psychic research Archives - Homespun Haints

We Only Experience 1% Of What’s Out There

Diana Doty — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 20:00:00 +0000

The day began with a dream portending disaster. At 3am on September 1st, 2002, Phran Ginsberg sat bolt upright out of a deep sleep. She turned to her husband, Robert, and told him that something was going to happen that day that would forever alter their lives. Even as a skeptic, Robert was unsettled. He knew his wife had had precognitive dreams that came true in the past. Yet, despite the forewarning and their subsequent vigilance, there was nothing they could do by the time they learned of the accident that took their daughter from them. Or…was there something they could do, even now? How does a skeptic even begin to communicate with the dead? Robert’s determination to have one last conversation with his daughter turned into a lifelong quest to understand and prove after-death communication is possible.

And about that “one” last conversation…try over 70 in the first year.

Listen right here:

About the Guest: Robert Ginsberg

Robert Ginsberg is the founder of Forever Family Foundation. This 501(c)(3) organization is a free resource for all things life-after-death. Aside from supporting research into the existence and nature of life after death, the foundation runs events like grief retreats. Forever Family Foundation also has a medium certification with a rigorous vetting process. Only those mediums with exceptional and replicable ability to communicate with the dead gain certification. The foundation’s radio show is intended to help you learn about the evidence for life beyond death, grief transformation, and the nature of consciousness.

Bob is also the author of two books: The Medium Explosion, and My Life: Here and There. His main focus is on the evidence for life after death (NDEs, deathbed visions, after death communications, reincarnation, apparitions, EVP/ITC, etc). In fact, you may already know Robert from the Netflix docuseries Surviving Death. As you probably know by now, when one talks about this stuff enough, paranormal activity tends to increase around them. You can read Bob’s personal musings and many experiences with the paranormal at his blog, Beyondthefivesenses.com.

Types of After-Death Communication

Bob tells us that the most common form of communication with the dead is in dream visitations. Whereas typical dreams are usually somewhere between fantastical and senseless, these kinds of dreams are more realistic. They will likely feel like any ordinary conversation you might’ve had with your loved one when they were alive.

By contrast, the most powerful form of after-death communication is the near death experience, which makes sense. In many NDEs, the person having the experience communicates in some way with not just one deceased loved one, but potentially up to all of them, all at once.

Is It a Sign From The Beyond?

Have you ever seen something that you just knew was a sign from your deceased loved one? It turns out that the feeling of “knowing” is an integral part of determining whether something is an intentional after-death communication, or just coincidence. We found out it’s more common than we thought to make a pact with a friend or family member to send a specific sign after one or the other passes away. The more specific the sign, the more certain we can be of genuine afterlife communication.

Communicating with the Dead Through a Medium

Some people don’t have the faith or experience to trust their own experiences with communicating with the dead. In these cases, a vetted medium can potentially provide an even more comforting jumping off point for communicating with a deceased loved one. Robert cautions us that our loved one may not show up for every attempted medium session; that’s actually a good sign that your medium is giving you genuine communication that you can trust. Only about 10-20% of the people who initially seek certification through the Forever Family Foundation end up passing the gauntlet of tests designed to demonstrate their reliable ability to communicate with the beyond.

Have You Experienced Communication From Beyond the Veil?

Now that you are more aware of all the types of after death communication, do you think you’ve experienced any supernatural messages from the other side? If you’d like to share any of your experiences communicating with the deceased, please submit your story for a chance to tell it on a future episode of Homespun Haints. And if you hope to communicate with a deceased loved one, be sure you’re mentally prepared for a visitation, or that could be a really spooky day!

The post We Only Experience 1% Of What’s Out There appeared first on Homespun Haints.

What Are Zener Cards?

Becky Kilimnik — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 17:03:48 +0000

One deck of cards, five simple symbols; guess all the cards to determine if you have psychic powers. But did the experiments conducted with these cards really provide scientific proof that psychic abilities really exist? How did an astronaut attempt this test from space? And why did Karl Zener try for years to remove his name from the deck of cards that would forever be associated with extra-sensory perception tests?

In this episode of Homespun Haints, we explain the history of these ESP cards. We’ll also talk in-depth about the lengthy (and oft hilarious) research trials that went into psychic ability at Duke University during the 20th century.

