Quantum entanglement and psi phenomena seem to share a quintessential common characteristic – they exhibit the property of nonlocality – a shared connection that transcends the spacetime constraints of local causality. The question explored in this study was whether that shared characteristic is a mere coincidence, or whether it provides hints about the nature of psi and its relationship to the physical world. To explore this possibility, a mind-matter interaction experiment was conducted in four laboratory studies and one online study, where the “matter” was quantum entangled photons. Entanglement correlation strength measured in near real-time was provided as feedback, and participants were tasked with mentally influencing that metric. 

To generate entangled photons, a commercial optical system was used (quED, qutools.com, Munich, Germany). This apparatus sends a blue laser beam through a nonlinear crystal to produce pairs of red photons with entangled polarizations. The strength of entanglement was determined by measuring correlations between the polarizations of pairs of photons. To do this, each photon in a pair was passed through a separate, stepper-motor controlled, polarizer. The motors were programmed to repeatedly cycle through a sequence of 16 polarizer settings, pausing one second for data accumulation at each setting. 

Photons passing through the polarizers were carried via fiber optic cables to a coincidence counter, which recorded the number of detected pairs. The resulting 16 counts were combined by the quED system to produce a single, on-going measure of entanglement strength. This quantity, called S, is an algebraic combination of coincidence measurements first proposed by Clauser, Horne, Shimony, and Holt for paired-photons . 

Each of the five experiments had minor differences in protocols, but all shared a common feature: During ~30 second “concentrate” epochs, participants were asked to focus their attention toward the quED with intention to influence S. And during ~30 second “relax” epochs, they were asked to withdraw their intention. Feedback about S was provided during concentrate epochs, and no feedback was provided during relax epochs. Control sessions were conducted in a similar fashion, except no one was present (or observing) while data were collected. Evaluation of results was based on a differential measure of S between the concentrate vs. relax epochs (ΔS). The principal hypothesis was that ΔS would be significantly different from a chance outcome, as determined through a bootstrap analysis. 

The combined results of the 3 lab studies conducted at IONS showed that ΔS was associated with p = 0.01. The same analysis for all control studies at IONS was p = 0.20. The lab experiment at IMI did not produce a significant result. In the online experiment, entanglement strength declined over the course of the experiment due to alignment drifts in the optical mirrors and decline in laser power output, so only the first 500,000 S samples were considered to reflect high-quality entanglement. Of those, some 3,000 samples were obtained in fully completed observed epochs, i.e., epochs consisting of 24 contiguous samples observed by participants through the feedback provided in their web browser, and 7,800 completed epochs were not observed. There was a significant increase in ΔS for the observed samples, and no significant change in the unobserved samples. 

Discussion: Five experiments explored whether a purported form of “nonlocal mind” could interact with entangled photons, a form of “nonlocal matter.” This kind of experiment had not been previously reported, so these studies were purely exploratory. The laboratory studies at IONS suggested the presence of a mental interaction effect, as did the online experiment conducted with samples considered to represent high-quality entanglement. 

The primary limitation of these studies, besides their exploratory nature, was that the results of the laboratory experiments might be idiosyncratic due to the small pool of participants involved. A second limitation was the variance introduced by the degradation of entanglement strength over time. Such limitations notwithstanding, we believe that given the intriguing results observed in these initial studies that further studies using entangled photons are justified.

The Parapsychological Association is an international professional organization of scientists and scholars engaged in the study of psi (or 'psychic') experiences, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8wl5SNUzL0

New Experiments show that Consciousness affects Matter

A new scientific experiment made by Dr Dean Radin Ph.D, by using a variation of the classic double-slit experiment, shown at the Science of Consciousness Conference in Tuscon 2016 (Arizona), shows that consciousness indeed affects matter, therefore reality, no matter the distance between the observer and the apparatus.

After the first double-slit experiment, for many years scientists were debating over a enormously significant matter that has to do with consciousness and its absolute relation to quantum mechanics. A significant number of very respected scientists from previous years came to the conclusion that consciousness indeed plays a crucial role in quantum mechanics and its measurement, meaning that consciousness has a direct impact on physical properties of matter, therefore the reality around each observer. Other scientists argued that something like that cannot happen, though saying that without actual research procedures, and relative ignorance.

