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Remarks:
This second chapter in the book by RAO seems
to offer useful background and guidelines for
the kind of research we ought to start focusing
on when and if we obtain the kind of validation
we are seeking in the current project.
1
'SG11
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number :
65-27587
Rao, K. R.
Experimental Parapsychology:
A Review and Interpretation
Springfield, Ill.
Charles C
Thomas, Publisher
1965
8-10-65
SG11
Very interesting - should help define.
what experiments should done & how to
Identify " Para normals "
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Chapter 2
THE SUBJECT IN PSI TESTS
The Psi Triangle
I
N A figurative sense, the experimental situation of psi seems
to be basically triangular-the three angles being the subject, the
experimenter, and the target. The analogy of the triangle is used
simply as a convenient device for the categorization of the psi
factors and consequently has no validity besides its usefulness as
a descriptive phrase.
For the purpose of this study, the subject angle consists of
those studies that are concerned with ascertaining the physical and
mental states, inherited or acquired, transient or stable, that are
associated with the significant success or failure of subjects in
ESP tests. These include the studies relating to the personality
and physiological correlates of psi, the effect of the subject's at-
titudes on his performance, hypnotic and relaxed states of the
subject, and the general observations on the subject's health,
age, sex, intelligence, etc.
The target angle involves those studies that are relevant to the
role of targets in psi tests. It includes studies involving target
variations aimed at discovering what types of targets are most
suited for psi tests. There are several studies relating to the
physical and psychological aspects of the targets. The agent in
a telepathy or a GESP test becomes a part of the target angle
insofar as he is the target person. Furthermore, the studies in
target conditions, such as those concerned with the effect of
space and time on the performance of psi subjects, are also in-
cluded in the target angle.
The experimenter angle is concerned with the role of the
experimenter-his moods, attitudes, and abilities that are essen-
tial to elicit psi as well as his methods, designs, and experimental
conditions. This angle also includes comparative studies of the
experimental methods and test conditions. While the experi-
menter is independent of his methods and the methods involve
the whole complex of the testing situation, the convenience of
categorization leads us to the inclusion of methods in the experi-
menter angle.
There are other studies involving the interrelations between
these three factors which may be described as the three lines
joining the psi angles. The subject-target line is the one concerned
with the subject-target relationship-the attitude of subjects to
targets, the dual aspect target situations, and the attitude of the
subject toward the agent in GESP and telepathy tests. The sub-
ject-experimenter line is concerned with the interpersonal rela-
tionships between the subject and the experimenter and with
the reactions of the subject to the experimental conditions. The
teacher-pupil attitude studies are along this line. Finally, the
experimenter-target line deals with such studies as the suitability
of particular types of targets in particular situations and with the
experimenter's attitudes towards different targets. It is recognized
that these lines are arbitrary and may overlap occasionally since
some of these relations, such as those which include the method,
may have all around implications involving all the angles.
The subject is obviously the most important angle of the psi
triangle. The search for gifted subjects has always been an im-
portant concern of the inquiring parapsychologist. The studies
concerning the personality correlates of ESP, the attitudes of the
subject conducive to psi manifestation, and the mental and physi-
cal states of the subject constitute a major portion of published
literature in the field. Is psi an individual gift or a generic one?
What kinds of people are the most successful subjects? Do the
health, age, and sex of the subject have any effect on psi? Are
there any personality characteristics or patterns that are particu-
larly associated with psi functioning? Do the attitudes of sub-
jects toward psi help or hinder it? Are there any natural or
induced states of mind that are helpful to psi? Are there any
physiological states that are related to the parapsychical phe-
nomena? These are some of the questions that are raised, if not
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answered, by the studies in the field. We shall consider briefly a
summary of some of the important findings regarding these
questions and their general implications for the understanding of
the nature of psi.
Is Psi Generic?
Do all human beings have psi, or is it a special gift of a few?
It has been a popular hypothesis, at least since Bergson (40) , that
psi is a species characteristic that is being progressively repressed
in the process of evolution. But earlier experimenters were usually
looking for gifted subjects, mostly because they did not have
methods for mass testing. Among modern experimenters, Soal is
one of the few who hold that psi ability is a gift possessed by only
a few. He literally tested scores of subjects in his search for a
gifted subject before he found Basil Shackleton and Gloria
Stewart. If we weigh the total evidence, however, it seems to
favor the hypothesis that all human beings (perhaps some animals
too) have psi ability although not everyone who takes an ESP
test obtains more hits than expected by chance to give evidence
of his ability. Some of the most successful experiments, such as
the Pratt-Woodruff series (761) were done with a large group
of unselected subjects. Nearly all the experimental reports pub-
lished in the Journal of Parapsychology, in 1964, were with un-
selected subjects. As Murphy says,
The evidence has finally driven us directly into the view
that we are concerned with generic, and not simply with indi-
vidual gifts. Much depends on the subtlety of the method, and
the devices that we use for reinforcing and bringing to maximal
expression whatever primitive and half-choked functions may
be waiting for our detection and cultivation (597, p. 5) .
+
Some Outstanding Subjects
The assumption that psi is generic does not imply that
subject A in an experiment will be as good as subject Z. As in any
other human ability, there may be great individual differences in
psi; therefore, the study of those persons who happen to be good
subjects and the optimum conditions under which they are most
successful is necessary.
The Subject in Psi Tests
27
The first question that arises, then, is the question of whether
the people who report unusual spontaneous psychic experiences
show any common characteristics, mental or physical, which may
indicate a possible connection with psi ability. Unfortunately,
there is no evidence that they do. Psychic experiences seem to
occur to all kinds of people. Louisa E. Rhine reports, "In con-
sidering a large group of people like those who have reported
the experiences in the preceding pages, the most obvious observa-
tion is that they do not, rather than do, show similar character-
istics" (899, p. 178) .
Do the outstanding subjects tested in various psi experiments
share any common dispositions? Unfortunately, the published
experimental reports do not often involve an assessment of the
subjects. Even when they do, there is the possibility that they
note only those characteristics which the experimenter prejudges
to be associated with psi and ignore those which may not seem to
have meaningful significance at the time of the study. For these
reasons, our summary of what we know of some of the outstand-
ing subjects is necessarily scanty and anecdotal and is, at best,
only of suggestive value in pointing out possible future explora-
tions.
Stuart, Pearce, Linzmayer, and the five other major subjects
of J. B. Rhine, we are told, were sociable, normal, intelligent, and
artistic. All but Linzmayer, who was not especially religious,
were quite religious without being orthodox. Stuart was more
positively suggestible than Linzmayer, who was only slightly
hypnotizable and was somewhat negatively suggestible in his
relaxed condition. One common characteristic in all these cases
is that each subject reported a near relative who had had psychic
experiences, even though none of them seemed to claim any for
himself. Linzmayer's mother had premonitory experiences;
Stuart's mother and aunt had veridical psychic experiences, and
Pearce's mother was reportedly a clairvoyant (835) .
Basil Shackleton, Soal's highly successful subject, was a
photographer. According to Soal, he was expansive, talkative, and
sociable. Unlike Rhine's subjects, Shackleton "had on various
occasions applied his faculty of intuition to the forecasting of
winners in horse races," but he had no relatives who seemed to
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possess such psi abilities (1065) .
