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About the Diploma
This distance learning course is a professional-level
programme of study at further education level, designed to give the student a
broad knowledge of paranormal phenomena and to develop an open-minded attitude
towards the causes of parapsychological events, as well as to educate the
student in ways of approaching and investigating alleged paranormal occurrences.
We
will also introduce students who have Internet access to the vast resources on
parapsychology, paranormal and spiritual topics available on the World Wide Web,
for additional research, study and support.
This course will be of great benefit to anyone who has a deep personal interest
in psychic or paranormal phenomena, to those who would like to study the subject
systematically, and to all those who might become involved with such phenomena
either directly or indirectly, including: counsellors, hypnotherapists,
psychotherapists, ministers, mental health workers, law enforcement agents,
psychic investigators, cult investigators, researchers, journalists, mediums,
psychics, healers, dowsers, workers in the tourism industry, and persons working
or living in or near reputedly haunted sites.
Textbooks extra (approx. cost of textbooks GBP 120 – book purchases may be
spread out throughout the course and students may save money by looking for used
books online.)
FORMAT
This course uses the "read a book, write a paper" method, which is in use by a
number of American distance learning universities. For each textbook, we supply
a study plan which shows how to structure your learning and provides the
assignments. Assessment is by written answers to set questions. The use of
authoritative textbooks throughout the course means that you will build up a
comprehensive professional library and you will have direct access to material
written by some of the foremost experts in the field. In addition, you will be
encouraged to broaden your knowledge using suggested additional reading and
Internet resources.
Tutor support will be given in the form of feedback on your assignments and you
may also communicate with your tutor by mail or email if you have questions or
need advice.
ENTRY QUALIFICATIONS
No particular entry qualifications are required but an adequate standard of
general education and written and spoken English is assumed. You should be able
to cope with study at further education level.
SYLLABUS (We reserve the right to alter the syllabus
and/or set books at any time. If any book proves difficult to obtain, we may
substitute another unit.) A copy of the reading list will be supplied on
request.
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1. History of Parapsychology
This unit traces the birth and development of parapsychology via mesmerism,
spiritualism, psychical research, the work of J.B. Rhine, and modern
developments such as ganzfeld, remote viewing, Soviet psychic discoveries,
figures such as Ted Serios and Uri Geller, the near-death experience,
reincarnation, and attempts to build theories of the paranormal.
·
2. Developing Your Psychic
Senses
This unit takes us on remarkable intellectual and intuitive journey by a
psychotherapist into how to access and develop the sixth sense or "psi". We
learn about multiple routes to psychic opening, what unfolding psychic awareness
can feel like, the role of the implicate order, the use of imagery to access psi,
and 23 tips for developing and maintaining psychic awareness. There is also a
section on ethical issues of psychic work.
·
3. Testing Psychic Claimants
This unit gives careful, practical yet flexible
guidelines to help researchers and investigators assess the purported abilities
of those who claim to be psychic. The aim is to be fair to the person being
researched or investigated, avoiding both false positive and false negative
results.
·
4. How to Investigate
Paranormal Phenomena
Here you will learn how real-life psychic
investigators approach cases, together with succinct definitions and
characteristics of a range of unexplained phenomena including ghosts,
poltergeists and out-of-the-body experiences. You will also learn the principles
of psychic investigation.
·
5. Channeling
An
authoritative study of many types of channeling from both human and electronic
sources. The original text has had 100 pages added for its new edition to take
into account a range of new examples of channeled communication.
·
6. Conducting Extrasensory
Perception Research
The student will learn how laboratory tests of ESP have been conducted over the
past 50 years and how many of these experiments have had methodological
problems. Though many writers have proposed how experiments should be made more
rigorous, this study assembles a range of relevant material in one handy volume
and gives checklists and guidelines for researchers. Students of this course
will not have to conduct laboratory experiments but will learn the principles
and practicalities of sound research. This unit should be of great help to
editors, book reviewers, journalists and other researchers.
·
7. Psychic Warfare,
Historical and Modern
A study of the practice of psychic spying over the past 5,000 years, from its
origins in ancient Egypt, through the story of Queen Elizabeth I's spy John Dee,
to Nazis and the occult, the CIA and the Cold War, the clandestine roles of
Aleister Crowley and Ian Fleming, and the remote viewing activities of Joseph
McMoneagle.
·
8. Authenticated Cases of the
Paranormal I
In
this unit you will study a superb collection of papers by world-famous experts:
Guy Lyon Playfair on Mirabelli; Paola Giovetti on mediumship in Italy including
the famed Eusapia Palladino; Gissurarson and Haraldsson's investigation of the
mediumship of Indrida Indridason; Imich's study of the seances of Matylda; the
physical mediumship of Teofil Modrzejewski; physical mediumship in
pre-revolutionary and contemporary Russia; and a collection of spectacular cases
of psychic phenomena in China. The text has a collection of rare illustrations.
·
9. Authenticated cases of the
Paranormal II
A highly accessible account of favourite well-authenticated cases of psychic
phenomena selected by Professor Archie Roy. The cases described are drawn from
three continents and cover over 100 years of psychical research by some of the
foremost investigators in the field. Professor Roy suggests his own theory of
The Archives of the Mind which might go some way towards explaining these
phenomena.
·
10. Parapsychology of
Spirituality
Renowned transpersonal psychologist Professor Charles Tart has assembled for the
textbook used for this unit a collection of writings on spirituality and the paranormal from Willam G.
Roll, K. Ramakrishna Rao, Rhea A White, Michael Grosso, Stephen E. Braude,
Jeffrey Mishlove, William Braud, Hoyt L. Edge, Karlis Osis and Arthur Hastings
together with three papers by Tart himself. This anthology of work by extremely
well-qualified experts takes us into the realms of the meanings of spirituality,
evidence for the paranormal, channeling, nonphysical worlds, religion and
consciousness, God and the soul.
Spare unit: available as a substitute if needed:
Parapsychology and Unusual Experences
Here the student can find a collection of scientific papers
on the investigation of unusual phenomena. Part I is concerned with scientific
method and reasoning: science and experience, probability and coincidence, and
the placebo effect. Part II looks at beliefs in the context of psychic fraud and
astrology. Part III examines a range of unusual experiences: unconscious
awareness, dreams telepathy, alien abduction, meditation, paranormal cognition
and the near-death experience. A final chapter looks at society and the
paranormal.
Graduation and further study
A printed Diploma suitable for framing will be issued upon graduation.
Graduates will be advised about alternative
distance universities accepting this course for degree credit. |