Presentation by Michael Jawer

Drexel University Symposium

November 18, 2014

A Few Quotes to Get Us Started • In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it.

- John Wheeler, quantum physicist

• If science searches the universe – as it does – for certain kinds of truth, then these are inevitably the only ones it will find. Everything else will slip through the net.

- David Darling, astrobiologist

• I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything.

- Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist (“Darwin’s Bulldog”)

A Few Quotes to Get Us Started • To know that we know what we know, and to know that we

do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

- Copernicus

• There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.

- Aldous Huxley, novelist (grandson of THH)

• Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

- Friedrich Nietzche

Speaking of Music…

Here’s a recent account by the noted skeptic Michael Shermer, on ScientificAmerican.com

And 3 Accounts by Yours Truly

• Knocking on wall at family gathering

• “You have a nice blue aura about you”

• Missing Dalton, the great white cat

What Could Account for These Surpassingly Strange

(Anomalous) Experiences?

1) CONCEPTUAL: The Bodymind

2) PHYSIOLOGICAL: E-motion

3) PERSONAL: Sensitivity

Leading to: A Relevant Theory of Personality

1. The Bodymind (You Don’t Need a Cortex to Feel)

The brainstem

The olfactory lobe

The vagus nerve

Feelings within the Unified Organism

Psychoneuroimmunology

The mind of the gut

A new definition of mind: – “We feel, therefore we are”

– We’re psychosomatic all the time!

2. The Energy of Feelings

Emotional energy

Individual case studies - Adam

- Susan

- Mary’s household

- Ron

- Melanie

- Eastern Flight 401

Emotion is the Catalyst!

BUT THEN WHY AREN’T ANOMALOUS EXPERIENCES

MORE COMMON?

3. Innate Sensitivity

A remarkable case in point

What’s Going On Here?

Delusional, gullible, hypochondriac?

Alternative view: a highly sensitive person

Emotion in Nature and Nurture

Lessons from the serotonin transporter gene

Orchids and dandelions

Epigenetics

Bridge to serious study of the anomalous

The Sensitivity Survey

How it came about Six key factors in a

sensitive personality Genetic and

environmental influences Electrical sensitivity

Speaking of Electrical Sensitivity…

Animals have a geomagnetic/ electromagnetic awareness

Infrasound and its influence on people

Tying it All Together

Hartmann’s Boundaries concept

Thick and thin boundaries

Feelings affect everyone, just handle it differently

Feelings within Boundary Types

Emotion akin to the flow of water

What happens with dissociated feelings?

Anomalies can result

(My observations in Pennsylvania)

Where Are You on the Boundary

Spectrum?

Take the quiz and we’ll

discuss in a bit

A Path Forward

Treat what people report seriously

Sacred cows can tip – scientific assumptions inevitably change

The study of anomalies drives science forward

A Few Quotes to Conclude • What we need is not the will to believe but the will to find

out.

- Bertrand Russell, philosopher

• We need a kind of science…which balances what it sees with what it knows, and isn’t afraid of either.

- Louisa Young, author

• No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.

- Lillian Smith, writer and social critic

For further info: www.emotiongateway.com

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/feeling-too-much

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Thank You!