A DYNAMIC PK EXPERIMENT WITH INGO SWANN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130005-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 5
• Content Type: RP

Approved For Releaoe'2003/09/04: CIA-RDP96-00787R0002130005-3
A DYNAMIC PK EXPERIMENT WITH INGO SWANN
Edwin C. Mayl and Charles Honorton
Maimonides Medical Center
We report a preliminary study of psychokinetic influence on a
noise-driven binary random generator with Ingo Swann. Mr..Swann
.has produced significant psi effects in a variety of controlled
tests in three different laboratories. He may, without exaggeration,
be called an applied specialist in this area. Our primary objective,
therefore, was not merely to provide another demonstration of PK, or
of Mr. Swann's abilities, but rather, to introduce him to this form
of psychokinetic task,in order to assess the feasibility of develop-
ing a systematic research effort that would utilize Mr. Swann's in
sight and ability to maximum advantage.
One of us (ECM) had described the instrument, which we call
PSIFI, in detail to Mr. Swann and it appeared appropriate that we
should take a "physics" approach to the PK task. Before the experi-
ment began, we explained the internal workings of the instrument and
the basic physics principles involved to Mr. Swann. We partially
dismantled the sensitive sections of the instrument for his inspection,
pointing out internal data paths and the source of the random noise.
1
Present address: Physics Dept., City College of San Francisco..
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May and IIonorton/2
These were marked with tape. Further, we explained two possible
physics-type phenomena that would dramatically alter the behavior
of the instrument.
While Mr. Swann frequently peered into the open top of the
instrument and took frequent notes, we took data for runs of 103
trials at a generation rate of 50/sec. Mr. Swann operated the
instrument by manually depressing the reset button at the beginning
of each run. Feedback was provided via a scaler reading of the
run score. We informed Mr. Swann that chance expectation was 500/
run and that a significant influence on the instrument would be
reflected by consistent deviations from this mean.
Overall, 29 runs of 103 trials were completed. The mean run
score of 493 is statistically significant (t = 2.71, 28 df, p = .011,
2-tailed). The. mean run score for the first 10 runs was 495.4 (n.s.)
for the second set of 9 runs the mean was 493.1 (n.s.). The last
set of 10 runs was taken while Mr. Swann's EEG was being monitored.
During these runs, he was in a sound-attenuated room, adjacent to
the instrument room. 'These runs were independently significant,
with a mean of 491.8 (t = 2.630 9 df, p = .027).
One hour after Mr.. Swann's departure from the. laboratory, C.H.
ran a control series of 3 x 105 trials (i.e., 30 runs of 104 trials).
The control runs showed excellent approximation to theoretical
chance expectation, with a mean of 499.7 (t = 0.11, 29 df, p = .91).
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May and Honorton/3
We conclude that Mr. Swann was successful in exerting a psycho-
kinetic influence on the instrument. We also regard the.following
trends as provocative and highly suggestive of directions for
further collaborative research with Mr. Swann:
? Performance improved (and was independently significant)
with increased distance from the instrument. During the
last 10 runs, Mr. Swann was separated from the instrument
by distance and by two double steel walls.
? Performance showed steady improvement from the beginning
to end of session.
? Variability of performance decreased from the first to
the last 10 runs of the session (F10,10= 1.86, p = .16).
These latter two trends, while not in themselves significant,
suggest the advisability of further research relating to Mr. Swann's
belief that his performance in psi tasks is susceptible to learning.
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for'the New York Meeting of the
American Physical Society
2 - 5 February 1976
Physics and Astronomy
Classification Scheme
Number 05
Bulletin Subject Heading in
Which Paper Should Be Placed:
General Physics
Possible Detection of Experimenter-Instrument
Interaction with.a Selected Subject. E. C. MAY and
C. HONORTON, Maimonides Medical Center---An experiment
was performed with an individual who claims to influ-
ence remote physical systems by non-physical means.
Prior experimental tests in 3 other laboratories pro-
vided encouraging results. In the present experiment
the subject was tested with a noise driven binary ran-
dom event generator in which each event is compared to
a "target" alternating between '0' and '1' at a rate
of 50 events/second. The number of events and the num-
ber of matches (events corresponding to targets) were
recorded. Data were taken for 29 runs of 103 events
during which the subject attempted to influence the
binary output of events. The results corresponded to a
probability against chance of p