Signal processing analysis of forced-choice ESP data: Evidence for psi as a wave of correlation

Author(s): Mcdonough, B. E., Warren, C. A.

Journal/Book: J Parapsychol. 1995; 59: PO Box 6847, College Station, Durham, NC 27708. Parapsychology Press. 357-380.

Abstract: Signal processing methodology was applied to forced-choice ESP data. This methodology which has been used successfully in a variety of other scientific disciplines, appears to have yielded information about psi not available by classical methods. In the ESP experiments reported here, a form of cross correlation of guesses with targets revealed the presence of periodic maxima. Upon computing the number of matches between guesses and targets at all possible displacements, we found that most of the matches were in clusters thst recurred regularly and periodically throughout the whole range of displacements. Fourier analyses of the cross correlations were performed to quantify the harmonic patterns. The power maxima were then compared to Monte Carlo simulations of the experiments. In the linear and circular correlation analyses of grouped data from selected subjects, the mean power was statistically significant (p < .002 and p < .001, respectively). We termed the observation of a significant harmonic pattern in the correlation of targets and guesses a ''correlation wave.'' Also, two post hoc analyses of grouped data from unselected subjects revealed that only subjects with visual (rather than verbal) cognitive styles guessing high-imagery targets had significant or near-significant correlation waves (p < .037 and p < .063). Therefore, within the context of these experiments, guesses and targets were related in a meaningful way by wave functions, possibly suggesting the operation of a natural, lawful process. Psi has repeatedly been found to be unconstrained in ordinary ways by space, time, and causality. These properties of psi suggest that psi should appear as a pattern throughout the entire range of data rather than be locally confined to one or a few places in the data, as it is usually described. Our results suggest that psi may be an oscillatory correlational field, dependent upon or interacting with mental factors and target characteristics and capable of organizing information or even macroscopic objects in contextually meaningful ways.

Note: Article NS Don, Kairos Fdn, 1187 Wilmette Ave, Wilmette, IL 60091 USA

Keyword(s): DISPLACEMENT

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