In the last blog I reported the findings of a meta-analysis that concluded on balance from two decades of experiments, that mediums were able to receive information anomalously about deceased individuals. But stopped short from acknowledging the deceased as being the source of this information.
However, a recent search of the databases has resulted in finding this little gem. It's a single study using a triple-blind protocol to determine if evidence received by mediums for their intended recipient was more accurate than the provided decoy readings. In total nine mediums took part, each providing evidential information identifiable to one of thirty-six sitters and a decoy reading that contained information about a deceased person of the same gender, but not related to the intended sitter. Each medium was provided with only the deceased's name that sitter wished to receive communication from .
The information from both readings were sent to the intended recipient who was asked to score each piece of evidential information using a scale from 'totally wrong' to 'totally correct'. These provided an overall score for the accuracy of each reading.
The results revealed that two-thirds of the readings were correctly identified by the intended recipient, this was significantly better than the chance of 50%. With the intended readings containing on average 30% more correct evidential information when compared to the decoy readings.
From these results, the researchers concluding this study stated that "some mediums are able to obtain accurate information about deceased people". But went further and stated "that in some cases, the sources of the information are the deceased themselves."
This is quite a bold statement to make by the researchers, so I contacted the lead researcher for clarification.
In an email response Dr Tressoldi correctly pointed out that there are currently two opposing hypothesis that attempt to explain where this evidential information could come from. (1) The Super-psi hypothesis that rejects the possibility of after-life survival and communication with the deceased. This theory suggests all information is received through some telepathic connection with either the recipient and or some super consciousness (Akasha). (2) The Survival hypothesis, suggesting that deceased people are able to communicate and that some individuals are able to provide this information.
Dr Tressoldi's position is to reject the super-psi hypothesis because the it was felt that the telepathic abilities required to obtain such detailed evidence would be so advanced that no study has ever confirmed them. Current literature suggests that telepathy is limited to sending or receiving simple images, or short video clips and can not explain the richness of information provided by the two-way communication involved in obtaining evidence from a deceased person. As such, rejecting the super-psi hypothesis as Dr Tressoldi explains, only leaves the survival hypothesis as an acceptable theory to explain that the source of the information about deceased individuals come from the deceased individuals themselves.
References:
Tressoldi, P., Liberale, L., Sinesio, F., Bubba, V., Pederzoli, L., & Testoni, I. (2021). Mediumship accuracy: A quantitative and qualitative study with a triple-blind protocol. EXPLORE.
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