Edge Science

Number 31 September 2017

Current Research and Insights

Las Vegas as a Psychokinesis Laboratory

By Joseph Gallenberger

La Madonna dellUFO Human Singularities

By Jeffrey Kripal By Michael Grosso

A publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration

EdgeScience #31
September 2017

CONTENTS
EdgeScience is a quarterly magazine.
Print copies are available from
edgescience.magcloud.com.
For further information, see edgescience.org
Email: [email protected]

3
Why EdgeScience? Because, contrary to public
perception, scientific knowledge is still full of THE OBSERVATORY
unknowns. What remains to be discoveredwhat How to Feel Normal in an Anomalistic Universe
we dont knowvery likely dwarfs what we do know. By Aaron Dabbah
And what we think we know may not be entirely correct
or fully understood. Anomalies, which researchers
tend to sweep under the rug, should be actively
pursued as clues to potential breakthroughs and new
directions in science.
FEATURES
PUBLISHER: The Society for Scientific Exploration
EDITOR: Patrick Huyghe
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: P.D. Moncrief
CONTRIBUTORS: Mel Acheson, Aaron Dabbah,
Joseph Gallenberger, Michael Grosso,
Las Vegas as a
Psychokinesis Laboratory
By Joseph Gallenberger
4
Jeffrey Kripal, Peter Sturrock
DESIGN: Smythtype Design

The Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE)

is a professional organization of scientists and
scholars who study unusual and unexplained

9
phenomena. The primary goal of the Society is to
provide a professional forum for presentations, Human Singularities
criticism, and debate concerning topics which are By Michael Grosso
for various reasons ignored or studied inadequately
within mainstream science. A secondary goal is to
promote improved understanding of those factors
that unnecessarily limit the scope of scientific
inquiry, such as sociological constraints, restrictive
world views, hidden theoretical assumptions,

12
and the temptation to convert prevailing theory
into prevailing dogma. Topics under investigation La Madonna
cover a wide spectrum. At one end are apparent
anomalies in well established disciplines. At the dellUFO
other, we find paradoxical phenomena that belong By Jeffrey Kripal
to no established discipline and therefore may
offer the greatest potential for scientific advance
and the expansion of human knowledge. The SSE
was founded in 1982 and has approximately 800
members in 45 countries worldwide. The Society
also publishes the peer-reviewed Journal of
Scientific Exploration, and holds annual meetings in

17
the U.S. and biennial meetings in Europe. Associate
and student memberships are available to the public. REFRENCE POINT
To join the Society, or for more information, visit the In Honor of a True Scientist
website at scientificexploration.org. A Book Review by Peter Sturrock of Taking the Back
off the Watch: A Personal Memoir by Thomas Gold,
PRESIDENT: William Bengston, St. Josephs College
edited by Simon Mitton
VICE PRESIDENT: Garret Moddel, University of
Colorado, Boulder

19
SECRETARY: Mark Urban-Lurain, Michigan State
University BACKSCATTER
TREASURER: York Dobyns Keyhole Epistomology
EDUCATION OFFICER: Chantal Toporow By Mel Acheson
EUROPEAN COORDINATOR: Anders Rydberg

Copyright 2017 Society for Scientific Exploration

The authors, artists, and photographers retain copyright to their work. Cover image by Welcomia/123RF
ISSN 2330-4545 (Print)
ISSN 2330-4553 (Online)
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 3

THE OBSERVATORY
Aaron Dabbah

How to Feel Normal in an Anomalistic Universe

Jorge Enrique Villalobos Espinosa/1213RF

W hen you are as deeply concerned with strange phenomena
as I am, its hard to get up in the morning feeling normal.
It helps if you drink. The chasm between physical reality and
novelties of fact and theory do. Produced inadvertently by a
game played under one set of rules, their assimilation requires
the elaboration of another set.
our conscious perception thereof opens up with your morning When the debate is consistently framed in terms of delu-
coffee, and as you peruse the newspaper headlines and social sion vs. fundamentalism, we have ceased to engage in intellec-
media feeds, one has the same unsettling sense that no doubt tual inquiry and turned towards a denigration of the mental
prompted humorist Dorothy Parker to greet the doorbell each faculties of our theoretical opponents (whose interest in our
time it rang with the phrase, What fresh hell can this be? precious anomalistic phenomena truly makes them our col-
Lets face it, if you express anything more than a passing inter- leagues, regardless of those ontological and epistemological
est in UFOs, Bigfoot, ghosts, monsters, or the various and presuppositions they bring to the table). This is far from cry-
sundry anomalies of the universe, you are generally regarded ing, Cant we all just get along? Some people are just jerks. It
by your peers with trepidation and a charitable concern for simply reiterates the importance of classical ontological debates
your mental health. of the realists (universals exist, as do particulars) and the nomi-
Now this may be inside baseball, but a curious develop- nalists (only particulars exist). Universal truth has this pesky
ment has emerged in the world of anomalistics, which we can habit of shuffling out just past the boundary of our intellect,
understand to include those who experience and those who the minute we conclude we have understood something.
investigate, as well as those self-identified skeptics that none- In the absence of incontestable and enduring physical
theless wade into the muddled marsh of Forteana. Strange phe- proof, anomalistics has found its various objects of inquiry
nomena have been decentralized as an object of study, in favor ghettoized in the world of the pseudo- and understood to
of a psychologization of those who express an interest (either be an examination of cultural constructs, human mispercep-
to believe, understand, or debunk). tions, and an expression of metaphysical yearning, turning the
Thus, we spend an inordinate amount of time talking experience of the strange into a function of humans gone wild.
about the pathological delusions of true believers, the cog- We Homo sapiens do after all demonstrate an acute capacity to
nitive dissonance of skeptics, and the fear of commitment of get wacky.
those who straddle the line. The focus has shifted from a simple When it comes to Forteana (and those who argue that no
ontological statement that while our valuation of science has an such animal exists), a far more productive approach is to step
impressive track record of achievement, the universe nonethe- back from the incessant demands for proof, the psychoanaly-
less keeps serving up oddities that throw a wrench in our meta- sis of both believers and skeptics, and turn to the question of
physical project of comprehending the significance of human validation, which says we may never know the ultimate object
existence and grasping at the nature of reality. itself, thus we most fruitfully approach knowledge by confront-
Therefore, instead of debate, we more often see diagnosis. ing interpretations and arbitrating between them as we look for
This is as foolhardy as it is unproductive. The unadulterated points of agreement, even when agreement is an impossibility,
truth that is being largely sidelined is that the existence of an or as Paul Ricoeur said, The logic of validation allows us to
anomaly is prerequisite to scientific discovery, and the facts that move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.
dont fit are what usher in the paradigmatic shifts that revolu- Maybe the next time frogs inexplicably fall from the sky,
tionize our understanding of the universe. the answer is not to call the Weekly World News, hand out the
Physicist, historian, and philosopher of science Thomas psychoactive medication, decry skeptics for their stalwart rejec-
Kuhn, who coined the term paradigm shift in his seminal tion of that which cannot happen, or talk about the delusional
1962 work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, offered the predispositions of those whose assert with supreme confidence
anomaly as that which impels our extension of knowledge, that a frog rain was extant. Validation is neither acceptance
observing, Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact nor rejection, rather it is an open and honest arbitration of pos-
or theory and, when successful, finds none. New and unsus- sible interpretations. Such discourse is shockingly rare. At least
pected phenomena are, however, repeatedly uncovered by sci- maybe we can validate their parking.
entific research, and radical new theories have again and again
been invented by scientists. History even suggests that the AARON DABBAH has a Masters in Applied Anthropology and has con-
scientific enterprise has developed a uniquely powerful tech- ducted research on the public presentation of historical information,
nique for producing surprises of this sort. If this characteristic served as head of Integrated Library Systems for the New York Public
of science is to be reconciled with what has already been said, Library, and currently works in Ontology, Taxonomy, and Natural Lan-
then research under a paradigm must be a particularly effective guage Processing for AOL. His blog, EsoterX.com, is an anthropological
way of inducing paradigm change. This is what fundamental look at the nature of monstrosity.
4 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

