Life After Death: An Experiential Exploration With Mediums By an Agnostic Investigator

By Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D.

Is there life after death? An agnostic investigator explores this question through the communications of mediums in a variety of settings at a Spiritualist camp in Maine—inclusive of interviews and personal experiential sessions (sittings), séances, and diverse workshops. Through a combination of direct personal experience, self-reflections, and critical analysis, all of which was part of his psychology Ph.D. dissertation research at Saybrook University, Elliot Benjamin comes to his own experiential conclusions concerning the question of life after death. The book includes a foreword written by one of the mediums who participated in this study.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Feb 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483408972

Book preview

Life after Death

An Experiential Exploration

with Mediums by an

Agnostic Investigator

ELLIOT BENJAMIN, Ph.D.

Natural Dimension Publications, 2013

Copyright © 2014 Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-0818-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-0897-2 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 06/25/2014

CONTENTS

Foreword By Stephen A. Hermann (Medium W)

Part 1: Setting the Stage

Introduction

Personal Background

Illustration of Autoethnographic Research

Participant Mediums

Research Design

Research Instrument

Data Analysis

Validity of Qualitative Research as a Research Methodology for this Project

Significance of Research Project

Part 2: Interviews with Mediums

Medium A

Medium B

Medium C

Medium D

Medium E

Medium F

Medium G

Medium H

Discussion and Analysis of Interviews with Mediums

Part 3: Personal Experiential Sessions with Mediums

Medium Session #1: A Good First Interview but a Disappointing First Experiential Session (4/1/11)

A Dream Before My Session with Medium B (4/7/11)

Medium Session #2: A Great Interview but Another Disappointing Experiential Session (4/7/11)

Medium Session #3: Where is My White Crow? (5/5/11)

Dream after Phone Conversation with Medium G (5/6/11)

Medium D: My Most Disappointing Session Yet (5/12/11)

Medium E: A Good Interview, A Nice Person, Wanting to Believe, but… (6/16/11)

Medium F: I Felt Something! (7/1/11)

Medium G: The Pattern is Stabilizing (8/13/11)

Medium H: A Great Last Interview and Some Personal Impact, but the Pattern has Stabilized (8/19/11)

Medium W: Charisma, Confidence, and Belief. But is it True? (9/3/11)

Medium W is Not My White Crow (9/4/11)

Summary of Personal Experiential Sessions with Mediums

Discussion and Analysis of Personal Experiential Sessions

Part 4: Follow-Up Workshops with Mediums, Previous Workshops with Mediums, Related Experiences, Dreams and Self-Reflections

Post-ASPSI Perspective on Interviews and Experiential Sessions with Mediums (6/5/11)

Mediumship Development Class (6/22/11)

Mediumship Development Class Follow-up (6/29/11)

Physical Mediumship Sessions and

Healing Workshop (7/29/11)

Summary of Autoethnographic

Observations/Reflections

2010 Medium Workshop (cf. [1])

2008 Medium Workshop (cf. [52]))

Spiritualist Camp Church Services (cf. [52])

License Plate Synchronicity (11/8/10)

Session with a Psychic (4/27/10)

A Series of Dreams Monday 3/8/10

A Dream on Saturday (3/27/10)

Two more dreams: Friday (4/16/10)

Monday (4/26/10)

Dreams of my Family (6/19/11)

Big Dream While in the Midst of my Dissertation Research (3/1/11)

Pre-Cycle 3 Dream (3/10/11)

Part 5: Conclusions

First Research Question Conclusions

Second Research Question Conclusions

2013 AFTERWORD

APPENDIX A: Background Information for the Participant Mediums, Temple Heights Spiritualist Camp, and Spiritualism; Research Participant Consent Form

Characteristics and background of participant mediums

Background information for Temple Heights Spiritualist Camp

Background Information for Spiritualism

Research Participant Consent Form

APPENDIX B: Heuristic, Autoethnographic, and Intuitive Inquiry Research Methods Overview and Discussion of Research Utility

Heuristic, Autoethnographic, and Intuitive Inquiry Research Methods Overview

Discussion of the Utility of HSSI, Heuristic, and Autoethnographic Research

Notes/References

FOREWORD BY STEPHEN A. HERMANN (MEDIUM W)

In the 19th century some of the greatest minds in science investigated the claims of Spiritualism and the belief that certain individuals known as spiritual mediums possessed the ability to mentally receive communications from the deceased or allowed their physical energies to be utilized for the products of psychic manifestations. Brilliant scientists such as Sir William Crookes, Sir William Barrett, Alfred Russel Wallace, and others initially highly skeptical of the concept of spirit communication changed their mindset after devoting considerable amounts of time intensively experimenting with mediums and experiencing purported spirit messages and phenomena firsthand. Unfortunately in this modern age there are few scientists willing to continue this important and remarkable research.

