Testing Precognition and an Altered State of Consciousness with Selected Participants in the Ganzfeld

Abstract

This study is the first to contribute to a registration-based prospective meta-analysis of ganzfeld Extrasensory Perception (ESP) studies. We sought to maximize the anticipated psi effect size by selecting participants for self-reported creativity, prior psi experience or belief, or practice of a mental discipline. We also employed an automated precognition design for simplicity and security, and to add to the small database of precognitive ganzfeld studies. Targets and decoys were short video clips randomly selected with replacement from a pool of 200. As well as predicting overall significant scoring on the ganzfeld precognition task, the study tested the assumption that the ganzfeld method elicits a psi-conducive altered state of consciousness, by correlating two measures of an Altered State of Consciousness (ASC) with precognition task performance. We predicted higher target similarity ratings would be associated with greater evidence of ASC during the session. Three experimenters each conducted 20 trials. Twenty-two direct hits were obtained (37% hit-rate), thus significantly supporting the planned test of the ganzfeld precognition task (exact binomial p = .03, 1-tailed). No relation was found between ASC and psi task performance, contrary to prediction. We conclude by discussing the reasons why further ganzfeld ESP research is justified.

Exploring the effects of paranormal belief and gender on precognition task: An application of the Bayesian Mindsponge Framework on parapsychological research

“…The present study used secondary data, employing the dataset from the study by Watt et al (2020). The dataset is deposited on the Psi Open Data server, which is publicly accessible.…”

“…The experiment was conducted from December 2017 to March 2018. Watt et al (2020)'s study was pre-registered on the Koestler Parapsychology Unit Registry in 2017.…”

“…In the experiment, Watt et al (2020) prepared a suitable environment to induce the Ganzfeld effect in the participants, including many factors in the procedure, such as a windowless metal chamber, eye masks, red light, white noise, and other relaxation techniques. Participants were asked to rank four clips corresponding to how much each would match the target clip, which was randomly generated afterwards.…”

Meta-Analysis of Free-Response Studies 2009-2018: Assessing the Noise-Reduction Model Ten Years On

“…We thank Bryan J. Williams for bringing these corrections to our attention (seeWilliams, 2011). 7 Actually, four ganzfeld studies have been conducted since 2012, and before 2018, but described in abstracts only: Three featured inRoe et al (2020); and the fourth byWatt, Dawson, Tullo, Pooley, and Rice (2020).…”

Depicting the Ethereal, Part I: Visual Art and Psi

“…Consistent with this research, a high proportion of individuals who have shown consistent good performance in controlled psi studies have been artists, for instance the medium Mrs. Leonard and the remote viewer Ingo Swann (see . Some current psi researcher have adopted artistic activity as a criterion to select individuals more likely to perform well in a psi experiment (e.g., Watt et al, 2020).…”