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ESP and altered states of consciousness: an overview of conceptual and research trends
Carlos S. AlvaradoParapsychological phenomena has a long tradition of being associated with alterations of consciousness. This tradition extends from the performances of ancient oracles and other diviners to the mesmeric and mediumistic trance, and to more recent claims in the context of laboratory work that used hypnotic suggestion, dreams, meditation, and partial sensory deprivation. Moreover, there has been a long tradition of spontaneous ESP experiences related to dreams and other states of consciousness that have reinforced such associations.
In this paper, I will present an overview of the topic of ESP and altered states of consciousness (ASCs). I will not focus on methodological details or specific findings, but, rather, on trends in concepts and research. Other publications cited throughout this paper provide more detailed information (see, e.g Bem & Honorton, 1994; Hardy, 1989; Honorton, 1977; Krippner, 1991; Krippner & George, 1986; Parker, 1975b; Stanford, 1987, 1992; Stanford & Stein, 1994). For practical reasons, I do not discuss mesmerism nor spiritualism in detail, and I do not address other areas such as the psychoanalytic dream ESP literature (e.g., Devereux, 1953). The discussion here will be limited to developments which occurred between the nineteenth century and the 1990s, with an emphasis on twentieth century developments and those since the 1960s.
Although I am not suggesting that there are no differences between specific altered states, nor between the concept of dissociation and that of alteration of consciousness, I use the term ASCs in a general sense meaning "any state of mind that differs markedly enough from that which we associate with our normal waking selves" (Parker, 1975b, p. 8). Depending on definitions, such phenomena as alternating personalities may be considered a form of consciousness alteration, and body image changes during the ganzfeld experience may be seen as a dissociative process in which physical sensations have been separated from conscious awareness. My concern is not to get into these problems of definition, but to represent trends in the literature and general ideas of authors. I hope that what I present will be used by others to clarify our understanding of these concepts.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Several movements contributed significantly to interest in the relationship between ESP and ASCs. These were mesmerism, spiritualism, and dynamic psychiatry. (For overviews of these topics, see Ellenberger, 1970; Gauld, 1992; and Podmore, 1902). By the middle of the nineteenth century, mesmerism had accumulated a considerable literature, as seen in the writings of Mesmer (Bloch, 1980) and many other workers in the field (e.g., Braid, 1843; Elliotson, 1843; Petetin, 1808).(1)
Many observations also focused on clairvoyance and the like (Elliotson, 1845; Haddock, 1851). This period produced many other claims, such as transpositions of the senses, traveling clairvoyance, face-to-face or distant medical diagnosis, seeing the mesmeric fluid around the mesmerist or between the mesmerist and the mesmeree, induction of trance at a distance, and the so-called community of sensation reported between mesmerist and mesmeree (Dingwall, 1967-1968; Gauld, 1992). Some of these phenomena, especially the claim of mesmerized subjects to see the afterworld or to be in contact with deceased or other spirit individuals, provided a link with the later development of spiritualism. As Crabtree (1988) has argued:
In Germany, France, England and the United States, the association between
magnetic somnambulism and paranormal phenomena of the spiritualistic
type was very strong. Many of the books and articles that appeared wove their
way back and forth between the two areas, giving the impression that it was
impossible to discuss one without dealing with the other. (p. xv)
The development of spiritualism changed the focus from mesmerized individuals to those individuals who, in self-induced trances, claimed to communicate with the deceased, and thus reinforced the idea that ASCs were related to ESP (for a review, see Podmore, 1902). Trance communications, or messages about a variety of topics received during trance, were common in the philosophical and cosmological trance utterances of mediums or "inspired" lecturers like Andrew Jackson Davis (1851). As stated by the historian of spiritualism Ann Braude (1989), such communications convinced many that the mediumistic trance was "an elevated state, providing access to spirits and therefore to knowledge of the world beyond inaccessible to conscious human beings" (p. 87).
With the rise of dynamic psychiatry there was much interest among physicians and others in alterations of consciousness, especially in what some called the "doubling of personality" in relation to double and multiple personality, somnambulism, amnesia, and the phenomena of hypnosis. Pioneers such as Azam (1887), Binet (1892/1896), Braid (1843), Charcot (1882), Janet (1889), Richet (1883), and Sidis (1898) did much to explore alternative modes of consciousness, most of which would be classified today as dissociative.(2)
Within this context, organized psychical research developed in England with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882. From the beginning, the SPR was keenly interested in alterations of consciousness, and the relationship of such states to clairvoyance and thought-transference. Table 1 shows the proportion of papers related to ASCs (including those not directly related to ESP) published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research between 1882 and 1900. Most of these publications centered on hypnosis and trance mediumship.
The connection between altered states and ESP was clearly stated by one of the Society's founders in the first classic work of psychical research:
It is characteristic of the clairvoyant power that it is generally exercised
when the normal powers of sensory percipience are in abeyance, during natural
somnambulism, during morbid conditions of trance, or during the sleepwalking
state induced by mesmeric passes. It seems as though this supersensory
faculty assumed activity in an inverse ratio to the activities of common life.
(Gurney, Myers, & Podmore, 1886, Vol. 2, p. 287)
Table 1 PERCENTAGE OF DISSOCIATION-RELATED PAPERS IN THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH (1882-1900) (N= 79)
Topic Percentage Hypnosis 47 Mediumship 23 Motor Automatisms 5 Multiple Personality 3 Fugue 1 Mixed 19 Other 2
These ideas were expressed by Frederic W. H. Myers in the well-known study of spontaneous ESP, Phantasms of the Living (Gurney, et al., 1886). This study presented 701 cases, many of which were related to states of closeness to death, excitement, coma, or trances. By my calculation, 24% of the cases were dream-related and 19% were related to "borderland" conditions, that is, states of relaxation and going into or coming out of sleep.
Discussions about ESP and ASCs appeared in Myers' (e.g., 1886, 1892) writings about the subliminal self and in Edmund Gurney's (e.g., 1884, 1887) explorations of stages of hypnotic memory and consciousness. In these writers' views (Gurney & Myers, 1885), hypnosis should be considered "the key which seems likeliest to unlock the mysteries of attention and memory; of sleep, dreams, and hallucination; of `double consciousness' and of religious ecstasy. It is by thus throwing the mental machinery slightly out of gear that we discern the secrets of its adjustment.... "(p. 422).(3)
Many of the papers published in the SPR Proceedings were reports of thought-transference studies with hypnotized percipients, some of which were later considered suspect because of the possibility of fraud. Among these were the reports of the Committee on Mesmerism (Barrett, Gurney, Myers, Ridley, Stone, Wyld, & Podmore, 1883; Barrett, Gurney, Hodgson, Myers, Myers, Ridley, Stone, Wyld, Robertson, & Podmore, 1883, 1884) and the work of such individuals as William Barrett (1883) and Edmund Gurney (1884) (also of note are Sidgwick, Sidgwick, & Smith, 1889, and Thaw, 1892). Frank Podmore (1894) speculated about the role of hypnotic trance in ESP as follows: "It is possible that the superior susceptibility of the hypnotised percipient is in some measure due simply to the quiescence and freedom from spontaneous mental activity very generally induced by the state of sleep-waking" (p. 58).
