Dr Gary Schwarz

BIOGRAPHY
Brief Academic History - Past and Present
Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery at the
University of Arizona, at the main campus in Tucson. In addition to teaching courses on health and
spiritual psychology, he is the Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.
Gary received his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University in 1971 and was an assistant professor at
Harvard for five years. He later served as a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yale University, was
director of the Yale Psychophysiology Center, and co-director of the Yale Behavioral Medicine Clinic, before
moving to Arizona in 1988.
In September 2002 he received a $1.8 million dollars award from the National Center on Complementary
and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health to create a Center for Frontier Medicine in
Biofield Science at the University of Arizona, which he directed for four years.
Gary collaborates with Canyon Ranch on biofield science and energy healing research and serves as the
Corporate Director of Development of Energy Healing at Canyon Ranch.
Publications and Honors
Gary has published more than four hundred and fifty scientific papers, including six papers in the journal
Science. Gary has also co-edited eleven academic books, is the author of The Energy Healing
Experiments (2007), The G.O.D. Experiments (2006), The Afterlife Experiments (2002), The Truth about
Medium (2005), and The Living Energy Universe (1999). His new book The Sacred Promise: How Science
is Discovering Spirits Collaboration with Us in Our Daily Lives was published in January 2011.
The Energy Healing Experiments (2007) received the Gold Medial from the Nautilus Book Awards.
Gary is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the
Society for Behavioral Medicine, and the Academy for Behavioral Medicine Research.
He received a Young Psychologist Award and an Early Career Award for Distinguished Research from the
American Psychological Association. He served as President of the Biofeedback Society of America and
the Health Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association. In 2004 he received a
Distinguished Scientist Award for Energy Psychology from the Association for Comprehensive Energy
Psychology, and in 2006 a Distinguished Scientist Award from the United States Psychotronic Association.
Media
Gary is highly experienced in speaking publicly about health psychology, energy healing, and spiritual
research, and is in high demand. He has been interviewed on major network television shows including
Dateline and Good Morning America, as well as on MSNBC, Nightline, Anderson Cooper 360, and The

OReilly Factor. His work has been the subject of documentaries and profiles on Discovery, HBO, Arts &
Entertainment, Fox, History and the SciFi Channel, among others.
Gary has been interviewed on hundreds of radio shows, including four evenings on Art Bell's Coast to
Coast AM, and on PBS, CBC and BBC. His work has been described in various magazines and newspapers
including USA Today, the London Times, The New York Times, and The LA Times, as well as a feature
profile in Biography magazine.
Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health
The Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health (LACH) at the University of Arizona was
created to investigate the role of human consciousness and its potential applications for personal,
societal, and global health.
FOR SCIENTISTS
I have written this page primarily for my scientist colleagues. We scientists are trained to carefully
examine the logic, methods, and data analyses of experiments, and to be cautious about drawing
conclusions from the data. We pay close attention to issues of controls, replicability, alternative
explanations, and the potential implications of the findings.
As an undergraduate premedical student at Cornell University with a major in psychology and a minor in
chemistry, I once read a scientific paper published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology where the
authors concluded that they were moved toward the acceptance of the possibility that ...[X] was
possible.
Think about this.
After conducting an experiment obtaining statistically significant positive findings, the researchers:
Were moved.
Moved where?: moved toward
Moved toward where? Moved toward the acceptance.
Moved toward the acceptance of what?: of the possibility.
Moved toward the acceptance of the possibility of what?: that [x] was possible.
Scientists vary in how conservative they are, ranging from being hypercritical (and even cynical) to being
highly creative (and even playful). Trained in both engineering (electrical) and music (jazz as well as
classical), I deeply appreciate both sides of the fence (conservative and creative).
Engineers must pay close attention to details and replicability so that their equipment works, their
programs run, their cars are safe, and their buildings stand. Musicians must pay close attention not only
to the details of techniques and performance, but jazz musicians, in particular, are equally focused on
creativity and playfulness.
As I have written in various books, I consider myself to be an orthodox agnostic someone who
practices true skepticism rather than pseudo-skepticism (discussed in the previous page).
So in light of my scientific training and proclivity, you may be wondering why I have published a new
book titled The Sacred Promise: How Science is Discovering Spirits Collaboration with Us in Our Daily
Lives.
The reason is 70% scientific, 30% social.
THE SCIENTIFIC PART
The scientific part is that as I explain throughout the book, this is a proof-of-concept or proof-ofpossibility book.
Drawing on extensive evidence carefully observed both in the laboratory as well as in real life I have
reached the conclusion that there is a serious possibility that not only does a greater spiritual reality
exist, but that it plays an important role in our individual and collective lives.
In other words, I have been strongly moved - by the totality of the evidence - to accept the possible
existence of a greater spiritual reality. Moreover, I am advocating that future research to be conducted by
scientists worldwide to reach a firm conclusion about this great possibility.

