An ESP Test with Aluminum Targets

Reprinted from the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research Volume 62 — October 1968 — Number 4 An ESP Test with Aluminum Targets W. G. Rott anp J. G. Pratt! ABSTRACT: According to theories of W. P. Bentley and others, ESP is more likely to be successful with targets made from organic materials such as cardboard than from inorganic materials such as aluminum. In tests with Pavel Stepanek at the University of Virginia, pieces of aluminum foil, silver colored on one side (called “‘white’’) and gold on the other (called “green’’) and four of the regular white/green cards were used as targets. W.G.R. randomized a set of two of each of the two wry of targets, each in a double thickness manila folder, behind a screen, while subject guessed the other set, with J.G.P. recording his responses. The trials with the cardboard cards gave a highly significant result, while the scoring on the aluminum cards was insignificant. The difference in scoring on the two kinds of targets was of borderline interest. Though the results are consistent with the guiding hypothesis, another explanation of difference is possible and further research is needed for a sound interpretation. INTRODUCTION In a paper dealing with the phenomenon of object association or “psychometry,” a form of ESP where the subject obtains information about events by means of a physical object which has been associated with them, W. P. Bentley (1) suggests that objects which are composed of elements common to the human organism may work better than objects which consist of inorganic elements. Pagenstecher (4) also was of the opinion that metal objects are unsuitable for psychometry, not because the metals are absent from or rare in organisms but because they are less “‘porous’’ than many other substances and thereby less capable of storing the “‘vibra- tions” to which the ESP subject ostensibly responds. Bentley’s proposal is consistent with some speculations by one of the present authors. According to W.G.R.’s psi field theory (6), the physical state of an ESP target is copied in its psi field and this, in turn, affects the psi fields of objects in its environment, including living ones, the process terminating in the physical change in these objects which results in an ESP response. According to one of the psi field hypotheses, the probability of ESP interaction increases with the similarity (“isomorphism”) between the two psi fields. Since an object’s physical state is (according to this theory) reflected in its * We wish to thank the Parapsychology Foundation (Mrs. Eileen J. Garrett, President), the Psychical Research Foundation, and an anonymous friend who paid the expenses of the subject’s visit to the United States for their support of this research. As always, we are especially indebted to Mr. Pavel Stepanek for his continued interest and patience in cooperating in the ongoing investigations of his ESP abilities.

382 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research psi field, objects that are physically alike should work better as source and transmitter than those that are unlike. A. A. Cochran, in two interesting papers (2, 3), presents a discussion of the wave characteristics of different chemical elements which also appears to be relevant to questions concerning ESP targets. He suggests that particles of matter “have a rudimentary degree of life as one of their fundamental properties’’ (3, p. 80). Using the analogy of Niels Bohr between the dual aspect of man as mind and matter on the one hand and the dual aspect of the fundamental particles of matter as being both particles and waves on the other, Cochran goes on to write, “If one suspected that a rudimentary degree of life were possessed by all matter, he would naturally suspect that the dual aspects of man are a direct result of the dual as of the matter from which he is made, and that the mind of man and the wave properties of an electron are two extremes of the same thing: the mind properties of matter” (3, p. 81). This leads Cochran to predict that elements with the eatest wave predominance should be abundant in living matter. bon and hydrogen, which together constitute about eighty per cent of protein, have the greatest wave predominance of all the elements at room temperatures and nitrogen and oxygen, which constitute about nineteen per cent of the proteins, are in the fourth and seventh position respectively, If the wave or “mind” propertics of substances are related to or identical with their psychical properties, several interesting consequences follow, one of which would be that cardboard cards, which in large part are made of carbon, ought to possess a greater wave and “mind” predominance than, say, aluminum cards and consequently should work better as a source of ESP signals. The present experiments are a preliminary attempt to compare aluminum with cardboard tar, The tests were conducted with Mr. Pavel Stepanek (P.S.) at the University of Virginia, Charlottes- ville, during two days in the beginning of June, 1967. MetHop Test Materials The targets were four cardboard cards and four aluminum “cards.” The former were the type commonly used in tests with P.S., namely, simple pieces of cardboard four by six inches, white on one side and green on the other. The aluminum cards, which were roughly of the same size, consisted of pieces of commercial aluminum foil, silver colored on one side, designated their “white” An ESP Test with Aluminum Targets 383 side, and gold colored on the other, their “green’’ side.* The cardboard cards were those on which P.S, had achieved the highest positive deviations in the immediately preceding series (Series 14, see +) conducted by the present experimenters. These targets were n distinctively since they had been identified and recorded individually in the preceding tests in which they were used, but the numbers were ignored in this timent. The presence of the numbers was considered to be irrelevant to the purpose of our The aluminum cards had not been used before. They were not marked in any way since identifying marks might provide a basis of distinction that could vitiate the inorganic quality of the alu- minum cards. For the same reason W.G.R. used rubber coverings on his fingers when he handled the cards. Each of the eight cards was placed in a double-thickness manila folder (one folder inside the other) whose two sides were stapled shut, leaving the front open for randomization of the cards. The covers were also not marked in any way in order to direct the subject’s attention exclusively to the cards and away from any concern with the folders as possible ESP targets. Testing Procedure The cight cards were divided into two runs with four cards in each, two cardboard and two aluminum. Two hundred runs were lanned with each of the two packs of four cards for a total of ,600 trials, 800 with cardboard and 800 with aluminum ta’ ; During the test the experimenters were seated opposite PS. as in the previous serics, GP. sitting directly opposite P.S. and W.G.R. next to J.G.P. and behind a screen which prevented both P.S. and J.G.P. from observing the randomization. ‘The four cards for each run were randomized by W.G.R. by shuffling the folders with the enclosed cards, then removing two cards from their folders and turning them over, and then shuffling the cards again. When W.G.R. had completed the randomization, he handed the folders to J.G.P. who cut the pack and then placed the stack of targets before P.S. with the openings of the folders away from the subject. P.S. in his usual way took up each folder in turn and made his guess of “white” or “green” according to his impression of how to call the two sides, but he did not sec the aluminum targets until the test was finished. The aluminum is a product of the Metals Company, who kindly informed us that the aluminum has a purity Presumaiy the sue could hve reponded by ESP to this “organi pa ce su ave to this “organic” p couting, but failed to do so for psychological reasons. sd ws tol how tcl the two sen ute didnot ser the shi rea

