In the field of parapsychology, a ganzfeld experiment (From the German for “entire field”) is a technique used to test individuals for extra-sensory perception (ESP). It uses homogeneous and un-patterned sensory stimulation to produce an effect similar to sensory deprivation.^[1] (Radin 1997:70-80) The deprivation of patterned sensory input is said to be conducive to inwardly-generated impressions.^[2] The technique was devised by Wolfgang Metzger in the 1930s as part of his investigation into the gestalt theory.^[3] Image File history File links Ganzfeld. ... The ganzfeld (total field) experiment uses audio and visual sensory deprivation to test for extra-sensory perception (ESP). ... Telepathy, from the Greek τῆλε, tele, remote; and πάθεια, patheia, to be effected by, describes the hypothetical transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses. ... Parapsychology is the study of certain types of paranormal phenomena (parapsychology comes from the Greek para, “beside, beyond,” + psychology, derived from the Greek psyche, “soul, mind,” + logos “rational discussion”). The term was coined by Max Dessoir (1889). ... Extra-sensory perception (ESP) is defined in parapsychology as the ability to aquire information by paranormal means. ... A prisoner at the United States Camp X-ray facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba being subjected to sensory deprivation, through the use of ear muffs, visor, breathing mask and heavy mittens. ... Wolfgang Metzger (* July 22, 1899 in Heidelberg, Germany; † December 20, 1979 in Bebenhausen, Germany) is considered one of the main representatives of Gestalt psychology (Gestalt theory) in Germany. ... The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Many ganzfeld experiments have yielded results that deviate from randomness to a significant degree,^[4] and parapsychologists say that these results present some of the strongest quantifiable evidence for telepathy to date.^[1] Critics, however, say that the results are inconclusive. The word random is used to express lack of purpose, cause, order, or predictability in non-scientific parlance. ... In statistics, a result is significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance, given that a presumed null hypothesis is true. ... Parapsychology is the study of certain types of paranormal phenomena (parapsychology comes from the Greek para, “beside, beyond,” + psychology, derived from the Greek psyche, “soul, mind,” + logos “rational discussion”). The term was coined by Max Dessoir (1889). ...

Historical context

The ganzfeld experiments are among the most recent in parapsychology for testing the existence of and affecting factors of telepathy, which is defined in parapsychology as the paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings or activity of another person.^[5] In the early 1970s, Charles Honorton had been investigating ESP and dreams at the Maimonides Medical Centre but became frustrated at the cumbersome nature of the process.^{[citation needed]} Telepathy, from the Greek τῆλε, tele, remote; and πάθεια, patheia, to be effected by, describes the hypothetical transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses. ... Parapsychology is the study of certain types of paranormal phenomena (parapsychology comes from the Greek para, “beside, beyond,” + psychology, derived from the Greek psyche, “soul, mind,” + logos “rational discussion”). The term was coined by Max Dessoir (1889). ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, In the Western world, the focus shifted from the social activism of the sixties to social activities for ones own pleasure, save for environmentalism, which continued in a very visible way. ... Charles Honorton (1946 - November 4, 1992) was, first and foremost, a parapsychologist. ...

In searching for a more efficient way to achieve a state of sensory deprivation in which it is hypothesised that psi can work ^[6] Honorton decided upon the ganzfeld protocol.

Since the first full experiment was published by Charles Honorton and Sharon Harper in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1974, the ganzfeld has remained a mainstay of parapsychological research. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organization in the United Kingdom whose purpose is to research and investigate supernatural, magical, paranormal, and occult phenomena in a scientific and unbiased manner. ...

Experimental procedure

In a typical ganzfeld experiment, one person - the receiver - is left alone in a room relaxing in a comfortable chair with halved ping-pong balls over the eyes, having a red light shone onto them. Additionally the receiver wears a set of headphones through which white or pink noise (static) is played. The receiver stays in this state of mild sensory deprivation for about half an hour, during which a sender observes the randomly chosen target and tries to mentally send this information to the receiver. The receiver speaks out loud during these thirty minutes, describing what they can "see". This mentation is recorded by the experimenter (who is blind to the target) either by recording onto tape or by taking notes, and is used to help the receiver during the judging procedure.

