A Brief Introduction to Basic Experiments in Parapsychology (Part IIIb): Testing Psychokinetic Ability over Gender, Distance, and Time

Wu Yuan

PureInsight | November 11, 2002

Many factors could influence the ability of subjects ("testers") to affect the data generation by micro-electronic random data generators. For example, scientists have tested the differences between the genders. The top three testers, in terms of the strongest effects on the instruments, were all females. But, on average, a larger proportion of males than of females had effects on the instruments. Among the 91 persons, 66% of the tested male participants could generate distributions in the intended direction while only 34% of female participants could demonstrate that effect.

Apart from gender, does distance as well as time affect the ability to perturb the data generation?

Experimental instruments were placed in the engineering test laboratories. Experiments included testing for the ability to control instruments at a short distance and over long distances. In some extreme experiments, the tested participants were several thousand miles away from the micro-electronic random data generators. This type of "remote control" experiment was conducted for 396,000 rounds under each intent (more positive impulses, fewer positive impulses, no change). The instruments were placed into laboratories by staff members who know nothing of the experimental design and then the instruments operated on their own without being monitored by human beings. At the beginning of the experiments, the tested participants tried to remotely guide the data generation to fit with one of the "intents" over long distances, including stretches of mountains and waters. What came out, incredibly, was that there was a surprising similarity between the remote guiding test results and those from local experiments. Scientists also obtained statistical confirmation to support the conclusion that distance did not affect the effect of the testers' consciousnesses on the instruments (Dunne & Jahn, 1992).

To test the effects of time, tester participants announced their experimental intent at different intervals before the experiments. The time spans varied from 73 hours before the experiment to just before the experiment. Analyses of data from 87,000 rounds of experiments indicated that there was no statistically demonstrable effect of time on the ability of the testers to affect the output of the random pulses (Nelson etc., 1991).

Whether the personalities and psychological features of the participants or certain experimental strategies affected the ability of the participants to guide the output of the machines were also studied. Active versus passive personalities of participants or whether the participants sat quietly awhile before the experiment versus entering the experiment right away, were not found to correlate significantly with the experimental results. But a certain experimental method could affect a given participant while having no effect on others. In some cases, experimental strategies did have some effects but not so in other cases. If there was a strategy that seemed applicable for all, then it was for a participant to personalize the instruments and talk cordially and frankly to it about the participant's intent and to establish an emotional tie through the successful performance of the instruments. When the participant has a relationship with the instrument like his/her relationship with his/her car, musical instrument, and preferred tools or sports equipment, the data distribution generated by the instrument tends remarkably towards the participant's intent (Dobyne, 1996).

Studies on human pre-consciousness and interactions with the motion of matter have stimulated scientists to design more complicated experimental instruments in the last two decades. For example, two screen graphics have been designed for computers. The graphics unpredictably replace each other in a random dual-byte data series. The participant uses consciousness to control the frequency of the appearance of one of the graphics. Some people designed musical rhythms in a random dual-byte data series. The participant then uses consciousness to change the rhythms. These experiments make high power demands on the consciousness of participants Therefore, results are not as remarkable as those with simple signals. It cannot be denied that the participants' consciousnesses are able to initiate motion. Statistically, their test results differ significantly from those in random operations. A large number of experiments have repeatedly indicated that an average person's consciousness has extraordinary features. The physical features of consciousness have become an inarguable fact in the circle of parapsychology.

In the circle of theorists throughout history, there has been an argument on the relationship between matter and consciousness. Philosophers usually separate the two into opposing concepts or emphasize only one of the two. The exploration effort from academicians in the past several years, particularly the developments in quantum mechanics and multidimensional theory, and the experimental tests in many approaches have enabled scientists to become more and more aware of the unity of the two concepts (Stapp, H. P., 1993). This has been demonstrated by many outstanding physicists such as J. J. Thompson, William Crookes, Lord Rayleigh, Marie and Pierre Curie, and others who believed that consciousness is significantly related to their academic work. They have also been active members in the Society for Psychical Research (Beloff, 1977).

As a matter of fact, the unity of consciousness and matter was understood very early in ancient oriental culture. People cultivated their heart (consciousness) to remove attachments of jealousy, competition, show-off mentality, and so on. Then they were able to transform their physical bodies towards a healthy direction. That was an effect of consciousness on one's own physical matter while the effect of consciousness on an external instrument as tested through experiments in the field of psychology strongly verifies the physicality of the entity of consciousness.

What provokes a deeper thought is that even the electronic instruments seem to have "consciousness". Otherwise, how could the electronic random data generators become "obedient" and generate data according to the intent when the experiment participant was gentle and open in attitude and mild in the tone? Cultivators hold that all things in the universe, including what is visible and what is invisible to the flesh eye, are seen to be living beings in other dimensions, beings with thoughts and spiritual nature, beings that are interlinked to the universal principles. If human beings are able to apply these principles and treat them with honesty, they then cooperate well with human beings.

References:
Beloff, J. (1977). "Historical Overview." In B.B.Wolman, Ed., Handbook of Parapsychology. new York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.
Dobyns, Y. H. (1996). "Drawing Conclusions from Multiple Experiments." Technical Report PEAR 96002, Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, School of Engineering/Applied Sciences, Princeton university.
Dunne, B.J. &Jahn, R. G. (1992). Experiments in romote human/machine interaction. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 6, 4, 311.
Nelson, R. D. & Radin d. I. (1988). Statistically robust anomalous effects: replication in random event generato experiments. Research in Parapsychology, 23-27.
Nelson, R. D. & Dobyns, Y. H., dunne, B.J. & Jahn, R.G.(1991). Analysis of variance of REG experiments:operator intention, secondary parameters,database structure."Technical Report PEAR 91004,Princeton engineering anomalies Research, School of Engineering/Applied Science, Princeton University.
Stapp, H. P. (1993). Mind, Matter, and Quantum Mechnics. Berlin: Sringer-Verlag.
Continued from: "A Brief Introduction to Basic Experiments in Parapsychology (Part IIIa): Testing Psychokinetic Ability in Everyday People" by Wu Yuan.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/10/7/18798.html

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