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Parapsychology and Quantum Entanglement
William Roll and Bryan Williams
Abstract: Psi phenomena are often regarded as non-scientific because there has been
no explanation for how a person can be influenced by another person or by a physical
object without the transmission of physical stimuli, such as light. As it turns out, quantum
physics offers a concept that enables us to deal with this issue. In quantum entanglement
two things are interconnected across distances of time and space in the absence of any
type of transmission. We examine several lines of evidence from parapsychology,
including extrasensory perception, precognition, retrocognition, and psychokinesis, that
may be accounted for in terms of quantum entanglement. Psi phenomena have been
regarded as nonphysical, but may exemplify an established physical principle.
The concepts utilized in physical theories are themselves creations of consciousness and hence
may reflect its fundamental propensities when ordering its acquired information in any area. –
Jahn & Dunne, 1987, p. 228.
1. Introduction
January 28, 2008, Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, is
quoted in the Daily Mail of London: “I agree that by the standards of any other area of
science remote viewing is proven, but begs the question: do we need higher standards
of evidence when we study the paranormal? I think we do...Because remote viewing is
such an outlandish claim that will revolutionise the world, we need overwhelming
evidence before we draw any conclusions. Right now we don’t have that evidence”
(Penman, 2008, p. 28). There are two important terms in this paragraph, “remote
viewing” and “paranormal.” Remote viewing is when a person receives an impression of
a distant scene without the aid of sensory stimuli or any other type of transmission
(Bisaha & Dunne, 1979/2002; Dunne & Jahn, 2003; Lantz, Luke, & May, 1994; Puthoff &
Targ, 1976; Targ & Puthoff, 1977; Targ, Puthoff, & May, 1979/2002).
The term “paranormal” suggests there is a realm of occurrences above or beyond
what is normal because this is what the prefix para- means. The same is true for
parapsychology but to a lesser extent; most parapsychologists are convinced that the
field is on par with other scientific disciplines, alongside and certainly not above. But
there is nothing to be said in favor of paranormal. Researchers now often use the term
“psi” as in psi phenomena and psi research, a term introduced by Thouless and Wiesner
(1948).
Psi does not say or imply anything about the nature of the phenomena. All we
know is that things are correlated, such as the subject’s impression in a test of remote
viewing and the distant scene, in the absence of signals from the scene to the subject.
This does not mean an end of understanding. The main body of psi research consists of
the exploration of factors associated with the presence versus absence of psi. The
factors have been neuropsychological as measured by the EEG (e.g., Ehrenwald, 1977,
pp. 716 – 720; Morris, 1977, pp. 705 – 710; Persinger et al., 2002), they have been
psychological as measured by personality inventories (e.g., Honorton, Ferrari, & Bem,
1998; Palmer, 1977; Schmeidler, 1988, Ch. 7), and they have been physical as
measured by geomagnetic detectors (e.g., Persinger, 1989; Spottiswoode, 1997; Tart,
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1988). This body of research has achieved two things, it has demonstrated that psi is
associated in lawful ways with the factors in question, and it has demonstrated that psi is
a natural phenomenon because the factors are all natural.
However, our inability to explain how spatially separate things may be correlated
has made a scientific theory beyond reach, and without a scientific theory, psi is not
science even if the experimental evidence continues to pile up. But there is light at the
end of the tunnel; it turns out that a scientific concept exists according to which things
that are separated in space are nevertheless connected.
2. Quantum Entanglement
Erwin Schrödinger (1935) has shown that according to quantum physics, if a
subatomic particle is split, the two halves will remain “inextricably correlated,” or
entangled, regardless of how far they are separated in space. However, there was no
empirical evidence for this at the time, and Einstein (1949) found the idea “spooky.”
Together with two younger men he came up with a thought experiment (Einstein,
Podolsky, & Rosen, 1935), which was intended to show that it makes no sense to
suppose that things can affect each other across space unless information is transmitted
from one to the other. Because quantum theory asserts that things may be connected
without transmission, Einstein thought the theory must be wrong.
The EPR thought experiment is interesting because it reveals Einstein’s thinking,
and, more importantly, because it shows how quantum entanglement works. In the EPR
experiment, a subatomic particle is split into two parts with opposite spins, X and Y,
which are sent in opposite directions, one part heading towards detector 1, the other part
towards detector 2, which is located at a distance from 1 and not connected to it in any
way. If an observer, who is seated at detector 1, sees X, detector 2 will of necessity
show Y because X and Y originate from the same source and are thereby entangled;
conversely if detector 1 shows Y, detector 2 will show X. In contrast, Einstein was
convinced that whether X or Y shows up on detector 2 is independent of what is shown
on detector 1.
Until X or Y is detected, the system represents both X and Y, a condition known
as quantum superposition, but when experimenter 1 sees X on his detector, the particle
is no longer in superposition but has “collapsed” to X1 Y2. Things that are in
superposition have no definite location and cannot be measured precisely.
But this was theory without experimental support, which made it possible that in
the end Einstein’s dismissal of the EPR idea would win the day. However, in a
mathematical restatement by John Bell (1964) of Einstein’s theory, where properties at 1
depend only on what happens locally at 1, and properties at 2 depend only on what
happens locally at 2, Bell showed that if this locality were true, then measurable
quantities predicted by quantum mechanics would be negated. The issue could not be
addressed by another thought experiment, but required actual testing. It took 18 years
before this happened. By 1982 Aspect et al. (1981, 1982a, 1982b) had reported three
experiments that confirmed the predictions of quantum theory and negated Einstein’s
local theory. There was now empirical evidence that, “quantum entities that have
interacted with each other remain mutually entangled” (Polkinghorne, 2002, p. 80). (See
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the Appendix for a brief history of the development of the concept of entanglement within
quantum physics.)
3. Psi and Quantum Entanglement
Josephson and Pallikari-Viras (1991) brought up Bell’s (1964) paper and said,
“Experimental results, while not being totally conclusive, are such as to point towards this
conclusion being valid” (p. 199). They then added, “The existence of such remote
influences or connections is suggested more directly by experiments on phenomena
such as telepathy (the direct connection of one mind with another) and psychokinesis
(the direct influence of mind on matter), both of which are examples of so-called psifunctioning or psychic phenomena” (p. 199). Coming from two physicists, one of whom is
a Nobel laureate, this is a stunning statement (Josephson received the Nobel Prize in
1973).
Polkinghorne (2002) is another quantum physicist who apparently accepts
telepathy, but believes it is “quantum hype” to claim that EPR ‘proves’ that telepathy is
possible” (p. 81). He explains, “the EPR effect does not offer an explanation of telepathy,
for its degree of mutual entanglement is not one that could facilitate the transfer of
information...random subatomic uncertainty is very different from the free will of an
agent” (p. 92). But the evidence for telepathy is doubtful because any test for telepathy
requires the existence of an objective record of the targets, which may therefore be
inspected by clairvoyance, a fact that J. B. Rhine (1974) has pointed out. Even if
telepathy occurs, it only shows that two minds are correlated, not that one transfers
something to the other.
In spite of the fact that the EPR experiment was invalid as an argument against
quantum theory, it did not end up in the wastebasket. On the contrary, it has become
part of quantum talk because it provides a clear description of entanglement; the
literature of quantum physics is peppered with references to the EPR effect (e.g.,
Bennett et al., 1993; Julsgaard et al., 2001; Mermin, 1985; Pan et al., 2000; Tittel et al.,
1998).
