Experiments in PSI; Exploring our Sixth Sense

By Robin M. Strom Mackey

Within the community of paranormal investigators the existence of extra-sensory perception (ESP) or the modern term PSI (pronounced either by its initials P-S-I or like the word “sigh”) comes up often.  The term Psi is coined from the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet, ψ (Wikipedia.org, 2013). When first starting out in the paranormal field I was often confused by the connection between two seemingly unconnected phenomena. What, I wondered, did extra-sensory perception have to do with ghost hunting?  And why were those in the paranormal community so concerned with this line of inquiry? With time and study it finally became apparent that many of the theories about how we perceive spirits derived from the very notion of PSI. And some notions of paranormal activity were based solely on a person’s ability to tap into their PSI.  

 

Case in point, the prevailing theory behind poltergeist activity (poltergeist meaning noisy ghost) is that the activity is generated by a human host, normally an adolescent. Objects moving, disappearing, reappearing or even exploding (in the more sensational cases), is thought to be caused by an adolescent agent via the power of the mind.  Often these agents are unaware that they’re manipulating the environment in violent or unpleasant ways, in effect blowing off teenage angst in a subconscious manner.  Such displays are known as psychokinesis, a type of psi, which is the ability to control inanimate objects with the force of the mind.  

 

More importantly, the mere ability to perceive an apparition has long been postulated to be a product of PSI.  Frank Podmore, council member for the Society of Psychical Research (SPR), was the first to propose the theory that apparitions were a result of, “telepathically induced hallucinations (Podmore, 1909)” suggesting that they occurred spontaneously and without the percipient’s knowledge. 

 

George N.M.  Tyrell, also a SPR council member, suggested a telepathic connection to apparitional sightings. He noted the hallucinatory effect, occurred either consciously or unconsciously.  He noted that most first-hand accounts of apparitions did not include physical evidence.  For example, one might hear footsteps stomping in the attic, but on closer look no physical evidence of foot prints could be perceived.  Tyrell suggested that the apparition plants such experiences in the unconscious, and the information eventually moves to the conscious part of the recipient’s brain – especially in telepathic crises situations.  

 

Tyrell described telepathic episodes using a metaphor of a stage drama. Behind the scenes (the unconscious or supra-liminal mind) the message is received. The “stage carpenter” builds from this a “dramatic message.” Tyrell suggested that the dramatic message resided in a mid-level of consciousness much like an actor waiting in the wings to step out onto the floor. In the final, “apparitional drama the idea moves out from the shadows where it is received as a “quasi-perceptual” experience perceived so that it embodies paranormal information in a symbolic way (Schumacher, 2012).” For example, a person drowning at a distance appears to the recipient as standing in sodden clothing, appealing for help (Schumacher, Wikipedia, 2012).

 

J. B. Rhine first coined the phrase extra-sensory perception (ESP) in 1934 in a book by that title.  Conducting PSI studies at Duke University from the 1920’s-1960’s, Rhine was the creator of the infamous ESP cards, and is considered one of the fathers of modern Psi studies. The term Psi itself is an umbrella term which includes ESP (telepathy, clairvoyance) PK (psychokinesis) and phenomena suggesting after-death survival of the soul. 

 

The most cogent argument why one should achieve at least a working knowledge of PSI was written by Dr. Dean Radin in his book The Unconscious Mind.  Radin stated: 

 

 “Eventually, investigators realized that virtually all the interesting evidence for survival-related phenomena could also be explained as telepathy by the medium, so research efforts began to shift to telepathy. In addition, telepathy lent itself to controlled laboratory investigation, whereas survival research did not….

 

It may seem odd that it took any time at all to go from systematic research on survival phenomena, to telepathy research, and then to clairvoyance, before it was realized that the fundamental issue in all cases was the nature of psi perception (Radin, 93).” 

 

Thus Radin explains that paranormal research was deflected away from survival phenomena which had been the main thrust of the SPR at the height of the Spiritualist Movement and toward a concerted study of PSI. Investigation of other paranormal activity (UFO’s, Big Foot, ghosts etc.) then became the purview of the weekend enthusiast. There were two reasons for the shift. First, Psi was the component in paranormal experiences and thus needed to be understood. But secondly, the original members of the SPR were mainly scientists.

