STUDY OF SOME ESP TESTING METHODS AND THEIR VALIDITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000300070001-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 34
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 15, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: RP

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A STUDY OF SOME ESP TESTING METHODS AND THEIR VALIDITY
MOXIE TEGANZHIGONGNENGDE CESHIFANGFA JI QI ZHENSHIXING DE YANJIU
BY: Gong Wenyao, Hou Yueli, Jiang Xiuying, Zhang Linfu, Zhou
Liangzhou, Li Xianggao and Zhai Tingxiang
(Institute of Aerospace Medical Engineering)
ABSTRACT
Based to testing principles determined by the
institute, we established testing methods for the
ability to see objects through a wall, seeing objects
underneath dirt in a flowerpot to simulate seeing
underground, and a method of testing mental telepathy
abilities. The results of this study were decisive.
The paranormal abilities of the subjects to see objects
through a wall, inside flowerpots and to perform mental
telepathy actually existed.
KEY WORDS: Extrasensory perception (ESP), Seeing objects through
a wall, paranormal vision, target object, and mental telepathy.
Parapsychological phenomena which can not yet be explained
through known science primarily include Extrasensory Perception
(ESP) and Psychokinesis (PK). ESP refers to persons with
paranormal abilities being able to obtain knowledge of objects,
events or other people's thoughts without the use of ordinary
sensory organs or any ordinary sensory channel[s]. an example of
this is Clairvoyance. This includes paranormal vision and
paranormal remote vision of remote objects or events. It includes
Precognition, which is knowledge of future events and telepathy
which is the direct transmission and communications of thoughts.
Up to the present, there are a number of different views in
the debate over whether extrasensory perception actually
exists[2'3'4]. Those who say it does exist believe it we must see
the phenomenon actually exists, but there is not as yet a
satisfactory scientific explanation for it. Those who say it does
not exist believe that the phenbomenon is strictly imaginary, and
that the necessary foundation for parapsychology to exist as a
special science is not there.
Since March of 1979 when the "Sichuan Daily" reported the
phenomenon of "reading characters with the ears" of Tang Yu, the
research into ESP in China can generally be divided into
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experimental research into paranormal character recognition[5],
paranormal vision [61 and mental telepathy [7]. At the same time,
there have been some useful explorations into the physical
characteristics of the phenomena of ESP [ 8, 9" 10, 11 ] .
As a new field of scientific research, ESP research is
currently still primarily operating at the research stage of
accumulating facts. However, sometimes testing methods are not
strict enough and some reports which have not been verified by
stringent repeat testing, and at times there is some fakery, and
also there are many factors which influence the results of this
testing. Under these conditions, it is understandable why people
harbor some suspicion about the reality of paranormal abilities.
The constructive opinions and criticism they offer concerning the
question of existence should be welcomed. We believe that one of
the primary reason for the different opinions concerning the
phenomenon of paranormal abilities is that there are debates and
differences over the research methods themselves.
Therefore, when verifying the reality of ESP, the first thing
should be to establish a set of strict ESP testing methods. This
is the primary precondition for answering the question of whether
or not it objectively exists.
The objective of this study is to study and draw up testing
methods appropriate for certain ESP abilities to lay a foundation
in methodology for its basic and applied research. At the same
time it presents a founded answer to whether certain ESP abilities
actual exists.
We conducted 1,567 individual-occasion formal tests of 21
persons who claimed to have certain types of ESP (including 4 males
and 17 females, ages were between 10 and 40, and levels of
education between elementary school and college). As a control
group we used 14 persons (all female, ages between 19 and 43, and
educational levels from junior middle school and college) upon
which we conducted 1,198 individual-occasion control tests (see
Table One).
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TABLE ONE: TESTING OF SUBJECTS AND CONTROLS
1. Type of ESP. 2. Seeing through walls. 3. Seeing inside flower
pot. 4. Mental telepathy. 5. ESP subjects. 6. Number of people.
7. Number of tests. 8. Controls. 9. Number of people. 10. Number
of tests.
When establishing testing methods for ESP abilities, we
decided on the following principles:
1. Random and precise selection of target objects and timely
and accurate recording of the ESP results to avoid any lack of
certainty about the description of the target object.
2. Pay attention to the double blind of the preparing of the
samples and repeatability of the test results.
3. Establish a principle of combining control groups and
blank experiments.
4. Conduct the experiments when the ESP subjects feel their
abilities are in an optimum state.
Based on the above principles, the methods and results of the
experiments on ESP abilities are described separately below.
I. EXPERIMENTS ON SEEING AN OBJECT THROUGH A WALL
1. The Methods Used in the Experiments on Seeing an object
Through a Wall.
The subjects and the target objects were separated with a
solid brick wall (see Illustration One).