Quantum physics has made an inroad into psi. Jahn and Dunne (1987) have
applied its basic concepts to their findings in PK and remote viewing. Radin (2006), the
most recent advocate of a psi-quantum connection, says, “Quantum theory and a vast
body of supporting experiments tell us that something unaccounted for is connecting
otherwise isolated objects [his italics]. And this is precisely what psi experiences are
telling us. The parallels are so striking that it suggests that psi is – literally – the human
experience of quantum interconnectedness” (pp. 231 – 232).
Josephson and Pallikari-Viras (1991) note that to apply quantum theory to psi
amounts to a biological application of the theory. If this is to be more than a cosmetic
makeover, quantum theory must enable us to better understand and predict psi.
4. Psi Entanglement with Objects in the Present
Quantum entanglement involves pairs that “epistemologically exclude each other”
(Polkinghorne, p. 33). In EPR, the pair is composed of particles with opposed spins; in
perception, including ESP, the pair is perception and the event perceived.
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Spontaneous Cases: Phantasms of the Living by Gurney et al. (1886) is the first
case study. A phantasm or apparition is a hallucination, 1 i.e. a mental product. For a
hallucination to be included in Phantasms, it had to represent an actual event that the
percipient did not know, and the percipient had to be awake. Of 702 such cases, most of
the people had close ties to the percipients and were in crisis, two thirds dying or having
just died (Schouten, 1979).
People who are dying or in a life-threatening situation tend to hallucinate (Barrett,
1926; Clarke, 1878; Giovetti, 1982; Grof & Halifax, 1977; Hunter, 1967; Hyslop, 1907;
Jung, 1961, pp. 282 – 290; Moody, 1976; Osis, 1961; Osis and Haraldsson, 1977a,
1977b; Ring, 1979, 1980, 1984; Sabom, 1982; Sabom & Kreutziger, 1978; Siegel, 1977,
1980). The stages and mental states of dying are now well known. As Rodin (1980)
explains, in the early phase of dying, hypoxia2 leads to “an increased feeling of well
being and a sense of power...accompanied by a decrease and subsequent loss of critical
judgment” (p. 262). As hypoxia is followed by anoxia, “delusions and hallucinations
occur, until, finally, complete unconsciousness supervenes” (p. 262). Assuming
entanglement between the dying person and the percipient, it would not be surprising if
the latter may also enter a hallucinogenic state; the actual death of one may be a virtual
death for the other.
The Census of Hallucinations by Henry Sidgwick et al. (1894) added little to
Phantasms except that it provided a better treatment of the chance factor. Of the 17,000
persons who had been interviewed, 2,272 reported experiencing a veridical hallucination
of someone dying. Compared to the death rate in England over the preceding ten years,
this value exceeded the expected number by 440.
Human entanglement may be a function of shared factors, such as gene
frequency and bonding. In the cases of Sannwald (1963), Stevenson (1970), and
Persinger (1974, Part 1) the pair was close family in 50 percent, 63 percent, and 53
percent respectively. The three studies showed this to be parent-child in 56 percent, 54
percent, and 61 percent respectively; husband-wife in 29 percent, 22 percent, and 25
percent; and between siblings in 15 percent, 24 percent, and 14 percent (op. cit., p. 82).
For peripheral family, the percentages were 10, 7, and 16; for friends and acquaintances,
they were 28, 27, and 14, and for strangers, 3, 11, and 9 (p. 83). In 8 percent of
Persinger’s cases, the remote party was an animal pet. As Persinger notes, there is a
marked consistency in the large percentages of close family, especially parent-child, in
the three studies.
With respect to the perceived event in Sannwald, Stevenson, and Persinger, this
was death in 43 percent, 41 percent, and 54 percent respectively; crisis in 36 percent, 41
percent, and 25 percent; and unimportant events in 21 percent, 18 percent, and 21
percent (op. cit., p. 84). In Persinger’s cases, 70 percent of the deaths were sudden.
Interestingly, action by the percipient in the crisis cases was said to save the life of the
other person in 70 percent of the cases (p. 73). In the three studies, females
outnumbered males at 70 percent, 53 percent, and 76 percent. Persinger attributes the
high percentage of women in his study in part to a greater willingness by women to
communicate their experiences than men.
Persinger found that the two members of the pair were within the home in 18
percent of the cases, within one mile in 36 percent, and within 100 miles in 58 percent;
while 30 percent involved distances of more than 2,000 miles (p. 65). Eighty-five percent
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of the experiences were at night (p < .001), peaking at 12 – 4 AM (p. 62). When
comparing the four seasons, 40 percent were during the summer (p < .001, p. 61).
Summary: The features shown by the cases of Sannwald, Stevenson, and
Persinger are mutually consistent and resemble the Phantasms cases with respect to the
predominance of death and crisis involving closely connected individuals. The
characteristics suggest psi entanglement.
Experimental Studies: Until the 1960s ESP studies were confined to the guesses
and mental impressions of the percipients. Beginning with Dean (1966, 1969, Dean &
Nash, 1967), ESP research has become increasingly physiological. Dean found that
blood volume increases in the percipient, as measured by the plethysmograph, indicate
ESP; such increases are a sign of emotional arousal. Also beginning in the 1960s, the
electroencephalograph became a major tool for ESP research. There are three types of
EEG correlation studies, (1) studies of unselected subject-pairs, (2) studies of pairs
whose members are relatives, (3) studies of bonded pairs, and (4) studies that combine
relatives and bonded pairs.
(1) In a telepathy test by Tart (1963), the single agent received electric shocks at
random intervals that correlated with highly complex EEG patterns in the percipients.
The agent’s EEG was not recorded but the shocks must have resulted in disturbed brain
waves. Targ and Puthoff (1974, pp. 606 – 607) found that changes in alpha activity
occurred in the EEG of a percipient when the agent was subjected to bright light flashes
in a room seven meters distant (p < .04).
(2) Duane and Behrendt (1965) reported that two of 15 pairs of identical male
twins showed EEG correlations. While one of the twins was stimulated by opening and
closing the eyes in a lighted room to evoke brain wave patterns in the alpha range, the
EEG of his brother, who was in another lighted room six meters away, also with open
eyes, showed similar alpha patterns. The correlation was based on visual inspection of
the twins’ EEG records, and was not statistically validated. Persinger et al. (2003) used
four pairs of siblings as subjects in an EEG correlation study; all eight being blindfolded
and wearing earplugs. Changes in the theta range were recorded (p < .01) from the
percipient’s frontal and occipital lobes, when the agent was in a separate
electromagnetically and acoustically shielded room and stimulated with 1 micro-Tesla
magnetic pulses around the head; the pulses were produced by eight solenoids that
encircled the head, an arrangement known as “The Octopus.”
(3) Grinberg-Zylberbaum et al. (1994) had divided pairs of subjects, who were
unknown to each other, into two groups; one group of pairs spent 20 minutes together in
silent meditation to form a bond, the other group did not. The pairs were then separated
and their members isolated in electromagnetically shielded rooms 14.5 meters apart. At
random intervals, the agent was stimulated with bright light flashes to induce EEG
changes while the percipient rested in the other room, also being monitored by an EEG.
There were changes in the percipient’s EEG for the bonded pairs, which were similar to
changes in the agent’s EEG from the light flashes. The effect also occurred in some of
the pairs who had not undergone the bonding procedure.
