MPRV

A Snapshot of APP Fest 2017

This was quite a different APP Fest from the previous two, as I try to convey here…

There will be forthcoming notes on the talks and the Conference, which was not recorded so as to have full focus in the room on the presentations, without tech issues, etc.

Jeff  Mishlove, a prominent parapsychologist, gave the first talk, on “Paradigms and Paradoxes”. He cited the many ways the word “paradigm” is now used, overused one should say. Then discussed Thomas Kuhn’s famous “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, about paradigm shifts in science. We are going through such a shift now, many believe, and Jeff’s opinion is that it will take “1000 years” till a new one about the nature of the universe and humankind surpasses our present heavily materialist one.

It would be too much to say that this conference represents a “paradigm shift” for APP so of course I won’t say that. However, the flavor of the “significant displacement” that took place is perhaps best represented by Janet Mitchell’s presentation.

Janet Mitchell, Ph.D., did research with Ingo Swann at the American Society of Psychical Research (ASPR) in the 1970’s. Her talk was titled, “Spiritual Revolution of Ingo Swann and Others”. On the one hand she is a hard-nosed scientist interested in approaching psi from a physics standpoint and on the other hand she considers us humans to be, fundamentally, spirits which inhabit a body. The spirit is the enduring and larger entity. Her first book was “Out-of-Body Experiences – A Handbook”. Our selves are much larger than most of us generally understand and not knowing our full and true nature has been instrumental in leading to the unfortunate state which the world is in.

The themes of our nature as humans, of consciousness, of other entities and forces in the universe took place at many of the meals and side discussions. Quite a few people related their experiences of unusual happenings, spirits or other entities being present at some point in their lives, and the same with that bugaboo of the field, aliens and UFO’s. One participant works closely with Steven Greer in his efforts at “disclosure”. Others cited having seen a UFO and/or creatures of unknown provenance.

I gave a presentation on Ingo Swann’s unpublished writings and the titles of the ms convey Ingo’s interest in these matters: “The Agony and Ecstasy of the Signs of the Zodiac”, “My 2000 Years of Reincarnation”, “Anacalypsis: A Psychic Autobiography”, and “The Emerald Kingdom”, which is about our psi abilities.

John Alexander presented numerous slides about his and his wife’s visits with Shamans in many countries and the viewpoints they have about the nonphysical and physical worlds. He believes that remote viewing, Near-Death Experiences, psychokinesis, UFO’s, Shamanism, and cryptozoology are all related.

Steve Braude presented, “The Amazing Case of Patience Worth: A Paranormal Literary Mystery”, about a discarnate being who manifested and through a Ouija board wrote copious amounts of extraordinary literary material, both prose and poems.

Some may lament remote viewing being associated with these topics (‘the other world of spiritual beings’ and UAP’s (Unexplained Aerial Phenomena) and indeed there was gross ‘distortion of the field’ from early (post 1995) unsubstantiated and reckless promotion of the connection with remote viewing. However, as this conference showed, there has long been a very strong connection based on experience between RV and the UFO/alien field, as well as ‘spiritual dimensions’ and  discarnate beings. Marty Rosenblatt, the ‘prime mover’ of APP, said he has long resisted the association with UFO’s and RV, said recent conferences have  broadened his perspective.

And oh yes, not to forget the sporting events which we remote viewed using binary ARV? With two events to go at the time I flew home, Marty’s predictions for APP, based on the sessions of all present, were 4 hits and 3 misses. Based on my own sessions, I had 3 hits, 2 misses, and 1 pass. One of our successful predictions was the winner of a horse race, with 7 horses in it, so not a binary prediction. Extra credit for that but a small payoff because the horse was among the favorites.

Finally, the spoon bending party. In the past many a spoon has been bent at these events. However, this time just one spoon, I believe but also one metal bar was bent. This was done by Nancy Dutertre, a former attorney who has developed her psychic talents and abilities. She is “The Skeptical Psychic”.  In synch with how this conference played out, her latest book is titled “How to Talk to an Alien”.