CEREBRAL LOCALIZATION AND THE PSI SYNDROME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080049-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 5, 1998
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: January 1, 1975
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

THE J,tHNAL Ott NY,
H' ~~ ~~jtpl}+~ ~. r Release 2001/03/26 : C IA-RDkgt' -0?t8~1R0 0,;0080049-1
Copyright ?19751W Ihe"tSKI '\iilltS- IMF I
CEREBRAL LOCALIZATION AND TILE PSI' SYNDROME,
JAN EIIRENWALD, M.1),'
On trying to correlate the psi syndrome with a neural substrate, it is
necessary to distinguish between spontaneous, "macropsychologicar, and
experimental, "micropsychological" incidents of the card-calling type. On
comparing telepathic drawings with drawings made by brain-injured patients
suffering from optical agnosia, the identical tendency to distortion and
disorganization of the target materials can be discerned. It suggests that the
telepathic subject is "agnostic' in relation to psi impressions, and that his
central processing takes place in the right rather than the left hemisphere.'T'he
capricious nature of extrasensory perception (FSP) responses of the card-cal-
ling type points to fluctuations in the reticular and limbic midbrain system in
warding off' tile intrusion into awareness of subliminal o.r irrelevant percep-
t inns from the outside world.
Among the reasons for the slow, uphill
struggle of parapsychology for recognition
by the scientific community are the built-in
preconceptions with which many parapsy-
chologists have approached their subject
matter. Psi phenomena, by contrast to the
ordinary, run-of',the-mill sensory-motor
transactions studied by the neurophysSolo-
gist, were supposed to he of a basically
nonphysical, spiritual nature. They were
described in such negative terms as ESP or
.extra"-sensory perception; as Pit, or psy-
chokinesis-that is, as a miraculously ef-
fective motor impulse without the aid of a
detectable effector organ.
Such preconceived ideas contributed
their share to the scientific ostracism of Be
phenomena and their relegation into the
sphere of the supernatural. Even today
math behavioral scientists are inclined to
brush aside experimental ESP or Pit data
as statistical artifacts, or frankly errone-
ous, fraudulent findings, or outright delu-
sional claims. On the other hand, the last
thing ptu apsyc hologists were prepared to
do was to give serious consideration to
their correlations and apparent similarities
to psychiatric or neuropathological condi-
tions.
't'his precisely is the purpose 01' the
present paper. I propose to review, first, a
few early experiments with telepathic
drawings carried out by the French para-
psychologist. Rene Warcollier (19), and by
Mr. and Mrs. Upton Sinclair (16) in this
country. This will he followed by a brief
discussion of the ilroblerns posed by the
statistical ESP experiments of-the card-
calling type developed by Rhine and his
associates (15). 13ut instead of pointing to
the few "striking" cases obtained in-such
tests-, I will call attention to the apparent
failures or "clear nlisses" scored by the
respective telepathic percipients.
Figure 1 illustrate; the telepathic draw-
ings of one of Warcollier's experimental
subjects. It shows the distortion and disor-
ganization of the target picture, a dirWib(e
which the subject faded to recognize, hl-
stead, he sketched part of its oval shape,
caught the impression of the propeller,
repeated the motif twice, and placed one
correctly at the lower part of the picture-.
E.xperinlents'wilh telepathic drawings car-
ried rout. by Upton Sinclair and his wife
(Figure 2) show the same tendency to
distortion and disorganization of the target
pictures. The same is true for more recent
experiments with dream telepathy carried
out by Ullman and 1Krippner and their
Consulting Psychiatrist, The Roosevelt Hospital, associates (18), using verbal descriptions or
New Yt,rk City.
Send reprint request:: to Ii East 08th Street, New drawings of telepathic target pictures
York, New York 10(121. made by their subjects.
tt) t
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-00787R00020
 394 Approved For Releas . O U03/26: CIA-RDP96-00787ROW2c0b80049-1
I MPR1=551 ON
wound in it It r Iel't pa rieto-occipit al region.
