Motor automatisms as a vehicle of ESP expression - Abstract

ABSTRACT: This is the latest in a series of experiments exploring ESP as expressed through motor automatisms, which, if genuine, reflect a dissociative state of consciousness expected to be psi-conducive. In this experiment, the motor automatism consisted of hand movements. Forty adult volunteers, most of whom had previously participated in psi experiments at the Rhine Research Center (RRC), served as "detectors." The target pool consisted of 100 homographs divided into 20 sets of 5 each. They were selected for diversity of associations in published normative experiments, and words within each set were equated for frequency in the English language. A pseudo-random sequence of 100 target words was stored inside a computer. The detector was seated in front of an alphabet board modeled after the Ouija board. For up to 30 min, the detector randomly moved the pointer around the board in an effort to find letters that appeared in the target word, recording each letter. An RRC staff member, Cheryl Alexander, served as sender. The sender's room was located 2 floors above, but not directly above, the detector's room. After the detector had gone to his or her room, the sender displayed the target word on a computer screen located in a room adjacent to the sender's room. She then returned to the sender's room to commence sending. She imagined herself projecting her consciousness into the detector's room and guiding the detector's hand to the appropriate letters, as well as directly sending the word and associations to it. While sending, she listened through stereo headphones to 1 of 2 pink-noise tapes, the order of which was determined by random permutation. The experimental tape contained "binaural beats" in the theta and delta frequency ranges. Following the reception period, the detectors completed a questionnaire concerning their experience during the session and then blind-rated the set of 5 possible targets for correspondence to the letters they got from the board and from other impressions. There were 10 direct hits (MCE = 8), which is nonsignificant. Detectors who said they felt an outside force moving their hand over the board (OF) from 1% to 40% of the time scored significantly higher than other detectors (p = .011). This group (n = 11) had a high mean z score of .818 (p = 2.4 x [10.sup.-5]). Participants had previously completed a 50-item questionnaire consisting of items from the Complex Partial Epileptic Signs (CPES) scale and the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS). The CPES with the TAS partialed out was considered to be a trait measure of dissociation and, as predicted, it correlated significantly with the OF item, considered a state measure of dissociation, during the session, [r.sub.p](38) = .756, p = .001. These findings suggest that moderate levels of dissociation are more psi-conducive than extreme levels. Finally, there was a suggestive tendency for sessions with the binaural beat tape to yield higher ESP scores (p = .082), but only for ratings based exclusively on what came through the board.

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