Joseph Gallenberger

Las Vegas as a
Psychokinesis Laboratory

T he idea of using Las Vegas as my psychokinesis laboratory

didnt just pop into my head. I was already familiar with
Vegas, having gone there to play about once every two years.
that it was my birthday and he said, Well, step right up and
make yourself a birthday gift! Gene had watched me play
many times and knew that I was capable of good rolls but that
Scanning back over those many years, I did have a few very I always kept my betting very cautious and conservative.
unusual experiences that suggest psi in action. I began a good roll, making my targets easily. Every few
A dice event that I remember occurred on my birthday. I minutes Gene would cajole and encourage me to raise my bets,
was staying at the Sahara hotel as I had done many times before saying things like, You are doing great. You are now playing
and had become known to the crews. I found an empty craps with the casinos money, take a chance, would you? I went
table with the box man Gene sitting in his position at the center into the zone and just kept rolling. Although I had started at
of the table. Gene and I exchanged pleasantries. I mentioned an empty table, it now became packed with other players; the
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 5

action was fast and furious. My run continued. Gene brought thousands of times a second. The results in the coin flip over
in two extra basemen to help handle all the action. But I barely thousands of flips, if the coin is perfectly balanced, should by
noticed this, nor all the chaos and cheering. I just kept being very close to 50 percent heads and 50 percent tails. The random
in the zone and raising my bets whenever Gene told me to. event generators do the same process but electronically, and the
When I finally got tired and sevened out by throwing a results also should be roughly 50 percent ones and 50 percent
seven at the wrong time, I had held the dice for over 90 min- zeros by chance, as each option has an equal chance of occurring.
utes. Since seven comes once in every six rolls by chance, a typi- Random event generators allow a very precise and scientific
cal roll lasts about five or ten minutes in the game of craps. The study of psychokinesis. Each time you flip a coin, the chances
table exploded in cheers, which brought me out of my trance are 1 in 2 that it comes up heads. If you start flipping a coin,
enough to notice the huge pile of chips before me. I was surg- and the first two times it comes up heads, that will occur once
ing with too much adrenaline to even handle my chips easily. in every four times by chance. If the first five flips all come up
The crew stacked them for me. Exchanging smaller denomi- heads, this would be unusual but not a miracle because it will
nates for larger ones, and finally giving me the count. I had occur naturally once in every 32 times you tried to do this. But
made well over $3,800 on my roll after starting with $5 bets. if the coin comes up heads 10 times in a row, now things are
getting pretty spooky because that would occur only once in

the question became how and where could I devote the time to pursuing
a black belt in PK? The answer was suggested by the initial dice throwing
experienceLas Vegas!
How it all began 1,024 times by chance. Well, imagine you are on a roll and you
But before I go any further about the casino as classroom, I flip the coin 20 times and it comes up all 20 times as heads.
should present the background on how I became interested in Now we are in miracle territory as this would occur only once
psychokinesis. In addition to working as a clinical psychologist, in 1,048,576 times by chance.
I have been a trainer at The Monroe Institute1 (TMI) for 26 An understanding of probabilities helps put into perspec-
years and have had many psi experiences there. For example, I tive my experiences with PK in the casinos. In the Princeton
was able to repeatedly roll exactly the pattern I envisioned on experiments, when they are running thousands of chance
dice. That psychokinesis experience felt like a wonderful magic determinations per second resulting in millions of events, any
space, and I wanted to experience it again and understand it strong deviation from chance will be highly noticeable and sci-
better. Psychokinesis with dice is amenable to research because entifically significant. This indicates that the events are being
the statistical properties of rolling dice are well known and fol- influenced by something that is causing the events to deviate
low the laws of probability. from chance. And if the only something that can influence the
As I started to more formally study psychokinesis (PK) events is nonphysical energy and intent, then psychokinesis is
the ability to affect matter using nonphysical meansit seemed proven beyond any reasonable scientific doubt.
to me that this PK energy was the same as the energy found One random event generator experiment that I did at
in miracle healings. And this PK energy could also be used to Princeton was called Art Reg. Here a computer using a random
greatly increase the effectiveness of efforts to create a more event generator selects pixels from a picture of a pyramid when-
abundant reality for ones self, by adding a facilitative energy to ever the random event generator picks the number zero. And
the process of intent and visualization employed during mani- on the same screen, at the same time, the computer presents
festation work. Examples of psychokinesis include using just pixels from a picture of a cat whenever the random event gen-
your energy and no physical means to illuminate light bulbs, erator selects the number one. So what you see on the screen is
grow seeds in your hand in just a few minutes, and bend heavy a mush created by combining pixels from the two different pic-
metal 2 and brittle plastic. tures. My job was to somehow affect the random event genera-
About two decades ago I received a small grant to go tor so that it selected more ones (cat picture pixels). If I could
to Princeton Universitys Princeton Engineering Anomalies do so, the picture would more and more clearly become a cat.
Research3 (PEAR) laboratory. At PEAR scientists had been I had meditated and raised energy for a few days before
studying PK for nearly 30 years under very strict scientific stan- coming to the lab. I sat down and relaxed in front of the screen
dards. For example, they had done one study with 12.5 million and then willed the picture of the cat to emergenothing
trials and achieved highly significant results, suggesting that PK happened, just what looked like a mushy static on the screen. I
is real. When I arrived at Princeton, I walked into a very interest- then stood up and got all excited, building energy and looking
ing space and was welcomed warmly. Many experiments in the at the screen, putting my hand out in a beckoning motion and
lab included what are called random event generators or REGs. saying Here, Kitty, Kitty. The cat picture began to slowly
The generators are quantum mechanical devices that basically emerge from the mush. The clearer the picture got, the more
choose either a one or a zero, thousands of times a second. They excited I became, and there it wasa clear picture of the cat,
do this by referencing random atomic action to decide which with the pyramid completely gone! The experimenters told me
of the two options to pick. Basically, it is like flipping a coin that I had achieved results that were 30,000 to one by chance.
6 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

My biggest result was with what I called the fountain that this same energy could be used to heal myself or another
experiment. The researchers had set up a water fountain in and that would be a miraculous thing to do.
the lab. It shot a narrow column of bubbling water into the air It looked likely that the same set of energy, intention, and
for about two feet. The fountain was behind a pane of glass, focus that was helpful in PK could enhance our ability to mani-
so that it could not be affected by direct touch and breezes in fest in our lives what we really wished for. If energy healing,
the air. They explained that the water in the column changed manifestation, and PK all used the same energy and processes,
height by random hydrodynamic law. The up and down danc- then becoming better at PK should make one more insight-
ing of the column height that you see in a fountain changes ful, consistent, and powerful in all three of these areas. This
height randomly if the water remains under steady pressure. really ignited my passion! I thought that it would be a won-
My goal in this experiment was to use only my energy to derful thing to be able to do PK and perhaps teach others to
make the column of water stay high for 10 minutes, then leave do PK as well.
it alone for 10 minutes in the control or comparison period,
then make it low for 10 minutes. The results were very strongly
indicative of PK. Then the computers crashed in the lab. We Back in Vegas
joked that they may have crashed because of all the energy fly- I wondered just how much these skills could be brought under
ing around the lab. conscious control, developed, and consistently repeated. One
The Princeton lab staff were terrific. They were excellent thing I knew was that I needed a place to practice under objec-
at reducing any sense of pressure. PK performance does not tive conditions. I had to find a place to practice where I knew
respond well to pressure. One just has to intend it and then relax for certain that the target was random (not inf luenced by
and let it happen. This is true of many natural human abilities. cheating, or physical manipulation). And to find a place where
We can see this even in something as simple as going to sleep. expected chance results were well understood and established
On a normal night, you feel tired and intend to go to sleep. Then statistically, so I could tell if I was able to create unexplained
you just settle down, relax, and not think about it, and sleep change or patterns. I figured that this study may take years. So
comes. However, if you have only four hours to sleep before the question became how and where could I devote the time to
getting up for a trip, what happens? The pressure to go to sleep pursuing a black belt in PK? The answer was suggested by the
is too great and sleep does not come. Imagine falling asleep on initial dice throwing experienceLas Vegas! There, the dice
command on TV with millions of people watching. This is what are guaranteed to be neutral and random, or the casino would
it would be like to expect someone to perform PK on TV. be rapidly out of business. There, the laws of probability were
My Princeton experience proved to the scientist in me that very well understood, to the point that one knew exactly what
PK was real and that I could do it. Just to be clear, PEAR did the odds were by chance of any number or series of numbers
not certify me as psychic. They did not do that for anyone. being thrown. And there, if I were successful at causing the
But the results were very clear to me. I was able, to a statisti- dice to roll in a non-random or patterned way, I could perhaps
cally significant degree (that would not occur by chance), to recoup at least part of my travel and learning costs.
change the outcome of what are usually random events, using
just my mind and energy. And it appeared from the results of
other experiments that many and perhaps most people can do
the same thing.
As I began my search to understand psychic phenomena
better, I found that other reputable universities and labora-
tories had confirmed and expanded the PEAR results. The
parapsychology lab at Duke University,4 which separated from
Duke and is now known as the Rhine Research Center,5 has
studied dice rolling, telepathy, and other psi functions. I met
Dean Radin, Ph.D. then at University of Nevada, now at the
Institute for Noetic Sciences,6 and saw his lab. I read his book
The Conscious Universe, which is an excellent summary of what
had been proven in the psi or psychic fields in terms of PK,
telepathy, and clairvoyance.
My Princeton experience indicated that I was not deluding
myself about what had happened with dice at TMI. Further,
during the experiences at Monroe with dice and at the lab in
Princeton, I was given a taste of the type of energy and focus
needed to achieve these effects in the physical world. It seemed
to occur if you were very relaxed and had a strong, loving, and
connected feeling with the world and those around you. Then
you set a clear intent, and followed this intent by letting go
trusting the energy to flow toward your intent. It seemed to me Joe Gallenberger and his wife at a Las Vegas casino
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 7