Myers (1886) wrote about a visit SPR members made to France to participate in telepathic hypnosis experiments conducted by the psychiatrist Pierre Janet with his famous subject Leonie. In these studies, Janet attempted to induce trance at a distance, a phenomenon reported in the literature by other researchers as well.(4) Leonie was also studied by Charles Richet (1888, 1889), who not only tested her for ESP under hypnosis, but also tested her secondary personality Leontine with card guessing methods.
Other interesting reports published in the SPR Proceedings included Giovanni Battista Ermacora's (1895) studies of ESP in dreams, and Alfred Backman's (1891) studies of hypnotically-induced traveling clairoyance, a phenomenon in which a person feels he or she travels to and is located in a distant place in which he or she is capable of veridical perceptions.
There was also much interest within the SPR and elsewhere on trance mediumship, an interest that continued well into the twentieth century. The mediumship of Leonora Piper received much attention (e.g., Hodgson, 1892, 1898; Hyslop, 1901; Myers, Lodge, Leaf, &James, 1890) because researchers associated her trances with veridical verbal statements about deceased individuals and other matters. The psychology of mediumship and the phenomenology of its trance states was discussed by Janet (1889), Flournoy (1899/1900), Myers (1903), and many others (e.g., Alrutz, 1924; Balfour, 1935; Hyslop, 1925; Troubridge, 1922). Two major studies were Theodore Flournoy's (1899/1900) explorations of the genesis and development of medium Helene Smith's mediumistic fantasies about previous lives and life on the planet Mars, and Eleanor Sidgwick's (1915) psychological and phenomenological analysis of Mrs. Piper's trances.(5)
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
In France, hypnosis was used to attempt to "project" the sensibility or sensory processes out of the body (Boirac, 1908), to "project" the "astral body" (Durville, 1909; De Rochas, 1906), to induce traveling clairvoyance (Cornillier, 1920 /1921), and to have access to claimed memories of previous lives (De Rochas, 1911).
In later literature, we find many discussions about particular introspective and internal attention factors related to the manifestation of ESP. Geley (1919/1920) referred to a process of "decentralization sufficient to break for the moment the cerebral limitation of the individual" (p. 261). According to Osty (1922/1923):
In the second state of metagnomic subjects the directing functions of thought,
attention, and will ... no longer directs and controls the formation of ideas
.... Hysterical somnambulism occasionally brings this about, and for this
reason it sometimes shows supernormal cognition. Similarly natural sleep,
somnolence, absorbing preoccupation, physical and mental fatigue, may bring
about that dissociation.... (p. 119)
Many other researchers have described the state of mind of psychics while ESP was occurring. The most important of the early experiments was the work conducted by Brugmans, Heyman, and Weinberg in the Netherlands with a subject named Van Dam. When Van Dam had ingested alcohol he produced more ESP hits (22 hits out of 29 trials) than when he had not had alcohol (22 hits out of 104 trials).(6) Brugmans (1922) speculated that alcohol lowered Van Dam's inhibitions and possibly quieted down Van Dam's internal mental activity, allowing him to be more open or sensitive to other impressions, such as telepathic ones. In a later paper, Brugmans (1924) stated that good telepathic experimental results depended on a "passive state" that Van Dam could achieve at will. In Brugman's (1924) words: "Regarding the sensation of passivity, we have found ... that this sensation actually coincides with a change in the state of consciousness.... " [my translation] (p. 98). A passive state was evidenced by declines in the chart tracings' of the galvanic skin response. According to Brugmans, these declines indicated a "rapport" between telepathic reception and the passive state.
Others noticed changes of states of consciousness in their subjects during the apparent production of ESP. Tischner (1921/1925) wrote that his subject, Miss von B., "loses the synthetic faculty of our normal consciousness" (p. 218), while French psychic Pascal Forthuny was noticed to enter a state in which he showed "fixedness of the eyes and the absence of blinking" (Sudre, 1926, p. 69).(7)
In Italy, William Mackenzie argued that there was no clear relationship between ESP and dissociation, but he hinted at the possibility of a relationship between degrees of consciousness and ESP when he wrote about the "simultaneity of various psychic states in the same individual, at a particular moment" [my translation] (Mackenzie, 1923, p. 168 [footnote]). Writing before Mackenzie, Walter Franklin Prince (1915, 1916) discussed the dissociative phenomenology of the Doris Fischer multiple personality case, in which there were several incidents suggestive of ESP. However, like the mediumship literature, such observations indicated that perhaps ESP could take place in dissociated states, but that dissociative states were not necessarily conducive to the manifestation of ESP.
Rene Warcollier (1938) also had something to say on these issues because he conducted considerable research on the cognitive aspects of ESP, particularly on the characteristics of its reception. In his view,
one must create in oneself a void of thought, keeping the attention solely
upon the one idea of visualization... But this analysis of the psychic
process in the ordinary person is difficult.... The power of abstraction,
instinctive with gifted subjects, is what distinguishes them from the
average person. (p. 20)
Although J. B. Rhine paid some attention to internal attention states in his classic monograph Extra-Sensory Perception (1934a), his emphasis was on operationalizing the phenomena and relating it to such variables ;as motivation, distance, and varieties of targets. After all, he was operating from a university psychology department at a time when a variety of behavioral approaches based on learning theory and physiological models of behavior were dominant in American psychology. This trend was clear in the influential work of such researchers as Guthrie (1935), Hull (1943), Skinner (1938), and, of course, in Watson's (1913) behaviorism.
