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Volume 12: Number 4: Article 5
Experimental Studies on Telepathic Group Communication of Emotions
Jan Dalkvist and Joakim Westerlund, Department of Psychology, Stockholm
University, S-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden
Four experiments testing for telepathic communication of emotions,
evoked by slides, between a group of "senders" and a group of "receivers"
using a total of 210 undergraduate students as subjects, are reported.
Analysis of variance of aggregated data showed a significant difference
among: a) believers in telepathy (n = 53), scoring below chance
level, b) undecided (n = 105), scoring above chance level, and
c) non-believers (n = 48), who did not deviate from chance level.
Except for a minor deviation in the first experiment, the same pattern
was obtained in all four experiments. The first picture presented exhibited
a significant positive deviation from the value expected by chance.
Hit score showed an inverted U-formed relationship to rated involvement,
with negative scores for very high involvement values. Scores on an
"openness" test, administered at the end of Experiment 4, did not show
any relationship to performance, except for a significant negative correlation
between a belief-in-telepathy item and hit score. In general, the results
from the first three experiments were replicated in the fourth experiment,
where all conceivable experimental errors had been eliminated. A so-called
Monte Carlo Method, which is free from all statistical assumptions,
confirmed the results obtained by traditional methods. Except for sampling
error, no probable "natural" explanation of the findings could be found.
Keywords: parapsychology, ESP, telepathy, psi, belief, emotion
FULL TEXT:
Experimental Studies on Telepathic Group Communication of Emotions
