This EnlightenNext interview features Dr. Dean Radin, senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena. He provides a broad overview of the current climate and investigative work being done in parapsychology and neuroscience today. Radin is a legend in the field of paranormal research, and brings both the heartfelt passion of a true believer and the determined intellectual rigor of a scientist to his exploration of the shadowy and intriguing terrain between the material and the ethereal.
Once considered to be entirely unworthy of serious scientific consideration, research into such things as telepathy, telekinesis, and remote viewing are becoming objects of increasing interest to the scientific mainstream. In the world of today's psi researcher, the “spooky action at a distance” of quantum mechanics not only provides acceptable explanations for the mysterious workings of subatomic particles, it also appears to shed considerable light on the otherwise inexplicable phenomenon of the paranormal. Taking things even further, Radin questions whether there is any fundamental difference between mind and matter, suggesting that delving deeply into either one will inevitably lead to a singular, unified source. Dr. Dean Radin as he walks the road of scientific materialism with the intuitive wisdom of a modern mystic, and in the process turns conventional thinking in both fields upside down.
* The term psi denotes processes of information or energy transfer, such as telepathy or other forms of extrasensory perception, that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms.
BIO
Dean Radin is senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). He earned a BSEE magna cum laude in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and both an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. For ten years, he was a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories and later a principal scientist at GTE Laboratories, where he was engaged in R&D on a wide variety of advanced telecommunications products and systems. For fifteen years, he has conducted experimental studies of psi phenomena in academia and industry, including appointments at Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, University of Nevada, and SRI International, the latter as a visiting scientist on a classified program of psi research. Before joining IONS, he cofounded the Boundary Institute and was in charge of a psi research program at Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto, California.
Radin was elected president of the Parapsychological Association, an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2005. He also served as a counselor in the Society for Scientific Exploration from 1986 to 1994, and was program chair for the Society's annual meetings in 1987 and 1997.
His research awards include the Parapsychological Association's Outstanding Achievement Award and the Rhine Research Center's Alexander Imich Award for advances in experimental parapsychology. He has earned Special Merit Awards from GTE Laboratories and Bell Labs. He has received grants from the Richard Hodgson Memorial Fund Grant at Harvard University, the Bial Foundation in Portugal, the Parapsychology Foundation in New York, the Society for Psychical Research in London, the Swedish Society for Psychical Research in Stockholm, the Institute for Border Areas of Psychology in Germany, and the Bigelow Foundation in Las Vegas.
Radin has been interviewed about his research for feature stories in The New York Times Magazine, Psychology Today, Newsweek, and New Scientist, and he has given dozens of invited lectures around the world. Radin is author of the award-winning book, The Conscious Universe (1997, HarperCollins), the forthcoming Entangled Minds (2006, Simon & Schuster), and is author or coauthor of over 200 journal articles and technical reports.
