Carlos S. Alvarado, PhD, and Nancy L. Zingrone, PhD, Research Fellows, Parapsychology Foundation

In a recent blog one of us wrote about the free Parapsychology MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) we are organizing to take place in January and February of 2015 (click here ). This course consists of many lectures by guest speakers who have graciously donated their time and effort for this pioneering education effort in parapsychology.

We have 35 events including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, four WizIQ discussion sessions, the first Second Life Discussion session that starts out on WizIQ, two sessions on completing a certificate for the course (one early to introduce the idea, one late in the course to make sure the folks who want to obtain one know what to do), Carlos’ Intro overview, Nancy’s Geographical overview of research locations, and 26 guest lectures. There are more or two still to add (guest lectures) and a few other presenters who are still working on titles.

So there will be many real-time lectures, a discussion forum, or a class meeting, six days a week from Monday, January 5th, 2015 through Saturday, February 14th. No class activities will take place on Sundays during the course. (Because we’ll need at least one day a week off.)

As of today we have 443 learners. In addition there are 11 lecturers who have also signed up, so that’s 454 in total.

Of the attendees who listed their countries we have: 186 from the USA, 82 from India, 38 from the UK, 29 from Canada, 13 from France, 12 from Australia, 11 from Brazil, seven from Greece, six from the Netherlands, five each from Germany and Italy, four each from Argentina and Puerto Rico, three each from Mexico, South Africa and Sweden, and two each from Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Spain.

Then we have the following countries with one registrant each: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Zambia.

For the folks who also uploaded their city, the top 14 cities are Delhi/New Dehli with 12 registrants, eight each from Bangalore, London and Mumbai, six from San Francisco, four each from Chicago, Maharashtra, and Sao Paulo, and three each from Ann Arbor, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Newark, Orlando, and San Juan.

Among the cities with two registrants each are Amsterdam, Atlantic, Dallas, Glasgow, Las Vegas, Leeds, Lisbon, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Nantes, Ottawa, Rome, and Sydney (and a few more). After that we have a wide variety of cities represented with one registrant each, among them, Al Manamah, Albuquerque, Antwerpen, Athens, Berlin, Boston, Brasilia, Bucharest, Cambridge, Canberra, Capetown, Detroit, Edinburgh, Exeter, Florianopolis, Groningen, Ha Noi, Hamburg, Helsinki, Honolulu, Johannesburg, Kiev, Long Beach, Lucknow, Lund, Lyon, Melbourne, Moscow, Nicosia, Northampton, Rio de Janeiro, San Antonio, Seoul, Stockholm, Tuscaloosa, Winnipeg, Wroclaw and Zurich.

Here is the last schedule, which may change slightly:

