How to attain a Bachelor of Arts ( B.A.) degree in Parapsychology

This is an attempt to answer some of the many inquiries I've received concerning the degree I attained in Parapsychology from the California State University at Sacramento in 1976. Twenty four years ago I assumed many people would soon be following a similar path, but after making inquiries recently to both CSU Sacramento as well as the California Board of Regents and the Office of  University Operations and Academic Standards, I was somewhat shocked to learn that I remain the only person to attain this "special major". In the past 5 years I have developed relations with people n nearly all the major parapsychological labs and Universities that award degrees in parapsychology. I have asked these individuals to let me know if they ever hear of anyone attaining a degree similar to the one I detail here. So far, to the best of my knowledge, it remains unique. I would much rather say that I am the first of many rather than the only one, but so far, this remains the case. I must admit, I knew that I was breaking new ground at the time, but there's absolutely no reason that no one else couldn't duplicate this achievement with a little hard work and the right faculty advisor as a mentor. Mine happened to be a respected and open-minded ex sleep researcher from the '50's and '60's by the name of Dr. Paul Verdone who still teaches in the Psychology department at CSU Sacramento. Due to his academic credentials, the University agreed to provide Dr. Verdone with his own research facility and these included an anechoic, vault like sleep chamber, an adjacent "study" room and a well equipped Control Room. The heart of the Control Room was a Grass Model VI, 10 channel poly graphic recorder which we used to monitor the various physiological parameters of the sleeping subject. In addition, there was equipment to measure core body temperature and reel to reel sound recorders. For an "undergraduate" program, we were very well equipped and I must say, compared equally, if not superior, to the lab operated by Dr. Charles Tart at the University of California at Davis, just down the road.
I first learned about the "Special Major" program while I was a member of another "experimental" program, the Independent Learning track, sponsored by another of the Psychology Dept. professors (sorry, but his name escapes me at the moment).

In order to qualify for the "Special Major" degree, one needs to do the following things:

1. Design a major program that equals or exceeds the requirements of a traditional "major".
2. Petition the University's Board of Academic Standards with this proposal.
This is by far the hardest of all the steps; other than performing well in the subsequent classes, of course. The beaurocracy, no matter who or what they are, do not like change, and it took a number of meetings, exchange of correspondence, and the unflagging support of my Faculty Advisor to push the petition through this step in the degree program.
3. One must graduate with a double major, as opposed to the traditional Major/Minor split. In my case, I graduated with a double major in Psychology and Parapsychology.

The particulars of my "Special Major" are these:

1. Twelve of the 30 semester hours were comprised of 4 classes involved specifically in "hard science":
   a. Technical Remote Sensing; a class given by a Dr. George Kostyrko of the electrical engineering department. Besides examining that years' latest technological advances in the electronic sensing of remote targets, we also made holograms in the Non-destructive Testing Lab where Dr. Kostryko had set up a state-of-the-art hydraulically suspended test table and several types of high-powered lasers. I learned much about satellites, the military's capability to monitor earth activity from space, technical photography and holography. Dr. Kostryko later sponsored me when I founded and presided over a campus based Parapsychology Club and we developed it into a multi-campus organization (known later as Ubiquity) that sponsored research, workshops and conferences.
   b. Experimental Psychology 119 and 168 a/b; these classes examined the history and evolution in psychological experimentation as well as requiring our own design, implementation of and critiques of various experiments.
   c. Physics 114; this "hard science" class looked at contemporary issues in Physics as well as the design and implementation of our own lab based experiments. It was a "hands-on", hard look at the Experimental Method, it's strengths and weaknesses and how to best design experiments so as to minimize errors and contamination.

2. The remaining 18 semester hours were comprised of Psych 190,198, and 199 classes that were explicitly designed to meet the individual needs of "Master's Degree Candidates" in their senior year of study. I had been accepted into the Master's program in 1975 and so was allowed to apply my approximately 3000 hours of research done in the Sleep Lab towards my Special Major requirements.
These 3000 hours breakdown thusly:

300 ten hour nights in the lab over a period of two and a half years doing experiments ranging from the affect of alcohol on the temporal repressiveness of dreams (funded by NIMH under Dr. Verdone), to Dream Telepathy (ala Krippner/Ullman), to teaching freshmen how to dream "lucidly" after I independently identified it's EEG signature, to using Kirlian Photography to compare sleep/wake states and Rem/Non-rem. Experiments were also conducted in Out of Body Experiences and an early form of what would later be called Remote Viewing.
 
 

For the record, my diploma states:
The California State University at Sacramento have conferred upon Pat Murtha in recognition of the fulfillment of the requirements, the degree of  Bachelor of Arts in Psychology & Special Major (Parapsychology) with all the rights, privileges and honors hereto pertaining. May 26, 1976.
 
 

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