Anticipatory awareness of emotionally charged targets by individuals with histories of emotional trauma

Theo K. de Graaf

Individual vulnerability to stress is apparently determined partly by genetic-constitutional and partly by psychological factors. With regard to the latter, main weight should be afforded to traumatic experiences from the past, especially those of early childhood, which have sensitized the person concerned to certain current stressors. This led the first author to infer the existence of a personal sensitization factor (PSF), representing a dormant intrapsychic conflict resulting from the internalization of an early traumatic experience or, for that matter, a traumatic object-relationship that has sensitized the individual to life events "congruent" with the original traumatic experience (Graaf, 1998a, 1998b; Graaf & Van der Molen, 1989, 1996). Accordingly, the precipitating, or "trigger" event is called the congruent life event (CLE).

The concept of a PSF appeared to be very helpful in explaining why a "psychobiological" ailment, such as a depressive illness or a heart attack, could occur following such a common life event as one's child leaving home. (There is, by now, strong and direct evidence in favor of an intimate connection between the occurrence of cardiovascular disease on the one hand and stressful experiences or circumstances on the other (Schnurr, Spiro III, & Paris, 2000). In the case of a child's leaving home, the child's independence often appeared to have stirred up very painful or guilt-ridden memories in the parents about a traumatic separation from their own parents, e.g., because of the latters' premature death or because of being sent away from home at a very early age.

The following two case histories may illustrate this point.

Case 1

   A 33-year-old married man was sent to me [TKdG] with severe
   depression, consisting of an inability to work, a strong inclination
   to shut himself off from his surroundings, and strong suicidal
   tendencies. Until recently he had functioned well but rather
   compulsively. The symptoms suddenly appeared when, at his work
   as a manager, he was forced by the management to fire on the
   spot two employees who were not working satisfactorily, without
   due process of law. Not until the family history had become known
   in depth during therapy did it appear that during his childhood
   he had been a regular witness to the physical abuse of his two
   elder sisters by both his parents.

Case 2

   Bill, B5 years of age, refrained from drinking coffee, tea, etc.,
   when in the company of strangers, for fear that his hand would
   start to tremble and cause him to spill the drink. His phobia began
   after he had become a father for the first time and some
   friends had raised their glasses to toast his and his son's health.
   There was a 50-year age difference between himself and his father,
   who had been a distant and very authoritarian man, cynical
   and harsh towards his son. When Bill was about 13 years of age,
   his father developed a severe form of Parkinson's disease and he
   remembered that during mealtimes his father used to tremble to
   such an extent that he made a terrible mess on the table and on
   his clothes. Bill had been ashamed of his father's illness, but at
   the same time had felt very guilty about having these feelings.

The examples presented here show that the precipitating events do not take place within a void, but are linked to a pre-existing psychic conflict, which, in turn, is the consequence of earlier psychotraumatic experiences. (This corresponds with what Fairbairn (1943/1952) has called the "transference to the trauma.") A precondition for this transference phenomenon to occur is the presence of a psychic conflict that causes so much intrapsychic tension that it provokes an urgent need to seek an outer for this tension by means of projection or other forms of externalization.

Inasmuch as the traumatic and conflicting content of the PSF is reactivated or kindled by the congruent life event, the PSF itself is also able to kindle or facilitate perception of the appropriate CLE, adding and passing on to the event its own aggressive properties. In the case of Bill, for instance, one is equally justified in stating that the glass-raising ceremony had stirred up the painful and guilt-ridden memories about his father's disablement as in stating that the memories had selected this particular percept, out of all possible other percepts, and brought it into focus because of its very suitability to externalize the inner conflict through dramatization. In this respect, the precipitating event has much in common with the so-called "day's residue," which, according to Freud (1900), is chosen by the "ego" because of its associative resemblance to a recently reactivated psychic conflict, to become the very core of the manifest dream through which this conflict can be dramatized. "The Interpretation of Dreams" was written during the very first stages of Freud's acquaintance with the "unconscious." As such, it bears a hallmark of strong originality, ingenuity, and scientific reasoning.

The intimate circular relationship between PSF and CLE--in which both are as much excited by as exciting to each other--has very much to do with the aggressive forces stored within the inner conflict constituting the PSF, and with the ego's constant search for objects or events outside the self in order to get rid of this aggressive tension by means of projection and dramatization of the conflict in the outside world.

Clinical observation supports the assumption that the PSF's striving for dramatization and externalization brings about a continuous "scanning" of the spatio-temporal pool of events, selecting and "attracting" those events that may serve this purpose. It is here that the concepts of PSF and CLE could link up with certain observations commonly classified as "anomalous." For, in certain extreme cases, such as a severe loss or the imminent death of a loved one, the dramatizing power of the PSF may purportedly enable the ego to transcend even the presently acknowledged boundaries of space and/or time, giving rise to such phenomena as so-called "crisis telepathy," precognitive or clairvoyant dreams, or even psychokinetic disturbances (Devereux, 1953/1971; Ehrenwald, 1978; Freud, 1922; Stanford, 1974, 1977). In such a state, an event remote in space-time could fulfill the role of a congruent life event, which then serves as a stepping-stone or hat-rack onto which the dreamer or the "agent" (in case of a so-called "poltergeist") projects a strongly cathected (highly charged) inner conflict or impulse, which presses towards dramatization in the outside world. In case we are dealing with an alleged precognitive dream, the day-residue would then consist of a "CLE-in-the-future."

In the light of the foregoing psychodynamic considerations, spontaneous precognitive events fully satisfy the conditions of Stanford's concept of psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR). According to Stanford (1977), the strength of the disposition towards PMIR "is directly and positively related to: (a) the importance or strength of the need(s) in question, (b) the degree of need-relevance of the need-relevant object or event, and (c) the closeness in time of the potential encounter with the need-relevant object or event" (p. 843). The first two conditions are met by the PSF's urgent need for externalization and dramatization as well as by the CLE's need-relevance in view of its resemblance to, or fitting in with, the psychic conflict constituting the PSE The survival value of a precognition could then consist of a drainage of dangerous, i.e., sick-making, inner tension and anxiety through the externalization and dramatization of the PSF by the dream work.

In the second place, precognitive knowledge of a highly dramatic event, such as may be seen in crisis telepathy, could also be a natural form of stress inoculation, preparing the individual for the worst so that the real event will be less shocking when it comes. The survival value attached to these phenomena could explain why these paranormal abilities seem to be to some extent gene-linked (Rhine, 1977; Taylor, 2003; Zorab, 1974), as illustrated by the frequently heard statement that these gifts run in the family. At the same time, however, these psychodynamic determinants may also explain why the psi faculty remains so unreliable and elusive notwithstanding its evolutionary roots (Taylor, 2003). After all, certain events, such as the imminent death of a loved one, may arouse such strong guilty feelings--in particular when there were also angry feelings towards this person--that the unconscious censorship forbids this percept to reach consciousness at all. A second prohibitive psychodynamic factor could be what has come to be known as "ownership resistance" (Batcheldor, 1984). Apparently, the psi faculty may be intimately connected with a person's fear of his forbidden omnipotent wishes with the result that that person's psi faculties are to be repressed along with the wishes as soon as they emerge. (When people are recounting a precognitive experience of their own about an imminent accident or disaster, they sometimes add that they were scared by it because it could mean, in their view, that they might unwittingly have contributed to the causation of the event.)

