Meetings with Extraordinary Scientists - Dean Radin, Loren Carpenter, Russell Targ, and Eben Alexander
During my recent visit to the United States I was fortunate enough to meet with some extraordinary scientists including Dean Radin, Russell Targ, Loren Carpenter, and Eben Alexander. The trip had many qualities that were fascinating, but my experience at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), and my first meeting with Russell Targ stand out.
The first leg of my trip to the United States was to California, and was to include a lecture at The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Petaluma. We arrived at IONS with plenty of time and made our way to the reception. Within moments Rusty Shores, who had made all the arrangements for the event, appeared from a back room to greet us warmly and guide us to the lecture space in which I would be giving my talk. I setup my equipment and we waited for the audience to assemble. I outlined my journey with the out-of-body experience, with a special focus on the scientific perspectives and my work with immersive technology, from Infra-liminal sound, to virtual reality, and sensory deprivation.
Dean Radin, IONS senior scientist, asked several questions and the conversation continued after the talk as we all went for lunch in a nearby restaurant. But things really began to get interesting when Dean led us back to the laboratory for me to take part in his quantum double-slit experiment. The aim would be to try and effect the action of the photons through the slits using psi ability. The experiment would take place in an electromagnetically shielded room, or unit.
As soon as the heavy steel door was closed and the experiment began I felt a huge shift in my awareness. A form of the vibrational state, a precursor to the OBE, seemed to come over me, and a heat that was almost unbearable seemed to be flowing around me. I was shifting back and forward into an altered state of consciousness as I focused intently on the plastic light on top of the experimental equipment. It seemed to be getting brighter as I focused my awareness on it. The energy around me appeared to be matching the light as it got brighter and the heat in the small room seemed to have increased hugely. At moments I thought I might reach a full out-of-body experience, but the recording that guided the experiment kept bringing me back.
When the experiment did come to an end, I was totally exhausted and mentally in another place altogether. When the research assistant, Leena Michel, opened the door I was sitting with my head in my hands. The first words she uttered were "It's like a sauna!". She immediately called to Dean Radin to come through, as she said she had "never" seen anything like it.
My colleague also felt the serge of heat, but the fascinating part was that no temperature change was registered on the equipment, despite all present feeling huge levels of heat. I was sweating and overwhelmed like I had been in a heated room, not a cold steel one.
Dean came through to tell me that the results of the experiment had been positive, "in the predicted direction". When all of the data is in this experiment will, no doubt be more support, not just for the existence of psi, but also for its connection with quantum effects.
Loren Carpenter, the Visiting Scholar at IONS and co-founder and chief scientist of Pixar Animation Studios, explained to me that the online version of the experiment has already produced hugely significant results. He then removed a small piece of tape from the online device and gave it to me as a kind of 'link' back to IONS should I attempt to effect the experiment remotely.
My next stop was to be Las Vegas and the International Remote Viewing Association conference. After my talk Allreality.com arranged a dialogue between myself and Eben Alexander to compare the profound impact of a lifetime of out-of-body experiences with the transformative journey of the Near Death state. It was pleasing to see that a focus on meditation, sound, and a deepening spiritual sense of things has been the result of his experience. He speaks with a passion and clarity about a state of consciousness that few return from. Yet at the same time with a unfaltering commitment to science and the scientific method.
During my time at the conference in Las Vegas I wanted to speak with Russell Targ, one of the most famous scientists known for exploring psi, and the father of remote viewing. On one afternoon as I walked back across the vast Las Vegas hotel and turned the corner I saw Russell Targ, sitting with his eyes closed as if in deep thought. I got a feeling I should go and say 'hello', but as he seemed to be in meditation I thought I would leave it for another time, but right at that exact moment he opened his eyes and seemed to look straight at me.
I walked over and asked if it would disturb him to speak with me for a few moments, he replied with a surprising humility that he would love to speak. As we sat and talked he soon realised I was from London, and I related the story of my precognitive OBEs. He became more fascinated, not just by the power of many of my out-of-body and other experiences, but by something that that he'd been thinking about. He said he'd been sitting there with his eyes shut meditating before I came over, as he prepared for his lecture.
He described how, in his minds eye, he had been taken back to 20 years ago when he was last in London. He was walking into Piccadilly underground station behind an attractive person with very long hair. It was only when he reached the bottom of the stairs that he realised that the person was a man. Moments later I walked around the corner from the other side of the hotel and walked over to him.
Looking at the length of my hair and taking into account my obvious connection to London, he said he pays attention to such occurrences. To top off this intriguing moment, a few minutes later a woman came over saying she'd been at one of Russell's workshops, she said "do you remember I remote viewed a 'cat'?". A look of surprise came over him again, and without saying a word he took out his phone only to show us a picture of a cat on top of some ESP books in his home in California.
It turned out his wife had sent him the image just moments before he sat down to meditate.
I gave Russell a copy of my second book, Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience, and related some of my ideas about the relationships between OBEs and remote viewing. Later as he ran the 'Outbounder' event (a group remote viewing exercise), I was again amazed at how accurate my remote viewing was, despite the complexity and multilayered nature of the target. All in all it seemed that the entangled minds, or collective awareness were truly heightened in this atmosphere of consciousness exploration. In fact all of those I met during my trip had that sense that these often divided worlds of the seemingly non-physical and science, are in fact the two most important areas to work hand in hand together.