 

PSI became their mainstay because it could be studied in a laboratory and under scientific parameters.  In short PSI could be scrutinized under careful scientific parameters, the experiments duplicated time and again.  Furthermore, the scientists studying the phenomenon could hone their scientific methods, creating better experiments that could be replicated in a laboratory - thus building credence with the scientific community (which has long been dubious) and building a base of evidence in support of PSI.  Dr. Dean Radin who wrote perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of what amounts to thirty or more years of study in the area of Psi surmises that studies into the existence of PSI proves, via a growing body of evidence, that PSI not only exists, but is a mostly untapped ability that even normal people possess.

 

Telepathy

 

We should begin our discussion of Psi by differentiating between telepathy and clairvoyance.  Telepathy is a type of PSI sent out by an agent or a “sender” possibly directed to a distinct “receiver.” For example, Mom passes away at midnight in New Hampshire. At exactly twelve in Rhode Island her son Clarence is awoken from a deep sleep by the sound of his mother’s call. In the corner of his room he sees his mother beckoning to him. Slowly, as he watches, Mom waves good bye and fades from view.  This is an example of a telepathic event with a sender, Mom, and a distinct receiver, Clarence. It is an exchange between two people without any known physical communication or sensory exchange. Also note there is no lag in time or distance. Exchanges occur at the exact moment, no matter how great the distance between the two involved. In his article entitled “Telepathy” for Explorer.com, Mario Varvoglis, Ph.D. explains that this particular anecdote covers two other requirements for categorizing something as a telepathic event: first it occurs between two family members and second, it involves a life-threatening event (Varvoglis, 2007).

 

 Varvoglis goes on to suggest that many have used a telephone-line metaphor. True, he says, telepathy involves a sender to send a thought transmission and a receiver to receive and interpret the message. This is, however, where the language breaks down. Unlike a telephone line or an internet connection which takes time for a message to move across space, telepathy requires no such delay. In other words the sender and the receiver communicate simultaneously no matter how great a distance. And it isn’t merely verbal messages that can be received, but also raw emotion such as panic or an unconscious level of physiological arousal.

 

The latest psi experiments have been focusing on physiological responses (body responses) to telepathy. They have placed sensors on the skin of "receivers" and connected them to Galvanic Skin Response monitors (GSR) as a device that measures the skin’s conductance. Varvoglis contends this is a sensitive device for measuring minor psychological disturbances - many of which occur below the conscious level.  

 

In these experiments a sender is located in a separate room with no access to the receiver. The sender is instructed to alternate between periods of thinking about the receiver and periods of rest. Correlation of the data appears to demonstrate that the GSR indicates greater skin conductivity levels by the receiver when the sender is actively transmitting than during periods when the sender is resting. While the receivers aren't able to consciously determine periods of activity from rest, it appears that on a physiological level their bodies know.

 

Varvoglis notes these recent body-psi experiments have redefined the study of psi and as such transference appears to resemble Tyrell’s theory of an “apparitional drama.”  Instead of the image of a telepathic message being received as a visual billboard in the mind, more often telepathic information may be picked up on an unconscious, physiological level where it may remain in the unconscious. It may also be only partially perceived - perhaps as a heightened awareness of unexplained anxiety. Or, the information may be delayed from transferring to the conscious mind until the mind is relaxed and thus open to receiving messages (for example during sleep).  

 

Therefore Varvoglis notes a difference between reception of psi messages and the conscious detection of the messages, noting we probably receive far more psi information than we ever consciously know. "So, while reception of psi may be occurring all the time, detection depends upon the complex interaction of a number of psychological and bodily conditions Varvoglis, 2007)." 

 

It appears that our busy, hectic lives create a type of block to receiving psi information. Our conscious minds are so focused on our day-to-day thoughts that we create a type of white noise that effectively blocks out subtle, quieter signals the brain may receive. But when the brain is relaxed and the blizzard of thoughts is diminished, thoughts in our unconscious queue can actually be processed. With this in mind, psi researchers first began doing dream research, and later created the ganzfield experiments as attempts to quiet receiver’s minds so that they were more open to receiving PSI information.  

 

In the mid-1970s, [the late] Charles Honorton and William Braud independently arrived at the ganzfield experiment in which a receiver (test subject) was placed in a sensory-reduced state. The subjects were placed in a quiet room. They had halved Ping-Pong balls placed over their eyes to reduce light and visual images from being processed. Over their ears were placed head-sets which transmitted a white-noise signal (like being in between radio stations. Researchers felt that this placed subjects in a "uniform-sensory state" which brought on a state of consciousness somewhere between wakefulness and sleep.

