Michael Bova reviews events that took place in the early 1970s when his cousin Jimmy confidentially reported spontaneous experiences involving unusual sensory awareness and altered states of consciousness which developed into the apparent anomalies of extra sensory perception and out-of-body experiences (OBEs). Bova describes Jimmy’s emotional duress of having spontaneous anomalies and includes Jimmy’s diary notations. In them we see how these events appeared as foreboding or alluding to mental instability as these strong experiences countered his usual ways of knowing himself and his world. Bova’s serendipitous involvement with two parapsychology research settings allowed him to access information that helped Jimmy understand his unusual experiences. As important as content (data from compiled reports of spontaneous OBEs, laboratory research and available books on OBEs) was, the context of a nonjudgmental trusting relationship supported Jimmy’s personal wellbeing and enrichment from these apparent anomalies. The author believes that his early work in parapsychology and exposure to parapsychological phenomena helped him to help Jimmy. This early work was as both a research assistant at Maimonides Medical Center’s Dream Laboratory and as a student healer in the Consciousness Research and Training Project, Inc. Both research groups were focused on the study of psi but they never let the pursuit of phenomenological investigations override humanistic values and transpersonal experiences of their subjects. The author also believes that forty years since that time, Jimmy maintains an appreciation of life and self identity that were enhanced by those early OBEs.
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