began to achieve enough consistency that I felt that I could teach

Money and PK: Is there a conflict? this skill to others. I was excited to teach, as the whole process
confirmed that PK, energy healing, and manifestation were vari-
Some respected parapsychologists have asserted that money does ants of the same energy and that the process was a highly positive
not work as a psychokinesis motivator. But in Vegas we have found one in terms of psychological and spiritual growth.
that small amounts of money are terrific at bringing attention to a At this point I have taught approximately 85 Inner Vegas
heightened state and providing excellent motivation for sustained Adventure workshops over the past 18 years using the dice
PK. This is only true, however, if proper preparation is done to cre- and slots in Vegas as a classroom to teach PK. During this
ate the ideal altered state of consciousness. Others object to com- time, I have witnessed amazing feats of PK, energy healing,
bining money with high meditative states as somehow a spiritual and manifestation in that environment.
distraction. Instead, with proper preparation, we have found that
using money helps integrate the spiritual with the physical world.
We interview everyone before attending an Inner Vegas Adventure
Key factors
These are a few of the things that I have learned.
to screen out those who may be wanting to attend out of greed or
Personal Verification: In doing and teaching PK on slots
fear, and include those who are interested in learning about PK and dice in Las Vegas now for over 20 years, I have confirmed
energy to express more of their human and spiritual potential. sufficiently for myself (and many others through their own per-
sonal experience) that PK is real, that it is an effective way to
shape reality, and that it is a teachable skill that over time can
Besides providing objective games or experiments become more robust, repeatable, and consistent.
with measureable statistical results, Vegas provided something The most facilitative dynamics for PK performance: During
else that I now consider extremely facilitative of strong PK. My my five years doing PK individually in Vegas, I found that it
own experience and others research such as that summarized never works when I am tired or stressed or in ego or overly
in The PK Zone by Pamela Rae Heath, M.D., Psy.D, suggest in the head. So when I arrived, I would spend the entire first
that a critical component of the PK state is to achieve an altered day resting, meditating, and doing good things for my physi-
state of consciousness (ASC) prior to initiating PK activity. cal body such as swimming or getting a massage. I found that
Monroe Institutes Hemi-Sync, through its ability to alter releasing stress and raising energy through meditation was
brain wave patterns quickly, allows a very rapid acquisition of very helpful if one also remained grounded and strongly in the
meditation skills that makes achieving ASC much more acces- present moment. One had to be fully present in ones body and
sible to the average person.7 connected to the physical to be effective. Being spacey did not
In university labs where I had been a subject, I noticed work. Abstaining from all alcohol, and of course drugs, and
that very little attention was paid to generating ASC in the moderating caffeine intake helped with this power of now
experimental subjects. The labs tended to be fairly sterile spaces state. One of my most significant discoveries was on how to
and the scientists were quite neutral in presenting the experi- handle ego and fears that naturally arose when in a gaming
mental tasks to the subject. Because of the need to accumu- environment. Until this discovery, fears such as I am risking
late data, the trials often become boring. For example, more failure and what will others and the casino think? would
recently I have been working with the wonderful scientists at surface regularly, and addressing them individually was like
the University of Virginia, Division of Perceptual Studies.8 My putting out brushfires repeatedly. Once I discovered that it
assigned PK task there was to apply PK to a grey box that con- was easier to melt fear with love, rather than meeting fear with
tains sensors. I was asked to do 48 seconds of PK, followed by courage, things went much more smoothly. In fact, I now use
48 seconds of rest, alternating for 100 trials, while sitting in a the saying, Fear is expensive, love is priceless, choose wisely
white walled room and wired up to a 128-lead electroencepha- as a governing principle not just in PK but in life.
logram (EEG). and other physiologic monitoring, looking for Feedback should be immediate and clear. That is another
neurophysiological correlates of PK. I had to remain perfectly huge advantage that Vegas casinos have over a science lab
still so as to not have muscle movement throw off the EEG. (and also in life). When we have our Inner Vegas Adventure
I stopped at 50 trials, too tired to continue. Yet I did achieve groups around tables reserved just for usif we as a group are
statistical significance in terms of PK, and we did obtain some grounded to the earth, expanded in connection to spirit, open
interesting brain wave readings from the EEG. hearted, cheerful and grateful, and able to focus clear intent,
In contrast to a science lab, the environment of Vegas casi- then let go and be playfulwe are rewarded within seconds
nos are highly stimulating, and the potential to win money keeps with a money win. If a significant portion of the group goes
excitement and motivation high for hours at a time. I began my into fear, greed, and ego, we are punished with a loss of money.
PK study in Vegas by going there about once every two months Much like teaching a dog to sit, this system of reward and mild
and spending a few days keeping careful notes about results. I punishment is a form of classical psychological conditioning,
also noted what worked in terms of generating strong positive and in the case of PK into a more enlightened way of living that
PK (winning), what generated negative PK (losing), and what is heart based, spiritually connected, in the present moment,
seemed to result in random non-influence of events. I did this with gratitude for blessings and an awareness of the miracles
for about five years and accumulated quite a data set, as well as and abundance that are always available to us.
8 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

Vegas teaches us, if we are aware, that our thoughts when they will do no experiments, yet go on to proclaim that all psi
coupled with emotion do create our reality. For example, I is bunk, all the while refusing to even look at the data produced
threw my target of six on the dice well above chance for sev- by parapsychologists.
eral hours, then sat at a slot machine to relax: the first pull on My discoveries with PK in the university and casino envi-
the machine came up 4 sixes; in delight I thought to myself, ronments have generated multiple paths of training, including
I am a great king of light, then with the next pull came 4 books, meditation exercises, and seminars for those interested
kings, followed by kings and sixes for a half hour until the in incorporating the skill of PK and its benefits into their lives.
energy faded. Slot machines can be great PK teachers because Even after doing 85 Inner Vegas Adventure workshops, I still
one can visualize in meditation a particular target such as a feel that I learn something valuable each time I enter the casino
royal flush in hearts and then go down and hit this immediately with PK in mind. I continue to discover limiting belief systems
on the machine (160,000 to one by chance). We can put the and emotional patterns that, when understood and cleared,
royal flush in hearts in perspective. When I said that it would allow increasd PK performance and enhanced living toward
occur only once in 160,000 times by chance, it is like flipping full potential. I am confident that the next decade will teach
a balanced coin 17 times in a row, having the goal that it will us more about our human PK potential both through rigorous
come up heads and then coming up heads every time. When science and through practical application.
my wife and I got identical jackpots on the poker machines side
by side (four aces with a four), it was equivalent to flipping a JOSEPH GALLENBERGER, Ph.D.,
coin and having it come up heads over 20 times in a row. And has 30 years experience as a psy-
to make matters even more interesting, slot machines contain chologist, is a senior trainer at The
random event generators similar to the random event genera- Monroe Institute, and is a psycho-
tors in the experiments at Princeton and other parapsychology kinesis expert. His discoveries with
labs! (Actually, slot machines use what are called pseudo ran- PK in university and casino environ-
dom event generators that use a mathematical formula to ran- ments are detailed in Inner Vegas:
domly select different handsthe cards that will appear on the Creating Miracles Abundance and
screenhundreds of times per second versus the atomic action Health. He put his findings into a
that drives real random event generators.) practical application in the book
After several years of seeing good PK success in the major- Liquid Luck: The Good Fortune
ity of Inner Vegas Adventure workshops, I used the knowledge Handbook and the CD entitled Liquid
gained there to develop a new program at the Monroe Institute Luck. He developed SyncCreation a home study course, teaching PK
called MC for Manifestation and Creation Squared.10 In this as a way to manifest abundance. His latest book is Heaven Is for Heal-
six-day program, participants enjoy the beautiful country set- ing and companion CD is The Ocean Heart. More information at www.
ting of TMI, participate in meditation exercises using Hemi- SyncCreation.com.
Sync technology, and attempt a variety of PK tasks including
dice throwing, illuminating light bulbs, growing seeds, and
bending mental. There are also eight healing circles scheduled ENDNOTES
where energy healing is practiced, often with dramatic results. 1 The Monroe Institute advances the exploration of human
MC has been going on for more than a decade, and in the last consciousness and the experience of expanded states of aware-
several years researchers from University of Virginia Division of ness as a path to creating a life of personal freedom, meaning,
Perceptual Studies have been collecting data at MC, attempt- insight, and happiness. www.monroeinstitute.org.
ing to measure PK effects. Some of the pilot data have come in 2 For an excellent exploration of the science of metal bending
at a statistically significant level and experimental procedures see The Metal Benders by John Hasted.
continue to be refined. 3 The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR)
program, has completed its experimental agenda of studying
the interaction of human consciousness with sensitive physi-
No respect cal devices, systems, and processes, and developing comple-
Given the success Ive had with PK, one might wonder why mentary theoretical models to enable better understanding
this knowledge is not afforded more respect in the science of the role of consciousness in the establishment of physical
community and not more widely known by the public. Chris reality. Their results are archived at http://www.princeton.
Carter wrote a book entitled Science and Psychic Phenomena: edu/~pear/.
The Fall of the House of Skeptics that presents clear evidence for 4 http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/paralab/.
psi functioning and then explains in detail the politics behind 5 http://www.rhine.org/.
our current situation where a coalition of debunkerseach 6 http://www.noetic.org/.
with his or her own political motivation spanning from the 7 Using The Whole Brain by Ronald Russell is an excellent
religious fundamentalists who think this stuff is of the devil description of the uses of Hemi-Sync
to atheists who will brook no non-material forcescooperate 8 https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/.
to disseminate distorted information to the government and 9 http://synccreation.com/inner-vegas/.
the press. Some organizations have as part of their charter that 10 https://www.monroeinstitute.org/MC2psychokinesis.
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 9

