Previous Recipients

2009
The sixth recipient of the Robert R. Coly Prize is Emma Stone of the University of Auckland. Emma Stone lives in Auckland, New Zealand, and attends UA, the University of Auckland. She completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Spanish, then went on to achieve Masters in Spanish with First Class Honours. She is currently working towards a Doctorate in Sociology, and upon completion of it, aspires to move overseas so she can pursue her interest in parapsychology formally, as in New Zealand there is a paucity of courses available. Her particular areas of interest within the field of parapsychology include promoting a cross-disciplinary approach to parapsychology, combining elements of it with sciences such as biology or physics in order to enhance and deepen understanding of it. She is also very interested in the incidence of psi and beliefs regarding parapsychological phenomena in non-Western peoples. Many indigenous communities perceive the world in a unique and non-linear way, rejecting Western tenets on the composition of the universe (these tenets are often a stumbling point with critics who hold tightly to the belief that parapsychology is incongruent with the scientific nature of the universe). She therefore believes it would be invaluable to the study of psi to create a research project focussing on the prevalence of and attitudes towards psi in such groups or communities. To read Emma Stone’s Essay, “The New Challenge of Psi: The Reinvigoration and Contemporary Conceptualization of Parapsychology,” click here.

2007
The fourth recipient of the Robert R. Coly Prize was Christian Gaden Jensen. At the time the prize was awarded Mr. Jensen was a post-graduate student in psychology at the Universty of Copenhagen in Denmark, combining his studies with work as a paid research assistant in the Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology at Lund University in Sweden where he was involved in a number of research projects. In addition, Jensen was the edtior-in-chief of Copenhagen University’s Institute of Psychology’s Student Magazine, Indput, as well as the executive coordinating editor to Dr. Stanley Krippner and Dr. Harris Friedman on then up-coming anthology, Mysterious Minds: The Neurobiology of Psychics, Mediums, Shamans and Other Extraordinary People, to be published by Greenwood/Praeger. To read Mr. Jensen’s essay, “Parapsychology: For All It’s Worth,” click here.

2006
The third recipient of the Robert R. Coly Prize was Hannah Jenkins of the University of Tasmania. Hannah Jenkins earned a B.A. (Honours) in Philosophy (1992) at the University of Sydney and an M.A. (Honours) in Philosophy (2004) at the University of New South Wales, Australia. At the time of the prize, she was conducting doctoral research towards a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Tasmania. Psi Possibilities, her masters thesis, explored some of the philosophical issues that were raised by the evidence for psi and her PhD thesis, Beyond Beliefs, was intended to be an analysis of psi theories in relation to current explanation theory in philosophy of science. A full member of the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research and its President in 2006, Jenkins has published in the Australian Journal of Parapsychology as well as in an edited collection of conference proceedings Consequentiality. For more details see her website. To read Ms. Jenkin’s essay, “The Challenge of Parapsychology: One Down, But More to Go,” click here.

2005
The 2005 recipient of the Robert R. Coly Prize was Peter Ramakers of the University of Edinburgh. At the time of the award Peter Ramakers was a doctoral student at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit, University of Edinburgh. His research was aimed at identifying a robust measure of telepathy on the basis of the assumption that ESP of emotional events has, at some stage in the psi process, an effect on brain systems associated with normal emotion perception. Case studies indicating that there might be some validity to this assumption are many, and his research attempted to capture the (indirect) effects of emotional ESP on the human nervous system in the lab. By using the receiver’s electrical conductance of the skin as the psi measure, Ramakers hoped, any effects on the emotional (limbic) system in the brain should become measurable, even if the receiver remains unaware of any effect. In general he is interested in the concept of the unconscious and its relationship to psi. While a physical explanation of psi may remain elusive, Ramakers believed that mapping the structure and dynamics of the unconscious can, in the long run, provide a working model of psi functioning. To read Mr. Ramaker’s prize-winning essay, “The Paradox of Parapsychology: Examining Current Challenges in the Field of Inquiry into the Paranormal” click here.

2004
The 2004 recipient of the Robert R. Coly Prize was Sergio Andres Schilling Perez of the International University SEK in Santiago, Chile. Schilling became interested in psi research in high school after studying hypnosis, that special state of consciousness under which a number of seemingly anomalous behaviors can occur. He began to study the impact of belief as well as the psychology of hypnotic and other anomalous experiences, and was led through his reading to books on parapsychology. Now a psychology student, Schilling founded a center to study parapsychological phenomena. He has no formal course work or training in parapsychology because none is available in his country. He has, however, participated in the Encuentro Psi (“Encounter Psi”) conferences held in Argentina by PF Affiliate, Alejandro Parra, contributing presentations on genetics and psi experiences in Chilean families, and an examination of the numerical properties of the output of a pseudo-random number generator. To read his prize-winning essay, “‘We Must Go On’: Some Thoughts About the Science of Hope”, go to the Lyceum Library by clicking here.