Over the past years, it has become increasingly apparent that perception is not a passive process: how stimuli appear is not just a function of stimulus properties, but also of the memory, and expectancies of the observer. In an experiment testing the effects of stimulus randomization on these expectancy processes, we have reported an anomalous effect of apparent precognition. Here we show that there may be another anomalous effect in play in stimulus detection tasks, namely psychokinesis. In a simple stimulus detection experiment, we used quantum-random versus pseudo-random generated stimulus sequences. If pseudo-generated sequences contain implicit structure, we would expect better performance for these sequences. Contrary to this prediction, we found participants performed better and faster in the quantum-random generated sequences. We explain this result in terms of the observation theory-framework, which postulates that psi-effects are closely related to the radical subjective solution of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. Our results can be explained by assuming a combination of PK and precognitive priming effects for quantum-random generated sequences. We describe a replication experiment to formally test this hypothesis.
Over the past years, it has become increasingly apparent that perception is not a passive process: how stimuli appear is not just a function of stimulus properties, but also of the memory, and expectancies of the observer. In an experiment testing the effects of stimulus randomization on these expectancy processes, we have reported an anomalous effect of apparent precognition. Here we show that there may be another anomalous effect in play in stimulus detection tasks, namely psychokinesis. In a simple stimulus detection experiment, we used quantum-random versus pseudo-random generated stimulus sequences. If pseudo-generated sequences contain implicit structure, we would expect better performance for these sequences. Contrary to this prediction, we found participants performed better and faster in the quantum-random generated sequences. We explain this result in terms of the observation theory-framework, which postulates that psi-effects are closely related to the radical subjective solution of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. Our results can be explained by assuming a combination of PK and precognitive priming effects for quantum-random generated sequences. We describe a replication experiment to formally test this hypothesis.
People often see meaning in stimuli that are typically considered meaningless. According to Von Lucadou’s idea of Generalized Quantum Teory (GQT), such perceived coincidences, or examples of synchronicity, may be the result of entanglement between a conscious observer and the physical world. Here we test this idea by means of a ‘coincidence detection task’. Participants were shown a series of 150 randomly generated stimuli (here, a set of three numbers between 0 and 255), and had to indicate per stimulus whether that set of numbers held any meaning to them. Critically, the random source could either be a quantum event generator, or a pseudo random number generator. If ‘coincidences’ are indeed the result of quantum entanglement, or a process like it, we would expect an increased number of reported coincidences for quantum versus pseudo- random generated events. A preliminary data analysis shows that this indeed is the case: over 150 random pseudo-randomly generated numbers; this increased signifcantly to 12% for quantum generated random numbers. This result seems to suggest that synchronicities may indeed be interpreted as non-local correlations between an observer and the physical world.
Quantum-based psychophysical correlation models offer an attractive framework for predicting mind-matter interactions. We report a test of such interactions in the form of observer effects on quantum-based random number generator (QRNG) outcomes. Specifically, we tested the influence of certain motive states on related stimulus presentations chosen by the QRNG. Deviations from randomness were expected among participants exhibiting high incongruence (HI) characteristics but not among those who exhibited low incongruence (LI). Our first experiment, testing the effects of three psychological needs—attachment, self-esteem protection, and control— with a Bayesian analysis yielded anecdotal evidence for H1 only for self-esteem-related stimuli within the HI group. The second experiment was a selective continuation of the promising self-esteem protection condition, exploring the further sequential course of evidence for H1 and its oscillation over time. Our criterion for confirming H1 was initially reached in the target group. Shortly thereafter, a decline to a final result of anecdotal evidence for H1 occurred. To test the systematic trend in the data against chance fluctuations, further post hoc analyses comparing the maximum Bayes Factor, the curve’s energy, and frequency spectrum analysis between both groups to 10,000 simulations were performed. These analyses indicated that the HI subsample’s data differed significantly from chance fluctuations, whereas the LI subsample’s data did not. In sum, the results suggest that core affectively laden subconscious beliefs can manifest through volatile yet statistically detectable deviations from quantum randomness when precisely triggered by an adequate task.
