[ Back ]
From: Esalen Center for Theory and Research
Date: 1/21/2001
Time: 2:24:38 PM
Remote Name: 204.116.134.62
From: Esalen Center for Theory and Research "Subtle Energies and Uncharted Realms of the Mind": an Esalen Invitational Conference, July 2nd to 7th, 2000
The Interface of Consciousness and the Physical World Marilyn Schlitz*
The presentation discussed the results of a recent experiment conducted by the author and Stephen LaBerge, in which a person's autonomous nervous system (ANS) response was recorded while they were stared at intermittently by another person viewing them on a video camera in another room. Despite the complete sensory shielding from each other, "there was a statistically significant increase in ANS when people were being stared at".
A similar experiment was then replicated by a "skeptical researcher" in England (Richard Wiseman) - who, following the same protocols, did not obtain any significant results.
Finally, a third experiment allowed M. Schlitz and R. Wiseman to conduct the study together, first in England, then in Schlitz's lab in California. What they found was that the subjects who did the experiment with M. Schlitz produced significant results, while Wiseman's did not.
This has lead Schlitz to postulate the influence of an "experimenter effect" as being responsible for the unusual outcome of the studies. Various modifications to the original experimental design were then proposed, intended to determine whether the experimenter effect occurs at the preparation stage or during the actual experiment, and whether expectations can cancel each other out.
* Marilyn Schlitz is the director of Research at the Institute for Noetic Sciences (IONS)
(Synopsis by L. Sidorov. For more details on this presentation, see original write-up at www.esalenctr.org)