this is a great article […] I hope you weren’t offering it as refutation

No, no. You were asking about details of that study so I searched for them. There’s not much info in this regard (heck, even the study itself is behind a paywall — defeats the purpose), and that article provided some valuable (technical) insights into that experiment.

The nuns remember mystical experiences the same way they remember real experiences, not like dreams of hallucinations.

It’s even better — as I understood it, the nuns entered unio mystica which is the highest state of contemplative prayer. Essentially they entered into Christian equivalent of samadhi (I also read it some time ago explained by the nuns themselves, but could not find the link yesterday).

Here’s another good question. The Carmelite experiment yielded positive results and hard data. Why aren’t there 100 or 1000 studies repeating it?

I would say, it’s because the field is littered with folks who try to confirm their worldview and give a F about actual truth. That, or they are simply after the money (hence I find it ridiculous that the one study that deals objectively with the topic is behind a paywall).

And I know what I’m talking about, because the moment I open my mouth, I’m immediately put into the same bag with Sheldrake, Stevenson, Chopra, and their ilk who hijacked the spotlight for one reason or another (but truth is not one of them). I don’t wonder that scientists are reluctant.

That is the reason why I said to you some time ago that unless we who dabble in this area clean our house first and get our act together, science will not touch these topics with a ten foot pole.