Proving them wrong, consciousness does affect matter after all

A few years ago, Dr Dean Radin Ph.D, at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, started a new experiment by using a variation of the classic double-slit experiment in various ways, where a simple observation by different people throughout the world effectively and significantly reduced the wave-pattern of particles in almost all of the cases, no matter the distance at all, proving that there is indeed a clear relation of consciousness with reality.

The great news is that the audience of the conference consisted of the most respected scientists and philosophers living today. Eventually we are getting closer to finding out and acknowledging that the role of consciousness is greater than the ignorance of a few, in a scale that’s unimaginably enormous. Enjoy the video!

Psychophysical Interactions With a Single-Photon  Double-Slit Optical System

Six experiments were conducted using a single-photon double-slit apparatus to test von Neumann's notion that the quantum wavefunction is “collapsed” by what he called a psychophysical interaction. Individuals were asked to direct their attention toward or away from the optical system while receiving information about the number of photons arriving per second at an interference fringe minimum. Overall the experiments found evidence supportive of an interaction that appears to “steer” the wavefunction to either reduce or to sharpen interference fringes. This outcome informs efforts to unify subjective and objective modes of apprehending the world because it suggests that these two apparently different ways of knowing may be complementary aspects of a unitary phenomenon, analogous to how a Möbius strip appears to have two sides, but when examined is found to have only one. The correlations observed in our experiments can be interpreted in two main ways: as a form of mind-matter interaction, which implies a dualistic model, or as arising from a common source, which implies a monist model. We propose that a monist model is a more satisfying explanation.

Source: Quantum Biosystems | 2015 | Vol 6 | Issue 1 | Page82-98

Psychophysical Modulation of Fringe Visibility

To investigate von Neumann’s proposal that an “extra-physical process” is involved in the measurement of a quantum system, an online experiment was conducted using a double-slit optical system. In a counterbalanced fashion, participants focused their attention toward or away from a feedback signal linked in real-time to the double-slit component of an interference pattern. A line camera continuously recorded the interference pattern at 4 Hz, and for each camera image fringe visibility was determined for the central 20 fringes. During 2013 and 2014, a total of 1,479 people from 77 countries contributed 2,985 test sessions. Over the same period 5,738 sessions were run as controls by a computer programmed to simulate human participants. The results showed that with human observers the fringe visibility at the center of the interference pattern deviated from a null effect by 5.72 sigma (p = 1.05×10-8 ), with the direction of the deviation conforming to the observers’ intentions. The same analysis applied to the control data resulted in an overall deviation of -0.17 sigma. After consideration of alternative explanations, these results were found to support von Neumann’s conclusion that the mind of the observer is an inextricable part of the measurement process. This type of experiment offers a means of empirically resolving longstanding questions about the role of consciousness in the physical world.

Source: Physics Essays. 29 (1), 14-22.

Reexamining Psychokinesis

H. Bo ̈sch, F. Steinkamp, and E. Boller’s (2006) review of the evidence for psychokinesis confirms many of the authors’ earlier findings. The authors agree with Bo ̈sch et al. that existing studies provide statistical evidence for psychokinesis, that the evidence is generally of high methodological quality, and that effect sizes are distributed heterogeneously. Bo ̈sch et al. postulated the heterogeneity is attributable to selective reporting and thus that psychokinesis is “not proven.” However, Bo ̈sch et al. assumed that effect size is entirely independent of sample size. For these experiments, this assumption is incorrect; it also guarantees heterogeneity. The authors maintain that selective reporting is an implausible explanation for the observed data and hence that these studies provide evidence for a genuine psychokinetic effect.

