EXPERIMENTAL PROTOCOL FOR HEMOLYSIS: CONFIRMATION EXPERIMENT

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L- Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Final Report?Objective E, Task 2 EXPERIMENTAL PROTOCOL FOR HEMOLYSIS: CONFIRMATION EXPERIMENT By: G. SCOTT HUBBARD JESSICA M. UTTS SRI International WILLIAM W. BRAUD Mind Science Foundation Prepared for: PETER J. McNELIS, DSW CONTRACTING OFFICER'S TECHNICAL REPRESENTATIVE December 1987 333 Ravenswood Avenue Menlo Park, California 94025 U.S.A. (415) 326-6200 Cable: SRI INTL MPK ed For Reldas412666/M10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 ed For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 cpi c'g Final Report--Objective E, Task 2 December 1987 Covering the Period 1 October 1986 to 30 September 1987 EXPERIMENTAL PROTOCOL FOR HEMOLYSIS: CONFIRMATION EXPERIMENT By: G. SCOTT HUBBARD JESSICA M. UTTS SRI International WILLIAM W. BRAUD Mind Science Foundation Prepared for: PETER J. McNELIS, DSW CONTRACTING OFFICER'S TECHNICAL REPRESENTATIVE SRI Project 1291 Approved by: MURRAY J. BARON, Director Geoscience and Engineering Center 333 Ravenswood Avenue ? Menlo Park, California 94025 ? U.S.A. ved For 0616W-266b)chOlb :a0ibiNA-O.67bR961613733602004960cm-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 ABSTRACT An experiment was conducted by the Mind Science Foundation to study the possible relationship between intent to remotely influence a biological system and actual changes in the system. Three phases of the investigation were conducted, including a pilot study, an intermediate study, and a confirmation study. The first two were used to test and refine the protocol for the third and final study. As a result of these preliminary studies and further input from various experts, the confirmation study appears to have been extremely well conducted. Thirty-two subjects participated in the confirmation study. Their task was to attempt to retard the rate of hemolysis (destruction) of red blood cells which had been placed into a tube of distilled water and saline in a distant room. Each subject participated for one hour, broken into four 15-minute periods. Of these four periods, two were identified as control periods and two as protect periods. The experimenter who was measuring the rate of hemolysis was blind to this condition. During the protect periods, subjects used visualization and other intention strategies to try to protect the blood cells. During the control periods, subjects were to try to think of other matters. In one control and one protect period, eight tubes of blood were processed, and in the other periods two tubes were processed. Subjects were blind to this condition. It was used to attempt to ascertain whether observed effects could be attributed to causal relationships, or to intuitive data sorting. To see whether or not blood source was important, 14 of the subjects were trying to protect their own blood, and 18 were trying to protect that of another. Both subject and experimenter were blind as to the source of blood. Results showed that nine of the 32 subjects were able to achieve a significant difference in the rate of hemolysis for the protect periods versus the control periods. The probability of such an extreme result by chance alone is 1.9 x 10-5. There was no significant difference between those trying to protect their own blood and those trying to protect that of another. The study was designed to try to determine whether causal forces or intuitive data sorting were responsible for any observed psi results. The extreme heterogeneity in the data made it impossible to make that determination. It is recommended that future studies of this type be designed in such a way that data from each subject can be analyzed separately. It appears that level of psychic functioning, whatever the underlying mechanism, is highly individualized, making it difficult to test a specific theory using data combined across subjects. ii Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF TABLES LSIT OF FIGURES ii iv iv I. INTRODUCTION 1 A. Background 1 B. Overview 2 H. METHOD OF APPROACH 3 A. Methodology 3 B. Analysis 4 C. Simulation of RA with Salinity Data 6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 8 A. ANOVA Results 8 B. RA versus IDS Results 9 REFERENCES 12 APPENDIX A-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 LIST OF TABLES 1. Expected Values and Variances for Standardized Protect Period Means 6 2. Means and Standard Deviations for Standardized Protect Data 10 FIGURE 1. RA Simulation Based on Salinity Data 7 iv Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 I INTRODUCTION A. Background For several years, the Mind Science Foundation (MSF) in San Antonio, Texas, has been investigating the relationship between intent to influence biological systems remotely, and actual changes in the systems. Until recently, it was assumed that any changes observed (beyond chance) were actually caused by the subject through a form of remote action (RA). In 1985, a new theory was proposed,1* called Intuitive Data Sorting (IDS), which could account for much of the data previously attributed to RA. One postulate of the IDS theory is that observed changes are a result of psi-mediated sorting of the data into experimental and control conditions, and are not the result of a causal remote action. In FY 1986, SRI International (SRI) awarded a subcontract to MSF to study the distant influence of one individual on the electrodermal