Chris Roe

University of Northampton | UN · Psychology

Many spiritual traditions include accounts of miraculous events and supernormal powers ('psi', Parapsychological Association, 2015) and are associated with fasting and vegetarianism. Some authors have related these practices to spirituality and psi. However, there has so far been little empirical research into this potential relationship. We presen...

This study investigates perceived interactions with the deceased, a phenomenon reported across societies, with 30-34% of individuals likely experiencing at least one ADC in their lifetime. Despite this prevalence, studies examining the impact of ADCs’ on those who have lost partners are limited. We present data from 70 individuals reporting partner...

The sporadic occurrence of unusually enhanced mental clarity before death has been documented over time and cultures, and reported in patients with and without neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders, and other neurocognitive deficits, as well as those with nonterminal and terminal conditions. Using a purposive sampling method via existin...

We present an analysis of a survey of those who fast and/or who are vegan/vegetarian (veg*an) in order to examine potential associations between these dietary practices and paranormal experiences. A number of spiritual traditions include accounts of supernormal powers that are sometimes associated with fasting and veg*anism and some authors have re...

Ein Nachtod-Kontakt (NTK) tritt auf, wenn eine Person unerwartet und unbeabsichtigt einen bekannten oder unbekannten Verstorbenen wahrnimmt. Diese Kontakte sind direkt, ohne Beteiligung eines Mediums, Verwendung von Hilfsmitteln (z. B. von Instrumentaler Transkommunikation, ITK) oder anderen Verfahren, und sie sind spontan, anscheinend von den Vers...

Many spiritual traditions include accounts of supernormal psi-like powers that are sometimes associated with fasting and vegetarianism. For example, shamans may use fasting to support apparent abilities such as controlling the weather, and many yogis who are strict vegetarians are said to exhibit powers such as psychokinesis and telepathy. In more...

Background People who have suffered the loss of a loved one may subsequently report sensory experiences of the deceased (termed ‘after-death communications’, or ADCs). Such encounters are common and can be a source of comfort to the bereaved. Nevertheless, there has been limited empirical investigation of this phenomenon, and consequently mental he...

Introduction Exceptional experiences of contact with the deceased are the subject of renewed interest in the bereavement clinical practice. Several works have highlighted positive aspects of such experiences, while asking specific questions about their complex links with psychopathology. The rupture model, reinforced by the Freudian theory, promote...

Résumé Introduction Les expériences exceptionnelles de contact avec les défunts font l’objet d’un regain d’intérêt dans le cadre de la clinique du deuil. Plusieurs travaux sont venus montrer les aspects positifs de tels vécus, tout en posant certaines questions quant aux liens complexes entre ceux-ci et la psychopathologie. Le modèle de la rupture...

After death communications(ADCs) are defined as perceived spontaneous contacts with living individuals by the deceased. This research presents on a subset of data from a recent large international survey of individuals who experienced ADCs and provided systematic information regarding these experiences. In our research we explore the impact of havi...

The purpose of this study was to create a detailed characterization of the nature of the sensory perceptions associated with after-death communication. A primary aim was to determine if perceptions of after-death communication (ADC) support one or more of three hypotheses: 1) they are the result of hallucinations or day-to-day thoughts about the de...

Paganism is a term applied to a number of nature religions based on traditional indigenous practices. Paganism is practiced through rituals designed to facilitate a flow state that allows practitioners to use magic to achieve their aims. Since the introduction of Wicca to mainstream society in the 1950s, many other Pagan traditions have developed....

The three books in the Mysteries Trilogy explore how consciousness shapes reality, enables healing and provides access to knowledge from beyond our physical senses. These visionary scientists conclude that we are more than our physical bodies with enhanced access to information and mind-matter interaction. Science needs to expand to account for con...

Objectives: This research investigates the healing practices of modern Paganism using a randomized controlled trial. Paganism is a burgeoning belief system in the United Kingdom, within which healing is a key aspect. However, Pagan spell-casting practices have received little attention from distance healing researchers. This study aims to address t...

Background: There is a growing interest in a spiritual aspect to health and healthcare in many areas of medicine, but there has been little research that explores the potential spiritual aspect within osteopathic practice. Aim: The aim of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceived nature, role, function and value of spirituality withi...

In this address I consider the objections to parapsychology offered by high profile representatives of the skeptical community in their contributions to Krippner and Friedman's (2010) book, Debating psychic experience, comparing them with previous critical commentary published in 1993 as part of a special issue of Scienza & Paranormale devoted to p...

PhD Poster presentation

This article reports an investigation of 2 proposed theories, the predispositional and experiential, regarding the association of personality variables to lucid dreaming incidence during a 12-week lucid dreaming induction program. The study found no differences between those who did and did not report lucid dreams during the program on baseline mea...

