Re-Posted Part 1: Introduction to the Physics of Psi Dreaming: An Internview with Stanley Krippner

Introduction to the Physics of Psi Dreaming:
An Interview with Stanley Krippner by Mark A. Schroll
skrippner@saybrook.edu and rockphd4@yahoo.com
Abstract
This interview with Stanley Krippner, conducted by Mark A. Schroll, offers us a discussion of field theories of consciousness associated with the physics of psi dreaming, which includes a summary of the EPR paradox, Bell’s inequality and nonlocality. This discussion supports our examination of the Global Consciousness Project that grew out of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Group and Project Stargate—the now declassified investigation of applied psi research by the CIA—thereby raising a concern about the shadow consequences of psi research. This concern dovetails with questions about what is or is not genuine science and raises the issue of scientism. Finally coming back to the topic of field theories and the quest to find a physical basis for psi, the research of Rupert Sheldrake is briefly examined.
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This essay is an interview with Stanley Krippner that took place on November 4, 2004, in a coffeehouse near the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he met with students and professionals answering questions for four hours. The topics included parapsychology, dream analysis, clinical psychology, shamanism, human rights issues of indigenous people, and more. Krippner’s visit to Nebraska was his way of thanking me for organizing a panel honoring his contributions to transpersonal psychology (Schroll, 2004a). The final section of this essay is devoted to answering comments posted during the 5th International Association for the Study of Dreams PsiberDreaming conference, 2006, in response to this essay.1
Schroll: To give all of us some background about your own experiences that shaped your views on psi research and to set the theme of our conversation, I will begin with a quote from your autobiography “Dancing with the Trickster”:
When I was 14 years of age, I desperately wanted [a set of encyclopedias]. My aunt was a salesperson for The World Book Encyclopedia, and could have sold a set to me at a reduced rate. However, my parents, who ran an orchard in southern Wisconsin, explained that we simply could not afford this luxury because the weather conditions over the past year had not been favorable for a bumper crop of apples, our chief source of income. I went to my room and began to cry, then realized that I had an uncle who was fairly well to do. I stopped crying and speculated about how I would make my appeal to Uncle Max. Suddenly, I bolted upright in my bed. My psyche swelled and my mind expanded in every direction. I suddenly knew what I was not supposed to know: Uncle Max could not be depended upon because he was dead. At that moment, the telephone rang. My mother answered the phone and, between sobs, told us that my cousin had just called. Uncle Max had been taken ill, was rushed to the hospital, and died shortly after his arrival. This was my first anomalous experience (Krippner: 2, 2003).
How many years passed after you had had the experience with Uncle Max before you started thinking about psi research in general?
Krippner: Actually I was interested in psi research before this incident.
Schroll: Okay, then how many more years was it before you started thinking about a field hypothesis of consciousness?
Krippner: Probably when I became the Director of the Maimomides Dream Laboratory in Brooklyn; this was my first exposure to people that had similar ideas (Krippner, 1975).
Schroll: So this was another 20 years after the Uncle Max incident?
Krippner: Yes. My feelings about psi phenomena are that they’re alleged interactions between organisms and other organisms, or organisms and their environment that appear to violate mainstream science concepts of space, time and energy. Furthermore psi phenomena apparently exist, but they are not supernatural, they are natural; they are not paranormal, they are normal. They’re anomalies; we just haven’t figured out how they fit into the scheme of things (Cardena, Lynn & Krippner, 2000; Kierulff & Krippner, 2004; Krippner & Hovelmann, 2005).
This leads into your question about different field hypotheses that parapsychologists have put forward. I became interested in these field hypotheses in the 1960’s when I was working at Maimonides. Dr. William Roll, a very prominent parapsychologist who investigates poltergeist phenomena, introduced the concept of the psi field. In brief the concept of the psi field postulates that psi does not appear in isolation, it appears in conjunction with other people and other things in the environment. I think the concept of the psi field is most dramatically illustrated by the Global Consciousness Project.
This is a project that is going on in 22 laboratories across the world and each of these laboratories has a small machine. Each machine has a radioactive particle that is slowly deteriorating and as it deteriorates it will either light up a red button or a green button. It will do this randomly: 50% of the time it will light up the red button and 50% of the time it will light up the green button. The people who run the laboratories have a 24-hour a day way to record these particular phenomena. Every once in a while something very bizarre happens to these machines. The deviations become coherent. This coherence occurs when people are watching the World Cup, when people are watching the Academy Awards, etc.; indeed this data strongly suggests the existence of a consciousness field that connects people around the world. If the existence of this nonlocal field of consciousness is demonstrated it will violate the Western scientific paradigm that considers us to be nothing more than isolated skin-encapsulated egos, and that our only direct contact with other people is through our known senses.
Schroll: At this point in our conversation it would be a good idea for me to add a little background regarding the philosophical questions these machines you mentioned were created to help us answer, and their importance toward our understanding of psi research.