Tyrell noted that his best subject, Miss Johnson, had "a
well-balanced mind and strong common sense." She also possessed
a general faculty which may be called intuitive or extrasensory that
seemed to operate in her daily life.
Mrs. Upton Sinclair reported many psychic experiences and
always said, according to her husband, that she got "the feelings
of people, not by their words, but by intuition" (1039, p. 16) .
Maria, the unsophisticated peasant girl studied by Langdon-
Davies, "was healthy, cheerful, reliable" but not unintelligent
(119, p. 112) .
According to Riess, his brilliant subject, Miss S., was "a
young lady of high intelligence and limited interests. She was
obviously not well adjusted to her life in the community and on
several occasions stated that she was 'sick of living at home'"
(915, p. 262) .
Miss J. K., the first of Ryzl's star subjects, is "very intelligent,
ambitious and careful in her work . .. Her interests are divided
between her desire to study medicine . . . and her love for music
.
. . Of other characteristics, we could mention somewhat
hysteroidal features of personality manifesting themselves from
time to time in periodically unbalanced states of feelings, in a
vegetative instability, in capriciousness and a somewhat affected
behavior" (960, p. 245) .
The subject Bo, an unusually good subject studied by Drake,
was both mentally and physically retarded. "The personality of
the child might be characterized by irrelevant, distractible, and
hyperactive extroversion" (156, p. 185). He showed no special
artistic abilities.
Lillian was a normally intelligent child of nine years when
she scored perfectly on all twenty-five cards (814) .
According to the psychologist who administered Rorschach
tests to them, the Jones boys studied by Soal had the same in-
telligence quotient of 110. Glyn was well adapted to his social
environment, while Ieaun was "introverted and out-of-touch with
reality" (1066, p. 19). But Soal does not think that the psy-
chologist's assessment of Ieaun is correct. He says, "If Ieaun was
ever 'introverted' or neurotic, he seems to have grown out of it"
The Subject in Psi Tests
29
(1066, p. 20) .
Thus, the list of outstanding subjects includes children as
well as adults, highly intelligent subjects and the mentally re-
tarded, some well adjusted and others not so well adjusted. There
are three characteristics, however, which seem to be relatively
common among the outstanding subjects. First, the subjects
either believed from their daily experiences that they had these
abilities, or they had known someone in their families who was
believed to have had psi experiences. This does not, however,
warrant the conclusion that psi is hereditary-Shackleton did
not have any relatives who had had psi experiences. In the case
of other outstanding subjects, it is not unreasonable to assume that
the fact that they had these experiences or that they had known
someone close who had had them created a favorable attitude
in the subjects themselves which may in turn have helped them
respond favorably to the experimental situation.
Second, the artistic characteristic seems to be another fairly
common feature. Rhine noted this characteristic among all his
major subjects. Shackleton was an artist by profession. After
leaving her academic environment, Miss S. "occupied herself
with music, giving lessons and attending concerts" (915, p. 261) .
Miss J. K. was much interested in music and was an accomplished
pianist. We could, of course, draw no conclusion from these few
cases. No experiments were done to test whether artistic ability
or interest is in any way correlated with psi. It remains an inter-
esting possibility for exploration.
Third, several of these outstanding subjects seem to be
sociable or extroverted. Rhine's subjects were sociable. We are
told that Shackleton, too, was talkative and sociable. The Jones
boys, according to Soal, were also extroverts; and Bo was a
hyperactive extrovert. As we shall see later, there is also some
experimental evidence to suggest that extroverts are likely to
obtain better positive scores than introverts.
The Effects of Health, Age, and Sex
Reported observations on the relevance of the health of the
subjects to their ESP scores vary considerably. The Colorado
experiments of Martin and Stribic suggest "possible correlation
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between scoring success and physical fitness" (555, p. 160) . Tyrell
reported that Miss Johnson's scores fell sharply when she had a
succession of colds. Thouless (1139) observed that he had not
scored well when he was ill. Rhine (835) noted in his monograph
that physical disease hindered ESP. But in his work with Shackle-
ton, Soal found "no reason to connect failure with ill health"
(1065, p. 185) . Miss S. was not a well person and was "com-
pelled to leave her academic environment because of ill health"
(915, p. 262) . Rivers (919) failed to find any meaningful correla-
tion between ESP success and mental health in an experiment
which gave her satistically significant results. Zorab (1249) and
West (1206) failed to get any significant results with their psy-
chotic subjects.
In her study of patients suffering from cerebral concussions,
Schmeidler (1012) found that these subjects scored significantly
better in an ESP test than would be expected by chance; while
the control group (consisting of those who had fractures from
accidents and those who recovered from cerebral concussion and
were discharged on the day of the ESP test) did not. Schmeidler
herself tends to give a psychological interpretation to her find-
ings. Based on the observation of the behavior of the patients
and their Rorschach protocols, Schmeidler and McConnell suggest
that the high scores of the patients may be a result of "their less
active orientation toward their physical environment and their
willingness to accept passively the impressions (including ESP
impressions) that came to them" (1017, p. 84) .
From these varying observations, it appears that the health
of the subject is not directly related to his psi ability. In some
cases, illness may adversely affect the performance of subjects. It
may disturb the subject sufficiently to distract him from his task
and consequently lower the scoring level. The state of health may
thus be a psychological factor rather than a physiological one,
working on the subject's motivation and his attitude toward the
task.
We have observed from the few cases of high-scoring subjects
that age is not a factor affecting psi. Mrs. Sinclair was "somewhere
around forty-five years old" when she did her experiments with
her husband, but Maria was sixteen and Lillian was only nine
The Subject in Psi Tests
31
when they were tested. From her large collection of spontaneous
cases, Louisa E. Rhine observes that "many children have psi
experiences, as do also many of the aged" (899, p. 148). Experi-
mental studies also seem to confirm this observation; psi experi-
ments were successfully carried out with pre-school children
(515), school children (1169), college students (358), adults,
and aged persons.
In a PK experiment, Nash (626) found that the run score
average of his two oldest subjects (forty and forty-four years)
was significantly higher than the run score average for the seven
younger subjects who were between fifteen and twenty-two years
of age. Nash did not, however, consider that the PK ability was
linked in any way with the age of the subject, since his sample
was not large enough and the differences in score might have been
caused by other individual influences.
While there is no single age group especially suitable for
psi, age may enter as a factor into the experimental situation
because the techniques of testing should take into account the
age level of the potential subjects. The test needs to be interesting
to the subject, and the interests of subjects change with age. For
example, van Busschbach (1167), using the same test, obtained
significant results with primary school children but about chance
results with secondary school pupils.
In a precognition experiment, Rhine (833) observed that
the children in his test obtained positive scores, while the adults
scored fewer hits than expected by chance. Rhine did not, how-
ever, attribute the significant difference to their age but to their
attitudes about the possibility of precognition and to their readi-
ness to accept it.
Another possible effect of age on the manifestation of psi
is illustrated in an experimental study by Rao (798). Rao tested
in pairs a group of college students and a group of junior high
school students in a competitive situation where each of the pair
(both from the same group) was motivated to defeat his opponent.
Rao observed that the responses of his two groups to the com-
petitive situation were significantly different. While the subjects
from the junior high school showed a significant tendency to
compete by scoring in opposite directions, the college students
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seemed to comply with each other by scoring in the same direction.