Source: Psychological Bulletin - American Psychological Association 2006, Vol. 132, No. 4, 529 –532

Testing Nonlocal Observation as a Source of Intuitive Knowledge

This study explored the hypothesis that in some cases intuitive knowledge arises from perceptions that are not mediated through the ordinary senses. The possibility of detecting such nonlocal observation was investigated in a pilot test based on the effects of observation on a quantum system. Participants were asked to imagine that they could intuitively perceive a low-intensity laser beam in a distant Michelson interferometer. If such observation were possible, it would theoretically perturb the photons’ quantum wave functions and change the pattern of light produced by the interferometer. The optical apparatus was located inside a light-tight, double-steel walled, shielded chamber. Participants sat quietly outside the chamber with eyes closed. The light patterns were recorded by a cooled digital camera once per second, and average illumination levels of these images were compared in counterbalanced mental blocking versus nonblocking conditions. By design, perturbation would produce a lower overall level of illumination, which was predicted to occur during the blocking condition. Based on a series of planned experimental sessions, the outcome was in accordance with the prediction (z  2.82; P  .002). This result was primarily due to nine sessions involving experienced meditators (combined z  4.28; P  9.4  106 ); the other nine sessions with nonmeditators were not significant (combined z  0.29; P  .61). The same experimental protocol run immediately after 15 of these test sessions, but with no one present, revealed no hardware or protocol artifacts that might have accounted for these results (combined control z  1.50; P  .93). Conventional explanations for these results were considered and judged to be implausible. This pilot study suggests the presence of a nonlocal perturbation effect that is consistent with traditional concepts of intuition as a direct means of gaining knowledge about the world, and with the predicted effects of observation on a quantum system. 

Source: Explore 2008; 4:25-35.  Elsevier Inc. 2008

Experiments Testing Models of Mind-Matter Interaction

Three models of mind-matter interaction (MMI) in random number generators (RNGs) were tested. One model assumes that MMI is a forward-time causal influence, a second assumes that MMI is due to present-time exploitation of precognitive information, and a third assumes that MMI is a retrocausal influence. A pilot test and a planned replication study provided significant evidence for MMI, allowing the models to be tested. The outcomes suggest that MMI effects on RNGs are better accounted for by a backwards-in-time rather than a forward-in-time process. Whether this finding will generalize to other experimental designs and MMI phenomena is unknown, but it raises the possibility that teleological pulls from the future may sometimes influence present-time decisions and events. This raises questions about commonly used scientific methodologies and assumptions.

Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 375–401, 2006

Assessing the Evidence for Mind-Matter Interaction 

Effects Experiments suggesting the existence of mind-matter interaction (MMI) effects on the outputs of random number generators (RNG) have been criticized based on the questionable assumption that MMI effects operate uniformly on each random bit, independent of the number of bits used per sample, the rate at which bits are generated, or the psychological conditions of the task. This "influence-per-bit" assumption invariably leads to the conclusion that the significant cumulative results of these experiments, as demonstrated in meta-analyses, are due not to MMI effects but rather to publication biases. We discuss why this assumption is doubtful, and why publication bias and other common criticisms of MMI-RNG studies are implausible.

Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 361-374, 2006

Does consciousness collapse the wave function?

The “subjective reduction” interpretation ofmeasurement in quantum physics proposes that the collapse ofthe wave-packet, associated with measurement, is due to the consciousness ofhuman observers. A refined conceptual replication ofan earlier experiment, designed and carried out to test this interpretation in the 1970s, is reported. Two improvements are introduced. First, the delay between pre-observation and final observation ofthe same quantum event is increased from a few microseconds in the original experiment to one second in this replication. Second, rather than using the final observers’ verbal response as the dependent variable, his early brain responses as measured by EEG are used. These early responses cover a period during which an observer is not yet conscious ofan observed event. Our results support the “subjective reduction” hypothesis insofar as significant differences in the brain responses ofthe final observer are found, depending on whether or not the pre-observer has been looking at the quantum event (exact binomial p < 0.02). Alternative “normal” explanations are discussed and rejected. It is concluded that the present results do justify further research along these lines.

Source: Mind and Matter Vol. 1(1), pp. 45–57

Psychophysical Interactions with a Double-Slit Interference Pattern

Previously reported experiments suggested that interference patterns generated by a double-slit optical system were perturbed by a psychophysical (i.e., mind–matter) interaction.

Three new experiments were conducted to further investigate this phenomenon. The first study consisted of 50 half-hour test sessions where participants concentrated their attention-toward or -away from a double-slit system located 3 m away. The spectral magnitude and phase associated with the double-slit component of the interference pattern were compared between the two attention conditions, and the combined results provided evidence for an interaction (effect size 1⁄4 0.73 6 0.14,p 1⁄4 2.4  107). One hundred control sessions using the same equipment, protocol and analysis, but without participants present, showed no effect (effect size 1⁄4 0.04 6 0.10, p 1⁄4 0.71). A Fraunhofer diffraction model was used to explore various interpretations of this outcome. 

