About Me
My major interest is in psi as a complex phenomenon reflecting a dynamic between the individual percipient - her/his bodymind, personality, and emotional predilections - and the external environment. I view emotion as connecting the physical, mental, and spiritual, as well as being a gateway between the inner person and the outer environment (and vice versa).
I've written three books, all with "emotion" in the title or subtitle: Sensitive Soul (Park Street Press, 2021), Your Emotional Type (Healing Arts Press, 2011), and The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion (Park Street Press, 2009) – the latter two coauthored with Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD. I'm currently working on a book about UAPs, formerly known as UFOs.
I believe that parapsychology has a lot to offer the wider world, given that not only neuroscientists and cognitive philosophers but 'regular folks' are vitally interested in topics such as NDEs, telepathy, precognition, dreams, consciousness, and sentience. Two examples of this wider interest are panpsychism and what non-human animals think and feel.
I draw a distinction between consciousness and sentience, putting the emphasis on the latter as felt experience that precedes conscious awareness and reflection. My thesis is that subconscious feelings have a lot to do with psi.
My work has appeared in Scientific American, the Boston Globe Ideas section, Baltimore Sun, Aeon, Nautilus, Spirituality & Health, Greater Good, Frontiers in Psychology-Consciousness Research, Journal of Interpersonal Neurobiology Studies, Science & Consciousness Review, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, Explore, Magazine of the SPR, Edge Science, and The Psychologist (British Psychological Society).
I've had the privilege of speaking to organizations including the American Psychological Association, Society for Humanistic Psychology, Society for Consciousness Studies, Scientific and Medical Network, and the Jung Society of Washington. I've also guest lectured at Georgetown University, University of Maryland, Drexel University, George Mason University, and University of Virginia.
Since 2011, I've blogged for Psychology Today (“Feeling Too Much”). I remain indebted to Stanley Krippner, who not only encouraged me in my first book (and has graciously provided enthusiastic blurbs for each of my books), but brought me out to San Diego in 2010 to be a panelist in his APA session. In the audience was a Psychology Today staff person, and my blog was soon born.
I am probably best known for my work in the 2000s on evident connections between psi and environmental sensitivity. My paper in the JSPR in 2006 reported the results of a survey of self-described 'sensitives' - people with allergies, asthma, migraine, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and pronounced sensitivity to light and sound. The survey found that such individuals are 3.5 times likelier than controls to assert that they’d had an apparitional experience, and 2.5 times likelier to indicate that an immediate family member was affected by similar physical, mental or emotional conditions. It was also noteworthy that 55% of sensitives noted a traumatic event in their childhood, vs. just 18% of controls. My conclusion was that apparitional perceptions stem from an underlying neurobiology of sensitivity, influenced by nature as well as nurture.
Lastly, I want to mention four individuals who - in addition to Stan Krippner - I've had the special fortune to know and learn from:
- The late Bill Roll, the renowned investigator of poltergeists and originator (with Michael Persinger) of the RSPK hypothesis - visited with me in the late 1990s and suggested the environmental sensitivity survey. He noted that mediums were known as "sensitives" 150 years ago, so why not survey highly sensitive individuals and their psi experiences today?
- The late Ernest Hartmann, dream researcher extraordinaire, propounded the concept of thick and thin boundaries, which I immediately saw had relevance to considerations of emotion and how some people might be more prone to generate anomalies whereas others being more likely to apprehend them. Ernest was a scholar and a gentleman who I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know.
- Larry Dossey's many books illustrate telesomatism and argue that psi is prevalent given our very human connections with one another. Larry wrote the Foreword to my first book and has always been a wise and friendly source of encouragement.
- Sally Feather, who has twice welcomed me to the Rhine for talks and expressed enthusiastic interest in my approach to psi sensitivity.
Having been around the parapsychological community for many years, I'm pleased to be a PA member. I look forward to helping advance the public's awareness of the profession’s ability to shine unique light on the human condition and the overlapping physical and spiritual world we all inhabit.