In order to further our understanding about the limits of human consciousness and the dream state, we report meta-analytic results on experimental dream-ESP studies for the period 1966 to 2016. Dream-ESP can be defined as a form of extra-sensory perception (ESP) in which a dreaming perceiver ostensibly gains information about a randomly selected ta...

We report a quality effects meta-analysis on studies from the period 1966–2016 measuring either (a) lucid dreaming prevalence (one or more lucid dreams in a lifetime); (b) frequent lucid dreaming (one or more lucid dreams in a month) or both. A quality effects meta-analysis allows for the minimisation of the influence of study methodological qualit...

Aims In this study, we intended to explore whether there are any differences between counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists in the reporting and interpretation of synchronicity experiences ( SE s) in the therapeutic setting. SE s are defined as psychologically meaningful connections between inner events (such as a thought, vision or feelin...

Several recent studies, inspired by psi theories such as Stanford's psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) model, have employed a tacit precognition protocol to test the notion that extrasensory perception may be nonintentional. After remarkable initial success, outcomes have been more inconsistent. One possible reason for the observed variabili...

Synchronicity experiences (SEs) are defined as psychologically meaningful connections between inner events (e.g. thought, dream or vision) and one or more external events occurring simultaneously or at a future point in time. There has been limited systematic research that has investigated the phenomenology of SEs in therapy. This study aimed to re...

A number of theories of psi such as Stanford's psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) model suggest psi can function without a person's awareness, and that their intent to exhibit psi may be counterproductive. However, few parapsychological studies have directly compared participants' performance at intentional and nonintentional versions of equ...

Bereavement can be described as a universally experienced set of negative emotional stages following the loss of an object we hold dear.1 This typically involves the loss of people through physical separation or biological death, but can occur in a variety of circumstances, including separation from childhood toys or the loss of a limb through acci...

Poster, Winner Best Poster Presentation

Context: Many spontaneous cases of extra-sensory perception (ESP) seem to occur without the conscious intent of the experient to manifest any anomalous phenomena. Indeed, Stanford׳s psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) theory, which frames ESP as a goal-oriented function, goes as far as to suggest that such intent may be counterproductive to...

Throughout different civilisations and historical epochs, anthropological and religious texts have been replete with accounts of persons who have reported anomalous experiences in the form of visions or voices. In these contexts, such experiences are considered to be a “gift” that can be spiritually enriching or life enhancing. One such group of in...

Objective: Reviews of empirical work on the efficacy of noncontact healing have found that adopting various practices that incorporate an intention to heal can have some positive effect upon the recipient's wellbeing. However, such reviews focus on 'whole' human participants who might be susceptible to expectancy effects or benefit from the healin...

Relatively few parapsychological experiments investigating micro-PK effects have been designed to consider psychological or individual differences factors, and those variables that have been considered have been subject to too few replications to give a clear indication of which persons may perform best under which conditions. Previous research by...

Walsh and Vaughan (1993) defined transpersonal experiences as those "in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos" (p. 203). One population who regularly report such experiences are mediums. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted...

Surveys and collections of spontaneous cases suggest that a large number of people have had experiences during their dreaming life that they interpret as instances of so-called "extrasensory perception" or ESP. Interpretation of these accounts is made difficult by the lack of control over the circumstances in which they occur, which leaves open the...

The notion that psi may be able to function without conscious intent and mediate adaptive consequences is a feature of several theories of psi. In particular, Stanford's "Psi-mediated Instrumental Response" (PMIR) model predicts that psi can operate without conscious awareness, facilitating advantageous outcomes by triggering preexisting behaviours...

The purpose of this study was to explore the personality and psychological wellbeing of Spiritualist mental mediums compared to nonmedium Spiritualists. A total of 159 Spiritualists (mediums = 80, nonmediums = 79) participated in a nationwide cross-sectional survey and completed measures of dissociation, boundary-thinness, psychological wellbeing,...

Tests of the theory of morphic resonance have tended to confirm the theory's predictions but are difficult to evaluate since they are typically reported in popular accounts rather than more detailed peer-reviewed journal papers. We replicated earlier work using word-based stimuli in a study that also looked at the effects of transliminality on perf...

This paper describes two extended replications of Luke, Delanoy, and Sherwood's (2008) precognition effect using a covert task with contingent reward or punishment that found performance to be related to belief in luck. In Study 1, 25 participants completed the short-form Questionnaire of Beliefs About Luck (QBL) and then rated the pleasantness of...

Luke, D. P., Roe, C., & Davison, J. (2008). Testing for forced-choice precognition using a hidden task: Two replications. Proceedings of presented papers of the 4th Psi meeting: Parapsychology and psychology, Curitiba, Brazil, 106-115.

