Can Science Understand the Paranormal?

It's been said that phenomena like to hide—is science suited to examination of the paranormal? In this panel discussion, Dean, Whitley, and Mitch consider the strides and challenges facing a methodological exploration of the anomalous, including the need for a theory of ESP and the question of how to balance testimony with clinical study. During this discussion, moderated by Lily Dale's Richard Lissemore, the panelists seek to ask hard questions about their own fields, exploring both the crisis of knee-jerk skepticism and the areas where parapsychology must do better. Lots of time for exchange and questions from attendees.

A historian of alternative spirituality, Mitch Horowitz is one of today’s most literate voices of esoterica, mysticism, and the occult. Mitch illuminates outsider history, explains its relevance to contemporary life, and reveals the longstanding quest to bring empowerment and agency to the human condition. He is among the few occult writers whose work touches the bases of academic scholarship, national journalism, and subculture cred. Mitch is a writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library and the PEN Award-winning author of books including Occult America, One Simple Idea, The Miracle Club, Daydream Believer, Uncertain Places, and the forthcoming Modern Occultism. The Washington Post says Mitch “treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.” Filmmaker Magazine calls him “a genius at distilling down esoteric concepts.” He has discussed alternative spirituality on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, NPR’s All Things Considered, CNN, Vox/Netflix’s Explained, VICE News, and seasons I and II of AMC Shudder’s Cursed Films, an official selection of SXSW. Mitch hosted, cowrote, and produced a feature documentary about the occult classic The Kybalion directed by Emmy-nominee Ronni Thomas and shot on location in Egypt. The movie premiered as the #3 documentary on iTunes. Mitch plays a newscaster in the forthcoming Paramount feature thriller My Animal directed by Jacqueline Castel, an official selection of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Mitch has written on alternative spirituality for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, Politico, and a wide range of ‘zines and scholarly journals. Mitch’s books have been translated into French, Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Portuguese. His work is censored in China.

Whitley Strieber is the author of many bestsellers, among them Communion about his encounter with entities from another reality, Jesus: A New Vision, which restores much of the lost history of his teaching, and, most recently Them, which looks at close encounters and government secrets in a completely new way. Many of his books have been made into movies and TV series, including The Wolfen (1978) and The Hunger (1981). He has maintained a dual career of author of fiction and advocate of paranormal concepts through his best-selling non-fiction books, his Unknown Country website, and his podcast, Dreamland.

Dean Radin is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Associated Distinguished Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), and chairman of the biotech company, Cognigenics. He earned an MS in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and in 2022 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from the Swami Vivekananda University, an accredited institution in Bangalore, India. Before joining the IONS research staff in 2001, Radin worked at AT&T Bell Labs, Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, and SRI International. He has given almost 700 lectures and interviews throughout the world, and is author or coauthor of more than 300 scientific and popular articles, four dozen book chapters, and nine books, four of which have been translated into 15 foreign languages: The Conscious Universe (1997, HarperCollins), Entangled Minds (2006, Simon & Schuster), Supernormal (2013, Random House), and Real Magic (2018, Penguin Random House).Whitley Strieber is the author of many bestsellers, among them Communion about his encounter with entities from another reality, Jesus: A New Vision, which restores much of the lost history of his teaching, and, most recently Them, which looks at close encounters and government secrets in a completely new way. Many of his books have been made into movies and TV series, including The Wolfen (1978) and The Hunger (1981). He has maintained a dual career of author of fiction and advocate of paranormal concepts through his best-selling non-fiction books, his Unknown Country website, and his podcast, Dreamland.

Richard Lissemore is a singing voice physiologist, educator, and practitioner. A Ph.D. candidate in Speech, Language, Hearing Science at The City University of New York (CUNY), he presently serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Speech-Language-Hearing Science at the CUNY's Lehman College. He earned his M. Phil in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences in 2016. His dissertation research, which has been presented at international conferences and has won numerous awards and study fellowships, focuses on the intersection of articulation and acoustics in professional singers. He will defend his doctoral thesis in 2023. Aside from his scientific pursuits, he is an established singing teacher and performer who enjoyed a long career in the performing arts that spanned opera, orchestra concerts, musical theater, and voiceover for radio and television.

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