RESEARCH AREAS, COLLABORATIONS, AND ASSOCIATIONS

This is a brief overview. More details on some of the subjects mentioned can be found on the Excerpts page.

Research - General

 Although he covers the whole range of extra-archaeological "geomancy" or "sacred geography" research, Devereux's particular areas of interest include:

 The study of the worldwide phenomenon of ancient alignments and landscape lines, which appear in many guises, such as the 1000-year-old "Chaco roads" in New Mexico, the "Nazca lines" in Peru, and the British Neolithic linear earthworks called "cursuses". Certain European alignments-of-sites were called "leys" by Alfred Watkins in England in 1921. Since 1989, Devereux has made major discoveries concerning such archaic linear features, showing them to be cross-cultural 'spirit lines' - nothing at all to do with New Age notions of 'energy lines', etc. The features in the Americas have shamanic associations, while those in the Old World possibly have similar origins. This new material is backed by scholarly field and archive documentation from the areas of archaeology, anthropology, ethnobotany, folklore -- even recent NASA aerial research.

 Terrestrial light phenomena Devereux nicknames "earth lights". These lights seem to be produced in association with geological factors, and though they possess electromagnetic characteristics they also display more exotic, "macro-quantum" properties. Devereux feels that the full study of these phenomena may lead to new insights in both geophysics and consciousness. He is the UK pioneer in this study, and a leading researcher worldwide. Is currently involved with worldwide field invrstigation of reported high-incidence"earth lights" locations. A TV documentary based on Devereux's work, and featuring him, was screened in Britain in November, 1996, and in the USA in 1997 (Discovery Channel).

 Measurable energy effects at ancient sacred sites, and the possible interaction of these with the human mind/body. He conducts this work both individually and in association with the Dragon Project. This work spins off into general study of the effects of environmental energies (natural and articificial) on the human mind/brain.

 Cognitive studies of place, both secular and sacred -- the psychology of place, cognitive geography, ecopsychology, and the interactions of between mind and environment in general

 Cognitive archaeology -- trying to get inside the ancient mind; studying ancient worldviews; trying to decipher evidence at archaeological sites and in ancient artefacts of the mental and spiritual condition of those who made or used them.

 The study of human consciousness in general, but especially with regard to altered states of consciousness, including the study of the history and prehistory of hallucinogen usage by ancient and traditional societies, and modern enquiry into lucid dreaming, and the effects of electrical and magnetic fields on the brain. Was appointed a member of the core faculty of the 1994 Academy of Consciousness Studies (USA) and is a research fellow of the International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL).

Collaborations - The International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL)

Founded in 1990, this is an interdisciplinary research consortium and "think-tank", dedicated to the study of the role of consciousness in the establishment of physical reality. It often meets at Princeton, USA. [Website:http://www.icrl.org]

Caption:

ICRL Research Fellows (RF), officers and guest, pictured at Point Reyes, California, during one of their meetings. Back row, left to right: Dick Blasband, M.D., psychotherapist, leading researcher into Reichian psychology and "orgone energy", RF (kneeling); Hal Puthoff, Ph.D., theoretical and experimental physicist, and a leading researcher in remote perception and anomalous phenomena, RF; Charles Laughlin, Ph.D., anthropologist, neuropsychologist (a leading exponent of biogenetic structuralism), RF; Ian Cook, M.D., physician/scientist, studies brain function and structure and has developed innovative techniques for brain imaging, RF; John Haaland, Ph.D., biophysicist, president of Mindsong, Inc., ICRL Officer - Chairman of the Program Advisory Committee; Paul Devereux, RF; Fritz Popp, Ph.D., biophysicist and Director of the International Institute of Biophysics in Kaiserslautern and Neuss-Hombroich, Germany, RF. Front row group, left to right: Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, Ph.D., psychologist and psychoanalyst, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology at U.C. Berkeley and of U.C. Medical Center, San Francisco, and Visting Scholar at Harvard University, RF; Brenda Dunne, M.S., psychologist and manager of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory at Princeton University, ICRL officer - Executive Vice President and Treasurer; Robert Jahn, Ph.D., applied physicist and aerospace engineer, Director of the PEAR laboratory, ICRL officer - President; Marsha Adams, of the Society for Scientific Exploration, guest. [Michael Witunski and William Gaither, ICRL officers, were not present for this photograph.]

Collaborations - General

Devereux is currently active in the following collaborative studies, among others, both within and external to ICRL:

 With Dr Hal Puthoff, ICRL and Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, Texas, and Erling Strand, Project Hessdalen, Ostfold College of Engineering, Norway. (Study of anomalous light phenomena)

 With Professor Charles Laughlin, ICRL and Carleton University, Canada, and Dr. Ian Cooke, ICRL and UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, Los Angeles. (Inductive, neurophysiological and phenomenological study of the 'lucid dream' state)

 With Professor Robert G. Jahn, ICRL and Princeton University. (Use of acoustic techniques for the study of archaeological sites)