On the Use of Living Target Systems in Distant Mental Influence Research

The more it moves, the more it yields. For several years, my co-workers and I have been exploring the use of living target systems in our research on distant mental influence. We have found that living systems possess many characteristics that make them exceedingly attractive and useful to the psi researcher. I would like to share with you some of my thoughts about the positive features of such systems and their many advantages for psi research in all of its aspects-experimental, theoretical, and practical. The Theme...and its Variations In a typical experiment of the type to be discussed, one selects a living organism and isolates it, usually at a distance, from all conventional sensori-motor or energetic influences of the "influencer." In principle, any living organism may serve as this "target." Next, one selects some readily measured aspect of the target organism's activity, objectively monitors that activity over a period of time, and generates a permanent record of that activity. It is, perhaps, desirable to choose an activity which occurs with moderate frequency or intensity and which is relatively stable over time, although this is not an essential requirement. An "influencer" then attempts to influence the organism's activity, mentally and at a distance, in a prescribed fashion and according to a predetermined (and, ideally, random) schedule. Conventional statistical methods are used to compare the organism's activity during periods of attempted mental influence with activity levels during comparable non-influence, control periods. The procedure may be illustrated more concretely by an experimental technique that we have used over 300 times in our laboratory. A subject sits in a quiet, comfortable room for approximately 25 minutes while his or her sympathetic autonomic activity is continuously assessed by computer-monitoring of the subject's electrodermal activity (EDA). In another room, typically 20 meters away, an influencer attempts to mentally "calm" the distant subject during ten 30-second influence periods but not during ten interspersed control periods. Total EDA during the influence periods is compared statistically with total EDA during the control periods in order to determine whether the experiment was successful. This is merely the latest version of an experimental procedure for which there is a long and interesting history. Some of the earliest variations of the paradigm occurred in the contexts of "animal magnetism," "mesmerism," and hypnosis. As early as 1775, Franz Anton Mesmer described informal experiments in which he claimed successful action-at-a-distance effects, explaining them in …