Could this conclusion about a greater spiritual reality be wrong? Of course this is a core reason for
conducting future research. The challenge is to excite the public and private sectors about this great
possibility so that the means necessary for conducting this research can be manifested. This is the
scientific promise.
THE SOCIAL PART
However, if there is a greater spiritual reality, and if it can actually assist us in our individual and
collective lives, than the sooner we can receive this assistance, the better it will be for our species and
the planet as a whole. This is the social part the serious possibility that humankind can benefit greatly
from this knowledge and awareness.
The fact is that time may be running out for life as we know it. As I said in the Preface, and I paraphrase
here, if ever there was a time for us to awaken to these profound possibilities, this is it the social
promise.
My hope is that The Sacred Promise helps contribute to both the scientific and social promise of the
emerging work.
As described on our website www.lach.web.arizona.edu, LACH focuses on advances in human
consciousness emerging from the process of scientific discovery. However, LACH is especially concerned
with investigating specific research topics whose controversial findings require, to various degrees, a
transformation in human consciousness. Because the discovery of seeming anomalies in science often
raises challenging questions concerning the need for substantial changes in perception, understanding,
and wisdom, LACH includes eight specific consciousness research areas that are controversial in society
as well as in mainstream scientific disciplines including psychology:
Evolution of Consciousness and Understanding (Universal Hypotheses and Post-Materialism)***
The Role of Consciousness in Health and Healing***
Survival of Consciousness After Death***
Quantum Holographic Consciousness
Group and Global Consciousness
Animal Consciousness
Other Worldly / Higher Spiritual Consciousness***
Universal Intelligence Hypothesis
The areas with *** are currently featured in the laboratory.
Funding for the laboratory comes from various sources, including private foundations and individual
donors as well as, for selective projects, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Recent books include The Energy Healing Experiments and The Sacred Promise. Our findings have been
published in open-minded peer reviewed scientific journals including the Journal of Scientific Exploration
and Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing.
We invite you to visit www.lach.web.arizona.edu for information about the laboratory.

Brief History of Prior Laboratory Activities

I have had the privilege to direct a number of basic and applied laboratories and research clinics over the
course of my academic career (1971 to present). I provide a brief history below:
Clinical Psychophysiology Unit
In the early 1970's, I directed a team of scientists exploring the possibility of applying Darwin's theories
of facial expression and emotion to the measurement of depression and anxiety in patients suffering from
affective disorders. At that time I was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard. The Clinical
Psychology Unit was located in the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center of the Massachusetts General
Hospital. We discovered that when people imagined being in different emotional states, their facial
muscles generated tiny facial patterns that were invisible to the naked eye (but were recordable with
sensitive electromyograms). The facial muscles patterns were correlated with depression and anxiety and
tracked responses not only to antidepressant medication but placebos as well. The research was funded

