Stanley Krippner

Stanley Krippner (born October 4, 1932) is an American psychologist, parapsychologist, and an executive faculty member and Professor of Psychology at Saybrook University in Oakland, California. Formerly, Krippner was director of the Kent State University Child Study Center (of Kent, Ohio), and director of the Maimonides Medical Center Dream Research Laboratory (of Brooklyn, New York).

Krippner has written extensively on altered states of consciousness, dream telepathy, hypnosis, shamanism, dissociation, and parapsychological subjects. Krippner was an early leader in Division 32 of the American Psychological Association, the division concerned with humanistic psychology, serving as President of the division from 1980 - 1981. He also served as president of division 30, the Society for Psychological Hypnosis, and is a Fellow of four APA divisions. Krippner has conducted experiments with Montague Ullman into dream telepathy at the Maimonides Medical Center.

Dream telepathy

Krippner's dream telepathy experiments have not been independently replicated.

In 1985, psychologist C. E. M. Hansel criticized the picture target experiments that were conducted by Krippner and Ullman. According to Hansel there were weaknesses in the design of the experiments in the way in which the agent became aware of their target picture. Only the agent should have known the target and no other person until the judging of targets had been completed, however, an experimenter was with the agent when the target envelope was opened. Hansel also wrote there had been poor controls in the experiment as the main experimenter could communicate with the subject. In 2002, Krippner denied Hansel's accusations claiming the agent did not communicate with the experimenter.

An attempt to replicate the experiments that used picture targets was carried out by Edward Belvedere and David Foulkes. The finding was that neither the subject nor the judges matched the targets with dreams above chance level. Results from other experiments by Belvedere and Foulkes were also negative.

In 2003, Simon Sherwood and Chris Roe wrote a review that claimed support for dream telepathy at Maimonides. However, James Alcock noted that their review was based on "extreme messiness" of data. Alcock concluded the dream telepathy experiments at Maimonides have failed to provide evidence for telepathy and "lack of replication is rampant."

Psychics

Krippner has drawn criticism for endorsing the feats of a Russian psychic Nina Kulagina. Science writer Martin Gardner found it surprising that Krippner took interest in Kulagina despite knowing that she was "a pretty, plump, dark-eyed little charlatan" who was caught on two occasions using tricks to move objects. Krippner took issue with this statement believing it to be an attack on himself and wrote there was "no suggestion of trickery." However, psychologists Jerome Kravitz and Walter Hillabrant have noted that she was "caught cheating more than once by Soviet Establishment scientists." Gardner later commenting on Kulagina stated that she utilized invisible threads to move objects.

Krippner has contributed to and co-edited Future Science: Life Energies and the Physics of Paranormal Phenomena (1977). It included an essay from the parapsychologist Julius Weinberger, who claimed to have communicated with the dead by using a Venus flytrap as the medium. Philosopher Paul Kurtz criticized the book for endorsing pseudoscience.

Magician and noted skeptic Henry Gordon has written:

A reading of Krippner's book, Human Possibilities, published by Doubleday, convinced me that there is a man sincere in his beliefs in the paranormal and bending over backward to be fair and open minded but incredibly naive. In his book he endorses the feats of several psychics who have already been exposed as frauds.

Krippner co-edited and contributed to Debating Psychic Experience (2010). He also co-edited and contributed to Varieties of Anomalous Experience (2013) which has received positive reviews.

Author

• 1980 - Human Possibilities: Mind Research in the USSR and Eastern Europe (Anchor/Doubleday Books) ISBN 0-385-12805-3
• 1976 - Song of the Siren: A Parapsychological Odyssey (Harper & Row) ISBN 0-06-064786-8
• 1971 - Shamlet: The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Exposition Press)