More Info: Luke, D. P., Roe, C., & Davison, J. (2008). Testing for forced-choice precognition using a hidden task: Two replications. Proceedings of the 51st Annual Parapsychological Association Convention held in conjunction with the Society for Psychical Research, Winchester, UK,123-135.

Recent research to evaluate whether the sender plays any active role in ganzfeld GESP experiments has used a random number generator (RNG) as a "virtual receiver" to select descriptors from a pool of statements (e.g., Roe & Holt, 2005; Roe, Holt, & Simmonds, 2003). Here participants focused on the virtual receiver when attempting to "send" informat...

This paper describes the fourth in a series of studies that explore the relationship between ESP and PK performance by testing for both using a common protocol so as to control for expectancy effects and experimental artifacts. Following earlier work we were particularly concerned to look for evidence of experimenter effects. Forty participants com...

In recent work to evaluate the sender's role in successful ganzfeld GESP experiments, we have used a random number generator (RNG) as a "virtual receiver" in a ganzfeld-like experiment. During the sending period, statements are "selected" from a pool of items to give an "RNG mentation" to be used by an independent judge. After early success in demo...

Purpose The move from independent domicile to residential care can be a traumatic experience for the elderly. This study investigated the mediatory role of the individual's religious and spiritual beliefs on coping with this transition. Design and methods A self-report survey design was used, and questionnaires were administered to 50 individuals...

In this study we were concerned to evaluate whether the sender plays any active role hi successful ganzfeld GESP experiments by comparing sender and no-sender conditions. In a replication of Roe, Holt, & Simmonds' (2003) novel method, during the sending period receivers generated a mentation based on their experiences in ganzfeld and simultaneously...

This study was designed to explore the role of the sender in a Ganzfeld ESP task, conceptually replicating Raburn and Manning's (1977) manipulation of the presence of a sender and the receiver's expectation concerning the sender's presence. The authors conducted 40 trials with an opportunity sample of participant pairs. Ganzfeld sessions were run b...

This study was designed to explore the relationship between ESP and PK performance by testing for both using a common protocol to control for expectancy effects and experimental artifacts. Forty participants completed a computer-based grey-hound racing game. Races occurred in 2 blocks of 12, with one block presented as an ESP task and the other as...

Previous ganzfeld research that has considered the role of the sender has been inconsistent in its findings and may be criticised for not taking sufficient account of the sender-receiver relationship. This study used a novel method for assessing any sender influence. A random event generator (REG) placed in the vicinity of the receiver acted as a p...

We review the dream ESP studies conducted since the end of the Maimonides research programme. Combined effect size estimates for both sets of studies suggest that judges could correctly identify target materials more often than would be expected by chance using dream mentation. Maimonides studies were significantly more successful than post-Maimoni...

Spontaneous cases of ESP often seem to occur during dreams. Recent dream clairvoyance studies found that participants scored marginally higher using consensus as opposed to individual target judging procedures. An attempted replication using a precognitive design (S. J. Sherwood et al, 2002) using static targets was unsuccessful. The current study...

The present study was designed to assess whether the relationship between narcissistic personality and paranormal belief identified by Tobacyk and Mitchell earlier could be replicated with a general population and to see whether the effect could be found with a narrower definition of paranormal beliefs that focuses only on belief in psychic phenome...

Evaluated a methodology for testing for possible dream precognition and examined whether consensus judging leads to better performance than individual judgements. During 12 trial nights, 3 adult participants slept at their respective homes and recorded their dream mentation. The following mornings, they viewed 4 pictures (1 of which would be the ta...

Roe, C. A., Sherwood, S. J., Luke, D. P., & Farrell, L. (2001). An investigation of dream clairvoyance using consensus judging and dynamic targets. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference of the Society for Psychical Research, 25-26.

This paper evaluates the claim that believers in the paranormal exhibit poor critical thinking ability relative to disbelievers, as manifested in their inability to evaluate the competence of experimental abstracts. It is argued that such differences reported elsewhere (Alcock & Otis, 1980; Gray & Mill, 1990) may be accountable for in terms of the...

One means by which people are thought to develop a belief in paranormal phenomena is as a result of direct experience (Schmeidler, 1985). In particular, it has been suggested (e.g., Dutton, 1988) that a significant proportion of the population has interacted with professional psychics and that they have typically been impressed by the material whic...

This study tests the suggestion that clients of psychic readers may be able to remotely influence the reader's choice of elements for their reading in a manner analogous to other DMILS effects. Twenty-seven subjects were recruited to act as clients in an "assessment of a psychic claimant," and they received readings transmitted via a computer linku...