A TEST OF HEYMANS' THEORY ON PARANORMAL PHENOMENA (SYBO A. SCHOUTEN)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000700970002-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 17, 2000
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: RS

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60 apers P: Target Qualities /Personal Relationships 61
the target itself but are shifted preferentially within the same
emotional set.
According to ob
produced through the oli
theory is sharply distinct f
fects are assumed to be prod
subjects. The interpretation
the subject, say, anxiety,
is traditionally a genuine r
scoring. Observationally,
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the correlation. This
observation procedure
traditional paradigm a
heory, paranormal effects are
of an essentially random outcome
This viewpoint of observational
he traditional viewpoint, as the ef-
or her scoring on the ESP task
ations
observer of
t the checker produces
alls for better experimental control of the
The present study, entertaining both the
Psychic monism assumes that all phenomena are basically men-
tal and consequently assumes a "world-mind" (Welbewusstsein), that
which contains all the mental. It can be considered the equivalent
of what space is for physical matter. The world-mind is internally
perceived through awareness. The consciousness of an individual
is part of this world-mind. Consciousness can be thought of as
consisting of the individual's consciousness, which is what the indi-
vidual is aware of at a given moment, and the peripheral conscious-
ness, which contains all our memories and knowledge.
Elements of the peripheral consciousness are not isolated but
part of mental structures, complexes of related images. When hu-
man beings grow up, their consciousness develops into more strong-
ly organized mental structures of images. Because these mental
structures are based on experiences they mainly involve memories.
The peripheral consciousness consists of many of such mental struc-
tures which are in different degrees related to other structures by
associations,
Sybo A. Schouten (Parapsychology Laboratory, University of
Utrecht, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Professor G. Heymans (1857-1930) can be considered the
founder of the scientific and experimental approach in parapsy-
chology in the Netherlands. Internationally he is best known for
the telepathy experiment with the subject van Dam, carried out in
his Psychological Laboratory at the University of Groningen to-
gether with his assistants Brugmans and Weinberg. Less well known
are his theoretical views on paranormal phenomena and the rather
unique way by which he became involved in parapsychology.
Heymans was a philosopher and based his philosophical posi-
tion on the work of Fechner. In Fechner's ideas, which were fur-
ther developed by Heymans, the hypothesis of psychic monism or
"pan-psychism" takes a central position. Psychic monism is an off-
spring of an idealistic world view that supposes that there is only
one fundamental reality and that all physical phenomena are reduci-
ble to the mental or psychic. According to the psychic monistic
theory, paranormal phenomena such as telepathy are to be expected.
In addition, the theory provides a number of predictions about vari-
ous properties of paranormal phenomena. Therefore, Heymans be-
came interested in the work of the British SPR and turned to the
parapsychological literature of his day to study whether the proper-
ties of paranormal phenomena were in agreement with the theoretical
predictions he had arrived at beforehand.
The content of the individual consciousness changes regularly.
Which images enter the individual consciousness is governed by the
laws of association and depends on the nature and intensity of an
image, its emotional character, and its association with other images.
Especially strong are the perceptions, and accordingly they have a
high probability of becoming the object of awareness. Perceptions
evoke the mental structures of which they are part. Also likely to
reach consciousness are recent events, images strongly associated
with the present content of the consciousness, and strong emotions.
On the other hand, weak images of the peripheral consciousness will
only become conscious to the individual under favorable conditions;
for instance, in the absence of sensory stimulation. There is con-
stant competition among perceptions and mental structures of the
peripheral consciousness to occupy awareness.
Because nature is considered as basically mental it can be
assumed that the processes involved in the individual's conscious-
ness also apply to the world-mind. There is no fundamental dif-
ference between the two. An individual is made up of various men-
tal structures which become more and more a structural unit when
the individual develops. Such structural units, the individuals,
are in themselves again elements of a larger whole, the world-mind.
