SUR aU eae panto p aewen peta ie TT ae or Release,g001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-0 2000 2000800T3-0 — = Approved For Releas Marcello Truzzi of Eastern Michigan Uni- Founder quits anti-Osi committee, cites” media blitz’ FRONTIERS OF RESEARCH, THEORY AND PRACTICE December 13, 1977 HEW approves education project to explore transpersonal The federal government will sponsor a project designed to explore the farther reaches of human capability. vera co-sponsors are eagerly sought. Room 317-H, Washington 20201, (202) 245-8266, Volume 3, Number 3 Mary F. Berry, assistant sceretary for education of ihe Dept. of Heatth, Education and Welfare, approved the project, titled The Limits of Educability, early in December. It will inquire into such topics as altered states of consciousness, values, cultural ‘visions,’ emotional blocks to learning, new scientific paradigms, creativity, synergy, “myths of transformation,’’ psychic phenomena, paradox, non-linear processing capabilities, extraordinary human capa- bilitics, ‘‘superhealth’’ and the politics of personal growth. The project will culminate in articles, a book and a conference. . ‘In any absolute sense we can probably never know what the ‘limits of educability’ are,’ the project description states. ‘Yet we can specify areas where we believe there are great disparities between what is being achieved by current educational practice and either known limaits achieved through optimal use of current practices or achievable limits through known alternative practices,”’ Various federal agencies will participate in the project, but half its $300,000 cost is t6 be raised privately. Jerry Fletcher of HEW told Srain/Mind Bulletin that “We'd like the participation of as many organizations, large or small, as possible,’’ he said. The Institute of Noetic Sciences already has become a co-sponsor. For information: Fictcher, Education Division/HEW, 200 Independence Ave. versity, founding editor of the journal Zeter- ics and co-founder of the controversial Com- mittee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, has resigned his editorship, co-chairmanship and member- ship. Truzzi charged that the commiltee’s executive council is interested only in de- bunking—not investigating—psychical phe- nomena, Under his editorship, Zereties was a forum for critical reviews of parapsychological re- search. Truzzi said he deplored ‘‘the media blitz,’’ the committce’s recent attacks on the report- ing of unusual phenomena in newspapers and on television. Paul Kurtz, co-chairman of the committee, had held press confer- ences in recent months urging the media to quell reports of psychic phenomena. More recently; after Truzzi’s resignation, Kurtz filed the commit- tee’s complaint with the Federal Trade Commis- sion on the airing of NBC's Exploring the Unknown, a 90-minute special on psychic phe- nomena, hypnotic regression and related topics. NBC was accused of presenting controversial material that ‘‘may result in harm to the public.’? The network's ‘‘fre- quent disclaimers’’ were considered ‘‘inade- quate protection,’ The committee demanded equal time for ’*the critical scientific viewpoint’ in re- sponse to this and all other programs, network and local, that may deal with psychic phenomena. It said that possible onscquences of such programs may be Continued on Page 2 realm Pribram at AHP seminar Future to bring ‘hard-nosed’ work in ‘soft’ sciences Stanford neuroscientist Karl Pribram has predicted that within ancther 10 er 15 years “‘all of the really hard-nosed scien- tifie work will be going on in fields that are now considered soft.” Under the auspices of the Assn. for Hu- rianistic Psychology, Pribram led two sniall, day-long invitational syntposia in San Fran- cisco earlier this month to discuss his theory of holographic brain function in a universe whose matrix, “‘the frequency do- main,” is expressed in holographic principles, (See &/MB special issue, July 4, 1977.) Pribram has suggested that the model is part.of a major shift in the scientific description of reality, ft attempts to explain phenomena of normal perception, accounting for remarkable laboratory data, and simuluineously helps to explain many events previously categorized as paranormal. A number of persons well-known in psychology were invited, as well as specialists in other fields; education, medicine, plilosophy, religion, physics and the arts. As historic examples of ‘soft' disciplines becoming central and scientifically rigorous, he cited the shift in emphasis from behavioral to cognitive psychology that began in the late 1950s as well as the increasingly non-material world of quantum physics: “relationships between observations—not observables.”' According to the holographic theory of brain function, the fre- quency domain is important in neural processes, just as it is in sub- atomic physics. Stimuli are perceived by the senses via complex mathematical transforms, an interpretation of interference patterns, much as a hologram is reconstructed by its light source, Pribram presented data on his laburatory findings indicating that the visual system. responds to spatial frequencies, Other evidence indicates that all sensory systems obtain their information by “reading out" information from a frequency domain. Synthesizing his and other findings supporting holographic brain priuziples with speculation by physicists that the universe itself may be holographic in nature (that is, interference patterns of frequencies), Pribram suggests that con- crete reality is apparent rather than fundamental. Mystical insights may be a type of “lensless knowing,” a nore ur less direct perception of the holographic state. Pribram noted wryly, “IT think it must be a very compassionate universe -~it Rave us Continued ud Paye 2 Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080013-0 i Se mete caring eae anne Sa a ee + Seen rege metre eH rte ena
