Dr. Helané Wahbeh, director of research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) and a naturopathic physician, discusses her scientific research program on channeling, telepathy, energy medicine, and non-local consciousness, blending rigorous methodology with direct experiential investigation.
How Channeling Is Studied Scientifically
Wahbeh developed the IONS Channeling Research Program to address core questions: how common is channeling, who can do it, how does it work, and is the content useful and verifiable.
She applies standard scientific methods — controlled experiments, statistical analysis, peer review — to phenomena typically excluded from mainstream science, arguing that science is a process, not a dogma limited to certain questions.
A central challenge: conventional experimental design assumes independence between observer and observed, but channeling and telepathy appear to depend on interconnectedness, requiring new study designs that don’t suppress the phenomenon under investigation.
Example: out-of-body experience studies that place numbers on operating room ceilings fail because attention during such experiences is relational (focused on bodies, conversations), not on arbitrary targets.
How Common Is Channeling
Approximately eight out of ten people report some form of channeling experience — gut hunches, intuitive knowing, spontaneous insights — though most don’t discuss it due to stigma.
Research shows channelers are generally high-functioning, well-adjusted, and do not meet clinical thresholds for psychosis or dissociation; a small minority with intense, distressing experiences do need support.
The prevailing framework: consciousness is not limited to the physical brain and body; information can be accessed non-locally through an interconnected field, aligning with a non-physicalist paradigm.
Telepathy Study: Emotionally Bonded Pairs
IONS conducted a controlled study with 100 emotionally bonded pairs (spouses, parent-child, close friends) using a blinded intention-detection protocol over Zoom.
Person A either sent healing intention to Person B or performed a mental subtraction task (distractor); Person B guessed which condition was active across 10 randomized trials, then roles reversed.
Follow-up questions: is the effect driven by the sender’s intention strength or the receiver’s perceptual sensitivity? Can performance be trained? Do top performers generalize beyond their partner?
Next steps include EEG/fMRI correlates, mind-matter interaction tasks, and a new Telepathy Ability and Experience Questionnaire to capture the varied phenomenology (symbols, somatic cues, hunger sensations, not just verbal thoughts).
IONS is also building a Telepathy Evidence Map to aggregate hundreds of existing studies — including sleep telepathy experiments — countering claims the field has been “debunked.”
Mayim & Jonathan’s Synchronicity
Hosts Mayim Bialik and Jonathan Cohen recount a personal synchronicity: after six years of no contact, Jonathan spent two days thinking about Mayim and Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul for a project; simultaneously, Mayim — recovering from vocal cord surgery — picked up a Peter Levine book Jonathan had gifted her years earlier and emailed him asking if he’d read The Untethered Soul.
The convergence of specific, low-probability elements (the book, the author, the timing) illustrates the kind of meaningful coincidence that telepathy research attempts to study systematically.
ET/UAP Channeling Research
Wahbeh noticed a surge in trance channelers claiming extraterrestrial sources alongside mainstream UAP disclosure; she designed two studies to test correspondence between channeled material and documented UAP data.
Retrospective study: Collated 6,000+ pages of channeled content from channelers who believed their source was extraterrestrial; compared to ~1 million pages of military/disclosure documents (EURODEX) using AI semantic correspondence across 10 questions (origin, travel, disclosure timeline, purpose). Results showed remarkable alignment — surprising given the militaristic tone of government documents versus the typically spiritual tone of channeled material.
Prospective study: Three trusted, vetted channelers conducted 30 structured sessions (10 ET groups each: Pleiadians, Orions, Sirians, Grays, etc.) with intention-setting and safe-space protocols. Semantic correspondence across channelers for the same ET group was high; correspondence across different groups was also high.
Limitations: cultural lore contamination possible, though two channelers had minimal UAP knowledge and one actively avoided it.
