Chapter 21—Laboratory Research on Psi

1 Broad, 1949/1976, p. 10.

Parapsychological Association, 1988, p. 353.

Zoltan Vassy, a Hungarian physicist who has conducted psi experiments, pointed out that several studies show that distance does affect scoring: “Distance, ESP, and Ideology” by Z. Vassy, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 10, 1987, pp. 616-617. Charles Tart argues that precognition results are weaker than real-time ESP, which would indicate some, though not absolute, limits. See “Information Acquisition Rates in Forced-Choice ESP Experiments: Precognition Does Not Work as Well as Present-Time ESP” by Charles T. Tart, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 77, 1983, 293-310.

Telepathy: Origins of Randomization in Experimental Design by Ian Hacking (1988, see p. 427).

Use of statistics is also seen in the 1885 Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 1, Report of the Committee on Thought-Transference by H. P. Bowditch, Edward C. Pickering, C. C. Jackson, Wm. Watson, Charles Sedgewick Minot, N. D. C. Hodges, & J. M. Peirce, see pp. 6-49. J. M. Peirce was a Harvard professor and brother of Charles Sanders Peirce.

For an autobiographical account see The Song of the Siren by Stanley Krippner (1975).

Most RNGs in parapsychology incorporate a true source of randomness such as radioactive decay or a noise diode. Some work is done with pseudorandom algorithms.

If exactly 50 ones were produced, no decision was made, and another sample was taken.

For example, see Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind by Rhine and Pratt (1957, pp. 131-132). See also Rhine’s comment “Frustrations over Research Failures” in the Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 37, 1973, pp. 357-360.

A Dual Experiment with Clock Cards by West and Fisk, 1953.

11 Ibid. p. 185.

After the West and Fisk study, others found that people who checked data could sometimes affect the outcome, and this was dubbed the “checker effect.” The overall results are not clear, but there is sufficient evidence to suggest that a checker (even one who has no contact with the subjects) must be considered as a

potential source of an extra-chance scoring effect. The experiments are a bit too involved to present here, but they incorporated a variety of precautions to exclude unconscious, non-psi bias by the checkers. See “The Possible Effect of the Checker in Precognition Tests” by Sara R. Feather and Robert Brier, Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 32, 1968, pp. 166-175. For more on the checker effect, see “The Checker Effect Revisited” by Debra H. Weiner and Nancy L. Zingrone in the Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 50, 1986, pp. 85-121.

A third paper on experimenter effects was published that year by Robert H. Thouless in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 48, pp. 261-266, entitled “The Effect of the Experimenter’s Attitude on Experimental Results in Parapsychology.” It is of minor importance, but it demonstrates the salience of the

issue at that time.

Psychokinesis as Psi-Mediated Instrumental Response by Rex G. Stanford, et al, 1975.

A New Technique of Testing ESP in a Real-Life, High-Motivational Context by Martin Johnson, 1973.

A Test of the Relationship Between ESP and PK by Karlis Osis, 1953. Dream Studies and Telepathy: An Experimental Approach, by Montague Ullman & Stanley Krippner, 1970, see pp. 12, 31.

Deathbed Observations by Physicians and Nurses, Parapsychological Monographs No. 3, by Karlis Osis, New York: Parapsychology Foundation, 1961.

For some additional personal information on Osis, see his chapter “The Paranormal: My Window on Something More” in Men and Women of Parapsychology: Personal Reflections edited by Rosemarie Pilkington, Jefferson, NC:

McFarland & Company, 1987.

A. A. Foster made a similar point in 1940 in regard to blind matching ESP tests in “Is ESP Diametric?” in the Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 4, No. 2, December 1940, pp. 325-328.

“Psychokinesis” by Helmut Schmidt, in Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for

Science edited by Edgar D. Mitchell and John White, 1974. See p. 190.

Redundancy in Psi Information: Implications for the Goal-Oriented Hypothesis and for the Application of Psi by J. E. Kennedy, 1979.

PK Effect on Pre-Recorded Targets by Helmut Schmidt, 1976. The retroactive PK experiment described here is covered on pages 279-281 of Schmidt’s

paper, which reported additional experiments.

Channeling Evidence for a PK Effect to Independent Observers by Schmidt, Morris, and Rudolph, 1986.

For more on such experiments, see “PK With Prerecorded Random Events and the Effects of Preobservation” by Helmut Schmidt and Henry Stapp and “Observation of a Psychokinetic Effect Under Highly Controlled Conditions” by Helmut Schmidt, both in the December 1993 Journal of Parapsychology.

26 PK Effects on Pre-Recorded Group Behavior of Living Systems by Elmar R. Gruber, 1980.

Quantum Physics and Parapsychology by C. T. K. Chari, Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 20, 1956, pp. 166-183.

Parapsychological Implications of Research in Atomic Physics by Pascual Jordan, International Journal of Parapsychology, 2(4), pp. 5-16.

In a later article Walker revised and extended his discussion of quantum tunneling at synapses. See Quantum Mechanical Tunneling in Synaptic and

Ephaptic Transmission by Evan Harris Walker, 1977.

Parapsychology and Quantum Mechanics by Martin Gardner, 1981.

3 Ibid. p. 62.

Remarks on the Mind-Body Question by Eugene P. Wigner, 1962.

Interview in the Fall 1997 Mathematical Intelligencer (p. 39) “A Great Communicator of Mathematics and Other Games: A Conversation with Martin Gardner” by Istvan Hargittai, Vol. 19, pp. 36-40. See also “Quantum Weirdness” by Martin Gardner, Discover, October 1982, pp. 69-76.

34 “

Gardner, “Parapsychology and Quantum Mechanics,” 1981, p. 64.

35 Ibid. p. 64.

Random Fluctuation Theory of Psychokinesis: Thermal Noise Model by Mattuck, 1977. Thermal Noise Theory of Psychokinesis: Modified Walker Model with Pulsed Information Rate by Mattuck, 1979. The Action of Consciousness on Matter: A Quantum Mechanical Theory of Psychokinesis by Mattuck and Walker, 1979.

In addition to Giesler (1994), see Contributions to the Theory of PK Induction from Sitter-Group Work by Batcheldor, 1984.

Toward a Mathematical Theory of Psi by Schmidt, 1975.

Comparison of a Teleological Model with a Quantum Collapse Model of Psi by Schmidt, 1984. See p. 263.

Comparison of Some Theoretical Predictions of Schmidt’s Mathematical Theory and Walker’s Quantum Mechanical Theory of Psi by Walker, 1977.

Comparison of Some Theoretical Predictions of Schmidt’s Mathematical Theory and Walker’s Quantum Mechanical Theory of Psi by Walker, 1977, p. 64.

Are Parapsychologists Paradigmless in Psiland? by Rex G. Stanford, 1977. See also Toward Reinterpreting Psi Events by Rex G. Stanford, 1978.

See The Time Sequence of Psi-Ganzfeld Experimentation (Letter to the editor) by William G. Braud, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 76, 1982, pp. 194-195.

Braud, 1981, p. 1.

Lability and Inertia in Conformance Behavior by William G. Braud, 1980. See also Lability and Inertia in Psychic Functioning by William Braud, 1981.

46 For a review of some of that see Distant Intentionality and Healing: Assessing the Evidence by Schlitz and Braud, 1997.