activity of another. One of the purposes of the study was to differentiate between results due to RA and those due to IDS. Unfortunately, the experimental protocol allowed for IDS effects to enter the data under the condition that was supposed to isolate RA. Thus, although significant psi effects were observed, it was impossible to determine their source.2 In FY 1987, MSF was given a new one-year contract to investigate the relationship between intent to remotely influence the rate of hemolysis of human red blood cells and actual rate of hemolysis. A successful preliminary experiment of this type had been reported in 1979,3 but that study involved only a small number of trials with one subject who had previously demonstrated apparent psi ability. In contrast, the present investigation included 32 subjects. As part of the new experiment, a condition was built in to provide some information about whether RA or IDS could account for any observed psi results. A report by William Braud of MSF is attached as the Appendix. It gives a detailed account of the investigation for FY 1987, except for an analysis of whether RA or IDS is more likely to have been the source of any observed psi. The balance of this report contains that analysis, as well as a summary of the entire investigation. * References may be found at the end of this report. 1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 ' Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 B. Overview There were three phases to this investigation. The first phase was a pilot study, conducted to determine how well the proposed methodology would work, and to ascertain whether or not it was important to have a subject trying to influence his or her own blood instead of that of another person. The purpose of the second (intermediate) phase was to construct the parameters necessary to test RA versus IDS. It consisted of a salinity study designed to mimic the anticipated psi?induced changes and a Monte Carlo study, which used the salinity study results to determine the appropriate parameters. The data from the salinity study were also used at SRI to simulate what experimental results might occur in a study where RA was operating. The final phase was the confirmation study. Changes indicated by the results of the first two phases were incorporated into the methodology, as were suggestions from members of the Scientific Oversight Committee (SOC). A site visit by SRI personnel resulted in further minor changes. The resulting protocol for the confirmation study appears to have been extremely sound. 2 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 II METHOD OF APPROACH A. Methodology A complete description of the methodology for all three phases of the investigation is given in the report by Braud (see Appendix). Because the main purpose of the first two phases was to establish the final protocol for the confirmation study, those details are omitted from this report. The methodology for the confirmation study can be summarized as follows. Thirty-two subjects participated in one experimental session each. A session consisted of four consecutive 15-minute periods. Two of these were designated as control (C) periods, and the other two as protect (P) periods. During the P periods, each subject was encouraged to "heal" the blood (i.e., retard the hemolysis rate). During the C periods the subject was instructed to think of other matters. Half of the subjects followed a pattern of PCCP, while the remaining half followed the pattern CPPC. One of the P periods and one of the C periods for each subject was designated as a two-trial period, and the other was designated as an eight-trial period (a trial is defined below). This distinction was necessary to try to differentiate between RA and IDS effects. The subject was blind to the number of trials in the period, and the experimenter was blind to the pattern of P and C periods. All of these assignments were prepared by another staff member at MSF before the experiment began by consulting a random number table. Blood samples were collected from each subject 14 to 42 hours prior to the experimental session, and stored at 4 ?Celsius. The registered nurse who drew the blood was supposed to label half of the samples with the name of the actual donor, and the other half with the name of one of the other donors. Because of a scheduling change and resulting confusion, 14 samples were labeled with the donors' own names, while 18 were labeled with the names of others. Thus, during the protect periods, 14 subjects were trying to protect their own blood and 18 subjects were trying to protect the blood of another. Both the experimenter and the subject were blind to the source of the blood until after all 32 sessions were completed. To begin the experimental session, the subject and the experimenter were isolated in rooms in different parts of the building. During each of the four 15-minute periods, the experimenter sequentially conducted either two or eight trials, based on the preassigned scheme. 