Overview

Julie Beischel has established herself as a leading researcher in the scientific study of mediumship, developing rigorous experimental protocols to investigate whether mediums can report accurate and specific information about deceased individuals under controlled laboratory conditions. Her work addresses a central question in parapsychology: whether anomalous information reception occurs in mediumship readings, and if so, what mechanisms might account for it. Rather than assuming survival of consciousness or any particular theoretical framework, her research methodology is designed to eliminate conventional explanations (sensory cues, prior knowledge, fraud, and experimenter bias) while documenting both the accuracy of mediums’ statements and the subjective experiences mediums report during readings.

Beischel’s approach combines quantitative outcome measures with qualitative phenomenological analysis. She has developed the Windbridge Certified Research Medium (WCRM) program, a rigorous screening and training protocol that identifies mediums capable of participating in controlled research. This program has become central to her laboratory work and has enabled systematic comparison of mediums’ accuracy across multiple studies and conditions. Her research also extends beyond proof-focused studies of accuracy to examine the potential therapeutic applications of mediumship readings for bereaved populations, exploring how assisted after-death communication experiences may support grief resolution.

Life and career

Beischel founded the Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential in Tucson, Arizona, where she serves as co-founder and Director of Research. The Institute has become a focal point for contemporary mediumship research, housing both the WCRM program and the laboratory facilities where her controlled studies are conducted.

Her research trajectory has evolved to encompass multiple dimensions of mediumship. Early work focused on developing and validating contemporary laboratory methods for mediumship research.⁶ She subsequently conducted a series of replication and extension studies examining the accuracy of mediums’ information reception under increasingly rigorous blinding conditions. Her work has progressively incorporated physiological, neurobiological, and phenomenological measures alongside accuracy assessments, creating a multidimensional portrait of mediumship as a complex human experience.

Beischel has collaborated extensively with Adam J. Rock, a psychologist specializing in altered states of consciousness and mediumship phenomenology, and with Mark Boccuzzi, a researcher at the Windbridge Institute. These collaborations have produced both quantitative studies of mediumship accuracy and qualitative investigations of mediums’ subjective experiences. Her work has also engaged with broader parapsychological literature, situating mediumship research within the context of anomalous cognition and psi phenomena more generally.

Research

Mediumship accuracy under blinded conditions

Beischel’s most prominent research program examines whether mediums can report accurate and specific information about deceased individuals when conventional sensory and cognitive pathways are eliminated. Her foundational triple-blind protocol requires that mediums, raters, and experimenters all remain blinded to which reading corresponds to which target.⁷ In this design, mediums conduct phone-based readings about deceased individuals (discarnates) without prior knowledge of the sitter or the deceased person. Sitters then rate both the target reading and decoy readings, providing global accuracy scores and forced-choice selections.

A landmark replication and extension study involved 20 Windbridge Certified Research Mediums conducting 86 readings under blinded conditions.¹ Results demonstrated statistically significant differences between target and decoy readings across multiple outcome measures: estimated accuracy of reading items, calculated accuracy of reading items, hits versus misses, global scores, and forced-choice selections. The study reported effect sizes ranging from small to large, with the largest effect observed in the hits-versus-misses comparison. These findings replicated earlier results and extended them to a larger sample of mediums and readings.

A related study of ten Windbridge Certified Research Mediums employed a different design in which mediums conducted blinded readings for both living and deceased targets, along with a control condition, while completing the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) to assess their subjective experiences.² Results showed that in 74% of readings, mediums’ impressions accurately reflected whether the target was living or deceased, a statistically significant finding. Mediums reported significantly higher hypnoidal state scores (trance-like experience) during both reading conditions compared to baseline and control. Both reading types produced significantly higher scores on altered time sense, imagery, imagery amount, and direction of attention, and lower scores on volitional control. Notably, mediums reported significantly higher emotional warmth during readings for deceased targets compared to living targets.

Phenomenology of mediumship

Beischel has conducted systematic qualitative investigations of how mediums experience receiving information from the deceased. In one study, eight research mediums were asked to describe in detail their personal experience of discarnate communication as part of a comprehensive screening procedure.³ Thematic analysis revealed seven comprehensive constituent themes characterizing mediums’ phenomenology. The study notes that while contemporary mediumship research has produced positive findings regarding the accuracy of mediums’ statements, the data do not directly address which parapsychological mechanisms are involved in that reception, whether anomalous information reception reflects survival of consciousness, super-psi (retrieval of information through other anomalous means), or other explanations.

Beischel has also examined correlations between mediums’ phenomenological experiences and reading accuracy. In the study comparing living and deceased target readings, global accuracy scores for living targets were significantly negatively correlated with imagery vividness and absorption, whereas accuracy scores for deceased targets showed no significant correlations with phenomenological dimensions. However, the correlations differed significantly between conditions for positive affect and accuracy.