Rhine and his associates did not pay much attention to consciousness or introspection. A brief overview of the first ten years of the Journal of Parapsychology (1937-1946) shows that most of the research efforts were concentrated on clearly observable variables such as the types of individuals associated with ESP experiences, as seen in studies of blind subjects (Price & Pegram, 1937), psychotics (Shulman, 1938), and children (L. E. Rhine, 1937). In addition, there were studies on the effect of varied target stimuli on ESP (Pratt & Woodruff, 1939), comparisons of different test procedures on performance (Russell & Rhine, 1942), distance (Rhine & Humphrey, 1942), displacement (Russell, 1943), and personality variables (Humphrey, 1945). There was also much interest in what J. B. Rhine (1944) called "the curve of performance--that is, the patterning of hits in the test," an effect that seemed to be similar to "those of other cognitive processes such as memory, sensory perception and learning" (p. 90; see also Pratt, Humphrey, & Rhine, 1942). Furthermore, as L. E. Rhine (1971) pointed out, the 1930s and the 1940s (particularly in the United States) were a period in which researchers attempted to refine the study of clearly measurable and observable correlates of ESP, as well as to refine distinctions between phenomena studied by trying to empirically address the question of whether telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition were separate phenomena. Such worries had little to do with the study of states of consciousness.
Nonetheless, one cannot say that J. B. Rhine and his associates ignored this issue completely. In his initial monograph, Rhine (1934a) wrote that "several subjects have described their ESP experiences as involving a state of `detachment,' `abstraction,' `relaxation' and the like. And it is rather apparent to the objective observers in many of them" (p. 23). The monograph also mentioned the use of hypnosis in some tests, and there were studies conducted with trance mediums (Birge & Rhine, 1942; Rhine, 1934b). But, overall, Rhine was unenthusiastic about the relationship between altered states and ESP, an opinion which arose from his lack of positive experimental results. As discussed by Rhine and associates in their well-known book Extra-Sensory Perception After Sixty Years:
The amount of work done with a subject in the state of so-called hypnotic
trance ... indicated that this state as induced by them was not successful
for the subjects tested in bringing out any significant evidence of GESP
ability.... [In research with medium Eileen Garrett,] the medium was
subjected to routine telepathy and clairvoyance tests both in the waking
state and in her customary self-induced trance with a purported spirit
personality assuming control of her body. The results reported were
approximately the same for the trance as for the waking state.... It can at
least be stated that it is suggested that the self-induced trance, like the
hypnotic, is neither essential nor apparently advantageous in the ESP test
performance. Some experimenters find that their subjects approach a light
trance in their effort at concentration. Whether
it is essential or is only important because the subject believes it to be
so has not been determined and remains an important question. (Pratt, Rhine,
Smith, Stuart, & Greenwood, 1940, pp. 267-269)
Regardless of the influence of Rhine and of his later statements on the subject (e.g., Rhine & Pratt, 1957), other parapsychologists discussed the topic in their writings from more positive perspectives.
At the American Society for Psychical Research in New York, a series of exploratory ESP studies were conducted on the subject (Dale, Taves, & Murphy, 1944). Nonsignificant results were obtained when the subject's attention states were manipulated when staring into a dark room and at a "field of luminous dots on a black background" (p. 163) with patterns similar to ESP symbols. Other procedures included listening to a conch shell and the use of drugs with and without hypnotic suggestion. Regarding the latter, significant results were obtained in some trials with decks of ESP cards. Further work with hypnosis and drugs was briefly reported a few years later in the Society's Journal (Murphy, 1949; Murphy, Dale, & Woodruff, 1948). The results were not significant.
All this ASPR work was accompanied by a variety of discussions about the importance of relaxation and concentration (Murphy & Dale, 1943; Taves, 1940). In an important conceptual paper, Gardner Murphy (1944) argued that dream and trance states remove some of the impediments for the manifestation of ESP:
In practice, by far the most important thing is not the actual emptying or
blotting out of consciousness, but the development of devices for keeping
attentive effort out of the picture. We need to develop ... a "clear space"
within which the emerging impressions can move, so as to be quietly observed
by introspection. (p. 7)
In discussing dissociative phenomena such as automatisms, Murphy argued that this process may interact with such other factors as the need for psi contact and freedom from "conflicting desires, fears and self-reproaches which serve to block the process" (p. 19). In this view, ESP does not depend solely on alterations of consciousness, but on the interaction of these factors with other psychological variables. Murphy even suggested that some cases point towards the idea that dissociation is not a precondition, but a consequence of the ESP experience.
Soon after these studies, Jan Ehrenwald (1948a) presented his concept of "minus functions," or transient changes of consciousness such as absent-mindedness, trance, sleep, and hypnosis in which ESP was likely to occur. These states were seen to be characterized by an "abeyance of higher cortical activities" (1948b, p. 136).
A more direct attempt to study the "cortical" aspects of the "metapsychic trance" were the electro-encephalographic studies conducted by Orlando Canavesio. According to Canavesio (1947b), states conducive to ESP ranged "from deep-sleep, normal of somnambulic, to an apparent wakefulness characterized by an expectant attention, concentration or isolation" [my translation] (p. 26). These observations led him to conduct EEG studies of psychics. In one study with psychic Alfredo Parodi, Canavesio (1947a) noticed a diminution of voltage of 50 to 70% in the cortex, but the actual frequency could not be established. (Some tracings, however, showed frequencies ranging from 11-13). In a study with psychic Eric Courtenay Luck, Canavesio (1948) took EEG measures while Luck went into trance and reported that the "alpha rhythm disappears, becomes more or less regular, and the potential diminishes by 60%" [my translation] (p. 29).
The 1950s brought other speculations on the subject of ESP and altered states of consciousness. Amadou (1954) reviewed previous European literature on the subject and suggested that, in psychics, the intensity of ESP was proportional to the intensity of the trance. Carrington (1951) argued that hypnosis could bring ESP only if the "superconscious mind"--a higher self responsible for psychic phenomena--was reached. He further argued that hypnosis and the mediumistic trance are different states, the first being a state that contacts the subconscious most of the time, while the second contacts the superconscious: "Both of these, though different, may be led up to by the same procedure, viz., quiescence and suggestion. The end products are however dissimilar, and it is only in the latter conditions that truly supernormal phenomena are evoked" (p. 154).
In an influential book, Rene Sudre (1956/1960) reviewed the topic of ESP and ASCs with emphasis on the old mediumistic and hypnosis literature. He argued that psychic phenomena are always related to trance:
Like hypnosis, trance can be spontaneous, voluntary, or produced by external
causes--Mesmeric passes, Braidic gazing, alcoholic or other intoxication.