 

The experiments used pictures randomly selected by a computer and transmitted onto a television screen to the sender alone (the experimenters do not see the images either). The pictures selected were usually landscape scenes which the sender would then attempt to describe telepathically to the sensory-deprived receiver. After the sending-receiving period the receiver is shown four images. One is the actual image and the other three are decoys. Pure chance alone dictates that a receiver will have one chance in four of identifying the correct image. Ganzfield research now spanning more than 20 years of repetition and over one thousand test subjects has proven that receivers choose the correct images as a first guess far more often that pure chance dictates. Not only does it happen more often than statistical chance allows, but it happens to normal people, people who don't claim to psychic abilities, as well as those who claim to have heightened telepathic abilities. Psi researchers speculate that psi is an ability we all inherently possess in some amount. For most of us psi is ability primarily undeveloped and undetectable. 

 

Clairvoyance

 

Clairvoyance on the other hand is telepathic information out there in the “ether” to be picked up or perceived by whoever has the ability to do so. It is a French term meaning “clear seeing.” In the parapsychology community it has also been known as remote viewing. Dr. Dean Radin notes a distinction between the two types of psi phenomenon. Clairvoyance, he notes, is different from telepathy in the fact that no one “sends” the information that is received. “That is, information is obtained from a distant or hidden location, beyond the ordinary bounds of space and time (Radin, 1997).” While clairvoyance literally means “clear seeing” the actual psi perceptions can also resemble sound, called “clairaudience,” or smell, touch, or taste, called “clairsentience.” It should be noted that clairvoyance would also help explain the existence of residual haunts, messages imprinted in the environment and received and decoded by whoever happened into the environment with the powers to do so.

 

It should be noted that experiments in remote viewing were taken so seriously by the U.S. government that they ran experiments in remote viewing in the 1970’s through the 1990’s which totaled  some $20 million in expenditure.  Known telepathics were chosen for these experiments. For the intelligence community, development of such a program would be very valuable. A telepathic in a sensory-reduced state might possibly be able to view distant locations and gather intelligence information with little or no expense or threat to personnel. The studies started at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) a think-tank affiliated with the university. They later became the purview of the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) (Radin, 1997) and were a joint venture investigated by the CIA, Navy, Army, NASA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.  Needless to say the study was inconclusive. Under some experiments the percipient was able to detect significant information and describe in detail physical details of distant locations. Under other situations the information was less reliable. The research was halted in 1994. 

 

Radin notes that the distinction between telepathy and clairvoyance may be arcane. He notes that “It…proved to be nearly impossible to create a test for pure telepathy that could not also be explained as clairvoyance (Radin, 1997).” In other words whether the message was being sent by a sender, or was simply being picked up in the environment was impossible to determine, and probably not a significant a distinction.

 

Precognition

 

You’re driving behind a truck carrying logs in the right lane.  For no known reason you feel anxious. Therefore you change to the left lane and speed up, passing the truck.  Seconds later, the truck drops its load of logs, spilling them onto the road behind. “Lord, I could have been killed,” you think.  What was this sense that told you to get out of the way just in the nick of time? Psi researchers would call it precognition or the ability to sense the future before it actually happens.  

 

Precognition is as its name implies the ability to gain information consciously about a future event in which the information could not be arrived at by the usual means. It is a general ability, says Radin, which is not dependent on time or space. Variations on the idea include premonitions - unconsciously gaining information about a future event. Presentiment - the ability to sense future emotions. Radin goes on to complicate the matter by noting that telepathy, “real-time” clairvoyance and precognition may simply be a difference in semantics not a difference in abilities. “Instead the vast majority of both anecdotal and empirical evidence for perceptual psi suggests that the evidence can all be accommodated by various forms of precognition (Radin, 1997).” He notes that all types of perceptual psi might be explained by the fact that we all occasionally “run into our own futures (Radin, 1997).” 

 

To research precognition Radin conducted an experiment. They selected college student volunteers and sat them in front of monitors. The monitors were designed to display images, one at a time with several seconds of blank screen in between each viewing.  The images were divided into two groups, pictures of landscapes etc. which were to elicit a calming effect on the viewer, and disturbing images such as violent scenes. In between images the screen was a blank grey. The images were presented randomly so that the viewer never knew whether the next image would be disturbing or calming.  Each volunteer had electrodes attached to two fingers of one hand to measure skin conductivity (electro dermal activity). They were also monitored for heart rate and the amount of blood at the fingertip. The signals were monitored by a computer. Viewers that had the usual response to an emotional image displayed an autonomic nervous system change (in other words a stress response) that demonstrated predictable physiological changes: heart rate dropped blood volume in the finger dropped and electro dermal activity (sweat gland activity) increased. Calming images had the opposite effect or calming effect on the physiology of the participant.  

