Challenging conventional neuroscience and inviting a reevaluation of our understanding of consciousness and psychedelics, the engaging dialogue between former skeptics Deadly Departed host Jock Brocas and Dr. Jeff Tarrant encourages us all to delve deeper into the uncharted terrains of psychic phenomena and the boundless mind-brain connection. Dr. Jeff Tarrant's pioneering research into the brain activity of mediums during psychic and mediumship readings offers groundbreaking insights and pushes the boundaries of scientific inquiry into psychic perception.
Part Two of this podcast overview delves into the potential impact of psychedelics on spiritual experiences, and contemplates the interplay between psychedelics, the brain's self-referential networks, and expanded perception. Dr. Jeff Tarrant's candid discussion of his Ayahuasca experience, including the clear message that steered the trajectory of his life, uncovers the intriguing potential for psychedelics to catalyze profound spiritual insights and transformative decision-making.
Listen to the Deadly Departed podcast (Run time: 1 hr 07 mins)
How the brain can interfere with natural psychic abilities
Dr Jeff Tarrant: I think one of the challenges that you're highlighting is that there's not a lot of data for people in trance conditions, or especially trance mediumship... Certainly we have data on people being in trance, because that can be a lot of different things… Shamanic traditions or hypnosis, deep meditation...
There are too many different people with different brain structures, so everybody won't look the same. One of the primary things we see in trance state is this increase in slow brainwave activity. Especially theta. And, you know, theta is an interesting brainwave because it's also associated with things like the subconscious and memory. So this gets into an interesting issue, and it's kind of what you were bringing up - is this coming from you? Even if you don't think it is, if it's coming from your subconscious… it's below consciousness. You're not normally aware of it.
So, is this you? Or are you actually tapping into another consciousness out there? I don't know.
I work with a lot of technology… not just measuring the brain, but also to train the brain, like neurofeedback or brain stimulation technologies. And I talk about this in the book because we've done enough… mini experiments. We've seen that we can stimulate the brain in a way that does seem to expedite the process for people. It kind of helps them tap in quicker or more easily or have different kinds of experiences.
One of the things that's interesting is… if I put really slow frequencies into the brain, then what it's doing is actually shutting it down…A lot of times we get bigger results in terms of mediumship or psychic activity if we shut down certain parts. At least from my perspective, I think the brain is largely interfering with our natural psychic abilities. It sort of prevents it. It limits information, which is largely what the brain does. That's its job… to filter information.
Very often what you'll see is that with these high level psychics and mediums, one part of the brain will shut down. There'll be an increase of slow activity, but another part of the brain will actually increase fast activity at the same time. And what I suspect is that this is how they are able to, first, connect with this information that's in a broader field, we'll say. But then you have to have some activation in order to bring it into your conscious mind and retain it, hold on to it, put words to it, explain it, right? Like, you kind of got to do both…
I think of it like a dream state… like where you have an interesting dream, and then you wake up and you can't hold on to it. It just disappears. And so, you're transitioning from this really deep state of consciousness to waking consciousness, and if there's not some sort of a way to connect those two, then, you lose it. You can't hold on to it. And so I feel like that's one of the skills that these really high level mediums and psychics have. Somehow they have figured out how to enter a state of consciousness where they can do both or shift really quickly between the two.
Jock Brocas: From the mediums you've researched, do you feel they're particularly adept in one part of the brain for one particular strength in their mediumistic capacity. Like, clairvoyance, claircognizance, clairaudience?
Dr Jeff Tarrant: So far, I have not been able to see anything that shows that really clearly… And part of the problem may be that most of the mediums I've talked to work out of multiple clair senses. They're not just clairvoyant or not just clairaudient. They work out of multiple senses. And so that's going to confuse things. But the one thing that I do see a lot is activation and by activation, in this case, I mean increased fast brainwave activity, especially gamma, in the occipital lobe in the very back of the brain, which is the visual processing… I see it all the time. And it's interesting because that's visual processing.
