Dean Radin

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Dean Radin is a researcher in parapsychology. He is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, in Petaluma, California, USA.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Radin earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and earned both a masters degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[2]

He worked at AT&T Bell Labs and GTE Labs, mainly on human factors of advanced telecommunications products and services, and then held appointments at Princeton University, Edinburgh University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, SRI International, Interval Research Corporation, and Boundary Institute. At these facilities he was engaged in basic research on alleged exceptional human capacities, principally psi phenomena.[2][3]

In 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2005 Radin was the elected President of the Parapsychological Association, an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has presented around 100 talks for academic, technical and popular audiences. He has written over 200 articles, and two books for a popular audience, The Conscious Universe (1997, ISBN 0-06-251502-0) and Entangled Minds (2006, ISBN 1-4165-1677-8).[4]

The Conscious Universe (1997, HarperCollins) was awarded Amazon com's 1998 Category Bestseller Award, the Scientific and Medical Network 1997 Book Award, and the Anomalist's 1997 Book Award, and as of 2006 it is in its 16th printing. It has proved to be popular and has been translated into Turkish, Korean and French, with several other translations under way. In January, 1998, Nobel Laureate physicist Brian Josephson wrote in the (British newspaper), the Guardian: "If asked to nominate the most significant scientific event of 1997, I would cite the publication of this book." Radin's latest book, Entangled Minds (2006, Simon & Schuster, Paraview Pocket Books), is now on its 4th printing and is being translated into Portugese and Japanese.

Nobel Laureate Kary Mullis has added Entangled Minds to his list of recommended books on his website which include other controversial books, such as The Urantia Book, Julian Jaynes' The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, etc. [5]

In September 1997, Radin's semi-annual contract with UNLV was not renewed, less than three weeks after the publication of The Conscious Universe. Radin was also initially granted approval to teach one class at UNLV, but shortly after publication of The Conscious Universe the class he had planned to teach, "The History and Scientific Study of Psychic Phenomena" was cancelled without explanation. Radin was surprised by his dismissal, insisting that university pressure to leave had been tied to the attention he had received from the media.[6]

Despite his own skepticism about claims of psychokinetic metal-bending, in a footnote in Entangled Minds and on his website Radin claims that he recently bent the bowl of a heavy soup spoon using a gentle touch at a spoon bending party, with a half-dozen witnesses present.[7][8]

[edit] Controversy and Criticism

On a few web pages one can find skeptics who have criticised Radin's research methods and questioned the accuracy of his data.[9] [10] A more sympathetic review was presented in the June 1999 issue of The Journal of Parapsychology by Richard Broughton, twice past president and long time board member of the Parapsychological Association.[11].

Radin has conducted research into how significant world events can allegedly affect Random number generators but how RNG's can single out thoughts relating to an O.J. Simpson broadcast, a Super Bowl, the American Academy Awards presentations etc. from all the incidents occurring around the world remains unclear. Perhaps most controversially, one of Radin's books features a chapter presenting Radin's own research and speculation on a possible relationship between lunar cycles and casino winnings.

In the introduction of "The Conscious Universe" Carl Sagan is quoted from Page 302 of his book The Demon-haunted World: "At the time of writing there are three claims in the ESP field which in my opinion , deserve serious study: (1) that by thought alone humans can (barely) affect random numbers in generators in computers; (2) that people under mild sensory deprivation can receive thoughts or images "projected" at them; and (3) that young children sometimes report the details of a previous life, which upon checking turn out to be accurate and which they could not have known about in any other way than reincarntion." Radin states this quote is an illustration of the "gradually changing attitudes of prominent skeptics" toward parapsychology. However Radin omitted the rest of the quote: "I pick these claims not because I think they're likely to be valid (I don't), but as examples of contentions that might be true. The last three have at least some, although still dubious, experimental support. Of course I could be wrong." Skeptics have pointed out that the rest of the quote makes it quite clear that Carl Sagan remained highly skeptical about psi. Thus they have charged Radin of quoting Sagan "creatively."

Despite the controversial nature of Radin's research, his work has been given qualified praise by a skeptical reviewer, who wrote "I don’t suffer from the delusion that my scribblings here will make anyone reject the research presented in "The Conscious Universe" – this has never been my intention and in my opinion "The Conscious Universe" is an interesting book, whose subject area deserves closer inspection. What I have tried to do in this article is to show there may be some discrepancies in the book, which I think are worth keeping in mind when evaluating it."[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ IONS homepage, IONS staff directory retrieved on August 14, 2006
  2. ^ a b Biography on Dean Radin's own website retrieved on August 14, 2006
  3. ^ Las Vegas Sun, September 16, 1997 "UNLV researcher baffled over his recent dismissal" by Debra Bass [1] retrieved on August 14, 2006
  4. ^ Bibliography on Dean Radin's website retrieved August 14, 2006
  5. ^ [2]www.karymullis.com recommended reading list
  6. ^ Las Vegas Sun, September 16, 1997 "UNLV researcher baffled over his recent dismissal" by Debra Bass [3] retrieved on August 14, 2006
  7. ^ Dean Radin's blog, June 5, 2006 [4] retrieved on August 14, 2006
  8. ^ Annotated photos of a bent spoon on Dean Radin's own website retrieved on August 23, 2006
  9. ^ [5]Skeptic Report A detailed skeptical review of Dean Radin's The Conscious Universe by Morten Monrad Pedersen.
  10. ^ [6] An Evening with Dean Radin by Claus Larsen, a critical examination of Radin's research methodology
  11. ^ [7]The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena, book review by Richard Broughton The Journal of Parapsychology, June, 1999
  12. ^ [8]</rev>

    [edit] Trivia

    • Radin was a professional classical violinist in his youth.
    • Radin is featured in the 2006 release of What the Bleep!?-Down the Rabbit Hole.<ref>[http://www.whatthebleep.com/scientists/drh-scientists.shtml]Radin's Bio on the film's web site</li></ol></ref>

    [edit] External links

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