Usually, in experimental seances, the subject enters trance voluntarily when
conditions are suitable.... Telepathic subjects isolate themselves and try
to make their minds a blank, certain clairvoyants gaze fixedly at a bright
object.... Finally, there are also many subjects who do not produce
phenomena until they have been hypnotized. (pp. 64-65)
Another interesting discussion comes from J. Ricardo Musso (1954). In his view, trance (either hypnotic or mediumistic) is a necessary but insufficient condition for eliciting ESP. In Musso's view, alterations of consciousness bring about ESP in those who already have the ability, but there is no relationship between the depth of trance and the production of psychic phenomena. He also believed that both concentration and relaxation may produce good ESP results because they are different ways in which the activity of cortical areas are inhibited.
On the empirical side, the 1940s and 1950s saw the beginning of a series of laboratory experiments designed to study the effect of hypnotic suggestions on ESP (e.g., Fahler, 1957; Grela, 1945). However, the relationship--if any--between hypnotic techniques employed in this research (and later hypnosis-ESP research) and the degree of alteration of consciousness in the study's participants is unclear.
FROM THE 1960S TO THE 1990S: A NEW PARASYCHOLOGY
In the years from the 1960s to the 1990s, a variety of works were published which suggested that the field of psychology was expanding to include states of consciousness as part of its subject matter. "Consciousness has arrived," wrote parapsychologist Charles Honorton (1976) years later. "It has become a commodity, a product in the market place" (p. 325). In the United States, where a significant proportion of these developments took place, interest in altered states was related to a variety of cultural movements which started during the 1950s and achieved full influence during the 1960s and the 1970s. Of key importance here were the number of challenges to the established social order. Great numbers of America's youth and others participated in the civil rights movement, the feminist and Black Power movements, and the anti-war movement, as well as engaging in practices such as living in communes and using mind-altering drugs.(8)
The Sixties, according to Dickstein (1977), were "liberation: the shackles of tradition and circumstance were thrown off, society was to be molded to the shape of human possibility" (p. ix). A consequence of and a guiding force behind this liberation was a search for a new politics of human experience in general, and of consciousness in particular. One way to achieve this was through the psychedelic experience. Such explorations with hallucinatory drugs were chronicled in the writings of the time (e.g., Aaronson & Osmond, 1970, Part 3).
This interest in consciousness was clearly illustrated and popularized in two influential books: Charles Tart's anthology Altered States of Consciousness (1969) and Robert Ornstein's The Psychology of Consciousness ( 1972). Papers published in the leading journals of psychiatry and psychology brought much attention to the topic, such as Ludwig's (1966) discussion of altered states and Stoyva and Kamiya's (1968) defense of converging approaches to the study of inner human experience. Similarly, a focus on alterations of consciousness was evident in Green's (1968) work with lucid dreams, Grof's (1975) work with drugs, Hilgard's (1968) hypnosis studies, and in many other publications (e.g., Deikman, 1966; Foulkes, 1964; Goleman, 1977; Naranjo & Ornstein, 1971). This period also saw Tart's important conceptual work on state-specific sciences and a structural model of consciousness and its changes (Tart, 1972, 1975).(9)
All of these ideas had repercussions in parapsychology, and its researchers began to pay attention to ASCs and their relationship to ESP. Not only were many researchers intellectually affected by the times, but they were also active participants in this new politics of consciousness, practicing meditation, taking mind-altering drugs, and otherwise attempting to expand their own experience.(10)
One of the publications generally recognized as a marker of this sea change in the study of ESP was the seminal paper written by Rhea White in 1964. Drawing from previous literature in the field, she analyzed and defended the importance of introspection to the description of the sensations, images, and states of mind as accompanying or facilitating the emergence of ESP in gifted subjects. White identified four major parts of the process: relaxation, engaging the conscious mind (focused or withdrawn attention), a waiting period to handle the dynamics and release of images or sensation, and the emergence of the message into consciousness. In White's view, "if we could be conscious of our inner states while producing significant results in an ESP test, this would indeed seem to be a step toward gaining control over the elusiveness of psi. We could then know from introspection when the necessary conditions for producing results had been achieved" (p. 47). She added that, even if we failed to control ESP at will, it may be possible to obtain the optimal state of mind to manifest ESP. Her plea represented an emphasis on subjective, introspective variables as predictors of ESP, as opposed to the more prevalent observable and more objective ones. With this general idea in mind, White suggested that experimenters should experience the ESP process themselves and that they should include introspective accounts in the written reports of their research.
Gardner Murphy was also writing about ASCs during the 1960s. In one paper (Murphy, 1966) he argued for the potential importance not only of an altered state to facilitate ESP, but also for the importance of change from one state to another, "from a relaxed to a highly active state; or from a highly integrated to a very dissociated state" (p. 20). The key concept here was not the altered or dissociated state per se, but rather the shift of states.
In another paper, Moriarty and Murphy (1967) speculated that altered states promoted
regression to "primary process" thinking, or even voluntary autistic
attending, which serves to heighten the sensory experiences in focus and to
shut out extraneous impressions. This "capacity for dissociability," insofar
as it is temporary and voluntary, is not pathological ... and thus is not
incompatible with high ego strength and cognitive effectiveness." (p. 204)
Such vision led them to postulate not only a relationship between ESP and a capacity for dissociation or alteration of consciousness, but also one between ESP and a general openness to all sorts of psychological experiences.
The interest in ESP and ASCs during the 1960s and the 1970s was also apparent in discussions from a variety of conferences (Cavanna, 1970; Cavanna & Ullman, 1968; Proceedings, 1961; Shapin & Coly, 1978), and in symposia or roundtables during the annual conventions of the Parapsychological Association (e.g., Honorton, 1978; Stevenson, 1971; Ullman, 1971; Van de Castle, 1975). By the 1970s, the topic had already entered into general books in the form of chapters or sections (e.g., Douglas, 1976; Panati, 1974; Pratt, 1973; Rogo, 1975) and was discussed in what, to this date, remains the best general discussion of ESP and ASCs, Adrian Parker's States of Mind: ESP and Altered States of Consciousness (1975b). During this decade, moreover, Charles Honorton, a leading figure in the experimental study of ESP during ASCs, published the most influential papers on this topic which both summarized this work and shaped a modern specialty of parapsychology devoted to ESP and ASCs (Honorton, 1974a, 1974b, 1974c, 1977).(11) Also influential at the time were the writings of Lawrence LeShan (1969, 1974), whose explanation of ESP in terms of access to other levels of reality helped maintain the idea that altered states could be glimpses of those alternate realities. But what was particularly important in this period was a return to empirical exploration of the idea of the existence of ESP-conducive states and variables responsible for success in these tests.