3 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 For each trial, a fixed amount (100 p.1) of whole blood was added to a prepared tube of 0.425% saline in 6.0 ml of distilled water. Saline solution causes red blood cells to deteriorate through the liberation of the hemoglobin contained in them. This process is called hemolysis. The purpose of this study was to see if psi could be used to slow down the rate of hemolysis. To measure the rate of hemolysis for each trial, the experimenter placed the tube in a spectrophotometer which recorded the percent light transmittance for each of 60 seconds. The data used for analysis was the difference between the average for the first five seconds and the average for the last five seconds. If the subject was successfully protecting the blood, the difference should be smaller during the protect periods than during the control periods, because red blood cells retaining more hemoglobin should transmit less light. Using this procedure, either two or eight tubes were consecutively processed in each period. Strict measures, described in the appended MSF report, were used to ensure that the timing was consistent over all sessions. Meanwhile, the subject was signaled at the beginning of each of the 15-minute periods, but did not know whether data for two or eight trials (tubes) were being collected in that period. The subject consulted the preassigned order to determine whether each period was a protect or a control condition. Several possible techniques for trying to protect the blood in the other room had been given to each subject at the beginning of the experiment. A 35-mm slide of intact red blood cells was available for viewing, as an aid to visualization. Subjects were blind as to the number of trials being conducted and subjects were simply instructed to spend the entire 15 minutes of the protect periods trying to slow down the rate of hemolysis. During the two control periods, they were to try to think of other matters or, if that proved to be impossible, to imagine the hemolysis proceeding at its normal rate. After the completion of the session, the experimenter escorted the subject to his office, and the subject described the techniques he or she used during the protect periods. In return, the experimenter calculated the session results and gave the subject both verbal and numerical feedback for the 20 tubes used in the four periods. B. Analysis The confirmation study was designed to explore the following questions: (1) Does the rate of hemolysis differ during the protect and the control periods? (2) Does the magnitude of the effect depend on whether one is trying to protect his or her own blood versus that of another? Can any observed psi effects be attributed to RA or IDS? (3) Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 : Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 The first two of these questions can be explored by performing an analysis of variance (ANOVA) using .the change scores for each of the 20 tubes as the dependent variable. There are three factors: Blood Source (own versus another, fixed, between); Condition (protect versus control, fixed, within); and Subjects (random, nested under blood source). The procedure for answering the first question depends on whether or not the results show a significant interaction between Condition and Subjects. If not, the question can be answered by looking at the main effect for Condition. A significant interaction indicates that the contrast between the protect and control periods differs for each subject. Thus, it is meaningless to consider an overall Condition effect. Instead, individual t?tests to compare protect and control period means should be performed for each subject. If it appears that within subject variability is homogeneous, then an overall estimate of that variability can be used in these tests, with the resulting increase in degrees of freedom. Otherwise, the usual two?sample t?test should be used for each subject. The procedure for answering the second question is similar to that for the first. If there is a significant Source by Condition interaction, then the results for one's own versus another's blood should be compared within each condition. Otherwise, the question can be answered by examining the main effect for Source. The third question cannot be answered with the ANOVA results. The extent to which IDS or RA can be used to explain observed psi results can be examined by comparing the results to those predicted by each of the two theories. In this experiment, results can be compared by using each subject's control period data to standardize the protect period data, then comparing means and variances of the two?trial and the eight?trial periods to those predicted by each of the theories. The RA theory predicts that there will be a significant shift in means away from what would be expected by chance, while the IDS theory predicts that there will be an increase in variance, but that the rate of that increase will be a function of the number of trials. Theoretical calculations have been done to find the expected means and variances of the standardized means for the two?trial and eight?trial protect period data, under the hypotheses of chance, RA, and IDS. Since the standardization must be done using control data based on only ten trials per subject, these calculations involved central and noncentral t distributions instead of the more familiar normal distribution. Table 1 gives the expected means and variances for each of the three theories. The parameter I in the variance formula for the IDS theory is called the IDS strength parameter. The assumption is that, as a result of psi?biased data collection, the variance of the usual standardized distribution will be (1 + 1)2 instead of 1. The parameter Ali represents the difference between the protect and control period population means; o- is the standard deviation for the control period. Notice that all three theories predict that the variance for the mean of two trials should be four times the variance for the mean of eight trials. 