Anomalous interactions: BioPK, healing and ANPSI

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Anomalous interactions Bio-PK, healing and ANPSI

• Perspectives on Anomalous Experience

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Clairvoyance
Telepathy
Brain/Mind
Bio-PK/DMILS
Body
Social, relational, cultural context of psi
experiences
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Early work on mental influence

• Mesmer, Gibert and Janets work on action at a
  distance C19th
• Research on mental influence on dogs by Bechterev
  and Ivanov-Smolensky (1920s)
• Vasilievs work on effects of mental influence on
  motor actions (1920s 1930s)
• Flourishing distant mental influence and healing
  research in 1960s and 1970s on (mainly) bacteria,
  plants and (nonhuman) animals.

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PK with inanimate systems

• Early attempts (1940s and 1950s) tested subjects
  ability to mentally influence coins or dice
• Later work (from 1970s) utilised REGs developed
  by Helmut Schmidt
• REGs are truly random and sensitive targets for
  PK tests
• Findings suggest strong evidence for PK on
  inanimate systems

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Bio-PK

• William Braud developed early work by Vasiliev et
  al to test effects of mental influence on living
  systems
• Early studies used allobiofeedback using
  electrodermal activity

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DMILS

• Braud emphasised the importance of the
  interaction between subject and target Direct
  mental interactions with living systems
• Activity level of the target system was
  continuously monitored while a distant subject
  attempted to mentally influence the target system
• Studies investigated subjects influence on
  electrodermal activity, blood pressure, movements
  of fish and gerbils, muscular tremors, haemolysis
  of red blood cells etc
• Usual protocol involved testing sessions of 20
  minutes with randomly interspersed influence
  and no influence epochs of 30 secs
• Percentage scores for each epoch were recorded
  and compared against mean chance expectation

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Influencer
Subject
EDA monitor
Influence epochs signalled to influencer via
headphones Instructed to visualise/intend an
effect on EDA activity During non-influence
epochs instructed not to think about
subject Polygraphs results of subject provided
for feedback
Subject instructed to behave naturally and remain
open to possibility of being influenced Instructed
to gently wish for successful outcome of
experiment Instructed to avoid unnecessary
movements
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Study design and controls

• No contact between influencer and influencee
• Influence periods randomly scheduled
• Experimenter and influencer blind to scheduling
  of influence periods
• Scoring of activity was blind or automated

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Major findings

• 40 of Brauds EDA studies successful
  (5chance). Mean effect size was .25
• Ability to mentally influence normally
  distributed in population
• More labile (but not chaotic) systems more easily
  influence
• Influence can happen across space and across time
• Feedback to influencee not always necessary
• Activity levels of some systems related to
  environmental variables, e.g GMF
• Psychological variables (eg personality) may be
  important
• People with greater need influenced more easily

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Anomalous healing

• Distinction between anomalous healing events and
  experiences
• Krippner Achterberg (2004) distinguish between
  changes in unchangeable bodily processes,
  spontaneous remissions and remarkable recoveries
  (NB cultural and social frameworks impact upon
  definitions of healing)
• Wide range of descriptors/explanations
  non-contact therapeutic touch, psychic surgery,
  faith healing, laying on of hands, intercessory
  prayer

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Intercessory prayer

• Byrd (1988) double-blind randomised procedure
  to investigate effects of prayer on health of
  coronary care patients
• Prayer provided distantly over 10 months
• to 192 randomly assigned patients (201 patients
  acted as control group)
• Prayer group showed significantly more recovery
  than controls (plt.0001), less likely to develop
  complications or need antibiotics

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PK and direct healing

• Investigations of healing influence on disease in
  animals/humans, e.g. Grads work with Oskar
  Estebany on wound healing in mice and effects of
  healer influence on plant growth
• Other work found positive effects of healing
  intention on red blood cells, bacteria, EDA
  activity in normal subjects, animals with tumours
  and humans with heart disease

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Effects of healing on mice
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and on plants (Grad)
Grad also found that plants that were held by a
normal subject (i.e. a non-healer) grew faster
compared to plants held by depressed psychiatric
patients or not held at all (control condition)
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Theories of mental influence

• Braud (2003) distinguishes between 3 possible
  models
• The transmission of some force or energy that
  conveys information from one organism to another.
  However, current theories do not suggest how
  this may happen
• The reorganisation model, which assumes that
  rather than info being transmitted, the existing
  random info is reorganised in a way that creates
  the desired outcome, such that it appears that a
  force was at work

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Theories of mental influence

• In the holonomic or correspondence models, rather
  than info being transmitted or reorganised, all
  information or alternative outcomes already exist
  in an implicate form in the system (like a
  hologram)