 

What the researchers noticed was that the participants began pre-sensing their future emotional state. If a disturbing image was next, while the screen was still grey, the volunteers would be already displaying physiological changes of the autonomic system.  When asked after the experiment whether the volunteers had consciously sensed or knew when an emotional image was to be displayed the volunteers said that they had not. Yet their bodies had sensed it, indicating as Radin concludes, that presentiment “is a largely unconscious process (Radin, 1997).” Once again the results were significantly above chance indicating that precognition is an ability that most people possess. 

 

Pyschokinesis (Telekinesis)

 

Psychokinesis or PK is formulated from the Greek words kinesis meaning movement and psyche meaning mind (also sometimes referred to as telekinesis). Someone with this ability would be able to move objects or manipulate objects with their mind. Think Uri Geller the spoon-bending performer from the 70's or the table tipping craze of the 19th century. Varvoglis contends that this type of macro-PK, i.e. a person with this amount of PK, and with the ability to control it at will, as a very rare occurrence. Thus studying macro-psychokinesis is extremely difficult under laboratory conditions.  

 

Think instead micro-PK, or the ability to change small things with one's will. J.P. Rhine, researcher at Duke University was approached one day by a young man who claimed he could control the roll of the dice far more often than mere chance allowed. Rhine agreed to observe and noted that indeed the young man seemed to be able to influence the wee squares far more often than chance dictated. Rhine was intrigued and modern PK research was born.  

 

PK experiments have centered on mundane, random variables. Take a coin toss for example. Given chance, if a coin, equally weighted on both sides, is tossed 100 times, it should land heads-up 50 times and tails-up 50 times. Therefore, a researcher would direct a test subject to impose their will on a coin, attempting to influence it to land heads-up. If in 100 tosses heads comes up 67 times, then the results are above the chance level. Perform such coin tosses repeatedly, using different test subjects, and if the results summed up continue to exceed the chance level, then the experiment would suggest the possibility of PK.

 

Indeed many such experiments have been done with coins and dice, and taken cumulatively the results have come out consistently above chance. In fact Varvoglis notes, "The dice results coming out of Rhine’s lab and elsewhere were highly significant (Radin, & Ferrari, 1991, Varvoglis, 2007)."

 

But there were concerns raised that not all of the experiments were carefully controlled. For example, if a coin is slightly heavier on one side, it may tend to fall on that side more often than the other, thus not falling randomly. The same can be said about dice. Parapsychology researchers were searching for a device that truly and indisputably created randomness.  

 

German physicist Helmut Schmidt introduced a new device called a Random Number Generator (RNG or REG) for psi research -- "devices which, on the basis of microphysical events (such as radioactive decay, or electronic noise in chips)," would produce truly unpredictable, random numbers (Varvoglis, 2007)." In the 1980's, the RNG's which had been stand-alone devices were integrated with PC's which revolutionized psi research. In the experiments test subjects sat down in front of monitors which displayed random media - be it a virtual coin toss or dice roll. Several different interfaces were developed.

 

The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Laboratory (PEAR) out of Princeton University has undoubtedly been the greatest contributor in the area of RNG research. One of their first devices displayed a simple interface which showed arrows to indicate a "toss of a coin." If more "heads" were thrown by the RNG then an up arrow appeared. If more "tails," a down arrow was displayed. When the tosses were equal a horizontal line showed on the screen. In a truly random pattern the display should indicate some up arrows, some down arrows, with most of the tosses hugging the horizontal line.  

 

During tests, a subject was instructed to attempt to move the arrow either up or down, thereby influencing the computer. Varvoglis notes that testers were encouraged to try different techniques in order to move the arrow in the direction they desired. They might envision the arrow moving in their mind, or they might try to will the arrow to move. Once they learned a personal system for influencing the arrow. The results showed a subtle but definite ability of test subjects to influence the RNG above chance. Once again, the test subjects were normal people with normal abilities, indicating that even the average person has some innate ability to wield control of a small scale on their environment.  Literally hundreds of studies were done by researchers all demonstrating results above chance, contributing significant proof to the existence of PK. 