This analysis suggested that the distribution of light between the two slits and the horizontal stability of the laser beam were the principle components of the optical system that were perturbed. The second experiment used a duplicate double-slit system and similar test protocol, but it was conducted over the Internet by streaming data to participants’ web browsers. Some 685 people from six continents contributed 2089 experimental sessions. Results were similar to those observed in the first experiment, but smaller in magnitude (effect size 1⁄4 0.09 6 0.02, p 1⁄4 2.6  106 ). Data from 2303 control sessions, conducted automatically every 2 h using the same equipment but without observers showed no effect (effect size 1⁄4 0.01 6 0.02, p 1⁄4 0.61). Distance between participants and the optical system, ranging from 1 km to 18,000 km, showed no correlation with experimental effect size. The third experiment used a newly designed double-slit system, a revised test protocol, and a simpler method of statistical analysis. Twenty sessions contributed by 10 participants successfully replicated the interaction effect observed in the first two studies (effect size 1⁄4 0.62 6 0.22, p 1⁄4 0.006).

Source: VC 2013 Physics Essays Publication. [http://dx.doi.org/10.4006/0836-1398-26.4.553]

Consciousness and the Double-Slit Interference Pattern: Six Experiments

A double-slit optical system was used to test the possible role of consciousness in the collapse of the quantum wavefunction. The ratio of the interference pattern’s double-slit spectral power to its single-slit spectral power was predicted to decrease when attention was focused toward the double slit as compared to away from it. Each test session consisted of 40 counterbalanced attention-toward and attention-away epochs, where each epoch lasted between 15 and 30 s. Data contributed by 137 people in six experiments, involving a total of 250 test sessions, indicate that on average the spectral ratio decreased as predicted (z=-4:36, p=6·10-6). Another 250 control sessions conducted without observers present tested hardware, software, and analytical procedures for potential artifacts; none were identified (z=0:43, p=0:67). Variables including temperature, vibration, and signal drift were also tested, and no spurious influences were identified. By contrast, factors associated with consciousness, such as meditation experience, electrocortical markers of focused attention, and psychological factors including openness and absorption, significantly correlated in predicted ways with perturbations in the double-slit interference pattern. The results appear to be consistent with a consciousness-related interpretation of the quantum measurement problem.  

Source: 2012 Physics Essays Publication. [DOI: 10.4006/0836-1398-25.2.157]

Metaphysics of the Tea Ceremony

Objective: This study explored whether drinking tea “treated” with good intentions would enhance mood more than drinking ordinary tea, under double-blind, randomized conditions.

Design: Each evening, for seven days in a row, volunteers recorded their mood using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire. On days three, four, and five of the test, each participant drank 600 mL of oolong tea in the morning and again in the afternoon. One randomly assigned group blindly received tea that had been intentionally treated by three Buddhist monks; the other group blindly received untreated tea from the same source. On the last day of the test, each person indicated what type of tea he/she believed he/she had been drinking. 

Participants: Stratified, random sampling was used to assign 189 adults into two groups matched by age, gender, the psychological trait of neuroticism, and the amount of tea consumed on average per day. All participants were Taiwanese and lived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and the test was conducted over the course of one week to reduce mood fluctuations due to changes in local weather and other common influences.

Results: Those who drank treated tea showed a greater increase in mood than those who drank untreated tea (Cohen's d 1⁄4 0.65, P 1⁄4 .02, two-tailed). Change in mood in those who believed that they were drinking treated tea was much better than those who did not believe (Cohen's d 1⁄4 1.45, P 1⁄4 .00002, two-tailed).

Conclusion: Tea treated with good intentions improved mood more than ordinary tea derived from the same source. Belief that one was drinking treated tea produced a large improvement in mood, but only if one was actually drinking the treated tea, indicating that belief and intentional enhancement interact. This also suggests that the esthetic and intentional qualities associated with the traditional tea ceremony may have subtle influences that extend beyond the ritual itself.

