Gary Schwartz

Gary E. Schwartz is a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry, and surgery at the University of Arizona and the Director of its Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.^[1][2] Schwartz is also an author^[3] and the Corporate Director of Development of Energy Healing for the Canyon Ranch Resorts. Schwartz is known for his controversial experiments with mediums and energy healing.^[4]

Biography

Schwartz received his PhD from Harvard University and was a professor of psychiatry and psychology at Yale University as well as Director of the Yale Psychophysiology Center and co-director of the Yale Behavioral Medicine Clinic from 1976-1988. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health (LACH, formerly the Human Energy Systems Laboratory) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona.^[5][6]

In his early career, Schwartz wrote on biofeedback research and health psychology. Schwartz's more recent research has been in parapsychology and consciousness-based healthcare. His VERITAS research project, which concluded in 2008, was created primarily to test the hypothesis that the consciousness (or identity) of a person survives physical death.^[7] Schwartz performed experiments at the University of Arizona testing mediums such as John Edward of the TV show Crossing Over and Allison DuBois, who inspired the TV series Medium. Schwartz believes that DuBois could contact dead people. Schwartz says his experiments with DuBois included a reading for celebrity physician and author Deepak Chopra following the death of his father that Chopra characterized as 77% accurate.^[8]

Schwartz's research projects at LACH involve investigate the following:^[9]

1. The Evolution of Consciousness and Understanding (Universal Hypotheses and Post-Materialism)
2. The Role of Consciousness in Health and Healing
3. The Survival of Consciousness After Death
4. Quantum Holographic Consciousness
5. Group and Global Consciousness
6. Animal Consciousness
7. Other Worldly / Higher Spiritual Consciousness
8. The Universal Intelligence Hypothesis

Schwartz's methods have prompted criticism by skeptics such as University of Oregon professor Ray Hyman, who says they deviate from the accepted norms of scientific methodology, and criticizes Schwartz for research errors such as inappropriate statistical tests and using subjects predisposed to believe in psychic abilities.^[10] Skeptic Robert Todd Carroll maintains that Schwartz's evaluation of mediums is subjective and a product of wishful thinking.^[8][11] When skeptic James Randi asked the University of Arizona to submit Schwartz's research data to an independent panel for evaluation as part of his One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, Schwartz declined because he thought that the panel, which he believed would be picked by Randi but would actually be agreed upon by both sides of the controversy, might be biased. The University of Arizona's Peter Likins, their then-president, decided that Schwartz's statements should not be edited by the University, but were matters of "freedom of expression," whether right or wrong.^[12] Schwartz has also been accused by psychic Laurie Campbell and Allison DuBois of exploiting their publicity value.^[13]

Schwartz is the co-author of The Living Energy Universe, and is the author of The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death and The Truth About Medium and over 450 scientific papers. He has also edited academic books.

Controversy

On Fox News on the Geraldo at Large show, October 6, 2007, Geraldo Rivera and other investigators accused Schwartz as a fraud and that he had overstepped his position as a university researcher by requesting over three million dollars from a bereaved father who had lost his son. Schwartz had claimed to have contacted the spirit of a 25-year-old man in the bathroom of his parents house and it is alleged he attempted to charge the family 3.5 million dollars for his mediumship services. Schwartz responded saying that the allegations were set up to destroy his science credibility.^[14]

References

Books

• Gary E. Schwartz and John Edward (Foreword), "The Sacred Promise: How Science Is Discovering Spirit's Collaboration with Us in Our Daily Lives," (Atria Books/Beyond Words) (January 11, 2011) ISBN 978-1582702582
• Gary E. Schwartz, William L. Simon and Richard Carmona, "The Energy Healing Experiments: Science Reveals Our Natural Power to Heal," Atria Books (August 7, 2007) ISBN 978-0743292375
• Gary E. Schwartz and William L. Simon, "The G.O.D. Experiments: How Science Is Discovering God In Everything, Including Us," Atria (April 4, 2006) ISBN 978-0743477406
• Gary E. Schwartz and William L. Simon, "The Truth About Medium: Extraordinary Experiments with the real Allison DuBois of NBC's Medium and other Remarkable Psychics," Hampton Roads Publishing Company (October 2005) ISBN 1-57174-459-2
• Gary E. Schwartz, William L. Simon, and Deepak Chopra (Foreword). The Afterlife Experiments (Mar 1, 2002) ISBN 0-7434-3658-X
• Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D and Linda G. S. Russek, "Living Energy Universe: A Fundamental Discovery that Transforms Science and Medicine," Hampton Roads Publishing Company (1999)
• Paul M. Lehrer (Editor), Robert L. Woolfolk (Editor), Gary E. Schwartz "Principles and Practice of Stress Management," (The Guilford Press; 2 Sub edition, January 29, 1993) ISBN 0-89862-766-4
• Richard J. Davidson (Editor), Gary E. Schwartz (Editor), David Shapiro, "Consciousness and Self-Regulation, Advances in Research and Theory Volume 4," Plenum Press (April 30, 1986) ISBN 0-306-42048-1

External links

• Official website
• The SOPHIA Research Program University of Arizona. Archived at Wayback Engine. The SOPHIA Project was conducted under the direction of Gary E. Schwartz, PhD in the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.
• "How Not to Test Mediums: Critiquing the Afterlife Experiments", a critique by Ray Hyman of Gary Schwartz' research from The Skeptical Inquirer, Volume 27.1, January / February 2003, Retrieved 6 June 2013
• "Follow Up: How Not to Review Mediumship Research", Gary Schwartz' response to the above critique from The Skeptical Inquirer (May 2003)
• "Follow Up Reply: Hyman's Reply to Schwartz's 'How Not to Review Mediumship Research'", Ray Hyman's response to the above critique of his critique from The Skeptical Inquirer (May 2003)
• What If Gary Schwartz Is Right? by Robert Todd Carroll, at Freethinker, mukto-mona.com, a Bengali humanist website (March 2005)
• Gary Schwartz's Subjective Evaluation of Mediums: Veritas or Wishful Thinking? by Robert Todd Carroll (April 2006)
• Gary Schwartz and Intelligent Design by Robert Todd Carroll (May 2006)