5 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Table 1 EXPECTED VALUES AND VARIANCES FOR STANDARDIZED PROTECT PERIOD MEANS CHANCE RA IDS Mean 0 1.094( A pt/cf ) 0 2 Trials Variance 0.707 0.707 + 0.044 ( A p./cr )2 0.64 [ (1+1) 2 +.1 ] Mean 0 1.094( A ?/cr ) 0 8 Trials Variance 0.177 0.177 + 0.011 ( A ?/cr )2 0.16 [(1+1) 2 +.1 1 C. Simulation of RA with Salinity Data The data from the salinity study conducted as the intermediate phase of this investigation provided an ideal opportunity to examine the soundness of the proposed methodology for testing for an RA effect. Because of the manner in which the data were collected, they should mimic the causal influence that would occur with remote action. Thus, if the methodology proposed for testing RA were to be used with these data, the results should mimic those hypothesized when RA is operational. A study was carried out at SRI to see if this would be the case. It seems reasonable to expect that if RA is used to slow down the rate of hemolysis, the same effect could be achieved naturally by simply changing the salinity level of the solution before adding the red blood cells. This is what was done in the salinity study. (The main purpose of the study was to see if changes dictated by the pilot study had reduced the large variability in measurement under control conditions.) Thus, comparing data from two different levels of salinity should be similar to comparing data from control and protect periods if RA was used during the protect periods. Two levels of salinity, 0.425% and 0.442%, were used for this simulation. The lower salinity level (0.425%) was used as the "protect period" data. Twenty sample points were available at each salinity value. All values were standardized by subtracting the mean of the entire "control period" data, and dividing by the corresponding standard deviation. The resulting mean for the "protect period" data was 3.365, so this value was used as the hypothesized parameter for the RA model. In other words, it was assumed that each value in the "protect period" came from a population with a mean that was 3.365 standard deviations higher 6 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 r Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 than the mean of the undisturbed population, but that the standard deviation in the protect period was the same as for the undisturbed population. This is the usual RA hypothesis. Five random samples of size two and five of size eight were generated from each condition. The means of these samples are plotted in Figure 1, along with error bars representing one standard error of the mean in each direction. The horizontal axis represents sequence length, which was either two or eight. Both axes are represented on log scales. The horizontal and diagonal lines drawn in the body of the plot represent the theoretical predictions for the RA hypothesis, and for chance, respectively. The values resulting from the random sampling are well within the range predicted by the theories. This provides a confirmation of the methodology for testing each of these theories, by showing that situations that should mimic RA and chance do indeed result in the predicted relationship between sequence length and mean. FIGURE 1 RA SIMULATION BASED ON SALINITY DATA 7 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 III RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. ANOVA Results Although 60 data points were recorded for each trial, the only information used in the analysis was the difference between the averages of the first five and the last five points. This measure represented the amount of change in the red blood cells during the one-minute trial. For each of the 32 subjects, 20 of these change scores were computed, with 10 collected during the two control periods and 10 collected during the two protect periods. In addition, the information on blood source (own versus another) was available for each subject. A three-factor ANOVA on these data was carried out at SRI International, using the Unixl Stat computer package. Source of blood (own versus another) and Condition (protect versus control) were fixed effects, while Subject was a random effect, nested under Source. The dependent variable was the change score, giving ten observations in each cell. The ANOVA results are given in Table 1 of the Appendix. The most significant effect is due to overall differences among subjects (p < 10-16? ). This heterogeneity among the red blood cells of individuals is well known, and was the motivation for collecting control period data for each subject. The only other significant effect was the Condition by Subject interaction (p = 6.3 x 10-6). This implies that the difference between the protect and control period means varied depending on the subject. As a consequence, comparisons must be done for each subject individually instead of over all subjects. These are done using two-sample t-tests with the ten control period tubes and the ten protect period tubes for each subject. There was also a wide spread among the variances across subjects. For the control period data, the minimum and maximum variances for individuals were 0.304 and 9.333, respectively. Because of this heterogeneity, individual t-tests were done using separate estimates of variance instead of using the combined estimate of 2.0248 