I had high hopes for the New Year as did we all. Yet, regretfully, we continue to face so many ongoing challenges– socially, medically and politically. I take solace in reading the words of Eileen J. Garrett in previous dark days. Many of you are familiar with her Tomorrow Magazine when it dealt with psychic matters. You may not be aware that there was an earlier, literary version, of Tomorrow, published from January 1942 until August 1951. Taken from her first editorial describing her aims for the publication she wrote “It may seem strange to take this time for launching a new magazine, but it is my sincere belief that never in the history of the world have so many people felt free to break through the mental slavery of past attitudes and ideas. I believe this is a moment in time when the inspired ones should come forth and create the new road to a more peaceful relationship between man and his fellow man, man and his country, and man and his gods.” And so as the world turns here we are again—not exactly in the same situation but in the midst of muck once again!
Garrett wrote in yet another editorial in June, 1942 “Man demands action, and there is less and less sympathy with opportunists. The simple ones are disturbed in their hearts, and are saying ‘Who is there to lead us?’ But they forget that when evolution is ready she is not enslaved by the will of man, but chooses carefully the voices of those who will carry her in fidelity over her savage but sovereign path.” It is no surprise that Garrett’s motto for the Parapsychology Foundation is “onwards and upwards”. This is what we attempt to ascribe to most especially in January 2021 in the beginning of our 70th year of operation.
Therefore, it pleases me to announce that Dr. Everton Maraldi has just received an Eileen Coly Research Grant for his valuable work. In Everton’s own words he describes his research: “The project is titled ‘A multi-method investigation of the role of paranormal beliefs in sleep paralysis experiences’ which seeks to investigate the role of paranormal beliefs in sleep paralysis experiences. I will carry out a survey to explore the correlations of these experiences with explicit and implicit measures of paranormal belief. In addition, I will compare the phenomenological characteristics of sleep paralysis experiences reported by paranormal believers and skeptics in order to identify whether and how sleep paralysis narratives are shaped by paranormal beliefs. This is the first large-scale study to evaluate the role of paranormal beliefs in sleep paralysis through a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods and analyses. The findings will be published in international journals in the areas of psychology/psychiatry and parapsychology. “
Everton de Oliveira Maraldi is professor of the Post-Graduate Program on Religious Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil. He has master’s and doctorate degrees in Social Psychology from the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo and a bachelor degree in Psychology from Guarulhos University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Parapsychological Association (PA) and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Coventry University and the University of Oxford. In 2018, he served as the Program Chair of the annual convention of the PA. His research interests include the psychology of religious experiences; altered states of consciousness; dissociation and dissociative disorders; spirituality and health; historical approaches to psychological and psychiatric studies on religion and spirituality; parapsychology and the study of religion. He has published papers in several scientific journals, including among others the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Journal of Religion and Health, International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, History of Psychiatry, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Journal of Parapsychology, and Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.”
Everton will be assisted in this research project by Brazilian psychologist Maria de Fatima Fernandes. She is a clinical psychologist working in private practice. She has experience with Psychodynamic and Jungian approaches to psychotherapy. She is also interested in the interfaces between the fields of psychology and philosophy, having published a book in Portuguese on philosophical perspectives about the unconscious.
Speaking for PF and our family of grantees, award winners and colleagues we congratulate Everton and eagerly await the results of his research. In the meanwhile as the World Turns please all of you do stay safe!