Reading Elliot Benjamin’s documentation of the groundbreaking research he conducted primarily at Temple Heights Spiritualist Camp in Northport, Maine exceeded my expectations. The bulk of Elliot’s research was fieldwork involving personal interaction with numerous mediums in private sessions, séances and public meetings. Throughout his painstaking investigation of Spiritualism, Elliot searched for that one White Crow, a piece of detailed, specific information conveyed by a medium with such accuracy that no explanation could be given for the origin of it’s delivery—other than a recognizable personality in the spirit world.

As an international teaching medium and one of Elliot’s test subjects (I was Medium W), I sympathize with Elliot’s quest and I appreciate his no nonsense, down to-earth effort in examining the subject matter in a skeptical, yet open-minded manner. Unlike many skeptics who condescendingly dismiss the concept of spirit communication as impossible or complete nonsense, Elliot diligently examined Spiritualist theories and practices as both a casual observer and active participant.

Mediumistic messages conveyed mentally by personalities in the spirit world often appear vague and ambiguous in nature, and the medium is only as good as the psychic energy present at the time of the session. In my experience as a professional medium I have found that the easiest people to work with are other mediums, as they bring the right energy that is conducive for the spirit communication. Strong and harmonious energy make the process of a mediumship session easier and the information conveyed more specific and detailed. The attitude and energies of those I work with have a great effect on the results of the session, the same way that attempts to use an expensive cell phone in the middle of nowhere would result in failure due to a poor connection.

The process of spiritual mediumship involves not only the attunement and receptivity of the medium but the ability and desire of those in the spirit world to come through. Spirits cannot be summoned by the medium nor can the medium decide the content of a particular session. I think that as a result of the research done by Elliot, readers of his manuscript will gain a much better idea of the pitfalls of the mediumship process as a whole and its limitations. While I am not in agreement with Elliot’s personal conclusions regarding Spiritualist concepts, I completely endorse and applaud his sincere efforts to uncover the facts regarding spirit communication. Educationally this work is invaluable and hopefully it will inspire others to embark upon similar intelligent and open-minded investigations of the subject matter.

Stephen A. Hermann,

Certified International Spiritual Medium

(September, 2013)

PART 1

Setting the Stage

Introduction

This book is an informal and condensed version, with a few supplementary additions, of my 2012 Ph.D dissertation in psychology, entitled An Experiential Exploration of the Possibility of Life after Death Through the Ostensible Communications of Mediums with Deceased Persons [1]. The research questions of my dissertation were as follows:

1)  In what ways do mediums experience the alleged phenomenon of life after death?

2)  In what ways does an agnostic researcher experience the alleged phenomenon of life after death through engaging in interviews, workshops, and personal experiential sessions with mediums?

Since the emergence of mainstream Western science, it has been a continuously perplexing problem to determine if there is an afterlife once our bodies die. The opposition of mainstream Western science to religious beliefs in regard to this issue has always been bitter and intensive, and continues to be this way in our present day and age. In the past century the development of the field of parapsychology, also referred to as the scientific study of alleged psychic phenomena, although still quite controversial in mainstream psychology, has made some headway in entering the scientific arena. In addition to the study of the alleged psychic phenomena of telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis (collectively known as psi phenomena), laboratory studies of mediums have been conducted to study the possibility of life after death. The laboratory study of mediums was preceded by middle and late 19th century experiential laboratory study of mediums was preceded by middle and late 19th century experiential investigations of mediums, which increased dramatically with the formation of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882 [2]. Thus there is a historical relationship between parapsychology and the afterlife question.