The following two case histories illustrate the role of the PSF in the occurrence of what seemed to be a precognitive dream. The first one, about a dream of a 9-year-old girl, does so in a quite straightforward manner, which in children seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

Case 3

   When the first author and his family immigrated from Israel to
   the Netherlands, my daughter, then at the age of 7, had been sad
   for some time about having to separate from her little friends in
   the kibbutz. About 1 year later she told us that she and her
   classmates had bid farewell to a girl called "Nicola," who had
   returned to her country of birth, and that "all the children had
   wept a great deal." About 1 year after that, my daughter woke up in
   the morning and told the family members present that during that
   night she had dreamt that "Nicola" had returned to their class
   and that "everybody was very happy." That afternoon, upon coming
   home from school, she reported with much delight that, indeed,
   that very morning "Nicola" had quite unexpectedly made
   her appearance in their class and that "all the children had been
   very happy."

In this case the PSF ostensibly consisted of the painful experience of separation. The congruency of the life event that--as a day's residue-in-the-future--had elicited the precognitive dream consisted of the circumstance that, just like the dreamer herself, "Nicola" was a girl from abroad. The 9-year-old girl had thus selected a future event that was pre-eminently suited to undo or "detoxify" the original traumatic experience.

Case 4

   One of the first author's clients told him that during a visit to
   her physiotherapist she had noticed a photograph on the wall
   that had not been there before. It was a photograph of his two
   grown children. Suddenly, she "saw" a third child in the photograph
   and said to him: "Why do I feel that there should be a
   third child there? That is what I am missing in that photograph!"
   The man proceeded to tell her that their first child
   had died just prior to birth and was stillborn. He and his wife
   had only recently been confronted anew with these tragic
   memories due to the birth of their first grandchild. When we
   asked this woman's physiotherapist for further details--with
   the client's permission--he told us that he and his wife were
   still suffering because of the fact that the doctors had not allowed
   them to see the stillborn child at the time. Due, in part,
   to this they had not experienced the clairvoyant or telepathic
   observation by the client as shocking, but rather as very consoling.
   However, this incident proved to be significant for our
   client as well. She had two children of her own but she would
   have liked to have a third child. She had had a miscarriage in
   between the births of her two children. When she turned out
   to be pregnant again, her husband insisted on an abortion.
   However, she refused. She did not dare even to talk about a
   third child from then on. Nevertheless, she had continued to
   blame herself for this and she had also harbored a grudge
   against her husband. She felt relieved to finally be able to talk
   to somebody about this.

This and many other observations warrant the conclusion that, on a subconscious level, we are continuously scanning our time-space environment in order to "bring closer" events or situations that render us capable of reliving unresolved issues from the past, and to repair things where possible.

With respect to the third point made by Stanford, i.e., the closeness in time, we must rely on reports of authors who have recorded the distance in time between the occurrence of a precognition and its fulfillment. We found three such reports in the literature, one by Tenhaeff (1961/1979), comprising 276 "Dunne effects" (1) as these precognitive dreams were called by him, ascertained by comparing the dream and reality diaries of two researchers, Kooy and Kruisinga, over a period of 2 1/2 years; a second report by Orme (1974) comprising 148 precognitive events, including mainly Dunne effects but also some precognitive visions; and a third study by Nancy Sondow (1988), who analyzed 943 dreams over a period of 50 months, of which 96 were clearly precognitive.

Combining the results of Tenhaeff, Orme, and Sondow resulted in a total of 520 precognitive dreams and visions. We were then able to observe an exponential decline of the time periods that had elapsed between the precognitive events and their fulfillment. According to Dunne, the day-residues around which the dreams centered were about equally distributed over the past and the future. With regard to this symmetry, he said: "I have found that the images which relate indisputably to the near-by future are about equal in number to those which pertain similarly indisputably to the near-by past" (Dunne, 1927, p. 82).

These observations, and especially that of the observed exponential decline of precognized events with time, induced the first author to surmise the existence of a probability space of which the space-time dimensions undergo a local constriction under the influence of an intentional information field (Graaf, 1996, 2001). (The latter shows much similarity to Rupert Sheldrake's "morphogenetic fields" (Sheldrake, 1988). Because of its conduciveness to generating synchronistic events, this local constriction of probability space was christened a synchronitron.

Quite independently, Pallikari-Viras (1997) also inferred the existence of a probability space that, in her own words, gets curved under the influence of goal-oriented intentions, giving rise to synchronistic events. She reached that conclusion on the grounds of significant temporary deviations from randomness in the behavior of intentionally observed RNGs.

In contrast with these approaches, the second author has advocated a theory in which the physical and psychological aspects are treated separately (Houtkooper, 2002). This theory entails that distance in time would be considered as purely psychological distance. We consider all these approaches as steps towards a definitive theory of psi.

Objectives

The basic question underlying the present study is whether the psychodynamic lawfulness observed in spontaneous cases could be used to predict response patterns of traumatically sensitized individuals in a restricted-choice ESP task, in which emotionally charged targets (12 different pictures) are randomly dispersed among 100 (neutral) Zener cards in an open deck. There is some evidence in the parapsychological literature for this assumption. Carpenter (1971) found that subjects scoring high for anxiety and guilt feelings about sexuality tended to avoid hits on those Zener cards that were sealed in envelopes together with erotic photographs. The Carpenter work was essentially confirmed by Ballard (1980), although his primary analyses did not address this question directly.

Included in our experiment were also subjects who did not themselves experience severe shocking events, but who have or have had parents who underwent severe traumatic experiences. These "second generation" individuals might display a tendency to feel attracted to traumatic events, either in the form of "trauma addiction" or in that they are more vulnerable to getting traumatized by ostensibly minor shocking events (Graaf 1978, 1998b; Solomon, Kotler & Mikulincer, 1988). This tendency could be explained as the expression of an unconscious wish to share their parents' trauma. (For an in-depth analysis, see Graaf, 1975, 1997b, 1998a, 1998b.)

METHOD

This pilot experiment was conducted with 12 experienced university-educated mental health professionals (psychiatrists and psychologists), all but two of them members of a study group on the transpersonal (and "spiritual") aspects of psychiatry, who participated in a seminar on parapsychological research. The lectures that preceded the experiment were held the previous day by the experimenter [TKdG] himself.

The experiment took place on Sunday, May 30, 1999, in Wanssum, the Netherlands, 006[degrees] 05' Eastern Longitude, 51[degrees] 32' North, in the house of one of the participants (Subject 7). It started at 10:00 a.m. (8:00 GMT, 0.52 LST) and lasted until about 11:45 a.m. (9.45 GMT, 2.37 LST).