This period, which extends to the 1980s and to the 1990s as well, was mainly focused on experimental explorations. However, there were some studies with spontaneous cases that presented relevant information about dreams (e.g., Green, 1960; Prasad & Stevenson, 1968; L. E. Rhine, 1962). There have also been studies that explored precognitive dreams in terms of imagery, the previous experiences of the percipient (Heywood & Stevenson, 1966; Stevenson, 1963, 1992), and other features of the experience (Schriever, 1987; Sondow, 1988; Stowell, 1997a, 1997b). One influential study was Louisa Rhine's (1962) analysis of dream-ESP cases. She found that the proportion of ESP cases with complete information about an event or a person was higher in dreams than in waking states. More recently, re-analyses of spontaneous ESP cases collected by Sybo Schouten (1979, 1981, 1982) have also shown that dreams have more details related to the ESP message than do waking experiences.
In terms of ASCs, one could argue that ESP claims may be more frequent during sleep, rather than during the waking state, due to the influence of the dreaming state itself. Table 2, however, shows the incidence of dream and waking ESP claims in questionnaire studies of psi experiences conducted from the late 1970s to recent times, and a comparison of the percentages of dream and waking ESP claims was not statistically significant.
Table 2 PROPORTION OF DREAM AND WAKING ESP CLAIMS IN SURVEYS OF PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIENCES
Dream Waking Randomly
Study N Selected?
Palmer (1979) 268 Yes
Palmer (1979) 354 Yes
Kohr (1980) 406 No
Haraldsson (1985) 902 Yes
Chadha, Sahni, & Alvarado (1987) 270 Yes
Usha & Pasricha (1989) 328 No
Zangari & Machado (1996) 181 No
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) 308 No
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) 120 No
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) 492 No
Mean =
Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (N= 9, T= 30, p = .42)
Study Type of Participant
Palmer (1979) American college students
Palmer (1979) American townspeople
Kohr (1980) A.R.E.(a) members
Haraldsson (1985) Icelandic registered voters
Chadha, Sahni, & Alvarado (1987) Indian college students
Usha & Pasricha (1989) Indian college students
Zangari & Machado (1996) Brazilian college students
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) American college students
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) Puerto Rican townspeople(b)
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) Readers of Spanish New
Age Magazine(c)
Mean =
Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (N= 9,
% %
Study ESP ESP
Palmer (1979) 38 39
Palmer (1979) 36 38
Kohr (1980) 53 63
Haraldsson (1985) 36 27
Chadha, Sahni, & Alvarado (1987) 39 45
Usha & Pasricha (1989) 39 29
Zangari & Machado (1996) 64 47
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) 76 71
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) 59 53
Alvarado & Zingrone (Unpublished) 73 73
Mean = 51.3 48.7
Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (N= 9,
(a) The Association for Research on Enlightenment (A.R.E) is devoted to the study of parapsychological topics and the readings of psychic Edgar Cayce.
(b) These were mainly Puerto Ricans, but included a minority of individuals from other countries.
(c) Most of the respondents were Spanish.
A few studies have also shown positive relationships between claims of spontaneous experiences (including ESP) and cognitive variables related to a variety of alterations of consciousness, such as openness to experience, fantasy experiences (Wilson & Barber, 1983), absorption experiences (using a variant of Tellegen's Absorption Scale, Irwin, 1985), hypnotic susceptibility (Richards, 1990), dissociative experiences (Richards, 1991), and spontaneous experiences of losing a sense of time while engaged in a task in daily life (Zingrone, Alvarado, & Dalton, in press). Although interesting, it should be remembered that none of these studies used a methodology that allows us to be sure that the ESP claims referred to veridical events, or that their explanation required acceptance of an anomalous communication process.
However, most of the studies on the relationship between ESP and altered states took place in the laboratory. During the 1960s, the field started to change its emphasis on forced-choice methods of testing ESP, and there was a slow movement to return to the older free-response testing modes which took into account verbal statements of the subjects.(12) A well-known example of free-response testing that included an altered state of consciousness was the dream ESP work conducted at Maimonides Medical Center during part of the 1960s and the 1970s. In this work, subjects slept in the laboratory and the content of their dreams was inspected for evidence of information related to ESP target information sent by someone from a distant location. The impact of this approach was such that it provided a considerable boost to the whole area of internal attention states and ESP. The reports in question not only appeared in the Parapsychological literature (e.g., Krippner, 1970; Krippner, Ullman, & Honorton, 1971; Ullman & Krippner, 1970) but in psychiatry journals as well (e.g., Krippner & Ullman, 1970; Ullman, 1966; Ullman & Krippner, 1969).(13) These dream studies heralded a return of interest in the study of ESP and ASCs in the laboratory, using free-response methodology. This then "new" interest may be described as a "new" parapsychology in the sense that it constituted a break with the Rhinean approach, which had been dominant until then.
But dream-ESP was not the only line of research. As Honorton and Krippner commented in 1969, the new parapsychology included numerous studies of ESP with hypnosis in which better results were obtained in hypnosis conditions than in non-hypnosis conditions. Out of twelve studies in which such comparisons were conducted, nine (75%) obtained significant results which favored hypnosis. The authors also noted that the influence of hypnosis affected the magnitude, but not the direction, of ESP test performance (on this issue, see Palmer, 1978b, pp. 205-206). Finally, they pointed out that the administration of direct suggestions for success did not seem to be the main factor accounting for the results. Although later reviewers have analyzed these and later experiments (Schechter, 1984; Stanford, 1992; Stanford & Stein, 1994), it must be mentioned that controversies about the role or existence of altered states in hypnosis exist in hypnosis literature itself to this date (Kirsch & Lynn, 1995). Consequently, it is difficult to assess the role of hypnotic techniques on ESP performance, a problem shared with some other ASC-inducing techniques.
These years were also rich with attempts to study ESP in relation to drugs (Cavanna & Servadio, 1964), muscular relaxation (Braud & Braud, 1973), out-of-body experiences (Tart, 1968), the alpha brain wave (Stanford & Stanford, 1969), sensory deprivation (Honorton & Harper, 1974) and meditation (Osis & Bokert, 1971). Some of the research on these issues went beyond obtaining significant results with an ESP-conducive procedure and tried to relate internal aspects of ASCs to ESP test performance. An important example was the idea that ESP was not necessarily associated with the altered state itself, but with shifts in states of consciousness (as discussed before in Murphy's [1966] speculations). This idea was supported by the research of Honorton (1972; Honorton, Davidson, & Bindler, 1971; Honorton, Drucker, & Hermon, 1973), Sargent (1980, 1982; Sargent, Bartlett, & Moss, 1982) and Parker, (1975a).(14) Table 3 summarizes other explorations of the relationships between ESP scoring and aspects of ASCs. Such studies represented efforts to locate aspects or dimensions of alterations of consciousness that may be responsible for producing ESP in an experimental context, or which, at least, may be associated to significant scoring in some way. As seen in Table 3, self-reports of experiences of slowing of time and of body image distortion seem to have some consistency as predictors of ESP performance.