wb - amcerteamos: ever dene SE Marijuana research update: Cannabinoids do not cause muta- tion in human cells, according to Arthur Zimmerman of the Uni- versity of Toronto department of zoology and Hans Stich of the . Cancer Institute, University of British Columbia. ...Marijuana cattses constriction of the pupils, not dilation as popularly believed, according to Brian Brown of Smith Kettlewell Institute, San Francisco, and his fellow research- ers. But they found no pupil changes in subjects using alcohol—or marijuana in combination with alcohol!...Tetrahydrocannabinol, the active principle in marijuana, supresses luteinizing” hormone in rats, judging from tests at Duke Uni- versity by Lee Tyrey and his associates. The dose equivalent of one or two marijuana cigar- ettes for humans suppressed all LIL secretion. The therapeutic virtues of herolu and marijuana will get a serious look by the National Cancer Institute and other federal agencies by virtue of a memorandum from Peter Bourne, President Carter’s special assistant for health. Health undersecretary Julius Richmond was directed to evaluate the potential medical benefits of the drugs, which are classified as “‘dangerous.’”’ One study comparing heroin and morphine for terminal cancer patients had indicated that heroin caused less nausea, was less constipating, increased the appe- tite, was less soporific and more mood-enhancing. Heroin is effective in smaller doses, and it is more soluble. Marijuana, in Approved For Releasg 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787000200080013-0 BraintMiod Bulletin—2 - perenne ie enenerare atime ant nin eA New findings: valium, marijuana, alcohol, heroin recente addition to its promise in the treatment of glaucoma, reportedly has been helpful in relieving nausea from cancer chemotherapy. Acupuncture eases withdrawal pain in heroin addiction, Wen Hsiang-lai of Fung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong, reported. Fifty- one per cent of the addicts treated by acupuncture were drug-free a year after treatment, compared to 28.5 per cent on methadone. The National Institute of Mental Health has granicd Wen $100,000 for further research. Valium may reinforce alcoholism, say J. A. Deutsch and Nancy Walton of the Univer- sity of California-San Diego. Thirty-two alco- holic rats showed an increased craving to drink when they were given Valium during their drying-out period. Librium, structur- ally similar, may have the-same effect... . David Warburton, a psychologist at the University of Reading, England. charged that Hoffmann-La Roche has spent more than $400 million on the promotion of Vatium and Librium. He said that 19 per cent of the women and seven per cent of the men in Great Britain were prescribed tranquilizers in any one year. Barbiturates cause 5,000 deaths a year and are ‘‘probably not effective’ in the treatment of insomnia anyway. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has asked the FDA to take appropriate action, such as requiring manufacturers to note on the labels —unless they can meanwhile prove otherwise—that the drugs are not effective on a longterm basis. Truzzi quits ‘debunking’ committee. . . Continued from Page 1 worse than those resulting from excesses of violence, rigging of sports presentations and game shows or biased news reporting. Copies of the complaint were sent to the Senate and House subcommittees on com- munications. Truzzi said that the committec’s by-laws allow voting only by its cxecutive council. The other 35 members, termed ‘fellows’ (including B. F. Skinner and Carl Sagan), can advise but cannot vote. Truzzi said he refused to continue editing Zetetics when the board voted to make it a ‘‘hard-hitting’’ popular publication. He had founded Zeter- ics as a newsletter before the committee was organized in 1976. “L felt we should keep the debate in a scholarly framework,'’ Truzzi said. ‘‘Except for Ray Hyman, the other members of the executive council are primarily debunkers,”’ Hyman, a psychologist at the University Future research... Continued from Page f physics so we could understand what those other people who didn't have physics al- ready knew.”’ He acknowledged his own difficulty in really comprehending the idea of holo- graphic mind in a fundamentally timeless, spaceless universe. ‘But when the next generation comes along it won’t be so hard for them.”” An abridged version of the proceedings will appear ata future date in Re- Visions, a new journal (see Tools and Resources, page 4), Tapes will not be available. of Oregon, acknowledged that he and Truzzi were at the ‘“‘far end of the spectrum’’ in that they did not automatically equate belief in the paranormal with irrationality. Hyman said, ‘Il belicve that our job is to present the skeptical point of view—responsibly. But some of the others believe that we can’t get attention if we argue in an academic journal or if we qualify our statements. They feel we have to paint things in black and white or the media won't pay attention, “So far they’ve been right in getting pub- licity—but at the price of embarrassing people like Marcello, who didn’t want his name associated with what they're doing. It’s a question of tactics.”’ Hyman said he agreed with the complaint against the NBC special, “‘but some of the things our committee protests are just sense- less, pointless, a lot of noise.”’ Truzzi said he had objected to Zetetics’ continued. association with The Humanist (which has an anti-religion stance) and to Kurtz’s frequent television talk-show ap- pearances purporting to represent the com- mittee. He said he felt Kurtz was unfamiliar with the parapsychology literature and also presented the experiments of authors pub- lished in Zetetics as if they were investiga- tions done by the committee. Subjective reports contradictory Physical arousal noted in ‘frigid’ women It is possible that women who never or carely experience orgasm actually undergo normal physical arousal that they either refuse to acknowledge or fail to recognize. In a study conducted Fu by Julia Heiman and Pa- bf te tricia Morokoff, State & University of New York, § IL non-orgasmic women SA wer: . e and 55 controls were ine ¥ about sex, then listened & to an erotic five-minute Wa y tape, fantasized again oy tasized for another three minutes. Their subjective reports of uon-arousal did not correlate with the physiological structed tu fantasize for three minutes, watched a film, then fan- measurements. There was no significant difference in the criterion of arousal—vaso- congestion in the vagina~between the clini- cal group and the controls, who were women from the surrounding community. The mean age of the non-orgasmic women was 28, that of the controls 30. Surprisingly, the women whose physio- logical response was greatest were those who reported the least arousal during inter- course at home. Heiman suggested that they may not have learned to recognize carly stages of sexual excitement, may hold dif- ferent expectations of what arousal should fecl like or may harbor negative feclings that short-circuit the awareness of arousal. Heiman: Dept. of Psychiatry, SUNY School of Medicine, Stony Brook, N.Y. {1790. Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080013-0 oe ere ett Ee I np A A A A RA TA a