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AI-generated transcript available upon request.

What are Zener Cards Anyway?

These cards were invented by Duke professor and perceptual psychologist Karl Zener to aid parapsychologist J. B. Rhine. Rhine’s psychic research on ESP is an example of how an experiment can give us years of data without enhancing our understanding of the subject matter one iota.

What are the five designs on a deck of Zener cards?

Zener cards have five designs: a cross, a hollow circle, a hollow square, a hollow five pointed star, and three vertical wavy lines. A deck of Zener cards has five of each design, so twenty-five cards in total.

The five symbols in a Zener card deck. Photo by Aida Servi / stock.adobe.com

Who was Joseph Banks Rhine in Psychic Research?

Dr. J. B. Rhine grew up as a Midwestern Christian farm boy. Originally, he wanted to go to divinity school. His wife was amore practical person (maybe?), and she talked him into studying science instead by arguing, “it’s the wave of the future, Joseph.”

So they moved to the city and they both started studying botany. As their interest in nature science grew, they began to wonder how they could use scientific tests to determine the answer to “life’s big questions” that they had pondered in their very religious upbringing.

J.B. Rhine (left) and Karl Zener (right). Zener would spend decades trying to disassociate himself from the eponymous cards he created to aid Rhine in ESP research.

One thing led to another, and eventually, they began testing psychic abilities. Rhine even coined the term “Extrasensory Perception.” Rhine approached a colleague of his, Zener, and asked him to develop a pack of cards he could use for tests.

The Zener Test Era

For the next three decades, Rhine tested thousands of students for psychic abilities in his Duke University lab, with funding from private donors and the U.S. Government. The public grew so interested in his experiments that astronaut Edgar Mitchell agreed to conduct psychic ability experiments for him while in space aboard the Apollo 14.

Edgar Mitchell, who conducted ESP experiments in space using a codified Zener card-esque chart while aboard the Apollo 14, rather than a deck: easier to work with in zero gravity. Photo courtesy of NASA.

How Does a Zener Card Test Work?

Rhine’s psychic ability test involved subjects predicting the symbols on Zener cards. Basically, the experimenter picks a zener card from a shuffled pack, and looks at it, very seriously. The person being tested concentrates on reading the mind of the experimenter, using psychic abilities alone to get an idea of the symbol on the one card from the Zener Card pack that the experimenter is holding. The subject is told if his symbol guess is correct or not, then the experimenter continues to draw the next card and the subject being tested continues to attempt correct guesses.

Since the test subject is expected to guess the cards with no data or hints, the statistically expected outcome of the test would be equivalent to random guessing, right? Well, some subjects scored above random chance, making their test results statistically significant. This statistical analysis of the results was crucial in evaluating the validity of psychic abilities.

Does the Zener Card Test Prove Psychic Abilities?

Unfortunately, the early Zener Card ESP tests had several design flaws.

Rhine’s experiments used a hand-shuffled pack of Zener cards; poor shuffling of the cards could lead to greater predictability of the next draw in line. Informing subjects if their guesses were correct could increase their accuracy through card counting. Some tests were conducted in poorly controlled environments, like in a moving car. Further testing in future years attempted to control for these variables in several ways, with machine shuffling, etc, (but after seeing Ghostbusters, we’re doubting that all subsequent Zener Card users were as dedicated to hard science).

What Did We Learn From Extra Sensory Perception Zener Card Tests?

Even more disappointingly, the Zener Card test didn’t answer, or even begin to address, “life’s big questions.” At best, the Zener Card Test can merely determine if the test subject has psychic abilities. It provides no insight into how one might become psychic, or improve their psychic abilities.

After thirty-odd years of Zener Card experiments yielding no valuable information to the US government, funding for Duke Parapsychology Laboratory dried up in 1965. The organization restructured as a nonprofit, called the Rhine Research Center. Also, you can still buy Zener Card decks today, either with real cards or trick cards, depending on how much you trust your psi abilities, and how much your friends trust you.

Listen to the episode to learn more about extrasensory perception

For the hilarious and in-depth history of psychical research and J. B.Rhine, listen to our episode! And have a spooky day!

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