Marilyn Schlitz

The psychomantium is both an ancient technique and a modern tool for studying consciousness and our connection with invisible others. It finds its roots in ancient practices such as scrying and mirror gazing that were historically used to access alternate realities to communicate with spiritual realms. It offers a portal into altered states of consciousness that open our creative imagination and link the physical and the spiritual. It can be used to invite participants to connect with departed loved ones in order to address bereavement and grief. This lecture explores the transformative nature of the psychomantium to connect with departed loved ones. It overviews two studies that have measured absorption into an altered state and self reported grief through engagement in a sensory deprivation chamber and through virtual reality before and after the experiential procedure. Study 1 compared these two conditions and revealed a correlation between the depth of experience for participants and the transformation of grief. A range of sensory experiences were reported. Study 2 measured talent (high and low absorption) and training (repeated testing) in a simulated psychomantium through virtual reality. Results of these two studies are applied to a theory of mind that emphasizes the mind as relational, embodied, and participatory. In this way, mental states can be seen as co-constructed in the psychomantium through expectations and beliefs within an altered state of consciousness. This research explores phenomenological reports of human agency, intentionality, suggestibility, and presence of invisible others such as departed loved ones within a setting that involves ambiguous perceptual input plus social framing that predicts mind attributes and offers psychological and emotional benefits.

Marilyn Schlitz, PhD is a Professor of Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University, a Social Anthropologist, and Social Scientist. She has conducted diverse studies in Laboratory, clinical and field-based settings and has authored hundreds of papers and books on consciousness, worldview, transformation, and healing. She is President Emeritus at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Research Associate in the Center of Psychology and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her work on the the Psychomantium is sponsored by the Bial Foundation.