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Viewing the Future: A Pilot Study with an Error-Detecting Protocol
Abstract
This paper describes a precognition experiment in which two re- searchers took the part of viewers, and worked with two judges to design and implement an experiment in associative remote viewing. We used a redun- dant protocol to eliminate some of the problems experienced by many of us who have tried to harness psi for real world applications. We carried out nine weeks of remote viewing trials, in which the viewer was to describe the target that he or she would be shown two days in the future. At each trial the view- ers had their own target pools of two targets about which they knew nothing. A total of 18 viewings were carried out at the rate of one per person per week. Targets were randomly assigned "up" or "down" status by the judges previ- ous to the viewing. If the viewers both accurately described targets of dis- crepant directions, then the trial was considered a pass. Additionally, if a viewer's target description failed to be awarded a rating of 4 or more on a 0-7 point rating scale, his or her call was declared a pass. Of the 12 viewings that were not rated pass by the judges, 11 correctly described the object that the viewer was shown at a later time @ = 0.003). The objects shown to each viewer corresponded to the direction of the one-day change in the price of May Silver futures. Of the nine trials carried out, two were passed for various reasons, and seven were recorded as traded in the market, although no pur- chases were actually made. Six of the seven trade forecasts were correct.
... However, because of the different experimental setups and uneven number of trials in the reported studies, it is unclear which factors might influence the hit rate and which hit rate is possible with a specific experimental setup. At first sight, it seems that the studies with less than ten trials (Harary & Targ, 1984;Targ et al., 1995 andSmith et al., 2014) were more successful than the studies with more trials. Statistically, there is a negative correlation between the number of trials and the hit rate (Spearman's Rho = -.81, ...
... For instance, Smith et al. (2014) believe that feedback was a crucial aspect in their experiment and an essential factor for their achieved results. Targ et al. (1995) see the feedback as the putative source of the psi information and propose it as part of a guideline for successful ARV experiments. ...
... In total, 38 out 48 trials were predicted correctly which amounts to a significant hit rate of 79.16%. This result is in alignment with earlier studies (e. g. Targ et al., 1995;Smith et al. 2014) and confirms the hypothesis that ARV is an applicable method to predict the future of a financial market above chance expectation. ...
Over the course of n = 48 valid trials we attempted to predict the binary (up vs. down) course of the German stock index DAX with the Associative Remote Viewing (ARV) method. 38 out of 48 predictions were correct which amounts to a highly significant hit rate of 79.16% (p = 2.3 x 10-5 , binomial distribution, B 48 (1/2); z = 3.897; ES = 0.56). A post-hoc analysis indicated that the session quality depended on the volatility of the stock index: The viewer's perceptions were clearer and less ambivalent when the stock index also had a larger point difference at the end of the prediction period. Additionally, we tested the hypothesis whether feedback is a necessary requirement for predictions with ARV. Both conditions (feedback vs. no feedback) were independently significant and did not differ significantly from each other (χ 2 = 0.505, p = 0.477). Therefore, we discuss potential features which might be necessary or limiting for successful predictions with ARV.
... Schmeidler (1977) wrote "find what a person perceives best and perceives less accurately, whether in vision, auditory, etc., then test the hypothesis in remote viewing that he will be most accurate and least accurate-in parallel ways" (p. 1). Other researchers who theorized that psi perception may mirror regular perception included Pratt et al. (1940), Mitchell (1981), Watt (1989), May and Lantz (1991), May et al., (1994aMay et al., ( , 1994b, Swann and Puthoff (1987), Targ et al. (1995), and Thorpe (2013). ...
... Types of objects used in successful free-response telepathy, clairvoyant, dream ESP, GESP, Ganzfeld, and remote viewing experiments and applied projects spanning the past 100 years have included: simple drawings (Carrington, 1941;Sinclair, 1930;Warcollier, 1948); video clips (Krippner & Zeichner, 1974;Storm et al., 2010); picture compilations or collages including a mixture of photos and cartoon-like drawings (Honorton, 1985;Krippner et al., 2018); photographs of real locations (Katz et al., 2019a(Katz et al., , 2019bMüller et al., 2019); actual locations (May et al., 1990;Schwartz, 1977Schwartz, , 2019Targ & Puthoff, 1977, 2005; and real objects (Mitchell, 1988;Targ & Puthoff, 1974Targ et al., 1995). ...
... The sheet allowed for the scoring of individuals' words and sketches. The Poquiz Scoring system (Poquiz, 2012a(Poquiz, , 2012b) is based on a systematic interpretation of the traditional SRI 7-point scale (Targ et al., 1995). Poquiz's interpretation uses numerically defined levels based on percentage values of correct and incorrect matches and the percentage value of unknown matches. ...