A vivid discussion revolves around the role of the human mind in the quantum measurement process. While some authors argue that conscious observation is a necessary element to achieve the transition from quantum to classical states during measurement (Wigner, 1963), some go even further and propose a more active influence of the human mind on the probabilities of quantum measurement outcomes (e.g. Atmanspacher, Römer, & Walach, 2002; Penrose & Hameroff, 2011). This proposition was tested in micro-psychokinesis (micro-Pk) research were intentional observer effects on quantum random number generators (RNGs) were investigated. In the studies presented here we extended this line of research and tested the impact unconscious goals on micro-Pk. Our focus was cigarette addiction as an unconscious drive and hypothesized that regular cigarette smokers would influence the outcome of a quantum RNG that determined whether the participant was going to see a smoking-related or a neutral picture. Study 1 revealed strong evidence for micro-Pk (BF = 66.06) supporting the H1. As expected, no deviation from chance was found with non-smokers. In Study 2, a pre-registered highly powered replication attempt, failed to reproduce this result and showed strong evidence for H0 (BF = 11.07). When the data from both studies are combined a remarkable change in effect across time (resembling a combination of appearance followed by decline) can be seen only in the smoker’s subsample. Appearance-and-decline effects were absent in the non-smokers sample and in a simulation. Based on von Lucadou’s Model of Pragmatic Information we suggest that (micro-)Pk effects follow a systematic pattern comparable to a dampened harmonic oscillation. This concept may shed new light on past and future Pk research.
PK experiments with prerecorded targets (Schmidt, 1976) are interesting because they suggest a variety of new test arrangements to study the basic PK mechanism. In addition, they permit the inclusion of independent observers who, with little time investment, can obtain first-hand evidence of any anomalous effects that may occur. Four such experiments with different independent observers, different subject populations, and minor variations have been performed previously (Schmidt & Braud, 1993; Schmidt, Morris, & Hardin, 1990; Schmidt, Morris, & Rudolph, 1986; Schmidt & Schlitz, 1988) with the first author as main experimenter and the other one or two authors acting as independent observers. The results of PK experiments with prerecorded random events appear most interesting and most puzzling because the subject's mental effort is made long after the random events to be affected have occurred. One tentative viewpoint (Schmidt, 1978; Walker, 1979) is that the subject's mental effort could act backward to the time when the random events were generated and recorded. This would imply a noncausal mechanism in the sense that the effect (the biasing of the random events) occurs before the cause (the mental effort). It might be this element of noncausality that makes psychic phenomena so intuitively implausible and at odds with the known principles of physics. Another viewpoint (Schmidt, 1982) is based on the quantum theoretical notion that there is no if there is no observer. Thus, the decisions of the random generator might become reality only when the subject observes the outcome during the test session. The subject's effort would not have to act into the past because the decision on the outcome would not yet be made until the subject received feedback during the PK test session. In this case, a preobservation of the recorded events should inhibit the subject's success, because the preobservation would make the random decisions real so that the subject's subsequent mental effort would come too late. For this reason it seemed particularly interesting to conduct an experiment in which half of the prerecorded random events had been preinspected so that one could compare the possible PK effects on the preobserved and not-observed events. One previous study (Schmidt, 1985) has indicated an inhibition of the PK effect by preobservation. In view of the central role of the question, however, further studies of the preobservation effect seem most important. In this and the four previous studies, the question of highest priority was whether a PK effect could be demonstrated under tightly controlled conditions. Because preobservation might inhibit the PK effect, we decided in advance to base the possible evidence for the existence of PK only on the results from the not-preobserved events. Although the independent observer was somewhat skeptical about the existence of PK, he was very interested in a possible preobservation effect because of its possible implications for quantum theory. Our subject pool consisted primarily of martial arts students as a matter of practical convenience. This population was relatively easily accessible and one that the experimenter had not yet explored. No attempt was made, however, to compare martial arts training and skill with PK performance systematically. METHOD The study was structured into 20 units such that a unit could be considered as a mini-experiment. Each unit was subdivided into 100 blocks of binary data. The sequence of binary data in each block determined two partial results, an even result and an odd result, arising from the even- or odd-numbered bits in the sequence. The partial results were defined so that by inverting the bits in the sequence (interchanging 1s and 0s) the signs of the partial results were inverted. In following the procedure for each unit, the experimenter used a true random generator to record the random bit-sequences for the 100 blocks on floppy disk. …
