Harald Walach

Harald Walach

Harald Walach (born 1957) is Professor for Research Methodology in Complementary Medicine at Viadrina European University Frankfurt (Oder).

Background

Born in 1957, Harald Walach is a German psychologist, medical researcher and historian and philosopher of science. He received his Diploma in Psychology (MSc equivalent) from the University of Freiburg in 1984, a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Bale, Switzerland in 1991, and a PhD in History and Theory of Science from the University of Vienna in 1995. In 1998 he earned his habilitation, i.e. professorial credentials, in psychology from the University of Freiburg.[1] After heading research groups at the University of Northampton (UK),[2] he is currently the director of the Institute of Transcultural Health Studies at Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder,[2] and the director of the European Office of the Samueli Institute[3] which has funded his work since its inception in 2000. He is course leader of the first postgraduate training course for doctors in complementary medicine and cultural sciences.[4]

The commission by the state of Brandenburg for the review of Universities ("Hochschulstrukturkommission") which reviewed the University Viadrina where his IntraG, funded by Heel (corporation) is located came to the conclusion that this Institute should not be continued within the university.[5] The University Viadrina in February 2013 has decided to continue the institute. The institute is supposed to cooperate with a medical faculty within 24 months to consolidate the scientific quality.

Psychology and parapsychology

As a clinical psychologist, Walach has conducted, supervised and published empirical studies examining the benefits of mindfulness meditation for mental and physical health.[6] He has developed the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI).[7] He has also developed a questionnaire to measure exceptional human experiences.[8] Walach is also interested in scientific approaches to non-reductive and progressive rather than dogmatic forms of spirituality. He is an editor of the scientific series Neuroscience, Consciousness, Spirituality.[9]

In 2012, Harald Walach received the negative prize "Goldenes Brett" from Austrian skeptics, mainly for a masters thesis about the Kozyrev mirror conducted under his supervision. Whereas he praised it as "outstanding", it was widely regarded as unscientific in the media.[10][11]

Medical research

Walach is a researcher in complementary and alternative medicine, having conducted, supervised and published a variety of clinical, experimental and epidemiological studies.[2] He is editor-in-chief of the Karger journal Forschende Komplementärmedizin[12] and founding member and a past president of International Society for Complementary Medicine Research (ISCMR). Together with theoretical physicists Hartmann Römer and Harald Atmanspacher, Walach has developed a model of generalised entanglement that attempts to explain anomalous phenomena, such as certain non-specific therapy effects and parapsychological phenomena.[13][14][15]

History and philosophy of science

Related to his interest in the scientific study of spirituality, Walach holds a PhD in history and philosophy of science for an annotated translation of Hugo de Balma.[16] As both a philosopher of science and medical researcher, Walach has advocated the revision of the concept of evidence-based medicine (EBM), stressing the importance of a circular model of evidence in medical research and criticising problematic assumptions inherent in the hierarchical structure of current EBM.[17]

Main features of thought

Walach has been criticised, mainly by sceptics groups, for researching homeopathy and spiritual healing. He has openly advocated complementary medicine as a viable field of research and for treating patients.

Walach is best known for his contributions towards a contemporary, (self-)critical science of consciousness that aims to include empirical research on spiritual experiences and practices in a trans-cultural trajectory, and thus tries to integrate "nominalistic" and "realistic" features of current and traditional consciousness and psychological research. In doing so, Walachs work revisits aspects of the origins of modern Continental European empirical psychology (Wilhelm Wundt) which were located at the very intersection of psychological and spiritistic research in the 19th century. Among his original contributions are attempts to transfer partial findings and theory clusters of quantum theory to a new theory of spiritual experience, conceived as "subjective-objective" event of consciousness. The best known theory co-developed by Walach is the so-called "Theory of generalized non-local entanglement of spiritual experience", presented in numerous peer reviewed scientific publications, and widely praised by peers.

Harald Walach is member of the scientific advisory board of a blog called "CAM-Media Watch" which is run by a Journalist also paid mainly by Heel (corporation). The blog sees itself as "spin doctor" for press on the subject of Complementary and Alternative Medicine ("CAM") and has been reported to also smear a scientist critical of homeopathy.[18]

Publications

Walach has authored over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and numerous editorials and invited texts.[19]

His monographs and books include:

References

  1. ↑ Lingh, Gerhard (2014). Horizon 2020. epubli. p. 110.
  2. 1 2 3 "Harald Walach, PhD". Samueli Institute. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Samueli Institute". Siib.org. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  4. ↑ "Institut für transkulturelle Gesundheitswissenschaften • Europa-Universität Viadrina / EUV". Euv-frankfurt-o.de. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  5. ↑ "Report by the "Hochschultrukturkommission"" (PDF) (in German). Mwfk.brandenburg.de. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  6. ↑ Fjorback, Lone Overby; Walach, Harald (4 January 2012). "Meditation Based Therapies—A Systematic Review and Some Critical Observations". Religions. 3 (4): 1–18. doi:10.3390/rel3010001.
  7. ↑ Walach, Harald; Buchheld, Nina; Buttenmüller, Valentin; Kleinknecht, Norman; Schmidt, Stefan (June 2006). "Measuring mindfulness—the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI)". Personality and Individual Differences. 40 (8): 1543–1555. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.025.
  8. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Dr. Dipl. Psych. Harald Walach" (PDF). Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality". Springer.com. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  10. ↑ Von Bernd Kramer (2012-05-07). "Kozyrev-Spiegel: Masterarbeit an der Viadrina Uni belegt Hellsehen - SPIEGEL ONLINE". Spiegel.de. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  11. ↑ "Esoterik an der Uni Viadrina - Zu tief in die Röhre geschaut - Wissen - Süddeutsche.de". Sueddeutsche.de. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  12. ↑ "Forschende Komplementärmedizin / Research in Complementary Medicine - Home - Karger Publishers". Karger.com. 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  13. ↑ Atmanspacher, H., Römer, H., & Walach, H. (2002). Weak quantum theory: Complementarity and entanglement in physics and beyond. Foundations of Physics, 32, 379-406.
  14. ↑ Walach, H., & Schmidt, S. (2005). "Repairing Plato's life boat with Ockham's razor: The Important Function of Research in Anomalies for Mainstream Science" (PDF) (12(2) ed.). Journal of Consciousness Studies. pp. 52–70. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  15. ↑ Walach, H., & Stillfried, N. v. (2011). "Generalised Quantum Theory—Basic idea and general intuition: A background story and overview.". Axiomathes, DOI 10.1007/s10516-010-9145-5.
  16. ↑ Walach, H. (1994). Notitia experimentalis Dei - Erfahrungserkenntnis Gottes. Studien zu Hugo de Balmas Text "Viae Sion lugent" und deutsche übersetzung. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik der Universität Salzburg. Walach, H. (2010). Notitia Experimentalis Dei - Experiential Knowledge of God: Hugh of Balma’s Mystical Epistemology of Inner Experience – A Hermeneutic Reconstruction. Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik
  17. ↑ Walach, H., Falkenberg, T., Fonnebo, V., Lewith, G., & Jonas, W. (2006). Circular instead of hierarchical - Methodological principles for the evaluation of complex interventions. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 6(29). www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/6/29
  18. ↑ "German Homeopathy Companies Pay Journalist who Smears UK Academic | The Quackometer Blog". Quackometer.net. Retrieved 2013-10-12.
  19. ↑ Complete List of Publications Harald Walach

External links

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