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Research
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The Sarah Estep Research Fund
Sarah Estep's daughter Becky has made a memorial donation to Association
TransCommunication that
will enable the Association to establish a small a research fund. All of
the donations that were made to the ATransC in honor of Sarah will be
included in this fund. The Association is actively seeking additional
funding for the Sarah Estep Research Fund (SERF). If you wish to support this
initiative, be sure to let us know that your donation is intended to be
added to the Sarah Estep Research Fund. Remember that all donations are
tax deductible!
Support
Please see the Donate page for details about
other ways to donate to the AA-EVP and this fund.
Research
As is noted in the grants article,
there have been a few modest research grants issued by other
organizations specifically for ITC research. ATransC will also offer
modest research grants; a protocol is being developed that will depend
on written proposals specifically detailing the research project,
proposed costs and what will be done by whom and in what timeframe. A
final report will be required, which will be evaluated by subject matter
specialists.
ATransC will propose research targets via a Request For Proposal
(RFP). Independent proposals from the public will also be accepted. For
this, people submitting research proposals need not be ATransC members.
Philosophy
The typical relationship between funding agency and researcher is for
the agency to agree that the proposed research is within their scope of
interest, the award of research funds and acknowledgement of the final
report. In most cases, there are no further requirements placed on the
researcher. A project might take a year or more, many projects are done
in secret making collaboration amongst researchers impossible and the
final results are too often seen by a relative few with archived
material being accessible by even fewer. By most measures, the intended
results held by the granting agency is not achieved.
This field is evolving at a breathtaking rate, and under current
circumstances, research is not able to keep pace. In an effort to
promote collaboration amongst researchers, and to assure that research
reports remain available for public access, Association
TransCommunication will us a
different model. The Association will function as both the granting
agency and as a research coordinator to assure minimize replication of
effort and assist with public relations. In no way will ATransC make
a claim of ownership of any of the resulting work, other than to assure
that it is available to the public.
Once a grant has been issued, researchers will be expected to be
available for consultation about the project with other researchers. It
is not intended that every last detail of the project be public. The
objective is to encourage collaboration and reduce replication of
effort. Under the conditions of the grant, as researchers learn, they
are expected to teach. If there is a concern that the project will be
"scooped" by other researchers, ATransC can offer some assurance that
the public record on atransc.org will document originality.
Subjects of interest
The objective of the SERF is to further humankind's understanding of
transcommunication and survival of the personality. Transcommunication includes EVP/ITC, spontaneous after death contacts, possible
"hauntings" phenomena and such mental modalities as mediumship and
energy healing. The study of survival of the personality includes the
relationship of the person to the etheric and trans-etheric influences,
the nature of the etheric and the nature of survival.
The Association TransCommunication is aware of several areas where research could advance our
knowledge of ITC. For instance:
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Improvements in audio recording technology for EVP.
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A study of how humans hear sound intended to develop ways
to avoid false positives in EVP.
See
online listening trials report for an example.
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Techniques for teaching people how to hear EVP.
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Using EVP with other trans-etheric communication
modalities, such as clairvoyance and photography for phenomena analysis
and verification.
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Techniques for using transcommunication for information
gathering, including locating lost people.
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Relationships of different forms of environmental energy
including electromagnetic, thermal, static electric, biofield
(auric?) and etheric, and how they relate to trans-etheric
influences.
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Orb behavior in a controlled environment.
These are just examples. It is important that ATransC is not seen as
limiting areas of research. The only real requirement is that the
research must have something to do with survival of consciousness.
Researcher qualifications
Anyone who can show a reasonable base of applicable experience, and is
able to provide a well-considered proposal, may be a candidate for
research funding. Proposals will be evaluated by the SERF Advisory
Panel, based on the proposed experimental protocol, the candidate’s
perceived ability to complete a usable project report and his or her
willingness to subject that report to peer review.
A research candidates need not be a member of Association
TransCommunication. Please see the
Frequently Asked Questions page
for SERF.