Subjects were told that they had to guess the sequence of symbols top-down in an open deck of 100 Zener cards. This had to be done four times. (Thus, there were four runs of 100 trials each, each time with different target sequences.) "Open deck" means that the five Zener symbols--"cross," "wavy lines," "circle," "square," and "star"--do not need to be equally represented among the 100 cards. That is, there is no compulsory necessity of exactly 100/5 = 20 of each kind. The five symbols from which the subjects had to choose were spread out on the table before each subject. The experimenter also explained to them the meaning of "open" deck and told them that they could write down as many "wavy lines," etc., as they wished, even in series.

In reality, the "open decks" did not exist in any physical, tangible sense but consisted of four random sequences of 100 numbers from 1 to 5 that had been prepared some days before with the help of a pseudo-random number generator (pseudo-RNG) algorithm in use at a university psychology department. The sequences had been sent to the experimenter by regular mail. Preceding each run, the experimenter laid the sealed envelope containing the coded targets belonging to that run in the middle of the table around which the participants were seated. The transformation codes of the numbers into the five Zener symbols had already been written down by the experimenter about 2 months before the preparation of the random sequences. They were lost from the experimenter's conscious memory at the time of the experiment. The experimenter also had not taken this code with him to the place of the experiment. Upon returning home the experimenter transformed the numbers into the appropriate targets and entered them onto the answer sheets after the subjects' guesses.

In an adjacent room the experimenter had exhibited 12 potentially emotional targets consisting of 10 pictures selected from the Thematical Apperception Test (TAT), one newspaper photograph depicting a piggy roaming a secondary road after having escaped the slaughter of pigs in Malaysia, and a reproduction of Picasso's "Mother Nursing Her Child." Having completed the first two runs, the participants were invited to enter this room and to inspect the pictures. A questionnaire was handed out to them on which they had to answer questions as to which two pictures they found either (a) "shocking," (b) "comforting or appeasing," (c) "neutral," or (d) "arousing mixed feelings." (The titles of the pictures [see below] and their respective numbers, 1 through 12, were typed on the questionnaire.)

The same questionnaire also contained questions about possible traumatic experiences of both themselves and their parents. These items were taken from the Childhood Trauma Odds Inventory (ChTOI). The ChTOI had previously been used by the first author to estimate the probable extent of individual and transgenerational traumatization in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, as well as in juvenile delinquents (Graaf, 1997a, 1998b; Graaf, Aghassy & Van Walbeek, 1993). On the basis of the answers to the questionnaire, two childhood trauma odds scores were constructed: (a) an actual childhood trauma score (ACTS), and (b) a transgenerational or possible childhood trauma score (TPCTS).

Actual psychotraumatic or psychotoxic childhood experiences that are open to objectification can be operationally defined as the occurrence of one or more of the following events or experiences: death of a parent or a sibling, or separation or divorce of the parents, all before the age of 18 years; separation from home for longer than 3 months when 5 to 15 years old, or longer than 1 month when less than 5 years old; physical abuse; sexual abuse; alcohol or drug addiction of one of the parents; psychiatric illness of one of the parents; violent quarrels between the parents; and so on.

Transgenerational or possible psychotraumatic or psychotoxic childhood experiences may be defined as the occurrence of one or more of the following circumstances: mother or father lost a parent or sibling before the age of 18 years, other traumatic separation of the parent from his or her parents, traumatic war experiences of father or mother (including having been a soldier in Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War), alcohol addiction of a grandparent, father or mother having felt abused or severely neglected in his or her own youth, a mother who has had an abortion, the parents having lost a child before the target person was born, the target person being an only child or an only girl or boy, mother being the eldest girl in her family, divorce or separation of grandparents, psychiatric illness of a grandparent, bad marriage of grandparents, rigorous religious upbringing of a parent, and so on.

While the participants were inspecting the 12 pictures after the second run, the experimenter opened a sealed envelope containing a sequence of 40 random numbers between 1 and 100, which had also been prepared by the pseudo-RNG. From this list the first 12 numbers were selected in such a way that the pictures were separated from each other by at least one Zener target on the 100-targets sheet (in order to preclude contamination by possible displacements belonging to two adjacent pictures). The experimenter noted the positions of the 12 pictures on a separate sheet and put this into his inside pocket.

Subsequently, the participants received a sheet containing instructions for the third and fourth runs. Only then it was revealed to them that out of the 100 Zener targets, 12 were associated with the pictures they just had seen, so that in the first two runs they unwittingly might already have made hits on those Zener cards which were associated with an emotionally significant picture that only some time afterwards had been shown to them.

Subjects received a new sheet and were requested to enter their guesses not only for the 100 Zener targets but also for the positions of the 12 emotional targets in the third run. This procedure was repeated for the fourth run, with the envelope in the middle of the table containing the 100 target codes for the third run being replaced by that for the fourth run.

At the end of the experiment, that is, after completion of the fourth run, the experimenter revealed the positions of the 12 emotional targets. (Feedback about the positions of the 100 Zener targets for each run was not given. The experimenter had not brought with him the "translations" of the numeric codes into the different Zener symbols.)

The 12 emotional target positions were:

                    Paraphrase            Source         Position
                                                      (in all runs)

Picture 1   "escape from slaughter"       newspaper        71
        2   "mother-child idyll"           Picasso         88
        3   "child seated before violin"    TAT 1          36
        4   "arcadic scenery"               TAT 2          15
        5   "despair"                       TAT 3 BM       12
        6   "passion and love"              TAT 4          82
        7   "how do I tell her ...?!"       TAT 6 BM       97
        8   "the witch"                     TAT 12 F       90
        9   "boat under foliage"            TAT 12 BG      22
       10   "what do you mean ...?"         TAT 6 GF        7
       11   "reverie"                       TAT 8 GF       53
       12   "woman leaning over             TAT 17 GF      28
             railing of bridge ..."

Subsequently, the experimenter collected the four answer sheets containing the guesses of the four runs plus the questionnaires filled out by the participants, after having ascertained that each participant had filled in his or her name or alias as well as the numbers of the consecutive runs.

Two subjects (Subjects 2 and 8) did not belong to the group and did not participate in the seminar but were "flown in" especially for the sake of the experiment. Another two subjects (Subjects 11 and 12) had to leave the preceding evening. Just before they left, the 12 pictures were shown to them and they were asked to fill out the questionnaire. They made their guesses the next day at home and sent the questionnaire and the guesses of the four runs by regular mail to the experimenter.

Research Hypotheses

For the sake of clarity those Zener cards that were not connected with any of the 12 pictures--that is, Zener cards not situated at the positions of any of the pictures--were denoted as Zener targets (ZTs). Zener cards located at the position of a picture were denoted as emotional targets (ETs). For brevity's sake the abbreviation ET will sometimes also be used to signify the combination of ET plus picture.

Since this study opens up a new territory that to a large extent still has to be developed, and in view of its exploratory nature, we were not yet in a position to formulate exact research hypotheses. Nevertheless we felt that the theoretical model described above would make it possible to make at least a few tentative predictions:

A. Individually traumatized subjects will avoid placing direct hits on ETs denoted by them as "traumatic." This will result in either backward or forward displacements that are still close to the traumatic ET to which they remain emotionally attached.

