I attended the 100th Anniversary Meeting of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology conference near San Francisco on Saturday, presenting a WHEE experiential workshop.

Two highlights:

First, Arthur Hastings, PhD showed me the research setup for a psychomantium - a research method I had read about but never before seen or experienced. This is a form of scrying, which is the exploration of psychic experiences through gazing at a reflecting surface - usually at one's own reflection in that surface.

I sat in a comfortable chair, surrounded by black curtains with a dim light behind my seat, facing a mirror that is tilted upward so that I could not see my own reflection. About 40 percent of those who do this, focusing on relationships with people who are deceased, will experience visual and telepathic perceptions of that person. While it was good to see the setup and explore it briefly, I had no unusual experiences.

It is good to see research on what has been a common method for developing psychic and intuitive experiences. I look forward to seeing results of this research.

Second, Jeanne Achterberg, PhD, presented the closing plenary lecture. Jeanne has been exploring mind-body interactions, particularly on the immune system, for many years. Her personal explorations of healing for a retinal melanoma (a cancer that is almost always fatal) is shared in her book, Lightning at the Gate (Shambhala 2002).

Jeanne reported early results from a study of distant healing using fMRI brain imaging. It is exciting to hear of this leading edge exploration that is confirming that specific areas of the brain are activated with distant healing. Jeanne is studying a spectrum of healers who use different modalities (Qigong, Reiki, and other forms of healing). Each produced a different pattern of activity in the brains of the healees. It is as yet unclear to what degree this reflects the healers, the healing methods, and the healees.

What is clear is that when healer and healee are bonded through their relationships, the healing demonstrated significant effects, compared to healer-healee pairs who were not bonded, where there were not demonstrable fMRI effects of healing.

As Jeanne noted, despite recent proclamations of the media - following negative results in two large studies of distant healing - distant healing is alive and producing demonstrable effects!

More from on the road shortly.