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tion:
similarly, this occurs in other parapsychological experi-
ments. These observations are compatible with the hypotheses
that information received in a putative remote-viewing mode
is processed piecemeal in pattern form (consistent with a low
bit
rate
process,
but not
necessarily
requiring
it); and
the
errors arise in the processes of attempted integration of the
data into larger patterns directed toward verbal labeling.
When
the
subjects augmented
the
verbal
transcripts with
drawings or sketches, these often expressed the target elements
more accurately than the verbal descriptions.
Thus the draw-
ings tended
to correspond
to
the
targets more
clearly and
precisely than the words of the transcript.
The descriptions given by the subjects sometimes went be-
yond what the remote experimenter experienced, at least con-
sciously.
For example, one subject (S4) described and drew
a belt drive at the top of a drill press that was invisible even to
the
remote
experimenter who
was
operating
the machine;
another
subject
(SI)
described
a number of items behind
shrubbery and thus not visible to members of the demarcation
team at the site.
Curiously, objects in motion at the remote site were rarely
mentioned in the transcript.
For example, trains crossing the
railroad
trestle target were not described, though the remote
experimenter stood very close to them.
Also in a few cases, the subject descriptions were inaccurate
regarding size of structures. A 20-ft courtyard separating two
buildings was described
as 200 ft wide, and a small shed was
expanded to a barn-like structure.
c)
Blind judging of transcripts:
The judging procedure
entailed examining the
transcripts
for
a given experimental
series and attempting to match the
transcripts with the cor-
rect targets on the basis of their correspondences.
The tran-
scripts varied from coherent and accurate descriptions to mix-
tures of correspondences and noncorrespondences.
Since the
judge did not know a priori which elements of the descriptions
were correct or incorrect, the task was complicated, and tran-
scripts often seemed plausibly to match more than one target.
A confounding factor in these studies
is that some target lo-
cations have
similarities that seem alike at some level of per-
ception.
For example, a radio telescope at the top of a hill,
the observation deck of a tower, and a jetty on the edge of a
bay
all match a transcript description of “looking out over a
long distance.” A lake, a fountain, and a creek may all result
in an image of water for the subject.
Therefore, in
several
cases,
even correct images may not help
in the conservative
differential matching procedure used.
According to the judge, the most successful procedure was a
careful element-by-element comparison that tested each tran-
script against every target and used the transcript descriptions
and drawings
as arguments for or against assigning the
tran-
script
to
a particular target.
In most
cases,
this resulted in
either
a
clear conclusion
or
at
least
a ranking of probable
matches;
these
matches
were
subjected
to
the
statistical
analyses presented in this paper.
2) Summary:
In summary, we do not yet have an under-
standing of the nature of the information-bearing signal that a
subject perceives during remote viewing.
The subjects com-
monly report that they perceive the signal visually as though
they were looking at the object or place from a position in its
immediate
neighborhood.
Furthermore,
the
subjects’
per-
ceptual viewpoint has mobility
in
that
they can
shift
their
point of view so as to describe elements of a scene that would
not be visible to an observer merely standing at ground level
and describing what he
sees.
(In particular,
a subject often
correctly describes elements not visible to the target demarca-
tion
team.)
Finally,
motion
is
seldom
reported;
in
fact,
moving
objects
often
are
unseen
even when
nearby
static
objects are correctly identified.
A comparison of the results of remote viewing (a so-called
free-response task) with results of forced- choice tasks, such as
the selection of one of four choices generated by a random
number generator [58]
,
reveals the following findings. From a
statistical viewpoint, a subject
is more likely to describe, with
sufficient
accuracy
to
permit
blind matching,
a remote
site
chosen at random than he
is to
select correctly one of four
random numbers. Our experience with these phenomena leads
us to consider that
this
difference in task performance may
stem from
fundamental
signal-to-noise considerations.
Two
principal sources oLjioise in the system apparently are mejn-
Qry and^pagination, both of which can give
rise to mental
pictures of greater clarity than the target to be perceived.
In
the random number task, a subject can create a perfect mental
picture of each of the four possible outputs in his own imagi-
nation and
then attempt to obtain the correct answer by a
mental matching operation. The same is true for card guessing
experiments.