That individuals are not aware of their association with other ele-
ments of the world-mind is because in general only perceptions with
its associated mental structures and elements of one's own peripheral
consciousness will reach the individual consciousness. Since these
mental structures are familiar, because they are based on the indi-
vidual's experiences of the past, a sensation of individualism is
created. But individuals share experiences and therefore associa-
tive connections are formed in the world-mind between mental struc-
tures of different individuals. Hence, a mental image in one indi-
vidual might give rise to an associated mental structure of another
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Papers i F.RP? To a
individual to which experiences not known to the first individual
are connected. The more important a mental event is to an indi-
vidual, for instance because of its emotional loading, the more as-
sociations to different mental structures in the peripheral conscious-
ness it will have and hence a higher likelihood to become associated
to one of the associative connections shared by different individuals.
Also, because of its emotional character it will have a higher likeli-
hood of becoming evoked via associations in the other individual's
consciousness. As a consequence, under certain conditions (Hey-
mans mentions dreams, fever and hypnosis) weaker elements of the
peripheral consciousness to which such "strange" associations are
connected might reach consciousness. In that case we would ob-
serve an instance of telepathy.
From the theory a number of predictions can be derived as
regards telepathy. Telepathic experiences will be rare but must
occur occasionally. They can be expected to occur when sensory
stimulation is absent or has little influence; for instance, in the
case of Ganzfeld conditions. Associations are the vehicle by which
telepathic impressions become possible. The more associations two
individuals have in common the higher the likelihood that sometimes
via these associations elements from another person's peripheral
consciousness will reach the other's consciousness. Thus, tele-
pathic experiences will be more common between people who are
related and who share many experiences. The importance of the
experience to an individual will increase the possibility that it be-
comes associated with a mental structure of the percipient; there-
fore, telepathic experiences will relatively often be related to im-
portant and serious events. The telepathic experience will have no
characteristic of its own because the mental structures of which
they are part have in principle the character of vague memories
or thoughts. It is as if the percipient suddenly remembers some-
thing. Because the weak mental images to which the telepathic
elements are associated are most often memories, the telepathic
"message" should often start as a memory or be embedded within
memories.
Heymans' theory also leads to some interesting predictions as
regards the survival issue and ghost experiences. If a person is
aware of a sensory stimulus, that awareness will disappear once the
stimulus is removed. However, a memory trace weaker than the
original perception remains, which, however, gradually weakens.
The same applies to the mental structure that represents an indi-
vidual. As long as the individual lives on, the development of his
mental structure continues. Once this person dies the development
halts and the mental structure of that individual becomes gradually
weaker. Hence a living person, for instance a medium, might again
by association get access to the mental structure of the deceased,
if that individual has died not too long before, and provide details
about that individual's life. This might create the impression of
life after death and communication from beyond.
In the same vein, since the physical is only the way external
mental units present themselves to us, it is in principle possible,
provided the necessary associative links are available, that the
mental structure of a deceased person appears as if a physical object.
But again, this is just the representation of the mental structure as
it was. Therefore, ghosts will only show themselves in a passive
way, they can't talk or converse and can only behave in the man-
ner the individual used to behave when still alive.
In Heymans' theory the concept of associative connections
between mental images is a vital element. When two individuals
have a lot in common the likelihood increases that an important
mental complex of one individual will become associated with some
mental structure in the peripheral consciousness of the other. As-
sociations are in two aspects important. One is that the individuals
involved have a lot of associative connections formed by common ex-
periences. The other is that important aspects of the life, of a per-
son become associated with these associative connections.
A free-response study was carried out to test whether the
importance of this concept in ESP could be falsified. Two different
type of targets were employed with 21 pairs of related subjects.
One set of targets consisted of important experiences the target
person shared with the percipient while the other set of targets
consisted of important events in the life of the target person not
shared with the percipient. According to Heymans' theory, ESP
scoring should be higher in the condition in which shared experi-
ences are employed as targets. No ESP was observed in the data;
hence, no conclusion could be drawn as regards the importance of
the concept of associations for ESP.
EXPLORATION OI\QUASI-THERAPEUTIC PROCESS AS A
VEHICLE FOR FAC ITATING ESP
An exploratory rese
therapeutic group process
pressing free-response imp
in therapy and seeking
of relatively unstruc
followed by group
group, during t
with two groups in which an hour
herapeutic group interaction was
four potential target pictures,
e group session. The first two sessions used GESP
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reject is described in which quasi-
sions of an ESP target. An analogy
recess to seek new self-understanding