Gay Life, Straight Work

by Donald West

  A somewhat similar idea was tested years ago by Professor Susan Blackmore, long before she became a prominent sceptic. Slight stimuli, of which we are unaware, may be subliminally perceived and affect our reactions, a phenomenon that advertisers have tried to exploit. For example, if subjects are required to make blind guesses at symbols so faint, so small, or so briefly exposed, that they cannot see them, they do in fact guess better than at a chance level. By gradually reducing the stimulus Blackmore wanted to see if some of this effect might be due to ESP, but as soon as the target symbols became absolutely invisible the effect disappeared.

  It was in the context of spontaneous examples of apparent telepathy in everyday life that experimental testing was developed, but the small statistical deviations obtained in most experiments are of a lesser order of magnitude. One problem may be the difficulty of reproducing in psychological laboratories the circumstances in which they normally occur. Consider, for instance, the rather common experience of sensing the identity of an unexpected telephone caller. This does not happen with every call, and when it does there is often some unanticipated but significant reason for the call. The circumstances in which the telephone effect occurs spontaneously differ from the usual testing situation, in which one of four friends is randomly selected and asked to call the subject, who is required to decide before picking up the receiver which of the four is ringing. Dr Rupert Sheldrake is at present actively engaged on automated tests of the phenomenon through the internet, with very promising results, but whether this will prove repeatable by others remains to be seen.

  The Ganzield technique of telepathy testing has achieved a degree of replication. While in a reflective, dreamy state of mild sensory deprivation – induced with opaque eye shields and white noise played though headphones – subjects are asked to describe distantly displayed target pictures or video clips Objective statistical evaluation is achieved by having independent judges match the subject’s response to four targets from the same source pool, only one of which is the target that was actually used. The matches are ranked in order of closeness of resemblance. Results have been variable, but meta-analyses, combining results from a complete series of all the most carefully conducted tests, suggests that the occasional failures to obtain significant scores are over-ridden by a generally positive effect.

  In a somewhat similar method, called remote viewing, an agent is directed to visit a pre-selected site while the subject, closeted at a distance, tries to describe the place. The method was widely used in a government backed scheme in the USA during the Cold War, when it was hoped it might aid espionage. Funding eventually ceased and the value of the research done remains controversial.

  Perhaps the clearest illustration of the difficulty of pinning down in laboratory experimentation the elusive ESP and PK effects is the story of the PEAR team of well-trained researchers, working over a quarter century at the engineering department of Princeton University, conducting PK tests with random number generators and remote viewing ESP experiments. By their retirement in 2007 they had published numerous papers reporting small, but statistically highly significant results from rigorously conducted tests using volunteer subjects with no prior claim to psychic abilities. However, in subsequent collaborative PK tests at two other laboratories, using the same protocols, neither reproduced their straightforward, persuasively significant, positive effects. However, puzzling and unexpected ‘secondary’ statistical effects emerged, which they did not consider explicable by chance.

  The Pear group’s remote viewing experiments were conducted as precognitive tests, with the target locations not selected until after the subjects’ impressions were recorded. Over a period of years, subjects produced a variety of effects, but predominantly positive deviations in the direction expected, with a cumulative positive score reaching astronomical odds against a chance effect. Then they introduced what was intended to be a more sensitive method of judging resemblances, after which the ‘psi’ effect virtually disappeared. A simple, repeatable formula for success was never achieved. They concluded that whereas genuine effects of incontestable importance had been recorded, outcomes were sensitive to often uncontrollable psychological influences, such as mood, expectation, attitude and fatigue of both the subjects and experimenters involved.

  This conclusion coincides with my own views, namely that sufficient positive results have been obtained in innumerable well-conducted tests by so many different experimenters at widely separate academic centres, that belief in ‘psi’ effects is justified, but that adequate explanation of how these occur or how to control them eludes us. That said, some fairly well supported generalisations have emerged that add to the impression of a genuine effect. A substantial independence of psi effects from separation of subject and target by either distance or time is an initially incredible finding that has been repeatedly claimed. The appearance of ‘psi’ is encouraged by selecting subjects who are imaginative and open-minded, perhaps having had experiences they consider paranormal, putting them into a relaxed, dreamy state, and using targets that are interesting or emotional. Such experiments give strong support to the existence of a real effect. Even so, it must be admitted that progress sufficient to make parapsychology an accepted branch of science is a long way off. At a personal level, I have had the task over many years of studying scores of experimental projects that have received grants from either the SPR or the Perrott Warrick Fund. None has produced anything like a break-through. Nevertheless, the persistent indications that sometimes there are correlations between human mentation and the external world, other than via the known mechanisms of the brain and sensory systems, justify continued effort.

  Many parapsychologists seek to underplay the possibility that ‘psi’ effects may point to an independence of mind from brain and to a hope for some form of survival of the mind after death. In recent years there has been a renewal of interest in objective evaluations of information given by mediums, which they could not have acquired by normal means, and which are usually presented in the guise of communications from spirits to their surviving relatives. My research in the late Forties, using proxy sitters, and requiring target persons to identify blindly which of a series of readings was meant for them, was an attempt in this direction. In 2000, I published a paper (SPR Proceedings, 64, 233–241) arguing the near-impossibility of obtaining scientific evidence of paranormality from statements made when medium and client are talking face to face, allowing all kinds of clues to be transmitted unintentionally, or when no statistical check on chance coincidence is applied.

