assertion; want to control over their circumstances, but have no ability to manipulate commonly, or as usual, may seek ‘super’, more than common aid, especially in ambiguous crises, or times of changes. Their sensitivity with their characteristics may lead humanity to discover and invest this evolved, advanced, adaptive ability, which appears only in times of imbalance, unstable, altered in times of changes or in danger times and its main function is to return ones’ complete balance.

- I mean by ‘through distance’; developed advanced, adaptive ability. Any adaptive ability seeks to balance human with current circumstances, while this psi adaptive ability extend one’s context to include the whole being, and function to adapt one to the upcoming, further events and environment.

• I suggest ‘through distance’ phrase, rather than beyond space and time; as I hypothesized in a previous paper (Zahran, 2016), that time represents our perception more than its nature. Psi experiences showed that we might move backward and forward in the same present, as in precognition and retrocognition. Therefore, I previously hypothesized that time and space are not, what happened, is happening, will happen in one or more dimensions, otherwise it might be an exact moment that crossed with an exact point. We say future; because we cannot perceive it in our common way of perception, not because we are now, and it will happen, exactly, as we cannot see particles without microscope, and stars without telescope. Psi, as evolved adaptive ability can reach extended moments and points and wide its sensitivity to the whole being, to help one’s antenna to capture what h/she is seeking.

• I suggest ‘through distance’ phrase, rather than beyond nature; as I hypothesized one nature, as we do not discover the whole universe yet. There is only one reality, which we do not reach totally. We do not discover, yet, the equipment that reaches the psi whole process. Many researchers and scientists, as shown above represented/hypothesized material nature of psi, as shown in some parts in brain, as in genes and twins, as a suggested blue receptor matter of psi, changes in heart, brain activity, guts changes, psi-lines, and surrounding affected by psi ability, as shown in GCP. Talking about what we do not know as beyond anything we know, maybe because we are unconsciously feel afraid from unknown, foggy thing, so that we tend to describe it as beyond what we know, we treat it as majestic, magnificence, somehow, sometimes, unconsciously; to secure its probable danger. This all represents our partially perception to the described thing. Talking about nature and beyond nature, might be because, our perception is binary. This maybe because the relativity nature of our perception, what is normal to one is not normal to other’s criteria, what is good to one is not good to other and so on. This maybe, also, because the type of our bio-systems that works in an electricity way, of negative and positive, as Steven Hocking once said. Maybe also, this derived from old cultures and civilization; as ancient Egyptian idea of ‘Pa and Ka’, to refer to body and soul, (etheric body), then it became mind over matter.

• Psi adaptive ability is an extended ability that enlarges one’s self to sense not only the whole humanity, but also the completely extended being. From this point of view, I suggest “the oneness”, as a concept, somewhat to refer to ‘social coherence’ rather than, “the high self”, to avoid again binary talks about up and down, or high and low. As ancient cultures did and related every good thing with high, over, above, superior, to the sky kingdom, while every bad thing related to low, down, under earth. The suggested “oneness” function by psi plays an important role in humanity social life, especially in current turning point, and crossroads era. We spent much of our history suffering from many divisions that separated humanity into: you against me, we against others, which creates oppression and violence. Selfishness and immature way of perceiving and love oneself caused countless losses to humanity. Psi experience, spontaneously, will lead humanity to quality leap, if adopted and invested. In psi status, one loses any borders with h/her environment, to reach extended points in different moments at the same time, to reach this type of character, one need to concentrate to the whole, and to feel the whole. One is embedded part in the whole, this is oneness, in an extended self-perception. When your extended self, thinking, feeling and acting like that: join you and me selves, we and others as a complementary oneness, instead of divided selves against each other, against the laws of nature, themselves, which are mainly depend on harmony entangled oneness, at that time we will reach- I hypothesis- our maturity. Life is not conflict opposites; it is integrated parts, work in harmony with each other. To feel that you are embedded part of a greater whole, enriches both oneself and one’s need for belonging, psi status creates this, and this in turn, enriches the personality to its mature balance between one’s benefit ; interest and others’ benefits; interests. Psi may lead humanity to its quality leap, when we behave with nature’s laws, not against them, as what is happing.

- Finally, I mean by ‘sense and affect’, the reciprocity type of this suggested adaptive ability, the two way of communication: There is non-local communication entangles all the universe beings, and human embedded in such communication, as a part of this existence.

The two-way communication is:

A- Receiving universe singles, like ESP experiences.

B- Sending psi singles, like PK experiences.

As I hypothesized psi experiences as reciprocity two-way communication, if we postulate that every purposive behavior, act, as conscious one, we may describe atom act to achieve balance, as conscious act. Then from atoms, to cells, to systems, all act consciously, the conscious whole is the output of these interactions among all its parts. Therefore, experience psi, represents all these whole consciousness interactions.

To conclude, studying psi faced objections in its early beginning steps, and then achieved more globally agreement with scientifically researches and advanced manipulation. In spite of this, some current objections still fight against it, maybe because its early rise accompanied with practices of jugglers, then when it developed scientifically, it still has its difficulties, as the lack of specific theory (ies) that interpret, control, and predict psi behavior. This is maybe because the lack of equipment that record the psi, communication process. In spite of the previous difficulty, psi qualified to lead humanity to quality leap, and next scientific revolution, by its researches’ contents, objects, and very advanced technologies and manipulation, that will develop our perception and manipulation critically, not only to our human nature, but also to the way we handle our surrounding nature, from childhood humanity to more mature humanity. On that way, I suggested my hypothesized vision, in the light of introduced framework, and as the scientific paper raises more questions than answers, I hypothesized and explained my vision, as initial answers, and at the same time questions, for further studies and researches.

References