In other tests involving the use of small monetary rewards
(834), it was observed that children responded favorably while
the adults did not, thus suggesting again that the behavioral
patterns associated with age, interest, and maturity may affect
the psi performance even if age has no direct relevance to psi.
Sex, like age, does not seem to have direct relation to psi,
notwithstanding the reputation of women for being intuitive.
Successful subjects are divided equally between the sexes. Report-
ing that in her collection women having psi experiences out-
number men ten to one, L. E. Rhine concedes the possibility
that this "difference might be the result of such superficial causes
as women being more communicative, less inhibited on this
topic than men" (899, p. 132) . There are, however, some experi-
ments in which girls are reported to have obtained better scores
than boys. L. E. Rhine (899) herself, working with children
between five and ten years of age, found that the average score of
girls was better than that of boys.
Van Busschbach (1169) in his tests with first and second -.
grade pupils, found that girls did significantly better than boys.
In her GESP experiments with nursery school children in the
Netherlands, Louwerens (515) obtained highly significant re-
sults with girls alone; and the difference between the ESP scores
of boys and girls was also significant. In these tests, a lady teacher
acted as the agent. However, when the experimenter herself
participated as the agent, the boys did better than girls. White
and Angstadt (1226) also reported that girls did better than boys,
but they did not claim that their results suggest any sex difference
since there were other uncontrolled variables which might have
contributed to the difference. Freeman (258) found in an
experiment that averages of boys were above chance while the
average score of the girls was much below chance. This difference,
he suggested, may have been due to the lady teacher's particular
affection for the boys. In some of Rao's (801, 803) language ESP
tests, boys and girls reacted differently to the English and Telugu
targets rather consistently. The boys tended to score higher on
Telugu targets, while the girls seemed to do better with English
targets. However, no such sex differences were found in the
The Subject in P's Tests
language ESP experiments of Kanthamani (484). White and
Angstadt (1226) found that boys did better when a girl was the
agent, whereas girls did better when a boy was the agent. All
these findings show that neither sex has a monopoly on psi.
Although sex may in some cases determine the way a subject
reacts, the reaction itself seems to be basically psychological.
The fact that such factors as health, age, and sex do not seem
to have any direct relationship to psi should not lead one to over-
look these variables. A careless confounding of them often leads
to the acceptance of a null hypothesis that should have been re-
jected. Therefore, it would seem methodologically prudent to
keep these variables constant in a given series unless there is
good reason to believe they are totally irrelevant.
The Effect of Drugs
The use of drugs to facilitate ecstatic and mystical experiences
is recorded in several cultures. The belief that paranormal expe-
riences can be obtained by taking drugs and herbs is still current
in many parts of the world. While parapsychologists still have
not laid their hands on the magic mushroom or a fantastic drug
that will give the sensebound man a spell of omniscience, there
has been no lack of attempts to find evidence of the influence of
drugs on psi. These attempts range all the way from experiment-
ing with alcohol and caffeine to the latest of the psychedelic drugs.
Brugmans (75) found that relatively small doses of alcohol
(30 grams) appeared to increase the scoring level of his subject.
Warcollier (1065) also noticed that his subjects scored more suc-
cessfully after taking moderate doses of alcohol. But Averill and
Rhine (19) reported a great drop in the subject's scoring level
after he took alcohol. It would appear, therefore, that alcohol
may affect psi in both ways. But we cannot be sure that this
effect is not more psychological than physiological. The subjects
were aware of drinking alcohol, and their subjective notions re-
garding its possible effects might have influenced their scores.
Rhine reported that caffiene helped to raise the scoring level
of his subjects when they were scoring below their usual level
(835) . He also reported that the influence of sodium amytal
appeared to destroy all ESP ability. Linzmayer, who was averag-
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* ********. and
.....
> this **** al tesses for pas, to , to find a toutily state
that will enhance the manifestation of pri. In a general way,
Vanhey's (1178) experiments using a keymograph to indicate the
onset of hypnotic trance in his subjects come under the first cate-
gory where a physiological response is used as an ESP response.
More specifically, the experiments of Figar (215) indicate the
use of physiological methods to obtain objective evidence for psi.
In an exploratory study, Figar found that the simultaneous plethys-
mographic readings of the subject and the agent (made by means
of two completely independent mechanical plethysmographic re-
corders while the agent was working mentally on multiplying two
digit numbers) when alternated between irregular rest periods
showed a remarkable number of similar deflections. If we assume
that the spontaneous deflections are randomly distributed in time,
that no subjective element entered into the interpretation of the
plethysmographic readings, and that no external noises affected
the subject and the agent at the same time, these results present
striking evidence for ESP. It may be noted, however, that Figar
himself was not willing to draw any conclusions on the basis of his
experiments, which leave much to be desired in the way of sys-
tematic safeguards to eliminate any possible sensory cues.
Dean (146, 147, 149) repeated Figar's experiments with the
plethysmograph. The agent in these GESP experiments looked at
the randomly arranged target cards consisting of five names known
to both the agent and the subject, five names known only to the
subject, five known only to the agent, and five unknown to either.
As the agent picked up and looked at these cards, one at a time at
random time intervals, the plethysmographic recording of the sub-
ject, who was in another room, was taken throughout the testing
session. Later, when the hypothetical responses of the subject to
these names were measured at the appropriate intervals on the
record, Dean found significant results in that part of the data in
which when the stimuli presented to the agent were names known
to both the agent and the subject and also when they were known
only to the subject. Names known only to the agent and names
unknown to both did not give any significant deviations. This con-
-
:.: In s :. ****
cantly lettet when they doanh a bottle of Cama Cala, for the
caffiene it contained, than when they did not have the drink.
Clark and Sharp (120) reported results which were much the
same as those of Rhine-the scores improved with caffiene and
dropped with amytal. While these results, unlike those with
alcohol, are consistent, they do not establish any direct relation
between a stimulant and high ESP score or a depressant and low or
chance scores. In all these studies, either the subject, the experi-
menter, or both, knew the drug that was being given.
There are a few published experimental studies of the
effects of drugs on ESP scoring which were designed with con-
trols to eliminate counterhypotheses. In one study, Cadoret (84)
found that amytal and dexadrine exerted a definite effect on ESP
performance, but he observed that the same drug produced two
different effects in two different experimental situations. The
stimulant drug dexadrine produced higher scoring in picture
tests but lower scoring in card tests, again suggesting a psy-
chological interpretation.
Woodruff (1239) found no significant effects in his study
with various drugs. Huby and Wilson (356) also failed to get any
statistically significant results in their two drug experiments.
There was some discussion of psilocybin, LSD 25, and
mescaline; but no systematic experimental studies were
carried out to test whether these drugs affect psi. One possible
exception, perhaps, is the study by Cavanna and Servadio (104) .
Their report of a pilot study with four subjects, which includes
extensive personality evaluations of the subjects, deals mainly with
the methodological problems in ESP and drug research, but adds
little to our knowledge of the possible effects of LSD 25 and
psilocybin on the manifestation of psi. Thus, the use of drugs to
create specific states of mind that would facilitate ESP occurrence
remains an attractive but as yet unrealized possibilty.
