Founder’s Corner

By Jim King

In 2015 INACS founder Jim King began a column entitled “Founder’s Corner” for our NeuroNews e-letter. Excerpted in the January issue, the full text of his inaugural post is below. For future posts, subscribe to the NeuroNews via news@inacs.org.

Since the new year, 2015, is the 25th anniversary of the founding of INACS, I suppose it’s only fair that I wander out of my hidey-hole and join the blogger’s fray. I prefer working behind the scenes, but, now that I have begun doing actual laboratory research for the organization, I would like to make a brief comment about the project Bob Price, Jan Six and I just completed and tell you a little about ongoing and upcoming projects.

Remote Searching (recently completed)

We recently completed an interesting project aiming to elicit a dowsing effect using a process we called “remote searching”, so-named for historical and other reasons, as an adjunct to “remote viewing”. These two terms constitute two sides of a coin named by some “remote perception”, since they allegedly perform complementary functions in locating known objects in unknown locations (remote searching), on the one hand, and locating unknown contents (objects) in known locations (remote viewing), on the other.

Current Projects

We have currently embarked on a new study of Lucid Dreaming aiming at demonstrating the efficacy of lucidity in dreaming as a healing modality. Our initial study is organized as three pilot studies, to be carried out in series, which will comprise feasibility experiments to prepare for our main Lucid Dreaming Self-Healing experiment.

Pilot Study 1. This study aims to establish a “proof of principle” for a method of altering normal sleep patterns. Our research questions are: (a) can sleep be systematically induced in subjects during daytime hours; (b) can the subject remain asleep for two complete sleep cycles.

Pilot Study 2. This study aims to establish a “proof of principle” for a method of inducing lucidity in dreamers by means of frequency stimulation of the brain, using a binaural beat method similar to, but not identical with, the well known “Hemi-Sync” method made famous by Robert Monroe’s work at The Monroe Institute in Virginia. Our study is a partial replication of a fascinating study on lucid dream induction, performed by Dr. Ursula Voss at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany in 2014. Our research question asks: can we induce lucidity in dreamers by stimulating their brains aurally in a narrow Gamma band brainwave frequency range?

Pilot Study 3. This study aims to establish a “proof of principle”, using the questionnaire developed by Ursula Voss, answering the following questions:

  • Did the subject attain lucidity as defined in the questionnaire?

  • Did the subject interact with the dream environment as previously instructed during waking awareness (pre-experimental run)?

  • Can the above methods be combined into an integrated system which can be used, with appropriate pre-stimulus training, to induce a subject (a) to fall asleep during the daytime and (b) to become lucid and query the dream environment for assistance in performing a task which will have demonstrable consequences to the subject in the waking environment?

Main Lucid Dream Self-Healing Experiment

We will embark on a major set of clinical trials to establish the efficacy of using a combination of lucid dream induction and dream environment queries as a healing modality for a number of psychological and physical maladies. Success of such a study will help establish the power and utility of healing by mental methods (e.g., lucid dreaming).

Future Projects

In order to pursue more complex neuroscientific projects, we desire to establish a brain imaging/psychophysiology laboratory, complete with electroencephalograph (EEG), biofeedback , and other instruments, and also to recruit several additional researchers. We intend to expand, so that we can provide offices and laboratory areas, establishing a permanent institutional facility to support our research and educational aims. In order to do this, we will initiate some major fundraising. We encourage all our members to contribute their money and time to aid us in these efforts. In particular, we need support to obtain major endowments, recruit personnel and acquire facilities.

Jim King
Founder and Research Associate
Institute for Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies, Inc. (INACS)