NOTES INTRODUCTORY TO A CONFERENCE

ON PARAPSYCHOLOGY AND PHYSICS.

by A.R.G. Owen.

New Horizons Research Foundation October 1987.

1 Introduction.

The science of physics takes its name from the Greek word used by Aristotle and his contemporaries to refer to nature, i.e. physis. Down the ages it came to mean nature in its most essential aspects — space, time, force and energy -- the stark skeleton of all reality; all findings in other sciences should conform to the doctrines of physics, which thus became the supreme arbiter of the rational. The development of physics (with chemistry now accepted to be one of its branches) tended to reductionalism in psychology and to the devalutation of points of view that now-a-days we regard as important, which may briefly be included under the term "holism". Just as Walter Pater asserted that all arts aspired to attain to the perfection of music, so many scientific disciplines have aspired to the condition of physics, aiming at a rigorously austere mathematical structure. Meanwhile, however, in parallel with the rise of physics and chemistry and evolutionary biology, there occurred the decline and discredit of superstitious beliefs, occultism, and finally religion itself. No one should mourn this; however the wheel might have turned slightly too far in that those apparent but authenticated exceptions to what is believed to be scientifically possible have tended to be disregarded. In the present century, if various popularizers are to be believed, physics itself, particularly in respect of the quantum theory, has shown "occult" tendencies. Therefore students of the paranormal have tended to grasp at this fact in the hope of gaining some insight into the enigmas of their own subject. From this point of departure therefore some dialogue between parapsychologists and physicists may be of value to the former, at least. But there is a totally different reason for such dialogue. The phenomena of psychical research include strange physical effects as well as purely mental ones. To that extent at least the psychical research worker is both entitled to ask for the advice of the physicist, and under the duty of advising the latter of occurrences in his bailiwick. Thirdly, a yet different reason for dialogue, in considering possible mechanisms for paranormal phenomena, it behooves the parapsychologist to solicit the advice of the physicist so that the latter's experience and findings can play a normative role in parapsychological thinking.

Parapsychology has received the sympathy of some psychologists, notably Freud, Jung, William James, and many others subsequently, as well as the bitter hostility of a few such as Hebb and Boring, one of the founders of experimental psychology. Among physicists no outstanding opponent of psychic research comes to mind except Helmholtz who said, rather after the manner of David Hume in respect of miracles, that he would believe no evidence for paranormal phenomena, however abundant; but Helmholtz was just as much a physiologist as a physicist.

About twenty years ago I was invited by the research students group (consisting of "doctorendi" post-graduate students working to get their Ph. D's in physics) of the famous Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University to give them a talk on psychokinesis. When I rose to speak I took pleasure inr drawing their attention to the only picture in the seminar room. It was a portrait of John William Strutt, better known as Lord Rayleigh. I was happy to say that besides being one of the earliest Nobel Laureates (1904) and Cavendish Professor of Physics and President of the Royal Society from 1905 to 1908, and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Baron Rayleigh, O.M. P.C. (Order of Merit, Privy Councillor — the rarest of distinctions in Britain for men of science or letters) had also been the President of the Society for Psychical Research, having served for many years on the Society's Council, his interest in the subject of psychical research being by no means a fleeting one. His participation was not merely nominal, he carried out or assisted in many investigations. He never admitted to a final belief in paranormal phenomena but confessed to having been quite often intensely puzzled by occurrences he had actually himself witnessed. Rayleigh's Presidential Address to the Society for Psychical Research delivered in 1919 registers this fact and also exhibits himself as a man of moderate emotions, great commonsense, and considerable learning in the history of science, with a feeling for inductive logic and fair-mindedness. Speaking of parapsychological phenomena, Professor Rayleigh said "A real obstacle to a decision (i.e. as 'paranormal' or 'normal') arises from the sporadic character of the phenomena, which cannot be reproduced at pleasure and submitted to systematic experimental control". However unlike many contemporary philosophers (i.e. of the 1980's) Rayleigh goes on to say that, "The difficulty is not limited to questions where occult influences may be involved. This is a point which is often misunderstood, and it may be worth while to illustrate it by examples taken from the history of science". (Presidential Address, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol.30, July 1919). For his illustrations he chooses three problems of existence; (1) that of meteorites, only settled in 1803 by Biot after thirty years of scientific controversy; (2) that of the ignis fatuus, i.e. the will-o-the-wisp, or jack-o-lantern, a phosphorescent light seen (it was claimed) over swamps, but whose occurrence was not scientifically accepted in Rayleigh's day; (3) that of ball lightning. This last is quite interesting because it is only relatively..-recently that it has been accepted as an actual phenomenon. ^Indeed Rayleigh's son, Robert John Strutt, the 4th Baron Rayleigh, another Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor of Physics at Imperial College, London, and also a President of the Society for Psychical Research, in his Presidential Address to the Society in 1937, noted scientific reluctance to look at the problem of ball lightning because its appearances were spontaneous and therefore not susceptible to experimental tests; and observed that the same difficulty arose with many forms of Psi, and that this should not cause incredulity in either case, important as experimental work was wherever it could be carried out.]J Rayleigh's own scientific career which ranged over a great variety of branches of physics (making him, in the present writer's opinion the peer of Helmholtz) may have been partly the effect and partly the cause of his broadmindedness. His theoretical masterpieces are perhaps his great book on The Theory of Sound and his formula for the scattering of light, but his Nobel Prize (in chemistry) was for a totally different feat -- the discovery of the inert or "noble" gas, argon. This itself constitutes an instructive episode in the history of science. It had long been known that n«jtri?gen and oxygen (and presumably carbon dioxide) accounted for 99% of the atmosphere. But Rayleigh, who thought that even minor discrepancies and neglected phenomena should be investigated, stirred up the brilliant chemist William Ramsey, Professor at University College, London. In 189^- Rayleigh and Ramsay announced the isolation of argon and in 19C4 shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. I always took pleasure in the picture of Rayleigh in the Fellow's card room at Trinity College,' Cambridge. It showed a slightly portly man in his sh^rt sleeves at a bench of chemical apparatus. Like his predecessor, Sir Isaac Newton, Fellow of Trinity, a Cambridge Professor and President of the Royal Society, Rayleigh respected equally the two presiding deities of science -- theory and empirical fact a code of scientific morality as valid today as in Rayleigh's time, Newton's time, or the age of Archimedes.

Normal and Paranormal.

Psychical research or parapsychology is the area of study that concerns itself with a variety of phenomena which seem to be to an exceptional degree inexplicable by principles already known to science. In course of time some happenings that were once mysterious became, even if not fully understood, assimilated to the normal -- an example is hypnosis. Thus the original field of the parapsychological as sketched out "by the founders of psychical researc/iin nineteenth century Britain has contracted a little. However the shrinkage is surprizingly minor and unimportant. Although the nomenclature may have changed, as exemplified "by the terms ESP (extra sensory perception) and P.K. (psychokinesis), the basic subject matter of psychical research has held up as a body of well-evidenced phenomena. (This is true in spite of criticism by naive representatives of other disciplines and the disingenuous attacks of others; in fact the evidential status of parapsychological phenomena has increased by a very large factor during the last two decades. This is due in part to modern technological aids — computers and electronic recording — and in part to heightened interest as a result of improved world communication and an increased sephistication in methods employed by psychical research wor^kers). It is also the case that in spite of humanity's vastly augmented knowledge of both physics and physiology the typical phenomena of psychical research remain as enigmatic as they were a century ago. They are not, with any plausibility or conviction of rightness, explicable in terms of recognized and scientifically understood entities e.g. electromagnetism or other radiations. As a result it has become conventional to speak of these happenings as paranormal phenomena — events which do not as yet have an explanation in terms of accepted physical or physiological wisdom. There is also in the term paranormal the implications that the prospect of explaining the phenomena in terms of what is known in science at the present is a meagre oneJ Of course it is theoretically possible that new discoveries in "orthodox" science will render presently "paranormal" phenomena "normal", as the poet says,"Quien sabe?" — "Who knows?". Today's superstition may be tomorrow's science, just as in the earlier times the discarded "science" of the past became current superstition.

A taxonomy of paranormal phenomena.

Without chopping things too fine^ that is to say, in the jargon of biological systematics choosing to be "lumpers" rather than "splitters"^we make a broad classification of "paranormal" happenings in the following way. We set up the broad distinction mental versus physical, and "orthogonally" to that classification we grade the types of phenomena in order of degree,(1, 2, etc)of bizarreness or strangeness. (Compare the late Professor Hynek's threefold classification of UFO reports according to strangeness. His group "Encounters of the Third Kind',1 eventually bequeathed its name to a widely distributed movie.) Mental (1) Telepathy ("thought transference") and phenomena often interpreted in terms of telepathy — e.g. crisis communications,--hunches, mental impressions, auditory and visual apparitions,*"coinciding with a crisis in the life of the percipient's friend or relative. Experimental telepathy must be included as well as spontaneous cases.

(2) Clairvoyance. The perception of physical fact without the intermediacy of any living human, as when targets randomly distributed into closed containers and which are unknown to any living human are correctly named by a percipient.

Whether the subject of "dowsing" water or mineral divining should be included under clairvoyance or not, is a moot point that we discuss later.

(3) Precognition. Knowledge of a future fact.

(The reader will see that the grades 1, 2, and 3> represent an increasing order of difficulty of acceptance).

Physical(la) Biological effects of one person on another, healing hands, enhancement of plant growth.

(lb) Psycho-Kinesis (PK) in which the agent causes objects to move or modifies the movement of objects, also the production of temperature rises in thermometers, or actual fires in combustible substances, deflection of magnets and magnetometers, or of beams of light or particles. We must also list production of vibrations and/or audible sounds, and the placing of pictures or patterns on audio or videotape, or on photographic film in sealed containers. These phenomena, irrespective of the mysterious chain of causation involved, are subject to a fourfold classification resulting from the dichotomies of scale and mode. As regards scale, these happenings can be very minute, only showing up statistically Cmicro-PK"1) or instead be much larger ("macro PK"). Examples of micro-PK are the subtle influence on the fall of a die which can be exercised by a single person or a group, and, more recently, effects on a computer or on an electronic source of random noise. Examples of macro-PK are found in so-called poltergeist phenomena when large objects such as tables and chairs are moved through considerable distances, or even raised in the air'i By mode we mean the distinction between involuntary and voluntary. ^ While many spontaneous instances of PK are totally involuntary, an appreciable proportion of the agents in these cases achieve a capacity to initial these effects voluntarily. (See Matthew Manning 6

in the appended papers). In view of this fact and other considerations it would seem that differences in mode are basically psychological only. As regards differences in scale it would appear that these perhaps do reflect the presence or absence of a specific factor or factors, possibly of a genetic or, at least, congenital origin. It would seem, so far as observation can be trusted, that the majority of humankind have a rudimentary or low-level Psi capacity, but that a distinguished minority have the power in a far greater degree, which is precisely what any population geneticist would surmise to be the case!

(2) Teleportetion is the sudden disappearance of an object (usually of a commonplace or mundane kind) often in full view of observers. Sometimes the object — pen, book, pot, or what you will — is never seen again. However, broadly speaking,about fifty percent of them reappear mysteriously after a delay which may be only seconds or minutes, but sometimes is one of some hours, days, weeks, or months. One may ask in what state or realm they may have been in the interim as, no doubt, Alice's family would have while she was "through the looking glass" had that adventure not been fiction. (Incidentally, "Lewis Carroll", that is the Revd. Charles L. Dodgson (I832-I898), Fellow of Christ Church College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Mathematics there, was a member of the Society for Psychical Research). The reappearance of the mysteriously missing article may be in full view of witnesses, typified by the object "materializing" in mid-air. Especially interesting are those instances which are perfectly factual, being very well evidenced, in which the objects are initially in closed cupboards, and reappear in closed rooms. The phenomenon is not, as with many poltergeisted objects, one of mere flight. It should be said that teleportation almost invariably occurs in a contest of poltergeistry or of sporadic PK. Strangely enough, although we have classified the phenomenon as of the second (i.e. higher) grade of implausibility, the evidence for it is especially good. It is certainly difficult to swallow. As the late Mr. Kruschev said in a quite different contewt "It sticks like a bone in the throat".

il Those laymen who accept as a fact the occurrence of telepathy tend to think of it as broadly analagous to a kind of "mental radio". Indeed Upton Sinclair, the novelist and publicist, gave his book on telepathy just that title (Mental Radio, 1930, Second edition, reprinted Collier Books, New York, 1971)• The book was graced with a short preface by no less than Albert Einstein, who said the facts cited were indisputable, and "surely far beyond those which the nature investigator ho/ds to be thinkable" He added that " if somehow the facts here set forth rest not upon telepathy, but upon some unconscious hypnotic influence from person to person, this also would be of high psychological interest". Irrespective of the applicability of the idea of "unconscious hypnotic influence" to the evidence cited by Sinclair, we need not now be concerned with it on account of the rigid protocols and requirements for testimony that have been developed by psychical research workers in the last haIf-century.

The analogy between telepathy and radio proceeds from the fact that information is transmitted without wires or other material connection between agent and percipient. It is natural to think of the agent (i.e. "sender" of the information, albeit without conscious awareness of what he is doing) as a kind of radio transmitter. The first question to ask is whether telepathy could actually be just radio? Since Upton Sinclair's day this view has been encouraged by the recognition that the brain is the seat of considerable electrical activity, EEG rhythms etc. However we are assured by neurophysiologists that there is no possibility that the brain, or any other portion of the human anatomy, contains a radio transmitter of power adequate to account for the feats of telepathy which are sometimes effective over thousands of miles. The mental radio question therefore has to be recast into the form, Is telepathic communication analagous to radio transmission? Characteristic of any system of physical connection between objects are its laws relating to attenuation with distance R and to speed of propagation. Thus radio, i.e. the electromagnetic field, when radiating from a source in three dimensions falls off in amplitude (i.e. magnitude of either the electric component E or magnetic component H) proportionally to l/R^. Correspondingly the falling off can be expressed in terms of potential 0 which falls off as l/R. The speed of propagation of a radio message is, of course, equal to c = 300,000 km/sec, the speed of light. If telepathy is not actually radio but merely analogous to it, we would expect a falling off as l/R and most probably, though not with logical certainty, a typical velocity V of propagation. Turning to the empirical evidence on telepathy we find at once that no conclusion at all about speed of transmission can be drawn. For all we know to the contrary it might even be instantaneous* (See later for discussion of that possibility). There seems no doubt that the speed is high, so that it could only be estimated experimentally by transmission over long distances accompanied by delicate chronological determinations. In this context the experimental transmission of random numbers to the well-known psychic sensitive Olaf Jonsson and three other percipients in 1971 is obviously of interest. The agent was the astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell transmitting from the Apollo 14 space vehicle while near the Moon -- a range far greater than attempted in any previous experiment. No data on speed of transmission resulted however. The results indicated a significant degree of telepathy (P < 0.00003) but the magnitude of the effect was small and also of the unappetizing "psi-missing" variety; on both counts it makes one reluctant to do much theorising.

As regards falling off of telepathy with distance R the only effective review of the problem is that of Dr. Karlis Osis and Malcolm E. Turner, Jr. — "Distance and ESP: A Transcontinental Experiment," (Proc. A.S.P.R.27, pp. 1-48, Sept. 1968) and four earlier papers of Dr. Osis. They examined the assertion that has often been made that telepathy is independent of distance. They surveyed the pertinent data published in English prior to 19^5, reaching tentative conclusions; (a) there is some falling off with increased distance, (b) the law, so far as it can be estimated from the data, is approximately as l/R9'v or almost equivalently, within the limits of error, 1/ /R"I Their findings are quoted in slightly more detail in the papers included below as Appendix One, namely^Experiments on ESP in Relation to (a) Distance, and (b) Mood and Subject Matter "(New Horizons, jL, pp.76-87, Summer 1973). That paper also describes an experiment done under exceptionally favourable circumstances comparing the efficiency of telepathic communication between Toronto and Montreal and between sites in Toronto. Because of the specially favourable circumstances (which are discussed in the paper) quite high scoring was achieved. The reader may find it helpful if I specify more precisely what is meant by efficiency. Suppose that the probability that an item of information is transmitted by telepathy is and of being merely guessed is p then the probability of being right is given, as can easily be seen by any of the equivalent formulae Provided we can estimate the value of p separately for each item we can then estimate ^ for a set of items as is done in our paper. It will be"%een that this measure of the efficiency of telepathy is distinct from any measure of the intexnsity or vividness of the experieace. However it is also of note that in spontaneous cases such as crisis apparitions, the image transmitted over thousands of miles (e.g. from India to Canada), may be quite as vivid as one received from the next street.

Interestingly enough Lord Rayleigh was one of the first to cast doubt on the radio model of telepathy. In the Presidential m Address he said "Some people appear to think that all difficulty is obviated by the supposition of an unknown physical agency capable of propagating effects from one brain

— to another, acting like the transmitter and receiver in wireless telegraphy or telephony. On a physical theory of this kind one must expect a rapid attenuation with distance, not suggested by the records". If transmission is in any sense the spreading out of an influence through space of three dimensions, and if the efficiency is analagous to electric force in electromagnetism or graviation force or to pressure m in a sound wave, then it will fall off as l/R^, the corresponding potential being as l/R. Instead we might seek an analogy in quantum field theory. We might ask if gj the field in question resembles that which mediates the strong interaction -- the attraction between neutron and proton. However this field falls off more rapidly and not less. The potential is as l/R&ft/A)where A is the Compton m wavelength of the quantum of the field, the pion or pi-mesons, and is about 1.4 x 10cm/* This particle is 273 times the mass of the electron. However minute the mass of the field M quantum is, a field of this sort always falls off more rapidly than l/R in terms'of• potential and faster than l/R2 in terms of field intensity. (For electromagnetism the field quantum is the photon of zero mass).

Since Rayleigh's time the technology of radio has advanced enormously and advocates of a field theory of telepathy point, correctly, to the fact that a radar system comprises radio receivers of extraordinary sensitivity. It is fair for them to argue that psychic humans similarly are very sensitive ^ receivers. If the question is raised as to whether at close

m 10

range the power of the received signal might not "blow the mind" of the percipient, it can be answered in what seem to be two ways (though on analysis they may be only different words for the same thing). It could be argued that once a certain threshold is passed the mind experiences the message or image at a normal level of intensity. Alternatively one could postulate a regulatory system analagous to automatic volime control, a standard feature of radio and TV receivers. There are, of course, some basic objections to any field concepts as explicative of ESP. However, postponing these for the time being, we need to take note of possibilities of fields in less than three dimensions. In 1901 Marconi succeeded in transmitting radio signals from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to St. John's Newfoundland. This success M was won in the face of received opinion which said that radio waves would just propagate in straight lines off into space and be negligible on the earth's surface at ranges y beyond the horizon, i.e. less than 200 miles, even when transmitted from high towers. The basis of this triumph was, of course, the existence of the ionosphere, a layer of \, air characterised by the presence of ions and free electrons produced by solar ultraviolet radiation, and at about 100km (about 60 miles) above the earth's surface. Because of its ionic content it is electrically conducting and therefore U (almost as if it were a metal sheet) reflects incident radio waves of sufficient length (i.e. low frequency). As the surface of the earth is similarly a reflector all long radio waves, are propagated round the earth much as if in the cavity between two concentric metal shells. Thus the situation is not at all as in free propagation in infinite' three- dimensional space, but rather as inside a wave-guide (also one of limited extent). On account of the reduction of three dimensions to two we expect the falling off in field intensity to be as l/R (not asl/R2), while the potential is as InR, actually increasing'with distance (albeit at a slow rate). However because of the finftude of the theatre in which the waves are deployed we expect superposition phenomena as well as, perhaps, resonance and standing waves, so that there might be little or no falling off with distance. Thus Professor Michael J. Persinger, Head of the Psychophysiology Laboratory at Laurentian University, has proposed that "Schumannwaves" a variety of ELF radio waves (i.e. extremely low frequency), particularly those with frequency about 7,

mt 0 mi

In pages 213 and 21k of the same Appendix the reader will find M some remarks made by Professor Brian D. Josephson, F.R.S. of the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, also a Nobel Laureate (Physics 1973) and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, mm when participating in this Foundation's 197^ Conference on Psychokinesis. Josephson's remarks consider the possibility of very weak fields only detectable with great difficulty, if at m all, by physical measuring devices, but yet such as to affect the large and complex molecules of biological systems. Such fields, he suggested, might facilitate the transmission of ^ information from brain to brain.

Before leaving the subject however we need to consider whether "field" is at all the right word to describe the way in which m\ information is transmitted telepathically. The essence of an influence propagated in the form, or made of a "field" is that there is a finite velocity of transmission. Also it y is essentially isotropic; although there may be some degree of directionality as with radio antenna or "dishes" there is no direction in which there is zero radiation, or any point of space which is by-passed by the influence; an appropriate ** detector at any point of space (unless at a very great distance) will detect some signal. Now it may be the case that low-level ESP, characterized by very small -Jr values (and most mi experimental ESP is just of this sort) provides no obvious contradiction to the field hypothesis. However in spontaneous ESP or the type of high grade and "interesting" communication ^ as described in our paper Appendix One, which evidences much higher <>£> values, the experimenter and percipients certainly have the feeling that they are selectively in contact with the

;l other subjects, rather as if they had called them by telephone; •H the connection is not by a field phenomenon but by a network, or so it "feels". Before pursuing this intriguing line of thought it is fair to say that the advocates of a field theory

M could attempt to answer the objections made above by saying that it is a matter of very fine tuning. However this can be countered to some extent by reference to our quoted experiment (Appendix . One) in which several percipients and aggents appeared to stay in communication with each other over an appreciably long time, apparently obviating any shifts in "tuning". mm However to resume the other line of argument, it is clear that the network concept immediately occasions a full-scale revision of hypotheses. If the network is in any sense analagous y to a telephone system then it is topologically and metrically quite different from a three-dimensional spatial connection. Instead of connections within a space we are concerned essentially with a graph, lines AB,BC,DC, etc. where A,B,C,D, ... are the MM y agents and percipients. The delight of a graph is that its dimensionality is hardly physically relevant. Any graph can he represented pictorially in two dimensions if we are prepared to allow the lines to cross one another, e.g. AB might cross EF. However any graph can he drawn in three dimensions without crossings of the joins. These three dimensions we hasten to say are entirely abstract and appertain only to a conceptual and mathematical "space" not a real physical one. (To exemplify: It would he possible to characterize various human populations (e.g. New Guinea, Toronto, Quebec City and Vancouver) in respect of three population statistics, e.g. percentage of females, percentage under forty years old, and percentage of males less than 6k inches in height; using modern computer graphics it would be easy to represent the named populations each as one of four points in a three-dimensional space. Using perspective, the "picture" can easily be presented as that of a three-dimensional object seen in a "flat" (i.e. two-dimensional) print-out.)

Interestingly enough graph theory is now a highly developed branch of mathematics -- I note from the Trinity College Annua1 Record that the senior member of the mathematical teaching staff is Dr. Bolobus, a well renowned graph theorist. The joins in a graph do not have to be visualised as straight or curved or of any particular length. In short, a graph is merely a picture of inter-relations without necessarily ranking the interrelationships in terms of any additional parameter such as "strength" or intensity or distance. If we wished to model the joins in a physical way, we would retain great freedom of imagination. For example, if we chose the analogy of electric or electromagnetic conduction along wires, telegraph cables, the l/R2 attenuation question just does not arise. At the worst we would be faced by attentuation at a logarithmic rate oi , i.e. the signal at distance R would fall off as Q,"^ ; ©t depends on the electrical inductance and resistance and the "leakage" resistance to earth, as well as capacitance""-per unit length. The speed of transmission is a function of all the above mentioned parameters as well as the frequency of the signal input. Thus the network or "Ma Bell" theory ofp telepathy commits us to very little^in the way of specific hypotheses. However there is some empirical evidence in favour of the "telephone theory". For this we return to Dr. Karlis Osis and his associates (loc. cit. "Distance and ESP"). They summarize data collected by a variety of investigators seeking to compare the efficiency of ESP communicators between such groups as relatives, friends, and acquaintances, as compared with strangers. ¥ithout repeating all the analysis and 13

criticism applied, very properly, to the data by Osis and Turner, we record a notable degree of consistency between blocks of data, as follows (ft).

(Germany) Relatives 60-, 4 Acquaintances 27-3 Strangers 12.3 (Louisa Rhine) Family and friends 58.58 Remote relationships 21.34 Strangers 20.08

(Celia Green) Relatives 70.1 Friends, acquaintances Friends, acquaintance29.s 9

The predominance of relatives is a striking feature of this >\>m compilation. The writers quoted also say that many target persons in the "stranger" category were not in fact totally strange to the percipients. Quoting other results from long distance experiments, Osis and Turner note that for success in telepathy it does not seem necessary that the ajent and percipient should actually have met, prior contact by correspondence seems to be adequate to provide a "link". Indeed, it would appear that the link can be provided via an intermediary such as the experimenter or a person present y when the experiment is performed. These considerations, of course, weaken the argument which in this type of comparative data must depend on internal contrast between degrees of j relationship or intimacy. In spontaneous cases it would seem M a priori as if vivid apparitions, hunches, dreams, or mental impressions would only be reported if they referred to an actual person, and also the events represented were true, gj Thus again, arguing a priori we could assert that communications from unknown persons occur, but are neglected. However, anyone who, like the writer, has spent many years, indeed decades, in being receptive to people's narratives, will m doubt very much whether many such unassignable visions or impressions do in fact occur. Thus it would be quite premature to abandon the telephonic hypothesis. It is, mt of course, difficult to go beyond the mere hypothesis. Are the "joins" in the network in anyway real channels, or merely a shorthand for some direct and mystic connection

m between minds? Is the "Ma Bell" we facetiously invoked above some kind of reality — a cosmic mind which individual agents and percipients can access? We need not detail the abstract possibilities which are included in a listing of l—' theories of Psi which we give below.

