Michael A. Persinger (June 26, 1945 – August 14, 2018) was an American-Canadian professor of psychology at Laurentian University, a position he had held from 1971 until his death in 2018. His best-known hypotheses include the temporal lobes of the human brain as the central correlate for mystical experiences, subtle changes in geomagnetic activity as mediators of parapsychological phenomena, the tectonic strain within the Earth's crust as the source of luminous phenomena attributed to unidentified aerial objects, and the importance of specific quantifications for energy (10−20 Joules), photon flux density, and small shifts in magnetic field intensities for integrating cellular activity as well as human thought with universal phenomena. Persinger's experimental work on paranormal experiences has received widespread media coverage but has also been widely criticised. His major research themes have included electromagnetic field effects upon biological organisms, epilepsy, temporal lobe functions, properties of biophotons, geophysical-human interactions, physical cosmology, and the quantifiable examination of what Persinger terms "low-probability phenomena" such as time travel, parallel universes, and the universe as a simulation. He has published over 500 technical articles in scientific journals (many in predatory journals), more than a dozen chapters in various books, and seven of his own books. His book with Ghislaine Lafreniere, entitled Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events (1977), documents the search for patterns in phenomena that are not compatible with current scientific paradigms. He argued that all phenomena including consciousness, spiritual experiences, and "paranormal events" can be explained by universal physical mechanisms and can be verified using the scientific method. Further, he has claimed that the structure and function of the brain determine the boundaries of human perception of the universe, and that shared quantitative values connect local phenomena with fundamental properties of the cosmos.
Early life Persinger attended Carroll College from 1963 to 1964 and graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1967. He received his M.A. in physiological psychology from the University of Tennessee in 1969 and his Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba in 1971.
Research and academic work Persinger's work focuses on the commonalities that exist between the sciences, and aims to integrate fundamental concepts of various branches of science. He organized the Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, integrating chemistry, biology, and psychology. Persinger has published hundreds of peer-reviewed academic journal articles.
Clinical and experimental neuropsychology Most of Persinger's published articles involved with consciousness have focused on the persistence of experiences reported by individuals who display complex partial epilepsy within the normal population of people who are creative, subject to frequent paranormal experiences, or who have sustained a mild impact of mechanical energy to the cerebrum. One of his notable experiments, spanning about three decades, involved a helmet ("the God Helmet"), whereby weak physiologically-patterned magnetic fields were applied across the temporal lobes of hundreds of volunteers. The research received wide media coverage with high-profile visitors to Persinger's laboratory including Susan Blackmore and Richard Dawkins reporting positive and negative results respectively. Experiences often associated with mystical reports such as out-of-body-experiences, intrusive thoughts, and the sensed presence were reported by hundreds of volunteers over decades of studying the phenomenon, which were not associated with the subjects' suggestibility. Subsequent theory and quantitative electroencephalographic measurements supported the contention that the sensed presence of a "sentient being" could be a normal brain-based prototype for god experiences or related mystical phenomena and was actually the left hemispheric awareness of the right hemispheric equivalent to the left hemispheric sense of self. Similar experiences were reported by people who had applied Todd Murphy's technology. However, other researchers either could not replicate or only partially replicated the experimental effects with variations of the helmet. In 2014, Tinoco and colleagues reported an independent replication of an experimental protocol which measured verbal behavior associated with field exposures using the helmet configuration. In an earlier study by Richards and colleagues, semantic memory was similarly affected by applications of weak magnetic fields over the temporal lobes. Regarding Persinger's claims, the psychologist Richard Wiseman has written they have not been replicated and the "scientific jury is unconvinced". The research has also been criticized by psychologist Craig Aaen-Stockdale, writing in The Psychologist. Other researchers have criticized Persinger for insufficient double-blinding and argued that there was no physiologically plausible mechanism by which his device could affect the brain. Persinger responded that the researchers had an incorrect computer setup and that many of his previous experiments were indeed carried out double-blind. Both claims are disputed.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