Source: Explore 2013; 9:355-360 & 2013 Elsevier Inc.

The Strange Properties of Psychokinesis

This paper discusses evidence for a psychokinetic effect acting on chance events. Emphasis is laid on psychokinetic action on pre-recorded random processes and its interpretation in terms of two general hypotheses, the weak violation hypothesis, and the equivalence hypothesis. These hypotheses imply that psychokinesis can act on the outcome of indeterministic quantum events only, and that, basically, all such events are affected to the same degree.

Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 103-1 18, 1987 Pergamon Press plc Printed in the USA.

Correlation Between Mental Processes and External Random Events

The basis for the experiments to be discussed was laid in the last century when scientists performed controlled experiments in telepathy (Koestler,1972). Initially, telepathy seemed intellectually acceptable because one could imagine it in terms of some conceptual model, of a "mental radio" using either the recently discovered radio waves or some other signal wave. But then Charles Richet (1 888), the famous French physiologist, shocked the scientific community by reporting that "telepathy" also worked without a human sender. In Richet's experiments, a human subject was able to guess (with above chance accuracy) randomly drawn playing cards even, if no sender looked at the cards. This effect, termed clairvoyance, could not be conceptualized in terms of a mental radio or any other plausible mechanism. When later J. B. Rhine in the United States extended Richet's work, there appeared in the laboratory two more phenomena without a plausible mechanism. One was precognition, an ability of some people to predict (with above chance accuracy) the order in which cards would appear after shuffling. The other was psychokinesis, a mental effect on the outcome of random dice falls.

The work of Rhine and of other preceding workers has been much criticized, rightly or wrongly. Nevertheless, this work provided a challenge and a starting point for many of the current researchers in parapsychology. (I am using the word parapsychology here as a label for a serious scientific discipline, not in the sense in which it is used by bookstores as heading of their occult section).

This report will summarize some of my earlier work in this direction, aimed at precognition, with the basic questions in mind: Do the claimed effects really exist? If yes, what can we find out about the underlying mechanism?

Source: Journal of Scientijr Exploration, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 233-241, 1990

Effects of Mass Consciousness: Changes in Random Data During Global Events

A long-term, continuing experiment is designed to assess the possibility that correlations may occur in synchronized random data streams generated during major world events. The project is motivated by numerous experiments that suggest that the behavior of random systems can be altered by directed mental intention, and related experiments showing subtle changes associated with group coherence. Since 1998, the Global Consciousness Project (GCP) has maintained a global network of random number generators (RNGs), recording parallel sequences of random data at 65 sites around the world. A rigorous experiment tests the hypothesis that data from the RNG network will deviate from expectation during times of “global events,” defined as transitory episodes of widespread mental and emotional reaction to major world events. An ongoing replication experiment measures correlations across the network during the designated events, and the result from over 345 formal hypothesis tests departs substantially from expectation. A composite statistic for the replication series rejects the null hypothesis by more than six standard deviations. Secondary analyses reveal evidence of a second, independent correlation, as well as temporal and spatial structure in the data associated with the events. Controls exclude conventional physical explanations or experimental error as the source of the measured deviations. The experimental design constrains interpretation of the results: they suggest that some aspect of human consciousness is involved as a source of the effects.

Source: Explore 2011; 7:373-383.  2011 Elsevier Inc.

The interaction of consciousness and physical systems is most often discussed in theoretical terms, usually with reference to the epistemological and ontological challenges of quantum theory. Less well known is a growing literature reporting experiments that examine the mind-matter relationship empirically. Here we describe data from a global network of physical random number generators that shows unexpected structure apparently associated with major world events. Arbitrary samples from the continuous, four-year data archive meet rigorous criteria for randomness, but pre-specified samples corresponding to events of broad regional or global importance show significant departures of distribution parameters from expectation. These deviations also correlate with a quantitative index of daily news intensity. Focused analyses of data recorded on September 11, 2001, show departures from random expectation in several statistics. Contextual analyses indicate that these cannot be attributed to identifiable physical interactions and may be attributable to some unidentified interaction associated with human consciousness.