In a study by Standish et al. (2003) a selected male and female subject pair, who
had known each other for two years, spent 10 minutes together in silent meditation
before both went through fMRI scanning, alternating as agent and percipient. While the
percipient relaxed in the scanner, the agent viewed a randomly flashing checkerboard on
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a video monitor in an adjacent room. To prevent visual cues, the eyes of the percipient
were covered with opaque goggles and the window to the scanning room was covered
with an opaque shield. When the female was percipient, her fMRI showed significant
activation in the visual cortex when the male agent was exposed to the lights (p < .001),
but the fMRI of the male was not affected when he was percipient and the female was
agent. In a replication study, Richards et al. (2005) used the EEG as well as fMRI
scanning with a male-female subject pair who had known each other for six years. The
EEG of the male subject, when he was percipient, showed significant changes in the
alpha band (p < .0001) during the female subject’s stimulation periods. When tested
during fMRI scanning, a significant decrease in activation was observed in the female
subject’s visual cortex during stimulation periods when she was percipient (p < .017), an
effect that was absent from the male subject’s fMRI scans when he was percipient.
During a visit by Roll to Persinger’s laboratory in 2006, Persinger described an
unpublished study, in which pairs of students from one of his classes met once a week
for one hour for four weeks and simply sat within one meter of each other. Each pair was
then brought to the laboratory, where one member was stimulated by “The Octopus” in a
shielded chamber while thinking about the other member, whose EEG was recorded in
another room. Persinger found that within about 20 milliseconds after the magnetic field
had completed its rotation around the brain of the student in the chamber, there was an
associated increase in theta amplitude in the right temporal lobe of the other student.
Kittenis et al. (2004) did a study where pairs of subjects, who were emotionally
close, were compared with pairs who were unknown to each other; there were also
control subjects who were not paired with anyone, although told they were. Significant
EEG correlations were found in the alpha range for both the emotionally close pairs (p <
.023) and the unknown pairs3 (p < .007) while the EEGs of the control subjects were
normal. When the brain maps of the subjects were examined, it was found that activation
in the percipient’s occipital-parietal region closely followed the temporal sequence of
activity in the agent’s brain.
(4) Wackermann et al. (2003) tested related pairs, unrelated pairs, and control
pairs. The members of the related pairs spent 20 minutes of silent bonding while the
members of the unrelated pairs did not. The pairs were then separated and placed in
electromagnetically and acoustically shielded rooms. In each test, the agent watched a
video monitor that displayed random light flashes in the form of alternating checkerboard
patterns, patterns that were not shown to the agents of the control pairs. Changes in
EEG voltage were found both in the related-bonded pairs, and in the unrelated pairs
during light flash periods; both were significantly different from the EEGs of the control
pairs (p < .01). Standish et al. (2004) compared EEG correlations of related and bonded
pairs, who were divided and placed in rooms 10 meters apart and attached to EEGs, the
agent being exposed to the flashing light. There was no difference between the related
and the bonded pairs, but the combined results showed significant (p = .0005) changes
in the percipient’s EEG that correlated with changes in the EEGs of the agents when
they were shown the light-pattern; there were no such changes during non-stimulation
periods.
Radin (2004b) examined EEG correlations between 11 bonded pairs and two
related pairs who were separated in rooms 20 meters apart, with the percipient’s room
being electromagnetically and acoustically shielded. At random times, the agent was
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shown a live video image of the percipient on a monitor, which served both as a visual
stimulus, and as a way to encourage mental connection with the percipient. Voltage
changes in the percipient’s EEG were found to significantly correlate (p = .0005) with
those occurring in the agent’s EEG during the periods when the agent was stimulated
with the percipient’s image. No such correlation was found during control periods, when
the experiment was run without subjects.
Summary: Although several of the tests are described as telepathic, there is no
evidence that the agent transmitted anything to the percipient; all we know is that the
studies showed EEG correlations between two brains. Two of the group (3) studies,
which included unrelated couples, also showed EEG correlations between these pairs.
Similarly one of the studies from group (4), where strangers were included, showed EEG
correlations. When the frequency of the EEG brain waves was indicated, this was the
alpha wave in three studies by different researchers and the theta wave in the two tests
by Persinger. While the alpha wave indicates an awake and relaxed state of mind, the
theta wave is associated with sleep and may here have been generated by the magnetic
pulses from The Octopus, which are known to induce altered states of consciousness
(Richards et al., 2002). Four of five studies suggested that the occipital lobe of the
percipient’s brain was engaged during the test (in one study also the frontal lobe), and in
a fifth study it was the temporal lobe of the right brain hemisphere that was activated. In
two experiments where male and female percipients were monitored by the fMRI, this
showed activation of the brains of the females but not of the males.
The experimental results are in general agreement with the case studies. In the
EEG experiments, the alpha wave (7.5 – 13 cycles per second) predominated in five
studies, and the theta wave (3.5 – 7.5 cycles per second) in two studies. Under normal
circumstances, the alpha wave is associated with relaxation and closed eyes, and the
theta wave is associated with sleep. According to Persinger’s case study, a large
majority of cases occurred at night when most people rest and sleep.
In four of five tests, the occipital lobe was activated. The occipital lobe is engaged
in vision and in the formation of non-sensory visual images, such as REM dreams and
hallucinations. In a majority of the cases, hallucinations and dreams predominated.
In the two tests where the brains of females and males were monitored by the
fMRI, the brains of the female brains were activated but not the male brains. In the three
case studies, the majority of percipients were female.
5. Psi Entanglement with Objects in the Future
Noreen Renier (2008), who is known for her work with the police, was giving a talk
at the FBI Academy when an agent asked what lay ahead for President Reagan, who
had just been inaugurated. She closed her eyes and said, “The President is going to be
popular” (p. 129). She then patted her hand on her left side and said, “he is going to be
shot in the upper left chest, in about three months” (p. 130), but that he would survive.
March 30, 1981, John Hinckley fired several rounds at Reagan, one of which entered his
left lung.
Precognition seems to entail perception of something in the future that does not
yet exist and therefore cannot be perceived. The contradiction may be resolved by taking
recourse to EPR. In EPR, an observer detects one of the two halves of a particle and
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thereby terminates its state of superposition so that the second half enters reality and
may therefore also be observed. To apply the model to precognition, it may be noted that
any ordinary event is likewise composed of two halves, the physical event and the
perception of the event. The two parts coalesce in the specious present, thereby making
up the environment of present-time. However, an event in the future is in superposition
and thereby only a possibility unless and until it is observed or “recognized.” In other
words, the percipient would not inspect a pre-existing physical event, but would observe
one of the many systems that are in superposition, thereby transforming a potential
event to an actual one. Which of the possible events is to be chosen, we may surmise,
depends on the needs of the subject and perhaps on other factors. As a lecturer Renier
would have identified with her audience; because an important concern of this group was
to protect the President, she would have had the same concern.
Spontaneous Cases: E. M. Sidgwick (1888-1889) made a study of precognition
cases that had been excluded from Phantasms because this was limited to present-time
psi, but had been subject to the same high criteria of selection. She limited herself to the
question of whether the match between the precognitive experience and a future event
may have resulted from chance coincidence; there were several cases she was unable
to dismiss in this way. Sidgwick (1923) suggests that in precognitive telepathy two minds
“work together” or “merge” although one is in the present and the other is in the future
(pp. 419 – 423). The best-known study of precognition may be An Experiment with Time
by John Dunne (1927). Dunne had noticed that some of his dreams came true, which
made him enter these dreams in a diary. He thought others might also have precognitive
dreams, and that they might be revealed by the diary method. Besterman (1932-33)
followed Dunne’s lead by having 43 subjects record their dreams for three weeks and
note subsequent events they seemed to reflect. There were 430 such dreams, but only
two “good cases” (p. 204). In a study of 349 precognitive experiences that had been
authenticated and published in the SPR Journal, Saltmarsh (1934) found 100 were about
death as compared to other events (p < .01). However, 35 of the 63 hallucinatory
precognitions were about death (p < .001).
