Oliver Lazar | A Discussion of Parapsychology | In Centre
28 October.2:00 pm-5:00 pm
A Discussion on Parapsychology
with Oliver Lazar
Saturday 28th October | 2-5pm | £10 (£20 for Talk and Discussion)
About
The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre is delighted to have Professor Oliver Lazar here presenting on his work designing the EREAMS Study.
A unique chance to take part in group discussions with a leading researcher in the field of Parapsychology. Following on from his talk on Friday 27th October, this afternoon event will cover pertinent topics relating to Oliver Lazar’s research on mediumship and spiritual experiences. Oliver will lead a small group in discussion around a series of questions and propositions, sharing some of the thinking behind his own conclusions and offering participants the chance to offer their thoughts and opinions too. The afternoon will be structured in two parts, with a break in between where tea and coffee will be provided.
Oliver Lazar’s work: The EREAMS Study
The study team for EREAMS consisted of two mediums, Bettina Suvi Rode and Tanja Schlömer, and psychotherapist Kathrin Stephan. In the study, 500 international sittings were investigated using an established empirical methodology. The participants received an afterlife contact from one of the two mediums trained in British spiritualism and about three to four weeks after the sitting they were sent a questionnaire in which they could evaluate and describe their experience by answering several questions.
The most important research question deat with the authenticity of the transmitted messages, i.e. to what extent one can assume that the transmitted information really comes from the respective deceased person and has not been determined by research or psychological tricks. EREAMS focused on highly specific information in the messages that the medium could not possibly have guessed, e.g. family secrets that only the deceased could have known, naming objects which were placed in the coffin, the reproduction of typical phrases, gestures or even speech impediments of the deceased. Particularly impressive was such information that was known neither to the medium nor to the bereaved person at the time of the sitting and which had to be verified afterwards, e.g. formerly existing fruit trees in the garden or about an aborted pregnancy.
The second research question aimed at how comforting such authentic afterlife contact is. This meant looking at the real psychological impact of authentic afterlife contact, demonstrating that it serves a medical purpose.
The results of both were highly significant and have shaken the materialistic worldview.
Schedule
Open discussions on Saturday
Topic 1: The usual objections of the sceptics
Type: Combination of short lecture sequences and an open discussion
Possible points for discussion:
- Confirmation bias
- Cold reading (barnum effect, rainbow ruse, shotgunning)
- Open patterns
- A medium does not communicate with the deceased, but with a kind of spiritual database.
- Super PSI
- Why I find, that a publication in a peer review journal makes no sense.
Duration: approx. 90 minutes
Tea break
Topic 2: Do we have free will? Is everything predetermined? How does that fit together? – An attempt at explanation through quantum mechanical effects
Type: Lecture on the double-slit experiment and the quantum eraser with subsequent open discussion
Duration: approx. 60 minutes
END
About Oliver Lazar
Oliver S. Lazar, was born in 1974 and comes from Essen in the Ruhr area/ Germany. He first studied human medicine at the University of Essen and then computer science at the Technical University in Dortmund, graduating in 2005 with a degree in computer science. After returning to the Ruhr area, he worked on his thesis, “Effects on the sympathetic nervous system with combination therapies in the treatment of patients with hypertension“ in the Department of Nephrology at the University Hospital Essen. In 2008, he received a doctorate in the natural sciences of medicine from the medical faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Since 2012, he has been a professor of computer science in Düsseldorf, at Germany’s largest private university.
After the tragic accidental death of a classmate of his then 13-year-old daughter in 2017, he underwent a complete life change combined with profound personal spiritual experiences that opened the door to a much larger world. As a result, he began to view and understand the world holistically, completely detached from worldviews. As part of this change, he completed medial training with spiritual teacher Bettina-Suvi Rode in Essen from 2019 to 2020. Together with her I also designed the EREAMS study.