Physiological Aspects of Subject's Response
The physiological researches in parapsychology have, broadly
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firmation of his expectations convinced Dean that physiological
methods could be used to investigate psi and that because of their
objectivity they might have a certain advantage over the regular
guessing tests.
In another pilot study, Dean (148) sought to influence the
dreams of his two subjects by looking in random order at either
a blank picture or a picture with horizontal composition when his
EEG (electroencephelogram) readings indicated that the subject
was dreaming. His instruments recorded the vertical and horizon-
tal eye movements. Dean found significantly more horizontal eye
movements when he (the agent) was looking at the pictures than
when he was looking at the blanks.
Tart (1106) took plethysmographic, as well as GSR (galvanic
skin response) and EEG recordings, of his subjects while each of
them sat alone in a sound-proof chamber trying to guess when the
"subliminal stimuli," which were in fact ESP stimuli, were pre-
sented. An agent in another room was given electrical shocks
(shock trials) at random intervals, or the shock was diverted to a
resistor (nonshock trials) . In either case, the electric shock was the
stimulus to which the subject was expected to respond consciously
by tapping a key when he had a hunch that the "subliminal stimu-
lus" was presented. The key taps did not significantly correspond
with the actual presentation of the ESP stimuli. However, the
physiological responses of the subjects were found to be signifi-
cantly related to the presentatoin of "shock" and "nonshock"
stimuli. A faster and more complex EEG pattern, more frequent
galvanic skin responses, and changes in finger pulse volume were
recorded when the stimuli were presented than when they were
not presented. This suggested to the experimenter that the sub-
jects were unconsciously responding to the targets by showing a
higher level of activation when the targets were present.
Attempts were also made to learn whether any physiological
activity in the human organism is related to psi. But these attempts
have not yet been successful. In two studies relating to ESP func-
tion and psychogalvanic response, Woodruff and Dale (1242)
failed to obtain any significance. Otani (668) found some sugges-
tive evidence that change of skin resistance might be related to
ESP scoring. Correct guesses seemed to be associated with an in-
The Subject in Pa Tests
37
crease in GSR, suggesting that the subject may do better in ESP
tests when he is more relaxed. But Tenny (1113) failed to find any
significantly consistent relationship between GSR and plethysmo-
graphic measurements and ESP scores even though his overall
results were significant. In fact, the relation of the GSR and
plethysmographic responses to the ESP scores varied from a posi-
tive direction in session I to a negative direction in sessions II and
III. Among others who did not find any consistent relationship
between physiological measures and ESP are Cadoret (86), Wall-
work (1185), Stanford (1073), and the Research Committee of
the American Society for Psychical Research.
While we may be reasonably optimistic about the physiologi-
cal registration of psi by means of instruments that detect mild
subliminal stimulation and activity, there is little in these studies
that would add to our hope of finding certain states of the body
that are especially conducive to psi functioning. The failure of
several of these investigators to isolate any factors on the basis of
EEG, GSR, and plethysmographic recordings that are associated
with psi should sound a note of caution for any over-optimistic
expectations of finding a physiological basis for psi. At the same
time, one canot fail to appreciate the enormous value that accrues
from the use of these instruments to register psi. The instruments
have, on the one hand, made it possible for the extension of the
range of the subject's detectable responses in psi tests. On the other
hand, they have added further credence to the hypothesis that psi
is often manifested below the threshold of conscious awareness and
have implied the need for special techniques of identifying psi
responses.
-
Relaxed and Hypnotic States
Are there any mental states that are associated with psi mani-
festation? Mrs. Sinclair (1039) observed that a relaxed state of
mind was essential for success in her telepathic experiments. Re-
ferring to his experiments, Thouless (1139) noted that anxiety
tends to militate against success whereas a relaxed state is con-
ducive to success. The "relaxed and acceptant" group of maternity
patients in the study of Gerber and Schmeidler (268) gave signifi-
cant results while those classified as "not relaxed" and "not accept-
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ant" gave scores at, or below, mean chance expectation. In one of
Rao's (791) experiments, his subject did two runs in each session
in her normal state and followed them with two runs in the
relaxed state created with the help of hypnotic suggestion. She
obtained significantly more hits in the relaxed state than in the
pre-relaxed period. Of course, we cannot draw any conclusions
from these few observations until relaxation is more precisely de-
fined. Relaxation, in a general sense, is an asset to many human
abilities, and its use in the ESP situation is implied by various
other observations that follow.
If manifest anxiety is any indication of tenseness as opposed
to relaxation, there is some experimental evidence that low-
anxious subjects are likely to obtain better ESP results than high-
anxious subjects. Rao (792) found a significant negative correla-
tion between Taylor's manifest anxiety scores of his subjects and
their ESP scores, i.e., the less anxious the subject, the greater his
ESP score. This finding, however, was not confirmed by Freeman
and Nielsen (262) in their studies of anxiety and ESP. It is likely
that anxiety may affect the subjects differently, depending on the
nature of the task (simple or complex) and the personality char-
acteristics of the subjects (introvert or extrovert, expansive or
compressive, etc.) . It would appear, therefore, that a triangular
study involving the interactions of the ESP scores, physiological
measurements such as EEG and GSR, and anxiety and personality
ratings, may throw some light on this problem.
Hypnosis
Several of the earlier experiments were centered around the
idea that there is perhaps some relation between the hypnotic
state and the manifestation of psi. This may perhaps be due to a
widespread study of mediumship during the end of the nineteenth
century and the first two decades of the twentieth. Mediums usu-
ally go into an entranced state in which the unconscious presum-
ably manifesis itself as a secondary personality. A French physician,
Azam (855) , observed that one of his patients in a hypnotic state
responded to an unspoken thought. Janet (705A) was reportedly
successful in inducing a somnambulistic trance state sixteen out
of twenty times by mental suggestion. Mrs. Sidgwick (855) , experi-
menting with hypnotized subjects, using two-digit numbers and
39
1
:
The Subject in Psi Tests
colors as targets, obtained significant evidence for telepathy.
Vasiliev (1178) , the Russian physiologist and parapsychologist,
recently reported his studies, made in the 1930's with hypnosis,
and those of Platonov and Kotkov. Vasiliev was highly successful
in inducing hypnotic trance in his subjects through mental sug-
gestion under what seem to have been carefully controlled con-
ditions. It may be noticed, however, that Vasiliev, like Janet, did
not use hypnosis as an especially favorable state of mind for suc-
cess in psi. Hypnosis was only an effect to be produced by telep-
athy.
There are a few other studies in which hypnosis was used
to create a favorable state of mind for psi. Using ESP cards,
Grela (302) tested eleven subjects in four sessions. One of them
was without hypnosis and the other three were with hypnosis. In
the three hypnotic sessions, positive, neutral, and negative sug-
gestions were given one at a time. His subjects obtained a
significant positive deviation in the sessions where positive hyp-
notic suggestion was given. They had their lowest scores when
negative suggestion was given.
But Rhine (837) reported that his subjects who were scoring
well above MCE before hypnosis dropped way below in the post-
hypnotic test period. This was contrary to his suggestion. He
concluded: "The important finding, and one that stands out
fairly clearly, is that there was an effect. The hypnosis did some-
thing, even though in four out of six cases it was a reversal of
the intended effect" (837, p. 138) .