 

But the ability to influence the pointing direction of an arrow hardly appears to be ability with widespread application or significance. But consider the advantages if you could learn to control small but significant manipulables in your environment. Varvoglis points out that the PEAR laboratory also designed an experiment using Biofeedback machines that indicated normal people had the ability to influence their own physiological responses.  

 

Biofeedback machines are devices with sensors that can be attached to a subject. The sensors are able to monitor small physiological changes such as changes in temperature or the contraction of a muscle. These devices have been used for several years by medical practitioners to help retrain patients to use their bodies. For example, a therapist might use a biofeedback machine to help a stroke patient relearn certain muscle movements in an arm. The patient attempts to move a specific muscle and if the muscle actually contracts the machine indicates success. If the muscle isn't moved the machine indicates a failure. With constant feedback a patient learns which movements are successful and how to initiate those movements. 

 

In psi experiment the biofeedback machines have been attached to test subjects and the subjects instructed to attempt to control certain small fluctuations in their physiology such as body temperature. After several attempts with feedback the subjects learned how to control their own thermostats, making small changes in their own body temperature. Varvoglis concludes, "As it turns out, after a few such sessions, people can learn a very refined form of control over these subtle aspects of their body -- which we once considered completely beyond conscious control -- and can learn to mentally cure a number of problems, such as headaches, stress-related diseases and so forth (Varvoglis, 2012)."

 

Collective PK and the Power of Prayer

 

So if one individual, a normal individual at that, has the ability to control small factors of their environment, what if these powers combined with the abilities of others? Could they combine? And if so would the combined PK be stronger than individual PK? And could their combined forces shape more than just micro-events in their environment? Could they have the power to heal the sick or change the world? 

 

The most obvious outlet for such an experiment would be the ability of a group of people, a congregation perhaps, to influence the recovery of an ill person via the power of prayer. The father of psychology and former SPR president William James once wrote, “No mental modification ever occurs which is not accompanied or followed by a bodily change (Radin, 1997).” There has been a growing interest in the medical field as to whether the mind can aid the body in the recovery of illness.  Studies on intercessory prayer have been conducted by psychologists and physicians to determine if prayer aids in the recovery of patients. Unfortunately, the results have been inconclusive. 

 

In 1988, physician Randolph Byrd published the results of a double-blind study on the effects of intercessory prayer on coronary care patients at San Francisco General Hospital. Patients were divided into two groups: one that received prayer and one that did not. The names and diagnoses of 193 patients were sent to various religious organizations with the request that they receive prayer. The similar group with similar ages and diagnoses was not prayed for.  

 

The study found that the group that had prayed for were five times less likely to need antibiotics, three times less likely to develop coronary edema (swelling), and none required endotracheal intubation (an emergency procedure in which a tube is placed

 

down the mouth or the nose). Finally, fewer patients who had received prayer died. While this appears positive the final results showed only a 5% to 7% health improvement of the prayed for group over the control group. So while prayer might have improved the health of the individuals, Radin admits that prayer or mental healing did not appear to be a “particularly robust method” towards recovery (Radin, 1997). 

 

The study came under attack by the scientific community for several reasons, methodology being one area of concern.  However, it sparked the attention of the medical community leading to studies of remote healing on everything from plants to people.  

 

In 2006 The American Heart Journal published a similar study of cardiac patients in 6 U.S. hospitals that appeared to refute the power of intercessory prayer. They divided patients awaiting CABG’s (coronary artery bypass graft surgery) randomly into three categories. In group one, 604 patients were told that they might or might not receive prayer but did receive prayer. Group two (597 patients) was informed that they may or may not receive prayer and did not receive intercessory prayer. And 601 patients in group three were both informed that they would receive intercessory prayer and received such. 

 

Prayer was provided for fourteen days, starting the evening before the surgeries, for group’s one and three.  The team decided that the lack of any complication from the surgeries within 30 days, and the lack of any secondary outcomes (major event or mortality would indicate positive results. The author concluded: 

 

"In the 2 groups uncertain about receiving intercessory prayer, complications occurred in 52% (315/604) of patients who received intercessory prayer versus 51% (304/597) of those who did not (relative risk 1.02, 95% CI 0.92-1.15). Complications occurred in 59% (352/601) of patients certain of receiving intercessory prayer compared with the 52% (315/604) of those uncertain of receiving intercessory prayer (relative risk 1.14, 95% CI 1.02-1.28). Major events and 30-day mortality were similar across the 3 groups (Am Heart, 2006)."

