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Volume 11: Number 1: Article 5
Empirical Evidence for a Non-Classical Experimenter Effect: An Experimental, Double-Blind Investigation of Unconventional Information Transfer
Harald Walach and Stefan Schmidt, Department of Psychology, University
of Freiburg, Rehabilitation Psychology, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany
We set up a rigidly controlled, double-blind dowsing experiment with
three repetitions to test whether dowsers are able to extract information
out of a system in an unconventional way. One hundred and four professional
and lay dowsers had to distinguish between randomly distributed, sealed
and indistinguishable probes of pure mineral water or parathione, using
a one-hand dowsing rod. The subjects were unable, on the whole, to distinguish
between the probes better than chance. Performance was significantly
negatively correlated with paranormal beliefs. Subjects instructed by
one among three blinded experimenters were able to distinguish between
the probes significantly better than chance. As we have excluded any
conceivable way of leakage of relevant information, we conclude that
we found a non-classical experimenter effect.
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