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Protocols
for
The Use of Human Subjects
Prepared by:
The Cognitive Sciences Laboratory
6 December 1991
Science Applications International Corporation
An Employee-Owned Company
Approved by:
The Institutional Review Board
Submitted by:
Science Applications International Corporation
Cognitive Sciences Laboratory
1010 El Camino Real, Suite 330
Menlo Park, California 94025
1010 El Camino Real, Suite 330, P.O. Box 1412, Menlo Park, CA 94025
•
(415) 325-8292
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I. TARGET AND SENDER DEPENDENCIES
IN ANOMALOUS COGNITION
A. General Information
(1)
Principal investigator:
(2)
Contract in force:
(3)
Project title:
(4) Responsible organization:
(5)
Begin date:
(6) Risk to human subjects:
Nevin Lantz, Ph.D.
U.S. Government, Client Private.
Phenomenological Research and Analysis.
SAIC
2 January 1992.
MINIMAL.
Subjects write and draw their mental impres-
sions of randomly chosen target material. This
process requires no more mental
effort than
does authoring technical material in a relaxed
environment.
B. Proposed Use of Human Subjects
(1) Research— purpose, and anticipated results:
Previous research has suggested that some an-
omalous cognition (AC) targets are more easily
perceived than are others.
In particular, mov-
ing targets (e.g., video clips) are perceived sig-
nificantly
better
than
are
static
ones
(e.g.,
photographs). This experiment will systemati-
cally vary the physical properties of targets to
determine
possible
mechanisms
responsible
for the earlier results.
Other laboratories routinely use senders; the
Cognitive
Sciences Laboratory (CSL)
rarely
uses them. This experiment will attempt to de-
termine if the AC data are enhanced by using a
sender.
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luman Subjects
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(2) Human-use protocol:
Each subject will participate in 40 AC trials— ten each for the four conditions shown in Thble 1.
Table 1
Experiment Conditions
Condition
Target Type
Sender
Static
Yes
Static
No
Dynamic
Yes
Dynamic
No
During each trial, the subject will perform the following tasks:
• At a prearranged time, the subject will find a quiet and lighted room in his or her home and
sit at a desk.
• For a period lasting no longer than 15 minutes, the subject will write and draw his or her im-
pressions of the intended target material, which will be located in Lititz, PA.
• At the end of the AC trial, the subject will send the response by facsimile to the principal investi-
gator (PI).
• By overnight mail, the subject will receive a copy of the actual target as feedback for the trial.
The 40 trials will occur at a rate of three per week (i.e., one every other day) during a five-month
period beginning in January 1992. There will be significant breaks during this period for holi-
days and to allow the subjects to participate in other experiments. The PI will maintain fre-
quent phone contact with the subjects during the experiment.
At the conclusion of the experiment, the subject will be informed about the statistical outcome
of his or her contribution and will be told about the overall result in general terms.
(3)
Subject description:
a.
Number:
8 to 10 individuals.
b„
Age range:
21 years and over.
c.
State of health:
All subjects will be in good health, as determined
by a comprehensive medical history form com-
pleted by the subjects and reviewed by the phy-
sicians Palo Alto Medical Foundation, in con-
sultation
with
the
subject’s own
physician,
where appropriate.
d.
Special qualifications:
It is possible that the PI might propose to use as
a subject, a person having some health problem
in their medical history.
In this unlikely event,
SAIC would ask the physicians of the Palo Alto
Medical Foundation, in consultation with the
subject's own physician, to rule on the partici-
pation of the subject in this research.
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Protocols for the Use of Human Subjects
e.
Source:
f.
Method of selection:
g.
Compensation:
(4)
Description of risk to the subjects:
(5)
Deception:
(6) Drugs or devices:
(7)
Safeguards against risks:
All subjects will be chosen from those that have
participated
in previous
successful AC
experi-
ments.
Their backgrounds will be reviewed dur-
ing the IRB formal meeting.
Self selection.