 

The study concluded that intercessory prayer had no effect on complication-free recovery from CABG surgery, and that it might actually be deleterious to recovery, as the 2 prayer groups actually suffered more complications than the other non-prayer group (Am Heart, 2006).  “One of the investigators, Dr. W. Bethea, said it is possible, ‘that being aware of the strangers' prayers may have caused some of the patients a kind of performance anxiety… It may have made them uncertain, wondering am I so sick they had to call in their prayer team (Gaudi, 2007)?’”

 

The Last Word?

 

In 2004 the Office of Internal Medicine at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) published its meta-analysis of 14 such prayer studies, concluding that, “’There is no scientifically discernible effect for Intercessory Prayer (IP) as assessed in controlled studies. Given that the IP literature lacks a theoretical or theological base and has failed to produce significant findings in controlled trials, we recommend that further resources not be allocated to this line of research (Gaudia, 2007).’”

 

Suffered complications, compared with 51% of those who were uncertain Professor Emeritus, Dr. Gil Gaudia editorialized that whether the results of prayer studies were positive or negative was probably more dependent on psychosomatic effects of the patients or statistical artifacts.

 

PK and RNGS - Order out of Chaos

Another line of study dealing with combined PK has been ongoing since 1998.  Known as the Global Consciousness Project, or EGG project, the researchers theorized that if a normal person could influence their environment on a small scale, then a number of like-minded individuals could exert even more influence collectively if and when they were combined in thought and intent.  Over time the researchers have set up 70 random number generators at various locations around the world.  The RNG’s take synchronized, 200-bit trials every second.  The theory was this. During times when nothing significant was occurring in the world the RNG’s would record random results.  However, during times when a mass of the population turned its attention and its intent on one significant event, the random number generators would indicate the massed consciousness by indicating decreased randomness.  In other words, they theorized that a mass of humanity could consciously create order out of chaos with their collective minds. Such catastrophic events such as the World Trade Center bombing of 2001 showed a significant decrease in the randomness of the RNG's. So too other less significant events such as an Academy Awards ceremony or the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square have suggested an increase in combined consciousness by a decrease of randomness recorded by the RNG’s (Radin, Nelson, Bancel, 2013).

 

Conclusion

 

So too this article has attempted to bring order out of the chaos that is literally the hundreds of experiments and research projects dealing with psi. For a truly comprehensive account of psi research consider reading The Conscious Universe; The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena written by Dean Radin, PhD. For a quicker, and easier, breakdown of psi research check out the website psiexplorer.com authored by Radin’s contemporary Mario Varvoglis, PhD. Readers should know as well that this article was meant to cover only the major classifications of psi research. There are other related psi abilities that have not been covered fully.  An explanation of clairsentience can be found in the article “Haunted Objects,” available on this blog. And finally, any honest discussion of the existence of psi should point out that the scientific community remains highly skeptical of the research results of psi experiments. More than one hundred years after the Spiritualist Movement, parapsychologists have still not achieved the respect or the support of the scientific community. 

 

Resources

 

Anonymous (2012). Apparitional Experience. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparitional_experience on March 21, 2013.

 

Am Heart J. (2006). “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer.” The American Heart Journal. Apr;151(4):934-42. Retrieved online March 23, 2013 at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16569567

 

Gaudia, Gil PhD. Professor Emeritus (2007). “About Intercessory Prayer: The Scientific Study of Miracles” MedGenMed. 9(1): 56.  Published online 2007 March 20. Retrieved March 23, 2013 at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1924985/. 

 

Nelson, Roger (2009) the Global Consciousness Project; Meaningful Correlations in Random Data.  Retrieved July 7, 2013 from http://noosphere.princeton.edu/

 

Radin, D., Nelson, R., Pancel, P. (2013) “Global Consciousness Project.” Institute for Noetic Sciences.  Retrieved July 7, 2013 from http://www.noetic.org/research/project/global-consciousness-project/

 

Podmore, Frank (1909) Telepathic Hallucinations: The New View of Ghosts. Frederick A. Stokes Company. New York, NY.

 

Radin, Dean, PhD. (1997) the Conscious Universe; the Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena. Harper Collins Publishers, NY, NY.

 

Schumacher, Dave (2011) Transliminality, Paranormal Belief and Paranormal Experiences at a Reportedly ‘Haunted Location. Paranormal Research Group.

Tyrell, George N.M. (1943). Apparitions. Gerald A. Duckworth. London, U.K. p.53-60.