:
A similar result was also reported by Nash and Durkin
(631) who gave two of their subjects 300 trials each with single
digits as targets in the waking state and an equal number of
trials under hypnosis with positive suggestion. The subjects
obtained a positive deviation when they were working in the
waking state and a negative deviation under hypnosis. There
was a statistically significant difference between the scores of the
two states.
More recently, Fahler (209) obtained significant positive re-
sults when his subjects were hypnotized. They scored only at the
chance level during the waking state. Another experiment by
Fahler and Cadoret (211), at Duke, gave similar results con-
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firming the former's findings in Finland.
Casler's work differs somewhat from Fahler's. Fahler used
hypnosis as a state conducive to ESP manifestation; while Casler
(101) went a step further and gave explicit suggestions for im-
provement in scoring. Both the preliminary and the main experi-
ments involving a large group of subjects gave significant scores
when the subjects worked under hypnotic suggestion. Casler
thinks that "the induction of hypnosis, in essence, opens up
potentialities of communication which may give the individual's
psi capacities the opportunity to express themselves" (101, p. 86) .
In another study where the subjects were given no sug-
gestions, Casler (100) observed that scoring in the hypnotized
runs was significantly higher than in the waking state. Hypothe-
sizing that hypnosis might help accentuate ESP in both directions
(positive and negative), Honorton (353) divided his subjects
into predicted low-scorers and predicted high-scorers on the basis
of a fourteen-item interest inventory. He found that the predicted
low-scorers obtained negative deviation which was higher during
the hypnotic condition than in the waking condition, and that
there was a significant difference between the predicted high-
and low-scorers in the hypnotic condition alone.
The work of Ryzl, in Czechoslovakia, has now opened up
potentialities that go beyond some of the most optimistic expecta-
tions one might have had a few years ago. Ryzl (960) thinks that
with the aid of hypnosis the subjects can be trained .o produce
psi ability under experimental conditions. Miss J. K., who had
shown no psi abilities prior to her hypnotic training, gave
fantastically high scores with the help of the training that she
received from Ryzl. Ryzl also trained another outstanding sub-
ject, Pavel Stépének (P. S.), who did not show any psi ability
before undergoing hypnotic training. An important feature of
P. S.'s work is that once he was able to obtain highly significant
scores in a state of self-induced hypnosis, he continued to do so
even during waking states. He was able to produce significant
results without hypnosis in the presence of visiting parapsycholo-
gists from other countries (963-967). It is interesting to note
that hypnotic training proved very fruitful in the case of J. K.
as well as P. S .; but for P. S., once he acquired the ability, hypnosis
The Subject in Psi Tests
41
was no longer necessary.
One cannot be sure, then, whether the above studies really
justify the conclusion that hypnosis has a direct influence on the
subject's success other than the suggestive influence of the hyp-
notist and perhaps its value to bring forth psi in the initial stages.
Rhine's results, which show a reversal of the intended effect,
indicate that what is important in a hypnotic situation is how
the subject reacts to it. Fahler himself admits "It is quite possible
that I, as the experimenter, was more successful in increasing the
subjects' motivation when they were hypnotized" (209, p. 184) .
In any of the experiments reported so far, full control situations
to eliminate alternate hypothesis were not provided. The evi-
dence thus far seems to indicate that while hypnosis may be used
as a helpful device to elicit psi in certain situations, this effect
may be limited to the raising of the subject's motivation. The
magnitude of success achieved by Ryzl with J. K. and P. S. and
P. S.'s continued success even in the presence of observers from
other countries without the usual decline effects will undoubtedly
give an impetus to the study of hypnosis in relation to ESP. If
Ryzl is right in his hypothesis and if the subjects can be trained
this way by other experimenters, his work will indeed be a long-
awaited breakthrough in parapsychology.
Attitudes, Moods, and Personality Factors
The studies relating to any possible connections between
ESP and natural mental states of the subjects fall into three
main classes those that are concerned with the attitudes and
beliefs of the subjects, those that have to do with transient and
"surface" states of mind and those that involve relatively stable
traits of personality.
Attitude Studies
The best known of the attitude studies are those made by
Schmeidler (1017). In a series of experiments she divided her
subjects into two groups. Those who believed in the possibility
of ESP were called "sheep," and those who rejected such a pos-
sibility were "goats." She found consistently that the sheep scored
above mean chance expectation; while the goats scored below.
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1
When the results of all her experiments were pooled, sheep gave a
highly significant positive deviation and goats, a significant nega-
tive deviation. The difference between sheep and goats was very
highly significant.
Schmeidler's experiments were repeated with some pro-
cedural changes by several other investigators. Bevan (43) divided
his subjects into "believers," "nonbelievers" and "indecisives."
He found that the undecided scored best and the believers next.
The nonbelievers, however, scored at chance level. The scores
of the "indecisives" were independently significant.
Using categories similar to those of Bevan, Casper (103)
found that sheep scored positively while the indecisives scored
negatively. The negative scores of the indecisives were inde-
pendently significant.
Van de Castle and White (1177) reported that in a test where
the subjects were classified into sheep and goats by means of a
sentence-completion test, the sheep scored above chance and
goats below chance. Those who were rated as having conflict
over the existence of ESP gave an average score which is between
the other two. Adcock and Quartermain (6) failed to get any
indication that sheep-goat attitudes are related to positive and
negative scoring, even though the total results showed significant
deviations. Among others who have studied the relationship of
subject attitudes to ESP are Kahn (479), and Woodruff and
Dale (1245), Osis and Dean (663) .
The sheep-goat difference seems to be valid in the East as
well as in the West. A recent study in an Indian University gave
highly significant differences between sheep and goats. Employing
a questionnaire consisting of twelve questions (six relating to the
subject's paranormal experiences and six dealing with his atti-
tudes), Bhadra (44) tested 152 subjects using ESP cards. The
sheep and goats, separated on the basis of their attitudes, scored
significantly different. While sheep scored positively, goats
obtained fewer hits than expected by chance. Experimenting with
grade-school children in Argentina, Musso (612) found that
sheep obtained significantly more hits than goats.
While it is true, as Mangan (543) has pointed out, that the
criteria for separating sheep from goats is somewhat different
43
The Subject in Psi Tesis
for each of these investigators, there can be no doubt that the
"sheep-goat" criterion has proved so far to be the most useful
one for separating the high-scoring subjects from the low-scoring.
But what is less convincing is the rationale underlying this
division. Belief or disbelief is not a stable feature of any in-
dividual. It says very little, if anything, about the personality
of the subject, or even the mental state of the subject at the time
of testing; for a skeptic, when better informed, may become a
believer, and one may be a sheep or a goat for a variety of reasons.
It is likely that the believer takes a somewhat different attitude
toward the test from the nonbeliever. He is more likely to react
favorably to the test and is less easily bored than the goat. Or,
the attitude of belief or disbelief may be a subtle indicator of
the subject's reaction (liking or disliking) to the experimenter.
These factors or other similar variables may account for the
sheep-goat differences in ESP.
The case of the undecided subjects suggests that what is im-
portant is not the attitude itself but the disposition toward the
experiment which accompanies the attitude. While Bevan's
undecided group scored significantly above chance, Casper's
"indecisives" scored significantly negative and the group that had
a conflicting attitude, as reported by Van de Castle and White,
stood between the two extremes.