from the ANOVA table. Results for the 32 separate t-tests are given in Table 3 of the Appendix. Two-tailed tests were used to account for the possibility of actually increasing the hemolysis rate instead of slowing it down. Nine subjects showed a significant difference (p < .05, df = 18, iti >2.101). Of these, seven showed evidence in the direction of slowing down the rate of hemolysis, and two appeared to have increased the rate. Both of the individuals in the latter group were trying to influence the 8 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 blood of another, while five of those in the former group were working with their own blood and two were working with another's. This is an interesting but post hoc observation, and the sample sizes are too small to attempt any conclusions. The ANOVA results did not indicate that the difference between those working on their own blood and those working on another's blood was statistically significant. Overall, these results indicate a highly significant level of psi performance. The probability of observing 9 or more independently significant results out of 32 is only 1.9 x 10-5. If one-tailed tests (in the direction of slowing the rate of hemolysis) had been performed, eight individuals would have shown significant results (t > 1.73), and the overall significance of the experiment would have been 1.4 x 10-4. The correction of several problems and the introduction of further measures suggested by the SOC and by SRI personnel appeared to eliminate extraneous sources of variability which had been observed in the pilot study. Apparently the noise reduction was sufficient to allow the psi signal to be detected. Contrary to what some critics of psi research have implied, tightening the protocol enhanced the psi results instead of reducing them to chance. B. RA Versus IDS Results Because of the extreme variability in the characteristics of human red blood cells and the wide range of times (14 to 42 hours) between blood collection and testing, it is impossible to determine what rate of hemolysis should be expected by chance alone. For this reason, separate control periods were interspersed with the protect period for each subject. To examine the RA and IDS hypotheses, the protect period data first needed to be standardized, so that they could be compared across subjects. To do this, the mean and standard deviation of the ten control period tubes were computed for each subject. Standardized protect period scores were computed by subtracting these means and dividing by the standard deviations for each of the ten protect period values for each subject. Assuming that a given individual's control and protect period data came from the same distribution, these standardized scores (modified slightly by a constant) would follow a Student's t distribution with nine degrees of freedom. This assumption was used to compute the theoretical mean and variance shown in Table 1 under the chance hypothesis. It was assumed that if RA occurred, it would take the form most commonly accepted, i.e., the mean for the protect period would differ from the mean for the control period but the variance would not. The magnitude of this mean shift is denoted in Table 1 by Et. 9 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 It was also assumed that if IDS occurred, it would take the form of inflating the variance of the final z-score distribution from 1.0 to (1.0 + 1)2, but the amount of inflation would be independent of the number of trials used to compute the z-score. In this case, that was equivalent to assuming that the average of the unstandardized protect period scores would have the same mean as the control period scores, but they would have a variance of (1 + 1)2 02/n, where 02 is the variance of the control scores. The usual procedure for comparing RA and IDS is to plot the log of the mean shift for various sequence lengths against the log of the sequence length. IDS theory predicts that the slope of the resulting line would be -0.5. In order for this procedure to be able to distinguish between the two hypotheses, however, the data must conform to certain results which are predicted by both theories. One is that the ratio of the variances of the means for two sequence lengths should be inversely proportional to the ratio of the sequence lengths. As can be seen in Table 1, for this experiment the ratio of variances for the mean of two trials versus the mean of eight trials should be close to four. This result should hold for any of the three hypotheses proposed. Table 2 shows the sample means and standard deviations across all 32 subjects, for the averages of the tubes collected in the two- and eight-tube protect periods, respectively. The change scores were standardized as described above before these averages were computed. Table 2 MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR STANDARDIZED PROTECT DATA N of Tubes Mean Standard Deviation 2 -0.387 1.071 8 -0.134 0.810 As can be seen by these values, the ratio of variances for the two sequence lengths is only 1.75, which is much smaller than the value of 4.0 predicted by all three hypotheses. This implies that the data contain anomalies not covered by any of the theories. One obvious possibility is that the level of psi functioning is different for each individual. The calculations for each of the 10 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 7 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 theories must necessarily