Table 3 LABORATORY STUDIES OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ASPECTS OF ASCs AND ESP SCORING
Technique/
Study Altered State
Honorton (1966) Hypnosis
Honorton, Davidson, & Bindler (1971) Alpha generation
Stanford & Neylon (1975) Ganzfeld
Palmer, Bogart, Jones, & Tart (1977) Ganzfeld
Palmer, Khamashta, & Israelson (1979) Ganzfeld
Sondow (1979) Ganzfeld
Sargent (1982) Ganzfeld
Sargent, Bartlett, & Moss (1982) Ganzfeld
Morris, Dalton, Delanoy, & Watt (1995) Ganzfeld
Signifi-
Study Variable cant
Honorton (1966) Depth of hypnosis No
Honorton, Davidson, Somatic and quasi- Yes
& Bindler (1971) hallucinatory effects
Stanford & Neylon (1975) Slowing of time Yes(*)
Change in body image Yes(*)
Prevalence of Yes
disconnected thought
Palmer, Bogart, Jones, Slowing of time Yes(*)
& Tart (1977) Loss of body awareness Yes
Level of relaxation Yes
Spontaneity of imagery Yes
Palmer, Khamashta, Slowing of time No
& Israelson (1979) Regressive imagery Yes
Loss of body awareness Yes
Sondow (1979) Estimation of session length No
Sargent (1982) Spontaneity of imagery Yes
Mentation dream likeness Yes
Bizarre mental activity Yes
Sargent, Bartlett, Abundance and clarity Yes
& Moss (1982) of visual imagery
Loss of body awareness Yes
Morris, Dalton, Amount of mentation Yes(*)
Delanoy, & Watt (1995)
(*) These were negative relationships.
Note. This table includes only a few examples of research on the subject. Unless otherwise specified, all the significant relationships were positive.
In 1977, Honorton presented in the Handbook of Parapsychology what I believe was the most influential of his literature reviews in the sense of articulating the relationship between ASCs and ESP based on his own work and that of previous and contemporary researchers. In this paper, Honorton found that when groups of studies were analyzed by topic (e.g., hypnosis, meditation), the cumulative results obtained statistical significance. In this and in other papers, Honorton (1974a, 1974b, 1974c) developed a model of sensory attenuation to account for the optimization effect he believed altered states or internal attention states had on ESP. Honorton (1974a) argued that "success in extrasensory tasks will be augmented by attenuations of externally-directed attentive activity" (p. 54). In the same publication, he said that "relatively large and rapid shifts in state will be associated with enhanced ESP performance" (p. 55). The latter obtained some support from the above-mentioned studies showing correlates between changes in state using self-report measures and ESP test performance. As for noise reduction, Honorton (1974c) noted that "relatively weak psi impressions may be more readily detected and recognized during periods in which the sensory `noise level' (including body tension) is minimized" (p. 250). In Honorton's view, a pattern in the studies done with dreams, relaxation, and other conditions, indicated that openness or receptivity to ESP was facilitated or increased by reducing the sensory input of the organism. Honorton also used the writings of Patanjali on yoga, which were popular in the United States and elsewhere during the 1960s and the 1970s, to support this contention (Honorton, 1981).(15)
The noise-reduction model influenced others such as Braud (1978), whose research program was in many ways better articulated than Honorton's. Braud specified in more detail the possible sources of noise, mainly sensory and perceptual noise, bodily and autonomic activity, mental activities, logical and linear thinking, excessive striving to obtain ESP information, and interference from other ESP signals. Consequently, Braud summarized many of his studies in which he attempted to reduce noise using sensory deprivation, relaxation, autogenic exercises, right-hemispheric thinking, concentration, and other techniques. In his view, some possible explanations for the effectiveness of noise reduction included such concepts as improved access to imagery and other impressions that mediate ESP, or a more direct sensitivity to weaker ESP signals. But Braud also mentioned such competing explanations as changes in attitude and the value of ritual in reducing personal responsibility for results.
Perhaps no other area of research is more directly linked to ASCs in recent times or to the noise-reduction model than the ganzfeld. As argued in Bem and Honorton's (1994) well known review:
The ganzfeld procedure was designed to test a model in which psi-mediated
information is conceptualized as a weak signal that is normally masked by
internal somatic and external sensory "noise." Accordingly, any technique
that raises the signal-to-noise ratio should enhance a person's abilities to
detect psi-mediated information. This noise-reduction model of psi organizes
a large and diverse body of experimental results, particularly those
demonstrating the psi-conducive properties of altered states of
consciousness such as meditation, hypnosis, dreaming, and, of course, the
ganzfeld itself.... (p. 15)
After the initial studies of Braud, Wood, and Braud (1975), Honorton and Harper (1974), and Parker (1975a),(16) other investigators contributed a significant amount of data, making ganzfeld research one of the main specialties in contemporary experimental parapsychology in the recent past (e.g., Braud & Wood, 1977; Dalton, 1997; Honorton, Berger, Varvoglis, Quant, Derr, Schechter, & Ferrari, 1990; Kanthamani & Palmer, 1993; Palmer, Bogart, Jones, & Tart, 1977; Sargent, 1980; and Stanford & Angelini, 1984).(17)
As seen in Table 3, some of the research attempted to associate ESP scores with aspects of the ganzfeld, or of the altered state that the technique was presumed to induce. One example is the above-mentioned group of studies on state shifts. But regardless of some interesting correlations-both in the ganzfeld and with other testing procedures--there is still a lack of agreement on what it is about these procedures that induces ESP. Some have argued that we cannot be sure our procedures are actually causing changes in subjects' attention states because such changes are not always measured in the studies (Stanford, 1993; Tart, 1978). This is particularly the case with research conducted in recent years. The argument is that although some procedures may have a track record of producing ESP, we do not know if an alteration in consciousness has occurred, or at what degree, and if alteration of consciousness contributes in any way to success in the test. Moreover, others have mentioned problems such as lack of control groups, a variety of design and individual difference problems (Stanford, 1987), and an alternative (more general) explanation using expectancy effects of different types (Parker, 1978; Rogo, 1976). Braud (1978) summarized the problem well when he wrote:
While psi does manifest itself ... in the hands of investigators employing
these techniques, it is not clear that the techniques themselves
are responsible for the high levels of psi obtained. Unfortunately, most
research on psi-conducive conditions is not sufficiently analytical to allow
us to distinguish fact from artifact. We appear to be at a stage of
development in psi research in which we have a general recipe which yields
rather efficient paranormal functioning. The recipe includes: experimental
techniques with their many recognized and perhaps some as yet unrecognized
features, particular experimenters who employ the techniques, particular
kinds of volunteer subjects, largely unspecified interactions between the
experimenters and subjects, and a complex set
of beliefs, expectations, attitudes, and moods existing in all participants
in the experiments. We do not yet know the relative contributions of each of
the ingredients of this recipe. (p. 31)
Considerations of this sort have led researchers to expand their search for variables influencing ESP scoring in the above-mentioned procedures. This has resulted in a multivariate approach in which it has been assumed (or put to the test) that ESP occurs as part of a complex interaction of variables in which altered states is only one. Examples of this are Krippner et al.'s (1971) use of multisensory targets in dream studies, Casler's (1976) study of monetary incentives and hypnosis, Palmer's (1978a) analyses of his own studies on the relationship between OBEs and ESP in terms of induction procedure and a hypnagogic state scale, and Sargent's (1978) consideration of anxiety, extroversion, and feedback in hypnosis.
