Table of Contents

Robert  Jahn & Brenda Dunne:  Prologue

Zachary Jones:  Editor’s Introduction

Fritz-Albert Popp:  Foreword:  “The Power of Weakness”

(International Institute of Biophysics, Neuss, Germany)

A founding member of ICRL notes how the concept of filters has guided the activities of   the organization since its inception, and addresses its relevance to his own work in biophysics.

Robert  Jahn & Brenda Dunne: “Sensors, Filters, and the Source of Reality”

(PEAR/ICRL, Princeton, New Jersey)

The resonant channels of communication that introduce order into randomnicity and extract self-consistent realities from transcendent chaos are mediated by the physiological and psychological filters imposed upon them by conscious or unconscious attention.   By elevating the subjective capacities of consciousness to complementary status with the more objective physical senses, and recognizing the bi-directional capabilities of both,   these channels can be amplified to enhance such information creation and enable experiential realities that are responsive to intention, desire, or need.

Nelson Abreu: “Paraperceptual Filters, Out-of-Body Experience and Allied Phenomena”

(South Miami, Florida)

Investigations of out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming, and precognitive remote perception attest to the ability of consciousness to access information independently of the physical senses.  These abilities appear to be much more common than is usually presumed, and offer a valuable vehicle for self-understanding.  They also suggest that distance and time may not be characteristics of the physical world, but fundamental filters of consciousness.

Thomas Anderson:  “Acoustical Resonance Iteration Filtering:  The Children’s Version”

(ICRL Acoustics Lab, Nashville, Tennessee)

Acoustical resonance is a form of filtering of the auditory stimuli in our physical environment and extracting and amplifying meaningful information.  The physical dynamics involved in this process are presented in an introductory manner, appropriate for the non-specialist.

Vasileios Basios: “Interdependence and Objectification:  Aspects of Their (Pre)-Epistemology”

(Interdisciplinary Centre for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems, University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium)

Many of the fundamental aspects of complex physical systems highlight the observer's participatory role in determining their workings.  These fundamental complexity issues not only bear a formal resemblance to, but also reveal a profound connection with, quantum mechanics, and point to a common origin on a deeper level of description, suggesting that any description of a complex whole is only a partial objectification that is projected onto, and even redefines, its constituent parts.

Richard Blasband:  “Emotional Armoring as a Filter of Consciousness”

(Center for Functional Research, Sausalito, California)

Wilhelm Reich’s concepts of emotional and character armoring provide a model for demonstrating how the mind structures experiences of the external environment and produces tangible reflections of these in our physical bodies.  These filters can affect the activity of physical organs, inhibit sensations of internal states, and block incoming information from sensory awareness, with a resultant diminution of interaction between the self and the external world.

Emilios Bouratinos:  “Primordial Wholeness:  Hints of Its Role in the Creation of Physical Reality and the Unfolding of Civilization”

(Ekali, Greece)

The biological mechanism that evolved to filter out useless external information has undergone extensive re-programming since the invention of civilization.  In this process, the bulk of information unrelated to object-mediated understanding has been weeded out or consigned to the unconscious, leading to a significant reduction in our ability to commune with the primordial wholeness of the universe.

Jeannine. Davies:  “The Holy Undivided”

(Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

A model of intersubjective experience, termed “Relational Dharma,” draws from the Buddhist doctrine of paticca samuppada, or dependent origination, and provides a means for achieving liberation through relationship and moving into greater proximity to the Source.  As liberation is touched, filters cease to obscure experience and become canvases that illustrate the ongoing alchemy of higher human freedom.

Igor Dolgov:  “Sensors, Filters, and the Objects of Perception:  A Direct Realist, Multidimensional, State Space Model”

(Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona)

The universal truths described in many animist, pagan, and eastern traditions argue for a psychological theory that can represent embodied experience as a platform for modeling mental processes.  An ecological framework is proposed that incorporates the teaching of pan-cultural traditions into a more comprehensive model of consciousness, capable of accommodating the experiences of everyday life, as well as those of functional altered states of consciousness and of many phenomena regarded as anomalous.

