Cl1-Ganzfeld Study: A Look At Brain Hemisphere Differences And Scoring In The Autoganzfeld

This study was supported in part by a grant from the Institut fur Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene. CHA would also like to gratefully acknowledge Alixe Steinmetz for assisting with this research.

ABSTRACT: The CL1-Ganzfeld study was designed to examine the relationship between brain hemisphere differences and ESP performance in the ganzfeld, particularly how the right hemisphere may interact with psi abilities. The design also allowed for exploration of the relationship between ESP scores and other variables such as personality factors, geomagnetism, and local sidereal time (LST). Fifty selected subjects individually participated in two separate testing sessions. In the first testing session, subjects completed the Cognitive Laterality Battery (CLB)--the cerebral hemisphere dominance measure--and in the second session they participated in the ganzfeld procedure. All subjects completed a Participant Information Form (PIF) and Form G of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

The CL1-Ganzfeld study produced a total of 18 hits in 50 sessions for a hit rate of 36% (z = 1.60, p = .055). Although this scoring rate falls just short of statistical significance, the effect size ([pi] = .63) is in the upper part of previously predicted ranges. Subjects exhibiting right cerebral hemisphere dominance, as measured by the CLB, scored fewer direct hits in the ganzfeld than those exhibiting left cerebral hemisphere dominance. The difference between the two scoring rates was not significant.

Analysis of the MBTI preference scores showed that subjects classified as Intuitive-Feeling (NF) did not produce a higher scoring rate than subjects who were not classified as NF. Also examined was the idea that those people who were classified as NF would be right hemisphere dominant. Results were in the predicted direction, as more NF subjects were classified as right hemisphere dominant than left hemisphere dominant. However, the difference between the two groups was not significant, so replication with a larger sample size would be needed to confirm this idea.

During the two-hour window surrounding 13.5h LST, there were only five sessions resulting in two direct hits (40%), whereas at other times there were 45 sessions resulting in 16 hits (35.6%). The difference was not significant. An expected weak negative correlation between ESP-ganzfeld scores and geomagnetic activity was not found. The Spearman correlation between ESP scores and ap index was nonsignificantly positive (p = .02) for all 50 trials; however, for the five trials within the two hour LST window, the correlation was = -.40 (df = 4).

Direct hit results by sender/receiver relationship were analyzed and it was discovered that the clairvoyant condition produced the largest effect size ([phi] = .72) and a high scoring rate of 46.2%. As expected, emotionally close pairs (parent/child sender-receiver pairs) also produced a large effect size ([phi] = .71) and a scoring rate of 44.4%. By contrast, the friends category produced an unusually low hit rate of 16.7%. These results correspond closely with the direct hit results by sender-receiver relationship reported by Broughton and Alexander (1997).

Additionally, the data indicate dynamic targets produced only a slightly better hit rate than the static targets, 36.4% compared to 35.7%, respectively. Contrary to findings by Broughton and Alexander (1997), right-handed receivers yielded a better hit rate than either left-handed or ambidextrous receivers. However, the difference between the hit rates was not significant.

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