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Interconnected models

• Modern research across a range of disciplines
  emphasises the interconnectedness of experience
  on both a macro scale (e.g. quantum physical
  models) and a micro scale (e.g.
  psychoneuroimmunology or PNI models of the
  body/mind)
• Distant mental influence and healing research
  suggests the reality of such holistic models and
  provides evidence that consciousness is not best
  conceptualised as the property of an individual
  brain/mind but rather as an emergent property of
  a system or systems

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Indigenous models of mind-matter interaction
Pre-modern theories of healing assumed an
interconnected system Early Western (and many
non-Western) accounts of healing did not assume
split between mental and physical
function Traditional healing approaches rooted in
sacred and meaningful social and cultural
networks Assumptions that mind/body distinct and
that influence between individuals is impossible
stems from Western mechanistic and reductionistic
assumptions
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ANPSI research

• Attempts to see humans and animals on mental
  continuum, thus ground Para? in biology
• Psi as natural ability that conferred adaptive
  advantage, e.g. Rex Stanfords PMIR model
• DMILS also sees psi as basic response of
  biological systems that is not restricted to
  humans

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Methods in ANPSI work

• Most impressive evidence from popular accounts of
  spontaneous unusual abilities of animals, e.g.
  animals tracking owners over long distances,
  showing distress at injury/death of owner at a
  distance
• Field studies on single cases, e.g. Rhines
  investigations of Lady, Sheldrakes work on
  companion animals showing unexplained excitement
  and activity before owner returns home

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Clever pets
Animals that appear able to telepathically obtain
info from owner and display abilities like
counting, e.g. Lady the mind-reading
horse Animals that perform well in standard ESP
card tests, e.g. Chris the wonder dog
investigated by Wood and Cadoret (1958) Animals
that respond to deliberate mental intentions
given by the owner, e.g. the animal trainer
Durov, investigated by Bechterev in the 1940s,
Rhea Whites investigations of clever dogs
(1964) Sheldrakes work on animals that display
knowledge of owners intentions (intention to
come home, intention to take animal to vets)
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Experimental ANPSI research

• Armstrong (1986) argues for a comparative model
  of psi, such that animal consciousness more
  present-based, and so animals better at more
  passive detection psi abilities like homing and
  psi-trailing, while humans better at more
  intentionally directed activities, eg healing and
  PK
• Morris (1971) argued for the integration of
  biology and para ? and common theories of
  communication
• Early psi research embraced models of information
  transfer and emphasised experimental protocols

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Experimental ANPSI research

• Investigations of animal PK ability to avoid
  unpleasant stimuli (e.g. shocks, cold)
• Precognition work testing effects of detection of
  future events (e.g. euthanasia) on normal
  behaviour
• Effects of clairvoyant access to information
  (e.g. location of food, objects) e.g. Osis and
  Foster (1953) with kittens Rhine (1971) with dogs

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ANPSI conceptual and methodological issues

• Difficulty of control and replication
• Sampling bias
• Individual differences in animal psi ability
• Decline effects
• Problem of distinguishing between results due to
  animal psi and those due to experimenter psi
• Best findings involve close human-animal
  relationship (seen as possible source of noise)

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The importance of relationship

• In popular accounts animal-human bonds seen as
  the essential context within which psi functions
• E.g. accounts of clever animals, Pfungst versus
  Rhines account

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The importance of relationship

• In close human-animal relationships,
  interpretation of behavioural signals may be
  shaped by tendency to anthropomorphise
• But in social species social interactions and
  relationships best likely context for expression
  of psi
• Need to psi as a function of the relationship,
  and embrace more phenomenological and
  experiential approaches

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Experimenter effects

• Osis and Foster (1953) forced choice ESP task
  with kittens, found that kittens handled
  affectionately performed better.
• Rhine (1971) location of hidden objects by dogs,
  found decline effects attributed to one
  experimenter who was stressed and irritable

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Experimenter effects

• Effect of human intention and emotion in those
  experiments using psi-mediated avoidance of
  distasteful stimuli results could be due to the
  experimenter
• E.g. Schmidt (1974) attributed psi-missing in
  cockroaches in a shock reinforcement task to his
  negative feelings about the creatures

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Psi within social relationships

• Sheldrakes work on animals detecting information
  about owners at a distance suggests psi may be a
  function of the human-animal relationship
• Work by Peoch (1988, 1995) and Green Thorpe
  (1993) investigates whether imprinting ability in
  young animals serves as a basis for psi ability
• Recent work (e.g. Begston, 2000 Schlitz, 1982
  Snel and van der Sijde, 1990) has explored
  animals as receivers of healing