Source: Foundations of Physics Letters - December 2002

Evidence for Consciousness-Related Anomalies in Random Physical Systems

Speculations about the role of consciousness in physical systems are frequently observed in the literature concerned with the interpretation of quantum mechanics. While only three experimental investigations can be found on this topic in physics journals, more than 800 relevant experiments have been reported in the literature of parapsychology. A well-defined body of empirical evidence from this domain was reviewed using meta-analytic techniques to assess methodological quality and overall effect size. Results showed effects conforming to chance expectation in control conditions and unequivocal non-chance effects in experimental conditions. This quantitative literature review agrees with the findings of two earlier reviews, suggesting the existence of some form of consciousness-related anomaly in random physical systems.

Source: Foundations of Physics, Vol. 19, No. 12, 1989

Effects of Consciousness on the Fall of Dice: A Meta-Analysis

This article presents a meta-analysis of experiments testing the hypothesis that consciousness (in particular, mental intention) can cause tossed dice to land with specified targets face up. Seventy-three English language reports, published from 1935 to 1987, were retrieved. This literature describes 148 studies reported by a total of 52 investigators, involving more than 2 million dice throws contributed by 2,569 subjects. The full database indicates the presence of a physical bias that artifactually inflated hit rates when higher dice faces (e.g., the "6" face) were used as targets. Analysis of a subset of 59 homogeneous studies employing experimental protocols that controlled for these biases suggests that the experimental effect size is independently replicable, significantly positive, and not explain- ~ able as an artifact of selective reporting or differences in methodological quality. The estimated effect size for the full database lies more than 19 standard deviations from chance while the effect size for the subset of ball anced, homogeneous studies lies 2.6 standard deviations from chance. We conclude that this database provides weak cumulative evidence for a genuine relationship between mental intention and the fall of dice.

Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 6 1-83, 1991

The PEAR Proposition

For more than a quarter century, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory has engaged in a broad range of experiments on consciousness-related physical anomalies and has proposed a corresponding selection of theoretical models that have combined to illuminate the fundamental nature of the provocative phenomena that emerge. Productive pursuit of this topic has inescapably involved a spectrum of political, cultural, personal, and interpersonal factors that are normally not encountered in more conventional scientific scholarship, but have both enriched and complicated the enterprise in many ways. Some of the insights gleaned from the work are objectively specifiable, such as the scale and structural character of the anomalous effects; their relative insensitivity to objective physical correlates, including distance and time; the oscillating sequential patterns of performance they display; the major discrepancies between male and female achievements; and their irregular replicability at all levels of experience. But many others relate to subjective issues, such as the responsiveness of the effects to conscious and unconscious intention and to individual and collective resonance; the relevance of ambience and attitude in their generation; and the importance of intrinsic uncertainty as a source of the anomalies. This blend of empirical features predicates radical excursions of the dedicated models, and hence of the more general scientific paradigms, to allow consciousness and its subjective information processing capacities a proactive role in the establishment of objective reality, with all of the complications of specificity, causality, and reproducibility that entails. The attendant complexities of conceptualization, formulation, and implementation notwithstanding, pragmatic applications of these phenomena in many sectors of public endeavor now can be foreseen.

Source: Journal of Scientific Exploration, 19, No. 2 (2005)

Correlations of Random Binary Sequences with Pre-Stated Operator Intention:  A review of a 12-year program

Strong correlations between output distribution means of a variety of random binary processes and pre-stated intentions of some 100 individual human operators have been established over a 12-year experimental program. More than 1000 experimental series, employing four different categories of random devices and several distinctive protocols, show comparable magnitudes of anomalous mean shifts from chance expectation, with similar distribution structures. Although the absolute effect sizes are quite small, of the order of bits deviation per bit processed, over the huge databases accumulated, the composite effect exceeds 70 (p = 3.5 x 10-13). These data display significant disparities between female and male operator performances, and consistent serial position effects in individual and collective results. Data generated by operators far removed from the machines and exerting their efforts at times other than those of machine operation show similar effect sizes and structural details to those of the local, on-time experiments. Most other secondary parameters tested are found to have little effect on the scale and character of the results, with one important exception: studies performed using fully deterministic pseudorandom sources, either hard-wired or algorithmic, yield null overall mean shifts, and display no other anomalous features.

