A Conversation with Jim Carpenter, Author of First Sight Theory

First Sight Theory was first developed and presented more than a decade ago in "First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012), and remains a broadly inclusive and influential model for understanding psi. During this conversation, James Carpenter, PhD, will speak with John G Kruth about First Sight Theory, its origins, and its applications within parapsychology. They will discuss how the theory helps to integrate parapsychological findings with key areas of mainstream psychological research. Dr Carpenter has a long history with the Rhine, and together they will reflect on this time and some personal insights from his clinical practice.

______________________________________________________________________________________

James Carpenter is a clinical psychologist, experimental psychologist/parapsychologist, and writer. He received his PhD from Ohio State University and did advanced clinical training at Langley Porter Clinic (U. CA Medical Center) in San Francisco. He is Board Certified in Clinical Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology. Formerly a professor of psychology at UNC Chapel Hill, he has maintained a private practice, carried out psychological and parapsychological research, and written many research papers and professional essays, along with literary publications (poetry and fiction). He is a past president of the Parapsychological Association and past Board President of the Rhine Center, and is also a past board Director and Secretary of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology.

Jim's career as a parapsychologist started in 1959, when he chose to come to college at Duke in order to be able to study with J.B. Rhine and his colleagues in the Parapsychology Lab. There, he began active work in the field that has been continuous since that time. His major contribution to parapsychology has been the development of a model of the mind that accommodates psi capacity as a continuous, unconscious strata of all experience and behavior, and an accompanying theory by which the direction and extremity of psi expression can be understood and predicted.