…The other big one would be clairaudience. We would probably target that in the temporal lobes, you know, where we process more of the auditory information. I haven't done as much with that. One of the other areas that we've explored more directly is the God spot… the right parietal lobe back here, which seems to be not for everybody, but I'd say 70% of the mediums. They show some unusual activity back there.
Energy healing & biodynamic craniosacral therapy
Dr Jeff Tarrant: It’s not like I can show that I've healed cancer or something, but over the weekend I was doing a training in energy work… and you take turns with being on the table. I had somebody on the table and was checking in beforehand, what's going on, is there anything I need to know about?
She said, “My left shoulder is… it's chronic…a wreck, so if you feel like going up there, that would be great.”
So I'm doing my normal kind of process going through the session. I was like, okay, I'm going to go up to that left shoulder, because she asked me to. I wasn't particularly drawn to go there. But I went up there, and because of the way the room was set up, I couldn't get to it very well. It was very awkward. I couldn't stay there for more than a couple of minutes, so I just left it alone and said, well, whatever… I can't do anything with that.
And then I went to the head and… this process that I'm using involves touch, physical touch… I wasn't touching the head - I was working with the energy field around the head and really just sensing it, holding it, supporting it, not trying to make anything happen, almost kind of tapping into… zero point or something like that… Getting into this no mind state where I'm just supporting the energy field of the person. So I did that for a while and wrapped it up. And honestly… I have no idea if I'm doing anything here or not. Right? Like, I don't know.
So, we wrapped it up and then we processed afterwards. The person on the table said:
“Dude, I could totally tell when you were on my head and what you were doing up there… And my shoulder… as soon as you let go of the energy around my head, my shoulder pain went away. It's completely gone.”
And I'm like, oh, okay.
We had training the next day, and she said, “My shoulder still doesn't hurt… it doesn't hurt at all.”
And I was like, that's brilliant. So, it's interesting, right? Because it wasn't like I went in and said, I am going to fix your shoulder. No. In fact, I felt like I wasn't doing anything.
Jock Brocas: That's the important point… I think that's a really fundamental point to think about because if you're in the way, nothing's gonna happen. And if you're out of the way, the expectation is not there… if you're not attached to the expectations, then wondrous things can happen. I think you've just proven that, or to a point.
Dr Jeff Tarrant: This process that I'm doing right now is called biodynamic craniosacral therapy… And I like it because it has this very non-directive approach. It's like, I'm not curing you. I'm not assessing you, even. I'm just making contact with you and with your energy and supporting you. I'm trying to drop myself into a place that's very centered and grounded and supportive. And I trust that your energy field can use that to heal itself. I don't have to do anything. And so, I really like that approach. It feels very, respectful of the other person. And effective. It really seems to work.
How psychedelics have a tendency to launch spirituality
Jock Brocas: So, does the technology enhance psychedelics? Do the psychedelics enhance the technology? Or do they both have separate correlates to what you're trying to do? Because you've got experience in the psychedelic world.
Dr Jeff Tarrant: I do. Both personally and professionally. So, are you asking the question, do psychedelics facilitate more psychic-type development? Yeah.
Jock Brocas: Yeah, so they facilitate more of these mystical experiences that we can measure from a psychic or evidential point of view, and is there a potential they're bringing technology into that as well?
Dr Jeff Farrant: Yes. It's pretty clear that people who work with psychedelics, whether it's psilocybin or ayahuasca or 5-MeO-DMT, whatever, it does tend to launch people's spirituality. And because people have these experiences of unity or connection and intense love, meeting other entities in these other realms, you know, all these things that are very convincing from a subjective perspective. When you have them… nobody ever comes out and goes like, oh, that was garbage. They come out and they go, that was more real than this is. People say that all the time. So, from a subjective perspective, it's really hard to argue with. And in fact, I've made major life decisions based on information that I received in psychedelic sessions.
Jock Brocas: No way, have you really? That's crazy.