Jeff Dunne:  “Nought But Everything”

(Eldersburg, Maryland)

To illustrate the value of filters in organizing reality we step back from the arbitrary complexities of the "objective" universe.  “Junction” and “reduction” are shown as secondary shadows cast from the primary filter that instantiates duality from unity, and we explore 'exchange' as an illustration of how complex combinations of simpler filters enable us to establish our rich and potent worldview, without which we would be left with “Nought But Everything.”

William Eddy, Jr.:  "Indoors and Outdoors;" "Let's Change the Subject;" "Metaphor," and "Thou and It."

(West Burke, Vermont)

Four short essays, originally published in his book, “The Other Side of the World: Essays and Stories on Mind and Nature,” present an array of stories and metaphors that illustrate how the filters of culture and language influence our perceptions of the environment.  The objective and subjective worlds are shown to have little intrinsic meaning except in terms of each other.

Shannon Foskett:  "Semiotic Filters and the Distance from the Real"

(University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois)

Semiotics, the philosophical theory of signs and symbols as they function in human languages, comprises syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, as well as all linguistic, mythical, and cultural practices.  Questions regarding the extent to which semiotic filters keep us at a distance from reality, or actually construct the features of reality itself, are addressed, along with the distinctions between the filters and the realities they mediate.

Antonio Giuditta:  "Proposal of a 'Spiral' Mechanism of Evolution"

(Department of Biological Science, Naples, Italy)

An alternative is presented to the prevailing model of biology in which genomic information is presumed to originate ultimately from chance events.  A mechanism of phylogenetic evolution is proposed, which may involve a spiral flow of information between the environment, the phenome, and eventually the genome of the evolving unit.

Zachary Jones:  “Topological Association of Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness:

The Macroscope”

(Tempe, Arizona)

The ancient alchemists adhered to the Hermetic principle:  “What is below is like that which is above, to accomplish the miracles of one thing.”  In this essay, the author describes the concept of a “macroscope,” a model that synthesizes scale-independent forms in a way that reveals the activity of a self-reflective consciousness and provides access to aspects of reality beyond the reach of direct experience.

Ruth Rosenbaum:  “Courting Maxwell's Demon:  Reflections on Filter-shifts and Transformation in Psychotherapy” 
(National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, New York, New York) 

A psychoanalyst explores the role of filter-shifts in the process of change and growth in psychotherapy.  This dynamic is examined from the perspective of the interaction between patient and therapist, and how each affects the other through the modification and expansion of their respective filters, both conscious and unconscious.

Christian Skeel and Morten Skriver:  “Art, Mind, and Matter”

(Copenhagen, Denmark)

As one of the oldest expressions of the interaction between consciousness and its environment, art serves as a filter through which the artist captures and expresses an inner experience in a tangible form.  But it also provides a filter whereby the viewer of a work of art has the opportunity to enter into resonance with the artist and touch the inner spirit that guided the work’s creation.

John Valentino:  “You'll Never Get There From Here:  REG Experiments & Conventional Assumptions About Reality"

(Psyleron, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey)

Successful random event generator experiments require both the tools of objective scientific rigor and the deployment of subjective personal involvement. By approaching  the REG experience through  both objective and subjective filters, it becomes possible to consider a more integrated approach for contemplating the processes of consciousness and its role in the creation of physical reality.

Antonella Vannini and Ulisse Di Corpo: “A Retrocausal Model of Life”

(Rome, Italy)

The concept of “syntropy” is proposed as a complement to the well-known thermodynamics of entropy and provides a mechanism whereby the exchange of information can flow backward as well as forward in time, allowing living systems to react to both past and future influences.  Syntropy typically expresses itself in the form of feelings, rather than concepts, and offers a filter that can accommodate anomalous experiences and facilitate teleological drivers of living processes.