Reproducing Anomalous Phenomena In The Lab | Experimental Psi-Research
In this interview, Dr. David Acunzo, from the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, talks with Natalia Vorontsova about his experimental research on hypnosis and anomalous psi phenomena.
Dr. Acunzo stresses the importance of the scientific study of anomalous phenomena, which are largely ignored by mainstream science. He exemplifies true open-mindedness in science, demonstrating that one need not be a psi “believer,” but rather a rigorous researcher searching for answers to difficult-to-explain psi cases.
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:27 Dr. Acunzo giving an overview of his work and research interests
00:07:46 The researcher’s path to studying anomalous phenomena in a neuroimaging lab; at the edge of knowledge.
00:11:24 Experimental neuroimaging research of hypnosis: what, how, and why.
00:20:15 How do levels of brain activity under psychedelics compare to brain activity under hypnosis?
00:29:20 A case of burn blisters under hypnosis. Mind over matter and the placebo effect.
00:32:18 Past-life regression under hypnosis. Cases of the Reincarnation Type (CORT). Is reincarnation the most plausible explanation?
00:40:24 Metaphysical hypothesis of reality: consciousness or mental magma.
00:44:39 One of the most anomalous cases: the recovery of NDE memories under hypnosis. Where are memories stored? Does the mind function without brain activity?
00:51:50 How do metaphysical assumptions drive research models in science. Mechanistic approach not conducive to new ideas.
00:55:08 The mainstream view in neuroscience: Are we mere biorobots? What do neural correlates and spikes tell us? Mind vs. matter.
00:58:55 Dr. Acunzo’s experimental lab research: ESP, PK, induced after-death communication, presentiment, mediumship, terminal lucidity, OBEs, and reincarnation-like cases.
01:07:31 Key research questions that Dr. Acunzo’s work aims to answer. Phenomenology, implications, and applications.
01:14:43 Why should science study anomalous phenomena: the context vs. the content.
01:21:05 Anomalous phenomena as metaphysical pointers: tough questions, limited answers.
01:26:36 What happens after death? Do we survive the death of our physical body?
01:30:30 Should a person or a machine determine if someone or something is conscious? Will we ever be able to measure consciousness and subjective experience?
01:36:58 The future of consciousness studies and lab research. Trends in science.
01:40:51 Advice for young scientists and students interested in anomalous phenomena. The most promising areas of research. New research opportunities: AI and upcoming neuroimaging technology.
01:47:29 Closing statements.
Online resources and referenced literature:
A book: “Parapsychology, the controversial science”, by Richard Broughton.
A book: https://www.routledge.com/The-Marquis-de-Puysegur-Artificial-Somnambulism-and-the-Discovery-of-the-Unconscious-Mind-Memoirs-to-Serve-the-History-and-Establishment-of-/Crabtree-Osei-Bonsu/p/book/9781032292465?srsltid=AfmBOormhDHM8pe5qb8AuI2FnmLrKUuQaQujo5VXO3lIFEKssWn0R3XR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvoT_05JgbE&t=2912s
https://www.newswise.com/users/expert/David-J.-Acunzo-10053065
https://braininstitute.virginia.edu/news/meet-david-acunzo-assistant-professor-division-perceptual-studies
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steven-Lynn
Interview content copyright by Essentia Foundation, 2025
www.essentiafoundation.org
@sarahjoy3375
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
IMHO – The thumbnail quote does this interview / discussion a disservice. 🙏✨ pls consider updating to continue to attract the brilliance that is “science”♾️”spirit” ☯️💖🌱⚡️🦋
@Непросветленный
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Я не понимаю так называемую трудную проблему сознания. Ведь проблем нет. Хоффман, Чалмерс, Каструп. Вак видят проблему. я нет. Боль это сознание. Но вообще то, раньше мы не видели нейроны. И думали что это не материя. Теперь уже видим нейроны. А дальше импульсы в них. Как только будет возможность увидеть, мы увидим как энергия трансформируется в боль, и не будет никакой сложности признать, что никакого сознания не существует. Мы наукой все почти можем, а когда вы требуете "ну раз вв не можете всего, значит есть и Бог и сознание". То это смешно. Если бы было одно сознание – вы бы силой мысли лечили болезни. Вы не можете так. Вы не можете читать мысли. Вы вообще ничего не можете! Потому физикализм истина, а ваша теория для религиозных сказок
@Zep9276
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Fascinating thank you
@meganreda06
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
I would love to participate in these kinds of studies… I call things before they happen sometimes.
@dragonskinavi
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Great interview, guys! Loved how Natalia poked and prodded David at times to push the envelope regarding anomalous phenomenon, and how David handled it as well, being a 'man of science.' Together, they take us one step further towards unravelling consciousness in all its glory, thank you!
@IlianaRodriguez2025
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
1776 – animal magnetism
@surrendertoflow78
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Please interview Tiffeny Todd (that’s the correct spelling). She has a physical theory as opposed to metaphysical theory as to how these phenomenon can be happening. (Vacuum Orchestrated Spin Signaling)
@sarahjoy3375
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
10:35 yes. We all can become dogmatic. Science now explains “spirit” it’s beautiful and wonderful, and it will heal collectively. More peace, comes from seeing the cause and effect in our own lives. It’s true empowerment that doesn’t come from any man made construct outside of ourselves. 🙏💪⚡️😢🧵💌 🌱🕊️
@Soma_3046
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
I believe that we should see ourselves as islands of consciousness and experience the interfaces as matter. Together we are a lake or sea of consciousness. The collective field of consciousness that is possibly subdivided or nested into levels if you like. Like a matryoshka if you describe it materially.
