From the Edge of Perception to the Laboratory

The Centre for Liminal Studies has received funding for its first research project – a double-blind study exploring Monroe Sound Science, altered states and mediumship.

For decades, people have used meditation, sound, sensory reduction and other techniques in an attempt to enter states of consciousness that feel markedly different from ordinary waking awareness.

But what happens when we take one of those techniques out of the experiential setting and into the laboratory?

That question sits at the heart of our first funded research project.

We are delighted to have received support from the Yew-Kwang Ng (黄有光) Fund for Survival Research and the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) for a new pilot study examining Monroe Sound Science (MSS) Focus 21 and mediumship.

For us, there is something particularly fitting about working with the SPR. Founded in 1882, it has spent almost a century and a half attempting to bring serious scientific investigation to questions surrounding psychical and anomalous phenomena – precisely the territory in which careful research is often most needed.

What happens at the ‘edge of perception’?

The project has the formal title:

Effects of Monroe Sound Science Focus 21 on Mediumship State Induction, Communication Veracity, and Autonomic Coupling with Sitter: A Double-Blind Controlled Study.

Behind that technical title lies a deceptively simple question.

Can an audio technology designed to facilitate an unusual state of consciousness produce effects that we can actually measure?

Focus 21 forms part of the system developed by the Monroe Institute and is described as facilitating a state ‘on the very edge of perception of the time/space continuum – the bridge to other realities‘.

That is an intriguing description. But from a research perspective, it also presents an intriguing opportunity. If Focus 21 does help induce a particular state of consciousness, might that state leave a physiological signature? And if it does, could entering that state subsequently affect what happens during a mediumistic sitting?

From subjective experience to measurable data

The pilot study will investigate these questions in two parts. The first focuses on the Medium. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV), we will examine whether exposure to Focus 21 produces measurable changes in brain activity and autonomic nervous system state when compared with matched control audio.

This allows us to move beyond simply asking participants whether they felt different. We can begin asking whether something objectively different was happening physiologically.

The second part takes the research a step further.

After exposure to the audio, the Medium will undertake a mediumistic sitting. Here the questions become particularly interesting.

Does Focus 21 influence the accuracy of information subsequently communicated, as independently assessed by sitters?

Does it affect physiological synchrony between Medium and sitter, measured through HRV?

Do Mediums and sitters report differences in their subjective experience of connection?

And perhaps importantly, do the Mediums themselves know when they have received Focus 21?

Testing the experience without assuming the answer

One of the principles behind the study is that neither belief nor scepticism should determine the outcome in advance. The research therefore uses double-blind procedures. Neither Mediums nor sitters will know which audio condition has been used.

We will even ask Mediums to identify which condition they believe they experienced and how confident they are in the accuracy of the communication that followed. That creates an interesting additional comparison between subjective certainty and objective outcome.

A Medium might feel that a particular sitting was unusually strong. But does independent scoring agree? They may believe they recognise the Focus 21 condition. Are they right?

These distinctions matter when investigating experiences that are inherently subjective but may also make claims about information, connection and states of consciousness that can be tested.

A first step

All Centre for Liminal Studies research involving human participants is overseen by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) – an independent panel drawing on expertise from academia, practice and the wider community. Its role is to ensure that our research is conducted to rigorous ethical standards.

Funding for the project was awarded in July, with the research programme beginning this autumn.

For the Centre, this is an important milestone: our first funded research project, but also an example of the kind of work we established the organisation to undertake.

There are many extraordinary claims and experiences surrounding consciousness. Our role is not to decide in advance what they mean, it is to find ways of asking better questions about them – and then create research capable of giving us meaningful answers.

The ideas are fascinating. Now we get to explore them.