A scientist confronted with a supernatural experience recounts how it forever changed his outlook on the paranormal, to which he now dedicates the majority of his research work.
Growing up in the 1970s in America, a time marked in particular by the advent of science fiction cinema, Jeff Tarrant formed strong beliefs regarding the paranormal during his childhood and adolescence. “Instead of exercising, I was cycling around the neighborhood to “investigate” possible UFO landing sites”, remembers the doctor of psychology. A way of thinking shared by many children of his time that Jeff Tarrant explains he questioned throughout his scientific studies and when he entered professional life as a psychologist.
Rapidly, rational explanations took over, leaving no more room for doubt as to the existence of the supernatural. “Belief in the paranormal was associated with immaturity (at best) and psychopathology (at worst) […] Nothing is real unless science can prove it,” summarizes the psychologist. A vision that the scientist will soon question after a very particular experiment.
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A supernatural experience
“In 2013, while working at the University of Missouri, an event happened that reignited my interest in the paranormal and changed my life forever,” he tells Huffpost. One of his research assistants told him how his mother, Janet Mayer, spontaneously began speaking in several South American tribal languages she did not know after participating in a “holotropic breathing”.
To support his speech and find out if it is indeed a tribal language, the assistant decides to record his mother during a session before sending it to different researchers. Bernardo Peixoto, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution and shaman from the Urueu-Wau-Wau tribe in northern Brazil, says he recognized bits of Yanomami, a tribal language from South America, in Janet Mayer’s speech. After analysis and translation of several cassettes, Fulnio, Tukano and Kanamari, three other dialects were identified.
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Jeff Tarrant: “Janet was channeling multiple entities”
In view of his work on the human brain, Jeff Tarrant decides to analyze Janet Mayer’s neuronal activity during a breathing session. “After double- and triple-checking my equipment and seeing the same change in activity repeatedly, I had to admit that something drastic was happening to Janet’s brain,” he admits. Analysis of Janet’s brain activity allowed her to observe a “disconnection” of the right parietal lobe, responsible for “self-perception”.
“Despite what I thought I knew about reality, and as crazy as it may sound, I came to the conclusion that Janet was somehow channeling multiple people, beings, or entities.”, the scientist is surprised. An experience that forever changed his outlook on supernatural events to which he now dedicates the majority of his research work. “I continued to map brains and expanded my research into telepathy, extrasensory perception, telekinesis and energy healing,” he concludes.
A journalist passionate about social issues and current affairs, Hugo puts his pen at the service of information. Interested in all themes, from the impact of artificial intelligence on…