Downloaded from PSINET - Steve Woodward Excerpts from +quot;The Coming of Psi Technology+q

Downloaded from PSINET - Steve Woodward

Excerpts from "The Coming of Psi Technology"

From the Applied Psi Newsletter

By Alan Vaughan

.    In the one hundred years since the study of psychic  phenomena began in
1882, parapsychology has inched its way toward increasing control and
reliability of psi phenomena.  Recent breakthroughs promise the coming of a
true psi technology--the use of enhanced psi-mediated information together with
sophisticated techniques for application in many sectors of society.  The
following areas look particularly promising:

Remote Viewing

.    In California at SRI International, two physicists and a psi practitioner
have been inducing people to describe unknown, remote locations.  The psi
practitioner, New York artist Ingo Swann, had shown himself to be a star
subject by using his ESP to accurately describe a location when given only the
geographical coordinates.  The physicists, Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ,
then tested over a hundred "average" people and found that two-thirds of them
were successful in activating their ESP in remote viewing experiments.  Some of
these experiments involved precognitive remote viewing.  The researchers found
that visual impressions were more often dominant in accurate psychic
perceptions than were verbal or analytical statements.

.    Remote viewing experiments carried out at other laboratories also
demonstrated that "average" people have more than a 50-50 chance at success in
activating their latent ESP abilities under the proper conditions.

The Psi Experimenter Effect

.    For years parapsychology was embarrassed about the unpredictability of ESP
results.  Some experimenters consistently obtained high ESP scores from their
subjects, whereas other experimenters consistently got very poor scores.  Two
researchers (from New York City College, Gertrude Schmeidler and Michaeleen
Maher (1981), recently discovered that these two classes of experimenters can
be distinguished just by having independent judges observe them.  Viewers of
videotapes, unfamiliar with parapsychology, rated the psi-conducive
experimenters as being more enthusiastic and scores from their subjects,
whereas other experimenters consistently got very poor scores.

.    With this insight from Schmeidler and Maher, it is now possible to some
degree to control the results in psi experiments.  If positive results are
desired, the enthusiastic and flexible type of experimenter should be enlisted.

Enhancing ESP Reliability

.    Can ESP be used to receive messages reliably?  Even the best psi
practitioners can be erratic.  So, Dr. Milan Ryzl, formerly of Czechoslovakia
and now of San Jose, devised a color-code scheme for sending an ESP message
with his well tested psychic, Pavel Stepanek.  By repeatedly guessing at the
same targets, Stepanek was able to receive without error a message of three
five-digit numbers.

.    Stepanek so distinguished himself at guessing the color of concealed green
and white cards that he won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as
the highest consistent performer in ESP tests.  His odds against chance reached
astronomical values (i.e., one chance in 10 to the 50th power).

Applications of Psi Technology

.    How can psi technology be applied?  Take oil well drilling.  Geological
techniques alone typically yield a 10% success rate; that is, for every gusher,
there are nine dry holes on the average.  Psi technology might raise that rate
up to 40 percent or more.  Even if the rate were only slightly improved,
millions of dollars now wasted on dry wells could be saved--perhaps put to work
to study psi technology and its further effectiveness.