We applied two advanced large‐language models—OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o and GitHub Copilot—to evaluate the Drake–S Equation framework for postmortem survival of consciousness relative to eight previously specified evidentiary standards. ChatGPT-4o judged this equation approach a “Good” to “Very Good” fit on 75% of the criteria (23/32 points, 72% overall), whereas Copilot rated it a “Good” to “Very...
Auerbach et al. (2023) proposed an AECKO model to describe the features and dynamics of a poltergeist-like disturbance they investigated with virtual technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. A two-part exercise nonetheless shows that their findings fundamentally support Laythe, Houran, Dagnall et al.’s (2021) grounded theory of Haunted People Syndrome (HP-S), which was independently developed...
This study examines a body of engaged “ritual magic practitioners” to understand their methods and techniques for facilitating putative parapsychological outcomes in everyday life, as well as outcomes on a computerized test of putative psi. We hypothesized that the combination of meditation, visualization, and related mental exercises at the core of magical practice relates to both invoked...
Objective: We used the ChatGPT-3.5 artificial intelligence (AI)-based language program to compare twelve types of mystical, supernatural, or otherwise anomalous entity encounter narratives constructed from material in the publicly available corpus of information, and compared their details to the phenomenology of spontaneous accounts via the Survey of Strange Events (SSE) and the grounded...
This participatory team science project extended Laythe and Houran’s (2022) prior application of a famous probabilistic argument known as the "Drake equation" to the question of postmortem survival. Specifically, we evaluated effect sizes from peer-reviewed, empirical studies to determine the maximum average percentage effect that ostensibly supports (i.e., "anomalous effects") or refutes...
We used a multiteam system approach (MTS) to map the critical and constructive feedback from four invited Commentaries on Rock et al.’s (2023) probabilistic analysis of purported evidence for postmortem survival. The goal was to mine actionable insights to guide future research with the potential for important learnings or breakthroughs about the nature or limits of human consciousness and...
Evidence suggests that subjective and objective anomalies associated with ghostlyepisodes form a unidimensional Rasch scale and that these interconnected“signs orsymptoms”arguably describe a syndrome model. This view predicts that symptomperception—that is, the phenomenology of these anomalous episodes—can be markedlyskewed by an experient’s psychological set. This is impacted, in turn, by...