Source: Journal of Scientijic Exploration, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 345-367, 1997

Effects of Frontal Lobe Lesions on Intentionality and Random Physical Phenomena

Although data from the PEAR program at Princeton University appear to support a role for intentionality in determining physical phenomena, the use of theoretically based controls raises concerns about validity of the findings. We re-examined claims from the PEAR lab using experimentally derived control data in a study of patients with frontal lobe brain damage and normalsubjects.The rationale for includingfrontal patientsfollows a suggestion that reduced self-awareness may facilitate effects of intentionality on physical phenomena. Frontal patients may have reduced self-awareness, a state not easily achieved by normal subjects, and may provide a good model for studying the role of consciousness on physical events within a conceptual framework that maximizes the likelihood of detecting possible effects. We found a significant effect of intentionality on random physical phenomena in a patient with left frontal damage that was directed contralateral to his lesion. Moreover, the effect was replicated.

Source: Journal of Scienti c Exploration, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 651–668, 2003

Alteration in Random Event Measures Associated with Healing

Objective: To determine whether alterations in random events, as measured by a Random event generator (REG), occur in association with a bioenergy healing practice. 

Design and setting: Two REGs were set up and run in parallel: one in a bioenergy healer’s office and another at a local library as a control. Two multiday sets of data were collected in each setting. A third set was collected in which a reduced amount of attention was placed on the REG by the healer. REG excursions were calculated and compared for (1) overall days in the library and bioenergy healer’s office, (2) healing and nonhealing phases in the healing office, and (3) overall excursions during high(sets 1 and 2) and low attention (set 3) by the healer.

Results: The library REG produced excursions outside the 95% confidence interval (CI) on 35 of 61 days (58%), and the REG in the healing practice 47 of 51 days (92%) (mean difference, 34%; 95% CI, 18% to 49%; x 2 5 16.3, 1 df, p ,0.0005). In the healer’s office, 0.6496 excursions per segment for healing phases and 0.6548 excursions per segment for nonhealing phases were shown (t 5 21.3, 6794 df, p 5 0.182). A comparison with chance expectation derived from Monte Carlo runs showed significantly less mean excursions per segment (t 5 27.8, 36625 df, p ,0.0005) for healing phases and no difference in nonhealing phases (t 5 20.16, 6309 df, p 5 0.872). There was no significant difference in excursions between the high-and low-attention situations in the healing practice.

Conclusions: In the presence of a healer, an REG produced greater than chance excursions more often than a control REG in a library setting. The healing and nonhealing phases demonstrated inconsistent results. REG deviations were not influenced by the amount of attention directed toward the machine.

Source: The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine - Volume 9, Number 3, 2003, pp. 345–353

Examining psychokinesis: The Interaction of Human Intention with RNGs

Séance-room and other large-scale psychokinetic phenomena have fascinated humankind for decades. Experimental research has reduced these phenomena to attempts to influence (a) the fall of dice and, later, (b) the output of random number generators (RNGs). The meta-analysis combined 380 studies that assessed whether RNG output correlated with human intention and found a significant but very small overall effect size. The study effect sizes were strongly and inversely related to sample size and were extremely heterogeneous. A Monte Carlo simulation revealed that the small effect size, the relation between sample size and effect size, and the extreme effect size heterogeneity found could in principle be a result of publication bias.

Source: Psychological Bulletin - American Psychological Association - 2006, Vol. 132, No. 4, 497–523

TODO-0620:

Crookes (1874). Researches in the phenomena of spiritualism

Crookes (1874). Notes of séances with DDH

Medhurst & Goldney (1964). William Crookes and the physical phenomena of mediumship.

Merrifield (1885/1971). Merrifield’s report (on D. D. Home)

Braude (1985). The enigma of Daniel Home.

Zorab (1971).  Were D. D. Home’s ‘spirit hands” ever fraudulently produced?

Jahn (1982). The persistent paradox of psychic phenomena: An engineering perspective.

Inglis (1983). Review of “The spiritualists. The passion for the occult in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by Ruth Brandon.”

Schmidt (1987). The strange properties of psychokinesis.

Schmidt (1990). Correlation between mental processes and external random events

Nelson et al (2002). Correlations of continuous random data with major world events.

Crawford et al (2003). Alterations in random event measures associated with a healing practice