Aims: assess if mediums could give accurate information about the deceased in a triple-blind protocol and to investigate the source of information using a quantitative and qualitative analysis.Methods: nine mediums produced thirty-eight readings related to thirty-eight deceased individuals chosen by thirty-six sitters using a triple-blind protocol with no direct interaction with the sitters themselves.In this protocol, the medium was provided with only the deceased's name by the interviewer, the latter having no further knowledge about the deceased. In every session, the medium was asked to provide information about two deceased persons of the same gender. This information, excluding generic details, was entered into two anonymous lists.The information of these two readings was sent to the research assistant charged with maintaining contact with the sitters. Each sitter was asked to assign a value to every piece of information listed using a four-point Likert scale from 'totally wrong' to 'totally correct', and to provide a global score for each reading.Results: 65.8% of the intended readings were correctly identified with respect to the chance of 50%. Furthermore, intended readings had on average 29.5% more correct information than the control ones.Qualitative data indicate that mediums attain information both passively and actively, that is as if they retrieved information without or directly interacting with the deceased.Conclusions: this study provides further evidence that some mediums are able to obtain accurate information about deceased people knowing only the deceased's name and with no interaction with sitters; it also supports the hypothesis that, in some cases, the sources of the information are the deceased themselves.
In this study 9 mediums produced 38 pairs of results for readings related to 38 deceased individuals chosen by 36 sitters using a triple-blind protocol with no direct interaction with the sitters themselves. In this protocol, the medium was only provided with the deceased’s name by the interviewer, the latter having no further knowledge about the deceased. In each session the medium was asked to provide information about each deceased person. This information, excluding generic details, was entered into two anonymous lists. The information of these two readings were sent to the research assistant charged with maintaining contact with the sitters. Each sitter was asked to assign a value to each piece of information listed on a four- point Likert scale from ‘totally wrong’ to ‘totally correct’, and to provide a global score for each reading result. Quantitative data indicate that the sitters correctly recognized the results pertaining to their deceased loved one 65.8% of the time. Furthermore, results which were correctly identified had on average 29.5% more correct information than the results judged as wrong. Qualitative data indicate that mediums attain information both passively and actively, as if they were directly interacting with the deceased. This study provides further proof that some mediums are able to obtain accurate information about deceased people from only knowing the deceased’s name, and with no interaction with sitters; it also supports the hypothesis that in some cases the sources of the information are the deceased themselves.
The correct information identified in 100 readings obtained by 28 self-claimant mediums, applying a triple level blind protocol, were classified into two categories: information that the medium declared to be received interacting with the deceased and information without such interaction.Among the 1295 correct information identified in the 100 readings, 164 (12.6%) included statements related to a purported interaction with the deceased.Even if a small percentage of all correct information, such a type of information suggests that mediums seem to retrieve their information interacting with the deceased and not only retrieving them by searching in a sort of universal memory of the deceased persons experiences.
The accuracy of information obtained by 28 self-claimant mediums related to 100 readings obtained with a triple level of blinding was examined across three indices: percentage of correct reading identified by the sitters, global score of readings and percentage of difference between correct and incorrect information. All three indices showed statistical differences of the intended versus the control readings: correct identification 65%; global score: intended readings, mean = 2.4, SD = 1.5; control readings, mean = 1.7, SD = 1.2; percentage difference between correct and incorrect information: intended readings, mean = −7.9%, SD = 38.7%; control readings, mean = −27.3%, SD = 38%. Our results using a very large sample, confirm previous results, supporting the hypothesis that self-claimant mediums are able to retrieve correct information about deceased people without knowing and interacting with the sitters having access with only to the deceased persons’ first name.
Even if mediumship is a practice that probably originated at the outset of human history and is embedded in many cultural and religious traditions, scientific investigations into mediumship are quite recent. In this study, we aim to investigate if self-defined mediums can retrieve information about specific deceased persons in an unconventional way, that is, without retrieving the information from the parents or friends of the deceased person or by other conventional means. To our knowledge, this is the first registered report related to this phenomenon. Our experimental design will be triple-blinded: the mediums and their interviewer will only know the first name of the deceased person and of the requesting person. The parents or the close friends of the deceased person will not interact in any way with the medium. Furthermore, they will be blind about which of two lists of information (readings) paired with deceased persons of the same gender is related to their parents or friend. Accuracy of information will be analysed by three criteria: (1) percentage of correct identification of the readings related to the requested person; (2) comparison of the global scores (on a scale 1 to 6) assigned to the intended readings with that of control readings; and (3) comparison of the difference between the percentage of correct minus incorrect information identified in the intended readings with that of the control readings.
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