In the ganzfeld, efforts of this sort include the work of Stanford on types of auditory noise (Stanford, 1979; Stanford & Angelini, 1984), the structure and length of mentation (Stanford & Frank, 1991; Stanford, Frank, Kass, & Skoll, 1989), and noise in relation to extraversion (Stanford, Angelini, & Raphael, 1985). Honorton eventually developed a more formal model of success that did not emphasize the cognitive aspects of consciousness in the ganzfeld, but argued that, in people without previous experience in the ganzfeld, the best results would be obtained with those who fulfilled the following conditions: had experienced spontaneous psi experiences, practiced meditation and other mental disciplines, and were classified as a feeling-perceptive type in the Myers-Briggs test (Honorton & Schechter, 1987). This model was further supported in Honorton's (1997) later work and has been replicated independently (Kanthamani & Broughton, 1994; for a failed replication using only three of the factors, see Morris, Dalton, Delanoy, & Watt, 1995). Although important for our understanding of ESP, this model does not assess the contributions of altered states to ESP scoring in relation to its interaction with the other factors of the model. It is also unfortunate that few researchers have tried to replicate and expand on Honorton's model.
Schmeidler (1994) recently summarized a variety of studies in which the results pointed towards interactions between ESP induction procedures (but not necessarily altered states) and other variables:
The contrasting result of experiments in meditation suggest the subject's
attitude is important. Data from hypnosis and perhaps from dreams suggest
the importance of the experimenter effect.... All this leads to a general
conclusion.... Entering an altered state does not efface all a person's
preferences and dislikes, values, or behavior tendencies. Other conditions
that are likely to facilitate or to hinder high ESP scores are likely to
have a similar effect in an altered state experiment. (p. 116)
Although the studies following Honorton's model and Schmeidler's assessment are important, we should realize that few of the studies in question have assessed the occurrence or depth of altered states, as opposed to using procedures in which it is assumed that consciousness has been altered. This trend is clear in the ganzfeld studies conducted in recent years. If we focus on the ganzfeld work reported at recent conventions of the Parapsychological Association, it is clear that researchers are paying little attention to the altered states such procedures are supposed to induce. Most of the studies in question have assessed the relationship of ESP scores to variables such as affinity to or emotionality of target material (Bierman, 1995; Bosga, Gerding, & Wezelman, 1994), relationships between participants, such as the sex pairing of sender and receivers (Dalton, 1994) and their social or familial relationships to each other (Broughton & Alexander, 1995), personality variables (Bierman, 1995; Broughton & Alexander, 1995; Morris et al., 1995; van Kampen, Bierman, & Wezelman, 1994), static versus dynamic targets (Kanthamani & Broughton, 1994), experimenter effects (Johansson & Parker, 1995; Morris et al., 1995), creativity (Dalton, 1997a), and the effect of the agent (Morris et al., 1995). There have also been attempts to test Honorton's success model (Kanthamani &: Broughton, 1994; Morris et al., 1995). This, of course, is part of the contemporary tendency to consider laboratory ESP testing from a multivariate perspective (e.g., Dalton, 1997b; Delanoy, 1997; Schmeidler, 1994). Although all of these views (and studies) remind us that there is more to ESP test performance than ASCs, it is unfortunate that current trends of research have abandoned assessment of the role of altered states in ESP functioning.
Even those studies which have such undisputed ASCs as dreams (e.g., Dalton, Steinkamp, & Sherwood, 1996) do not tell us anything about the ESP-ASC relationship other than that positive ESP scoring can be obtained during altered states. I am not criticizing the quality nor the topic of current research, but I am, instead, calling for renewed interest in the ESP-ASC relationship from the experimenters in our field. Perhaps future research may employ designs capable of assessing the role of ASCs on ESP scores; some may follow the efforts summarized in Table 3 to correlate aspects of alterations of consciousness to ESP scores. I also would like to encourage designs that would allow us to evaluate the magnitude of the potential influence of ASCs on ESP scores in relation to other competing variables. One possible way to conduct this research is by using multiple regression techniques in which ESP scores are the dependent variable, and measures of ASC intensity (or other aspects of the ASC) are assessed with other independent variables such as openness to experience, creativity, emotionality of the target, and other possible predictors. But, in order to accomplish analyses of this sort, the research community needs to be interested in the assessment of ASCs; that is, they need to consistently use state reports and other instruments (on this issue, see Stanford, 1993). Additionally, experimenters need to change the current practice of conducting small N studies, because multivariate statistical techniques require more data points than the usual 30, 40, or 50 trials used in current experimental practice.(18)
CONCLUSIONS
Parapsychology has been concerned with the relationship of altered sates to ESP for over a century, although it is clear that attempts to understand this relationship have been unsystematic and sporadic. In this article I have argued that interest in this topic depended in part on the influence of a variety of cultural m spiritualism, and dynamic psychiatry. In these movements, the concept of different sates of consciousness was embedded in mesmeric and mediumistic trances, and in states of "double consciousness," such as amnesias. These phenomena, and the literature in their support, were known by many of the founders of psychical research such as Myers and Richet. Similarly, modern developments from the 1960s onwards were deeply influenced by the counterculture movement (especially in the United Sates) and by the resurgence of interest in psychedelic states, hypnosis, mediation, dreams, and the "alpha state" concept prevalent in psychology at the time. Like Myers and Richet in the old days, the researchers of the new parapsychology--individuals such as Charles Honorton, Stanley Krippner, and William Braud, among many others--were part of their social context. They lived these events (some more than others) as their careers in the field developed and as they were trained in psychological research.