384 Yournal of the American Society for Psychical Research which side of the enclosed card was face up, He had been informed that some of the consisted of aluminum sheets, but he was not told which of the folders contained these and which contained the cardboard cards,* J.G.P. wrote down the guesses. While P.S. was making his calls on one of the packs of four cards, W.G.R. randomized the other set. At the completion of the four trials, J.G.P. took the stack of targets from the subject (now in reverse order from that in which they had been called), opened the flaps of the folders sufficiently for him and W.G.R. to see the cards, and recorded the actual order of the colors, W.G.R. checking on the correctness of this. As in the other series, there usually was a coffee break in the morning and a pause for tea in the afternoon. The radio was on most of the time with P.S.’s favorite program of country music. Resutts Since the aluminum cards had no distinguishing marks and the numbers on the cardboard cards were ignored, it was not planned or possible to study the scores on the individual cards. As shown in Table |, the total number of hits obtained in the 1600 trials was 875, a deviation of +75 above mean chance expectation. The SD works out at 20.00 and the CR at 3.75 which has a value of P = .00018, a highly significant result. The deviation on the cardboard cards was +56, which gives a CR of 3.96 and a P of .00008. On the aluminum cards score was +19, the CR 1.34, and P an insignificant .18, A test of the difference between the results on the cardboard and the aluminum cards gives a chi square of 3.45 which, with one degree of freedom, gives P = .06. in ESP Test with Aluminum Targets 385 Table | Resuttrs of TRIALS wirn CanpsoanD AND ALUMINUM Canps 456 +56 14.14 3.96 800 419 +19 14.14 1.34 18 1600 875 +75 20.00 3.75 00018 DirreRence Cardboard Aluminum X? = 3.45 (1 d.f.); P = .06 Discussion __ The total results and the results on the cardboard cards are well ' chance expectation. Since there ap to be no ordinary way in which P.S. could have perceived color of the targets through two layers of manila cardboard, the most reasonable hypothesis is that he did so by ESP. _ The failure of P.S. to score significantly on the aluminum cards is consistent with the theories of Bentley and others discussed ve, However, it can be explained in another way as well. The selection of four cardboard cards on which P.S, had previously Suc may have provided a favoring condition for the card- board targets. For some reason, as yet unknown, with this subject /Certa ieee cooomme endowed jen 6 opocisl raving preva en et ee Oe oe yecelly optimum conditions for the subject’s ESP abilities. If we not done so and if P.S. had failed to score on either cardboard or aluminum targets, this failure might have been due to an absence

386 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research of favored cards rather than to anything having to do with the ordinary physical properties of the targets.* In experiments on this problem in the future, in addition to the preferred cards, a series of new cardboard cards could be used. If the subject also scores better with these than with the aluminum cards, this would give stronger confirmation of the hypothesis that the chemical composition of the targets affects their stimulating properties than has the present series. Or preliminary tests could be done with a larger number of aluminum cards in the hope of finding favored ones to compare with the favored cardboard cards. In whatever way the problem is approached, the possibility that the stimulating properties of ESP targets is related to their chemical composition deserves to be fully explored. REFERENCES — . BENTLEY, W. P. “Research in ‘Psychometry’ in the U.S. and England.” International Journal of Parapsychology, Vol. 3, Au- tumn, 1961, 75-98. . Cocuran, A. A. “Life and the Wave Properties of Matter.” Dialectica, Vol. 19, September-December, 1965, 290-312. . “Mind, Matter, and Quanta.”” Main Currents, Vol. 22, March-April, 1966, 79-88. . PAGENSTECHER, G. “Past Events Seership: A Study in Psychom- etry.” Proc. A.S.P.R., Vol. 16, 1922, 1-136. . Pratt, J. G., AND Roti, W. G. ‘‘Confirmation of the Focusing Effect in Further ESP Research with Pavel Stepanek in Char- lottesville.” Fournal A.S.P.R., Vol. 62, July, 1968, 226-245. 6. Rott, W. G. “The Psi Field.”’ Proceedings of the Parapsycho- logical Association, Number 1, 1957-1964, 32-65. wv -& WwW N Psychical Research Foundation, Inc. Department of Psychiatry Box 6116 School of Medicine College Station University of Virginia Durham, North Carolina 27708 Charlottesville, Virginia 22901 * Solely as a matter of record and explicitly without any implication of drawing any conclusion from the statistical comparison, we note in passing that these four cards were used for 100 trials each in the p series and were selected for this experiment because they yielded deviations of +16, +14, +12, and +8. Thus these “selected best’ best” targets were called correctly in that series at the 62.5% whereas — gp the present experiment the level of hitting on color for them was 57%. This suggests that we were successful in obtaining a high deviation on the cardboard tar bag rer pe iD the present experiment by taking: advantage of a focusing effect upon selected cards, but the evidence is suggestive only. PRINTED IN BRUGES, BELGIUM, BY THE ST. CATHERINE PRESS, LTD.