assume that if that mechanism is at work, it is functioning at the same level for each individual. Results in other areas of psi research have indicated that level of psi functioning is extremely heterogeneous across individuals, so this assumption may be too restrictive. If either IDS or RA is functioning in different amounts for each subject, it would be impossible to predict what to expect in the combined results under investigation. Future studies of this type should be conducted using a single subject, or at least analyzing the data from each subject separately. In the present study, the data available are insufficient to ascertain whether an individual was following the RA or the IDS model. It is interesting to estimate the psi parameters by comparing the formulas in Table 1 with the values in Table 2. This provides further evidence that the data do not support either theory. The IDS strength parameter, I, would be estimated to be 0.298 or 0.996, based on the standard deviations for the two- and eight-tube conditions, respectively. The standardized mean shift, Ag/cr, is estimated to be -0.354 or -0.122 based on the means in Table 2, and -3.16 or -6.60 based on the standard deviations. Such large inconsistencies would not occur if either theory were valid for this experiment uniformly across subjects. 11 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 REFERENCES 1. May, E. C., Radin, D. I., Hubbard, G. S., Humphrey, B. S., and Utts, J. M., "Psi Experiments with Random Number Generators: An Informational Model," Proceedings of the 28th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, pp. 343-354, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, August, 1985. 2. Hubbard, G. S., and Braud, W. W., "An Experiment to Test Apparent Remote Action (RA) Effects on Electrodermal Activity," Final Report, SRI Project 1291, SRI International, Menlo Park, California, December, 1986. 3. Braud, W. W., Davis, G., and Wood, R., "Experiments with Matthew Manning," Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 50, pp. 199-223, 1979. 12 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 APPENDIX A-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 ' Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 ABSTRACT: A formal investigation was conducted in order to determine whether a relatively large number of unselected subjects would be able to exert a distant mental influence upon the rate of hemolysis of human red blood cells. For each of 32 subjects, red blood cells in 20 tubes were submitted to osmotic stress (hypotonic saline). The subjects attempted to protect the cells in 10 of the tubes, using visualization and intention strategies; the remaining 10 tubes served as non-influence controls. For each tube, rate of hemolysis was measured photometrically over a 1-minute trial period. Subjects and experimenter were "blind" regarding critical aspects of the procedure, and subjects and tubes were located in separate rooms in order to eliminate conventional influences. Results indicated that a significantly greater number of subjects than would be expected on the basis of chance alone showed independently significant differences between their "protect" and "control" tubes (p = 1.91 x 10-5 ). Overall, blood source (i.e., whether the influenced cells were the subject's own cells or those of another person) did not significantly influence the outcome. Additional analyses of the results were performed by SRI International researchers to determine whether the data were better described by remote action (causal) or by intuitive data sorting (informational) predictions; results of those analyses are presented in an appended paper. A-2 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 REMOTE INFLUENCE OF HEMOLYSIS RATE: A CONFIRMATION STUDY William Braud 1 Mind Science Foundation I INTRODUCTION In a preliminary experiment conducted in our laboratory several years ago, a selected subject was able to mentally influence (retard) the rate of hemolysis of human red blood cells (Braud, Davis & Wood, 1979). In that experiment, the blood cells were stressed osmotically by a hypotonic saline solution, and rate of hemolysis was measured photometrically. The significant In vitro effect was interpreted as a successful psychokinetic influence upon a living target system. Throughout this past year, additional experiments were conducted in order to test the generality of this remote influence effect, and to determine whether the effect might be most parsimoniously explained as a true psychokinetic (remote action) effect or, alternatively, as an instance of Intuitive data sorting (see May, Radin, Hubbard, Humphrey & Utts, 1985). The, preliminary experiment had involved a single selected subject and a relatively small number of trials. The present experiments involved many more trials, a large number of unselected subjects, and an improved methodology. Briefly, subjects attempted to mentally retard the rate of hemolysis of osmotically stressed human red blood cells which were isolated from all conventional influences. The subjects and the target system were kept in separate rooms. Rate of hemolysis was accurately monitored by a spectrophotometer interfaced by means of an analog-to-digital converter to a microcomputer. The experimenter operating the equipment was blind regarding the timing of the influence (protect) versus noninfluence (control) attempts. Both experimenter and subject were blind regarding the blood source (subject's