 

Varvoglis, Mario, Ph.D. (2007) "Telepathy Thought Transmission" PsiExplorer.com Retrieved January 22, 2013 from http://www.psiexplorer.com/

 

 

Wikipedia.org Free Encyclopedia (2013). “PSI (Parapsychology).” Retrieved July 7, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psi_(parapsychology).

Haunted Objects

by Robin M. Strom-Mackey


The call came in late one Saturday evening. The young woman on the phone, we’ll call her Ann, was upset and needing advice.  The house in which she resided with her parents had transformed from a peaceful retreat to a house of fear.  Strange and unaccountable sounds were heard and lights turned on and off. Then one night Ann went down to the basement to flip a breaker that had shut off. As she stepped to the basement floor she witnessed a tarp tied around a box of old books come unaccountably untied and fly across the room. It was this event that made Ann decide to call me.  She was mainly concerned for her parents; being very religious, they were talking about calling in the family pastor to rid the property of evil spirits. Ann on the other hand wasn’t as frightened as she was stymied.  What had caused this sudden onslaught of activity in a home that, until recently, wasn’t haunted? She wanted some answers, and she wanted to know how to make the activity cease in order to restore her parents’ peace of mind.

I made the usual enquiries. The house was recently built. There was no known history of misfortune surrounding the land upon which it sat. The activity was a new occurrence.  I was trying to think of some reasonable explanation and then I remembered the tarp which began to seem like a direct pointer to the activity. I asked her to tell me more about the books.

She explained that she had just recently purchased the box of old books which included some very personal papers [her emphasis] and possibly a journal.  Wanting to protect the box she had put it in the basement with the tarp tied over it to protect it from the damp.  Bingo! I surmised that Ann and her family had unwittingly exposed their home to an haunted object.

 Just as houses, land or people can be the center of a haunting, so too can objects.  Given the premise then, a haunted object moved into a building can cause the start of activity, and moving the object out can make the activity stop.  Often haunted objects are items that were of personal significance, such as a personal diary or a painted portrait. Then again the items themselves may be mundane and  unremarkable. For example, the Discovery Channel documentary True Hauntings reported on a Wisconsin couple that purchased a used, wood bunk bed for their children and underwent a nightmare that ended only when the bed was removed from the home and destroyed.

 Psychometry and the Residual Haunt

Dave Schumacher Director of the Anomalous Research Department of the Pennsylvania and Wisconsin based Paranormal Research Group suggests three theories as to why objects might be haunted.  First is the theory of the residual haunt.  The residual haunt theory contends that certain emotionally charged events can leave an imprint on the environment, such as a location, building or object. This type of activity isn’t really a haunting in the traditional sense, but is more like a recording that plays when the right environmental circumstances occur. Activity may either be auditory, like the sounds of boots walking up a stairs, or visual, such as a woman who appears from nowhere and walks through a wall.

 Think of a residual haunt as being like a music CD. The disk in its case doesn’t play by itself. But put it in the machine, and hit the play button and the recording plays out just as it was recorded. Tomorrow if you hit the play button the exact same recording would play.  The recording doesn’t interact with you, and it doesn’t change.

A residual haunt is like that. It’s a pre-recorded episode that is waiting for the environmental “play” button to be hit. What causes something in the environment to record an episode? No one really knows, though theories abound. If a building or a location can record such things then it may be that a simple household object can as well, given the right circumstances. Then if the object moves to a new location, and when, or if, the environmental factors trigger the “play back” response the residual episode plays out, though the location has changed.

The psi term (pronounced by letter p-s-i) for the ability to read the ‘history’ of an object is psychometry. This unique ability allows a medium to read the history of an object usually by handling the item.  It is usually contended that psychometrists don’t directly interact with spirits when they read objects, but read the ‘history’ - like someone reading the back of the CD jacket.  Sometimes what they read is in images, sometimes in words. They may not read the same thing every time they hold the object, the images may change.  Psychic medium and psychometrist, Pat Patalona (Balzano, Weisberg, 2012) notes that she often sees different episodes in the history of an object, though one may be more emotionally charged than another. Or she may pick up only one person attached to an object, despite the fact that the object had numerous owners. If one person in particular was attached to an object it may only be their history she reads. 