by the FDA and also by NIMH (the National Institute of Mental Health). Our findings were published in
mainstream journals including Science and Psychosomatic Medicine.
Yale Psychophysiology Center
In the late 1970's through the mid 1980's, I directed a team of scientists and students exploring various
areas of mind-body medicine, including EEG and physiological correlates of repression and self-deception,
meditation and stress management, and EEG and physiological responses to various aromas believed to
have therapeutic applications (termed aromatherapy). At that time I was a Professor of Psychology and
Psychiatry at Yale. The research was funded by NSF (the National Science Foundation), NIMH, and NHLBI
(the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute). Our findings were published in mainstream journals
including Psychophysiology and Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Yale Behavioral Medicine Clinic
During this same time period, Dr. Hoyle Leigh, a professor of Psychiatry at Yale, and I co-founded the
clinic to foster an integration "biopsychosocial" approach to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of
disease. We employed the Patient Evaluation Grid (PEG) and a team of physicians, psychologists, nurses,
and social workers, to examine health and illness from an integrative perspective. Various mind-body
questions were addressed by the clinic and published in mainstream journals including The American
Journal of Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine.
Human Energy Systems Laboratory
In the mid 1990's through mid 2000, I directed a team of scientists and students exploring the potential
role of energy in psychology and medicine. Unlike my previous research, which was cutting edge yet
mainstream, this research was controversial and even "bleeding edge." We addressed questions such as
(1) can humans detect the energy and intentions of others, (2) can energy be measured electronically,
and (3) does energy have implications for the nature of consciousness and even the possibility of survival
of consciousness after physical death? The research was funded primarily through private foundations
and individual donors. Though these studies employed mainstream and well accept experimental designs
and statistical analyses, the findings were deemed too controversial by reviewers to be accepted by
mainstream journals. Our findings were published in peer reviewed journals including Journal of Scientific
Exploration and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
Center for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science
From 2003 - 2007, I had the privilege to direct an interdisciplinary center funded by NCCAM (National
Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) from NIH (National Institutes of Health). The team of
scientists participating in the center included biophysicists, biostatisticians, psychophysiologists, research
physicians (including surgeons and psychiatrists), PhD nurses, and research-oriented healers. We
conducted a series of experiments examining the effects of Reiki, Johrei, and other energy healing
techniques on ecoli bacteria, biophoton emission in plants, microvascular leakage in rats, and patients
recovering from cardiac surgery. Though some of our experiments allowed for carefully controlled doubleblind designs, the findings were again too controversial for mainstream journals. Our findings were
published in peer reviewed journals including Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and
Journal of Scientific Exploration.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Why did you begin doing research using the methods of science to address the question of a greater
spiritual reality?
The brief answer was that it was partly professional, and partly personal.
Professionally, while I was a professor at Yale University, I came to realize that the science of astrophysics
was made possible because information carried by light had a kind of immortality.
What I mean is that optical and radio telescopes reveal replicable patterns in photons be the patterns in
the visible spectrum or outside the visible spectrum (e.g. radio waves or gamma waves) and we see
clear patterns such as galaxies or super-clusters of galaxies extending billions of years back in time. In
other words, in the so-called vacuum of space, massless quanta of energies termed photons
which function also as waves distributed in space, maintain the integrity of their information. If they did
not, and it all became random over time, when we looked at the sky at night, all we would see is noise.