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LN134-93
ILLUSTRATION ONE: DIAGRAM OF EXPERIMENTS ON SEEING THROUGH A WALL
1. Target Object. 2. Blank. 3. Partitioning wall. 4. Subject.
In order to ensure the objects are clearly identified, we used
an equilateral triangle 18 centimeters on a side, a square, half a
circle with a radius of 18 centimeters and a full circle. The ESP
subjects felt that red target objects were easier to sense, so in
the experiments it was decided to use red wooden target objects.
In the experiments, these four target objects and a blank
experiment where was no object occurred at random. The random
sequence was provided by a computer.
Here, we would like to briefly describe the specific
conditions at the location of the experiments.
On one occasion, the experiment was conducted in two adjoining
rooms separated by a brick wall at the Anshan Hotel in Anshan (see
Illustration Two). It takes effort for a person with ESP to see
through a wall when the person is in a fairly dark room, so the
window in one of the rooms was covered with a carpet, and during
the experiment, the ESP subjects sat in this (B) room attempting to
see the objects displayed by the person running the experiment (a)
in room (A). The person running the experiment (b) sat in room (B)
inside the door, and after the ESP subject had (seen) and recorded
the target object, he gave the person running the experiment (a)
the signal to change the target object.
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ILLUSTRATION TWO: DIAGRAM OF FIRST SEE THROUGH WALL EXPERIMENT
WITH SUBJECT ZHAO
1. Person running the experiment (b). 2. ESP subject (being
tested). 3. Window. 4. door. 5. Person running the experiment
(a). 6. ESP subject (not being tested). 7. Corridor.
During the progress of the experiment, the doors and windows
of rooms (A) and (B) were always kept closed. No one could enter
or leave either of the rooms. Because of the limited conditions at
the time, the other ESP subject who had not yet been tested also
sat in room (A).
The subjects were Zhao Ying and Zhao Li.
Two years later, we repeated the seeing through the wall
experiment with Zhao Ying. The type of target objects and method
of display were the same as in the first experiment.
The testing location was room 821 in the Scientific Research
Building of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine Engineering (see
Illustration Three). The ESP subject Zhao YIng sat in a soundproof
room and attempted to see target objects displayed on the other
side of the wall by experimenter (a). Experimenter c sat outside
the door to the soundproof room, and when the ESP subject had
finished attempting to visualize the target object and had noted it
down, he would inform experimenter b of this who would then rap on
the door to notify experimenter c who would then rap on the door of
the main room to inform experimenter A that he could change target
objects.
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ILLUSTRATION THREE: SECOND SEE THROUGH THE WALL EXPERIMENT
WITH ZHAO
1. Room. 2. Experimenter C. 3. Experimenter B. 4. Soundproof
room. 5.
Corridor. 6. Window. 7. Experimenter A. 8. Partitioning wall.
9. Door.
During the experiment, the doors between the rooms were all
kept closed, and no one was allowed in or out of the rooms.
The vast majority of the seeing through a wall experiments
were conducted under these conditions.
2. Results of Seeing Through a Wall Experiments.
We see from the results in Table Two that rate of correct
responses by the ESP subjects ranged from 15.0 to 79.4 percent.
The accuracy rate of the vast majority of ESP subjects was very
near the individual natural probabilities. The accuracy rates in
seeing target objects through a wall for subjects Zhao Ying, Zhao
Li and Wang Haiyen were 79.4, 51.0 and 41.7 percent respectively.
The accuracy rates for the controls were below or near the
individual natural probabilities.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT NUMBER GROUPS ACCURACY NATURAL
(N) (PERCENT) PROBABILITY
(PERCENT)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wang
X X
320
14
27.4
25.0
Zhang
X X
204
11
31.1
25.0
Wang
X X
60
3
41.7
25.0
Lin X
X
40
2
30.0
25.0
Liu X
X
60
3
23.3
20.0
Xue X
X
80
4
27.5
25.0
Wang
X
20
1
15.0
20.0
Zhao
X
160
8
79.4
20.0
Zhao
X
100
5
51.0
20.0
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CONTROLS
Xie X X
100
5
22.0
25.0
Yu X X
80
4
23.7
20.0
Yue X X
110
5
18.7
25.0
Yang X X
110
5
25.7
25.0
Wu X X
300
14
25.3
25.0
Jiang X X
124
6
19.2
25.0
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TABLE TWO: RESULTS OF SEEING THROUGH A WALL EXPERIMENTS
We derived the mean value of the difference between the
accuracy rate and natural probability rate each person of the
control group and of each ESP subject and performed statistical
analysis. We can see from the results (Table Three) how Wang
Haiyan, Zhao Ying and Zhao Li fared compared to the control group.
in this table, ** is p