T11e bullet had been removed by surger}
but the patient was left with marked dam-
age to both his personality and intellectual
func(ions. Ills speech was halting; at times
he was at a loss to find the names of objects
or persons; he showed evidence of amnest is
aphasia. Ills handwriting was unpaired,
showing slight agritpluc disturbances. Ile
was unable to perform the simplest calcu-
lations; he lost his way in the hospital
ward, and he was eonl'used about spatial
relations. fie showed the same confusion of
up and down, right and left in space.
Figure,3 is a sample of his drawings which
he verbally described as follows: a) a
French window in the hospital ward: h) a
face ('tt face; c) a window latch; (1) a ship;,
e) a tree, drawn upside down, with the runt
nor rf Stf }~* A~S:._
Fin. 1. Top. An airship, drawn by the agent.
Bottom. 't'elepathic impression. Note the correct
rendering of an oval ::hope. The propeller nu>tit'
appears twice. The scribble above the rival is unex-
plained. (From V 'arcullier, H. Mind to Mind. 1918.
Reprinted by permission.)
Critics have found fault with the imper-
fect match of targets and telepathic im-
pressions in experiments of this order and
are inclined altogether to reject the tele-
pathic interpretation on these grounds.
Parapsychologists, on the other hand, were
quick to apologize fo'r the poor showing of
their subjects and pointed ttrthe occasional
"perfect hits obtained to bolster their
case.
I submit that these much vaunted per-
fect hits are in effect atypical and mislead-
ing, and that the imperfect cases or near
misses are far more significant for our
understanding of the psi syndrome. Figure
3 shows the drawings produced by a brain-
injured patient of mine seen many years
ago in the neuropsychialric clinic of the
University of Vienna (4). The patient was
admitted to the hospital following a suici-
dal attempt with a penetrating gunshot
Fin. 2. Top. Face, nic iii to represent a jack-o'-lan?
tern, drawn by agent, ltottnrn."I'clepathic inipre~sion.
A morn sickle v, ih''vier," rewinhliu? nose in the
target drawing. Note (loot an e,?c Idruinti and in-
scrihed upside clnwvn) was added by the recipient as an
afterthought. IFFrom Sinclair. If. Mental Radio, p. 69,
196'2.)
Approved For Release 2001/03/26 CIA-RDP96-00787R0002090
 Approved For RfIpga lgt~001/03/26 : CIA-RDP96-007?,,R000200080049-1
i b
Fin. ;i. Drawings of the Vienna patient. a) a French window; h) a face, en /ace; c) the window latch; d) a ship;
e) a tree drawn upside down, with a) the root; h) the trunk; c) the crown, (From Ehrenwald, J. p. 535. 19:11.1
at the top, the crown at the bottom and the
trunk in the middle.
Ilcre, again, the most striking; feature is
the utter disorganization of the material. It
seems to he broken into pieces, jumbled
like meat passed through a chopping ma-
chine. In short, displacement inversion and
gross deviations from the horizontal and
the vertical were characteristic features of
his spatial orientation and motor behavior
in space. My teacher, Professor Otto
Poetzl (1:3), Poetzl and Hoff, and many
others, have published it number of'similar
observations. They all point to lesions in
the left parieto-occipital region, sometimes
extending to the corpus callosum and to
the right hemisphere.
More recently, Professor A. R. Luria (9)
of'the University of Moscow has published
a series of similar observatunas in patients
suffering from optic agnosia. Figure .1 illus-
trates samples of their drawings. 'l'lae pic-
ture on the left represents the patient's
jumbled impressions of an elephant. On
the right can be seen equally disorganized
impressions of a camel. It should he noted
that the drawings of these brain-injured
patients exhibitinuch the same distortion
and Spatiotenrporal disorganization as the
samples of telepathic drawings produced
,by normal sub jects. It .is also int cresting to
note that' such patients,.in addition, to the
impairment of' their drawing ability. also
tend to confuse the nteaning"of a-given
object or picture. Thb? .c