B. On the other hand, subjects who score high for transgenerational trauma will tend to be attracted, in the form of direct hitting, to the traumatic ETs. This conjecture is based upon the assumption that transgenerationally traumatized subjects may feel attracted to trauma just because of their overprotective upbringing and/or a secret wish to share their parents' trauma. There may also be backward displacement for targets described as "ideal," and perhaps forward displacement (because of "symbiotic" fears).

C. In comparison with the nontraumatized subjects, both individually and transgenerationally traumatized subjects will show the same or lesser percentages of both displaced and correct guesses for ETs connected with pictures described by the participants as "neutral." Because the major part of the attention of the traumatized subjects is drawn to the traumatic ETs, we expect a general constriction of the variance for the percentages for neutral ETs.

D. We expect a differential effect with respect to the position effect scores for the 8 ETs connected with pictures described as either "shocking," "comforting or appeasing," "neutral," or "arousing mixed feelings"--as opposed to the 4 ETs connected with pictures that were not mentioned at all by the participant. It is difficult to predict with any certainty the direction of this differential effect. If leaving out certain pictures is due to a defensive operation of the psyche, at least some interaction with the trauma scores could be expected, probably in the direction of a negative correlation between ETs not mentioned and the trauma scores. If leaving them out is merely a genuine expression of indifference to the very contents of these pictures, the scores of the position effects for these ETs will center around the mean, with little or no interaction with the trauma scores.

E. Exposure to the 12 emotional targets prior to the third run will cause an interaction with the relationships predicted so far under A to D. Post hoc analysis will have to reveal the quality and magnitude of this interaction, if any. We conjecture that both backward and forward displacements for the "traumatic" and "ideal" ETs by primarily traumatized subjects, as well as the differential effect mentioned under D, might decrease following exposure.

RESULTS

The starting point of this experiment was the assumption that a strong unconscious wish or "intentionality" to express the emotions connected with certain pictures could cause relatively more correspondences with Zener cards (ZTs)--or, in fact, their simulations--at certain "sensitive spots," that is, positions situated around or exactly at the location of these emotionally significant pictures (ETs).

Statistical Methods

For the final analysis of the results we concentrated in the first place upon the number of correspondences at these sensitive spots. This yielded the following displacement types:

A. p-1 ~ p-1: correspondence between response and Zener target (ZT), both preceding the location of an emotional target (ET).

B. p ~ p: correspondence between response and ET (= "direct hit").

C. p+1 ~ p+1: correspondence between response and ZT, both following the location of the ET.

D. p-1 ~ p: +1 forward displacement: response at location just preceding ET corresponds with ET.

E. p+1 ~ p: -1 backward displacement: response at location just following ET corresponds with ET.

F. p ~ p-1 : -1 backward displacement: response at location of ET corresponds with ZT preceding the ET.

G. p ~ p+1: +1 forward displacement: response at location of ET corresponds with ZT following ET.

H. p-1 ~ p+1: +2 forward displacement: response preceding location of ET corresponds with ZT following ET.

I. p+1 ~ p-1: -2 backward displacement: response following location of ET corresponds with ZT preceding ET.

J. p-2 ~ p: +2 forward displacement: response located two places before location of ET corresponds with ET

K. p+2 ~ p: -2 backward displacement: response at two places following ET corresponds with ET.

Table 1 gives an overview of the various position effects.

Global statistics. None of the participants had above chance hits for the exact location of the pictures on the target sheet and no correlation with the trauma scores was discovered. We then had to ask ourselves whether the various displacement scores could be considered to be stochastically independent from each other. (2) In view of possible response stereotypes, such as repetition avoidance (Crandall, 1988), combined with the observed departure from randomness of the ZTs, we decided that this was not a valid assumption. Thus, significance levels, e.g., in the form of a [chi square] statistic by adding up the squares of the z-scores, were deemed to be unreliable.

Therefore, in order to control for the influence of possible individual response biases and stereotypes, we decided to calculate for each participant and for each displacement type the number of displacements for "target" Zener cards (ETs) as a percentage of the total number of displacements of that type for all ZTs. In this way, any stacking effect was also regarded as being sufficiently compensated for, as this would have to show up in both numerator and denominator of the quotients involved.

The results are shown in Table 2. In the computation of the expected mean percentages and the z-scores, the actual target and call frequencies were accounted for with the help of Stevens' formula (Burdick & Kelly; 1977).

In this table nothing conspicuous strikes the eye, except perhaps for the fact that the percentage of direct hits on ETs (B-perc) is among the two highest of all 11 position effects and at the same time also shows the smallest variance. The meaning of this finding could be that in this sample "direct hitting" was less subject to individual differences than the various displacements.

Correlations Between Displacement Types and Trauma Scores

We started our analysis by examining the possibility of a connection between the extent and kind of traumatization and certain displacement types.

The distributions of the trauma scores were as follows:

(a) PERS_TR (= ACTS--Actual Childhood Trauma Score)

Range: 1-4, Mean: 2.000, St. Dev.: 1.348, Skewness: +.534

(b) TRANSG_TR (= TPCTS--Transgenerational or Possible Childhood Trauma Score)

Range: 1-4, Mean: 2.750, St. Dev.: 1.357, Skewness:-.770

(c) GENER_TR (= ACTS + TPCTS).

Range: 1-8, Mean: 4.750, St. Dev.: 2.301, Skewness: -.010

The three trauma scores appeared to be fairly symmetrical around the mean. The two predictors PERS_TR and TRANSG_TR themselves covaried rather strongly, r(10) = .45, p = .15. In Table 3 the Pearson correlation coefficients are shown of the 11 displacement types with the three trauma scores.

The first thing which strikes the eye is a preponderance of positive correlation coefficients. In this case, we considered the correlation coefficients to be independent of each other. Transforming the Pearson correlations into z-scores yielded:

PERS_TR: Mean(z) = .718, z = 2.38 (p =.017, two-tailed)
                          mean

TRANSG_TR: Mean(z) = .501, z = 1.66 (p =.097, two-tailed)
                            mean

GENER_TR: Mean(z) = .706, z = 2.34 (p =.019, two-tailed)
                           mean

Thus, one may draw the conclusion that the guesses of the more traumatized subjects tended to significantly cluster around ZTs connected with an emotional target.

In order to render the data accessible to a more comprehensive and meaningful statistical analysis, we decided to combine the "forward" and "backward" displacements pertaining to the Zener targets immediately surrounding, that is, one location preceding or following the ET, into the two composite variables DGH_PERC and EFI_PERC according to the following formulas: 100 x (D+G+H)/ (DTOT+GTOT+HTOT) and 100 x (E+F+I)/(ETOT+FTOT+ITOT), respectively, where D through I represent the number of hits per displacement type on ETs, and DTOT through ITOT the total number of hits per displacement type.

As shown in Table 4, significant positive relationships were found between the three Trauma Scores on the one hand, and on the other the percentage of both forward and backward displacements on ETs. Combining both forward and backward displacements together into a new variable, D_IPERC, yielded still more strongly positive correlations with the trauma scores.