Michael Grosso

Human Singularities
T he point at which an extreme or transcen-
dent change becomes possible
is known as a singularity. So
Almost every feature of Josephs life
was wrapped in singularity, most
famously in his 35-year-long per-
there are mathematical, gravity, formance in public as an involun-
and technological singularities. tary ecstatic levitator.
They all mark break-off points, Psychophysical singularities
openings to new dimensions and suggest the emergence of some-
realities. A black hole is a singular- thing post- or super-human. The
ity in a region of space where mat- following cameo should illustrate.
ter exists in a state of infinite density. Ze Arigo, the Brazilian healer,
Mathematical singularities involve died in an auto accident in 1971
functions where a change in a at the age of 49. A n overwhelming
variable produces a derivative mass of facts suggests that this man
that is infinite. may be described as a human
Perhaps the most popular Cienpies/iStock singularity.
use of the term is in talk of the Arigo was a poor working
coming technological singularity. This usage stands firmly in man of peasant origins who began to have headaches for no
the tradition of millenarian or sci-fi fantasy. The core idea is apparent reason. Something was trying to get through to him,
that there will come a point in human history (30 or 40 years and he was unconsciously resisting it, hence the headaches.
hence!) when computerized machine intelligence reaches a Eventually, it was learned that it was Dr. Fritz, the spirit of
point sufficiently advanced that the machines transcend, revolt a German Doctor said to have died in 1918, calling on Arigo.
against, and somehow take over their human makers. They, not Dr. Fritz took possession of Arigos body and spoke with
us humans, will carry on the torch of evolution, and they alone a guttural German accent. Arigo ultimately came to regard Dr.
will achieve digital immortality. Part of this techno-apocalyp- Fritz as Christ consciousness. Whatever Fritz was, it had one
tic fantasy entails that computers and computer networks will task, which was to use Arigos body to heal the sick. And this is
wake up, as science fiction author Vernor Vinge predicts, in exactly what occurred for the remainder of his life.
short, become conscious. But they will be trillions of times Take the event that led to Arigos immediate rise to fame.
smarter than us, as inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil believes, A distinguished Senator, Lucio Bittencourt, had stopped in a
and so will take over the planet, and have to subjugate or, more hotel in Congonhas do Campo to meet a representative for the
efficiently, dispose of us. local farmers; that person happened to be Arigo, who lived in
Needless to say, I dont assign much credibility to this lat- Congonhas do Campo. Bittencourt was so taken with Arigo
ter-day singularity fantasy, but something about the idea draws that he invited him to take a room in his hotel, so they could
me on. Keeping it empirical, lets consider the idea of a human carry on their talks. When he retired, Bittencourt was unable
singularity. This usage wont be quite as exact as it is in physics to sleep; he had in fact recently been informed that he had
or mathematics, but the sense is clear enough from ordinary lung cancer.
English usage. We use singular to describe something rare, one Dozing restlessly, suddenly a man broke into the Senators
of a kind, new, special, exceptional, extraordinary. room, turned on the light, brandished a razor, and announced
History is replete with specimens of human singularity, that an operation needed to be performed. It was Arigo, eyes
individuals who have driven the creative advance of the spe- glazed and speaking with a German accent. The Senator felt
cies. We might, for example, think of world-historical figures no fear but blacked out. When he woke up, he found blood on
like Jesus, Socrates, and the Buddha, each a deeply important his pajamas and a healed incision on his back. He rose and stag-
human singularity that continues to reverberate through his- gered toward Arigos room, looking for an explanation. Arigo
tory. Indeed, every domain of historical evolution has its vari- was just as surprised as the Senator. He had no idea that he had
ous singularities. For art, think Picasso, for example; for sci- just operated on the Senators lung cancer. But, entranced, he
ence, Albert Einstein; and for technology, Steve Jobs. evidently did. It was in the newspapers the following day, and
But the human singularities I have mind are the type that Arigo was suddenly known all over Brazil.
transcend the common limits of mind and body. Specifically, This was the beginning of a public career of 20 years made
my interest is in psychophysical singularities, kindled as it famous for his healings. His office consisted of a few tables and
was by my research on levitation, as reported in my book chairs in some shacks with long lines of indigent, as well as dis-
The Man Who Could Fly, a study of St. Joseph of Copertino. tinguished, patients, all waiting their turn. Arigo treated about
10 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

Portrait of Arigo by Michael Grosso

300 patients a day, and most of the treatments lasted about and observed thousands of times. For all the weirdness of the
three minutes. He treated all kinds of conditions, from cata- prescriptions, they never caused any harm or ill effects. And
racts to cancer. He deployed two kinds of treatmentopera- they brought positive help and cures, often of fatal diseases.
tions and prescriptions. Clearly, these are impossible performances, in manner and
The prescriptions were preceded by diagnoses achieved effect, unless we posit some extra mode or dimension of intel-
almost instantly with a glance. And with a glance, Arigo gave ligent reality operative but transcending present science.
exact blood pressure readings of his patients. The prescrip- Surgical operation was the second type of treatment.
tions were written with lightning speed, and in the suitably Playwright, documentary film producer, and author John Fuller
scientific pharmaceutical lingo. They were completely original called Arigo the surgeon of the rusty knife. His operations
and strange, mixtures and quantities of drugs that no physi- were positively surreal. Nothing could be more wrong, indeed,
cian would even conceive no less dare to prescribe; neverthe- horrific, as to how he performed surgery on his patients. To begin
less, they worked. with, septically: Arigo would take his penknife, or any handy
Arigo had no medical knowledge, training, or experience blade lying around, however filthy, and roughly plunge it into
whatsoever. And he had no recollection of writing them. This the flesh of his patients, rapidly excising diseased tissues.
process of diagnosis and prescription writing was performed Patients never felt pain (although they sometimes appeared
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 11