  By way of illustration of the problems of drawing firm conclusions under such conditions, I reviewed a case of supposed communications though the well-known medium Mrs Osborn Leonard, a long report of which appeared in SPR Proceedings in 1920, authored by the sitters, Radcliffe Hall and Una Troubridge. I admit choosing this particular example, not only because it was typical of its kind, but also because of its sexual background. Radcliffe Hall, known among her social circle as ‘John’, had recently formed a lesbian partnership with Una. John was soon to become notorious as the author of a banned lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness. The supposed communicator, who was referred to as AVB, was the recently deceased Mabel Batten, Una’s cousin, a lady well known in aristocratic circles, whose requiem mass in Westminster Cathedral was attended by many titled persons. Shortly before her death, Una had supplanted her in John’s affections. Among the messages from the beyond came a reassurance that this no longer distressed her. This emotionally charged background, to which no reference was made in the published report, might suggest a strong motive for a spirit communication, but might equally account for the surviving couple’s readiness to accept the ‘message’.

  The entranced medium made numerous statements about AVB, her house, and her dog, which were said to be beyond what Mrs Leonard could have known or found out. A weakness, however, was that the note-taker at the sittings was Una, who could not have recorded every word and gesture. Moreover, in vie
w of the couple’s friendly relations with Mrs Leonard outside the sittings, the medium might have been guided by casual allusions made by them, but unnoticed or forgotten. Some SPR members who knew John and Una were also the medium’s clients. Even assuming Mrs Leonard made no inquiries herself, the extent of possible leakage of information is uncertain. Furthermore, the statements only occasionally gave precise details and were sometimes ambiguous or definitely incorrect, so the scope for coincidental matches is unknowable.

  The effort to avoid mention of lesbian partnerships proved futile. John was a member of the SPR Council and a fellow member, Fox Pitt, a friend of Una’s aggrieved husband, denounced her as an immoral person and a rubbish investigator unfit to serve on the Council. This led to a trial for slander heard before the Lord Chief Justice in 1921. John withdrew her charge when Fox Pitt organised an appeal against an initial decision in her favour. Newspaper commentary exposed her relationships to much criticism. All this happened at a time when the extension of the criminal law to cover lesbianism was a live issue.

  In the last few years some determined attempts have been made, both in Britain and the USA, to apply a more scientific approach to the investigation of mediums. The sitters, whose identities are concealed from the medium, are kept at a distance while she is dictating her impressions. Afterwards, they are given several transcripts to score for personal relevance, without knowing which one was intended for them. Results have shown positive statistical effects indicative of above chance associations between mediums’ statements and the target persons, but the level of success has been small in comparison with what might have been expected from the enthusiastic claims of mediums’ supporters. Few mediums are able or willing to work under such conditions, which could well be genuinely inhibitory.

  Demonstrations of paranormally acquired information, however impressive they may be, do not settle the issue of where the information comes from. The uninspiring banality of most of the material emanating from mediums is not in keeping with claims to lofty origin. Among numerous communications purportedly from distinguished scientists and scholars there is a total lack of fresh insights. As proof of identity, remembered passwords, telephone numbers, even surnames, are rarely on offer. The supposed contacts with spirits are far from mimicking a telephone connection. Popular TV presentations of extraordinary performances by mediums are frustrating to serious researchers. Celebrated psychics are reluctant to offer their services for research that is not financially rewarding and may not promote their reputation. The failure to obtain results in keeping with a medium’s public image can produce unpleasant recriminations from him and his supporters, as I found to my cost when collaborating with the renowned sceptic Professor Richard Wiseman in one such experiment.

  Obtaining scientific evidence for ‘psi’ from the study of everyday experiences remains no less frustrating than experimental testing. Belief in the paranormal is widespread, as are experiences that people attribute to telepathy, premonition, ghosts or inexplicable forces. In any gathering where the conversation turns to the paranormal, there are always some who have personal stories to relate. My last attempt at investigation in this field was yet another survey, published in 1990 (SPR Proceedings, 57, 163–204). Respondents were presented with a questionnaire about experiences they may have had and their belief or scepticism about ESP. From 1,129 questionnaires presented to members of the public, largely in Cambridge, 840 (74.4%) produced a response. Well-educated respondents were over-represented, 110 being graduates at Darwin College where I was a Fellow. Interestingly, this group were almost as forthcoming with positive experiences as were townsfolk. In some sections of the sample, notably where collectors had used doorstep calling or approaches to work colleagues, there was virtually 100% response. The frequency of experiences reported among these groups was much the same as in the remainder of the sample, suggesting that the 25% who had not bothered to respond had not greatly biased the results.