Consistent themes: Beneficent ETs from multiple civilizations support humanity’s awakening — becoming more peaceful, loving, avoiding self-destruction — working through both physical disclosure and energetic “holding space.” A smaller negative faction seeks power/control, possibly collaborating with human elements, but the larger faction asserts “we’re going to win.” Earth described as a quarantined neighborhood now ready to rejoin; ETs frame their role as mentorship through transition.
Wahbeh emphasizes all content is framed as channeled material, not verified fact; the value lies in pattern analysis, not ontological claims.
Channeling & Parenting
Wahbeh describes channeling as exponentially improving her quality of life, especially decision-making (accessing multiple ways of knowing) and energetic management (critical for her high sensitivity to others’ emotions).
She practices daily energetic exercises with her 13-year-old son (“the ease”) — morning and bedtime — which he now recognizes as tools for self-regulation; he recently identified a classmate’s dysregulation as lacking “the ease.”
Latest Reiki & Energy Medicine Research
Multiple studies show positive clinical outcomes from energy healing (Reiki, Qigong, etc.) for pain, anxiety, depression — small effect sizes but consistent benefit, even controlling for expectancy (belief didn’t mediate outcomes).
Mechanism unknown; Bangston’s research on electromagnetic frequency effects on cancer cells (mice and in vitro human cells) offers a potential physical correlate.
Clairvoyant seer study: In a 200-person hand/wrist pain study with multiple healers, a clairvoyant observer documented energy flow, colors, blockages, and — unexpectedly — non-physical beings present in almost every session (practitioner’s guide, participant’s guide, ancestors, negative attachments).
Replication with six independent seers: Six clairvoyants observed Reiki sessions blind to each other’s reports (video-monitored, instructed not to communicate). High correspondence: all identified same attachments at same locations with same colors/energetic signatures; described practitioner/participant guides and ancestral presences consistently.
Interpretation: early exploratory evidence suggesting an objective, perceivable non-physical dimension to energy healing sessions; “objective reality behind the scenes of this reality.”
Exorcism, Depossession & Negative Energies
Modern term: “depossession” (used in Brazilian Spiritism); concept: earthbound spirits — consciousness that didn’t transition after death due to sudden death, fear, attachment, or unresolved issues — remain at dense energetic vibration and attach to living people.
Most “negative” effects are not malicious demons but heavy, stuck beings seeking mortal experiences (e.g., an alcoholic spirit attaching to a living person to drink vicariously).
Clinical psychology protocols for spirit release show remarkable improvements: phobia resolution, physical symptom remission. Wahbeh hopes to study this in psychotic-spectrum populations.
Intergenerational Trauma Healing Study
Pilot study in design: test whether energy healing on an adult with HPA-axis dysregulation (cortisol/glucocorticoid receptor disruption from trauma) produces measurable shifts in both their parent and child — biologically testing the “healing ripples backward and forward” hypothesis.
Practical knowledge: breaking abuse cycles changes outcomes; this study asks what the energetic mechanism looks like physiologically.
Religion, Spirituality & Dogma
Wahbeh sees core truths shared across religions beneath dogmatic overlays; “spiritual but not religious” reflects a growing recognition of this common ground.
Reconciliation is individual: find a community or path aligning with personal values; some denominations within traditions are more open to intuitive/energetic practices than others.
Non-Materialist Worldview & The Noetic Handshake
Alternative to materialism: consciousness is fundamental, not limited to brain/body, transcends conventional time/space, interconnecting all beings — enabling telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, and interaction with non-physical consciousness (guides, ancestors, ETs).
“Noetic handshake”: intersection of direct transcendent experience and scientific validation; direct experience is more transformative than data alone (e.g., neuroscientist Christof Koch’s worldview shift).
Tools for exploration: Wahbeh’s book The Science of Channeling includes the Ways of Knowing Assessment (quiz identifying intuitive style: embodiment, supersenses, emotions, directness) and other exercises to cultivate internal data for decision-making amid uncertainty.