Photographic images of physical objects are common targets in remote viewing projects today. This exploratory experiment investigated whether the background within which the object is positioned may impact the accuracy of remote viewing. Twelve experienced remote viewers each completed 30 open-response, triple-blind remote viewing trials, requiring them to utilize extrasensory perception to describe the photographic image they would receive via email a few days later. Investigators created a photographic target pool of complex objects set within one of three background conditions: 1) White: devoid of information 2) Normal: a setting in which the object would typically be found. 3) Unusual: a setting which the object would typically not be found. Participants completed a total of 360 in-depth transcripts consisting of 8460 written descriptors and 1472 sketches. Two methods were used to analyze the transcripts for accuracy, the traditional sum of ranks matching procedure and an exploratory method involving the scoring of each item and sketch by both the participant and an independent judge. These two methods revealed significant but opposite differences for photographic targets of objects set within white backgrounds compared to the other two backgrounds. Better scores for targets with a white background were found for the traditional matching procedure, but worse scores were found for this background when each item and sketch were rated individually. In addition, the individual items and sketches were found to describe the target object more frequently than the background when normal or unusual backgrounds were present. Results suggest that object background can affect the outcome of remote viewing sessions, although the effect may depend on the scoring method applied.
Keywords: Remote viewing, target material, extrasensory perception, anomalous cognition, photographic target material.
... Twelve of 18 trials resulted in predictions and from these, seven forecasts were recorded as trades even though no monies were wagered. All but one of these were correct (Targ et al., 1995). ...
... Also of concern was inter-and intra-rater reliability. This led to the development of what is commonly referred to as the SRI seven-point confidence-ranking (CR) scale, also known as the "Targ" scale (Targ et al., 1995). ...
... Three of the six single judges and one of the judging pairs used the same scoring method as the original judges to arrive at their predictions. These judges used the SRI seven-point Confidence Ranking (CR) scale developed at SRI in the early 1970s (Targ et al., 1995) ...
Associative Remote Viewing (ARV) is a psi-based methodology used by individuals and for-profit organizations to predict such things as sporting-event outcomes, stock market moves, and for research purposes. Documented studies have shown the successful application of psi using ARV to predict future events, leading to profits, and unsuccessful applications, leading to losses. To better understand the contributing factors, 86 completed ARV trials, which included 220 remote viewing transcripts for individual sporting or financial events, were collected. Three teams of judges operating under blind conditions-some working independently, some working as teams-repeated the process of judging, scoring, and predicting, while keeping all other variables stable. To gauge inter-rater reliability, the new scores and predictions were compared to the original scores and predictions, as well as to each other. Rating variance was clearly demonstrated. Judges were in 100% agreement in only six (6.9%) of 86 trials. In seventeen trials (19.7%), eight of nine judges agreed with each other. Original judges did better than all new judges, and judges with more experience obtained statistically significant higher hit rates than less experienced judges. The results were virtually the same for the two ranking scales used. This project points to a variety of factors in need of further testing, both in future ARV projects and in parapsychology projects that involve independent judging of tasks and photosets.
... Over the years, scholars (Dunne & Jahn, 2003;Krippner et al., 2019;Targ et al., 1995) conducted many different process-oriented as well as applied investigations using the remote or perceptual viewing technique, including distant intention approaches of one individual helping another while meditating (Schmidt et al., 2019). The fact that no convincing theory has been developed so far which could explain Psi effects within the framework of psychological knowledge is particularly noteworthy. ...
... This distinction is relevant for the question of whether the RV-induced Psi effect is completely independent of time (effect present = effect future ) or if there is a dependence on temporal characteristics (effect present ≠ effect future ). The possibility of predicting the future has been investigated in a series of studies (Harary & Targ, 1985;Kolodziejzyk, 2012;Müller et al., 2019;Puthoff, 1984;Smith, 2009;Smith et al., 2014;Targ et al., 1995). In these studies, the observed hit rate, i.e. whether a prediction is correct or wrong, for binary events 2 was significantly higher than the expected value under the null hypothesis. ...
... These findings support the theoretical assumption that RV is not completely independent of the time dimension. There is ample evidence for remote viewing of future targets in prior ARV studies (e.g., Müller et al., 2019;Smith et al., 2014;Targ et al., 1995). The effect size in our study (ES (d) = 0.22) was indeed relatively small compared with prior studies. ...