One intriguing possibility is however worth an airing, li The network or telephonic theory does not per se impose

WaX eUvel*)*^* \gdk( h p

m 4Ur At * cow^ WW 9 ^czl# UcU^L £fg any theory as to the speed of propagation of telepathic messages. Thus in the absence of any positive evidence we are at liberty to speculate and to examine the simplest of all possible assumptions and ask if transmission might not be instantaneous -- not at c = 2.997925 x lO^cm/sec, the speed of light — but at oO, i.e. infinite velocity. After all, if one uses a new popular form of words, and interprets the telepathic theory as stating that mind is "non-local", then the hypothesis of instantaneous communication is thereby positedi Some years ago I discussed both the hypothesis of non-localisation of mind and that of the instantaneous transmission of information (Can We Explain the Poltergeist? Garrett Publications, New York, 1935). See Appendix/^vf It is clear that no object possessing mass could move through ordinary space at super-optical velocity. (i.e. in excess of c) because, by both special and general relativity its effective mass increases without limit as the speed approaches c. Thus velocities near c are unattainable. The transfer of information would seem at first sight to be different. However texts on physics were adamant that information cannot be transmitted at super-luminal speeds. This assertion is ascribed to Einstein but the chief exposition I was referred to was Wolfgang Pauli's classical treatise The Theory of Relativity. His point was that if information was conveyed faster than c in any particular frame of reference then by the Lorentz transformation there would be frames of reference in relative motion to that frame in which an effect would be observed to precede and not follow its cause. The discussion was carried out entirely in terms of special relativity. The argument is however much weakened in the context of general relativity and associated cosmology, which claims to be able to describe the universe as a whole and ipso facto thereby re-introduces what was expelled by special relativity, namely an absolute standard of motion -- the universe as a whole provides the unique frame of reference and a universal time . The latest way of specifying the frame of reference is to take the background radiation -- the so-called "whisper of creation", consequent on the "big bang", with which,so modern cosmology teaches us, the Universe commenced. We defer discussion of problems of modern physics, which both philosophers, physicists, and psychic research workers find intriguing, to a later part of this paper. A note on ^ , 0 and

Some enthusiasts for building bridges between parapsychological phenomena and modern physics, to say nothing of the Tao and oriental religions, have thought it very serendipitious that the quantum theory wave-function is often written as ^ir . The Schrodinger equation is usually quoted in terms of *pr although, so far.as I can recall, Schrodinger's original paper used 0 , which is still used as a quantum wave function in the Klein-Gordon equation and Proca's equation. The word Psi, which is the name of the Greek letter ^/* , is now used widely as indicating either paranormal phenomena or paranormal abilities. It is possible that this practice took its departure from a paper by Dr. Robert H. Thouless, a professor of Psychology in the University of Cambridge, mi Fellow of Corpus Christi College and President of the Society for Psychical Research, published in 1946, and a companion paper in the Proceedings of the S.P.R. (Thouless R.H. and Weisner, B.P. "On the nature of psi phenomena" Journal of Parapsychology, 10, 107-119 and "The psi process in normal and paranormal psychology" Proc. S.P.R.1947, 48, 177-196.) The use of J as a measure of efficiency of Psi is, so far as I know, peculiar to myself and my coworkers. ESP is short for Extrasensory Perception -- the acquisition of knowledge by other than the senses, sight, hearing, etc. Like Psi it has passed into common parlance as in the phrase "I haven't got ESP but I knew that would happen", also the phrased "I must have *esped' it* " . Within parapsychological circles and in parapsychological writing ESP is a useful shorthand, being an omnibus term to cover the separate possibilities of telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. The term GESP merely emphasizes the non-specific usge of "ESP" -- it means general (i.e. non-specific) ESP.

HERMAN

n —•

Do we set our watches back 4,000 years or forward 4,000 years?

~Shatt we have collee m the thud dimension?" Clairvoyance.

As we indicated a phenomenon much more mind-bogging than telepathy is that known as clairvoyance. The word is often used loosely but ought to be restricted to the acquisition of knowledge concerning a physical object when such knowledge is not in the mind of any sentient being. Clairvoyance may be defined e.g. as by Dr. Caroll Nash, Professor of Biology and Director of the Parapsychology Laboratory, St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, as "mental response to a physical state without the use of sense organs", but we have to supplement this definition as above in such a way as to exclude telepathy as an alternative explanation. It may seem rather far-fetched but complete logical rigour requires that we also exclude the possibility of precognitive telepathy. This is.because any clairvoyant "hit" when verified must in the future be registered as information in some observer's mind. Thus in his book Science of Psi, ESP, and PK, Nash specifies an appropriate experimental protocol as follows

"In a test of pure clairvoyance, the targets must be purely physical and never become known to any individual, thus precluding their identification by precognitive telepathy. This has been accomplished by the blind- matching technique in which the subject places each card in the ESP deck opposite on of the five key cards turned face downwards (Pratt, 1937). When the experimenter examines the target cards placed opposite the key cards, he does not know the order that the target cards had in the deck before they were distributed into the five piles. To illustrate, consider the bottom card in the pile opposite the square symbol. The experimenter does not know whether this was the first card in the deck, or the second, or the third, etc. Thus there is no future knowledge of the symbol on the target card in the deck that the subject could use as a target for precognitive telepathy."

The evidence for clairvoyance is strong, surprisingly so, in fact, as it seems a priori to be a much less plausible occurrence than telepathy for which there is, at least, the mental radio analogy. Carroll Nash adds a philosophical note

"Experimental evidence supports the existence of pure clairvoyance, but it does not support the existence of pure telepathy if matter is real as it is held to be in materialism and in dualism. However, if the universe is entirely mental, as it is conceived to be in idealism, ESP can only occur between mental objects and hence can consist only of telepathy and not of clairvoyance".

Clairvoyance is certainly very challenging. Later we sketch some of the theories that have been applied to it; most of them, of course, are little better than mere speculation.

The term travelling clairvoyance goes back to the time of Mesmer in the late eighteenth century when it was claimed that some hypnotized subjects could "travel" to far places where they could see and hear everything that was happening. This has been claimed by a number of psychically endowed people since, who say they do not need to be hypnotized, e.g. Mrs. Eileen Garrett. In Appendix Two we quote Dr. Karlis Osis who describes his experimental work with Mr. Alex Tanous. Travelling clairvoyance clearly has some overlap with "out of the body" experiences, 'ODBEs.

Dowsing, water-witching, etc.

We include in Appendix 3 some notes on the topic of divining for water, oil or minerals. This subject, despite, or because of, its homely and bucolic nature is considerably interesting and presents a permanent enigma. Records of "diviners" finding water or minerals go back to the earliest times; also very "hard-nosed" entrepreneurs, farmers,as well as electrical and gas engineers, who would scorn the notion that they were mixed up in the occult or the parapsychological, as a matter of course employ dowsers, or even do it themselves in the belief that they are using a natural ability based upon some mysterious but not less completely natural force. In parallel is the interest which many physicists have taken in the subject. Of such were Sir William F. Barrett (1844-1925), F.R.S. Professor of Physics at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, Ireland, and President of the Society for Psychical Research in 1904. His scientific work was first^ate, and his studies in psychical research were boti energetic and wide-ranging, having been with Sidgwick, Myers, and Gurney, (all at one time or another Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge) one of the four founders of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882. As Renee Haynes says in her history, The Society for Psychical Research 1882-1982, (Macdon did & Co, London 1982), "One of his liveliest and most lasting contributions was his investigation of dowsing." Besides papers in the Society's Proceedings, Barrett published a two volume monograph, 18

The So-Called Divining Rod. Another famous British physicist who was keenly interested in the subject was Sir Joseph J. Thomson, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose Nobel Prize in Physics was earned for his discovery of the electron and establishing its basic properties. He interviewed me in 1936 in the Cavendish Laboratory when I was a candidate for an Open Scholarship in Physics and Mathematics at Trinity, and later entertained me with other Scholars at the Master's Lodge. Thomson, or "J.J." as he was universally and affectionately called in Cambridge was like Rayleigh (whom he succeeded as Cavendish Professor of Physics) an accomplished mathematical physicist and also an outstandingly good experimenter. He joined the Society for Psychical Research in.1883 and served on its council from I887 to 1921 and as a Vice-President from then until his death in 1940. Not entirely passive, he participated in various famous investigations such as that of the physical medium Eusapia Palladino But "J.J.'s" real m> interest was the enigma of water divining; he devoted no less than five pages of his memoirs Recollections and Reflections (G. Bell, London, 1936) "to discussion of the technique which m he believed to be fully efficacious. Another eminent savant who subscribed to the same view was Frederick J.M. Stratton, F.R.S. (1881-1960) Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Solar Physics Observatory, Cambridge University. He • was President of the Society for Psychical Research from 1953 to 1955- He had already distinguished himself in the First World War, gaining the D.S.O. in military service with the mi Signal Corps. It appears to have been then that, like many British Army officers, he learned of dowsing as a social service. The course of Empire had taken British officers as lgi well as political administrators into many arid territories, in which the finding of water for native villagers was undertaken as a willing burden. In subsequent years many of these gentlemen maintained their interest and constituted the backbone of the British Society of Dowsers. I recall "Chubby" Stratton, as he was affectionately called, in view of his build and physionomy, speaking at the Cambridge Society m for Psychical Research. He remarked how in Iraq in the First World War the Army had the problem of finding water for their horses so that officers and men had to train themselves as y "well-witchers". (I cannot claim "Chubby" as a Trinity man; he was aFellow of Gonville and Caius College, in fact its President). Neither can the"College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, commonly known as Trinity College,Cambridge" lay claim to another noted physical scientist. This was the distinguished Dr. Solco W. Tromp the eminent Dutch geophysicist, geological consultant to many governments ii and consortiums, among whose interests dowsing held high

^4. '1

place as memorialized by his books Psychical Physics (194-9), m Dowsing and Science (1950) and Fundamental Principles of Psychical Physics (1952).

Inevitably, irrespective of the actual truth of the matter, dowsing has inspired theories of a purely physical character. One of the more celebrated recent attempts is that put forward by the French scientist Yves Rocard in 1964 in his ** book Le Secret du Sourcier (Paris), which proposes that the influence to which the sourcier (i.e. the water diviner) responds is the local modification of the terrestrial •00 magnetic field when the flow of a subterranean stream intersects the lines of magnetic force. This hypothesis has a close resemblance to a suggestion by Barrett about 1901. The ^ difficulty with any purely physical theory of divining is, of course, the prevalence of instances such as "map-dowsing" or "information-dowsing" that would seem only to be explicable in non-physical terms as by clairvoyance. In fact Barrett •* himself forsook physical theories for the view that divining is like clairvoyance, due to a "transcendental discernment possessed by the dowser1s subconscious mind". mm Psychometry,

The reader who has come thus far with me may like myself wish that the subject of the paranormal could be restricted (by Act of Parliament, if possible!), to a short list of relatively clear-cut happenings. This yearning is, in fact, «* characteristic of parapsychologists. We tend to believe in the phenomena which we have actually ourselves encountered, seen, or investigated in detail. But often we refuse to

m ' accept other investigators' phenomena as of well established occurrence and paranormality. This, for example, was effectively the case in the 1930's and 1940's when the parapsychological vocation more or less set their faces against psychokinesis. I like to think that together with William Roll (a graduate of the Universities of both California and Oxford, England, and for many years Director of the Psychical m Research Foundation, Durham, N.C.), and Hans Bender, Professor of Psychology in the University of Freiburg-im-Bresgau, I played some part in rehabilitating that phenomenon. The y status of psychometry is rather similar. It may be defined formally as "the divination of facts about an object or its owner through contact with or proximity to the object". Although psychometry is well-attested in many situations, —'' including the "proxy sittings" it is a confusing phenomenon. Is it purely telepathy or clairvoyance, the object (e.g. a watch, a scarf, or a pen,) being merely a link to facilitate

m the connection between the psychometrist and the object owner, or is there a physical component inhering or adhering to the object, or transmitted through it or by it?

"They must have some knowledge of aero-dynamics that

. v„ .... j- • tp-wa know nothing ofcoirf/" .--,»•«...;• Dr. Nash's glossary defines precognition as "prediction of future events, the ocurrence of which cannot "be inferred from present knowledge". It is the opposite of retrocognition which the same glossary defines as "ESP of a past event". Both precognition and retrocognition have "been featured in card-gusssing experiments in the form of the "displacement effect" i.e. the occurrence of an excess of hits on the latest target (retrocognition) or the next one (precognition). In cases of spontaneous 'premonition' as of death, illness, or disasters, the explanation is sometimes simpler, e.g. "by subconscious reasoning, pure coincidence, or mere telepathy or clairvoyance. However many cases are on record in which the simplest explanation is just "precognition" or "foreknowledge". (Critics often urge on us the virtues of wielding "Occam's Razor" -- entita non multiplicanda sunt often without real understanding, I might say -- but show less alacrity in applying that maxim themselves*). As we have already seen with clairvoyance,strict logicians and purists can do much with ostensible precognition reducing it to psychokinesis, etc. See Appendix Four, composed of extracts from Dr. Nash's book. Alio * ( {hy* Nm^s book).

There is no doubt that precognition is one of the most embarrassing aspects of the paranormal. The variety of possible explanations almost defies reason. I would be ashamed to put it forward as a topic for sentient beings to employ their powers of ratiocination upon, if it were not the case that eminent physicists such as John A Wheeler, Professor of Physics at the University of Texas, pose questions of equal "preposterousness", which we shall discuss later. However it is a strange and interesting fact that Dr. Louisa E. Rhine found that of all putatively paranormal dreams a majority are precognitive (ESP in Life and Lab: Tracing Hidden Channels, Macmillan, New York, 1937, and Hidden Channels of the Mind, William Sloane Associates, 196lT^

% Pare Retrocognition It may be that psychometry of nn object's past history is ac• complished by retrocognition. However, it has been impossible to prove pure retrocognition empirically because, in order to test ESP of a past event, a record of the event must be in existence and hence be subject to contemporaneous ESP. Evidence for retro• cognition might come from a psychic's deciphering an archeologi- cal record written in an ancient language for which there is no Rosetta stone. However, even if evidence were obtained of ESP of a past event for which there is no present earthly record, it could be explained by the contemporaneous ESP of light waves whose journey into space began at the instant of the occurrence of the event and continue today. 22

Biological Effects as possibly psychbkinetic. m A good deal has been learned in the past two centuries concerning effects of the mind on the body, both in the production of disease, i.e. psychologically and psycho somatically induced ailments and in cure by faith or charismatic methods and by various other forms of suggestion. There remains however an interesting area in which religious, charismatic or suggestive factors appear not to play any essential role. This is the case of the healer who merely touches, strokes, or passes his or her hands near to the body of the patient. Sometimes the patient feels a sensation of warmth or comfort, which, of course, may be due to suggestion. However the relief appears to be quite objective. As far as my **' observation goes the capacity for healing is somewhat limited; in the first place it seems to be mainly successful with pains in muscles and joints,and secondly the relief a* is of limited duration, though often lasting for months, and in some cases for years. For a suggestion as to a possible objective basis for this kind of healing may I refer the reader to Professor Josephson's remark on page 214 of Appendix Two and also to Professor Douglas Dean's address on Molecular Effects of "Healers", pages 215 through 219. I may remark almost as a parenthesis that some healers by contact attribute their ability to a capacity to draw upon or focus the "Odic force". The concept of a force of "Od" or cosmic "magnetism" has a long history, much of it very respectable, reaching back to "Paracelsus" (von Hohenheim, 14-93-1541) and having many cross-relationships with Mesmer's therapeutic theories (not "hypnotism") which were bequeathed to modern quasi-medical practitioners such as the osteopaths and the chiropractors. The concept bears a considerable resemblance to that of the "Orgone" force or energy of Wilhelm Reich (18^7-1957) for which see the scholarly and comprehensive work by W. Edward T. Mann, Professor of Sociology at York University, Toronto, who has also contributed very much to the study of the paranormal and its philosophical implications. (Orgone, Reich and Eros. Wilhelm Reich's Theory of Life Energy, Simon and Schuster, New York, 19737: 23

Psychokinesis.

In earlier days phenomena of this kind were often called telekinesis which happened to be the same as a term used in 'mt religious discussions of the phenomenon, real or alleged, of the unaided flight of the wafer in the Eucharist to the lips of the communicant whose sanctity was thereby certified. Nowadays psychokinesis or PK, for short, is used universally to embrace all object movements or physical effects which appear to be paranormal. Some of these are sporadic and occur to , a small but not negligible proportion of persons at rare intervals during life, often it seems at moments of stress. More dramatic are the "poltergeist" cases (so named after an old folklore word) in which sporadic and irregular movements mi of objects, as well as noises and an astonishing variety of other physical effects occur. The peculiarities of these outbreaks include (a) the centering of the phenomena on a single Hi person who presumably exercises the P.K. power; (b) the fact that the person concerned is initially not conscious of their responsibility for the happenings, but may become so j if the outbreak is sufficiently prolonged; (c) a remarkable m degree of control that appears to be exerted on the objects moved. The delicacy of the movements especially in relation to avoiding real injury to the other people present is so 0 striking as to excuse the older idea that they were the actions of "spirits" or of an"invisible hand". gg The literature on spontaneous P.K. is voluminous. Most authors would award the second prize to my own book, Can We Explain the Poltergeist? and having at least a good knowledge of its contents and style of reasoning I feel that faute de mieux I can recommend it, for thoroughness if not for brevity. The trouble with spontaneous events, PK, ESP, or whatever, is that because of the spontaneity they are not well adapted to observation mm or recording; neither do they conform to the criterion required by some scientists that they can be put on at will in the laboratory. Hence, quite logically, there has been since about I968 a shift towards the study of "voluntary PK". This is when the object movement or other physical effect follows a declaration of intent by the psychic person who announces what they will do and then proceeds to do it. Alternatively the experimenter may request a particular effect to be produced which is even more striking. (At risk of being declared frivolous, I cannot resist reference to a locus classicus. It occurs in «tf Livy's History of Rome. The Etruscan King of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus, was interviewing an Etruscan candidate for the position of State Soothsayer. The Tarquin, who was obviously no fool, sought for a practical demonstration rather than a mere sales

mi pitch and asked the candidate "What am I thinking?". The augur replied promptly "You are thinking, Majesty, of cutting a whetstone with a razor blade". "Very good" said the King, "let the blade and the stone be brought". By serendipity both of the pieces of apparatus for the experiment were on hand, and the augur, it is said, taking up the one promptly sliced the other. He had achieved ESP followed by, I suppose, a kind of PK.)

For an account of voluntary PK, I refer the reader to pages 196-198 of Appendix Two, and also to pages 191*193 which record actual demonstrations of the particular form of PK known as metal-bending. One of the most interesting features of this latter phenomenon is that it does not always require the practitioner to touch the metal; \t can be done from a distance. The object may also continue to bend or divide while isolated although in full view. Metal bending is peculiar in that the capacity to perform it is not so narrowly restricted as with other forms of PK — it can be "learned" by a surprisingly large proportion of persons otherwise without much or any Psi talent. This fact suggests that metals — perhaps on account of their propensity to dislocations — are especially sensitive to the PK influence. Psychokinesis raises in a direct and acute form the relationship between mind and matter. In PK effects a mental intention issues as an actual physical force -- not a metaphorical "force"but physical force according to the Newtonian definition. Teleportation.

Among PK phenomena teleportation is the most puzzling occurrence hut also quite frequent and well attested. For a presentation of the "style" of such happenings I refer the reader to the New Horizons Research Paper, October 1986, on Teleportation, which also contains some discussion of possible hypotheses — a continuance of the speculations I made in my book of 1964, particularly Chaper 18, which is reproduced here as Appendix Five and comprises some remarks on other problems of Psi. Some Theories of Psi.

Dr. Nash has conveniently collected together all or most of the theories of Psi functioning that have "been put forward from time to time. The following summary owes much to him hut I have, naturally, supplemented it with independent knowledg and Viewpoints of my own. With regard to theories of Psi, of course, a number are of a religious or metaphysical nature. Thus it could be maintained that every paranormal event is a divine miracle; see S. Ferguson, The Brain Revolution, Taplinge New York, 1973. From time immemorial Psi events have been ascribed to the intervention of spirits, i.e. the souls of the dead or to higher beings; more recently extra-terrestrial intelligences have occasionally been given the credit. More philosophical hypotheses have sought to explain Psi events as mere synchronicities — the "a-causal" form in C.G. Jung's exposition (which he explains rather confusingly as due to "racial archetypes")^or as "presynchronization" a kind of "pre-arranged harmony" as the seventeenth century Cartesian philosopher Malebrouche might have put it. His views had some affinity with those of the famous philosopher Leibniz who postulated that the universe is constituted of monads each of which has a perception of the universe; even matter has perception. Leibniz took the extreme view that events have no real autonomy — all happenings are synchronized by pre-arranged harmony.

An especially radical view is that of philosophical idealism, in which all reality, even the physical, is of the nature of mind; this would allow of both mental phenomena and PK. A variant is "neutral monism". Logically it is hardly distinguishable from idealism, it regards mind and matter as two aspects of the same "substance". According to Professor J.H.M. Whiteman, ("Parapsychology and Physics',' in Handbook of Parapsychology, ed. B.B. Wolman, New York, van Nostrand, Reinhold, 1977) objects exist simultaneously at a physical level and at a mental level. Frederic Myers, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, a classical scholar and above all the founder of the Society for Psychical Research postulated an intermediate between mind and matter which he called the meta-etherical. The idea was continued under the 'name psychic ether by the psychologist Professor C.A. Mace, of London University and the philospher (logician) Professor H.H. Price of Oxford.

C.G. Jung's '[collective unconscious" originally related to a mere tendency for archetypal forms of thought and feeling to be independently repeated by individuals just as much human and animal "behaviour is innate, instinctive and inherited. The phrase, of course, escaped from its linguistic cage and in common parlance is thought of as a kind of collective or universal mind. Sometimes it is conceived of as one of a comparatively low order, as "by the psychologist John Gowan, who envisages that the collective unconscious flickers into sentience "by receipt of some of the contents of human minds, especially when the latter are in altered states of consciousness. In a much earlier period the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann (1842-1906) had developed (possibly building on Schopenhauer's insight) a theory of the unconscious and was thus, perhaps, an inspirer of Freud. Interestingly enough, however, von Hartmann suggested that in ESP the percipient's mind is in connection with an "absolute" mind. This notion, possibly derived in some degree from the Hegelian "Absolute Idea", an entelechy which Heggl regarded as residing in the universe and doing the work of God but in a methodical and logical wayi The "absolute" doubtless among other roles, plays the part of "Ma Bell" in establishing ESP connections. This concept was adopted by William James. Although I prefer the term "cosmic mind" the term "cosmic consciousness" has caught on, and essentially can and should be used in the Jamesian sense. However we should note that R.M. Bucke in his book Cosmic Consciousness (1892, reprinted I969, E.P. Button and Company, New York), used the phrase as meaning a higher state of awareness into which humans could rise in mystical experience or by spiritual development. William James, it appears, took the phrase from Bucke's book and transferred it to the universal mind itself. Among other advocates of the collective unconscious or group mind have been Rudolf Tishner and Whately Carington.

Biologically based theories.

Some hypotheses that are basically of a biological or psychophysical kind are worth mentioning. Kairimerer (the tragic hero of the "Midwife Toad"cortrovers/'y) thought that the co incidences or perceived syr.chronicities are resonances that connect "like to like". His ideas met with some approval from C.G. Jung and the physicist Wolfgan^Pauli (whom we shall meet again) in a book published, in 1955 (The Interpretation of Mature and the Psyche, etc., Pantheon Press, New York). The motive power for this book was clearly Jung -- Pauli was his fellow traveller only, A contemporary geneticist like Gatlin suggests that Psi phenomena are the result of chance resemblances between organisms. Similarly Ninian Marshall explained Psi as a resonance between two brains that were sufficiently similar. In the Soviet Union the savants, however open-minded, are required to show, at the least, lip-service to"dialectic materialism." Since Stalin's time it is the hind-legs of this creature that has "been stressed - - the materialism. Thus any hypotheses have, perforce, to he dressed up in the clothes of "materialism" (Lenin, it should he said, en passant^ havered "between the materialism and the "dialectical" part). Thus those Soviet scientists that have chosen to chance their arm "by fishing in the deep waters of the paranormal use the phrase ""bioplasma" to describe the agency that is responsible for Psi phenomena. Bioplasma is regarded as an influence radiated from the body, but also playing a part in the physiological economy and energetics of the body.

