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Meditation and visualization exercises have been found to alter an individual’s mood and perception, and it is hypothesized that these techniques will enhance one’s ability to anomalously influence the function of a random event generator (REG) with the mind. This study is comprised of a control experiment and a second experiment with the administration of meditation and visualization exercises. There was no support for a significant deviation of the REG in the direction of the participants’ volition in Experiment 1, t(29) = -1.26, p = .22 (two-tailed), but results revealed a significant deviation in the intended direction in Experiment 2, t(29) = 2.66, p = .01 (two-tailed). Moreover, comparisons between cumulative deviations across both samples were found to be statistically significant, indicating that meditation and visualization exercises may promote significant deviations, t(58) = -2.69, p = .009 (two-tailed). These analyses suggest that the use of meditation and visualization techniques in experiments that study direct mental influence may be beneficial for finding anomalous effects. Keywords: meditation, visualization, random event generator, direct mental influence

We very much appreciate Damien Broderick’s kind comments about our book and for this opportunity to engage in a discussion of its substance. Each person has a boggle threshold, which we define in Transcendent Mind as “the degree to which a person is willing to deviate from normative beliefs” (p. 24). In Damien’s case, that threshold appears to lie somewhere beyond laboratory-verified psi phenomena, but on this side of some of the more outrageous phenomena that have been observed in field studies, such as some of the phenomena ostensibly produced by Thomaz Coutinho. So let us start by saying a little bit about the inclusion of the Thomaz material in the book.

Prescribing by Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease by Jeremy A. Greene On the Trans-Corporeal Action of Spirit by William Stainton Moses Posthumous Humanity: A Study of Phantoms by Adolphe D’Assier The Phantom of the Living: Anatomy and Physiology of the Soul: Experimental Researches on the Doubling of Man’s Body by Hector Durville The Case for Astral Projection by Sylvan J. Muldoon The Phenomena of Bilocation by Ernesto Bozzano The Phenomena of Astral Projection by Sylvan J. Muldoon and Hereward Carrington ESP Projection: Spontaneous Cases and the Experimental Method by Hornell Hart Six Theories about Apparitions by Hornell Hart et al. Esprit: Men and Women of Parapsychology, Personal Reflections, Volume 1, edited by Rosemarie Pilkington Notre Sixième Sens by Charles Richet The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke Electronic Voices: Contact with Another Dimension? by Anabela Cardoso Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease by Gary Greenberg Karl Shuker’s Alien Zoo by Karl P. N. Shuker The Origin of Purportedly Pre-Columbian Mexican Crystal Skulls by Margaet Sax, Jane M. Walsh, Ian C. Freestone, Andrew H. Rankin, and Nigel D. Meeks Crystal Cranium by Owen Edwards Legend of the Crystal Skulls: The Truth Behind Indiana Jones’s Latest Quest by Jane MacClaren Walsh Follow the Kelp by Heather Pringle Kelp Highways by Heather Pringle Radiocarbon and DNA Evidence for a Pre-Columbian Introduction of Polynesian Chickens to Chile by Alice A. Storey, José Miguel Ramírez, Daniel Quiroz, David B. Burley, David J. Addison, Richard Walter, Atholl J. Anderson, Terry L. Hunt, J. Stephen Athens, Leon Huynen, and Elizabeth A. Mattisoo-Smith In Search of the World’s Most Ancient Mariners by Michael Balter

415 The Origin, Persistence, and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory, by Henry H. Bauer - Mikel Aickin 419 The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Arthur M. Diamond, Jr. 422 Thinking about Go¨ del and Turing: Essays on Complexity, 1970–2007, by Gregory J. Chaitin - Edward Ordman 428 Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, by Robert L. Park - Steven B. Krivit 434 Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor, by Roy W. Spencer - Joel M. Kauffman 436 Origin of Inertia: Extended Mach’s Principle and Cosmological Consequences, by Amitabha Ghosh - Thomas E. Phipps, Jr. 438 Muses, Madmen, and Prophets, by Daniel B. Smith - John Smythies 441 The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness, by Jeff Warren - Imants Baruss 442 The Witch in the Waiting Room: A Physician Investigates Paranormal Phenomena in Medicine, by Robert Bobrow - Michael Schmicker 443 The Trial of God, by John Smythies - Stephen R. L. Clark

245 The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations, by Stephen E. Braude Imants Barus¡s 247 The Paranormal and the Politics of Truth: A Sociological Account, by Jeremy Northcote James McClenon 251 Opening to the Infinite: The Art and Science of Nonlocal Awareness, by Stephan A. Schwartz Bryan J. Williams 260 Psi in the Sky: A New Approach to UFO and Psi Phenomena, by Keith L. Partain Alexander Imich 262 The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World, by Lynne McTaggart Imants Barus¡s 264 The Synchronized Universe: New Science of the Paranormal, by Claude Swanson Ingo Swann 2 66 The God Theory: Universes, Zero-Point Fields and What’s Behind It All, by Bernard Haisch Richard Conn Henry 269 The Chaos Point: The World at the Crossroads, by Ervin Laszlo William C. Gough 271 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann Stephen C. Jett 279 Articles of Interest

Keith Augustine’s critical evaluation of the essay contest sponsored by the Bigelow Institute of Consciousness Studies (BICS) is an interesting but problematic review. It mixes reasonable and detailed criticisms of the contest and many of the winning essays with a disappointing reliance on some of the most trite and superficial criticisms of parapsychological research. Ironically, Augustine criticizes the winning essays for using straw-man arguments and cherry-picked evidence even though many of his own arguments commit these same errors.