But we should also acknowledge the influence of other developments that I do not discuss in this article. Among these are the discovery of REM dream states and the development of new tools for the study of consciousness, including the development of more sophisticated EEG methods and technology, instruments to measure hypnotic susceptibility, and the use of psychophysiological techniques to study sleep and other states of consciousness.
Many explanations for the influence of ASCs on ESP have been offered. Myers conceptualized it as an example of having access to the subconscious, although he, as did others, also speculated along lines that today would be described as similar to the noise reduction model. LeShan defended the idea that altered states allow the individual access to different levels of reality, while still others like Parker considered more; conventional explanations such as expectancy and experimenter effects. More recently, the noise reduction model has been extremely influential, especially in the context of the ganzfeld. But none of these models have been systematically tested, nor has strong support for them been accumulated to date. In fact, with the exception of Braud's writings, it may be argued that these ideas have not been clearly formulated in parapsychological literature, in the sense of providing a fully articulated model with clearly testable predictions. From the old days of mesmerism and the SPR to recent studies, it has been believed that ASCs are conducive to ESP. But even after all this thought and all this experimental work, there are still doubts about a need for altered states in producing ESP, and about what, if anything, in an altered state makes it ESP-conducive. For example, we still do not know if ASCs influence or interact with social, attitudinal, personality, cognitive, or psychophysiological variables in their effect on ESP scores. We are in a state of ignorance due to a lack of systematic research on this subject. The situation is not helped by the fact that most of the recent ganzfeld research has not been concerned with assessment of the presence or role of altered states in ESP performance. This lack of interest is unfortunate, because the problem will not be resolved without further direct and systematic work. It is not enough to say that ESP is a multivariate phenomena. We need to start addressing, in a more systematic way than ever before, the role of particular variables on ESP test performance--in this case, ASCs. I hope further work will increase our knowledge of these complicated cognitive phenomena.
The research for, and the writing of, this paper occurred while I enjoyed grants from the Parapsychology Foundation and the Society for Psychical Research. In the final stages of revision, I was supported by the Institut fur Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene. I am grateful to Nancy L. Zingrone for editorial suggestions that greatly improved the content of this paper.
(1) For extensive bibliographies, see Crabtree (1988) and Gauld (1992).
(2) Two useful book-length overviews are Ellenberger (1970 and Gauld (1992). For review articles of aspec of this literature, see alvarado (1991), Carson (1986), and Decker (1986).
(3) Gurney and Myers' use of the abnormal and the unusual to understand the makings of the normal mind was part of a wider tradition prevalent in nineteenth century work on dissociation (e.g., Binet, 1892/1896).
(4) For English-language translations of these reports, see Janet (1886/1968a, 1886/1968b). These studies and similar ones have recently been discussed by Caratelli (1993). On Leionie, see Gauld's (1996) recent paper.
(5) Also important were the "cross correspondences," a series of messages obtained between 1901 and 1930 that came from different mediums and contained many references to classical literature that made sense when the different communications were put together (Johnson, 1908; Lodge, 1911; Piddington, 1908; Verrall, 1906). The literature of trance mediumship includes many other studies, such as Allison, 1929; Goldney & Soal, 1938; Piddington, 1904; Radclyffe-Hall & Troubridge; 1919; Rhine, 1934b; and Thomas, 1922. There is much on the psychology of medium Eusapia Palladino's trances and of her spirit controls in Enrico Morselli's Psicologia e "Spiritismo" (1908), but this refers mainly to physical phenomena.
(6) A statistical analysis of these data show a significant result favoring the alcohol condition (N= 133, Z2 = 28.24, p = .0000, phi = .46).
(7) Other descriptions of similar observations may be found in the writings of De Brath (1925) and Tyrrell (1922). See also the reviews of Smith and Gibson (1941) and White (1964).
(8) These social events were discussed by Caute (1988), Dickstein (1977), Johnston (1973), Morgan (1970), and Speck (1972).
(9) Other aspects of the consciousness movement include the study of imagery (Richardson, 1969), split-brain research (and ideas of right- and left-brain consciousness styles), and the rise of psychophysiological studies of consciousness (Lee, Ornstein, Galin, Deikman, & Tart, 1976).
(10) Stanley Krippner's (1975) autobiography is a good case in point regarding the influence of both intellectual and experiential learning and its impact on ESP research.
(11) Other article reviews include Brand (1975, 1978); Krippner and George (1986); and Palmer (1978b). See also the discussions of Hardy (1989) and Kelly and Locke (1981).
(12) This is not to say that all of the altered states work was conducted with free-response tests. In fact, many of the studies with hypnosis, meditation, and the alpha state conducted during this period were done using forced-choice methods. My point is that the return to this form of testing is related to a general interest in introspection and consciousness. For discussions of free-response methods and ways to statistically evaluate responses, see Morris (1972), Pratt (1969), Roll (1962), and Roll and Burdick (1969).
(13) For reviews of this work, see Child's (1985) and Krippner's (1991) articles, and Ullman and Krippner's book with Vaughan (1989).
(14) The reader should be aware of Blackmore's (1987) criticisms of Sargent's research and of the replies to Blackmore (Harley & Matthews, 1987; Sargent, 1987).
(15) Although recent views of noise reduction come from the modern altered states literature and modern interpretations of Patanjali, these ideas also can be found in the old parapsychological literature, as I have mentioned in this article in relation to Myers (1886, 1892, 1903) and Brugmans (1922, 1924). (On this issue, see also Alvarado, 1986).
(16) It is generally recognized that the use of the ganzfeld in parapsychology was independently developed around the same period by the above mentioned investigators (Braud, 1982).
(17) For reviews, see Bern (1996), Bem and Honorton (1994), Dalton (1998), and Stanford (1984, 1987). Honorton (1985) and Hyman (1985) have provided meta-analyses of the ganzfeld work that reached different conclusions. A later paper brought their conclusions closer together (Hyman & Honorton, 1986). Still later meta-analyses were conducted by Honorton (1995) and by Milton and Wiseman (1997). For a skeptical perspective, see Hyman (1994) and Parker and Wiklund (1987).
(18) Julie Milton kindly provided me with an analysis of the number of trials used in recent ganzfeld studies listed in a recent conference presentation (Milton & Wiseman, 1997). Out of 31 studies with a range of 4 to 100 trials, the mean number of trials was 40.
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