Preparatory trip to the US
And encounters with American contributors to the Manual

Paul Bernstein and Stéphane Allix

Paul Bernstein and I have just completed our first trip to lay the groundwork for The Extraordinary Experiences Clinical Handbook. Over a period of two weeks, we met a number of important researchers in the fields covered in this seminal work. I returned to Paris on January 20 with twenty hours of very rich interview recordings and notes. With each of the people we interviewed, we examined clinical data from many types of experiences and listened to their advice and suggestions. We returned with the renewed conviction that a multitude of the extraordinary experiences described by tens of thousands of people around us are not at all pathological. We already knew this – we now have clinical data which will allow us to shed light on this in a consensual way, one which is comprehensible to health professionals. We thus plan to publish a useful and important work and build a national network. I am certain that the Manual will change a lot in the way “subjective extraordinary experiences” are perceived.

Edgar Mitchell and Stéphane Allix

Paul Bernstein picked me up in Boston on Sunday January 6. We first met with several people who had worked with John Mack in order to establish an exploratory and diagnostic methodology concerning “alien abductions”. One of the chapters of the Manual will be dedicated to this difficult area. It will also be the subject of a training seminar which the INREES will be organizing in Paris in March 2008. Our discussion with Roberta Colasanti, former clinical director of the Program for Extraordinary Experience Research, PEER, today called The John Mack Institute, was particularly memorable. For years, along with John Mack, she conducted hundreds of interviews with “abductees”. Her experience is invaluable. The next day, we met the director of psychiatric research of McLean Hospital, Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, who shared his experiences, both medical and personal, with us. On Tuesday the 8th I flew to Charlottesville, Virginia, where I visited the Division of Perceptual Studies, directed by Dr. Bruce Greyson, one of the leading researchers in near-death experiences. Our discussion centered on the psychological consequences of a NDE and on appropriate methods of accompaniment in medical environments. He also went into detail on certain absolutely incredible cases whose characteristics remain totally inexplicable, notably concerning the confirmed perception of surgical procedures by a person who had been declared clinically dead (Pam Reynolds). On Wednesday afternoon, I met with Carlos Alvarado, a specialist in out-of-body experiences. I landed in New York late in the evening of January 9 and I briefly saw Randy at his place. Randy is the “abductee” whom I presented in my book “Extraterrestrials: an Investigation” and with whom I have become friends. I wanted to discuss with him what helped him to deal with the emotions related to his experiences. Those of you who have seen my film “Experiencers” will no doubt remember him. Randy, now in his late 30’s, is the first experiencer to talk in the film about what happened to him, and is still vulnerable, even today, to a certain difficulty in handling the wide range of emotions generated by his experiences.

Paul Bernstein and Kenneth Ring

On the morning of Friday the 11th, Paul and I left for Orlando, Florida, where we interviewed Bill Guggenheim, an author who has compiled hundreds of cases of “after death” communication. Then we discussed the same subject, in a more clinical way, with Dr. Louis LaGrand. On Sunday morning we met our honorary member, astronaut Edgar Mitchell, in his house in West Palm Beach. It was with great emotion that I thus met, one of the first people to support INREES, along with Jean-Francois Clervoy. Mitchell is one of the first men to have walked on the Moon. He gave us a warm welcome and I was touched by his simplicity and kindness. Athletically built, he related the extraordinary experience he had as the Apollo capsule was returning to Earth from the Moon. I won’t say anything more here and am particularly happy to be able to announce that we will be posting the video of this meeting on-line very shortly. On Monday the 14th we met with another of our honorary members of INREES, Kenneth Ring, in his house in Mill Valley, north of San Francisco Bay.

Kenneth, who had spent several days in Paris in September, was very happy to have us over. He gave us some useful suggestions for the development of INREES. On morning of Tuesday the 15th, we began a long day at Palo Alto, at the ITP – Institute of Transpersonal Psychology – where we saw Charles T. Tart, and then Arthur Hastings. Students there take innovative courses in psychology. We spoke about “psi” experiences in general and their consequences on people who experience them. There again, nothing pathological, but rather an ensemble of poorly understood human capacities.

Paul Bernstein and Christina Grof

We then met the world-reknowned Stanislav Grof and his wife Christina, the morning of the 16th. One of our first honorary members, Stan gave us a warm welcome. Tall, with his gray hair carefully combed straight back, he struck me with his gentleness, his careful gestures and precisely-formulated phrases. We recorded nearly three hours of interviews with him and then with Christina - impressive interviews, excerpts of which will also be posted on-line soon.

Then, thanks to Dr. David Lukoff, to whose clinical work we owe the appearance of the diagnostic category of “religious and spiritual problems” in the DSM IV, we explored the notion of mystical experience and spiritual emergence.

Dean Radin

Our trip ended at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, IONS, near Petaluma. Interview wit Dean Radin who gave us an overview of the results of his research in parapsychology. Then we spoke with Marilyn Schlitz who directs the development of IONS with which INREES plans to establish a partnership, as we are going to do with the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, as well as with the California Institute of Integral Studies, CIIS, which sponsors help and support centers according to a model similar to the one INREES envisages. Throughout the trip, we made other contacts and gathered a lot of material, texts, and important works on therapeutic or clinical approaches to extraordinary experiences. We received a lot of encouragement and support; virtually everyone we interviewed sees INREES as an important initiative.

Stéphane Allix and Stanislav Grof

In the coming weeks, you will be able to see excerpts from these interviews on our site. I am very proud and happy, finally, to announce that several of our contributors to the Manual who Paul and I met on this trip, Dr. Roberta Colasanti, Dr. Jeffrey D. Rediger, Dr. Bruce Greyson, Dr. Carlos Alvarado, Dr. Charles Tart, Christina Grof, Dr. David Lukoff, and Dean Radin, have agreed to become honorary members of INREES. Their bios-data will be posted on-line soon.

INREES’ 2008 major project - The « Extraordinary Experiences Clinical Handbook »