I realized that our energies and information our photons are no different that the photons of stars
and galaxies. They are just weaker in intensity. But they also travel and persist in the vacuum of space
as documented by contemporary spy satellites.
I began to entertain the hypothesis that the
probability that our energies and information and hence our memories and personalities might
continue after we physically died, was the same probability that the light from distant stars continued
after they died.
Hence, contemporary quantum and astrophysics led me to become open to the possibility of survival of
consciousness and the existence of a greater spiritual reality.
However, it was not until I came to know a number of special women, particularly Susy Smith who is
featured in four of my books and more recently, the late Marcia Eklund, the mother-in-law I never met
in the physical (but through mediums I have met from the other side as described in Rhonda EklundSchwartzs book Love Eternal) I was encouraged to conduct research to determine whether their
deceased loved ones were still here (and after they died, to determine that they were still here too).
The sound bite is that I was pushed to do the work by science and theory, but I was pulled to the do work
because of special women who wanted to know if love continued beyond physical life.
And when you are pushed and pulled in the same direction, it is very hard to resist.
Hence I began the work.
Were you a believer in a greater spiritual reality when you began this research?
No. I was raised in a reform Jewish household and my parents believed it was ashes to ashes, dust to
dust, case closed. I was also raised to believe this way through my training in Western science.
However, my parents encouraged me to keep an open mind about science and life in general, as did a
number of inspiring teachers and professors (see orthodox agnostism on the True Skepticism page).
Are you trying to prove that the soul exists, or that Angels and Guides exist?
Absolutely not. As I have written in multiple books, what I am trying to do is give [X], if it is exists
whatever [X] is the opportunity to prove itself.
My philosophy is that metaphorically, good science is like good gardening. If you want to determine if a
given seed can grow, it is important to provide the seed with the optimal conditions for growth
including soil, water, light, nutrients, appropriate temperature, etc. It is up to the seed, if it is a viable
seed, to prove that it can grow.
When it comes to science, I to be a good gardener.
FYI, though I sometimes use terms like proof-of-concept and proof-of-possibility, I use these terms in
the more general sense. Laboratory scientists prefer not to use the term proof rather, we collect data
and draw conclusions about the probability that a given phenomenon or explain might be true (termed
rejecting the null hypothesis in statistics).
What do you believe today?
After having published six books on the bridge between science and spirituality, I have come to the
conclusion that there is a serious possibility - if not probability - that not only does a greater spiritual
reality exist, but that it can play an important role in our individual and collective lives.
Moreover, as described in The Sacred Promise, I have come to conclusion that science is on the path to
proving that a greater spirituality exists. Any open minded and reasonable person who carefully studies
the totality of the evidence reported in the collection of books I have written will likely reach a similar
positive conclusion about the direction the research is going.
Moreover, as implicated on the Post-Materialism page, I (as well as other senior scientists) have come to
the conclusion that the emerging shift from Materialism to Post-Materialism may become the single
greatest transformation in the history of both science and society.

Though I use the word "belief" from time to time in my books for the general public, I prefer to use
scientific terms like working hypotheses, possibilities (qualified from slight to substantial depending
upon the circumstance), or tentative conclusions.
Do you really believe that people like Albert Einstein or Harry Houdini are participating in this research?
If relatively unknown people like Susy Smith can be documented to be participating in this research, as
well as completely unknown people such Marcia Eklund or Shirley Schwartz, then in principle there is no
reason why very well known scientist and entertainers can be documented to be participating as well.
What matters here are not fame or fortune, but intention and sense of purpose (on their parts as well
as ours).
The questioning scientist, and especially the super-skeptic, will be quick to challenge my statement that it
is possible, both theoretically and experimentally, to determine whether a specific deceased person, or
other spiritual being, is indeed participating in this research. I wrote the book The Sacred Promise to
demonstrate how this is possible.
Can any of us seek spiritual assistance for healing, guidance, and protection, in our personal lives?
The answer in principle is yes. Just as anyone (who has eyes) can learn to see patterns of distant stars if
they are willing to go outside on a cloudless and moonless night, away from the city lights, anyone can
learn to invite the presence of helpful spirits for the best and highest good.
However, if you simply look at a cloudless sky during the day, you will not see the stars (because we
blinded by the brightness of the closed star, which we call the sun).
The take home message is sometimes we have to go into the dark in order to see the light.
Is seeking spirit sometimes dangerous, and can we sometimes fool ourselves?
Yes, and absolutely. I discuss these possibilities at great length in Appendices B and C in The Sacred
Promise.
Is there any one lesson that you have learned in the process of doing this research?
The answer is yes, and it is always be prepared for surprises.
As The Sacred Promise explains in great detail, the most important, memorable and meaningful
discoveries I have witnessed over the years were ones which I did not predict, and often could not even
have imagined.
It stands to reason that They if They exist know things that we do not know, and maybe cannot
know because we (in physical life) are typically restricted to being in a material form (save for special
states of consciousness fostered for example by certain drugs and meditation practices).
A related slogan I that came to me in 2009 is Never underestimate the Universe.
The big implication is for us to keep an open mind and remain humble to possibility. This does not mean
that we should become uncritical in our thinking, or blindly accept the appearance of the unexpected.
The key is the development of discernment.
Some people call me Mister If (because I am always asking if questions).
What is especially exciting to me is that all of us, in our own unique ways, can use the laboratories of our
personal lives aided by the scientific method to go beyond our current beliefs and understanding, and
continue on the inspiring journey of inner and outer discovery. I call this "self-science" - a set of tools we
can all learn to use.
http://www.drgaryschwartz.com/