Real Ghost Hunters and So Much More...

When it comes to paranormal phenomena, most of the scientists are sceptical right from the start, that is why I was amazed to find out that there is such a thing as a Society for Psychical Research.

Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit UK based organization seeking to understand and explain paranormal phenomena in a scientific manner. The SPR was founded in 1882 in London by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick, and Edmund Dawson Rogers. Initially six committees were established in order to research Thought-Transference, Mesmerism and similar phenomena, Mediumship, Reichenbach Phenomena (Odic Force), Apparitions and Haunted Houses, physical phenomena associated with séances, and the Literary Committee which studied the history of these phenomena.

 Source

 Today the society is run by a president and a council of twenty members. The organization is based at 49 Marloes Road, Kensington, London, with a library and office open to members. Also the society publishes quarterly Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR), the irregular Proceedings and the magazine Paranormal Review.

The greatest thing about this organization is that it is open for public. By paying for the membership you get access to the libraries, subscription to the Journal of The Society and invitations to the meetings of the society.

I also happen to find a Journal of the society, which was really interesting to read. Here's the link:

Journal of the Society for Psychical Research

Website of the Society for Psychical Research

Thanks for reading!

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Noetic Theory?

Dan Brown's book "The Lost Symbol" is famous not only for of mason related refrences, but also for a variety of scientific references. Among various references to ancient texts, which contain scientific knowledge similar to our current understanding of science, there's a very interesting theory called noetic theory. So what is noetic theory?

"Noetic theory or noetics (from Greek νοητικός "mental" from νοεῖν "to think" from νοῦς – noûs) is an alternative metaphysical philosophy concerned with the study of mind and intuition, and its relationship with the divine intellect."

In simple words, the main idea of noetic is that human mind can affect the material world. Furthermore, human soul is real and is Bose or photon based.Also noetic studies the so called extrasensory abilities (out of the body experiences, seeing the future and so on).

This theory is a very interesting one for a great variety of reasons. First of all, while the mainstream science crosses out  telekinesis and other such phenomena as fiction, due to the lack of proof, noetics try to actually investigate human mind powers. Secondly, it has a real institute of noetic science, which clearly shows, that there are scientists who take this subject very seriously and people, who invest their money to support this science.

If you would visit the website of the "Institute of Noetic Science" you would notice that they have a special article about noetic in the "Lost Symbol". It's a very interesting article, which states that noetic experiments mentioned in the novel are actually every day life for noetic scientists.

So is noetic a real science, or is it only pseudoscience, which got famous overnight, when a famous novel popularised it? The only way to find the answer to this question is by analizing the journals, which are available at the website. According to the institute, all that was mentioned in the famous novel has a variety of real research to back it up. All in all only one thing is clear, now, when the noetic science is out of the dark, maybe more people and scientists will become interested in it.

Links:

1) IONS - Institute of Noetic Sciences

2) The Science Behind "Lost Symbol"

3) IONS Library

Thanks for reading!

P.S. be sure to check out this great book:

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