Extent of support
The fund is new and is currently only able to provide small research
grants, so it is a good idea to contact
ATransC before submitting a proposal. At this time, grants will
probably not be larger than $4,000 U.S. funds. We hope that this fund
will attract further support for continued and larger grants
Association TransCommunication will be happy to sponsor unfunded projects, assuming they
meet the same requirements set forth for funded projects. Having a
project sponsored/supported by the ATransC may be helpful in raising
public visibility of the work.
Procedure
Funded research will be formal research. This maxim should lead
SERF grant candidates to understand the basic elements of a research
project, including definition of
the question, experiment design (protocol), results analysis and peer-reviewed
final reporting. It is a good idea to contact
ATransC with a query letter before spending very much
time developing a proposal; however, actually writing a proposal as
outlined below will help the person better understand the research
question and how that question might be studied.
Survival studies and trans-etheric influences (collectively "Etheric
Studies") is not currently supported by peer reviewed journals. The
organizations that do touch on this subject are primarily focused on psi
studies and human potential, but they do sometimes entertain etheric
studies related articles if they are well-written. Results of SERF
funded research is expected to be published in a peer reviewed journal.
However, if the author is unable to gain acceptance in one,
publication in
the ATransC Journal is acceptable, and the
Association will
coordinate peer review.
Proposal
A well-considered proposal is required to help the SERF Advisory Panel
make an informed decision. The proposal will also be used to seek
funding, so while it need not become a public record, ATransC will
require permission to discuss it with potential contributors. The
proposal should include:
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Project title
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Author's name and contact information
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Researcher's name(s) and qualifications as related to this
project
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Other funding and or sponsors
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Brief explanation of the project including why it is important
and what is expected to be accomplished, including a discussion
of assumption
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Statement of the research question(s)
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Experimental protocol, including logistical and human resource
considerations (availability what supporting people are expected
to do and their required qualifications)
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Discussion about why the protocol is appropriate
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Discussion of "off-the-shelf" technology and material and what
may need to be developed for the project
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A discussion of how results will be characterized (criteria for
success)
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How results will be reported (journals, peer review; it is
possible to use the ATransC Journal)
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How the public will benefit from completion of this project.
(For instance, new technology, device design, technique,
clarification of hypothesis?)
After receiving the proposal
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The proposals will be reviewed by the SERF Advisory Panel, and if
found to satisfy the basic requirements (described above), the
author(s) will be contacted to discuss possible questions and
logistical concerns. This will include a schedule of deliverables
and estimated phases of the project to support progress reporting
and contingent funding.
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If sufficient funding for the project is not available, Association
TransCommunication
will cooperate with the authors to seek additional funding from
perspective donors. (From previous experience, having a specific,
well-documented project for which funding is asked is more apt to
have a favorable response than simply asking for money to support
research.)
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Once funding is available, a grant will be issued and paid out in
phases as agreed to in step 1.
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Progress reports will be made as agreed to in step 1. These will be
evaluated by the SERF Advisory Panel subsequent further funding. The
author should be aware that the SERF Advisory Panel may ask for
additional work and/or reporting before further funding the project.
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However the final report is published (other organization or by
ATransC), a version suitable for publishing by the Association in the
NewsJournal and/or on the website will be required.
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 The author/researcher(s)
will retain ownership of all material resulting from the funded
project. The report, hardware and software developed for the
research and that is funded by the SERF will be licensed via
Creative Commons with the
intention of making SERF funded research reports, hardware and
software designed for a SERF funded project available to other
researchers. Such documents will include the statement "Available
for public application under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported." The effect will be that the
material will remain the creative property of the researcher(s),
subsequent use of the material will be credited to the scientists,
but it will otherwise be freely available for subsequent development
and/or research.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your questions may be turned into a FAQ, which will be maintained in the
FAQ section. Featured questions include:
Questions, comments and suggestions
Please contact ATransC if you have
questions about this program. Since we are new to this, we are always
interested in hearing your comments and suggestions.
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