L. E. Rhine’s (1954) survey of precognitions show 75 percent to be dreams, a
trend also observed by Van de Castle (1977, pp. 473 – 481). She said the percipients
often “marveled at the fact that the precognitive experience was just like ‘remembering’
the future” (p. 121).
Persinger’s cases include 128 precognitions, of which 48 percent are of death, 41
of non-fatal crises, and 11 of trivial events. Thirty-three percent of the crises are car
crashes, 23 percent are tornadoes and other natural disasters, and the remainder
consisting of other danger. In 23 percent, where the future event was about the
percipient and was life threatening, the experience enabled the percipient to take
evasive action (p. 136). Of the 98 cases where the event was about someone else, 67
percent concerned a member of the immediate family, 18 percent distant relatives, 14
percent friends and acquaintances, and in a single case a stranger (p. 140). In 89
percent, the percipient was a woman, a figure that is based on 71 cases where the sex
of the percipient is stated. In 51 percent, a woman was the percipient and a man was the
agent, in 38 percent both were women, and in 11 percent both were men; there were no
reports of male percipients and female agents (p. 135).
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In the cases where the future event may have killed or injured the percipient, in 50
percent, the event occurred within a few seconds of the experience, and in 77 percent
within a few minutes (p. 136). Regarding precognitions about others, 13 percent
transpired within 30 seconds, 24 percent within an hour, 39 percent within 12 hours, 50
percent within 12 hours, 69 percent within a week, and 85 percent within a month. In
nine percent of the cases the precognized event was more than a year in the future (p.
137).
Thirty-four percent were hallucinations (17 percent visual and 16 percent
auditory), 32 percent were dreams, 17 percent were waking impressions, and nine
percent were omens, such as black butterflies for death, the remainder consisting of
other categories (p. 129). In 70 percent of 104 cases, where the hour of the experience
was reported, this was nocturnal (p < .01, based on an even split of night and day). The
number of cases peaked at 10 PM, remained relatively frequent until 2 AM, and then
declined. The monthly and geographical distributions were trivial.
Experimental Studies: The first precognition tests were attempts to predict either
the future order of ESP cards or die-faces that would turn up by rolling dice, but now it is
standard to use REGs. A meta-analysis by Honorton and Ferrari (1989) that combined
the three types for 1935 to 1987 (309 studies by 62 investigators) resulted in p = 6.3 x
10-25. Another meta-analysis by Steinkamp, Milton, and Morris (1998) of studies that
compared clairvoyance and precognition (25 studies from 1935 – 1997 by 16
investigators) had shown p = 9 x 10-7 for the precognition aspect of studies. In
comparison, the clairvoyance aspect of the studies had p = .002.
The studies of “presentiment” by Radin (1997) introduce a new paradigm. Instead
of having his subjects register their impressions on an REG, he used their physiological
reactions, hence presentiment. Immediately before the REG chose a picture to be
shown, the subject’s electrodermal response was recorded with a finger electrode. A
monitor in front of the subject then randomly showed either a violent scene, an erotic
situation, or a landscape. Radin reports that about three seconds before viewing the first
two types, his subjects showed significantly larger electrodermal responses than before
viewing the landscapes, an indication of increased emotion (p = .008). Radin (1998)
repeated his results and also found that the emotional targets were associated with an
increase in heart rate. In follow-up studies by Bierman and Radin (1997, 1999), the
presentiment effect was most prominent for pictures of violence followed by erotic
scenes. Radin (2004a) has done three additional presentiment studies, also successful,
with a range of equipment, test settings, and subjects. Spottiswoode and May (2003)
have elicited presentiment responses by using startle noises instead of emotional
pictures (p = 5.4 x 10-4).
Summary: Like present-time ESP, death and crises predominate in the
precognition cases; the percipient is closely connected to the victim; there are more
female than male percipients; and the experiences are mostly nocturnal. The
precognitions differ from the others insofar as they are often about upcoming danger
either for the percipient or the remote person, the predictions often enabling the
percipient to avert the danger. Half of the events foreseen occur within one day, and
there are few beyond a month. The importance of emotion for precognition is confirmed
by the presentiment tests.
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6. Psi Entanglement with Objects in the Past
Retrocognition or perception of things in the past usually takes the form of
psychometry, a procedure where a person holds an object and thereby is able to connect
with people and events associated with the objects. Sir Oliver Lodge (1909) said, “it
appears as if we left traces of ourselves, not only on our bodies but on many other things
with which we have been subordinately associated, and that these traces can thereafter
be detected by a sufficiently sensitive person.” On the basis of his studies of the medium,
Leonore Piper, William James (1909) proposed that the memories of a person may
persist after death in the objects with which the person was connected when
living. Quantum physicist David Bohm (1980) discusses brain memory and the memory
in inanimate objects in terms of enfoldment, his term for entanglement. Memories, he
says, are part of the brain’s “implicate” order that is “enfolded” within the “explicate” brain
structures. He then adds, “the world of familiar physical structures has room in it for
something like memory in the sense that previous moments may leave a trace though
this trace may change and transform almost without limit. From this trace (e.g., in the
rocks) it is in principle possible for us to unfold an image of past moments, similar in
certain ways to what actually happened” (pp. 207 – 208). From this it follows that “the
explicate and manifest order of consciousness is not ultimately distinct from matter and
that the two may only be different aspects of one overall order” (p. 208). The pair, matter
and consciousness or mind, is the paramount example of “pairs that epistemologically
exclude each other” (Polkinghorne, p. 33) and that thereby may be entangled.
The police cases of Renier (2008) are vivid examples of memories in objects.
Detective Tom Atkinson sent Renier a bloodstained earring from a woman who had been
stabbed to death (pp. 103 – 108). No clue about the murder had been found, and the
woman’s mother had asked Atkinson to contact the psychic. With the earring in one hand
and the phone in the other, Renier “closed my eyes, targeted my mind on the earring,
and all of a sudden, it was like I was looking in a mirror. I could see the murderer
washing his hands and combing his hair. I could see him perfectly. I saw the tattoos on
his arm, I saw his whole face, and I described him over the phone” (p. 104). The
detective asked if Renier could see what was happening to the woman. This brought her
back, “and this time I was being murdered by the tattooed man. He was holding me tight
by the wrists...as the razor-sharp knife tore into my body over and over and over” (p.
104). Atkinson said he first thought Renier had learnt about the crime, “then I realized
that the information she had, no one knew” (p. 107). Speaking of the murderer, he said,
“his physical appearance was as she described. His social background was as she
described. The tattoos she described were accurate” (p. 107). 4 The police in Holland
(Tenhaeff, 1955, 1972) similarly used a psychic, Gerard Croiset, to help them solve
crimes or find lost persons. LeShan (1968), who had been asked by the family of a
missing man to help find him, obtained his pen and handed it to the medium, Eileen
Garrett. LeShan reported several correct impressions about the man, including his
present location. The description of crisis, sudden death, and other violent events was a
main theme for Senora de Zierold (Pagenstecher, 1922; Prince, 1921). For the subjects
of Osty (1923), the easiest precognition is death, and the one where they make the
fewest errors. Björkhem (1943) said that his subjects tended to focus on emotionally
significant events, followed by recent events (p. 57).
