The Sense in Extra Sensory Perception
Early studies of Extra Sensory Perception
Duke University is credited with the first ESP study based on scientific principle. The study was performed in 1927. In 1934, Dr. J.B. Rhines published his summary report of experiments he did during those years. The monograph was titled, “Extra-Sensory Perception”.
Dr. Rhines’ experiments used the famous ESP deck of cards consisting of 5 non-emotional drawings -a cross, a circle, a wavy line, a square and a star. Subjects picked the card on top of the shuffled deck and without looking at it or showing it to the tester, called out the drawing they “felt” was on the card and the tester wrote it down on a numbered list. They placed the card, still face down in a stack. At this point no one has seen the face of the card.
The next step was to turn the cards and the list over to the supervising attendant who would then check the answers against the list by going through the stack of face down cards. This kind of study is called a double blind study because neither the subject nor the assistant knows the answers. The director of the study then computes the statistical probabilities of how many correct answers versus how many incorrect answers to arrive at a mean average over time.
After 145 experiments over a 60 year time span the results were analyzed. Rhines and Pratt (another director) released the results. Six of the studies revealed a higher than average ESP score suggesting that these six studies indicated an unexplainable ability to sense “mind pictures”. That of itself is certainly not proof that humans have an extra sense, but only that some people have a higher than normal ability to detect “something” that the other 139 studies could not. Certain individuals stood out as having a high ESP score.
In 1955, Dr. George Price studied the results of Rhines and Pratt and concluded that the data could only have been faked if there was deliberate fraud involved or if the directors of the study had mental instabilities, something that was highly doubtful. However, another ESP researcher, S G Soals, did submit a fraudulent experimental result in 1978. Debunkers seize these occasional shams to discredit the entire research field.
Uri Geller known for his phenomenal success with ESP experiments is still considered untrustworthy. Geller was correct in tests nearly 100% of the time. He was asked to guess the number on a die face after it had been shaken in a closed steel box. Several supervisors were present in the room and no one knew the number until the box was opened. Geller guessed the correct number eight out of ten times, declining to guess two times because he did not get a “clear” picture. The Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park admitted that Geller’s ESP ability was “one in a million”. Doubters studied for years trying to prove that he somehow cheated in these highly publicized tests.
Then there are the men who stare at goats…
George W. Bush, The United States Military and Homeland Security determined that ESP has military applications. Namely, certain individuals testing high for ESP ability can kill goats just by staring at them and thinking them to death. The Men Who Stare at Goats was the title of a “true” book and a movie starring George Clooney as a PSI operative in Iraq and elsewhere.
The Special Forces and Homeland Security at Fort Bragg in North Carolina decided to smuggle in some debleated goats and see if anyone could kill them with mind waves. At least one soldier reveals that he has killed one goat and one hamster just by staring at them.
The First Earth Battalion created in 1979 by the military was encouraged to do all sorts of paranormal things including:
- Walking through walls
- Becoming invisible
- Reading minds
- Killing small animals
President George W. Bush used these operatives after 9/11 and in the war in Iraq. It was thought that they could perceive where Saddam Hussein was hiding and maybe they did. Thank goodness that Barak Obama used real scientific intelligence and technology to find the real hiding place of Bin Laden or we might still be looking for him. Bush, unfortunately, turned the study of ESP into a joke.
The U.S. military has taken ESP to extreme measures using the “powers of the mind” to develop and test torture methods and ways to control people. It’s disturbing to think that an as yet unproven human ability would first be thought of as a weapon.
ESP in today’s world
Imagine you are driving down the freeway on your way to meet some friends and you look down and decide you need to stop for gas. You take an exit that you were not planning to take and when you arrive at the gas station, the friends you are going to meet are there filling up their tanks. This seems like coincidence, but could it be more?
What made you look down at your fuel indicator at that moment? What made you take an unfamiliar exit? Could it be ESP? Did your brain somehow sense that your friends were at or going to be at that particular gas station? How did you feel?
Today’s studies in ESP involve anecdotal evidence such as this. In ‘‘The Uncomfortable Facts about Extrasensory Perception,’’ published in Harper’s Magazine, Ian Stevenson referred both to spontaneous cases and to experiments as primary sources of evidence for the existence of ESP.
Ordinary occurrences of ESP give rise to the construction of scientific experiments.
Case studies as evidence need to be carefully documented and tested in controlled situations if possible. The documentation results are interpreted much like the evidence for Unidentified Flying Objects. For anything to be truly considered scientific it must be objectively observed by many witnesses and thoroughly documented.
Hypnotic and dream states seem to bring on precognitive or extra sensory perception. Dreams related to ESP are quite vivid and appear to be more real than reality. If you have episodes of ESP, be sure to write down who, what, where, when, how and why. This is the first step to identifying and confirming an extra sensory perception incident.
The studies done by Stephenson show a correlation between close family relatives, serious illnesses or accidents and ESP. Distance did not seem to matter. There are documented cases of relatives being very far apart and still “sensing” that there is some communication of distress or great emotion at particular moments in time.
Signs that you have ESP
- The phone rings and without caller ID you know who the caller is especially if you haven’t heard from that particular person in a long while. A very potent indication would be if you also know what the call is about without any foreknowledge.
- A feeling comes over you that you have experienced before and you suddenly know what is about to happen.
- You are going about your day when you get a sudden urge to go to a place you have never been or rarely go to and something happens that would not normally have happened. (meeting someone, stopping something from happening like an accident)
- You intuitively “know” things like where to find a friend’s lost ring or if people are lying to you.
- You get “hunches”.
- A good number of your dreams actually turn out be real or repetitive and precognizant.
Do you believe in extra-sensory perception?
Have you even had an ESP experience?
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2011 Lela