However, there is a great deal of heated ongoing debate in regard to the borders of what is considered to be science and how well established the scientific basis of parapsychology truly is [3]. This debate relates directly to the question of life after death. There is considerable controversy in regard to alternative theories from parapsychology involving the so-called super-psi hypothesis and hypothetical subtle energy fields, as well as research on near-death experience, to investigate the possibility of life after death [4]. The range of theories to explain the alleged phenomenon of life after death relates directly to both of my research questions, as the experiences of the mediums and myself as the agnostic researcher are connected to interpretations and explanations of this possibility.

Although there are a variety of ways of exploring the possibility of life after death, inclusive of direct personal experience as well as intellectual study, in my research I explored the possibility of life after death through the communications of mediums, inclusive of my direct personal experiences from engaging in individual sessions, group sessions, and workshops with them. This exploration involved my having conducted semi-structured interviews [5] to learn about mediums’ experiences that pertain to the alleged phenomenon (see Part 2). These semi-structured interviews were followed by my engaging in experiential sessions with the mediums being interviewed, with the goal of developing my own understanding of this alleged phenomenon (see Part 3). The interviews and experiential sessions were all conducted with selected mediums who areinvolved with Spiritualism, a religion that arose from the spiritualist movement that began the 1840s in America and has been found around the world historically in various forms [6].

In order to do my experiential research, I engaged in three different qualitative research methodologies that focus upon the depth of human experience (cf. [5], [7]), which enabled me to discuss my own very personal experiences of working with these mediums, as well as attending various group sessions and workshops at the Spiritualist camp (see Part 4). These research methodologies are described and discussed in the Appendix B (see also my dissertation; cf. [1]), and involve what has been referred to as autoethnographic observations, heuristic self-reflections, and intuitive inquiry [8], primarily through my participation in various sessions and workshops conducted by mediums at Temple Heights Spiritualist Camp in Maine [9]. My research project utilized a questionnaire that served as a basis to conduct the semi-structured interviews, and all participant mediums were actively involved in giving individual sessions as mediums in Maine, and have been listed in the Temple Heights Spiritualist Camp brochure. Nearly all of the mediums who participated in my semi-structured interviews have frequently given workshops about Spiritualism at Spiritualist camps and have held high level administrative positions in Spiritualist organizations. This association with Spiritualism furnished a degree of legitimacy in regard to the reputation of these mediums, although it also limited the range of mediums I had access to.

I am including some of my extended self-reflective explorations and autoethnographic observations, which have a strong narrative component (cf. [5], [10]), to more fully describe my experiences with the mediums as a researcher. There have been researchers in the field of Transpersonal Psychology [11] who have endeavored to distinguish between various related categories inclusive of so-called mediums, psychics, shamans, healers, channelers, and intuitives. In the 1800s and early 1900s there were a number of researchers of psychic phenomena who conducted experiential studies of mediums (in this book the term experiential will include the relevant experiences of the researcher as well as the research participant) initially from an open-ended agnostic research perspective [12]. This new kind of research was preceded by, and was contemporary with, descriptions of spontaneous cases of what was referred to in the literature as paranormal and psychic phenomena [13]. Paranormal phenomena have been described as experiences that are outside the realm of human capabilities as presently conceived by conventional scientists and ostensibly indicate the operation of factors currently unknown to or unrecognized by orthodox science [14]. My research was also preceded by various religious beliefs regarding the veracity of life after death in all parts of the world [15]. However, the experiential research with mediums in the late 1800s and early part of the 20th century gradually changed into the current strong emphasis of quantitative experimental parapsychology, consistent with the quantitative experimental mainstream psychology domain [16].

My qualitative research dissertation was in one sense continuous with the original experiential research focus of studying mediums. My focus of researching the ostensible afterlife communications of mediums in Maine through semi-structured interviews, experiential sessions, and autoethnographic observations at a Spiritualist camp can also be considered to be an embedded case study [17]. In regard to my semi-structured interviews and experiential sessions with mediums, as well as my extended regard to my semi-structured interviews and experiential sessions with mediums, as well as my extended heuristic, autoethnographic, and intuitive inquiry self-reflections, no more than one private session with any medium was experienced. The rationale for this stipulation was that a number of the originally agnostic researchers of mediums became extremely involved in researching one medium for many sessions, in the course of which they transformed from their initial agnostic viewpoint to a belief in the veracity of life after death [18]. However, there is enormous controversy regarding the personal effects of this kind of extended engagement with mediums. This kind of extended engagement with mediums may very well influence a researcher’s viewpoint toward the alleged phenomenon of life after death, via personal influence, wishful thinking, sensory leakage, and what has been referred to as subjective evaluation (and other related factors, all of which are part of what has been referred to as cold readings) [19].

