research
Since 2002, I have been actively investigating a continuum of psychic phenomena: telepathy, clairvoyance, remote viewing, precognition, premonition, psychokinesis, psychic ‘work’ and healing: collecting evidence, studying the culture, making imaginitive leaps. I am particularly interested in the concept of the mind as a ‘field’ - in our interconnectedness - and the mind-body as a unified consciousness.
Since October 2003, we have all researched the field of psi, focussing on the field of quantum physics and current scientific theories such as string theory, M theory and the proposition that the universe is a hologram - one of the scientific theories which allows for the occurence of psychic phenomena. Science appears fascinatingly close to mysticism right now. These new theories, where parallel universes are an acceptable notion, where space can rip to allow instant time travel and new wormholes might arrive and disappear, create the conditions where psychic phenomena not only live, but thrive.
Throughout the research and devising process, we have pulled a diverse range of information and ideas from journals, magazines, books, TV programmes, websites, newspapers, our friends, email news groups, autobiographical and biographical sources, and audio interviews with people who have had direct experience of unexplained events.
The gathered
research is the ground for the devising of the performance project:
process
page
performance page
The
research also provides
sources for writing generated in relation to the
project:
paper given at SPR conference
article
for Paranormal Review
As a brief introduction to the field of psi, I thank Dr Serena Roney Dougal for permission to quote these definitions from her book 'Where Science and Magic Meet'
the meaning of the word psi:
Parapsychology
is the study of psychic phenomena such as:
1. telepathy - mind to mind communication.
2. clairvoyance - obtaining information about, for example, lost objects, which
no one else knows about.
3. precognition - knowing about something that hasn’t yet happened.
4. psychokinesis - affecting things outside of oneself just by thought alone.
These four phenomena are the basic core of a host of strange events that happen spontaneously to lots of people far more frequently than is commonly expected. Examples of such spontaneous events are: seeing a ghost; having a dream that actually happens later in the day or week; going to phone a friend and having them phone you just at that moment; what are often called hunches or intuitions.
All of these events are called psychic phenomena. Sometimes I use the word psi to refer to psychic. This is used a lot by parapsychologists these days. I like it because it has many layers of meaning and usage. First psi is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet and the first letter in words such as psyche (mind, soul), psychic and psychology (study of the mind). Second it is used in modern quantum physics to denote what they call “the hidden variables involved the collapse of the wave function”. Third the symbol that denotes the Greek psi is found in Norse rune alphabets where it symbolises Fate. Fourth, Neptune’s and Boadiccea’s tridents are the same shape as the Greek letter psi.
...and as a postscript to the project...
“it’s the word love” (Lennon/McCartney)
At the end of this phase of the project, after so much time spent researching, reading and talking around the subject of psi including attending conferences, I find myself wondering about the role of love in relation to psi.
...is it the vehicle, the route, the binding, the unraveller, the medium, the connector, the connection, the boat, the membrane, the spark, the big bang, the unifying theory of everything?