\ A propos of dialectical materialism the reader will, no doubt, have noticed that in the Soviet Union, officialdom seems to have spoken in two voices with regard to Psi. Some investigators like Naumov have been persecuted and even imprdssbned on somewhat frivolous charges, while others appear to lead a charmed life; possibly because of protection by high ranking politicians or certain ministries of state. Amusingly, despite the relative cloud under which USSR parapsychologists dwell, the Chinese Government some five years ago sternly rebuked the Soviet Union for involvement in subjective idealism (a very serious offence in Marxists eyesi) by encouraging psychical research! Even more amusingly, at about the same time, our own group in Toronto received a letter from the Institute of High Energy Physics in Peking, asking us for any information on PKi. With Galileo one could say "Eppi/fcr se movere" (The earth does move!) About dialectical materialism -- it is worth recording an utterance of Professor J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964). Haldane, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, had started ^ academic life as a biochemist -- a pupil of Sir Gowland Hopkins, another Fellow of Trinity, O.M. and Nobel Laureate for Physiology in 1929 and became interested in the biochemical action of genes and hence in genetics in relation to evolutionary change.. His book The Causes of Evolution, (Longmans, London, 1932)?which was actually better known than R.A. Fisher's earlier work (1929) The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection converted many young scientists, including myself, to a life-long interest in genetical aspects of evolution, and Haldane, together with Sir Ronald Fisher and Sewell Wright of the U.S.A. is regarded as one of the three independent founders of modern population genetics and thus of Neo-Darwinism. Subsequently "J.B.S." had many adventures. Being divorced, he lost his Fellowship at Trinity, and after various legaljvicissitudes in connection with both the College and Cambridge University, took refuge at University College, London, known since its foundation as "The Infidel College',' where they made him a Professor of Genetics in 1933- In subsequent years, although a British patrician, J.B.S., revolted by Nazism and the persecution of Jews, became more and more left-wing. Just before the Second World War in his writings he declared himself a materialist, and during the war he publicly joined the British Communist Party. Later, about 19^8 or so, he became disgusted by the Stalinist-Lysenko persecution of geneticists and equally publicly left the party, stating this reason. However the interesting thing about J.B.S. is that even in his heyday as a Marxist materialist, he announced in an essay that he had no logical difficulty in accepting the posibility of Psi phenomena, not in spite of dialectical materialism, but because of it. Dialectical materialism as perceived by Haldane is a philosophy of holism or emergence, consequently it cannot be predicted in advance what quantities or faculties a system will have. That can only be known post facto.

A propos of Russia it is only at the time of writing that I discover that I have wronged Vladimir Bekhterev, (1857-1927). As a result of reading articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica and other (as it turns out) unscholarly compilations, I had come to regard V.M. Bekhterev as the grandfather of behaviourism because he was the teacher of Pavlov, and also was noted as an advocate of "objective biology". Thus, looked at from some points of view, he was a bit of a villain. I learn from a rival and excellent source (Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology, Garrett Publications,'196k, New York), that the good ^roressor at St. Petersburg (now Leningrad)'*'was actually on the side of the angels. A highly distinguished neurophysiologist, in 1921 he joined the Russian section of the International Committee on Psychic Research, and also carried out many experiments in what he called "Thought Suggestion", e.g. the transmission of mental commands to dogs. In 1920 he published a monograph Experiments in Influenced "Thought" Suggestion on the Behaviour of Animals. Bekhterev favoured electromagnetic fields as the carriers of ESP and in his experiments introduced the placing of metal screens between agent and percipient to see if ESP could be screened out. But perhaps Bekhterev's greatest achievement was to have been the teacher of Vassiliev, thus expiating the sin of raising up Pavlov. Leonid L. Vassiliev (1891- 1966) was a professor of physiology at Leningrad University. Of secure reputation as a neurophysiologist, he was also the first and chief advocate under the Bolshevist regime of the importance of parapsychology and founded a parapsychological laboratory at the University, as well as publishing two books on the subject. As mentioned in Appendix Three, it was he who suggested to Mme. Mikhailova, a poltergeist person, that she attempt to bring her PK powers under conscious control. Vassiliev rejected the idea that Psi was mediated by electromagnetic fields, but equally repudiated the notion that its causes lay outside the domain of physics and chemistry. In this there may have been an element of self-defence on account of the prevailing materialistic philosophy in the Soviet Union (and, of course, elsewhere in the scientific world — there is no need to blame Marx and Lenin for everything*). However it is likely that his view conformed also to his own scientific conscience as an heir to Bekhterev and many other European physiologists. Interestingly enough he explainted Psi by "some type of energy or a factor as yet unknown to us, present in the matter and structure of the brain". The discovery of such a factor, said Vassiliev "would be equivalent to the discovery of the intra-aiomic energy It is exactly towards that objective that research in parapsychology should be oriented". Whether or not he

originated the idea7he was an important advocate of the notion that Psi abilities are relics of earlier stages in biological evolution. He thought that the "telepathic gift" was a "rudimentary property which man has retained from his zoological ancestors". In part this belief was based on his research with animals which continued Bekhterev's investigations. Vassiliev, as a result of careful review of animal behaviour, had concluded that telepathic communication exists in the animal world (e.g. evidence from animal migrations; see the New Horizons paper, Unknown Forces). This point of view is interesting; among the ranks of the faithful will be found those, who like Professor Vassiliev and many modern anthropologists believe Psi to be a relic faculty, as well as others who instead see Psi as a recent emergent — a concomitant of human evolution.

Physical hypotheses concerning Psi.

Besides the electromagnetic theories mentioned above, a number of hypotheses in explicitly physical terms have been ventured in modern times. These include electrons flitting between brains (A. Forel, J. Txir Psychol, und. Neurol. 1918). Dr. Andrija Henry Puharich (Parapsychology Today, A Geographic View. Proceedings of an International Conference, New York, 1973, Parapsychology Foundation^ Inc.) however favoured protons as the ESP information carriers. Hoakon Forwald (Journal of Parapsychology, 1959, 23, 97-125) proposed neutrons -- very reasonably because these particles being electrically uncharged can forge easily through other matter, rather as we suppose ESP does. However Forwald in final analysis preferred gravitons to neutrons. The graviton is the quantum of the gravitational field. Uncharged and probably massless, gravitons are good candidates, in lack of any really diagnostic information, for the status of mediators of the paranormal. Even better are neutrinos, which are advocated by the U.S.A. engineer A.C. Hammond. ("A note on telepathic communication" Proc. Inst. Radio Engineers, 1952, 40 605.)• These particles which are either of zero mass or of mass less than 10=20 eV, i.e. between 50,000 and 25,000 times lighter than the electron, travel either at the speed of light, or very near to it; being also uncharged their penetrative power is excellent. J.C. Russell, in a letter to the Journal of Parapsychology, in 1973 (37_» 335-336), suggested antimatter as a vehicle for Psi. According to quantum physics every particle has its"antiparticle". Unless a particle happens to be its own "anti" (as is true for some) when a particle meets its "anti" the two combine to produce a burst of radiant energy (i.e. pure photons). Like all the other "particle theories" of Psi, this attempt seems to be merely another bit of word spinning. One sympathizes with Rudyard Kipling's phrase for primitive history "There are seven and ninety ways for constructing tribal lays, and every single blessed one of them is right!"

Even mythical particles have been dragged in to "save the phenomena". Thus H.A.C. Dobbs invoked "psitrons" with imaginary mass and so capable of traversing space at superoptical speeds, and thus triggering neurons in the human brain ("Time and Ex h^eS^sory Perception!' Proc. SPR j?4, 24-9-361, 1965). I do not krfow if Dobbs' "psTTrons^ suggested the idea of "Tachyons"; however the latter particles have become very popular since Dr. Chari, Professor Philosophy at Madras University, India, who has written many shrewd articles on psychical research, proposed them as ESP messengers. A "tachyon" is, so far in scientific history, a purely hypothetical object. It is supposed to be a material object travelling faster than light. It therefore, by the theory of relativity, must have a mass that is an imaginary number, e.g. the square root of minus 2, or minus 2 x 10*"3*', etc, if the reader can imagine it — no pun intended. In mathematics "imaginary" has a rather technical meaning. For a little about tachyons, avoiding a number of popular articles, I can only refer the reader to a relatively professional text such as that of Professor P.C.W. Davies (The Physics of Time Asymmetry,University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974). For pure speculation the reader is referred to D.P. Maddock's review in Parapsychology Review 6j_ 15-16, 1975) of The Para sciences, Unesco, 1974, 24 October 1974. Mr. Maddock postulates the interaction of tachyons with neurons in the brain.

Quantum theory with a neverfailing seductiveness has continued to attract Psi theorists and to generate Psi theories. Thus G.E. Wolstenholme and E.C.P. Millar in Extrasensory Perception; a Ciba Foundation Symposium (Citadel, New York, 1956) quote a British mathematician, G.D. Wasserman as postulating "psi fields" too wesk to interact with matter, but can activate "behaviour fields" that can influence the human brain (telepathy)

or inanimate matter (PK). William Roll ?The psi Field" Proc. Parapsychological Association 1, 32-65, 1957-1964) propounded a somewhat similar theory.

Physical Theories of Precognition.

Some hypotheses have been specially fashioned or taken over from physics and mathematics with a view to explaining precognition in particular. Thus the four dimensional universe of relativity -- three spatial dimensions and time"reified" as a fourth has been adduced to show that the future is already there and determined and waiting for our consciousness to observe it. J.W. Dunne in the 1920's became fascinated by his own precognitive dreams which he discussed in a famous book An Experiment with Time (published in 1927, Macmillan). To explain them he hypothesized yet another dimension in which the mind could travel out a limited distance and from that stand-point look ahead "down the road" as it were. Dr.

Gertrude(iSchmeidler in 1971 in a paper called^Respice, adspice prospice"(Proc. Parapsychological Association, 8, 117-145,) taking an idea quite familiar to science fiction buffs suggested thatuthe four-dimensional continuum might be folded inrthyper-s^ace"so that points far apart from each other in space or time or both might be adjacent, and so naturally accessible, through higher space, H.A.C. Dobbs besides htroducing the "psitron" particles also added an extra dimension to the continuum -- not of space-like character, but instead a second time-like dimension. He also (there's richness for you*) incorporated a mathematical formalism due to Professor R.P. Feynman ("The theory of positions", Physical Review, 76,749-759, 1949) which showed that/formally- speaking, a positron (the anti-particle of the electron) could be regarded as an electron travelling backward in timeI

In 1938 Paul A.M. Dirac a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (as Isaac Newton was before him) attempted to get a better theory of the electron in order to cure a number of defects in existing theory such as its infinite self-energy and its loss of energy by radiation when moving with an acceleration. No quantum theory was involved. For an electron of charge e- and mass m Dirac obtained a consistent theory with one defect (P.C.W. Davies, The Physics of Time Asymmetry, ^University of California Press, Berkeley, 1977J. If an electrfe force is applied to the electron, it will, of course, accelerate; however it suffers from almost an excess of zeal, it actually starts to accelerate 'before the force is applied. (In this respect it somewhat resembles "Thiotimoline" a mythical substance about which the scientific writer Isaac Asimov used to write in Analog; if one makes a solution in water of "Thiotimoline" it dissolves a short time before it is put into the H2O!) However with Dirac's preaccelerated electron it is possible, to an extent, to save the appearances because the time interval is very small, of order a/c where a is the radius of the electron and c the speed of light, and is thus not in excess of 10~23 seconds. However some writers such as the distinguished mathematician Dr. Charles Muses haj» taken account of this hypothetical phenomenon in relation to precognition ("Trances states, precognition, and the nature o"£ time",_J. for the Study of Consciousness, j>, No.l, 1972) . A few years later in 19^5 John A. Wheeler and R.P. Feynman (Rev. Mod. Phys. 17 157- ), now two of the world's most famous physicists, developed further one of the ideas used by Dirac in his theory. In the interests of solving several outstanding questions in physics (the self-energy of particles and the problem of treating fields in a properly relativistic way,)they postulated that any source of radiation not only propagates an outgoing wave but is the centre of a converging wave coming in to it from the ends of the universe! In this form it sounds just sillys the silliness is les£ apparent when it is wrapped up in mathematical nomenclature (jargon? double-talk?); the converging wave is described as an "advanced potential". Another way of looking at the matter is to think of the converging wave -- the "advanced potential" — as a wave which the source propagates "backwards in time". Wheeler and Feynman made their theory (which in my opinion is a mere mathematical formalism, like Feynman's time-travelling electrons which look like positrons) work by supposing that all the silly, i.e. reversed,-time waves manage to be absorbed by the matter in the universe and so are not observed. It is fair to say that this puts one in mind of the White Knight in Alice Through the Looking Glass "For I was thinking of a plan to dye one's whiskers green, but always use so large a fan that they could not be seen!" However Professor Gerald Fflinburg, another noted physicist,has thought it worthwhile to postulate an advanced wave travelling back in time from an event as a possible vehicle for precognition ("Precognition - a memory of things future!' Proc. of an International Conference on Quantum Physics and Parapsychology. Parapsychology Foundation, Inc. 1975). Most of the preceding references to quantum theory have in my opinion been relatively light*weight and unimportant. However in recent years there has been a heightened interest on the part of physicists interested in fundamentals -- elementary particles, low temperature phenomena, and unified field theories- -- leading to an intensified criticism and focussing on the philosophy of their discipline, together with somewhat unbridled speculation by doyens of the subject, such as Professor J. Archibald Wheeler of Austin, Texas. Correspondingly there is a tendency for persons interested in parapsychology as well as in new syntheses, such as between western sciences and eastern religions or philosophies, to search the findings of contemporary physics in the hope perhaps of ascertaining actual mechanisms for Psi phenomena, or, failing that, to draw useful analogies. The study of modern physics is, however, profoundly complex and subtle. As the reader may have divined from the examples given above it is all too easy to make a fool of oneself/ I have- therefore in these Notes not attempted to anticipate the predictably more competent opinions of professional physicists as to the mutual relevance if any of Psi puzzles and the so-called paradoxes of atomic physics, or as to whether either helps in the understanding of the other by analogy. However to illustrate the kind of discussion going on at present I attach Appendices Six, Seven, and Eight. I i f I t I I i m i t t i I t i

field intensity diminishes inversely as R2 and the potential inversely as R, where R is the distance. With other physical fields, such as those based Experiments on ESP in Relation to on "exchange" forces or multiple sources, both field intensity and potential diminish inversely as higher powers of R. However, both Dr. Osis' sum• (a) Distance, and (b) Mood mary and experience based on experiments at various distances up to 200 miles suggest rather strongly that any decline with distance is distinctly and Subject Matter milder than even the law l/R (i.e. as the inverse distance). In thinking about this problem the writer has found it convenient to work numerically not in terms of R but to measure distance as log miles or lm. The log A. R. G. OWEN, M.A., Ph.D. miles between two places is log R, where R is in miles and the logarithm ABSTRACT: Existing evidence does not permit the formulation of any is to base 10. Thus, for separations of 0.1 ml, and 1000 ml, the log miles mathematical law describing the decline, if any, of ESP with distance, but are respectively (—1), zero, and 3 lm. suggests that any decline is much less abrupt than that implied by any In order to derive a simple empirical law fitting the 1965 data, and obvious physical model. embodying the properties of • = 1 when R = 0 and ^ approaching A technique for distance experiments is described. zero when R is large, the writer plotted the logarithm of the ratio Experiments are reported which seem to show that there is no ascer• (1 — * ) / * against logmiles. This revealed that the data could be tainable decline in ESP for distances up to 350 miles. represented approximately by the law. 1. Introduction lg(l/*— 1) = (1 -f lm)/2, which is equivalent to * = 1/(1 + V10R), 1.1 ESP in relation to distance expressing * as a bilinear function of V10R- According to this "law" The effect on ESP of distance, considered as a factor in isolation from * is unity at very small distances and at great distances falls off effect• others such as mood or genetic endowment, is one of the most intriguing ively as the inverse of R to the power 1/2. No physical or other analogue unsolved problems in psychical research. Spontaneous cases, as well as a of this law suggests itself; nor does the writer seriously propose it as cor• few experiments conducted over distances of a few hundred miles suggest rectly representing the "law" of ESP with distance. (Many mathematical that there is little diminution of effect with distances of that order. On laws can be found to give equally good fits to a limited set of data as we the other hand, Dr. Karlis Osis (1965) correctly emphasized that such have here; e.g. Dr. Turner in 1965 fitted a law of entirely different form evidence as there is, does not fully support the assertion (which is often to Dr. Osis' data.) made) that ESP is quite independent of distance. In the paper cited, he The writer's present opinions can be summarized as follows. showed that when all experiments reported in English prior to 1965 were considered they testified to little reduction, if any, for distances of up to (a) no data now available enable us to infer the general character of one mile, but thereafter manifested a steady decline with increase of dis• such laws as relate ESP to distance. tance through the range 500-3500 miles. Dr. Osis' later experimental (b) Present evidence suggests a falling off of ESP with distance in ex• work (1968, 1971) leaves this conclusion substantially unaltered. Hence cess of a mile. it cannot be asserted that ESP is independent of distance. However, it (c) The rate of decline with distance is much less pronounced than must be admitted that the scoring rates for all the experiments quoted over even the inverse power law l/R, and if there is a decline it is related to distances in excess of 500 miles are rather low and correspond to low log R or to a fractional power of R. values of *, the frequency of intervention of Psi as defined by Owen and (d) Present evidence for distances of more than a few hundred miles Quittner (1972). Hence we cannot claim to know what kind of distance relates entirely to relatively weak ESP performances with * at 1% or law would be found if we could compare the highest ^ values obtainable less. None of the foregoing conclusions might apply to high scoring per• at various distances, i.e. if we were in a position to compare the best with formances if obtainable. the best. However, this question apart, Dr. Osis' summary of 1965 is extremely 1.2. ESP in relation to mood and subject matter informative and suggests that * falls off with distance considerably more It is the writer's impression, based on study of the literature and some slowly than does any quantity propagated by a known physical field. In personal experience with ESP experiments, that, broadly speaking, some a gravitational or electromagnetic field emanating from a point source the of the factors influencing ESP performance can be listed as follows:

76 77 I t t. I i I I I f 1 1 lilt I I

Conducive to ESP (distance about 7 ml or 0.9 lm). It had been previously agreed that the number would be chosen a little prior to 9.30 p.m. and transmitted from (a) individual make-up (i.e. constitutional or genetic factors), 9.30 p.m. to 9.40 p.m. and that the subject would record any additional (b) personal involvement (especially characteristic of spontaneous "psychic impressions" that she might have. At 9.45 p.m. the subject was cases), telephoned and her impressions taken down by four witnesses on exten• (c) certain states of mind such as "dreaminess", abstraction, falling sion telephones. She said that she first got the number 36, then 23, then asleep, and the dream state itself, visualizations of an ESP card with wavy lines, 36 in a circle of light, and (d) vivid, dramatic, or emotive targets, finally 23 with its digits brighter than any of the numbers she had pre• (c) open-mindedness, as to the possibility of ESP, with lack of exces• viously "seen". It seemed fair to the writer to score this as a hit with sive scepticism on the part of both subjects,.and investigators. p — 1 /90. She then mentioned the impression of coldness and reluctance nbout going to the basement, which was scored as a hit with reference to Repressive of ESP one of the members of the group. Another impression (the name Johnson (a) boredom (as occurs in long drawn out experiments with emotion• and a connection with home economics) was correct, but not scored as ally or intellectually neutral subject matter), the subject had met the person concerned on other experimental evenings. (b) mental concentration on intellectual or practical tasks, The subject then mentioned a cut middle finger on the right hand. This applied to one of the telephone witnesses so the writer asked the subject (c) excessive scepticism on the part of subjects or bystanders, to associate to this person, which she did, producing impressions mainly (d) excessive desire to perform well. correct, and at a very fast pace. There was no "fishing" or feedback and, The writer therefore generally does not take subjects at random but in the writer's opinion, no communication of information via sensory tends, so far as is possible, to select persons with some claim to manifest clues. Whether any psychic conductivity is to be ascribed to the telephone ESP abilities at least sporadically. He has also developed an experimental wire is a question at present outside the reach of rational speculation. format which he thinks is appropriate for distance experiments in which When the results as a whole were scored, there were 8 hits and 3 misses there is no possibility of sensory clues so that the conduct of the experi• out of 11 calls. After attaching a priori p-values, the likelihood method ment admits of a degree of informality. The images to be mentally trans• (Owen and Quittner 1972) gave the estimate * = 64.74 ±: 19.45% mitted arc not prearranged. This reduces the likelihood of fraud; but with C.R. = 3.33 and odds in excess of 2083 to one. more important still is the fact that the agents are encouraged to select 3. An experiment between Toronto and Montreal their own subject matter, which tends to ensure that the chosen topics arc ones which genuinely interest them. We aim also at creating an atmos• An experiment with Mr. Jan Merta as percipient was arranged for the phere of cheerfulness without flippancy, with the participants hopeful of evening of 11 November 1971. It was agreed that Mr. Merta would give success but not buoyed up to high expectancy. We seek, somewhat para• descriptions of three persons who were to be chosen by a random pro• doxically, to bring the group into a state which is simultaneously one of cess out of a group assembled at the writer's home. At 8.45 p.m. a lottery relaxation and of involvement with the subject matter. This is hardly was held among the ten persons present. It was agreed that the target attainable with a single agent or percipient isolated with the experimenter persons would be those who drew the lowest numbers, and would be pre• but can be achieved with a small group of interested and congenial per• sented as targets according to the natural order of their "winning" num• sons. It was especially successful in the experiment described in section bers. In the event the target persons were Mrs. Helen McNally, Mrs. 4, when the group, talking freely amongst themselves, "inadvertently" Theresa Marmorco, Mrs. Dorothy Johnson. Mr. Merta had met Mrs. selected the target topic for mental transmission. Marmorco very briefly in a large gathering in Toronto six months pre• viously, but there was no reason to believe that he had acquired any 2. An experiment with Mrs. Theresa Marmorco appreciable amount of information about her. The other two ladies were This subject on a previous occasion, while giving free verbal responses totally unknown to him. At 9.00 p.m. the writer telephoned Mr. Merta on persons in the same room (distances of the order of 10 feet, or minus at his home in Montreal, and with his agreement, invited Mrs. McNally 2.7 lm), had achieved an estimated * value of 30.90% with ample to say over the telephone "Hello, Jan, How are you?" Witnesses on statistical significance, (Dixon 1972). On 24th February 1972, a group extension telephones were able to certify that nothing else was said or at the writers home attempted to transmit a randomly chosen two digit names. Mr. Merta then hung up, saying he would call again in fifteen number (namely 23) to the subject at her home in Don Mills, Ontario minutes, which he did, providing a description of Mrs. McNally and her

78 79 I 1 t E It 1 E i i i t i f t i: E

personal tastes, interests, etc., which was taken down by three witnesses. opinion no one present gave Mr. Merta any silent clue on cither occasion. The procedure was repeated exactly with the other two persons. There were also present several other people who had not been present The statements made by the subject may be tabulated as follows. at the initial experiment, and were not aware that Mr. Merta was hoping (H = hits, M = misses, U — unscored because of indefiniteness or un• to identify any particular persons. avoidable subjectivity.) 4. A distance experiment with four sites Target Physical description General attributes 4.1. The Plan of the Experiment H M U H M U The writer's home (site Tl) was used as a base for an experiment on Mrs. McNally 2 3 1 23 7 2 19 Sept. 1972. A group consisting of Mr. Attin, Mr. R. W. Cumming, Mrs. Marmorco 1 3 3 35 1 7 Mrs. P. J. Hurlburt, Mrs. D. Nasmith, Mrs. I. M. Owen, Mrs. H. M. Spar• Mrs. Johnson 6 2 1 27 3 5 row, and the writer, convened at 8 p.m The other participants were Mr. Totals 9 8 85 11 Jan Merta who was in Montreal, at 350 ml, 2.54 lm), Mr. Robert Neilly at another house in Toronto (site T2 at 2.7 ml, 0.43 lm), and Mr. R. The statements were scored on the spot (as well as being checked later Probyn and Mrs. N. Probyn at their Toronto home (site T3 at 4 ml, 0.60 at leisure by the target persons). It seems fair to record that everyone lm). It had been agreed in advance that the experiment was to take the present was genuinely impressed and felt that the subject had indeed following form. (even allowing for the misses) actually described the targets, and that real communication had taken place. Out of 113 statements Mr. Merta had Between 8 and 9 p.m. the group were to discuss the objects they would 94 hits as against 19 misses. On reading through the hits the writer seek to transmit later to the outside participants. formed the view that all, or almost all, of the correct statements had a Between 9 and 9.15 p.m. Jan Merta in Montreal was to act as sender, probability not in excess of 0.5 of being true of a person indicated at concentrating on objects or actions of his choice. The group and the three random. It would therefore not be unjust (except perhaps to the per• other participants would, during this interval, attempt to receive his cipient himself) to score the hits each at the p-value 1/2. In such a thoughts. situation we are not required to attach p-valucs to the misses, and the At 9.15 p.m. Jan would stop sending, and from then until 9.30 p.m. likelihood estimate of * is simply (excess of hits)/(H -|- M)q. The S.D. the group would together send the images they had already discussed. Jan is got from the weight W = M(H -f M)/ H (1 — ^ )2 where ^ is the and the other three participants would try to receive them. estimate (94 — 56.5)/l 13(0.5) = 37.5/56.5 = 66.37%. Thus W = At 9.30 p.m. Jan was telephoned for information as to what he had 201.95 and S.D. = 1/VW = 7.04% so that * = 66.37 ± 7.047o. sent, and also for his impressions. Then Mr. and Mrs. Probyn were tele• phoned and gave their impressions, both of what had been sent by Jan It will be noticed that the largest number of statements and largest and by the group. Later Robert Neilly telephoned in to give impressions proportion of hits were obtained on the general attributes of Mrs. Mar- received from both sources. moreo whom the subject had actually met, even though the physical description was the most meagre and least accurate of the three. In the 4.2. The Experiment writer's opinion this is unlikely to represent normally acquired knowledge, The group convened at about 8 p.m. and the proposed experiment was but raises the possibility that the "ESP channel" is more "open" between described to them. General conversation then ensued, and quickly centred people who are actually acquainted with one another even though only around the phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects. Someone re• slightly. marked that Ezekiel was the first person recorded as having seen U.F.O.s and this fact was unfamiliar to some of those present. The group were The experiment had an interesting sequel. On Saturday 27 November very interested and two copies of the Bible were produced. Bob Cumming 1971 Mr. Merta visited Toronto and the group who had been present on read aloud the first chapter of Ezekiel, which relates to this. The group 11 November were invited to meet him, but carefully instructed to give continued in animated and interested discussion of what exactly was no clue as to which of them had been target persons. The latter were being described, and Bob Cumming then went through the chapter, phrase asked not to speak when joining the gathering in case Mr. Merta recog• by phrase, and attempted to reproduce in the form of a drawing on the nized their voices. Mrs. Marmoreo was unable to attend. Mrs. Johnson blackboard Ezekiel's description of what he had seen. There was a great was the sixth person to arrive. The moment she entered the room Mr. deal of discussion, stage by stage, as the drawing progressed, particularly Merta said "This is the one, the third". Mrs. McNally was the tenth in respect of the "fire", swirling sand, and the effect of light on sand. to arrive and Mr. Merta said "This is the one, the first". In the writer's Sandstorms were discussed. Much consideration was given to the form of 80