Dr Jeff Tarrant: I was working at the University of Missouri and had a pretty cushy job. I went to… my second ayahuasca ceremony or something like that. And in the ceremony, I had the very, very, very clear download of information that I needed to leave the university. And I was kinda like, man… seriously? That's a big ask, right?... I was like, I don't have a plan… but it was so strong that I was like, I have to listen… And so I did. I left the university, and then that's what started everything. That's what started the Neuro Meditation Institute, got my first book out, and led to all this.
None of this would have happened if I had stayed at the university.
Jock Brocas: Wow. And that's all because you had that experience with a psychedelic, wow.
Dr Jeff Tarrant: Yeah. One of the primary effects of psychedelics is to temporarily shut down the networks in the brain that create your sense of self, right? We talked before about how the brain is this filtering mechanism, that it limits information and says, oh, here's reality right here. And that's it.
And then with psychedelics, it essentially shuts down those mechanisms for a little while, so that all of a sudden, what you can see and perceive and experience becomes way bigger than what your brain normally allows. Right? And if you do this and have the right experience under the right conditions, or you do it enough times…you can start to connect to that spaciousness and that energy without the psychedelics. It's not the same, but you can start to have more flexibility.
Jock Brocas: Which is what we do as mediums. It's interesting because I thought myself, Okay. Alright. You've worked in mediumship for a long time, and I've spoken to many people and researchers. If I took a psychedelic, would it enhance the experience because I had a mediumistic ability?
Here's an interesting thing. I was working as a professional medium, and… I was fairly good. But I had a near death experience. I had a car crash that nearly took us out, and I had a really strong out-of-body near-death experience. And when I came back, the abilities enhanced even more. So I had this feeling of an interconnectedness. Even now.
So I wonder, then, because I've never done psychedelics, but it's in my mind now because of the amount of research, do I try this to see where this will go? And am I holding on to that experience that maybe I had in that near-death experience, or is it gonna even go even deeper? Would it affect a trance medium in some way, or is there gonna be a different effect from someone who's just awakening to try a mystical experience or someone like Laura Lynne Jackson? Like, that'd be interesting. Has Laura Lynne taken any ayahuasca and had a completely different experience? Laura, if you're listening, have you? I want to know.
Dr Jeff Tarrant: Yeah… What's funny is, most of the mediums that I've talked to have no interest in psychedelics. They're almost kind of like, in a sense… I don't need to be any more open. You know, like, I'm already plenty open.
Jock Brocas: That's exactly how I feel, but I'm intrigued.
Dr Jeff Tarrant: It’s interesting.
Jock Brocas: It is. I said for years… there's no need to do that, I can have the same experience. But what if I did do that and take something and then had an even deeper experience… or even get back to the point where I felt that same interconnectedness as I did with the near-death experience? Is there a potential even for more research in that way? So, it does intrigue me. I haven't done it. And today, I'm like… it's there, it's in there, I'm thinking about it, and it would be interesting. And I think it might be an interesting field of research.
Dr Jeff Farrant: I think it would be…there's so much, right? I mean, like even in this brief conversation, we've come up with probably 100 ideas. There's so much to do and explore, which is also what's exciting for me… part of this is it's just the sheer exploration, right? Feeling like there are areas that we don't understand. And mystery. There's mystery out there. And to me, that's the stuff I'm interested in. Like, who cares about all the boring day-to-day stuff? Right? I mean… we got to make money, and we got to pay bills, and we got to do that. But the mystery is for me, the fun stuff.
Connect with Dr Jeff Farrant
Psychic Mind Science - Sign up for the twice-a-month newsletter and receive Dr. Tarrant’s free 30-page e-book Exploring Your Psychic Brain. A clear summary of brainwave basics, followed by an explanation of the most common brainwave patterns observed in Dr. Tarrant's research with mediums, psychics, and healers.
Deadly Departed podcast Part One: Dr Jeff Tarrant - Understanding Mediums and Psychics
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