by
E. Marabini

(General Director of “IL LABORATORIO”)

 

PSI

The term psi, proposed since the 1942 by B. P. Wiesner and R. H. Thouless ([1]) in order to define all the phenomena related to the parapsychology studies, was afterwards suggested also by Cirill Burtt (1968, 2), as a replacement for the so-called extrasensory or paranormal or parapsychological phenomena.

Even from my point of view (1986, 3) this term is suitable to define all those manifestations that depend on a human mind function I call “psi function”.

The term psi is not meant only as a qualifying adjective (for instance, physical phenomenon, biological phenomenon, psychic phenomenon, psi phenomenon) but it is a noun as other functions of our mind such as the sense, the emotion and the feeling, the impulse o desire, the intuition, the imagination and the thought.

The functions and their qualities are natural and normal conditions of the action of the mind, always correlated with each other in their behavior, even if each of them becomes prevailing here and now over the human action.

As the human being continuously interacts with the surrounding environment, the study of its behavior brings to qualify the different and peculiar features of its manifestation, that is, the psi phenomenon as it appears, considering also the context (physical and psychological environment) in which the event itself is observed.

In such way, the phenomenon becomes normal or anomalous in relation with the coherence (conformity) or with the non-coherence to particular dominant elements that are observable in the context in which the phenomenon itself occurs.

Saying “coherence with the context” means that there is no mismatch (nonconformity) between the parties, between the ways wherein the phenomenon occurs and the meanings that represent in their entirety the considered context (Phenomenal System 4) (see the Appendix of this document, Scheme 1).

In a scientific context, psi phenomena are considered anomalous as they are evaluated using a reference system that is represented by the scientific laws of the physical-mathematical paradigm.

In contrast, in a Bio Psycho Cybernetic (BPC) context, the psi phenomena are evaluated using the BPC paradigm, which clearly differs from the physical-mathematical one as it refers to the Phenomenal System (PS), and allows one to qualify the psi phenomena as normal events.

Nevertheless, this does not preclude the scholar to observe, in the BPC context, ambiguous phenomena that may be apparently interpreted as psi manifestations, in spite of their non-coherence with different parts of the context. In addition, this does not preclude the scholar to observe manifestations that, even if they exhibit certain coherence elements with the context, they are random, atypical, fraudulent, etc.

In these cases, the positive or negative evaluation of the examined event may result difficult and require capable researchers; this because the evaluation depends both on the possibility to carry out a logical and instrumental analysis of the characteristics of the event itself, and on the possibility that the phenomenal characteristics refer to some fundamental elements available in that particular PS. Needless to say, the case study must be conducted in respect of the criteria of the BPC paradigm and the data will have to be probative with a significant probability degree, in order to encourage (or exclude) a psi interpretation of the phenomenon.

 

 

HUMAN BEING

I use the concept of the humanistic psychology expressed by Roberto Assagioli in the psycho-synthesis, according to whom the human being is meant in its biological, psychological and spiritual or transpersonal entirety (5).

We know that the human being is an open system; hence, it is in a perpetual interactive relationship with all the known and unknown realities of the physical, psychological social and spiritual world.

The human being, through the expression of its behavior (constitutional biopsychic characteristics, cultural influences, emotional state and conscious state) realizes in the here and now a kind of relationship with the different energetic realities. The human being shows an own moral conscience, and religious and mystical belief also as expression of spirituality or transpersonality.

 

THE PSI INTERACTION AND ITS LANGUAGE

The phenomenology that belongs to the psi interaction phenomena family, both of psycho-cognitive type and of psychokinetic type, is referable to an informative process (input) (both interior to the individual his(her)self and oriented towards his(her)self, or towards other beings or towards the world) and to a communicative process (output).

This psi interaction process can happen by means of a type of verbal and nonverbal communication similar to that of the ordinary language (6).

However, the psi verbal communication differs for its communicative contents and for the conscious state lived by the individual. In fact, this kind of verbal communication comes true during the states of altered consciousness, as it happens over the mediumistic trance with embodying or during the ecstasy or during the sleep. Moreover, this psi communicative event can manifest itself even in the altered consciousness states such as those insane derived by either drugs or alcoholism or mental diseases.

The psi nonverbal communication acquires specific somatic and extra-body characteristics. Somatic characteristics are for example, in the stigmatic phenomena, the haematic dermographysms, or particular experiences lived at cenestesic or motor level.

In contrast, extra-somatic characteristics appear by means of an objective phenomenology such as that of the PK phenomena that involve also the close and remote environment (for instance, the infestation and poltergeist phenomena).

 

THE BIOPSYCHOCYBERNETICS

We know that the method of the analysis of the cybernetics is based on two processes; namely the information transmission and information processing processes. The cybernetics firstly applies to the control and regulation of the automatic machines, but the development of this theory is also largely due to the biological science. In fact, since the beginning of thirties-forties it has been investigated the existing analogies between the automatons and the self-regulated natural systems, by processing biochemical or logical mechanical models of the living beings, of the S.N.C., of the human cognitive processes.

The cybernetics has found a further development in the BPC, so as it can be defined as the branch of the human being sciences; it refers to the study of a set of phenomena that depends on the permanent interaction that the human being and in general the living systems acquire through the known and unknown energies of the universe.

Conventionally, three main BPC phenomena categories have been defined:

BPC phenomena of the information related to the relationships that the being, and specifically the SNC, has with all the physical energies of the world

BPC biopsychotranspersonal phenomena related to all the manifestations that the human being lives in its interiority and in its relationships with the other beings

BPC phenomena of psi interaction that include all those communicative manifestations that emerge by a particular human being behavior (psi behavior) in relation to specific conscious states (modified and/or altered states of consciousness) and to the context (physical and psychic) in which the psi communication occurs

The innovative research method of the BPC, that uses also cybernetic methodological criteria of analysis, can be considered a valuable help of knowledge, especially knowledge of the manifestations of the behavior, which emerges from the activation of psi function.  The BPC exhibits an interdisciplinary behavior that we can also see in the cognitive sciences (linguistics, psychology, philosophy, artificial intelligence); however, it concerns a wider phenomenal system. In fact, the BPC takes into account the human being interactive relationships with the matter-energy reality of the world and with the manifestations that emerge from a psychological and spiritual dynamics related to the human formation.

Appendix

[1] B. P. Wiesner, R. H. Thouless The present position of the experimental Research into telepathy and related phenomena Proc. S.P.R., vol 47, 1942,1

2 C. Burtt Psicologia e Parapsicologia In: Scienza e percezione extrasensoriale (a cura di) Smithies, Di Donato, 1968

3 E. Marabini Fenomeni PSI, normali o paranormali? Congetture per una epistemologia parapsicologica Luce e Ombra, A. 87, n. 4, ottobre-dicembre, 1987

4 E. Marabini Fenomeni Parapsicologici. NUOVA LIBRA EDITORE, 1994.

 

5 R. Assagioli, Principi e metodi in Psicosintesi terapeutica Astrolabio, 1973

6 E. Marabini, La Biopsicocibernetica. Una branca delle scienze dell’uomo La Mandragora, 2007

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