| Graham Nicholls | |
|---|---|
| Born | Graham Nicholls July 30, 1975 London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Author, speaker and artist |
| Years active | Since 1999 |
| Known for | His exploration of the out-of-body experience, Installation art and writings on spirituality. |
| Website | |
| www.grahamnicholls.com | |
Graham Nicholls (born July 30, 1975 in London, England) is an author, artist and expert on out of body experiences and spirituality. He speaks widely on issues around parapsychology, ethics and art at institutions ranging from the London Science Museum to the Cambridge Union Society. [1]
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Graham Nicholls was born in the Paddington district of central London into a working class family. He states that during his early life he was surrounded by crime and social problems, but that the influence of literature, art, science and spiritual philosophies helped him to look beyond the limitations of this environment.[2][3]
Since the early 1990s he has developed artistic works which explore subjects such as sensory deprivation, hypnosis, and psi abilities.[3] Nicholls had his first solo show at a gallery run by James Fuentes in New York City in July, 1999 and in 2004 developed many of his psychological ideas into an interactive virtual reality installation at London's Science Museum, much of which was based upon his life and locations from his childhood.[2]
Technology and science take a central role in his artistic output, his virtual web projects being considered internationally recognised by the Handbook of the economics of art and culture in 2003 (published 2006). Eight year ago his installation art website was also mentioned by one commentator as rating in the top four sites in the world in terms of search engine hits in one subject area. [4]
Nicholls claims to have had hundreds of out of body experiences (OBEs) since the age of approximately twelve years old. These experiences led him to study many aspects of parapsychology.[5] In 2009 Nicholls outlined his experiences and ideas relating to OBEs in an article that appeared in Kindred Spirit magazine. In the article he makes it clear that he believes mainstream science will eventually fully embrace psi, or psychical perceptions as natural, rather than supernatural or paranormal. He draws upon the ideas of Brian Josephson, Dean Radin and Rupert Sheldrake.[5] He also explores these issues in his 2011 book, Avenues of the Human Spirit.
As part of his inquiry into psi and human consciousness, in 2009 he began working on a series of telepathy experiments in a joint project with controversial scientist Rupert Sheldrake. The resulting data formed part of the Perrott-Warrick project, administered by Trinity College, Cambridge.[6] Nicholls is also a member of the Society for Psychical Research. [1]
In 2004 Nicholls founded an organisation called the Shahmai Network with a special focus on work towards relieving poverty, as well as human rights and animal rights. The network were official member's of the Make Poverty History campaign focused on campaigning for debt relief to countries in situations of extreme poverty, this culminated with protests aimed to influence the G8 conference, which took place in 2005. [7]