In the judging procedure, the receiver is taken out of the ganzfeld state and given a set of possible targets, from which they must decide which one most resembled the images they witnessed. Most commonly there are three decoys along with a copy of the target itself, giving an expected overall hit rate of 25% over several dozens of trials.^[7]

Analysis of results

Between 1974 and 2004, 88 ganzfeld experiments were conducted, and they reported 1,008 hits in 3,145 trials. This is a 32% hit rate, but only 25% is expected by chance. The odds that this 7% above-chance hit rate would occur without the intervention of an unknown factor is 29 quintillion to one, and such a result is highly significant statistically.^[8](Radin 2006:115-125)

In 1982, Charles Honorton presented a paper at the annual convention of the Parapsychological Association which summarized the results of the ganzfeld experiments up to that date, and concluded that they represented sufficient evidence to demonstrate the existence of psi. Ray Hyman, a skeptical psychologist, disagreed. The two men later independently analyzed the same studies, and both presented meta-analyses of them in 1985. Honorton thought that the data at that time indicated the existence of psi, and Hyman did not.^{[9] [10]} Psi has multiple meanings: Psi (letter) (Ψ, ψ) of the Greek alphabet Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Psi (parapsychology) Psi (instant messaging client), a popular Jabber client program J/ψ particle, a subatomic particle Wavefunction in Quantum Mechanics, ψ In mathematics, Ψ is used to denote the angle between... Ray Hyman (b. ...

Hyman's criticisms were that the ganzfeld papers did not describe optimal protocols, nor were they always accompanied by the appropriate statistical analysis. He presented in his paper a factor analysis which he said demonstrated a link between success and three flaws, namely: Flaws in randomisation for choice of target; flaws in randomisation in judging procedure; and insufficient documentation. Honorton asked a statistician, David Saunders, to look at Hyman's factor analysis and he concluded that the number of experiments was too small to complete a factor analysis. Additionally, Hyman had chosen his three flaws from a list of nine, and there are 84 ways to select three elements from nine, so Hyman had not corrected for multiple analysis.^[11]

In 1986, Hyman and Honorton published A Joint Communiqué, in which they agreed that though the results of the ganzfeld experiments were not due to chance or selective reporting, replication of the studies was necessary before final conclusions could be drawn. They also agreed that more stringent standards were necessary for ganzfeld experiments, and they jointly specified exactly what those standards should be.^[12]

In 1983 Honorton had started a series of autoganzfeld experiments at his Psychophysical Research Laboratories. These studies were specifically designed to avoid the same potential problems as those identified in the 1986 joint communiqué issued by Hyman and Honorton. Ford Kross and Daryl Bem, both professional mentalist magicians (magicians whose specialty is simulating psi effects) examined Honorton's experimental arrangements, and pronounced them to provide excellent security against deception by subjects.^[13] In addition to randomization consistent with the specifications of the communiqué, and computer control of the main elements of each test, these autoganzfeld experiments isolated the receiver in a sound-proof steel-walled and electromagnetically shielded room.(Radin 1997: 77-89) In parapsychology, a Mentalist, as opposed to a psychic, is defined as someone who is believed not only to be able to read information mentally, but also to alter that information. ...

The PRL trials continued till September 1989. Of the 354 trials, 122 produced direct hits. This is a 34% hit rate, and is similar statistically to the 37% hit rate of the 1985 meta-analysis (25% is expected by chance). The 34% hit rate is statistically significant with a z score of 3.89., meaning that there is a 1 in 45,000 chance that a hit rate of at least 34% is observed in the experiment when the true hit probability would really be 25%.^[14](Radin 1997: 77-89)

Concerning these results, Hyman wrote that the final verdict of whether psi can be demonstrated in the ganzfeld awaited the results of future experiments conducted by other independent investigators.

To see if other, post-Joint Communiqué experiments had been as successful as the PRL trials, Julie Milton and Richard Wiseman carried out a meta-analysis of ganzfeld experiments carried out in other laboratories. They found no psi effect, with a database of 30 experiments and a non-significant Stouffer Z of 0.70.^[15] Uhm!? ...

This meta-analysis was criticised for including all ganzfeld experiments, regardless of the methods being used. Some parapsychologists considered that certain researchers had used protocols that were not part of the standard ganzfeld set up, such as targets consisting of music (traditional ganzfeld experiments use visual targets).^[16] It was these experiments which did not return significant results. A second meta-analysis was conducted by Daryl Bem, John Palmer, and Richard Broughton in which the experiments were sorted according to how closely they adhered to a pre-existing description of the ganzfeld procedure. Additionally, ten experiments that had been published in the time since Milton and Wiseman's deadline were introduced. Now the results were significant again with Stouffer Z of 2.59.^[17] Daryl J. Bem is a noted social psychologist at Cornell University, USA, and the originator of the self-perception theory of attitude change. ... John Palmer is the name of several notable individuals, including: John McAuley Palmer (1817-1900), U.S. Civil War general and governor of Illinois; John McAuley Palmer (1870-1955), American First World War general and military theorist, the grandson of the first John McCauley Palmer; John Palmer (1785-1840), U...

