I have a responsibility to supervise undergraduate student theses in psychology at King's University College. I am also sometimes allowed to supervise undergraduate theses for students registered in the honours specialization in psychology at Western University. I also sometimes take Independent Studies students both from King's and Western. I have Master’s level member status at the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Western University, which allows me to supervise master's theses and co-supervise doctoral dissertations in Theory and Criticism. So, if you fit into any of those categories and are interested in my areas of expertise, then come and talk to me to see if we can work something out.
My philosophy is that a thesis is a student's independent research project from conceptualization, through design, data-gathering, data-analyses, presentation of results, and writing. My job is to intervene as necessary for pedagogical purposes. Students can choose whatever topic in the area of consciousness studies they want as long as it is doable and they do not hurt anyone. If students wish, they can adopt projects from my research agenda described on my research projects page or I can suggest other topics that may be of interest to them.
I have a laboratory at King's University College that is equipped with a computer and some furniture. Software on the computer includes DirectRT that can be used for taking reaction time measures and SPSS for statistical analyses. I also have a Psyleron REG-1 Professional Edition electronic random event generator that students can use. The Department of Psychology pays the research costs for thesis students registered at King's University College. For other projects, we can usually come up with something that doesn't come with any financial costs.
My students regularly present their work at academic conferences as posters or talks and, on average, about one out of four projects ends up published in a paper. I no longer have time to do the writing, so, if a student project is of sufficient quality for publication, the student needs to do the necessary writing in order to bring it up to the standards of academic publication. This is the list of publications with student work:
Fleming, P. (1985). The application of computers in teaching language skills to autistic children. The Saskatchewan Psychologist, 85(2), 19–24.)
Johnson, G. (1990). Telepathic dreams. Consciousness Review, 1, 37–46.
Jewkes, S. & Barušs, I. (2000). Personality correlates of beliefs about consciousness and reality. Advanced Development: A Journal on Adult Giftedness, 9, 91−103.
Heintz, L. & Barušs, I. (2001). Spirituality in late adulthood. Psychological Reports, 88, 651−654.
Woods, K. & Barušs, I. (2004). Experimental test of possible psychological benefits of past-life regression. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 18(4), 597−608.
Lukey, N. & Barušs, I. (2005). Intelligence correlates of transcendent beliefs: A preliminary study. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 24(3), 259−270.
Wammes, M. & Barušs, I. (2009). Characteristics of spontaneous musical imagery. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 16(1), 37−61.
Bal, M. & Barušs, I. (2011). Perceived parental attachment and achievement motivation. Psychological Reports, 109(3), 940−948.
Barušs, I. & Rabier, V. (2014). Failure to replicate retrocausal recall. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1(1), 82−91.
Barušs, I., van Lier, C., & Ali, D. (2014). Alterations of consciousness at a self-development seminar: A Matrix Energetics seminar survey. Journal of Consciousness Exploration and Research, 5(11), 1064−1086.
Collesso, T., Forrester, M., & Barušs, I. (2021).The effects of meditation and visualization on the direct mental influence of random event generators. Journal of Scientific Exploration 35(2), 313–346.
Kadler, G., Vasudev, A., Ionson, E., & Barušs, I. (2022). Unintended deviations of a random event generator by patients with late life depression and anxiety during a direct mental influence task. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 210(4), 282–289.
Thomas, K., & Barušs, I.(2022). Psychological characteristics and state integration of a persistent altered state of consciousness following an eighteen week self-development course. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 9(4), 379–405. https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000297.