On the other hand, the subject in remote view-
ing
is apparently more
likely
to approach
the
task
with
a
blank mind as he attempts to perceive pictorial information
from remote
locations about which he may have no stored
mental data.
Finally, we
observe
that most
of the correct information
that subjects relate to us is of a nonanalytic nature pertaining
to shape, form, color, and material (rather than to function or
name. (In consultation with Dr. Robert OHsteln of the Langley-
PorterNeuropsychiatric Institute, San Francisco, CA, and with
Dr. Ralph Kieman of the Department of Neurology, Stanford
University
Medical
Center,
Stanford, CA, we have formed
the
tentative
hypothesis
that
paranormal
functioning may
involve
specialization characteristic of the brain’s right hemi-
sphere.
This possibility
is derived from a variety of evidence
from clinical and neurosurgical sources which indicate that the
two hemispheres of the human brain are
specialized for dif-
ferent
cognitive functions.
The
left hemisphere
is predomi-
nantly active in verbal and other analytical functioning and the
right hemisphere predominates
in
spatial and
other holistic
processing
[59],
[60],
Further
research
is
necessary
to
elucidate the relationship between right hemisphere function
and
paranormal
abilities.
Nonetheless, we
can
say
at
this
point that the remote-viewing results of the group of subjects
at
SRI
have
characteristics
in common
with more
familiar
performances
that
require
right hemispheric
function.
The
similarities include the highly schematicized drawings of ob-
jects in a room or of remote scenes.
Verbal identification of
these
drawings
is
often
highly
inaccurate
and
the drawings
themselves
are
frequently
left-right
reversed
relative
to the
target
configuration.
Further, written material generally
is
not
cognized.
These
characteristics have been
seen
in
left
brain-injured patients and in callosal-sectioned patients.
As a result of the above considerations, we have learned to
urge our subjects simply to describe -what they see as opposed
to what they think they me looking at. We have learned that
their unahalyzed perceptions are almost always a better guide
to the'Tfue
target than their interpretations of the perceived
data.
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IV. Considerations Concerning Time
If the authors may be forgiven a personal note, we wish to
express that this section deals with observations that we have
been reluctant to publish because of their striking apparent in-
compatibility with existing concepts.
The motivating factor
for presenting the data at this time is the ethical consideration
that theorists endeavoring to develop models for paranormal
functioning should be apprised of
all the observable data
if
their efforts to arrive at a comprehensive and correct descrip-
tion are to be successful.
During the course of the experimentation in remote viewing
(Section
III),
subjects occasionally volunteered the informa-
tion that they had been thinking about their forthcoming par-
ticipation in a remote-viewing experiment and had an image
come to them
as to what the target location was to be.
On
these occasions, the information was given only to the experi-
menter remaining at SRI with the subject and was unknown to
the outbound experimenter
until completion of the experi-
ment.
Two
of
these
contributions were among
the most
accurate
descriptions
turned
in
during
those
experiments.
Since the target location had not yet been selected when the
subject communicated
his
perceptions about
the
target, we
found the data difficult to contend with.
We offer these spontaneous occurrences not as proof of pre-
cognitive perception, but rather as the motivation that led us
to do further work in this field. On the basis of this firsthand
evidence, together with the copious literature describing years
of precognition experiments carried out in various other labo-
ratories, we decided to determine whether a subject could per-
form a perceptual task that required both spatial and temporal
remote viewing.
It
is well known and recently has been widely discussed that
nothing in the fundamental laws of physics forbids the appar-
ent transmission of information from the future to the present
(discussed further in Section V).
Furthermore, there is a gen-
eral dictum that “in physical law, everything that is not forbid-
den, is required” [61 ]
.
With this in mind, we set out to con-
duct
very well-controlled experiments to determine whether
we could deliberately design and execute experiments for the
sole
purpose
of
observing
precognition
under
laboratory
conditions.
The experimental protocol was identical to that followed in
previous remote-viewing experiments with but one exception.
The exception was that the subject was required to describe
the remote location during a 15-min period beginning 20 min
before the target was selected and 35 min before the outbound
experimenter was to arrive at the target location.