-*4 1 * I.. t I IB

the beings visualized by Ezckiel — their four faces and four wings (two A. R. G. OWUN joined, two folded in front), and the manner in which the beings advanced 10. Shaking hands and dancing 5. Wearing hat like a crown (0.3) together. Just before 9 p.m. the writer suggested that when transmitting (0.5) 6. Bowing vigorously (0.3) later they concentrate on these topics. 11. Walking on a tightrope or nar- 7. Calculating machine (0.2) On the coffee tabic around which the group were sitting, were the fol• row line or "catwalk" (0.1) lowing articles set out as objects for the experiment: a long metal and (Hit 11 may have been derived not from Jan at Montreal, but from glass box (actually a World War I periscope), a pack of playing cards, Mrs. Hurlburt, who was sitting next to A.R.G.O.) a pack of Zcncr cards, a small metal skull, a silver "god of plenty" from Bolivia, two quills. On the settee was a large fluffy panda toy bear with a M. H. SPARROW circular rush basket (like a large pill-box) on his head. 12. Reading New Horizons Jour• 8. Chessman (0.1) The experiment was carried through as described above. nal (0.1) 9. Stringed instrument (0.2) 4.3. Results of the first half with Jan Merta sending 10. Shuffling cards (0.5) Jan Merta in Montreal was in a sound recording studio. There was a MR. AND MRS. PROBYN blue rug on the floor, and the interior of the room was mostly red. He 13. Tall (0.4) 11. Dark hair (0.5) was dressed in a multi-colored shirt, grey and white trousers, and brown 14. Aged about 30 (0.2) 12. Car going uphill (0.3) shoes. He concentrated on objects on the table in front of him — an 15. Slim (0.5) 13. A rubber ring (0.1) empty coke bottle and a packet of Rothman's cigarettes. He moved his 16. Thick eyebrows 14. A reading lamp (0.5) hands on paper as if writing a letter. He struck a book of matches. Try• 17. Intense eyes (0.2) ing to think of a movement, he thought of dancing. He looked into a 18. Unusual person (0.3) book —- the New Horizons Journal. He was smoking, and sitting cross- 19. Intellectual face (0.3) legged. There were many records about. 20. Stands out in a crowd (0.3) The recipients' impressions were as follows. The figure in brackets after 21. Shirt, no coat (0.5) each statement is the estimated chance probability of the statement being 22. No tie (0.5) true. 23. Older part of town (0 5) 24. Heavily draped windows (0.3) Hits Misses 25. A box of matches (0.2) P. HURLBURT 26. Writing (0.2) 1. Cigarette burning away (0.5) 1. Eiffel Tower (0.2) 27. Cards, King of Spades (0.1) 2. Himself sitting crossleggcd 2. Picture of elephant (0.2) 28. Friend with him of same age (0.5) 3. Mathematical equation (0.1) (0.5) 3. Grey suit (0.5) 4. Geometrical picture (0.1) 29. Felt body spinning (0.2) 4. Music, classical record (0.3) 5. A cat walking on a narrow (Hit 27 was so counted because Jan said that prior to the experiment wall or on a chesterfield (0.1) he had considered using the King of Spades as a target. Hit 29 relates to 6. Gets up and stands at fairly the fact that while sending he had thought of himself spinning round.) large desk touching papers on R. NEILLV it (0.2) 7. Navy and red oriental rug 30. Man aged about 34 (0.5) 16. Crashed, unhurt, while driving white car (0.1) (0.2) 8. Brown shoes (0.5) (His other impressions appeared to be hits in the second half of the 9. Black telephone (0.8) experiment. Miss 16 was not counted a hit although Jan said he had been reading New Horizons Journal 1, 1, p. 61-62 which related to the acci• (Hit 5 was most impressive; on the wall of the studio is a scries of dental death of a motorist.) cartoon pictures showing a cat jumping off a chesterfield. Call 7 was D. Nasmifh, I. Owen, H. Attin and R. Cumming obtained no distinct judged to be a hit because of the blue rug and red wainscoting.) impressions.

82 83 I E I I I I I I i I § I I I I I | I

MR. AND MRS. PROBYN 4.4. Results of the second half with the group sending 42. Ornament from Peru with 27. A Violin (0.2) soldered arms (0.1) 28. Mary (0.1) JAN MF.RTA (He said his impressions were very mixed and that he felt 43. A fluffy animal (0.1) 29. Article like a compact (0.3) nervous.) 44. The Bible (0.2) 30. A ring (0.3) 31. Book open at page 296 (0.1) 31. A telephone call, a chiroprac- 17. A small box with small round tor, aged about 45, but looks things inside (0.2) 4.5. Analysis of the Results younger (0.1) 18. Pressure in the head (0.2) Out of 75 calls, 44 were judged to be hits and 31 to be misses, so that 32. Discs, many circles (0.1) 19. Medical instrument, Syringe the percentage of hits is 41.33 %. 33. A metal box but not metal, 20. Pyramid or triangle (0.2) The total excess of hits over expectation is 23.7, and the summation of metal and glass (0.2) items Cpq is 12.73, whose square root yields an S.D. equal to 3.5679. A 34. Relaxation (0.8) crude test of overall significance may be based on the C.R. calculated as 23.7/3.5679 = 6.64. Table 11 of Soal and Batcman (1956) gives 500 (Hit 31 appeared to relate to a telephone call received about 9.12 p.m. million to one as the odds against a C.R. exceeding 6.0. Although the from a chiropractor answering the description. Hit 33 was awarded on test is not fully efficient there can be no doubt of the statistical significance the periscope. Hit 34 could be taken to refer to the group most of whom of the result of the experiment, provided that the p-values attached to the deliberately relaxed themselves during the experiment.) calls are sufficiently conservative, which the writer thinks to be the case. A test based on the exact probabilities of the calls (grouped according ROBERT NP.ILLY to p-values) and transformed into chi-squareds for two degrees of free• 35. The group thinking of one 21. A fit of rage (0.3) dom (Owen and Quittner 1972) gives an aggregate chi-squared for 12 crazy idea — one train of 22. The number 12 (0.2) degrees of freedom equal to 52.13791, which is beyond the range of tables thought and emphasizing all 23. Climbing down a manhole with and confirms that the statistical significance is very high. the points in connection with a ladder (0.1) The method of likelihood scoring applied with the starting value (X = it (0.2) 24. Seasick (0.1) 0.4256 gives a score S = 0.021617 and a weight W = 173.497. The 36. Sandstorm in a desert (0.1) 25. Cuckoo clock (0.3) adjustment is therefore 0.01276%. The likelihood estimate of *, the 37. Hot sun, burning sensation 26. Mice on wheels in a maze frequency of intervention of Psi, is thus e — 42.57%. Since \/W =r (0.2) (0.1) 13.17, the S.D. of e is 7.59%. The C.R. = 42.47/7.59 = 5.6 which 38. Running away and encounter• shows that the odds against the result occurring by chance are more than ing a bear, the bear flees (0.1) 26 million to one. 39. The group had been trying to The three locations in Toronto are within five miles of one another, remember something (0.3) and about 350 miles from Montreal. The distance factor is therefore at 40. Not knowing how to do some• least 70, which should be sufficient for any gross effect of distance on thing (0.3) GESP to manifest itself. To make the comparison the data were pooled 41. Going on a voyage in a large in two batches, Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Toronto, and scored by ship (0.2) the likelihood method using 42.57% as the starting values, which gave Toronto-Montreal Estimate (%) (Hit 35 agreed with the concentration of the group on the Ezekiel S 3.445983 W 116.49454 45.33 ± 9.27 story. The drawing showed a spaceship in a desert, which was thought of Toronto-Toronto as beneath a hot sun. It showed fire from the exhaust, which visually S —3.439929 W 56.88471 36.52 ± 13.27 could equally have represented a sandstorm, as well as conveying the idea Combined data of heat — Hits 36, 37 and 41. The group had difficulty in constructing S 0.006054 W 173.37925 42.57 ± 7.59 the picture from Ezekicl's description and resorted to drawing it line by line The difference between the two sets of data is not statistically signifi• —hit 40. Some time had been spent trying to recall where the passage cant. This may be seen by calculating S2/W for each of the two sets, occurred in the Bible—hit 39. Hit 38 was allocated to the panda bear. It adding the resulting values together and subtracting the value of S2/W is a family joke that he is excessively timid.) 85 84 • E i e lit t i I I I 1 i I I i I

for the combined data. As each item S2/W is a chi-squared for one OSIS, K. and TURNER, Malcolm E. 1968. "Distance and ESP: A Trans• degree of freedom, the final figure is a chi-squared for one degree of free• continental Experiment". Proceedings A.S.P.R. Vol. 27. Sept. 1-48. dom which tests the homogeneity of the data (i.e. the agreement of the OSIS, K., TURNER, Malcolm E. and CARLSON, Mary Lou. 1971. two sets with each other). We have, correct to five decimal places "ESP over distance: Research on the ESP Channel". Journal A.S.P.R. Toronto-Montreal 0.10193 Vol. 65, July 245-288. Toronto-Toronto 0.20802 Combined data zero OWEN, A. R. G., and QUITTNER, J. 1972. "The Scoring of ESP Tests with Free Verbal Responses, Part 1". New Horizons Vol. 1, Summer. The resulting chi-squared is 0.30995, which is quite insignificant. It is 40-50. clear therefore, that this experiment, while furnishing evidence of ESP between locations several miles apart and between locations 350 miles OWEN, I. M. and OWEN, A. R. G. 1972 "An Experiment with Mr. Bob apart, gives no hint that ESP transmission is a function of distance. The Milne Involving GESP and a possible Precognition". New Horizons results in fact were in all respects on a par with those got in favourable Vol. 1, Summer 56-60. circumstances between ESP sensitives in the same room. The only reason• SOAL, S. G. and BATEMAN, F. 1954. Modem Experiments in Tele• able conclusion would seem to be that ESP reception is, so far as is ascer• tainable, substantially independent of physical separation up to distances pathy. Faber and Faber, London. of 350 miles. TURNER, M. E. Jr., "Appendix to Dr. Osis' article: a statistical model for The average percentage * values for individuals were: examining the relation between ESP and distance." Journal A.S.P.R. Hurlburt 50.75 ± 18.75 Vol. 59. Jan. 43-46. Merta 35.38 ± 22.02 Neilly 37.91 ± 17.00 Owen 13.59 ±29.97 New Horizons Research Foundation 10 May, 1973 Probyns 66.03 ± 15.05 Toronto Society for Physical Research Sparrow 16.67 ± 36.00 General average 42.57 ± 7.59 The averages for sites were: Tl - T2 (0.43 lm) 37.91 ± 17.00 Tl - T3 (0.60 lm) 28.40 ± 20.59 Tl-Montreal (2.541m) 54.19 ±12.14 T2 - Montreal (2.54 lm) 0 ± 31.65 T3 - Montreal (2.54 lm) 66.22 ±13.19 These may be compared with results of experiments mentioned in this paper and in Owen and Owen (1972), namely: Marmorco (same room) 30.90 ± 31.35 Milne (same room) 48.72 ± 14.72 Marmorco (7 ml, 0.9 lm) 64.74 ± 19.45 Merta (Tl - Montreal) 66.37 ± 7.04

REFERENCES DIXON, Joan, 1972 "An Experiment in GESP with Mrs. Theresa Mar- moreo". New Horizons, Vol. 1, Summer, 56.60. OSIS, K. 1965 "ESP over distance, a survey of experiments published in English". Journal A.S.P.R. Vol. 59 Jan. 22-42. 87 86 till) til I I I I tlfl ATfSA/P/X Two Professor G. A. V. Morgan, Department of Education, University of Guelph. Professor Noel Moon;, Department of Journalism, University of Western PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST Ontario. Bruce Raymond, President Bruce A. Raymond Company Limited, Film Producer and Distributor. CANADIAN CONFERENCE Professor David Slioenberg, F.R.S., Director of the Low Temperature Physics Section. Cavendish Laboratory. Fellow of Gonvillc and Caius College, Cambridge. ON PSYCHOKINESIS Allen Spraggett, President Toronto Society for Psychical Research. Professor L. E. II. Trainor, Department of Physics, University of Toronto. AND RELATED PHENOMENA Dr. Albert Virgin, Coordinator of Educational Research Services, North York Board of Education, Toronto.

JUNE 1974 REPRESENTING T.S.P.R. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL: Andrienne Henwood Lome Henwood Bernice Mandryk SPEAKERS Albert Peacock Professor Douglas S. Dean, Newark College of Engineering. Dorothy O'Donnell Professor J. Allen Hynek, Chairman of the Department of Astronomy, Frank Riley Northwestern University, Director of Dearborn and Lindheimer Ob• Margaret Sparrow servatories. Professor Brian D. Josephson, F.R.S. Cavendish Laboratory. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Nobel Laureate (Physics) 1973. Also participating: Matthew Manning, Author and literary editor. Joanne Arrowsmith, Colin Bambrick, Ann Benedck, Rebecca Bragg, Dr. Karlis Osis, Director of Research, American Society for Psychical Faith Brown, Dieter Bruckner, Peggy Edwards, Joel Fernandez, Nancy Research. Hathway, Jessica Hunt, Kenneth Lewis, Madeleine MeCardle, Henry Dr. A. R. G. Owen, Former Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. McKay, Frances McQuestion, Sue Miller, Douglas Nasniith, Dorothy Director New Horizons Research Foundation. Nasmith, Joe Quittner, Dale Simmons, Michelle Whitton. Professor Michael A. Persinger, Psychophysiology Laboratory, Lauren- tian University. Professor Roger Smook, Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph. Dr. Alex Tanous, Psychologist, Mental health worker. Dr. J. L. Whitton, Physician, Vice-Chairman Toronto Society for Psy• chical Research.

OTHER PARTICIPANTS' Dr. Howard Eisenberg, Physician. Professor J. Norman Emerson, Department of Anthropology, University 'Apologies were received from ihe following invited participants who were unable of Toronto. President of the Canadian Archaeological Association. lo be in Toronto at the lime of Ihe Conference. Professor Arthur Abrahamson. Dr. S. Higlmian, Assistant Surgeon in-Chief', Branson Hospital, Toronto. Chairman of Toronto Society lor Psychical Research. Professor John Bclofl. IX-- partmcnl of Psychology. University of Edinburgh. President S.P.R. (U.K.). Mr. Uri>Q Dr. A. Kurtz, Physician. Geller. Professor Wyman Harrison. Department of Geography. Univeisily of Toronto.^

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EDITORIAL NOTE Report on The Conference took place 18th June, through 2Sth June. Plenary Demonstrations and Experiments sessions for reading of papers were held on 20th, 22nd anti 23rd June together with discussions, showings of films and videotapes and demon• performed during the Conference strations of psychokinesis by Matthew Manning and by the "Philip" group. All other proceedings were informal and consisted of discussions DR. A. R. G. OWEN and DR. J. L. WHITTON and experiments with Dr. Tanous, Matthew Manning, and the "Philip" and "Energy Concentration" groups of the T.S.P.R. The Conference The following report has already been published in part (Owen, 1974; Chairmen have given a concise account of the experiments and demon• Whitton 1974).' strations, and it has been inserted prior to the report of the plenary ses• sions (1 through 7 below). The latter report was prepared by the Editor (a) Experiments with Matthew Manning. from the audiotape record made by the Recording Secretary and the On 18 June Professor Josephson and Robin Owen tested Matthew texts have been approved by the speakers. To simplify presentation and Manning's ability to deflect a compass needle. When the experimenters minimise printing costs answers to questions have been incorporated in verified that the subject was not bearing a watch or other metal object, the texts. The report though essentially accurate does not pretend to be Matthew passed his hand over the compass at a distance of about six completely verbatim. inches above it. The report says: The needle started at rest. When M.M. moved his hands, the needle moved about. The needle stopped immediately after• wards, in spite of the fact that it was very weakly damped so that it would have been expected to continue swinging for some time (Brian Josephson, Robin Otcen.) A similar experiment was recorded next day, 19 June, on videotape. That evening Michelle Whitton and Robin Owen testified in writing that while Matthew was holding the stem of an Oneida Stainless fork so that the fork was fully in view the head of the fork bent back slowly nearly ISO0. Dr. Owen, Robin Owen and Dr. Whitton recorded their testimony as to two other forks that had slowly deformed themselves while under observation in Matthew's hand. Together with Michelle Whitton they deposed that at about 8.15 p.m. a knife of somewhat robust steel construction - Ashhernj Stainless, England, which had not been touched by Matthew, was in Iris Owen's hand about twelve feet from where Matthew was sitting. The witnesses noticed that it was in process of bending. It continued to deform until the blade was about 10° away from its original plane.

The following entries are taken from the logbook for 20 June: At 2.03 p.m. Matthew bent an aluminium key (Weisser, E41165) to an angle of 5° about li in. from the points (]. Whitton, W. McQuestion). I Two of the kevs from mv kevring (Volvo car key. Taylor Lock ^ Co. V79D; hou'sekey, Cole National U.S.A. C07) taken off sepa- ^ 190 191 ft.. I 1 t I t I II I ii i f i i i i i

lately - about one hour apart - were bent while Matthew held All the keys mentioned above were ones that had been in use. However them in his hand. He did not leave the room nor did he exert on 2 July 12 new identical uncut brass key blanks and 4 steel ones were any muscular effort on them that I could note (/. Allen Hynek). bought at Reilly's Lock Shop, 16 Isabella St., Toronto, at 4.15 p.m. Be• At approximately 6.10 p.m. Matthew asked me for a kev to attempt to bend. I removed my house key (Dexter 28469T) from tween 5.30 and 6.30 p.m. Matthew bent one steel key, and five brass my chain and handed it to him. Matthew clasped the key in one keys and bent and divided a sixth brass key. About 6 p.m. the next day hand. Without leaving the room and with no visible muscular Matthew was holding a brass key blank; it bent through about 30°. It effort Matthew succeeded in bending the key. After it was han• was then noticed (by A. R. C. O. and R. E. O.) also to be divided half- ded back to me, the key continued to bend. (Allen Spraggett). through. While Matthew was still holding the baft the division in the About 4.15 p.m.. Professor Emerson gave Matthew a key shaft visibly increased as if there was a steady loss of metal. After about which Matthew held in his hand. It bent'through about 15° at a point about % in. from the tip. (A. R. G. Owen,]. N. Emerson). 10 minutes it bad divided completely. About 4.00 p.m. while being watched by twenty or so people On 19 June Professor Douglas Dean took a number of Kirlian photo• whose questions he was answering Matthew successively re• graphs of Matthew's fingers, using a portable Kirlian apparatus whose ceived two of Bruce Raymond's keys and held each in turn in Tesla coil generator gave about 25,000 volts A.C. in the range 0.1 to 1 his bands without applying any muscular effort. The keys were megahertz in pulses at the rate of about 50 per second. Polaroid Color- successively bent each in the space of about five minutes. One packs type 10S were used in the sawn-off back of a Polaroid camera which was the key of Bruce Raymond's apartment and had to be placed in a vice and subjected to ten minutes vigorous hammering by was sealed to a double black camera bag (devised by Robin Owen). the building supcrintendant before it was straight enough to insert into the lock. Later that evening while driving with Bruce Matthew put bis right hand into the bag with the middle three Raymond Matthew held in bis hand a key (F9, F/ewr cle Lys, fingers in contact with the (back of the) polaroid film. He at• previously flat), supplied to him by Robin Owen. After about tempted so far as possible to maintain a normal resting physio• 40 minutes it was curved through 90° at about % in. from the tip. logical and mental state during a two second exposure as deter• During the night it continued to bend. On 21 June it was photo• mined by a timer. Matthew then moved the same fingers to graphed but bent further and had to be photographed again. In another location on the film and switched from his normal state its final state it had bent about 150° and was split through one- into the state he is in when bending metal, that is, he turned the third of its width. (A. R. G. Owen, Robin Owen, Bruce "power" on. A two second exposure was given, and repeated with Raymond). Matthew's fingers in a third location but Matthew again in a normal relaxed state. In the resulting photograph the aureoles About 6.45 p.m. Matthew hold Margaret Sparrow's key (Do- or coronas were much brighter for the "powered" state than for minion Lock Co. Montreal - 145) in his hand for a few minutes. the normal state. In addition, whiteness filled up the "finger• It divided into two pieces the cleavage being at least 'A in. from prints" right into their centres giving a cloud of brilliant white. the tip. (M. H. Sparrow, A. R. G. Owen). I have never seen that before.* In further experiments Matthew was able to "concentrate the The following items were recorded under 21 June: power" into a narrow area and also to direct it into the middle finger only. In an experiment with two Kirlian devices, one for At 5.22 p.m. I was sitting in the office next to Matthew who was telephoning Peter Bander in England. He was holding the the right and the other for the left hand, which, by trial, were receiver with one hand. Into the other I put a key (Dominion calibrated for approximate equality, he was able to make the Lock Co. Montreal DL6). He held it quietly in the palm of the power go into the right but not the left hand and vice versa. one hand. After five minutes he finished speaking and opened (Douglas Dean). bis band to look at tho kev which bad divided through at a plaee about % in. from the tip. (A. R. G. Owen). (b) Frequency analysis of electroencephalograms. About 9 p.m. Mr. D. C. Webster held one of his own keys On 22 June and several subsequent occasions one of us (J.L.W.) in (attached to bis keyring) by the baft. Matthew bricflv put his the presence of various of the Conference participants (including Pro• fingers round the blade which immediately bent. Matthew then did exactly the same with a key belonging to and held bv a fessors Hynek, Josephson and Persinger and Drs. Higbinan and Kurtz) visitor - a very senior member of the University of Toronto using repeated sampling determined the power spectrum of Matthew's (D. C. Webster, A. R. G. Owen). EEG in each of five states, (i) resting with eyes open, (ii) resting with At 11.15 p.m. Matthew bent a key (Russwin 7-N, BA-1), be• eyes closed, (iii) making head, neck, and eye movements, (iv) talking, longing to the front door of Lanrentian University, without using any apparent physical force. (M. A. Persinger, J. L. Whitton). ' •See the jacket of Manning (1974). 193 I 1 t t I II t i t i i ii i i i and (v) attempting to bend a key paranormally. As described in Wliitton (1974) the distribution of power in Matthew's EEG spectrum when lie was in state (v) was quite different from that in any of the other states. It was characterized by a large concentration of energy in the Theta waveband (i.e. frequencies between 3 and 7 Hz.) and also by a linear relationship between the peaks in the Theta, Alpha (8-13 Hz.) and Beta ranges conferring a peculiar appearance on the graph of the power spec• trum so that it was dubbed a "ramp" function. CONFERENCE The striking and unexpected nature of this result is best conveyed by noting that spectra of this kind with a major concentration of energy in the Theta band are only very rarely encountered in the waking state; PROCEEDINGS instead, they arc characteristic of sleep in stage III or stage IV. The experiment was repeated with Dr. Tanous as subject in states (i) to (iv). In the fifth state (v) he did not attempt paranormally to bend metal, but entered his OOB state. The experiment was repeated 1. Opening of the formal sessions. again with a third subject whose state (v) related to an attempt to view Opening the plenary session of 20th June, Dr. Owen said: the experimenter's aura. Interestingly enough both subjects exhibited a large amount of Theta in their (v) state. It is possible therefore that Some of the distinguished participants have already spent some time production of Theta may be common during paranormal operations. in discussion and experiment at the informal sessions of this Conference. It is now the pleasure of myself and my Co-Chairman, Dr. Whitton, to (c) Demonstrations by the "Philip" group. welcome also those Conference speakers and participants whose duties On several occasions the "Philip" group demonstrated the "Philip" prevented them from arriving earlier. phenomena — both table movement and raps in "answer" to questions — I would like to introduce our two Conference Presidents, William in the presence of Conference speakers and other participants. In fact McQuestion and Donald Webster, who are the people who have made many of the visitors were incoqx>rated in the group and sat or stood at this Conference possible. Mr. McQuestion helps our work at New the table, put questions to "Philip" and received answers often by raps Horizons in various ways. At the moment we are feeling especially grate• under their own hands. Often the raps were audible several feet away ful to him because he very generously undertook to pay the costs of from the table. arranging this Conference. I have been told by several of our Toronto associates that, in their opinion, the mixture of personalities and talents represented at the Conference will be a memorable one and is likely to bring about a turning point in our understanding of psychokinesis. I would therefore very much like to express our appreciation to Bill McQuestion. Our other Conference President, Donald Webster, is the original source of the inspiration and impetus which our institute, New Horizons, is con• tributing to the study of psychokinesis and related problems, because he is the founder and President of New Horizons and its long-term bene• factor. I trust that before too long his effort and foresight will prove to have been worthwhile and to have led to important additions to human knowledge. While science is, and should be, truly international (as em- plified by today's gathering) I am sure that no one present will resent my expressing the additional hope that these initiatives will also contribute to Canada's scientific standing and reputation for introducing new things into the world.

