A significant difference in the brainwave activity of mediums during mediumship and imagination

Abstract

Abstract Context A medium, in the context of these experiments, is a person who receives and transmits information from a hypothesised dead person or spiritual being. During the early stages of mediumship development, mediums often experience difficulty in trusting their true perceptions, believing these to be their imagination. It is important to determine if there is any signatory difference in the brain between the two active states of mediumship and imagination. Objective These experiments test the hypothesis that there is a measurable difference in the brainwave activity of mediumship and imagination. Participants The two medium participants were male and female. They were also the experimenters. The female,(F). aged 73, participated as medium in 33 separate sessions. The male,(M), aged 60, participated as medium in 13 separate sessions. The participants were unrelated and lived in different neighbourhoods, but had been practising mediumship development together for five years. The sessions took place in their normal practice environment. Methods There were 3 sets of experiments, each set involving a different form of mediumship. In each experiment there was electroencephalographic continuous recording, with simultaneous audio recording of the medium, during 30 minutes’ mediumship activity, either followed by, or preceded by, 30 minutes’ imagination/fabrication activity. The data collected was monitored for frequency spectral characteristics and analysed for each cerebral hemisphere. The audio recordings were transcribed and analysed for word count. Results Each of the three experiments showed a significant decrease in the ratio of mean delta to gamma waveband amplitudes, for both cerebral hemispheres, in mediumship when compared with imagination. Conclusion Both mediums showed a consistent significant difference in the delta/gamma ratio in mediumship from that shown in imagination. This supports the hypothesis that there is a difference in the brainwave activity in mediumship as demonstrated in these experiments, from that shown in imagination.