The Influence of Individual Target Preferences: "ETs mentioned" vs. "ETs not mentioned"

It may be remembered that subjects had been asked to sort out four sets of two pictures that they found to be for themselves (a) shocking, (b) comforting or peaceful, (c) arousing mixed feelings, and (d) indifferent. As a result of this procedure, 12-8 = 4 pictures were left out and not mentioned at all. We thought it would be interesting to know whether the ETs linked to the four pictures not mentioned would attract fewer displaced or direct hits by the subjects than those linked to the eight allegedly "emotionally charged" targets because the former could have been, indeed, emotionally less significant to the subject. It could also be, however, that only pictures with a highly emotional charge had to be warded off by strong defense mechanisms denying them access to consciousness. We could not say that much beforehand, but, in the light of the findings about a negative correlation between "defensiveness" and ESP scores (Haraldsson & Houtkooper, 1992, 1994; Johnson & Haraldsson, 1984), the bets were that in the latter case the ETs linked to these pictures not mentioned would not only attract fewer direct hits, but also show fewer displacements. Furthermore, since people who were more traumatized were supposed also to have stronger defense mechanisms, we should expect to find this trend to be stronger for subjects with the higher trauma scores.

Table 5 presents the Pearson correlation coefficients between the three trauma scores and the dependent variables DGH-MENTND and DGH-NTMNTD (percentage of forward displacements for ETs mentioned and ETs not mentioned, respectively), EFI-MENTND and EFI-NTMNTD (percentage of backward displacements for targets mentioned and not mentioned), D_I-MENTND and D_I-NTMNTD (percentage of both backward and forward displacements for the two target types), and JK-MENTND and JK-NTMNTD (percentage of both +2 and -2 displacements for the two target types).

As Table 5 shows, in all cases but one the correlation coefficients for ETs mentioned are higher than those for ETs not mentioned. Moreover, the only significant positive correlations are those for ETs mentioned. Applying the Rank-Sign Test for "planned comparisons" to the data resulted in a p-value of <.05 (two-tailed, n=8, V=32). (We did not include GENER_TR in this test because of its self-evident strong covariance with the other two trauma scores.) Another feature which strikes the eye is the overall constriction of the variance for ETs not mentioned as compared to that for ETs mentioned. In this respect, ETs not mentioned exactly fulfilled the prediction made about the ETs rated as neutral (Hypothesis B).

The difference between ETs mentioned and ETs not mentioned became still more conspicuous when we calculated the Pearson correlations of the trauma scores with the 11 displacement types. On the whole, the correlations between the trauma scores and the hitting rates for the different displacements on ETs were much higher for ETs mentioned than for ETs not mentioned. Applying the Rank-Sign Test to the data yielded, again, a p-value of p < .05 (two-tailed, n=22, V=137).

Timelike Interaction with Exposure to the Pictures (Following Run 2 and Preceding Run 3)

We had predicted (Hypothesis E) that the third run, following exposure to the 12 target pictures in the adjacent room, would show a decrease of displacement effects for certain targets for the more traumatized individuals. In Table 6 (See p. 114), for each run the means and standard deviations are shown for B-perc (percentage p ~ p, direct hits), and the combinations DGH_PERC (percentage forward displacement), EFI_PERC (percentage backward displacement) ,and D_IPERC (percentage backward + forward displacement), as well as their respective Pearson correlations with the trauma scores. The most conspicuous finding is the strong and significant elevation of the correlation coefficients between trauma scores and both DGH_PERC and D_IPERC in the second run, that is, about 20 minutes before the subjects were exposed to the 12 pictures.

However, the second run also showed an interesting feature with respect to the percentage of direct hits (B): This run yielded a striking deficit of direct hits in contrast with the other three runs, in which the percentages of direct hits are all much above chance expectation. When we divide the difference between the observed mean (9.29) and the expected mean (12.11) by the observed standard deviation (1.21) for the second run, the resulting z-value is z = 2.33 (p = .02, two-tailed). Obviously, in view of the significant negative correlation of the percentage of direct hits in the second run with personal trauma, the deficit of direct hits in the second run must have been mainly due to the more traumatized subjects.

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

Quite unexpectedly and rather surprisingly, the four series of 100 random numbers each, as generated by the pseudo-RNG, appeared to be significantly non-random (p << .001). This is shown in Table 7 (See p. 115). A significant surplus of both circles and stars was noted as well as an even more significant deficit of waves over all four runs.

Since we had focused on correspondences with the ETs--that is, cards connected with any of the 12 pictures--we were interested to find out to what extent a possible uneven allocation of pictures to the different Zener symbols could have interacted with the observed non-randomness of the distribution of ZTs. The distribution of the 4x12=48 ETs over all four runs showed roughly the same irregularities as shown by the 400-48=352 "control" Zener targets.

For the evaluation of the results, we had to take into account the design of the experiment, which implied that all 12 subjects called on the same targets (possibility of stacking effect), as well as the observed peculiarity of the pseudorandom algorithm. For an overall evaluation of possible psi effects in this experiment, the Greville formula would have been called for (Burdick & Kelly, 1977). However, the main thrust of this paper involves correlation coefficients between direct and displaced hitting rates on the one hand and trauma scores on the other, and these correlations are of necessity based upon individual psi scores, for which the Greville formula does not provide.

As already said, in order to control for the influence of possible individual response biases and stereotypes as well as for possible stacking effects, we decided to calculate for each participant and for each displacement type the number of displacements for ETs as a percentage of the total number of displacements of that type for all Zener targets. That is, we have used the subject's own responses to the non-target Zener objects as controls. Therefore, the differential effects observed in this study cannot be accounted for by this statistical artifact. In the present study we have concentrated in the first place upon describing in minute detail the setting and the methodology of the experiment, as well as upon giving just a global and first account of certain allegedly meaningful anomalies to be found in the data.

The unintended unequal probabilities of the ZTs appear to have produced some interesting structure in the data: The relatively rarest target, waves, was called most frequently by the subjects, whereas the second most frequent target, a circle, was called least of all. Still more intriguing was the finding that in certain subjects this higher calling rate for waves was accompanied by an exceptionally large number--both relative to the four other response types (p < .10) and the other targets (n.s.)--of direct hits on this target. This subgroup consisted of subjects with a transgenerational trauma score of 3 or more, the effect being most prominent in the first run (p < .001) and only marginally significant in the third run (p>.10). The finding itself--both more calls and more direct hits on the least frequent target--is in close agreement with the findings of Child & Kelly (1973). In combination, however, with the observation that it seemed so strongly related to the presence of a traumatic factor, this finding lends further support to the assumption of a global and perceptual model of psi-functioning (Steinkamp, 1999) and, more specifically, to our assumption of psi as an essentially intentional process in which the organism actively "scans" its timelike environment in search for either (subjectively) dramatic or potentially life-threatening "exceptionalities."

The Research Hypotheses

We shall now discuss the findings in the light of our research hypotheses.