In this process-oriented study, we examined the influence of the time dimension on Psi effects in two experimental conditions (present vs. future). For data collection, selected viewers with experience in the remote viewing method gathered information about targets that were distant in space (the present) and time (the future). The present condition was composed of binary truth statements consisting of two possible options related to current world knowledge. The future condition consisted of two options that were not yet determined at the time of viewing, but depended on the outcome of future mixed martial arts fights. According to the associative remote viewing (ARV) method, the binary outcomes of the present and future options were each associated with a photo, which had to be described by the viewers. An independent judge analyzed the viewers’ qualitative reports through binary correspondence ratings amounting to a hit (1) or no hit (0) per trial. Independently of the time condition, a Psi effect could be observed. The hit rates of the judge (0.88 and 0.62 for the present and future, respectively) were significantly higher than the expected value (0.5) under the null hypothesis (present: p < 0.001, ESP = 0.73; future: p = 0.027, ESF = 0.22; binomial distribution). In addition, the hit rates in the two time conditions differed significantly from each other (χ2 = 9.01; df = 1, p < 0.003). The results confirm the hypothesis that Psi is not completely independent of the time dimension and that the hit rate is influenced by a priori target probabilities. With regard to the Informational Psi (IΨ) theory, we will discuss the implications of a probabilistic future for the understanding of Psi effects.
... This may have led to the viewers describing the feedback photos from the upcoming trial, as opposed to the present one (Houck, 1986;Targ, 2012). Targ, Kantra, Brown and Wiegand (1995) repeated the earlier "silver experiment" carried out by Harary and Targ (1985), with some notable adjustments to the design. This included limiting trials to one per day per remote viewer, and adaptation of what the authors referred to as an "error detecting protocol", in which two remote viewers, rather than one, were utilized per trial to ensure that both their transcripts indicated the same target photo. ...
... ARV in the last couple of decades has also been the focus of formal research projects (Targ et al., 1995). However, a greater number of investigations have been conducted by remote viewing enthusiasts who operate outside of academia or formal research venues. ...
... Scoring of the match between dream transcripts and photos was conducted using the SRI 7 point Confidence Ranking (CR) scale. This scale was originally developed at SRI in the early 1970s (Targ et al., 1995) and ranges from zero to seven. Where a score of zero indicates no correspondence; a score of one when there is little correspondence; a score of two when there is some correspondence, but too little to indicate more than is operating at chance expectation. ...
This double-blind study utilised dreaming instead of remote viewing as a precognitive tool within an Associative Remote Viewing (ARV) protocol. In the spirit of Participatory Action Research, but using a quantitative design, a cohesive group of experienced remote viewers (who varied in experience) designed and participated in a year-long study that included 56 trials in which they attempted to have precognitive dreams that would enable them to produce descriptions and sketches that would match a photograph they would be shown at a future time. Five out of 7 remote viewers/dreamers were able to consistently produce dreams at will. Their 278 transcripts were utilized for the purpose of making predictions and wagers on the outcomes of sporting events. They produced an overall rate of 17 hits out of 28 predictions, which a binomial test showed to be marginally above chance (one-tailed). Nevertheless, the overall monetary gain was a little under 400 percent of the initial stake. Further, one individual dreamer had a 76 percent correct hit rate based on 13 hits and 4 misses with 20 passes, while another had 16 hits and 9 misses. These points are discussed along with the notion that raising the threshold of Confidence Ranking Scores (up to a CR of 6) for dream based ARV predictions may help to improve the overall hit rate.
... Despite the inadequate results of the second series, this protocol has become iconic and a model for additional ARV sessions (e.g., Puthoff, 1984, pp. 121-122;Targ et al., 1995;Rosenblatt, 2000;Smith, Laham, & Moddel, 2014). The sessions use the following basic methodology. ...
This study examined the importance of the judge and the particular investment selection in the associative remote viewing (ARV) process. In Protocol 1, ARV was used to predict investments and to generate funds. Three viewers made weekly predictions on Sunday about an image they would be shown on Friday. Two images were selected to represent different states of a stock (value increase or value decrease), and a judge reviewed the images and the viewers’ information. Based on the judge’s evaluation, a coordinator informed an investor whether to invest for the stock to rise or fall during the weekly session. Though the sessions lost funds due to a complication in the investment process, this was not the focus of the study. A second judge (Protocol 2) and a mock investment instrument (Protocol 3) were included, blinded to all study participants. The second judge (J2) performed at a significantly less accurate level than the first judge (p < 0.05), and J2 also performed significantly lower than could be expected by chance (p = 0.02; effect size = –1.498; power > .80). Both judges performed significantly differently on the target investment than on a control investment. Although this is a pilot study with a small sample size and a limited number of sessions, conclusions are that the selection of a judge, even a very experienced judge, can have a significant effect on the success of an ARV project and that judges’ decisions are more affected by the target investments than by a comparable control investment. Future ARV projects are advised to qualify judges for accuracy just as they qualify viewers for accuracy.
Keywords: associative remote viewing; ARV
... This raises the question: Why is this failed project, published in the JSE in early spring 2018, prior to the release of The Premonition Code, not presented right alongside Rosenblatt's self-reported successful series of trials? Also, why did the authors merely advise readers that a loss of investment could "possibly happen," when in fact it did happen, as cited above, and also in a much earlier project discussed in a paper by Targ et al. (1995) which was also published in the JSE as well? ...