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 11
To understand the function of the object, mistakes make good teachers. Hodgson
(1892) found Leonore Piper to be most reliable if the object had been “handled or worn
much and almost exclusively” (p. 21) by the target. E. M. Sidgwick (1915) quotes her as
saying in trance that it often causes confusion if the object has been “handled often and
by a great number of persons” (p. 624) and that it should “be handled as little as possible
by other hands” (p. 638) than the hands of the target. In many of Osty’s (1923) tests of
Mme. Morel where the purpose was to obtain information about the owner of the object,
she instead spoke about Osty himself or about the person who had brought him the
object. In Saltmarsh’s (1929) tests of Mrs. Warren Elliott, where the objects were sent to
Miss Newton, the SPR secretary, who wrapped them up for the tests, Saltmarsh said
that in about 20 percent of the tests, Elliott described Miss Newton and the SPR offices
rather than the owner of the objects; as Saltmarsh noted, she was the person who most
recently handled the objects. These observations suggest that objects, which have been
handled by people, thereby become entangled with them whether or not they are
targets. Once the subject had become entangled with the object, this has no function
and may be discarded (Osty, 1923, p. 131; Sidgwick, 1915, p. 307f).
Only a few psychometry tests have been recorded. Marsh (1958) compared ESP
scores of subjects who were provided with personal items from the target person, with
the scores of a control group who were given items from others. Marsh reported
improved scoring by the experimental group after they received the objects and none by
the control. Similarly, Kirby (1959) obtained significant ESP results when the subject
knew the target and his location, and none when the persons and places were unknown.
On the other hand, tests by Osis (1966) comparing close with remote linkage were not
significant.
Roll (1966a, 1966b) did three psychometry tests, of which the third was
significant. In preparation for the test (Roll, 1966b), pairs of blank cards in airtight
polyethylene covers were distributed to four individuals who kept them for several days.
An equal number of pairs remained in the factory box until shortly before the experiment,
when they were also placed in polyethylene bags. A psychic, Shirley Harrison, then
attempted to match the cards from the same pair. One run consisted of matching four
cards (in envelopes placed inside cardboard folders) against four key cards (also in
envelopes) that were mounted on a board. Two experimenters randomized the
envelopes by hand shuffling and recorded the results independently. Four experiments
were conducted with Harrison and Marie Mazen, another psychic, but only one was
significant (p = .04; not corrected). In two follow-up experiments with the two psychics,
the scoring on the cards kept by one of the four individuals (R.K.) was significant in each
(p = .05 for each).
Johnson (1984) tested Gerard Croiset to see if he could distinguish between
identical cards associated with four of his patients (Croiset was also a psychic healer).
Each patient was given a polyethylene bag with six blank cards and asked to carry this
for a period of time. In preparation for the experiment, Johnson placed the four sets of six
cards in identical envelopes together with strips of audiotape with different frequencies,
to make identification of the cards possible. One envelope with its card and tape was
removed from each set of six envelopes and used as a key. After the remaining 20
envelopes had been randomized, Croiset tried to match them against the four keys,
obtaining a score of 11, where five is expected by chance (p < .01). It seemed that
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 12
Croiset responded to differences between the cards from their having been carried by
different people.
An experiment by Parra and Argibay (2006) compared psychometry and regular
ESP tests. Their 71 subjects were non-psychics, but most reported psi experiences. The
objects were 100 identical leather-and-metal key rings that had been acquired by four
assistant experimenters in a gift shop and carried by them for 15 days (i.e., each had 25
key rings). Each subject did four sessions where they handled four key rings in each,
recording their impressions about the assistants, who then scored them for accuracy.
The result was nonsignificant. The targets in the ESP tests were pictures that were
concealed by cardboard and placed in front of the subjects. The result was significant (p
= .005), and the difference between the two test conditions was also significant (p =
.008).
7. Psychokinesis and Quantum Entanglement
Spontaneous PK: Everyday PK incidents are rare.5 L. E. Rhine (1963) found only
178 cases in contrast to more than 10,000 of ESP. The occurrences included falling
pictures and clocks stopping, and were nearly always associated with a death or crisis of
a relative or friend, such as a clock stopping at the person’s death; only four events were
positive although probably also stressful, namely giving birth and being released from
prison.
Incidents that occur repeatedly near an agent without tangible contact are known
as poltergeist or recurrent spontaneous PK (RSPK). In a survey by Roll (1977) of 116
firsthand reports from 1612 to 1974, in four Roll and his colleagues were present during
one or more events (Pratt & Roll, 1958; Roll, 1968, 1970, 1993; 1972/2004; Roll & Pratt,
1971), the same applies to a 1984 case (Roll & Storey, 2004). The five cases share
several features, there were statistically significant declines of the number of incidents
events with increased distance from the agent; there were significant clusterings of
events with the same objects, class of objects, or in the same area; the events were
associated with anger by the agent towards a parent or other caregiver; and objects that
the observers gazed upon did not move.
William Joines (Roll & Joines, 2001) analyzed the decline effect in the cases of
Vasquez, Callihan, and Resch, which seem especially reliable because in each of the
three, Roll and his colleagues were present for several events that they were unable to
explain in terms of fraud or other known processes (Pratt & Roll, 1971; Roll, 1993,
1972/2004, Ch. 9 & 11; Roll & Storey, 2004, Ch. 12 & 18). Because Roll’s earlier cases
had shown evidence either of the inverse square or of the exponential decay function,
and assuming that the source is electromagnetic (EM) energy from the agent, Joines
constructed a formula that combines the two. The data-points from Vasquez and Resch
(Figs. 1 & 2 in Roll & Joines, 2001) fit exactly the same equation with the same constants
while the data points from Callihan (Fig. 3) fit the equation with different constants. 6 It
makes sense that RSPK data-points representing forces on objects should fit a field
intensity versus a distance curve. Electromagnetic force is directly proportional to electric
and magnetic field intensity and, like acoustic waves, is described by the same
differential Maxwell equations. While an acoustic wave cannot propagate through a
vacuum but requires a material like water or metal, EM waves propagate best through
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 13
empty space because matter attenuates the wave. Space is actually filled by an EM field
that fluctuates around zero, known as zero-point energy (ZPE). Because the vacuum has
no mass and no net electrical charge, a propagating EM wave relies on equal and
opposite charges that oscillate with the EM field intensity, which begins on a positive
charge and ends on a negative charge. The equal and opposite charges, must have
either no mass, or the mass of one charge must be negative of the other. The electric
field intensity is polarized in a direction perpendicular to the direction of propagation and
the polarization changes sign as the field oscillates through zero to reach a maximum in
the opposite direction.
To account for the selection of a specific object in RSPK, Joines (Roll & Joines,
2001) suggests that a message or code is sent from agent to object. The agent
generates the message, and the object receives the message and alters its position
accordingly. Other informational processes such as TV are transmitted on carrier waves.
The carrier wave for RSPK could be the ultraviolet and far-UV regions of the spectrum
because they would carry more information than lower frequencies. One RSPK case,
where flashes of white light occurred near the agent (Roll, 1972/2004, Ch. 6), has raised
the possibility that others may generate light. Using a photomultiplier, Joines and Roll, in
an unpublished test in the 1970s, found that a female psychic healer built up electrical
charge on her body and emitted photons from her hands when she brought them up to
the photomultiplier tube and concentrated on sending healing energy. This resulted in a
wave with a wavelength peak of 385 nanometers, which dropped off to progressively
lower values. Since the visible spectrum consists of wavelengths between 700 and 400
nanometers (red to violet), 385 nanometers is just beyond visible in the violet to ultraviolet range. This is close to visible and there were in fact occasions when a faint light
can be seen to emanate from the psychic in the darkened room. Baumann, Joines, Kim,
and Zile (2005) resumed the work with 19 experienced psychic healers, of which a young
yoga devotee was able to emit photons by a method said to awaken the body’s kundalini
energy. During two sessions, he produced two large spikes on the photomultiplier, the
first at 205,535 counts per half-second, the second at 42,411 counts, the baseline being
less than 20 counts; the spikes were accompanied by negative voltage surges from an
arm electrode. The effort resulted in an “unbelievable burning inside” (p. 221) and
spitting up of blood by the subject although an infrared camera showed his body
temperature to be only 98 degrees Fahrenheit. The experiment was terminated to protect
the subject, but it took nearly a week for him to recover. Chimmoy (1992) warns against
activating the kundalini except with expert guidance.