In detail, as shown in Table IX, each day at ten o’clock one
of the
experimenters would
leave SRI
with
a stack of ten
sealed envelopes from a larger pool and randomized daily, con-
taining traveling instructions that had been prepared, but that
were unknown to the two experimenters remaining with the
subject.
The subject for this experiment was Hella Hammid
(S4) who participated in the nine-experiment series replicating
the original Price work described earlier. The traveling experi-
menter was to drive continuously from 10:00 until 10:30 be-
fore selecting his destination with a random number generator.
(The motivation for continuous motion was our observation
that objects and persons in rapid motion are not generally seen
in the remote-viewing mode of perception, and we wished the
traveler to be a poor target until he reached his target site.) At
the end of 30 min of driving, the traveling experimenter gener-
TABLE IX
Experimental Protocol: Precognitive Remote Viewing
Time
Schedule
Experimenter/Subject Activity
10:00
Outbound experimenter
leaves with
10 envelopes
(containing
target
locations)
and
random number
generator;
begins half-hour drive
10:10
Experimenters
remaining with
subject
in
the
laboratory
elicit
from subject
a description of where outbound
experimenter will
be
from 10:45-11:00
10:25
Subject
response
completed,
at which
time
laboratory part
of experiment
is
over
10:30
Outbound experimenter obtains
random number
from
a
random
number generator,
counts
down
to associated envelope,
and
proceeds
to
target
location
indicated
10:45
Outbound experimenter remains
at
target
location
for
15 minutes
(10:45-11:00)
Fig. 14.
Subject Hammid (S4) described “some kind of congealing tar,
or maybe an area of condensed lava
.
.
. that has oozed out to fill up
some kind of boundaries.”
ated
a random
digit from 0 to 9 with a Texas Instruments
SR-51 random number
generator; while
still
in motion, he
counted down
that number of envelopes and proceeded
di-
rectly to the target location so as to arrive there by 10:45. He
remained
at the target
site until
1 1 :00, at which time he re-
turned to the laboratory, showed his chosen target name to a
security guard, and entered the experimental room.
During the same period, the protocol in the laboratory was
as follows.
At 10: 10, the subject was asked to begin a descrip-
tion of the place to which the experimenter would go 35 min
hence.
The subject then generated a tape-recorded description
and associated drawings from 10:10 to 10:25, at which time
her part in the experiment was ended.
Her description was
thus entirely concluded 5 min before the beginning of the tar-
get selection procedure.
Four such experiments were carried out.
Each of them ap-
peared to be successful, an evaluation
later verified in blind
judging without error by three judges.
We
will briefly sum-
marize the four experiments below.
The
first target, the Palo Alto Yacht Harbor, consisted en-
tirely of mud flats because of an extremely low tide (see Fig.
14).
Appropriately, the entire transcript of the subject per-
tained to “some kind of congealing tar, or maybe an area of
condensed lava.
It looks like the whole area is covered with
some kind of wrinkled elephant skin that has oozed out to fill
up some
kind
of boundaries where
(the outbound
experi-
menter) is standing.”
Because of the lack of water, the dock
where the remote experimenter was standing was in fact rest-
ing directly on the mud.
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Fig. 16.
Subject (S4) saw a “black iron triangle that Hal had somehow
walked into” and heard a “squeak, squeak, about once a second.
Fig. 17.
Subject (S4) described a very tall structure located among city
streets and covered with “Tiffany-like glass.
'
r
>
^
l
*»•
Fig. 15.
Subject (S4) described a formal garden “very well manicured
behind a double colonnade.
Note that the subject has learned not to rush into interpreta-
tion as to the nature or purpose of the place.
This is a result
of our cautioning based on the observation that such efforts
tend to be purely analytical and in our experience are almost
invariably incorrect.
If a subject can limit himself to what he
sees, he
is often then able to describe a scene with sufficient
accuracy that an observer can perform the analysis for him and
identify the place.
The second target
visited was the fountain at one end of a
large formal garden at Stanford University Hospital (Fig.
15).
