CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080013-0

Ken TY+ Nal
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080013-0
Founder quits anti-psi committee, cites media blitz'
BRAIN(
MIND
bulletin
FRONTIERS OF RESEARCH.
THEORY AND PRACTICE
December 19, 1977
Volume 3, Number 3
HEW approves education project
to explore transpersonal realm
The federal government will sponsor a project designed to explore the farther
reaches of human capability.
Mary F. Berry, assistant secretary for education of the Dept. of Health,
Education and Welfare, approved the project, titled The Limits of Educability, early
in December. It will inquire into such topics as altered states
of consciousness, values, cultural 'visions,' emotional blocks
to learning, new scientific paradigms, creativity, synergy,
"myths of transformation," psychic phenomena, paradox,
non-linear processing capabilities, extraordinary human capa-
bilities, "superhealth" and the politics of personal growth.
The project will culminate in articles, a book and a conference.
"In any absolute sense we can probably never know what
the 'limits of educability' are," the project description states. "Yet we can specify
areas where we believe there are great disparities between what is being achieved by
current educational practice and either known limits achieved through optimal use of
current practices or achievable limits through known alternative practices."
Various federal agencies will participate in the project, but haif its $300,000 cost
is to be raised privately. Jerry Fletcher of HEW told Brain/Mind Bulletin that
co-sponsors are eagerly sought.
"We'd like the participation of as many organizations, large or small, as
possible," he said. The Institute of Noetic Sciences already has become a co-sponsor.
For information: Fletcher, Education Division/HEW, 200 Independence Ave.
Room 317-H, Washington 20201, (202) 245-8266.
Marcello Truzzi of Eastern Michigan Uni-
versity, founding editor of the journal Zetet-
ics and co-founder of the controversial Com-
mittee for the Scientific Investigation of
Claims of the Paranormal, has resigned his
editorship, co-chairmanship and member-
ship. Truzzi charged that the committee's
executive council is interested only in de-
bunking-not investigating -- psychical phe-
nomena.
Under his editorship. Zeteties was a forum
for critical reviews of parapsychological re-
search.
Truzzi said he deplored "the media blitz,"
the committee's recent attacks on the report-
ing of unusual phenomena in newspapers
and on television. Paul Kurtz, co-chairman
of the committee, had held press confer-
ences in recent months urging the media to
quell reports of psychic phenomena.
More recently, after
Truzzi's resignation,
Kurtz filed the commit-
tee's complaint with the
Federal Trade Commis-
sion on the airing of
NBC's Exploring the
Unknown, a 90-minute
special on psychic phe-
nomena, hypnotic regression and related
topics. NBC was accused of presenting
controversial material that "may result in
harm to the public." The network's "fre-
quent disclaimers" were considered "inade-
quate protection."
The committee demanded equal time for
'the critical scientific viewpoint" in re-
sponse to this and all other programs,
network and local, that may deal with
psychic phenomena. It said that possible
consequences of such programs may be
Continued on Page 2
Pribram at AHP seminar
Future to bring 'hard - nosed' work in 'soft' sciences
Stanford neuroscientist Karl Pribram has
predicted that within another 10 or 15
years "all of the really hard-nosed scien-
tific work will be going on in fields that are
now considered soft."
Under the auspices of the Assn. for Hu-
manistic Psychology, Pribram led two small,
day-long invitational symposia in San Fran-
cisco earlier this month to discuss his
theory of holographic brain function in a
universe whose matrix, "the frequency do-
main," is expressed in holographic principles. (See B/MB special
issue, July 4, 1977.)
Pribram has suggested that the model is part of a major shift in the
scientific description of reality. It attempts to explain phenomena of
normal perception, accounting for remarkable laboratory data, and
simultaneously helps to explain many events previously categorized
as paranormal. A number of persons well-known in psychology were
invited, as well as specialists in other fields: education, medicine,
philosophy, religion, physics and the arts.
As historic examples of 'soft' disciplines becoming central and
scientifically rigorous, he cited the shift in emphasis from behavioral
to cognitive psychology that began in the late 1950s as well as the
increasingly non-material world of quantum physics: "relationships
between observations-not observables."
According to the holographic theory of brain function, the fre-
quency domain is important in neural processes, just as it is in sub-
atomic physics. Stimuli are perceived by the senses via complex
mathematical transforms, an interpretation of interference patterns,
much as a hologram is reconstructed by its light source. Pribram
presented data on his laboratory findings indicating that the visual
system responds to spatial frequencies. Other evidence indicates
that all sensory systems obtain their information by "reading out"
information from a frequency domain. Synthesizing his and other
findings supporting holographic brain principles with speculation by
physicists that the universe itself may be holographic in nature (that
is, interference patterns of frequencies), Pribram suggests that con-
crete reality is apparent rather than fundamental.
Mystical insights may be a type of "lensless knowing," a more or
less direct perception of the holographic state. Pribram noted wryly.
"I think it must be a very compassionate universe --- it gave us
Continued on Page 2
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080013-0
..

Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080013-0
Brain/Mind Bulletin -- 2
New findings: valium, marijuana, alcohol, heroin
Marijuana research update: Cannabinoids do not cause muta-
tion in human cells, according to Arthur Zimmerman of the Uni-
versity of Toronto department of zoology and Hans Stich of the
Cancer Institute, University of British Columbia. . . . Marijuana
causes constriction of the pupils, not dilation as popularly
believed, according to Brian Brown of Smith Kettlewell
Institute, San Francisco, and his fellow research-
ers. But they found no pupil changes in subjects
using alcohol-or marijuana in combination with
alcohol !... Tetrahydrocannabinol, the active
principle in marijuana, supresses luteinizing'
hormone in rats, judging from tests at Duke Uni-
versity by Lee Tyrey and his associates. The
dose equivalent of one or two marijuana cigar-
ettes for humans suppressed all LI secretion.