In this issue we present commentaries on a remarkably simplistic critique of psi research published recently by Arthur Reber and James Alcock—hereafter, R&A (Reber & Alcock, 2019a, 2019b). I believe the rebuttals that follow, from Cardeña and others, effectively demolish R&A’s critique. But I also believe a few additional points are worth making. These highlight not only R&A’s ignorance of—indeed, refusal to consider—relevant data, but also their general conceptual naivete. And I’ll focus primarily on R&A’s assertion that alleged psi phenomena are impossible.
Note, R&A aren’t merely making the likewise inadequate but at least superficially more sophisticated claim that psi phenomena are initially improbable relative to some well-supported background theory. But even if we were to concede that the phenomena (including small-scale ESP and PK) are initially improbable relative to an accepted background theory, we’re still not compelled to deny their reality. We need only show that the direct evidence in their favor overrides their initial and conditional
improbability. That, I believe, is easy to do, but of course, R&A are fortified by their refusal to consider the data. Moreover (as some of the commentaries note), R&A greatly overestimate the level of support for what they take to be the background physical theory.
In any case, the more relevant points for now are these. First, there are serious reasons for thinking that no well-supported broad scientific theory (e.g., quantum physics, or the general or special theories of relativity) precludes the existence of any specific mental phenomenon, normal or paranormal. Arguably (I think persuasively), those phenomena are simply outside the domain of physics. I’ll return to this point shortly. For that matter, the existence of ESP is compatible even with theories of perception in psychology. Of course, those theories are much more limited in scope than the grand theories of physics or (say) evolutionary theory. So even if theories of perception did prohibit the existence of ESP, the failure of that prediction would matter little to science as a whole. But in fact, those theories merely describe the operation of the familiar or known sense modalities. It’s simply not their business to legislate the full range of possible forms of information acquisition or organic interaction. So if evidence leads us to accept the existence of previously unacknowledged perceptual modalities, psychology would simply find its domain expanded.
... This raises the question: Why is this failed project, published in the JSE in early spring 2018, prior to the release of The Premonition Code, not presented right alongside Rosenblatt's self-reported successful series of trials? Also, why did the authors merely advise readers that a loss of investment could "possibly happen," when in fact it did happen, as cited above, and also in a much earlier project discussed in a paper by Targ et al. (1995) which was also published in the JSE as well? ...
... This raises the question: Why is this failed project, published in the JSE in early spring 2018, prior to the release of The Premonition Code, not presented right alongside Rosenblatt's self-reported successful series of trials? Also, why did the authors merely advise readers that a loss of investment could "possibly happen," when in fact it did happen, as cited above, and also in a much earlier project discussed in a paper by Targ et al. (1995) which was also published in the JSE as well? ...
The Premonition Code is a warm, thought-provoking, introductory book for non-academic readers who are seeking to understand, explore and even expand their own precognitive experiences. Its strength lies in the rich and moving anecdotal stories told by people from all walks of life, including several scientists, whose accounts of precognitive dreams and waking premonitions will certainly be familiar and comforting to those who have had similar experiences and felt alone, or even questioned their own sanity.
The Premonition Code is co-authored by Dr. Julia Mossbridge and Theresa Cheung. Mossbridge holds a doctorate in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University and an MA in Neuroscience from the University of California at San Francisco. She is an Associate Professor in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. She is a co-author of Transcendent Mind: Rethinking the Science of Consciousness. Mossbridge has personally had precognitive dreams and other exceptional experiences throughout her life, and has recently begun studying remote viewing.
Theresa Cheung holds a Master’s degree in Theology and English from Kings College, Cambridge. She has authored close to a dozen popular books, including metaphysical “encyclopedias” and collections of stories about topics such as life after death, the angelic realm, and visitations from deceased loved ones. While Cheung comes from a long line of psychics and spiritualists, she states within the present book that she only recently became aware that formal research existed on extrasensory perception and precognition.
The Premonition Code provides a precursory exploration of mind bending questions such as does the future influence the past? Can the future be changed through will and intent in the present? What actually is time? Why do some aspects of premonitions seem to play out and not others? And what to do if someone has had a dream or vision of an impending disaster or a crime?
At the core of the book is the contention that readers should embrace their innate intuitive abilities by choosing to become a “positive precog,” defined as a person who seeks to develop and utilize precognition for the betterment of their own life, and that of others. The authors offer their own “positive precog principles” using the acronym REACH, which stands for: Respect for the unknown, Ethics, Accuracy, Compassion, and Honesty (p. 80).
... A replication attempt the following year tinkered with the protocol by, among other things, shortening the time interval between trials, thus confl ating the feedback by having viewers perform a subsequent trial before receiving feedback for the preceding one, and the experiment foundered (Targ 2012, Houck 1986). In 1995, Targ returned to the original protocol and again showed highly signifi cant results for a silver futures target (Targ, Katra, Brown, & Wiegand 1995). ...
