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| Bernhard HAISCH | Editor's Note | i |
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| William GIROLDINI | Eccles's Model of Mind-Brain Interaction and Psychokinesis: A Preliminary Study | 145-161 |
| | Abstract: In this article the relationship between mind and brain is initially
discussed from the opposite materialist and dualist perspectives. In the Eccles's hypothesis, a very weak psychokinetic (PK) action of will on a few
neurons of cerebral cortex could determine remarkable changes in brain
activity. Starting from this idea, a neuron network suitable for revealing
weak PK influences is discussed. Thirty-five preliminary PK experiments
based on a Random Signal Generator (RSG), which represents a first raw
electronic version of this neuron network, were performed. Twenty-seven
subjects attempted to mentally influence the RSG in a double optical and
acoustic RSG-feedback. Each experiment was fully computer controlled
and consisted of ten PK-minutes alternated with ten control-minutes without feedback. Moreover, the EEG recording of alpha and beta rhythms of
subjects during the experiments was performed. The PK experiments gave
altogether a significant result (p < lo-'), whereas 35 control-experiments
without subjects were nonsignificant. EEG analysis showed that during the
control-minutes the alpha and beta rhythms were wider than in the PK
minutes, and moreover the alpha rhythm was remarkably higher during the
PK-hitting than in the PK-missing trials. A psychological interpretation of
these results is proposed, but the more interesting possibility is that an
independent high alpha activity would cause better PK performance. Further studies are necessary to test this important possibility. |
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| A. I. GRIGOR'EV, I. D. GRIGOR'EVA, S. O. SHIRYAEVA | Ball Lightning and St. Elmo's Fire as Forms of Thunderstorm Activity | 163-190 |
| | Abstract: The electrohydrodynamic theory of ball lightning and St. Elmo's
fire is developed. Electrohydrodynamic instability of water droplets and
films is basic for these phenomena and distinguishes them from corona. |
|
| James McCLENON | Social Scientific Paradigms for Investigating Anomalous Experience | 191-203 |
| | Abstract: The investigation of anomalous experience may be conducted
within the realm of folklore, collective behavior, and the sociology of religion. Although these social scientific approaches lack the mathematical
precision of the physical sciences, they allow theoretical development, the
testing of hypotheses derived from these orientations, and the revision of
theory in light of empirical observation. The use of social scientific paradigms grants the investigation of anomalous phenomena a cumulative quality, open to both skeptics and believers. |
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| Robert G. JAHN, York H. DOBYNS, Brenda J. DUNNE | Count Population Profiles in Engineering Anomalies Experiments | 205-232 |
| | Abstract: Four technically and conceptually distinct experiments-a random binary generator driven by a microelectronic noise diode; a deterministic pseudorandom generator; a large-scale random mechanical cascade;
and a digitized remote perception protocol-display strikingly similar patterns of count deviations from their corresponding chance distributions.
Specifically, each conforms to a statistical linear regression of the form
An / n = 6 (x - p) , where An / n is the deviation from chance expectation of
the population frequency of the score value x divided by its chance frequency, p is the mean of the chance distribution, and 6 is the slope of the
regression line, constant for a given data subset, but parametrically dependent on the experimental device, the particular operator or data concatenation, and the prevailing secondary conditions. In each case, the result is
tantamount to a simple marginal transposition of the appropriate chance
Gaussian distribution to a new mean value p' = p + Nt, where N is the
sample size, or equivalently to a change in the elemental probability of the
basic binary process to p' = p + 6, where p is the chance value and E = 614.
Proposition of a common psychophysical mechanism by which the consciousness of the operator may achieve these elemental probability shifts is
thwarted by the complexity and disparity of the several technical and logical
tasks that would be involved. More parsimonious, albeit more radical, explication may be posed via a holistic information-theoretic approach,
wherein the consciousness adds some increment of information, in the technical sense, into the particular experimental system, which then deploys it
in the most efficient fashion to achieve the experimental goal, i.e., the volition-correlated mean shift. The relationship of this technical information
transfer to the subjective teleological processes of the consciousness remains
to be understood. |
|
| Erlendur HARALDSSON | Children Claiming Past-Life Memories: Four Cases in Sri Lanka | 233-261 |
| | Abstract: This is a report on an investigation of four children in Sri Lanka
who claimed to remember a previous life at the early age of two to three
years. Detailed written records were made of the statements of three of the
children before any attempt was made to examine their claims. In two cases,
these statements made it possible to trace a deceased person whose life
history fit to a considerable extent the statements made by the child. In these
cases, no prior connection of any kind was found to have existed between
the child's family and that of the alleged previous personality. The pattern
of these cases resembles those earlier reported by Stevenson: the children are
at a preschool age when they start to make claims about a previous life; they
usually start to "forget'' at about the time they go to school; some of them
claim to have died violently earlier; they express the wish to meet their
earlier families or visit their homes; and some of them show behavioral
idiosyncrasies that seem to differ from what they observe and would be
expected to learn from their environment. In Sri Lanka more than half of
such cases remain "unsolved," i.e., no person can be traced that roughly
matches the child's statements. |
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| | Letters to the Editor |
| | Comments on A Gas Discharge Device for Investigating Focussed Human Attention | 263-164 |
| | Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 4 Number 2 /1990 - A Gas Discharge Device for Investigating Focussed Human Attention [Tiller, William A.]
| |