Those individuals who are in the above popula-
tion will be invited to participate in this experi-
ment, and acceptance is completely voluntary.
Yes.
All subjects are consultants to SAIC and re-
ceive compensation
in accordance with
their
individual contracts.
The methods used to conduct trials in this
experiment do not expose subjects to procedures
any more risky than the environment of an open-
book school examination that is taken at home.
However, two possible psychological risks should
be noted. One risk stems from the opinion held
by many scientists and laypersons that participa-
tion in studies of the paranormal indicates a be-
lief in the occult and supernatural.
Subjects in
this study, if they voluntarily disclose their partici-
pation, have a small chance of losing the respect
of colleagues who believe that these studies have
no scientific merit Another risk is the possibility
that some persons may come to believe that they
have skills which, in fact, they do not possess.
None.
None.
The potential for psychological risk will be
reduced by advising the subject of the potential
risks involved in the experiment, and by protect-
ing the subject's anonymity.
Except for medical
history, which will reside with a physician at Palo
Alto
Medical Foundation,
personal
information
will remain in SAIC custody for the duration of
the
project
(i.e.,
approximately
five
years).
If
studies
in
this
area
are continued beyond
this
time, the data will be archived in compliance with
all
applicable laws and
federal
regulations with
federal policy for the protection of human sub-
jects in research.
In addition, the experiment shall be conducted in
full compliance with
all applicable laws and fed-
eral regulations.
Subjects will be provided with
information concerning their involvement
in the
experiment, and consent will be obtained in writ-
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Science Applications international Corporation
An Employee-Owned Company
CONSENT JO PARTICIPATE IN A PROPOSED STUDY OF
Target and Sender Dependencies in Anomalous Cognition
You are invited to participate in research intended to determine whether the quality of anomalous cognition (AC),
if it occurs, depends upon the type of target and whether the quality is influenced by a sender. The results of this
experiment may improve our understanding about the possible mechanisms of AC.
Ifyou accept this invitation, you will be asked to participate in 40, 15-minute AC sessions from your home. You and
the principal investigator (PI) will determine the exact schedule, but typically you will do one session on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday of each week.
The target material will be selected randomly from a set of 100 photographs of outdoor scenes and approximately 50
different thematically related scenes taken from popular video movies or documentaries. On a random basis, half
of the targets will be photographs and half will be videos.
Similarly, during half of the sessions, the PI will act as a
sender, and during the remaining sessions, the PI will not know the specific target.
At the end of each session, you will send your written and drawn impressions of the target material by facsimile to
the PI. He will send to you, by return overnight mail, a copy of the target material (i.e., either a photograph or a
video tape) and an addressed envelope so that you can mail the material back the same day.
This will be your feed-
back for the trial.
At the conclusion of the study, you will be told the details of the analysis, the statistical outcome of your contribu-
tion, and the overall outcome of the experiment. At all times, the confidentiality of your participation in this experi-
ment will be protected.
Your name will not be used.
Reference to you in records of this experiment and in any
published results will be coded or in consolidated form.
Similar research in other laboratories has shown that no health risks are involved in participating in this type of
experiment. This field of research, however, is deemed by some to have no scientific foundation. Some friends or
colleagues, therefore, may consider your participation to indicate a belief in the occult or paranormal. While, to the
knowledge of the investigators, no one has suffered career damage from participating in scientific research of the
type we are proposing, you should realize that your credibility with some persons might be damaged if you should
chose to reveal your participation in this experiment.
In addition, there is no reason to believe that, having participated in studies such as this you will be able to use your
abilities for specific personal gain.
Occasionally, participants come to believe that they possess the capacity to use
so-called psychic skills for personal profit in risk-taking situations (e.g., participating in games of chance or specula-
tive investments). Some individuals who have participated in experiments of this kind have acted on such assump-
tions to their apparent disadvantage. Thus, the risk exists that you may come to believe that you have a skill that you
may not possess. You are advised of this risk and warned that you assume responsibility for any assumptions which
you make about your personal skills or capabilities.