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The Empirical Evidence for Psychokinesis. 2. human beings present, and of them alone. This leads logically to a re-ex• Dr. A. R. G. Owen: The evidence for psychokinesis. amination of the physical phenomena of spiritualism. For a century or more people have been sitting in the dark around tables in the hope of Occasionally in everyday life a "kinetic" event takes place, e.g. the communicating with deceased relatives. It is often supposed therefore unexplained llight of a spoon described in New Horizons Vol. 1. No. 1. that the P.K. phenomena which are sometimes alleged to occur — pro• Events which are in some degree willed or intended, can properly be cal• duction of rapping sounds — movements of the table or other objects — led "psychokinetic". The classical work in this field was done in Professor are fraudulent. However the same phenomena can be produced in settings J. B. Rhine's laboratory where subjects demonstrated minute effects on which are more amenable to scientific evaluation. Thus the phenomena the fall of dice. obtained in a circle with Stella Cranshaw by Harry Price in the presence More recently films have been made showing Mde. Mikhailova in of such fine investigators as Everard Feilding seem to have been genuine Russia moving a compass needle, or the whole compass, or other objects P.K. Moreover there was no positive indication that the P.K. events were weighing about an ounce, across the surface of a glass table. the work of spirits or of any other being than the persons present — per• Three years ago we ourselves made many observations of Jan Mcrta's haps Miss Cranshaw herself. phenomena. He was able to control the motion of a mobile consisting of two chicken feathers suspended by a thread inside an airtight jar. To During the last ten years Dr. Batcheldor, and then Mr. Brookes-Smith develop this ability he put himself on a diet of European sausage and in England, each worked with a small circle of people who were not ryebread. When carrying out psychokinesis (P.K.), he controlled his chosen because they were supposed to have psychic or mediumistic breathing somewhat on Yoga principles and put himself into a relaxed ability. They followed a theory first put forward by Dr. Batcheldor that state of mind "intending" the motion of the feather without strongly if any group got together in a sufficiently cheerful and animated way, willing it to happen. (Compare with Zen in the Art of Archery by Mr. addressing themselves to an imaginary entity, or to the table that they Herigell). sat around, then P.K. phenomena would residt. This proved to be the The force involved in moving the feather is about one twentieth of an case. Each group produced knocks and bangs in the table and elsewhere, ounce, which is about the same as that exerted voluntarily on a balance and quite violent movements of their table and other objects. These by Uri Geller at the Stanford Research Institute. results have been reproduced by the so-called "Philip group" of the Yesterday our guest Mr. Matthew Manning on several occasions de• Toronto Society for Psychical Research. flected a compass needle. Originally this group embarked on an experiment in pure psychology A number of historic cases of P.K. can be described as sub-voluntary. in which in the course of weekly meditations they sought to experience Thus on innumerable occasions the famous medium, D. D. Home would a collective hallucination. The figure they wished to hallucinate was go into a light trance, and quite substantial objects would move in his "Philip", a completely fictitious 17th century nobleman whose imaginary presence, such as the accordion evidenced by Sir William Crookes. biography had been written to ensure that if "he" manifested "he" could My own interest in the subject of P.K. was aroused about 15 years not be confused with a real spirit. In the event, as described in New ago by cases that seemed to be involuntary; i.e. the events do not seem Horizons, Vol. 1, No. 3, and in the film (and forthcoming book) Pliilip: to be the result of conscious volition by the people concerned. At the the Imaginary Ghost, the group obtained not the spectre of Philip, but time even the parapsychological profession was luke-warm to poltergeist physical phenomena which appear very conclusively to be the product phenomena (or "spontaneous recurrent P.K.") as these happenings are of group intention — voluntary collective P.K. or "P.K. by Committee". called. Partly as a result of my own efforts, poltergeistery is now accep• Recently a new form of P.K. has come into prominence, this is bending ted as a valid paranormal phenomenon. What is interesting is that in their and dividing of metal, first made famous by Uri Geller. In March of this early phases these P.K. effects are quite involuntary at the conscious level. year we were fortunate enough to do what was in fact a proper experi• However they may be under the control of the unconscious mind. For ment with Mr. Geller. It was done in the studio of CITY-TV in Toronto. example in the Karen case in Sweden in 1905 the phenomena were modi• So far from apologizing for this fact we regard it as conferring a great fied by hypnotising the lady on whom they were focussed (Owen, 1964). scientific advantage because the metal objects and his handling of them People in a poltergeist situation frequently ascribe the strange P.K. from first to last were kept under continuous view by the TV cameras. events to the operation of disembodied "spirits". Careful examination of This resulting continuous record is a remarkable scientific document — it actual cases suggests however that the psychokinesis is a function of the leaves no doubt that the objects — which were our own and recovered 196 197 1 * » i i i t i • * i i i i i t i after the experiment — were bent or divided by some unknown process in his own book The Link (Manning, 1974) which is therefore a valuable and not by common trickery. (New Horizons, Vol. 1, No. 4). scientific document. By the summer of 1967 it seemed that, like the Just as interesting as the fact that we have been able to validate Mr. majority of poltergeist people, Matthew had lost or suppressed his Geller's phenomena for ourselves, is the finding that our guest Mr. Man• psychokinetic power, perhaps for ever. However, four years later, in 1971, ning can also produce the Geller effect and has done so many times al• poltergeist phenomena revived in abundance and with great vigour both ready since his arrival at New Horizons. at home and at boarding school where they were rather amply witnessed. So-called "psychic", "spiritual", or "faith" healing when it is effective It must have been at this time that I said that he might be the most usually functions by purely psychological means. This is so even when the powerful P.K. person in the world. illness is physiological, because a boost in the patient's morale may heigh• Interestingly enough, instead of being episodic, the newly revived ten his own physiological powers of recuperation. However some healers P.K. ability proved to be chronic and lasting. I am quoted in Matthew's seem to function by laying on of hands. In the case of eight such healers book (page 62) as having written that // he did retain the power it might Dr. Justa Smith of Rosary Hill College, Buffalo, showed that when they take the additional form of mental phenomena (telepathy, clairvoyance, held test-tubes containing various enzymes in solution, the chemical etc.), also that he might retain the power and achieve a high degree of activity of these enzymes was increased. This would seem to be a psycho- voluntary control. It is pleasant to have a prediction verified. As will be chemical effect. It may be legitimate to regard it as a subtle form of P.K. discussed in a later section, Matthew succeeded in substituting other "Thoughtography" — the apparent ability of the mind to affect photo• activities for the poltergeistery, but throughout has retained the capacity graphic emulsion as demonstrated by Ted Serios or by Fukuri's subjects for P.K. would also seem to be a psychochemieal effect. In January last Matthew found that this P.K. ability could be chan• It is tempting to speak of P.K. effects as being produced by a 'force' nelled into what, for him, was a new phenomena. After watching Uri but this may be misleading. The production of a P.K. effect by a living Geller's television broadcast Matthew tried gently rubbing a spoon while subject at a distant point bears little resemblance to the radiation of any mentally urging it to bend which, after ten minutes it did, suddenly actual physical forcefield from its source. becoming pliable and then drooping under gravity until it resembled a It is also tempting to think of P.K. and ESP as variant forms of the hairpin. He then bent a six-inch nail. As reported elsewhere, in this Con• same force or field. However we should take warning from the situation ference during the last three days Matthew has bent 20 or 30 objects, in physics where attempts to unify the four basic forces have failed, only keys and cutlery, often under close observation and testified to by wit• now are there some indications that the electromagnetic field and the nesses in signed depositions. Some of these objects are exhibited. With weak nuclear interaction can be regarded as different manifestations them also are objects which he bent manually into fantastic shapes after of the same thing (Cline et al., 1974). they had become pliable. I should stress that metal-bending per se is not The purpose of this Conference is theoretical discussion of the mani• an activity in which Matthew sees significance. He has practised the fold problems presented by psychokinesis, but discussion in the light of ability lately merely for this Conference because we are interested in P.K. actual experience of P.K. as seen with one's own eyes. There is no com• plete substitute for such experience. We are therefore very grateful to Matthew Manning: My Metal Phenomena have Matthew Manning with us. I should begin by saying that I think that the power I use in metal- bending is some energy generated in the mind or in the brain and is identical with that which I use for automatic writing. It's just an energy Dr. Owen then introduced Mr. Matthew Manning, as follows: and I can divert it, within certain limits, according to choice. I believe It is a great pleasure to introduce our guest Matthew Manning from that everyone has this energy in a latent form; for some unknown reason Cambridgeshire, England, because he is one of those rare persons en• it is manifest in a few people. So far as I can see the ability is not inheri• dowed with a high degree of psychokinetic power. Furthermore we hap• ted in the ordinary sense (though, of course, it may have a biological, pen to be particularly well acquainted with the way in which his powers congenital or genetic basis), because there is no real history of psychic have developed. This is because my wife and I were in on Matthew's phenomena in my family. My mother claims only to have her fair share phenomena from the beginning when in 1967 at the age of eleven there of feminine intuition, though I think she has a high degree of ESP; when was for some weeks mild poltergeist activity in the Manning household. I tested her with ESP cards she consistently averaged 9 hits out of 25 In addition, Matthew himself has recorded the stages of his development calls. 199 *• i t. I I t. I ft 1 i i •_. ii i i i i.

The availability of the energy doesn't seem generally to be affected by his voluntary P.K. phenomena only after learning how to put himself xtemal circumstances such as time of day, season, moon phases or into the required state of mind. It is not yet possible to write a compre• 'hether I am on the ground or in an aircraft. However, I do tend to hensive textbook prescribing the psychological prerequisites for P.K. roduce an exceptional amount of phenomena just before a thunderstorm. However, Dr. Whitton and myself both believe that some progress has In the metal-bending I do not feel that any "spirits" or external entities been made and we offer our papers as a point of departure for future re involved; I merely use crude energy to disturb the molecular strac- discussion. Jire of the metal. I use no preparatory techniques of meditation. I just oncentrate on the metal object say, a key. For two or three seconds I Dr. A. R. G. Owen: The aetiology of poltergeistery Srect all my thoughts into the object. Once I've done that, it will usually An extensive survey of poltergeist cases which I published in 1964 tart bending and it continues to bend in the band of myself or someone disclosed the following statistical facts about those individuals capable Lse. While I am concentrating I can feel something, perhaps energy, of spontaneous recurrent psychokinesis (i.e. poltergeistery): ;oing out of my fingers. I do not feel this in my mind but actually in my hgers. I should make it clear that I do not concentrate on my fingers (a) their frequency in the general population is low. This unambig• •ut on the key itself. The energy carries through my hands — it's like uously indicates that the faculty is idiosyncratic, implying a gene• olding a lens up to the sun — the sun's rays become concentrated so tic or constitutional basis. s to bum a piece of paper. I just think about the key and then I feel (b) their ages occupy a bell-shaped distribution curve falling mainly he energy going out of my hand after I've thought about the key. The between the ages of 10 and 20. Outriders occur beyond these ey will get warm but it may merely be warmth from my hands. limits but with rather low frequency. On occasion I can affect an object at a distance. This usually happens (c) poltergeistery is only partially sex limited, occuring perhaps some• ii an involuntary way. For instance on Wednesday we were all at supper what (though not very much) more frequently in females than in n this room. Mrs. Owen was about twelve feet away from me and bad males. ust picked up her stainless knife. She noticed that it was starting to bend. (d) in a high proportion of cases nervous tension is detectable either }r. Owen, Dr. and Mrs. Whitton and myself all watched it continue to in the poltergeist individual or in the family situation. In an above- lend. On Tuesday we all went to a place about 600 yards away for lunch; chance proportion of cases there are overt signs of psyeboneurosis 3r. Owen had laid a spoon on his desk. When we came in we saw that (particularly hysteria) as indicated either by behavioural signs — t had bent. When I had poltergeist activity at school, events would often delirium or somnambulism, or conversion symptoms — paralyses, iccur at distances of as much as 400 yards. On two occasions objects blindness, hysterical fits, or comas. vere moved at my home which was about 70 miles away. In the past writers have argued from a rather vague perception of (b), (c) and (d) that poltergeistery is a function of the adolescent >. The Psychology of Psychokinesis state and ascribed it to physiological exuberance and/or psychological stress. It is desirable however, to probe a little deeper. On the basis of The papers in this session were preceded by a viewing of three films (d) we may conclude that psychological stress is an aetiological factor. (i) Can We Explain the Poltergeist? Also the sex-ratio (c) is curiously similar to some recent estimates of the (ii) A Mild Case of Haunting; and sex-incidence of hysteria. But psyeboneurosis (and hysteria in particular) (iii) Philip: The Imaginary Ghost; as well as have higher incidences in older age groups and a purely psychological explanation cannot apply to the age cutoff which has to be regarded as (iv) the video tape record of Uri Celler's demonstration at CITY-TV. somewhat mysterious. It is equally unsafe to ascribe the cutoff to bio- energetic factors because the physical work in footpounds done in polter• Dr. Owen then introduced the session as follows: geist P.K. is usually negligible in physiological terms, and well within the Over the years it has become apparent that P.K. involves psychology capacity of small infants. is well as physics. The work of the English groups and the Philip group Dr. Otccn, preparatory to re-introducing Mr. Manning said: )f the Toronto Society for Psychical Research have shown that voluntary ''.K. results if a group, as a group, trains itself in a particular psycholo• Tn the majority of cases a poltergeist outbreak remains involuntary gical skill. Mr. Jan Merta's work illustrates the same fact; lie obtained and is of short duration. Those rather rare persons who continue to ex• hibit either the P.K. ability or some other unusual skill are consequently JOO of great interest. Mine. Mikliailova as a young woman was the centre of * I I t 1 I 1. * I i I E 1 I I

sor Vassiliev, who, it is said, persuaded 'her to train herself in controlling (In the subsequent discussion Matthew described some of his auto• the P.K. so that nowadays she can produce it, almost to order. Uri Oiler matic writing and its presumptive sources. An exhibition of his work- as a child found that involuntarily he affected watches, keys, and other was made available to participants.) metal objects. Some years later he found he could produce the pheno• mena almost on command, 4. Fields and Molecules Matthew Manning's experience is however even more interesting, not Dr. Owen introducing the speakers said: least because he has given a very lucid account of it in his book. I am Igoing to ask him to speak briefly on this aspect. I think you will find the following two papers of exceptional interest, not least because they converge on almost the same conclusion although they set out from quite different starting points. This is especially note• Mattliew Manning: The evolution of paranormal abilities worthy because each speaker was totally unacquainted with the other's field of research and line of thought. In 1967 I was the centre of poltergeist activity that terminated after a few weeks. In 1970 both at home in Cambridgeshire and at school new and more dramatic phenomena developed and persisted into the following Professor Brian josephson: possible relations between psychic fields and summer of 1971. One clay I was trying to write a school essay but was not conventional physics. finding it easy, and I had to keep stopping to think what next I was going The question I would like to put is whether "psychic fields"ca n exist, to say. As I sat with my pen poised above the paper ready to start writing and whether psychic fields would contradict physics as we know it? I as soon as I should think of something, my hand went down onto the myself think there is no contradiction. Physicists study such fields as the paper in a completely involuntary way and began to write. My mind, gravitational, the electromagnetic, and also the strong interaction, which meanwhile, had wandered completely from the subject on to nothing in holds atomic nuclei together, and the weak interaction, which causes some particular. I watched, startled, as I wrote words in a handwriting different kinds of radioactive decay. There may also be psychic fields and the from my own. Then, slightly frightened, I pulled my hand away. The question is; why are they seen by people doing psychic research and words were incomprehensible and sprawled over the page. It was only not by physicists? The answer simply may be: these are two sets of pheno• later that I realized that I must have written "automatically". I wondered mena which arc only weakly linked; only under special circumstances if this was repeatable and in the succeeding days tried several experi• are they linked together. One example is a radio set which links electro• ments. Interesting enough several quite distinct handwritings eventuated. magnetic waves with sound waves. Usually the electrons, protons, and Epually interesting was the fact that subsequent to each session of auto• neutrons in a piece of matter don't couple electromagnetic waves and matic writing poltergeist activity ceased completely for several days. sound waves very strongly, but if they are put together in a special way Since then I have regularly engaged not only in automatic writing (which as in a radio set we get strong coupling and radio waves get converted has come in various hands, the styles of various periods and even in into sound waves. foreign scripts, such as Arabic) but in automatic pen and ink drawing In high energy physics there is a very suggestive piece of evidence in the styles of various known artists such as Picasso, Diirer, Beardsley relating to the Ko meson, whose behaviour can be interpreted as a res• and some styles which though quite distinctive have not yet been assig• ponse to certain very weak fields. There are two particles called the Ko ned to a known artist. meson ami the anti-Ko meson which are very closely related. In fact, given So long as I continue to do automatic writing or drawing then I get time, the K- particle will convert itself into an anti-Kc particle; the one no poltergeist phenomena. But if I stop doing it then after a short while particle will convert into the other, and they will keep changing back the energy builds up and poltergeist events occur. The last few weeks and forth. The K- mesons also can be thought of mathematically as rather constitute an apparent exception because I have neglected my automatic like spinning tops or arrows or any elongated objects which can be re• writing and drawing in order to practise metal-bending for the sake of garded as "pointing" in particular directions. Now whenever a Ko particle this conference so that you might have some psychokinetic phenomena is produced il is pointing in a certain definite direction with reference to study. This seems to have the same effect as the writing; as long as I to the field and particles which generate it. An analogy is a pendulum practise it I am free from poltergeistery but if I stop the energy builds or plumb-line; in a gravitational field the plumb-line points in a particular up as before. direction - "downwards". In the same way, when a Ko meson is produced 212 * I I I I I I t * i if i i i i

by collisions from ortlinary matter as opposed to antimatter, it is pro• energy, then by the permanent magnet into the kinetic energy of motion duced, pointing, as it were, in a specified direction. Once it lias been of the coil, and finally by the speaker diaphragm into acoustic energy. produced, the meson slowly spins round and changes its orientation, In other cases a process called "symmetry breaking" causes energy to be rather like the precession of a spinning top, which is a response to the converted from one form into another. For example, when a piezo-electric earth's gravitational field. The behaviour of the K> meson in this respect crystal such as is used in crystal pickups is compressed, the elastic energy involves a response to both the weak interaction and the "supenveak is converted partially into the energy of an electric field. In an ordinary interaction" which violates CP invariance. The latter response is especial• crystal this does not happen for symmetry reasons — there is no preferred ly significant, since this very weak "field" shows its existence only in this direction for the field to point in. But in piezo-electric crystals the one system, by virtue of certain symmetry properties which it possesses. crystallization process produces a coordinated assymmetry which allows Now let me switch to another possibility. Let's assume that there are the two forms of energy to be coupled together. It is possible that certain mysterious fields about, which interact only very weakly with matter. types of psychic phenomena may involve coupling together of different Can there be circumstances in which we could observe them? Well; let's typos of energy which are normally uncoupled, by a similar process. suppose that the effect of such a field would be to exert an extremely Finally I should like to mention the topic of zero-point energy. Accor• small force on an atom, or an atomic nucleus. This force might be so ding to quantum mechanics, all objects are subject to continual vibration, small that we couldn't measure it in matter in bulk, nor in elementary even at absolute zero, and the most elementary calculation indicates that particle interactions because of the high momentum of the particles. even empty space contains an infinite amount of energy as a result. A However there is one situation in which these weak fields would have a naive interpretation of this result (and therefore not the one commonly noticeable effect. In biological systems there are objects of just the right accepted by physicists) is that empty space, like coal, nitroglycerine or form, which can act as detectors for these extremely weak fields. These plutonium, contains a very large amount of energy if we know how to objects are the enzyme molecules. Enzymes could be very sensitive to use it. While this is a tempting prospect, there is the obvious possibility influences of Various kinds, because in fact they consist of molecules of danger, and we ought to pay heed to the warnings of those whose which can change their shape very readily; thus if we had a force which interests lie on the spiritual side — not to encourage people who do not acted slightly differently on atoms of different chemical elements, e.g. know what they are doing to experiment with psychic phenomena, and carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, etc. then it could bend the enzymes. not to try to persuade gifted psychics to do anything they may have any Furthermore, we know that enzymes catalyze reactions in living cells in doubts about. a way which is extremely sensitive to their shape. Thus enzymes have just the properties that would be needed for detectors of unsuspected Dr. Owen. According to the Globe and Mail the world energy crisis types of fields. should mature in 25 years. Perhaps therefore our P.K. researches are not With regard to the existence of these weak forces that I have postula• entirely of acedemic interest, but of practical import. If we work bard ted, there seems to be no valid reason why many forces of this kind enough we may learn how to tap these ultimate energy resources in a shouldn't exist. It may be that what one is able to discover depends on manner consistent with safety. one's method of observation. Another possibility is that new kinds of I also ought to say that when be formulated his thoughts on enzymes forces can be generated in unexpected ways. This might be analogous to as possible; detectors of work fields, Professor Josephson was quite una• the way in which matter in bulk exhibits new properties distinct from ware of the research concerning the effect of healers on the activity of those of its separate components. Matter can become organized in such a enzymes. We cannot help being impressed when totally different lines way as to show special properties, and in fact have particles and inter• of thought converge in this way. actions of its own. In solid-slate physics we talk of elementary excitations, e.g. the "spin wave" which can be transmitted through a magnetic sub• Professor Douglas Dean: Molecular effects of "healers". stance. Now it may be that empty space has these properties, or alterna• I am going to describe some of the better research that has been done tively it may be the brain which is organized in such a way as to develop in that field of "psychic healing" which appears to be a kind of P.K. I an ability to transmit information within itself. would like to start with the work done by Dr. Bernard Grad at McGill This leads me to another theme — the interconversion of various kinds University in Montreal. (Grad, 1961). He is a gerontologist and endo• of energy. This is happening all the time, as for instance, in a loudspeaker crinologist interested in the science of ageing, and I think we owe him when; the energy of electric currents is converted by a coil into magnetic a debt of gratitude that on a day in 1957 or so when a healer came into ^ 215 i i i * ft ft i a » I 1 I I I t I f I

lis laboratory and told a fantastic story Dr. Grad did not send him pack- mouse. The size of the wound was measured by tracing its outline on ng as a lot of people would have done. This supposed healer was Colonel paper, curing it out and weighing the paper. In a typical experiment 16 )scar Estebany, who had come from Hungary in the uprising of 1956 control mice were untreated, 16 given heat treatment, and 16 treated by md made his way to Montreal, and this was his story. He was a Colonel Mr. Estebany. The table shows the numbers almost fully healed at var• >f the Hungarian army in a cavalry unit. He would get military orders ious stages. hat would require him to ride very long distances, much more than one Days from Control Heat Estebany lorse could go; so he would arrange for a second fresh horse to carry Wounding. in after the first horse was too tired to continue. As you might expect, 1 0 0 0 Dne day the second horse was not there. Yet the first horse was worn out and he had his military orders to carry out. Intuitively he got down off 14 0 0 14 his horse and knelt in front of it and stroked the forepaws, gentling we This single experiment is already statistically highly significant. would call it, and it seemed evident that the horse liked this, seemed to When Dr. Grad brought these results in 1960 to Dr. Osis and myself be revived, and after 15 minutes he got back up in the saddle and rode at the Parapsychology Foundation in New York we didn't believe him; on and completed his military orders. Being an officer in the army he had that was the mood of the time. We suggested that the healing agent platoons of men on horseback, and one day when their horses were all was sweat from Mr. Estebany's hands. But Dr. Grad, and also Dr. worn out he ordered all his men to get off their horses and stroke the Cadoret at the University of Manitoba, successfully repeated the experi• forepaws and then get back up in the saddle and ride on, but they ment with paper bags around the cages. couldn't. Dr. Grad then tested Mr. Estebany with barley seeds which were He found out in this way that he had something in his hands which watered with salt solution — the one per cent normal saline as used in his men did not seem to have. He discovered also that when laying hands hospitals. The seeds were separated into two groups, those watered with on members of his family their pains seemed to go away. He found out untreated and treated saline. The latter was "treated" in the sense that that if he put his hands round a bottle of water the power passed into the before it was used Mr. Estebany held the bottle containing it in his hands water and the member of the family could drink the water and the pain for a specified period of time. The experiment was first done informally would go away, or also he could pass his hands around a wad of cotton and then using a strict double blind procedure. Strangely enough each wool and the power would go into the cotton wool; he could package experiment showed that the plants watered with treated saline were, to this up and send it through the mail to distant relatives. They would a statistically significant degree, the more rapidly growing ones. Dr. Grad strap it to their backs, go to bed, and if they had a backache the back• then decided he must compare the physical characteristics of the treated ache was supposed to have gone in 10 minutes. Well, he could under• and untreated saline, so by means of a Beckman DK-2 spectrophotometer stand if Dr. Grad had said, "Don't waste my time, get out of here"; but he determined their transmission spectra. No differences in transmission Dr. Grad is not like that and I'm so thankful. One of the experiments and absorption were found for the range 400 to 2800 millimicrons, but Dr. Grad had been doing was with mice growing goiters, which is a in a particular portion 2800 to 3000 millimicrons of the infra-red, the disease of an enlarged thyroid, and he wondered if Mr. Estebany put treated solution showed lower transmission than did the untreated. Dr. his hands around the goiter could he slow up its growth, thereby indica• Grad (1964) reported this result rather cautiously as he was uncertain ting healing. When you try laying hands on mice you get into an im• of the reliability of the spectrophotometer in this range. mediate problem because the mouse runs away, so they had to make a However, I brooded on this incredible result for nearly four years; little box and put the mouse in each cell and cover it over with some then I telephoned Dr. Grad and asked him for three bottles of treated wires and Mr. Estebany would hold his hands over for about 15 minutes. water and three of untreated, which I took to a woman chemist in a In a typical experiment after three weeks the mean increase in thyroid famous pharmaceutical company in New Jersey. She had just won an weight was 6.7 mg. for treated mice as opposed to 9.8 mg. in untreated award for work on atomic spectra, and was kind enough to test the water ones. Next, Dr. Grad wondered if it would be sufficient for Mr. Estebany with her own spectrophotometer. I should stress that I did not know which merely to handle the cuttings that were put into the mouse's cage. These of the coded labels, A to F, referred to treated water, so that the experi• experiments in fact gave a similar result, e.g. 5.5 mg. increase for treated ment was genuinely double blind. Well: she got the same divergence as\>y mice as compared with 7.1 for the untreated controls. Another experiment Dr. Grad did in the range 2800 to 3000 millimicrons. Then the transmis-^1 "f Dr. Grads involved cutting a little piece of skin off the back of a sion curves coincided from 3000 to 3600 where some divergence was ft I I 1 1 t It