Ten inexperienced remote viewers attempted to predict the outcome of the Dow Jones Industrial Average using associative remote viewing. For each trial in the experiment, each participant remotely viewed an image from a target set of two images, one of which he or she would be shown approximately 48 hours from that time. Of the two images in the target set, one corresponded to whether the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) would close up, while the other corresponded to whether it would close down at the end of the intervening trading day. For feedback, the viewers were shown only the picture actually associated with the actual market outcome. In aggregate, the participants described the correct images , successfully predicting the outcome of the DJIA in seven out of seven attempts (binomial probability test, p < .01). Investments in stock options were made based on these predictions, resulting in a significant financial gain.
... If one of the remote viewers failed to identify any target while the other succeeded, a "trade" was entered based on the target that was identified. In this experiment, the remote viewers accurately predicted the outcome of the silver market eleven out of twelve times (p = 0.003) [14]. ...
Remote viewing is set of related protocols that allow a viewer to intuitively gather information regarding a specific target that is hidden from physical view and separated from the viewer by either time or distance. Research suggests that the same processes used to gather spatially non-local information can also be used to gather information that is temporally removed from the observer. This paper reviews the most common protocols for remote viewing — including Coordinate Remote Viewing (CRV), Associative Remote Viewing (ARV), and Extended Remote Viewing (ERV).11I gratefully acknowledge the guidance of Emeritus Professor Oliver Markley, who served as a mentor for the research leading to this paper.This remains a controversial field of study. While over 30 years of data has been gathered with statistically significant results frequently occurring under laboratory conditions, skeptics are not convinced that RV is a useful pursuit. In addition to this, some of the output from RV can be vague and subject to personal interpretation.A number of factors have been shown to improve the success rate for remote viewing, including the use of experienced subjects, individual testing, feedback of results, and a short time-interval between the percipient response and the targeted future event. Finally, there also appears to be a relationship between the effectiveness of remote viewing efforts and sidereal time, which may be interpreted as evidence that some aspects of RV are subject to the same physical laws as are other phenomena studied by science.Remote viewing and related processes merit further exploration and study. While remote viewing may never be completely understood, it has the potential to make a meaningful contribution to the professional futurist′s toolbox.
... A casual scan of my collection of technical journals found four independent replications of remote viewing (Dunne and Bisaha, 1979;Schlitz and Gruber, 1980;Schlitz and Haight, 1984;and Targ et al., 1995). Rather than more replications as called for by AIR and Hyman, what is needed is a meta-analysis of all the AC studies to date and more attention on potential mechanisms. ...
As a result of a Congressionally Directed Activity, the Central Intelligence Agency conducted an evaluation of a 24-year, government-sponsored program to investigate ESP and its potential use within the Intelligence Community. The American Institutes for Research was contracted to conduct the review of both research and operations. Their 29 September 1995 final report was released to the public 28 November 1995. As a result of AIR's assessment, the CIA concluded that a statistically significant effect had been demonstrated in the laboratory, but that there was no case in which ESP had provided data that had ever been used to guide intelligence operations. This paper is a critical review of AIR's methodology and conclusions. It will be shown that there is compelling evidence that the CIA set the outcome with regard to intelligence usage before the evaluation had begun. This was accomplished by limiting the research and operations data sets to exclude positive findings, by purposefully not interviewing historically significant participants, by ignoring previous DOD extensive program reviews, and by using the questionable National Research Council's investigation of parapsychology as the starting point for their review. While there may have been political and administrative justification for the CIA not to accept the government's in-house program for the operational use of anomalous cognition, this appeared to drive the outcome of the evaluation. As a result, they have come to the wrong conclusion with regard to the use of anomalous cognition in intelligence operations and significantly underestimated the robustness of the basic phenomenon.
... This may not appear to be adequately justifi ed in a world that contains many mechanical devices capable of invisibly transmitting messages, such as cellphones, radio transmitters, and TV stations. However, veridical OBEs, whether connected to an NDE or not, sometimes also contain veridical information regarding communication from deceased persons, past-life memories, or information about the future (Stevenson & Samaratne 1988, Targ, Katra, et al. 1995, Rock & Beischel 2008, Paquette 2012. There is no mechanical counterpart to these last three types of information transmission because they involve information that, according to a non-paranormal explanation, is impossible to know. ...
The case for veridical out-of-body experiences (OBEs) reported
in near-death experiences might be strengthened by accounts of well-documented
veridical OBEs not occurring near death. However, such accounts
are not easily found in the literature, particularly accounts involving events
seen at great distances from the percipient. In this article, I seek to mitigate
this paucity of literature using my collection of dream journal OBE cases.
Out of 3,395 records contained in the database as of June 15, 2012, 226 had
demonstrated veridicality. This group divides into examples of precognition,
after-death communications, and OBEs. Of the OBEs, 92 are veridical.
