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Automatic Writing Through a Spirit Medium

Injecting Radioactive Chemicals in Spirit Mediums’ Brains. For Science!

What happens when you inject the brains of spirit mediums with radioactive tracers, and then watch their brains? Apparently, you see odd changes in brain behaviour. That’s what happened when researchers took ten Brazilian mediums – half experienced, half not – and tracked their brain activity (or at least, regional cerebral blood flow [rCBF], which is closely correlated) using SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography).

The researchers firstly did a control experiment, in which the mediums just did some normal writing, and then followed up with another scan while they were practicing ‘psychography’ – in which spirits allegedly write “through the medium’s hand” while they are in a trance.

The finding that surprised the researchers was that the experienced mediums showed higher complexity in their writing while in the trance state, rather than in their control – and yet there was much less activity in the frontal and temporal lobes, the parts of the brain associated with reasoning, planning, generating language…that is, exactly where they should have had more activity for more complex writing.

During psychography, all mediums reported altered states of consciousness, but to different degrees. Experienced mediums spoke of a deeper trance, with clouded consciousness, often reporting being out of the body, and having little or no awareness of the content of what they were writing. Less expert mediums were in a less pronounced trance state and usually reported writing phrases being dictated to them in their minds.

…Subjects attributed their trance writing to “spirits”. Compared to normal writing, less expert mediums showed more activation in the same cognitive-processing areas during psychography, whereas experienced mediums showed a significantly lower level of activation. The less expert ones had to “work harder”, as shown by their relatively higher levels of activation of the cognitive processing area during psychography. Experienced mediums showed significantly reduced rCBF changes during psychography, which is consistent with the notion of automatic (non-conscious) writing and their claims that an “outer source” was planning the written content. Brain regions known to be involved in planning writing were activated less, even though the content was more elaborate than their non-trance writing. These findings are not consistent with faking or role-playing, both of which have been offered as explanations for psychography… studies of cognitive-processing regions involved in reasoning and planning written content showed decreased activity in the experienced mediums, who reported that they were not conscious of psychographed content and had no control over it.

…As the first step toward understanding the neural mechanisms involved in non-pathological dissociation, we emphasize that this finding deserves further investigation both in terms of replication and explanatory hypotheses.

Read “Neuroimaging during Trance State: A Contribution to the Study of Dissociation” at PLOS ONE.

Editor
  1. Interesting…first
    Interesting…first thoughts…while generally skeptical of most people claiming to be spirit mediums as either out-right frauds or deluded wannabes, this study could be construed as supporting the notion of a nonlocal source for consciousness with the brain acting as a receiver as some researchers have posited. Whether it is one’s own subconscious mind nonlocally situated – meaning existing outside the brain – or truly other entities/minds that are communicating through the medium’s brain/body the conclusion is the same. The parts of the brain normally associated with higher reasoning necessary for said activity are bypassed and not active according to the study. Other presumptions/conclusions are of course possible, but if our true mind/consciousness transcends the body, then studies like this will provide the necessary evidential support.

  2. Can anybody confirm this
    Can anybody confirm this report, if so it could be that elusive white crow.
    ———
    COMMENTARY: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ACKNOWLEDGES PSYCHIC POWER IS REAL Perhaps those ignorant, highly negatively entrenched closed minded skeptics who keep repeating ‘ there is no such thing as psychic phenomena’ can explain why a psychic was awarded the Legion of Merit for psychic services. This award is the second highest award that the U.S. Army can make during peace time. It was given to remote viewer Joe McMoneagle, with the approval of US Congress, for his brilliant psychic work. The citation reads:
    “While with his command, he used his talents and expertise in the execution of more than 200 missions, addressing over 150 essential elements of information. These EEI contained critical intelligence reported at the highest echelons of our military and government, including such national level agencies as the Joint Chief’s of Staff, DIA, NSA, CIA, DEA, and the Secret Service, producing crucial and vital intelligence unavailable from any other source.”
    http://victorzammit.com/week12thanks/

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