In the meantime Green et al. (1991) had built equipment to measure bio-energy.
Six of 14 psychic healers produced surges of 4 – 221 volts, mostly of negative polarity.
No attempts were made to measure photon emission. The Duke and Green research
lead Joines and Roll to a theory according to which the source of RSPK is
electromagnetic waves from nerve cells in the skin. Activation of dermal nerve cells
causes the electrodermal response, which may register ESP (Braud, 2003; Radin, 2006,
Ch. 10). In RSPK, dermal nerve cells would act as transmitters of energy rather than
receivers. This brings up the question of how weak EM waves can bring on the
movement of large objects. According to Blanchard et al. (1959, p. 188), the state of an
object is determined by four quantum numbers, one of which refers to the spin of a
fundamental particle. In principle, all four numbers may be changed by the delivery of the
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 14
proper message from agent to object, but altering the spin of an electron only requires a
very small amount of signal energy for an interaction to occur. This could make an object
that has been stable in one location fly immediately to another location where it is again
stable. Some of the quantum numbers that specify the state of an object may be
influenced by an applied magnetic field (op cit., p. 182). There are two factors associated
with RSPK that may bring this about. It has been found that the onset of RSPK tends to
occur during increases of geomagnetic disturbances (Gearhart & Persinger, 1986; Roll &
Gearhart, 1974), and that RSPK agents often show evidence of complex partial seizure
(Roll, 1977, pp. 400 – 401), or of Tourette’s syndrome (Persinger & Roll, 1993), and
thereby of anomalous surges of EM waves from brain cells. If RSPK is due to EM waves,
this has to be EM waves that have a psychological component because of the evidence
that RSPK is associated with emotion (Roll, 2007), evidence that is consistent with Jahn
and Dunne’s concept of waves of consciousness (Section 8).
Experimental PK: Prior to Schmidt’s (1976) PK tests, he generated and recorded
REG data with no one being present to observe the data until the actual experiment,
when they would be played back to the subject in the form of auditory clicks through
headphones, movements of a needle, or a combination of the two. The subject would
then attempt to influence the data such that they produced the desired outcome, for
instance, more frequent or louder clicks, or more frequent movements of the needle to
the right than to the left. Schmidt (1976) found non-random displays in the pre-recorded
data in three experiments, ranging in significance from p = .05 to p = .001. In other tests
Schmidt (1987) found that when subjects attempted to influence the outcome of prerecorded REG data that had first been shown to another person, they were unable to do
so because the wave function had collapsed for these data, and the outcome was
therefore determined. In another test, Schmidt (1987) made a copy of the magnetic tape
that held the REG data. He locked the original tape in a safe and gave the copy to the
subject, who then played it back while attempting to affect it. After receiving the subject’s
copy of the tape, Schmidt retrieved the original from the safe, compared their outcomes
and found they were exactly the same, both showing a non-random pattern in the
desired direction. Because the two tapes were duplicates, they would be expected to
show a non-local correlation or entanglement according to the Bell theorem. The
theorem says that if a quantum system is divided, the two parts will continue to interact in
spite of obstacles or distance in space-time. Because the REG data had already been
collected, it seemed that if successful, the subjects would have had to direct their
influence backwards to the time when the data were generated, that is, they would show
evidence of retro-PK.
In some of the experiments, the pre-recorded data were mixed with data collected
and displayed in real time to allow a comparison between the two; there was no
significant difference between them. Schmidt (1993) arranged to replicate the
experiments in five experiments that were supervised by independent observers to
preclude fraud and error; the combined result was significant at p = .0001. Replications
by others followed, and a meta-analysis by Bierman (1998) of all retro-PK experiments
gave a highly significant result at the p = 10-8 level.
Quantum physics provides an alternative to retro-PK. In quantum physics, the
behavior of subatomic matter is governed by probability. According to the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle, subatomic particles do not have a definitive location in space-time
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 15
until detected; in other words, they appear when observed; before detection, the particles
are in superposition. Which location a particle will occupy when observed, can only be
determined at the moment of observation, at which time the particle occupies the point
that is most probable based on prevailing conditions. As an analogy, imagine that the
particle is a coin; a coin has two possible states when flipped, heads or tails. Before
being flipped, the coin is in superposition insofar as it is both heads and tails. When the
coin is observed after being flipped, it is now either heads or tails, which is equivalent to
the situation in quantum physics. Schmidt (1987) suggests that when a system is in
superposition, it may be affected by PK and enter reality. By this interpretation, retro-PK
is not PK acting backwards in time, but delayed PK on unobserved objects (Schmidt,
1987; Stapp, 1994). Schmidt’s work suggests that the mind, and the brain to which it is
tied, plays a central role in defining physical reality.
8. Consciousness Waves
Bohr (1961) regarded the opposed properties of a fundamental particle, such as
its wave and particle behavior, as complementary and not only contradictory, and then
went on to deal with consciousness in the same way, “the nature of our consciousness
brings about a complementary relationship between...the psychical and the physical
aspects of existence...which it is not possible to thoroughly understand by one-sided
application either of physical or psychological laws” (p. 20, 24). In pondering Bohr’s
wave-particle complementarity, Jahn (1991) considers that the source of the
complementarity may be consciousness7 itself. He quotes James Jeans (1943): “There
is no longer a dualism of mind and matter, but of waves and particles; these seem to be
the direct, although almost unrecognizable, descendents of the older mind and matter,
the waves replacing mind and the particles matter” (p. 204). This lends support to Jahn’s
contention that “it may not be the physical world...that presents these wave-particle
complementarities [to consciousness], but rather the perspective of the consciousness
observing it...From his beginnings, man has clearly possessed the capacity to think in
both particulate and wave-like terms: allusions to sharply localized objects and to broadly
diffuse undulatory effects share prominence in the art, language, and science of all
cultures and all ages” (pp. 6 – 7). This enables Jahn (1991) to extend Bohr’s
complementarity principle to pairs of “consciousness conjugates” that are antithetical and
also complementary. Examples of such conjugate pairs include: mind and matter,
observation and participation, structure and function, logic and intuition, left brain and
right brain, and objectivity and subjectivity. Jahn notes that although the members of
such pairs involve different processes and concepts, together they make up
consciousness; in turn, consciousness sees the same double aspect in things it faces,
whether they be animate or inanimate. Jahn and Dunne (1987) develop this theme in
their theory of “waves of consciousness” (pp. 193 – 287). Consciousness waves may
result in “consciousness charges” in objects (pp. 235 – 237). Such charges may store
energy in objects “for later release, either gradual or cataclysmic, constructive or
destructive, when triggered by some subsequent event” (p. 237). The “linger effect,”
reported by Watkins and associates8, and the “conditioned space” of Tiller and others9,
may be examples of gradual and constructive charges, while object and area “focusing”
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 16
in RSPK, together with delayed-action RSPK10 (i.e., disturbances when the agent is
absent), may be examples of cataclysmic and destructive charges.