In a 1995 paper discussing some of the challenges, deficiencies and achievements of modern laboratory parapsychology Ray Hyman said,

Obviously, I do not believe that the contemporary findings of parapsychology, [...] justify concluding that anomalous mental phenomena have been proven. [...] [A]cceptable evidence for the presence of anomalous cognition must be based on a positive theory that tells us when psi should and should not be present. Until we have such a theory, the claim that anomalous cognition has been demonstrated is empty.[...] I want to state that I believe that the SAIC experiments as well as the contemporary ganzfeld experiments display methodological and statistical sophistication well above previous parapsychological research. Despite better controls and careful use of statistical inference, the investigators seem to be getting significant results that do not appear to derive from the more obvious flaws of previous research.^[18]

Criticism

There are several common criticisms of some or all of the Ganzfeld experiments:

Isolation - Richard Wiseman and others argue that not all of the studies used soundproof rooms, so it is possible that when videos were playing, the experimenter (or even the receiver) could have heard it, and later given involuntary cues to the receiver during the selection process.^[19] However, Dean Radin argues that ganzfeld studies which did use soundproof rooms had a number of "hits" similar to those which did not.^[1] (Radin 1997: 77-89) Uhm!? ... Dean Radin is a researcher in parapsychology. ...

Randomization - When subjects are asked to choose from a variety of selections, there is an inherent bias to choose the first selection they are shown. If the order in which are shown the selections is randomized each time, this bias will be averaged out. However, this was often not done in the Ganzfeld experiments.^[20]

The psi assumption - The assumption that any statistical deviation from chance is evidence for telepathy is highly controversial, and often compared to the God of the gaps argument. Strictly speaking, a deviation from chance is only evidence that either this was a rare, statistically unlikely occurrence that happened by chance, or something was causing a deviation from chance. Flaws in the experimental design are a common cause of this, and so the assumption that it must be telepathy is fallacious. This does not rule out, however, that it could be telepathy.^[21] The God of the gaps refers to a view of God deriving from a theistic position in which anything that can be explained by human knowledge is not in the domain of God, so the role of God is therefore confined to the gaps in scientific explanations of nature. ... Look up fallacy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

There are reasons to doubt telepathy as the explanation, however. The results of the experiments are also unimpressive in the sense that one might expect genuine telepathy to function always or almost always, and that in any case statistically significant results should occur even if the sender's thoughts are not said aloud - and, so far, no Ganzfeld experiments achieve either of these. This suggests that, if the results are not a matter of chance, the cause is non-telepathic.^{[citation needed]}

Controversy

In 1979, Susan Blackmore visited the laboratories of Carl Sargent in Cambridge. She noticed a number of irregularities in the procedure and wrote about them for the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. Susan Jane Blackmore (born July 29, 1951) is a British freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster, perhaps best known for her book The Meme Machine. ... Carl Sargent (born December 11, 1952 in Caerleon, Wales) is a British author of several role-playing game-based products and novels. ... Geography Status City (1951) Region East of England Admin. ...

It now appeared that on one session — number 9 — the following events had taken place. 1. Sargent did the randomization when he should not have. 2. A 'B' went missing from the drawer during the session, instead of afterwards. 3. Sargent came into the judging and 'pushed' the subject towards 'B'. 4. An error of addition was made in favour of 'B' and 'B' was chosen. 5. 'B' was the target and the session a direct hit.^[22]

This article, along with further criticisms of Sargent's work from Adrian Parker and Nils Wiklund remained unpublished until 1987 but were well known in parapsychological circles. Sargent wrote a rebuttal to these criticisms (also not published until 1987) in which he did not deny that what Blackmore saw occurred, but her conclusions based on those observations were wrong. He stopped working in parapsychology after this and did not respond "in a timely fashion" when the Council of the Parapsychological Association asked for his data and so his membership of said organisation was allowed to lapse.^[23]

See also

• Parapsychology
• Remote viewing

Parapsychology is the study of certain types of paranormal phenomena (parapsychology comes from the Greek para, “beside, beyond,” + psychology, derived from the Greek psyche, “soul, mind,” + logos “rational discussion”). The term was coined by Max Dessoir (1889). ... Remote viewing is the purported ability for a viewer to gather information on a remote target consisting of an object, place, or person, etc. ...

