Celia Green

Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Celia Elizabeth Green (born 1935<ref name="Encyclopedia.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) is a British parapsychologist and writer on parapsychology.<ref name="Heines 1986"/>

Biography

Green's parents were both primary school teachers, who together authored a series of geography textbooks which became known as The Green Geographies.<ref>The Oxford Times, 8 September 1989, Obituary: Mr William Green, Headmaster and author.</ref> Green completed a B.A., M.A., and B. Litt. from Oxford University.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/> She studied psychical research at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1958 to 1960.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/>

From 1957 to 1962, Green held the post of Research Secretary at the Society for Psychical Research in London.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/><ref>Renée Haynes, The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982, London: McDonald, 1982, p.52.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1961, Green founded and became the Director of the Institute of Psychophysical Research.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/> The Institute's areas of interest were initially listed as philosophy, psychology, theoretical physics, and ESP.<ref>The Psychophysical Research Unit, Oxford: undated pamphlet of 3 pages, in circulation ca 1962-1965</ref> However, its principal work during the sixties and seventies concerned hallucinations and other quasi-perceptual experiences.Template:Citation needed In 1982, while Green was the director, the Institute investigated psychokinetic phenomena.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Writing

In 1968 Green published Lucid Dreams, a study of a phenomenon described by Green as when a dreamer consciously changes the content of their dreams.<ref name="Gray 1995"/><ref name="Stumbrys 2018">Template:Cite journal Template:ProQuest</ref> The possibility of conscious insight during dreams had previously been treated with scepticism by some philosophers<ref>Cf. Malcolm, N., Dreaming. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959, pp.48–50.</ref> and psychologists<ref>See, e.g., Hartmann, E., 'Dreams and other hallucinations: an approach to the underlying mechanism,' in Siegal, R.K. and West, L.J., eds., Hallucinations. New York: Wiley, 1975.</ref> and scientific skepticism continued after her book was published.<ref name="Heines 1986">Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest</ref>

Green collated both previously published first-hand accounts and the results of longitudinal studies of four subjects of her own. In Lucid Dreams, she proposed a correlation between lucid dreams and the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep.<ref name="Stumbrys 2018"/> In 1968, Green also published a collection of 400 first-hand accounts of out-of-body experiences for the benefit of scientists interested in studying the phenomena.<ref name="UPI 1968">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

With Charles McCreery, Green co-authored the 1975 book Apparitions and the 1994 book Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest</ref> Apparitions is a taxonomy of 'apparitions', or hallucinations in which the viewpoint of the subject was not ostensibly displaced, based on a collection of 1500 first-hand accounts.<ref>Green, C., and McCreery, C., Apparitions, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1975.</ref> A 1976 Kirkus Reviews review of Apparitions states, "It's hard to imagine anyone being converted by this [Institute for Psychophysical Research] product: an endless sequence of supposed apparitions [...] There are minimal efforts at objective classification by type of experience and attendant phenomena—visual and auditory effects, collective apparitions, out-of-body experiences—but none whatever at verification."<ref name="Kirkus"/>

Aphorisms

Her aphorisms have been published in The Decline and Fall of Science<ref>Cf. Green, C., The Decline and Fall of Science. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976.</ref> and Advice to Clever Children.<ref>Cf. Green, C., Advice to Clever Children. Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research, 1981.</ref> Ten are included in the Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams,<ref>M.J. Cohen, ed., The Penguin Dictionary of Epigrams, London: Penguin Books, 2001. Pg 452</ref> and three in the Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations.<ref>J.M. and M.J. Cohen, eds., The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations, London: Penguin Books, 2nd edition 1980. Pg 140</ref>

CDs

The CD titled Lucid Dreams 0096, which includes parts of the book Lucid Dreams narrated by Green for the label Em:t, was released in 1995.<ref>Lucid Dreams 0096. Nottingham: Em:t, 1995. 5025989 960027.</ref><ref name="Gray 1995">Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest</ref> Earlier Green had contributed a nine-minute track to a compilation CD put out by the same recording label.<ref>Em:t 2295. Nottingham: Em:t, 1995. 5025989 229520.</ref> The track was entitled "In the Extreme" and consisted of readings by the author from her books, The Human Evasion, and Advice to Clever Children.

Selected works

Books

• Lucid Dreams (1968) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford : Institute of Psychophysical Research .
• Out-of-the-body Experiences (1968) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford : Institute of Psychophysical Research<ref name="UPI 1968"/>
• The Human Evasion (1969) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research<ref>Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest</ref>
• The Decline and Fall of Science (1976) London: Hamish Hamilton. Reissued 1977, Oxford: Institute of Psychophysical Research .
• Advice to Clever Children (1981) Oxford : Institute of Psychophysical Research.
• The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-Body Problem (2003) Oxford: Oxford Forum.
• Letters from Exile: Observations on a Culture in Decline (2004) Oxford: Oxford Forum.
• The Corpse and the Kingdom (2023) Oxford: Oxford Forum.

with Charles McCreery:

• Apparitions (1975) London: Hamish Hamilton.<ref name="Kirkus">Template:Cite news</ref>
• Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep (1994) London: Routledge.<ref>Reviews of Lucid Dreaming
• Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest
• Template:Cite news Template:ProQuest</ref>

Selected papers

• 'Waking dreams and other metachoric experiences', Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa, 15, 1990, pp. 123–128.
• 'Are mental events preceded by their physical causes?' (with Grant Gillett), Philosophical Psychology, 8, 1995, pp. 333–340.
• 'Freedom and the exceptional child', Educational Notes, No. 26, Libertarian Alliance, 1993. Available as an Online PDF
• 'Hindrances to the progress of medical and scientific research', in Medical Science and the Advancement of World Health, ed. R. Lanza, Praeger, New York, 1985.

Translations

• René Sudre. Traité de Parapsychologie, published as Treatise on Parapsychology (1960)<ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/>

References and notes

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External links

• Green's web site
• The Human Evasion online