In this issue of JAEX, Jakob et al. (2024) report results from an experiment to test whether an implicit psychokinetic effect related to unconscious intention can alter the outcome of quantum events. The experiment is well conceived and executed. However, the claim of evidence to support the experimental hypothesis is undermined by errors of analysis and of omission. Some are not obvious and require a careful reading to discern. I explain the nature of the mistakes, where and how they arise, and the consequences for the inferences the authors’ draw. I emphasize that a helpful way to detect such problems is by following the chain of inference in experimental reports. Editors, reviewers, and particularly authors can protect the integrity of the scientific literature by reading carefully in this way.
In this issue of JAEX, Jakob et al. (2024) report results from an experiment to test whether an implicit psychokinetic effect related to unconscious intention can alter the outcome of quantum events. The experiment is well conceived and executed. However, the claim of evidence to support the experimental hypothesis is undermined by errors of analysis and of omission. Some are not obvious and require a careful reading to discern. I explain the nature of the mistakes, where and how they arise, and the consequences for the inferences the authors’ draw. I emphasize that a helpful way to detect such problems is by following the chain of inference in experimental reports. Editors, reviewers, and particularly authors can protect the integrity of the scientific literature by reading carefully in this way.
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.
This response addresses commentaries by Thomas Rabeyron, Ian Tierney, and Harald Walach on two articles in this issue concerning macroscopic complementary relations between subjective and objective aspects of reality, framed within the Generalized Quantum Theory (GQT). The central concern shared by the commentators is whether the erasure-confound paradigm can robustly avoid the non-transmission (NT) axiom-induced decline that has affected earlier experimental paradigms in this research area. We argue that the NT axiom expresses an epistemic restriction arising whenever causal-deterministic documentation is applied to phenomena that contain an autonomous-subjective component. Under this reading, the erasure-confound paradigm achieves only a reduced-objective documentation of the effect at the single-study level, because the confound prevents an unambiguous causal interpretation, while the effect is established indirectly across studies through the exclusion of the alternative explanation (the “color selection bias” confound). This design decouples evidence accumulation from the arrow of time and is proposed to circumvent the decline. We then put the decline prediction to an empirical test by reporting three previously unpublished color-erasure-with-confound studies (Studies 5–7), which together with the four studies of Maier and Dechamps (2025) form the complete record of seven studies in this paradigm, with no file drawer. The erasure effect appeared in the predicted direction in every study (sign test p = .008), and combined stratified permutation analyses across three independent 36-color sets ruled out the color-selection-bias confound as a joint explanation (Fisher p = .010; Edgington p = .018). An inverse-variance weighted meta-regression on the seven effect sizes returned a non-significant downward slope (b = −0.018, 95% CI [−0.043, 0.006], one-tailed p = .07), and the seventh study yielded an effect still clearly present (BF₁₀ = 3,679.73, d = .30). The data are consistent with a stable, reduced-objectively documented acausal psychophysical correlation rather than the attrition predicted by the NT axiom under direct replication. Further specific points raised by individual commentators, such as the experimenter-psi interpretation and the choice of subjective and objective measurements, are addressed in shorter form.
The file has been temporarily restricted while the author reviews the arguments and conclusions.This note examines how ontological conclusions are drawn from the standard quantum formalism. It distinguishes what the formalism fixes from additional claims about objective physical states and about where and when outcomes become fully formed. It tests these inferences by considering a minimal objective-state possibility, without predetermined values for all observables, and by analyzing the underdetermination of where and when outcome formation occurs within a physical measurement chain. Because preserved records themselves become part of that chain, their later comparison does not by itself resolve the underdetermination. The analysis identifies additional premises required for familiar paradoxical inferences and leaves open the possibility of outcome completion through ordinary causal propagation, without choosing an interpretation or constructing a new mechanism.
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. …
An experiment we conducted from 2012 to 2013, which had not been previously reported, was designed to explore possible psychophysical effects resulting from the interaction of a human mind with a quantum system. Participants focused their attention toward or away from the slits in a double-slit optical system to see if the interference pattern would be affected. Data were collected from 25 people in individual half-hour sessions; each person repeated the test ten times for a total of 250 planned sessions. “Sham” sessions designed to mimic the experimental sessions without observers present were run immediately before and after as controls. Based on the planned analysis, no evidence for a psychophysical effect was found. Because this experiment differed in two essential ways from similar, previously reported double-slit experiments, two exploratory analyses were developed, one based on a simple spectral analysis of the interference pattern and the other based on fringe visibility. For the experimental data, the outcome supported a pattern of results predicted by a causal psychophysical effect, with the spectral metric resulting in a 3.4 sigma effect (p = 0.0003), and the fringe visibility metric resulting in 7 of 22 fringes tested above 2.3 sigma after adjustment for type I error inflation, with one of those fringes at 4.3 sigma above chance (p = 0.00001). The same analyses applied to the sham data showed uniformly null outcomes. Other analyses exploring the potential that these results were due to mundane artifacts, such as fluctuations in temperature or vibration, showed no evidence of such influences. Future studies using the same protocols and analytical methods will be required to determine if these exploratory results are idiosyncratic or reflect a genuine psychophysical influence.