Personal Background

My personal background lends itself well to my research question, as I have alongtime intensive interest in understanding the nature of life, whether there is a God, and the question of what happens to us when we die. This was undoubtedly precipitated by the death of my father before I was 2 years old. I refer to my agnostic perspective on the veracity of the possibility of life after death as that of a spiritual agnostic. This means that although I do not have beliefs per se in the veracity of life after death, I do have a spiritual/philosophical inclination that there is more to life than merely our physical/chemical material bodies, formulated and developed primarily by blind random evolutionary chance patterns through natural selection mechanisms over unfathomably long periods of time [20]. I am also extremely interested and intrigued with the scientific research and findings of parapsychology, and with the possibility of utilizing parapsychological data and quantum physics theory as well as super-psi and energy field explanations, to furnish scientific models to explain a hypothetical phenomenon of life after death [21]. However, I am very aware of my own inclinations in this regard, and I thoroughly discuss my thoughts and feelings in Part 4, as part of my autoethnographic, heuristic, and intuitive inquiry self-reflections. And I will add that I believe my mathematical and scientific state of mind is an excellent balance for my philosophical/spiritual inclinations; a balance that has enabled me to acquire a penetrating and effective agnostic perspective to explore my research questions.

Illustration of Autoethnographic Research

In order to give a descriptive example of autoethnographic research, I am including the following poignant illustration from sociologist Carolyn Ellis’ work that is involved with the final days of her life partner and husband [22]:

During the first of these weekend retreats, Gene tries to pull me out of my agony. To ease my pain, stop my tears, and lighten my heart, he says, Think of all the good times. Be happy for our lives. No, let me feel it. I think it’s good for me.….The painful sobbing, moaning, and, sometimes, at the peak, screaming, go on and on, culminating in the internal explosion of the emotional ball that has been building in my gut and threatening suffocation….When the sobbing renews, his strengthening embrace encourages me to continue. I have so many unanswered questions. What is life about? Why do people die? Isn’t there something we can do? He doesn’t pull back, giving me confidence now to talk between sobs. I feel grief for every single thing you have lost—that you have trouble walking, that your lungs will no longer carry your booming voice in class, that you run out of breath when we make love. These are my losses, too. I cry for both of us. For the pain I stifle in my heart when I see you struggling for breath, just to walk. For the love I feel when you suffer. For the numbness that comes over me when my pain becomes too great. And, even for the anger, yes, the anger I feel because we don’t have a normal relationship.…. Hey, open your eyes, I’m still here. Gene says, reminding me of the immediate present. Touch me. Kiss me. I’m not dead yet. We still have wonderful time together. I open my eyes to his smile, his strong embrace. I feel relieved; he isn’t dead yet. I want to make good all the time we have left. So does he, he says. (pp. 87-88)

Participant Mediums

The participant mediums in my research project consisted of nine mediums listed in the 2009 or 2010 Temple Heights Spiritualist Camp brochures who had at least 5 years experience working as mediums. With one exception, all of these mediums offered sessions and workshops at Spiritualist summer camps in Maine in 2010 and 2011 mostly at Temple Heights), and held high-level administrative positions in various Spiritualist organizations. Based upon the experience and qualifications of mediums described in the Temple Heights brochure, as well as their locations in Maine, eight mediums were chosen for initial phone contact, with the goal of arranging in-person tape-recorded interviews and experiential sessions; through e-mail contact with a ninth medium in New Zealand, whom I referred to as Medium W, only an experiential session was arranged. A brief description of the research project, focusing on the research questions, was given to the mediums in our initial contact (see Appendix A), along with the information that the researcher conducting this project (i.e. myself) had previously experienced individual sessions with mediums, had taken part in various groups with mediums at Temple Heights for three summers, and was conducting this research in the context of an agnostic researcher.

