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experimenters interviewed does not see himself as the sole source of
an effect.
A common approach to maintaining focus involves the introduc-
tion of novelty.
Sometimes I move my hands and it perhaps gets my mind
... it enhances the focus .... There are a number of
special techniques that I use. Sometimes I try a mantra.
I have to watch so that none of the things become too
automated.
A similar trend was noted by the other informants, although the
strategies employed differed according to the individual testing
procedure.
Discussion
Much more research must be undertaken to understand com-
pletely the dynamics at play in the minds and bodies of successful
PK experimenters. The preceding discussion only scratches the
surface of a rich and multifarious research domain -- the phenomen-
ology of psi experimenters. The data, while preliminary in our un-
derstanding of successful psi researchers, do serve to illustrate
the usefulness of ethnographic method in our study of psi phenom-
ena. This method is useful alone or as an adjunct to laboratory
investigations. For example, it provides a systematic means of ex-
ploring a vast wealth of qualitative data, data which are often cast
aside due to their unruly nature (i.e., what am I going to do with
all this stuff?). Additionally, it is a method flexible enough to al-
low our data to shape the direction of our research rather than our
forcing them through a preconceived methodological filter. As such,
the integrity of the phenomena under study, in this case the phe-
nomenology of successful PK experimenters, is maintained.
Many scientists fail to understand the value of phenomenolog-
ical inquiry in our studies of consciousness, of which psi is clearly
a part. One need not abandon experimental methods in order to
gain phenomenological detail. The approach outlined in this paper
is complementary, not adversarial, to experimental studies. We only
stand to gain by looking inward in a manner which is responsive to
our transitory nature yet systematic enough to accommodate our
need for rigor! As a Mexican curandero so clearly expressed to a
researcher studying folk healing practices:
Many of these things you must experience, before you
understand them. When you have experienced and under-
stood them, you either will not need to ask questions, or
your questions will be the kind that I can answer [Trotter
and Chavira, Curandismo: Mexican American Folk Healing.
Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, p. 11].
THEORIES AND TESTS OF THEORIES
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE OTS: INTRODUCTION TO THE
OBSERVATIONAL QUASI-MOTOR MODEL
Brian Millar (Mexicodreef 187, 3563 RL Utrecht, The
Netherlands)*
The observational theories (OTs) deal primarily with the
"engineering" properties of combinations of components, such as
random generators and psi sources. Psychology seems to have
been discarded somewhere along the way. This paper brings
psychology back into the mainstream of the OTs where it belongs.
The Observational Quasi-Motor model outlined here fits snugly into
the elastic framework of cognitive psychology .
In the fundamental psi circuit, a psi source is connected to
a random generator via a feedback channel. The feedback channel
carries information about the outputs of the random generator to
the psi source. The "magical" influence of the psi source biases
the remote random generator in such a way that the psi-source-
active input is stimulated more frequently. In general, the feed-
back channel is no simple transmission line but is an information-
processing system which may conveniently be represented by a
computer program.
On its own, the psi source is a blind, insentient "machine"
which acts to appease its primeval hunger for stimulation. The
function of the feedback channel determines what effect the psi
source has on the external world. If the psi source is likened to
gunpowder, then the feedback channel is the gun which directs its
effect onto a distant target.
Given a psi source, one may construct a feedback channel to
accomplish some desired goal. For example, one might wish to re-
duce the temperatures of a group of fever patients in New York.
A feedback channel could be constructed on the following lines.
*Presented in absentia by Robert L. Morris (University of Edin-
burgh).
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Temperature is measured automatically every few minutes. The cur-
rent measurement is electrically compared with the previous one:
if the temperature has dropped, a "fall" signal is formed; if it has
risen or stayed the same, however, a "rise" indication is produced.
These signals are transmitted over a telephone link to Paris. There
they are decoded: on a "fall," a pulse is fed to the active input of
the psi source, whereas a "rise" sends a pulse to the neutral input.
