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1984). The work of Schneider et al.
is especially interesting in view of the
accuracy, rapidity, and specificity of the influences that occurred without
the provision of conventional sensory feedback. The process appears goal-
directed and immediately reminds one of the similar goal-directed nature
of psychokinesis.
.
,
The third best, and logistically the easiest, material with which to work
would be osmotically stressed red blood cells. The goal of the experiment
would be
to protect one’s own red blood
cells and retard their rate of
hemolysis
If red blood
cells are maintained in fluids having a
salinity
similar to that of the blood plasma,
the
cells survive for long periods.
However,
if placed
in
a
fluid having a
salinity lower than
that of the
plasma (e.g.,
in distilled water or in very dilute saline), the corpuscles
swell due to the movement of water through their semipermeable mem-
branes
Eventually the cells rupture and release their hemoglobin content
into the surrounding medium. The
rate of hemolysis can be measured
using a spectrophotometer with an output to a computer and pen recorder.
Light of a given wavelength
is passed through a tube of blood cells sus-
pended in dilute saline. Intact cells are relatively opaque to the light. As
the cells rupture, the solution becomes increasingly transparent. The spec-
trophotometer/computer/pen
recorder system
provides
an
objective
readout of the change in light passage over time, and hence the time
course of hemolysis. Rate of hemolysis can be measured dunng influence
trials in which the research participant attempts to mentally retard the he-
molytic process, that
is, attempts to psychokinetically protect the red
blood cells from osmotic injury. These results can be compared with he-
molysis rates obtained during interspersed control trials in which no psy-
chokinetic attempts are made.
,
We conducted a preliminary experiment of this sort in our laboratory
several years ago. In that experiment, involving a single selected subject
and a small number of trials, a significant influence of hemolysis rate was
observed (Braud, Davis, & Wood, 1979). In the present experiment, we
sought to repeat that experiment with many more trials, a large number of
unselected subjects, and an improved methodology,
in order to test the
reproducibility and generality of the finding. Briefly, subjects attempted
mentally to retard the rate of hemolysis of osmotically stressed human red
blood cells that were isolated from all conventional influences. The sub-
jects and the target system were kept in separate rooms. Rate of hemolysis
was monitored accurately by a spectrophotometer interfaced by means of
an
analog-to-digital converter to a microcomputer. The expenmenter
operating the equipment was blind regarding the scheduling of the influ-
ence (protect) versus noninfluence (control) attempts. Half of the subjects
worked with their own blood cells, and half worked with cells from an-
other person; both experimenter and subject were blind regarding the
blood source. The experimental design included features that we hoped
would help us determine whether any obtained psi effect might be most
parsimoniously interpreted as a true psychokinetic (remote action) effect
or,
alternatively,
as an
instance of “intuitive data sorting
(see May,
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y
Distant Mental Influence of Hemolysis Rate
Radin, Hubbard, Humphrey, & Utts,
1985). Prior to die formal experi-
ment to be described in detail in this paper, two additional studies were
conducted— a pilot study and an “intermediate phase” study. Space limi-
tations permit only relatively brief summaries of those two studies.
Summary of the Pilot Phase
Thirty-two unselected subjects participated in a pilot study designed to
explore the new methodology and to determine whether blood source (own
blood cells vs. another person’s blood cells) was an important factor. An
experimental
session
involved hemolysis measurements
for
10 blood
tubes. The subject attempted to retard the rate of hemolysis of 5 of these
tubes, mentally and at a distance. The remaining 5 tubes served as control
tubes that the subject did not attempt to influence. The 5 influence and 5
control tubes were scheduled according to a random sequence that was
prepared by a third party and that was unknown to die experimenter who
made the hemolysis measurements. Light transmission through each tube
(which
is proportional to hemolysis) was measured for each second of a
2-minute sampling period; the difference between the mean of the initial 5
seconds and the final 5 seconds of light measurements yielded a change
score that served as the hemolysis measure.
Following the completion of the experimental
session,
10 additional
blood-containing tubes were measured for hemolysis rate.
