Perceptual Augmentation Techniques, Part Two

The SRI report describes a 12-month investigation of remote viewing and claims that selected and unselected participants could produce useful information under some conditions.

we document in detail the 12-month study at SRI of this human information-accessing capability which we call remote viewing

The authors say target selection and blind judging were handled independently of the researchers conducting the experiments to reduce sensory leakage, cueing, and deception.

target selection at the beginning of experiments and blind judging of results at the end of experiments were handled independently of the researchers involved

In a long-distance pilot series, the report says blind matching produced five correct matches among 12 descriptions and reports an exact-binomial probability of 0.02.

five correct matches were obtained (two each of subjects S1 and S4, and the single submission by the experimenter). This number of matches is significant at p = 0.02

The report identifies the short-range abacus experiment as an exception to the double-blind rule used in its other work.

In this case the experimenters knew what the target was, an exception to the double-blind rule followed in all our other work.

The basic-research screening program used natural-target remote viewing and a four-state random target generator, with conventional communication channels blocked.

The tests were (a) the remote viewing of natural targets, and (b) the determination of the state of a four-state random target generator.

For one nine-trial learner series, the report gives a blind rank-order probability of 1.8 × 10^-6 and says five additional judges produced 15 correct matches against five expected.

For the entire series of nine, the numerical evaluation based on blind rank ordering of transcripts at each site was significant at p = 1.8 x 10-6

A five-experiment sponsor-staff series was reported at p = 0.017, but the authors also note that the natural-target descriptions contained inaccuracies.

The descriptions supplied by the subjects in the experiments involving remote viewing of natural targets, although containing inaccuracies, were sufficiently accurate to permit the judges to differentiate among various targets

The report describes blind judging as difficult because transcripts mixed correspondences with non-correspondences and could plausibly match more than one target.

The transcripts varied from coherent and accurate descriptions to mixtures of correspondences and non-correspondences. Since a judge did not know a priori which elements of the descriptions were correct and incorrect, the task was complicated

The report estimates dependable target information at roughly 25% to 75% and says erroneous or extraneous material hindered tactical or operational use.

the emergence of erroneous or superfluous data in subject responses to the degree that it is currently observed, however, tends to obviate tactical or operational deployment

The medical evaluation found essentially normal profiles and no discernible spread among the subjects, leading the report to call medical profiling noncontributory.

the medical profiling is noncontributory to the study, all subjects showing essentially normal medical profiles without any discernible spread among the subjects

The psychological section says its small sample did not support significant conclusions and should be treated as hypothesis-generating.

given the small sample size, no significant conclusions can be drawn--rather, these points simply suggest hypotheses to be examined in future testing

In the EEG experiment, spectrum analyses found no EEG driving, while the report describes lower alpha power under one remote-stimulus condition.

Spectrum analyses gave no evidence of EEG driving in any receiver, although in control runs the receivers did exhibit driving when physically stimulated with the flashes.

The authors interpret alpha blocking as physiological evidence of remote-stimulus perception even though participants’ conscious trial guesses remained at chance.

analysis showed these guesses to be at chance. Thus, arousal as evidenced by significant alpha blocking occurred only at the noncognitive level of physiological response.

Beyond a general EEG arousal response, the monitored physiological processes did not yield an independent indicator of the hypothesized paranormal state.

we found no evidence in the physiological processes that we monitored that could serve as an indicator of the postulated paranormal state beyond the general EEG arousal response

Subject-directed Geiger-counter trials showed no statistically significant change in the mean or standard deviation of counts.

The results, shown in Table 21, indicate no effect of statistical significance, either in the mean or standard deviation of counts.

Three controlled torsion-pendulum experiments produced 11 directionally correct changes in 18 tries, a nonsignificant result reported at p = 0.24.

data taken in three controlled experiments produced 11 changes in the correct direction out of 18 tries, a result nonsignificant at p = 0.24

The magnetometer section reports a p = 0.004 correlation for one subject, nonsignificant controlled runs for two others, and says further work was required to determine the interaction.

Further work would be required to determine the precise nature of the interaction, although given the equipment design the generation of a magnetic field is the most probable mechanism.

The authors acknowledge that no satisfactory theory explained the reported phenomena and call for replication and extension under varied, rigorously controlled conditions.

investigations such as those reported here need replication and extension under as wide a variety of rigorously controlled conditions as possible

The report summarizes more than 50 experiments as suggesting no strong distance effect over the tested range, no degradation from Faraday-cage shielding, and less reliable results from naive volunteers.

the phenomenon is not a sensitive function of distance over a several-km range and is still operative over a several thousand km range; b) Faraday cage shielding does not appear to degrade the quality or accuracy of perception