RPKP Update No.5
July 1st, 1996
This was originally sent out to members of the RPKP mailg list. If you would like to receive future updates, please e-mail
Back again, and we now have the beginnings of online experiments available
at the site. The six programs which Helmut Schmidt has donated are now
available via anonymous FTP (in the form of DOS-executable binaries), so
that potential subjects can begin to practice, and test their own rPK
abilities. These are the programs we intend to convert to Java applets
(our three volunteer programmers haven't been in touch for a while, so
we hope progress is being made!), which will allow foolproof monitoring
from our end. So not a huge step forward, but hopefully this will attract
further interest, giving the curious and impatient members of our audience
something to get their psychic teeth into. Further, the C++ source code
is also available from the same page, and if we're lucky, an enthusiastic
Java programmer may stumble upon this and conclude that it can be converted
without too much difficulty. Nothing is available explicitly for Mac users,
so if anyone is able to Mac-compile the source code into executables, please
get in touch.
As the formal, monitored experiments are not yet running, it shouldn't be
a major concern, but it must be said that the random data driving the six
feedback display programs is quasi-random, being generated by
algorithms and seeded by the subjects' initial keypresses. Most subjects
needn't concern themselves with this, but it makes a very big difference
theoretically, as followers of the recently published decision
augmentation theory will recognise. Our formal experiments will involve
exported true-random data generated by our RNG, and
the ultimate experiment design must be carefully thought out so that
"influence" and "DAT" explanations can be clearly separated (if this is
indeed possible). Some ingenious ideas have been suggested by
Topher Cooper, elaborating on the suggestion of Dick
Bierman which appeared in RPKP Update No. 4. More
on this next time.
Bierman has also provided us with a (as far as we know) complete database of major RPK experiments to date. This involves
nine different main experimenters, and was presented at the
Tucson II conference recently.
Bierman has pointed out
"The across experiments variance has a chi^2 value of over 110 with 25 df.
This reinforces an earlier finding of mine that I published in the rather
obscure Indian Journal of Psychology where I did a long series of
PK [tests] on prerecorded targets with variance being the only dependent
variable."
We invite comments on this database from the statistically-minded amongst
you.
Finally, the Dean Radin interview, promised sometime
ago, has finally appeared. The interview touches on the history of Radin's
involvement in psi research, certain ethical issues, and DAT, as well as the
conclusions he has drawn over the years regarding the underlying nature of "reality".
Certainly worth a look...
The RetroPsychoKinesis Project (http://www.fourmilab.ch/rpkp/)
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