The results reported by Bevan and Casper are thus apparently
contradictory. Therefore, there is reason to suspect that one or
the other of the conclusions is fallacious. As Thouless has pointed
out, neither of the two experimenters used the appropriate
method of evaluation. In order to reach a generalizable con-
clusion that the indecisives tend to score positively or negatively,
one has to take the subject as the unit for evaluation. Both Bevan
and Casper, unlike Van de Castle and White, took the trials and
not the subjects as units. Since ESP scoring can be influenced
by other variables, some of the subjects in these groups might
have scored the way they did for reasons other than the fact
that they were indecisives.
The discovery of the significant and highly consistent re-
lationship between subjects' attitudes towards ESP and their
ESP performance has led parapsychologists to ask whether there
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is any relationship between the subject's general attitude towards
life and his ESP ability. The Allport-Vernon Study of Values
(AVSV) was used at least twice in ESP experiments to divide
the high-scoring from the low-scoring subjects. Schmeidler (995)
found that the sheep who received higher rank on the theoretical
scale of the AVSV tended to 'score positively and the goats who
obtained similar ratings tended to give low scores. The difference
between "theoretical sheep" and "theoretical goats" was statis-
tically significant, while that of "nontheoretical sheep" and "non-
theoretical goats" was not so. Nash (619) found indications of
positive correlation between ESP scores of his subjects and their
rankings on the religious scale. Here again the problem of a
satisfactory rationale becomes a difficult one. If psi is like other
human abilities, it is unlikely that it makes any difference
whether one is theoretical or religious. These attitudes do not
seem to be fundamental, but their accompanying psychological
factors involving interest and motives may be relevant.
Transient Moods
Just as attitudes cause certain psychological sets that may
in turn affect psi ability for better or worse, psi may also be
facilitated or hindered by the moods of the subject. We all notice
that there are times when we seem to do our best and other times
when everything seems to go wrong. Are there any moods or
transient mental states that we can recognize as related to psi?
Humphrey's (374, 374A) experiments to separate the high-
scoring and the low-scoring subjects on the basis of the expansive-
compressive ratings was an attempt to study ESP scores in
relation to the subject's moods. Using the clairvoyant drawings
obtained by Stuart, Humphrey found that the subjects rated as
expansives on the basis of their relatively larger drawings gave
above-chance results, while those rated as compressives on the
basis of their relatively smaller drawings scored below chance.
The difference between the two scores was statistically significant.
In another study using GESP drawings, Humphrey (374A) ob-
tained a significant difference between the expansives and com-
pressives, but this time there was a reversal in the scoring direc-
tion. The compressives scored high, while the expansives gave
The Subject in Psi Tests
45
below-chance scores.
Smith and Humphrey (1045) also conducted tests with ESP
cards using the expansive-compressive rating. The subjects who
made expansive drawings scored slightly above MCE, and the
compressives scored below. Smith and Humphrey, however, dis-
covered from the drawings of the subjects that their subjects did
not consistently draw expansive or compressive drawings. The
same subject who drew a compressive drawing in one session
could sometimes draw an expansive one in the next session. This
made clear that the expansive-compressive rating was only a mood
of the subject which could change from one part of the experiment
to another.
In another experiment (1101) with clairvoyant drawings,
involving individual and group testing, the expansives scored
above chance and compressives scored below. McMahan (526)
reported that her expansive subjects in a pure telepathy experi-
ment scored fewer hits than the compressives.
Casper (103), West (1205), Kahn (479), and Nash and
Richards (639) also used expansive-compressive ratings, but
failed to get any significant differences.
The "expansive" person, it is said, is imaginative, expresses
himself freely and shows potential ability to make contact with
the surrounding world. The "compressive," on the other hand,
shows compulsion, inhibition, and discomfort which could be
judged by certain objective criteria shown by his drawings.
But these are apparently not stable factors in the subject, since
his compressive or expansive moods are subject to change within
the same experiment. If the conflicting results between the clair-
voyance and GESP tests are valid when the results are assessed on
the basis of subjects as units (whether or not this was so cannot
be deduced from the figures given in the reports), the effect of
the moods seems to be determined largely by the way the subject
reacted to the experimental situation.
In a precognition experiment, Nielsen (649) studied the
relation of pleasant and unpleasant moods of her subjects to their
precognition scores. When the subjects rated themselves in all
three items as in either a pleasant or unpleasant mood, they
scored significantly above chance. When their ratings showed
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a "divided reaction," the scores tended to approximate chance.
Commenting on the possible reason for this, Nielsen says, "It
appears that when a subject felt strongly enough about his mental
state to mark all three divisions of the scale 'pleasant' or 'un-
pleasant,' an intensity of motivation or readiness for vigorous
reaction resulted which appeared to accompany the functioning
of ESP" (649, p. 108) .
Stuart (1093) gave an interest inventory to twenty-four sub-
jects to see whether the interest ratings were related to the
subject's ESP performance. On the basis of their scores in a
five-point scale of a sixty-item interest inventory, he divided his
subjects into "affectable" and "unaffectable" groups. By affecta-
bility Stuart meant the extent of the subject's general liking and
disliking as expressed in his interest test. On direct hits, the
unaffectable group scored above MCE, while the affectable group .
scored below MCE. On "displaced" hits the affectable group had
scores that were significantly positive, and the unaffectable group
were slightly below chance.
In another study, Humphrey (365) reported that the "mid-
range" (unaffectable) subjects averaged above MCE and the
"extreme" (affectable) scored below chance.
By analyzing each of the sixty items in the Stuart inventory,
in relation to the subjects' ESP scores, Humphrey (369) found
· that fourteen of the sixty items were most useful in separating
the high-scoring from the low-scoring subjects. Applying this
new criterion, she didived her subjects in thirteen series of card
experiments into two groups and found that the predicted high-
scoring group (those subjects whose interest score was eight or
higher) did score well, while the predicted negative group gave
a negative deviation. The difference between the two groups was
statistically significant.
Casper (103) also used Stuart's inventory but found no
relationship between ESP and the range of subjects' interests.
Humphrey (359) combined the expansive-compressive
ratings with the mid-range extreme measures on the Stuart in-
terest inventory and reported that the mid-range expansives
scored better than the extreme compressives and that the difference
between the two groups was greater than in the previous studies
The Subject in Psi Tests
47
in which only one personality measure was used.
To the extent that they were able to separate the high- and
· low-scoring subjects, the interest rating studies were useful. But
this use seems to be limited, not only because of the lack of wide-
spread confirmation by other experimenters, but also because in
these researches as in several other personality studies, the char-
acteristics of affectability or unaffectability do not seem to bear
any direct relation to psi. They may themselves be a part of a
larger complex or may cause certain other psychological factors
which are in fact related to psi.
However, the study of ESP in relation to moods has a
methodological advantage over other studies involving relatively
more stable characteristics of personality. Since these moods like
pleasant and unpleasant, like and dislike, and even expansive and
compressive can be manipulated under experimental conditions,
it may be possible to study the same individuals in relation to
different moods. This would considerably reduce the complexities
involved in controlling the many yet-undiscovered subject vari-
ables affecting psi. Such investigations that study the individual
under various conditions seem to hold promising possibilities
for future research.
