Dr. Imants Barušs analyzes concepts often thought of as intangible or spiritual. One hears talk of a person’s energy field, the ability of one person’s energy field to influence another’s, and other such phenomena. But how much of it is in a person’s mind and how much of it physically exists?
While Dr. Barušs, a psychology professor at King’s University College affiliated with the University of Western Ontario, does not comprehensively or definitively answer this question, his recent study begins to bring the issue into focus. He is the lead author of a paper titled “Alterations of Consciousness at a Self-Development Seminar: A Matrix Energetics Seminar Survey,” published in the November 2014 issue of the Journal of Consciousness Exploration Research.
In this paper, he reported on a couple of experiments related to the power of consciousness.
Remote Influencing
In two experiments, Barušs directed his thoughts at people from afar to see if those people could feel anything. These experiments were detailed in chapter three of his book, “The Impossible Happens,” and were reviewed in the current paper. He focused on the effect these thoughts had on subjects’ energy levels, whether they felt more energized or more fatigued than usual.
He tested a total of 37 participants, arranging times with them via email in which he would conduct these sessions. The participants would ensure they were not driving at these times, and they would also monitor how they felt at these times. Barušs flipped a coin at the beginning of each session to determine randomly whether he would perform remote influencing or do nothing.