Some human beings apparently produce psi effects, but a
human is no naked psi source. Rather, the brain of a psi subject
contains such a device. Sensory input is subject to much process-
ing before eventually reaching the psi source. In other words,
there is an internal feedback channel in addition to the external
one. It is the function of this internal channel that accounts for
the intelligence of the psi effects exerted by human beings. The
internal channel is, in effect, the user of the psi "gun." In par-
ticular, it is in the internal channel that explanation of the psy-
chology of psi effects must be sought.
Cognitive psychology is characterized by its emphasis on the
internal processes that mediate between stimulus and response.
Conceptual models of parts of the human information-processing
system are built and compared with experimental results. This ap-
proach treats the information-processing functions independently of
their neurological substrate.
According to the Observational Quasi-Motor model, the part of
the human information-processing system relevant to psi is that be-
tween the sensory inputs and the psi source. From the point of
view of the central nervous system, the psi source is just another
output organ, such as a hand. The processing involved in PK,
then, is almost identical to that involved in quite ordinary percep-
tion /motor response. The latter has been subject to intensive ex-
amination, and much knowledge of the information processing in-
volved has been accumulated. This can be applied directly to the
psychological aspects of psi. The predictions obtained in this way
are fairly general ones.
It is possible to go a step further, however, and look at
perception /motor response and psi together in the same experiment.
In this way it should ideally be feasible to predict the psi results
of a particular subject from moment to moment under varied circum-
stances. The attempt is, in effect, to "bug" the output of the in-
ternal channel by tapping it off via a convenient existing output,
such as the hand.
The effectiveness of this strategy is naturally dependent on
how well the bugging can be carried out. Empirically, it seems
that a great deal of control can be exerted over the "program"
running in the internal channel just by asking the subject to do so.
The subject is usually expected, for example, to be able to direct
his or her PK onto the machine requested rather than one in Aus-
tralia. He can often even voluntarily choose for "high aim" or "low
aim." It is reasonable, then, to make the attempt to use the sub-
ject's own "software" to produce a high-fidelity external copy of
the signal reaching the psi source. One may, then, try to tap into
the internal channel by exploring different instruction sets given to
the subject. Physiological measures may likewise be employed. Suc-
cess in this search should result in perception /motor responses
which are monotonically related to PK hitting. PK success under
any kind of experimental manipulation can then be accurately pre-
dicted from the mirroring changes in ongoing measurements of
perception /motor response.
The Observational Quasi-Motor model forms the basis for an
entire research program in the psychology of psi effects, one that
is firmly based on theory. This is in marked contrast to the cur-
rent largely empirical state of the art in parapsychology.
TESTING THE INTUITIVE DATA SORTING MODEL WITH
PSEUDORANDOM NUMBER GENERATORS: A PROPOSED
METHOD
Dean I. Radin' and Edwin C. May (SRI International,
333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025)
One premise of the Intuitive Data Sorting (IDS) model is that
people can use some sort of informational mechanism to select the
"right" time to respond in a random number generator (RNG) ex-
periment (May et al., FIP 1985, pp. 119-120). The model postu-
lates that in a successful psi experiment employing an RNG, the
RNG is not perturbed by an energetic PK-like force but locally
deviant subsequences are chosen or otherwise sorted out from
naturally fluctuating fandom sequences.
A computer-based method was designed to test this premise
using a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG), and the method
was explored in an experiment with two selected subjects. The
methodology was as follows: When the program was evoked, the
computer initialized a PRNG, set up the screen for the feedback
display, then waited for the subject to press a button. When the
button was pressed, the program pseudorandomly chose one of
nine sequence lengths, corresponding to bit streams of length 101,
201, 401, 701, 1001, 2001, 4001, 7001, or 10,001, as discussed in
May et al.
Immediately after a random sequence length was chosen, a
PRNG was initialized with the current value of the computer system
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