Scoring by a Sensitive
Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association
No. 7, 1970
PP 65-67
R. L. MORRIS*, F. KLEIN, J. KLEIN and W.G. ROLL
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION and
G. WHEELER, DUKE UNIVERSITY
Lalsingh Harribance’s (L.H.’s) ability to succeed at an ESP guessing task under tight conditions encouraged us to examine his EEG patterns under these conditions. The design of the experiment was very similar to that of Series B in the study reported in "Further Forced-Choice Tests with Lalsingh Harribance" (by Judith Klein and W.G. Roll, p. 23, this issue). L.H. was in the same room as before. J.K., the EEG technician (either G.W. or R.L.M.), and the EEG machine were in the adjoining room. The target cards were the same ten male-female cards used before. Eleven sessions were run, ten of which had ten runs of ten trials each. An eleventh had only five runs. The sessions were spread over seven days.
EEG recording was bipolar, left occipital to right occipital. L.H.’s EEG was recorded during an initial rest period. Following this, J.K. shuffled the cards six times and rapped lightly on her table. Upon hearing this rap, the technician knocked once on the wall to inform L.H. to begin writing his calls, and marked the EEG. J.K. then laid out all ten cards on a blanket, face down. When L.H. finished, he flicked a switch that activated a light by the technician, who marked the EEG record again. J.K. then took down the order of the cards according to the number on the card face. Immediately following this, the procedure was repeated until ten runs had been done. If L.H. desired to do a second session, he signaled the experimenters with the light. After a brief rest, the second session began.
After completion of each session, J.K. immediately gave her target sheet plus a carbon to W.G.R. and his secretary, Mrs. J. Evans. The technician obtained L.H.’s response sheet plus a carbon and did the same. R.L.M. later collected one copy of each from Mrs. Evans, and W.G.R. retained the others. At the completion of the experiment, R.L.M. and Donna Rigsbee independently scored the results. Until this time no one had known the results.
The EEG records of the actual runs, which had been in R.L.M.’s possession, were coded and given to F.K. He scored these for percent-time alpha during each run and during the 10 seconds prior to each run. The criterion for evaluating alpha consisted of three successive complete cycles of at least .2 cm. amplitude. The amplitude was determined empirically by consideration of other EEG records of L.H. We chose to examine the alpha rhythm because others had found relationships between level of alpha and ESP scoring, and because L.H.’s description of his internal state led us to expect a relationship in his case.
Because L.H. appeared on the third day to be taking a very short time on some of his runs, we questioned him afterward and found that he had occasionally made his responses before the target cards were in place. Accordingly, we agreed to add a 50-trial session at the end of the series to compensate for the number of runs lost.
The results were as follows: for 1050 calls, L.H. had a deviation of +132 (CR = 8.15, P<10-12). High-scoring runs (scores of 8, 9, and 10) showed more percent-time alpha than did chance runs (scores of 4, 5, and 6); P<.05, Mann-Whitney U Test. High-scoring runs also showed a greater increase in percent-time alpha from the preceding 10-second period to the actual run than did chance runs (.03>P>.02, Mann-Whitney U Test). It should be noted that all runs of conspicuously short duration were removed from the above alpha analyses. (However, recalculation of the results with the short runs included revealed no change.)
These results provide information about L.H.’s subjective state only during the time he is making his responses, and not necessarily during the time that he is acquiring his information (whenever that may be). The presence of more alpha during L.H.’s good runs, with respect to his alpha immediately preceding these runs, suggests that L.H. does better when he shifts from an active, cognitive state to one of relaxed awareness, free of thoughts. This is consistent with his personal description of his internal state.
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