The subject gave a lengthy description of a formal garden be-
hind a wall with a “double colonnade” and “very well mani-
cured.”
When we
later took the subject to the location, she
was herself taken aback to find the double colonnaded wall
leading into the garden just as described.
The third target was a children’s swing at a small park 4.6 km
from the laboratory (Fig.
16). The subject repeated again and
again that the main focus of attention at the site was a “black
iron
triangle
that the outbound experimenter had somehow
walked
into or was standing on.”
The triangle was
bigger
than a man,” and she heard a “squeak, squeak, about once a
second,” which we observe is a match to the black metal swing
that did squeak.
The final target was the Palo Alto City Hall (Fig.
1 7).
The
subject
described
a
very,
very
tall
structure
covered with
“Tiffany-like glass.”
She had it located among city streets and
with little cubes at the base. The building is glass-covered, and
the
little cubes are a good match to the small elevator
exit
buildings located in the plaza in front of the building.
To obtain a numerical evaluation of the accuracy of the pre-
cognitive viewing, the experimental results were subjected to
independent judging on
a blind basis by three SRI scientists
who were not otherwise associated with the experiment. The
judges were
asked
to match the four locations, which they
visited,
against
the unedited typed manuscripts of the tape-
recorded narratives, along with the drawings generated by the
remote viewer.
The transcripts were presented unlabeled and
in random order and were to be used without replacement. A
correct match required that the transcript of a given experi-
ment be matched with the target of that experiment.
All three
judges independently matched the target data to the response
data without error. Under the null hypothesis (no information
channel and
a random
selection of descriptions without re-
placement), each judge independently obtained a result signifi-
cant at p = (4!)
-1 = 0.042.
For reasons we do not as yet understand, the four transcripts
generated in the precognition experiment show exceptional co-
herence and accuracy as evidenced by the fact that all of the
judges were able to match successfully all of the transcripts to
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the corresponding target locations. A long-range experimental
program devoted to the clarification of these issues and involv-
ing a number of subjects is under way. The above four experi-
ments are the first four carried out under this program.
Currently, we have no precise model of this spatial and tem-
poral remote-viewing phenomenon.
However, models of the
universe
involving higher
order synchronicity
or correlation
have been proposed by the physicist Pauli and the psychologist
Carl Jung [62].
ACAUSALITY.
If natural law 5 were an absolute truth, then of
course
there could not possibly be any processes that deviate
irom
rt.
But since causality 5
is a statistical truth,
it holds good
only on average and thus leaves room for exceptions which must
somehow be experienceable, that is to say, real.
I try to regard
synchronistic events as acausal exceptions of this kind.
They
prove to be relatively independent of space and time; they rela-
tmze space and/time insofar as space presents in principle no ob-
stacle to their passage and the sequence of events in time is in-
verted so that
it looks as if an event which has not yet occurred
were causing a perception in the present.
We
shall
see
in
the next
section
that such a description,
though poetic, has some basis in ihodern physical theory.
V.
Discussion
It
is important to note at the outset that many contempo-
rary physicists are of the view that the phenomena that we
have
been
discussing
are
not
at
all
inconsistent
with
the
framework of physics as currently understood.
In this emerg-
ing view, the often-held
belief that observations of this type
are incompatible with known laws
in principle
is erroneous,
such
a concept
being based on
the
naive
realism prevalent
before
the
development
of
modern
quantum
theory
and
information theory.
One hypothesis, put forward by
I. M. Kogan of the USSR,
is
that
information
transfer
under
conditions
of
sensory
shielding
is
mediated
by
extremely
low-frequency
(ELF)
electromagnetic
waves
in
the
300-1 000-km
region
[37]-
[40]
.
Experimental
support
for
the
hypothesis
is claimed
on the
basis of slower than inverse square attenuation, com-
patible
with
source-percipient
distances
lying
in
the
induc-
tion
field range as opposed to the radiation
field range
- ob-
served
low
bit
rates
(0.005-0.1
bit/s)
compatible with
the
information carrying capacity of ELF waves; apparent ineffec-
tiveness of ordinary electromagnetic shielding as an attenuator;
and standard antenna calculations entailing biologically gener-
ated currents yielding results compatible with observed signal-
to-noise ratios.