found. Thereafter they coincided up to 10,000 millimicrons except for a striking. The treated trypsin showed an increase in activity of about the divergence in the neighbourhood of 4400. Another laboratory in New same magnitude as would have been produced by exposing it to 13,000 Jersey obtained a very similar result. gauss. Naturally Sister Justa tested Mr. Estebany to see if be was genera• The chemists know what these divergences mean. Water is 110, two ting an intense magnetic field near his hands. But measurements with hydrogen atoms and one- oxygen. The three atoms are not in a straight delicate magnetometers showed that he had no magnetism. The force or line. Instead the two hydrogens subtend an angle of about 105° at the field by which Mr. Estebany infleunccs water or enzymes is therefore not oxygon atom. The chemists know this angle to remarkable accuracy, and the ordinary magnetic field. also have a very precise value for tho intornuclear distance between the More recently Dr. Smith (1972) has tested the effects of seven other oxygen and a water atom. Now the deviation from the normal transmis• healers on trypsin and acetyl cbolinesterase, a brain enzyme. This repe• sion curve for water means that the intornuclear distance has been al• tition was very important as it confirmed her earlier results with Estebany. tered — probably increased. Also possibly the molecule has boon further Also it showed that the different enzymes responded differently to the ionized so that it acquires a larger charge at one end. If so, tho elongation individual healers, and "mental" healing can occur. of the intornuclear distance will also alter the dipole moment of the mole• I now should mention an experiment by Dr. Schonebcrg Setzer who cule. Thus it seems that Mr. Estebany alters cither the ionic or the dipole grew radishes with ordinary water and with water that had spent time properties of some of the water molecules. in church sanctuaries during Sunday service. It was found that water Dr. Dolores Kriegor, who teaches nursing at New York University, that had been sanctified in this way grew larger radishes than the purely did some experiments in which Mr. Estebany treated 19 patients by secular water on one Sunday, but inferior radishes the next Sunday. In laying-on of bands for 15 minutes, morning afternoon and evening, for 6 fact repetitions showed a 14 day cycle which is approximately the semi• days. The patients showed an average rise in the haemoglobin level of lunar period, so this may be a lunar effect rather than a consequence of 1.2 gm. per 100 cc. of blood. The level did not increase over the 6-day having been in church in the presence of a congregation. However, ir• period in a control group of 9 patients untreated by Mr. Estebany. Dr. respective of how it ought to be interpreted the effect itself seems to be Krieger is now testing 40 nurses to see if any of them have the same ability genuine, because another series of experiments was done by a leading as Mr. Estebany. This experiment also gave significant results. spectroscopist at a major chemical company in the United States. He Dr. Justa M. Smith, O.S.F., Chairman of Biology and Biochemistry measured the concentration of hydroxyl ions and the amount of hydrogen at Rosary Hill College, Buffalo, N.Y. decided to investigate the effects bonding in the two kinds of water and found the same kind of 14 day produced by Mr. Estebany on enzymes in vitro (Rindge, 1968). Dr. Smith oscillation; in fact at Sundays near the full moon there was a decrease was well qualified for this research because she was awarded her doc• of hydrogen bonding compared with regular water, but at Sundays near torate a few years ago for demonstrating that the activity of enzymes the new moon the hydrogen bonding was in excess. Perhaps therefore could be modified by magnetic fields (Cook and Smith, 1964). Enzymes this work initiated by Setzer falls into the category of subtle astrophysical are proteins which act as catalysts in the body which has some 2000 effects, several of which I believe have been demonstrated in recent years. different ones. Each enzyme increases the rate of some particular bio• Even so, it has some relevance to our topic — psychokinetic forces exercised chemical reaction. Dr. Smith, in her doctoral work, showed that if a by humans — because it suggests that very subtle and weak forces can test-tube containing a solution of trypsin (one of the enzymes that aids have chemical effects. Also the use of physical methods like spectroscopy in the digestion of food) is placed in a magnetic field, e.g. 13,000 gauss make for more reliability than merely biological measurements or studies (which is very strong — that of tho earth is only about 0.5 of a gauss), of growth as well as, perhaps, giving more insight into the precise nature then the activity of the tryspin is increased to a significant degree. Now of the effect produced. Dr. Smith is one of those biochemists who believe that if anyone is ill Returning to the question as to what is special in the case of Mr. Este- it is due to a malfunctioning of one of their enzyme systems. Therefore bany's hands, and those of other healers, let me record my own opinion. she reasoned that if a healer is effective it is because he increases the I think that healing hands emanate some kind of force while the healer activity of one or more of the patient's enzymes. Dr. Smith therefore in• is healing and that the especially large flares and coronas which occur in vited Mr. Estebany to Buffalo for laboratory measurements in which the the Kirlian photographs of the finger tips of healers demonstrate this. activities of untreated solutions of trypsin was compared with that of solu• (Professor Dean concluded his address with a display of Kirlian photo• tions in tubes which lie had bold in his bands for 75 minutes. One series graphs including those of healers such as Krivorotoff in Russia and Mrs. of experiments showed no effect, but the result of another series was very de Loach in New Jersey).

9.19 * ft ft I I I I I I I 1 1 - • I I I I I

The peculiar thing is this: quantum mechanics doesn't say what the system is like now. Quantum mechanics says something quite different; it says what you'll observe if you make an observation on the system. Quantum mechanics gives a prescription for making observations. First you must decide just which feature you are going to observe. For exam• ple, if the system consists of a particle (e.g. an electron) you can select the position of the particle as the observable or the velocity of the particle as the observable but not both. If, for example, you choose to observe the position of the particle you will set up your observing apparatus accord• ingly. Quantum mechanics tells us that however you set up the apparatus and make the observation your results will be of limited value, as they will have a kind of built-in uncertainty. For instance, if you want to locate the particle you have to inspect it by shining light on it. But light exerts pressure, and in bouncing off the particle it will change the par• Professor Brian Josephson: Possible connections between psychic pheno• ticle's velocity in an unpredictable way. Consequently the knowledge you mena and quantum mechanics have acquired of the particle's position is not much use for prognostica• The view of the world presented by quantum mechanics seems to be ting its future position because you will not know how fast it is moving, unsatisfactory to anyone who thinks hard about it, though most physicists or even in which direction. tend to suppress their uneasiness and to say "Well, it works!" However, The essence of quantum mechanics seems to be the inherent limitation there may be a connection between psychic phenomena and the difficul• in observing nature and thus in acquiring full information about it. How• ties inherent in the quantum mechanical world-view. In classical phy• ever, this limitation itself may be just a reflection of the kinds of obser• sics — the world-view that prevailed until the nineteen-twenties — the vation we can make. Maybe the physical description of the world would world is just a group of interacting particles. In principle you know where change radically if we could observe more things. all these particles are and how they are moving. You have equations Another point which most physicists don't seem to think about is the of motion which allow you to predict where every particle will be at any fact that quantum mechanics itself does not legislate as to which quantity future time. In the classical theory there's no doubt as to what reality is, your apparatus will be set up to observe. This is a decision of the obser• and reality is the same for everybody — it's all the particles in their known ver — whether for instance, to look at the position or the velocity of an positions. In quantum mechanics, however, it's not clear exactly what electron. It seems that you just decide yourself which feature to look at. reality is. Now I am not at all sure that I can say anything significant as Perhaps there is a psychological element here which has to be specified, to what reality is, but I can speak about quantum mechanics and how it if we are to get a complete picture of the universe. The physicist says to is formulated. himself, "Well, I know that if I set up such and such an apparatus, then Quantum mechanics involves a somewhat mysterious mathematical I shall be observing the position and not the velocity of this particle". He quality called the wave function ^, which has only a rather indirect phy• doesn't normally deduce from a theory just which particular kind of ob• sical significance. It is something one uses in order to obtain physically servation he will be making. All that quantum theory provides is pre• meaningful statements. Provided one is not observing the system, the dictions of what will happen when he carries out the type of observation wave function ^ changes at a rate given by kH\^, where k is 2w/i7i and that he chooses to make. The wave function ^ doesn't describe the whole h is Planck's constant, while H is the so-called "Hamiltonian" of the sys• world, only the system itself, and the apparatus that observes it but does tem. The Hamiltonian is related to the energy, and it is this function (or not include the observer as a conscious being. Thus the wave function "operator") which actually determines how the mysterious wave function cannot lead to any prediction as to what the observer will choose to do. 4> evolves. All this is just a problem in mathematics, deducing from this The wavefunction, it seems, cannot control the observer's intention. equation what the value of ^ becomes. The really interesting question is We may ask therefore whether the observer's intentions can influence the not a mathematical one; rather it is, — how does one get from this very outcome of an experiment. Quantum mechanics only tells us the proba• obscure description of the system to a knowledge of how the system bility distribution of observed values of physical quantities. If the obser• actually behaves? ver was emotionally involved in the outcome of the experiment and

/V/"» 4 JU 225 t f i E L l (

particularly wanted one result to come out rather than another, perhaps Another obvious question is whether ESP is not mediated by P.K.? On that would shift this probability distribution. Physicists normally have a crude view we could hypothesize that telepathy occurs when a thought a degree of detachment and probably wouldn't inlluence the results of in my mind causes (by P.K.) a (low of electricity in your brain. On this experiments in just that way (if they did. they would end up in some view, of course, the percipient is passive- in ESP. but it is by no means other job). They might, however, have an influence in causing the ex• obvious that this is so. This is brought out in Dr. Osis" paper which also perimentally determined probability distribution to come out just as they deals with other puzzling aspects of ESP - its relative indifference to expected it ought to be. distance, and its fantastic selectivity - topics on which Dr. Osis' re• Currently in physics there's the strange phenomenon that the laws of searches have made him the recognized authority (Osis 1965, Osis ct al. nature seem to keep on changing. New symmetry violations are being 1968, 1971, Owen 1973). Dr. Tanous is actually one of the subjects with discovered, the velocity of light is found to bo different from what people whom Dr. Osis has lately been working to elucidate the real meaning of thought it was, and so on. An odd thing, which may or may not bo sig• travelling clairvoyance, and what he has to say is of keen interest. nificant, is that sometimes when a now observation is made different Professor Persinger will expound a theory of telepathy which many people got different results. In one instance a particular symmetry was of us will feel is one of startling novelty. It has the groat merit of working broken on one side- of the Atlantic, but not on the other; however, after entirely in terms of known physical principles. It is extremely important a while everyone got the same results. The conventional explanation that although it postulates that telepathy is in actual fact "mental radio" would be that errors were being made on one side of the ocean, but there is in this' theory almost no falling-off with distance, at least for conceivably the true explanation is that the discrepant results were telepathy between terrestial locations. genuine, and that it was the process of communication of knowledge from one side of the Atlantic to the other which caused a kind of phase transition or ordering process, as a result of which identical results were subsequently found in both places. One might speculate that perhaps one can control not only the state of the system but the Hamiltonian itself. That is to say, perhaps one can modify the laws of nature. This may be the way in which psychic phenomena take place. One could make a force to act on something merely by modifying the Hamiltonian so that the object bad more energy in one position than another. Psychic phenomena might thus be connected with altering the Hamiltonian which determines the equations of motion in a system. Perhaps also some kinds of psychic phenomena can be considered as establishing a coupling energy between oneself and the thing one wants to influence.

6. The Nature of ESP. By uay of introduction Dr. On en said:

Parapsychologists fool that in some wax' extrasensory perception, E.S.P., is related to psychokinesis, P.K. There are logical reasons for tin's. Often the persons who manifest P.K. abilities also, it seems, possess or acquire skill in ESP. Examples are "George", Uri Geller, and Matthew Manning. Also in poltergeistery the P.K. poison appears sometimes to exorcise a fine control over tho movement of objects that are out of his direct view. This suggests a degree of clairvoyance. In the Philip situation, group members got tho impression that it is through a form of telepathy that their individual intentions are harmonised and their individual contribu• tions to the P.K. force become svnelironous.

007 I I I I I I I I L

door to the shielded room failed to elose properly but the response was there with the object. It is difficult to find a method for researching the neither enhanced nor diminished. Following on a discussion with Profes• "reach of the mind" model or the Ma Bell model so as to distinguish sor Persinger I could suggest that some insight into this might be obtained them from each other, or from other alternatives, but lately we have been if some benefactor would provide a 10 Hz. ELF generator suitable for investigating OOB claims. The problem is, if one has something out some jamming experiments or even, for enhancing the telepathic AER. there, away from the body — a mind, soul, monad, how does one catch it? Well, we proceeded by stages. First we selected the small number of Dr. Karlis Osis: Rival models for ESP. people out of many tested who were able to describe accurately the ob• jects and events in my room at the ASPR at times when they were in Let me say that I'm glad to be here. You have something very very other cities. pleasant in Toronto. There is so much that is unusual - you seem to have We then found that some of these percipients tended to organize the the gift of going your own way without being brainwashed into confor• information as if they were actually in the room looking from one definite mity. Where do you get these beautiful people who do these beautiful viewpoint. We followed this up by making a special optical device. If things? They are so stimulating. I love to be with the Foundation where one could put one's eye at a certain point one would see four quadrants one certainly gets the feeling of looking at a new horizon. each coloured differently. On one quadrant there would be a picture. For some years I have carried out experiments in which from the ASPR The point is that part of this complex image is an optical illusion which we send out people all over the world with picture cards in their pockets does not actually exist. The whole figure can only be seen from the in order to test the effect of distance on ESP. What is impressive is the appropriate point. Hence, this provides a means of testing whether the immense selectivity of the process. How does the percipient "locate" the percipient is organizing his perception from that particular location or agent, or "tune-in" on him? It is like seeking the needle in a pretty big viewpoint. In a typical experiment the percipient is in a soundproof room haystack - the area of the earth is about 200 million square miles. It on the other side of the ASPR building. He puts himself into what, sub• seems in our experience to be unimportant how much or how little infor• jectively at least, is an OOB state. When he returns he describes what mation is given the percipient about the agent's whereabouts. Also the he has perceived. percipient need not know the agent personally. We find that there are From time to time we have set up physical detection devices to see if many equally effective ways of forging a link between agent and percip• they could be triggered by persons out of the body. Only one subject (Pat ient, e.g. by the percipient's handkerchief, or a photograph of him, or Price) has on a few occasions caused the apparatus to register. This per• merely a physical description. Similarly we are able to get clairvoyance cipient "flew into" the box (subjectively at least) and it so happened that over vast distances with no agent at all. Whether telepathy or clairvoyan• the recorder went wild as if something had disturbed the electric field ce, none of this seems to fit any kind of radiation hypothesis, in which the inside the box. perceived object sends out an energy which the percipient passively We have studied the EEG in OOB persons in the hope of discovering receives. If, for example, a percipient in New York is trying to percieve if there is any modification of the brainwaves at the time that the percip• an object in Australia, one of a number of objects which, by hypothesis, ient is (subjectively at least) going out of his body. All we got was some are giving out radiation, how can the signal from the target possibly be flattening of the peaks, i.e. lower average voltages, and increased Beta unscrambled? frequency with less Alpha. This is interesting, but of course, the same Indeed several other models have to be suggested. Thus Dr. Rhine patterns can be got by asking the subject to do any of several mental conjectures that the percipient somehow reaches out to the object and tasks such as holding a particular image in the consciousness. brings the information back. Another hypothesis, associated with the We have also compared the EEG patterns of subjects when high names of distinguished people like Myers, Tyrell and Whatlcy Carrington, scoring and low scoring for OOB perception and found no difference. suggests that there exists a mind greater than ours. Could it he a kind of To conclude I might say that we find that only a very very few indi• cosmic Ma Bell connected as if by a universal telephone system to an viduals can produce consistently high scores when in their OOB state. object, or to an agent, or to a percipient? Another model is suggested by the "out-of-the-body experiences" or OOB's as we call them A sur• Dr. Alex Tanous: Out-of-the-body experiences. prising number of people feel that under suitable conditions they can My OOB experiences seem quite normal to me because they have been "be" in one place while their body remains in another. Rather than scan• occuring since childhood. When I was about seven years old I began to* ning or sensing and organizing a perception, they feel as if they were find myself in places which I didn't recognise. The form of the experience I E I I 1 If t II II I l i | i

has not changed. I seem to myself to have become a very small point When one talks about energy exchanges with Psi phenomena I have of light, my body seems to be no longer there, but the whole universe to stop and note the fact that, so far as we know, there is no biogenic seems to have opened up to me. This is the state I enter when doing the energy that can travel from the body to such unusual distances as occur experiments in OOB at the ASPR with Dr. Osis, of the kind he has des• in telepathic behaviour. Consequently, assuming the phenomena are cribed. The observers say that I can speak through the whole experiment, real, the energy involved with ostensible telepathic events must be com• and describe what is going on, and what targets I see inside Dr. Osis' ing from somewhere else. Our first invstigation indicated that perhaps apparatus. I myself declare when (subjectively at least) I have left the this energy is coming from the environment. body and the little ball of light which I seem to be is at its brightest. The earth is a charged sphere surrounded by the ionosphere, which At that moment I name the target which I see. is a layer full of ions and charged particles, commencing at about 50 An experiment was set up at another laboratory in New York to detect miles above the earth's surface. Essentially the earth-ionosphere con• my presence physically when travelling OOB. A light-sensing device struction is similar to a spherical condenser. The region between the was chosen as possibly appropriate to my case in view both of my sub• ionosphere and the earth's surface thus constitutes a spherical wave• jective experience and of my experiments in projection of light which I guide within which certain electromagnetic frequencies can propagate shall be describing later. A number of photomultipliers were set up in a with small attenuation. totally black darkroom, which contained a totally black chair on which These "Schumann waves" are extremely/low frequency (ELF); the were placed two target objects, whose nature was unknown to me. I was fundamental frequency is about l)i Hz. (i.e. 7Jj cycles per second), but in a small room in another part of the building. Simultaneously with my significant harmonics (e.g. 14.5 Hz) do exist. A feature of the Schumann entering the darkroom OOB and describing my experience, the photo- resonance is that the frequencies within the spherical wave guide can multipliers recorded five or six bursts of activity well above the average propagate round the earth at least once without appreciable attenuation. level for a perfectly dark room. This is an interesting property because we know that telepathic behaviour Attempts at photographing me (i.e. my actual physical body), have seems to involve great distances. These Schumann resonance waves also produced some strange results. Thus, Leonard Barcus photographed me have tremendous penetrability. It is almost impossible to shield them out; on a couch by candlelight at the ASPR. The first three pictures showed the ordinary shielded room, such as is used in most electrophysiological the candle, the couch and myself. But in the fourth picture there was work, is very likely to be inadequate. In Germany, where much of the only the candle, and in the fifth and sixth pictures there was nothing, as ELF research has been done, it is found that in order to shield out more in Ted Serios' "blackies". These were all on polaroid. What made it more than 95% of ELF one needs an underground bunker surrounded by seve• striking was that Anne Johnson, who was also present, got exactly the ral inches of steel. This constitutes a second parallel with psychic pheno• same results with infra-red photographs. On another occasion when mena because we know that many psychic experiences occur inside Joseph Goodavage was interviewing me, he took numerous polaroid buildings. A third characteristic of these natural frequencies, perhaps photographs all of which failed to develop. Similarly when a television the most important one, is that, although they show diurnal and seasonal company brought cameras my voice was recorded but no picture. Even variations, none the less they occur all the time. Detailed description of the monitors were blank. the physical and biological properties of ELF fields can be found in a recent text (Persinger, 1974a). Professor Michael Persinger: ELF waves and ESP. Another feature of ELF waves is their time variation within biofrequen- In the Psychophysiology Laboratory at Laurentian University our pri• cy regions. In other words if we consider the brain as a generator of mary goal is not only to understand how parapsychological experiences time varying electrical potentials (i.e. the cortical voltage measured in take place, but to predict and control them. Thus we would like specifi• the EEG) we find that a proper maximum is developed at frequencies cally in experimental situations to control what (tentatively) has been near 10 Hz. In fact, most of the electrical processes taking place in the called telepathic behaviour, and also understand and replicate so-called brain, e.g. memory, occur at frequencies in this band. As mentioned, the P.K. events. Today I shall discuss two experimental models which are ELF waves exemplify an energy which can be transmitted over long quite testable and which seem to emphasize the importance of the en• distances and through substantial material barriers. It should be now vironment in parapsychological experiences. I myself am trained as a clear that they are at the same frequency as the basic electrical processes psychologist and psysiologist, but in graduate school my outside concen• occuring in the brain. Calculations by my German colleagues show that tration was geophysics. if indeed the cortical voltage in the brain is oscillating at 8 Hz., and if 9T* ft K- - 1 i 1 | E E E i I I I 1 I I 1 I

there is an electromagnetic field in the environment also vibrating at 8 amount of energy available in earth's spherical waveguide, so that a Hz., then energy interaction can take place. considerable energy contribution is potentially available from the environ• This model is very testable because a number of things can be pre• ment. Another interesting speculation concerns the harmonic frequencies dicted from it. For example, a significant number of nocturnal ELF of the ELF. Although the major fundamental frequency of the Schumann fields propagate more between midnight and 4 a.m. than at other times. resonance is only 7 to 8 Hz., it has a second harmonic which peaks at Also they have a geographical preference; e.g. it is easier to transmit at about 14.5 Hz. According to the present theory individuals who have ELF field west to east than east to west. Furthermore, propagation of brain energy output peaking at both 7.8 and 14.5 Hz. should be the ones these ELF waves is heavily dependent on the local magnetic field. We with exceptional P.K. powers. Interestingly enough, some of the Soviet can imagine lines of magnetic force coming out of the earth; ELF fields literature indicates that when the Soviet medium is causing objects to follow these lines. Just as the U.S. missile called the "Sidewinder" could move, then there is an increase in that activity (i.e. 3-7 Hz)". One could follow a jet beat trail, so do the ELF fields use the magnetic flux lines as argue that the energy is coming from within the medium. Alternatively, guides and transmission ducts. Consequently, if you disturb the static we suggest that there is a resonance taking place between her brain and magnetic field of the earth you would modify the propagation of these the ambient ELF fields. waves. Of course there are various features which are not clear from the Now, we collected accounts of cases of telepathy and clairvoyance model. How is the energy focussed on the object which is moved? Also, from various sources — the Journal of the American Society for Physical why can't we all harness the Schumann ELF waves? Well, for one reason, Research, as well as from some popular magazines, and plotted their most people have their alpha power peak around 10-12 Hz. However, occurence distribution as a function of the hour and the day. It appears certain people with thyroid problems and also certain kinds of psychotic that they have a tendency to peak roughly between midnight and 4 a.m. patients have a different distribution of cortical energy output. It may This is what one would predict from the ELF model. We find also that be these individuals who are most liable to have telepathic, clairvoyant, there is a greater tendency for the putative agent in telepathy cases to or P.K. experiences. be west of the percipient rather than to the east. This is, in fact, statis• Now the model is very testable. For example, we can actually put ELF tically significant, but we are aware that this is only a pilot study, and energy into the brain. We have done this at Laurentian University and we plan to replicate it. Similarly the number of cases as a function of the data are promising. Wc take a putative agent and get him to look at distance between the putative agent and the putative percipient falls off an object. Meanwhile we detect his cortical voltage with an EEG appara• in the same order of magnitude as you would expect if an ELF field was tus and feed it through an amplifier. The amplified EEG which is now of involved with telepathy. According to the ELF model, if there is an the order of 10 volts is then applied to large flat metal plates. A "per• interference with the propagation of ELF waves around the earth, then cipient" is seated between the plates and is exposed to an electrical field there should be a decrease in the number of "ESP" reports. This is indeed which is a "replica" of the brain potentials of the agent. what we find. There is a significant negative correlation (r=— 0.68) One last similarity between ELF waves and the natural electrical between the number of telepathy-clairvoyance reports and the U index activity of the brain is worth comment. The magnetic component of the which is a measure of the amount of geomagnetic disturbance throughout brain's field is of the order of a millionth of an oersted, which is very the world. When there is a geomagnetic disturbance the magnetic flux small compared to that of the earth, (about % an oersted), but just the lines all over the earth's surface are shaken about and the propagation same order of magnitude as that of the ELF field. The amount of energy of ELF waves is impaired. Thus we have found a number of interesting in the ELF field is, of course, very small. However, Professor Frank parallels between telepathy and ELF propagation which suggest that Brown, at Northwestern University, has shown that living organisms arc ELF fields produced in nature, vibrating at the same frequency as elec• sensitive to minute differences in the geomagnetic field though apparent• trical activity in the brain, may be involved in the production of ESP ly the functioning of their nervous systems is unaffected by more powerful experiences. electric or magnetic fields. More detailed information on this model can But, what of P.K.? Well, if indeed the environment can be tapped for be found in a recent book on this subject (Persinger, 1974b). ELF, then an energy exchange will result. We have made some calcula• tions which indicate that if a person had some peculiarity in his brain so that its power peaked at 7.8 Hz. then he would have the possibility of absorbing ELF energy, and using it in his body. Now there is a great "C.f. page 193, this Journal, and Whitton (1974). 235 DOWSING, RADIESTHESIA AND PSYCHOMETRY.

