Citation

Two cognitive DMILS studies were carried out in Bali to pursue the question of whether a controlled experimental test could achieve positive results in a non-industrial culture. The task was to see if one person could help another person be more successful in focus meditation. In the first study, half of the participants were trained in meditation on a lit candle to see if meditation training affected the results. Overall, there were significantly fewer button presses in the Help period as opposed to the Control period, t (34) = 2.16, p < .02, one-tailed, Cohen’s r = .35, power = .55. Since the most successful condition resulted from Helpers trained in meditation and Helpees who were not trained and who said that they were easily distracted, we pursued this set of conditions in Study 2. Again, we achieve significant results in the predicted direction, t (52) = 2.24, p < .02, one-tailed, Cohen’s r = .30, power = .59. These results suggest that experimental parapsychology can be pursued productively in a nonindustrial culture if carried out in a culturally sensitive way.