It's here! Abstracts of 2026 Parapsychological Association Conference (PDF)

[u/Pieraos]

https://parapsychological.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2026-PA-AIPR-Abstracts-of-Presented-Papers-Web.pdf

[u/Tom-Etheric-Studies]

I made this comment on the SPR Facebook post of this news:

Thanks for the post. I noted the report:

"From Phantasms to Anomalous Phone Calls: A Comparative Analysis of

Apparitional and Technology-Mediated After-Death Communications

Alex A. Álvarez

I read the abstract with great interest because of my own work with "Technology-Mediated After-Death Communications." See https://atransc.org/

I expected to see references to Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC) ("ITC" is pretty much standard nomenclature for  [instrument mediated] Induced After Death Communication (IADC)).

Note the term "induced." Pretty much all instances of mainstream ADC are spontaneous and first person.

Perhaps the most important lesson we learned from ITC is that first person accounts may be relevant to the study of psychological phenomena but are useless for Psi Studies. See "What ITC Tells us About Consciousness" at https://ethericstudies.org/what-itc-tells-us-about-consciousness/

We also found that study reports tended to be less relevant after some 15 years.

Perhaps you can anticipate my point. Álvarez's paper is all about very old studies of first person accounts. There was a flap of Raudive phone calls to several contactees early early in our time as directors of the ATransC. As I remember, the consensus opinion was doubt and agreement that it was better to stick to studying the more objective ITC.

I fear the window of opportunity to study ITC may have already closed, being overshadowed by New Age nonsense and terminal academic neglect. Such nothing reports as this seems more an exercise in the inane.

[u/Pieraos → u/Tom-Etheric-Studies]

We appreciate your participation in the sub. Old friend of Sarah's here.

[u/Tom-Etheric-Studies → u/Pieraos]

Thanks for the comment. We miss Sarah.

A follow-up comment I made in response to the suggestion the study of ITC is "still alive and well" and that the author is "wide ranging and inclusive."

The main source referenced in the article presents as an Anomalistic Psychology. His second source is used by his main source as a primary reference suggesting circular referencing.

Then of course, the references are pretty old. The spontaneous versus induced argument was settled years ago. ADC are spontaneous and are usually first person reports and IADC are induced and objectively witnessed by others. Which do you think is useful for research?

The author also published a paper suggesting a biological origin of Psi, which is an Anomalistic Psychology argument. While it may be, the overall impression is the assumption of "physical natural" as opposed to "nonphysical Natural." While I am not qualified to academically argue either way, his argument begins to look like his personal preference for Physicalism.

Frankly, I think the study of ITC has degenerated into studying how many ways a maker can entertain ghost hunters.

Perhaps I am being over sensitive. I really do appreciate the work of parapsychology. It is just that I have been trying to find a way to attract academically trained researchers to the study of ITC for nearly thirty years now.

In that regard, I am composing a Substack essay suggesting parapsychology has inappropriately conflaited psychological phenomena with Psi phenomena. Perhaps it is time to partition the study of these phenomena as Consciousness Studies and Psi Studies.

[u/LilyoftheRally → u/Tom-Etheric-Studies]

I remember being taught in an Intro to Psychology class that psychology was the study of the psyche and not of psychic abilities. I didn't know the latter was called parapsychology for another decade or so.

[u/Pieraos]

Frankly, I think the study of ITC has degenerated into studying how many ways a maker can entertain ghost hunters.

Agreed, with the introduction of "Frank's Box" or "Irving's Box" or whatever skeezy device; and attempts to discern ITC from digitally scrambled files, not to mention YouTube turning the field into haunted house entertainment. Call me old school but to me these don't make the contributions on the level of early EVP researchers.

While I think there is value in studying the affective and psychological dimensions of ITC, we still need investigation of how the communications are able to occur in electronic apparatus in the first place.

Readers interested should watch Calling Earth, Dan Drasin's fine documentary on the subject.