The interviews were arranged in the time period from March through August 2011; with one exception, they took place at the mediums’ homes and office locations or atTemple Heights Spiritualist Camp, where mediums conducted their experiential sessions. The one exception was with Medium D, who had not given sessions or workshops at Temple Heights (and did not have home or office space available for our session). This interview was conducted in the library of a nursing home (see Table 3 in Appendix A).

The interview questionnaire described below under Research Instruments was utilized with each of the eight mediums who were interviewed, taking into account the flexibility of interview questions that is the basis of semi-structured interviews. After an interview was completed, I engaged in a personal experiential session with each medium, in the same session, for the purpose of addressing the second research question, in which I participated as an agnostic research investigator.

The length of the combined interview and experiential session with each medium was between 45 minutes and an hour and 45 minutes, with most sessions lasting for approximately 90 minutes. Usually, the interview and experiential session timeframe were approximately the same, though with some variability according to the dynamics of each individual session. Both the interviews and the experiential sessions were tape-recorded and transcribed (with the exception of the experiential session and the last 15 or 20 minutes of the interviews with Mediums A and F, due to technical difficulties). One experiential session with Medium W), although taped, was not preceded by the semi-structured interview or transcribed. The allotted timeframe for the experiential sessions was based upon my pilot work of participating in a number of experiential sessions with mediums [23], and from my determination of a reasonable amount of time for the mediums to fully respond to the interview questions.

Research Design

The interview questionnaire that I utilized in this research was designed as a generic guide to obtain information from the mediums directly related to the first research question, in regard to understanding how mediums experience the alleged phenomenon of life after death. There was flexibility in the actual order, wording, and inclusion of the questions, consistent with the basic framework of semi-structured interviews [24]. The semi-structured interview has predetermined questions, but the order can be modified based upon the interviewer’s perception of what seems most appropriate [25]. The wording of the questions can be changed, and explanations for the questions can be given: particular questions which seem inappropriate with a particular interviewee can be omitted, or additional ones included [26].

Soon after a given interview and experiential session were completed, I listened tothe tape-recorded session a number of times (taking into account the complications with the tape recording for Mediums A and F) and I subsequently had them transcribed. I then described in writing the verbatim relevant information given by the mediums that shed light on the first research question. It was also important that I established good rapport with all nine mediums who were interviewed (including the informal interview with Medium W) through the use of client-centered listening and authentic sharing of my sincere desire to understand the experiences of the mediums, as well as my being open to my own experiences in this realm [27].

It is significant that in the capacity of a researcher, I had previously been engaged in personal experiential research with mediums at Temple Heights Spiritualist Camp during the summers of 2008, 2009, and 2010 [28]), and consequently I had already established good rapport with a number of the mediums who offer sessions and workshops at this Temple Heights. Tape recording the sessions enabled me to fully engage with the mediums without the distraction of taking notes while in session. My experiential sessions with the mediums (included in the same timeframe as the interviews) were directly related to both research questions: the experiences of the mediums, as well as my own experiences, pertaining to the alleged phenomenon of life after death, and the transcribed tape recordings enhanced the accuracy of my portrayal of the relevant session experiences.

Research Instrument

The generic form of the interview questions in the questionnaire is described below, based upon the framework of semi-structured interviews. The numbered items indicate the instructional prompts to which each medium responded. The sub-questions, listed by letters under the numbers, indicate questions that I frequently asked to assist the mediums in their responses. These sub-questions were individually tailored to each interview session and were used as an optional resource in the interview process. I explained to the mediums that psychic communications were considered to be of a generic extrasensory nature, that were experienced in a concrete way possibly as afterlife communications.

1. Please describe your beliefs regarding the existence of an afterlife.

A. How certain are you of your beliefs?

B. To what extent are your beliefs based upon your own personal experiences?

2. Describe your earliest experiences that were significant to you in regard to your beliefs in life after death.

A. Did your beliefs in an afterlife get formulated from your religious or spiritual influences in childhood?

B. How did your family respond to your earliest childhood experiences that were related to your belief in life after death?

3. Describe the ways in which you receive communications from spiritual entities.

A. How do you differentiate between bona fide after-death communications and psychic communications that do not pertain to the afterlife?

B. How do you know that what you perceive as psychic or after-death communications are not in actuality products of your own imagination?