Undergraduate Theses & Independent Study Projects
Beliefs about reality and the phenomenology of introspection, 1991 (co-supervised with Dr. D. Humphrey)
Imaginal activity in wakefulness and lucid dreams, 1991 (co-supervised with Dr. S. Davies)
Moral Reasoning and Affect: The Effect of State Anxiety, Induced by Point of View and Dilemma Impact, on Moral Reasoning, (co-supervised with Dr. J. Havelka)
Photic stimulation and altered states of consciousness, 1997 (co-supervised with Dr. S. Davies)
Personality correlates of beliefs about consciousness and reality, 1999
Spirituality in late adulthood, 1999
Intelligence correlates of beliefs about consciousness and reality, 2003
Changes in psychological well-being associated with childbirth, 2003
Psychological effects of past-life imagery, 2003
Characterizing feelings of reality, 2004
Personality, spirituality, and the experience of elevation, 2005 (co-winner of King's thesis award)
Profanity as an addictive behaviour, 2005 (co-winner of King's thesis award)
The stages of the will: An investigation of Roberto Assagioli's model of the will, 2005
Existential intelligence: A preliminary study for the development of a new construct, 2006
The role of anomalous phenomena in psychological well-being: A correlational study, 2007
The characteristics and correlates of spontaneous musical imagery, 2007
The effect of disidentification on authenticity of life purposes, 2007
Perceived parental attachment and achievement motivation free from fear of failure, 2009
Personality correlates of human/machine interactions, 2009
The role of perceived interpersonal closeness and receiver collaboration in anomalous information transfer, 2010
The effects of instruction on anomalous human-machine interaction, 2010
Materialist vs. transcendent: Implicit beliefs on the nature of reality, 2011
Dream incubation as a method of problem solving, 2011
Spirituality as a mediator for the relationship between personality and death anxiety, 2011
The associations among tchnology use, mindfulness, and psychological well-being, 2012
The relationship between extraversion and performance on retroactive facilitation of recall task, 2012
Determining the Relationship between Belief in Free Will and Self-Regulation, 2013
Examining Changes in Well-Being Associated with a Matrix Energetics Seminar, 2013
Investigating the Effects of Matrix Energetics, 2013
Exploring Big Data Analytics: Predictors of Psychological Well-Being in a Canadian Sample, 2014
Surrendering to the Vine of the Soul: Ayahuasca Shamanism as a Logotherapy, 2016 (winner of King's thesis award)
Direct Mental Influence on Random Event Generators, 2017
An Experimental Test of the Effect of Visualization on the Human-Machine Interface for a Random Event Generator, 2017
Finders Course Alumni Survey I, 2018
Finders Course Alumni Survey II, 2019
How Mathematicians Think, 2019
Relationships Between Anxiety, Depression, Fear of Falling, and Psychological Well-Being in People with Treatment-Resistant Late-Life Depression, 2020
Phenomenology and Physiology of Heart Cognition, 2020
Relationship between Beliefs about Consciousness and Reality, Spirituality, and Psychological Well-Being, 2021
The Inner Will and its Relationship to Addiction, 2021
Sleep Quality and Cognition: Indicators of Poor Sleep Quality have Differential Effects on Everyday Mental Functioning 2021 (co-supervised with Adrian Owen and Conor Wild)
We’re in this together: Spirituality, interconnectedness, and concern for global crises, 2022 (recipient of King's thesis award)
Posttraumatic Growth During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2023
The Social Self: Differences between Individuals with and without a Near-Death Experience, 2023
Attributions for Anomalous Object Displacement, 2023
Graduate Research Projects
An empirical examination of contemporary American spiritualist mediumship at Lily Dale, New York, Major Research Project for MA in American Studies, Western University, 2018
Are Near-Death Experiences Veridical? A Philosophical Inquiry. PhD dissertation in Theory and Criticism, Western University, 2021 (co-supervisor with Antonio Calcagno)
Policy Regarding Letters of Recommendation
1. Please provide me with your request for a letter for recommendation at least 2 weeks before the deadline when the letter is due.
2. Please provide me with all of the information that I need for writing a letter at least two weeks before the deadline when the letter is due. This information includes the exact name of the program and the degree to which you are applying, the details of the manner in which I am to deliver the letter to the university, a copy of your official university transcript, your curriculum vitae or resume, any statements of interest or other written material that you are providing to the university to which you are applying, an explanation for me of why you are applying to that particular program and why you think they should accept you into it.
3. Please note that the letters of recommendation are written confidentially for the university to which you are applying and are not shared with applicants.
Recommendations for students to help me to write strong letters of recommendation
1. Do what you agree to do.
2. Do what you agree to do by deadline.
3. Come to class and participate.
4. When I tell you to fix something, fix it promptly to the best of your ability. I have been teaching for 50 years and have graded thousands of student assignments and examinations, and I am an editor for 3 academic journals and have served as a reviewer for another 18 journals and organizations so I have considerable experience evaluating academic work; so when I point out that something needs to be fixed, then it needs to be fixed.
5. In anything that you do, do not just put in the minimum amount of effort that you think you can get away with.
© 2015-22 Imants Barušs