nee | For Release 2000/08/10 :-GHA-RBPS6-00 "eterno oa May 1985 Final Report Covering the Period October 1983 to October 1984 BACTERIAL MUTATION STUDY (U) SPill imternationa ~~t FT SRI Project 7408-10 ~ This document consists of 42 pages. —SRGF=6277 | o _ le 000/08/10 : 0789R003800280001-0 ~ (ase For Re Lt. 4; | 333 Ravenswood Avenue * Menlo Park, California 94025 ° U.S.A. ‘ t
Approved For Release 2000/08/10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (U) ' - The experiment presented in this document was a conceptual replication of reported work in the parapsychological literature, claiming positive statistical evidence for psychoenergetic interactions with biological systems. Both the energetic and informational aspects of human interaction with bacteriological systems were examined, with the ultimate objective of determining, to first order, whether biological systems can be employed as psychoenergetic “intrusion detectors.” (U) There were two principal experimental hypotheses under consideration. The first, which will be referred to as the Intuitive Data Sorting (IDS) hypothesis, posits that individuals are able to identify or “sort out” locally-deviant subsequences contained within a larger random sequence using psychoenergetic means. In our experiment, an IDS hypothesis predicted that individuals would be able to identify psychically-—from.a set of test tubes with a normal statistical spread of mutation rate--subsets of test tubes either with slightly higher or slightly lower average mutation rates than the overall mutation rate for the entire set. Because an IDS mechanism appears to be predicated on an individual’s ability to gain information about a system psychoenergetically, it is thought to involve informational processes primarily. (U) The second experimental hypothesis, which will be referred to as the Remote Action (RA) or IDS Unfavorable (IDSU) hypothesis, ‘postulates that certain individuals are able to effect either a predetermined increase or decrease in a given samples’s mutation rate, by somehow “mentally” causing physical (e.g., genetic) changes in the bacteria. Because an RA mechanism appears to be predicated on an individual’s ability to effect physical changes in a system psychoenergetically, it is thought to involve causal or energetic processes primarily. f _A-total of seven subjects contributed six sessions each: three sessions were designed to test the IDS hypothesis, and three were designed to test the RA hypothesis. In all sessions, the subject was confronted with nine test tubes, which were visible inside a locked, environmentally-stable ice chest. The tubes contained dilute solutions of the bacterium Salmonella typhimurium. The bacteriological preparations were carried out by SRI’s Microbial 4 1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : a
= Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : ee ee “| fo Genetics Department, which routinely uses the Ames Salmonella assay that was adapted for — ; use in this study. | (U) In the IDS sessions, the subjects were able to choose three test tubes in which they =| wished to promote the mutation rates psychoenergetically (high aim), three tubes in which they wished to inhibit mutation rates (low aim), and three that they wished to leave - “uninfluenced” as controls (no aim). In all of the RA sessions, Tubes 1, 2, and 3 were predetermined as the low-aim tubes (the subject would attempt to inhibit mutation rates); ~ Tubes 4, 5, and 6 were the no aim controls; and Tubes 7, 8, and 9 were the high-aim tubes (the subject would attempt to promote mutation rates). The basic premise in comparing the IDS and RA conditions is that the subjects were given the opportunity to select high—versus— - low mutation rates from a natural spread of nine in the IDS sessions. Given the predetermined tubes of the RA sessions, however, the subjects were required to cause oni physical changes in the bacteria, in order to achieve the desired high-versus—-low mutation rates. ~ (U) The overall result of the experiment showed weak statistical evidence that individuals are able to sort bacteriological samples according to mutation rate--that is, ap << i? 0.05 was obtained overall in the IDS sessions for the mutation rates of the low-aim test tubes being lower than the no-aim controls. Statistical significance was not achieved in any of the -_ other IDS conditions (i.e., for no-aim mutation rates being less than high aim or for low aim being less than high aim). There were no significant differences for various aims observed in the RA condition. It must be concluded, therefore, that while there was some evidence that - subjects are able to gain information psychoenergetically about the mutation rates of Salmonella, there was no compelling evidence that subjects are able to cause physical - perturbations in these bacteria. 7 1 According to criteria set forth in the beginning of this study, a physical system ™ will not be considered a candidate intrusion detector unless there is clear evidence that it is registering energetic effects (i.e., physical perturbations) concomitantly with psychoenergetic = intent. To first order, therefore, it must be concluded on the basis of this one experiment that the Salmonella bacterium does not appear to be a promising intrusion detector. = _ | Because this is the only known experiment of its kind using Salmonella bacteria as the target biological system, replication is strongly recommended-—both to verify the ol - 2 ~! Approved For Release 2000/08/10 [eA-nopee-coresrqossoozso001.0 4
i — —i —t —1 —1 —_l am | Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : es a { robustness of the IDS capability, and to evaluate definitively the efficacy of using Salmonella a as an intrusion detector. 3 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 a i i