Citation

Twenty psychic healers and 40 nonhealers participated in a conceptual replication of an experiment by Braud. Each session consisted of 2 runs of 8 trials. During the test run, participants (Ps) attempted to remotely retard the rate of the hemolysis of blood samples inside a spectrophotometer on Trials 4-5. The DC component of the earth’s geomagnetic field (GMF) as applied to the blood samples was manipulated between runs. Ps also were queried about their healing practices and beliefs and completed an abbreviated Hartmann Boundary Questionnaire (BQ) and the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS). Relative hemolysis retardation was suggestively associated with high values of ambient GMF on the day before testing, confirming Braud. Overall hemolysis scores were nonsignificant, the scores of healers and nonhealers did not differ significantly, and there was no direct effect of the GMF manipulation. Combined hemolysis scores for both runs revealed hemolysis acceleration with GMF present and retardation with GMF absent, the latter effect being greater among thin-boundary Ps on the BQ. Older nonhealers appeared to accelerate hemolysis and younger nonhealers to retard it. Healers scored much higher than nonhealers on the STS, and among nonhealers the STS was positively correlated with estimated success.