Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for an interview with Anthropologist Jack Hunter. During the interview Hunter hypothesizes that cross-cultural ritual may help bolster parapsychological effects in a lab-setting:
Alex Tsakiris: One [question] is: Does [psychic] ability manifest itself more in some people than in others? And obviously we know it does. But particularly, what I think you bring that I had never thought of, and I think is…interesting to…grind on is: Is it more prevalent in certain cultures? Is it more prevalent in certain social situations with certain combinations of events, people, rituals, practices, all those things. I just think that’s mind blowing. That opens it up in so many different ways. Am I in the right direction, and what are your thoughts on that specifically in terms of what…directions…folks might want to go to find this phenomenon manifesting itself more frequently, more measurably, all the rest of that stuff?
Jack Hunter: That’s exactly what I’m talking about…when you look at the Anthropological literature, all the Ethnographic literature, and look at the kinds of experiences that people have reported to anthropologists in the field all over the world, you find these kinds of common characteristics. For instance, like you said, ritual is…an important process for people to go through in order to have these sorts of experiences. And I think that the parapsychological community has missed out on that. They could, for instance, use ritualized procedures in laboratory. That’s one example. Or take the laboratory out to the rituals…
Full Interview (Audio and Written)
See Also:
http://paranthropologyjournal.weebly.com/
http://bristol.academia.edu/JackHunter
About Skeptiko
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Skeptiko.com is the #1 podcast covering the science of human consciousness. We cover six main categories:
– Near-death experience science and the ever growing body of peer-reviewed research surrounding it.
– Parapsychology and science that defies our current understanding of consciousness.
– Consciousness research and the every expanding scientific understanding of who we are.
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– Others and the strangeness of close encounters.
– Skepticism and what we should make of the “Skeptics”.
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The name Skeptiko comes from the ancient Greek philosophy of Skeptikos, and refers to the teachings and the traits of a school of philosophers of whom it was said “asserted nothing but only opined.”
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Follow the data… wherever it leads. Explore the possibility that science-as-we-know-it might be at a tipping point. Engage the top thinkers in pointed discussions about the questions that matter most. Treat all guests with respect.
Host Bio: Alex Tsakiris
Alex, host of Skeptiko, is a successful entrepreneur turned science podcaster. In 2007 he founded Skeptiko which has become the #1 podcast covering the science of human consciousness. Alex has appeared on syndicated radio talk shows both in the US and the UK and is well-know within the parapsychology and near-death experience research communities.
