Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8 of a judging procedure that ignored transcript quality beyond that necessary to rank order the data packets (vastly underestimating the statistical significance of individual descriptions), clearly indicated the presence of an information channel of useful bit rate. The descrip- tions supplied by the subjects, although containing inaccuracies, were sufficiently accurate to permit the judges to differentiate (blind) among various targets to the degree that roughly 50% of the transcripts were directly matched.” E. Criticisms Three major criticisms have been raised with regard to this work. We now address each in turn. (1) A statistical procedure used to evaluate the judging matrices in earlier publications” ° has been criticized on the basis that the judge's rank order assignments for a given target may not be independent of his assign- ments for other targets .°* This has been rectified in this paper by the use of the direct-count-of- permutations method (introduced in Section C) which does not assume independence of assignments. The p-values quoted in Table 2 are therefore the corrected ones, As it turns out, the updated values do not differ significantly from the previously published ones (compare, for example, Table 2 here and Table VIII of Ref. 2), and therefore interpretations as to the significance of the data are unaffected. (2) It has been suggested that post-trial feedback to the subject during an experimental series may provide information to the subject which helps him to narrow down the field of target possibilities in later trials (closed-deck" fallacy).°° The target pool was carefully constructed, however, to contain several targets of any given type--that is, several fountains, several churches, several boathouses, and so forth--specifically to circumvent the strategy of "I had a fountain yesterday, so it can't be a fountain today." (In Ref. 2 see, for example, fountain targets in tables IV and V and in figures 7, 8, and 15; churches in tables II and IIT; boat marinas in tables II and V and figure 14; and so forth). Thus, the content of a given target, determined by random entry into the target pool, is essentially independent of the contents of other targets C'open- deck" design). Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8 (3) The initial experimental series of 9 trials with Subject Sl (Section B) was criticized on the basis that extraneous cues in the unedited subject transcripts might provide additional information useful to judges attempting to blind match transcripts to target sites (e.g., phrases from which one might infer the temporal order of the transcripts.)** To test this hypothesis, the entire data set was turned over to an independent researcher ,* who set himself the task of reanalyzing the entire experiment, taking into account this criticism, To execute this task, he first edited the transcripts, removing all phrases which had been suggested as possible cues, together with any additional phrises for which even the weakest post-hoc cue argument could be made, He then arranged to have the set re-blind- judged by an individual unfamiliar with this study. The result: the same seven out of nine were directly matched as had been matched previously, and the direct-count-of~-permutations analysis of the matrix yielded a result somewhat more significant than in the original study (p = 8/9! = 2.2 107°), Thus, the hypothesis that the matches in the original study were due to artifactual cues was soundly rejected, and the paranormal interpretation upheld .*> 76 Given (1) the failure of the cueing-artifact hypothesis to account for the success of the first study, (2) the inapplicability of that hypothe- sis to our later replication studies (the judging protocols were carefully checked prior to judging to insure absence of potential cues), (3) the open- deck strategy in target pool design, (4) the refinement of the statistical procedures without loss of significance, and (5) the continuing successful replication of this work in our own and other laboratories, the remote viewing data has withstood every attempt on the part of ourselves and others over the years to find some alternate explanation. Thus, remote viewing continues to be confirmed as a viable human perceptual ability. * Prof, Charles T, Tart, Dept. of Psychology, University of California, Davis, 10 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8 IV PHYSICS PRINCIPLES POTENTIALLY APPLICABLE TO PSI PHENOMENA One of the common objections to the psi hypothesis is that it would seem to be in conflict with the laws of physics. In opposition to this view, many workers in the field are of the opinion that the data will in all probability be accounted for either within the framework of physics as presently understood, or within the framework of extrapolations that have been proposed to account for other (non-psi) data, The areas of physics put forward for consideration as potentially relevant to modeling psi phenomena include: the possibility that remote viewing is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves;°"~ $3 the possible significance for remote viewing of Bell's theorem” a4 in quantum theory which requires interconnectedness of distant events in 35+ 36 a manner that is contrary to ordinary experience (experimentally confirmed at the microscopic leve1);°’~ °° the proper interpretation of the ‘ 3g- 41 effects of an observer (consciousness) on experimental measurement, of possible significance in psychokinesis; the possibility that the advanced-potential solutions in physics play a role in so-called precog- nition;**"** and the potential relevance (for a general theory of psi phenomena) of theories based on geometries which provide for a more extended structure of the space-time metric.*>~ *& Although little progress has been made toward a rapprochement between psi and physics, physicists like ourselves are making an effort to design and carry out experiments which can in principle shed light on the alterna- tive models. As a conservative start, a reasonable first hypothesis would be that remote viewing is mediated by extremely low-frequency (ELF) elec~ tromagnetic waves, a hypothesis that does not seem to be categorically ruled out by any obvious physical or biological facts. This hypothesis, discussed in some detail ina series of papers by I. M. Kogan of the Soviet Union, suggests that information transfer under conditions of sensory shielding is mediated by ELF waves with wavelengths in the 300 to 1000-km region.””~ °° Experimental support for the hypothesis is claimed on the basis of: less than inverse square attenuation with distance, compatible both with earth-ionosphere waveguide mode trapping, and with source-percipient distances lying in the induction field range as opposed to the radiation field range; observed low bit rates (0,005-0,1 bits/s) compatible with the information-carrying capacity of ELF waves; apparent ineffectiveness of ordinary electromagnetic shielding as an attenuator; and standard antenna calculations entailing biologically generated currents yielding results compatible with observed signal-to- noise ratios, 11 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8 On the negative side with regard to a straightforward ELF inter- pretation as a blanket hypothesis are: (a) apparent high-resolution, 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 decoding) the information onto the proposed ELF carrier; and (c) apparent precognition data, The hypothesis must nonetheless remain open at this stage of research, 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 parametric dependence on propagational directions and diurnal timing, by experimentation under unusual coi ditions of shielding (e.g., in a submarine), by the exploration of distance and resolution (target size) effects, and (in some forms of the model) by a study of differences between the presence and absence of a human link who can act as a transmitter of the target. The experiments described in the following sections were designed to address the above issues. To anticipate the results, the introduction of factors which might be expected to degrade performance on the basis of an ELF model did not in fact appear to affect the channel deleteriously, Vv LONG-DISTANCE REMOTE VIEWING FROM A SUBMARINE In July of 1977 we carried out two preliminary tests of remote viewing from a submersible submerged in several hundred ft of seawater, approxi- mately 500 miles from the target site. This provided an opportunity to investigate the remote viewing phenomenon under conditions of increased distance and shielding. The submersible used in the experiment was the Taurus, a five-man underwater vehicle (see Figure 2) manufactured by International Hydro- dynamics Company Ltd, (HYCO) of Canada. Experimental time on the Taurus was made available to SRI by Mr. Stephan Schwartz of the Philosophical Research Society of Los Angeles, who, as Director of Project Deep Quest, had arranged for its use in an underwater psi archaelogy experiment. During the experimentation discussed here, the submersible operated submerged in the waters near Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of southern California. The goal of the experiment was to provide data on the possible shielding effects of several hundred feet of seawater, known to be a good shield for all but the lowest frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. 12 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8
~~ Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8 (a) PHOTOGRAPH (b) SECTIONAL VIEW FIGURE 2 SUBMERSIBLE TAURUS 13 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300090002-8