Hypothesis A was partly confirmed insofar as it was not the ETs described as "shocking," but rather those described as "neutral" or "comforting" that elicited significantly more forward displacements on the part of individually traumatized subjects, r(10) = .67, p<.02 and r(10) = .59, p = .04 respectively. In this group, the shocking targets had, indeed, attracted relatively many backward displacements, though to a marginally significant degree r(10) = .55, p = .065. It was, however, the "comforting" ETs that elicited the largest percentage of backward displacements on the part of individually traumatized subjects r(10) = .64, p = .024. This unexpected finding could be explained by assuming that the more traumatized subjects may have taken refuge with the "soothing" or "neutral" ETs as a defense against the anxiety caused by the "traumatic" pictures.

With regard to all four kinds of ETs mentioned together, the individual trauma score was to a very significant degree r(10) = .82, p<.001 correlated with the percentage of forward displacements, and to a significant degree r(10) = .72, p<.01 with the percentage of backward displacements. (See Table 5.) We did not find a statistical relationship between individual trauma scores and the percentage of direct hits for all ETs mentioned combined r(10) = .13, not shown in Table 5.

Hypothesis B was only partially confirmed. Subjects scoring high for transgenerational traumatization were, indeed, inclined to place relatively more direct hits on "shocking" targets r(10) = .32, n.s., but "neutral" and "comforting" targets were slightly more preferred by them: r(10) = .42, r(10) = .43 respectively, both n.s. Subjects of this group showed, indeed, a significant preference for backward displacements on "ideal" (= "comforting") targets r(10) = .58, p =.048, whereas forward displacements were placed most of all on "neutral" targets r(10) = .66, p =.02, and less on "ambivalent" r(10) = .52, n.s. and "ideal" ones r(10) = .48, n.s.

Hypothesis C was not confirmed--and was even contradicted--as far as it concerns the targets described as "neutral" (see above). However, when we replaced the term "neutral" by ETs not mentioned, this hypothesis was confirmed. (See Table 5.) Our first thought was that not describing a picture at all might be interpreted as a defense against feelings of anxiety aroused by that picture. However, on the ground of our findings, we must conclude that not mentioning a picture at all is a direct expression of the subject's factual indifference to this picture and may have nothing to do with a defensive reaction on the subject's part, as we had originally thought. The low variances of ETs not mentioned, which originally we had also predicted for the "neutral" targets, may as well be an expression of the subjects' obliviousness to these targets.

Hypothesis D was confirmed. ETs mentioned appeared to have attracted significantly more both direct and indirect hits than ETs not mentioned (p<.05). As explained above, subjects must have been, indeed, indifferent, rather than defensive, to ETs not mentioned.

Hypothesis E was fully confirmed. A sharp rise of forward displacements was shown by subjects with both high personal and transgenerational trauma scores in the second run, that is just prior to the exposure to the 12 pictures, and an equally sharp decline of this displacement effect in the third run, that is, just after being confronted with the 12 pictures. (See Table 6.)

Methodological Questions

Several methodological problems might be considered in connection with this study. First, the correlations presented in this article were derived from trauma scores that were rated by the experimenter (TKdG) on the basis of the subjects' answers to the questionnaire. This had been done before the correspondences between response and targets were known. Yet, this could have been the moment where an experimenter effect (through experimenter psi [Palmer, 1986]) could have entered the picture. In order to exclude this possibility, the answers to the questionnaire were independently rated by two additional researchers: the second author, Houtkooper, and Hans Gerding, philosopher, of the Parapsychological Institute of Utrecht. Inter-rater reliability, expressed as Cronbach's alpha, between the trauma scores of the three different raters was .82 for personal trauma, .83 for transgenerational trauma, and .90 for general trauma. All correlation coefficients based upon these three different ratings were in the same direction, and all showed the same differential effects. The most significant correlation coefficients, however, were those based upon the trauma scores as rated by the first author. This can be readily explained by the fact that the experimenter personally knew 10 of the 12 subjects and that this knowledge must have influenced his ratings. However, the possibility of an additional experimenter effect--in the form of (precognitively) "fitting" the ratings of the individual trauma scores to the wished-for results--cannot completely be ruled out.

In their meta-analysis of studies about the relationship between defense mechanisms, as measured by the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT), and ESP performance, Houtkooper & Haraldsson (1995) noticed a substantial contribution to ESP performance by the so-called "non-objective part" of the DMT ratings--that is, ratings based upon personal decisions rather than the objective rating rules. In this case (as in ours), the possibility of experimenter psi--that is, in the form of a precognitive ability of the rater--could not be ruled out. In our experiment, there were several points of application for possible experimenter psi. The prior allocation of the numbers 1 to 5 to the five Zener symbols, the seed number of the pseudo-RNG, and the calls by the subjects, may all have been influenced to some extent by the experimenter. According to observational theory (Houtkooper, 2002), each one of these factors may have been influenced according to the preference or need of the observer of the final outcome, i.e., the experimenter.

Another difficulty was the small number of subjects. Although altogether 12x400 = 4,800 trials were made, which could still be multiplied by the number of displacements measured, the real units of measurement amount to only 12, that is the number of individual trauma scores. Therefore, the only way to know whether we are dealing here with a genuine relationship between individual or transgenerational trauma and psi is a replication study by someone other than the first author and involving a larger number of subjects.

At first sight, the absence of physical targets in the form of concrete Zener cards as well as the "abstract" rather than "physical" association between these neutral targets and the 12 emotional targets, might arouse serious doubts about whether psi, if any, could manifest itself in this way. (In the Carpenter experiment, 1971, e.g., concrete targets were used in the form of erotic photographs that were sealed in the envelopes together with the ESP key cards.) The results of this explorative study support the notion that the working of psi in a system does not depend on the character or complicatedness of its construction, nor on its physico-chemical properties (Lucadou, 1989; Schmidt & Pantas, 1972), but rather on the presence of "intentional" processes in the "observer"--e.g., in the form of a personal sensitization factor--and the congruity of the future or otherwise hidden event with this PSF.

CONCLUSIONS

The statistical analyses presented here have been the result of tentative research hypotheses, which were not formulated in a rigorous way. Therefore, and because no correction for multiple analysis was made, the significant results have to be taken as explorative findings, which have to be replicated in a rigorously formulated experimental design before the significant p-values can be regarded as evidential instead of exploratory. The rationale for the experiment and its results was regarded as interesting enough to warrant communication, so that other researchers might indeed consider replication.

To start with, the strongest and most consistent global finding in this study was that subjects with high ratings for personal trauma in the ChTOI, and to a lesser extent also for transgenerational trauma, displayed strong backward as well as forward displacements for ETs, that is Zener targets located at the 12 "sensitive spots," i.e., the exact locations of the 12 pictures. This finding was significant between the p = .05 and .01 level (Tables 3 and 4).

A second intriguing finding is the sharp rise of forward displacements shown by subjects with both high PT and TT scores in the second run, that is just prior to the exposure to the 12 pictures, and the equally sharp decline of this displacement effect in the third run, that is just after being confronted with the 12 pictures. (See Table 6.) This finding points to the occurrence of an anticipatory orienting response, which is, in fact, the same phenomenon observed by Radin (1996) and Bierman (Bierman & Radin 1997) in subjects who were about to be exposed to an unexpected traumatic stimulus.