The documentation involved is stronger than is normally encountered in
spontaneous cases, because it is made prior to confi rmation attempts, all
confi rmations are contemporaneous, and the number of verifi ed records is
large relative to the total number of similar cases in the literature. This database
shows that NDE-related veridical OBEs share important characteristics
of veridical OBEs that are not part of an NDE. Because the OBEs are similar,
but the conditions are not, skeptical arguments that depend on specifi c
physical characteristics of the NDE—such as the use of drugs and extreme
physical distress—are weakened. Other arguments against purported psi
elements found in veridical OBEs are substantially weakened by the cases
presented in this article.
... In both types of criticism, the problem is that there is no fi xed target against which the purportedly psi dream elements may be compared. Laboratory experiments allow researchers to work with a known number of variables by creating their own target sets, something that is theoretically impossible with spontaneous cases (Targ, Katra, Brown, & Wiegand 1995, Graff 2007, Bem 2011. Some researchers agree that spontaneous cases cannot be used effectively for evidential purposes: [Louisa Rhine] made no eff ort to corroborate the experiences or to obtain additional details. ...
A problem in spontaneous dream psi studies is validation of
purported psi elements. Dreams rarely have enough specifi city to satisfy
critics that they point to paranormal knowledge of a specifi c event. This creates
evidential hurdles to overcome when evaluating whether a dream contains
psi-derived information such as scenes of future events or physically
distant locations. In this study, the goal is to arrive at a reasonable method
to establish that information derived from spontaneous dream experiences
can be established as veridical. To accomplish this, a method for fi nding
the equivalent of a target within a spontaneous experience is used to fi x
a specifi c locale and time for comparison. Adverse scoring criteria are used
to address complaints about confi rmation bias. The result is a psi-adverse
method for scoring spontaneous experiences that are anchored to a specifi
c locale and time. This method regularly produced signifi cant p-values
when used to assess 20 consecutive dream records, comprising 598 individual
line items. These records were taken as a sample from a group of
3,305 dream records made over the past 22 years by the author.
... Each of the participants' responses was scored by the investigators as to how well it matched the operator's perception of a sample. The scoring system was developed based on similar scales developed for remote viewing (Targ et al., 1995) and mediumship readings (Beischel, 2007Beischel, /2008). Each of two investigators independently contemplated each participant response and provided a score as to how similar the sounds, syllables, and content were to the operator's reported perception of that sample. ...
This study asked: Can the presence of instrumental transcommunication (ITC) be objectively detected in sessions collected by an experienced operator using EVPMaker software producing a random stream of allophones (short speech elements)? Several aspects of ten Active Sessions were examined: (1) the distribution of the allophones generated; (2) independent, blinded listening panel interpretations of session samples; (3) content analysis of questions posed by the operator and her perceived responses; and (4) automated interpretation of session samples using speech recognition software (SRS). For analyses (1) and (2), 10 ITC-free Control Sessions collected by the investigators were used for comparison, and it was determined that no differences existed between the Active and Control Sessions regarding: (a) the allophones present and (b) the proportions of participants who recognized words in the samples. Analysis (3) revealed that the responses perceived by the operator did not consistently contain information that logically matched her questions, and analysis (4) demonstrated that SRS was unable to detect the phrases perceived by the operator. Future studies may wish to focus on the psychology and motivation of ITC operators; the impact of the perceived communication; and the potentially psi-conducive effects of using EVPMaker to acquire veridical information.
Keywords: electronic voice phenomena—instrumental transcommunication—EVP—ITC—speech recognition software—listening panel
... Weighted scores, such as those used by Saltmarsh (1929), Schmeidler (1958), or Robertson and Roy (2004), are not used because they presuppose a scale of importance based on specificity that may not reflect the " scale " of importance used by the sitter—the individual for whom the information was intended. Sitters also give each full list of items a summary/global numerical score (0-6) using AWRRS [based on scoring scales developed for remote viewing studies (Targ et al 1995): Some correct information, but not enough to suggest beyond chance that communication occurred. 1: Little correct information or communication. ...
As with the study of any natural phenomenon, bringing mediumship into the regulated environment of the laboratory allows for the controlled and repeated examination of anomalous information reception by mediums. It also lends statistically analyzed support to the survival of consciousness hypothesis and addresses the relationship between consciousness and brain. Optimally, laboratory-based mediumship research includes two equally important factors: a) a research environment that optimizes the mediumship process for both the medium and the hypothesized discarnate and b) research methods that maximize the experimental blinding of the medium, the rater, and the experimenter, in order to eliminate all conventional explanations for the information and its accuracy and specificity. The VERITAS Research Program utilizes several methods that build upon historical as well as modern mediumship investigations in order to meet these two research goals. The research methods discussed here include: the thorough screening of all research subjects (mediums, sitters/raters, and discarnates); research reading protocols; reading pairing and formatting; experimental blinding; and the scoring of readings by raters. Current data collected and published using these techniques is also briefly summarized.