Co-author

• 2012 - Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (Biographies of Disease) (with Daniel Pitchford and Jeannine Davies). (ABC-CLIO/Greenwood)
• 2012 - The Voice of Rolling Thunder: A Medicine Man's Wisdom for Walking the Red Road (with Sidian Morning Star Jones). (Bear & Company) ISBN 1-59143-133-6
• 2011 - Demystifying Shamans and their World: A Multidisciplinary Study (with Adam Rock). (Imprint-Academic)
• 2010 - Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans, Rev. ed. (New Epilogue, with Daryl S. Paulson). (Rowman & Littlefield)
• 2007 - Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans, Including Women, Reservists, and Those Coming Back from Iraq (with Daryl S. Paulson). (Praeger Security International)
• 2006 - The Mythic Path, 3rd ed. (with David Feinstein). (Energy Psychology Press)
• 2004 - Becoming Psychic: Spiritual Lessons for Focusing Your Hidden Abilities (with Stephen Kierulff). (New Page Books) ISBN 1-56414-755-X
• 2002 - Extraordinary Dreams and How to Work with Them (with Fariba Bogzaran & Andre Percia de Carvalho). (SUNY Press)
• 1997 - The Mythic Path (with David Feinstein). (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam) ISBN 0-87477-857-3
• 1993 - A Psychiatrist in Paradise: Treating Mental Illness in Bali (with Denny Thong and Bruce Carpenter). (White Lotus Press) ISBN 974-8495-77-9
• 1992 - Spiritual Dimensions of Healing: From Tribal Shamanism to Contemporary Health Care (with Patrick Welch). (Irvington Publishers) ISBN 0-8290-2462-X
• 1989 - Dream Telepathy: Experiments in Nocturnal ESP, 2nd ed. (with Montague Ullman and Alan Vaughan)(McFarland Publishers) ISBN 1-57174-321-9
• 1988 - Personal Mythology: The Psychology of Your Evolving Self (with David Feinstein). (Jeremy P. Tarcher) ISBN 0-87477-483-7
• 1988 - Dreamworking: How to Use Your Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving (with Joseph Dillard). (Bearly Ltd.) ISBN 0-943456-25-8
• 1987 - Zwischen Himmel und Erde: Spirituelles Heilen der Schamanen, Hexen, Priester und Medien (with Patrick Scott). (Chiron Verlag)
• 1987 - Healing States (with Alberto Villoldo). (Fireside Books/Simon & Schuster) ISBN 0-671-63202-7
• 1986 - La Science et les Pouvoirs Psychiques de l'Homme (with Jerry Solfvin). (Sand)
• 1986 - The Realms of Healing, 3rd ed. (with Alberto Villoldo). (Celestial Arts Press) (rev. ed. 1977) ISBN 0-89087-474-3
• 1974 - Dream Telepathy: Experiments in Nocturnal ESP (with Montague Ullman and Alan Vaughan). (Macmillan)

Editor

• 1990 - Dreamtime and Dreamwork: Decoding the Language of the Night (Jeremy P. Tarcher)
• 1987-1997 - Advances in Parapsychological Research Vols. 4-8; 4(1984), 5(1987), 6(1990), 7(1994), 8(1997) (McFarland Publishing)
• 1977-1982 - Advances in Parapsychological Research Vols. 1-3; 1(1977), 2(1978), 3(1982) (Plenum Press)
• 1979 - Psychoenergetic Systems: The Interface of Consciousness, Energy and Matter (Gordon & Breach)

Co-editor

• 2016 - The Shamanic Powers of Rolling Thunder (with Sidian Morning Star Jones). (Bear & Co.)
• 2016 - Working with Dreams and PTSD Nightmares: 14 Approaches for Psychotherapists and Counselors, (with Jacquie Lewis). (Praeger)
• 2014 - Varieties of Anomalous Experience, 2nd ed.(with Etzel Cardena and Steven Jay Lynn). (American Psychological Association)
• 2013 - Advances in Parapsychological Research, Vol. 9 (with Rock, Beischel, Friedman, and Fracasso). (McFarland)
• 2010 - Debating Psychic Experience: Human Potential or Human Illusion? (with Harris L. Friedman). (Praeger)
• 2010 - Mysterious Minds: The Neurobiology of Psychics, Mediums, and Other Extraordinary People (with Harris L. Friedman). (Praeger)
• 2009 - Perchance to Dream: The Frontiers of Dream Psychology (with Debbie Joffe Ellis). (Nova Science)
• 2007 - Healing Stories: The Use of Narrative in Counseling and Psychotherapy (with Michael Bova, & Leslie Gray). (Puente)
• 2007 - Healing Tales: The Narrative Arts in Spiritual Traditions (with Michael Bova, Leslie Gray, & Adam Kay). (Puente)
• 2003 - The Psychological Impact of War Trauma on Civilians: An International Perspective (with Teresa M McIntyre). (Praeger)
• 2000 - Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence (with Etzel Cardena & Steven J. Lynn). (American Psychological Association)
• 1999 - Dreamscaping (with Mark Waldman). (Lowell House)
• 1997 - Broken Images, Broken Selves: Dissociative Narratives in Clinical Practice (with Susan Powers). (Brunner/Mazel)
• 1977 - Future Science: Life Energies and the Physics of Paranormal Phenomena (with John White). (Anchor Books)
• 1975 - The Energies of Consciousness: Explorations in Acupuncture, Auras, and Kirlian Photography (with Daniel Rubin). (Gordon & Breach)
• 1974 - The Kirlian Aura: Photographing the Galaxies of Life (with Daniel Rubin). (Anchor Books)
• 1973 - Galaxies of Life: The Human Aura in Acupuncture and Kirlian Photography (with Daniel Rubin). (Gordon & Breach)