Evidentiality of Spiritualist Mediumship with Stephen E. Braude

Stephen Braude, PhD, served as chairman of the philosophy department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He has also served as president of the Parapsychological Association. He is author of Crimes of Reason, The Gold Leaf Lady, Immortal Remains, The Limits of Influence, First Person Plural, and ESP and Psychokinesis. He is the recent recipient of the prestigious Myers Memorial Medal awarded by the Society for Psychical Research for outstanding contributions.

Here he suggests that a useful criterion in distinguishing between evidence for post-mortem survival as opposed to living agent psi is the motive for the mediumistic communication. If the communication seems to be of greater benefit to the deceased, this would count in favor of the survival hypothesis. For this reason, “drop in” cases are of particular significance. Braude describes one such case, from Iceland, in detail. Further discussion focuses on the accuracy of information provided by ostensible spirit communicators. Braude also argues that, in order to properly evaluate mediums, we need to know more about the nature of unusual human talent.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is a past vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that Association for his contributions to the field of human consciousness exploration. He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities.

(Recorded on July 9, 2016)