This is the first meta-analysis of all studies related to remote-viewing tasks conducted up to December 2022. After applying our inclusion criteria, we selected 36 studies with a total of 40 effect sizes. Both frequentist and Bayesian meta-analyses revealed a strong average effect size of .34; 95% confidence interval: .22 -.45, after the exclusion of outliers, without signs of publication bias and a minimal decline effect. In terms of raw scores, these average results correspond to a difference in hits score of 19.3%; 95% confidence intervals:13.6%–25%, above the expected chance. Among the meta-analyses of moderators, a small nonstatistical difference emerged between the precognitive and clairvoyance tasks, particularly for those with an outbound agent. A comparison among meta-analyses results observed with other experimental protocols testing extrasensory perception showed the clear superiority of remote viewing. After more than 50 years of investigation into extrasensory perception, remote-viewing experimental protocols appear to be the most efficient for both experimental and practical applications.
This is the first meta-analysis of all studies related to remote viewing tasks conducted up to December 2022.
After applying our inclusion criteria, we selected 36 studies with a total of 40 effect sizes.
Both frequentist and Bayesian meta-analyzes revealed a strong average effect size of a minimum of .34; 95% confidence intervals.22 -.45, after the exclusion of outliers, without signs of publication bias and a tiny decline effect. In raw scores, these average results correspond to a difference in hits score of 19.3%; 95% confidence intervals:13.6%–25%, above the expected chance.
Among the meta-analyses of moderators, a small non-statistical difference emerged between the precognitive and clairvoyance tasks, particularly for those with an outbound agent.
A comparison with meta-analytical results observed with other experimental protocols testing extrasensory perception shows the clear superiority of remote viewing.
After more than 50 years of investigation of extrasensory perception, remote-viewing experimental protocols appear to be the most efficient for both experimental and practical applications.
Abstract
In this double blind Associative Remote Viewing Project, 41 moderate to highly experienced Remote Viewers were tasked with describing a feedback photo they would see at a future date. The photo was to be associated with the winner of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Researchers compared the remote viewers written transcripts to a set of four photos – two associated with to the Republican and Democratic frontrunners, one with a third party candidate option and one with an impossible option that served as the control group. A formal prediction was issued for a short period with some viewers being exposed to it and some not, in order to assess whether exposure to a potentially wrong prediction might result in displacement to the wrong photo. Other variables such as viewer preferences and voting behaviors were also assessed. Based on the suggestion to reject the null hypothesis during the hypothesis test summary a Wilcoxon test was conducted to assess the judge’s scoring value of viewer transcript across photos. The results indicated a significant difference where, z = -3.147, p<.01. The mean of the ranks of Hillary (the popular vote front-runner) was 13.71, while the mean of the ranks in favor of Trump (the electoral vote front-runner) was 17.28. Results indicated that rather then describing the photo the remote viewers consciously saw at the future date, they instead tuned into photos they would not see. Why did this happen? Is a large group consensus based approach really the best to use in projects such as these? And what does this mean for the future of Associative Remote Viewing projects that encounter similar incidents of displaced psi despite what seems to be a logical and theoretically sound design?
In this double-blind, free-response, exploratory experiment, 39 remote viewers used their intuitive skills and training to describe a Bacteriophage, which is a virus that attacks bacteria. Viewers submitted 83 sessions, producing 3,263 descriptors to be analyzed through the use of four methods and levels of analysis, including an innovative “big data” method of adding all perceptions together to find the top repeating words with the idea that this might provide insights into the undisclosed research question: “What triggers replication?” Remote Viewers also provided dozens of detailed sketches containing high correspondence to known models of Phages. Researcher 1, Lance Beem, is a biologist specializing in plant pathology, physiology, entomology, and nematology for the past 30 years, in addition to being a remote viewer himself. He recruited expert virologists over a two-year period and reported his interactions with them. Five of 16 virologists who were personally approached agreed to participate as raters. Additionally, all 39 viewers participated in an extensive biographic survey evaluating past experience, methodologies, preparation techniques, number of words used in a session, time spent on sessions, etc. This project’s proposal was the first recipient of the IRVA/IRIS Warcollier Award (2011). It was preceded by two years of preliminary experiments involving thousands of double-blind forced-choice trials in which remote viewers attempted to identify the presence of the Tomato Mosaic Virus in plants. The entire project operated with a budget of only $2,000. In all, about 60 people were involved.