Emergency medical care is available if the need arises during your participation in this study at the SAIC facilities in
Menlo Park, California. However, no additional medical care or compensation is offered to participants in the ex-
periment. For emergency medical assistance at the SAIC facilities in Menlo Park, California, we will call the Urgent
Care Center of Palo Alto Medical Foundation at (415) 853-2959 and explain the nature of the emergency and take
appropriate action.
If this explanation leaves you with any unanswered questions, please ask and obtain answers satisfactory to you
before signing below.
Ifyou have questions later, please call Dr. Nevin Lantz at (717) 627-4834 or Dr. Edwin C. May
at (415) 325-8292. An SAIC Institutional Review Board (IRB) composed of physicians and other knowledgeable
1010 El Camino Real, Suite 330, P.O. Box 1412, Menlo Park, CA 94025
•
(415) 325-8292
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persons has reviewed the plan of this study to ensure that you are protected to the maximum extent possible from
any health risks that may be associated with your participation in this study. Additional inquiries or comments may
be addressed to the IRB Chairman, Dr. Garrison Rapmund, 6 Burning Tree Court, Bethesda, MD 20817, (301)
365-1419.
Your participation in the research is voluntary. You will be free to cease participation at any time.
Ifyou decide not
to participate or you later withdraw from participation, there will be no adverse consequences for you.
After receiving the information provide above and the answers to my questions, I,
,
agree to participate as a subject in the activity described.
I consent to the use and publication of any data or informa-
tion resulting from my participation, provided that I am not personally identified.
I further understand that addi-
tional information regarding the experiment will be available to me on request and that I may withdraw my consent
to participate in this experiment at any time.
I am an adult and am not presently under medication or treatment by a
physician, except
.
Your signature indicates that you have read and understood the above information, that your questions have been
answered to your satisfaction, and that you have decide to participate based on the information provided. A copy of
this form will be furnished to you.
Signature of Subject
Signature of Witness
Signature of Principal Investigator
Date
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Protocols for the Use of Human
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II. ANOMALOUS COGNITION IN LUCID DREAMS
A. General Information
(1)
Principal investigator:
(2)
Contract in force:
(3)
Project title:
(4) Responsible organization:
a.
Performing organization:
b.
Relation to SAIC:
Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D.
U.S. Government, Client Private.
Phenomenological Research and Analysis.
SAIC.
The Lucidity Institute.
Subcontractor.
(5) Begin date:
2 January 1992.
(6) Risk to human subjects:
MINIMAL.
Risks due to dream experiences are no differ-
ent from those experienced every night.
Sub-
jects will be exposed to flashing lights during
sleep, but these will present risks no more seri-
ous than occasional loss of sleep.
B. Proposed Use of Human Subjects
(1) Research— purpose, and anticipated results:
Previous work has suggested that REM sleep is
conducive to anomalous cognition (AC).
This pi-
lot experiment
is designed to explore the poten-
tial for using the REM lucid dreaming state (Le.,
dreaming while knowing that one
is dreaming)
for enhancing AC. Once an individual is aware of
his or her dream, we expect that the dreamer will
be
able
to
identify AC target
material, and be
able
to
separate
it from
other dream
images.
Thus, we expect that the lucid dream state will re-
duce the “noise” content of a response.
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Human Subjects
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(2) Human-use protocol:
The general strategy of this pilot study calls for subjects to induce lucid dreams in which they will
view AC targets
(e.g., National Geographic magazine photographs)
that have been sealed
in
opaque envelopes. To implement this strategy, we must train individuals to induce a lucid dream.