uncomfortable) and, incredibly, were never infected. Bleeding three other men to carry on his posthumous crusade of super-
was minimal and Arigo could stop the bleeding with a com- normal healing. Two of those also predicted their own deaths
mand. The wounds healed rapidly, without stitches. and died violently. A third is alive today, performing Arigo-like
Once the operation was over, the gruff martinet Dr. marvels, but also awaiting his predicted violent end. Dr. Fritz
Fritz became the amiable, easy-going Arigo with his pious (whatever that stands for) apparently operates from outside our
wife and brood of handsome children. How all the rules of reality-system. The persons it seems to use to do its work are
reality can be broken while producing such healing marvels is then disposed of.1
a mysterysigns of a human singularity. Whats behind the singular career of someone like Arigo
Arigo was singular in his purity of purpose. He never took is a mystery. The phenomena observed in broad daylight for
money or gifts for his healings. He had no choice in the mat- 20 years cannot be explained, even with remote plausibility, by
ter; the force compelling him was beyond his control. To profit established science. Its singularity is of the type that suggests
from his gift would be sacrilege; during his whole career, he a higher order of human function that revolves around aston-
worked at menial jobs to support his large family. ishing healing powers.
Arigo gained a vast following, a grateful populace, and a Various sorts of human singularity range from historical to
no less grateful class of distinguished acolytes. He restored the recent times and from individuals to group events. So, in the
sight of the son of the famous singer, Roberto Carlos. He cured 20th century, we have Padre Pios 50 years bleeding stigmata,
a kidney disorder of the daughter of the President of Brazil, never infected, and exuding unexplained fragrances. At the
Juscilino Kubitschek, who was himself a surgeon. The condi- moment of his death, the last flake fell from his stigmatized
tion that Arigo cured in her had stymied doctors in Europe hands, leaving no scar on his body, after being an open wound
and America. for 50 years. Leaving no scar was inexplicable, according to
But aside from friends and admirers, Arigo also acquired dermatologist John Sweeny of Columbia University Hospital,
enemies, powerful ones, too; the State, the medical profession, whom I questioned about this.
and the Catholic Church were all against him. The State would Many other candidates could join the roster of human sin-
try and jail him twice because he was patently guilty of break- gularities. Again, in the 20th century we have banker, journal-
ing the law, which forbade the practice of illegal medicine. ist, and physical medium of amazing versatility, Franek Kluski
He had no degrees, diplomas, or certificates; he just repeatedly (18731943) producing sounds, violent psychokinesis, apports,
did the impossible. levitation in the form of objects changing their weight, all sorts
The medical profession was against Arigo for legal rea- of photic phenomena, inexplicable odors, materializations of
sons, and for reasons of incredulity, jealousy, and perhaps fear, birds and other uncanny forms, apparitions of known deceased
when in fact a little curiosity would have been an appropriate people, and so on.2
response. Fortunately, many physicians did eventually come to The fact is that all sorts of human singularities are part of
observe him on the job. the historical landscape. They need to be teased out of oblivion
The Church decided that only bona fide Catholics are and appreciated for their broad significance. A more detailed
allowed to perform miracles. If youre, say, a Kardec-style taxonomy of human singularities might help us imagine the
Spiritualist (popular in Brazil), or keen on some other spiri- possible direction of human evolution.
tual discipline, miracles could get you into serious trouble.
The Church attacked Arigo and accused him of witchcraft and
profiteering, both lies. ENDNOTES
Arigo always asked his friends to pray for his enemies, and 1 The book to read is John Fullers Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty
he served them and strangers for free and with love. Arigo actu- Knife. Also, Google Arigo and Henry Puharich, to observe
ally behaved like a saint, displaying the Churchs heroic virtue, some of the operations and Puharichs stunning talk on
without calling it that. Judged and jailed twice, his better friends Arigo.
prevailed, and he was back playing the part assigned to him by 2 Zofia Weaver (2015) Other Realities? The Enigma of Franek
the mysterious Dr. Fritz. The tide of opinion turned. Plans and Kluskis Mediumship.
appropriations were in place to expand his facilities and bring in
a team of scientists to study Arigo, who welcomed the idea. He, MICHAEL GROSSO, an independent scholar, studied classics and re-
in fact, welcomed scientists observing him, and many did. ceived his Ph.D. in philosophy at Columbia
But at this point fate took a sinister turn. It was early University. He was a contributor to Beyond
January 1971, and President Kubitschek and Arigo had a Physicalism: Toward the Reconciliation of Sci-
meeting. Arigo explained, as he had to others, that for the past ence and Spirituality, edited by Kelly, Crab-
weeks hed been dreaming of a black crucifix and that this tree, and Marshall. His most recent book is
was their last meeting. He predicted he would soon die a vio- The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of Coper-
lent death. On January 11, his car skidded on a rainy road into tino and the Mystery of Levitation (Rowman &
a truck that killed him. Littlefield). Visit his blog at https://conscious-
But the story of Dr. Fritz continued and got stranger. He nessunbound.blogspot.com.
apparently needed to keep on working as healer for the poor
and needy, and had taken possession, reportedly, of at least
12 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

Jeffrey J. Kripal

La Madonna dellUFO

JoJan/Wikimedia Commons
We are part of a symbiotic relationship with something
which disguises itself as an extraterrestrial invasion so
as not to alarm us.

TERENCE McKENNA

O n Sunday, December 14, 2014, I stood in the Hercules

Room of the Palazzo Vecchio, or the Medici Superhero
Room, as I prefer to call it.1 Well, that is what it is. I was not
there to look at the Greek hero and his superhuman labors
brightly illustrated, like some Renaissance graphic novel, on
the ceiling for the Florentine rich and famous. I was there
to view a minor early sixteenth-century painting entitled sim-
ply Nativit (151020). The painting appears to depict a
UFO hovering in the sky.2 A man and his dog stand on
a hill, both staring up at the sky, the mans hand shielding
his eyes, apparently puzzling over the same object that the
viewer of the painting is. In the foreground, the Virgin, with
her back to the thing in the sky, smiles reverently at the two
holy cousins: baby John, who will become the Baptist, and
the infant Jesus, who will become the Christ.
It is hardly a major piece of art. I had to ask two museum
guards to locate it in the palace and could find no reproduc-
tion of it in the bookstore. One of the female museum guards
described it to me, with a big smile, as the la Madonna
dellUFO. She seemed delighted with the modern renaming
of the painting and the new, if quirky, appreciation that this
new designation signals. Another museum guard, this one
male, said, with a gentle arrogance, Well, of course, you know
its not a UFO. Its a standard Renaissance representation of
The Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy
the Holy Spirit.
Really? I answered silently in my head. I didnt have
the courage to ask him what the Holy Spirit was doing in a glowing object is just too similar to what is described today in
scene that had nothing to do with the Annunciation, or why a the ufological literature. The comparison is eerie.
man and his dog are staring at the thing hovering in the sky, One skeptical commentator, Filomena DAmico, describes
whereas the Virgin seems completely unaware of it. I never the object as an ellipsoidal or lead-colored disk that is tilted
knew the Holy Spirit was an object that could be seen by any to the left and that has a kind of turret dome very similar to
passerby (or pet), but not by the Virgin. Dogs, by the way, descriptions given by traditional science fiction to extrater-
feature prominently in contemporary UFO encountersthey restrial spacecraft.3 That is fair and generous. DAmico nev-
commonly see the things, too, and react with the same aston- ertheless thinks that the artist intended to portray an angel
ishment and fear that human hairless primates do. in the form of a luminous cloudan extremely rare artistic
Still, the male guard had a point. It is true that the Holy choice, but again not entirely unknown. Another online art
Spirit is sometimes depicted in similar ways in paintings of the critic, Diego Cuogi, agrees, observing that artists of the time
Annunciation and, more rarely, of the Nativity. It is also true consulted the apocryphal Protogospel of James, which contains
that the shepherd shielding his eyes from the glory of God a reference to a cloud of light. This material reference appar-
can be found in other pieces as well. Still, there is something ently proves for Cuogi that it is not a UFO, that it is only art.4
about this Holy Spirit or glory of God that is different. The I understand the art-historical precedents, of course, but
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 13

I doubt that they really explain the Madonna of the UFO. My Bible scholars pooh-pooh such notions, insisting
reasons are textual and historical. After all, one hardly needs that what Ezkeiel saw must be interpreted in terms
an obscure apocryphal text to find a textual reference to the of Ezekiels own time and culture (early sixth cen-
luminous cloud of the painting. The cloud filled with light or tury BCE). But the traditional tools of exegesis get
lightning is very biblical. The glory of God is described in us only so far in understanding the Bibles strangest,
similar terms, for example, at key moments in Exodus (16.10 most numinous text. Theres a sense in which Ezekiel
and 24.16). Much more damning for Cuogis reading, how- really did see a UFO: something unidentified, beyond
ever, is the fact that the same motif appears in the first lines of Ezekiels categories and our own, capable of being cul-
Ezekiel, where the prophet describes a vision of a bizarre some- turally pigeonholed as visions of God (Ezekiel) or
thing that looks and sounds remarkably like a modern UFO as a spaceship. The truth transcends both.6
encounter. The biblical text even describes weird wheels, how
the thing floats, roars, and gleams like some kind of electric The conclusion here is as simple as it is important: Cuogis
metal,5 and how the prophet was abducted or lifted up by reductive historicizing attempt to explain away the luminous
the spirit of God and taken to another physical place (Ezekiel cloud by citing a textual precedence backfires, since the texts
1.13.15). David Halperin, the historian of ancient Judaism, themselves may well have been expressions of actual sightings and
author of a psychoanalytic study of Ezekiel, and easily one of encounters. The classical text of Ezekiel is a powerful case in
the most astute interpreters of the modern UFO phenomenon, point.
has observed the obvious: the vision looks genuine (that is, But I am finally skeptical of the skeptics for another sim-
based on an actual phenomenological event), and, yes, it looks pler reason, namely, that modern UFOs are also commonly
like a modern UFO. reported as hiding in or appearing as luminous clouds that
Halperin goes on to comment on the typical move that look, well, like the object hovering, as if out of place and out
biblical scholars make, which is the same typical move that art of time, in the Renaissance painting.7 Michael Lieb calls those
historians make, that is: restrict the phenomenon in question who witness (and ride) such things the children of Ezekiel
to a very particular time and place and so create an existential and the new riders of the chariot. They are moderns, the
firewall between it and us. That simply does not work here: prophets of the New Age. Theirs is the religion of the New
Age, the religion of the modern through which earlier forms
of devotion, archaic modes of worship, discover a new outlet.8

Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, attributed to
the Maestro del Tondo Miller, late fifteenth century. Palazzo Vecchio,
Florence. Courtesy of De Agostini Picture Library.
14 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

These resonances between the Renaissance art and the reason why sixteenth-century Italians could not have seen the
modern ufological literature, moreover, quickly multiply, if one same damned things that twenty-first Americans (or Italians, or
knows where to look. Numerous contactees, for example, have Belgians, or Brazilians, or Japanese) see every other week. Nor
experienced the alien as a kind of technological angel. So can I imagine a single good reason why some Italian artist (or
the art-historical explanation that It is a representation of an the author of the Protogospel of James, for that matter) would
angel only digs the hole deeper. It does not get us out of it. not have taken these things seen in the sky as appropriate
figures through which to depict the Holy Spirit or an angel.
Perhaps the artist saw one himself. Obviously, he did not
intend to represent a UFO in his painting. Such language
and the modern scientific cosmology, along with the Big Bang,
Simply because the artist galaxies and space travel that it encodes, were simply not avail-
able to an early sixteenth-century Florentine artist. And thats
dressed his own experience a gross understatement. Another Italian, the Dominican
Giordano Bruno, would be burned in a Roman public square
or a reported vision in a few decades later, partly for claiming the existence of other
planets or worlds within an infinite universe with no cen-
the codes of his own local ter. Simply because the artist dressed his own experience or a
reported vision in the codes of his own local religious culture,
religious culture...does then, does not mean that the objects nature was significantly
different from that of those encountered today. It simply means
not mean that the objects that these were the cosmological codes available to him. What
else could he have intended?
nature was significantly In the end, of course, we must admit that there is no way

different from that of those to come to a firm conclusion, a rock-bottom experience or sin-
gular event behind these art-historical processes. If there was
encountered today. one (or, much more likely, a thousand), these are now lost to
us in the centuries and their silences. Or are they? I suppose
this is the other point I want to make. Why not use the modern
luminous clouds, to which we have some fairly direct (if never
completely direct) access via the contemporary UFO witnesses,
in order to tentatively read the Renaissance luminous cloud, to
And this is before we get to the really weird stuff, like which we have no reliable access?
the point-by-point identities between the history of modern What I think we have to interrogate here is what is at
Marian apparitions and the ufological materials, down to tiny, stake in the art-historical denials of this popular comparative
utterly bizarre details: like the falling of angel hair (a strange practice. I think the reason the art historian is so troubled by
weblike substance that falls from the sky around Marian and the ufological comparison is the same reason that the conven-
ufological apparitions, often only to dissolve or disappear tional scholar of religion is so troubled: both the art historian
before the stuff hits the ground) and the falling-leaf pat- and the scholar of religion are ideologically committed to a
tern of the descending flying saucer and the silver spinning purely materialist history in which there can only be political,
sun or disk that thousands of people reportedly witnessed institutional, textual, and material influences but never, ever,
falling from the sky in the most famous Marian event of all interventions out of space and out of time. It is only art. Or
time, the Miracle of the Sun of October 13, 1917, in Fatima, it is only power and politics. Or it is only the texts. Or it is
Portugalpredicted with perfect precision, by the way, by only in the scholars imagination. So lets go find an obscure
three shepherd children months before it happened. A fantas- text that can explain (away) what we otherwise see in the paint-
tic and utterly impossible Marian ufology could be developed ing. Lets do anything, other than entertain the simple idea that
here for hundreds of pagesthe Madonna of the UFO, indeed. sixteenth-century Italians may have been like us and may have
This broader historical and comparative context is what responded religiously to what tens of thousands of contempo-
makes me so uncomfortable with both the art-historical rary people see today and narrativize in very different mytho-
response (Its a common Renaissance representation of the logical and cosmological codes.
Holy Spirit) and the UFO enthusiast (Its an extraterrestrial The comparativist, on the other hand, can see clearly that
spaceship). Halperin had it just right, it seems to me: The both the art historian and the modern UFO enthusiast are fall-
truth transcends both. ing into some remarkably unsophisticated readingsone stuck
Why, after all, privilege one relative historical moment in Renaissance Catholic culture (or positivist historicism), the
and cultural framework over another? Perhaps the artist did other in twentieth-century sci-fi culture. I think they are both
intend the object as a representation of the Holy Spirit or an wrong. I think we need an entirely new language and imagi-
angel, but so what? Modern contactees commonly describe naire, a new way of seeing the history of religions that is nei-
their encounters in remarkably similar religious terms. I see no ther bound to the symbolisms and theologies of the religious
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 15

past nor hypnotized by our present technologies and military very sorrythese sorts of experiences/events are not. They are
violences. In terms of the latter, the UFO is an early 1950s not just scholarly constructions. They are not just texts. They
military acronym designed to turn an anomaly in the sky into are not just power ploys. They are not just subjective illusions.
an enemy on radar. I doubt very much that these paranoid Cold They happen, often in striking empirical and publicly perceiv-
War origins of the UFOand the whole history of the US able ways. And we cannot explain them with our social-scien-
military and intelligence communities involvement in shaping, tific and historicist methods, or just ignore their obvious onto-
suppressing and distorting the public representations of the logical provocations, as Smith does in an essay on the modern
UFOhave much of anything to do with what these appari- UFO phenomenon.11 That is much too convenient, and frankly
tions are really about.9 suspicious.
Really about. Those are strong words, and completely
inappropriate ones in our present intellectual climate. But that
climate will pass, as all academic orthodoxies eventually do.
And, yes, I think these presences possess their own intentions
and agencies, which we are in no position to understand or
essentialize at this point in our cultural evolution. This same Both the art historian and
exact point has recently been made by the atheist and femi-
nist social critic Barbara Ehrenreich, struggling with her own the scholar of religion are
mystical experience, which she can no longer deny and whose
cultural impossibility and intellectual embarrassment she com-
ideologically committed to
pares to an alien abduction experience.10
None of this, of course, has much to do with what one
a purely materialist history
sees as one walks around Florence today. This city and its reli-
gion were once dominated by the immense wealth and power
in which there can only
of the Medici family and the public theology, art, and archi-
tecture of Roman Catholicism, whose churches literally tower
be political, institutional,
above the cityscape. Such public religions of power, politics, textual, and material
and men have been one of the primary objects of the profes-
sional study of religion. As well they should be. I have nothing influences but never, ever,
against this project.
But must we all only do this? Why not build something interventions out of space
new on these historical-critical foundations? Or must we just
keep digging the basement, deeper and deeper into the dirt? and out of time.
Why not build on these foundations a more radical project still?
This would be a new comparative project that focuses on the
paranormal present in order to better understand the magical
and miraculous past; that does not assume the only of It is
only art or It is only power and politics or It is only in our Perhaps, you will say, this is a much too grand a proposal
scholarly imagination; a project, finally, that is as skeptical of to build on such a dubious case study. Maybe you are right.
our own present materialist and subjectivist ideologies as it is Maybe the Madonna of the UFO is no such thing. Perhaps
of the religious and institutional ideologies of the past. For the the object-out-of-place in the sky was intended and viewed as a
sake of a conversation, let us call this the new comparativism. simple symbolic convention. I doubt it, but okay.
Until we can begin such a project, the Madonna of the UFO But do we really need such a painting for the new com-
will continue to mock us. parativism I am imagining? Similar new comparative obser-
As well she should. vations could be made around Brent Landaus work on The
In the end, we have no answer for her. I think we should Revelation of the Magi, a third-century Christian text that,
just say that and stop pretending that we do. Much better to as Landau has honestly observed, contains strikingly modern
begin reimagining the history of religions as a long and com- ufological themes, including the famous star or intelligent
plicated series of real (as in really experienced) contact events, ball of light that leads the magi to the nativity scene, distorts
followed by a countless number of personal mystical commu- the sense of time for the magi (exactly as contemporary UFO
nions and public communications (including artistic ones), encounters often do), and then morphs into a small luminous
all disciplined, filtered, and shaped by material history, all the humanoid, that is, into the infant Jesus, who is never named
way down to our neurology and biology. Of course, everything as such in the first-person section of the text. The same anony-
about religion is constructed, but everything is constructed mous star, by the way, also utters mystical teachings that are
upon somethingsomething really seen, really experienced, indistinguishable from modern perennialist and New Age con-
and something still unidentified. victions. In Landaus own terms, the text presents us with a
Perhaps, as J. Z. Smith has famously argued, religion is sentient ball of light who can take the form of a little humanoid
indeed a construct of our scholarly imaginations, butI am and who tells his witnesses that he has appeared to many other
16 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