own blood versus another person's blood). Summary of the Pilot Phase Thirty-two unselected subjects participated in a Pilot study designed to explore the new methodology and to determine whether blood source (own blood cells versus another person's blood cells) was an important factor. An experimental session involved hemolysis measurements for ten blood tubes. The subject attempted to retard the rate of hemolysis of five of these tubes, mentally and at a distan9e. The remaining five tubes served as control tubes which the subject did not attempt to influence. The five influence and five control tubes were scheduled according to a random sequence which was prepared by a third party and which was unknown to the experimenter who made the hemolysis measurements. Light transmission through each tube (which is proportional to hemolysis) was measured for each second of a two-minute sampling period; the difference between the mean of the initial five seconds and the final five seconds of light measurements yielded a change score which served as the hemolysis measure. Following the completion of the experimental A-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 " Approved ForRelease2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Hemolysis influence Page 2 session, ten additional blood-containing tubes were measured for hemolysis rate. It was intended that these ten measurements would provide additional "non-local" baseline data, and would also be useful in comparing remote action (RA) versus intuitive data sorting (IDS) predictions of the experimental outcome. According to the RA hypothesis, the mean of the five "local" control tubes should be equivalent to the mean of the ten nonlocal baseline tubes, and the mean of the five influence tubes should be lower (i.e., in the direction of less hemolysis or greater protection of the cells) than both of the former means. According to the IDS hypothesis, the mean of the local controls should be above, and that of the influence tubes should be below, that of the nonlocal baseline tubes; the grand mean of the ten tubes for the experimental session should not differ from the mean of the ten nonlocal baseline tubes. An analysis of variance of the hemolysis scores indicated extremely great and highly significant variability among the subjects, but no other significant main effects or interactions. Therefore, significant evidence for a remote influence of the blood cells was not obtained in the Pilot study. There was, however, a nonsignificant tendency for a slight "protection" effect in the "another's blood" condition, while the opposite effect (i.e., less protection during the influence trials) occurred in the "own blood" condition. The nonlocal baseline measurements were found to be inadequate for their intended purpose since, in every case but one, the mean percent light transmittance change score for the ten nonlocal baseline tubes was lower than both experimental sessions means (i.e., consistently lower than both the control and the influence tube means). It was determined that this consistent reduction in hemolysis for the nonlocal baseline tubes (and, to a lesser extent, for the tubes later in the experimental sessions as well) was due to a progressive change in the blood cells contributed by several environmental factors which increased the "noise" level of the experiments and which included higher apparatus (i.e., spectrophotometer tube holder) temperatures during later tests, and increasing exposure of the blood cells to temperature changes, air, and mechanical trauma (i.e., mechanical agitation) during the course of repeated tests of a single blood sample (i.e., multiple tests of the contents of a single Vacutainer blood collection tube). As a result of the Pilot sessions themselves, as well as additional tests conducted concurrently with and subsequent to the Pilot experiment, the sources of these interfering factors were identified and steps could be taken to eliminate or greatly reduce them in the Confirmation study. Temperature changes in the spectrophotometer tube holder were controlled through (a) the addition of an external cooling fan to the apparatus, (b) reducing the durations of the hemolysis measurement periods, and (c) turning off the apparatus except when measurements were actually being made. The substitution of a more effective anticoagulant (acid-citrate-dextrose) for that used in the Pilot study (heparin) greatly diminished the effects of progressive exposure to room temperature, air, and mechanical trauma during repeated pipette samplings, so that hemolysis rate now remained relatively stable over the course of twenty measurements from a given main Vacutainer source tube. When between 20 and 30 samples had been taken from a main Vacutainer tube, this stability began to deteriorate. Summary of the Intermediate Phase of Salinity Tests Following the completion of the Pilot study, salinity tests were conducted A-4 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 ' Approved ForRelease2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Hemolysis influence Page 3 in order to determine salinity values that might mimic anticipated psi-induced hemolysis rate changes. These tests provided the basis for Monte Carlo analyses at SRI International, which were designed to determine appropriate parameters for an adequate differential test of the IDS versus RA predictions of psi functioning which was to be conducted in the Confirmation study. A total of 332 