Objective. Testing specific mind-related effects on reality formation by investigating deviations from quantum randomness during the process of intentional observation, also known as micro-psychokinesis (micro-PK), is one empirical approach to address the mind-matter problem. While meta-analytical evidence over decades of research suggests that observers’ conscious or unconscious motivational states could produce significant micro-PK effects on quantum number generator (QRNG) outcomes, direct replication attempts often failed or the initially strong and apparently stable effects declined over time. Therefore, in addition to a direct replication strategy, alternative confirmatory approaches have been proposed that apply Higher-Level Analytical Strategies (HLASs) to test these effects existence. The present study reports a preregistered replication attempt of a micro-PK effect on QRNG outcomes documented by a specific HLAS variant, the Change of Evidence (CoE) measures, which were performed on a post-hoc basis in an original study.Method. To assess the observers’ unconscious intentional states, in a re-analysis of an existing data set we determined participants’ personality traits (PTs) on Cluster C and analyzed the relation between Cluster C outcome and trait-related sentences selected via QRNG outputs mirroring the respective typical concerns associated with the PTs vs. neutral stimuli. We predicted the presentation of more PT-related stimuli than chance expectation among participants exhibiting high PT assessment scores (PT-high) but not among individuals who exhibited low levels of these characteristics (PT-low). Although in line with this prediction initially strong Bayesian evidence for H1 was found within the PT-high group, this effect unexpectedly declined upon further data collection to indecisive evidence. Three post-hoc CoE tests were then performed comparing the empirical data to a randomly generated set of 10,000 simulations to distinguish a false positive finding i.e., an unsystematic, random Bayesian evidence variation, from a true positive effect that later declined i.e., from a systematic one. These exploratory post-hoc re-analyses of an existing data set rejected the null hypotheses in all CoE tests performed. These findings were then tested for replicability in a preregistered replication study which will be reported here.Results. The replication attempt failed. No Bayesian evidence for micro-PK was found and none of the CoE analyses could reject the null hypothesis in the PT-high group. As expected, no effects were found in the PT-low group either.Conclusion. The findings of the herein presented analyses go along with the results of earlier studies reporting similar experimental approaches which initially revealed strong and supposedly robust evidence for the postulated effects in non-preregistered original experiments but failed in a direct replication. Most central, the present findings indicate, that even CoE measures following the idea of HLASs to circumvent the non-replicability problem cannot provide replicable higher order micro-PK effects. The results obtained are discussed with regard to the Model of Pragmatic Information (MPI).
A psychokinetic (PK) effect--a mental influence on the outcome of chance processes--was first reported by Louisa and J. B. Rhine (Rhine & Rhine, 1943) from experiments with dice. Through the introduction of electronic random number generators based on quantum randomness (Schmidt, 1971), the experiments became more easily accessible and even more challenging to physicists. Today, a large number of successful PK experiments with random number generators have been reported (Radin & Nelson, 1989). It has not yet been possible, however, to stabilize and strengthen the statistically weak effects so that they can be easily demonstrated on demand. The discovery of PK effects on prerecorded random events (Schmidt, 1976) did not make the gathering of data less arduous, but it permitted the inclusion of independent observers who, with little investment of time and effort, could obtain first-hand evidence for any PK effects that might occur. All five experiments to be discussed here included such independent observers. PK Tests with Prerecorded Events and Independent Observers In a typical PK experiment, a random number generator produces a binary random sequence that the subject tries to bias in a certain manner. Let us take, for example, the case where the random generator produces in each test run a sequence of 100 binary events displayed as a sequence of 100 red (for a 0-bit) and green (for a 1-bit) light flashes, while the subject is instructed to mentally enforce the appearance of more red than green flashes. The sequence of red and green signals is stored on floppy disk, and a score that is measured by the difference between the numbers of red and green signals is displayed and recorded at the end of the run. The arrangement for an experiment with prerecorded random events is similar, but there is a time delay between the generation of the random events and their display to the subject. First, the random signals for a large number of test runs are generated and recorded on floppy disk. Days or months later, the stored signals are translated by the computer into a corresponding sequence of red and green light flashes while the subject tries to mentally enforce the appearance of more red than green signals. Experiments have shown that selected subjects can succeed in this arrangement (Schmidt, 1976, 1987), provided that the prerecorded events have not been inspected by anybody before the subject makes the PK effort. To let an independent observer participate in the experiment, we prerecord the bit sequences for all test runs planned for the experiment, and we let a computer make a printout of the scores for all the test runs. Being careful that nobody can observe the scores, we send a sealed copy of the printout to the independent observer. Leaving the printout sealed, the independent observer randomly specifies for each test run whether the subject's PK effort should be aimed at a high score (excess of red signals in the example) or a low score (excess of green signals). In the subsequent PK test sessions, the subject follows for each test run the independent observer's assignments, aiming for an excess of red or green signals, respectively. At the end of the experiment, the independent observer opens the sealed printouts. If the subject's effort was successful, the independent observer can confirm this first-hand by a tendency of the scores to point in the directions (positive or negative) that he had randomly specified. Because the independent observer had randomly assigned the directions, he or she can be certain that no such systematic tendency should occur (in the absence of the claimed anomaly). Using an appropriate statistical method, the independent observer can assess the significance of such a tendency without having to consider the reliability of the experimenter and his procedures. Test Arrangement with Distant Subjects The five experiments under discussion followed this general outline with minor variations. …