 She explains the recording process thus, “Everything in the universe has an energy field that radiates all around it. These emotions, these impressions they are absorbed with that energy field. It’s not necessarily inside the object, but it exists in that energy field. I read that energy (Balzano, Weisberg, 2012).”  Palatona notes that of the objects she reads rings and other jewelry and in particular gold [also known for its electrical conductivity] tends to hold onto the greatest amount of energy.

 Therefore, it’s not out of the likelihood that someone with perhaps unknown psychometric abilities may bring an object into a home and by touching the object experience phenomenon.

 

Retrocognition

The second theory behind haunted objects is retrocognition, a psi ability of which psychometry and past-life experiences are both elements.  Retrocognition is the ability to perceive experiences from the past clairvoyantly, usually as a spontaneous replaying of past events such as in a vision or a dream. Such visions can include elements of sights, sounds and smells, and can seem to replace the temporal plane with scenes occurring during the past. In other words, instead of seeing an event in your mind (psychometry), a retrocognitive viewing is like literally stepping into that time period for however short a period.  Again, an object may be the unwitting locus of a memory of a past event. In the hands of someone with the ability to read it, it may play back episodes that were otherwise stored, seeming to take the purveyor to the scene of a past event.  It has even been suggested that all hauntings are retrocognitive events where the past scene is read telepathically in the present (Cheung, 2006).

 

Intelligent Haunt
 

 The third possibility is an intelligent haunt. This theory suggests that some part of a human consciousness survives death. This consciousness released from the body may return to a location to which it was attached, or in this case an object. Thus if someone were attached to an object in life they might return to it after death. It might be that the spirit desires to see the object given to the proper person. Or perhaps they might not wish to see their beloved object fall into the wrong hands.

Pyschological Effect
 

 There are also a few psychological possibilities for haunted objects as well.  Dave Schumacher suggests magical thinking, sheer human imagination, and the desire to experience a paranormal event, subjective validation and confirmation bias.  In other words, if a person is inclined toward believing in the paranormal they’re more likely to attribute unexplained phenomenon to being paranormal. For example, I was speaking with a colleague who was house-sitting for a person who collected antiques. One of the beloved antiques was an old church pew.  My colleague said that the object made her uncomfortable, and noted that if anything would be haunted it would be an old church pew.  Given her bias, had she noted strange sounds or movements in the house while she was staying in it, which is likely as she’s already in an unfamiliar environment, (see the article on the New House Theory), it’s quite likely that she would have attributed these things to being paranormal and likely blamed the church pew as the culprit. In other words, she was already suspicious of the object because it seemed “spooky” and needed only the confirmation of a strange event to leap to that conclusion.  Certainly some objects do elicit emotional responses from people. A creepy painting which seems to follow you with its eyes or the leering face of my brother’s Bozo the Clown doll come to mind.  If a person is half the way there, by perceiving something as “spooky,” all that’s needed is a little push toward belief.

Implications for Paranormal Investigators

New Jersey based paranormal investigator, Clinton “Doc” Vick suggests that haunted objects are one instance when using an IR thermometer versus an ambient thermometer is preferable. IR thermometers use a light beam that bounces off a solid object such as a wall or a dresser to determine the temperature not of the room, but of the object. Thus if an haunted object is, for example, several degrees cooler than the surrounding room it can be accurately measured.

 

Returning to Ann and her dilemma, when she asked again what she should do, I had a definite answer for her.  And the beauty was that the answer didn’t require hours of investigation, nor daunting research into the history of the property. Simply remove that box of books out of her basement and get them out of the house I told her; and then see if the problems ceased. “Why?” She asked. Ann was understandably fond of her little treasure trove of Americana. But I explained to her that she wasn’t the only one.  I told her to move the box out and see if the problems ceased. If not, I opened the door to her to call me back and we could schedule an investigation. That late Saturday call was the only time I ever heard from Ann. I can only speculate, therefore, that moving the box out of the house restored peace and order to their home, making any further intervention unnecessary.  Whatever happened to the box of books I can only guess? It’s probably buried at the back of some shed or garage where it will remain until someone else falls prey to its charms.

 References

Special Thanks to David Schumacher, Director of Anomalous Research Department, Paranormal Research Group paranormalresearchgroup.com for his helpful insight into the article and for pointing me towards other terrific sources of information.

 

Balzano, C. Weisberg, T. (2012) Haunted Objects; Stories of Ghosts on Your Shelf.

Krause Publications, Iola, WI

Cheung, T. (2008) The Element Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Hauntings, 2^nd edition Barnes and Noble Inc. by arrangement with Harper-Collins Publishers, China.