You know it’s serious when I post on a Tuesday.

The CUNY Academic Commons is a place for all of us at CUNY to meet and exchange ideas, develop our interests, manage of collective obligations to the University and, hopefully, learn something.  While this platform is primarily for the CUNY community it is, in a much broader sense, an extension of the concept of ‘The Academy’ and it is in the spirit of that approach that I’d like to point out a development on the blogs here that I felt might deserve some attention and discussion.

On April 25th Michael Oman-Reagan posted, via Religion Scholars, an interesting bit of news that was making the rounds among both scholars of religion and of physics.  Initially, the word was that both Brian Josephson of Cambridge and David Peat were ‘dis-invited’ from a Towler Institute workshop because their body of research fell into studies of the ‘paranormal’.  Now I don’t know much about quantum physics, but apparently if you cut a cat in half and ship the box to two different planets the cat comes back alive, or something, which is pretty paranormal to me.  I don’t know, you read about Schrödinger’s cat and tell me what you get out of it.  Anyways…both of the gentlemen received letters from Antony Valentini on behalf of the Towler Institute.

Dr. Josephson received a letter explicitly stating that:

“It has come to my attention that one of your principal research interests is the paranormal. I have told Dr Towler that, in my view, it would not be appropriate for someone with such research interests to attend a scientific conference.”

While Dr. Peat was told:

“It has come to my attention that you are the author of books on Jungian synchronicity and quantum physics, and on connections between Native American Indian thought and modern physics. I have told Dr Towler that, in my view, it is not appropriate for an author of such books to attend a scientific conference.”

I mean, ok, you know, it’s a physics conference.  Limited space, limited resources.  Nobody knows about space and space restrictions better than a physicist.  Apparently the bad press was enough to send Dr. Valentini to the internet in a chance to clear the air a little and he wound up making his public statement here.  On the Commons!  In the Comments!

I don’t want to paraphrase too much, so take a look and read the reply yourself.  With any luck Dr. Josephson or Dr. Peat might swing by as well and we can have a discussion about the parameters of the ‘paranormal’ as part of a dialogue in physics.

See ya soon!