The first leg of my trip to the United States was to California, and was to include a lecture at The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Petaluma. We arrived at IONS with plenty of time and made our way to the reception. Within moments Rusty Shores, who had made all the arrangements for the event, appeared from a back room to greet us warmly and guide us to the lecture space in which I would be giving my talk. I setup my equipment and we waited for the audience to assemble. I outlined my journey with the out-of-body experience, with a special focus on the scientific perspectives and my work with immersive technology, from Infra-liminal sound, to virtual reality, and sensory deprivation.
Dean Radin, IONS senior scientist, asked several questions and the conversation continued after the talk as we all went for lunch in a nearby restaurant. But things really began to get interesting when Dean led us back to the laboratory for me to take part in his quantum double-slit experiment. The aim would be to try and effect the action of the photons through the slits using psi ability. The experiment would take place in an electromagnetically shielded room, or unit.
As soon as the heavy steel door was closed and the experiment began I felt a huge shift in my awareness. A form of the vibrational state, a precursor to the OBE, seemed to come over me, and a heat that was almost unbearable seemed to be flowing around me. I was shifting back and forward into an altered state of consciousness as I focused intently on the plastic light on top of the experimental equipment. It seemed to be getting brighter as I focused my awareness on it. The energy around me appeared to be matching the light as it got brighter and the heat in the small room seemed to have increased hugely. At moments I thought I might reach a full out-of-body experience, but the recording that guided the experiment kept bringing me back.
When the experiment did come to an end, I was totally exhausted and mentally in another place altogether. When the research assistant, Leena Michel, opened the door I was sitting with my head in my hands. The first words she uttered were "It's like a sauna!". She immediately called to Dean Radin to come through, as she said she had "never" seen anything like it.
My colleague also felt the serge of heat, but the fascinating part was that no temperature change was registered on the equipment, despite all present feeling huge levels of heat. I was sweating and overwhelmed like I had been in a heated room, not a cold steel one.
Dean came through to tell me that the results of the experiment had been positive, "in the predicted direction". When all of the data is in this experiment will, no doubt be more support, not just for the existence of psi, but also for its connection with quantum effects.
Loren Carpenter, the Visiting Scholar at IONS and co-founder and chief scientist of Pixar Animation Studios, explained to me that the online version of the experiment has already produced hugely significant results. He then removed a small piece of tape from the online device and gave it to me as a kind of 'link' back to IONS should I attempt to effect the experiment remotely.
My next stop was to be Las Vegas and the International Remote Viewing Association conference. After my talk Allreality.com arranged a dialogue between myself and Eben Alexander to compare the profound impact of a lifetime of out-of-body experiences with the transformative journey of the Near Death state. It was pleasing to see that a focus on meditation, sound, and a deepening spiritual sense of things has been the result of his experience. He speaks with a passion and clarity about a state of consciousness that few return from. Yet at the same time with a unfaltering commitment to science and the scientific method.
During my time at the conference in Las Vegas I wanted to speak with Russell Targ, one of the most famous scientists known for exploring psi, and the father of remote viewing. On one afternoon as I walked back across the vast Las Vegas hotel and turned the corner I saw Russell Targ, sitting with his eyes closed as if in deep thought. I got a feeling I should go and say 'hello', but as he seemed to be in meditation I thought I would leave it for another time, but right at that exact moment he opened his eyes and seemed to look straight at me.
I walked over and asked if it would disturb him to speak with me for a few moments, he replied with a surprising humility that he would love to speak. As we sat and talked he soon realised I was from London, and I related the story of my precognitive OBEs. He became more fascinated, not just by the power of many of my out-of-body and other experiences, but by something that that he'd been thinking about. He said he'd been sitting there with his eyes shut meditating before I came over, as he prepared for his lecture.
He described how, in his minds eye, he had been taken back to 20 years ago when he was last in London. He was walking into Piccadilly underground station behind an attractive person with very long hair. It was only when he reached the bottom of the stairs that he realised that the person was a man. Moments later I walked around the corner from the other side of the hotel and walked over to him.
Looking at the length of my hair and taking into account my obvious connection to London, he said he pays attention to such occurrences. To top off this intriguing moment, a few minutes later a woman came over saying she'd been at one of Russell's workshops, she said "do you remember I remote viewed a 'cat'?". A look of surprise came over him again, and without saying a word he took out his phone only to show us a picture of a cat on top of some ESP books in his home in California.
It turned out his wife had sent him the image just moments before he sat down to meditate.
I gave Russell a copy of my second book, Navigating the Out-of-Body Experience, and related some of my ideas about the relationships between OBEs and remote viewing. Later as he ran the 'Outbounder' event (a group remote viewing exercise), I was again amazed at how accurate my remote viewing was, despite the complexity and multilayered nature of the target. All in all it seemed that the entangled minds, or collective awareness were truly heightened in this atmosphere of consciousness exploration. In fact all of those I met during my trip had that sense that these often divided worlds of the seemingly non-physical and science, are in fact the two most important areas to work hand in hand together.