An ESP-mediumship paradigm as a definition of mediumship
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Abstract
Parapsychologists have debated for nearly a century the
question of whether to attribute the source of mediumistic
phenomena to the postulated vast extrasensory perception (ESP)
abilities of the living (L. E. Rhine, 1966) or to the ostensible
deceased personalities with whom mediums claim to be able
to "communicate". Gauld (1977) has suggested that this debate
between the ESP hypothesis and the survivalist hypothesis has
reached a stalemate.
The purpose of this thesis was to develop a paradigm that
qualitatively defines the relationship between ESP and mental
mediumship in order to demonstrate that mediumship represents
a definable and unitary class of phenomena.
The two major assumptions of mediumship were investigated
in order to provide a context and structure upon which an
ESP-mediumship paradigm could be constructed. The two assumptions
are (1) the question of survival, and (2) the question
of communication with ostensible deceased personalities.
The survival question examined the following areas: (1)
apparitions, (2) out-of-body experiences (OBE's), and (3)
deathbed experiences. The communication question investigated
(1) multiple personalities vs. trance personalities, (2)
quantitative analysis of trance communicators, (3) inconsistencies
of trance communications, and (4) ESP vs. mediumship
as a means of communication.
An ESP-mediumship paradigm was then developed based on
clearly articulated assumptions concerning the properties of
ESP and mediumship. It was postulated that certain criteria
could be extracted from exemplary cases of mediumship, and
that these criteria could represent the critical points of
discrimination between the known limits of ESP and mediumship.
The criteria were then used to define the two parameters of
the ESP-mediumship paradigm. It was further postulated that
the criteria along the two parameters would be able to generate
the relationships between ESP and mediumship. Five exemplary
cases of mediumship were then reviewed and discussed according
to these criteria.
Results of the investigation of the two major assumptions
of mediumship indicated that the ESP hypothesis could not explain
apparitional cases of group experience or OBE's more parsimoniously
than the survivalist hypothesis. Also, take-away
apparitions seen by the dying indicated a significant core of
characteristics, such as the ostensible purpose of the apparition
as well as the dying person's peaceful reaction to the apparition (Osis and Haraldsson, 1977).
The results of the investigation of the five exemplarycases
of mediumship indicated that cases of mediumship could
be scrutinized and evaluated by the ESP-mediumship paradigm.
It was shown that according to the criteria, particular cases
of mediumship such as drop-in cases and cross communications,
extended beyond the known limits of ESP. It was also indicated
that the survivalist hypothesis provided a more parsimonious
explanation than the ESP hypothesis for cases in which
collated knowledge from more than one source had to be postulated;
and in cases in which there v/as evidence of knowledge
beyond the capacity of the medium, but characteristic of the
ostensible deceased entity.
The conclusion of the thesis was that the ESP-mediumship
paradigm was able to generate and define the relationships between
ESP and mediumship. Also, the paradigm indicated that
according to its criteria mediumship can be defined as a unitary
class of phenomena.
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