hemolysis trials were completed, using whole blood samples collected from ten different persons. For these tests, the "noise-reducing" improvements mentioned above were incorporated. Hypotonic salinity values of 0.425%, 0.429%, 0.434%, 0.442%, and 0.450% (corresponding, respectively, to 50%, 50.5%, 51%, 52%, and 53.33% of 0.85% Normal physiological saline) were tested. Sampling epochs of one-minute duration were used, rather than the two- minute periods of the Pilot study. All other procedures were identical to those of the Pilot study. These were all, of course, "control" tests in which no subjects attempted to influence the hemolysis process. As anticipated, the "noise-reducing" improvements resulted in the virtual elimination of the extreme variability seen in the Pilot study, and yielded much greater stability (less degradation) of the blood samples. The optimum salinity value for mimicking an anticipated psi-induced reduction of hemolysis rate of approximately 1.0 standard deviation was found to be in the vicinity of 0.429% - 0.434% saline (equivalent to 50.5% - 51.0% of Normal 0.85% physiological saline). Monte Carlo simulation analyses conducted on these salinity data by Scott Hubbard and Ed May at SRI International indicated that, on the basis of the magnitudes of hemolysis changes observed in these Intermediate Phase salinity tests, the use of 2 versus 8 samples (tubes) distributed throughout equivalent "psi effort" periods would provide adequate measurements for a differential test of the IDS versus RA interpretations of any obtained psi effects in the Confirmation experiment. Details of these Monte Carlo simulations are provided in Appendix A. Overview of the Confirmation Study On the basis of the findings of the preliminary study, the Pilot study, and the Intermediate Phase experiments, a formal protocol for the Confirmation study was developed which included the following features. 1. Thirty-two subjects (from the same population, and selected in the same manner, as in the Pilot) would each participate in one experimental session. Hemolysis measurements would be made by the experimenter, W. B. 2. Sixteen subjects would attempt to influence (protect) their own blood cells, and sixteen would attempt to influence the cells of another person. Both subject and experimenter would be blind regarding the source of the blood until all 32 sessions had been completed. This "awn versus other" factor is retained in the Confirmation study because of the trend toward different outcomes in those two conditions observed in the Pilot study. 3. Blood samples would be collected in Vacutainer tubes containing acid- citrate-dextrose (ACD) anticoagulant and would be refrigerated immediately after the blood was drawn. Blood samples would be stored at 4 degrees Celsius and would be removed from the refrigerator only briefly, before each hemolysis trial. 4. Hemolysis trials would be conducted between 14 and 42 hours following a blood draw. The ACD anticoagulant permits cold storage of blood cells for as long as three to four weeks with minimal deterioration of red blood cells, 5. The temperature increase of the spectrophotometer would be minimized A-5 Approved For Release 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 HemAPERVA.Drcelease 2000/08/10 : CIA-RDP96-00787R000300090001-1 Page 4 by means of an external cooling fan, the use of shorter sampling epochs, and allowing the apparatus to remain on only during hemolysis measurement periods. 6. A session would consist of four fifteen-minute periods--two control (C) periods and two protect (P) periods. For half of the subjects, these periods would be scheduled in a CPPC order; for half of the subjects, a PCCP order would be used. This block-counterbalancing design is employed in order to assure that any reasonably linear potential progressive error (such as changes in hemolysis rate due to slight progressive warming of the apparatus) would contribute equally to the two (C and P) conditions and therefore not introduce a systematic bias. Whether a given subject's sequence is CPPC or PCCP would be randomly determined by an associate (M. S.) through use of a RAND table of random numbers. The experimenter doing the hemolysis measurements would, of course, be blind regarding these sequences. A subject would learn his or her proper sequence by consulting a sealed envelope delivered to the subject after the experimenter's interactions with the subject had been completed and the experimenter had returned to his equipment room. 7. The beginning of each fifteen-minute period would be signalled by an appropriate number of tones delivered to the subject's headphones. The subject would have been instructed to attempt to mentally decrease the rate of hemolysis of the distant red blood cells during the two fifteen-minute protect periods. During the two fifteen-minute control periods, the subject would attempt not to think about the experiment and would allow the cells to hemolyze at their normal, rapid rate. During the two protect periods, the subject would view a projected color slide of healthy, intact red blood cells as an aid to visualization and intention. During the two control periods, the subject would close the eyes and think about matters unconnected with the experiment. 8. During each fifteen-minute period, either two or eight hemolysis tubes (samples) would be measured. Monte Carlo analyses conducted at SRI International have indicated that curves derived from two versus eight tubes