This paper presents results from a 13-year experiment using a unique approach to the associative remote viewing (ARV) protocol which allows a single operator to conduct the full ARV process beginning to end. A total of 5,677 ARV trials were conducted from May 11, 1998, to September 26, 2011. of these, 52.65% were correct in predicting the outcome of their respective future events (whereas only 50% would be expected by chance), yielding a statistically significant score of z = 4.0. These 5,677 trials addressed a total of 285 project questions. Most of these project questions were intended to predict the outcome of a given futures market. of these project questions, 60.3% were answered correctly, resulting in a statistically significant z = 3.49. By increasing the number of trials in a project question, and giving more weight to higher subjective confidence scores reflecting the quality of the match between the remote viewing and one of the two target images, the success rate increased to above 70%. One hundred eighty-one project questions resulted in actual futures trades where capital was risked. Of these, 60% of the trades were profitable, amounting to approximately $146,587.30.
As with the study of any natural phenomenon, bringing mediumship into the regulated environment of the laboratory allows for the controlled and repeated examination of anomalous information reception by mediums. It also lends statistically analyzed evidence regarding the survival of consciousness hypothesis and addresses the relationship between consciousness and brain. Ideally, laboratory-based mediumship research includes 2 equally important factors: (a) a research environment that optimizes the mediumship process for bodi the medium and the hypothesized discarnate and (b) research methods that maximize the experimental blinding of the medium, the rater, and the experimenter in order to eliminate all conventional explanations for the information and its accuracy and specificity. The Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential utilizes several mediods that build upon historical as well as modern mediumship investigations in order to meet diese 2 research goals. The research mediods discussed include: detailed research reading protocols; the pairing and formatting of readings; experimental blinding; the thorough screening of all research participants; and a specific scoring system used by raters.
Since ancient times, spiritual teachers have described paths and practices that a person could follow to achieve health, happiness, and peace of mind. Considerable recent research has indicated that any sort of spiritual practice is likely to improve one's prognosis for recovering from a serious illness. Many of these approaches to spirituality involve learning to quiet the mind rather than adhering to a prescribed religious belief. These meditative paths include the mystic branches of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity; Kabalistic Judaism; Sufism; and many others. What is hinted at in the subtext of these teachings is that as one learns to quiet his or her mind, one is likely to encounter psychic-seeming experiences or perceptions. For example, in The Sutras of Patanjali, the Hindu master tells us that on the way to transcendence we may experience all sorts of amazing visions, such as the ability to see into the distance, or into the future, and to diagnose illnesses and to cure them. However, we are told not to get attached to these psychic abilities--they are mere phenomena standing as stumbling blocks on the path to enlightenment. In this article, we describe the laboratory evidence for some of these remarkable phenomena and their implications for science, mental health, and peace of mind.
Investigating the information reported by mediums is ultimately important in determining the relationship between brain and consciousness in addition to being of deep concern to the public.
This triple-blind study was designed to examine the anomalous reception of information about deceased individuals by research mediums under experimental conditions that eliminate conventional explanations.
Eight University of Arizona students served as sitters: four had experienced the death of a parent; four, a peer. Eight mediums who had previously demonstrated an ability to report accurate information in a laboratory setting performed the readings.
To optimize potential identifiable differences between readings, each deceased parent was paired with a same-gender deceased peer. Sitters were not present at the readings; an experimenter blind to information about the sitters and deceased served as a proxy sitter. The mediums, blind to the sitters' and deceased's identities, each read two absent sitters and their paired deceased; each pair of sitters was read by two mediums. Each blinded sitter then scored a pair of itemized transcripts (one was the reading intended for him/her; the other, the paired control reading) and chose the reading more applicable to him/her.
The findings included significantly higher ratings for intended versus control readings (p = 0.007, effect size = 0.5) and significant reading-choice results (p = 0.01).
The results suggest that certain mediums can anomalously receive accurate information about deceased individuals. The study design effectively eliminates conventional mechanisms as well as telepathy as explanations for the information reception, but the results cannot distinguish among alternative paranormal hypotheses, such as survival of consciousness (the continued existence, separate from the body, of an individual's consciousness or personality after physical death) and super-psi (or super-ESP; retrieval of information via a psychic channel or quantum field).
For more than 100 years, scientists have attempted to determine the truth or falsity of claims for the existence of a perceptual channel whereby certain individuals are able to perceive and describe remote data not presented to any known sense. This paper presents an outline of the history of scientific inquiry into such so-called paranormal perception and surveys the current state of the art in parapsychological research in the United States and abroad. The nature of this perceptual channel is examined in a series of experiments carried out in the Electronics and Bioengineering Laboratory of Stanford Research Institute. The perceptual modality most extensively investigated is the ability of both experienced subjects and inexperienced volunteers to view, by innate mental processes, remote geographical or technical targets including buildings, roads, and laboratory apparatus. The accumulated data indicate that the phenomenon is not a sensitive function of distance, and Faraday cage shielding does not in any apparent way degrade the quality and accuracy of perception. On the basis of this research, some areas of physics are suggested from which a description or explanation of the phenomenon could be forthcoming.