Ganzfeld experiment - Telepathy - the search for evidence

The ganzfeld ("total field") experiment uses audio and visual sensory deprivation to test for extra-sensory perception (ESP). There are claims that this experiment yields results that deviate significantly from randomness, and represent some of the strongest experimental evidence for psi phenomena to date. As with all purported psi phenomena, these claims are highly controversial within science in general and even within parapsychology. The debate is well-documented in parapsychology journals and in articles such as thos ...

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• Ganzfeld experiment - Telepathy - the search for evidence
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The ganzfeld experiments are among the most recent in parapsychology for testing the existence of and affecting factors of telepathy, the ability to communicate information from one person's mind to that of another without resorting to normal means. After the initial success of the forced-choice card-guessing telepathy experiments of J. B. Rhine and his associates, researchers noted a "decline effect" where the accuracy of card guessing would decrease over time for a given subject, which some parapsychologists attributed to boredom. S ...

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Ganzfeld experiment, Ganzfeld experiment - Telepathy - the search for evidence, Ganzfeld experiment - Experiments - defined, Ganzfeld experiment - History of experiments

Read more here: » Ganzfeld experiment: Encyclopedia II - Ganzfeld experiment - Telepathy - the search for evidence

Claims have been made that over many such trials conducted in many labs around the world, the average hit rate has been closer to 35% rather than the 25% expected by null hypothesis. Such a result would be highly significant statistically. In 1982, Charles Honorton presented a meta-analysis of the studies to date at a meeting of the Parapsychological Association, concluding that this was sufficient to establish the existence of psi phenomena. Prominent critic and skeptic Ray Hyman disagreed. This led to separate meta-analyses by each ...

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Ganzfeld experiment, Ganzfeld experiment - Telepathy - the search for evidence, Ganzfeld experiment - Experiments - defined, Ganzfeld experiment - History of experiments

Read more here: » Ganzfeld experiment: Encyclopedia II - Ganzfeld experiment - History of experiments

"Ganzfeld" or "total (sensory) field" experiments aim to reduce such cognitive or environmental noise through a mild form of sensory deprivation. This is done by covering the subject's eyes with a translucent mask of ping-pong ball halves, placing headphones over the subject's ears and playing a mild white noise through them, and having the subject relax on a couch or waterbed. Sometimes additional relaxation exercises are incorporated. Once the subject has been immersed in the ganzfeld for some minutes, then the subject, acting as "r ...

See also:

Ganzfeld experiment, Ganzfeld experiment - Telepathy - the search for evidence, Ganzfeld experiment - Experiments - defined, Ganzfeld experiment - History of experiments

Read more here: » Ganzfeld experiment: Encyclopedia II - Ganzfeld experiment - Experiments - defined