4. Describe significant experiences that you have had in regard to obtaining information for your clients in regard to psychic connections or afterlife communications.

A. Are your clients generally open to and believing in your afterlife communications for them?

B. Have some of your clients subsequently contacted you in regard to your afterlife communications for them, or arranged to have follow-up sessions with you to have continued engagement with their deceased loved ones?

5. Describe your experiences with receiving support in the community in regard to your beliefs in life after death; and your related professional activities.

A. Is your involvement in Spiritualism a major source of activity and client referrals for you?

B. Have you experienced any negative feedback in your community, based upon your activities as a medium?

6. Describe the reactions from your family and friends in regard to your beliefs beliefs in life after death and your related professional activities.

A. Have your family and friends been accepting of your activities as a medium?

B. How have your activities as a medium affected your work outside of your mediumship?

7. Describe your ideas and interest in scientific explanations that are consistent with your beliefs in life after death.

A. What kinds of scientific evidence, if any, do you rely upon in support of your beliefs in an afterlife?

B. How do you see science and spirituality working together to gain understanding of the universe and the connection with the afterlife?

8. Describe any other aspects of your work in the field of psychic or afterlife communications that have meaning for you.

Data Analysis

After all the interviews were recorded, they were compared question by question, in order to uncover common themes and dominant features, in the context of a qualitative analysis [29]. The purpose of the interview sessions was for me, in the capacity of a researcher, to gain an understanding of the mediums’ experiences of ostensible communications with spiritual entities in regard to the alleged phenomenon of life after death. This was the guiding principle of the qualitative analysis for this component of my research.

Using an Immersion approach to data analysis fostered my insight, intuition, and creativity as a researcher, which are central features of the research methodology of intuitive inquiry, which is what I utilized for this part of my research [30]. I expanded upon this intuitive inquiry/immersion approach in my extended researcher-based autoethnographic observations and heuristic self-explorations of the possibility of life after death, as described in Part 4. Incorporating what I learned by intuitive inquiry, inclusive of my experiential sessions with the mediums, I utilized the following steps in the data analysis [31]:

Step 1: After each interview, I examined the interview data in detail to identify what appeared to be significant phrases, patterns, themes, relationships, and sequences that are related to the first research question.

Step 2: I utilized the analysis of each interview in Step 1 in comparison with what I observed in the subsequent interviews, with an emphasis upon the similarities and differences amongst the mediums who I interviewed.

Step 3: After all the interviews were completed, I uncovered a set of consistent generalizations, applying to all or most of the mediums interviewed, that had direct bearing upon the first research question. I made particular note of striking communications in the interviews that pertained to this research question.

Step 4: After the Step 3 analysis was completed, I displayed the findings in the form of a table of data, in which the data consisted of the distinctive common features from the interviews that were directly related to the first research question (inclusive of relevant data obtained from the informal interview and the workshops with Medium W; see Part 2). Common features and themes from the interview data that I examined included a high degree of certainty regarding the belief in an afterlife, an intensive and memorable early childhood afterlife experience, and an ability to distinguish between bona fide afterlife communications, psychic communications, and imagination interpretations. Additional common features and themes included relationships with family that were related to engagement as a medium, as well as sensory impressions and affective responses of mediums [32].

Validity of Qualitative Research as a Research Methodology for this Project

The issue of the validity of findings gained through qualitative research, which is conducted to allow for the expression of what has been referred to as deeper human experiences that do not lend themselves to quantitative descriptions, is a continuously debated item in mainstream social science. A number of authors utilize alternative terms to those of positivist quantitative terminology, in order to describe the validity of their findings. These alternative terms include trustworthiness, credibility, authenticity, transferability, dependability, and confirmability [33]. Qualitative research validation strategies include multiple sources of investigation, peer review, clarifying researcher bias, refining of working hypotheses, solicitation of participants’ views of the credibility of research findings, external audits, and rich, thick descriptions (cf. [33])).

The semi-structured interviews, experiential sessions, and follow-up heuristic and autoethnographic observations/reflections that comprise my research project are all in a qualitative explorative context, without experimental statistical assumptions or controls. The issue of validity for the results of qualitative research is still very much a concern for scientific mainstream, though qualitative research is steadily growing