It was intended
that these 10 measurements would provide additional “nonlocal
baseline
data and would also be useful in comparing remote action (RA) versus
intuitive data sorting (IDS) predictions of the experimental outcome. Ac-
cording to the RA hypothesis, the mean of the 5 “local” control tubes
should be equivalent to the mean of the 10 nonlocal baseline tubes, and
the mean of the 5 influence tubes should be lower (i.e., in the direction of
less hemolysis or greater protection of toe cells) than both of toe former
means. According to toe IDS hypothesis, toe mean of toe local controls
should be above, and that of the influence tubes should be below, that of
the nonlocal baseline tubes; the grand mean of the 1
tubes for toe experi-
mental session should not differ from toe mean of toe 10 nonlocal baseline
tubes.
,
.
.
An
analysis of variance of toe hemolysis
scores indicated extremely
great and highly significant variability among the subjects, but no other
significant main effects or interactions. Therefore, significant evidence for
a remote influence of the blood cells was not obtained in the pilot study.
There was, however, a nonsignificant tendency for a slight “protection’
effect in the “another’s blood”
condition, whereas
the opposite effect
(i.e.,
less protection during the influence
trials) occurred
in the “own
blood” condition. The nonlocal baseline measurements were found to be
inadequate for their intended purpose because
in every case but one die
mean percent light transmittance change score for the 10 nonlocal baseline
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Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
tubes was lower than both experimental sessions means (i.e., consistently
lower than both the control and the influence tube means).
It was deter-
mined that this consistent reduction in hemolysis for the nonlocal baseline
tubes (and to a lesser extent, for the tubes later in the experimental ses-
sions as well) was due to a progressive change in the blood cells contrib-
uted by several environmental factors that increased the
noise
level of
the experiments and that included higher apparatus
(i.e., spectrophotom-
eter tube holder) temperatures during later tests, and increasing exposure
of the blood
cells
to temperature changes,
air, and mechanical trauma
(i e.
, mechanical agitation) during the course of repeated tests of a sing e
blood sample
(i.e., multiple tests of the contents of a single Vacutainer
blood collection tube). As a result of the pilot sessions themselves, as well
as additional tests conducted concurrently with and subsequent to the pilot
experiment, the sources of these interfering factors were identified, and
steps were devised that could be taken to eliminate or greatly reduce them
in the formal study.
'
,
,
,
Temperature changes
in the spectrophotometer tube holder were con-
trolled through (a) the addition of an external cooling fan to the apparatus,
(b) reducing the durations of the hemolysis measurement periods, and (c)
turning off the apparatus except when measurements were actually being
made. The substitution of a more effective anticoagulant (acid-citrate-dex-
trose) for that used in the pilot study (heparin) greatly diminished the ef-
fects of progressive exposure to room temperature,
air, and mechanical
trauma during repeated pipette samplings so that hemolysis rate remained
relatively stable over the course of 20 measurements from a given mam
Vacutainer source tube. When between 20 and 30 samples had been taken
from a main Vacutainer tube, this stability began to deteriorate.
Summary of the Intermediate Phase of Salinity Tests
Following the completion of the pilot study,
salinity tests were con-
ducted in order to determine salinity values that might mimic anticipated
psi-induced hemolysis rate changes. These
tests provided the basis for
Monte Carlo analyses that were designed to determine appropriate param-
eters for an adequate differential test of the IDS versus RA predictions of
psi functioning that was to be conducted in thfe formal study.
A
total of 332 hemolysis
trials were completed using whole blood
samples collected from 10 different persons. For these tests, the “noise-
reducing” improvements mentioned above were incorporated. Hypotonic
salinity values of 0.425%, 0.429%, 0.434%, 0.442%, and10 450% (coree-
sponding, respectively, to 50%, 50.5%, 51%, 52%, and 53_33% of 0.85%
normal physiological saline) were tested. Sampling epochs of 1-mmute
duration were used, rather than the 2-minute periods of the pilot study. All
other procedures were identical to those of the pilot study. These were all,
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