Training in Lucid Dreaming
All subjects will receive two forms of training in lucid dreaming: (1) They will complete a lucid
dreaming home-study course developed by the Lucidity Institute, and (2) they will attend two
weekend seminars, one at the beginning and one at the end of the proposed three-month pilot
study. The first seminar, to be held in December, 1991, will introduce subjects to lucid dream-
ing skills and the the use of the DreamLight, a lucid dream induction device. In previous stud-
ies, the DreamLight has been shown to enhance the frequency of lucid dreaming. The Dream-
Light consists of a sleep mask equipped with lights and eye movement sensors, which are
attached to a small battery-operated computer. When the computer detects the eye move-
ments of dreaming (i.e., REM) sleep, it causes the lights in the mask to flash briefly (i.e., either
one or two flashes per second). The dreamer frequently incorporates the flashes into the ongo-
ing dream, and thus experiences a cue to indicate that he or she is dreaming. Subjects will have
free access to DreamLights during the duration of the study.
Lucid Dreaming AC Trials
During the study, each subject will attempt to provide six AC trials in a lucid dream state ac-
cording to the following procedure:
At the first seminar each subject will receive a sealed
opaque envelope containing a target photograph chosen randomly from a predetermined set
of 100. Subjects will place the target envelope in the room in which they are sleeping. Using the
DreamLight, they will attempt, while dreaming, to open the envelope, memorize its content,
and awaken as soon as possible. In the waking state, they will write and draw their impressions
in detail. During the next day, they will mail the unopened envelope and their response to the
principal investigator (PI) for analysis. Upon receipt, the PI will send back a copy of the target
photograph as feedback and an additional sealed envelope for the next trial. This procedure
will be repeated until six trials are obtained from each subject.
AC Baseline Measures
Each subject will be asked to contribute eight trials in a waking state in the Cognitive Sciences
Laboratory as an AC baseline series. The targets for this series will be chosen at random from a
standardized target set that was developed from an earlier program.
Each trial will be con-
ducted as follows: After the subject and an experimenter (i.e., called a monitor) enter the AC
laboratory (i.e., an office with a single desk and two chairs), an assistant will use a computer
random number generator to select a target from the baseline target pool. Both the subject and
the monitor will be blind to this specific choice. At a pre-arranged time, the monitor will en-
courage the subject to draw and write his or her impressions of the target material, which is
located approximately 50 meters away. After approximately 15 minutes of casual questioning,
the trial will end; the data will be copied; the originals will be secured; and the actual target will
be presented as feedback to the subject.
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Protocols for the Use of Human Subjects
(3)
Subject description:
a.
Number:
b.
Age range:
c.
State of health:
d.
Special qualifications:
e.
Source:
f.
Method of selection:
g.
Compensation:
(4)
Description of risk to the subjects:
8 to 10 Individuals.
21 years and over.
All subjects will be in good health, as determined
by a comprehensive medical history form com-
pleted by the subjects and reviewed by the phy-
sicians Palo Alto Medical Foundation, in con-
sultation
with
the
subject’s
own
physician,
where appropriate.
It is possible that the PI might propose to use as
a subject, a person having some health problem
in their medical history.
In this unlikely event,
SAIC would ask the physicians of the Palo Alto
Medical Foundation, in consultation with the
subject's own physician, to rule on the partici-
pation of the subject in this research.
All subjects will be chosen from those that have
participated
in previous successful AC
experi-
ments, or have reported success in lucid dream-
ing to the Lucidity Institute.
Their backgrounds
will be reviewed during the IRB formal meeting.
Self selection.
Those individuals who are in the above popula-
tions will be invited to participate in this experi-
ment, and acceptance is completely voluntary.
Yes.
Those subjects who are consultants to SAIC
will receive compensation in accordance with
their individual contracts. Those subjects who
are from the lucid dreaming population will be
uncompensated volunteers.
The methods used to conduct trials in this
experiment do not expose subjects to procedures
any more risky than the environment of an open-
book school examination that is taken at home.
However, two possible psychological risks should
be noted. One risk stems from the opinion held
by many scientists and laypersons that participa-
tion in studies of the paranormal indicates a be-
lief in the occult and supernatural.
Subjects in
this study, if they voluntarily disclose their partici-
pation, have a small chance of losing the respect
of colleagues who believe that these studies have
no scientific merit. Another risk is the possibility
that some persons may come to believe that they
have skills which, in fact, they do not possess.
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