John Geiger contributes an essay to new book on the science behind miracles

John Geiger has collaborated with Peter Suedfeld, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia and one of the world's foremost investigators of psychological responses to extreme and unusual environments, on an essay titled The Sensed Presence as Coping Resource in Extreme Environments. This important study of a phenomenon experienced by many explorers and survivors who reach the borderlands of life and death appears as a chapter in a new book, Miracles: God, Science, and Psychology in the Paranormal (Volume 3), edited by distinguished American academic J. Harold Ellens.

Ellens' three-volume set attempts to answer the question of whether science, psychology, and biology can explain miracles. From news of a crippled woman who left her wheelchair and walked after an evangelist prayed over her, to stories of people who "died" on the operating table only to be revived to tell of bright lights and the pathway to the afterlife, we've all heard of what seem miraculous events. They have surfaced across history. They range from stigmata and bleeding icons to deadly tumors that disappear, and healers who succeed just by laying hands on the afflicted; from people who can predict unexpected events to so-called mediums and those who can allegedly see and speak with the dead. Some miracles are intricately tied to religious beliefs, but there are millions of people who ascribe to no particular religion, yet still believe that things happen that defy all laws of nature, and thus defy scientific explanation.

In these books, J. Harold Ellens, a Research Scholar at the University of Michigan, Department of Near Eastern Studies, an ordained minister, and retired Presbyterian theologian, together with a team of expert contributors examine "miracles" of body, mind, and spirit, presenting the most recent research and writing on these uncommon events as they aim to bring hard science to some of the most persistent and peculiar phenomena associated with the human race.