M. Persinger, Psychophysiology Laboratory, Laurentian Uni-
versity, Toronto, Canada, has narrowed the ELF hypothesis to
the
suggestion
that
the
7.8-Hz “Shumann waves” and
their
harmonics propagating along the earth-ionosphere waveguide
duct may be responsible.
Such an hypothesis
is compatible
with driving by brain-wave currents and leads to certain other
hypotheses such as asymmetry between east-west and west-
east
propagation,
preferred
experimental
times (midnight-4
A.M.),
and
expected
negative
correlation
between
success
and
the U
index
(a
measure
of
geomagnetic
disturbance
throughout
the
world).
Persinger claims
initial support for
these factors on the basis of a literature search [63]
, [64]
.
On the negative side with regard to a straightforward ELF
interpretation as a blanket hypothesis are the following: a) ap-
5 As usually understood.
parent real-time descriptions of remote activities in sufficient
detail to require a channel capacity in
all probability greater
than that allowed by a conventional modulation of an ELF
signal; b) lack of a proposed mechanism for coding and decod-
ing the information onto the proposed ELF carrier; and c) ap-
parent precognition data. The hypothesis must nonetheless re-
main open at this stage of research, since it is conceivable that
counterindication
a) may eventually be circumvented on the
basis that the apparent high bit rate results from a mixture of
low bit rate input and high bit rate “filling in the blanks” from
imagination; counterindication b) is common to a number of
normal
perceptual
tasks and may therefore simply reflect a
lack of sophistication on our part with regard to perceptual
functioning
[65]; and
counterindication
c) may be accom-
modated by an ELF hypothesis
if advanced waves as well as
retarded waves are admitted [66], [67],
Experimentation to
determine whether the ELF hypothesis is viable can be carried
out by the use of ELF sources as targets, by the study of para-
metric
dependence on propagational
directions and
diurnal
timing, and by the exploration of interference effects caused
by
creation of a high-intensity ELF environment during ex-
perimentation,
all of which are under consideration in our lab-
oratory and elsewhere.
Some physicists believe that the reconciliation of observed
paranormal functioning with modern theory may take place at
a more fundamental level-namely, at the level of the founda-
tions
of quantum theory.
There
is a continuing dialog, for
example, on the proper interpretation of the effect of an ob-
server
(consciousness)
on
experimental
measurement
[68],
and there
is considerable current
interest in the implications
for our notions of ordering in time and space brought on by
the observation [69], [70]
of nonlocal correlation or “quan-
tum interconnectedness” (to use Bohm’s term [7 1 ] ) of distant
parts
of quantum systems of macroscopic dimensions.
The
latter,
Bell’s theorem
[72], emphasizes
that “no theory of
reality compatible with quantum theory can require spatially
separated events to be independent”
[73], but must permit
interconnectedness of distant events in a manner that
is con-
trary to ordinary experience [74] -[75],
This prediction has
been
experimentally
tested
and
confirmed
in
the
recent
experiments
of,
for example, Freedman and
Clauser
[69]
[70].
E.
H. Walker and
O.
Costa de Beauregard, independently
proposing theories of paranormal functioning based on quan-
tum concepts, argue that observer effects open the door to the
possibility
of nontrivial coupling between consciousness and
the environment and
that
the
nonlocality principle permits
such coupling to transcend spatial and temporal barriers [76],
Apparent “time reversibility”-that
is, effects (e.g., observa-
tions) apparently preceding causes (e.g., events)-though con-
ceptually difficult at
first glance, may be the easiest of appar-
ent paranormal phenomena
to assimilate within the current
theoretical
structure of our world view.
In addition to the
familiar retarded potential solutions f(t - r/c), it is well known
that the equations
of, for example, the electromagnetic field
admit of advanced potential solutions f{t + r/c ) -solutions that
would appear to imply a reversal of cause and effect.
Such
solutions are conventionally discarded as not corresponding to
any observable physical event.
One
is cautioned, however, by
statements such as that of Stratton in his basic text on electro-
magnetic theory [78]
.
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