Equally intriguing is the sharp and significant decline of direct hits (B-perc) in the second run, i.e., just prior to exposure, as well as the finding that this decline was most pronounced for subjects with the higher PT ratings r (10) = -.58, p = .05. It is tempting to assume that in this second run, just prior to the exposure to the emotional targets, the unconscious endeavors of the more traumatized subjects already were directed at anticipating and literally, by means of forward displacements, running ahead of the potentially traumatic targets, and that this occurred at the expense of direct hits.

With regard to the 12 pictures, we also found that for subjects with the higher trauma scores, those pictures that had been picked out and described by the subject (ETs mentioned) attracted considerably more displacements of all types (p<.05, Table 5) than pictures which the subject had left aside (= ETs not mentioned). The meaning of this finding could be that the conscious choice between ETs mentioned and ETs not mentioned mirrored the emotional significance that the subjects had also unconsciously bestowed to these pictures, which may, indeed, explain the general lack of significant correlations between trauma scores and displacement types for ETs not mentioned: Subjects seem to have been both consciously and unconsciously rather indifferent to these targets. Further support for this assumption could be derived from the observation that, in contrast with ETs mentioned, ETs not mentioned showed a consistent and marked constriction of the variance for all combinations of displacements, as shown in Table 5.

In this discussion we have tacitly passed over the circumstance that two of the subjects did not participate in the experiment proper, but had filled in their guesses at their home the following day, that is, several hours after they had been introduced to the pictures and had written down their ratings of them. A more detailed analysis showed that, indeed, dropping these subjects from the sample of n = 12 augmented both the correlation coefficients and the differential effects found in this study, especially those with respect to the inter-run variations (as might be expected).

Summarizing, it may be stated that the findings of this orienting study warrant further inquiry into the possibility of a relationship between the occurrence (and/or awareness) of traumatic experiences in the past--either personal or transgenerationally transmitted--on the one hand and clairvoyant or precognitive sensitivity to certain emotional targets on the other. Secondly, including displacement effects as well in the research into a possible connection between psi and certain personality variables could offer substantial additional information.

Whatever are the possible spiritual implications of psi, we should keep in mind that, originally, it is firmly entrenched in biological life and, as such, must have strong evolutionary roots. From this perspective, precognition as a means to anticipate looming danger may have been most advantageous for immediate survival (Taylor, 2003). It is, therefore, not at all surprising that in many meta-analyses, precognition turns up with the more significant outcomes (Haraldsson & Houtkooper, 1992; Honorton & Ferrari, 1989; Radin, 1997).

The results of this study also suggest that research about precognition of unexpected, but psychologically congruent, events may yield stronger results than that about guessing pre-arranged targets or targets a subject is already familiar with. This could be related to the aspect of "novelty," which augments the "pragmatic information" contained by the total system. For a thorough discussion of the concept of pragmatic information, see Weizsacker (1974), Kornwachs & Lucadou (1985), Gernert (1996), and Graaf (2003).

For obtaining direct hits on emotionally significant targets, it could be necessary to build in a "safety measure" in the form of a certain time delay between guess and feedback, i.e., the physical exposure to the target. On the grounds of our findings about an interaction between psychological variables, the emotional significance of a target, and the timing of the exposure, it might be worthwhile to examine ganzfeld protocols for possible interactions with, and contaminations by, contemporaneous as well as future targets in connection with a subject's personal history.

In the light of the findings of this study, it might also be interesting to examine possible interactions of the trauma scores with those of the Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) (Johnson & Haraldsson, 1984) in experiments exploring the relationship between past traumatic experiences and measures of GESP (including displacements). This could throw additional light upon the unconscious psychodynamic processes governing the perception and apperception, both sensory and extrasensory, of potentially threatening stimuli. After all, on the grounds of the theory around the DMT, one should also expect a relationship between early traumatization and the DMT in its own right. The notion that perceptual defense organization is strongly connected with the buildup of neurobiological defensive structures as a reaction to emotional trauma can be regarded as a central rationale for the DMT. However, this could not yet be empirically corroborated (Kline, 1987). Perhaps correlating the scores on the different items of the DMT with those of the Childhood Trauma Odds Inventory (ChTOI), might offer additional evidence of, and insight into, the supposed relationship between trauma and perceptual defenses.

TABLE 1
DISPLACEMENT TYPES SHOWING POSITION EFFECTS OF SUBJECTS'
CALLS AND TARGET CARDS

 Target                         Call

             p-2       P-1       p        p+1      p+2

P-1                     A        F         I
p             J         D        B         E        K
p+1                     H        G         C

TABLE 2
HITS PER DISPLACEMENT TYPE ON "EMOTIONAL " TARGETS (ETs)
AS A PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF DISPLACEMENTS
OF THE SAME TIPE FOR ALL ZENER TARGETS (ZTs)

Displacement type        Mean
                      percentage
                        (N=12)        Expected

A-perc (p-1 ~ p-1)       11.26           12.11
B-perc (p ~ p)           12.92           12.11
C-perc (p+l ~ p+1)       10.76           12.11
D-perc (p-1 ~ p)         12.57           12.24
E-perc (p+1 ~ p)         12.06           12.24
F-perc (p ~ p-1)         11.32           12.24
G-perc (p ~ p+1)         11.69           12.24
H-perc (p-1 ~ p+1)       12.66           12.36
I-perc (p+1 ~p-1)        12.76           12.36
J-perc (p-2 ~ p)         13.29           12.36
K-perc (p+2 ~ p)         11.60           12.36

Displacement type
                         Std.
                        Deviat       [z.sub.mean]

A-perc (p-1 ~ p-1)       3.49            -1.02
B-perc (p ~ p)           2.93             0.97
C-perc (p+l ~ p+1)       3.61            -1.63
D-perc (p-1 ~ p)         3.24             0.48
E-perc (p+1 ~ p)         4.31            -0.21
F-perc (p ~ p-1)         3.34            -1.13
G-perc (p ~ p+1)         3.33            -0.82
H-perc (p-1 ~ p+1)       3.22             0.35
I-perc (p+1 ~p-1)        3.49             0.47
J-perc (p-2 ~ p)         3.13             1.11
K-perc (p+2 ~ p)         3.94            -0.94

TABLE 3
PEARSON CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TRAUMA SCORES AND THE PERCENTAGES
OF HITS ON ETs FOR THE DIFFERENT DISPLACEMENT TYPES (N=12)

Displacement               PERS_TR    TRANSG_TR   GENER_TR

p-1 ~ p-1       A-perc       0.24       0.31        0.32
p ~ p           B-perc       0.14       0.28        0.25
p+1 ~ p+1       C-perc      -0.32      -0.11       -0.25
p-1 ~ p         D-perc       0.55 (1)   0.18        0.43
p+1 ~ p         E-perc       0.42       0.03        0.26
p ~ p-1         F-perc       0.42       0.26        0.40
p ~ p+1         G-perc       0.17       0.74 (2)    0.54 (3)
p-1 ~ p+1       H-perc       0.37       0.26        0.37
p+1 ~ p-1       I-perc       0.46       0.30        0.44
p-2 ~ p         J-perc       0.00      -0.22        0.13
p+2 ~ p         K-perc      -0.04      -0.37       -0.24

