Welcome to PsiFest 2023, sponsored by the International Remote Viewing Association and the Monroe Institute. This will be a hybrid conference held in person in Charlottesville, Virginia and online.

Our organizations have come together to celebrate a shared history and present-time objectives focused on advancing exploration into human consciousness and fostering discoveries into our intuitive potential. Both organizations have strived to do this by carrying forth the work of our founders who driven by personal experiences and a need for answers, crafted careful scientific practices to develop tools, techniques, philosophies, approaches and methods that could be passed to, and improved upon, by generation after generation of inquiring minds.

While both organizations share similar interests with other parapsychological and psychical organizations, together they depart in their duel focus of providing education and opportunities for members and the public to engage in direct practices that can both enhance an individual’s personal life and also be utilized for practical, real-life purposes. While IRVA is more singularly focused on the specific discipline of remote viewing, the Monroe Institute has a broader mission of helping people to understand better and mediate states of consciousness. The latter holds many benefits including the enhancement of remote viewing and other psi-based practices.

During this very special 3.5 day event, researchers, instructors, practitioners, applied project managers and historians will come together offering an eclectic program designed to help participants move out of their present “reality boxes” (to quote a term from Ingo Swann, who coined the term “remote viewing”). These talks have been chosen for their relevancy and because they reflect current practices and advances in the scientific exploration of, and the state of the art of remote viewing. At the same time, they both honor and remind us of a not-too-distant past where our founders and their mentors and collogues collectively put in tens of thousands of hours of work and practice, and sacrifices to build the foundation upon which we stand today. It is vital that we remember the lessons they learned so we can move the knowledge forward, rather than at ground zero.  With any discipline, particularly ones that move away from the mainstream, there are challenges and controversies, and we will not shy away from these at PsiFest, but instead will uncover and address these in a creative, safe, and even fun way. Finally, we see this special weekend as a way to celebrate our shared heritage, but even more importantly, to foster both old and new relationships. Designing a program that is appealing to a newer audience and at the same time engaging and paradigm-shifting for experts is not easy but we are confident we have done just that.

Our robust hybrid programs reflect a philosophy that made IRVA’s last year conference one of its best – that our online participants and experience should not be an afterthought – but instead, they should be made active participants in the overall program that reflects their needs and interests – while at the same time recognizing that if people are going to come all this way to attend an in-person conference, they should be encouraged to spend as much time getting to experience and enjoy each other’s company, in person – rather than sitting there watching a screen.

We will continue our “no person left behind or left alone philosophy”– which is if you see someone sitting by themselves, think of it as your duty to reach out and say hello, invite them for a chat or to sit down with you for a meal. Along with this attitude is also everyone is important – no matter what their title, position or level of experience or education. The newbie sitting in the corner today may be the person who ultimately leads through the greatest breakthrough of our time, so we will treat and honor every attendee with respect.

PsiFest 2023 will reflect a broad range of philosophies, beliefs, attitudes, and ways of doing things. We are coming together not to become carbon copies of each other but to learn and grow and take what works for us and learn from what doesn’t. The speakers are invited and the activities planned because they Segway in some way with our topic of remote viewing, psi, OBE’s, and states of consciousness as done in a diligent, careful way. Other than that, the speaker’s views should not be seen as a reflection of views that those running either organization necessarily agree with. In other words, their positions are not the official positions of the organization, but they have been invited to speak because their work and research is reflective of that being done in the field today.

Whether this is your first conference or your 20^th, we hope you will join us for PsiFest 2023 – an exciting, captivating, community-building event that will both celebrate and make history at the same time.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Debra Lynne Katz, Ph.D.
IRVA President and Conference Manager