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean I. Radin Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0
2. ^ http://parapsych.org/glossary_a_d.html Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved January 3, 2006
3. ^ Metzger, W. (1930). Optische Untersuchungen am Ganzfeld: II. Zur Phanomenologie des homogenen Ganzfelds. Psychologische Forschung, 13, 6-29.
4. ^ http://www.surveysystem.com/signif.htm Statistical Significance Definition of what is considered significant and "highly" significant, Creative Research Systems, Retrieved January 1, 2007
5. ^ http://parapsych.org/glossary_s_z.html#t Parapsychological Association Glossary of Parapsychological terms, Retrieved Dec 19, 2006
6. ^ Psi-mediated imagery and ideation in an experimental procedure for regulating perceptual input Honorton & Harper, Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 1974, 68, p156-68
7. ^ ESP in the Ganzfeld, Palmer, J., Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10, no 6-7, 2003
8. ^ Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality by Dean I. Radin, Simon & Schuster, Paraview Pocket Books , 2006 ISBN-13: 978-1416516774
9. ^ The Ganzfeld Psi Experiments: A Critical Appraisal, Ray Hyman, Journal of Parapsychology 49, 1985
10. ^ Meta-Analysis of Psi Ganzfeld Research: A Response to Hyman, Charles Honorton, Journal of Parapsychology 49, 1985
11. ^ On Hyman's Factor Analysis, Saunders, Journal of Parapsychology 49, 1985
12. ^ A Joint Communique, Hyman, Honorton, Journal of Parapsychology 1986, issue 50
13. ^ http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~abraham/psy1.html 1979 survey quoted in Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer By Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton in the Psychological Bulletin 1994, Vol. 115, No. 1, 4-18
14. ^ Psi Communication in the Ganzfeld, Honorton, Berger, Varvoglis, Quant, Derr, Schechter, Ferrari, Journal of Parapsychology 54, 1990
15. ^ Does Psi Exist? Lack of Replication of an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer, Milton, Wiseman, Psychological Bulletin, 1999, vol 125, no 4, p 387-391
16. ^ Should Ganzfeld Research Continue To Be Crucial In The Search For A Replicable Psi Effect? Part ii, Schmeidler, Edge, Journal of Parapsychology, Dec, 1999
17. ^ Updating the Ganzfeld Database: A Victim of Its Own Success, Bem, Palmer, Broughton, Journal of Parapsychology, 65, 2001
18. ^ http://www.mceagle.com/remote-viewing/refs/science/air/hyman.html The Journal of Parapsychology, December, 1995, Evaluation of Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena By Ray Hyman Retrieved January 5, 2007
19. ^ Wiseman, R., Smith, M,. Kornrot, D. (June 1996). Exploring possible sender-to-experimenter acoustic leakage in the PRL autoganzfeld experiments. Journal of Parapsychology.
20. ^ Hyman, Ray (1994). "Anomaly or Artifact? Comments on Bem and Honorton". Psychological Bulletin 115 (1): 19-24. 
21. ^ Carroll, Robert Todd (2005). The Skeptic's Dictionary: Psi Assumption. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.
22. ^ A Report of a Visit to Carl Sargent's Laborator Blackmore, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 1987
23. ^ Parapsychology:A Concise History, John Beloff, Palgrave MacMillan, 1997

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 191 days remaining. ...

Notes

• Bem DJ, Honorton C, "Does Psi Exist? Replicable Evidence for an Anomalous Process of Information Transfer". Psychological Bulletin 115 (1), 4-18, 1994.

• Bem DJ, Palmer J, Broughton RS, "Updating the Ganzfeld database: A victim of its own success?" (PDF). Journal of Parapsychology 65 (3), 207-218, September 2001

• Goulding A, "Mental health aspects of paranormal and psi related experiences, Doctoral Dissertation"

• What's the story on "ganzfeld" experiments?, The Straight Dope, December 14, 2000.

• New Analyses Raise Doubts About Replicability of ESP Findings, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 1999

• The Skeptic's Dictionary: "ganzfeld"

• Skeptic Report, A History of Psi in the Ganzfeld, Andrew Endersby
• Replication and meta-analysis in parapsychology, Jessica Utts, published in "Statistical Science," 1991, Vol. 6., No. 4, 363-403