The therapeutic virtues of heroin and marijuana will get a
serious look by the National Cancer Institute and other federal
agencies by virtue of a memorandum from Peter Bourne,
President Carter's special assistant for health.
Health undersecretary Julius Richmond was directed to
evaluate the potential medical benefits of the drugs, which are
classified as "dangerous." One study comparing heroin and
morphine for terminal cancer patients had indicated that heroin
caused less nausca, was less constipating, increased the appe-
tite, was less soporific and more mood-enhancing. Heroin is
effective in smaller doses, and it is more soluble. Marijuana, in
addition to its promise in the treatment of glaucoma, reportedly
has been helpful in relieving nausea from cancer chemotherapy.
Acupuncture eases withdrawal pain in heroin addiction, Wen
Hsiang-lai of Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong, reported. Fifty-
one per cent of the addicts treated by acupuncture were
drug-froc a year after treatment, compared to 28.5 per cent on
methadone. The National Institute of Mental Health has
granted Wen $100,000 for further research.
Valium may reinforce alcoholism, say J.
A. Deutsch and Nancy Walton of the Univer-
sity of California-San Diego. Thirty-two alco-
holic rats showed an increased craving to
drink when they were given Valium during
their drying-out period. Librium, structur-
ally similar, may have the same effect. . . . David Warburton, a
psychologist at the University of Reading, England, charged
that Hoffmann-La Roche has spent more than $400 million on
the promotion of Valium and Librium. He said that 19 per cent
of the women and seven per cent of the men in Great Britain
were prescribed tranquilizers in any one year.
Barbiturates cause 5,000 deaths a year and are "probably not
effective" in the treatment of insomnia anyway. The National
Institute on Drug Abuse has asked the FDA to take appropriate
action, such as requiring manufacturers to note on the labels
-unless they can meanwhile prove otherwise-that the drugs
are not effective on a longterm basis.
Truzzi quits 'debunking' committee. . .
Continued from Page 1
worse than those resulting from excesses of
violence, rigging of sports presentations and
game shows or biased news reporting.
Copies of the complaint were sent to the
Senate and House subcommittees on com-
munications.
Truzzi said that the committee's by-laws
allow voting only by its executive council.
The other 35 members, termed 'fellows'
(including B. F. Skinner and Carl Sagan),
can advise but cannot vote. Truzzi said he
refused to continue editing Zetetics when
the board voted to make it a "hard-hitting"
popular publication. He had founded Zetet-
ics as a newsletter before the committee was
organized in 1976.
"I felt we should keep the debate in a
scholarly framework," Truzzi said. "Except
for Ray Hyman, the other members of the
executive council are primarily debunkers."
Hyman, a psychologist at the University
Future research. . .
Continued from Page 1
physics so we could understand what those
other people who didn't have physics al-
ready knew."
He acknowledged his own difficulty in
really comprehending the idea of holo-
graphic mind in a fundamentally timeless,
spaceless universe. "But when the next
generation comes along it won't be so hard
for them."
An abridged version of the proceedings
will appear at a future date in Re-Visions, a
new journal (sce Tools and Resources, page
4). Tapes will not be available.
of Oregon, acknowledged that he and Truzzi
were at the "far end of the spectrum" in
that they did not automatically equate belief
in the paranormal with irrationality. Hyman
said, "I believe that our job is to present the
skeptical point of view-responsibly. But
some of the others believe that we can't get
attention if we argue in an academic journal
or if we qualify our statements. They feel we
have to paint things in black and white or the
media won't pay attention.
"So far they've been right in getting pub-
licity-but at the price of embarrassing
people like Marcello, who didn't want his
name associated with what they're doing.
It's a question of tactics."
Hyman said he agreed with the complaint
against the NBC special, "but some of the
things our committee protests are just sense-
less, pointless, a lot of noise."
Truzzi said he had objected to Zetetics'
continued association with The Humanist
(which has an anti-religion stance) and to
Kurtz's frequent television talk-show ap-
pearances purporting to represent the com-
mittee. He said he felt Kurtz was unfamiliar
with the parapsychology literature and also
presented the experiments of authors pub-
lished in Zeteties as if they were investiga-
tions done by the committee.
Subjective reports contradictory
Physical arousal noted in 'frigid' women
It is possible that women who never or
rarely experience orgasm actually undergo
normal physical arousal that they either
refuse to acknowledge or fail to recognize.
In a study conducted
by Julia Heiman and Pa-
tricia Morokoff, State
University of New York,
11 non-orgasmic women
and 55 controls were in-
structed to fantasize
about sex, then listened
to an erotic five-minute
tape, fantasized again
for three minutes, watched a film, then fan-
tasized for another three minutes.
Their subjective reports of non-arousal
did not correlate with the physiological
measurements. There was no significant
difference in the criterion of arousal-vaso-
congestion in the vagina-between the clini-
cal group and the controls, who were women
from the surrounding community.
The mean age of the non-orgasmic women
was 28, that of the controls 30.
Surprisingly, the women whose physio-
logical response was greatest were those
who reported the least arousal during inter-
course at home. Heiman suggested that they
may not have learned to recognize carly
stages of sexual excitement, may hold dif-
ferent expectations of what arousal should
feel like or may harbor negative feelings that
short-circuit the awareness of arousal.
Heiman: Dept. of Psychiatry, SUNY
School of Medicine, Stony Brook, N. Y.
11790 ..
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080013-0