Testing clairvoyance and precognition by manipulating probabilities: A conceptual assessment of the experimental literature

Journal/Book: J Parapsychol. 1999; 63: 402 N Buchanan Blvd, Durham, NC 27701-1728, USA. Inst Parapsychology. 99-130.

Abstract: This paper reviews six clairvoyance experiments and two precognition ones. In essence, all eight studies use an unbalanced deck of some kind in which one or more items in the deck (will) appear more frequently than others. Traditionally, results from the six clairvoyance experiments have been thought to support each other; the current assessment, however, reveals that the findings are not as complementary as might first be imagined. Although all authors believe that psi operates globally in their experiments by scanning the whole target set, at least four different models are offered to explain how global psi might work. None of these models can explain all the results. A review of the two precognition experiments reveals that they fail to address the questions they sought to answer. Moreover, if global psi extends over time as well as space, the variety of models used to explain the clairvoyance studies may also be pertinent to the precognition experiments. A number of potential research questions are identified and a series of experiments is devised to answer the question of whether precognition foresees events that will be or whether it looks: forward to what will be decided. It is hoped that this review will promote more conceptually rigorous research.

Note: Article Steinkamp F, Univ Edinburgh, Dept Psychol, 7 George Sq, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, Midlothian, SCOTLAND

Keyword(s): BACKGROUND STIMULI; ESP; PERCEPTION

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