  1. Monday, January 5th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Opening Ceremonies, Drs. Carlos S. Alvarado & Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  2. Tuesday, January 6th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Overview: Introduction to the Scientific Study of Psychic Phenomena, Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado & Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundaton, USA)
  3. Wednesday, January 7th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Clinical and Counseling Aspects of Psychic Phenomena, Dr. Alejandro Parra (Interamerican Open University & the Institute for Paranormal Psychology, Argentina)
  4. Thursday, January 8th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Paranormal Healing Studies: Research, Practice, and Life Lessons, Dr. Daniel Benor (Wholistic Healing Research, Canada)
  5. Friday, January 9th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Completing a Certificate for Parapsychology and Anomalisitic Psychology, Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  6. Saturday, January 10th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, The Multiphasic Model of Precognition, Dr. Edwin C. May (Laboratories for Fundamental Research, USA)
  7. Monday, January 12th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Dissociation, Identity and Belief: Results from a Multi-Methods Study with Mediums, Atheists, and Others in Brazil, Dr. Everton de Oliviera Maraldi (University of Guarulhos, Brazil)
  8. Tuesday, January 13th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Modern Parapsychology: A Geographic View, Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  9. Thursday, January 15th, 2pm Eastern, The Role of Creativity in Psi Research. Dr. Kathy Dalton (Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  10. Friday, January 16th, 2pm Eastern, Second Life Discussion Forum (Starts in WizIQ, ends in Second Life), Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  11. Saturday, January 17th, 2pm Eastern, WizIQ Discussion Forum, Drs. Carlos S. Alvarado & Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  12. Monday, January 19th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Perceptions of a Paranormal Subject, Joe McMoneagle, USA)
  13. Tuesday, January 20th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Dr. Roger Nelson (Global Consciousness Project, USA), title to come
  14. Wednesday, January 21st, 2015, 11:30am Eastern, Yoga, Siddhis and Psi: Experimental Considerations and Implications, Dr. Sonali Marwaha (Laboratories for Fundamental Research, USA, and India)
  15. Thursday, January 22nd, 2015, 2pm Eastern, WizIQ Discussion Forum (and later in the Second Life Discussion Forum), Drs. Carlos S. Alvarado & Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  16. January 23rd, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Presentiment: An Anomalous Anticipation of Random Future Events, Dr. Thomas Rabeyron (University of Nantes, France)
  17. Saturday, January 24th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Supernormal: Science, Yoga and Psi, Dr. Dean Radin (Institute for Noetic Sciences, USA)
  18. Monday, January 26th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Applied Precognition Research can Bridge the Gap between Skeptics and Proponents, Dr. Michael Franklin (Theoretical and Applied Neuro-Causality Laboratories, USA)
  19. Wednesday, January 28th, 2015, Noon Eastern, Will an Evolutionary Perspective Help Us Understand How Extrasensory Perception Works?, Dr. Richard S. Broughton (Intuition Laboratories & University of Northampton, England)
  20. Thursday, January 29th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Qualitative Study of Mediumship, Dr. Chris Roe (University of Northampton, England)
  21. Friday, January 20th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, WizIQ Discussion and Second Life Discussion Forums, Drs. Carlos S. Alvarado & Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  22. Saturday, January 31st, 2015, 2pm Eastern, We are All Experiencers, Cherylee Black (Canada)
  23. Monday, February 2nd, 2015, Noon Eastern, Implications of Mediumship for the Mind-Brain Relationship, Dr. Alexander Moreira-Almeida (Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil)
  24. Tueday, Feburary 3rd, 2015, Noon Eastern, Beyond the Brain? Exploring the Neuropsychological Correlates of ESP, Bryan Williams (Psychical Research Foundation, USA)
  25. Wednesday, February 4th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Completing the Course Certificate Revisted, Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)
  26. Thursday, February 5th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, The Potential of Interdisciplinarity: Working between Disciplines to Better Understand Anomalistic Phenomena and Experience, Christopher Laursen (University of British Columbia, Canada)
  27. Friday, February 6th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, What the Study of Religion has to Offer Parapsychology, Dr. Jeffrey Kripal (Rice University, USA)
  28. Saturday, February 7th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Remote Viewing: Antecedents, Conditions, People, Protocols, Applications, Dr. Paul H. Smith
  29. Monday, February 9th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Dr. Peter Bancel (France), title to come
  30. Tuesday, February 10th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Psi-Related Experiences in Daily Life and Their Relationship to Beliefs, Attitudes and Subjective Well-Being: A Brazilian Survey, Dr. Fátima Regina Machado (InterPsi, University of São Paulo, Brazil)
  31. Wednesday, February 11th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Dr. Fabio da Silva (University of São Paulo, Brazil), title to come
  32. Thursday, February 12th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, The Challenge of Macro-PK, Dr. Stephen E. Braude (University of Maryland-Baltimore County, USA)
  33. Friday, February 13th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Hypnosis and Psi, Dr. Etzel Cardeña (Lund University, Sweden)
  34. Saturday, February 14th, 2015, 2pm Eastern, Closing Ceremonies, Drs. Carlos S. Alvarado & Nancy L. Zingrone (The AZIRE & Parapsychology Foundation, USA)

There are also various poster sessions, that is, the stand-alone PowerPoints that will be uploaded to the WizIQ course room over the next few days. These PowerPoints can be viewed at any time by clicking on the title in the Course Schedule when you are registered for the course. The following are the posters scheduled so far, but we hope to have a few more:

  1. Parapsychology: A Selected Bibliography in English
  2. Animal Magnetism and Psychic Phenomena: The Neo-Mesmeric Movement (prepared by Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado)
  3. Robert Van de Castle: Dream Researcher and Parapsychologist (prepared by Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado)
  4. Pulse Rates as a Physiological Index of ESP: The Nineteenth-Century Explorations of John E. Purdon (prepared by Dr. Carlos S. Alvarado)
  5. Charles Honorton and Parapsychology (prepared by Dr. Nancy L. Zingrone)
  6. The Parapsychology Foundation: Yesterday and Today (prepared by Lisette Coly)
  7. The Mediumship of Leonora E. Piper (prepared by Dr. Phil Morse)
  8. Current Trends in Parapsychology in Italy (prepared by Dr. Massimo Biondi)
  9. Psi and Death of the Person-Target: An Experiment with Highly Emotional Iconic Representations (prepared by Dr. Alejandro Parra and Dr. Juan Carlos Argibay)
  10. Exceptional Human Experiences (ExE) as a Counseling and Research Topic (prepared by Eberhard Bauer and Dr. Wolfgang Fach)
  11. Understanding Ghost Hunting (prepared by Dr. Leo Ruickbie)
  12. The Academic Consolidation of Anomalistic Psychology in Brazil (prepared by Vanessa Corredato and Dr. Wellington Zangari)

There is still time to register (for free), so we hope to have more persons attending the lectures. To register go here and click on “enroll.” Remember that if you cannot attend in “real time” you can always see the recordings later. Recordings will be available for many months.