|
| | Obituary |
| Ron WESTRUM | Marcello Truzzi (1935-2003) | 197-200 |
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| | Editorial | 201-205 |
|
| | Research Articles |
| Brenda J. DUNNE, Robert G. JAHN | Information and Uncertainty in Remote Perception Research | 207-241 |
| | Abstract: This article has four purposes: 1) to present for the first time in
archival form all results of some 25 years of remote perception research at this
laboratory; 2) to describe all of the analytical scoring methods developed over
the course of this program to quantify the amount of anomalous information
acquired in the experiments; 3) to display a remarkable anti-correlation
between the objective specificity of those methods and the anomalous yield of
the experiments; and 4) to discuss the phenomenological and pragmatic
implications of this complementarity. The formal database comprises 653
experimental trials performed over several phases of investigation.The scoring
methods involve various arrays of descriptor queries that can be addressed to
both the physical targets and the percipients’ description thereof, the responses
to which provide the basisfor numerical evaluation and statistical assessment of
the degree of anomalous information acquired. Twenty-four such recipes have
been employed, with queries posed in binary, ternary, quaternary, and ten-level
distributive formats. Thus treated, the database yields a composite z-score
against chance of 5.418 ( p 5 3 3 102 8
, one-tailed).
Numerous subsidiary analyses agree that these overall results are not
significantly affected by any of the secondary protocol parameters tested, or by
variations in descriptor effectiveness, possible participant response biases,
target distance from the percipient, or time interval between perception effort
and agent target visitation. However, over the course of the program there has
been a striking diminution of the anomalous yield that appears to be associated
with the participants’ growing attention to, and dependence upon, the
progressively more detailed descriptor formats and with the corresponding
reduction in the content of the accompanying free-response transcripts. The
possibility that increased emphasis on objective quantification of the
phenomenon somehow may have inhibited its inherently subjective expression
is explored in several contexts, ranging from contemporary signal processing
technologies to ancient divination traditions. An intrinsic complementarity is
suggested between the analytical and intuitive aspects of the remote perception
process that, like its more familiar counterpart in quantum science, brings with
it an inescapable uncertainty that limits the extent to which such anomalous
effects can be simultaneously produced and evaluated. |
| Harald ATMANSPACHER, Robert G. JAHN | Problems of Reproducibility in Complex Mind-Matter Systems | 243-270 |
| | Abstract: Systems exhibiting relationshipsbetween mental states and material
states, briefly mind-matter systems, offer epistemological and methodological
problems exceeding those of systems involving mental states or material states
alone. Some of these problems can be addressed by proceeding from standard
first-order approaches to more sophisticated second-order approaches. These
can illuminate questions of reference and validity, and their ramifications for
the topic of reproducibility. For various situations in complex systems it is
shown that second-order approaches need to be employed. Considering mindmatter systems as generalized complex systems provides some guidelines for
analyzing the problem of reproducibility in such systems from a novel
perspective. |
| Marie-Catherine MOUSSEAU | Parapsychology: Science or Pseudo-Science? | 271-282 |
| | Abstract: Do paranormal or parapsychological investigations meet the criteria
often said to characterize pseudo-science? Mainstream and non-mainstream
research is compared through content analysis of selected samples of mainstream journals from several fields and of non-mainstream (‘‘fringe’’) journals.
Oral communication processes were studied at an annual meeting of the Parapsychological Association. Though certain quantitative differences were noted,
qualitative distinctions were not found that could justify classification of parapsychology as pseudo-science. To warrant that, other criteria to define science
would need to be established |
| Ian STEVENSON, Erlendur HARALDSSON | The Similarity of Features of Reincarnation Type Cases over Many Years: A Third Study | 283-289 |
| | Abstract: The principal features of two series of cases suggestive of reincarnation in Lebanon were compared. The series were investigated about a generation apart by two different investigators.In three important features, the
two series were closely similar; in other features they were not similar, probably because of differences in the thoroughness of investigation in the two
series. |
| Montague KEEN | Communicating with the Dead: The Evidence Ignored. Why Paul Kurtz is Wrong | 291-299 |
| | Abstract: A far-ranging attack on the evidence for the paranormal in general,
and the case for post-mortem survival of intelligence in particular, was published in 2000 by Professor Paul Kurtz in the Skeptical Inquirer, organ of
the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
Reluctance of its Editor to fulfil an undertaking to publish a response has
prompted this more extensive review of the deficiencies in his argument. It
points in particular to areas which Kurtz either ignores entirely or misrepresents, notably in the extensive literature relating to early mediumistic
communications whose paranormality has yet to be undermined by any
objective examination; some of the early examples of cross-correspondences;
book tests with Mrs. Osborne Leonard; and the Edgar Vandy case as an
illustration of the unscientificmanner in which skepticsseek to mislead readers.
Finally there is a summary of more recent statistically measurable research into
veridical communications from gifted mediums. |
|
| G. E. Schwartz et al. | Purported Anomalous Perception in a Highly Skilled Individual: Observations, Interpretations, Compassion | 301-316 |
| | Abstract: The purported ability of a seventeen-year-old female, investigated
for seven years in China, to perceive information without using visual and
kinesthetic cues, was studied. In one experiment, five letters from A to Z and
five numbers from 0 to 100 were randomly selected by computer, written on
small sheets of paper and individually folded and placed in a sealed envelope.
The folded stimuli were removed one by one and placed into a cloth bag that was opaque to light; the bag was tied below the participant’s right elbow. The
participant was accurate for all ten trials. In a second experiment, three video
cameras carefully monitored the participant’s hand movements; in addition,
both ends of the folded papers were sealed with clear tape. Careful analysis of
the clear tape and the videotapesrevealed evidence of practiced deception.Data were also collected from a 25-year-old graduate student and a 7-year-old child
not employing a cloth bag. Their data suggest that deception is not necessarily
involved in all cases of purported anomalous perception. |
|
| | Field Research Report |
| Robert H. RINES, Frank M. DOUGHERTY | Proof Positive-Loch Ness Was an Ancient Arm of the Sea | 317-323 |
| | Abstract: For the first time, indisputablemarine deposits have been recovered
from Loch Ness. Recovered clam shells have been reproducibly dated by the
radio-carbon (
14C) method to about 12,800 years before present (BP), which
correspondsto the end of the last glaciation.Hitherto, this oceanic incursion has
been doubted or denied by many observers. Such a period of marine incursion
is crucially demanded by the hypothesis that the Loch Ness ‘‘monsters’’ are or were a reproducing population of creatures too large to move in and out of the
loch under current conditions. Even more remarkably, aminoacid racemization
indicates an age of about 125,000 years for some of the deposits, corresponding to the previous interglacial period. If the latter dating withstands further
investigation, current beliefs about the chronology of glaciation and land-andsea-level changes at and around Loch Ness will have to be modified. |
|
| | Erratum |
| James HOURAN, Kevin D. RANDLE | Erratum to Houran and Randle (2002) | 325-326 |
| | Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 16 Number 1 /2002 - A Message in a Bottle: Confounds in Deciphering the Ramey Memo from the Roswell UFO Case [Houran, James & Randle, Kevin D.]
| |
