ve a Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 QUANTUM PHYSICS AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY The 23rd Annual International Conference of the Parapsychology Foundation, Ine. Hotel La Reserve, Geneva, Switzerland August 26-27, 197/, An interpretative conference report containing some comments about 7 prospects in parapsychological research, “SGI October 28, 1974 Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 I, INTRODUCTION The 23rd Annual Conference of the Parapsychology Foundation was held at the Hotel La Reserve, Geneva, Switzerland on August 26 and 27, 1974. The subject of the conference was "Quantum Physics and Parapsychology", a topic selected at the instigation of Arthur Koestler, the well~known author, who in recent years has interested himself in the subject of parapsychology. His recent book, The Roots of Coincidence, reflects this interest. The putative relation between quantum physics and para~ psychology arises because the apparent non~common sense features accepted in quantum physics may be analogous to the non-common sense features observed in parapsychological phenomena. In any case the conference was ostensibly devoted to an exploration of the physical bases for parapsychology, Complete texts of all ten of the papers presented at this conference have previously been supplied. A summary and critique of. the contents of each of the ten papers appears in the Appendix of this report. At the conference a discussion period followed the presentation of each paper, and at the conclusion of the conference another more general discussion took place. The proceedings of this conference, containing both the submitted papers and the verbal discussion, is scheduled for publication in June 1975 by the Parapsychology Foundation, Inc., 29 West 5'7th Street, New York. A brief official account of the conference will appear sooner in their "NousLetter of the Parapsychology Foundation", The following discussion of conference content is based upon attendance Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 at all. the sessions, subsequent study of written versions of the papers, and private conversations with nearly all of the personalities present, II, ANALYSTS OF THE PURPORT OF THE CONFERENCE The reality of ESP was an accepted fact at this conference. When discussion of the reality of the phenomena occurred, it was concerned only with methods of securing public acceptance and belief in paranormal cognition. Some doubt was expressed of the usefulness of public demonstrations to "blue-ribbon panels", but all agreed on the necessity of more research support. It became clear that there exists at present no adequate theory of paranormal perception which can furnish a physical basis for the phenomena, The existing attempts at physical theories are speculative, incomplete, at at best poorly substantiated; although some ideas were presented | which might furnish the seeds of fruitful investigation, These ideas are discussed in more detail below. The conference evidenced a rough division of attitudes toward parapsychology into two schools:of thought, Researchers share a general acceptance of the strangeness of it all, but on the working level some believe: progress in understanding can be achieved through extension and use of existing scientific knowledge and methods, perhaps by some new synthesis, The others basically favor a more philosophical and mystical approach, and believe that nothing short of a complete revolution of thought, maybe into more spiritual directions, can cope with the challenge. The "mystics" characterize the physical approach as Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 naive reductionism, The "reductionists", for lack of a better tern, retain their faith in the efficacy of traditional scientific methods, These categories are a convenient simplification of complex attitudes and some individuals show traces of both orientations, In view'of the conference topic it was surprising that the "mystics" were strongly represented, The presentations of Chari, Firsoff, Whiteman, and’ Bastin seem to fall in the mystical category. Verbal comments of Arthur Koestler would place him also in this group, At the conclusion of the conference he expressed disappointment that the ideas were not Yerazy" enough and voiced scepticism at seeking explanation of ESP in existing physical theories, These contributions to the conference seen to offer no avenues of physical understanding and will not be discussed ‘further, The remaining papers presented at the conference are more physical in content. Of the theoretical papers Costa de Beauregard gave the nost general and perhaps the best formulated analysis of a possible physical basis for ESP, His presentation consisted of words, and not equations, but the concepts discussed were readily understandable by a theoretical physicist.’ No specific mechanism was proposed, but information theory was interwoven with some established physical principles to describe a framework within which ESP might be understood, The ideas of Costa de Beauregard are unifying in character, rather analogous to the unifying character of the energy concept in conventional physics, ana like the concept of energy could establish broad guidlines without supplying a detailed mechanism. For example, the idea discussed by Feinberg, that precognition is a memory propagated from the future, is subsumed in Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