individuals throughout human history.12 Nor would this be appears three times in the Bible, all in Ezekiel. See Michael
the last such story. Stars and balls of light turn into angels and Lieb, Children of Ezekiel: Aliens, UFOs, the Crisis of Race,
humanoids throughout Western history up to and including and the Advent of End Time (Durham: Duke University Press,
the present day.13 1998).
The art historian or textual critic, of course, could note 6 David Halperin, email communication, 19 October 2015.
that the traveling star theme is reliant on an earlier textual 7 The same phenomenon is claimed in the biblical book of
source, the Gospel of Matthew, and, of course, that is correct. Exodus, of course, where a column or pillar of cloud and
But, again, so what? Note how little this explanation explains. lightning is described guiding the Israelites through the des-
The star from the East in the gospel story does not distort time ert, but this would take us too far afield.
or morph into a small humanoid, nor does it preach a clear 8 Lieb, Children of Ezekiel, 17.
form of perennialism, in the third century no less. We are in 9 I am indebted to Diana Walsh Pasulka for this language and
the same situation here as we are with the Renaissance paint- insight.
ing in Florence. Yes, we have precedents and symbolic conven- 10 Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Non-believers
tions, but they explain very little in the end. Something is out Search for the Truth about Everything (New York: Twelve,
of place and out of time here. 2014), xiixiii.
If an unmarried Jewish teenager ever scandalously con- 11 J. Z. Smith, Close Encounters of Diverse Kinds, in Relating
ceived a god-man with the help of a spirit or an angel (or a Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion (Chicago: University
luminous cloud), it no longer matters so much, at least as of Chicago Press, 2004).
some singular historical event. The same conscious spheres of 12 Brent Landau, The Coming of t he Star-Child: The
light and transphysical beings are engaging women and men Reception of the Revelation of the Magi in New Age
from the depths of human sexuality (and so from the depths Religious Thought and Ufology, Gnosis 1:1 (2016); and
of human genetics and evolution) by the thousands now, and Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise
probably have always been doing so. Mens Journey to Bethlehem (New York: HarperCollins, 2010),
In the meantime, there is the Madonna of the UFO, eerily 9091.
uniting the religious cultures of the European pasts and the 13 For a modern account, see American evangelist William
emergent mythologies of the American present. How this reso- Marrion Brahnhams vision of a ball of light or great
nance is possible at all is the real question. But who is asking it? star that transforms into an angelic messenger in David
Who is ready to re-vision the history of religions as a material Edwin Harrell, Jr., All Things are Possible: The Healing and
history haunted by real contact? Who is ready to affirm both Charismatic Revivals in Modern America (Bloomington:
the all-too-human and the nonhuman (or the transhuman) Indiana University Press, 1975), 2728. My thanks to Dale
within a new comparativism? Who is ready to smile, like my Allison for pointing out this consistent motif and this par-
female museum guide, instead of sneer, like my male museum ticular text.
guide? Who is ready for la Madonna dellUFO?
JEFFREY J. KRIPAL holds the J.
Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy
Reprinted with permission from the forthcoming Secret and Religious Thought at Rice Uni-
Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions versity. He is the author of numer-
by Jeffrey J. Kripal, published by the University of Chicago ous books, including Authors of the
Press. 2017 by Jeffrey J. Kripal. All rights reserved. Impossible: The Paranormal and
the Sacred (Chicago, 2010) and his
most recent Secret Body: Erotic and
ENDNOTES Esoteric Currents in the History of
1 I am grateful to David Halperin, Diana Walsh Pasulka, Brent Religions (Chicago, 2017). He spe-
Landau and Troy Tice for their help with this essay. cializes in the comparative study
2 We do not know who painted it. Art historians attribute it and analysis of extreme religious
to Sebastiano Mainardi, Jacopo del Sellaio or Filippo Lippi. states from the ancient world to
The original provenance was a convent of Sant Orsolo in the today. His full body of work can be
district of San Lorenzo in Florence. I am relying on DAmico seen at http://kripal.rice.edu.
below.
3 See http://www.florenceinferno.com/
madonna-of-ufo-painting-palazzo-vecchio/
4 See http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_5_eng.htm
5 The Hebrew word here is hashmal. Considered to textualize
the highest and most dangerous holy mystery by the ancient
rabbis and Jewish mystics, the word was translated into the
Greek as elektron, into the Latin as electrum, and is now
the basis of modern Hebrew words for electricity. It only
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 17

REFERENCE POINT
Book review by Peter Sturrock

In Honor of a True Scientist

E arly in my career at Stanford

University, in the course of a con-
versation with Leonard Schiff (then
As a boy, I once asked permission
to take an old alarm clock to pieces.
Permission was granted, and I success-
the Department Chair of the Physics fully took the clock apart and then reas-
Department), I asked him what he con- sembled it. Tommy, as a boy, achieved
sidered to be the most important char- the far more impressive feat of opening
acteristic of a successful scientist. He up a Swiss watch, taking it to pieces, and
replied strength of character. Thomas then putting it back together! Hence the
Gold (always known as Tommy) had title of this memoir, Taking the Back off
that characteristic in spades. He was not the Watch, which Tommy never com-
a physicist, nor a biologist, nor a geolo- pleted in his lifetime (1920 to 2004) but
gist, nor a space scientist, nor an astro- which has been prepared for publication
physicist, nor a cosmologisthe was all by Simon Mitton, who was himself once
of the above. a young astrophysicist at Cambridge
My f irst encounter with Tommy University. The life of Tommy Gold
was in 1953, at a conference on Gas is a fascinating story, and we owe a
D y n a m i c s o f C o s m ic C lo u d s i n great debt to Mitton for bringing it to
Cambridge, UK . There was discus- publication.
sion about geomagnetic storms, and
their various componentsthe Sudden
Commencement, the Main Phase, etc. Taking the Back off the Watch: A Personal Early Years
Memoir by Thomas Gold, edited by Simon
No one was offering any convincing the- Gold was born in Vienna in 1920 and
Mitton. Springer, 2012.
oretical interpretation of these phases, lived there until 1930, when his fam-
when up spoke someone with a clear and ily moved to Berlin. Tommy did not do
confident voice. He argued that the only well in the Berlin school, and the teach-
way to understand how the sudden commencement, with a ers suggested to his parents that Tommy might be mentally
timescale of minutes, could be initiated by a solar flare that retarded! However, he excelled in gymnastics and learned to
had occurred perhaps a day earlier, was to attribute the sudden defend himself against the ruffians and young thugs a Jewish
commencement to a shock wave that had traveled ahead of the boy would encounter in Berlin in those days. In 1933, Tommy
material ejected by the flare (material that would subsequently was sent to a school in Switzerland whichafter Berlinwas
initiate the main phase). He then went on to point out that it a heavenly experience.
could not be a conventional hydrodynamic shock, because the
mean-free path of the atoms, electrons, and ions was far too
long to lead to a shock wave duration of just minutes. It had to
involve the interaction of the electrically conducting gas with
a magnetic field. Once stated, the interpretation was obvious! Tommy was never afraid
But it took someone with the intelligence, curiosityand
strength of characterof Tommy Gold to see it. of controversy
Some years later I was at a conference at the Villa
Monastero at Varenna, Italy, on Lake Como. I had by then
heard of Tommys athleticism (he was a formidable skier), but I
was still taken aback by what I saw. There was a stone staircase Tommy left Switzerland in 1938 to rejoin his parents, who
leading down to an underground vault, and of course there had by then emigrated to England. He was admitted to Trinity
were railings around the staircase. I saw a crazy man, who obvi- College, Cambridge University, in 1939, but in May 1940 all
ously had no concern for his life or limb, calmly walking on persons in England with German or Austrian passports were
top of the railings starting where the steps began, and walking interned. With other internees, Tommy was moved to an
to the other end, where there would have been a ten foot drop internment camp in Canada, where he had the great fortune of
to the stone steps below! That was Tommyfearless as always. meeting Hermann Bondi, who would become a lifelong friend
18 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