"Dowsing" - also called "water-divining" or "well-witching" is a mysterious art, scoffed at "by some, hut fully believed by many practically minded persons. The practice of dowsing certainly goes back to very ancient times i a Chinese engraving of 14? A.D. shows the Emperor Yu holding a forked divining rod. In both of the founder nations of Canada the tradition was strong. Even today in the drier parts of England, such as East Anglia, it is common practice to call in a "water diviner" to find a good place to drill if one wan];s to sink a well. In Old Prance for centuries the village Abbe's and Curb's had paced their parishioners fields with rods and pendulums, divining for water. The practice of well-witching has been widespread in Canada. E.L. Marsh, the historian of Grey County, Ontario, says that in those parts the assistance of a dowser was regarded as the surest way of finding water, and indeed if you talk to the modern "cottager" we find that it is still the most popular and used method of finding the best place to dig a well. The accuracy of the divining rod in finding water has been proved over and over again. Carrying a forked branch of witch hazel, or willow, or in modern times a bent wire coat hanger, the water witch walks slowly over the ground. If water is present the point of the stick turns towards the ground despite all efforts to hold it firmly. In a very high percentage of cases the prediction is completely accurate. To add to the mystery some diviners are not only able to predict the location of the water, but to state at what precise depth the water can be found. This is particularly valuable in dry areas, as it is possible to sink a well at the most shallow point, thus saving costs.

The method of divining is traditional. The dowser cuts a forked twig freshly from a hazel or willow tree - or, as mentioned, in modern times uses a bent wire coat hanger, or two pieces of plastic rod tied together. Usually the dowser pulls the ends apart into a V shape* He clasps the ends in his hands so that the rod is horizontal, and the ends which he is holding are then nearly at right angles to the direction that the V is pointing (straight ahead of the dowser). Thus the two branches of the rod are both very much under tension and the rod is therefore rather unstable. The theory of dowsing is that when he is over water the dowser receives a kind of signal from the rod. Usually he is not consciously aware of this signal, but in some mysterious fashion i$ is transmitted through his nervous system into the muscles of his armsf, and wrists. As a result his wrists make a slight involuntary movement. This is enough to upset the delicate balance of the highly stressed rod which therefore suddenly "flips" either downwards or upwards. This method is the most common way of holding the forked rod, however individual dowsers may hold it in a different toaray, and each dowser seems to have not only his own method, but his own theory as to how it works.

Whether or not dowsing can be said actually to "work" the theory of dowsing is very interesting. As we have said, it is assumed that the water transmits some kind of signal to the dowser, who is not consciously aware of it. However the signal in some mysterious way induces a muscular reaction. It may be noted that the reception of an unconsciously perceived signal that is translated into a muscular reflex, is closely parallel to some ideas that have been put forward regarding psychic impressions. Psychic impressions, it would seem, are sometimes received unconsciously and fail to register in the mind as a consciously perceived message, but instead force themselves into consciousness in a disguised form, e.g. as a "hu*ch '! We shall return to this theme later.

Dowsers differ amiably among themselves as to how dowsing works. Some believe there is a physical field emitted by water, especially running water, and it is this field or radiation to which the dowser is sensitive. Many students of dowsing have believed that the field in question is related to magnetism, (i.e. magnetism of the ordinary, everyday kind, not "animal magnetism"). Interestingly enough, some dowsers claim to be sensitive to the earth's magnetism and to be able to map out the earth's magnetic field. Others believe that there is a radiation field given out by water and that dowsers are sensitive to it, but that it is not electricity or magnetism,' some writers call it the "radiesthetic field".

Before pursuing this point, however, we should note that successful dowsing is by no means confined to finding water. There are a host of other objects that can be found by using the methods described above. And these are as well documented and proven as is "water witching". Among the more practical uses of dowsing is that of finding lost underground pipes and cables. Under our modern cities lie mazes of underground pipes and cables carrying all the means to provide mankind with lighting, heating, sewage disposal, etc. It is not surprising that locations of some of these pipes get lost from time to time, but what is suprising is that the modern utility companies employ dowsers to find and retrieve their lost cables. To quote specifically, Ontario Hydro keeps a number of diviners on their payroll for this specific purpose. In England the gas companies keep them employed for the purpose of finding and identifying lost and old gas pipes. The American Army authorities not only trained its personnel to use divining rods to locate buried anti-personnal mines in Vietnam, but also employed people to dowse for underground tunnels. A selected number of dowsers make a comfortable living dowsing for oil, on a commission basis, and again in Canada, many dowsers have successfully sought minerals of many kinds. An "offshoot" of this type of dowsing is what is known as "archaeological" dowsing where some dowsers seem to have the ability to find old burial sites and archaeological objects by use of the forked twig. We have a report of a student who was employed as a grave-digger in Streetsville in 1973 (as a summer job). He was taught by an old grave-digger on the site to test for unmarked burial sites by use of the divining rod. The cemetery was an old one, and many old graves were unmarked. It was embarrassing and wasteful for the grave-digger to dig a new grave and find the site already occupied. So the old grave-digger had found his own method - which worked - of discovering which graves were already occupied. We had a similar experience in Peru in the early 1970's. We had been invited out to the desert area some kO miles north of Lima, to accompany an archaeologist - and seeker after buried pots and artefacts - on a 'dig*. On the way he called at a local Indian village, and picked up a local 'diviner' known as the 'professor' for his abilities. We went into a vast desert area, literally covered with old bones and skulls. This had been a burial place many hundreds of years previously, and the graves had been systematically robbed ever since. It was all one vast sand tract, the graves were in no way identifiable. The 'professor' walked the area carrying one long thin metal rod, looking for a grave that had not been previously dug. (The habit was to refill graves that had been robbed). Our 'professor' after strolling around with his rod for some time, stuck it in a certain spot and amounced that here we would find a grave containing metal, pottery, and jewellery. Our team of diggers got to work, and after several hours (and consuming a few pints of beer) they had dug down to a depth of about 20 feet, where they found the bones of a young girl. Buried with her was a necklace of beads, one or two small pots, and a ''toyla copper rattle. We kept the rattle, and one pot, our friend kept the necklace and the other pots. The grave did not yield the type of valuable large ornate pot that our archaeological friend had hoped for, but the diviner was entirely accurate in his estimation of the kind of materials that were found.

As we have said the traditional "tool" of the dowser is a 'divining rod' of some kind, made of bent twigs or metal or plastic. But some diviners use another method of detection. They use a pendulum to detect the object of their search. Before starting to work they mentally "tell" themselves that if the pendulum rotates the answer to their question is "yes" or if it swings from side to side, the answer is "No" — or vice versa — the decision is their own as to the behaviour of the pendulum. This adds a psychological factor to the exercise. It implies that the response to the pendulum is somehow conveyed to the brain, and that then in a subconscious or unconscious manner by sublimimal movement the brain causes the pendulum to move in the prescribed manner. It is generally believed that the movement of the pendulum, and also that of the rods, is caused by minute subconscious movements of the person performing the operation. Pendulum dowsing is quite popular, and equally effective as rod dowsing — it is merely a question 8s to which method the operator feels most comfortable using. Some successful dowsers are capable of even more extraordinary feats - they can 'map dowse' - swinging a pendulum over a map, and asking themselves questions, and using the pendulum they can locate the objects of their search on the map - we have seen it done over a telephone some hundreds of miles away from the place being dowsed. Many of these dowsers believe that there is a strong 'psychic' ability involved, and that they know intuitively where to find the water, oil, minerals, etc. and that the rod or pendulum is merely a 'crutch' to help them focus their attention and subconscious ability.

An extension of this kind of ability is in the practice of radiesthesia, using an apparatus such as the De La Warr machine. (Again, this machine is just a crutch -- in spite of its fancy box full of dials and machinery, it is a fake, with no real working parts). But the dowser uses it to focus the subconscious mind on the task in hand. The De La Warr machine has been extensively used in the diagnosis of illness. A piece of paper containing a blood sample, a hair, or some other such similar artifact is placed on the machine, and the operator turns knobs and dials in order to get a response on the pad, on which his fingers are placed.

So what evidence is there that fields exist of which we as yet know little? What experiments can be done? We have reports of some interesting experiments having been carried out in the area of mechanical dowsing . If the movement of the rods in a dowser's hands are simply due to the pull of a force underground when water, oil, minerals, etc. are present, then is a human being needed to hold the rods? Experiments using the rods in a purely mechanical fashion have been devised and carried out, and some degree of success has been claimed. We ourselves on. one occasion attempted this experiment, but with little result. Perhaps the reason was because there are so many pipes (sewage, water, gas, electricity) under a modern city street. As already mentioned we also did experiments to ascertain whether humans can detect weak magnetic fields. Of course if such forces exist, we do not know their nature, we can only guess. Perhaps such a force is neither electric nor magnetic. 1 t t. 1 i i t i I i i i i i | i

86 Science of PSI Modalities of Psi 87

Pure Psychokinesis of die subject affecting the present random event, although the In PK tests with randomly moving objects such as dice, a fav• latter seems more likely. This is because a past event could not orable die face could be selected as the target by precognizing logically be affected by a present act, as the past event has already which face most of the dice will have uppermost when they come been determined. This objection, however, does not apply to a to rest (Mundle, 1950). The significant results would be due to future act affecting a present event, as the latter is undetermined precognition rather than to PK. Even in the around-the-die until the moment of its occurrence. As Schmidt recognized, the method of target selection, where each face of the die is used as significant results could also be accounted for by the experi• the target an equal number of times, a favorable precognitive selec• menter's use of contemporaneous PK to influence the random- tion could be made as to how many times each face would be used event generator at the time it was producing the signals. as the target before continuing to the next target face (Nash, 1951). The results obtained with a random-event generator could Pre-Psychokinesis also be attributed to precognition as well as to PK (Schmidt, Pre-psychokinesis consists of a present volition paranormally 1970a). Since the sequence of generated events depends on the affecting a future event. To illustrate, subjects could will dice to ""^ time the test run began, precognition might have enabled the ex• land with certain faces uppermost, the dice being mechanically ^? perimenter or the subject to start the run at a time when the con• released at a later time without the knowledge of the subjects. ^ ditions for the generation of the target would be favorable. How• However, it is not apparent how contemporaneous PK could be ever, if the extent of the change of the target object at the time of precluded in a test of pre-PK. «\ the test exceeded its normal range of fluctuation, it would be indic• ative of PK rather than of precognition. This may have been the Pure Precognition case in tests of PK with a magnetometer and with a thermistor A test of pure precognition has not been achievable because of (Chap. 3). Also, changes in the target object that would not the possibility that the results are due to PK. First, if the targets normally take place at all, such as the bending of metal objects or in the precognition test are the future order of the cards after _H the movement of stationary objects, are not explainable by pre• they are shuffled, PK could affect the cards during the shuffling so cognition and in the absence of fraud are evidence of pure PK. as to cause them to be in a similar order to the calls (J.B. Rhine, _^ 1945c). Second, if the targets are determined by a randomly Retro-Psychokinesis selecting, mechanical apparatus such as Tyrrell's light boxes or Schmidt's random-event generator, or if the cutting of the deck or In a sense, retro-psychokinesis is opposite to precognition. In the entry point in the table of random digits is determined by a precognition a later event affects the earlier state of mind of the subject, and in retro-PK the subject's mental state affects an procedure involving a calculator, PK could affect the action of the earlier event. An experiment was performed by Schmidt (1975a) instrument. Third, if the point of the cutting of the deck or the in which the subjects, ostensibly by retroactive PK, increased the entry point in the table is determined by a completely public frequency of signals from a random-event generator, which had event such as the temperature on a future day, it is possible that been recorded on tape. Significant results were obtained sug• the thermometer used could be affected by PK. Significant results gesting that the subjects used retro-PK to affect the earlier random have been obtained in precognition tests with the use of a weather event before it was recorded on tape. It is not apparent whether cut involving a thermometer (J.B. Rhine, 1942). Significant find• the retro-PK consisted of a present PK act of the subject affecting ings were also obtained with the use of the stock-market closing- the past random event or whether it consisted of a future PK act average on a future date (Nash. 19fi0a) ; however, the possibility cxists°that an event even as public as that could be affected by PK. ^ I K (ill m i t 1 I till I

Interpretation V 41?

sketching the broad features of a few types of theory that could be put up as conceivably explicative of the poltergeist force. We shall • 8* encounter en route, as by-products, a few points that the writer thinks are of interest in parapsychology generally. Theories may be classified in the following broad way:

1. Action at a distance. The poltergeist medium acts directly Physical Problems on the distant object without there being any intermediary field or mechanism in the intervening space between herself and the object that is moved. This is equivalent logically to "nonlocalization" of effect, a notion already put forward in parapsychology to explain mental phe• nomena such as telepathy. 2. Higher Space. If action at a distance were to be demonstrated as a phenomonological fact, then we might seek to explain it as being only apparent, and assume that there exists some kind of higher space in which the physical universe of ordinary experience is im• Do you think that the nature of the soul can he sufficiently mersed or embedded like the surface of a sheet of paper. On such a known if we do not know the nature of the universe? theory influence would pass to the medium by some route "outside" SCHOPENHAUER ordinary physical space so that, as viewed by us, no connection be• tween cause and effect would be detectable. )° INTRODUCTION 3. Field theories. There is a physical "field" of a kind new to THE existence of a poltergeist "force" that moves objects seems science, mediating between the medium and the object. to be established. It is correct to use the term "force" in the sense 4. Anthropomorphic theories. Two kinds of hypothesis suggest employed in physics, for when a body is moved this implies a force themselves. equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration. Admittedly this is a purely phenomenological description. However, so long as we main• (a) There are protrusions from the body of the medium such tain the standpoint of regular naturalism as laid down in Chapter 13, as "ectoplasmic pseudopods," or "psychic cantilevers," or more we are obliged to think of this force in real physical terms and cannot subtle energetic structures. elude the question by taking refuge in supernaturalism. It is only (b) Some detached entity is capable of wandering freely and at this stage that we come face to face with our interpretive principle conducting mechanical operations, e.g., the "astral body," or of regular naturalism, but in fact it has been implicit in all our the "psychon" of Nandor Fodor, or the "spirit" of the medium- previous discussion, and was implied as soon as we started to look istic hypothesis. for physiological and psychological regularities in poltergeist cases considered as a mass of biological material. The recognition of a >° ACTION AT A DISTANCE phenomenological force of course takes us no way at all towards un• derstanding of how it is applied or how it originates. It is easy THE postulate that one body can act directly on another body enough to postulate all kinds of mechanisms involving hypothetical without being in contact with it or propagating its influence across entities, but at the present time there seems little prospect of em• the intervening space lias appeared from time to time in physics, pirical verification. Consequently the writer will limit himself to but has always met with grave suspicion. This is because action at

412 ft ft I t 1 I 1 1 * 1 l t t t | t

414 "S" Can We Explain the Poltergeist? Interpretation ~S 41 ^

a distance violates all our prejudices drawn from ordinary experience. data competent unambiguously to indicate that the medium herself In the prcscicntific era of thought only one form of physical action is the source of the energy, though indeed this could well be the is conceivablc-

416 r Can We Explain the Poltergeist? Interpretation 7) 417

of it as merely the transmission of a "message" to the relevant point of relativity. The latter theory aimed at embodying Mach's principle, of space without actual energy propagation. The "message" then which derived from criticism leveled at the Newtonian concept of triggers off the release of energy locally at the point of application. absolute space. In Newtonian physics, force is required to accelerate However, this argument ignores special relativity. Einstein (1907) a body. The magnitude of the force is proportional to the body's gave a discussion purporting to show that nothing in the nature of acceleration relative to space. But if space is a mere nothing, acceler• ation relative to space is meaningless. Mach (1893) therefore sug• a signal or a communication can travel faster than light, which has gested that what is relevant is the acceleration relative to the rest a finite velocity (Pauli, 1958). The argument is based on the physical of the matter in the whole universe. In Einstein's general relativity, fact that a moving observer reckons time differently from one at rest. the Newtonian inertial force required to accelerate it is a result of According to the time reckoning of the stationary observer, time the gravitational attraction of the whole universe upon the body passes more slowly for the moving observer. The relationship is, how• (Sciama, 1959). Thus at any point in the universe there is a unique ever, completely reciprocal. The moving observer thinks that it is the standard of rest. An observer is "at rest" in this sense if the average clock of the stationary observer that is going slowly. And indeed it motion of the rest of the universe is zero relative to him. Such an is a matter merely of arbitrary convention which of the two we choose observer is called a "fundamental observer." His time reckoning to think of as being at rest, it being here that the notion of relativity provides an absolute system for dating events. comes in. Let us suppose, if possible, that our stationary observer Thus cosmological considerations to some extent nullify the witnesses an action transmitted from a point A to a point B with a original viewpoint of relativity, and reintroduce more absolute notions speed greater than that of light. In his system of time reckoning the of simultaneity and time. Indeed it is almost axiomatic that this effect at B will not precede the cause at A, and nothing is amiss. should be so. As soon as we attempt to speak of the universe as a However, according to the time reckoning of some moving observers whole, and think of it as having a history, we inevitably postulate the cause at A will be calculated to have come after the effect at B. a cosmic time. Such a cosmic time enters into all modern cosmological That is to say, in certain frames of reference causality will have broken theories, no matter how different in detail they may be. In all such down. theories the cosmic time is in a real sense a universal time. It is the Dr. Mary Hesse (1961) in reviewing this problem wisely says, time measured by a "fundamental observer" (Bondi, 1952). This "These arguments cannot, of course, legislate for the world." None• definition of time is "operational." It is possible in principle for an theless the Einstein argument is a formidable one and would seem observer to verify that be is a "fundamental" one. For if he is not, at first sight to preclude the possibility of instantaneous propagation then the universe will look different to him according to the direction of actions. However, the teeth of the argument can be drawn if we in which he is looking; i.e., the more distant galaxies in the direction are prepared to be slightly adventurous. In the first place, it is easy in which he is traveling will look brighter and more violet in color than to verify that cause and effect are never reversed in their time order those he is leaving behind him. Any two fundamental observers in in the subjective experience of our moving observer. He always ac• different places are in motion relative to one another. This seems tually sees the effect after he sees the cause. It is only when he cal• slightly paradoxical, but is a consequence of the "expansion of the culates their times of occurrence in his time reckoning that he notes universe," i.e., the mutual recession of the galaxies. However, all a causal anomaly. Thus we can get out of our dilemma provided we fundamental observers keep the same time, which may therefore be suppose only there is some unique absolute frame of reference in called cosmic time, their clocks, physiological processes, and mental which cause always precedes effect. This hypothesis is moderately experiences proceeding at the same rate. daring because, as Dr. Hesse says (p. 237), "If it [instantaneous If there is such a phenomenon as instantaneous action-at-a- propagation in one frame of reference] were postulated, ... it would distance in which effect is simultaneous with cause, then it is de• pick out one inertial frame uniquely, and this is contrary to the spirit finable only in cosmic time, for only in cosmic time is it possible if not the letter of the principle of relativity." This is true enough, to define "simultaneity." All other attempts to define "simultaneity" but is cogent only within the context of the special theory of rela• with reference to instantaneous action shipwreck themselves on the tivity. This theory was historically but a prelude to the general theory i... 1 t I." ill *L I,. I I. t i . i ill

418 "B" Can We Explain the Poltergeist? interpretation "tf 419

"intervention paradox." Tiie paradox arises as follows. If an observer reasoning "A sensum is not a thing and is therefore not in any partic• reckons a certain effect to precede a cause, then by instantaneously ular place, and so is everywhere," we could equally well argue "A transmitted action he can annihilate the cause and so prevent the sensum, not being a thing, is not anywhere and so is nowhere." This effect he has already observed. This is a real absurdity and cannot be line of reasoning is, of course, very like that applied by Dr. Henry tolerated. It arises, however, only on assumptions that admit of there More and his Cambridge Platonist friends to Descartes' principle being more than one frame of reference (appropriate to instantaneous that mind, being entirely different from matter, has no extension action) at a given point in space. If, however, there is only one unique (Koyre, 1957). They mocked at Descartes as being a "nullibist" who frame (at any point) in which simultaneity can be defined then the in effect excluded mind from the universe by allotting it no place intervention paradox cannot arise. Because then there is no means to occupy. by which our "precognitive" observer can actually know about the We may note that nonlocalization may be adequately re-ex• effect before he learns about the cause. The time of happening cal• pressed in terms of action. A condition in one mind may, we could culated for the effect in his time reckoning is indeed prior to the suppose, induce a condition in another mind, thus explaining telep• cause. But this is only an inferred time that he cannot assign to it athy, or indeed induce a physical condition in space so as to apply until after (in his subjective experience) he has learned about both a force to a material body there. Conversely, an influence that can cause and effect. True it is that he may be puzzled by the paradox act instantaneously everywhere can be regarded as being everywhere that when all his calculations are complete he finds that in his time or omnipresent. Thus ubiquity, nonlocalization and instantaneous reckoning a cause /of/owed its effect. If he discovers, however, that action-at-a-distance are notions almost equivalent to one another when he recalculates everything in terms of cosmic time then causal and perhaps completely so. anomalies disappear, he will, no doubt, be pacified and deduce as It is always tempting to refer the more mysterious alleged para• a fact the occurrence of instantaneous action in the cosmic time normal happenings such as clairvoyance, physical phenomena, and reckoning. even precognition to a psychic substratum pervading the universe. It would seem therefore that there is no unpassable logical This notion has a venerable ancestry comprising the pneuma of the barrier excluding action-at-a-distance as an a priori impossibility. Even Stoics, the world soul of the Neoplatonists, revived as the anima so, a considerable weight of implausibility attaches to the notion, mundi or pervasive spirit of nature by the Cambridge Platonists, and unless support conies from atomic theory (as yet only a minor pos• passing into Newton's thought (Owen, 1963). For Newton it was sibility). an emanation of God and the mediator of gravity, thus operated by the omnipresent Deity who "being in all places, is more able . . . by his will to move the bodies" (Newton, 1718, Query 28). In due )° NONLOCALIZATION, OMNIPRESENCE AND THE WORLD SOUL time the anima mundi faded out of scientific thought but reappears OUR discussion of action-at-a-distancc, though perhaps not very in latter-day theosophy and many varieties of mysticism, and is oc• relevant to poltergeist phenomena, is yet of some slight interest in casionally adduced as explicative of paranormal phenomena encoun• relation to a variety of occult theories. Thus the notion of nonlocdiza- tered in psychic research. Whether or not such a psychic substratum, tion has been used in an attempt to explain telepathy. Tyrrell and if existent, can be equated with the fundamental being of the uni• Whately Carington argued on the following lines, in which may be verse need not concern us now. Were it to exist it would certainly discerned some faint echoes of Descartes. A mental experience (e.g., be a most convenient deus ex machina for effecting a variety of occult visualization of the aee of spades) is not a thing, i.e., not a physical happenings. Occasionally ordinary individual minds, perhaps through object. This experience, or sensum, not being a thing, has no location. heightened cerebral activity, would form links with it, and in mental Hence, so the argument goes, it is nonlocalized. Not being in any phenomena draw on its treasury of knowledge. Perhaps its repositories particular place, it is potentially everywhere. The term "psychon" of power would be tapped for production of physical phenomena. We have set aside the question as to whether this substratum is a was used to denote such a nonlocalized sensum or mental experience. candidate for the throne of Deity but we might ask, en passant, in The argument is, of course, logically incomplete because instead of g./ t t * I. t: I