Therapeutic applications and grief

Beyond proof-focused studies of accuracy, Beischel has investigated the potential therapeutic applications of mediumship readings for bereaved populations. Research on spontaneous after-death communication experiences, in which bereaved individuals report sensing the presence of deceased loved ones or receiving messages from them, has documented that these experiences fulfill specific psychological needs and positively impact grief resolution.⁴ Beischel has extended this research to examine whether assisted after-death communication during readings with mediums produces similar effects. Her work suggests that mediumship readings may serve as a self-prescribed treatment for grief, offering bereaved individuals a structured opportunity for contact with deceased loved ones.

Survey research on psi awareness and experience

Beischel and Boccuzzi developed the Windbridge Psi and Related Phenomena Awareness Questionnaire (WPRPAQ), a novel survey instrument designed to assess awareness of and experience with anomalous phenomena from an experience-centered perspective.⁵ The questionnaire categorizes phenomena as bidirectional (involving two or more people, such as energy healing, mediumship, and telepathy) or unidirectional (generally involving only the experiencer, such as out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, and children’s memories of previous lives). Survey data collected from self-identified mediums and non-mediums revealed that more than 80% of each sample reported awareness of all ten phenomena assessed. However, self-identified mediums reported significantly higher prevalence of awareness and experience with anomalous phenomena compared to non-mediums, with the largest differences observed for micropsychokinesis and macropsychokinesis.

Physiological and neurobiological correlates

Beischel’s research program has progressively incorporated physiological and neurobiological measures. Studies have examined hematological and psychophysiological correlates of anomalous information reception in mediums,⁸ and electrocortical activity associated with subjective communication with the deceased.⁹ These investigations aim to identify biological markers or neural signatures associated with mediumship experiences, potentially illuminating the mechanisms underlying anomalous information reception.

Instrumental transcommunication

Beischel and Boccuzzi have also examined instrumental transcommunication (ITC), the use of technological devices to facilitate communication with the deceased.¹⁰ In a pilot study of reported real-time audio ITC using EVPMaker software, they conducted objective analyses comparing sessions conducted by an experienced ITC operator with matched control sessions. The study examined the distribution of speech elements generated, independent blinded listening panel interpretations, content analysis of questions and perceived responses, and automated speech recognition analysis. Results indicated no significant differences between active and control sessions in the allophones present or in the proportions of participants recognizing words in samples. The perceived responses did not consistently contain information logically matching the operator’s questions, and automated speech recognition was unable to detect the phrases the operator perceived. The authors suggest that future studies might focus on the psychology and motivation of ITC operators and the potentially psi-conducive effects of using such technology.

Methodological development

Throughout her career, Beischel has emphasized methodological rigor and transparency. Her work has systematically addressed potential confounds in mediumship research: sensory cues (through phone-based readings and blinding), prior knowledge (through randomization and blinding of experimenters), fraud (through multiple independent raters and blinded conditions), and rater bias (through blinded sitter ratings and forced-choice selections). She has documented contemporary methods used in laboratory-based mediumship research,⁶ providing a comprehensive overview of the protocols and controls employed in the field.

Influence and reception

Beischel’s work has established mediumship research as a legitimate area of scientific inquiry within parapsychology. Her development of the Windbridge Certified Research Medium program has created a standardized approach to identifying and screening mediums for research participation, enabling systematic comparison across studies and replication by other laboratories. The WCRM program represents an important methodological contribution, analogous to standardized protocols in other areas of parapsychological research.

Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals spanning parapsychology, psychology, neuroscience, and thanatology. Studies have appeared in the Journal of Parapsychology, Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, the Journal of Scientific Exploration, the Journal of Near-Death Studies, and Frontiers in Psychology, among others. This broad publication record reflects the interdisciplinary relevance of mediumship research and its connections to grief, bereavement, altered states of consciousness, and anomalous cognition.

Beischel’s emphasis on both accuracy and phenomenology has influenced how mediumship research is conceptualized. Rather than treating mediumship solely as a phenomenon to be validated or debunked, her work treats it as a complex human experience worthy of multidimensional investigation. This approach has opened new research directions examining the subjective, physiological, and neurobiological dimensions of mediumship alongside traditional accuracy measures.

Her work on the therapeutic potential of mediumship readings for bereaved populations has also contributed to growing recognition of after-death communication experiences as a potentially beneficial aspect of grief processing. By documenting both spontaneous and assisted after-death communication experiences, Beischel has helped establish a research foundation for understanding how contact with the deceased (whether spontaneous or facilitated through mediums) may support psychological well-being in bereaved individuals.

The Windbridge Institute, under Beischel’s direction, has become a focal point for contemporary mediumship research and has attracted collaborations with researchers from multiple disciplines. Her work exemplifies a commitment to rigorous methodology, transparent reporting, and systematic investigation of phenomena that remain controversial within mainstream science while remaining of significant interest to the public and to bereaved populations seeking contact with deceased loved ones.