a | a Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200620001-9 252— THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH Cnr VOLUME 84 JANUARY «> 1990 NUMBER | Distant Mental Influence of Rate of Hemolysis of Human Red Blood Cells WILLIAM G. BRAUD! a ABSTRACT: A formal investigation was conducted in order to determine whether a rela- tively large number of unselected subjects would be able to exert a distant mental influence upon the rate of hemolysis of human red blood cells. For each of 32 subjects, red blood cells in 20 tubes were submitted to osmotic stress (hypotonic saline). The subjects attempted to protect the cells in 10 of the tubes using visualization and intention strategies; the remaining 10 tubes served as noninfluence controls. For each tube, rate of hemolysis was measured photometrically over a 1-minute trial period. Subjects and experimenter were ‘‘blind’’ re- garding critical aspects of the procedure, and subjects and tubes were located in separate rooms in order to eliminate conventional influences. Results indicated that a significantly greater number of subjects than would be expected on the basis of chance alone showed independently significant differences between their ‘‘protect’’ and **control’’ tubes (p = 1.91 x 1073). Overall, blood source (i.¢., whether the influenced cells were the subject's own cells or those of another person) did not significantly influence the outcome, although there was a trend toward stronger hitting in the ‘“own blood’’ condition. Additional analyses of the results were performed by SRI International researchers to determine whether the data were better described by remote action (causal) or by intuitive data sorting (informational) predictions; the results of those mathematical analyses were inconclusive. This research is presented in the context of methodologies for investigating a possible role of psi in self- healing. Laboratory research has indicated that under certain conditions persons are able to psychokinetically influence a variety of biological systems (see 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 31st annual convention of the Parapsychological Association in Montreal, Canada, August 17-21, 1988. Parts of the intro- ductory remarks are repeated or paraphrased versions of sections of an article previously written for Parapsychology Review (Braud, 1986) and are used with the permission of the Parapsychology Foundation. 1 am indebted to Rick Berger, Steve Dennis, George Hansen, Scott Hubbard, Kay Mangus, Ed May, Diane Morton, Julie Nixon, Marilyn Schlitz, Helmut Schmidt, Winona Schroeter, and Jessica Utts for their important contributions to various phases of this investigation. This project was supported, in part, by a subcontract from SRI International. Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200620001-9
a “ Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200620001-9 2 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research Solfvin, 1984). At the Mind Science Foundation (MSF), we have been able to observe successful distant mental influences upon the spatial orien- tation of fish, the locomotor activity of small rodents, and the physiolog- ical activity of another person (Braud, 1978a, 1979; Braud, Davis, & Wood, 1979; Braud & Schlitz, 1983; Schlitz & Braud, 1985). Such findings are consistent with an interpretation of psychic healing in which the healing might be contributed, at least in part, by the healer’s conscious or unconscious psychokinetic influence upon the healee’s bodily pro- cesses. It is a relatively straightforward matter to design experiments to isolate a possible psi component in one person’s healing of another. The healee may be kept blind regarding the timing and nature of a healing attempt. and various isolation and control procedures can be applied. However, it is ordinarily impossible to study the role of psychic functioning in self- healing in vivo using such techniques. The healer is necessarily aware of the timing and nature of self-healing attempts, and therefore the psychic process cannot be isolated from the many nonpsychic factors that can in- fluence healing. We cannot distinguish a psychic effect from the more conventional influences of expectation (the ‘“placebo’’ effect), changes in emotionality, self-regulation of neural, muscular, and hormonal activities, etc. Fortunately, it may be possible to eliminate the influence of these nonpsychic processes through the use of biological psychokinesis (bio- PK) protocols that have proved useful in the study of distant mental influ- ence. The strategy would involve the selection of some specific biological activity to be targeted psychokinetically and then the removal of the mea- sured biological activity, in space or in time, from the reach of all possible nonpsychic self-influences. Spatial or temporal isolation could be accomplished in three ways: 1. The experimental participant could attempt to influence cells, tissue, or biochemicals that have been freshly removed from his or her body. 2. The participant could attempt to influence his or her own biological activity that had been prerecorded at an earlier time and that had remained unobserved until the subsequent influence attempt; this strategy involves the so-called ‘‘time-displaced’’ or ““retro-psychokinesis’’ design explored by Schmidt (1976, 1981; Schmidt, Morris, & Rudolph, 1986). Another method of removing the target biological activity in time would be to ask participants to attempt to influence their own future activity. In this case, the influence epochs would have to be coded in a way that would elimi- nate the possibility that the participant might remember the desired out- come and consciously or unconsciously self-regulate at the time of the future test in order to bring about the desired changes. 3. The participant could attempt to influence a particular physiological or biochemical process within his or her body while, at the same time, the activity of a similar, externalized process is monitored to determine whether the latter responds in ‘‘resonance’’ or in ‘‘sympathy’’ with the former. Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200620001-9
“ AO “ Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200620001-9 Distant Mental Influence of Hemolysis Rate 3 If research participants succeed in influencing their biological materials through psychic means when those materials are isolated, then it is likely that the biological materials remain susceptible to psi influence under ordinary, nonisolated conditions as well. Psi influence thus becomes a viable component in self-regulation and hence in self-healing. We might even find that persons are psychically able to influence their own cells or activities more readily than they are able to influence the cells or activities of another person. If this is indeed the case, it would suggest that psi’s contribution to self-healing may be greater than its contribution to the healing of another person. It would also suggest that more impressive re- sults might be obtained in bio-PK studies if experimenters selected target systems that were more closely associated with the participant-influencers in their experiments. We have conducted numerous bio-PK experiments in which both se- lected and unselected participants were able to alter significantly the ac- tivity of specific biological target systems, mentally and at a distance. In all of those studies, the amount of target system activity in the prescribed direction during a number of influence periods was compared statistically with its activity during an equal number of interspersed control (nonin- fluence) periods. The obtained bio-PK results have been reliable and rela- tively robust. For example, a recent review of all of the MSF’s electro- dermal bio-PK experiments conducted to date indicated az = 4.08, p = .000023, and mean effect size = 0.29 for all 13 experiments combined (Braud & Schlitz, 1989). Experiments could be conducted, using an iden- tical methodology, in which persons attempt to influence their own biolog- ical materials. If Eccles (1977) and others are correct in maintaining that one’s mind routinely exerts a true psychokinetic influence upon one’s own brain through ‘‘cognitive caresses’’ of the synapses of cortical neurons, then perhaps the most ideal target material would be nervous tissue that had been removed and cultured externally (or cloned). At first, it might appear that such an experiment would not be feasible. However, a study of this type could actually be done with the cooperation of a neurosurgeon. Brain tissue that is removed for medical reasons and that is ordinarily discarded might be artificially cultured and maintained as target material for bio-PK attempts by the patient, following his or her recovery from the operation. Outside of this seemingly science-fictional scenario, the next best target material might be lymphocytes (white blood ceils with important roles in the immune process: B-cells, T cells, natural killer cells). Unfortunately, the procedures required for the measurement of these cells or of their bio- logical activities are relatively complex and beyond the capabilities of most psi research facilities. It is noteworthy that several researchers re- cently have reported results of experiments in which their subjects were strikingly successful in self-regulating specific sub-populations of their leukocytes (e.g., neutrophils) using relaxation and imagery techniques (see Braud, 1986; Hall, 1984a, 1984b; Schneider, Smith, & Whitcher, Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002200620001-9