4 Approved. For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 Costa de Beauregard's thinking. Puwthoff presented some speculations about apparent features of his PK experiments which are also consistent with _. the same overall picture. Indeed’ if any common thread emerged: from the physical side of the conference, it was that somchow information theoretic concepts must play an important role in ESP, The connection is established through the equivalence of information theory with puysical probability and its role both in quantum theory and in macroscopic entropy. A detailed and partially quantitative physical theory of ESP was _ presented ty Walker. This theory may err through its use of overspecific and poorly justified assumptions, It relies heavily on some explicit conjectures about neural activity in the brain, and also postulates ‘an essential ‘function in consciousness and psi communication for the so- called “hidden variables" of quantum theory. A simple empirical method of quantifying the results of ESP experiments me . Was proposed by Schmidt. This quantification, if appropriate, would permit the various experimental manifestations of ESP ( precognition, clairvoyance, PK, etc.) to be interrelated, Experimental papers describing striking PK and remote viewing experiments with gifted paragnosts were presented by Puthoff and Tare. In terms of normal standards of scientific conferences the gleanings of theoretical understanding from this conference are somewhat sparse, particularly if a physical basis of ESP is the object. The phenomena | of ESP have undergone a great deal of experimental verification, but a basic understanding of paranormal perception is evidentiy still lacking. The material presented at this conference only indicates a bare beginning of a rational, physical, interpretation of parapsychological phenomena, Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 6 TIT, GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND GUIDELINUS The picture of ESP research derived from attendance at this conference _And supplemented by a study of publications in-the open literature forms the basis of the following general comments, 1. i Knowledge of normal perception and neural data processing in the brain ‘is still limited, even though the physical basis of normal perception is vollefounded. The wide area of ignorance or partial knowledge : surrounding even normal mental function is indicative of the possible Aupedinonts to attaining a coherent understanding of paranormal perception. The physical paradoxes of ESP are severe, but even were a physical basis’ of ESP established, much would remain unknown. In short, progress in this area may require not only increased understanding of the physical basis of the phenomena, but also advances in cybernetics and neurophysiology as well, The ideas ot Costa de Beauregard fori the most auspicious point of departure for development of a physical understanding of ESP. These ideas: are favored because of their broad physical base, their use of general information concepts, and because they contain a minimum of ad hoe assumptions. Although some elementary deductions are immediately possible, this theoretical framework is, as yet, insufficiently articulated. Additional analysis and calculation is needed to explore detailed consequences of the basic general idea, Experimentally verifiable predictions and relations should be sought, and the theory should be ecrutinized for guidelines to meaningful experimental efforts, Such “Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
7 Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 & program would represent a firm physically-based attempt to understand some of the mechanism of ESP, but could not be expected to produce immediate results, For practical purposes: the investigation and experimental verification ' of empirical regularities governing the occurrence, content, and de reliability of paranormal events should not be disdained. Although theory is always valuable, it may not be absolutely essential. It is quite possible to know enough about a phenomenon to use it effectively, or to evaluate its use, without possessing any desp understanding of its nature. The human race used fire for thousands of years without understanding chemistry. Identification and quantification of physical and psychological conditions for inhibition and enhancement of psi effects is especially desirable, The apparent spontaneity of these phenomena and their independence of most referents poses the most serious obstacle to their application. It is difficult to perceive the purpose served by research in parapsychology which does not attempt to relate the phenomena to controling conditions, Parapsychology may have application provided such relationships exist on some level, even the Level of total empiricisn, Regardless of the level of understanding of paranormal perception it is clear that information derived by this means is incomplete, subject to error and distortion, and sometimes completely erroneous. In many cases the accuracy is amazing, but complete errors are also frequent. A percipient may be wmable to reliably estimate his own accuracy. Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 These inherent features raise the. fundamental problem of how such erratic information can be utilized, How can the output of paranormal perception be assessed according to its completeness and/or reliability so as to optimize its use and minimize the effect of errors? The peculiar features of ESP derived information demand that these problems be ‘addressed if such information is to serve a useful function. SG1I Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2
Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 APPENDIX A Summary and Critique of Each Paper Presented at the Conference Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000200180001-2 9