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A signature event of every PA Convention, the J.B. Rhine Banquet is an evening of fine dining, fellowship, and the annual J.B. Rhine Address — a tradition honoring one of the founding figures of modern parapsychology. The 2026 banquet will be held at the Rydges Hotel Camperdown, just minutes from the University of Sydney convention venue.
Date: Saturday, August 15, 2026
Time: 7:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Venue: Bligh AB Room, Rydges Hotel Camperdown
Registration: Pre-registration required — add-on ticket during convention registration.
Google Map — Rydges Hotel Camperdown
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Evening Program
- 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm — Banquet Dinner (three-course meal with wine)
- 8:00 pm – 8:15 pm — PA Awards Presentation, presented by Gerhard Mayer
- 8:15 pm – 9:15 pm — J.B. Rhine Address by Lynne Hume: Experiencing the Extraordinary Through an Anthropological Lens
J.B. Rhine Address
Experiencing the Extraordinary Through an Anthropological Lens
Lynne Hume, Ph.D.
As I understand it, parapsychology is the scientific study of experiences and abilities that appear to go beyond the known limits of the senses, the brain, and physical laws. Like parapsychologists, my own approach to anomalous experiences is neither credulous nor dismissive. It is a topic that has intrigued me all my life and one that I have focused on through the discipline of anthropology. As anthropology embraces all things cultural, my special interests pertain to belief, spirituality, ritual, the body, and consciousness.
The academic discipline of anthropology began with “armchair” philosophers pondering on strange tales of travellers in far-flung places. It was when individuals ventured forth to spend months, even years, in those cultures, that anthropology entered the academic arena — and thus began the eye-opening experiences of fieldwork. The emphasis on anthropology as a social “science” was the goal. What was impressed upon those venturing into “the field” to do ethnography was the necessity to record facts about the people whose lives they ventured into, and to gain as much first-hand knowledge as they possibly could. When fieldworkers became too involved in the beliefs and practices, the pejorative term “going native” was sometimes used. Personal opinions were anathema, and some wrote such accounts as separate treatises to their academic publications. The inherent understanding was that they should not recount them in publications.
This approach led to under-reporting some of the more exotic, strange, more incredible accounts, and/or reporting them in a more impersonal way such as “this is what the X people believe/do.” While anthropology has long considered itself a social science, the restrictive term “science” and its insistence on “scientific facts” has, for a long time, held back innovative explorations into anomalous phenomena. However, this is slowly changing; there are now less dismissive approaches to such topics. There is even a new sub-discipline: Extraordinary Anthropology.
The more I researched into what was previously put into the “impossible” basket, the more I became convinced that it is an area which could greatly benefit by ethnographic fieldwork that delves into such matters and which considers the experiences of the fieldworkers themselves. “Going native” may not be such a bad idea. Using my own trajectory through theoretical approaches such as phenomenology, the sensorial and the experiential, I have investigated different accounts of experiences that would be deemed by most to be not only strange, but “extraordinary.” This has confirmed to me that anomalous experiences are not only worth studying but have far-reaching possibilities for studies on human consciousness that go beyond anything we have imagined in the past.
In this talk, I focus on one aspect of interest to parapsychologists: Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs); how they are conveyed, explained, and their relevance and occurrence cross-culturally in traditional cultures such as Indigenous Australia. I have ventured into research that indicates experiences of being out-of-body — a state in which a person feels as though their mind or awareness has separated from their physical body, often observing it from above or from a distance. Individuals have described the experience as floating, flying, fast travelling, moving effortlessly, seeing their body from an external vantage point, and/or travelling through space. Some have recounted their experiences when they return to the body and had items of their travels verified.
I reasoned that if I could find enough evidence for OBEs in a culture existing in relative isolation for 60,000+ years, then we have an argument that the separation of consciousness from the physical body is most likely one of the powers latent in the human being that has been undermined, or under-discussed by Western science. My argument is based on the premise that human experience itself is a valid subject of study, and that anomalies can drive scientific progress, enabling us all to learn more about the human condition. Even if the mechanism is as yet scientifically inexplicable, subjective reality matters — especially when reported in such impressively large numbers across the globe.
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