420 "5" Cart We Explain the Poltergeist? Interpretation V 421

what sense it could be a Universal Mind. To mediate physical phe• mathematical descriptions of what happens between events. Like the nomena it need have no apperception or consciousness. But if it had message waves, it is hard to ascribe ontological reality to the inter• phenomena that often involve causal anomalies not unlike the ones some mental being we might ask whether mental events are trans• discussed above. With this word the writer will leave the matter mitted instantaneously through its nexus, or whether (as in the hu• here. Doubtless many of his speculations will ultimately be proved man brain) time elapses in the conveyance of thoughts and affects. to be nonsense in the sense of not being found in reality. However, Only in the first case could the consciousness of the substratum rise our defence can well be that of the Red Queen. "But I've heard to the stature of a universal psyche living in cosmic time. nonsense, compared to which that would be as sensible as a The varied considerations of this and the preceding section dictionary." may have a peculiar effect on the reader, as indeed they do on the writer, for it may seem that we have been mixing oil and water- science and fantasy—and have been moving in a curious realm blended >° FIELD THEORIES of theosophy and science fiction. Still, this is the common lot of the psychic research worker whenever he attempts to see some pattern MANY of the characteristics of a field theory have already been behind those phenomena that seem to him to be real. Indeed, there mentioned. The notion of a "field" of force derives entirely from are many things in orthodox physics that give much trouble to those physics, where field theories have a deserved prestige, representing a physicists who still believe that the task of science is to enable not great variety of physical happenings. Hence the word "field" is some• merely the prediction of reality but its understanding also. I may times used in psychic research. Usually nothing more is achieved quote an example quite apposite to the present discussion. Omni• than the setting up of a somewhat vague analogy. Consequently the presence or action-at-a-distance (instantaneous or at a velocity beyond practice of referring to psychic fields as if they were proved realities that of light) has, it would seem, necessarily to be equivalent to a has been criticized by Ducasse (1961) and by Broad (1962) on the message theory without flow of energy, as this latter can be done ground that there is no evidence that such fields exist. This is a only at a speed less than that of light. No energy may be carried in salutory warning but not an absolute prohibition. We may still the overfast message itself. This may seem bizarre, but there are inquire whether the observed phenomena would be compatible with well-known examples of something similar in relation to the electro• a real physical force field (though perhaps one with "psychic" con• magnetic field. Message waves in a wave-guide (a metal pipe) go nections). If this appears implausible we are still free to ask if the faster than light but are themselves not physically observable. The phenomena are describable in terms of something analogous to known pattern that superimposed message waves form is observable and physical fields but different in some important details. The field travels at a sub-light velocity, which is in fact the velocity of energy- concept in physics was itself evolved in this way. Physicists thought flow. Similarly, in radio propagation above the earth, message waves of the ether as analogous to an elastic solid. Pursued to its logical travel in the ionosphere at super-light speeds. Their excess velocity conclusion this analogy led to the concept of the electromagnetic leads predictably to a bending of the wireless waves that the message field. At this stage it became plain that the electromagnetic properties waves are "guiding." Although the message waves are not themselves of space were real and not to be explained as those of some material physically detectable the bending of the radio waves is not merely substance filling space. But the preliminary phase of reasoning by observable but is of the utmost practical importance, being the basis analogy was amply justified by its results and was rarely misleading. of all world radio communication. Action by contact can be achieved by sending a "messenger" The ontological status of these unobservable message waves or "agent." If this is supposed not to happen, and the possibility of is perplexing in the extreme. Are they in any sense real, or mere higher space be discounted, then the postulate that action-at-a- mathematical fictions? Do they belong to the category of interphe- distance is impossible a priori leads directly to a field theory. For it nomena in the sense of Reichenbach (1956)? In quantum physics is implied that interaction takes place only between neighboring mathematicians can predict events but cannot "fill in" what happens points of space, i.e., by contact. We must envisage a continuous between events in any rational way. "Interphenomena" are the Active chain of cause and effect extending across the space between the * t I i 1 I I I I 1 * * t a i t t

422 Y Can We Explain the Poltergeist? Interpretation TT 423

interacting bodies. As put by Landau and Lifschitz (1959, p. 41), across the intervening space to the object in question. Unless a war• "The interaction of particles can be described with the help of rant can be found for each of these three statements the use of the the concept of a field of force. Namely, instead of saying that one term "field" may be grossly at fault. The writer would be the last particle acts on another, we may say that the particle creates a field person to deny the possible existence of such a field, because, if certain round itself; a certain force then acts on every particle located in other possibilities are excluded, a field concept obtrudes itself upon this field." us. But certain prime difficulties remain. The "poltergeist force" The concept of a field is a very vivid and graphic one. Some differs from electromagnetic forces in that it seems independent of philosophers feel it is unnecessary. For example, Torncbaum (1952, the material composing the body on which it acts, which may be a p. 254) says we can regard the field merely as a convenient descrip• book, a blanket, or any other object. In this respect it resembles tion of the causal relationship between the two bodies. But this gravitation. On the other hand, it is selective in a way in which the would be an extreme logical positivist view and it is just as positively gravitational field is not. Two pebbles may be side by side, and one logical to regard the field as "real." Some concession to the logical taken and the other left. Thus there is a rather refined localization positivist viewpoint is made by Landau and Lifschitz when they of the region of application of the force. It is true that physics provides concede that "In classical mechanics, the field is merely a mode of many examples of devices for focusing and even ranging but these description of the physical phenomena-the interaction of particles." can be very complicated. Thus it is the selectivity of the poltergeist But they go on to say: force that militates against a field explanation.

In the theory of relativity, because of the finite velocity of >° ANTHROPOMORPHIC THEORIES propagation of interactions, the situation is changed funda• mentally. The forces acting on a particle at a given moment THE remaining type of "contact" theory assumes that there is are not determined by the positions at that same moment. A a "something" detached from the medium, either wholly or in part, change in position of one of the particles influences other that is relatively free to wander and that moves objects by direct particles only after the lapse of a certain time interval. This contact with them. This "entity" may conceivably be in origin means that the field itself acquires physical reality. We cannot distinct from any component of medium, a "spirit," an "elemental," speak of a direct interaction of particles located at a distance or a hybrid resulting from Barrett's crystallization process (Chapter from one another. Interactions can occur at any one moment 14). From the point of view of physical credibility it is immaterial only between neighbouring points in space (contact transforma• whether the entity is "spirit" or an emanation of the medium. Despite tion). Therefore we must speak of the interaction of one the antiquity and wide provenance of the term "astral body" the particle with the field, and of the subsequent interaction of the only writer to invoke it as explicative of poltergeist phenomena was field with the second particle. C. E. Birdsall (1905) discussing the Karin case. He says, "Any person gifted . . . with psychic sight, could have seen the form issue from, What has been said will be sufficient to convey the "feeling" usually, the left side of the subject, and watch it make the raps. . . ." This is the anthropomorphic type of theory in a nutshell. Leaving of the physicist's field concept. The essential characteristics of a field aside the "psychic sight" and the issuing from the left side and so are as follows. Every point of space is in a certain "state." A body on, it is a reasonable attempt at an explanation via action by contact. is acted on only by forces derived from its immediate vicinity. Lastly, So far so good, but Birdsall fails to have the courage of his convictions energy flows through the field at a certain definite speed. If therefore and changes his line of thought. He says, "the raps become audible by a field theory is to be applicable to poltergeist phenomena, we must repercussion on the inner hearing of the auditors, and are supposed imagine that the space round the medium is activated or in some to be the same as are made by physical concussion. We should way excited. When a body moves, it is in response to the "state" of remember that no matter how loud the sound and violent the blows space in its immediate neighborhood. The mechanical work done there is never any evidence on the physical objects of having been in moving the body is furnished by a flow of energy from the medium IL I 1 * I I i i I *• I I- I I t. | | |

424 V Can We Explain the Poltergeist? interpretation X 425

struck, this is presumptive proof that the sound is not produced In the present century our ideas as to the materiality of matter are by violent contact of physical bodies." Thus Birdsall implies that not so firm as they were, and we are often forced to regard it as a poltergeist sounds are subjective, which (he fails to notice) removes manifestation of an energetic field. Thus it is less ridiculous than the necessity for the astral Karin to prowl around clouting the walls. in former centuries to postulate the existence of energetic systems The portable tape recorder had not been invented in 1904. The that, not being matter, can yet exert mechanical force. present writer takes the view that, as at Sauchie, poltergeist sounds are real and not telepathic illusions. Indeed, Birdsall's original line of argument is quite sensible, >° CANTILEVERS AND ECTOPLASM especially if rephrased in a way free from traditional occult notions. NOTHING remotely resembling "ectoplasm" has ever been (These notions are not necessarily incorrect. They merely represent reported in poltergeist cases. Thus even if the existence of the a richness of assumption unnecessary for our immediate purpose.) ectoplasm of the seance room were an established fact (which is The hypothesis can be re-enunciated as follows: scarcely the case), to invoke "ectoplasmic pseudopods" and the like as explaining poltergeist phenomena would be a somewhat arbitrary 1. The medium is ultimately the cause of the phenomena. and ill-justified step. 2. These phenomena occur at places out of physical contact Similarly, "psychic cantilevers" cannot be quoted as a known with her bqdy. mechanism. This term was introduced by Dr. Crawford, a lecturer 3. Therefore some component of her total constitution must in mechanical engineering at Belfast. In his books he describes be temporarily detachable and is capable of operating physically on rappings and object-levitations achieved by the mediumship of Miss matter. Kathleen Goligher at family seances that he attended. Crawford's first explanation was in terms of a kind of "solid beam" extending In this form the theory cannot be rejected out of hand. Its from the body of the medium to the object moved. Though an merit is that it allows for the selectively localized, and specific, action engineering conception initially, Crawford early decided that the of the poltergeist in "choosing" some objects and neglecting others. "cantilever" was actually constituted by "lines or tubes of force." The hypothesis approximates to Fodor's theory of "psychons," by This nomenclature is taken from Faraday. It is of course conceivable which he means detached or detachable personality elements (Car- that a force field could take this elongated shape and, extending from rington and Fodor, 1958). The term "psychon" and its mobility were the person of the medium, execute poltergeist movements of objects. suggested by the nonlocalization theory of sensa as outlined above. Evidence in poltergeist cases does not, however, square with Craw• Dr. Fodor was concerned not only with the mechanics of poltergeist ford's experience, for there are no reports of invisible "beams" action but with the etiology of the poltergeist condition in the observable by tactile sense. It should be remarked that the fine mod• medium. Relying on the psychological term "dissociation," he pos• ernism of his own notion was not in fact retained by Crawford. tulated that emotional stress causes a portion of the personality to His tubes of force became more and more material. In the end (by be "split off." Thus Fodor thinks of the "psychon" as detached in 1921) the identification with ectoplasm was complete. Its photo• two completely distinct senses: (a) an autonomous complex in the graphs bear a superficial resemblance to muslin curtain material. unconscious psyche; (b) an energetic system externalized in space and capable of localized action. How such a detached "system" can act on matter is, of course, >° HIGHER SPACE a conundrum. This was the point at which Birdsall boggled. He As we have implied earlier, the postulate that connections jibbed at the old problem of an "immaterial" thing affecting material between the medium and the object operate through higher space objects. This age-old question is always something of an embarrass• in fact leaves many questions in much the same state as before. We ment, and has been "solved" from time to time by way of solutions still have to ask if the linkage in higher space is mediated by contact, that eventually prove as embarrassing as the original problem itself. or by "messages," and so on. There is of course no objection to t 1 : I: I I. I 1111 I . r I ' t i l t I

426 V Can We Explain the Poltergeist? Interpretation V 427

supposing that the mcdiumistic action takes place by connection as possessing reality or whether it is a mere mathematical fiction and of some kind, and then for convenience "mapping" these connections conceptual aid. The other solution to the "leakage problem" pre• in a three-dimensional mathematical space. But this mathematical sented by the "skin" or "film" theory would be to suppose that all space would remain a mere abstraction or conceptual artifice and ordinary matter and energy arc inevitably confined to the skin. In would not necessarily correspond to any physical realm existing such a case the postulated hypcrspace would have some reality as a additionally to the ordinary physical space of our direct experience. realm accessible to extraordinary "energies" of some kind. But clearly Dr. J. R. Smytbies' "perceptual space" would appear to be of this it would tend to approximate itself once more to a purely conceptual conceptual status only (1951). But traditional explanation of para• "mapping" of psychic connections. normal phenomena by means of the fourth dimension, etc., postulates Reichenbach (1958) takes as the crucial empirical evidence the existence of an additional physical space lying outside the ordinary for the three-dimensionality of the physical continuum the fact that physical continuum but accessible to some form of energy if not all known types of physical action arc by contact. But in the present to matter. Many attempts have been made, and all of tlicm fruitless, context this is to beg the very question at issue. Otherwise his argu• to discover if there is a logical or mathematical reason for space to ment is essentially the same as the one already given, that if space be restricted to three dimensions (Jammer, 1954). Correspondingly, were less confined there would be leakage of matter out of those no disproof of the possibility of higher physical space has been found. parts usually seen. This reiterates Mach's argument, quoted in The apparent completion of the physical continuum at the Chapter 12, to the effect that the appearance and disappearance of third dimension thus appears to be a purely empirical fact. Attempts objects would be the best evidence of a higher dimensionality of have been made to find a physical reason compelling this fact, but space. In the "steady-state" cosmology of Hoyle, Bondi, and Gold these have no cogency. The position is different with the evidence (Bondi, 1952; Sciama, 1959), it is postulated that the expansion of that the physical continuum is truly only one of three dimensions. the universe is kept going by continuous "creation" of matter. Ac• Gravitational and all other fields propagate themselves according cording to this theory, additional matter is continually appearing in to the inverse-square law. If space were four-dimensional, then, other small quantities as if from nowhere. This is thought of as creation things being equal, this law would be an inverse-cube one. This being but clearly, so long as no plausible physical mechanism is put for• not the case, we are obliged to suppose that if our observable physical ward to explain it, we arc at liberty to regard the supposedly "created" continuum were a three-dimensional "skin" immersed in a higher matter as filtering in from higher space. The reader will recollect our space then one of two possibilities must also obtain. The firstsolutio n dilemma concerning evidence of apportation and teleportation in would be to suppose that there is some force that holds energy (and poltergeist cases. It is not weighty enough to allow us to declare that here is the testimony that Mach would have required. However, the therefore matter) in the skin and stops it from leaking away. This evidence does not seem so flimsy that it can be immediately jettisoned. is not unreasonable in itself; we have the analogy of a soap film, Indeed, to use a phrase once employed with respect to a different where the surface tension renders it stable and stops it from dis• matter, it "sticks like a bone in the throat." integrating. Energy or matter could then presumably be moved out of the film by the operation of a "force" in a direction perpendicular But grave objections exist to supposing that a material body to every direction in ordinary space. Such a direction and such a can, as it were, be "parked" just outside ordinary space like a buoy force would be undetectable by ordinary observation except insofar tied to a boat and hauled in again when required. What temperature as its existence could be inferred from its effects. The air of fantasy would it acquire in its ultramundane milieu? Poltergeist apports are in these speculations is somewhat offset by the fact that one school said to arrive neither with the heat of the infernal regions nor with of mathematical physicists seriously consider space as being a film of the freezing cold of outer space. When a body is outside the "world this sort, bent and cross-connected in a higher space in which it is skin" is it subject to gravity? This question is exceptionally serious immersed (Wheeler, 1962). As yet this view lacks full cogency, not because, according to Mach's principle, the protons and electrons only because it still is an incomplete system of physics, but also composing the matter of the body owe their inertia to the gravita• because we cannot tell whether the higher space is to be regarded tional force of the whole universe. We would have to suppose that •t 1 t i. i i t * i i t I t It t I

428 V Can We Explain the Poltergeist? Interpretation TT 429

the body is not to dissolve in atomic chaos, gravitational forces if BROAD, C. D. 1962 "The Problem of Precognition." J.S.P.R., (if no others) act outside the "skin." It is possible to get round this 41, March. objection, but only at the expense of piling on various ad hoc CARRINCTON, H. AND hypotheses, wearisome and unconvincing. Furthermore, as soon as FODOR, N. 1958 The Story of the Poltergeist. Arco, London. CRAWFORD, W. J. 1916 The Reality of Psychic Phenomena. Watkins, these arbitrary hypotheses are adjoined, the original hypothesis begins London. to loose its simplicity and even to change its character. For instance, 1919 Experiments in Psychical Science. Watkins, it would become hardly distinguishable from the "paraspace" hypoth• London. esis of Chapter 12. This at first sight is not a bad assumption, but 1921 The Psychic Structures in the Coligher Cir• to be satisfactory we should have to suppose that the "apport" cle. Watkins, London. retained its gravitational relation with the universe, and the normal DUCASSE, C. J. 1961 "The Problem of Precognition." /.S.P.R., 41, Dec. nuclear and electrical forces between its own protons and electrons, EINSTEIN, A. 1907 Ann. Phys. Lpz., 23, p. 371. but yet became optically and electrically inert with respect to ordinary HESSE, M. B. 1961 Forces and Fields. Nelson, London. matter. This would, doubtless, render it invisible and able to "leak" JAMMER, M. 1954 Concepts of Space. Harvard. through stone walls, but the assumption of an uncoordinated change KOYRE, A. 1957 From the Closed World to the Infinite Uni• in its physical reactivities is highly distasteful for a variety of reasons. verse. Johns Hopkins. Our real trouble in this kind of discussion is that we are chasing LANDAU, L. D. AND The Classical Theory of Fields. Peigamon, arbitrary ideas without empirical checks. As Lewis Carroll, a great LIFSHITZ, E. M. 1959 London. MACH, E. 1893 The Science of Mechanics. London. connoisseur of abstract ideas, pointed out in fun, when we are hunt• NEWTON, SIR ISAAC 1718 Opticks. London. ing the Snark we must beware it does not turn into a Boojum. OWEN, A. R. G. 1963 "Sir Isaac Newton: Between Physics and Metaphysics." lntemat. ]. Parapsychol., 5 spring. >° SUMMARY PAULI, W. 1958 The Theory of Relativity. Pergamon, London. REICHENBACH, H. 1956 The Direction of Time. University of Cali• THE notion of physical action is analyzed from various points fornia Press. of view, but present data allow of no conclusions as to the mode of 1958 The Philosophy of Space' and Time. Dover, operation by which poltergeist effects are produced. New York. SCIAMA, D. W. 1959 The Unity of the Universe. Faber, London. SMYTHIES, J. R. 1951 "The Extension of Mind." /.S.P.R., 35, p. 477. TORNEBOHM, H. 1952 A Logical Analysis of the Theory of Rela• tivity. Almquist and Wiksell, Stockholm. WHEELER, J. A. 1962 Geometrodynamics. Academic Press, New York.

Y=- REFERENCES BENTLEY, R. 1838 "Newton's Third Letter." Bentley's Works, HI. BIRDSALL, C. E. 1905 Correspondence. Annals of Psychic Science, 2, pp. 313-314. BONDI, II. 1952 Cosmology. Cambridge. UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Department o-f Physics

From Pro-fessor B.D. Josephson, F.R.S. Postal address:

Cavendish Laboratoryf Telephone: 0224-337260 Hadingley Road, Telex: &i292 CAVLAS 6 CAMBRIDGE CB3 OHE, England.

July 29th, 1967.

Dr. A.R.6. Owen , New Hon zone- Research Foundation, 10 No^th Sherbourne St. Toronto. Ont. M4K 2T2, C a n a o a .

Dear George,

Thank you -for your letter enoui ri ng about my EPF: talk. Meet o-f the talk was on conventional stuff, and so I'm just sending you the persona! cofflrcent ' part ct my lecture notes. The SPR recorded their lecture as is their normal practice, ano so you could find out what 1 actual]y sai b by writing to them tor a copy.

With best wishes,

Brian Josephson Paranormal nature at the ''normal' microworld

(The first part of the talk was a standard exposition of the

quantum paradoxes (reference: Euan Squires, The Mystery of the

Quantum World))

... Be]1 proved a certain inequality that shows that the

correlations that quantum theory predicts, and which are now

confirmed by experi ment, cannot be accounted for by this proposed

mechanism [prior determination of the answer to particular

q u e s t. i o n s II. T he c o n c 1 u s i o n i s t h a t t. h e r e r e a J 1 y e x j s t in n a t u r e

correlations: that, cannot be explained without assuming some kind of non-1ocal connection or, as John Bel 1 puts it, something like telepathy.

How do people who don't accept telepathy react to this demonstration? "Ihe? standard response is to say that the fact that this situation looks like telepathy doesn't, prove that telepathy in the form implied by the term ESP occurs and, of course, this is correct. One can go on and adopt the doctrine that all that matters that the theory give the right answer; we don't have to enquire into explanations as to why it gives the answer that it does. One could call this the philosophy of blind calculation (usual name: the

Copenhagen interpretation).

Where does this leave us exactly? What 'has happened through quantum mechanics is that we have had to move from a situation in which science seemed tc> provide us with a clear picture (or i mage i n the mind) of what waj qoi no on to one where the picture is not clear at all. Is the loss of "insight" implied by this important or not"-'

How complete is this understanding o-f reality on the basis o-f the results of quantum-mechanical calculations alone? The idea that the rules are sufficient is, I believe, a kind of illusion. One doesn't in reality make use only of the rules. When a scientist applies the rule?? he in fact brings to bear on the problem a. whole body of under standi no that is not contained within the theory. He has "real world know]edge" built upon an "unofficia1 mental picture" that is a product of experience and cannot be pulled out from the theory alone.

Without such a ment a3 picture one could hardly do science? all one would be doi nq would be mathematics,

f fix ui:- mechanics seem-: tc have an ambiguous element about it that previous pictures nature did not have. In these theories the math&iiiat i cai picture was much more concrete. One could more or less imagine a machine making observations of the positions of the planets and pr ed i c. t i nq their orbits. We see the problems most clearly in biology . .. one attempts to make pictures in terms of molecules ... not adequate if correlations are important ... can't get them from mechanical observations (Bohr).

One conclusion one could draw from this is that the traditional scientific method has taken us up to the point where the traditional scientific method can be applied no longer (sounds like a paradox but isn"ts cf. going up a mountain without the security of a rope;. In the last part of my talk J want to discuss the question of what may be missing from the standard scientific approach: what is wrong with it, and what might be cor r ft t ed V (Rosen, Bohm). Sci ence so far has relied heavily on the methods o-i reducti oni sm

and of studying systems in isolation. It has been assumed that this

is the method, the only real method. But if the results are affected by correlations this approach will no longer work. This may be particularly a problem when we are concerned with "intelligent" systems working together, something that I yshall be returning to in a moment.

Again, there is a high emphasis on making predictions: but we find in the end the existence of inability to predict, of unpredi etabi1i ty.

One cau'l d try to get. further by using empirical information.

But there i s another avenue of approach conceivable as well, which is really outsi de the scientific tradition, and more in accordance with t.he concepts of mvst i ci sm, 1 ca 1 1 this know 1 edge? by part.icipati on , which is complementary to theoretical knowledge. Get. at the basic i dea beh i nd t h i s b v consi d er i ngagr ou.p of people eng aged i n a j oi n t task. "i'ney can 1 earn by trial and error to coordinate their actions with each other so as to he able to achieve this particular goal.

This process does not require the roles of the individuals to be specified explicitly; all that is needed is for the combined effects of all the individuals' actions to be satisfactory (consider people moving an object together). What we are talking about is a process in which an individual is able to learn an action that is appropriate,, and hence better than what he would be able to discover by remaining a separate individual (mutual, two-way adjustment is involved, which -cannot occur if he does not. disclose his responses.

If this picture is correct, it implies e mechanism for knowledge 15

that ., un.i i ke K jpncp woul d be create knowledge of the preferential

action in a given situation, unlike the knowledge of science which

^ would give a wider spectrum of knowledge but would not provide an

indication of preferential action. It would be relevant, in

situations where the correlations between different systems working

in harmony may be important, which may be the case with psi. clearly mm

many issues need to be dealt with here before we can fully understand

m the situation.

One idea that has been developed along these lines is the- ides

*•* that mind may be important, fundamental even, and be i nt i mat. el \>

connected with what is found in the quantum domain. Trie cognitive

sciences have largely made redundant the dual istic. view of mind and

matter, to the effect that thev are- totally kinds of thi no. and

revealed it to De a kino oi- "category error", in many aspects st any m* rate. we know now that, material systems can exhibit some of the

character isti cs o+ mi nd as well. We have computers that can do very

compi i c cited things such as manipulate facts about the world (there is

f a r e :•; a m p 1 e a c o m p u t. e r lan q u a q e cal 1 ed Proloq that is d e s i q n e d t o do mi

this specific task), and Alan Turing demonstrated that a system with

:mt a memory that obeyed a certain collection of simple rules could do a

computation of arbitrary complexity. So one can postulate that the m capacity to do the equivalent of computation exists as a fundamental

feature of nature, and that the world of matter with its own

particular laws is simply the outcome of the computer program that is

^ running, j n a similar way to the way pictures on the screen are

qeneratea by a computer program in a video game. Now we know one

& place in the universe where this kind of process occurs- - the m computations occurring in our own minds have effects on our bodies

(e.g. movements), and generate our perceptions of the world, so perhaps this could be a more general process occurring at a.

•fundamental level. If one makes this kind of assumption one can, for example, explain the wave function collapse as a decision process in the part of nature which one describes as mind. There are also some arguments from the so-called Anthropic Principle that would favour this i nterpretation. This is something which future studies of mind coming from the various cognitive sciences may be ab]e to justify in detai. 1 . New Horizons Research Foundation Paper 29

The original copy deposited at the University of Manitoba Department of Archives and Special Collections contains more pages than this digital copy.

Due to the time that would be involved in seeking usage permissions, the pages listed below have been omitted from this digital copy which is being made freely available for research and educational purposes.

Page(s)

77-80 Appendix 7 Alastair Rae, “Extrasensory Quantum Physics,” New Scientist (27 November 1986), pp. 36-39. 81-84 Appendix 8 F. David Peat and John Briggs, “Interview: David Bohm,” OMNI (January 1987), pp. 69-70, 72, and 74.