@hydrorix1
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Scientists overlook the fact that all of their "objective" data is necessarily filtered, analyzed, and developed into results through their own subjective consciousness. Unavoidable bias creeps in way before any experimentation is initiated.
The idea of humans producing anything completely objective is an oxymoron, as the very nature of humankind is totally subjective.
And we live in the past. That most recent "Now" is now a memory.
@dans5529
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Excellent conversation. I absolutely love this skeptical but curiously open minded approach to the more mystical and mysterious aspects of our reality.
@dlarose57
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
But what about concrète resuts?
@glaight6362
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
If you only take an experimental approach from a scientific background then that's all you will discover. You cannot apply this approach to spiritual beliefs and absolute faith in those beliefs. If you think you can then you do not understood spiritually beliefs. In order to fully understand spiritual beliefs it is not enough to read about them you have to step onto the path and practice them. This has been common knowledge for thousands of years. The intellect will never understand anything beyond the intellect. It will never escape the conditioned mind which only draws on previous conditioned minds. Spiritual practice is the only way to escape that mind, to escape 'the matrix'.
@heinzfraenkel7675
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Windbridge already produced work that render his experiments & viewpoints somewhat redundant
@606Dari909
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Thank you guys, your interviews are a solid work for lots of people and are so incredibly useful and joyful to watch. So blissed. You are doing a worldwide social work, please keep doing them forever! You should do some video with your approach also on Holotropic Breathwork, it really is a way to explore the mind and it would be nice to watch a video made by you two.
Thanks!
@sciencenerd8428
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
This would be more interesting if the interviewer was more neutral.
@annaelle_d
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
0:06 A subjective experience, yes! Exactly! Great "science"!
Subjective… subject… « I » … consciousness.
This is exactly what spirituality is all about: the spiritual experience of life!
2:42 Find a way to observe… spiritual phenomena? No: you can only observe physical thing co-related to the spiritual phenomena.
BTW this work has already been done with Nicolas Fraisse…
@ushadigiacomo7213
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Hi there. I am so happy you are taking this subject seriously.
I will tell my experience, and try to be concise.
On a regression therapy to find out why my mom and I had some problems. Suddenly, I was in contact with a being. Human looking, looked like He-Man, the cartoon character. Then I saw me being in a top of mountain with snow with a group of people. We went down a path and arrived in the outside of a town. I could see the town down there. We were space explorers and I talked with a native that was sitting outside his house. A simple house. Then I spoke to a friend and said: aren’t humans so innocent, as we spoke to him in his language with no accent, and we looked like Europeans students on a hiking trip. That was in 2015. After years of denial, and a series of synchronicities in 2020, I went to Peru. The city was Yungay before the earthquake. And I saw a lot of phenomena over there. Including UAPs, and a golden straight vertical line from the desert of Chilca ground up to the night sky. And a telephonic message: closing the experiences with a golden key.
I am sure the regressions and the reality were confirmed. I don’t need anybody to believe me. It all made me a happier and more balanced person. That’s all I need. I also did Remote Viewing, and was successful. Conclusion: consciousness is separated from the brain. The brain is the hardware. The field exists. And that are more mysteries than explanations.
@Athena-ko6bj
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Appreciate the healthy skepticism. Always good to keep oneself in check when exploring these fascinating things.
@Soundsaboutright42
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Where science fails is the aspect we cannot explain that is subjective. That's the point. It'll be different for you than it is for me. Scientists so into studying humans forget that's all they're studying… Subjective human experiences, and their datas are just as subjective as they are. Those are the people who will never find what they're looking for.
@TRiPTaMiND
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
This man needs to riff with Dr. Andrew Gallimore. The conversation would be beyond interesting.
Also, hypnotics don't work on everyone, unlike psychedelics. I happen to be one of those people. I've been to 3 separate hypnotists, one was a life long practitioner, over 20+ years professional. Not one was able to hypnotize me. I would argue that the psychedelic experience is FAR more repeatable than hypnotists.
@superconscious.
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Who cares what you believe……just be an economic agent like the rest of your society.
@mstrG
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
"just subjective experience" all what exists is form of subjective experiences interacting with each other
@CouplesLite
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
You cannot apply for Citizenship to a Country for another person, Just as you cannot become (C) Conscious for someone else. Consciousness cannot be Manufactured, replicated or measured through Materialist definitions. Awake, Awareness and Consciousness are all different stages of what you seek. Physical invocation brings physical results, Spirit communicates with Spirit. Science needs Spirituality, Spirituality does not need Science.
@paulbattista7736
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Keep up the great work at the University of Virginia division of perceptual studies and Essentia foundation
@paulbattista7736
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
Good interview
@diddlybop
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
They belittle subjective experiences as if the act of collecting and evaluating evidence is not subjective. the act of forming a hypothesis is subjective, experiencing life is a subjective experience as a whole and you cannot pause that just because you are in a lab. the biggest misconception is that any kind of research is objective.
We cannot escape our subjective experience, and learning to research these currently immeasurable experiences would likely push science forward.
But of course, scientists are subjective people who put a lens of their values and beliefs over different topics and subjectively pick and choose what to believe and what to exclude from “reputable science”.
It is frustrating but so human. This is our challenge.
@dulcetsementzis7977
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
So if someone can actually "show" you "energy"..
Can channel it well enough so that even a skeptic can feel it.
Can ask an etheric being to make a person feel a certain way that makes their presence obvious..where do I go to to get studied or tested?
Seriously..
And yes there's people out here who can do all sorts of wild stuff:)
@ThreeWishes777
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 am
You can use orgasm like kundulini practice. Practice abstinence for one year , 2 is better. You'll be able to see something that will happen in the real world.
Focus that energy, channel it.
Comments are closed.