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PARAPSYCHOLOGY
Fifty percent of the population holds some form of paranormal belief. Parapsychology research is booming and there are UK university departments studying phenomena such as psychics, séances, and telepathy. Much of the growth of parapsychology in the UK might be owed to the late Bob Morris, who in 1985 became the inaugural holder of The Koestler Chair of Psychology in Edinburgh University.

Dr Raj Persaud discusses the latest developments in the world of parapsychology with Dr Caroline Watt, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and a founder member of the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at Edinburgh University; and Professor Christopher French, Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

LAUGHTER
The psychological and scientific study of laughter has recently taken a turn for the serious. Evolutionary theory argues that any behaviour as universal as laughter must have some solemn survival purpose. And laughter has such profound effects on people’s brain and mind that it is now being seriously deployed to assist those suffering bereavement, having surgery, and even fertility treatment. Could further understanding of the function laughter served become a weapon in our armoury of persuasion and manipulation of others?

A recent study by the Universities of Kent and Liverpool revealed that laughter acts as a social lubricant and increases altruism towards strangers. Mark Van Vugt, Professor of Social Psychology and a member for the University of Kent’s Centre for the Study of Group Processes explains how this theory was tested.

MIND WARS
The United States defence agencies are looking at ways of improving soldiers’ endurance and psychological performance as well as ways of using brain power to remotely control machines, such as robots or aircraft.

Professor Jonathan Moreno, Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia, talks about his latest book Mind Wars – Brain Research and National Defense - which reveals how advances in brain research may change the way wars are fought in the future, and how developments in neuroscience could be employed to control soldiers, or maybe even the enemy.