2017 Vol. 81(2) 160-176
Editor:
Etzel Cardeña
Copyright:
Parapsychology Press
Citation
Carpenter, J., and Sanks, C. (2017). Spontaneous Social Behavior Can Implicitly Express ESP Information. Journal of Parapsychology, 81(2), 160-176
Article
Spontaneous Social Behavior Can Implicitly Express ESP Information
James Carpenter Carol Sanks
We report a new procedure for accessing the implicit expression of psi information. The assumption that psi information can unconsciously inform the development of social interaction guided this research. Members of a quasi-therapeutic group carried out unstructured sessions while a distant experimenter randomly selected an ESP target (a picture). Immediately following each session, group members blindly rated the target and three decoy pictures for their degree of association to the session that had just transpired. Each person’s ratings were independent and global, assessing congruence in mood, content, and significant session-events between session and pictures. Averaged ratings yielded one ESP score per session. A group of volunteers with evolving membership met weekly over a period of several years, accumulating 386 sessions (excluding pre-determined pilot trials). Overall, the group was able to correctly associate its spontaneous group processes with the days’ targets to a significant degree. The group also rated sessions in terms of several qualities such as risk, helpfulness, and hurtfulness, immediately following the session and prior to viewing the day’s pictures, and rated their moods prior to beginning the session. The group was most successful at expressing and identifying the target when sessions did not involve too much intimate self-disclosure, and when members began the sessions with moods low in anxiety and skepticism.
Keywords:
First Sight, implicit psi, group process, ESP