and collaborator. Tommy recounts an unpleasant experience at

the hands of the commandant of an internment camp, and then
advises us Beware of humans when they are put in charge of
other humans.
Tommy was returned to England in 1941, and was able to
resume his studies (in Mechanical Engineering!) at Cambridge.
Once he had completed his studies, Tommy was sent to the
Admiralty radar establishment in Surrey to become part of
the theory section where he rejoined Bondi, and where he met
Fred Hoyle who was in charge of that section. It was in this way
that the famous trio of Bondi, Gold, and Hoyle came together.
When World War II ended, Tommy was temporarily given
Thomas Gold (19202004) in his office at Cornell University
the illustrious rank of Wing Commander and sent to Germany
with a small delegation to inspect and report on various scien-
tific and technological centers in Germany. One night in Berlin, One theory that Tommy would have to abandon was his
he and a companion were accosted by an American soldier who idea that the surface of the Moon would be covered by dust
demanded that they take him to an address in Berlin. Somehow two or three feet thick. Most astrophysicists would also claim
the interaction became hostile and the soldier produced a knife that he (and Hermann Bondi and Fred Hoyle) were off base in
and began to attack Tommy. Tommy had as a boy learned how advocating the Steady State model of cosmology. Fred Hoyle
to fight, and he was able to break the soldiers wrist and so sur- had used the term Big Bang to denigrate the alternative idea
vive a very dangerous situation. of a sudden beginning of the universe, but the name has stuck!
I met Tommywell after the War had endedat the Tommy took an active and creative interest in many other
conference on Gas Dynamics of Cosmic Clouds mentioned problems. One was the nature of radio sources being dis-
earlier. However, my principal contact with Tommy occurred covered by radio observatories, including the Mullard Radio
(probably in 1969) after the discovery of pulsars by Jocelyn Bell Observatory under the direction of Martin Ryle in Cambridge
and Tony Hewish in 1968 at the Mullard Radio Observatory in the 1960s. The distribution of sources appeared to be almost
at Cambridge. My first thought was that pulsars had to be isotropic, so they had to be either very close by (inside our gal-
pulsating white dwarfs, and I developed a theory along those axy) or extragalactic. Ryle initially went for the first option and
lines. Tommys immediate interpretation was that they had to Tommy for the secondwhich proved to be the correct choice.
be rotating neutron stars. When he first asked for time at an Tommy took an interest in the intriguing problem of
astrophysical conference to present this idea, the conference finding a mechanism that can explain the polarization of star-
chairman refused, saying If I give you time for that, Tommy, lightnow believed to be due to asymmetric interstellar grains
Ill have people asking to present all kinds of crazy ideas. that are aligned either by magnetic field or by flow-fields in the
Undeterred, Tommy gave his speech from the floor! Tommy interstellar gas.
got the basic idea correctly, but he did not go on to develop Tommy was never afraid of controversy, once saying For
that idea into a theory, which is a problem I took on in 1970. a theory to be useful, it should be wrong (intended meaning
debatable of course). One of Tommys theories (which almost
all scientists would consider to be wrong) is that oil has a geo-
Tommy could be years ahead logical origin, not a biochemical origin. He was successful in
getting a Swedish oil company to drill through 500 meters of
of the establishment! rock, an experiment that produced oil, but only a very small
amount. That test argues against Tommys theory, but it does
not absolutely disprove it.
If I could bring back to Earth one of my erstwhile col-
leagues to talk over my current research (the influence of neu-
Hits and Misses trinos on beta decays), it would be Tommy. It is unlikely that
As one must expect of any creative scientist, Tommy had both he would immediately accept the reality of the phenomenon
hits and misses. The sudden-commencement model and his still less immediately accept my theorybut he would certainly
pulsar model were two of his hits. Another was his concept bring to the discussion an open and inquiring mindwhich is
of the magnetosphere for the region far from the Earths all one can ask of a true scientist.
surface where the plasma atmosphere is dominated by the
Earths magnetic field. Another remarkable intellectual achieve- PETER STURROCK has spent most of his life as a conventional scientist,
ment was Tommys theory that the ear is not a passive receiver working on accelerator physics, electron physics, plasma physics, solar
of sound waves, but is a receiver that connects with an active physics, astrophysics, and statistics at Stanford University. He is one
transducer. Tommy proposed that theory in 1948, but it was of the founders of the Society for Scientific Exploration, and the author
not accepted by the biological community until 1998. Tommy Late Night Thought About Science (Exoscience, 2015).
could be years ahead of the establishment!
 EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017 / 19

BACKSCATTER
Mel Acheson

Keyhole Epistemology
W
Bestdesigns/iStock
e peer at t he u n iverse t h roug h arranging patterns, generating patterns, modi-
keyholes. fying patterns, and associating patterns until
We sense half a dozen colors, varia- we have a coherent composition.
tions of rough and smooth, flavors that are With a large movement of viewpoint, the
sometimes familiar, a few octaves of pressure patterns of nervous sparks we call funda-
oscillations in air. What are we missing? The mentals can change. This is a paradigm shift.
colors of microwaves and x-rays, the sounds What once was a dark room with light shining
of electric currents, the smells of magnetic through pinholes in the wallpaper becomes a
fields, the sensations for which we have no four-dimensional manifold of emptiness inter-
names or even imagination. rupted with transient specks of thermonuclear
All we get from these keyholes are cas- explosions. It produces a different picture of
cades of tiny sparks between nerve cells. We a different reality. Seeing the universe from
arrange these sparks into patterns, which we more than one paradigm provides a kind of
call perceptions and conceptions and facts. cognitive parallax that gives a sense of depth
We give them names, and the names relate and historicity to consciousness.
one with another, and these relationships The awareness of different objects and
imply points of view. The name we give to different viewpoints and different realities
the viewpoint thats peering through the keyhole, to the meta- can lead to an awareness of limits: Each perspective will have
phorical eye that sees what there is to see, is the I of ego who its domain of validity. These domains are the basis for what we
understands that it sees. call the provisionality of theories in science. The nature of cog-
When this eye looks back on itself, when the I under- nitive knowledgethat common human trait which is simply
stands that it understands, it becomes conscious. This con- applied methodically by scienceis not suited to staking claims
sciousness has an inherent bias. Because were not conscious to The Truth. Provisionality is more limitedand more useful.
of whats unconscious, we assume whats conscious is all there Its flexible, adaptable; a tool, not a Procrustean bed. The I
is. Consciousness is like a spotlight in a dark room: Because who thinks of itself as the center of a viewpoint can be liberated
all we see is whats within the circle of illuminationthe wall- from its attachment to particular viewpoints. It can see itself as
paper, the picture, a chair and its shadowwe think thats all an explorer of viewpoints, a creator of viewpoints, an artisan of
there is to see. cognitive composition.
We can overcome this bias if we pay attention not to the This makes of science an art instead of a religion, an inven-
objects illuminated but to our activity of seeing them. Memory tion instead of a ritual. Science is not so much a search for
helps: The circle of illumination moves; we see other objects; THE TRUTH as it is the generation of truthfulness. This is
we remember what we no longer see. Libraries help: We can dis- the distinction between justificationism and critical rationality.
cover what others have seen. This prompts us to realize theres Cognitive knowledge is not something thats justified by being
more to the universe than weve seen, experienced, understood. founded on some incorrigible ground. Rather, its a mutable
But its not just the circle of illumination that can move. metaphor in which every theory and every proposition is open
The source also can move. The spotlight can shine on the to critical reexamination.
same objects from different locations. The nervous sparks This is what makes peeking through the keyhole so exciting.
from which we form the patterns that imply a viewpoint can Everyones carving a different sculpture or composing a differ-
be rearranged to form a different pattern, and the different ent tune or painting a different picture of the universe. Some of
pattern will imply a different viewpoint. We call this learning. those efforts turn out to be quite useful and pleasing. Ive col-
It prompts us to realize there can be more than one way to see lected a few; I plan to collect more. If youve only got one hang-
things, there can be more than one theory to explain things. ing on your wall, I urge you to make room for a second.
From a different viewpoint, familiar objectsthe facts
look different: We see the wallpaper, the picture, and two chairs. MEL ACHESON majored in astronomy but was so disappointed and
Curiosity goads us to invent ways of generating additional sparks dismayed by the institutional corruption he encountered during his col-
that might allow us to judge whether the pattern of one chair lege years (1961-1965) that he started a remodeling business instead.
and its shadow or the pattern of two chairs is the real one. We Years later, he began thinking about how revolutions in scientific theo-
call this experimentation, verification, and speculation. Again, if ries are possible: How do people compose theories? What processes
we pay attention not to the objects illuminated but to our activ- and criteria do they use to judge truthfulness? How do these theories,
ity of seeing them, we realize that reality is not what we start processes, and criteria change with their mutual interactions? Hes still
with but what we end up with. Its the picture that results from working on it. Article reprinted courtesy The Thunderbolts Project.
20 /EDGESCIENCE #31 SEPTEMBER 2017

Noteworthy Books
Available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Inner Vegas: Creating Miracles, Secret Body: Erotic and The Man Who Could Fly: St.
Abundance, and Health Esoteric Currents in the Joseph of Copertino and the
By Joseph Gallenberger History of Religions Mystery of Levitation
(Rainbow Ridge Books, Feb. 2013) By Jeffrey Kripal By Michael Grosso
(University of Chicago Press, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Nov. 2017) Dec. 2015)

On June 610, 2018

The SOCIETY FOR SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION will join
with the INTERNATIONAL REMOTE VIEWING ASSOCIATION
in hosting their annual meeting at
South Point in Las Vegas.
The theme of the conference will be
Applications of Edge Science.
Details coming soon.