Personality Traits
There are a number of other studies designed to discover
ESP-personality relationships. Utilizing the Bernreuter Personality
Inventory, Humphrey (368) classified her subjects as extraverted
or introverted. She found in two series of experiments that extro-
verts scored above-chance expectation, while introverts obtained
below-chance averages. The difference between the two groups in
both experiments is statistically significant. Casper (102) repeated
the test and obtained suggestive results in the same direction. Nash
(627) found a negative correlation between social introversion
as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
and his subjects' ESP scores.
Working with children, Shields (1033) found that "not
withdrawn" children scored significantly in an ESP test. The
difference in the scores of the withdrawn and not-withdrawn
groups was also significant.
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On the basis of her Earlham College research and three
other series of tests conducted at Duke, Humphrey suggested
that there might be "some small but positive relation between
ESP ability and general intelligence" ; (358, p. 16) . But, the data
in a significant ESP experiment of Rivers (919) showed no re-
lationship to the subjects' intelligence data. Nash and Richards
(639) also found only a very small correlation between the IQ
scores and the PK scores of their subjects. The Vasses (1180) re-
ported, however, that the ESP scores of their subjects who had
IQ's above 100 were better than those of the subjects whose IQ
was less than 100. But Eason and Wysocki (174) found no differ-
ence in ESP scores and IQ scores of their subjects who were stu-
dents in a large parochial high school, even though the overall
ESP results were quite significant.
Pratt and Woodruff (761) found that the psychological
factor of novelty plays an important part in the subject's psi
performance. When subjects shifted from working with large
symbols to small ones or vice versa, there was a substantial raise
in their scoring level.
Scherer (985) reported that conditions favoring spontaneity
are more likely to yield extra-chance scores than the less spon-
taneous conditions. Van de Castle (1173) also reported that a
preliminary analysis of the Rorschach results of his subjects
suggested a possible relationship between PK ability and spon-
taneity.
Eilbert and Schmeidler (189) divided their subjects into two
groups on the basis of their work habits. Those rated as "ego-
involved" scored below chance expectation, while the "task-
oriented" ones gave positive scores. The difference between the
two groups was statistically significant.
.
Nicol and Humphrey (646) noted that self-confidence may
be a crucial factor for success in psi experiments. Subjects who
were rated as highly self-confident on the basis of the Guilford-
Martin Inventory tended to score positively, while those obtaining
low ratings tended to obtain fewer successes.
In a study of Picture-Frustration ratings and ESP scores,
Schmeidler (1006) found that extrapunitive group (who express
overt aggression) who showed moderate annoyance at the ESP
The Subject in In Tests
49
tisk showed a negative correlation with the ESP scores. On the
other hand, the impunitive group (who evaded aggression) who
showed moderate annoyance at the ESP task gave a positive
correlation. Schmeidler infers that "on the average, subjects who
have friendlier attitudes to the ESP task are likely to have higher
ESP scores than those who are more aggressive and are hostile
to it" (1017, p. 93) .
Shulman reported a significant difference between the ESP
scores of manic-depressive depressed and involutional melancholia
groups. He suggested that "a clue to the reasons for the signi-
ficant difference between these two groups as they scored in this
study may be found in the difference in the degree of effective
attention, external interest, inversion of 'thinking and feeling,'
and negativistic reactions" (1037, p. 104) .
Working with mental patients, Bates and Newton (26)
obtained significant results. When the subjects were classified as
cooperative, irritable, and apathetic, they found that cooperative
subjects obtained the highest scores and irritable the lowest.
In the high-aim results, the difference between the cooperative
and irritable subjects was statistically significant.
The Rorschach test also found its way into the parapsycho-
logical studies. Schmeidler (995) made extensive studies using
the Rorschach test in her search for ESP-personality correlates.
In the studies involving 1,062 subjects, she rated her subjects as
well-adjusted and poorly-adjusted and found that the well-
adjusted sheep scored markedly higher than the well-adjusted
goats. On the other hand, the difference between the poorly-
adjusted sheep and the poorly-adjusted goats was not significant.
She concludes that the sheep-goat tendency "will be more pro-
nounced for subjects whose social adjustment is good than for
those whose social adjustment is poor" (995, p. 68) . Schmeidler
also reports that the sheep-goat tendency is more revealing for
subjects who do not show signs of marked inhibition or over-
responsiveness.
Rasch (806) reported the use of Rorschach in the study of
mediums who were found to be predominantly "lively, outgoing,
reproductive and emotionally unstable personalities."
The relation of these relatively more stable personality
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characteristics to ESP, unlike moods, seems to be less sharply
conflicting and more consistent. However, these studies provide
little convincing rationale for a basis of understanding the
nature of psi in its relation to human personality. Perhaps this
is the wrong emphasis and one should not expect final answers
from these weak relationships which are "too vague and complex"
to lend themselves for easy theorizing. Furthermore, there is no
intrinsic reason why personality differences should help or hinder
psi if it is like other abilities such as perception or memory. The
introvert presumably can see and remember as much as the extra-
vert, although the kinds of things that he would like to see and
remember may be different from those of an extravert.
Summary
Age, sex, and health, as physiological factors, do not seem to
be relevant to psi. Nor is there any way to tell yet whether there
is any physiological locus that may provide a neurological basis
for the operation of psi. The influence of drugs seems to be varied
and unpredictable since the same drug has sometimes produced
opposite reactions. We are thus led to think that psi is more
psychological than physiological, and that the physiological
factors influence psi only to the extent that they may generate
favorable or unfavorable psychological conditions. The spon-
taneity of children, or the "curiosity" of women may help produce
states of mind especially conducive to psi. The distracting in-
fluence of illness or the boredom of old age may also give rise
to unfavorable conditions. But the subjects who are not disturbed
psychologically by the state of their health or driven by the
idiosyncrasies of age and sex may do just as well.
The studies concerning the relation between certain mental
states and psi may be classified on the basis of the results achieved
into two categories-those that are found helpful in separating
the high- and low-scoring subjects and those that seem to enhance
the psi ability. The "sheep-goat" tests, introversion-extraversion
ratings, etc., while successful in various degrees in separating the
psi-hitters and psi-missers, did not distinguish those who showed
psi from those who did not. By the same logic that underlies the
mathematics of probability, one could say that the negative dievia-
The Subject in Pn Tests
51
tions are as significant and indicative of psi as the positive
deviations. The believer for some reason tends to direct his
ability to get the correct target, while the nonbeliever is inclined
to avoid calling the correct one. But the latter presumably has
as much ESP as the former if his missing the target is as consistent
as the other's hitting.
By and large, the studies in the second category were not as
productive as in the first. The drug that would enhance psi
functioning (either in the positive or negative direction) or the
physiological state that would provide optimum conditions for
psi occurrence are yet to be discovered. The previous studies, at
least in the area of drugs, however, do suggest this possibility. One
area which has more possibilities of creating a mental set well
suited for psi occurrence than any other we know of presently
seems to be hypnosis. Because of the proved use of hypnosis in
studying the unconscious, because of the apparent similarity of
the mental states under hypnosis to some of those described in the
practices such as yoga that are traditionally credited with en-
hancing paranormal abilities, and because of the more than sug-
gestive results already achieved in this area, any optimistic ex-
pectations of the possibilities for the eventual control of psi
through hypnotic training cannot be regarded as unfounded.