(1) p = .064, (2) p = .006, (3) p = .071 (two-tailed)

TABLE 4
PEARSON CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS BETWEEN THE
THREE TRAUMA SCORES  AND THE PERCENTAGES OF
FORWARD (DGH), BACKWARD (EFI), AND COMBINED
DISPLACEMENTS D THROUGH I ON Ets

            DGH_PERC     p *     EFI_PERC

PERS_TR       0.61      <0.05      0.71
TRANSG_TR     0.66      <0.05      0.30
GENER_TR      0.74      <0.01      0.59

              p *      D_IPERC     p *

PERS_TR       0.01      0.77      0.003
TRANSG_TR     >.10      0.56      0.059
GENER_TR      >.05      0.78      0.003

* Two-tailed probabilities (N=12)

TABLE 5
PEARSON CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS BETWEEN THE TRAUMA
SCORES AND DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF DISPLACEMENTS
FOR BOTH "ETs MENTIONED" AND "ETs NOT MENTIONED"
(N=12)

Displacements         PERS_TR    TRANSG_TR   GENER_TR

DGH-MENTND           0.82 ***     0.70 *      0.89 ***

DGH-NTMNTD          -0.06         0.14        0.05

EFI-MENTND           0.72 **      0.20        0.54

EFI-NTMNTD           0.31         0.36        0.39

D_I-MENTND           0.88 ***     0.49        0.80

D_I-NTMNTD           0.16         0.41        0.33

JK MENTND            0.10        -0.14       -0.02

JK-NTMNTD           -0.27        -0.69 *     -0.57

Displacements            M          SD
                       (Theor. Exp (1)

DGH-MENTND             8.543       1.567
                      (8.185)
DGH-NTMNTD             3.731       1.007
                      (4.093)     (1.108)
EFI-MENTND             7.626       1.847
                      (8.185)
EFI-NTMNTD             4.396       0.865
                      (4.093)     (1.306
D_I-MENTND          ** 8.076       1.484
                      (8.185)
D_I-NTMNTD             4.057       0.606
                      (4.093)     (1.049)
JK-MENTND              8.111       2.586
                      (8.241)
JK-NTMNTD              4.266       1.118
                      (4.121)     (1.829)

* p<.05 ** p<.01, *** p<.001

(1) [SD.sub.NTMNTD] =  [SD.sub.MENTND] / [square
root of ([n.sub.MENTND] / [n.sub.NTMNTD])] =
[SD.sub.MENTND] / [square root of (8/4]

TABLE 6
MEANS, STANDARD DEVIATIONS AND TRAUMA SCORE
CORRELATES OF THE PERCENTAGE OF DIRECT HITS AND
DISPLACEMENTS OVER THE FOUR RUNS (N=12)

                         direct hits     forward displ.
                           B_PERC           DGH_PERC

RUN 1   MEAN            13.72 (12.11)    12.94 (12.28)
        SD Mean             2.25              0.98
        ~Pers_Tr            0.33              0.12
        ~Transg_ Tr         0.46              0.49
        ~Gener_Tr           0.47              0.36

RUN 2       MEAN        9.29 (12.11)     13.28 (12.28)
          SD Mean           1.21              1.24
        ~Pers_Tr       -0.58 (p=.05)     0.80 (p=.002)
        ~Transg_ Tr         0.15         0.68 (p=.015)
        ~Gener_Tr          -0.25         0.87 (p<.001)

RUN 3   MEAN            14.51 (12.11)    11.75 (12.28)
        SD Mean             1.45              1.00
        ~Pers_Tr           -0.08             -0.24
        ~Transg_ Tr         0.34              0.11
        ~Gener_Tr           0.15             -0.07

RUN 4   MEAN            14.49 (12.11)    10.97 (12.28)
        SD Mean             2.52              1.26
        ~Pers_Tr            0.16              0.40
        ~Transg_ Tr        -0.20              0.04
        ~Gener_Tr          -0.02              0.26

                       backward displ.    forw.+ backw
                          EFI PERC          D_IPERC

RUN 1   MEAN            10.16 (12.28)    11.55 (12.28)
        SD Mean             1.24              0.87
        ~Pers_Tr            0.40              0.33
        ~Transg_ Tr         0.33              0.49
        ~Gener_Tr           0.43              0.48

RUN 2       MEAN        12.73 (12.28)    13.01 (12.28)
          SD Mean           0.81              0.86
        ~Pers_Tr        0.57 (p=.052)    0.85 (p<.001)
        ~Transg_ Tr         0.08         0.55 (p=.065)
        ~Gener_Tr           0.38         0.82 (p=.001)

RUN 3   MEAN            11.93 (12.28)    11.84 (12.28)
        SD Mean             1.34              0.74
        ~Pers_Tr        0.51 (p=.088)         0.19
        ~Transg_ Tr        -0.05             -0.01
        ~Gener_Tr           0.27              0.11

RUN 4   MEAN            12.85 (12.28)    11.91 (12.28)
        SD Mean             0.66              0.78
        ~Pers_Tr            0.40              0.48
        ~Transg_ Tr     0.56 (p=.059)         0.26
        ~Gener_Tr       0.57 (p=.055)         0.44

Note. Figures between parentheses refer to the theoretical
expectations of  the Mean.

TABLE 7
CONFUSION MATRIX OF ALL TARGET (ZT) CALL COMBINATIONS
OVER THE FOUR RUNSCALLS

CALLS                TARGETS

            plus      waves    square

plus         141       103      224
waves        155       106      227
square       150       100      221
circle       129        98      181
star         144        97      226
TOTAL        719       504     1079
**)         (60)      (42)     (90)

CALLS                TARGETS

           circle     star     TOTAL *

plus         244       261      973
waves        272       243     1003
square       234       257      962
circle       242       241      891
star         243       257      967
TOTAL       1235      1259     4796
**)        (103)    (105)     (400)

*) [chi square] (4, N= 12)= 7.12, n.s.

**) [chi square] (4, N= 12)= 38.64. p [much less than] .0001

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are indebted to John Palmer of the Rhine Research Center for his valuable contribution to the first statistical analysis and for his comments on the early drafts of this paper. We also thank Dick Bierman of Utrecht University as well as Hans Gerding and Rens Wezelman of the Utrecht Parapsychological Institute for their help and constructive remarks. We especially want to extend our thanks to the 12 colleagues who were willing to participate in the experiment.

NOTES

(1.) Dunne (1927), a prominent aeronautical engineer, was the first to scientifically explore the phenomenon of precognitive dreams.

(2.) From a merely theoretical point of view this should be the case. For, there is no (stochastical) reason to suppose that a surplus of one position effect, say n~n (direct hits), has to go at the expense of any other position effect, say (n-1)~n or n~(n+1).

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JOOP M. HUOTKOOPER, Center for Psychobiology and Behavioral Medicine Justus Liebig University of Giessen Otto-Behaghel-Strasse 10, D-35394 Giessen, Germany joop.m.houtkooper@psychol.uni-giessen.de

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