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Extending models of psi

• In experimental work more detached approach to
  animals cultivated, and more mechanistic
  explanations favoured
• In lay accounts of animal psi more intuitive and
  relational accounts are used
• Both types of accounts may be shaped by similar
  cultural attitudes to animals and assumptions
  about their cognitive and emotional abilities
• Need to consider psi as experience emerging out
  of social and cultural context

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References

• Armstrong, S. J. (1996) Souls in process a
  theoretical inquiry into animal psi. In M.
  Stoeber H. Meynell (Eds.), Critical Reflections
  on the Paranormal. NY SUNY.
• Davis, J. (1979) Psi in animals a review of
  laboratory research. Parapsychology Review, 10
  (2), 1-9.
• Grad, Bernard R. (1965) Some biological effects
  of laying-on of hands A review of experiments
  with animals and plants. Journal of the American
  Society for Psychical Research, 59, 95-127. (Also
  reproduced in Schmeidler, Gertrude (Ed.)
  Parapsychology Its Relation to Physics, Biology,
  Psychology and Psychiatry. Metuchen,
  NJScarecrow Press1976).
• Morris. R. L. (1977) Parapsychology, biology and
  ANPSI. In B. B. Wolman, L. A. Dale, G. R.
  Schmeidler M. Ullman (Eds.), Handbook of
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• Morris, R. L. (1970) Psi and animal behavior a
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  Psychical Research, 64 (3), 242-261. Davis, J.
  (1979) Psi in animals a review of laboratory
  research. Parapsychology Review, 10 (2), 1-9.

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• Grad, Bernard R. (1965) Some biological effects
  of laying-on of hands A review of experiments
  with animals and plants. Journal of the American
  Society for Psychical Research, 59, 95-127. (Also
  reproduced in Schmeidler, Gertrude (Ed.)
  Parapsychology Its Relation to Physics, Biology,
  Psychology and Psychiatry. Metuchen,
  NJScarecrow Press1976).
• Morris. R. L. (1977) Parapsychology, biology and
  ANPSI. In B. B. Wolman, L. A. Dale, G. R.
  Schmeidler M. Ullman (Eds.), Handbook of
  Parapsychology (1986). Jefferson, NC McFarland
  and Co.
• Morris, R. L. (1970) Psi and animal behavior a
  survey. Journal of the American Society for
  Psychical Research, 64 (3), 242-261.

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• Sheldrake, R. (2000). The psychic pet
  phenomenon. Journal of the Society for Psychical
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• Wiseman, R., Smith, M., Milton, J. (1998). Can
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  home? An experimental test of the psychic pet
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• Sheldrake R. Morgana, A. (2003) Testing a
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• Bechterev, W. (1949) Direct influence of a
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• Rhine, J. B. Feather, S. B. (1962) The study of
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• Rhine, J. B. (1971) Location of hidden objects by
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• Osis, K. Foster, E. B. (1953) A test of ESP in
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• Osis, K. (1952) A test of the occurrence of a psi
  effect between man and the cat. Journal of
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• White, R. A (1964) The investigation of behavior
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• Wood, G. H. Cadoret, R. J. (1958) Tests of
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  of Parapsychology, 22, 29-39.

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• Braud W. (1990) Distant mental influence of rate
  of hemolysis of human red blood cells. Journal of
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  (1), 1-24.
• Peoch, R. (1988) Chicken imprinting and the
  tychoscope an ANPSI experiment. Journal of the
  Society for Psychical Research, 55, 1-9.
• Peoc'h R. (1995) Psychokinetic action of young
  chicks on the path of an illuminated source.
  Journal of Scientific Exploration. 9 (2) 223-29.
• Peoch R. (2002) Psychokinesis experiments with
  human and animal subjects upon a robot moving at
  random. Journal of Parapsychology.

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• Schmidt, H. (1970) PK experiments with animals as
  subjects. Journal of Parapsychology, 34, 255-261.
• Bengston WF, Krinsley D. (2000) The effect of the
  "laying on of hands" on transplanted breast
  cancer in mice. Journal of Scientific
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• Grad, B. R. (1967) The laying on of hands
  implications for psychotherapy, gentling and the
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• Grad, B. (1976) The biological effects of laying
  on of hands on animals and plants implications
  for biology. In Schmeidler, G. (Ed.)
  Parapsychology Its relation to physics, biology,
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• Schlitz, M. (1982) PK on living systems further
  studies with anaesthetized mice. Presentation at
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• Snel, F. W. J. van der Sijde, P. C. (1990-91)
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  European Journal of Parapsychology, 8, 123-130.

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• Snel, F. W. J. van der Sijde, P. C. (1995) The
  effect of paranormal healing on tumor growth.
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• Taylor, R. (2003) Evolutionary theory and psi
  Reviewing and revising some need-serving models
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• Braud, W. (2003) Distant Mental Influence.
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• Chapter 11 in Varieties of Anomalous Experience.