A Study of Paranormal Impressions of Psychics

"Account of a systematic and comparative study of psychics and non-psychics. The aims of the study were (a) to study whether the paranormal abilities of psychic justify the suggestion that research with psychics are more promising than the current research approach; (b) to provide a description of what psychics do when they are consulted about persons unknown to them; (c) to study in a systematic way the effects of certain variables on the psychics' paranormal impressions; and (d) to compare the impressions of psychics with impressions of non-psychics obtained under comparable conditions.

The number of participating psychics (12) and non-psychics (two groups of 12), and the number of sessions were established in advance. The study involved 3 series of sessions with psychics under conditions which resembled as much as possible the normal daily practice of psychics (Standard series). In addition, 10 series of sessions were held in which the role of different variables was investigated (Experimental series). These variables were: the type of inductor (photograph vs. object, for instance a ring) in feedback conditions, amount of feedback (extended feedback and confined feedback vs. only confined feedback vs. no feedback), the importance of the problem of the target person (acute—a missing person—vs. less acute), the type of inductor in no-feedback conditions (cheap vs. expensive necklace), the existence of a target person (existent vs. non-existent target person), the social context in which the session was held (presence vs. absence of a sitter), and the presence of the target person (target persons consult the psychics about problems concerning themselves vs. sitters consulting the psychics because of problems related to persons in their environment). Finally, 4 series of sessions were held in which two groups of non-psychics were asked for impressions about target persons (Control series). The groups of non-psychics were (1) a group of randomly selected persons, matched in age, sex and level of education with the psychics (`matched' control group) and (2) a group of doctors, psychologists and lawyers who, because of their profession, are equally experienced as psychics in dealing with problems of people (`professional' control group). The series of sessions with non-psychics involved (a) one standard series in which the subject was given a photograph and an object of the target person and received extended and confined feedback from the sitter and (b) one experimental series in which the subject was given only an object of a target person and received extended and confined feedback from the sitter.

The analysis of each session involved four aspects: the quantitative, informational, structural, and interactional aspect. – Author Abstract