9. Conclusion
Quantum entanglement accounts for the problem of psi, how conjugate pairs may
remain connected when separated by distances of space and time. If this were its single
contribution, quantum theory would be of inestimable value to the comprehension of psi,
but there are others. The combination of complementarity of waves and matter, where
material objects exhibit wave-like properties, may provide a physical underpinning of the
complex trajectories of RSPK objects, including objects that move around corners or
penetrate physical obstacles; the participation of the observer in formulating reality may
account for the odd PK data of Schmidt and others; a version of the uncertainty principle
may explain the strange fact that a stationary RSPK object, which is at the center of the
perceptual field or is filmed, does not move. More traditional concepts, such as the
concept of charge and the accumulation of charge may explain how a psi influence may
remain unobserved in an object or area to be discharged at a later time as in the linger
effect and delayed-action RSPK.
J. G. Pratt (1974) wrote, “acceptance of the findings of parapsychology by other
scientists will not occur until a theory is available that ‘makes sense’ of psi” (p. 134). J. B.
Rhine (1962), who provided a professional roof for Pratt, Roll, and many others, wrote,
“When psi capacities transcend space or time...they are revealing fundamental
properties of the human mind as a whole” (p. 153), a conclusion that conflicts with
traditional science, where mind is merely an epiphenomenon of the brain, but that is
basic to quantum physics. As d’Espagnat (1979) said, “The doctrine that the world is
made up of objects whose existence is independent of human consciousness turns out
to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with facts established by experiment” (p.
158).
Notes
1. Hallucinations include any experience that simulates sense perception, including vision, sound,
smell, taste and touch. Normal people often experience hallucinations when falling asleep or awakening,
known respectively as hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations.
2. Hypoxia is a deficiency of oxygen in body tissue; anoxia is hypoxia of such severity as to result
in permanent damage.
3. The p-value for the unknown pairs is larger because Kittenis et al. (2004) combined the data
from the emotionally close and unknown pairs. On their own, the data from the unknown pairs are
nonsignificant.
4. The impressions of Renier are not always on target; sometimes she gets only a partial picture or
latches onto the wrong person. Other psychics have been commended by the police for their help in
solving crimes, including Marinus Dykshom, whose autobiography, My Passport Says Clairvoyant,
describes some of his cases.
5. Flammarion (1922), who followed the SPR rule of only accepting corroborated reports, had only
23 PK cases in his collection, of which a mere five were movement of objects, the remainder being
sounds. Rhine (1963) excluded sounds because their origin could not be established.
6. Physical constants such as the speed of light depend on laboratory measurement and are
thought to be changeless over time.
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 17
7. In Jahn’s usage, the term “consciousness” includes perception, cognition, intuition, instinct, and
emotion, whether they seem conscious, subconscious, superconscious, or unconscious (Jahn & Dunne,
1987, p. 203).
8. Studies by Watkins and associates (see Wells and Watkins, 1975, for a review) found that
anesthetized mice, serving as targets for bio-PK, had revived sooner if treated by psychics rather than by
non-psychics. They also found that the healing ability “lingered” in the spot where a mouse had been
revived, such that a new mouse placed there would revive sooner than controls. In a study by Watkins and
Watkins (1974) of apparent PK by Felicia Parise on a compass needle, the needle would gradually return
to standard north as it was slowly moved away, but would again deflect when replaced in the spot where
Parise had produced the initial PK effect; the linger effect lasted about 25 minutes.
Bengston and Moga (2007) reported linger effects in studies of the healing effect of the “laying on
of hands” on breast cancer-injected mice. The healing treatment mice had shown anomalous cancer
remission, whereas control mice did not. However, 69.2% of the control mice that had been housed in the
same lab as the treatment mice and/or been seen by the healer also showed anomalous remission. Only
when the control mice were moved to a different, untreated lab did they show normal cancer growth and
mortality rates. For additional discussion of linger effects, see Williams and Roll (2006).
9. Tiller and associates (2004) had introduced the concept of “conditioned space” in studies of the
anomalous changes observed in the pH level of commercially bottled water (Tiller et al., 2000). The water
had been exposed to physical measuring devices that had been “imprinted” with human intention by deep
meditators. When left in a laboratory over a period of three months, a continuous exponential increase in
pH was observed in water being measured by an “imprinted” pH device. Moreover, the intention imprinted
on the device not only affected other devices near it, but also the surrounding lab space, suggesting that
the intention “diffused” into this space and “conditioned” it to produce the same effect as the imprinted
device. Some studies of distant healing with REGs have shown similar effects. Crawford et al. (2003)
found that the REG data collected in the room where a bioenergy healer regularly treated his patients had
shown significantly more non-random patterns than the data collected by a control REG running in a library
(p < .0005). Radin et al. (2004) had collected data from three REGs in a room that was being treated by
Johrei healers to create a healing space. On the third day of data collection, the three REGs had each
shown a non-random deviation at nearly the same time (combined p = .00009). Similarly, Blasband (2000)
observed non-random REG behavior in a room where psychotherapy was taking place (p = .0001). For
additional discussion, see Williams and Roll (2006).
10. Object focusing refers to repeated occurrences with the same object or type of object, and
area focusing is about repeated occurrences at specific sites within the general location of the phenomena
(Roll, 1975). In a survey (Roll, 1977) of 116 historical cases of RSPK, 107 (92%) showed apparent
evidence of focusing, but it was not possible to disentangle the focusing from the proximity effect in these
cases (e.g., objects might often move from a shelf if the agent was nearby, which might be evidence of the
proximity effect and not of area focusing. However, two cases investigated by Roll and his colleagues
showed evidence of focusing that could not be attributed to proximity of the agent.
Acknowledgments
The work of the senior author has been supported by a grant from Gary L. Owens
to the University of West Georgia.
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Appendix: The Evolution of Physics1
The beginning of modern physics came in the garden of Isaac Newton when he
saw an apple fall from its tree2, and conceived the theory of universal gravitation. The
theory was published in his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, and
resulted in the conviction that nature is comprehensible and deterministic. Newton also
explored light and speculated that it consists of beams of tiny particles. More than 200
later Newton was proven right when light was found to consist of quanta, but much water
had to flow over the dam before this could be established. To survey the evolution of
physics, we have divided it into several steps. The first four steps are mostly consistent
with classical physics, while the remaining seven steps represent the radical approach of
quantum physics.
Step 1: The first experimentally based discovery about light showed that it comes
in waves. In 1801 Thomas Young demonstrated that the alternating patterns of light and
dark that results when a beam of light waves passes through a prism, depends on
whether the light oscillations are in phase or out of phase. If in phase, the crests of the
waves combine and produce bands of brightness, and if out of phase, they cancel each
other out, resulting in bands of darkness. The same happens when the light beam
passes through a barrier fitted with a pair of slits in it, and the waves encounter each
other on the other side as they flare outward (or diffract) through the two slits. Against a
smooth surface, this creates a fringed pattern of light and dark bands, often known as a
double-slit diffraction or interference pattern.
Step 2 is about electric waves in conductors. In 1819 Hans Christian Oersted
discovered that a wire with an electric current causes a suspended magnetic needle,
such as a compass needle, to turn at right angles to the wire. This showed that electricity
and magnetism, which had been thought to be entirely different, were in fact interlinked.
Oersted had thereby laid the foundation for the science of electromagnetism, but it was
left for Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell to elucidate the details. Maxwell set
forth his equations in the 1873 Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, a work that
remains fundamental to electromagnetic theory. The equations show that
electromagnetism comes in waves and that the velocity of the waves is determined by
the same physical constant, including the constant of the velocity of light.