  A third of respondents found the reality of ESP either “probable” or “a fact”. The proportion reporting distinct hallucinatory experiences, mostly apparitions, sometimes voices, was 11.3%, comparable to the figure obtained in the nineteenth century SPR Census and in my small 1950s survey via ‘Mass Observation’. Most of these experiences were not claimed to correspond to any external reality or event, although they had often created an unforgettable impression, especially when described as unique in the respondent’s lifetime. Some attempted, not very convincingly, to attribute meaning to their experience. For instance, a sixty-seven year old recalled a “very realistic” experience when a young man in the air force. He was sleeping in a hut with twenty-six others when he awoke feeling a weight on the foot of his bed and saw his deceased father sitting there. He also sensed the aroma of the tobacco his father used to smoke. He sat up and the apparition touched his head, saying “Don’t worry, I’ll look after you”. Sometime later he had a lucky escape when his participation in a flight was cancelled and the plane he should have been in crashed. Even supposing this distant memory to be accurate, the connection between the vision and the event, both as to content and timing, was too tenuous to eliminate coincidence.

  Only one response came near to the many cases of apparitions coinciding with crisis or death of the person ‘seen’ that were frequent in earlier surveys. The respondent reported having been woken by her dead uncle with his hand on her shoulder shaking her. He told her not to go to work as her mother needed her. When she got up in the morning she thought it must have been a dream. However, when she got to work she was told to go home as they had word her mother had been stabbed, which had indeed happened. Unfortunately this questionnaire had been returned without any identification, so further inquiries were not possible. It seems almost a rule in these kind of investigations that the best cases are the most elusive when it comes to seeking corroboration. Another case that seemed to communicate verifiable information, concerned a young law graduate. She recalled that two years previously, arriving at the house of her future fiancé, she saw through the open door of the sitting room an elderly man in a navy blue sweater sitting in an armchair. After a pause to hang up coats, she entered the room and was surprised to find the chair empty. Convinced that the man must have slipped out into the bathroom, she waited a while before asking if he was finished so she could use the bathroom. When she described her vision her friend joked that it sounded like his dead grandfather. His mother took the matter more seriously, because the chair was the one her father always used, and a blue, fisherman’s style sweater had been his favourite. The young lawyer was so puzzled she went back to the position from where she had seen the figure, but could find nothing that might have formed the basis of an illusion. Because this informant happened to be one of my students, and was not keen to pursue the matter, no further inquiries were made.

  Supposedly premonitory dreams were the most frequently reported experience, but the accounts given were often disappointingly vague and unverifiable. The most interesting one was a vivid dream, on the night of 18 Oct. 1988, of a helicopter gunship shooting at a Pan Am jet airliner, causing it to fall and crash into some buildings. The dreamer related this to her husband and daughter in the morning, each of whom confirmed their recollection of it in letters to me. The fatal explosion of a Pan Am airliner over Locherbie occurred on 21st Dec., 1988. This was held to be fulfilment of the dream. The dreamer had received our questionnaire before that date, but unfortunately had not completed it until afterwards. The two months gap between the dream and the disaster increased the possibility of coincidence.

  My experience with this survey, and in other attempts at following up individual cases, confirms the difficulty of obtaining unchallengeable proof of stories that at first sight appear convincing. Experimental psychologists have developed questionnaires that purport to measure dimensions of personality, such as fantasy proneness, transliminality and schizotypy, that correlate both with proneness to anomalous experiences and with readiness to believe in the paran
ormal. Transliminality includes unusually imaginative fantasy, self-absorption in private thoughts, magical ideation etc. Schizotypy embraces ideas of reference (finding personal meaning in irrelevant events) unusual perceptive experiences (e.g. hearing voices), cognitive disorganisation (attention difficulties), and introverted anhedonia (unsociable, with a preference for solitude). In extreme form schizotypy merges into schizophrenic psychosis. Although not usually expressed so brutally, the implication is that reports of paranormal experiences are the product of over-active imagination, irrational thinking and faulty perception and interpretation, in short subjective and illusory.

  As an explanation for experimental ‘psi’ effects, findings about the fallibility of subjects’ perception and memory are irrelevant, since a fundamental feature of ‘psi’ testing is immediate, objective recording. However, by attaching these sceptical-sounding measures to ‘psi’ tests, parapsychologists have been able to get their reports accepted by mainstream journals.

  From the earliest days of psychical research, investigators have been aware of the role of exaggeration and self-deception in reports of psychic experiences, especially memory distortions from emotional attachment to a particular interpretation. The best safeguards are witness corroboration and recording of psychic impressions in advance of their apparent confirmation. Owing to the circumstances and personal nature of spontaneous psychic impressions, these requirements for a legal standard of proof are rarely available in the majority of cases. However, there are some very well authenticated and convincing incidents tucked away in the vast literature of psychical research. The personality variables cited are implausible as an explanation of the more credible cases, since the testimonies are often of a quality that could only be challenged by an assumption of virtual insanity or gross dishonesty. I do not go along with the idea that the study of testamentary evidence is unscientific. What is puzzling, however, is the increasing rarity of well-authenticated cases, perhaps because people have become lazy about producing careful reports, or perhaps because the development of instant communication by mobile phones and the like have diminished the need for paranormal impressions.