The complementary nature of the results in these two
categories is quite obvious. Since psi is manifested in the positive
as well as negative directions (psi-hitting and psi-missing), we
need for its understanding and control an insight not only into
the factors that enhance the ability but also into those that
guide its direction. For this reason, though small and exploratory,
Honorton's (353) study, in which the subjects were first predicted
to be positive and negative scorers on the basis of an interest
inventory and then were hypnotically induced to enhance their
psi ability without regard to direction, presents an idea which
can be developed and pursued with profit.
The fact that the avoidance of targets on the part of the
subjects has contributed as much significance to ESP results as
hitting did makes it very essential to ask the question of why
subjects miss the targets. Are there any defenses that we use to
suppress psi? If there are such defenses, can they be correlated
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with other defense mechanisms we know? The use of such de-
vices as the Kragh Defense Mechanism Test (a beginning at-
tempt was already made in the Parapsychology Laboratory at
Duke University) (99) may help to detect some of the dynamics
that underlie the negative side of psi.
Another research idea which has not yet been given a fair test
is that we investigate an individual's psi ability under various
affective states. These affective states (moods) can easily be
created and even controlled. The like-dislike (word-feeling) tests
of Freeman (261, 262) seem to hold promise along this line.
But any controlled inquiry that would relate moods to ESP
perhaps needs to be an individual test, possibly with more
objective criteria to identify the affective states. A combination
study involving physiological measurements, personality assess-
ments, and test manipulation may be the next logical step.
Much of the research in the subject area thus far has been
concerned with ESP, and relatively little work has been done with
PK. Since personality differences do seem to be related to the way
the subject reacts to an ESP task (e.g., expansives did better in
clairvoyant tests and the compressives did better in GESP tests) ,
we have no reason to believe that whatever relationships may
have been found to exist between ESP and personality patterns
would also hold good for PK. If ESP is cognitive and PK kinetic,
the laws that govern their manifestation may be different. Con-
sequently, the study of PK and personality patterns is still
another line open for future research.
One important finding that emerges from the studies reviewed
in this chapter is that the factors that govern the operation of psi
are basically psychological. They also suggest that the subject in
an ESP experiment has to blend a very delicate balance of
certain psychological factors which so far seem to elude all efforts
at measurement. The existence of these factors may be a fairly
obvious deduction from the various studies reviewed above, but
they are still vagrie conceptions whose precise nature and laws
of operation are yet to be determined and defined. We may
broadly speak of them as motivation and adjustment, although one
may involve the other and each in turn may imply many others.
Psi, as tested in a laboratory experiment, seems to be a function of
The Subject in P'u Testi
53
the subject's motivation and of the adjustment he makes to the
test situation.
Writing about seven different subjects who were reported to
have obtained extraordinarily high scores, J. B. Rhine pointed
out that in each of these cases exceptionally strong conative states
were present, and concluded that "exceptionally strong drive is
needed for the top-level performance" (865, p. 48). But, as
Rhine recognizes, it would be naive to assume that mere drive
alone would produce the desired result. Many a subject has
failed because he badly wanted to show his ability. Several re-
portedly high-scoring subjects under informal conditions at home
could not succeed when brought into the laboratory situation.
The subject needs to make proper adjustment to the testing
situation in addition to having a strong drive if he is to succeed.
We may now apply this general notion to the findings re-
viewed thus far to see what sense they make now. The believers
generally tended to obtain positive deviations because they, as
believers, were likely to have been motivated to obtain higher
scores, and the nonbelievers tended to produce negative devia-
tions because their motivation was likely to be in the negative
direction. Just as some persons who have strong inhibitions and
repressions about certain things tend to fail consistently to
recall them, a person who is convinced of the impossibility of
psi may develop analogous inhibitions that may cause consistent
missing. Also, the theoretical-minded person is more likely to
decide on an a priori basis whether psi is possible or not and for
that reason, he is apt to be more susceptible to a favorable
orientation or an unfavorable inhibitory tendency.
Let us take the case of the expansives and the compressives.
Both groups scored positively when they were in "preferred"
situations, and negatively in the reverse situations. It is probable
that the expansives liked a situation which involved their partici-
pation in the things around them (for example, cards in clair-
voyant guessing) because it was easier for them to "adjust" to
such a situation than to one involving guessing the thoughts of
another person. The compressives, however, may have preferred a
situation involving aloofness or withdrawal from the things
around them to nonobjective thoughts, and consequently may
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Experimental Parapsychology
have scored high on GESP and telepathy experiments and low on
clairvoyance tests.
Schmeidler's studies with the Rorschach suggest that adjust-
ment is an important factor. The well-adjusted sheep obtained
better scores than the average sheep. Also, it is not the poorly-
adjusted goats which gave the bulk of negative deviation but the
well-adjusted goats.
The extravert-introvert differences in ESP scores may be due
to the differences in the way they adjust to the test situation. Our
tests, it would seem, are generally designed to favor an outgoing,
sociable person rather than a contemplative, introverted person.
Moreover, in a test situation which involves other people, the
extravert is more likely to make quick adjustment than the intro-
vert. The failure to be at home with the experimental situation
may cause frustration and negative deviations.
It would seem, therefore, that religious values, the self-
confidence of the subject, and the novelty of the test conditions,
insofar as they are found to contribute to the success of the sub-
ject, may help to raise his motivation. Also, the spontaneous, the
impunitive, the task-oriented, and the "not-withdrawn" subjects
may be able to adjust better to the test situation than their counter-
parts. If this is true, the withdrawn, the extrapunitive, the ego-
involved, the introvert, and the less-spontaneous subjects would
also be able to score positively if tests which make it easier for
them to adjust were designed and administered to them.
Now, who is a good subject for a psi test? The answer is
that everyone may be, if only we know how to manipulate his
motivation and provide conditions to which he can readily adjust.
Motivation and adjustment involve-besides the subject-the
experimenter, the targets, and other conditions used in the psi
test procedures. And this leads us to the consideration of the
other angles of the psi triangle.
Chapter 3
THE TARGET AND ITS RELATION TO
THE SUBJECT
THE target in ESP tests is the object of a subject's response.
Whether it is one at which the subject directs his ESP or one
which causes his response is something which cannot be definitely
answered, even though the former case seems to be more likely.
The target can be a physical thing like a symbol on the ESP
card or it may be the mental state of another person as in pure
telepathy. In PK tests, the target is the object which the subject
attempts to influence mentally. It is important to distinguish be-
tween "stimulus" as used in psychological literature and the ESP
target. The latter does not seem to be one that arouses a response.
For it is difficult to see how the target-especially the target in a
precognitive situation which is by assumption nonexistent
at that time-could arouse a response without involving a chain
of causal events that are inferentially related. Therefore, it is
likely that an ESP call is more like an aim at a target than a
response to a stimulus. ESP call, then, is quite similar to a PK
act to the extent that in both cases the initiative and the exercise
of the ability rests with the subject.
The Range and Choice of Target Material
The range of target material used in ESP and PK tests is
indeed extensive. In fact, the basis for the differentiation of the
types of ESP, viz., telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition, is
grounded on the unstated assumption that divergent types of
targets call for distinctive modes of psi ability. But the under-
standing that psi does not seem to respond to external stimula-
tion emanating from the target objects makes one wonder if the
so-called types of ESP are anything more than the distinctive
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