Maxwell also thought that waves are oscillations in an all-pervading medium that
he called the ether (analogous to the way sound waves travel through a medium we now
know as air). However, there was no empirical evidence for the ether, which made Albert
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Michelson and Edward Morley devise an experiment in 1887 that they hoped would
prove its existence. They reasoned that if light is waves traveling through the ether, then
the speed of the waves must depend on the location of the observer. They chose the
earth as their laboratory because the earth and thereby the observer move in different
directions as determined by its orbit around the sun. John Polkinghorne (2002) has come
up with an analogy: “Think about waves on the sea. Their apparent velocity as observed
from a ship depends on whether the vessel is moving with the waves or against them,
appearing less in the former case than in the latter” (p. 4). But Michelson and Morley
found no difference at all in the velocity of light whether the earth moved with or against
the waves from the sun. Their discovery spelled the end of Maxwell’s ether and the
beginning of Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Michelson received the 1907 Nobel
Prize in physics, becoming the first American to do so.
Step 3 took place in a grade school in Switzerland where Johann Balmer, a
German mathematician and physicist, was teaching. In 1885 Balmer discovered that
when light from incandescent hydrogen is split by a prism, the result is a set of colored
lines, known as spectral lines, with each color corresponding to a different frequency of
the light. But the full importance of Balmer’s finding required further steps.
Step 4 came in 1897 when J. J. Thomson discovered that negative charge is
carried by tiny particles, which came to be known as electrons, and he assumed that the
balancing positive charge was spread over the atom as a whole. Thomson’s theory
became known as “the plum pudding model” of the atom, the electrons being the plums
and the positive charge, which supposedly filled the rest of the atom, being the pudding.
The next seven steps bring us to quantum physics. Step 5 is due to a 1900 study
of black body radiation by Lord John Rayleigh. A black body is an object that absorbs all
radiation that reaches it and then reemits it all. Rayleigh expected to verify the prediction
of classical physics that the equilibrium between the two processes would be a function
of the temperature in the black body. But his study of radiation within a specially
designed oven, showed no relationship at all with temperature. On the other hand, there
was a clear relationship to the frequency of the radiation, a fact that made no sense. Max
Planck then came to Rayleigh’s rescue. Planck proposed that radiation is not absorbed
or emitted in the smooth way of classical physics, but in discrete packets or “quanta” of
energy and that the degree of energy in quanta is proportional to the frequency of
radiation. Planck would eventually receive the 1918 Nobel Prize for his proposal.
Step 6 came in 1905 and is due to Albert Einstein, “a young man with time on his
hands as he worked as a third-class examiner in the Patent Office in Berne
(Switzerland)” (Polkinghorne, 2002, p. 8). Einstein, who regarded Planck’s quanta as
abiding entities, was interested in something that had emerged in studies of the
photoelectric effect, the phenomenon that happens when a beam of light ejects electrons
from a metal. It was known that electrons move within metals and that this produces
electric current, and it was also known that the radiation of the photoelectric process
transfers energy to the electrons so that they sometimes escape their metallic
bonds. According to classical physics, it was the strength of the light waves that agitates
some of the electrons to be shaken loose, and the degree to which this happens should
depend on the intensity of the light and not on its frequency. But experiments showed
the opposite; below a certain frequency, no electrons were emitted regardless of the
strength of the beam, but above this frequency even a weak beam would eject some
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electrons. The results could not be explained by the old physics, but were consistent with
Planck’s discovery that the amount of energy in a quantum is proportional to its
frequency.
Einstein had not only solved the puzzle of the photoelectric effect by his discovery
that streams of light are composed of light quanta, or “photons” as they came to be
known, but he had also thrown fresh light on man’s image of the physical world. Einstein
made two other important discoveries in 1905; he discovered special relativity and he
demonstrated that the molecule is real, but it was his discovery of the nature of light that
earned him a Nobel Prize in 1921.
Step 7 came in 1913 when Niels Bohr showed with his quantum mechanical
model of the hydrogen atom that electrons contained within an atom exist only in discrete
stationary quantum states. When their energy changes, the electrons “jump” between
these individual states and emit light at a wavelength proportional to the energy
difference, which helped explain the spectra properties of the light emitted by hydrogen
atoms. In addition, Bohr’s model helped explain the structure and stability of the atom,
and was one of the contributions for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1922.
A decade later, Step 8 was contributed by Louis Victor de Broglie, a physicist who
came from a family of French aristocrats. It was becoming clear by this time that light
had a dual nature. Young’s experiment in 1801 (Step 1) demonstrated that light can
behave as a wave. Yet the discovery of light quanta and photons in 1905 (Step 6)
suggested that light can also behave as a particle. This implied that photons can have
wave-like properties to them. In his 1923 Ph.D. dissertation, de Broglie proposed that
this dual wave-particle nature should not be limited to photons alone; it should also carry
over to all of the other known types of particles (e.g., protons, electrons, etc.). In other
words, all material particles should also display wave-like properties, known as matter
waves. He then showed that the momentum of a particle can be associated with a given
wavelength, later known as the de Broglie wavelength. The proposal was empirically
verified by physicists Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer in 1927, earning de Broglie
the 1929 Nobel Prize.
Step 9 came in 1925 when Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan
formulated the first mathematical version of quantum mechanics, known as matrix
mechanics. A second version came a year later when Erwin Schrödinger formulated
wave mechanics. At the heart of the latter was a complex equation derived by
Schrödinger, which had solutions (known as wavefunctions) that described the behavior
of matter waves. Although they initially seemed incompatible, matrix mechanics and
wave mechanics were later found to be equivalent to each other. Heisenberg later
received the 1932 Nobel Prize in part for his efforts in developing quantum mechanics,
and Schrödinger received the prize a year later.
From the wavefunction, it became possible to calculate the possible values for
every observable quantity (e.g., position) associated with subatomic particles. In other
words, the behavior of a quantum system could be described by its associated
wavefunction. Associated with each possible value in the wavefunction is a given
probability that a particle could have that value when observed (based on this, the wavelike properties of particles are also viewed as “probability waves”). Before it is measured,
and thus observed, it is equally probable that the particle could have any one of its
possible values, which is the principle behind quantum superposition. Thus, in a sense,
Roll & Williams: APA Psi 2008 27
the particle has all of those values at the same time. When the particle is measured, its
wavefunction “collapses” or “breaks down” into a single value that one actually observes.
With probability comes a certain degree of uncertainty in knowing exactly where a
particle may be found at a given time, which leads us to Step 10. Although it is possible
to measure the position and momentum of a physical object in the macroscopic (visible)
world with a high degree of accuracy, in the microscopic (quantum) world it is necessary
to replace measured accuracy with probability. Werner Heisenberg demonstrated this in
1927 with his Uncertainty Principle, which roughly states that if one measures the
position of a particle with a certain degree of accuracy, then the measure of its
momentum will become less accurate (and vice versa); one can never accurately know
both values at the same time. This trade-off reflects the dual wave-particle nature of
particles, particularly with respect to the concept of probability waves.
The final step (Step 11) came in 1935 with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen
gedanken (“thought”) experiment, which initially illustrated quantum nonlocality. It was
within the context of this gedanken experiment that Schrödinger (1935) proposed the
concept of quantum entanglement, leading us to the ideas discussed in this paper. The
concept of quantum superposition underlies both of these “strange” phenomena.
Appendix Notes
1. Most of this outline is due to John Polkinghorne (2002), and to Kleppner and Jackiw (2000).
2. The story is due to Voltaire, who apparently received it from Newton’s step-niece.